Boulder Toss Raekor Barbarian BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your Boulder Toss Raekor Barbarian in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for Patch 2.7.3 and Season 26.
Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
This build takes advantage of the full
Raekor set bonuses, incorporating
five of the six available items and completing the requirements via a
Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube. Rolls-wise, this
Boulder Toss-centric build rolls for
Ancient Spear skill bonuses
on the
Raekor's Will and
Raekor's Striders. The build also
relies heavily on Area Damage procs, Cooldown Reduction to cut the
Wrath of the Berserker downtime, and Resource Cost Reduction wherever it
can spare the stats. This primary stat-intensive playstyle requires a lot of
optimization on gear, and careful balancing of the main stats you trade off for
utility stats based on your current Paragon level. You will be mixing the Raekor
set with the craftable Captain Crimson's Trimmings set —
Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and one more of your choosing, according to
your weaker Raekor set piece (either
Captain Crimson's Thrust or
Captain Crimson's Waders). This set provides CDR as well as RCR bonuses,
and then scales your damage dealt and damage reduced according to both stats,
respectively — bringing a massive boon to the build.
The cubed Ring of Royal Grandeur leaves space for a potent combo in the
jewelry: the Endless Walk set,
The Compass Rose and
The Traveler's Pledge amulet. This jewelry set adds a unique mechanic that
slowly increases your damage by up to a 100% if you remain stationary, and
drains it away and increases your damage reduction while moving. This dynamic
mimics the Boulder Toss Barb playstyle, as you alternate between
Furious Charge bursts of movement in search of the next big fight with
extended periods of stationary
Ancient Spear spam. Note that if you are
using this build for lower tier GRs for the purposes of speed farming instead of
progression, the Endless Walk set should be swapped out for pure damage
amplification items:
Squirt's Necklace and
Convention of Elements.
Your other ring slot should be taken by Band of Might. This ring offers
supreme mitigation for the build: 80% damage reduction, towering over other
defensive staples like
Unity and its 50% DR. It is also independent
of the presence of a follower, and has a modest requirement of casting
Furious Charge at least once every 8 seconds — in practice,
something you do a lot more often in this build.
The remainder of your item slots — bracers, main- and off-hand slots
— will be dedicated to Ancient Spear-centric items.
Skular's Salvation,
The Three Hundredth Spear and
Arreat's Law
all amplify
Ancient Spear damage by up to 200%, as well as adding various
other bonuses to the build.
Arreat's Law is most notable in that regard,
since it adds the unique Fury overcapping mechanic to the build, as noted in the
rotation paragraph of this build's Skills
page. Note that there is a viable tankier path to take with this build, which
uses a
Stormshield in the off-hand and cubes one of the two legendary
spears depending on your worse rolled item. This adaptation uses
Sword and Board as a passive, over the standard
No Escape
recommendation. Stat-wise, aim for high Strength, All Resistance, Cooldown
Reduction and Critical Hit Chance on the
Stormshield.
Desired Stats, Breakpoints and Other Notes
Cooldown Reduction is a major consideration for Raekor Boulder Toss Barbs, and
a priority on most gear slots where you can obtain it. Aside from a
Flawless Royal Diamond in your helm and maxed out CDR in Paragons, you
should also strive to obtain as close to maximum CDR as possible on your rings,
weapons, shoulder and gloves. A perfected scenario puts you at 67% CDR, or a
10-second downtime of
Wrath of the Berserker. You can strive for a luxury
Resource Cost Reduction roll on your shoulders (alongside the higher priority
CDR and Area Damage), since it feeds into the Damage Reduction bonuses from your
Cpt. Crimson's set.
For Offense stats, try to obtain Ancient Spear % bonus on both the helm and boots (maximum of 30%), Physical elemental damage on both the amulet and wrists (maximum of 40%), Crit Chance and Crit Damage within a 1:10 ratio (ideally over 50% and 600% prior to buffs, respectively), and Area Damage of 100%+.
For Defense stats, aim for a life pool between 700-900k; dropping as much as
you can for offense as you grow accustomed to the build. The build generally
lacks sources of health sustain, with one viable option being Life per Fury
Spent through the Ignore Pain
Ignorance is Bliss rune.
All augmentations on gear should be done with your main stat, Strength.
Note that the stat suggestions below portray an ideally rolled item with stats listed in relative order of importance. The first four of them are main stats, and the latter two — secondary stats. If your item lacks and is unable to be rerolled into the primary stats outlined below, especially for a stat higher on the list, strongly consider its replacement. Perfecting Secondary stats is mostly a case of hyper-optimization and is not a case for discarding an item, except where noted.
