Frenzy HotNS Barbarian RGK Variation

The HotNS Frenzy Barbarian can deal reasonably well with the role of a Rift Guardian Killer in high tier Greater Rifts. Although the build is not considered the best for the role, it can viably take the RGK spot and serve in a non-competitive party composition.

The Rift Guardian Killer role demands focus from the character entirely into single target damage, eschewing any consideration for Area Damage or trash killing purposes. Your skill and especially your gear choices will reflect that.

Active Skills
Frenzy Maniac Ancient Spear Rage Flip 1 War Cry Impunity 2 Threatening Shout Falter 3 Battle Rage Bloodshed 4 Wrath of the Berserker Insanity
Passive Skills
Ruthless Berserker Rage Boon of Bul-Kathos Nerves of Steel

When serving as the Rift Guardian Killer, most of the Frenzy HotNS Barb rotation remains the same as the solo progression build. You will still be applying the trio of shouts — Battle Rage, War Cry and Threatening Shout — whenever applicable, either to refresh their duration or affect a newly engaged group of enemies. Frenzy — either empowered by Wrath of the Berserker, or on its own — will be your main damage dealer, and its tremendous attack speed in conjunction with a socketed Bane of the Stricken will be taking the Rift Guardians down. Your value to the group comes in the form of toughness buffs (the aforementioned War Cry), as well as an additional long range pull via Ancient Spear Rage Flip.

The vast majority of your skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, with minor adjustments to accommodate the group progression playstyle.

• The Frenzy HotNS Barb retains nearly all of its GR solo skill setup, using Battle Rage Bloodshed, Threatening Shout Falter and War Cry (albeit with Impunity for a greater team benefit) as the Shout-related set base, as well as Wrath of the Berserker for its tremendous self buffs during damage output. The Passives lineup sticks with staples like Ruthless, Boon of Bul-Kathos and Berserker Rage. The final slot can be either Nerves of Steel during high end group GR pushing, or altered to Rampage during slightly lower XP farm.
• It should be noted that due to the focus on this group variation on pure attack speed and Rift Guardian killing, you will be dropping the solo staple Azurewrath and its Freeze mechanics for more generic, element-neutral equipment (see below).
• Deviating from the main build, you will be using Ancient Spear Rage Flip as an efficient way of spending Fury for the Focus and Restraint bonus, while also assisting your support with pulls. When you are still learning the build, or if you are too bothered by the lack of mobility in such a setup, you can alter this skill slot to Whirlwind Wind Shear for a cheap repositioning tool (which will still proc the ring set bonus).

Most of the gear from the Greater Rift solo progression build will still make sense for the group RGK variation, but a few alterations will be necessary in order to maximize your potential in this role.

You will be wearing the entirety of the Horde of the Ninety Savages set, but when it comes to gear rolls, you can drop any consideration of Area Damage rolls from the Spines of Savages and Claws of Savages. You will maintain the overall direction with stat priority over the rest of the gear, getting Frenzy skill bonuses on both the belt ( The Undisputed Champion) and Leggings of Savages, focusing on high toughness rolls on the Skull of Savages (alongside Crit Chance), and committing fully to it on the Markings of Savages and Heel of Savages.

Unlike solo progression where there is room for preference, Mortick's Brace is the mandatory bracer for RGK, as you will focus entirely on damage and leave mitigation and healing considerations to your Support teammates.

There is some room for variation in your jewelry, either by trying to balance some survivability in your setup (generally recommended), or fully glassing out for the purposes of your group.

In a more balanced spec, you will be wearing the Endless Walk set — The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose along with a Convention of Elements, which provides at least a measure of protection as you move from fight to fight. If you choose to commit fully to glass cannon damage dealing however, you can squeeze out every last bit of DPS with a combination of Focus and Restraint, plus a Squirt's Necklace. Naturally, you will be proccing the generator portion of Focus and Restraint with Frenzy, and you will have to pull with Ancient Spear (or tap Whirlwind for a second) to maintain the spender half of the bonus. Squirt's Necklace provides a massive damage bonus with an equally painful damage intake trade-off, which you will be able to mitigate in groups thanks to the Support characters.

Weapons-wise, you will maintain Oathkeeper from the main build, but solo-oriented choices like The Burning Axe of Sankis and its extra survivability, and the Azurewrath and its hard CC procs have no place in group progression. In their stead, you have the choice between Pig Sticker for its unrivaled attack speed and elite damage capabilities (preferred for high end group GR progression) and Sun Keeper for its generic elite damage bonuses (for GR group XP farming).

