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Immortal King Charge Barbarian Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

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Introduction

Furious Charge Solo Push

Back in Season 1, Furious Charge was at its absolute prime using The Legacy of Raekor Set. The playstyle was completely different back then, mainly due to the original Dreadnought rune:

All enemies hit are pulled to your destination.

This effect allowed Furious Charge to act like a vacuum cleaner, dragging monsters along with it and pixelpulling them in the process. This playstyle was deemed too powerful and Dreadnought got changed to its current iteration with Patch 2.1.2 during Season 1.

The Charge Barbarian (cBarb) still always remained a solid build overall, as it is a very mobile and AoE heavy build due to the Vile Ward's mechanic. The build uses Furious Charge in combination with Standoff and Movement Speed buffs to deal damage.

It has been a very potent build to farm experience back in Patch 2.6.4 (Season 16) due to the massive Movement Speed buffs provided by supports. This is also a very fast-paced build for solo key farming and this iteration is one of the few hybrid builds combining two sets, namely Immortal King's Call (6) Bonus and The Legacy of Raekor (4) Bonus!

Very Mobile ✔
Easy to Gear ✔
Fast Paced Playstyle ✔
High Area of Effect Damage ✔

❌ Limited Item Choices
❌ Low Single Target Damage
❌ Band of Might Dependency
❌ Movement Speed Dependency

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • Immortal King's Call (6) Bonus for the damage buff and cooldown reducing mechanics.
  • The Legacy of Raekor (4) Bonus to be able to permanently Furious Charge a single target as well as getting all runes with a damage boost.
  • Ring of Royal Grandeur to get all the set bonuses we need.
  • Standoff for the crazy damage gain by the Movement Speed synergy which made this build viable for group play in the first place.
  • Vile Ward for crazy area of effect damage in good monster density.
  • Mortick's Brace mainly for the healing and toughness runes on Wrath of the Berserker.
  • Optional items are Squirt's Necklace , Focus & Restraint or Convention of Elements for multiplicative damage and Band of Might for 80% damage reduction.

Season 30 Soul Shards

Soul Shards are powerful socketable items that initially dropped during Season 25 but they are returning for Season 30! There are 4 available for Weapons based on the Lesser Evils, with another 3 for Helmets based on the Prime Evils. They drop at Rank 0 and be upgraded three times with the brand new Hellforge Embers to unlock additional powers, or be used in the Kanai's Cube as Augments. Here's how they progress:

  • Rank 0: Soul Shards begin with a unique static Legendary Power. Creates a Rank 50 Augment.
  • Rank 1: Gives all powers from the normal gems. Creates a Rank 75 Augment.
  • Rank 2: Grants one additional powerful stat. Creates a Rank 100 Augment.
  • Rank 3: Unlocks 1 of 3 bonus Legendary Powers unique to that Soul Shard. Creates a Rank 125 Augment.

Warning: Leoric's Crown and Broken Crown do not work with Soul Shards!

Read our Soul Shards Guide written by Chewingnom for full details on how they work. What you should prioritize on them for Solo Pushing is the following:

  1. The Correct Soul Shard & Rank 3 Power
    The best shards for Solo Pushing are:
    • Helmets: We want to use Sliver of Terror for the massive damage buff from our abilities on cooldown. For the Rank 3 power take the Ring of Fire to unleash a devastating AoE blast for big leaderboard pushes!
    • Weapons: We want to use Essence of Anguish for the Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction. For the Rank 3 power take the 50% increased Poison Damage, which actually applies to all damage done! Hint: Make sure to get a Poison Damage Range on your Weapon so it can proc the shard automatically.
  2. The Rank 2 Stat
    The stats that come from the second upgrade are not equal. Here's what we're looking for on them:
    • Helmets: We want either Main Stat for damage or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction to survive. Avoid Armor and All Resistance as their stat ranges are far too low compared to the other options.
    • Weapons: We want either % Damage or Physical Damage to boost our character's power the furthest. We want to avoid Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance as their stat ranges are too low compared to the others.
  3. The Stat Ranges on the Rank 1 and 2 Powers
    This is just icing on the cake because the ranges will not make or break your build. Still, look for the Soul Shards with the best stat ranges, especially on the offensive stats.

For the other game modes, other Soul Shards can be used. Check the Variants below to see what's used there.

What about extra Soul Shards? Either salvage them for gems, or upgrade and use them in Kanai's Cube for Augments.

Global Stat Priorities

You do not need to pay much attention to Cooldown or Attack Speed Breakpoints for regular gameplay. The Immortal King's Call (6) Bonus in combination with the spender Seismic Slam Rumble and the Generator Furious Charge Stamina for massive Fury gain allows you to reset your Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients Cooldowns within seconds. For Speed Runs however it can make sense to go for around 40% Cooldown Reduction for Merciless Assault Breakpoints giving us 2 seconds back per target hit. With 40% the actual Furious Charge Cooldown is 6 seconds, which allows us to perma-charge 3 or more monsters. On top of that, The Legacy of Raekor (2) Bonus allows us to perma-charge a single target which means we can fight any number of enemies, except exactly two.

