LoD HotA Barbarian Guide

1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cube Legendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!

2. This is a Legacy of Dreams build whose success is heavily dependent on this gem's rank. The first order of business is to equip a Legendary or Set item in every slot to take advantage of its power. Make sure to not have any Set Bonuses equipped or the gem will be nullified and you will deal no damage! Farm speed Greater Rifts (in under 5 minute clears) to find the items and get this gem as high as possible. Above Rank 25 ancient pieces of gear will give you even greater power.

3. Gamble from Kadala in this order:

1. Create a level 1 Barbarian and gamble for Band of Might
2. Nemesis Bracers, Mortick's Brace and Bracers of the First Men
3. Fury of the Ancients
4. Leoric's Crown
5. Aquila Cuirass
6. Goldwrap
7. Blackthorne's Jousting Mail
8. Convention of Elements and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac
   
   

4. Craft using Recipe 3 in Kanai's Cube in this order:

1. Two-Handed Mighty Weapons to get The Gavel of Judgment
2. Mighty Weapons to get Remorseless
3. Create a level 1 Witch Doctor and upgrade Maces to get Echoing Fury
4. Create a level 1 Demon Hunter and upgrade Swords to get In-geom
5. Rings to get Convention of Elements and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac
6. 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 2: Gloves of Worship
• Act 3: Avarice Band
• Bounty Turn In: Recipes for Sage's Journey and Cain's Destiny (for your follower)
  
  

6. There is one final required piece to piece to acquire, Squirt's Necklace. With amulets being so expensive to gamble and craft, we'll have to search for it to drop in Nephalem and Greater Rifts. It can drop on any class so try to group up with friends when possible to share your loot! 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).

7. Use Primordial Ashes in Kanai's Cube with the new Curiosity of Lorath Nahr recipe to obtain a free Crafted Primal Ancient. Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to focus matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend getting one of the following items:

• Remorseless
• Bracers of the First Men
• Band of Might

• Legacy of Dreams is the Legacy of Nightmares Set in a gem, which frees up two ring slots at the cost of removing a legendary gem. Due to the rings available to us this is a great trade-off to take.
• 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.
• Bane of the Stricken helps us kill the Rift Guardian. As long as you don't need more than 2 minutes to kill it you can equip another gem instead.
• Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard can be used to gain a shield buff in combination with Squirt's Necklace for double damage, toughness and insane healing. This last choice is very popular in group play or solo speed runs on medium Greater Rift levels!
• For Nephalem Rifts, Boon of the Hoarder is always a default include specifically due to its amazing synergy with Avarice Band.

• We take Hammer of the Ancients Smash as our main damage dealer. This skill has 1% increased Critical Hit Chance for every 5 Fury we have. As we are mostly at maximum Fury with Fury of the Ancients and The Gavel of Judgment we get around 162/5 = 32 % more Critical Chance, adding up to almost 100% Critical Hit Chance with proper gear. We choose the Fire rune so we can use Magefist and Cindercoat for their Fire damage buffs and 30% Resource Cost Reduction.
• We need Call of the Ancients to proc the legendary effect of Remorseless, Together as One rune provides permanent 50% damage mitigation
• Next we need a skill to proc Band of Might. Here we can choose between Furious Charge for a speed version or Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash to group up monsters tightly for massive Area Damage value in high Greater Rifts.
• Wrath of the Berserker is the second skill necessary to activate Remorseless and it also provides massive stat boosts and Crowd Control immunity.
• Battle Rage Bloodshed is a powerful damage choice as we are melee class and basically always critically hit with our Hammer of the Ancients Smash.
• The last skill slot is optional: Most builds use War Cry for toughness or Threatening Shout Falter for a damage debuff on monsters. During high Greater Rift pushes use Whirlwind Dust Devils to gather monsters efficiently and stack Bane of the Stricken on the Rift Guardian.

• 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).
• Boon of Bul-kathos for Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients Together as One up time. It is needed even with an equipped Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac and high Attack Speed as you need to reset both skills.
• Berserker Rage as we are almost always at maximum Fury with Ancients' Fury and The Gavel of Judgment.
• Other damage options include Brawler, Ruthless or Nerves of Steel as a defensive touch.

¹ Take Maximum Fury as it scales Hammer of the Ancients Critical Hit Chance.
² Add a bit of Vitality if you feel too squishy (a total of 750,000 Life is recommended).

The Altar of Rites is a tree that grants tremendous powers to your entire account in exchange for sacrifices. It requires you to farm Bounties, kill the Ubers, craft the Staff of Herding, and more. Completing all 26 of these tasks, along with sacrificing 6 Primal Ancients grants you extra Damage, Defense, Quality of Life, Increased Drops and 3 Potion Super Powers. Read the full guides on Unlocking the Altar and the Altar Mechanics by Raxxanterax and Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic mechanic!

Optimal Path

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
5. Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
6. Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
7. Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.

Select Follower

Always start by casting your War Cry, Call of the Ancients Together as One for Toughness and Fury as well as your Battle Rage Bloodshed for Critical Hit Chance and the additional damage wave. For solo gameplay you group up the monsters with your Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash and also proc your Band of Might in the process.

Cast Wrath of the Berserker before you start attacking with your main damage attack Hammer of the Ancients, ideally timed with your Fire Convention of Elements rotation for maximum damage output. Make sure to keep attacking to get plenty cooldown resets from Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac to keep up Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients.

This build is very good for Hardcore as it is super tanky with all the damage reducing buffs up. You have Legacy of Dreams, Band of Might, Call of the Ancients Together as One and Wrath of the Berserker Striding Giant from your Mortick's Brace for some insane damage reduction.

Just to be extra safe add the Nerves of Steel passive for a cheat death. You can also add Stone Gauntlets for an insane Armor boost or Aquila Cuirass for 50% damage reduction and you will be almost invincible!

Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!

• This build starts the damage rotation at Maximum Fury, which is generated by Furious Charge.
• During single target fights like on the Rift Guardian we stay at Maximum Fury all the time with The Gavel of Judgment and get up to 162 Fury (or even 174 if using a Mighty Belt with Maximum Fury).
• We get 1% Critical Hit Chance per 5 Fury we currently have, so at full Fury we get 162 / 5 = 32% more Critical Chance. In conjunction with Battle Rage Bloodshed and Wrath of the Berserker, we gain a total of 32 + 3 + 10 = 45% bonus Critical Hit Chance.
• With the 5% players get by default and another 5% we get from the Paragon System, this build reaches 55% Critical Hit Chance without any items. This allows us to drop some Critical Hit Chance on Rings to gain other stats like Cooldown Reduction or Damage Range.

• 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.