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 2.7.8 and Season 34.
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.
Angelic Crucible Sanctification
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, both the
Wrath of the Berserker and
Whirlwind Sanctifications are viable
and important to consider. In the spear standard dual-wielding setup (as
outlined above), we recommend using the Wrath of the Berserker power:
- Wrath of the Berserker Sanctification: Hitting enemies generates stacks of Tempest Rhythm. Activating Wrath of the Berserker consumes 50 stacks of Tempest Rhythm and startles enemies within 16 yards, causing them to take 2% increased damage per stack for 20 seconds. Max 50 stacks.
You can also use a tankier, Stormshield offhand-wielding alteration
of this build (in the place of
Arreat's Law). In this variant, you can
substitute
Ignore Pain from the base build and use
Whirlwind
Dust Devils 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, good candidates for Sanctification is your primary weapon,
The Three Hundredth Spear.
You can read more on Angelic Crucibles and the sanctification process in our dedicated Angelic Crucible Mechanics guide.
Altar of Rites
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.
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
- 18 Jan. 2025: Added Season 34 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
- 09 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
- 10 Apr. 2024: Added Season 31 advice for the unbound Kanai's Cube slots.
- 08 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
- 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
- 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
- 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
Farming Guides
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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