Hammer of the Ancients – Barbarian Leveling Build for Diablo 4 (Season 8)

Build Introduction

This build focuses on using Hammer of the Ancients to quickly decimate groups of enemies and sunder elites and bosses with powerful slams. While leveling, we use the class-exclusive Berserking status effect to increase our damage, movement speed, and resource generation even more, so we can continue smashing away at hoards of demons.

• Hammer of the Ancients – The centerpiece of the build and your main Fury spender.
  • Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients– This skill will help smooth our Fury generation while leveling .
  • Furious Hammer of the Ancients – This skill gives us a massive damage multiplier based on our Fury.
• Lunging Strike – Our basic attack and Fury generator. This skill provides us with movement, which is invaluable while leveling.
  • Enhanced Lunging Strike– This gives us a bit more damage and sustained healing while we lunge into packs.
  • Combat Lunging Strike– This will help us trigger the Berserking status for a short time, which we will improve with other skills and aspects to increase our movement speed and damage.

The main gameplay loop with these two skills will be diving into packs with Lunging Strike or Charge , triggering Berserking, and slamming down with Hammer of the Ancients to finish everything off. This build sports strong single-target damage, allowing us to quickly finish off dungeon bosses or seasonal questline bosses fairly easily.

Quick Navigation

Allocation of Skill points

Below is the recommended order for spending your points as you level up. If you are missing skill points, complete Renown tiers 1-3 in every zone.

Skill Point Order	Skill	Skill Cluster
1	Lunging Strike	Basic Skills
2	Enhanced Lunging Strike	Basic Skills
3	Hammer of the Ancients	Core Skills
4	Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients	Core Skills
5	Violent Hammer of the Ancients	Core Skills
6	Combat Lunging Strike	Basic Skills
7	Rallying Cry	Defensive Skills
8	Enhanced Rallying Cry	Defensive Skills
9	Tactical Rallying Cry	Defensive Skills
10	Hammer of the Ancients Level 2	Core Skills
11	Hammer of the Ancients Level 3	Core Skills
12	Charge	Brawling Skills
13	Enhanced Charge	Brawling Skills
14	Power Charge	Brawling Skills
15	War Cry	Brawling Skills
16	Enhanced War Cry	Brawling Skills
17	Mighty War Cry	Brawling Skills
18	Hammer of the Ancients Level 4	Core Skills
19	Hammer of the Ancients Level 5	Core Skills
20	Endless Fury	Core Skills
21	Endless Fury Level 2	Core Skills
22	Endless Fury Level 3	Core Skills
23	Swiftness	Brawling Skills
24	Wrath of the Berserker	Ultimate Skills
25	Prime Wrath of the Berserker	Ultimate Skills
26	Supreme Wrath of the Berserker	Ultimate Skills
27	Swiftness Level 2	Brawling Skills
28	Swiftness Level 3	Brawling Skills
29	Aggressive Resistance	Brawling Skills
30	Battle Fervor	Brawling Skills
31	Battle Fervor Level 2	Brawling Skills
32	Battle Fervor Level 3	Brawling Skills
33	Prolific Fury	Brawling Skills
34	Unconstrained	Key Passive
35	Charge Level 2	Brawling Skills
36	Charge Level 3	Brawling Skills
37	Charge Level 4	Brawling Skills
38	Charge Level 5	Brawling Skills
39	Prolific Fury Level 2	Brawling Skills
40	Prolific Fury Level 3	Brawling Skills
41	Pit Fighter	Weapon Mastery Skills
42	Pit Fighter Level 2	Weapon Mastery Skills
43	Pit Fighter Level 3	Weapon Mastery Skills
44	Imposing Presence	Defensive Skills
45	Imposing Presence Level 2	Defensive Skills
46	Imposing Presence Level 3	Defensive Skills
47	Thick Skin	Weapon Mastery Skills
48	Counteroffensive	Weapon Mastery Skills
49	Counteroffensive Level 2	Weapon Mastery Skills
50	Counteroffensive Level 3	Weapon Mastery Skills
51	Heavy Handed	Ultimate Skills
52	Heavy Handed Level 2	Ultimate Skills
53	Heavy Handed Level 3	Ultimate Skills
54	Wallop	Ultimate Skills
55	Wallop Level 2	Ultimate Skills
56	Wallop Level 3	Ultimate Skills
57	Brute Force	Ultimate Skills
58	Brute Force Level 2	Ultimate Skills
59	Brute Force Level 3	Ultimate Skills
60	Wrath of the Berserker Level 2	Ultimate Skills
61	Wrath of the Berserker Level 3	Ultimate Skills
62	Wrath of the Berserker Level 4	Ultimate Skills
63	Wrath of the Berserker Level 5	Ultimate Skills
64	Warpath	Core Skills
65	Warpath Level 2	Core Skills
66	Warpath Level 3	Core Skills
67	Booming Voice	Brawling Skills
68	Booming Voice Level 2	Brawling Skills
69	Booming Voice Level 3	Brawling Skills
70	Aggressive Resistance	Brawling Skills
71	Aggressive Resistance	Brawling Skills

