Barbarian Endgame Post Patch (Level 90+) HOTA Build in Diablo 4

Diablo 4 gives you five classes to pick from and it seems like the Barbarians are one of the best for the Endgame. Every class has its strength and weaknesses, which in the long run matter a lot since it takes only a second to die in high-tier dungeons.

There is no room for error and if you are willing to farm ultra-rare Uniques, you must run dungeons above Tier 31. Survivability is a must and perhaps the key focus when you run Dungeons above Tier 50.

Today we are going to discuss a build that could actually be pretty fun to play even against enemies that are level 100. The Hammer of the Ancients is my favorite Barbarian Core Skill and it feels extremely satisfying when I cast it.

When you normally get enemies above 90, the fun side of the game dies out as you constantly need to keep an eye on your health. Even the tankiest of builds might fall to an Empowered Elite that is capable of stunning you for 3-4 seconds.

Barbarian Endgame Post Patch (Level 90+) HOTA Build in Diablo 4

If we talk about Barbarians of the Diablo 4 community, the majority of them would be running Whirlwinds. For me, the “Spin to Win” build is quite braindead but very effective at higher levels.

However,  if you consider anything fun I would always recommend the Hammer of the Ancients. It certainly is a little more challenging but worth it for sure. After experimenting with every build and spending millions of coins in the process, I can conclude that nothing tops the Hammer of the Ancients. Here is one of the best HOTA builds for the Barbarians that I can think of.

Skills You Need:

Skills	Reason for Use
Lunging Strike (Rank 1)| Enhanced | Combat	We are using this as a Fury generator and a damage booster for our Cor Skill. The Combat Lunging strike gives us Beserk for 1.5 secs on Critical Hits and that makes you Unstoppable for a short while with a decent Damage boost.
Hammer of the Ancients (Rank 5) | Enhanced | Furious	The Core Skill with the most Damage. The Furious version lets you deal 1% more damage for each point of Fury we have. So if we are casting it while having 100 Fury, we deal 100% more damage.
Rallying Cry (Rank 1) |Enhanced| Tactical	Fury Generator
War Cry (Rank 1) | Enhanced| Power	Damage and Movement boost through Beserking.
Leap(Rank 1)| Enhanced| Power	Combat Starter with Fury Generation.
Kick (Rank 1) | Enhanced| Mighty	To make enemies Vulnerable for 4 seconds and to move Elites away from the Mob

Passives You Need:

Passives	Reason for Use
Booming Voice ( Rank 3) | Gutteral Yell (Rank 2)	Our shouts will last longer and give us damage reduction
Swiftness(Rank 1) | Quick Impulses (Rank 3)	Movement speed increases and Control Impaired duration is reduced. Most of the time we die while being Control Impaired. We are trying to reduce that so that we can survive longer.
Pit Fighter(Rank 2) |  No Mercy (Rank 3)	Damage reduction against distant enemies and increased damage to Close enemies. While No Mercy grants us increased Critical Strike Chance against Stunned enemies. Kick Stuns enemies and so does HOTA. Therefore it is a pretty useful passive to get Crits.
Thick Skin (Rank 1)	Gives us a small amount of Fortify
Heavy Handed (Rank 3) | Wallop (Rank 3) | Concussion (Rank 3)	Heavy Handed gives increased Critical Strike Damage with Two Handed Weapons while Wallop gives us more damage to Vulnerable or Stunned enemies. Concussion gives you a good chance of stunning enemies when hitting them with a Two-Handed Bludgeoning weapon which is basically HOTA.
Tempered Fury (Rank 1)| Invigorating Fury (Rank 2) | Furious Impulse (Rank 3)	Tempered Fury increases our maximum Fury. Invigorating Fury heals us by 6% for every 100 Fury we spend while Furious Impulse gives us 6 Fury every time we swap weapons. Since our build will be mostly based on swapping weapons, we keep gaining Fury each time we do so.
Unbridled Rage	Core Skills will deal 135% more damage but at the cost of 100% more Fury. So our HOTA will now consume 70 Fury instead of 35. After level 85, it becomes extremely difficult to cope with enemies with regular Core Skill damage. This damage boost is required to take down Empowered Elites easily.

