All NewsDiablo III
Powered By

Savage Frenzy Barbarian Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

Share on Social

Introduction

H90 Frenzy Solo Speed Runs

Frenzy is once again an iconic skill known and loved by Diablo II players! This skill is the definition of hack'n'slash in its purest form with its simple straightforward melee swing mechanic enhanced by massive innate Attack Speed bonuses.

In Season 6 with Tough as Nails being buffed, the LoN Frenzy "Thorns" build appeared and made its way into the leaderboards for a few seasons, as the first and only build making a viable and competitive use of Hack.

A few years laters, the Horde of the Ninety Savages (H90) Set was introduced with Season 20 alongside a complete rework and buff of Bastion's Revered, making Frenzy, a long time community favorite skill, great again. During PTR, massive feedback was given by the Barbarian Community for the Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus to apply to Frozen and Stunned enemies as well!

Overall, the H90 Frenzy Barb is a very enjoyable fast-paced build to play with interesting interactions, mainly the Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus doubling the effectiveness of your Shouts skills, widely used by the zBarb to further buff the party (see Mechanics). Now let's dive into this guide that will teach you how to slash hordes of monsters with style!

Slash to Win! ✔
Fast Paced Playstyle ✔
High Single Target Damage ✔
Amazing Buffs for Group Play ✔

Lack of AoE Damage
❌ Cooldown Dependency

Crowd Control Dependency
❌ Squishy without Band of Might

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • The Horde of the Ninety Savages is where the majority of our damage and toughness comes from.
  • Bastion's Revered is the core item of the build as it allows Frenzy to stack up to 10 times, meaning additional damage and damage reduction from the set. Furthermore, this brings some AOE damage to the build by letting Frenzy chain to any enemies within 15 yards.
  • Depth Diggers provides us with a 100% separate damage multiplier.
  • The Undisputed Champion gives us a crazy damage increase as well as all Frenzy runes (increased Fury generated, 50% Movement Speed, 30% Chance to Stun for your Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus and a 25% additive damage increase).
  • Oathkeeper grants us a 200% separate damage multiplier and a 50% separate Attack Speed multiplier for all Primary Skills!
  • Optional jewelry items are Squirt's Necklace, Focus & Restraint, The Compass Rose & The Traveler's Pledge or Convention of Elements for multiplicative damage and Band of Might for 80% damage reduction.

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

Frenzy Attack Speed Breakpoints

Make sure to optimize your Attack Speed to reach certain Breakpoints. The Frenzy Barbarian is one of the fastest attacking builds in the entire game due to Oathkeeper and Frenzy multiplicative Attack Speed bonuses. When looking at your Attack Speed values for Breakpoints, always consider the +15% additive Attack Speed from the Dual Wield bonus. Furthermore you can have different Breakpoints with different Weapons as you can see on the table to the right. The goal should be to reach around 9 - 7 frames per attack.

Aim for around 45-50% Cooldown Reduction to ensure permanent Wrath of the Berserker, use Boon of Bul-kathos and complementary CDR items like In-geom.

The main skill element and Elemental Damage bonus from your gear generally does not matter (with a few exceptions as mentioned in the "Variants" below)! Choose the element you have the best gear for (usually decided by the amulet and bracer slots). Make sure to adapt the Frenzy rune accordingly to match your highest element. That means if you have Fire Damage on gear, use Maniac, for Cold use Berserk or Sidearm, for Lightning use Smite and for Physical use Vanguard or the unruned Frenzy.

A common misunderstanding by players is the urge to go for a 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 Frenzy damage instance. The Battle Rage Bloodshed is based on that first damage instance but is not enhanced by Elemental Damage again.

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
GR Group RGK
Echoing Nightmare
Torments Low Paragon

Concept
The Whirlwind Rend Barb is already a very fast and fun speedfarming build, but it can get kinda boring after some time and the Frenzy Barb is a great alternative to get keys and has one big groupplay advantage over the WW Barb: The easy Cain's Destiny switch for 25% more keys.
This following outlined tactics are for Group Play Only! If you're playing solo, just copy the planner and don't swap anything ever.
The concept behind this is to store two pieces of Cain's Destiny in your Inventory and a Convention of Elements with a Bane of the Stricken socked into it. CoE always starts the element rotation in alphabetical order when equipped, so for Barb it starts on Cold. After Cold comes Fire. So for this Torment version of the build it is ideal to play with Cold or Fire element. It takes a few seconds for the boss to spawn, and depending on when you equip the Convention of Elements you can get the damage buff immediately and kill the boss within seconds even without the Horde of the Ninety Savages (6) Bonus.

Gameplay
Keep yours buffs up and utilize In-geom by jumping from pack to pack using Furious Charge and killing the enemies by attacking with Frenzy. Remember to switch to Cain's Destiny for optimal Greater Rift Keystone farm efficiency!

Setups
For group Torment farming we take Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band and The Flavor of Time back into the setup. With High Paragon (around 4,000) we can switch to a non Band of Might setup. Now we can use Rechel's Ring of Larceny to further boost our Movement Speed.

For even more movement speed buffs we can drop Gold Wrap and take Chilanik's Chain in the cube paired with War Cry Veteran's Warning. This buff also affects our party members and is more than welcome in Torment groups, It also adds a bunch of toughness due to our Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus doubling effect.

