Disclaimer: This guide is the Season 25 Guide for the Raekor Hammer of the Ancients (HotA) Build which does not exist anymore. For up-to-date Raekor guide, go to the Raekor Boulder Toss Guide!
Introduction
Raekor HotA Solo Push
The Legacy of Raekor Barbarian set allows Fury-spending attacks to deal tremendous amounts of damage by consuming Furious Charge stacks. The most widespread and strongest Barb Spender is Hammer of the Ancients (HotA). This high damage skill can be buffed by multiple complementary items like Bracers of the First Men and The Gavel of Judgment to deal massive damage during Convention of Elements timed rotations.
If you like to play a Hammer of the Ancients focused build we recommend the LoD variant. Let's hope for The Legacy of Raekor (6) Bonus rework to make this signature set viable for damage again! A damage reduction set bonus, like almost every set in Diablo has, wouldn't hurt either.
But now let's get into the current variation of this build and its rotation based playstyle!
Very Mobile ✔ Fast Attack Speed ✔ Fast Paced Playstyle ✔ High Single Target Damage ✔
❌ Rotation Dependent ❌ Wall Charge Playstyle ❌ Short Damage Window ❌ Band of Might Dependency
Core Setup
Core Item Build
Items
The Legacy of Raekorset 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 Gavel of Judgment. We want to cube this one because it is a 2-handed weapon and we have decent 1-handed options to better optimize our Critical Hit Damage with the additional 130% from the second Flawless Royal Emerald. The second effect on The Gavel of Judgment item also solves our Fury problem on single targets like the Rift Guardian.
Bracers of the First Men and Remorseless are the other two damage and Attack Speed multipliers scaling our DPS.
Mortick's Brace gives a lot of healing through Life per Fury Spent (we spend a lot with Hammer of the Ancients) and additional damage reduction.
Band of Might is used for the tremendous toughness gain and is procced by Furious Charge which we need to gain stacks for the The Legacy of Raekor(6) Bonus.
Convention of Elements for 200% multiplicative damage increase during our fire cycle, further explained in the gameplay section below.
Season 25 Soul Shards
Soul Shards are powerful socketable items that only drop during Season 25. 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 for full details on how they work. What you should prioritize on them for Solo Pushing is the following:
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.
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 FireDamage 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.
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
This build gets a lot of Attack Speed for free from Bracers of the First Men and Wrath of the Berserker. With Gogok of Swiftness we can reach the 18/18 frames Breakpoint with no additional Attack Speed on our gear. For more detailed informations on Attack Speed check out our Guide here!
High Cooldown Reductionis key for this build's damage output. Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients Together as One uptime is essential in maintaining our 250% damage increase from Remorseless. We further reduce the cooldown of both skills by using Boon of Bul-kathos. The Cooldown Reduction Breakpoints are 65% for a 32 second Wrath of the Berserker rotation or 47% for 48 seconds (see Gameplay section below).
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 full 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 you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.
Two-Handed Mighty Weapons to get The Gavel of Judgment
Mighty Weapons to get Remorseless
Create a level 1 Witch Doctor and upgrade Axes to get The Burning Axe of Sankis
Create a level 1 Demon Hunter and upgrade Swords to get In-geom
Rings to get Convention of Elements and The Compass Rose
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
Bounty Turn In: Recipe for Cain's Destiny (for your follower)
6. There is one final required piece to piece to acquire, The Traveler's Pledge for push or Squirt's Necklace for speed runs. With amulets being so expensive to gamble and craft, we'll have to search for it to drop in Nephalem and Greater Rifts. They both can drop on any class so try to group up with friends when possible to share your loot!
1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Area Damage 5. Damage Range 6. Critical Hit Chance
Bracers
Mortick’s Brace (Cubed) Nemesis Bracers Bracers of the First Men
1. Fire Damage 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Strength 4. All Resistance 5. Vitality
Amulet
The Traveler's Pledge
1. Socket 2. Fire Damage 3. Critical Hit Chance 4. Critical Hit Damage 5. Strength
Belt
Pride of Cassius Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle (Crafted)
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 a melee character, the rank 25 effect will slow all enemies within 15 yards providing us a flat 1.6 damage multiplier.
Gogok of Swiftness for massive Attack Speed, additional Dodge Chance and to meet the needed Cooldown Reduction for Wrath of the Berserker rotation.
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 damage, additional toughness & insane healing.
Skills
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. On the beginning of our damage rotation we always start with Maximum Fury and high Critical Hit Chance.
Furious Charge has all runes from The Legacy of Raekor(4) Bonus. We reset our cooldown with Merciless Assault and instantly gain full Fury in large pulls with Stamina. We also need this skill to gain stacks for our The Legacy of Raekor(6) Bonus and to proc Band of Might.
We need Call of the Ancients to proc the legendary effect of Remorseless, Together as One provides 50% damage mitigation.
Wrath of the Berserker has all runes from Mortick's Brace and is the second skill necessary to activate Remorseless. 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 Veteran's Warning for toughness or Threatening Shout Falter for a damage debuff on monsters. You can also use Ignore Pain Ignorance is Bliss to have a Crowd Control immunity option combined with some toughness enhanced by Pride of Cassius.
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).
Boon of Bul-kathos for Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients Together as One uptime.
