Bash Barbarian Endgame Build Guide
Welcome to the Bash Barbarian Endgame Guide!
Are you still nostalgic of Season 4 and wondering how Bash is looking in Vessel of Hatred? "Extremely strong" is the answer you seek. This build is very tanky, uses permanent Shouts and Ultimate and has tons of focused damage. Screen-wide AoE might not be its forte, but Bash is definitely in its strongest form ever in Season 7!
Bash has always been relying on three things to turn into the Basic Attack beast it currently is. Massive Damage and Attack Speed multipliers (Shard of Verathiel, my beloved), a truckload of bonus ranks and an easy uptime on various buffs. But what about now?
Massive multipliers you ask? Please join the meeting between the buffed Ugly Bastard Helm and multiple sources of Overpowers, such as Xan and Bone Breaker.
Bonus ranks are also still doing just fine as we keep stacking them with Shard of Verathiel, Paingorger's Gauntlets and +Bash ranks on Pants, allowing us to reach up to Rank 30 Bash!
What about buff uptime ? Don't worry, even without Harlequin Crest or Bold Chieftain's we're still using tempers and the old favorite, Hectic, to make sure War Cry, Challenging Shout and even Wrath of the Berserker stay active at all times!
Feeling confident about Bash again? Well, you're right to feel that way, so let's start Bashing!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 60 Character and unlocked Torment 1. To get there, level up with one of our Barbarian Leveling Guides. See how this Build compares against others with our various Build Tier Lists.
Witchcraft Powers
Season 7 is the Season of Witchcraft. It features two separate borrowed power mechanics in the forms of Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems. Both Seasonal mechanics are unlocked and improved by new NPCs found at the Tree of Whispers after collecting resources from Headhunt Zones, Seasonal areas similar to Helltide that appear across Sanctuary.
There are 25 Witchcraft Powers, 6 of which can be equipped at a time. Each Power belongs to one of four Schools (Eldritch, Growth & Decay, Psyche, and Lost), tags that promote synergies within themselves and with Occult Gems. Each School has a single Unique Witchcraft Power, only one of which can be equipped at a time. These Unique Powers max out and gain an additional effect at rank 5, while the other Powers max at rank 21 and gain their bonus effects at various levels. To unlock and improve Witchcraft Powers, defeat Headrotten or complete Whispers within the Headhunt Zones to collect Restless Rot. Lost Powers are an exception, requiring you to randomly encounter a Forgotten Altar in Dungeons to unlock them.
Best-in-Slot Witchcraft Powers
- Piranhado - This is a fantastic ability that passively and automatically groups up enemies for us.
- Breath of the Coven - Combined with Voice of the Stars, this gives us a massive Attack Speed steroid whenever we use our Ultimate.
- Hex of Whispers - Our first Growth & Decay power, outside of its decent damage output it is also be our way of applying the Hex debuff to our targets in order to activate Phantom String and Piranhado.
- Soul Harvest - Our second Growth & Decay power. It dramatically increases Core Stat based on monster density and is a strong choice, especially since we are fairly often casting a skill that has a cooldown.
- Aura Specialization - The extra area of effect that it grants our Aura is nice, but the Critical Strike Damage multiplier that comes with leveling it makes this an even better choice.
- Aura of Siphoning - This is our Aura of choice and third Growth & Decay power, activating Friend of the Bog. The additional healing this Power gives is also a very welcome defensive buff.
Alternate Witchcraft Powers
- None at the moment
Occult Gems
Rarely, Headrotten Bosses appear with a still-attached Fugitive Head stolen from the Tree of Whispers. Slay these enemies and return the Heads to Gelena to unlock and upgrade Occult Gems. These Gems are socketable in Jewelry and each provide +160 Armor and +8% Resistance to All Elements. More importantly, each Occult Gem grants a unique effect that synergizes with your equipped Witchcraft Powers to provide a variety of Offensive, Defensive, and Utility-based bonuses.
Best-in-Slot Occult Gems
- Friend of the Bog - Extra Core Stats and Maximum Life both improve our Skill and Overpower damage.
- Phantom String - Our build focuses on Overpower damage, so this Gem is a solid choice when paired with Hex of Whispers.
- Voice of the Stars - Giving our ultimate all Witchcraft School tags allows it to trigger all three buffs from Breath of the Coven at once!
Alternate Occult Gems
- Hungering Void - Another way to pull mobs together. Can be used as a replacement for Phantom String for an extra source of grouping.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Bash is our main damage dealer, which generates but also spends Fury when using Shard of Verathiel. It also to gives us Fortify with Enhanced Bash and creates guaranteed Overpowers through Combat Bash.
- Hammer of the Ancients serves as a damage amplifier and should only be used whenever you have a guaranteed Overpower to trigger Violent Hammer of the Ancients.
- Steel Grasp is used to group up enemies. Having tightly packed groups is important for this build as Bash AoE damage isn't that wide. When using
- Wrath of the Berserker acts as a steroid buff, further increasing our damage, Berserking uptime, Movement Speed and making us Unstoppable while active. Thanks to Ugly Bastard Helm and some Cooldown Reduction tempers and aspects, we are able to keep it active permanently.
