Leap Quake – Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 9)

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

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

Quick Navigation

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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.

Barbarian Class Mechanic – The Arsenal System

The Barbarian can wield four weapons simultaneously as well as choose a weapon expertise to use as their Technique allowing them to gain that weapon’s bonus even if they’re wielding another weapon type. Finally, the Barbarian can assign its skills to use different weapon types shuffling between Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons, Two-Handed Slashing Weapons, and Dual-Wield Weapons.

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.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

The following sections will cover all systems that are critical if you want to improve the power of your character and move towards the highest difficulties in the endgame of Diablo 4.

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 of Power once you salvage or extract the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons though they will always be at the minimum power level. To get the most out of this system, combine these Aspects with the right stats.

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	Executioner’s Aspect	– Your Overpowers will spawn an earthquake every 4 seconds that deals [X] Physical damage (We do not care about this part of the aspect) Your Earthquake damage is increased by 5% for every 100 Strength you have up to 100%
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	Idol From Below	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	Elemental Brand	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	Scornful Light	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 Incendiary Fissures	– Your Earthquakes deal x[40-60%] increased damage and their damage is converted into Fire
Dual Wield Weapon 1	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 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.

To see how this build compares to others on our site, you can check out our Endgame Builds Tier List.

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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. Be sure to check our Tempering guide and Masterworking guides 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

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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.

Uniques

• 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.

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Gems and Runewords

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

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Skull for increased life on kill	Grand Ruby for increased Strength	Horadric Jewels ORGrand 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% and your armor is at 1000. For more information about the Horadric Jewels, check out our seasonal section below.

Runes

Runewords returned 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 50 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Evoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within

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Paragon Board

We recommend using the following Legendary nodes and Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 100 version. Note that glyph’s reach their maximum radius and legendary bonuses at level 46. Let’s take a look!

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Horadric Spell (Season 9)

Season 9 brings a new complex mechanic that modifies your skills by attaching an ancient Horadric Catalyst to one of them, which you can then modify further with spells and infusions, causing some very potent combos. For this build, we recommend the following setup:

Type	Power	Description
Catalyst	Celestial Surge (pair with Leap)	Awaken an Oracular Rune that pulls in all surrounding enemies. A torrent of stars follow that randomly strike the area 20 times for 1288% damage each. At Rank 10+: Stars periodically fall around you and are guaranteed to crash around a nearby enemy for the same damage
Infusion	Smoldering Ember	Your Catalyst now deals Fire and/or Burning damage. It destroys enemy structures and has a 10% chance to ignite the ground beneath enemies dealing 1215% burning damage over 5 seconds. While equipped, your Fire Damage Bonus is equal to that of your highest damage type bonus. Rank 5+: Deactivates monster Chilling Winds effects for 5 seconds.
Arcana	Sapping Crux	Your Catalyst now applies Vulnerable for 8 seconds
Arcana	Fractured Core	Your Catalyst deactivates monster damage resistance aura effects for 5 seconds, but you take 15% more damage for the same duration
Arcana	Bloody Charm	Your Catalyst gains a specialized Execute effect for Non-Boss enemies with 20% or less life. Bloody Charm creates the following effect: (Celestial Surge): The Moon’s impact executes non-boss enemies with 20% or less life. Successful Executions reduce your cooldowns by 2 seconds

Assign your Catalyst to Leap

Horadric Jewels

Additionally, Season 9 brings back new special gems for your Amulets and Rings called Horadric Jewels. We recommend the following gems for this build:

• Idol From Below – You gain x6% Primary Stat, x8% Maximum Life, and are always Unhindered. However, you will be hunted in Sanctuary’s darkest places by Jewel Guardians who were entombed to protect this relic
• Elemental Brand – Your Catalytic Skill deals 33% damage of your Infusion’s element over 3 seconds. Lucky Hit: Dealing damage of your Infusion’s element has up to a 33% chance to trigger its secondary effects.
• Scornful Light – You deal x20% and take x10% more Elemental Damage.

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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

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Build Mechanics

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.

Runeword Synergy

Let’s take a moment to review our runes and how they interact with this build.

• Yul grants 50 offering whenever you cast a skill with a Cooldown, this is great for us as this triggers from Leap and any Shout we cast.
• Yom requires 500 offering, so when paired with Yul we need 10 Cooldown casts. This sounds daunting but for our frequent leaping this should be a cakewalk to trigger and we get the Druid’s Petrify to stun enemies and generates some resource.
• Lith grants us 25 offering every 0.3 seconds we stand still while fighting. A fun synergy is that leaping in place still counts for this.
• Tec requires 50 offering to trigger which means we only have to stand still for 0.6 seconds to trigger the earthquake giving us another avenue to trigger the quake part of “leapquake” Barbarian.

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. Use Elixir of Precision for the increased Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage.

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

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Season 9 Updates

For a comprehensive look at what’s new in Season 9, please check out our Season Hub.

Here is a quick list of the changes this season that are relevant to this build:

• Leap now slows enemies by 70% rather than knocking them back
• Mighty Leap now deals 40%x more damage and enemies are now knocked back rather than slowed
• Executioner’s Aspect damage reduced from 200% to 100%
• Rumble reduced from 35.1% to 30.1%
• Heavy Hitter damage reduced from 15% per rank to 10% rank
• Vehement Augments can no longer add ranks of Heavy Hitter now adds Wallop instead
• Force of Nature now causes earthquakes to deal 45%x increased damage and have a 75% chance to spawn dust devils every second that deal 180% weapon damage rather than scaling with damage VS close enemies

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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. 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 Guide HERE.

Changelog

• June 28th 2025: Updated for Season 9
• April 25th 2025: Reformatted and updated for Season 8
• March 31st 2025: Updated skill tree recommendations
• January 19th 2025: Tooltips and Seasonal section updated for Season 7
• January 15th 2025: Build updated for Season 7
• 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.