Build Introduction
This build focuses on using 
Hammer of the Ancients to quickly decimate groups of enemies and sunder elites and bosses with powerful slams. While leveling, we use the class-exclusive Berserking status effect to increase our damage, movement speed, and resource generation even more, so we can continue smashing away at hoards of demons.
- Hammer of the Ancients – The centerpiece of the build and your main Fury spender.
- Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients– This skill will help smooth our Fury generation while leveling .
- Furious Hammer of the Ancients – This skill gives us a massive damage multiplier based on our Fury.
Lunging Strike – Our basic attack and Fury generator. This skill provides us with movement, which is invaluable while leveling. - Enhanced Lunging Strike– This gives us a bit more damage and sustained healing while we lunge into packs.
- Combat Lunging Strike– This will help us trigger the Berserking status for a short time, which we will improve with other skills and aspects to increase our movement speed and damage.
-
The main gameplay loop with these two skills will be diving into packs with Lunging Strike or 
Charge , triggering Berserking, and slamming down with 
Hammer of the Ancients to finish everything off. This build sports strong single-target damage, allowing us to quickly finish off dungeon bosses or seasonal questline bosses fairly easily.
Quick Navigation
Allocation of Skill points
Below is the recommended order for spending your points as you level up. If you are missing skill points, complete Renown tiers 1-3 in every zone.
| Skill Point Order | Skill | Skill Cluster |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lunging Strike | Basic Skills |
| 2 | Enhanced Lunging Strike | Basic Skills |
| 3 | Hammer of the Ancients | Core Skills |
| 4 | Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients | Core Skills |
| 5 | Violent Hammer of the Ancients | Core Skills |
| 6 | Combat Lunging Strike | Basic Skills |
| 7 |  Rallying Cry | Defensive Skills |
| 8 | Enhanced Rallying Cry | Defensive Skills |
| 9 | Tactical Rallying Cry | Defensive Skills |
| 10 | Hammer of the Ancients Level 2 | Core Skills |
| 11 | Hammer of the Ancients Level 3 | Core Skills |
| 12 | Charge | Brawling Skills |
| 13 | Enhanced Charge | Brawling Skills |
| 14 | Power Charge | Brawling Skills |
| 15 |  War Cry | Brawling Skills |
| 16 | Enhanced War Cry | Brawling Skills |
| 17 | Mighty War Cry | Brawling Skills |
| 18 | Hammer of the Ancients Level 4 | Core Skills |
| 19 | Hammer of the Ancients Level 5 | Core Skills |
| 20 |  Endless Fury | Core Skills |
| 21 | Endless Fury Level 2 | Core Skills |
| 22 | Endless Fury Level 3 | Core Skills |
| 23 |  Swiftness | Brawling Skills |
| 24 |  Wrath of the Berserker | Ultimate Skills |
| 25 | Prime Wrath of the Berserker | Ultimate Skills |
| 26 | Supreme Wrath of the Berserker | Ultimate Skills |
| 27 | Swiftness Level 2 | Brawling Skills |
| 28 | Swiftness Level 3 | Brawling Skills |
| 29 |  Aggressive Resistance | Brawling Skills |
| 30 |  Battle Fervor | Brawling Skills |
| 31 | Battle Fervor Level 2 | Brawling Skills |
| 32 | Battle Fervor Level 3 | Brawling Skills |
| 33 |  Prolific Fury | Brawling Skills |
| 34 |  Unconstrained | Key Passive |
| 35 | Charge Level 2 | Brawling Skills |
| 36 | Charge Level 3 | Brawling Skills |
| 37 | Charge Level 4 | Brawling Skills |
| 38 | Charge Level 5 | Brawling Skills |
| 39 | Prolific Fury Level 2 | Brawling Skills |
| 40 | Prolific Fury Level 3 | Brawling Skills |
| 41 |  Pit Fighter | Weapon Mastery Skills |
| 42 | Pit Fighter Level 2 | Weapon Mastery Skills |
| 43 | Pit Fighter Level 3 | Weapon Mastery Skills |
| 44 |  Imposing Presence | Defensive Skills |
| 45 | Imposing Presence Level 2 | Defensive Skills |
| 46 | Imposing Presence Level 3 | Defensive Skills |
| 47 |  Thick Skin | Weapon Mastery Skills |
| 48 |  Counteroffensive | Weapon Mastery Skills |
| 49 | Counteroffensive Level 2 | Weapon Mastery Skills |
| 50 | Counteroffensive Level 3 | Weapon Mastery Skills |
| 51 |  Heavy Handed | Ultimate Skills |
| 52 | Heavy Handed Level 2 | Ultimate Skills |
