Build Introduction
Welcome to the comprehensive guide for the Basic Cleave for the endgame of Diablo 4. This build, made possible by the new unique 
Hooves of the Mountain God, which allows your basic skills to cleave foes down, providing powerful, fast attacks without needing to manage a ton of resources. This allows you to turn your normally weak low damage basic skills in powerful area attacks capable of shredding the toughest of foes in seconds.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Powerful generator based damage
- Fast attack speed
- Great defensive power
- Requires a specific unique
- Cooldown management
Build Requirements
Shard of VerathielHooves of the Mountain God
Paingorger’s Gauntlets
Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus
Aspect of the MoonriseQuick Navigation
Want to skip ahead? Use the table below to jump to the sections you are looking for.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Lunging Strike 
Ground Stomp 
Rallying Cry 
War Cry 
Challenging Shout 
Wrath of the Berserker Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 83-point build. The additional skill points are obtained using the Renown system.
Barbarian Class Mechanic – The Arsenal System
The Barbarian can wield four weapons simultaneously, as well as choose a weapon expertise to use as their Technique, allowing them to gain that weapon’s bonus even if they’re wielding another weapon type. Finally, the Barbarian can assign its skills to use different weapon types, shuffling between Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons, Two-Handed Slashing Weapons, and Dual-Wield Weapons.
For this build, we’ll want to assign 
Lunging Strike to our Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon so we benefit from its higher base damage and certain Legendary Aspects we will be using to gain some damage benefits.
The Barbarian’s main class system is Weapon Techniques and passive skills that are granted after completing the level 15 Class Quest. This unlocks passive bonuses when wielding certain weapon types. Additionally, after completing this quest, you unlock the Technique Slot, which lets you place a specific weapon type in it and always get that bonus regardless of whether or not you’re wielding that particular type of weapon.
For this build, we will want to use a Polearm for our technique slot to gain its multiplicative damage bonus while we’re healthy (above 80% life) for even more damage on all of our skills.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
The following sections will cover all systems that are critical if you want to improve the power of your character and move towards the highest difficulties in the endgame of Diablo 4.
Legendary Aspects
Below, you will find all of the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important for this build. Remember that all Legendary powers can be added to your Codex of Power once you salvage the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons, though they will always be at the minimum power level. To get the most out of this system, combine these Aspects with the right stats.
| Slot | Gems | Aspect / Unique Item | Aspect / Unique Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Grand Ruby |  Aspect of Heavenly Strength | While wielding a Two-Handed Weapon, gain [30-40%] Damage Reduction |
| Chest | Grand Ruby | Aspect of Might | Basic Skills grant [20-30%] Damage Reduction for 4 seconds |
| Gloves | N/A | Paingorger’s Gauntlets | Damaging enemies with a Non-Basic Skill marks them for 3 seconds. when a Basic Skill first hits a marketed enemy, the Basic Skill’s damage is echoed to all marked enemies dealing x[100-125%] increased damage. |
| Pants | Grand Ruby |  Battle Fervor’s Aspect | Brawling Skills grant Berserking for 5 seconds on their first hit. (We DO NOT care about this line) Gain [10-15%] Damage Reduction while Berserking |
| Boots | N/A | Hooves of the Mountain God | When reaching Maximum Fury, your Fury will rapidly drain until you run out and all your Basic Skills now cleave and deal x[70-100%] increased damage |
| Amulet |  Grand Diamond | Edgemaster’s Aspect | Skills deal up to [40-60%]x increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource |
| Ring 1 | Grand Diamond |  Aspect of Vocalized Empowerment | Your Shout Skills grant you [10.0 – 15.0] Primary Resource Regeneration while active |
| Ring 2 | Grand Diamond | Aspect of Berserk Fury | You gain [7.0 – 11.0] Fury per second while Berserking |
| 2H Bludgeoning Weapon |  Moni &  Gar OR  Grand Skull | Aspect of Walloping | Your Skills using Bludgeoning weapons deal [40-60%]x increased damage if the enemy is Incapacitated or Vulnerable |
| 2H Slashing Weapon |  Igni and  Que OR Grand Skull | Aspect of the Moonrise | – Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage gaining [40-60%] Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds. |
| Dual Wield Weapon 1 | Grand Skull | Shard of Verathiel | – Basic Skills deal [70 – 100%] increased damage but additionally cost 25 Primary Resource. |
| Dual Wield Weapon 2 | Grand Skull | Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus | – Skills using this weapon deal [0.2-0.5%] increased damage per point of Fury you have, but 10 Fury drains per second |
To see how this build compares to others on our site, you can check out our Endgame Build Tier List.