- Challenging Shout grants us a vast amount of Damage Mitigation, Maximum Life (which turns into more Overpower damage) and Fury (when being hit, allowing us to start Bash).
- War Cry is our last buff granting us Berserking and a hefty damage multiplier.
Skill Rotation
- Use Wrath of the Berserker first and then whenever available. Ideally reuse it just before it falls off to keep the stacked bonus from Supreme Wrath of the Berserker.
- Right after, use Challenging Shout and War Cry and then whenever they are available. Getting hit while Tactical Challenging Shout is on will help you generate the Fury to start Bashing and casting both Shouts will reduce your Wrath of the Berserker cooldown each time thanks to the Marshal Glyph.
- Use Steel Grasp to pull in surrounding enemies within Bash range and reuse it as you see fit. Ideally, group up monsters tightly against walls or within choke points (pixel pull) to maximize your damage output.
- Start spamming Bash in the general direction of your enemies and watch the magic happen as Overpowers pulverize foes while your cooldowns reset thanks to the Hectic Aspect.
- Cast Hammer of the Ancients when a guaranteed Overpower from Combat Bash is available (very often). Use it at most every 3 to 5 seconds to keep refreshing the Violent Hammer of the Ancients buff.
Both Steel Grasp and Hammer of the Ancients (thanks to the increase Hota size temper) will help you apply your Paingorger's Gauntlets effect to monsters.
PRO TIP: Make sure to use the Hold Position key when attacking to maximize your Inner Calm and Lith Rune buffs.
Arsenal System
The Arsenal System allows us to use a specific weapon for every attack skill, with each weapon granting different bonuses. We also have what is called the Technique Slot. With this, we can use any weapon of our choosing to always reap the benefit from its expertise bonus, regardless of which weapon we have equipped.
The Two-Handed Mace is used as our assigned weapon for both Bash and Hammer of the Ancients to fully benefit from its expertise bonuses.
In the Technique Slot, the Two-Handed Axe allows us to deal 10% more Damage to Vulnerable enemies. This build naturally has very high Vulnerable uptime thanks to the Lucky Hit Chance to make enemies Vulnerable affix, so this is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, its secondary effect does not apply here - the limitation of the Technique Slot being that it does not allow us to benefit from the second bonus that is normally gained when reaching expertise rank 10 with any weapon.
Learn more details and how to unlock this class specification in our full Arsenal System Guide.
Paragon & Glyphs
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 at level 15 and from 4 to 5 at level 46. Some of them cannot be activated before reaching these thresholds! Progress through The Pit to rank up your Glyphs.
Use the slider to see the progression steps. At around Paragon 200, leveling slows down significantly and all important Rare clusters, Legendary nodes and Glyph sockets should be unlocked. Afterwards, you can min/max your build with minor tweaks and by picking up additional smaller nodes.
Some Glyph position swaps, board changes and other pathing adjustments may occur as you unlock your full potential. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build before spending additional points that do not significantly impact your character's power.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Marshal
- Crusher
- Challenger
- Revenge
- Dominate
To Level 46
- Challenger
- Marshal
- Crusher
- Revenge
- Dominate
There are a total of 328 Paragon Points. After reaching level 60, you gain up to 300 Paragon Levels, 24 from Renown and 4 from Altars of Lilith. Check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Runes
You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them in Two-Handed Weapons if your build calls for them, otherwise place them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. This Bash Barbarian build focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Igni + Xal - This Runeword combination gives you additional Maximum Life (which turns into more Overpower damage).
- Lith + Xan - This Runeword gives you another source of guaranteed Overpower.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Cir - A good early game alternative/substitution Ritual Rune to generate offerings.
- Gar - A strong early game Invocation Rune option when trying to reach 100% Critical Strike Chance.
- Yax - A very strong 200 offering Ritual Rune that triggers whenever you use a healing potion.
Learn more about Runes and how they work in our dedicated Runewords Overview and Runewords Tier List.
Mercenaries
Mercenaries are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and assist you in battle. There are 4 separate Mercenaries to choose from, each with their own skill trees and abilities. You can have one hired (permanent) mercenary during solo play and a reinforcement who assists you from time to time in certain situations.
Hired: Raheir
He has a lot to offer us from a defensive standpoint. Skills like Valiance and Bastion help protect us from heavy hits and grant Unstoppable. Bastion also works in tandem with Ground Slam to provide some very strong offensive buffs with Inspiration. Lastly, he provides a pretty decent boost to all of our Resistances, which can help compensate for low rolls on gear.
Reinforcement: Varyana
Varyana's Bloodthirst serves as a regular Attack Speed steroid.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Bash Barbarian to perform optimally, hunt for these stats on your gear with good rolls and aim to Temper⚒️ & Masterwork Crit ↑ them accordingly. Keep in mind that certain stats, such as Armor, Resistances, Extra Size Tempers, Attack Speed and more, have caps that may affect your priorities according to the items and Paragon points available at that moment.
