Leap Quake – Barbarian Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

This is your comprehensive guide for building a barbarian who leaps into the air and crashes back down to the ground with a thunderous explosion of raw power. Welcome to our Leap Quake Barbarian! This build is pure fun – leaping across the map, crushing enemies beneath your boots each time you land, and leaving behind an earthquake of molten rock. Incredibly mobile, with both strong defensive and offensive capabilities, this build is a blast to play solo or in a group.

Strengths and Weaknesses

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

Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus

Locran’s Talisman

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Earthquake Aspect

Aspect of Giant Strides

Bold Chieftain’s Aspect

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Skill Bar Setup for the Leap Quake Build (Order does not matter)

Leap War Cry Challenging Shout Ground Stomp Call of the Ancients Rallying Cry

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 59 point build. The additional 12 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Weapon Technique and Weapon Expertise

For this Leapquake build, we will be using the Two-Handed Axe Technique for its increase to Vulnerable enemies.

Barbarians have a unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. For the Leapquake Barb, we want to assign Leap to our Dual-Wield Weapons in order to benefit from Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus.

Paragon Board

We recommend using these Legendary Nodes and Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 100 version. As a reminder, glyphs reach their maximum radius at level 46, and unlock their Legendary bonus at level 45. Let’s take a look!

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 Raheir, the Shieldbearer:

• Core Skill: Ground Slam
• Core Skill Passive: Raheir’s Aegis
• Iconic Skill: Bastion
• Iconic Skill Passive: Inspiration

Our Reinforcement Mercenary will be Varyana, The Berserker Crone:

• Opportunity Skill: War Cry
• Reinforcement Skill: Bloodthirst

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 once you salvage the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons as you could in previous seasons but now you 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.

Slot	Gems	Legendary Aspects / Unique Items	Aspect / Unique Effects
Helm	Grand Ruby	Aspect of Numbing Wrath	– Each point of Fury generated while at Maximum Fury grants [X] Fortify
Chest	Grand Ruby	Wildbolt Aspect	– Every [3.5-2.0] seconds, Distant enemies are pulled in and take 10% increased damage for 3 seconds.
Gloves	N/A	Aspect of Elements	– Grant + [20-30%] increased damage to a set of damage types for 7 seconds. This effect alternates between 2 sets: Fire, Lightning, and Physical. Cold, Poison, and Shadow
Pants	Grand Ruby	Aspect of Bul-Kathos	– Leap creates an Earthquake that deals [X] Physical damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquakes you gain [10-30%] increased Damage Reduction
Boots	N/A	Aspect of Perpetual Stomping	– Kick or Ground Stomp resets Leap‘s Cooldown
Amulet	Grand Diamond	Locran’s Talisman	– Your skills gain + [0.10-0.40%] Critical Strike Chance per point of Primary Resource you have, up to + [10-40%]. Each point of Primary Resource above 100 grants x0.2% Critical Strike Damage instead.
Ring 1	Grand Diamond	Aspect of Giant Strides	– Reduces the Cooldown of Leap by [2.5-5] seconds per enemy hit, up to a maximum of 9 seconds. Hitting a Boss with Leap provides the maximum cooldown reduction
Ring 2	Grand Diamond	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	– Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [1.0-3.0] seconds per nearby enemy up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	Yul andYomRunes OR Grand Skull	Earthquake Aspect	– Ground Stomp creates an Earthquake damaging enemies for [X] physical damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquake, you deal x [10-30%] increased damage
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	Lith and Tec Runes OR Grand Skull	Aspect of Fierce Winds	– Your Shout Skills create 3 Dust Devils that deal [X] damage to enemies along their path. Your Dust Devils are [5-25%] bigger and deal 1% increased damage for each 1% their size is increased
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Grand Skull	Aspect of Inner Calm	– You deal x[5-13%] increased damage. Triple this bonus while standing still for 3 seconds.
Dual Wield Weapon 2	Grand Skull	Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus	– Skills using this weapon deal [0.2-0.5%] increased damage per point of Fury you have, but you lose 10 Fury every second.

