The Barbarian is widely considered to be the most versatile of all classes in Diablo 4.
While this can come down to the variety of weapons the class can wield, it also translates to a variety of playstyles that the Barbarian can indulge in. One of the more fun ways of playing this character is by focusing on a fan-favorite skill: Leap.
While the skill by itself isn’t a great damage dealer, when combined with Earthquake, Leap truly starts to shine. So the next question is, naturally, what does it take to make this build work?
A guide to the Leap Barbarian in Diablo 4
The Leap build provides extreme mobility with great area damage when combined with Earthquake. Commonly referred to as the Leap-Quake build, the Barbarian can maintain a high uptime on their Berserking status with high defenses as they jump across the map. Of all the fun builds that the Barbarian can run, the Leap build is in high contention with the Whirlwind build.
As the name suggests, this build revolves around the Barbarian’s Leap skill, an ability that allows them to clear large distances in one powerful jump. Upon landing, every enemy caught in the area of effect of the skill gets knocked off balance and away from the epicenter. The skill itself deals minor damage and is mostly used as a form of crowd control and mobility.
Like every skill, Leap has three upgrades, one mandatory and two optional ones. For the purpose of this build, this is what we will be choosing.
- Enhanced Leap: If Leap doesn’t damage any enemies, the skill’s cooldown is reduced.
- Mighty Leap: Enemies damaged by Leap are also slowed in addition to being knocked down.
Enhanced Leap is perfect for skipping enemies or backtracking because of its cooldown reduction capabilities. Maintaining a maximum uptime on Leap is vital for this build since it is your main skill. Upgrading that with Mighty Leap is a perfect choice for crowd control for both solo and party play, allowing you to set up for other skills.
Now, we take a look at the other skills we need to make this build work.
Leap Barbarian skill progression
Every build in Diablo 4 consists of six different skills. We combine skills from every tree to bring the most out of our Leap Barbarian.
- Leap: The main skill of this build.
- Lunging Strike: A Basic skill that allows the Barbarian to pounce on an enemy and deal damage to it. Generates Fury.
Since you know how Leap works, we move on to Lunging Strike. Having a Basic skill is usually considered to be a good idea in any build for any class because it generates your primary resource. In Barbarian’s case, we go for the Enhanced Lunging Strike upgrade, which grants you lifesteal, and the Combat Lunging Strike upgrade, which grants you the Berserking status.
- Ground Stomp: A powerful ground smash that stuns all enemies caught within its radius.
- Kick: Knock back all enemies in front of you with a powerful kick.
- War Cry: Release a powerful shout that increases your and your allies’ outgoing damage.
Ground Stomp is our crowd control skill of choice. Not only does it stun all enemies caught in its area of effect by three seconds but its upgrade, Enhanced Ground Stomp, also increases the stun duration to four seconds. Additionally, the next upgrade that we choose, Strategic Ground Stomp, reduces the cooldown of our Ultimate ability by one second for every enemy caught in the skill’s radius.
Kick is a perfect skill to maintain some distance between you and your enemies. Enemies that hit a wall or barrier are stunned and take bonus damage. Along with being stunned, Enhanced Kick also leaves enemies Vulnerable upon impact. We completely forego the knockback effect with Power Kick, but in exchange, the damage of Kick increases depending on the current Fury you have.
No Barbarian build is complete without a Shout skill and War Cry is perfect for this build. Not only does it increase your damage, but allies are affected for half the duration as well. Enhanced War Cry grants you a Berserking status along with a damage boost while Mighty War Cry grants you Fortify for 15 percent of your maximum life.
- Wrath of the Berserker: Knock back all enemies around you while gaining Berserking and Unstoppable statuses. Each time you deal damage with a Basic skill, your Berserking status duration increases further.
The final skill on this list is our Ultimate, Wrath of the Berserker. Perfect during a tight situation, this skill can be maintained at maximum uptime with Strategic Ground Stomp. Upgrade it with Prime Wrath of the Berserker for more movement speed and Fury Generation. Finally, Supreme Wrath of the Berserker increases your Berserking damage based on how much Fury was spent.
