Overpower Berserk HotA Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 3)

Build Introduction

Welcome to the comprehensive guide for Overpower-Berserk Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian at endgame, utilizing insane overpowers and powerful slams to annihilate anything in your way. Bosses? No problem. Nightmare Dungeons? Easy. Vaults? Those constructs won’t even know what hit them. We will walk you through everything you will need to smash, land big critical hits, and fill your screen with big numbers as every demon, construct, boss, or whatever else lies in front of you explodes into paste. With that in mind, let’s dive in.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Strong AoE Damage Style
Huge damage numbers
Decent Opportunity To Stun Enemies
Tons of Unstoppable uptime for escaping CC

Weaknesses

Middle-of-the-pack defensive layers
Cooldown Management
Positional Gameplay
Getting the biggest numbers requires some endgame uniques

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Season of the Construct

Season 3 Patch Updates

The following list details all changes of Season 3 that may pertain to Barbarians.

Passives

Weapon Expertise
- Expertise leveling has been cut by 50%.

Aspects

Aspect of Limitless Rage
- Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Uniques

Ring of Red Furor
- Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Seneschal Construct Companion Powers

The Season 3 theme introduces a Seneschal Construct Companion that can deal damage or provide support to complement your character. Equip the Seneschal with two Governing Stones to activate their abilities, and then link them to three Tuning Stones each to augment the abilities. There are 12 different Governing Stones and 27 different Tuning Stones that can be found in Vaults scattered across Sanctuary. Fuse together duplicate stones to level them up, increasing the potency of Governing Stones or adding augments to Tuning Stones.

Listed below are the general recommended Governing Stones and their linked Tuning Stones for Barbarians, ranked by importance.

Tempest: Electrically charge an enemy causing it to deal damage to themselves and 1 additional enemy each second over 5 seconds. If the enemy is killed, Tempest spreads to another enemy gaining 2 additional seconds and 20%[x] bonus damage. These bonuses are also applied if Tempest is reapplied onto the same enemy.
- Evernight: The supported Skill grants you +4 to all Skills when used for 2.0 seconds.
- Resource Support: Player gains an amount of Primary Resource when the supporting Skill first deals damage.
- Efficiency Support: When the supporting skill deals damage, you gain Critical Strike Chance to the same targets hit.
- Swift Support: The supported Skill gains 40% Attack Speed bonus.
Flash of Adrenaline: Administers a quick flash of adrenaline into the player, granting bonus damage for a duration.
- Genesis: Increase the effectiveness of the supported Skill by 150%.
- Safeguard Support: When used, the supported Skill grants Damage Reduction to you.
- Tactical Support: Decrease the cooldown of the supported Skill.
- Duration Support: Supported Skills have their durations increased.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 58 point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Priority Skills	Cluster
Lunging Strike Enhanced Lunging Strike	Basic Skill
Hammer of the Ancients Level 5, Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients, Furious Hammer of the Ancients	Core Skill
Rallying Cry Level 1, Enhanced Rallying Cry, Tactical Rallying Cry, Imposing Presence Level 3, Martial Vigor Level 3	Defensive Skill
Charge, Enhanced Charge, Power Charge, Aggressive Resistance Level 1, Prolific Fury Level 3, Battle Fervor Level 3	Brawling Skill
Pit Fighter Level 3, Thick Skin Level 1, Counteroffensive Level 3	Weapon Mastery Skill
Wrath of the Berserker, Prime Wrath of the Berserker, Supreme Wrath of the Berserker Heavy Handed Level 3, Wallop Level 3, Brute Force Level 3	Ultimate Skill
Unbridled Rage	Key Passives

Weapon Expertise – The Barbarian Specialization

Weapon Expertise is a set of benefits tied to which weapons you use as a Barbarian. To unlock your Expertise, simply hit Level 5 and the tab below will be made available. Using a certain weapon type, you will start gaining ranks with that weapon type as you fight with it. The ranks are from 0 to 10 and will level up moderately quickly as your character gains experience. Once your expertise hit rank 10, you will be maxed out on the benefit for using that weapon with your skills.

As a reminder, you can use the Barbarian’s Arsenal System to assign specific weapons to specific attacks by bringing up the skill selection assignment (default key S while hovering over your skill bar) and using the middle mouse button to assign the weapon to each attack.

