Overpower Berserk HotA Endgame Barbarian Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 5)

Build Introduction

Welcome to the comprehensive guide for Overpower-Berserk Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian at endgame, utilizing insane overpowers and powerful slams to annihilate anything in your way. Bosses? No problem. Nightmare Dungeons? Easy. Vaults? Those constructs won’t even know what hit them. We will walk you through everything you will need to smash, land big critical hits, and fill your screen with big numbers as every demon, construct, boss, or whatever else lies in front of you explodes into paste. With that in mind, let’s dive in.

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

Ring of Red Furor

Banished Lord’s Talisman

Tibault’s Will

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Aspect of Limitless Rage

Bold Chieftain’s Aspect

Juggernaut’s Aspect

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Skill Bar Setup for HotA Barbarian (order does not matter)

Hammer of the Ancients War Cry Lunging Strike Challenging Shout Rallying Cry Wrath of the Berserker

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

Arsenal System and Weapon Selection

For this Hammer of the Ancients build, we will be using 2-Handed Axe expertise for its bonus to Vulnerable damage.

Barbarians have a unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. This is a critical component for all builds to function properly, and failure to match your weapon to the proper skill may cause the build to perform poorly. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills:

• Lunging Strike – Dual Wield
• Hammer of the Ancients – Bludgeoning

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 before attaching it.

Carnage

Rotate this board twice before attaching it.

Blood Rage

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

Decimator

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

Bone Breaker

Attach this board to the eastern gate of the Carnage board. Rotate this board once before attaching it.

Weapons Master

Attach this board to the southern gate of the Carnage board. Rotate this board three times before attaching it.

To view the paragon board in its entirety CLICK HERE.

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 with Patch 1.4.0 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 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 Aspect / Uniques	Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Royal Ruby	Godslayer Crown	– When you Stun, Freeze, or Immobilize an Elite enemy or damage a Boss, it pulls in nearby enemies. You deal [30-60%] increased damage to them for 3 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 12 seconds.
Chest	Royal Ruby	Relentless Berserker’s Aspect	– Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skill has up to a [15-30%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 seconds. Double this duration if it was a critical strike.
Gloves	N/A	Aspect of Ancestral Force	– Hammer of the Ancients quakes outward and its damage is increased by [2-17%].
Pants	Royal 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	Royal Diamond	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	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.
Ring 2	Royal Diamond	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.
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Limitless Rage	– Each point of Fury you generate while at Maximum Fury grants your next Core Skill within 5 seconds [1-2%] increased damage, up to [15-30%].
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	Royal Ruby	Edgemaster’s Aspect	– Skills deal up to [5-20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Royal Ruby	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	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Elements	– Gain + [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.

Gems

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

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Ruby for increased Overpower damage	Royal Ruby for increased maximum life	Royal Diamond for all resistances

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%

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

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 an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Elixir of Destruction which increases your Overpower damage. Craft the highest Elixir of Destruction you can

Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

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.

Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. Challenging Shout Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Chest	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. Challenging Shout Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Lucky Hit: Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable for 2 Seconds	1. Critical Strike Damage – Worldly Finesse 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Control
Pants	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. Challenging Shout Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. Movement Speed Natural Motion 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Ranks to Counteroffensive	1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse 2. Resource Generation with Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons – Weapon Attunement — Barbarian
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Lucky Hit Chance 2. Fury on Kill	1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse 2. War Cry Cooldown Reduction Brawling Efficiency
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	1. Strength 2. Fury on Kill 3. Maximum Life	1. Hammer of the Ancients Size Furious Augments 2. Critical Strike Damage – Worldly Finesse
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	1. Strength 2. Fury on Kill 3. Maximum Life	1. Hammer of the Ancients Size Furious Augments 2. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse
Dual Wield Weapons	1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life	1. Berserking Duration Berserking Augments 2. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse

Rotation and Playstyle

Our tried and true HotA Barbarian uses a few simple skills to deal massive overpowers that will crush anything in our path. Let’s review our skills and go over the general rotation.

• Engage enemies with Lunging Strike and use it to generate Fury
• Spend Fury with Hammer of the Ancients as often as possible
• Use War Cry and Rallying Cry for resources and their buffs as often as possible
• Cast Challenging Shout for defense whenever you’re in a tight spot
• Use Wrath of the Berserker against Bosses and Elites for its massive bonus while Berserking.

Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Below you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.

Unique Items

Below you will find the unique items useful to this build. Despite changes in Patch 1.4.0 to some of them, we still want to utilize them for this Hammer of the Ancients Build

• Godslayer Crown – A powerful helm providing a huge damage multiplier whenever stun enemies or attack bosses for a few seconds granting us significant burst.
• Tibault’s Will – Even though it was reduced in power in Patch 1.4.0 these are still very powerful for this build and even provide a damage reduction affix to your pants.
• Banished Lord’s Talisman – Even with its massive cut in damage bonus, the guaranteed overpowers and ranks to hammer it provides make it the best choice for our amulet slot.
• Ring of Red Furor – A potent ring that was left unscathed from the Patch 1.4.0 changes and so it retains its place here in guaranteeing critical hammers for big damage.
• Rakanoth’s Wake – A new unique introduced in Patch 1.5.0 that provides powerful stats and a small damage every time we use a skill with a cooldown like our shouts. A potent addition to this build.

Mythic Uniques

Here you will find the mythic unique items that are useful to this build. If an 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 most coveted helm in all of Diablo 4 retains its power here providing cooldown, damage reduction, and more ranks to our most used skills. If you’re lucky enough to find one, replace Godslayer Crown with it.
• The Grandfather – An extremely powerful two-handed sword that provides a large damage multiplier and will make your Hammer of the Ancients crush anything in front of you. If you manage to get your hands on one, swap Edgemaster’s Aspect to your second Dual-Wield Weapon and drop Aspect of Elements for it.
• Ring of Starless Skies – A very potent ring that became even more powerful during Season 4. If you’re lucky enough to acquire one, you replace the Ring of Red Furor and continue to use Bold Chieftan’s.

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 Resplendant Spark at maximum reputation! Below, you will find the changes in Patch 1.5.0 that affect this build.

• Hammer of the Ancients damage increased by 10%
• Furious Hammer of the Ancients Now gains 2% critical strike chance for every 10 fury you had when cast. Critical Strikes Knock Down enemies for 1.5 seconds
• Violent Hammer of the Ancients damage bonus increased from 30% to 40%
• Tactical Challenging Shout fury gained increased from 3 to 6
• Imposing Presence health bonus reduced from 6/12/18 to 5/10/15%
• Concussion stun reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
• Unbridled Rage damage bonus reduced from 100% to 45%
• Aspect of Ancestral Force now increases quake damage by 5-20% from 2-17% and the damage bonus is doubled against bosses
• Dominate time between guaranteed Overpowers reduced from 30 to 20 seconds

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

Our main playstyle is very similar to how it was in previous seasons. This time we do not take a dedicated movement skill such as Charge or Leap. Instead we get in to packs with Lunging Strike and spam our Hammer of the Ancients. Thanks to Earthstriker’s Aspect and our paragon node Weapons Master we assign our dual-wield weapons to Lunging Strike so that we’re swapping all the time and gaining the benefits of these powers. We’ll be able to guarantee big overpower hits through Ring of Red Furor and Banished Lord’s Talisman. This build lost a lot of power in season 4 but really was just brought back down to earth from the stars and is still an incredibly potent build for those who love smashing demons.

By lining up the guaranteed Overpowers from Banished Lord’s Talisman and guaranteed critical strikes from Ring of Red Furor we can deal devastating damage through Hammer of the Ancients that will still do millions and crush all but the strongest of foes. So be sure to line up your buffs for maximum damage.

Berserking

A unique status to Barbarians that provides damage reduction, movement speed, resource generation and a large damage bonus. We can stay in this state nearly constantly with on demand Berserking sources such as Wrath of the Berserker and War Cry. We will be able to enter it as well through various paragon nodes such as Blood Rage and we’ll gain longer duration despite choosing Unbridled Rage over Unconstrained thanks to our codex choices in Relentless Berserker’s Aspect.

