Bash Cleave – Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 8)

Updated for Season 8

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Introduction

Welcome to the comprehensive guide for the Bash Cleave Barbarian for the endgame of Diablo 4. This build, made possible by changes in previous patches and the tempering system, is a powerful generator build with tons of damage, survivability, and speed. You will be able to smash your way through Nightmare Dungeons, the Pit, Uber Bosses, Infernal Hordes, and all other game modes with ease. With that in mind, let us dive in.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Shard of Verathiel

Paingorger’s Gauntlets

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Aspect of the Moonrise

Aspect of Adaptability

Quick Navigation

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Bash Hammer of the Ancients Rallying Cry War Cry Challenging Shout Steel Grasp

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 71-point build. The additional skill points are obtained using the Renown system.

Barbarian Class Mechanic – The Arsenal System

The Barbarian can wield four weapons simultaneously as well as choose a weapon expertise to use as their Technique allowing them to gain that weapon’s bonus even if they’re wielding another weapon type. Finally, the Barbarian can assign its skills to use different weapon types shuffling between Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons, Two-Handed Slashing Weapons, and Dual-Wield Weapons.

• Bash – We assign bash to our 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon to maximize our DPS. While you can assign it to Dual-Wield weapons assuming at least one of them is a mace, for this setup we will want to use the 2-Handed Weapons instead.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

The following sections will cover all systems that are critical if you want to improve the power of your character and move towards the highest difficulties in the endgame of Diablo 4.

Legendary Aspects

Below, you will find all of the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important for this build. Remember that all Legendary powers can be added into your Codex of Power once you salvage or extract the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons though they will always be at the minimum power level. To get the most out of this system, combine these Aspects with the right stats.

Slot	Gems	Legendary Aspect / Unique Item	Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Grand Ruby	Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty	– When you gain Berserking while already Berserking, you have a [40-60%] chance to become more enraged granting x35% increased damage, 6 Fury Per Second, and 10% cooldown reduction
Chest	Grand Ruby	Undying Aspect	– When you cast a Skill, you heal for [0.5-2.0%] life. Double this bonus while below 50% life.
Gloves	N/A	Paingorger’s Gauntlets	– Damaging enemies with a cast Non-Basic Skill marks them for 3 seconds. When a basic skill first hits a marked enemy, the basic skill’s damage is echoed to all marked enemies dealing [100-200%] increased damage.
Pants	Grand Ruby	Aspect of Might	– Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds
Boots	N/A	Hectic Aspect	– After casting 5 Basic Skills, one of your active Cooldowns is reduced by [1-2] seconds
Amulet	Grand Skull	Aspect of Adaptability	– Basic Skills generate 3 additional resource when cast below 50% Maximum Resource and deal [20-80%] increased damage when cast above 50% Maximum Resource
Ring 1	Grand Skull	Aspect of Inner Calm	– You deal x [5-10%] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds.
Ring 2	Grand Skull	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	– Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its active Cooldown is reduced by [10-30%] per nearby enemy up to a maximum of 50%
2H Bludgeoning Weapon	Yul and Vex Runes OR Grand Topaz	Aspect of the Moonrise	– Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage gaining [40-80%] Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
2H Slashing Weapon	Lith and Wat Runes OR Grand Topaz	Rapid Aspect	– Basic Skills gain [15-30%] Attack Speed
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Grand Topaz	Shard of Verathiel	– Basic Skills deal [100-200%] increased damage but additionally cost 25 Primary Resource.
Dual Wield Weapon 2	Grand Topaz	Edgemaster’s Aspect	– Skills deal up to x [5-20%] increased damage based on your available primary resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full primary resource.

To see how this build compares to others on our site, you can check out our Endgame Build Tier List.

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Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded yellow affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.

