Upheaval – Barbarian Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

Welcome to the guide for the Upheaval Barbarian! Sunder the earth beneath your enemy’s feet and crush demons with rocks from half a screen away. This build will sear the flesh off your enemies with blazing heat and magma, making an enjoyable playstyle for Barbarian enthusiasts.

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

Optional Uniques

Hellhammer

Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty

Banished Lord’s Talisman

Ring of Red Furor

Rakanoth’s Wake

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Aspect of Sundered Ground

Bold Chieftain’s Aspect

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

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

Upheaval Challenging Shout Wrath of the Berserker Flay Rallying Cry War Cry

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 71 point build. The additional 12 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Weapon Technique and Weapon Selection

For the Upheaval build, we will be focused using the Technique of Two-Handed Axes for the bonus damage to Vulnerable enemies.

Barbarians have an unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills:

• Upheaval – Your highest damage Two-Handed Weapon.
• Flay – This skill requires it be a Slashing Weapon. We dual-wield Swords in this setup and so ideally, we want this skill on our Dual-Wield Weapons.

Paragon Board

We recommend using these Legendary Nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame and further into The Pit. Note that each glyph’s effect is listed as it were a max-level 100 Glyph. As a reminder, glyph’s get their final radius increase at level 46, and their Legendary bonuses 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 and Codex Power

Below you will find all of the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for this build. Remember that since Patch 1.4.0 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	Aspect/Unique	Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Grand Ruby	Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty	– When you gain Berserking while already Berserk, you have a [40-60%] chance to become more enraged granting x15% increased damage, 2 Fury per second, and 10% Cooldown reduction
Chest	Grand Ruby	Iron Blood Aspect	– Gain [2-5%] Damage Reduction for each nearby Bleeding enemy up to [10-25%] maximum
Gloves	N/A	Edgemaster’s Aspect	– Skills deal up to x[5-25%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.
Pants	Grand Ruby	Tibault’s Will	– You deal [10-20%] increased damage while Unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource
Boots	N/A	Rakanoth’s Wake	– When you cast a Skill with a Cooldown, you explode dealing [X] Fire damage.
Amulet	Grand Skull	Banished Lord’s Talisman	– After you spend 275 of your Primary Resource, your next Core Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. Your critical strikes that Overpower deal [20-60%] increased damage.
Ring 1	Grand Skull	Ring of Red Furor	– After spending 100 Fury within 3 seconds, your next cast of Hammer of the Ancients, Upheaval or Death Blow within 5 seconds is a guaranteed Critical Strike and deals [10-30%] bonus Critical Strike Damage
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%
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	Lith and Yom runes OR Grand Emerald	Hellhammer	– Upheaval ignites the ground, Burning enemies for an additional [X] damage over 3 seconds
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	Tam and Wat runes OR Grand Emerald	Accelerating Aspect	– Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10-30%] for 5 seconds
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Grand Emerald	Earthstriker’s Aspect	– After swapping weapons 8 times, your next Non-Basic Skill will Overpower and deal [15-30%] increased Overpower damage
Dual Wield Weapon 2	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Sundered Ground	– Every 20 seconds, your next Upheaval cast is guaranteed to Overpower and deal x[15-35%] increased damage. Critical Strikes with Upheaval against Elites reduce this timer by 1 second.

Gems

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

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald for increased Critical Strike 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 for a specific type such as Royal 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 Effect
Lith	Gain 25 Offering; Stand Still while fighting for 0.3 seconds
Yom	Requires 500 Offering; Cooldown 5 seconds, Evoke the Druid’s Petrify stunning enemies and generating 100 Primary Resource
Tam	Gain 25 Offering: Cast a Non-Channeled Core Skill
Wat	Requires 100 Offering; Cooldown 1 second, Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify slowing enemies and reducing their damage and letting you execute them.

Elixirs

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 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 only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. 

For this Upheaval build, we recommend Elixir of Advantage for the increased attack speed to spam more Upheaval ‘s at our foes. Craft the highest value Elixir of Advantage you can to get the most attack speed possible.

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 and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.

Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempers
Helm	1. Maximum Life 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Ranks to Core Skills	1. Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Upheaval size Brute Innovation
Chest	1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Armor	1. Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Upheaval size Brute Innovation
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Strength 3. Ranks to Upheaval	1. Critical Strike Damage Worldly Finesse 2. Upheaval size Brute Innovation
Pants	1. Maximum Life 2. Strength. 3. Needed Resistance	1. Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Upheaval Brute Innovation
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Strength. 3. Fury Per Second	1. Movement Speed Natural Motion 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Ranks to Counteroffensive	1. Critical Strike Damage Worldly Finesse 2. Wrath of the Berserker Cooldown Reduction Ultimate Efficiency — Barbarian
Rings	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Strength 3. Lucky Hit: Chance to make enemies Vulnerable	1. Critical Strike Damage Worldly Finesse 2. Wrath of the Berserker Cooldown Reduction Ultimate Efficiency — Barbarian
Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	1. Fury on Kill 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. Critical Strike Damage Worldly Finesse 2. Chance for Upheaval to deal double damage Core Augments — Barbarian
Two-Handed Slashing Weapon	1. Fury on Kill 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. Critical Strike Damage Worldly Finesse 2. Chance for Upheaval to deal double damage Core Augments — Barbarian
Dual-Wield Weapons	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. Critical Strike Damage Worldly Finesse 2. Chance for Upheaval to deal double damage Core Augments — Barbarian

Rotation and Playstyle

Let’s examine our skills and how we’ll use them to carve a path through the demonic hordes in our way.

• Engage with Flay.
• Generate Fury through your Rallying Cry and Flay.
• Cast Upheaval as much as possible ensuring you use the guaranteed overpowers from Ring of Red Furor, and Earthstriker’s Aspect.
• Use Wrath of the Berserker against bosses and tough elites.
• Use Challenging Shout to survive damaging attacks.

Unique Items

Here you will find the uniques useful to this build. Let’s dive in!

• Tibault’s Will – A strong offensive option for our pants slot. You will be a bit squishier losing Aspect of Bul-Kathos but your damage will improve a lot.
• Ring of Red Furor – A powerful ring that allows our Upheavals to hit huge overpowers. This will replace the ring using Bold Chieftain’s Aspect once you acquire it.
• Hellhammer – The mace build just for Upheaval. Adding ranks to it and leaving burning ground and providing a rare damage reduction affix on your weapon.
• Banished Lord’s Talisman – Even with the nerfs to this item in Patch 1.4.0 it is still worth using here to ensure more Upheaval overpowers for big damage.
• Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty – A powerful helm rivaling even the infamous “Shako” in terms of its power for certain Barbarian builds. As often as we’re able to trigger Berserking through our shouts, Wrath of the Berserker this provides a large bonus to our sustain resources and strikes.
• Rakanoth’s Wake – These boots were introduced in season 5 but remain powerful in Vessel of Hatred. With a ton of all resist, lots of non-physical damage for our Hellhammer empowered Upheaval‘s and good move speed we want to wear these over normal boots.

Mythic Uniques

If you are fortunate enough to acquire some mythic uniques, they can be very useful to this build. If a mythic unique is NOT listed, it does not provide anything meaningful for this build and is not used.

• Heir of Perdition – The new Mythic helm in town, proves itself to be very powerful even more than the beloved “Shako” helm. With a huge damage multiplier and lots of good stats, we’ll be wearing this the moment we get it.
• Tyrael’s Might – Pound for pound the best chest in the game providing tons of mobility, resistances, and a damage reduction. It has a nice proc effect triggering holy bolts for extra damage as well though this is secondary to its massive toughness boost. A must have for true endgame survival.
• The Grandfather – Infamous since the launch of Diablo 4, this two-handed sword remains powerful in Vessel of Hatred and proves to be just what this build needs to kick its damage up to the next level. Replace Accelerating Aspect with it if you’re lucky enough to get one.
• Harlequin Crest – The famous “Shako” helm, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention it here. While not as powerful in Vessel of Hatred due to the new kids on the block competing for the same item slot, it is still a very potent helm and if you acquire one before Heir of Perdition you should definitely equip it. With its bonus to all skill ranks, cooldown reduction, and damage reduction as well as vastly improving your armor, it’s hard to go wrong with this item.

Season 6: Season of Hatred

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

Unlike past iterations this build bleeds our enemies with Flay to generate resources quickly and apply the Vulnerable condition. We want to weave it in with Upheaval as this should force a Weapon Swap and help trigger our Earthstriker’s Aspect which we’ll consume with a big Upheaval cast. This build plays almost like a ranged Barbarian with our ability to attack from well outside melee range due to Upheaval‘s long reach as well as the flames left behind by Hellhammer once we acquire it.

We’ll use our shouts whenever they’re available for resource generation, Unstoppable, Berserking and all the other survival benefits they grant us and we’ll use Wrath of the Berserker against big groups and bosses to cut them down quickly.