Solo Speed Runs Greater Rift

Concept
You can also farm solo speed runs with this build quite efficiently. It has very high damage output especially to Elites and the Rift Guardian. Furthermore you are pretty mobile due to Frenzy's Movement Speed and Furious Charge. On top of that Barb comes with a high natural toughness thanks to 30% base damage reduction, allowing you to die less and keep up Pools of Reflection. With the new follower emanation system we can now get in Aughild's Authority for even more power & elite damage!

Gameplay
Try to keep up the cooldown buffs at all times by jumping from elite to elite to regain your In-geom buff. You can force attack a lot by using the default shift key and always try to Furious Charge the elite before attacking them to keep up Band of Might. This also freezes the enemies to proc the Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus for double damage and is the reason to use Furious Charge Cold Rush. The Rift Guardian dies super fast as the single target damage output of the Frenzy Barb is just insane.

Setups
We can play a slower-paced build with the Endless Walk set by dropping Band of Might at high Paragon or Convention of Elements at low Paragon and Squirt's Necklace. Also switch Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard to Bane of the Powerful for more damage to Elites.
Now we play a 48 second Wrath of the Berserker rotation with our 16 seconds Convention of Elements. You will only lose 1 Cold rotation each 48 seconds while you can do full damage on the other two. Since we are aiming for slower runs now, we trade mobility and utility provided by In-Geom for more raw DPS from Echoing Fury.

You can checkout a Gameplay Video here.

Solo Push Greater Rift

Concept
The Horde of the Ninety Savages set can also be used for some decent solo clears. It is not the best Barb build in that regard as it lacks area of effect damage. In here with Frenzy we are more of an Elite and high progression trash monster hunter! We go for a Cold Elemental Damage build here, which allows us to use Azurewrath for the extra 20% Cold damage as well as an additional chance to freeze to proc our Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus.

Gameplay
Keep damage and toughness buffs on cooldown & focus on making big pulls as it is important because of Battle Rage Bloodshed and Area Damage value despite this being a single target build. Make sure to not lose your Rampage stacks while creating pulls and moving. Try to gain bane of the stricken stacks even during the Greater Rift on Yellow and Blue Elites by staying close to them and making sure you hit them with your Frenzy. Use Furious Charge mainly for skipping, keeping up your Band of Might and repositioning for Oculus Ring procs. Be careful to not die during your Wrath of the Berserker downtime!

Setups
If you feel like you are dying too much, switch Weapon Master to Nerves of Steel. You can also switch to a Fire setup with The Burning Axe of Sankis for the extra 35% damage reduction (see Mechanics).

Rift Guardian Killer Greater Rift

Concept
The Frenzy Barb fills the Rift Guardian Killer (RGK) spot with some very nice buffs to the group: Threatening Shout Falter & War Cry as well as a 2nd pull ability with Ancient Spear Rage Flip.

A downside to the Frenzy Barb are Rift Guardians that can spawn minions like Crusader King or The Choker. Bastion's Revered splits the damage if there are multiple targets around, so you lose a ton of damage on every Rift Guardian with minions. On single targets however the build is super fast and stacks Bane of the Stricken like a maniac due to its high Attack Speed.

Gameplay
Keep damage and toughness buffs on cooldown and burst during the Convention of Elements cycle with a stun from the zBarb for the Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus. Make sure the group does not stun the boss off rotation to prevent Crowd Control Resistance during the important damage phase. Assist your group by gathering monsters using Ancient Spear!

Setups
You can build a setup with the The Compass Rose and The Traveler's Pledge in combination with Band of Might for more toughness at lower Paragon level. If you want to deal even more damage switch out Nerves of Steel for Weapons Master for another 8% additive damage bonus! If you have problem getting stuck drop Ancient Spear Harpoon and take Whirlwind Wind Shear.

You can check out a 2 minute Greater Rift Guardian Gameplay Video here.

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 strategies! This build is bad for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift pushing build with a few tweaks.

Changes

  • Swap Bane of the Stricken for Gogok of Swiftness since we are fighting hordes of enemies.
  • Swap Azurewrath for Echoing Fury to get more Attack Speed.
  • Reroll Area Damage to Average Damage as we do not need to make huge pulls.


Gameplay

  1. Reach Wave 100 and click Speed Pylon to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
  2. When you are more than 40% overwhelmed click Power Pylon.
  3. When you are more than 60% overwhelmed click Channeling Pylon and Conduit Pylon.
  4. After all Pylons expire, run away from monsters and dodge everything to squeeze out an extra 3-5 tiers.

Keep damage and toughness buffs on cooldown & focus on making big pulls as it is important because of Battle Rage Bloodshed value despite this being a single target build. Make sure to not lose your Rampage stacks while creating pulls and moving. Mow your enemies down with Frenzy while moving consistently.

Video Guide

Mechanics

Horde of the Ninety Savages + Bastion's Revered

Dual Wield

Battle Rage Bloodshed

The Burning Axe of Sankis

Summary

  • Lack of AOE damage but high single target potential.
  • A very decent Rift Guardian Killer with nice benefits to the entire group.
  • One of the fastest Bane of the Stricken stacking builds in the game.
  • With Band of Might you can face tank enemies and just hold down Frenzy until they die.

Credits

Written by Rob.
Reviewed by Northwar & Raxxanterax.
Shoutout to Rage & wudijo for mechanical testing!

© 2024 Maxroll Media Group, All Rights Reserved