Shout Hammer of the Ancients (HotA) Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 3)

Build Introduction

This is your comprehensive guide for building a titan that shatters the earth with Hammer of the Ancients, a godly hammer of destruction. Welcome to our Shout HotA Endgame build. This build focuses on unleashing AoE attacks against the hordes of hell, crushing their bodies against the earth as you charge forwards through the battlefield seeking a worthy opponent. While this build is similar to our Berserking HotA build, this build cycles through Shouts to achieve most of our buffs.

Our guide will cover all basic mechanics and deep dive into the optimal setup for skills, Paragon and gear for the build.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty

Banished Lord’s Talisman

Tibault’s Will

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Aspect of Limitless Rage

Bold Chieftain’s Aspect

Build Variants

A build variant is a modified version of an existing build that changes some aspects of it, such as the damage type, specific skills or passives, and even certain items like different Uniques or Legendary Aspects.

Below, you will find any variant that relates to the Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian:

Season of the Construct

Season 3 Patch Updates

The following list details all changes of Season 3 that may pertain to Barbarians.

Passives

• Endless Fury
  • Fury gain increased from 7/14/21% to 10/20/30%.
• Brute Force
  • Overpower damage decreased from 15% to 8% per rank.
• Weapon Expertise
  • Expertise leveling has been cut by 50%.

Aspects

• Aspect of Echoing Fury
  • You now generate 6–10 Fury per second while any Shout skill is active, instead of 2–4 Fury per second for each Shout skill active.
• Aspect of Limitless Rage
  • Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Seneschal Construct Companion Powers

The Season 3 theme introduces a Seneschal Construct Companion that can deal damage or provide support to complement your character. Equip the Seneschal with two Governing Stones to activate their abilities, and then link them to three Tuning Stones each to augment the abilities. There are 12 different Governing Stones and 27 different Tuning Stones that can be found in Vaults scattered across Sanctuary. Fuse together duplicate stones to level them up, increasing the potency of Governing Stones or adding augments to Tuning Stones.

Listed below are the general recommended Governing Stones and their linked Tuning Stones for Barbarians, ranked by importance.

1. Tempest: Electrically charge an enemy causing it to deal damage to themselves and 1 additional enemy each second over 5 seconds. If the enemy is killed, Tempest spreads to another enemy gaining 2 additional seconds and 20%[x] bonus damage. These bonuses are also applied if Tempest is reapplied onto the same enemy.
   • Evernight: The supported Skill grants you +4 to all Skills when used for 2.0 seconds.
   • Resource Support: Player gains an amount of Primary Resource when the supporting Skill first deals damage.
   • Efficiency Support: When the supporting skill deals damage, you gain Critical Strike Chance to the same targets hit.
   • Swift Support: The supported Skill gains 40% Attack Speed bonus.
2. Flash of Adrenaline: Administers a quick flash of adrenaline into the player, granting bonus damage for a duration.
   • Genesis: Increase the effectiveness of the supported Skill by 150%.
   • Safeguard Support: When used, the supported Skill grants Damage Reduction to you.
   • Tactical Support: Decrease the cooldown of the supported Skill.
   • Duration Support: Supported Skills have their durations increased.

Video Guide

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Skill Bar Setup for Shout HotA Barbarian (order does not matter)

Hammer of the Ancients Lunging Strike Rallying Cry Challenging Shout War Cry Wrath of the Berserker

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 58 point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Skills	Cluster
Lunging Strike Level 1, Enhanced Lunging Strike, Combat Lunging Strike	Basic Skill
Hammer of the Ancients Level 5, Enhanced Hammer of the Ancient, Furious Hammer of the Ancients, Endless Fury Level 3	Core Skill
Rallying Cry Level 1, Enhanced Rallying Cry, Tactical Rallying Cry, Challenging Shout Level 1, Enhanced Challenging Shout, Imposing Presence Level 3, Martial Vigor Level 3	Defensive Skill
War Cry Level 1, Enhanced War Cry, Mighty War Cry, Booming Voice Level 3, Raid Leader Level 3, Guttural Yell Level 2, Aggressive Resistance Level 3, Prolific Fury Level 3	Brawling Skill
Pit Fighter Level 3, Thick Skin Level 1, Counteroffensive Level 3	Weapon Mastery Skill
Wrath of the Berserker, Prime Wrath of the Berserker, Supreme Wrath of the Berserker, Wallop Level 3, Brute Force Level 3	Ultimate Skill
Unbridled Rage	Key Passives