At Level 15, you will unlock the Masters of Battle quest. This quest will be available in the township of ‘Ked Bardu’ from the Forgemaster Gerti. Upon completing this quest you will unlock the Technique slots as seen below. This will offer you an additional permanent bonus from one of the weapons regardless of whether you have it equipped to a skill or not.

For this Hammer of the Ancients build, we will be using 2-Handed Axe expertise for its bonus to Vulnerable damage.

Weapon Selection

Barbarians have a unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. This is a critical component for all builds to function properly, and failure to match your weapon to the proper skill may cause the build to perform poorly. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills:

Lunging Strike – Dual Wield
Hammer of the Ancients – Bludgeoning
Charge – Bludgeoning

Paragon

We recommend using these Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version.

Rare Node	Effect
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [3.85%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: When an enemy is damaged by you, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy.
Dominate	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal +[39.45%] increased Overpower damage – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Willpower, after not Overpowering for 30 seconds, your next attack will Overpower
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal +[5.3%] increased damage while Berserking. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: While Berserking, you take 10% reduced damage from Elites.
Crusher	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal +[5.3%] increased damage while wielding a Mace – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: While wielding a mace you deal x30% increased Overpower damage.
Marshal	– Grants +[125%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: After casting a shout skill, the active Cooldown of every non-Shout skill is reduced by 4 seconds.

Let’s break down each of these beneficial nodes and where our Paragon Points are positioned in each of the Paragon Boards we use. This part of the build is presented in order of importance. If you do not have enough Paragon Points for use in your Paragon Tree, just slowly work towards each step.

Starting Board

Warbringer

Carnage

The next paragon board will be attached to the northern section of Carnage.

Blood Rage

Decimator

We will be attaching Decimator to the eastern side of the Carnage board.

Bone Breaker

We will be attaching Bone Breaker’s board to the eastern side of the Blood Rage board.

Weapons Master

We will be attaching this last board to the southern end of the Carnage board.

To view the paragon board in its entirety CLICK HERE.

Mechanics and Playstyle

This build uses Charge to engage a group of mobs and then smashing with Hammer of the Ancients will generate Fury and trigger Berserking through the passive Battle Fervor. From here, we can use our Rallying Cry to increase our Fury Generation and Movement Speed to begin to loop around the group of enemies and strike them with Hammer of the Ancients decimating anything around you. Keep your Wrath of the Berserker at the ready for any elite mobs or bosses you may come across for the increase in damage.

Berserking

Berserking in this build is easy to keep up at all times. Between using Charge in conjunction with Battle Fervor, you should be able to constantly stay in this state and benefit from the increases in Fury Generation, Damage, and Movement Speed. Remember, you can use Wrath of the Berserker to keep yourself in Berserking as well.

Defensive Aspects

Our main defensive aspect is the ubiquitous Juggernaut’s Aspect which should provide more than enough armor to reach the armor cap thresholds necessary for avoiding most physical damage we will be taking. When paired with Aggressive Resistance due to our constant state of Berserking we will find ourselves pretty handily enduring whatever the hordes can throw at us. Barbarians also have plenty of ways to become Fortified which will add yet another defensive layer. Lastly, we will want to cap all of our resistances with various gems in our rings and amulets and stats on our gear to ensure we hit the soft cap of 70% in every resistance.

Gear Choice and Stat Priority

As you begin to farm in World Tier 3 and 4, Rare and Legendary item drops will begin to appear with some regularity, depending on your luck. We recommend saving the targeted Legendary items that have the needed Legendary aspects listed below. We also recommended to keep multiple copies of the build’s Aspects in your Stash for future upgrades.

As for the Rare items, you will need to inspect each one for targeted affixes for use in each specific slot and do your best to match the recommended rolls. We have listed our targeted affixes in order of importance. Check the chart below and make note of what affixes you are searching for when you see a Rare gear piece drop.

Season 2 Update (1.2.0): Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage affixes are changed to be additive with other damage increases. All additive damage increases of the same amount are equal in value, as long as their conditions are active.