Recommended Endgame Stat Thresholds
- 75%+ Critical Strike Chance (No Mercy will help you reach 100%)
- 80% unbuffed Attack speed (Shard of Verathiel and the various Attack speed buffs make you reach 200%)
- Rank 25+ Bash
- 450%+ Damage while Berserking (Blood Rage)
- 150%+ Bash Cleave temper
- 4000+ Strength
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%
- 25,000+ Life
- 200%+ Movement Speed
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Bash Barbarian, take a look at this overview of the items used in the build and make sure to check them as you progress! See below for further details about the different progression steps and variants. Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. Keep in mind that while we can guarantee that everyone has access to the same Codex of Power Aspects, the exact progression is different for everyone.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in ourGeneral Farming Guide.
Build Variants
This section is designed to guide your Bash Barbarian from a fresh level 60 into the very late endgame using the three variants Starter, Ancestral and Mythic. At the final step, you should be fully decked out with a great all-rounder build. From there, follow the other min/max variants if you want to optimize around certain activities such as Pit Pushing, Speedfarming and more.
If you are fresh in Torment 1 coming from a leveling guide, this is where you begin. Since only some Aspects can be guaranteed from Dungeon unlocks for the Codex of Power, focus on acquiring the additional aspects via gambling with Murmuring Obols.
Gear & Skills
- Early on in your progression, focus on Armor & Resistances to survive. Each Torment difficulty adds a penalty of -250 Armor and -25% all Res and it's recommended to keep both capped (1000 Armor, 70+ Res) at all times. As you unlock higher power gear, masterworking levels and more Paragon points, you naturally scale your character into the higher difficulties and can start replacing some of these rolls with max life, offensive or utility stats.
- Gameplay is very similar to the Endgame versions, with the sole difference being that we leverage Blood Boiling, triggered by Combat Bash to give some nice AoE Damage when collecting the volatile drops.
- Use Call of the Ancients as an on-demand damage booster when trying to kill priority targets and large packs.
- Remind yourself to use your Healing Potions to trigger your Runeword and stay in your Earthquakes when packing monsters with Steel Grasp to fully benefit from Earthquakes and Bul-Kathos!
- Unconstrained is used as our Key passive as the additional Berserking duration comes in handy.
The goal here is to progress through the Torment difficulties as you unlock Ancestrals, Paragon points, all Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and the most important Uniques to pilot this build. Some Legendary Aspects are used temporarily to fill slots that may be replaced with more Unique items later on.
Gear & Skills
- As you upgrade your gear to Ancestrals with more masterworking levels and reach higher paragon, you can focus more and more on replacing Armor & Resistance rolls with better stats, but ensure to stay capped at 1000 Armor and 70%+ Resistances for the difficulty you're currently in.
- Shard of Verathiel provides a massive increase to our damage output with its tailored stats. Bear in mind, from the moment you equip it, your Bash will start costing Fury.
- Ugly Bastard Helm is an incredibly strong item that gives a ton of damage reduction from ranks of Aggressive Resistance, as well as a hefty damage multiplier via its Unique effect. The Wrath of the Berserker Cooldown Reduction is useful here as we aim for permanent uptime on our Ultimate.
- Paingorger's Gauntlets is the perfect item as its Basic Skills ranks, Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction and Unique effect boost our damage output and buff uptime.
- Rakanoth's Wake gives us resistances on top of the extra Cooldown Reduction to perfect the build rotation.
This is the final version of the build's progression, including all regular Unique items, Mythic Uniques, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and Masterworking, leaving you with a great all-rounder build for all content in the game. Additional variants use this as a baseline to optimize around certain activities.
Gear & Skills
- Prioritize getting or crafting a Ring of Starless Skies, as it gives a bunch of Critical Strike Chance (helpful for Combat Bash), Attack Speed (always good when using Hectic), a large Global Damage Multiplier that is very simple to keep active and especially reduces our Fury cost by 50%.
- While the stats on Shroud of False Death are "okay" at best, it provides us an additional Fury Generation Bonus affix and most importantly the amazing +1 to All Passive implicit modifier. This implicit represents a 30%+ damage multiplier on top of being a great boost to our shouts and defensive passives.
- Doombringer is used for its gigantic Maximum Life increase, which helps us defensively and also boosts our Overpower damage.
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
Coming soon™
Mechanics
Much of the information in this section has been carefully and thoroughly tested by Icytroll and is extracted directly from the Barbarian Compendium. This should be your main source for the most accurate and up-to-date explanations on all mechanics that pertain to the Barbarian class.
Coming soon™
Video Guide
Coming soon
Summary
The Bash Barbarian is very easy to play and an absolute "must try" for any Basic attack enjoyer. Here's why it's a great build:
- Up to 30+ Bash Ranks, massive Overpowers and many damage multipliers.
- High defense from its permanent Challenging Shout, defense oriented Paragon Boards and huge Maximum Life from Doombringer.
- Fairly easy to gear for and a solid Season starter.
- High utility in being able to group enemies via Steel Grasp.
- Low Fury maintenance; after passively generating your initial 25 Fury, Bash keeps it maxed at all times.
- Permanent Ultimate uptime with Ugly Bastard Helm, Cooldown Reduction tempers and Hectic.
Credits
Written by Beatdropper
Reviewed by snail