Gems

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

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Skull for increased life on kill	Grand Ruby for increased Strength	Grand Diamond for increased All Resistance

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

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 Runewords 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	Rune Effects
Yul	Gain 50 Offering: Cast a Skill with a Cooldown
Yom	Requires 500 Offering: Cooldown 5 seconds, Evoke the Druid’s Petrify stunning enemies
Lith	Gain 25 Offering: Stand still fighting for 0.3 seconds
Tec	Requires 100 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Evoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within

Elixirs and Health Pots

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats, and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Use Elixir of Resource at the highest level you can craft due to its increase to maximum fury thereby empowering our Power Kick

Return to the Alchemist again 5 to 10 levels, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

Gear, Stats, Tempering and Masterworking

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 guide, and our Masterworking guide, as well as our guide about The Pit for more details about these topics.

Gear Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Maximum Life 3. Maximum Resource	1. Leap Slam Size Wasteland Innovation 2. Maximum Life Worldly Endurance
Chest	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor	1. Earthquake Size Barbarian Innovation 2. Ground Stomp Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Strength	1. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse 2. Dust Devil Size Wasteland Innovation
Pants	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. Ground Stomp Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy 2. Earthquake Size Barbarian Innovation
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Ranks to Brawling Skills 3. Maximum Life	1. Leap Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Motion 2. Dust Devil Size Wasteland Innovation
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Maximum Resource	1. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse 2. Leap Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Motion
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Strength	1. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse 2. War Cry Cooldown Reduction Brawling Efficiency
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life	1. Chance for Earthquake to Cast Twice Wasteland Augments 2. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life	1. Chance for Earthquake to Cast Twice Wasteland Augments 2. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse
Dual-Wield Weapons	1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life	1. Earthquake Duration Wasteland Augments 2. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse

Rotation and Playstyle

Let’s examine the typical rotation to stomp your way through the demonic hordes.

• Use Leap until you cannot anymore to jump into the fray.
• Use Ground Stomp as often as possible to reset Leap through Aspect of Perpetual Stomping and to cause even more quakes.
• Use your War Cry and Rallying Cry on cooldown for resource and damage.
• Use Call of the Ancients on tough groups and bosses for big damage.
• Use Challenging Shout when you need defense or to survive a particularly damaging attack.

Unique Items

Below you will find the unique items useful to this build. Let’s dive in.

• Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus – A powerful one-handed sword that we will use to amplify our damage by assigning our dual-wield weapons to Leap. Once you acquire this sword, replace Aspect of Inner Calm.
• Locran’s Talisman – A new neck introduced in season 5 has been brought to life in Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred for this build. Thanks to our resource stacking to fuel our Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus, this is the perfect amulet for this setup giving us high crit and crit damage.

Mythic Uniques

Here you will find the mythic unique items that are useful to this build. If a mythic unique is NOT listed here, it is not useful to this build and does not provide any meaningful increase or effect.

• Harlequin Crest – The infamous “Shako” and one of the most powerful helms in the game. Equip it as soon as you find it if you’re fortunate enough to get one. With its +4 to all skills, 20% damage reduction, and massive armor buff this is the helm to take this build to the next level.
• The Grandfather – The most powerful two-handed sword in the game. Its massive multiplier remains incredibly potent for this build. If you’re lucky enough to find one, drop Aspect of Inner Calm from your dual-wield weapon, move Aspect of Fierce Winds to it and enjoy wielding this monster instead.

Season 6: Season of Hatred Rising

Like previous seasons, Season 6 comes with a new faction to gain reputation with the Zakarum Remnants. Additionally, throughout the world you will find regions afflicted with Mephito’s hatred. Within these regions are massive demons called ‘Realmwalkers’ which after spawning and charging up begins to walk in search of sacred ground. While walking in this phase the Realmwalker’s are invulnerable but fearsome Bloodbound Guardians spawn to protect it. Slay them to remove chunks of the Realmwalker’s health. Once it reaches its destination it will spawn Hatred Spires which you can kill to finally attack the Realmwalker itself. Once slain it leaves behind a portal to a Seething Realm.

