Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 5)

Build Introduction

Welcome to the comprehensive guide for the Bash Cleave Barbarian for the endgame of Diablo 4. This new build, made possible by changes in the previous Patch 1.4.0 and the new tempering system, is a powerful generator build with tons of damage, survivability, and speed. Thanks to the new uniques added in Patch 1.5.0 it’s become more powerful than ever before! You will be able to smash your way through nightmare dungeons, the pit, uber bosses, and the new infernal hordes with ease. With that in mind, let us dive in.

Strengths

Powerful generator based damage
Fast attack speed
Great defensive power

Weaknesses

Requires specific tempers on items
Cooldown management

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 58-point build. The additional 10 skills are completed using the Renown system.

Arsenal System and Weapon Selection

For this Bash build, we will be using 2-Handed Axe expertise for its bonus to Vulnerable damage. Even nerfed to 10% in Patch 1.4.0 this is still our strongest option. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills

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.

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 21 version.

Starting Board

Warbringer

Rotate this board three times when attaching it.

Carnage

Attach this board to the eastern gate of Warbringer. Rotate this board twice before attaching it.

Blood Rage

We attach this board to the Northern gate of the Carnage board. Do not rotate this board when attaching it.

Decimator

We attach this board to the Eastern gate of the Blood Rage board. Rotate this board once before attaching it.

Bone Breaker

We attach this board to the Southern gate of the Carnage board. Do not rotate this board when attaching it.

To see the Paragon Board in its entirety, CLICK HERE

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

Loot Reborn brought us an incredible shift in how gear and itemization are done. It is major and will affect the game beyond Season 4’s confines. For further details, make sure to read our Tempering and Masterworking section below.

Legendary Aspects

Below, you will find all of the BiS (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 once you salvage or extract the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons as you could in previous seasons but you also have the option to upgrade these affixes if you find a higher roll of that affix. Let us go over what aspects you will need.

Gems

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

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%

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 as of 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.

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. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that only drop from The Pit. Be sure to check our Tempering guide, our Masterworking guide, as well as our guide about The Pit for more details about these topics.

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 proc 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 from sources such as Bone Breaker or Combat Bash for the 40% multiplier from Violent Hammer of the Ancients

Unique Items and Mythic 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.
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.

Season 5: Season of the Infernal Hordes

The biggest new activity in Season 5 is, of course, the titular Infernal Hordes. A new endgame activity where you can earn powerful rewards for surviving waves of enemies and defeating a new boss, The Fell Council, at the end of these waves. There will also be a reputation to be gained with the season which provides numerous rewards and even a Resplendent Spark at maximum reputation! Below, you will find the changes in Patch 1.5.0 that affect this build.

Bash Cleave (Furious Augments) reduced from 85/95/105% to 15/17.5/20%
Dominate Glyph – Time between guaranteed Overpowers reduced from 30 to 20 seconds
Unconstrained damage bonus reduced from 100% to 35%
Imposing Presence health bonus reduce from 6/12/18% to 5/10/15%
Bash adjusted functionality: After bashing enemies 4 times, your next Bash will Clobber stunning enemies for 1.5 seconds. Clobber twice as often when using a two-handed weapon
Enhanced Bash adjusted functionality: Clobbering an enemy grants you 20% Maximum Life as Fortify
New Tempering Recipe: Worldly Finesse provides all classes with Critical Strike Damage, Vulnerable Damage, Overpower Damage, and Ultimate Damage as options for tempering.

Advanced Information

Below, you will find every additional piece of information you need to know for a more in-depth look at this build.

Build Mechanics

While very straight forward there are a few things to understand about playing this build of bash. Steel Grasp serves not only to group mobs, and trigger Paingorger’s Gauntlets for AOE, but also to trigger Berserking for us through Fighter’s Steel Grasp which we’ll enhance even further with our tempers and our key passive Unconstrained.

The rotation should be, keeping your shouts going and use Hammer of the Ancients at any point you have a guaranteed overpower from Combat Bash, Dominate, or Bone Breaker to gain the damage bonus from Violent Hammer of the Ancients.

Paragon

We recommend using these Legendary Nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version of that glyph.

Important Notes

Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the correct orientation to match the images shown below.
Attach the boards in the order shown as bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order
Additional bonuses on Rare Glyphs may not be obtainable until they gain the increased radius at level 15.

Starting Board

We will start on the left and pick up Tenacity and then head up
Now we will unlock the glyph socket and slot in Exploit and grab all the dexterity nodes around it.
We head back to the start and grab Brawn and the surrounding rare nodes
Moving from the glyph socket again we go up and grab Raw Power and then head to the gate and connect the Warbringer Board.

Warbringer

We start by heading up and left and grabbing Hungering Fury and a cluster of rare nodes
Next we head right, racing to the glyph socket, and we socket in Ire
From there we head further right and pick up Conditioned and some dexterity nodes nearby.
We head out on the north eastern path from the glyph socket and make our way up towards Core Reserve and grab some nearby maximum life magic nodes
Finally, we head out to the gate on the east and connect the Carnage board.