| 53 | Heavy Handed Level 3 | Ultimate Skills |
| 54 |  Wallop | Ultimate Skills |
| 55 | Wallop Level 2 | Ultimate Skills |
| 56 | Wallop Level 3 | Ultimate Skills |
| 57 |  Brute Force | Ultimate Skills |
| 58 | Brute Force Level 2 | Ultimate Skills |
| 59 | Brute Force Level 3 | Ultimate Skills |
| 60 | Wrath of the Berserker Level 2 | Ultimate Skills |
| 61 | Wrath of the Berserker Level 3 | Ultimate Skills |
| 62 | Wrath of the Berserker Level 4 | Ultimate Skills |
| 63 | Wrath of the Berserker Level 5 | Ultimate Skills |
| 64 |  Warpath | Core Skills |
| 65 | Warpath Level 2 | Core Skills |
| 66 | Warpath Level 3 | Core Skills |
| 67 |  Booming Voice | Brawling Skills |
| 68 | Booming Voice Level 2 | Brawling Skills |
| 69 | Booming Voice Level 3 | Brawling Skills |
| 70 | Aggressive Resistance | Brawling Skills |
| 71 | Aggressive Resistance | Brawling Skills |
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Hammer of the Ancients 
Lunging Strike 
Rallying Cry 
War Cry 
Charge 
Wrath of the Berserker If you are unsure how to best use these skills, read our Build Mechanics section after setting up your skill bar.
Wondering what comes after level 60 or which paragon boards to choose? Head to the Barbarian Builds Page and choose an endgame build to continue progressing your character beyond level 60 and into the endgame.
Barbarian Class Mechanic – The Arsenal System
The Barbarian is unique among classes in Diablo 4. As a master of weapons and combat, it can wield four different weapons simultaneously and effortlessly swap between them when using different skills. We have a Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon, a Two-Handed Slashing Weapon, and a pair of Dual-Wield Weapons. At Level 15, a quest becomes available in Ked Bardu called “Masters of Battle,” given by Forgemaster Kerdi. After you complete this short quest chain, you gain access to the second part of the Arsenal System. Weapon Techniques.
Barbarians gain various bonuses by using specific weapon types that are only active while wielding those weapons. After unlocking the Weapon Technique class feature, you can choose ANY weapon type and slot it into your technique slot, and that bonus will always be active, no matter what weapon you’re actually using.
For this Hammer of the Ancients build, we will be using the Two-Handed Axe technique for its bonus damage to vulnerable enemies.
Keep in mind that while you will always benefit from the Two-Handed Axe bonus once it’s slotted in your technique slot, you will still gain the bonuses of the weapon types you’re actually wielding, as well as letting you gain more power through this system.
Finally, Barbarians can assign their skills to different weapons, allowing for seamless transitions when using various skills. We MUST assign Hammer of the Ancients to our Two-Handed Bludgeoning weapon, but this is fine, as we will benefit from the 
Wallop passive skill. Lunging Strike can be assigned to any weapon type as well, as it isn’t our main source of damage. A small quality of life is to assign it to your Dual-Wield Weapons for their faster attacks, so you can build resources faster, but this is relatively minor. For Charge, we can assign this to our Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon as well to gain the same benefits as our Hammer.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
When selecting your items, higher item power generally indicates stronger gear, but you also need to consider the affixes and effects that are relevant to your class and build. When making gear decisions during leveling keep an eye on both the item power and the specific attributes that complement the build.
Legendary Aspects
For general information on how to unlock the Codex of Power, head to our Aspects and Codex of Power guide. You can also imprint Aspects onto items by visiting The Occultist in town.
Listed below are all the aspects that are important to this build, as well as what slot they are best placed in. However, you can move the slots around during the leveling process, especially since early on some of these aspects can only be found via random drops and might not be in the most ideal slot.