Berserker Rage since we are almost always at Maximum Fury due to Furious Charge generating Fury.
Other damage options include Brawler and Ruthless. Use Nerves of Steel or Relentless to add a defensive touch to this build.
Paragon Points
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
1. Movement Speed
1. Critical Hit Damage
1. All Resistance
1. Area Damage
2. Maximum Fury
2. Critical Hit Chance
2. Life %
2. Pickup Radius
3. Strength
3. Cooldown Reduction
3. Armor
3. Resource Cost Reduction
4. Vitality1
4. Attack Speed
4. Life Regeneration
4. Life per Hit
1 Add a bit of Vitality if you feel too squishy (a total of 700,000 Life is recommended).
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.
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.
Speed GR Enchantress
Speed GR Enchantress
For speed Greater Rifts 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 speed 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 more progression from Elites.
Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
Hellfire Ring, Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.
GR Pushing Scoundrel
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 keep Battle Rage Bloodshed up for the Critical Hit Chance and additional damage wave, along with War Cry and Ignored Pain if you use it. Use Furious Charge to group up monsters and build up stacks for The Legacy of Raekor(6) Bonus while keeping Band of Might up.
Find a good spot with Elites, plenty of trash monsters and keep building up stacks. In the last seconds of your ColdConvention of Elements cycle put yourself into a position that is close to an Elite. Right when it switches to Fire cast Call of the Ancients Together as One for Toughness and Fury along with Wrath of the Berserker to gain all the toughness and damage buffs in combination with Remorseless.
Try to spawn an Oculus Ring damage circle with Hammer of the Ancients Smash, Furious Charge into it quickly to do your main damage rotation until the end of the Fire cycle by spamming Hammer of the Ancients Smash. On the next Fire rotation your buffs will still be up so you can DPS again. One full Convention of Elements cycle is 16 seconds while Wrath of the Berserker lasts for exactly 20 seconds. Perform this damage rotation every 32 or 48 seconds depending on your Cooldown Reduction and Furious Charge damage stacks.
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 instead of Ruthless to not die! Feel free to add more Paragon Points from Strength into Vitality.
Variants
GR Solo Speed
GR Solo Push
Raekor HotA Greater Rift Speeds
Concept In this speed setup we take Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard for a shield in combination with Squirt's NecklaceSquirt'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 In-Geom to further reduce our cooldowns and permanently Furious Charge, even without enemies around. This gives us even more The Legacy of Raekor stacks to deal damage.
Gameplay In this setup you have nearly almost permanent uptime on both Call of the Ancients and Wrath of the Berserker by focusing on killing Elite packs. This will guarantee good Remorseless uptime for optimal damage. Charge from Elite pack to Elite pack and burst them down with Hammer of the Ancients Smash. Reach 100 Kills to proc your Sliver of Terror Rank 3 Ring of Fire effect and drag enemies in using Wrenching Smash.
Setups There isn't much switch around here as the set slots are already fixed. Feel free to swap In-Geom to Echoing Fury for additional Movement and Attack Speed.
HotA Raekor Solo Push
Concept & 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 ideally where you can finish off the already damaged Elite Packs with a Conduit Pylon. The Burning Axe of Sankis grants us additional Fire damage as well as damage reduction (see mechanics section below)!
The general gameplay is similar to the gameplay section above with a few exceptions: In good pulls try to move as little as possible and get our Furious Charge stacked up by charging into walls (see the mechanics section below). This will keep our offensive Endless Walk bonus up. It is essential to not waste your Furious Charge stacks to maximize damage during your Fire rotation when you hammer away with Smash. A special case is the Rift Guardian fight where you keep charging into a wall to stack Bane of the Stricken but do not use Hammer of the Ancients right away! Take the first full Convention of Elements cycle to build up a solid amount of charge stacks for your The Legacy of Raekor(6) Bonus and then start your damage rotation on the next Fire cycle.
Setups You can change Berserker Rage to Relentless or Nerves of Steel if you need more toughness!
Mechanics
Hammer of the Ancients & Critical Hit Chance
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.
Wall Furious Charge
A popular method with this build is to Wall Charge in order to gain stacks for the The Legacy of Raekor(6) Bonus faster.
The idea is to position yourself close to a wall with monsters nearby to keep spamming Furious Charge off cooldown, thanks to Merciless Assault. Doing so will build up stacks quickly.
The reason is because this method lowers the travel time part (which usually scales with Movement Speed) of Furious Charge, resulting in more stacks for the time spent.
You will also keep the offensive buff from the Endless Walk set by wall charging as you will stay stationary and not move at all.
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.
The Burning Axe of Sankis
Gives 35% damage reduction.
Has a 4 seconds duration for a 4 seconds internal cooldown.
Cast Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients for the Remorseless damage buff.
Remember to literally bang your head against a wall with Furious Charge to get these The Legacy of Raekor stacks up.
Hammer AWAY!
Currently this build and the entire The Legacy of Raekor set is very weak in comparison to others. Let's hope for The Legacy of Raekor(6) Bonus rework to make this signature set viable for damage again! A damage reduction set bonus, like almost every set in Diablo has, wouldn't hurt either. One can always hope for the next patch, but meanwhile enjoy blasting my fellow Barbarians!
Credits
Written by Rob. Introduction by Chewingnom. Reviewed by Northwar & Raxxanterax.