Gear Slot	Targeted Affixes
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Total Armor 3. Needed Resistances 4. Maximum Life
Chest	1. Total Armor 2. Damage Reduction 3. Damage Reduction while Fortified 4. Maximum Life 5. Damage Reduction from Bleeding Enemies
Gloves	1. Ranks of Hammer of the Ancients 3. Attack Speed 4. Strength 5. Critical Strike Chance
Pants	1. Total Armor 2. Damage Reduction while Fortified 3. Damage Reduction 4. Maximum Life 5. Damage Reduction while Injured
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Needed Resistances 3. Damage Reduction while Injured 4. Berserk Duration
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Ranks of Counteroffensive 3. Total Armor 4. Fury Cost Reduction
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Maximum Fury 3. Damage While Berserking 4. Resource Generation
Weapons	1. Strength 2. Damage While Berserking 3. Overpower Damage 4. All Stats

Please note that these Affixes are the recommended picks. Other Affixes could certainly work instead of the ones listed above, but may not be optimal.

A final point on acquiring the right Affixes and Legendary Aspects, use your Obols to target farm them. Obols are awarded from many different activities in the game, you will always stockpiling them until you hit your maximum. Instead of just randomly spending them on a random pick, use them to target what you might be missing from this build. It is a great way to target a specific slot of loot and find what you need.

If you are interested in checking out a tool for gambling Obols check out this link below from Icy Veins.

Obol Gambling Optimization Tool

Legendary Aspects & Uniques

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for the Berserk HotA build. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used if you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower level Legendary items and imprint them onto better Rare items with preferred stats. The endgame itemization goal will be to imprint Aspects with the best values Ancestral Rare items with Item Power above or as close to 800, then upgrade them through the Blacksmith. Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the slot it was posted with.

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect	Legendary Aspect Power
Helm	Godslayer Crown OR Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty
Chest	Juggernaut’s Aspect	Gain [X] Armor, but your Evade has 100% increased Cooldown.
Gloves	Aspect of Ancestral Force	Hammer of the Ancients quakes outward and its damage is increased by [5-15%]
Pants	Tibault’s Will
Boots	Relentless Berserker’s Aspect	Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skill has up to a [22-40%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 second. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike.
Amulets (50% bonus)	Banished Lord’s Talisman
Ring	Ring of Red Furor
Ring	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [1.0-1.9] seconds per Nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
Bludgeoning Weapon (200% bonus)	Aspect of Limitless Rage	Each point of Fury you generate while at Maximum Fury grants your next Core Skill within 5 seconds deals [1-2%] increased damage, up to [15-30%].
Slashing Weapon (200% bonus)	Edgemaster’s Aspect	Skills deal up to [10- 20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.
Dual-wield weapon 1	Earthstriker’s Aspect	After swapping weapons 8 times, your next Skill will Overpower and deal [30-50%] increased Overpower damage.
Dual-wield weapon 2	Aspect of Elements	Gain + [20-30%] increased damage to a set of damage types of 7 seconds. This effect alternate between 2 sets: Fire, Lightning and Physical. Cold, Poison, and Shadow.

Uber Uniques

The chart below is our recommendation for Uber Uniques that will work within this build. However, all Uber uniques are extremely powerful and can shine in different situations. Good Hunting!

Gems

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

Weapon: Royal Ruby for Overpower damage.
Armor: Royal Ruby for an increase to Maximum Life.
Jewelry: Royal Diamond for All Resistances, however, certain bosses may require you to switch to their corresponding resistances.

Elixirs and Health Pots

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 an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Elixir of Resourcefulness which increases your maximum Fury and provides more damage through Furious Hammer of the Ancients.

Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

Changelog

April 16th 2024: Ownership of page transferred, build Revamped, paragon adjusted, unique items added
March 5th 2024: Updates for Patch 1.3.3.
January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
August 7th, 2023: New Format and build Revamp.
August 2nd, 2023: Patch 1.1.1 section added with build specific changes.
July 18th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1.

Uber Uniques	Recommended(Y/N)	Replaces
Andariel’s Visage	No
Harlequin Crest	Yes	Godslayer Crown or Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty
Melted Heart of Selig	No
Ring of Starless Skies	No
Doombringer	Yes	Aspect of Elements will be dropped
The Grandfather	Yes	Edgemaster’s Aspect will be dropped
Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander	No