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
- Great AoE Damage
- Semi-Ranged Playstyle
- Big Overpower crits
- Low single target damage
- Shout management
- Requires some endgame tempers to get to full power
To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.
Build Requirements
![Banished Lord's Talisman](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/static/d4/latest/images/icons/2DInventory_Amulets_41.webp)
![Ring of Red Furor](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/static/d4/latest/images/icons/2DInventory_Rings_91.webp)
![Hellhammer](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/static/d4/latest/images/icons/2DInventory_Maces_34.webp)
![Aspect of Sundered Ground](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/static/d4/latest/images/aspects/offensive.webp)
Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar
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
![](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Starting.png)
Warbringer
Rotate this board three times before attaching.
![](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Warbringer-2.png)
Carnage
Rotate this board twice before attaching
![](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/carnage-2.png)
Blood Rage
We will connect this board to the Northern side of Carnage. Do not rotate this board.
![](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/bloodrage-2.png)
Decimator
We will connect the next board to the Eastern side of Carnage. Rotate this board three times before attaching.
![](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Decimator-2.png)
Hemorrhage
We will attach this board to the Southern side of Carnage. Rotate this board three times before attaching.
![](https://static.icy-veins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/hemorrhage.png)
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 | ![]() | ![]() | – Each point of Fury generated while at Maximum Fury grants [X] Fortify |
Chest | ![]() | ![]() | – Gain [X] Armor, but your Evade has a 100% increased Cooldown |
Gloves | N/A | ![]() | – Every 25 seconds, your next Upheaval cast is guaranteed to Overpower and deals [10-25%] increased damage |
Pants | ![]() | ![]() | – 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 | ![]() | – 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 | ![]() | ![]() | – 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 | ![]() | ![]() | – After spending 100 Fury within 3 seconds, your next cast of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ring 2 | ![]() | ![]() | – 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 | ![]() | ![]() | – Upheaval ignites the ground, Burning enemies for an additional [X] damage over 3 seconds |
2-Handed Slashing Weapon | ![]() | ![]() | – Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10-25%] for 5 seconds |
Dual Wield Weapon 1 | ![]() | ![]() | – After swapping weapons 8 times, your next Non-Basic Skill will Overpower and deal [15-30%] increased Overpower damage |
Dual Wield Weapon 2 | ![]() | ![]() | – 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 |
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
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
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. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that only drop from The Pit. Be sure to check our Tempering guide, our Masterworking guide, as well as our guide about The Pit for more details about these topics.
Slot | Gear Affixes | Tempers |
Helm | 1. Maximum Life 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Needed Resistance | 1. Challenging Shout Cooldown Reduction ![]() 2. +Ranks to Concussion ![]() |
Chest | 1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Needed Resistance | 1. +Ranks to Concussion ![]() 2. Needed Resistance ![]() |
Gloves | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Lucky Hit Chance 3. Attack Speed | 1. +Ranks to Concussion ![]() 2. Damage While Berserking ![]() |
Pants | 1. Maximum Life 2. Strength. 3. Needed Resistance | 1. Challenging Shout Cooldown Reduction ![]() 2. +Ranks to Concussion ![]() |
Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Strength. 3. Fury Per Second | 1. Movement Speed ![]() 2. Stun Duration ![]() |
Amulet | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Movement Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance | 1. Leap Cooldown Reduction ![]() 2. Resource Generation with Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons ![]() |
Rings | 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Fury on Kill | 1. Damage to Distant Enemies ![]() 2. Resource Generation with Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons ![]() |
Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon | 1. Fury on Kill 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life | 1. Upheaval Size ![]() 2. Damage to Distant Enemies ![]() |
Two-Handed Slashing Weapon | 1. Fury on Kill 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life | 1. Upheaval Size ![]() 2. Damage to Distant Enemies ![]() |
Dual-Wield Weapons | 1. Overpower Damage 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life | 1. Upheaval Size ![]() 2. Damage While Berserking ![]() |
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.
Paragon Details
Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes | Effect |
![]() | – 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 |
![]() | – 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 |
![]() | – 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 |
![]() | – 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. |
![]() | – 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. |
![]() | – 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 |
![]() | – While Berserking, Critical Strikes increase your Attack Speed by 2%, up to +16% for 6 seconds |
![]() | – 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 |
![]() | – 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
- We start by going left and grabbing
Tenacity on our way up the board.
- 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.
- We head back down and right and pick up the rare node and its Magic nodes
Brawn for more physical damage.
- We complete the board by heading up the right side and connecting Warbringer.
Warbringer
- We start by swinging left and grabbing
Hungering Fury and some Magic Fury nodes around it for resource.
- 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.
- 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.
- Finally we finish the board by heading right and connecting Carnage.
Carnage
- The most complex and central board to many Barbarian builds, we start by rushing to glyph socket and slotting it
Ire.
- 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.
- Next we will swing around and grab the board’s namesake, the legendary
Carnage.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- We begin by heading straight up and rushing to the glyph socket while grabbing
Revel on the path.
- 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
- We make our way to the board’s namesake, the Legendary node
Blood Rage.
- 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
- Instantly rush the glyph socket and pick it up slotting in
Crusher.
- 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.
- 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
- Our easiest board in terms of which nodes to take. Start by rushing the glyph slot and socket in
Might.
- 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.