Barbarian Leap/Earthquake Build With Might of the Earth
Introduction
Strengthened by the powers of the Might of the Earth set, the Earthquake Barbarian offers a tight and satisfying rotation of synergistic abilities, disguised under a visual treat of rampaging AoE destruction, along with a hefty amount of crowd control to boot. This build is designed for Greater Rift solo progression, but we also have a speed farming variant, which you can find by clicking the link below.
Quick Reference
Skill Setup
The basic skill setup of the Earthquake Barbarian is displayed below. Read the dedicated Skills page for detailed information on choices, alternatives and build customization.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Gear Setup
The required gear setup for the Earthquake Barbarian is listed below. Check the Gear page for detailed information on choices, alternatives, gemming, Kanai's Cube and Paragon distribution.
- Helm:
Eyes of the Earth
- Shoulders:
Spires of the Earth
- Gloves:
Pull of the Earth
- Chest:
Spirit of the Earth
- Belt:
Girdle of Giants
- Pants:
Weight of the Earth
- Boots:
Foundation of the Earth
- Bracers:
Ancient Parthan Defenders
- Amulet:
Hellfire Amulet of Strength
- Ring 1:
Focus
- Ring 2:
Restraint
- Weapon:
The Furnace
Legendary Gems
- Legendary Gem 1:
Bane of the Trapped
- Legendary Gem 2:
Bane of the Stricken
- Legendary Gem 3:
Gogok of Swiftness
Kanai's Cube
- Weapon Slot:
Blade of the Tribes
- Armor Slot:
Lut Socks
- Jewelry Slot:
Band of Might
How to Get This Build Going?
In this section, we will briefly go over how to kickstart this build into reality; which items you should aim for with priority when farming and gambling, and what is their relative priority for the functioning of this spec. Note that these suggestions are exclusively aimed at getting you up and running into endgame farming, and might not reflect the gear you need to wear for high-end Greater Rift solo or group pushing. This section also assumes a fresh Season's start, which usually is the point where most players work on assembling their first build with a particular set.
If the Might of the Earth set is part of the Haedrig's Gift for the Season, your simplest and most straightforward path to assembling the build is to complete the Seasonal Journey chapters up to Chapter IV. The Seasonal Journey chapters will gradually give you a complete class-specific set, giving 2-3 pieces for Chapters II, III and IV.
From the pre-game menu, choose and do this week's Challenge Rift. When
successfully completed, this weekly event will grant you 5,1 million Gold, 475
Blood Shards, 370 Reusable Parts, 350 Arcane Dust, 125
Veiled Crystals, 35
Death's Breaths, and 15 of each Bounty cache
material:
Khanduran Rune,
Caldeum Nightshade,
Arreat War Tapestry,
Corrupted Angel Flesh, and
Westmarch Holy Water. This will allow you some early Seasonal leeway to
extract and reforge items in Kanai's Cube, speeding up the assembly of this
build with the items recommended below.
Having some materials at your disposal, either from farming or the Challenge
Rift, is particularly important when you get duplicate pieces of your desired
set. When you do, you can use Kanai's Cube Skill of Nilfur recipe (10x
Forgotten Souls, 10x
Death's Breaths, 1x Set item) to convert into
another item from the same set. You should never salvage duplicate pieces
of a desired set before you have it assembled.
In order to assemble a MotE Leapquake Barbarian, you should do the following.
- Gather the full 6-piece Shadow set using the advice above, or by spending Blood Shards at Kadala. In order of gamble chance, you should spend for: Pants, Shoulders, Boots, Gloves, Helm, and Chest. A trick you can also use is to gamble for duplicate pieces with an easier gamble chance (i.e., Pants) and convert them into another piece from the same set using the Skill of Nilfur recipe in Kanai's Cube.
- Upgrade rare (Hope of Cain recipe in Kanai's Cube) Two-Handed Mighty Weapons
to get
Blade of the Tribes; this is a build-defining legendary weapon that increases
Earthquake damage and provides two additional sources that trigger its effect from
War Cry and
Threatening Shout.
- Gamble Boots on a Level 1 Barbarian (either your starting character or an alt)
to get
Lut Socks. This is a crucial piece for Leapquake Barbs, allowing you to triple
Leap before the cooldown triggers and enabling your whole rotation from the 4-piece bonus onwards.