Defensive Aspects

With Juggernaut’s Aspect we should easily be able to hit the new armor cap. We will want to fill our needed resistance caps through paragon nodes, and gem selection in our amulets and rings so we achieve 70% in all resistances. We should have plenty of Fortify potential through Warbringer and certain aspects like Aspect of Numbing Wrath should we use them. Finally, thanks to high uptime on Challenging Shout through the new tempering system’s affix of ‘Challenging Shout Cooldown Reduction’ we’ll be incredibly tanky and able to push through all but the toughest of foes.

Paragon

The recommended Paragon boards for this build are listed above, and further down below, you can find a more thorough route for allocating the Paragon points, as well as some notes on why specific nodes were chosen and why they are essential for this build.

Rare Glyph and Legendary Nodes	Effect
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [3.85%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in 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.
Mortal Draw	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, Skills that Swap to a different weapon deal + [16.5%] increased damage. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased within the glyph’s range: Swapping weapons has an 18% chance to cause the skill’s damage to Critically Strike.
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal +[5.3%] increased damage while Berserking. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in 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 unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: While wielding a mace you deal x30% increased Overpower damage.
Marshal	– Grants +[125%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: After casting a shout skill, the active Cooldown of every non-Shout skill is reduced by 4 seconds.
Might	– Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed Weapons
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%
Weapons Master	– Swapping weapons grants you 4% of your Maximum Fury
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.

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 above.
• 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 heading up the left side of the board and passing through Tenacity.
2. Next we head up to the glyph socket and unlock it, slotting in Exploit.
3. We take as many Dexterity nodes around it as we can to unlock its bonus power and then head up right through Raw Power and then head up and out and connect Warbringer.

Warbringer

1. We begin by heading west and grabbing Hungering Fury and the surrounding magic nodes
2. Next we rush to the glyph socket and slot in Ire as well as Conditioned
3. We then head up north and take a small detour grabbing Core Reserve and the surrounding magic nodes.
4. Finally we’ll head out to the east and connect the Carnage board.

Carnage

1. The Carnage board is our most complex and central board; we’ll be leaving it and coming back to it several times during the leveling process. We start by heading straight in and to the glyph socket to slot in Might
2. Next we grab as much strength around it as possible before making our way to the Legendary Node Carnage.
3. The first path we’ll take is heading up to grab Enraged and its Magic node trio for damage while Berserking and then connect the Blood Rage Board at the top. After the Blood Rage and Decimator boards are finished come back to this board
4. From the Carnage node itself, head down and right grabbing Berserker and connect the Bone Breaker board to the right. Once you finish the Bone Breaker board, return to the Carnage board.
5. Finally, we’ll head straight south from the Carnage node and connect the Weapons Master board finishing this central board for our build.

Blood Rage

1. A pretty straight forward path takes us right to Revel and the glyph socket where we’ll slot in Marshal.
2. We’ll grab enough strength around it to activate its secondary effects before heading north and left to pick up the board’s namesake, Blood Rage and finally we’ll head out to the right and return to the Carnage Board.
3. After Decimator and Hemorrhage boards are complete, return here and connect the Weapon Master board.

Decimator

1. We start by taking a small detour south and grabbing Restorative
2. Next we grab the legendary node Decimator
3. We then head to the socket and slot in Crusher and pick up the Strength nodes nearby.
4. We finish this board off by taking both Demolish and Arrogance within the radius of the glyph and then head back to the Carnage board

Bone Breaker

1. We simply head up to the socket, slot in Mortal Draw
2. Grab the rare node Vigor and its surrounding magic nodes to unlock the bonuses of Mortal Draw then head back to the Carnage board

Weapons Master

1. Our only goal here is the legendary node, but don’t forget to swing down and grab Denial and its surrouding all resist Magic nodes.
2. Make your way up and grab the legendary node Weapons Master and with this we complete our paragon journey and finish our boards!

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. 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 and patch 1.5.0
• May 6th 2024: Guide restructured, updated for season 4
• April 16th 2024: Ownership of page transferred, build Revamped, paragon adjusted, unique items added
• March 5th 2024: Updates for Patch 1.3.3.
• January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
• October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
• August 7th, 2023: New Format and build Revamp.
• August 2nd, 2023: Patch 1.1.1 section added with build specific changes.
• July 18th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1.