Learn about Gear & Items Stats Priorities, Gems, Paragon and your follower in this Immortal King Hammer for the Ancients (HotA) Barbarian Build Guide for Diablo 3.
Global Stat Priorities
This build gets a lot of Attack Speed for free from Echoing Fury and Wrath of the Berserker. With Pain Enhancer boosting our Attack Speed even further we land on crazy Breakpoints for both Weapons as long as we have plenty of enemies around us (for in-depth mechanics check here).
We do not need any Cooldown Reduction (not even from a Flawless Royal Diamond in the helm) as we get crazy resets from Immortal King's Call (4) Bonus when we use Hammer of the Ancients and spend Fury.
Item Stat Priorities
Detailed Slot by Slot Priorities
Gems
- 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.
- Pain Enhancer can be used to buff our Attack Speed tremendously with hordes of enemies in close range combat.
- In Solo 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.
- In Group we take Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard to gain a shield in combination with Squirt's Necklace for double dps, toughness and insane healing.
Paragon
| Core | Offensive | Defensive | Utility |
| 1. Movement Speed | 1. Critical Hit Damage | 1. All Resistance | 1. Area Damage |
| 2. Maximum Fury1 | 2. Critical Hit Chance | 2. Life % | 2. Pickup Radius |
| 3. Strength | 3. Attack Speed | 3. Armor | 3. Resource Cost Reduction |
| 4. Vitality2 | 4. Cooldown Reductio | 4. Life Regeneration | 4. Life per Hit |
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).
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.
- 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.
- 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.
GR Pushing Templar
For Greater Rift pushing we recommend this Templar setup for the sustain from Heal, 10% increased damage from Onslaught, and the very powerful cheat death mechanic from Guardian. This is the only follower build that stacks Cooldown Reduction because it works with Heal. Since we take the immortality relic, we do not need any survivability stats.
Stat Priorities:Since we have the immortality relic, we do not need to stack survivability on our Templar.
Strength > Cooldown Reduction > 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 Captain Crimson's Trimmings: For more Cooldown Reduction on Heal.