Carnage

We head right to the glyph socket and slot in Might
From there we make our way south grabbing Fierce and the surrounding magic nodes
Next, we continue east and head towards the namesake of the board and grab the legendary node Carnage
After grabbing the legendary node, grab Berserker and two nearby magic nodes for more Berserking damage.
Head back to the glyph socket and snag Brash before making our way out of the glyph range and to the north
We pick up the rare node Enraged and the three magic nodes in front of it and then connect the Blood Rage board to the northern gate.
After finishing Blood Rage and Decimator, we will come back here and, from the Legendary Node, make our way south and finally connect the Bone Breaker board at the southern gate, finally finishing this central board.

Blood Rage

We head straight up and take a small detour to pick up Revel
Then we’ll make our way to the socket and slot in Crusher once it’s unlocked.
Continue going north through Grit and take a sharp left to head to the board’s namesake
Unlock the Legendary Node Blood Rage. A note here is that we do not have a way to bleed our enemies, but the bleeding portion of this legendary node is not why we’re taking it. We want the damage increase by 10% of our Damage While Berserking bonus up to 30% which will provide a substantial multiplier to our Bash
Backtrack just a bit and snag Enraged and one magic node near it.
On the north eastern side of the board, we’ll travel up and pick up Restorative and some life increasing magic nodes
Lastly, head straight east from the glyph socket and connect the Decimator board.

Decimator

Head east but don’t forget to make a pit stop south and grab Restorative and some life increasing rare nodes
Next swing up and grab the legendary node Decimator
Rush the glyph socket and unlock it slotting in Dominate and pick up the nearby rare node Arrogance and its surrounding magic nodes
Head back to the Carnage Board.

Bone Breaker

This board has only two steps as our final board. First head right and grab Bulwark and then the legendary node Bone Breaker
Finally head left and make your way down to Tenacity and its surrounding rare nodes finally finishing our paragon journey

Obol Gambling

A final point on acquiring gear in Season 5 and beyond 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 1.4.0 when a level 100 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 925 item power, the highest in the game, allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need.

Check out our Obol Gambling Tool HERE

Changelog

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

Slot	Gems	Legendary Aspect / Unique Item	Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Concussive Strikes	– Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 20% chance to Daze them for 2 seconds. You deal x[5-20%] increased damage to Dazed enemies.
Chest	Royal 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	Royal 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	Royal Diamond	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	Royal Diamond	Aspect of Inner Calm	– You deal x [5-10%] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds.
Ring 2	Royal Diamond	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	– Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [1.0-2.0] seconds per nearby enemy up to a maximum of 6 seconds
2H Bludgeoning Weapon	Royal 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	Royal Topaz	Rapid Aspect	– Basic Skills gain [15-30%] Attack Speed
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Royal Topaz	Shard of Verathiel	– Basic Skills deal [100-200%] increased damage but additionally cost 25 Primary Resource.
Dual Wield Weapon 2	Royal 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.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Topaz for increased Basic Skill damage	Royal Ruby for increased maximum life	Royal Diamond for increased all resistances

Slot	Gems	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	Royal Ruby	1. Maximum Life 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Strength	1. +Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Chest	Royal Ruby	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. +Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Gloves	N/A	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Strength	1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Control
Pants	Royal Ruby	1. Ranks to Bash 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. +Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Boots	N/A	1. Armor 2. Movement Speed 3. Ranks to War Cry	1. Movement Speed Natural Motion 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Amulet	Royal Diamond	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance	1. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse 2. Maximum Life Worldly Endurance
Rings	Royal Diamond	1. Attack Speed 2. Crititcal Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse 2. War Cry Cooldown Reduction Brawling Efficiency
2H Bludgeoning Weapon	Royal 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	Royal 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	Royal Topaz	1. Strength. 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Bash Cleaves for (20%) Damage Furious Augments 2. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse

Rare Glyph	Effect
Exploit	– For every Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets – Additional Bonus once 25 Dexterity has been purchased within the glyph’s range: When an enemy is damaged by you, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy
Might	– Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. – Additional Bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed Weapons.
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while Berserking – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: While Berserking, you take 10% reduced damage from Elites
Crusher	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while wielding a Mace – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: While wielding a mace, you deal x20% increased Overpower damage
Dominate	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal + [14.85%] increased Overpower damage. – Additional bonus once 25 Willpower has been purchased within the glyph’s range: Every 20 seconds, your next attack will Overpower
Carnage	While Berserking, Critical Strikes increase your Attack Speed by +2%, up to +16% for 6 seconds.
Blood Rage	Killing a Bleeding enemy has a 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. Your damage is increased by x25% of your Damage While Berserking bonus.
Decimator	Each time you make an enemy Vulnerable, your damage is increased by 10% for 5 seconds. Overpowering a Vulnerable enemy grants an additional x10% bonus for 5 seconds.
Bone Breaker	Every 12 seconds, your next Skill is guaranteed to Overpower