Diablo III- Skills Article V: The Barbarian, Primary Skill- Cleave

Cleave: Deal 120% weapon damage in an arc in front of you.  Generates 5 Fury.

Cleave is the Barbarian’s Primary of choice in a lot of situations- namely, anything where you’re going to hit multiple targets.  Please note that the skill is hugely more useful with a two-handed weapon- one-handed weapons have a much shorter arc, both in terms of width and in terms of how far from the Barbarian it reaches.  Frequently in the game you find yourself mobbed by masses of enemies, and Cleave is a perfect melee answer to that.  On the other hand, it’s pretty close to useless as a Primary option when you’re fighting a single boss or mighty enemy- the extra 20% damage is negligible when you have Bash and Frenzy options to use instead.

Rupture: Deal 120% weapon damage in an arc in front of you.  Anything killed by the attack explodes for 85% weapon damage to all your enemies within 8 yards of it.  Generates 5 Fury.

Rupture is a surprising sort of effect- and it’s your first rune on Cleave.  If for some reason Cleave isn’t clearing out masses of enemies well enough, or isn’t quite reaching far enough to nail everything you want, then stick this on it.  A Barbarian using this rune can easily kill over 20 things in one hit in the right situation.  If you’re fighting monsters that are especially tough, however, the rune becomes weaker- the explosion damage is still a nice rider, but really won’t do anything to clear out hefty opponents.  Definitely something to keep on tap at all times if you like wading into the middle of things.

Reaping Swing: Deal 120% weapon damage in an arc in front of you.  Generates 5 Fury +3 Fury for each enemy hit.

Reaping Swing is your Fury-generation option, for those of us who forget why we’re angry a lot.  This can be really tasty if your Secondary skill is a serious rage-hog, and really pretty much beats out Instigation in any situation where leaking Fury out your ears is important.  Other than that, though, it’s a useless rune.

Scattering Blast: Deal 120% weapon damage in an arc in front of you.  Enemies you Critical against are thrown back 9 yards and deal 60% weapon damage to other enemies they land on.  Generates 5 Fury.

Scattering Blast is a strange sort of battlefield-management rune.  A nice option for Barbarians who like to pump up their Critical rate a lot, it sends anything you crit against flying- and basically turns it into a Prinny.  The splashdown damage is decent, though not comparable to the explosions from Rupture- but not something to throw a party over.  A good option if you a: like pumping your crit rate and b: have a lot of trouble with ranged attackers lurking off in the distance.

Broad Sweep: Deal 156% weapon damage in an arc in front of you.  Generates 5 Fury.

Broad Sweep is the ‘must kill now’ option here, and lets you Cleave harder.  The damage boost is nice on an area attack like this, and makes it tough to choose between Broad Sweep or Rupture for numerous enemies- Rupture can deal more damage, but only if you kill things on nearly every swing.

Gathering Storm: Deal 120% weapon damage in an arc in front of you.  Foes you hit are slowed by 80% for 1 second.  Generates 5 Fury.

Gathering Storm is your ‘tank’ choice, keeping things pinned down for you or someone else to rain destruction down on their heads.  If you’re the only one fighting, it’s kind of good for dealing with things that like to run away, but really you have better options if that’s a problem.