Upheaval Barbarian Endgame Build For Diablo 4 (Season 3)

Build Introduction

This is your comprehensive guide for building a ground pounding Barbarian who slams his weapon into the earth, sending shockwaves of stone at the faces of their enemies. Welcome to our Upheaval Endgame build. This build focuses delivering devastating AoE attacks with Upheaval to crush the hordes of hell, their bodies shattering against the non-stop attacks while you remain in a trance as a berserker on the battlefield.

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

Optional Uniques

Banished Lord’s Talisman

Ring of Red Furor

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Bold Chieftain’s Aspect

Aspect of Limitless Rage

Season of the Construct

Season 3 Patch Updates

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

Passives

• Brute Force
  • Overpower damage decreased from 15% to 8% per rank.
• Unconstrained
  • Berserking damage bonus increased from 60% to 100%.
• Weapon Expertise
  • Expertise leveling has been cut by 50%.

Paragon

• Marshal
  • Now reduces the cooldown of every non-Shout skill by 4 seconds, instead of every other Shout skill by 1.2 seconds.

Aspects

• Aspect of Limitless Rage
  • Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Uniques

• Ring of Red Furor
  • 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

Please note that since this written build guide is ever-evolving and videos cannot easily be updated, the below video should serve as more of a guideline, where as the written guide will always have the most accurate information.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

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

Upheaval Lunging Strike Iron Maelstrom 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.

Priority Skills	Cluster
Lunging Strike Level 1, Enhanced Lunging Strike, Combat Lunging Strike	Basic Skill
Upheaval Level 5, Enhanced Upheaval, Furious Upheaval	Core Skill
Rallying Cry Level 1, Enhanced Rallying Cry, Tactical Rallying Cry, Imposing Presence Level 1, Martial Vigor Level 3, Challenging Shout Level 1, Enhanced Challenging Shout	Defensive Skill
War Cry Level 1, Enhanced War Cry, Mighty War Cry, Booming Voice Level 3, Raid Leader Level 3, Aggressive Resistance Level 1, Prolific Fury Level 3,	Brawling Skill
Pit Fighter Level 3, No Mercy Level 3, Thick Skin Level 1, Defensive Stance Level 3, Counteroffensive Level 3	Weapon Mastery Skill
Iron Maelstrom, Prime Iron Maelstrom, Supreme Iron Maelstrom, Heavy Handed Level 3, Wallop Level 3, Brute Force Level 3	Ultimate Skill
Unconstrained	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. 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.

As 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 how to switch it. For mouse and keyboard users, you can access this by pressing the middle mouse button.

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

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:

• Upheaval – Bludgeoning
• Lunging Strike – Slashing
• Iron Maelstrom – Bludgeoning

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.
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[3.85]% 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.
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.
Disembowel	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal +[8%] increased Bleeding damage. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Killing a Bleeding enemy has a 10% chance to reduce the cooldown of your Non-Ultimate active skills by 1 second.
Bone Breaker	– Every 12 seconds, your next Skill is guaranteed to Overpower.
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.

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. 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.
3. Take the two Rare Nodes, Raw Power and Iron Strength, these will gives us another Physical damage boost and some flat armor increases.
4. Now down towards Tenacity at the bottom left of the Glyph radius, these Magic and Rare nodes will grant us increases in Life and Armor.
5. Head to the top of the board and attach our next Paragon Board, Bone Breaker.

Bone Breaker

1. Go up and to the right pathway for a short run to grab the Rare node Bludgeoner. This will increase our Overpower and Two-handed damage.
2. Now go straight to the open Glyph slot and insert Might. 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.
3. Next we will take both Rare Nodes inside the Glyph radius, Vigor and Brutality, these Nodes will give us increased Overpower and Damage Reduction against Healthy Enemies.
4. Head towards the left hand side of the board and complete the pathway to the left-hand connection point, this will be used for later .
5. Path to the top of the board and complete the connection point there, picking up the second Tenacity node along the way.
6. Before you move to the next board, finish the pathing to the right and select the nodes Bulwark and the Legendary Node Bone Breaker.
7. Finally, use the top connection point to attach the next Paragon Board, Blood Rage.

Blood Rage

1. Path towards the open Glyph slot picking up Enraged along the pathway for the Berserking damage and duration.
2. Head to the Legendary Node Blood Rage and take it. This will help with our Berserking sustain and a small damage boost.
3. Next go to the Glyph slot and insert Crusher. This Glyph will boost our damage while using a mace and increase our Overpower damage.
4. Take the both Rare Nodes, Grit and Revel, these will offer us both Damage and Damage Reduction against Bleeding Enemeis. Be sure to pick the correct Magic Nodes surrounding each of them.
5. Stack the Strength nodes you see above to benefit the most from our Glyph.
6. Now Return to the Bone Breaker Paragon Board and take the connection point on the left hand side. Attach the Paragon Board Carnage.

Carnage

1. Take the pathway towards the Glyph slot and pick up the Rare Node Enraged and only take the Magic Nodes shown above.
2. Now insert Disembowel into the Glyph slot. This Glyph will assist with our Non-ultimate Cooldowns and damage against bleeding enemies.
3. Inside the Glyph radius take both Rare Nodes, Brash and Fierce, these Nodes will grant you an increased Berserking Damage and give you an increased Damage Reduction for Close Enemies.
4. Finally, Path towards the top of the Paragon Board and attach Decimator.

Decimator

1. Take the Rare Node Brawn along the pathway to the 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 two Rare Nodes, Demolish and Arrogance, these Nodes will boost our offenses and defenses against Vulnerable Enemies.
4. Path to the left hand side of the board and attach the Paragon Board, Warbringer.

