Tags: beginner

Barbarian Wrath of the Wastes Fresh 70 Starter Build (Patch 2.7.6 / Season 29)

Last updated on Sep 15, 2023 at 09:00 by Deadset 38 comments

This build is a starter build for fresh Level 70 Barbarians who have access to the Wrath of the Wastes set.

This guide is part of our Barbarian Seasonal Progress Guide, which also includes a leveling build and other early builds for fresh 70 characters.

1.

Fresh 70 Build

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Rend Icon Rend Lacerate Lacerate Right Mouse Button Whirlwind Icon Whirlwind Wind Shear Wind Shear 1 Battle Rage Icon Battle Rage Bloodshed Bloodshed 2 Sprint Icon Sprint Marathon Marathon 3 War Cry Icon War Cry Impunity Impunity 4 Wrath of the Berserker Icon Wrath of the Berserker Insanity Insanity
Passive Skills

The Wrath of the Wastes starter build will be fairly similar to the leveling and fresh 70 build, keeping its rotation and general strategy with minor adjustments.

2.

How to Play the Build: Skills and Rotation

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the Leveling and Fresh 70 Build, but others will have to adapt to the set you are currently equipping. Abilities that synergize with set bonuses and complementary items take precedence.

  • Your main damage dynamic will still be split by the resource-efficient, self-sustaining spender Whirlwind Whirlwind (taken with the thriftiest runes of them all, Wind Shear Wind Shear) and the massive DoT provided by Rend Rend. At least early on, take the highest base damage of the rune Lacerate Lacerate, with the added bonus of elemental synergy with your other spender.
  • Empowered by the Wrath of the Wastes 2-piece bonus, Rend Rend will no longer require the crowd control of Ground Stomp Ground Stomp to be devastatingly effective; the slot will transition to the staple damage buff of Battle Rage Battle Rage Bloodshed Bloodshed.
  • You will also be swapping out (or staying with, depending on your leveling approach) Leap Leap for Sprint Sprint Marathon Marathon, as the 4-piece Wrath of the Wastes set puts a much larger emphasis on Whirlwind Whirlwinding for overall damage reduction, and Sprint Sprint does not interrupt channeling.
  • War Cry War Cry is a utility-oriented pick, and you can adapt it to your needs; aside from the base toughness increase included in its unruned effect, you can adapt for additional resources with Charge! Charge!, or get some extra protection with Impunity Impunity.
  • Last but not least, the mighty Barbarian buff Wrath of the Berserker Wrath of the Berserker will find a plce in your skill selection and pretty much never leave; on top of its base increases to attack and movement speed, crit stats and dodge chance, it also adds the multiplicative damage increase of the Insanity Insanity rune. Coupled with the potential to obtain all the runes for free when you find a Mortick's Brace Mortick's Brace, this skill becomes an essential in your arsenal.
  • The focus on ceaseless Whirlwind Whirlwinding will also make Fury regeneration passives like Unforgiving Unforgiving and Animosity Animosity (weapon agnostic) and Weapons Master Weapons Master (stronger, but weapon-specific) more attractive.
  • You will finish off your passive selection with the staple multiplicative damage increase vs. lower health enemies, Ruthless Ruthless.
3.

Gear

The build above is specifically created not to require any additional sets or legendary items. In order to transition to a late game-oriented spec using the same set, we have listed the top three priority items to obtain when starting out with this set.

  • Ambo's Pride Ambo's Pride — this legendary sword is a centerpiece legendary for Wrath of the Wastes, marrying the two skills the mechanics of the set are based upon into a cohesive, synergistic whole. It brings two massive powers: first, it applies Rend Rend to enemies you Whirlwind Whirlwind through and second, it deals Rend Rend's 15 seconds worth of DoT (extended by the Wastes 2-piece set bonus) in a condensed, single second punch.
  • Lamentation Lamentation — this legendary mighty belt allows for the doubled application of Rend Rend on a single target, drastically increasing the damge potential of an equipped Ambo's Pride Ambo's Pride.
  • Mortick's Brace Mortick's Brace — this class-specific legendary bracer grants you the effect of every Wrath of the Berserker Wrath of the Berserker rune: from the staple 50% damage increase of Insanity Insanity, through the burst damage additions of Arreat's Wail Arreat's Wail and Slaughter Slaughter, to the protective and utility bonuses of Striding Giant Striding Giant and Thrive on Chaos Thrive on Chaos.
4.

End-Game Wrath of the Wastes Builds

The mini-guide above is simply meant to acquaint you with the set and how a build with just the Haedrig's Gift (or a newly found set), and no supporting legendaries would play out. We have the following endgame-oriented builds that use the set, and encourage you to explore these much stronger playstyles!

5.

Changelog

  • 15 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Season 29.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Reviewed for Season 28.
  • 10 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Season 25.
  • 23 Jul. 2021: Reviewed for Season 24.
  • 02 Apr. 2021: Reviewed for Season 23.
  • 13 Mar. 2020: Reviewed for Season 20.
  • 22 Nov. 2019: Page added.
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