Slot	Gems	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	Grand Ruby	1. Maximum Life 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Strength	1. +Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Innovation
Chest	Grand Ruby	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. +Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Innovation
Gloves	N/A	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Strength	1. Basic Skill Damage Sharpened Finesse 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Innovation
Pants	Grand Ruby	1. Ranks to Bash 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. +Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Innovation
Boots	N/A	1. Armor 2. Movement Speed 3. Ranks to War Cry	1. Movement Speed Natural Motion 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Innovation
Amulet	Grand Skull	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance	1. Basic Skill Damage Sharpened Finesse 2. War Cry Cooldown Reduction Brawling Efficiency
Rings	Grand Skull	1. Attack Speed 2. Crititcal Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Basic Skill Damage Sharpened Finesse 2. War Cry Cooldown Reduction Brawling Efficiency
2H Bludgeoning Weapon	Grand Topaz	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Bash Cleaves for (20%) Damage Furious Augments 2. Critical Strike Damage Worldly Finesse
2H Slashing Weapon	Grand Topaz	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Bash Cleaves for (20%) Damage Furious Augments 2. Critical Strike Damage Worldly Finesse
Dual-Wield Weapons	Grand Topaz	1. Strength. 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Bash Cleaves for (20%) Damage Furious Augments 2. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse

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Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Uniques

Uniques received a large rework in Season 5. They can now roll much higher ranges and break all the traditional itemization rules for what stats can appear on which slots. Below, you will find Uniques and Mythic Uniques useful to this build.

• Paingorger’s Gauntlets – Gloves that provide a powerful AOE effect for basic skills which of course includes Bash. We want these as soon as we can get them to provide the marks and cleave power to our setup. Thanks to the update in season 5, the stats give Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction, a Lucky Hit stun, and ranks to basic skills giving us even more potency.
• Shard of Verathiel – A new build enabling sword. This gives us a huge modifier to all generators such as Bash but makes them cost 25 Primary Resource in addition to their normal effects. Bash generates 15 Fury each time it is cast, so the reality is that this will only cost 10 but thanks to other uniques in the build, it will be even less and can reach a point with proper rolls on our gear that we’re generating more fury than we’re spending allowing us to benefit entirely from this item’s damage bonus without suffering any downside. A must have for the Bash Barb.
• Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty – Recently buffed, this item provides us with extra damage when we trigger our Berserking while already Berserk which should happen with some regularity giving us another damage boost and some resource to help mitigate Shard of Verathiel’s costs.

Mythic Uniques

• Harlequin Crest – The infamous ‘shako’ mythic unique got a buff that gives it a massive amount of Cooldown Reduction. It still remains one of the most powerful items for this build and many others. Here it provides us with a large damage reduction and resource generation to help our sustain.
• Ring of Starless Skies – Our Mythic Unique of choice. Thanks to Shard of Verathiel turning Bash into a Fury spender, this item will grant us its stacking buff providing another huge multiplier and more resource cost reduction to ensure we can keep bashing to our heart’s content.

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Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the best gems to socket into your items for each slot type.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Topaz for increased Basic Skill damage	Grand Ruby for increased Strength	Grand Skull for increased Armor

For your jewelry, it may be necessary to change the Royal Diamond for another gem of a specific type such as Royal Sapphire to ensure all of your resistances are capped at 70% and your Armor is 1000.

Runes

Runewords return from Diablo 2 in Vessel of Hatred! You are limited to two Runewords across your gear and it requires two sockets in the same item. So this limits creating Runewords by combining two Runes to either Helm, Chest, Pants, or Two-Handed Weapons. We generally recommend them in both of your Two-Handed Weapons for Barbarian. Let’s jump in.

Rune Name	Rune Effects
Lith	Gain 25 Offering: Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds
Vex	Requires 100 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Gain +3 to all skills for 5 seconds
Yul	Gain 50 Offering: Cast a Skill with a Cooldown
Wat	Requires 100 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify slowing enemies, reducing their damage and letting you execute them

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Paragon Board

We recommend using the following Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 100 version. As a reminder, Glyph’s unlock their final radius at level 46 and their legendary bonuses at Level 45. Let’s take a look!