Paragon Board Guide:

The Paragon board is very simple to understand. Once you know what your build is about, you can easily do a Paragon Build. I have done a 4 board build at the moment.

Boards and Glyphs you need to add:

• Basic board with Wrath Glyph. This increases the Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills and skill that are Critically Stike gives us 3 Fury.

• Warbinger board with Mortal Draw Glyph.  Increase damage with Skills that switch to new weapons. Also gives you an 18% Critical Chance with skills that swap to new weapons. We basically do a Basic skill followed by a Core Skill. This increases our damage as well as Critical Chance when we switch. Also, make sure you get the Warbinger Legendary Node that grants you 12% of Max Life as Fortify for every 75 Fury spent. To prevent yourself from getting Fury starved, take the Rare node called Hungering Fury that grants you 2 Fury per kill and 2 Magic nodes that give you 1 Fury per kill each. So every time you kill an enemy, you get back 4 Fury.

• Decimator board with Exploit Glyph that increases Vulnerable Damage and makes all damaged enemies Vulnerable for 3 seconds. We need to take the Rare nodes, Pilage (for more Vulnerable Damage and Armor), and Demolish (more Vulnerable Damage and Strength). Here is how the board should look

• The next board we attach would be Weapon Master and we put the Imbiber Glyph into it which increases our overall Damage when Healthy. Now I can assure you that you would start a fight as healthy and that is why you need to do maximum damage when you have all your shouts active. This is why Imbiber is very important. The Rare Node that you must go for is the Hunter Killer which gives you additional damage to Elites. The Empowered Elites are worse than bosses and the extra damage on them could really help.

As you do the Paragon board make sure you focus more on pathways that have more Strength nodes. Barbarians are all about Strength and that is how you increase your Core Skill Damage. Physical Damage will also work as all of Barbarian’s attacks are Physical.

For the next Paragon board that you attach, use the Flawless Technique board with the Territorial Glyph that boosts your damage to Close enemies and also gives you Damage Reduction from Close Enemies.

Make sure all your Glyphs are Levelled up to 15 or higher for maximum benefit.

Key Stat Focus for Gear:

This build will basically depend on Vulnerable and Critical Damage. So here are the stats we should focus on our gear. Strength is the most important Stat for Barbarians. So make sure every gear has some stats dedicated to only Strength.

Gear	What You Need
Helmet	Always look for Cooldown Reduction (13.5% or above at max level. 8.8% or above at initial level).
Armor	Look for Max Life, Total Armor, and Control Impaired Duration Reduction.
Boots	Look for Movement Speed (at least 18% or more at max level) and Resistance
Gloves	Hammer of Ancients 4 Skill Points, Critical Chance (above 6% at max level)
Pants	You need to have either Kick or Leap skill points or both. Also Damage Reduction from Close and Distant enemies.
One-handed Weapons	Vulnerable Damage, Stunned Damage, Core Skill Damage, Damage to Healthy Enemies, and Critical Damage
Two-Handed Weapons	Vulnerable Damage, Stunned Damage, Core Skill Damage, Damage to Healthy Enemies, Damage to Close Enemies, and most importantly Critical Damage
Amulet	Cooldown Reduction, Heavy Handed Passive Skill points, also Movement Speed if possible.
Rings	Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Resistances, and Vulnerable Damage.

All Aspects that You Need:

Builds are only complete with the right Aspects. Here are the ones you need for this build.