| Gear Slot | Legendary Aspect | Legendary Aspect Power |
|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Aspect of Might | Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds. |
| Chest | Juggernaut’s Aspect | Gain [X] Armor, but your Evade has 100% increased cooldown |
| Gloves |  Aspect of Ancestral Force (MUST HAVE!) Relentless Berserker’s Aspect (If Ancestral Force is on your Bludgeoning Weapon) | Hammer of the Ancients quakes outwards, and its damage is increased by [30-60%] Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skill has up to a [15-35%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 seconds. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike |
| Pants | Iron Blood Aspect | Gain [2-6%] Damage Reduction for each Nearby Bleeding enemy up to [10-30%] maximum. |
| Boots |  Ghostwalker Aspect | While Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after, you gain [10 – 30]% increased Movement Speed and are unhindered. |
| Amulets(50% bonus) | Edgemaster’s Aspect | Skills deal up to [5-25%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource |
| Ring |  Aspect of Vocalized Empowerment | Your Shout skills generate [5-12] Fury per second while active. |
| Ring | Aspect of Voracious Rage | Killing an enemy or hitting a Boss with a Core Skill refunds [15-35%] of its base cost. Can only happen once per Skill Cast. |
| Bludgeoning Weapon (100% bonus) | Aspect of Ancestral Force (MUST HAVE!)Aspect of the Expectant (If Ancestral Force is on your gloves) | Hammer of the Ancients quakes outwards, dealing [30-60]% of its damage to enemies. Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast within 5 seconds by [5-10%] up to 30% |
| Slashing Weapon (100% bonus) | Aspect of Berserk Ripping | Whenever you deal direct damage while Berserking, inflicts [15-35%] of the Base damage dealt as additional Bleeding damage over 5 seconds. |
| Dual-Wield Weapon 1 | Rapid Aspect | Basic Skills gain [15-30%] Attack Speed. |
| Dual-Wield Weapon 2 | Earthstriker’s Aspect | After swapping weapons 8 times, your next non-basic skill will Overpower and deal [15-35%] increased Overpower damage. |
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
During your leveling journey, you may stumble across items with incredible affixes. Tempering these items can provide you with a significant boost in power, so make sure you understand how tempering works!
As a reminder, tempering is only possible if you’ve found the tempering manuals while leveling.
Keep an eye out for the following stats that are beneficial for this build. We will list the most ideal stats and the best tempering affixes if you’re lucky enough to find the relevant manual.
| Gear Slot | Targeted Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | 1. Strength 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Maximum Life | Hammer of the Ancients size  Brute InnovationMaximum Life Worldly Endurance |
| Chest | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance | Hammer of the Ancients size Brute Innovation Maximum Life Worldly Endurance |
| Gloves | 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Ranks to Hammer of the Ancients | Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse Damage With Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons Arsenal Finesse |
| Pants | 1. Ranks of Charge 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life | Hammer of the Ancients size Brute Innovation Maximum Life Worldly Endurance |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Fury Per Second | Movement Speed Natural Motion Berserking Duration Berserking Innovation |
| Amulet | 1. Movement Speed 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Critical Strike Chance | Damage to Close Enemies Natural FinesseCharge cooldown reduction Barbarian Motion |
| Rings | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Fury on Kill | Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse Resource Generation Worldly Stability |
| 2-Handed Weapons | 1. DPS (Bludgeoning Weapon Only) 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life 4. Critical Strike Damage 5. Fury on Kill | Chance for Hammer of the Ancients to deal Double Damage Core Augments — Barbarian Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse |
| 1-Handed Weapons | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Fury on Kill | Chance for Hammer of the Ancients to deal Double Damage Core Augments — Barbarian Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse |
Gems and Runewords
Gems
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
- Weapon:
Topaz for Basic Skill Damage (before Level 40) 
Ruby for Overpower damage (after Level 40) - Armor:
Ruby for the increase to Strength. - Jewelry:
Diamond for the All Resistances.
Runes
While leveling (and only available with Vessel of Hatred), you may come across Runes, a unique gem that can be placed into an item with two sockets such as a helm, chest, pants, or two-handed weapon. Putting one Ritual Rune and one Invocation Rune into the same item creates a Runeword that can enhance your gameplay and grant powerful boons. Ritual Runes generate Offering when the conditions are met, and once enough Offering has been met, the associated Invocation Rune’s effect will trigger. Here are some early Rune suggestions for leveling.
| Rune Name | Rune Effect |
 Cir | Gain 30 Offering: Cast the same Non-Channeled Skill 3 times |
 Zan | Gain 150 Offering: Cast an Ultimate skill |
 Gar | Requires 25 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25% |
 Lum | Requires 5 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Restore 2.5% Primary Resource |
Season 10 Mechanics
Chaos Perks
Season 10 brings a new set of perks that change how to gear and play your character. In addition to the perks, there are also ‘Chaos Armor’ uniques that allow you to equip certain uniques in different slots. Let’s start with the perks that we’ll want for this build.
