Upheaval Barbarian Endgame Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 4)

Build Introduction

Welcome to the guide for the Upheaval Barbarian! If you like to sunder the earth beneath your enemy’s feet and crush demons with rocks from half a screen away, this is the build for you.

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

Optional Uniques

Banished Lord’s Talisman

Ring of Red Furor

Hellhammer

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Aspect of Sundered Ground

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Skill Bar Setup for the Upheaval Build (Order does not matter)

Upheaval Leap Wrath of the Berserker Challenging Shout Rallying Cry War Cry

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.

Weapon Technique and Weapon Selection

For the Upheaval build, we will be focused using the Technique of Two-Handed Axes for the bonus damage to Vulnerable enemies.

Barbarians have an unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills:

• Upheaval – Your 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon
• Leap – Your 2-Handed Slashing Weapon
• Lunging Strike – Dual-Wield Weapons

Paragon Board

We recommend using these Legendary Nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame and further into The Pit. Note that each glyph’s effect is listed as it were a max-level 21 Glyph.

Starting Board

Warbringer

Rotate this board three times before attaching.

Carnage

Rotate this board twice before attaching

Blood Rage

We will connect this board to the Northern side of Carnage. Do not rotate this board.

Decimator

We will connect the next board to the Eastern side of Carnage. Rotate this board three times before attaching.

Hemorrhage

We will attach this board to the Southern side of Carnage. Rotate this board three times before attaching.

To view the entire paragon board in full CLICK HERE

Legendary Aspects and Codex Power

Below you will find all of the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for this build. Remember that with Patch 1.4.0 all Legendary powers can be added into your Codex once you salvage or extract the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons as you could in previous seasons but now you have the option to upgrade these affixes if you find a higher roll of that affix. Let us go over what aspects you will need.

Slot	Gems	Aspect/Unique	Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Numbing Wrath	– Each point of Fury generated while at Maximum Fury grants [X] Fortify
Chest	Royal Ruby	Juggernaut’s Aspect	– Gain [X] Armor, but your Evade has a 100% increased Cooldown
Gloves	N/A	Aspect of Sundered Ground	– Every 25 seconds, your next Upheaval cast is guaranteed to Overpower and deals [10-25%] increased damage
Pants	Royal Ruby	Tibault’s Will	– You deal [10-20%] increased damage while Unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource
Boots	N/A	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
Amulet	Royal Diamond	Banished Lord’s Talisman	– After you spend 275 of your Primary Resource, your next Core Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. Your critical strikes that Overpower deal [20-60%] increased damage.
Ring 1	Royal Diamond	Ring of Red Furor	– After spending 100 Fury within 3 seconds, your next cast of Hammer of the Ancients, Upheaval or Death Blow within 5 seconds is a guaranteed Critical Strike and deals [10-30%] bonus Critical Strike Damage
Ring 2	Royal Diamond	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	– Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [1.0-2.0] seconds per nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 6 seconds
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	Royal Ruby	Hellhammer	– Upheaval ignites the ground, Burning enemies for an additional [X] damage over 3 seconds
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	Royal Ruby	Accelerating Aspect	– Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10-25%] for 5 seconds
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Royal Ruby	Earthstriker’s Aspect	– After swapping weapons 8 times, your next Non-Basic Skill will Overpower and deal [15-30%] increased Overpower damage
Dual Wield Weapon 2	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Inner Calm	– Deal [5-10%] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds.

Gems

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

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Ruby for bonus Overpower damage	Royal Ruby for increased maximum life	Royal Diamond for all resistances

For your jewelry, it may be necessary to change the Royal Diamond for another gem for a specific type such as Royal Sapphire to ensure all of your resistances are capped at 70%

Elixirs

When in town you can visit the Alchemist to craft helpful elixirs which will provide a special effect and increase your experience gain. Crafting has been simplified in Patch 1.4.0, and there are fewer specific flowers to harvest; instead, almost all herbs in the world drop as Bundles of Dried Herbs, allowing you to craft the Elixirs you want. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. 

For this Upheaval build, we recommend Elixir of Advantage for the increased attack speed to spam more Upheaval ‘s at our foes. Craft the highest value Elixir of Advantage you can to get the most attack speed possible.