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded yellow affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Gems | Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helm | Grand Ruby | 1. Maximum Life 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Strength 4. Armor | + Resistance to All Elements |
| Chest | Grand Ruby | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Fury Generation 4. Armor | + Resistance to All Elements |
| Gloves | N/A | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Strength 4. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier | + Critical Strike Damage |
| Pants | Grand Ruby | 1. Ranks to Lunging Strike 2. Maximum Life 3. Fury Generation 4. Strength | + Resistance to All Elements |
| Boots | N/A | 1. Maximum Life 2. Movement Speed 3. Fury Generation 4. Strength | + Movement Speed |
| Amulet | Grand Diamond | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. Attack Speed | + Cooldown Reduction |
| Rings | Grand Diamond | 1. Attack Speed 2. Crititcal Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 4. Strength | + Cooldown Reduction |
| 2H Bludgeoning Weapon | Grand Skull | 1. Weapon Damage 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 4. Strength | + Critical Strike Chance |
| 2H Slashing Weapon | Grand Skull | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 4. Physical Damage Multiplier | + Critical Strike Chance |
| Dual-Wield Weapons | Grand Skull | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 4. Vulnerable Damage Multiplier | + Critical Strike Chance |
Uniques and Mythic Uniques
Uniques
Uniques items are powerful additions to any build, they can now roll much higher ranges and break all the traditional itemization rules for what stats can appear on which slots. Below, you will find Uniques and Mythic Uniques useful to this build.
- Hooves of the Mountain God – This new unique enables Barbarians to finally have a basic skill and generator playstyle by taking the beloved bash cleave archetype and making the cleave available to all basic skills while providing another big damage amp. This unique is a MUST HAVE to get this build online.
- Shard of Verathiel – A new build enabling sword. This gives us a huge modifier to all generators such as
Bash but makes them cost 25 Primary Resource in addition to their normal effects. Bash generates 15 Fury each time it is cast, so the reality is that this will only cost 10 but thanks to other uniques in the build, it will be even less and can reach a point with proper rolls on our gear that we’re generating more fury than we’re spending allowing us to benefit entirely from this item’s damage bonus without suffering any downside Another MUST HAVE to get things rolling - Paingorger’s Gauntlets – A former favorite of Bash Cleave Barbarian, this unique has been updated and had many of its previous bugs fixed and is now coming to the forefront again providing this Lunging Strike Basic Cleave setup with even more damage and clear speed.
Mythic Uniques
Ring of Starless Skies – Our Mythic Unique of choice. Thanks to Shard of Verathiel turning basic skills into fury spenders, this item will grant us its stacking buff, providing another huge multiplier and more resource cost reduction to ensure we can keep bashing to our heart’s content. This will basically solve resources for you as our basic skills will generate more than they cost from Shard of Verathiel, meaning we’re always fury positive on every cast. An extremely powerful mythic. If you acquire this ring, drop Bold Chieftain’s Aspect from your rings.
Heir of Perdition – Is a powerful helm that allows us to go for more offense by dropping a defensive aspect for an 80%x damage multiplier at all times which is a gargantuan damage amp for our skills.
The Grandfather – A potent two-handed sword which can replace your normal slashing weapon. If you do this, make sure you move Aspect of the Moonrise onto your 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon and drop Aspect of Walloping.
Gems and Runewords
Listed below are the best gems to socket into your items for each slot type.
Gems
| Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Skull for increased Physical Damage | Grand Ruby for increased Strength | Grand Diamond for increased Resistances |
For your jewelry, Resistances no longer have hard caps you need to hit to reach your defensive potential. Instead you can now freely swap the gems between them depending on what you need the most. Are you dying to physical strikes? Use Skulls for more physical resistance. Are you dying to elemental abilities light lightning damage or poison pools? Use Diamonds for more resistances. Always be sure to check your Toughness stat and use what works best for you!
Runes
Runewords return from Diablo 2 in Vessel of Hatred! You are limited to two Runewords across your gear and it requires two sockets in the same item. So this limits creating Runewords by combining two Runes to either Helm, Chest, Pants, or Two-Handed Weapons. We generally recommend them in both of your Two-Handed Weapons for Barbarian. Let’s jump in.
| Rune Name | Rune Effects |
|---|---|
| Igni | Gain 25 Offering: Stores up offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a Non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering |
| Que | Requires 300 Offering, Cooldown 1 Second: Invoke the Druid’s  Earthen Bulwark granting yourself a Barrier |
| Moni | Gain 100 Offering: Cast 2 Mobility or Macabre Skills |
| Gar | Requires 25 Offering, Cooldown 1 Second: Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds up to 10% |
Paragon Board
We recommend using the following Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 150 version. As a reminder, Glyphs unlock their final radius at level 50 and their legendary bonuses at Level 50. Let’s take a look!
Season Mechanics
There are no specific seasonal mechanics in Season 13. Instead the Lord of Hatred expansion and all of its features are available to explore. These include:
- War Plans
- New Skill Trees
- Talisman Sets
- The Horadric Cube
- Echoing Hatred
For a full overview of Diablo 4’s newest expansion CLICK HERE!