- Gamble Rings on a Level 1 Barbarian (either your starting character or an alt)
to get
Band of Might, a massive source of damage reduction and a universally useful item for Barbarians. It is the only legendary ring available to level 1 Barbarians, making the gamble significantly easier.
- Upgrade rare One-handed Swords to get
In-geom; doing this on a level 1 Demon Hunter alt will improve your chances due to their lowest loot pool of legendary swords.
In-geom greatly benefits early game Leapquake Barbarians, since it makes
Wrath of the Berserker a much more readily available buff.
- Gamble or upgrade rare Bracers to get
Mortick's Brace; this legendary piece gives you all the runes of
Wrath of the Berserker, adding the toughness of
Striding Giant and the sustain of
Thrive on Chaos to the universally desirable
Insanity buff, which we usually take on the skill bar anyway. As a bonus, gambling or upgrading this slot can yield
Nemesis Bracers, which are a staple farming item for your Follower.
- Do Act I bounties to attain the act-specific
Ring of Royal Grandeur from Bounty caches. This will be helpful either in completing the basic set bonus, or mixing other helpful legendaries in the build as described in the dedicated endgame Leapquake Barbarian guide. Bounties will net you craftable set recipes as well, so you will be killing two birds with one stone. Bounties will also net you
Avarice Band (Act III), another farming-oriented staple for most builds and classes, this one included.
- While largely undesirable due to high costs, gambling or upgrading rare
Jewelry is also possible;
Convention of Elements, the Bastions of Will set (
Focus and
Restraint) and the Endless Walk set (
The Traveler's Pledge and
The Compass Rose) will all drastically improve this and other builds, with other standout pieces that can also substitute or be temporarily helpful in the face of
Unity, or
Oculus Ring and
The Flavor of Time for your Follower.
Changelog
- 13 Apr. 2022 (this page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 13 Apr. 2022 (skills page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 13 Apr. 2022 (gear page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 09 Dec. 2021 (skills page): Reviewed for Season 25.
- 09 Dec. 2021 (gear page): Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 09 Dec. 2021 (this page): Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 22 Jul. 2021 (skills page): No changes required for Season 24.
- 22 Jul. 2021 (this page): Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 22 Jul. 2021 (gear page): Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 31 Mar. 2021 (skills page): No changes required for Season 23.
- 31 Mar. 2021 (this page): Revised gearing recommendations and added follower recommendation.
- 31 Mar. 2021 (gear page): Revised gearing recommendations and added follower recommendation.
- 18 Nov. 2020 (gear page): Revised main hand recommendations to match the changes to Blade of the Tribes. Added S22 Cube recommendation.
- 18 Nov. 2020 (this page): Revised main hand recommendations to match the changes to Blade of the Tribes. Added S22 Cube recommendation.
- 18 Nov. 2020 (skills page): Revised main hand recommendations to match the changes to Blade of the Tribes.
- 30 Jun. 2020 (skills page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 30 Jun. 2020 (gear page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 30 Jun. 2020 (this page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (gear page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (skills page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (this page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 19 Nov. 2019 (this page): Guide revised and updated for Season 19.
- 19 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Guide revised and updated for Season 19.
- 19 Nov. 2019 (skills page): Guide revised and updated for Season 19.
- 28 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Minor clarification to the gear and stat recommendations.
- 22 Aug. 2019 (skills page): Skill recommendations are revised for Season 18.
- 22 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Item recommendations are revised for Season 18.
- 22 Aug. 2019 (this page): Item and skill recommendations are revised for Season 18.
- 13 May 2019 (gear page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 13 May 2019 (skills page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 13 May 2019 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 27 Jan. 2019 (gear page): Updated the Season 16 Cube recommendation.
- 27 Jan. 2019 (this page): Updated the Season 16 Cube recommendation.
- 16 Jan. 2019 (skills page): Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
- 16 Jan. 2019 (gear page): Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
- 16 Jan. 2019 (this page): Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 16.
- 20 Sep. 2018 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 15.
- 14 Jun. 2018 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 14.
- 01 Nov. 2017 (this page): Changed build rank to Mid Tier for Season 12.
- 31 Oct. 2017 (gear page): Some wording updates to the gem and jewelry sections (without changes in the recommendations).
- 26 Jun. 2017 (this page): Guide updated for 2.6 and moved to new format.
More Barbarian Guides
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This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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