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Boss Powers (Season 8)

Season 8 brings a slew of powers to equip similar to Season 2’s Vampiric Powers. You can equip a total of 4 powers. A single main power that will trigger its primary effect when certain conditions are met and three modifier powers that modify the main power and other skills for even more power. For this build we recommend the following combination:

Main Power

• Allek’s Talons – This just layers on some extra damage every time we Bash

Modifier Powers

• Lilith’s Wind of Hate – The modifier here lets us create blisters to then pop with our bash cleave and deal extra damage to bosses and elites
• Sinerat’s Flames – Gives us some increased damage based on our resistances
• Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste – Grants us some extra critical strike chance for even more damage

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Mercenaries

As you play through the campaign in Vessel of Hatred, you will unlock various NPC Mercenaries who can join you on your quest to slay demons. Each Mercenary has their own small talent tree that will give them bonuses and skills to help you. Additionally, you can assign a Mercenary that you don’t take with you as a reinforcement to jump in when you activate certain skills. Let’s take a look at how we want to set this up for this build

We hire Varyana, the Berserker Crone

• Core Skill: Cleave
• Core Skill Passive: Hysteria
• Iconic Skill: Bloodthirst
• Iconic Skill Passive: Bloodlust

Our Reinforcement Mercenary will be Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Opportunity Skill: War Cry
• Reinforcement Skill: Crater

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

This build uses a very straightforward generator playstyle. We have no Fury spender beyond one button and we only use that for a buff, as explained below in the Advanced Information section, but let’s quickly go over our skills:

• Bash – Our main attacking still. We bash at all times.
• Steel Grasp – Our grouping skill to get mobs close together for easy bashing and to trigger the effect of Paingorger’s Gauntlets so our Bash will do bonus damage and cleave down packs.
• Use War Cry and Rallying Cry for their buffs on cooldown
• Use Challenging Shout whenever you need the defense
• Use Hammer of the Ancients only when you have a guaranteed overpower fromCombat Bash for the 40% multiplier from Violent Hammer of the Ancients. We do not use Hammer of the Ancients for its damage, only to buff Bash

Runeword Synergy

Let’s take a moment to review our runes and how they interact with this build.

• Lith grants us offering for standing still and fighting monsters every 0.3 seconds. So that means in a full second we get it 3 times.
• Vex requires 100 offering to trigger, which requires us to stand still for 1.2 seconds when paired with Lith. Once it triggers we gain +3 ranks to all skills, this is especially powerful for Bash
• Yul grants us offering whenever we use a cooldown such as our shouts or Steel Grasp providing it very easily while we’re fighting
• Wat requires 100 offering and since Yul grants 50 that means two cooldowns will trigger Wat and thus cause the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify which will slow enemies, make them deal less damage, and execute them when they drop to low HP cutting down on clear times.

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

When in town you can visit the Alchemist to craft helpful elixirs which will provide a special effect and increase your experience gain. Crafting has been simplified back in Patch 1.4.0, and there are fewer specific flowers to harvest; instead, almost all herbs in the world drop as Bundles of Dried Herbs, allowing you to craft the elixirs you want. Some elixirs cannot be crafted and can only drop from things like Helltide or Nightmare Dungeons.

For this build, we recommend Elixir of Advantage for the increased attack speed so we can continue Bash and cleave the hordes in front of us down faster. Craft the highest-value Elixir of Advantage you can so you can get the most attack speed possible.

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Season 8 Updates

For a comprehensive look at what’s new in Season 8, please check out our Season Hub

Here is a quick list of the changes this season that are relevant to this build.

• Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty damage bonus increased from 25% to 35% and fury per second increased from 2 to 6

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Obol Gambling

A final point on acquiring gear is using your Obols to target farm specific slots instead of randomly spending them on random drops. Similar to Kadala in Diablo 3, you can use Obol vendors in town to try and get what you’re missing. With Patch 2.0 when a level 60 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 750 item power, the highest non-Ancestral in the game, allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need.

Check out our Obol Gambling Tool Guide HERE.

Changelog

• April 25th 2025: Reformatted and updated for Season 8
• March 31st 2025: Skill tree recommendations updated
• January 29th 2025: Clarified rotational skills
• January 19th 2025: Tooltips and Seasonal section updated for Season 7
• January 14th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 7
• October 4th 2024: Guide updated for Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred
• August 2nd, 2024: Guide updated for season 5
• June 24th, 2024: Guide updated with new optimizations and patch updates.
• May 22nd, 2024: Weapon selection updated and stats clarified
• May 4th, 2024: Guide format updated, season 4 information added.
• May 2nd, 2024: Paragon links updated and readability improved
• May 1st, 2024: Guide created