Back in Season 1, Furious Charge was at its absolute prime using The Legacy of RaekorSet. 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.
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
1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cubeLegendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!
2. Gather the 6 pieces of Immortal King's Call and 4 pieces of The Legacy of Raekor set. Each piece can be gambled from Kadala for Bloodshards. Do not salvage any duplicate pieces you find! Instead convert them to another part of the set with Recipe 4 in Kanai's Cube. If your last missing set piece is Immortal King's Boulder Breaker - don't gamble for it! Instead gamble for a cheap and easy item, like the Pants, and once again convert it with Recipe 4. If you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.
Create a level 1 Demon Hunter and upgrade Swords to get In-geom
Anything from the Gamble list in Step 3 that you haven't already acquired.
5. Do Bounties to acquire several important items for this build:
Act 1: Ring of Royal Grandeur
Act 2: Gloves of Worship
Act 3: Avarice Band
Bounty Turn In: Recipes for Sage's Journey and Cain's Destiny (for your follower)
6. At this point you can somewhat comfortably farm Nephalem or Speed Greater Rifts where you can find all the remaining items you need for different variants of the build. It's better to spend your materials improving your set pieces, getting ancient weapon etc. Finally you can spice up your season by doing some Ubers to craft Hellfire Amulet (recipe can be bought from Squirt the Peddler in Act 2).
1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Critical Hit Chance 4. Area Damage 5. Strength
Ring 2
Focus Band of Might
1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Critical Hit Chance 4. Area Damage 5. Strength
Bracers
Mortick's Brace Nemesis Bracers
1. Elemental Damage 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Strength 4. All Resistance 5. Vitality
Amulet
Squirt's Necklace The Flavor of Time
1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Elemental Damage 4. Critical Hit Chance 5. Strength
Belt
Immortal King's Tribal Binding
1. Strength 2. All Resistance 3. Life per Fury Spent 4. Life % 5. Vitality
Potion
Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid
For breaking walls to pull enemies and increase DPS
Gems
Bane of the Trapped is the most common damage gem, and as we are a melee character, the rank 25 effect will slow all enemies within 15 yards providing us a flat 1,6 damage multiplier.
Wreath of Lightning in combination with Standoff to give us more Furious Charge damage as well as Movement Speed.
Other popular choices are Bane of the Stricken for solo Rift Guardian killing, Boon of the Hoarder for Torment farming and Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard for a shield in combination with Squirt's Necklace for double dps, toughness and insane healing. We can not use Simplicity's Strength as Furious Charge is a Generator, but not a Primary Skill!
Skills
Furious Charge on the skillbar as our main damage dealer amplified by Vile Ward for a crazy area of effect damage.
Seismic Slam Rumble to reset our Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients cooldowns. Furthermore we use this skill to proc the Focus & Restraint damage buff. We use this skill over Ancient Spear Boulder Toss as it has a fast cast animation to further optimize Furious Charge damage output!
Wrath of the Berserker for an overall stat boost and Crowd Control immunity.
Call of the Ancients Together as One for a permanent 50% damage reduction in combination with the Immortal King's Call(4) Bonus.
Sprint Marathon for the movement and damage increase with Standoff.
As our last skill we usually choose Battle Rage Bloodshed for an overall damage boost.
Passives
Rampage is the strongest Barbarian passive there is with its 25% buff to total Strength. It provides a massive boost to both offense and defense (Armor).
Berserker Rage is used since we are almost always at maximum Fury due to our Furious Charge generating Fury.
Other damage options include Brawler, Ruthless and even Pound of Flesh for our Standoff damage increase. Use Nerves of Steel or Relentless as a defensive touch.
Paragon Points
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
1. Movement Speed
1. Critical Hit Damage
1. All Resistance
1. Area Damage
2. Strength
2. Critical Hit Chance
2. Life %
2. Pickup Radius
3. Vitality1
3. Cooldown Reduction
3. Armor
3. Resource Cost Reduction
4. Maximum Fury2
4. Attack Speed
4. Life Regeneration
4. Life per Hit
1 Add a bit of Vitality if you feel too squishy (aim for around 500,000 to 800,000 Life). 2 Not really needed as your Fury pool is big enough to keep Wrath of the Berserker up easily with the Immortal King's Call(4) Bonus and Seismic Slam Rumble.
Follower
Patch 2.7.0 revamped the follower system giving all 3 hirelings new powers and the emanate system. The first thing you should do is read our complete follower guide and remember the key takeaways:
The emanation system allows followers to share certain legendary and set powers with you. The most important ones are: The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band, Sage’s Journey and Cain’s Destiny. Click the guide above for the full list.
Follower’s powers are based on their main stat (maxed at 25.000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10.000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
Guardian's Jeopardy(3) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.
Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.
With these in mind, let’s get into our recommendations for this build. Select Follower
T16 Enchantress
T16 Enchantress
For T16 we recommend this Enchantress setup because she is the only follower that gives Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to spam your abilities more. Since this is T16 content, she’ll stay alive with Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard and use Hand of the Prophet to gain all skills. This will give us Cooldown Reduction, Elemental Damage, Reduced Damage from Ranged Attacks, Armor, Attack Speed, and a Cheat Death. Stat Priorities:Since we do not have the immortality focus, we need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.
Intelligence > Vitality > Life % > Armor > All Resistance > Life Per Hit > Attack Speed.
Key Items:
The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
Nemesis Bracers: For extra Elites, Death’s Breaths and In-geom procs.
Avarice Band: For the insane pickup radius.
Ring of Royal Grandeur: To complete our sets.
Gloves of Worship: For 10 Minute Shrine Buffs.
Sage’s Journey: For double Death’s Breaths.
Cain’s Destiny: For 25% more Greater Rift Keystones.
GR Pushing Scoundrel
For Greater Rift Pushing we recommend this Scoundrel setup for the Critical Hit Chance from Anatomy, 10% increased damage from Piercing Shot, and the insane Critical Hit Chance cloud from Night’s Veil. Don't choose either of the first skill options as they apply crowd controls that we want to avoid. If you accidentally select one, you'll either have to live with it or make a new character to fix it as there is no way to de-select a follower skill :(. Stat Priorities:Since we have the immortality token, we do not need to stack survivability on our Scoundrel. Dexterity > Attack Speed. Key Items:
The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.
Gameplay
Always start by casting your Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients Together as One or else you will not be doing any damage due to the Immortal King's Call(6) Bonus. After casting your Battle Rage and Sprint Marathon start blasting with Furious Charge. Cast your Seismic Slam Rumble for damage and cooldown resets. Aim for large groups of monsters to maximize Vile Ward damage or have your supports pull them together for you in groups!
Hardcore
Not recommended but it can be done. Like in most Barbarian builds make sure to always stay with Band of Might and Nerves of Steel to never die!
Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!
Variants
Nephalem Rifts
Solo Greater Rift Push
Group
Torments low Paragon
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.
As you can see here, the supports in your group can double your damage gain from Standoff on top of what you are already getting from the normal additive damage buffs. When we divide 11.00 / 6.50 we get a total of 1.69 times more damage in a 4-Player group just from the Movement Speed buffs alone!
Battle Rage Bloodshed
A great offensive skill that has been reworked a lot in the past due to multiple bugs like double dipping some damage multipliers such as Elite damage and Physical Elemental damage.
Releases a 20 yard wave around your character every second.
Does not proc Area Damage and diminishes its effectiveness.
The damage is calculated from a sum of the critical hits performed during the last second.
The damage wave itself is not further amplified by any damage bonus, including Physical Elemental damage, as its damage calculation is based off of your hits, which are already buffed.
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.