The next part of this guide tackles the best passive abilities for the Leap Barbarian.
Leap Barbarian passive choices
The passives for this build can be divided into the Key Passive and the secondary passives that support your active skills.
- Endless Fury: You gain increased Fury with your Basic skills wielding two-handed weapons.
- Imposing Presence: You gain an increase in your maximum life.
- Martial Vigor: You gain increased damage reduction against Elite enemies.
- Aggressive Resistance: You gain increased damage reduction while Berserking.
- Battle Fervor: You gain Berserking every time a Brawling skill damages an enemy.
- Prolific Fury: You gain increased Fury generation while Berserking.
- Pit Fighter: You deal increased damage to close enemies and take reduced damage from distant enemies.
- No Mercy: You gain an increased critical strike chance against crowd-controlled enemies.
- Thick Skin: You gain Fortify each time you take direct damage from enemies.
- Counteroffensive: You deal increased damage when your Fortify exceeds 50 percent of your maximum life.
- Heavy Handed: You deal increased critical strike damage by wielding two-handed weapons.
Finally, we choose the Key Passive ability that works as the backbone of this build.
- Unconstrained: Your Berserking status’ maximum duration is increased by five seconds while its damage bonus increases to 60 percent.
Since this build revolves around maintaining a Berserking status, Unconstrained is the best passive. Next, we pick up our best weapons from the Arsenal.
Leap Barbarian Arsenal choices
The Barbarian’s Arsenal system allows you to master different weapons and gain their bonuses. This unique class mechanic is unlocked at level five and grants you initial weapon mastery choices. As you level up, more choices become available to you, but we will be sticking to just one.
For the purpose of this build, we will be going for Two-handed Weapon masteries-Axes, in particular. Two-handed Axe mastery grants the Barbarian bonus damage against Vulnerable enemies while wielding a two-handed axe weapon.
Additionally, the bonus ability of the Two-handed Axe mastery grants you an increased critical strike chance against Vulnerable enemies. This helps with your damage output against all enemies as long as you can keep applying the Vulnerable status effect on them.
The final part of this build touches upon the Aspects needed to make the Leap-Quake build work.
Leap Barbarian Aspect options
These Aspects can be imbued onto weapons and armor to gain their effects in your build. First, we take a look at the two Aspects that are absolutely essential in this build.
- Aspect of Bul-Kathos: Leap creates an Earthquake upon landing. You gain increased damage reduction while standing in an Earthquake.
- Earthquake Aspect: Ground Stomp creates an Earthquake upon impact. You gain increased damage output while standing in an Earthquake.
These two Aspects make the Leap-Quake build function. The outgoing Earthquake on each of these spells ensures a steady output of consistent damage while crowd-controlling every enemy in the area so that they can’t move. To add to these Aspects, we pick up some supporting Aspects that synergize well with our other skills.
- Aspect of Berserk Ripping: You deal additional bleeding damage along with your base damage while you are Berserking.
- Aspect of Disobedience: You gain increased armor per attack every time you deal damage.
- Aspect of Giant Strides: You gain a cooldown reduction of up to nine seconds on Leap depending on how many enemies you damage with the skill.
- Aspect of Might: You gain damage reduction whenever you use a Basic skill.
- Aspect of Perpetual Stomping: You reset the cooldown of Leap whenever you damage an enemy with Kick or Ground Stomp.
- Brawler’s Aspect: You explode enemies that are damaged by Kick if you kill them within two seconds of the spell’s impact. The explosion deals area-of-effect damage to all enemies.
- Edgemaster’s Aspect: You deal increased damage with your skills depending on how much Fury you currently have. More Fury equals more damage.
- Rapid Aspect: You gain increased attack speed when you use a Basic skill.
Along with these Aspects, one piece of gear slots in perfectly with this build.
- Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty: When you gain the Berserking status while already Berserk, you have a chance to deal increased damage, gain more Fury per second, and increased cooldown reduction on all your skills.
That’s everything you need to know to run a successful Leap Barbarian build. Check out our Vampiric Powers guide to know the best skills to pick up on your Barbarian during season two.