Gear	Aspect
Helmet	Aspect of Tempering Blows (After 6 weapon swaps you gain xxx as Fortify)
Armor	Aspect of Disobedience (You gain xx % Armor for 4 secs stacking up to xx %.)
Boots	Aspect of Perpetual Stomping (Leap’s Cooldown is Reset when you damage an enemy with Kick or Ground Stomp). This lets you use Leap again for extra Fury generation if you hit less than 2 enemies when you cast Leap.  You have 2 charges for Kick, so you get a double reset on Leap.
Gloves	Aspect of Limitless Rage (Each point of Fury you Generate after Max Fury increases Core Skill Damage by x % up to xx %)
Pants	Aspect of Bul-Kathos (Leap Creates an Earthquake that deals xxxx Physical Damage over 4 secs and you gain xx % increased Damage Reduction while standing on the Earthquake)
One-handed Weapon 1	Aspect of the Expectant (Attacking with Basic Skill increases next Core Skill Cast Damage by x % up to xx% )
One-handed Weapon 2	Edgemaster’s Aspect ( Skills do xx % increased damage based on Primary resources. Maximum benefit with full resource)
Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	Aspect of Ancestral Force (Hammer of Ancients Quake outwards dealing xx% of its damage to Enemies.) You need to look for one that gives 96% damage.
Two-Handed Slashing Weapon	Accelerating Aspect (Critical Strikes with Core Skills increases Attack Speed by xx %) You need to look for either 40-50%. This lets you spam HOTA really fast along with Basic Skill.
Ring 1	Aspect of Giant Strides (Reduces Leap’s Cooldown by 3 seconds per enemy hit up to 9 seconds. ) If you hit 3 enemies you get almost a 1-3 sec overall cooldown on your Leap after the reduction. This lets you spam the skill for extra Fury.
Ring 2	Bold Chieftan’s Aspect (Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, the cooldown is reduced by 1.7 seconds per Nearby enemy up to a maximum of 6 seconds) This lets you cast Shouts more often.
Amulet	Aspect of the Protector (When you Damage an Elite, you receive a Barrier that absorbs xxxx damage for 10 seconds. Happens once every 30 seconds.)

Gems that You Need:

Always look for Items with double sockets for extra benefit.

Gear	What You Need
Helmet	Royal Ruby and Royal Topaz
Armor	Royal Ruby and Royal Topaz
Boots	Royal Ruby and Royal Topaz
Gloves	Royal Ruby and Royal Topaz
Pants	Royal Ruby and Royal Topaz
One-handed Weapons	Royal Emerald
Two-Handed Weapons	Royal Emerald x 2 for each
Amulet	Royal Skull
Rings	Royal Skull

Build Gameplan:

This build will literally help you spam Leap along with Earthquake with minimum possible Cooldown, as an endless Fury Generator to cast as much HOTA as possible.

• The Exploit Glyph is a must-have for this Build. This allows you to make all the enemies you damage instantly Vulnerable.
• We are using the Aspect of Bull-Kathos to generate Earthquake with Leap that stays for 4 seconds dealing damage to enemies. We also have a damage reduction bonus while we stand over the quake. Enemies that walk over it also become Vulnerable.
• We use our Shouts as we come near an enemy group. This gives us some Fury instantly because of Rallying Cry.
• Now We Leap and then cast Hammer of the Ancients after a Basic Skill cast just for the extra damage. This will clear out the group almost instantly. Remember to always cast a HOTA after a Basic Skill to get more damage.
• If there are Elites we Kick and push him away from the group. Then we Leap on the Elite separately while he is Vulnerable and smash him with the Hammer. Elites are the strongest when they are within the group. They have the ability to Stun or Freeze you for good and you won’t be able to escape quickly from that area as the enemies will block your path.
• We can again Kick an enemy again as this will reset the cooldown for Leap and we can do it all over again.
• Leap also helps you move away from a group if you feel the need to retreat and run around for your Shouts to become available again.

This build allows me to one-shot Elites and Bosses at level 100 and gives me tons of Critical hits. My damage goes up to 9 million at times and I am just level 89 Barb at the moment.

My Gear is not completely optimized yet and I am sure I will reach over 15m if it had been. By the time I get to Level 100, this build might be doing 40-50 million damage easily.

Barbarians are a great Class for Endgame. They are tanky and can generate enough damage to help you fight endless hordes of enemies. However, the fact that you always need to be close to an enemy could be one of the downsides of the class. Especially a Fire Elite that constantly emits Fire.

This is where your Kick and Leap comes in handy. When you feel the Elite is going to get the better of you just drink a Potion and Kick him out of your screen.  It is so satisfying to watch them fly across to the other side Stunned and Vulnerable just for you to finish him off with Style.

You need to have a strategy for every situation. That comes with experience as you keep grinding higher tiers.

As of now, I am killing enemies almost 15-20 levels higher than me with ease. And the best part about this build is the fact that you can have fun. A three-shout build is good but is certainly boring. This build is something new and people can enjoy grinding high-tier Nightmare Dungeons while having fun doing so.

---

I hope the guide was helpful. Please let us know in the comments below. Also, follow FPS Index for more guides on Diablo 4.