| Perk | Description |
 A Beast Cornered | For every 10% Life your are missing, you gain x20% increased damage and 5% Damage Reduction. Spending Resources also drains a percentage of your Life equal to 30% the Resources spent, refunding those resources. This cannot reduce you to below 10% Life |
 Marred Guard | You can no longer be healed above 50% Life. You gain 10% Maximum Resistance to All Elements, x20% Armor, and 100% increased Barrier and Fortify Generation. |
 Erupting Chaos | Chaotic Bursts randomly erupt around you, dealing 400% damage of your highest damage type. Your Chaotic Bursts additionally deal 100% of their initial damage over 4 seconds. |
 Accelerating Chaos | Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 10% chance to trigger a Chaotic Burst on the enemy dealing 400% damage. Your Chaotic Bursts that hit an enemy reduce a random active Cooldown by 0.5 seconds. |
Chaos Armor
The last new spin on Season 10 is Chaos Armor, which are uniques that drop in different slots than their normal slot, either as Helms, Boots, Gloves, Pants, or Chests. Unfortunately, these items cannot drop below level 60 and can’t be utilized while leveling. Please make sure to check out the Season 10 section of our Endgame guides for the ideal setups!
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
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
Normally, this build is very straightforward. We want to do the following:
- Build resources via Lunging Strike
- Move around with Charge
- Spam Hammer of the Ancients as much as possible
- Use our Shouts and Wrath of the Berserker as needed to kill tougher enemies
However, things get a bit more complex if you come across Earthstriker’s Aspect, which is recommended in our gear section above. This guarantees an Overpower that deals extra damage after swapping 8 times, allowing us to plan our huge Hammer of the Ancients. Once this aspect is acquired, make sure we’re assigning Lunging Strike to the Dual-Wield Weapons; Hammer of the Ancients can’t be assigned; it stays on the Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons, but we change our assignment for Charge to a two-handed slashing weapon so we get yet another weapon swap letting us reach this bonus faster for more efficient demon slaying.
Berserking
Berserking is a unique status effect for the Barbarian class. When it triggers, we will gain a damage multiplier and movement speed for a certain amount of time. We can increase the value of this damage buff through various skills, passives, and aspects, as well as through the paragon board once we move into the endgame. While leveling, we will be triggering this status pretty reliably through Battle Fervor whenever we hit something with Charge. We are also able to enter it on-demand through either War Cry or our ultimate Wrath of the Berserker. Lastly, we have a chance to enter it early on whenever we critically strike with Lunging Strike, thanks to Combat Lunging Strike. Our key passive, Unconstrained, provides us with a substantial buff to this status, so we will want to be in it as often as possible while fighting.
Which Elixir 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. We recommend using 
Elixir of Advantage for the attack speed or 
Elixir of Resourcefulness for the increased fury and cost reduction, but while leveling, any Elixir will do, as they all provide a 5% to 8% increase to your experience gains, making you level that much faster.
Return to the Alchemist again every 5 to 10 levels to upgrade your healing potion. The extra healing they provide will be essential to surviving as you advance.
Season 10 Updates
For a complete overview of Season 10, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes coming with the Season of Infernal Chaos, please check out our Season Hub!
Season 10 brings some new updates to the Barbarian. Below are the changes related to this build:
- Unconstrained now requires you to be not healthy (80%) instead of below 65% health
- Aspect of Ancestral Force damage increased from 5-25% to 30-60%
Difficulty & Endgame
Once you hit level 60 with this build, you will be ready to tackle harder difficulties as you transition into more challenging content. Make sure to pick one of our recommended Endgame Builds to continue the journey. Additionally, we recommend keeping your Obols until you reach maximum level (60), then spend them on a weapon to help kickstart your preferred endgame build.
Changelog
- September 17th 2025: Updated for Season 10
- June 23rd 2025: Updated for Season 9
- April 25th 2025: Reformatted and updated for Season 8
- March 31st 2025: Skill tree recommendations updated
- January 19th 2025: Tooltips and Seasonal section updated for Season 7
- January 16th 2025: Build updated for Season 7.
- 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 7th 2024: Guide restructured, updated for season 4, added early paragon boards.
- April 4th 2024: Ownership of page transferred, page restructured for improved readability, explanations, and options.
- February 6th 2024: Adjustments to build.
- January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
- October 23rd 2023: Revamped build for Season 2.
- October 13th 2023: Build adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
- September 16th 2023: Leveling Guide revamp.
