Barbarian GR Support Build With Raekor and HotNS

With a focus shifted away from perma-stun and damage buffs into Toughness boosting and crowd control, the support Barbarian rises to meet the requirements of the metagame. This crowd control and buff-oriented build is strictly multiplayer oriented, a zero DPS spec that plays part of a composition with other damage dealing party members. To help you with your group compositions, please refer to our Group Meta overview.

The basic skill setup of the Support Barbarian is displayed below. Read the dedicated Skills page for detailed information on choices, alternatives and build customization.

Active Skills
Furious Charge Merciless Assault Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash 1 Ancient Spear Rage Flip 2 Threatening Shout Falter 3 Ignore Pain Mob Rule 4 War Cry Veteran's Warning
Passive Skills
Superstition Relentless Pound of Flesh Nerves of Steel

The required gear setup for the Support Barbarian is listed below. Check the Gear page for detailed information on choices, alternatives, gemming, Kanai's Cube and Paragon distribution.

• Helm: Skull of Savages
• Shoulders: Raekor's Burden
• Gloves: Raekor's Wraps
• Chest: Markings of Savages
• Belt: Pride of Cassius
• Pants: Raekor's Breeches
• Boots: Illusory Boots
• Bracers: Strongarm Bracers
• Amulet: The Flavor of Time
• Ring 1: Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac
• Ring 2: Oculus Ring
• Weapon 1: Little Rogue
• Weapon 2: The Slanderer

This Season comes with the theme of Angelic Crucibles — consumable items that empower Legendary items with perfected Ancient-level stats, as well as infuse them with one of three unique, powerful, class-specific abilities at random. For this build, we recommend substituting Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash from the regular build and using Whirlwind Wind Shear to proc the following power:

• Whirlwind Sanctification: Whirlwind pulls in and holds all enemies within 25 yards.

Use Angelic Crucibles on an item that crosses over most (if not all) variants of a build, and is also an item that is relatively harder to perfect than other slots (since sanctifying an item maximizes its stats). In the case of this build, a good candidate for Sanctification is the Oculus Ring.

You can read more on Angelic Crucibles and the sanctification process in our dedicated Angelic Crucible Mechanics guide.

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

• Legendary Gem 1: Wreath of Lightning
• Legendary Gem 2: Gogok of Swiftness
• Legendary Gem 3: Gem of Efficacious Toxin

• Weapon Slot: Messerschmidt's Reaver
• Armor Slot: Chilanik's Chain
• Jewelry Slot: Ring of Royal Grandeur