MotE Seismic Slam Barbarian Guide

Last Updated: September 12th 2023

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Introduction

MotE Seismic Slam Solo Push

With Reapers of Souls release, Might of the Earth got introduced to the game and instantly became one of the strongest Barbarian builds out there for T6 farming. In conjunction with its supporting item Lut Socks, the build quickly earned its gimmicky "Leapquake" nickname.

While the set was originally intended for Earthquake builds, Seismic Slam got incorporated into Might of the Earth to create a new build variation using the set.

Unfortunately, while offering a very unique ranged playstyle, MotE Seismic Slam has never been the top dog on the Barbarian leaderboards, despite holding a decent potential with a (6) Bonus granting a whopping 20,000% damage multiplier since Season 16.

Most recently with Season 19, Fjord Cutter got reworked and Bracers of Destruction buffed. Season 23 offered unconditional MotE players the chance to shine with the addition of Set specific leaderboards!

This is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Seismic Slam can proc it. This is further enhanced by the high damage multiplier from Bracers of Destruction (see Mechanics) in combination with the crazy Attack Speed granted by Fjord Cutter, allowing for great burst damage. This guide will explain everything there is to know for you to master this unique ranged Barbarian and conquer the Might of the Earth leaderboards!

Flavourful ✔
Fast Paced ✔
Ranged Playstyle ✔
Have Fun Leaping Around! ✔

Static Playstyle
Limited Item Options
❌ Band of Might Dependency
❌ Damage Caps at 10 Monsters

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • The Might of the Earth (6) Bonus is where the majority of our damage comes from.
  • We add that up with Bracers of Destruction, Fury of the Vanished Peak and the relatively new Fjord Cutter to further increase the damage, attack speed and reduce resource costs.
  • Captain Crimson's Trimmings set is used for a great damage buff and the crazy cooldown reduction it provides for our Wrath of the Berserker (WotB).
  • Echoing Fury is nice to have for additional Attack and Movement Speed.
  • Mortick's Brace is a nice overall stat boost with Life per Fury Spent and additional toughness.
  • Convention of Elements for multiplicative damage and Band of Might for toughness.
  • Endless Walk for good offense and defense
  • Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac can be a nice alternative for cooldown reduction but you have to drop the damage multiplier from either Captain Crimson's Trimmings set or Convention of Elements to equip it.

Season 29 Paragon Cap

Season 29 brings several features, first the brand new Visions of Enmity mechanic. They are an optional and rewarding mini dungeon system where players slay monsters in quick succession of portals. These portals have a chance to spawn upon killing any monster in the open world and they hide many rewards for you to reap! Read the full guide on the Visions of Enmity Mechanics by Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic feature!

As if it wasn't enough, Season 29 also shakes things up with a Paragon Cap and a Paragon Distribution Twist! You can only assign a total of 800 Paragon Points to your character. Previously, you were only able to assign a total of 50 Paragon Points to each attribute within the Core, Defense, Offense and Utility categories, but now you can assign up to 200 in each attribute. Each category can only have 200 Paragon Points placed into them.

This forces you to make choices while also enabling crazy possibilities such as 200% Area Damage or 40% Cooldown Reduction! Note that Movement Speed now only grants 0.125% per point but can also go above the 25% Movement Speed cap from items. With that in mind, here is the Paragon Distribution you should follow for the build described in the main sections of the guide. Variants may differ, see below.

Season 29 Paragon Distribution
Seismic Slam Attack Speed Breakpoints

Global Stat Priorities

You want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Cooldown Reduction, Critical Hit Chance and Damage, Attack Speed, Area Damage as well as Cold Damage and Seismic Slam Damage. Make sure to optimize your Attack Speed to reach certain Breakpoints. A single 7% Attack Speed roll on your gear allows you to land on the 13 / 14 frames Breakpoints thanks to Echoing Fury.

Aim for around 55-60% Cooldown Reduction to ensure a decent Wrath of the Berserker uptime using Boon of Bul-kathos and potential complementary items like Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. Area Damage is still very decent in this build and should be stacked on items like Shoulders and Weapons if possible.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

GR Solo Speeds
GR Solo Push
Echoing Nightmare
Solo Push

Concept
Here we focus mainly on trash monsters while we damage and drag Elites along in open maps to finish them off with a sick Conduit Pylon enhanced by The Flavor of Time. Of course we have to add Bane of the Stricken to be able to kill the Rift Guardian.

Gameplay
Keep Battle Rage up at all times and create huge pulls by using Leap Call of Arreat. Run to create some distance for No Escape and Zei's Stone of Vengeance for an additional maximum 2,34x damage multiplier. Now attack the enemies with Seismic Slam Permafrost for massive Area Damage. Keep Wrath of the Berserker active as often as you can and avoid to move around to much to keep the offensive buff from Endless Walk.

Season 29 Paragon Distribution

Setups
Feel free to to drop Captain Crimson's Trimmings to take Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac for cooldown resets and add a Pride of Cassius together with Ignore Pain instead of Threatening Shout Falter for more toughness.

Mechanics

Bracers of Destruction

Summary

  • Lack of large AOE damage due to Bracers of Destruction limitations.
  • A half decent trash killer with nice benefits to the entire group with the different Shouts.
  • Fun and unique ranged Barbarian playstyle with Leap.
  • The Earthquake version of the build is not very viable at the moment.

The Seismic Slam build can be fun to play but is far behind the other top Barbarian builds like the Whirlwind Rend Barb. Let us hope we can get some nice additions to the set in future patches!

  • Put together the core items and acquire the full Wrath of the Wastes set.
  • Overall very powerful build that can be used to farm anything in the game without changing gear too much!
  • Very tanky and hardcore friendly especially with the Band of Might setup!
  • The strongest solo push build Barb currently has!
  • Easy to play the base version but difficult to master in Solo Pushes!

Credits

Written by Rob. Introduction by Chewingnom.
Reviewed by Northwar & Raxxanterax.
Shoutout to Rage for additional insights on mechanics and endgame push variants.
Updated by Rob.

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