The Caged Heart of the Barber, simply referred to as the Barber Heart, is arguably the best Malignant Heart inDiablo 4Season One. The raw DPS boost it provides is invaluable, and it’s available for every class as well, making it a must-have for anyone who plans on hard-pushing the current endgame.
However, such power isn’t easy to obtain. As good as the Barber Heart is, it won’t magically solve everyDiablo 4player’s DPS problems. This Malignant Heart isn’t terribly nuanced, but there are a few important things about it that warrant some explanation.
What Is the Barber Heart (& How to Get One)
The Barber Heartis a Wrathful Malignant Heart, which means It’s counted among the most powerful ones players can get in the game. Its official description is as follows:
“Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within [2.0-4.0] seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 11% per second.”
After a player lands a Critical Strike, every subsequent attack they land will stop dealing damage. Instead, that damage gets stored inside enemies that were hit. Once the indication duration on the Barber Heart expires, all that stored punishment explodes, dealing increased damage toeverything around the target.
Longer Barber durations mean bigger explosions (up to 44% increased damage, to be specific). This isn’t always a good thing, however, as having longer Barber effects means killing weaker mobs may take longer. Fast skills like Rapid Fire and Ice Shards may benefit from shorter Barber durations since they fire so quickly, while skills such asHammer of the Ancientsare better off with longer Barber durations so players can stack more hits before the explosions occur.
One issue with the Barber Heart is it can potentially mess some builds up — particularly the ones that rely on on-hit effects. Because players aren’t dealing damage while Barber is active, certain passives and Legendary Aspects will just cease to function. It’s unknown if this is a bug, an intended design decision, or an overlooked issue.
Caged Hearts of the Barber have a random chance at dropping from a Malignant monster. This can be any enemy as long as they have the Wrathful label below their health bar. Players can also get a Barber Heart by crafting Uncertain Hearts at Cormond’s Workbench. Keep in mind that the Barber Heart will only drop on World Tier 3 and above.
Diablo 4is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
