With the variety of options in the Barbarian’s arsenal in Diablo 4, many builds shine towards the endgame. However, in season two, one build stands above the rest—the Hammer of the Ancients build.
The power of this build stems from one skill, Hammer of the Ancients—or HotA—and subsequent skills that synergize well to bring the most out of the build itself.
Here’s our best endgame build for the Barbarian in Diablo 4’s season two.
A Guide to the Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian in Diablo 4
Regarding the endgame, no build outperforms as well as the Hammer of the Ancients (HotA) build in Diablo 4’s season two. The crux of this build lies in its main Core skill, Hammer of the Ancients, a popular skill that had a similar build in the early days of Diablo 3. Back in Diablo 4, the skill is more powerful than ever and this build picks up other elements to get the most out of Hammer of the Ancients.
HotA is a Core skill that deals damage in a small area. The damage dealt is 50 percent of the Barbarian’s total damage that affects every enemy caught in HotA’s area of effect. As is with any Core skill, the damage starts out low but quickly ramps up with levels and appropriate gear. With the right upgrades, this skill can outperform in the later stages of the game.
There are two optional upgrades and one mandatory upgrade for every non-ultimate skill. For the purposes of this build, these are the skill upgrades we need to choose for Hammer of the Ancients.
- Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients: The mandatory upgrade. You gain increased Fury for each enemy damaged by Hammer of the Ancients. This effect stacks up to 10 times.
- Furious Hammer of the Ancients: Our optional upgrade of choice. You deal additional damage with Hammer of the Ancients depending on how much Fury you have when you cast the spell.
Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients will grant you more Fury with your generator skill or amplify any other sources of Fury generation you have when you cast the skill. Spamming it more often will improve the Fury generation, going from a three percent increase up to 30 percent.
Furious Hammer of the Ancients is your endgame damage amplification for the skill. Maintaining a high Fury pool translates to even more damage from your skill. With enough Fury generation, you should be pumping out high amounts of damage with HotA.
HotA Barbarian skill progression
Now that we know how Hammer of the Ancients works, we pick five other skills that synergize with this ability.
- Lunging Strike: Our Basic skill of choice. Leaps onto the enemy, dealing a percent of the Barbarian’s base damage. Generates Fury per attack.
- Hammer of the Ancients: The Core skill that makes this build work.
Lunging Strike is the perfect generator skill to have in this build. Not only does it deal decent damage for a Basic skill, but it also closes the gap between you and your enemy, bringing you close to them to spam Hammer of the Ancients. Upgrade the skill with Enhanced Lunging Strike for increased damage and healing and Combat Lunging Strike to keep up your Berserking status.
Next, for this build, we pick up the trifecta of Shout skills.
- Rallying Cry: A Shout skill that increases movement speed and resource generation. Affects allies for half the duration.
- War Cry: A Shout skill that increases damage. Affects allies for half the duration.
- Challenging Shout: A Shout skill that taunts all nearby enemies to attack the casting Barbarian.
No Barbarian build is complete without their Shout skills, and this one uses all three. Rallying Cry increases your movement speed and Fury generation, making it great for an offensive rush with HotA. Enhanced Rallying Cry also makes you Unstoppable, improving your mobility. Tactical Rallying Cry lets you recover Fury while increasing your Fury generation even further.
War Cry is another offensive Shout that grants you a flat damage boost. Use War Cry in conjunction with Rallying Cry to get the most out of both skills in an offensive assault with HotA. Upgrade it with Enhanced War Cry to gain Berserking followed by Power War Cry to grant you even more bonus damage when you’re surrounded by six or more enemies.
Challenging Shout is the final one of the three Shout skills and it is a great crowd control skill. Since every enemy around you will attack you, pick up Enhanced Challenging Shout for a bonus in your maximum life to survive the assault. Finally, finish up with Tactical Challenging Shout to also gain Fury each time you are attacked by an enemy.
Note that every Shout skill works for half the duration on your allies, making them perfect in party play.
To fill out this build, we pick up an Ultimate skill.
- Wrath of the Berserker: You knock back all enemies around you, gaining Unstoppable and Berserking. Every time you deal damage with a Basic skill, you extend your Berserking duration.
Wrath of the Berserker is perfect, granting you Berserking and Unstoppable to make the most of your HotA casts. Upgrading the skill with Prime Wrath of the Berserker will grant you similar effects to Rallying Cry. Finally, Supreme Wrath of the Berserker will increase the damage you deal while Berserking depending on how much Fury you spend.
HotA Barbarian passive choices
The passives for this build can be divided into the Key Passive and the secondary passives that support your active skills.
- Imposing Presence: You gain an increase in your maximum life.
- Martial Vigor: You gain increased damage reduction against Elite enemies.
- Booming Voice: You gain increased duration on all of your Shout skills.
- Guttural Yell: You reduce enemies’ outgoing damage when you cast a Shout skill.
- Raid Leader: You heal yourself and your allies when you cast a Shout skill.
- Swiftness: You gain an increase in your movement speed.
- Aggressive Resistance: You gain increased damage reduction while Berserking.
- 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.
- 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.
- Brute Force: You deal increased damage with Overpowers while using two-handed weapons.
- Wallop: You deal increased damage to Vulnerable enemies while using skills that utilize Bludgeoning weapons.
Finally, we choose the Key Passive ability that works as the backbone of this build.
- Unbridled Rage: Your Core skills deal bonus damage for double the Fury costs.
HotA Barbarian Arsenal choices
The Barbarian’s Arsenal system is a unique class mechanic that is unlocked at level five and grants you initial weapon mastery choices. As you level up, you master different weapons and gain their bonuses. This build utilizes two weapon expertise options.
- 2H Mace Expertise: You deal increased critical strike damage to enemies that are either stunned or Vulnerable. This bonus applies when you are Berserking.
- 2H Axe Expertise: You deal increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. You also have an increased critical strike chance when you attack Vulnerable enemies.
Since Hammer of the Ancients utilizes a Bludgeoning weapon, both Mace Expertise and Axe Expertise work really well depending on which two-handed weapon you choose to wield.
HotA Barbarian Aspect options
The final part of this build talks about the Aspects needed to make your HotA Barbarian really shine. First, we tackle the most important Aspect that is essential to have in this build.
- Aspect of Ancestral Force: Your Hammer of the Ancient damage spreads outwards upon impact, dealing bonus damage.
The larger AoE and bonus damage from Ancestral Force adds to your endgame DPS. Next, we pick up some supporting Aspects that work well with the 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 Echoing Fury: You gain additional Fury when you cast a Shout skill.
- Aspect of the Expectant: Your Core skill deals bonus damage if you cast it after a Basic skill.
- Aspect of Might: You gain damage reduction whenever you use a Basic skill.
- Aspect of Limitless Rage: Your Core skill gains bonus damage depending on how much extra Fury you generate when you are already at your maximum Fury limit.
- Bold Chieftain’s Aspect: You gain cooldown reduction on your Shout skills when you cast one while surrounded by enemies. The cooldown reduction caps at six seconds.
- 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, two pieces of gear work 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.
- Banished Lord’s Talisman: Your next Core skill cast will be guaranteed to Overpower after you consume 300 Fury. Additionally, if your Overpower attack lands a critical strike, you will deal bonus damage.