Gear, Stats, Tempering and Masterworking

With all of these new systems in mind, let us dive into what stats we want on gear, what tempers we would like, and what stat we would prefer to be pumped either through a Greater Affix or through Masterworking. Affixes that are bolded in yellow are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. The names of the tempering manuals you need to apply the affixes will be listed next to the affixes in parenthesis.

Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempers
Helm	1. Maximum Life 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Needed Resistance	1. Challenging Shout Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy 2. +Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control
Chest	1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Needed Resistance	1. +Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control 2. Needed Resistance Natural Resistance
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Lucky Hit Chance 3. Attack Speed	1. +Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control 2. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse
Pants	1. Maximum Life 2. Strength. 3. Needed Resistance	1. Challenging Shout Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy 2. +Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Strength. 3. Fury Per Second	1. Movement Speed Natural Motion 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Control
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Movement Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance	1. Leap Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Motion 2. Resource Generation with Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons Weapon Attunement — Barbarian
Rings	1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Fury on Kill	1. Damage to Distant Enemies Natural Finesse 2. Resource Generation with Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons Weapon Attunement — Barbarian
Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	1. Attack Speed 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. Upheaval Size Furious Augments 2. Damage to Distant Enemies Natural Finesse
Two-Handed Slashing Weapon	1. Attack Speed 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. Upheaval Size Furious Augments 2. Damage to Distant Enemies Natural Finesse
Dual-Wield Weapons	1. Attack Speed 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. Upheaval Size Furious Augments 2. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse

Rotation and Playstyle

Let’s examine our skills and how we’ll use them to carve a path through the demonic hordes in our way

• Engage with Leap
• Generate Fury through your Rallying Cry and Leap
• Spend Fury with Upheaval
• Use Wrath of the Berserker against bosses and tough elites
• Use Challenging Shout whenever you need the defense to survive encounters

Unique Items

Here you will find the uniques useful to this build. Let’s dive in!

• Tibault’s Will – A strong offensive option for our pants slot. You will be a bit squishier losing Aspect of Bul-Kathos but your damage will improve a lot.
• Ring of Red Furor – A powerful ring that allows our Upheavals to hit huge overpowers. This will replace the ring using Bold Chieftain’s Aspect once you acquire it.
• Hellhammer – The mace build just for Upheaval. Adding ranks to it and leaving burning ground and providing a rare damage reduction affix on your weapon.
• Banished Lord’s Talisman – Even with the nerfs to this item in Patch 1.4.0 it is still worth using here to ensure more Upheaval overpowers for big damage

Uber Uniques

If you are fortunate enough to acquire some uber uniques, they can be very useful to this build. If an uber unique is NOT listed, it does not provide anything meaningful for this build and is not used.

• Harlequin Crest – The most famous helm in all of Diablo 4. This will replace your helm with Aspect of Numbing Wrath and provide more ranks for Upheaval and powerful damage and cooldown reduction.
• The Grandfather – An extremely powerful two-handed slashing weapon that provides a massive increase to your damage causing your Upheavals to crunch demons to dust.
• Ring of Starless Skies – A ring that gives us potent damage and resource management. If you’re fortunate enough to find one, you will replace your other ring with Aspect of Unrelenting Fury and wear this paired with the Ring of Red Furor.

Season 4: Loot Reborn

Unlike past seasons there is no overarching theme for season 4 as Blizzard are focused on the absolutely massive loot overhaul which is sure to change the game in big ways. There will also be a reputation to be gained with the new Ironwolves during Helltides and this faction grants several tempering manuals and even a resplendent spark! Below we will list some changes relevant to the Upheaval Barbarian beyond the affix changes, tempering, greater affixes, and masterworking.

• Barbarian’s innate 10% Damage Reduction has been removed
• Banished Lord’s Talisman has updated visuals and sounds to indicate that your next Core Skill will Overpower. Reduced the number of resources needed to guarantee an overpower to 275 from 300 and reduced the damage bonus from 80-120% to 20-60%.
• Tibault’s Will damage increase while Unstoppable reduced from 20-40% to 10-20% and the damage increase persists for 1 second longer after being Unstoppable.
• Unbridled Rage ‘s damage bonus has been reduced from 135% to 100%
• Marshal‘s bonus cooldown reduction has been reduced from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Two-Handed Axe Technique’s damage to vulnerable enemies has been reduced from 15% to 10%
• Blood Rage damage bonus reduced from 25% to 10% and now caps at 30%
• Crusher‘s additional overpower damage bonus reduced from 30% to 20%
• Aspect of Sundered Ground has been reworded for clarity. No functional change. Now reads “Every 25 seconds, your next Upheaval cast is guaranteed to Overpower and deals 10-25%x increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when Upheaval Overpowers a Boss or an Elite enemy.
• Earthstriker’s Aspect‘s overpower damage bonus reduced from 35-50% to 15-30%