Within the Seething Realm you can offer up certain materials at Realm Gates to determine the reward once you complete the dungeon within the realm. These realms also offer a new currency, Seething Opals. A new type of Elixir that provides a 15% experience increase along with another bonus for 30 minutes. The experience bonus from a Seething Opal, stacks with the experience bonus of normal Elixirs allowing you to level even faster!

There are 5 types of Seething Opals:

• Seething Opal of Equipment which causes enemies to drop additional equipment for 25 Murmuring Obols
• Seething Opal of Materials which causes enemies to drop extra herbs and crafting materials for 5 Murmuring Obols
• Seething Opal of Gold which causes enemies to drop extra gold for 1 Iron Chunk
• Seething Opal of Socketables which causes enemies to drop additional gem fragments and rarely, Runes, for 3 Angelbreath
• Seething Opal of Torment Challenges which causes enemies to drop extra Artificer’s Stones and occasionally Boss Summoning Materials or Infernal Compasses for 200 Sigil Powder

Note that the Torment Challenges Opal is only available beginning in Torment 1 difficulty and beyond and is not available in earlier difficulties. While this season does not offer any direct power increase to characters it provides extra loot and bonuses to find the most powerful items and materials to strengthen your character for their journey into Vessel of Hatred!

Advanced Information

Mechanics and Playstyle

There is only one opening for this build, and that’s to use Leap! We use a particular rotation of skills to keep resetting our Leap‘s Cooldown using the Aspect of Perpetual Stomping and Aspect of Giant Strides. We spec into Ground Stomp for Aspect of Perpetual Stomping and the buffed Tactical Ground Stomp to cause even more quakes. The shout skills are used whenever we need Unstoppable or an on-demand access to Berserking through Enhanced War Cry which allow us to benefit from our key passive Unconstrained. Lastly the ability to add multiple skill points to Ultimate abilities makes our choice for Call of the Ancients all the more powerful when facing down tough single targets with lots of HP such as bosses in the Pit or Tormented Bosses.

Berserking

This buff is almost always activated on our character, and there is very little we do to manage it. The Battle Fervor is our trigger for Berserking and because we will be constantly using our Brawling Skills (Leap and Kick), to auto-renew our Berserking State. We will also have our Ultimate skill available, Wrath of the Berserker, for high-health targets; this will speedup our movement and damage.

Paragon Details

Let’s break down each of these beneficial nodes and where our Paragon Points are positioned in each of the Paragon Boards we use. This part of the build is presented in order of importance. If you do not have enough Paragon Points for use in your Paragon Tree, just slowly work towards each step.

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.

Rare Glyph and Legendary Nodes	Effect
Marshal	– Grants + [25%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range Additional bonus after 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: After casting a Shout Skill, the active cooldown of every other non-shout skill is reduced by 2 seconds Legendary Bonus: Increases your damage by [X%]
Territorial	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [2%] increased damage to Close targets – Additional bonus after 25 Dexterity has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: You gain a 10% Damage Reduction against Close enemies Legendary Bonus: Increases your damage to Vulnerable targets by [X%]
Twister	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, your Dust Devils deal [13.2%] increased damage Additional bonus after 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: You deal x13% increased damage for 4 seconds after creating a Dust Devil Legendary Bonus: Increases your Dust Devil damage by [X%]
Rumble	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, your Earthquakes deal [13.2%] increased damage Additional bonus after 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: You deal 10% increased damage to Bosses and Crowd Controlled enemies for each active earthquake up to 50% Legendary Bonus: Increases Earthquake damage by [X%]
Challenger	– Grants + [30%] bonus to Normal Nodes within range Additional bonus after 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding One-Handed Weapons Legendary Bonus: Increases your damage to Elites by [X%]
Warbringer	– For every 75 Fury you spend, you gain 15% of your Maximum Life as Fortify
Decimator	– Each time you make an enemy Vulnerable, your damage is increased by 10% for 5 seconds. Overpowering a Vulnerable enemy grans x10% bonus for 5 seconds.
Force of Nature	– Your Earthquakes have a 75% chance to spawn a Dust Devil every second that deals 200% damage. Earthquake damage is increased by 30% of your Damage to Close Enemies up to a maximum of 150%
Blood Rage	– Killing a bleeding enemy has a 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. Your damage is increased by 10% of your Damage While Berserking bonus up to a maximum of 30%

Starting Board

1. We begin our journey by heading east and grabbing Brawn and the surrounding magic nodes.
2. Next we take the western path through Tenacity and the nearby magic nodes.
3. After that head north and unlock the glyph socket, slot in Marshal.
4. Grab enough Strength nodes nearby, especially both rare nodes Raw Power and Iron Strength to activate the glyph’s secondary effect.
5. Exit the board through the Northern gate and connect the Warbringer board to it.