Defensive Aspects

Upheaval is in a unique position to have some damage reduction as an affix as well on our weapon of choice the Hellhammer as we will gain damage reduction against the enemies it burns. Defensiveness is harder to come by since Patch 1.4.0 so this is much appreciated. We use defensive layers with berserking triggered by our shouts and upheaval strikes to maintain our tankiness.

Paragon Details

Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes	Effects
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range you deal [1.3%] 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 – Legendary Bonus: You deal [X%] increased damage to Close Enemies
Might	– Grants + [25%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: You deal 8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed Weapons – Legendary Bonus: You deal [X%] increased damage to Healthy enemies
Crusher	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal [1.3%] increased damage while wielding a Mace – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased in the glyph’s range: While wielding a Mace, you deal 20% increased Overpower damage – Legendary Bonus: Increases your damage to Stunned targets by [X%]
Marshal	– Grants + [25%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range – Additional bonus once 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%]
Wrath	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [3.0%] increased Critical Strike Damage – Additional bonus after 25 Willpower has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: Skills that Critically Strike generate 3 Fury – Legendary Bonus: Increases Physical damage by [X%]
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 x10% of your Damage While Berserking bonus, up to a maximum of x30%
Warbringer	– For Every 75 Fury you spend, 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 grants an additional 10% bonus for 5 seconds.

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, so 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.

Starting Board

1. We begin by pathing left and through Tenacity and then head up to the glyph socket and slot in Ire.
2. Take a detour to the south and grab Brawn and the nearby magic nodes.
3. Take as much Strength as we can including Iron Strength and Raw Power.
4. Now unlock the gate at the top and attach the Carnage board to it.

Carnage

1. Start by heading up and rushing the glyph socket and slot in Might.
2. Take a small detour down back south to grab Enraged and the nearby magic nodes.
3. Pick up as many Strength nodes as we can grab, and head left to grab the Legendary Node Carnage.
4. Continue pathing west and through Brash and unlock the western gate and connect the Blood Rage board.

Blood Rage

1. Head west and unlock the socket slotting in Crusher.
2. Pick up as much Strength as we can manage including the rare nodes Revel and Wrath. A quick note here is that we do not cause bleeding, we are simply grabbing Revel for the +10 Strength to empower Crusher.
3. Next head up north and grab the Legendary Node Blood Rage.
4. Now head north east and pick up Restorative and some life increasing magic nodes.
5. Lastly, exit the board to the north and connect the Warbringer board to it.

Warbringer

1. Head north and then take a sharp left pathing through Hungering Fury.
2. Continue up and then head right to grab the Legendary Node Warbringer and another small detour to the north west to pick up Fire Resilience.
3. Head back to the start of the board and then path east to unlock the glyph socket, slot in Marshal.
4. Grab as much Strength as we can, including Brute Force and Raw Power before exiting the radius to the north.
5. Continue north east and grab Core Reserve and some nearby magic nodes.
6. Finally exit the board through the eastern gate and connect Decimator.

Decimator

1. We begin by taking a sharp path south to pick up Brawn and then continue east.
2. Turn up and through Demolish to the glyph socket, slot in Wrath.
3. Grab as much Dexterity as we can and the rare node Destroyer.
4. Take a trip south of the socket to the board’s Legendary Node Decimator.
5. Lastly a small path south east to grab Restorative and some life increasing nodes and at last our paragon journey has come to an end, sort of.

Concluding

You will be left with a significant amount of Paragon Points at this point in the journey. Grinding up to maximum paragon in Vessel of Hatred is an arduous journey that takes many many hours. This guide will serve to get you through each of your five boards and unlock the most potent versions of your Glyphs. For the remaining points, you’re free to spend them were you see fit if you’re one of the truly hardcore enough to grind out maximum paragon. We recommend spending them on main stat Strength nodes, and magic nodes and any rare nodes left that might help your build. Congratulations if you’ve made it to the highest levels of paragon!

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 5th, 2024: Ownership of page transferred, guide restructured and updated for season 4
• February 5th 2024: Changed Marshal Glyph to Disembowel.
• January 30th 2024: Marshal Glyph changes.
• January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
• October 22th 2023: Build revamped for Season 2.
• October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
• August 12th 2023: Full build update and review for Season 1.
• August 8th 2023: Added notes about Patch 1.1.1.
• August 5th 2023: Malignant Hearts and Paragon updated for clarity.
• July 23rd, 2023: Adjusted Aspects for performance in Season 1.
• July 19th, 2023: Season of the Malignant section added.
• July 18th, 2023: Reviewed and altered build with Season One Patch Notes.