Weapon Expertise – The Barbarian Specialization

Weapon Expertise is a set of benefits tied to which weapons you use as a Barbarian. To unlock your Expertise, simply hit Level 5 and the tab below will be made available. Simply by using a certain weapon type, you will begin to gain ranks with that weapon as you fight. The ranks are from 0 to 10 and will level up moderately quickly as your character gains experience. Once your expertise hit rank 10, you will be maxed out on the benefit for using that weapon with your skills. Just a reminder, to swap your assigned weapon to the skill you are using go to your Skill selection list (not skill tree) and you will see the how to switch it (Middle mouse button on PC.) At Level 15, you will unlock the Masters of Battle quest. This quest will be available in the township of ‘Ked Bardu’ from the Forgemaster Gerti. Upon completing this quest you will unlock the Technique slots as seen below, this will offer you an additional permanent bonus from one of the weapons regardless of whether you have it equipped to a skill or not.

For the Shout HotA build, we will be focused on using the expertise of Two-Handed Axe for the bonus Vulnerable damage.

Weapon Selection

Barbarians have an unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. This is a critical component for all builds to function properly, and failure to match your weapon to the proper skill may cause the build to perform poorly. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills:

• Hammer of the Ancients – Bludgeoning
• Lunging Strike – Slashing

Paragon Points

We recommend using these Legendary Nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version.

Rare Node	Effect
Territorial	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[10.0]% increased damage to Close targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 15% Damage Reduction against Close enemies.
Crusher	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal +[5.3]% increased damage while wielding a Mace – Additional bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: While wielding a Mace, you deal 30%[x] increased Overpower damage.
Undaunted	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal +[8]% increased damage while Fortified. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain up to 10% Damage Reduction the more Fortify you have.
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal +[5.3]% increased damage while Berserking. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: While Berserking, you take 10% reduced damage from Elites.
Might	– Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed weapons.
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: When an enemy is damaged by you, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy.
Blood Rage	– Killing a Bleeding enemy has 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. Your damage is increased by x25% of your Damage while Berserking bonus.
Decimator	– Each time you make an enemy Vulnerable, your damage is increased by 10% for 5 seconds. Overpowering a Vulnerable enemy grants an additional x10% bonus for 5 seconds.

Let’s break down each of these beneficial Nodes and where our Paragon Points are positioned in each of the Paragon Boards we use. This part of the build is presented in order of importance, so if you do not have enough Paragon Points for use in your Paragon Tree, just slowly work towards each step.

Starting Board

1. We are going to head up the right hand side of the board and take the Rare Node Brawn. This node will give us a small increase to our Maximum Life and Physical damage bonus.
2. Now go to the left side and head up towards the open glyph slot, taking Tenacity and the Magic Nodes around it for the bonus in Life and Armor.
3. Next, path towards the Glyph slot and insert Territorial, this glyph will grant us increased Damage towards Close Enemies. Be sure to collect all of the Dexterity Nodes shown above.
4. Take the Rare Nodes Iron Strength, these will gives us another some flat armor increases.
5. Head to the top of the board and attach our next Paragon Board, Carnage.

Carnage

1. Now go straight to the open Glyph slot and insert Exploit into the Glyph slot. This Glyph will help keep enemies Vulnerable for us.
2. Next we will take both Rare Nodes inside the glyph radius, Brash and Fierce, these nodes will give us increased Damage while Berserking and Damage Reduction against Close Enemies.
3. Now go and pick the next Rare Node Cold Conditioned. This will grants us a bonus Cold Resistance and Armor.
4. Take the path to the left hand side of the board and pick up the Rare Node Berserker.
5. Finally, use the left hand-side connection point to attach the next Paragon Board, Blood Rage.

Blood Rage

1. Path towards the open Glyph slot picking up Restorative and Enraged, as path towards the center of the board.
2. Head to the Legendary Node Blood Rage and take it. This will help with our Berserking sustain and a small damage boost.
3. Now path towards the open glyph slot, inserting Might into the slot. This Glyph will boost the Rare Nodes in our Glyph radius and increase our damage with two-handed weapons. It is strength based so be sure to take the Strength nodes shown above.
4. We will also be taking both Rare Nodes, Grit and Revel, these will offer us both Damage and Damage Reduction against Bleeding Enemies. Be sure to pick the correct Magic Nodes surrounding each of them.
5. Now take the left hand connection point and attach the Paragon Board Warbringer.