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

HotA Leveling Skill Bar (Placement of skills is completely optional)

Hammer of the Ancients Lunging Strike Rallying Cry War Cry Charge Wrath of the Berserker

If you are unsure how to best use these skills, read our Build Mechanics section after setting up your skill bar.

Wondering what comes after level 60 or which paragon boards to choose? Head to the Barbarian Builds Page and choose an endgame build to continue progressing your character beyond level 60 and into the endgame.

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Barbarian Class Mechanic – The Arsenal System

The Barbarian is unique among classes in Diablo 4. As a master of weapons and combat it can wield four different weapons simultaneously and effortlessly swap between them when we use different skills. We have a Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon, a Two-Handed Slashing Weapon, and a pair of Dual-Wield Weapons. At level 15 a quest becomes available in Ked Bardu called “Masters of Battle” given by Forgemaster Kerdi. After you complete this short quest chain, you gain access to the second part of the Arsenal System. Weapon Techniques.

Barbarians gain various bonuses by using specific weapon types that are only active while wielding those weapons. After unlocking the Weapon Technique class feature you can choose ANY weapon type and slot it into your technique slot and that bonus will always be active no matter what weapon you’re actually using.

For this Hammer of the Ancients build we will be using the Two-Handed Axe technique for its bonus damage to vulnerable enemies.

Keep in mind that while you will always benefit from the Two-Handed Axe bonus once it’s slotted in your technique slot, you will still gain the bonuses of the weapon types you’re actually wielding as well letting you gain more power through this system.

Finally, Barbarians can assign their skills to different weapons allowing for seamless transitions when using various skills. We MUST assign Hammer of the Ancients to our Two-Handed Bludgeoning weapon, but this is fine as we will benefit from the Wallop passive skill. Lunging Strike can be assigned to any weapon type as well as it isn’t our main source of damage. A small quality of life is to assign it to your Dual-Wield Weapons for their faster attacks so you can build resources faster but this is relatively minor. For Charge we can assign this to our Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon as well to gain the same benefits as our Hammer.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

When selecting your items, higher item power generally indicates stronger gear, but you also need to consider the affixes and effects that are relevant to your class and build. When making gear decisions during leveling keep an eye on both the item power and the specific attributes that compliment the build.

Legendary Aspects

For general information on how to unlock the Codex of Power, head to our Aspects and Codex of Power guide. You can also imprint Aspects onto items by visiting The Occultist in town.

Listed below are all the aspects that are important to this build as well as what slot they are best placed in. However, you can move the slots around during the leveling process especially since early on some of these aspects can only be found via random drops and might not be on the most ideal slot.