Slot | Pieces | Stat Priority |
---|---|---|
Head |
|
|
Shoulders |
|
|
Torso |
|
|
Wrists |
|
|
Hands |
|
|
Waist |
|
|
Legs |
|
|
Feet |
|
|
Amulet |
|
|
Ring #1 |
|
|
Ring #2 |
|
|
Weapon #1 |
|
|
Weapon #2 |
|
To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.
Paragon Points
In the Core section, max out Movement Speed to the 25% cap. Normally this is
done by dumping the first 50 Core Paragon points into Movement Speed, but if
your boots have an imperfect roll with Movement Speed as a stat that you cannot
replace, adjust the necessary point investment accordingly by simply subtracting
your roll from the 25% max. Max out Fury next, due to the interaction with
Boulder Toss. After that dump as much as you comfortably can into
Strength, but feel free to invest into Vitality if you feel yourself lacking in
toughness.
In the Offense section, max out CDR, Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Attack Speed in that order. In Defense, prioritize All Resistance, then Life %, then Armor, and finish off with Life Regeneration. In Utility, build up Area Damage and Resource Cost Reduction first, then finish off with Life per Hit and Globe Radius.
Slot | Paragon Points |
---|---|
Core |
|
Offense |
|
Defense |
|
Utility |
|
Gems
Your first jewelry socket will be taken by Zei's Stone of Vengeance,
which provides a multiplicative damage increase against enemies based on your
distance to them. It also has a helpful Stun proc, which indirectly contributes
to your safety and assists the CC-dependent
Bane of the Trapped. If you
feel your build is too glass cannon, a decent alternative for this slot is to
use the tanky
Esoteric Alteration gem — or alter to the
Stormshield variant outlined above.
Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is
its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. The gem procs itself with
its level 25 property when in a 15-yard radius, and is otherwise procced by
your various sources of crowd control.
Bane of the Stricken occupies a firm jewelry socket during GR
progression. Building up your damage multiplicatively in prolonged fights and
with a level 25 bonus specifically targeting Rift Guardians, this gem is
designed to assist AoE heavy builds in their struggle against single target,
high HP enemies. Note that if you are doing lower tier Greater Rifts
for farming or gem leveling purposes, you should exchange this gem for the safety
shield provided by
Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard, which will safeguard your
Squirt's Necklace bonuses.
When it comes to gear gems, you will start out progression by slotting the
highest available level of Rubies in the chest and pants sockets. Ideally, these
will all be Flawless Royal Ruby as soon as possible. As you grow in
Paragon (bulking up Strength in the Core section) and aim for higher tier and
more dangerous GRs, you will transition those gems into the defensive
Flawless Royal Diamond. There is no specific breakpoint where you do that;
the rule of thumb is to make the change as soon as you feel the lack of
toughness impede your progress. This build is cooldown dependent, which
necessitates a
Flawless Royal Diamond in your helm. In your
weapons, use
Flawless Royal Emeralds for the Crit Damage boost.
Slot | Gems |
---|---|
Jewelry | |
Helm | |
Torso and Pants |
|
Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Kanai's Cube
The Furnace offers a simple and straightforward bonus — 50%
increased damage against Elite enemies, helping you take down the biggest threat
in Greater Rift progression that much faster. Note that if you are using the
tanky,
Stormshield-wielding version of this build, you will need to slot
either
The Three Hundredth Spear or
Arreat's Law in the weapon Cube
slot, depending on your worse rolled item.
You will be taking Ancient Parthan Defenders in the armor Cube slot,
since it provides percentage-based damage mitigation for stunned enemies within
a 25-yard radius — a generous range, and a condition you easily fulfill
Furious Charge (you get the
Cold Rush rune for free from the
Raekor set, and for the purposes of this bracer, Freeze = Stun).
In order to mix in the Raekor set with the craftable Captain Crimson set,
you will need a Ring of Royal Grandeur: a cache legendary ring from Act I
bounties, to tie the two set bonuses
together.
The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.
Follower
The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Enchantress due to her Cooldown Reduction bonuses and the slowing shield she can provide.
For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.
Legendary Potion
The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid
(allows you to break up walls that impede your ranged DPS) and
Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered (provides a secondary source of crowd
control immunity during
Wrath of the Berserker downtime).
Changelog
- 13 Apr. 2022: Thorough rework of this guide into an Ancient Spear - Boulder Toss build.
- 09 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 31 Mar. 2021: Revised gear recommendations, and added follower recommendation.
- 18 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
- 30 Jun. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
- 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 19 Nov. 2019: Guide revised and updated for Season 19.
- 22 Aug. 2019: Item recommendations were revised for Season 18.
- 13 May 2019: Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 17 Jan. 2019: Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
- 31 Oct. 2017: Changed the weapon recommendation to a dual setup with The Istvan's Paired Blades replacing The Gavel of Judgment (which is now cubed).
More Barbarian Guides
Builds from Other Classes
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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