Warbringer

1. Start by heading north and then take a detour west to grab Hungering Fury and the nearby magic nodes and then continue north.
2. Take a small western detour to grab Fire Resilience and a few life increasing nodes and then head east to grab the board’s Legendary node Warbringer.
3. Go back to the start of the board and now path east to the glyph socket and unlock it, slot in Territorial.
4. Grab the nearby Dexterity nodes and both nearby rare nodes Brute Force and Raw Power.
5. Make your way north to make one final pit stop to grab Core Reserve and the nearby life increasing magic nodes.
6. Finally exit the board to the east and connect the Decimator board.

Decimator

1. Head east and unlock the glyph socket immediately, slotting Twister in.
2. Grab the nearby rare nodes to the north and south Destroyer and Demolish and as much Strength nodes as you can.
3. Continue pathing east to grab the board’s Legendary node Decimator.
4. Move north from the legendary node and grab Pillage and some nearby magic nodes and then unlock the Northern gate and connect the Force of Nature board. Once you finish with this board, return to the Decimator board.
5. After finishing Force of Nature, return here and from the Legendary node head south and unlock Brawn and some nearby magic nodes and then unlock the Southern gate and connect the Blood Rage board.

Force of Nature

1. Head north and grab Denial and the nearby magic nodes. Path north and head to the Legendary node Force of Nature.
2. From the Denial cluster, head north east and unlock the glyph socket and slot in Rumble.
3. Grab the strength nodes nearby including Raw Power and Squall and the magic nodes near both.
4. After finishing up this board head back to the Decimator board.

Blood Rage

1. March south and take a western detour to grab Craving and the nearby magic nodes.
2. Head south from this cluster and unlock the glyph socket, slot in Challenger.
3. Unlock as much Strength nearby as you can, pick up both Revel and Wrath and the magic nodes around them.
4. Continue south and take a small detour south west to grab Restorative and the life increasing nodes near it.
5. From the Restorative node, go east and grab the board’s Legendary node Blood Rage.
6. From the Legendary node, head south east and unlock Grit and the magic nodes near it and with that our journey is over! Sort of.

Concluding

At this point, you should have most of your paragon points spend, all 5 boards unlocked, and all of your Glyph’s empowered with their bonuses. You will have anywhere from 40 to 50 points remaining to spend. Getting to the maximum paragon level in Vessel of Hatred is a truly arduous task that requires many many hours. If you are truly one of those few who are hardcore enough to max out your Paragon, we suggest spending these extra points to grab any Rare Nodes and magic clusters nearby the paths we took on your boards that we didn’t take in our initial journey or any normal nodes for stats you might be lacking to gain bonuses for your various rare nodes. Congratulations on making it this far!

Obol Gambling

A final point on acquiring gear in Season 6 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 the expansion when a level 60 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 750 item power, the highest non-ancestral power allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need while also having a small chance to grant Ancestral item power 800 gear.

Check out our Obol Gambling Tool HERE

Changelog

• October 24th 2024: Paragon section updated for post-launch boards
• October 3rd 2024: Build updated for Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred
• August 4th 2024: Guide updated for Season 5 and Patch 1.5.0
• May 9th 2024: Ownership of page transferred, guide restructured, updated for Season 4.
• March 5th 2024: Updates for Patch 1.3.3.
• January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
• October 26th 2023: Build Revamped for Season 2.
• October 13th 2023: Build adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
• August 8th 2023: Added notes about Patch 1.1.1.
• August 5th 2023: Malignant Hearts and Paragon updated for clarity.
• July 27th, 2023: Build creation Season 1.