Warbringer

1. Take the pathway upwards and pick up the Rare Node Core Reserve and only take the Magic Nodes shown above.
2. Path towards the open Glyph and insert Crusher into the slot. This glyph will increase our damage while using a mace and grants us a bonus Overpower Damage as well.
3. Inside the Glyph radius take both Rare Nodes, Conditioned and Raw Power, these Nodes will grant you an increased Berserking Damage and give you an increased Damage Reduction for Close Enemies.
4. Head towards the Rare node Hungering Fury and take it, including the Magic Nodes around it.
5. Finally, Path towards the bottom of the Paragon Board and attach Bone Breaker.

Bone Breaker

1. Take the Rare Node Vigor along the pathway to the open glyph slot.
2. Head towards the open Glyph slot and insert Ire, This Glyph will boost our damage while Berserking and give us Damage Reduction against Elites.
3. Take the other Rare Node Brutality for the increase in Overpowered damage.
4. Path down and take the Rare Node Tenacity for the bonus to Life and Armor.
5. Path to the left side of the board and attach the Paragon Board, Decimator.

Decimator

1. Now take the path to the open Glyph slot and insert Undaunted, this will increase our Damage while Fortified as well as increase our Damage Reduction while Fortified.
2. Next, take the Rare Node Arrogance for the increased Damage Reduction from Vulnerable Enemies.
3. Lastly, we take the Legendary Node Decimator for the bonus to Overpower hits against Vulnerable enemies.
4. This completes the Paragon Tree for this build.

Paragon board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Mechanics and Playstyle

The opening mechanic on this build is to literally smash a pack of enemies in a single blow. However, you need to have built up your Fury using Rallying Cry and War Cry to start Berserking. Start to use Lunging Strike to get healing and Critical Strikes will extend your Berserking. We then bring out your Hammer of the Ancients to smack down the enemy, using up your Fury as much as you can. Our Fury generation should be quite high with all our shouts running, but we do have the option of activating Wrath of the Berserker and take them down any Elites or Bosses quickly. Overall, this is a brawling style of gameplay, grouping up packs of enemies while you position yourself to strike all of them together. It may take some getting used to, but eventually, you will naturally charge through packs of enemies while you spam your targeted Hammer of the Ancients. To get Overpower hits you can use some of the triggers below:

• The Unique amulet, Banished Lord’s Talisman, which after you spend 300 Fury your next Hammer of the Ancients will Overpower.
• Earthstriker’s Aspect grants us an Overpower strike after 8 weapon swaps.

Berserking

Being in a state of Berserking is a critical component of this build. We mainly trigger the state through our War Cry and Wrath of the Berserker. The secret to keeping us in Berserking is the use of Relentless Berserker’s Aspect. This Aspect has a Lucky hit chance to extend our Berserking duration, as you increase your power and Critical Strike Chance this will become very easy to maintain. We also use the Legendary Node on our Paragon board Blood Rage to add to our Berserking sustain.

Defensive Aspects

Aspect of Berserk Ripping adds Bleeding to all targets and grants us increased Damage Reduction against Bleeding Enemies through our Paragon Tree. The Bleeding effect occurs automatically while you are Berserking, you don’t need to trigger anything or do anything special. While there will be some adjustment to keeping your Berserking going, with a decent amount of duration on your items you will find this to become very routine.

We also you Fortification to add another layer of health to ourselves from two of our Shout augments, Strategic Rallying Cry and Mighty War Cry. Being Fortified is further enhanced through our Paragon Tree. This effect happens naturally through the course of gameplay and will be constantly topped off. Lastly, we have Challenging Shout. This skill is used for those crazy situations when you need a huge boost of Damage Reduction to deal with a sudden rush of enemies or spike in damage taken.

Gear Choice and Stat Priority

As you begin to farm in World Tier 3 and 4, Rare and Legendary item drops will begin to appear with some regularity, depending on your luck. We recommend saving the targeted Legendary items that have the needed Legendary aspects listed below. We also recommended to keep multiple copies of the build’s Aspects in your Stash for future upgrades.

As for the Rare items, you will need to inspect each one for targeted affixes for use in each specific slot and do your best to match the recommended rolls. We have listed our targeted affixes in order of importance. Check the chart below and make note of what affixes you are searching for when you see a Rare gear piece drop.

Season 2 Update (1.2.0): Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage affixes are changed to be additive with other damage increases. All additive damage increases of the same amount are equal in value, as long as their conditions are active.