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect	Legendary Aspect Power
Helm	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds.
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 Ancestral Force (MUST HAVE!) Relentless Berserker’s Aspect (If Ancestral Force is on your Bludgeoning Weapon)	Hammer of the Ancients quakes outwards, and its damage is increased by [5%-15%] 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
Pants	Iron Blood Aspect	Gain [2.0-4.0%] Damage Reduction for each Nearby Bleeding enemy up to [10-20%] maximum.
Boots	Ghostwalker Aspect	While Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after, you gain +[10 – 25]% increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies.
Amulets(50% 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
Ring	Aspect of Vocalized Empowerment	Your Shout skills generate [6-10] Fury per second while active.
Ring	Aspect of Unrelenting Fury	Killing an enemy with a Core Skill refunds [10.0-20.0%] of its base Fury cost. Can only happen once per Skill cast.
Bludgeoning Weapon (100% bonus)	Aspect of Ancestral Force (MUST HAVE!) Aspect of the Expectant (If Ancestral Force is on your gloves)	Hammer of the Ancients quakes outwards, dealing [32-50]% of its damage to enemies. Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast within 5 seconds by [5-10%] up to 30%
Slashing Weapon (100% bonus)	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.
Dual-Wield Weapon 1	Rapid Aspect	Basic Skills gain [15-30%] Attack Speed.
Dual-Wield Weapon 2	Earthstriker’s Aspect	After swapping weapons 8 times, your next skill will Overpower and deal [30-50%] increased Overpower damage.

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Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

During your leveling journey, you may stumble across items with incredible affixes. Tempering these items can provide you with a significant boost in power, so make sure you understand how tempering works!

As a reminder, tempering is only possible if you’ve found the tempering manuals while leveling.

Keep an eye out for the following stats that are beneficial for this build. We will list the most ideal stats and the best tempering affixes if you’re lucky enough to find the relevant manual.

Gear Slot	Targeted Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	1. Strength 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Maximum Life	Hammer of the Ancients size Brute Innovation Maximum Life Worldly Endurance
Chest	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	Hammer of the Ancients size Brute Innovation Maximum Life Worldly Endurance
Gloves	1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Ranks to Hammer of the Ancients	Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse Damage With Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons Arsenal Finesse
Pants	1. Ranks of Charge 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	Hammer of the Ancients size Brute Innovation Maximum Life Worldly Endurance
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Fury Per Second	Movement Speed Natural Motion Berserking Duration Berserking Innovation
Amulet	1. Movement Speed 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Critical Strike Chance	Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse Charge cooldown reduction Barbarian Motion
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Fury on Kill	Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse Resource Generation Worldly Stability
2-Handed Weapons	1. DPS (Bludgeoning Weapon Only) 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life 4. Critical Strike Damage 5. Fury on Kill	Chance for Hammer of the Ancients to deal Double Damage Core Augments — Barbarian Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse
1-Handed Weapons	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Fury on Kill	Chance for Hammer of the Ancients to deal Double Damage Core Augments — Barbarian Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse

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Gems and Runewords

Gems

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

• Weapon: Topaz for Basic Skill Damage (before Level 40) Ruby for Overpower damage (after Level 40)
• Armor: Ruby for the increase to Strength.
• Jewelry: Diamond for the All Resistances.

Runes

While leveling in Vessel of Hatred, you may come across Runes, a unique gem that can be placed into an item with two sockets such as a helm, chest, pants, or two-handed weapon. Putting one Ritual Rune and one Invocation Rune into the same item creates a Runeword which can enhance your gameplay and grant powerful boons. Ritual Runes generate Offering when the conditions are met, and once enough Offering has been met, the associated Invocation Rune’s effect will trigger. Here are some early Rune suggestions for leveling

Rune Name	Rune Effect
Cir	Gain 30 Offering: Cast the same Non-Channeled Skill 3 times
Zan	Gain 150 Offering: Cast an Ultimate skill
Gar	Requires 25 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%
Lum	Requires 5 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Restore 2.5% Primary Resource

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Boss Powers (Season 8)