Advanced Information

Mechanics and Playstyle

This build uses Leap for mobility and to get around as well as swapping to our other weapon so that when we then use our Upheaval we’re swapping weapons for Earthstriker’s Aspect to get more overpowers. The tempers will allow us to be farther away from other enemies than before. We want to guarantee as many Overpowers for our Upheaval as possible. Spending resources will charge up our Ring of Red Furor so we get guaranteed critical hits and then smash for big damage.

Berserking

Berserking is a way for us to gain damage, damage reduction, and resource generation, and is something we will be able to maintain an extremely high uptime. Always keep in mind, that if you need to enter the Berserking state and don’t have Leap off cooldown, you can trigger it on demand via Wrath of the Berserker, which is our ultimate of choice.

Defensive Aspects

We will be able to easily cap our armor with the changes needed to cap at 9,230 armor for all content using the Juggernaut’s Aspect. We can further increase our toughness using Aspect of Bul-Kathos when we leap into the fray. Upheaval is in a unique position to have some damage reduction as an affix as well on our weapon of choice the Hellhammer as we will gain damage reduction against the enemies it burns. Defensiveness is harder to come by in Patch 1.4.0 so this is much appreciated.

Tempering and Masterworking

Season 4 brings us an incredible shift in how gear and itemization are done. It is the major rework for Patch 1.4.0 and will affect the game beyond Season 4’s confines. Let’s take a look.

Perhaps the biggest change is the number of affixes on items. Normal items have no affixes, Magic Items have 1 affix, Rare Items have 2 affixes, Legendary Items have 3 affixes, and Unique Items have 4 affixes. Even if you use your Codex of Power to apply a Legendary Aspect onto a Rare Item, it will still only have 2 affixes. This means for Season 4 and beyond, barring any patches, Legendary Items will be superior in all slots at the end-game.

Additionally, a new feature is being introduced on Ancestral Legendary Items called a Greater Affix which rolls a stat slightly higher than the normal ranges. An item can have 1, 2, or even 3 Greater Affixes which makes the hunt for more powerful items more exciting than ever before.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, are the Tempering system and Masterworking. On any Rare or Legendary Item, you are able to add a new affix to it, some of which are exclusive to the Tempering System. If the item is Ancestral, you can add two new affixes to it this way, bringing the total affixes that can appear on an Ancestral Legendary to 5! Unfortunately, Unique Items cannot be tempered and cannot have any additional affixes added to them. However, they can still be enhanced through the Masterworking system, which we will get into more detail about below. 

Once an item has all of its Tempering Slots filled out and is of Ancestral quality, you can use new crafting materials found in The Pit to enhance the items power similar to how the old Blacksmith enhancements functioned prior to Patch 1.4.0. The big differences are, that there are now 12 upgrade slots per item instead of only 5, and on upgrades number 4, 8, and 12, one of the affixes on the item will be chosen at random and increased by a large amount instead of the typical 5% increase per level. The same affix can be chosen multiple times and in most cases, you will want the same affix on a piece of gear to be chosen on all three levels during Masterworking.

Paragon Details

Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes	Effect
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets – Additional bonus once 25 Dexterity has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: When an enemy is damaged by you, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy
Wrath	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [15%] increased Critical Strike Damage – Additional bonus once 25 Dexterity has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: Skills that Critically Strike generate 3 Fury
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while Berserking – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: While Berserking, you take 10% reduced damage from Elites
Crusher	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while wielding a Mace – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: While wielding a Mace, you deal x20% increased Overpower damage.
Marshal	– Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: After casting a Shout Skill, the active Cooldown of every other Non-Shout Skill is reduced by 2 seconds.
Might	– Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s radius: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed Weapons
Carnage	– While Berserking, Critical Strikes increase your Attack Speed by 2%, up to +16% for 6 seconds
Decimator	– Each time you make enemy Vulnerable, your damage is increased by 10% for 5 seconds. Overpowering a Vulnerable enemy grants an additional x10% bonus for 5 seconds
Blood Rage	– Killing a Bleeding enemy has a 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. Your damage is increased by x10% of your Damage While Berserking bonus, up to a maximum of x30%

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.