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.

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.

You will maintain the same legendary gem setup as the solo GR progression build, with Bane of the Trapped, Simplicity's Strength and Bane of the Stricken remaining as your most desirable gems. The Frenzy Barb's ability to quickly stack the latter opens its viability in the RGK role in the first place.

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

Both Bastion's Revered and Depth Diggers are maintained from the main solo GR progression spec, as they are mandatory for the function of the build overall. Bastion's Revered extends the stacking mechanic of Frenzy and provides a valuable damage chaining effect (although less pronounced in the RGK role), while Depth Diggers are a straight up DPS increase in Primary skill-focused build.

Your final Cube slot depends on your jewelry setup, as explained above. In the general Endless Walk-wearing version, you will be cubing Squirt's Necklace for an extra source of damage multiplication. In the daredevil Focus and Restraint wearing version, you will be amping up your DPS even further with a cubed Convention of Elements.

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.

You have two viable potion options for this build; either lean into extra health sustain with Bottomless Potion of the Leech for its Life per Hit bonuses, or try to compensate for your lack of permanent CC immunity due to lesser WotB uptime with Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered.

This Season revives the Pandemonium Kill Streak buff from Season 19. Each stack grants a bonus to movement speed and damage, capping at +50% movement speed and +100% damage at 1000 kills. Hitting specific kill thresholds unleashes powerful effects. Read more in our dedicated Season of the Eternal Conflict Mechanics Guide!

While speedfarming sees limited use from this theme, Greater Rift pushing benefits significantly. Effects like Geysers (150), Meteors (400), and Angels (500) can clear elites and Rift Guardians instantly. Players may reset streaks after 150 kills to repeatedly trigger Geysers or push for 500+ kills near boss fights, often using Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra enemies.

Because the most potent effects (Geysers, Meteors, Angels) can obliterate Rift Guardians instantly up to GR150, players can retool builds for efficiency and comfort. Here’s how:

Since you can rely on killstreak procs to clear the Rift Guardian, Bane of the Stricken can be safely omitted in favor of:

• Another generic damage-scaling legendary gem ( Bane of the Trapped for builds with any form of crowd control and/or melee range, Zei's Stone of Vengeance for far ranged builds, Taeguk for channeling builds, Simplicity's Strength for primary attack-focused builds, Enforcer for pet-oriented builds, etc.)
• A survivability-oriented legendary gem ( Esoteric Alteration, Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard), or additional utility ( Gogok of Swiftness for CDR-reliant builds, Pain Enhancer for attack speed-heavy builds, or Wreath of Lightning for extra movement speed).

Adjust your equipment to items that favor durability, health sustain, and ease of movement. Consider adjusting non-essential skills for the build to ones that pull, reposition, or otherwise displace enemies to facilitate large pulls of enemy packs. In more concrete terms, this means:

• For class-specific items, Barbarians should consider Band of Might if it's absent from the build; this is a powerful damage reduction item that incentivizes you to be mindful of mobility (through Furious Charge and Leap) and utility (through Ground Stomp) — both of which synergize well with the killstreak theme.
• For additional defense, other helpful cross-class jewelry includes Unity and the Endless Walk set ( The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose).
• Situational items that can bolster your defenses include Stone Gauntlets (the drawbacks of which are negated via CC-immunity effects like Wrath of the Berserker, Ice Climbers, or Altar of Rites CC-immunity node), Aquila Cuirass (for low Fury-spending builds), and truly edge-case inclusions like Justice Lantern and String of Ears.
• For situational items that improve your utility, strongly consider Nemesis Bracers as the extra elites equal both killstreak upkeep and GR progression. When soloing, they should be equipped by your follower; in groups, at least one party member should commit to wearing them. Edge cases will see the inclusion of Warzechian Armguards or Krelm's Buff Belt (more speed for easier scouting and pulls), and Chilanik's Chain (for a group-wide boon). To facilitate large pulls, consider using a Follower equipped with The Ess of Johan, a proc-based analogue to an enemy-pulling skill (albeit outside your control).
• Skill-wise, make sure to include at least one movement skill tool ( Furious Charge, Leap or Sprint) and/or an enemy-pulling tool like Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash or Ancient Spear Rage Flip. Take a look if you can include passives like Boon of Bul-Kathos (for solo) or Inspiring Presence (for groups).