Season 8 brings a slew of powers to equip from slaying bosses, world bosses, and special boss encounters from Belial’s summoning events! You can equip a total of 4 powers. A single main power that will trigger its primary effect when certain conditions are met and three modifier powers that modify the main power and other skills for even more power. As a reminder, you cannot acquire the lair boss powers until Torment 1. So while leveling we’ll be recommending the powers acquired from the enemies slain during the Apparition Events. For this build we recommend the following combination:

Main Power

• Allek’s Talons – Grants us some extra damage from our Lunging Strike while we build resources for our Hammer of the Ancients

Modifier Powers

• Torusk’s Rage – Gives us some nice attack speed to help get those strikes and hammers out faster
• Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste – Grants us extra critical strike chance based on our Shadow Resistance
• Flesh Reaper’s Disruption – Grants us a 5% vulnerable damage multiplier for that extra bit of power to crush the harder enemies under our hammers

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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

• Opportunity Skill: War Cry
• Reinforcement Skill: Crater

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

Normally this build is very straight forward. We want to do the following:

• Build resources via Lunging Strike
• Move around with Charge
• Spam Hammer of the Ancients as much as possible
• Use our Shouts and Wrath of the Berserker as needed to kill tougher enemies

However things get a bit more complex if you come across Earthstriker’s Aspect which is recommended in our gear section above. This guarantees an Overpower that deals extra damage after swapping 8 times allowing us to plan our huge Hammer of the Ancients. Once this aspect is acquired, make sure we’re assigning Lunging Strike to the Dual-Wield Weapons, Hammer of the Ancients can’t be assigned it stays on the Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons, but we change our assignment for Charge to two-handed slashing weapon so we get yet another weapon swap letting us reach this bonus faster for more efficient demon slaying.

Berserking

Berserking is a unique status effect for the Barbarian class. When it triggers, we will gain a damage multiplier and movement speed for a certain amount of time. We can increase the value of this damage buff through various skills, passives, and aspects, as well as through the paragon board once we move into the endgame. While leveling, we will be triggering this status pretty reliably through Battle Fervor whenever we hit something with Charge. We are also able to enter it on-demand through either War Cry or our ultimate Wrath of the Berserker. Lastly, we have a chance to enter it early on whenever we critically strike with Lunging Strike, thanks to Combat Lunging Strike. Our key passive, Unconstrained, provides us with a substantial buff to this status, so we will want to be in it as often as possible while fighting.

Which Elixir Should You Use?

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. We recommend using Elixir of Advantage for the attack speed or Elixir of Resource but while leveling, any Elixir will do, as they all provide a 5% to 8% increase to your experience gains, making you level that much faster.

Return to the Alchemist again every 5 to 10 levels to upgrade your healing potion. The extra healing they provide will be essential to surviving as you advance.

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Season 8 Updates

For a complete overview of Season 8, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes coming with the Season of TBD, please check out our Season Hub!

Season 8 brings some new updates to the Barbarian. Below are the changes related to this build:

• Hammer of the Ancients damage increased from 90% to 98% and fury cost reduced from 35 to 30

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Difficulty & Endgame

Once you hit level 60 with this build, you will be ready to tackle harder difficulties as you transition into more challenging content. Make sure to pick one of our recommended Endgame Builds to continue the journey. Additionally, we recommend keeping your Obols until you reach maximum level (60), then spend them on a weapon to help kickstart your preferred endgame build.

Changelog

• April 25th 2025: Reformatted and updated for Season 8
• March 31st 2025: Skill tree recommendations updated
• January 19th 2025: Tooltips and Seasonal section updated for Season 7
• January 16th 2025: Build updated for Season 7.
• October 3rd 2024: Build updated for Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred.
• August 4th 2024: Guide updated for season 5 and patch 1.5.0
• May 7th 2024: Guide restructured, updated for season 4, added early paragon boards.
• April 4th 2024: Ownership of page transferred, page restructured for improved readability, explanations, and options.
• February 6th 2024: Adjustments to build.
• January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
• October 23rd 2023: Revamped build for Season 2.
• October 13th 2023: Build adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
• September 16th 2023: Leveling Guide revamp.