Important Notes

• Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the correct orientation to match the images shown below.
• Attach the boards in the order shown as bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order
• Additional bonuses on Rare Glyphs may not be obtainable until they gain the increased radius at level 15.

Starting Board

1. We start by going left and grabbing Tenacity on our way up the board.
2. We head right for the glyph socket and slot in Exploit and begin grabbing the Dexterity nodes as well as the two rare nodes in its radius Iron Strength and Raw Power.
3. We head back down and right and pick up the rare node and its Magic nodes Brawn for more physical damage.
4. We complete the board by heading up the right side and connecting Warbringer.

Warbringer

1. We start by swinging left and grabbing Hungering Fury and some Magic Fury nodes around it for resource.
2. We then rush the glyph socket and slot in Wrath and grab enough dexterity to unlock its secondary effect. We pick up Conditioned and some all resist nodes around it for toughness and finally grab Raw Power for more damage.
3. We swing back to the left side of the board and grab Fire Resilience and some Magic nodes around it for their Maximum Life and Elemental Resistance.
4. Finally we finish the board by heading right and connecting Carnage.

Carnage

1. The most complex and central board to many Barbarian builds, we start by rushing to glyph socket and slotting it Ire.
2. We grab as much strength around it as we can, including the rare nodes Brash and Fierce as well as some surrounding Magic nodes for Damage While Berserking and defensive reduction against close enemies.
3. Next we will swing around and grab the board’s namesake, the legendary Carnage.
4. Our first path on this board will take is north after the glyph has been activated and we will grab the tried and true Enraged and its 3 Magic Damage While Berserking nodes. We will connect Blood Rage at the north gate and come back to this board later.
5. After finishing the Blood Rage board, we will swing right from the Carnage node and grab Berserker and its surrounding Magic nodes before heading off the board to the right and connecting Decimator.
6. Finally after finishing the Decimator board, we will simply travel down the path from the Carnage node to the south and connect the Hemorrhage board.

Blood Rage

1. We begin by heading straight up and rushing to the glyph socket while grabbing Revel on the path.
2. With the glyph socket unlocked, slot in Marshal and start grabbing the strength nodes around it to activate its secondary effects. We head up and grab Grit and exit the radius to the north
3. We make our way to the board’s namesake, the Legendary node Blood Rage.
4. We make one last stop to the top left of the board and grab Enraged and a cluster of Magic nodes nearby to enhance both our Berserk duration and damage while berserking and then we had back to the Carnage board.

Decimator

1. Instantly rush the glyph socket and pick it up slotting in Crusher.
2. We’ll grab as much strength in the radius as we can, be sure not to forget Arrogance and Demolish as the rare nodes within the radius as well as some Rare damage reduction nodes.
3. Finally we finish this board out by heading for the board’s namesake and legendary node, Decimator before heading back to the Carnage board.

Hemorrhage

1. Our easiest board in terms of which nodes to take. Start by rushing the glyph slot and socket in Might.
2. Finish off by grabbing all the strength nodes nearby to activate its secondary effects including both rare nodes Grit and Butcher and with that we’ve spent our final paragon points and are finished!

Obol Gambling

A final point on acquiring gear in Season 4 and beyond 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. With Patch 1.4.0 when a level 100 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 925 item power, the highest in the game, allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need.

Check out our Obol Gambling Tool HERE!

Changelog

• May 5th, 2024: Ownership of page transferred, guide restructured and updated for season 4
• February 5th 2024: Changed Marshal Glyph to Disembowel.
• January 30th 2024: Marshal Glyph changes.
• January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
• October 22th 2023: Build revamped for Season 2.
• October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
• August 12th 2023: Full build update and review for Season 1.
• August 8th 2023: Added notes about Patch 1.1.1.
• August 5th 2023: Malignant Hearts and Paragon updated for clarity.
• July 23rd, 2023: Adjusted Aspects for performance in Season 1.
• July 19th, 2023: Season of the Malignant section added.
• July 18th, 2023: Reviewed and altered build with Season One Patch Notes.