Upheaval – Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 9)

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

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

Quick Navigation

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

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.

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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 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 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	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 x35% increased damage, 6 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	Idol From Below	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	Elemental Brand	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	Scornful Light	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.

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 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

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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.

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.

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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 Emerald for increased Critical Strike Damage.	Grand Ruby for increased Strength	Horadric Jewel ORGrand 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% and your armor is at 1000. For more information on Horadric Jewels, see our Season 9 section below.

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 creating Runewords by combining two Runes 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
Gar	Requires 25 Offering; Cooldown 1 second, Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%
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.

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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!

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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 Upheaval)	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 8 seconds.
Arcana	Sapping Crux	Your Catalyst 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 skill to Upheaval

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, x6% 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 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.

Runeword Synergy

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

• Lith grants 25 Offering every 0.3 seconds we stand still fighting. We’ll need to get mobs grouped and stand still to cast Upheaval
• Gar requires 25 offering which means every 0.3 seconds when we trigger Lith, granting us 2.5% Critical Strike Chance up to 25% which will help our Upheaval’s crush our enemies
• Tam grants 25 Offering every time we cast a non-channeled Core skill such as our main skill Upheaval
• Wat requires 100 offering, meaning that every 4 non-channeled core skill casts we’ll trigger this rune and thus trigger the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify which will slow enemies, reduce the damage they deal, and allow us to execute them speeding up our clear speed.

Which Elixir Should You Use?

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.

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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:

• Flay damage over time increased from 48% to 115%
• Overpower now deals significantly less damage due to Overpower formula changes, no longer benefits from increased maximum life and fortify

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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 Guide HERE.

Changelog

• June 28th 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 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.