Gear Slot	Targeted Affixes
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Needed Resistances 3. Strength  4. Needed Resistances
Chest	1. Damage Reduction 2. Damage Reduction while Fortified 3. Maximum Life 4. Total Armor  5. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies  6. Damage Reduction Enemies that are Bleeding
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Ranks of Hammer of the Ancients 3. Attack Speed 4. Strength 5. Lucky Hit Chance
Pants	1. Damage Reduction 2. Damage Reduction while Fortified 3. Maximum Life 4. Damage Reduction while Injured 5. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies  6. Berserking Duration
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Damage Reduction while Injured 3. Fury Reduction Cost 4. Needed Resistances
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Rank Up Wallop 3. Fury Cost Reduction 4. Damage Reduction while Injured 6. Movement Speed 7. Damage Reduction
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Max Fury 3. Overpower Damage 4. Resource Generation 5. Maximum Life 6. Critical Strike Damage
Weapons	1. Strength 2. All Stats 3. Core Skill Damage 4. Overpower Damage 5. Critical Strike Damage 6. Damage to Close Enemies

Please note that these Affixes are the recommended picks, but that is simply our opinion. Other Affixes could certainly work instead of the ones listed above, but may not be optimal. Also, there are several very specific Affixes that are required to make the build work, they are as follows:

1. Ranks of select skills
2. Resource Generation – Any additional Fury generation allows us to keep our pool topped off and keep on spamming .
3. Fury Cost Reduction – This is a very important Affix to focus on, especially because we take the Key Passive Unbridled Rage that doubles the cost of our skills.

A final point on acquiring the right Affixes and Legendary Aspects, use your Obols to target farm them. Obols are awarded from many different activities in the game, you will always stockpiling them until you hit your maximum. Instead of just randomly spending them on a random pick, use them to target what you might be missing from this build. It is a great way to target a specific slot of loot and find what you need.

If you are interested in checking out a new tool for gambling Obols check out this link below from Icy Veins.

Legendary Aspects

Below you will find the optimal setup for Legendary Aspects for the Shout HotA build. Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the slot it was posted with.

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for the Shout HotA build. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used if you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower level Legendary items and imprint them onto better Rare items with preferred stats. The endgame itemization goal will be to imprint Aspects with the best values Ancestral Rare items with Item Power above or as close to 800, then upgrade them through the Blacksmith.

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect	Legendary Aspect Power
Helm	Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty
Chest	Aspect of Disobedience	You gain [0.6-1.1]% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [36-66]%.
Gloves	Aspect of Berserk Ripping	Whenever you deal direct damage while Berserking, inflict [20-30%] of the Base damage dealt as additional Bleeding damage over 5 seconds.
Pants	Tibault’s Will
Boots	Relentless Berserker’s Aspect	Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skill has up to a [22 – 40%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 seconds. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Banished Lord’s Talisman
Ring	Aspect of Echoing Fury	You generate [6.0-10.0] Fury per seconds while any Shout skill is active.
Ring	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [1.0-1.9] seconds per Nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
Bludgeoning Weapon (200% bonus)	Edgemaster’s Aspect	Skills deal up to [10- 20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.
Slashing Weapon (200% bonus)	Aspect of Limitless Rage	Each point of Fury you generate while at Maximum Fury grants your next Core Skill [1-2%] increased damage, up to [15-30%] .
Dual-wield weapon 1	Aspect of Ancestral Force	Hammer of the Ancients quakes outwards, dealing [32-50]% of its damage to enemies.
Dual-wield weapon 2	Earthstriker’s Aspect	After swapping weapons 8 times, your next attack will Overpower and deal [30-50%] increased Overpower damage.

Uber Uniques

The chart below is our recommendation for Uber Uniques that will work within this build. However, all Uber uniques are extremely powerful and can shine in different situations. Good Hunting!

Uber Uniques	Recommended(Y/N)	Replaces
Andariel’s Visage	No
Harlequin Crest	Yes	Replaces Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty
Melted Heart of Selig	No
Ring of Starless Skies	No
Doombringer	No
The Grandfather	Yes	Replaces Edgemaster’s Aspect
Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander	No

Gems

Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.

• Weapon: Royal Ruby increases our Overpower Damage.
• Armor: Royal Ruby for Maximum Life.
• Jewelry: Royal Diamond for All Resistances, however, certain bosses may require you to switch to their corresponding resistances.

Elixirs and Health Pots

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats, and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Use an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed.

Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

Changelog

• March 5th 2024: Updates for Patch 1.3.3
• January 30th 2024: Marshal Glyph changes.
• January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
• December 6th 2023: Update for Abattoir of Zir.
• October 23rd 2023: Build Revamp for Season 2.
• October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
• August 7th, 2023: New Format and Build revamp
• August 2nd, 2023: Patch 1.1.1 section added with build specific changes.
• July 20, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1.