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Raekor Boulder Toss Barbarian Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

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Introduction

Raekor Boulder Toss Solo Push
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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.

Later on The Legacy of Raekor got stripped of its original essence, causing the Charge Barbarian to only be playable using the IK set in conjunction with Raekor, since the Raekor (6) Bonus was reworked to allow Fury-spending attacks to deal tremendous amounts of damage by consuming Furious Charge stacks.

The Legacy of Raekor set was reworked again in Season 26 to be centered around Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear while retaining a similar playstyle, with Boulder Toss being the skill rune of choice for this set to shine.

This is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Boulder Toss as well as all the procs from The Legacy of Raekor (6) Bonus can proc it. The build and gameplay itself are easy to learn while still being very active, however when it comes to optimizing the setup especially in solo push, there are a lot of details to consider (see Mechanics). Moreover The Legacy of Raekor is one of the only sets in the game with no damage reduction, so it is a pretty squishy build in general. Let's get into it!

Very Mobile ✔
Fast Paced Playstyle
Semi-Ranged Playstyle
Easy to Get Starter Gear ✔

❌ Squishy
Slightly Clunky
❌ “Wall Pulling” Playstyle
❌ Band of Might Dependency

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • The Legacy of Raekor set provides massive damage and the ability to permanently Furious Charge a single target like the Rift Guardian to gain plenty of stacks. Furthermore having all runes of Furious Charge lets us reset our cooldown with Merciless Assault and instantly gain full Fury in large pulls with Stamina.
  • Our second highest damage multiplier is the The Three Hundredth Spear. It grants us a 200% damage multiplier on top of a 200% separate Attack Speed multiplier for Weapon Throw.
  • Arreat's Law grants us another 200% separate damage multiplier on top of increasing our Maximum Fury pool, which buffs Ancient Spear Boulder Toss damage even more.
  • Skular's Salvation is yet another damage multiplier for Ancient Spear Boulder Toss, our main damage skill, helping on Rift Guardians.
  • Band of Might is used for its tremendous 80% damage reduction and is procced by Furious Charge.

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 explosion to help us clear out large densities during the Rift. Hint: Make sure to get a Poison Damage Range on your follower's Weapon so it can stack the buff 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 Fire Damage to boost our character's power the furthest, although Critical Hit Chance is not too far behind. Avoid Attack Speed and % Damage because they only buff one of our two Weapons.
  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 want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Critical Hit Chance and Damage, Area Damage as well as Physical Damage and Ancient Spear Damage. Cooldown Reduction is however your priority as you need it on almost every piece of gear since maintaining Wrath of the Berserker as much as possible is essential for both damage output and mitigation as well as Crowd Control Immunity.

For toughness, we prioritize All Resistance since we are a Strength class which stacks Armor by default. A decent HP pool is recommended especially in Greater Rift Solo Push since Relentless and The Legacy of Raekor (4) Bonus synergize well together.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Speeds
GR Solo Push
Echoing Nightmare
Raekor Harpoon T16

Concept
In T16 farming, we take Squirt's Necklace for double damage. We add In-Geom to the setup to further reduce our cooldowns and permanently Furious Charge, even without enemies around. We use Rechel's Ring of Larceny and get Fear on Hit on our Helmet for the additional Movement Speed.

Gameplay
In this setup you have permanent uptime on Wrath of the Berserker by focusing on killing Elite packs. All of this guarantees that we easily generate Fury to spam Harpoon all around! Charge from Elite pack to Elite pack and burst them down with Ancient Spear Harpoon.

Setups
For even more Movement Speed, replace War Cry with Ignore Pain Bravado. Feel free to swap In-Geom to Echoing Fury for additional Movement and Attack Speed.

Raekor Boulder Toss Solo Speeds

Concept
In this speed setup we take Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard for a shield in combination with Squirt's Necklace for double damage, some additional toughness & insane healing. We do not need Bane of the Stricken anymore as the single target damage is already very high on lower Greater Rift Tiers. On top of that we add Messerschmidt's Reaver to further reduce our cooldowns.

Gameplay
In this setup you have near permanent uptime on Call of the Ancients and Wrath of the Berserker by killing monsters. Charge from Elite pack to Elite pack and burst them down with Ancient Spear Boulder Toss. Call of the Ancients in conjunction with Fury of the Ancients refills your Fury pool quickly without having to charge much.

Setups
There isn't much to switch around here as the set slots are already fixed. If you feel squishy, replace Zei's Stone of Vengeance with Esoteric Alteration. For lower Greater Rift Speeds, you can use Jagged Edge which pierces for better AoE coverage.

Select Build Version

Standard Setup
Raekor Boulder Toss Solo Push

Concept
This build is relatively squishy but has very high mobility and field control over the monsters.

Gameplay
Keep your main focus on small, high-progression trash monsters like Vile Swarms or Dark Hellions while you damage Elites in the process. Ideally play an open map where you can finish off the already damaged Elite Packs with a Conduit Pylon.

In good pulls, position monsters against a wall so The Legacy of Raekor (6) Bonus procs land on them more often. On Rift Guardian fights, spam Weapon Throw to stack Bane of the Stricken, get the 200 Maximum Fury bonus and only spam Boulder Toss when Wrath of the Berserker is up.

Setups
If you feel too squishy, then you can swap Zei's Stone of Vengeance with Esoteric Alteration or take a look at the Stormshield setup in the next tab!

Echoing Nightmare Setup

Concept
For more information, check out our full Echoing Nightmare Guide and take a look at our Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and our META post for the best builds and strategies! This build is good for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift speed build with a few tweaks.

Changes

  • Reroll Area Damage to Average Damage as we do not need to make huge pulls.

Gameplay

  1. Click Speed Pylon instantly to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
  2. Around Wave 90, click Channeling Pylon and Power Pylon.
  3. After Wave 100, use Conduit Pylon.
  4. At Wave 122, stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.

Always keep Battle Rage Bloodshed up for the Critical Hit Chance and additional damage wave, along with War Cry and Ignore Pain if you use these skills. Use Furious Charge to group up monsters and build up stacks for The Legacy of Raekor (6) Bonus while keeping Band of Might up. Pull monsters close to a wall or layout element and face the monsters because this will force The Legacy of Raekor (6) Bonus procs to hit most monsters since they will collide with the layout.

Video Guide

Mechanics

Ancient Spear Boulder Toss

The Legacy of Raekor (4) Bonus

The Legacy of Raekor (6) Bonus

Battle Rage Bloodshed

Summary

  • Put together the core items and acquire the full The Legacy of Raekor set.
  • Stack Cooldown Reduction to get a high Wrath of the Berserker uptime.
  • Furious Charge mobility and field control is very enjoyable to play around!
  • This is a squishy build. Use the safer Stormshield setup to become tanky.
  • One of the few Barbarian builds that can be ranged reminding us of the Diablo II Javazon!

Cheers!

Credits

Shoutouts to Rage for feedbacks!
Written by Chewingnom.
Reviewed by Rob & Raxxanterax.

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