Talisman
Lord of Hatred introduces Talisman Sets. The Talisman is a Seal and Charms are placed within. Charms have some general affixes from a limited pool and can have Set bonuses which can grant significant power.
For this endgame setup, we will want to use the 5 piece set of Sescheron’s Fury which grants the following bonuses:
- 2 Set: While at or above 100 Fury, you become Colossal, losing 50% Cast Speed but gaining 20% Character and Skill Size and 120%x increased damage
- 3 Set: You gain an additional 10 Fury when hit and 30% Maximum Life
- 5 Set: Your Maximum Fury is increased by 50. Colossal further increases Skill Size by 50% and damage to 600%x
This requires us to use a Legendary Seal which grants 5 Charm Slots. The ideal affixes on the Seal are +1 Charm Slot and a bonus that cares about Sescheron’s Fury as a set such as Damage Reduction While Berserking or increased Berserking Damage.
For the 6th and final charm slot if you manage to acquire a Seal that allows all six slots we recommend using a Unique Charm, specifically: 
Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty which provides some extra damage, fury sustain, and cooldown reduction.
Mercenaries
As you play through the campaign in Vessel of Hatred, you will unlock various NPC Mercenaries who can join you on your quest to slay demons. Each Mercenary has their own small talent tree that will give them bonuses and skills to help you. Additionally, you can assign a Mercenary that you don’t take with you as a reinforcement to jump in when you activate certain skills. Let’s take a look at how we want to set this up for this build
We hire Varyana, the Berserker Crone
- Core Skill:
Cleave - Core Skill Passive:
Hysteria - Iconic Skill:
Bloodthirst - Iconic Skill Passive:
Bloodlust
Our Reinforcement Mercenary will be Raheir, the Shieldbearer
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
This build uses a very straightforward generator playstyle. We have no Fury spender beyond one button and we only use that for a buff, as explained below in the Advanced Information section, but let’s quickly go over our skills:
- Lunging Strike is our main damage source and mobility all in one button. We should press this non-stop to zip around to monsters and blow them up.
Rallying Cry and 
War Cry are our buffs. Rallying Cry gets us some resources to get rolling and increases our generation, helping smooth out the Fury Drain from Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus and Hooves of the Mountain God. War Cry is our damage amp, which we should be mashing as often as possible, but especially against tough elites and bosses.
Ground Stomp has a few uses in our setup, the biggest one is generating extra fury and stuns so we can maintain the cleave from Hooves of the Mountain God for as long as possible.
Wrath of the Berserker is our Ultimate skill of choice. It grants us massive amounts of Berserking, some Overpower generation for bigger damage spikes and an on-demand burst for big elites and bosses
Runeword Synergy
Let’s take a moment to review our runes and how they interact with this build.
- Moni is our first rune, and it may seem strange until you realize that Lunging Strike has the Mobility tag and counts for this rule. Every 2 casts of our main attacking skill will trigger this rune, a great deal for a lot of offering.
- Gar is our first rune invocation which grants us some extra critical strike chance with a near permanent uptime thanks to the interactions with Moni above.
- Igni stores up around 75 offering every 1 second, and we cast a Non-Basic Skill to acquire this offering, saving for more every second up to 500 offering in between packs.
- Que gives us a defensive barrier every now and again which will boost our survivability and help us sustain ourselves in tougher torments
Season 13 Updates
For a complete overview of Season 13, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes coming with the launch of Lord of Hatred, please check out our Season Hub!
The basic barb featuring Lunging Strike returns in Lord of Hatred with just as much power and potency as it’s had since the introduction of Hooves of the Mountain God! Lord of Hatred adds even more power through the Talisman system and skill tree revamps. If you’re looking for generator based easy gameplay with tons
Obol Gambling
A final point on acquiring gear is using your Obols to target farm specific slots instead of randomly spending them on random drops. Similar to Kadala in Diablo 3, you can use Obol vendors in town to try and get what you’re missing. When a level 70 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 750 item power, the highest non-Ancestral in the game, allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need.
Check out our Obol Gambling Tool Guide HERE.
Changelog
- April 22nd 2026: Build updated for Season 13 and Lord of Hatred
- March 5th 2026: Build updated for Season 12
- December 5th 2025: Build updated for Season 11
- September 17th 2025: Build updated for Season 10
- July 16th 2025: Updated class mechanic section and suggested stats
- July 10th 2025: Build updated with bugfixes and shift to Paingorgers in lieu of said fixes
- June 28th 2025: Build changed and update for Season 9 as Basic Cleave
- April 25th 2025: Reformatted and updated for Season 8
- March 31st 2025: Skill tree recommendations updated