Warbringer

1. Take the pathway up and get the Rare Node Core Reserve, for the bonus Fury and Maximum Life.
2. Now take the path to the open Glyph slot and insert Exploit, this will increase our damage to Vulnerable Enemies. Be sure to take the needed Dexterity Nodes within the Glyph Radius.
3. Lastly, take both the Rare Nodes, Conditioned and Raw Power, for the Resistances and increase to Physical Damage.
4. This completes the Paragon Tree for this build.

Paragon board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Mechanics and Playstyle

The opening mechanic on the Upheaval build can vary depending on what you are facing, but the main idea behind the build is to keep your Fury up with your main shout Rallying Cry, use War Cry to start Berserking and spam Upheaval. Lunging Strike will be woven into our attacks to provide a heal and any critical strikes will trigger Berserking. You will need learn to time this out, but as your Critical Strike Chance reaches over 50% you should be causing this effect quite often. Additionally, we have several other Overpower mechanics to help create some massive damage from our Upheaval, these include:

• The Legendary Node Bone Breaker
• The Unique amulet, Banished Lord’s Talisman, which after you spend 300 Fury your next Upheaval will Overpower.

With Upheaval gaining so many advantages to do an Overpower strike, our skill will also be boosted through our Skill and Gear selection which will result in some truly devastating damage.

Berserking

We trigger our Berserking state using War Cry and while we do have some very good Cooldown reduction for our Shouts, the secret to keeping us in Berserk is 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.

Iron Maelstrom

While the section above covers the main skill rotation and shouts, we also have included the Ultimate skill Iron Maelstrom. This skill is an amazing screen wide attack with a huge boost to Critical Strike Chance and Damage. This enhancement allows us to reduce the cooldown by one second every time we swap weapons. If we combine this perk with a decent amount of Cooldown from the rest of our gear, you will be able to keep your Iron Maelstrom at a relatively low cooldown and crush enemies regularly with it.

Now that you understand the skill rotation and benefits from only using the build’s main skills, let’s look at some of the additional benefits our skills provide while using certain Legendary Aspects.

Defensive Aspects

There are two main Aspects that help us build our defenses up while smash the ground with Upheaval. The first is the Aspect of Might, with all of your Lunging Strike strikes, this 20% Damage Reduction is very easy to maintain. Next, we use the Aspect of Berserk Ripping in combination with Iron Blood Aspect. These two Aspects work hand in hand to keep enemies bleeding around you, and that increases our Damage Reduction based on those bleeding enemies. The Bleeding effect occurs automatically while you are Berserking, you don’t need to trigger anything or do anything special. Our Paragon Tree also includes lots of Damage Reduction bonus so we are quite tanky in this build.

Next is our Shouts, which boost our defensives and Maximum Life while they are active. This build uses several elements to keep our Shouts’ cooldown at a minimum and they should be available quite often through the flow of battle.

Overall, the playstyle for this build is very active. You will be constantly using your Shouts and spamming Upheaval. With a high Critical Strike Chance, you will stay in Berserking and rocket your Fury generation through the roof. Iron Maelstrom will be ready on a short cooldown and is very easy to reset as you play naturally. The most difficult part of playing this build is to remember to target packs of enemies with your Upheaval, requiring you to reposition quite regularly and aim your skills. Once you have mastered these components, this build will feel very smooth to play.

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. Basic Attack Speed 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 Upheaval 3. Attack Speed 4. Lucky Hit Chance 5. Strength
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. Berserking Duration 4. Needed Resistances
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2.  Rank Up Wallop 3. Damage Reduction 4. Damage Reduction while Injured 6. Movement Speed 7. Fury Cost Reduction
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Lucky Hit Chance 3. Overpower Damage 4. Resource Generation 5. Maximum Life 6. Critical Strike Damage
Weapons	1. Strength 2. Core Skill Damage 3. Overpower Damage 4. Critical Strike Damage 5. Damage to Close Enemies 6. Damage while Berserking

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 to Upheaval – This is self-explanatory.
2. Resource Generation – Any additional Fury generation allows us to keep our pool topped off and keep on spamming Upheaval.
3. Overpower Damage – This build is based on doing massive Overpower damage.

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 Upheaval 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 Upheaval 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	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]%.
Chest	Iron Blood Aspect	Gain [2.0-4.0%] Damage Reduction for each Nearby Bleeding enemy up to [10-20%] maximum.
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	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds.
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 second. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Banished Lord’s Talisman
Ring	Ring of Red Furor
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)	Aspect of Sundered Ground	Every 25 seconds, Upheaval is guaranteed to Overpower and deals 10–20% increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when Upheaval Overpowers a Boss or an Elite enemy
Slashing Weapon(200% bonus)	Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack speed by [15-25]% for 5 seconds.
Dual-wield weapon 1	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 2	Aspect of the Expectant	Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by [5-10]% up to 30%

Unique items

This build uses the Banished Lord’s Talisman, however, the option is always yours – a well-rolled Ancestral item will work as well.

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	Aspect of Disobedience goes to the Pant Slot
Melted Heart of Selig	No
Ring of Starless Skies	No
Doombringer	Yes	Aspect of the Expectant will be dropped
The Grandfather	Yes	Edgemaster’s Aspect will be moved to 1-handed and drop Aspect of the Expectant.
Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander	No

Gems

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

• Weapon: Royal Ruby for an increase in Overpower Damage.
• Armor: Royal Ruby for an increase to 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

• 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.