The main skill element and Elemental Damage bonus from your gear does not matter! Choose the element you have the best gear for (usually decided by the Amulet and Bracers slots). Make sure to adapt the Furious Charge rune accordingly to match your highest element. That means if you have Fire Damage on gear, use Battering Ram, for Cold use Cold Rush, for Lightning use Dreadnought and for Physical any other rune or the unruned Furious Charge.

A common misunderstanding by players is the urge to go for Physical element due to Battle Rage Bloodshed procs. This is not necessary as Bloodshed does not double dip! That means the elemental damage applies only once on the Furious Charge damage instance. The Battle Rage Bloodshed is based on that first damage instance but is not enhanced by Elemental damage again.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
Solo Greater Rift Push
Group
Solo T16

Concept
We stack up a lot of Movement Speed for your Standoff damage while also being able to move quickly with Furious Charge.

Gameplay
Keep up your Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients while moving from Elite pack to Elite Pack killing trash monsters on the way. Use Ignore Pain Bravado and Sprint on cooldown.

Setups
We add Ignore Pain Bravado for additional Movement Speed and damage. You can change this to any other skill you like for example Battle Rage or War Cry.
It is possible to drop Standoff for an In-geom at high paragon levels to ensure a permanent Furious Charge even when not hitting any monsters.
For group Torment farming we take Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band and The Flavor of Time back into the setup.

Solo GR Push Greater Rift

Concept
Blast & utilize your Area Damage in combination with the Vile Ward scaling to clear trash monsters while damaging Elites. Hope for an add boss like Saxtris and use Bane of the Stricken to get it down!

Gameplay
You need an open map with a monster type that has many small monsters or even summoners in it. Try to group in open spots so monsters can follow you. Keep up your Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients at all times and use Seismic Slam Rumble or Ancient Spear Boulder Toss to heal back up and reset cooldowns. Use The Flavor of Time for a crazy 60 second long Conduit Pylon to finish off Elites.

Setups
Not too much you can switch around here as the Set Slots are already fixed. You can switch in Ancient Parthan Defenders for crazy toughness when loads of small monsters are stunned around you. On the passive side you can also go with Nerves of Steel or Relentless if you struggle to survive.

cBarb Group Speeds Greater Rift

Concept
Support characters are the most important thing in this meta which is really refreshing as they can significantly buff you with their Movement Speed abilities and group up the monsters as fast as possible. This adds certain requirement cap to these runs, not just an auto attacking Rat Necromancer pet build! The base setup evolves around a zMonk, a zBarb and a Boss / Elite killer usually an Impale Demon Hunter or an AoV Crusader.

Gameplay
As the cBarb try to not lose your Furious Charge charges, that means you should not charge 2 monster consecutively. In many situations it is efficient to wait until the monsters are grouped before you Furious Charge in to maintain Charge stacks and maximize Vile Ward damage bonus in combination with Area Damage.
The zBarb can Ancient Spear Rage Flip Elites on top of each other so you can kill them together at the same time for more Area Damage as well as more Vile Ward stacks. It takes way less time to kill 2 yellow Elites together, than it would take killing them 1 by 1. Nothing is permanently frozen here like in Rat runs so the supports can do a lot more in terms of grouping and pulling enemies as fast as possible.

Same goes for the zMonk, you gotta be fast! Make sure that you are very close to cBarb when you use Breath of Heaven Zephyr because it has a small range. You want to be the first one in the new pull to get everything together before the cBarb charges in. Use your Dashing Strike after packs are finished (with In-geom buff) to get into position for the next pull very quickly. Communicate with your RGK to finish off last minions for In-geom up time.
The RGK tries to snipe Elites, finish off Minions and kills the Rift Guardian quickly. But most important of all: Have a lot of fun with your friends slaying demons!

Setups
Not too much you can switch around here as the set slots are already fixed. The only option to change would be Ancient Parthan Defenders for crazy toughness when loads of small monsters are stunned around you. Gem wise you can switch Wreath of Lightning to Bane of the Powerful or Zeis Stone of Vengeance for damage if you already have all the group Movement Speed buffs as these stack additively for Standoff.

For all the people interested here is a Gameplay Video.

Video

R1 Solo Charge Barb

Mechanics

Standoff

Battle Rage Bloodshed

Summary

  • Fast moving high damage playstyle.
  • Slow on bosses but awesome for killing trash monsters in a group.
  • Decent speed farm options for Torments as well and speed Greater Rifts.
  • Almost infinite damage scaling potential with Vile Ward.

Credits

Written by Rob. Introduction by Chewingnom.
Reviewed by Northwar & Raxxanterax.

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