Gameplay

• Use Leap (set to Two-Handed Sword) to:
  • Activate and refresh Berserking.
  • Apply Bleed.
  • Activate Paingorger's Gauntlets.
  • Benefit from Bul-Kathos, Earthquake, and Rumble.
• Use Challenging Shout or Rallying Cry (depending on content) whenever it is off cooldown. While it is on cooldown, it will refresh itself with Yen's Blessing as long as an action is being performed (using a skill, evading).
• Use Bash (set to Two-Handed Mace) as main damage skill.
• Use Charge to group enemies against terrain and as a source of Unstoppable.
• Use Call of the Ancients against Elites and Bosses whenever it is off cooldown.
• Use Hammer of the Ancients:
  • After Critically Striking with Combat Bash 4 times.
  • No more than once every 5 seconds. This skill is only used for the 1.3x damage multiplier provided by Violent Hammer of the Ancients.

Gear

• If running Challenging Shout, take ranks of this skill on the Chest Armor. Otherwise, choose Strength / Maximum Life.
• If running Challenging Shout, temper Crowd Control Duration on either Chest Armor or Pants to increase its duration. Otherwise, choose ranks of Concussion.
• Temper Leap Cooldown Reduction on Amulet and adjust skill ranks as necessary. Ideally, it should have a 4 second cooldown or less when combined with Giant Strides.
• Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable damage are both good choices on weapons; choose whichever gives the best value when tempering, or based on the current quality of gear.

Paragon

• Why Revenge Glyph:
  • 9% Damage Reduction from Close Enemies from Brash.
  • Damage multiplier from Strategic Challenging Shout.
• Why Rumble Glyph:
  • Damage multiplier from Leap + Bul-Kathos combo.
• Why Bleed nodes:
  • Two-Handed Sword Expertise from Leap / Charge.

Gameplay

• Use Rupture to:
  • Receive a 40% Attack Speed increase.
  • Overpower to activate Decimator.
  • Activate Paingorger's Gauntlets.
  • Inflict Bleed to benefit from Grit paragon cluster and Disembowel.
• Use Iron Skin to:
  • Receive a Barrier and a 35% damage reduction increase.
  • Become Unstoppable.
  • Passively heal a percentage of your Maximum Life.

• The rest of the gameplay is the same as it is across all variants:
  • Use Steel Grasp to group enemies, grant Berserking, and proc Paingorger's Gauntlets.
  • Use Shouts off cooldown / as needed for damage and damage reduction buffs.

Gear

• Dual-Wielding:
  • Use a One-Handed Mace to enable Bash to be used while dual-wielding.
  • A One-Handed Axe is the ideal secondary weapon since it naturally gives us an Attack Speed buff against all enemies (including Bosses), as well as 10% Critical Strike Chance against Injured enemies. One-Handed Sword can also be played but it is only useful for mob clearing, which generally makes it the inferior choice.
• Two-Handed Mace:
  • Since One-Handed Weapon type doesn't matter when playing Bash with Two-Handed Mace, the ideal option for both of those slots is a One-Handed Sword because it naturally rolls a Critical Strike Damage implicit.

Skills

• Dual-Wielding:
  • Follow the tree as shown. Points in Duelist (instead of Swiftness) can optionally be taken to help reach Attack Speed cap.
• Two-Handed Mace:
  • Take points from Swiftness and allocate them to Heavy Handed.
  • Can be played with Violent Hammer of the Ancients instead of Rupture. Take Combat Bash if making this change.

Paragon

• Why Disembowel Glyph:
  • The Bleed explosion caused by Rupture pretty much guarantees that most enemies will have a chance to activate this Glyph upon death. Since 5 of our 6 skills have a cooldown, this provides great utility in making sure they stay active.
• If playing One-Handed Mace / Axe:
  • Cleaver is an alternative here for more damage (take Strength nodes instead of Willpower).
• If playing Two-Handed Mace:
  • Replace Ambidextrous with Might.

Gameplay

• Use Steel Grasp to group enemies and grant Berserking.
  • Keeping Berserking status is even more important when playing this setup since Berserk Ripping requires it to function.
  • For high Pit, it is beneficial to spend time grouping up multiple packs before starting to deal damage.
• Bash to start stacking Bleed.
• Use Rupture for Bleed explosions and Decimator activation.
• Continue using Bash and then Rupture off cooldown until:
  • Enemies are dead / Bleed death is imminent.
  • Mob density is low and it is time to move / pull remaining enemies.
• Pay attention to Berserking uptime and use Steel Grasp / War Cry to extend it.
• Use Iron Skin and Challenging Shout for damage reduction when they are off cooldown / as needed.

Gear

• Critical Strike Damage and Tempering:
  • This requires the Marksman Finesse Temper Manual and can only be done with the Rogue class. You need to level a Rogue if you want to temper Critical Strike Damage. It is not recommended to play the build without doing this. Critical Strike Damage is of major importance because of Gushing Wounds.
• Vulnerable Damage:
  • Important because of Hemorrhage.
  • It's important to achieve a good balance of Vulnerable and Critical Strike Damage to get the most out of their respective multipliers (Hemorrhage and Gushing Wounds). A good goal to aim for is around 350-400% Vulnerable damage, and the remainder in Critical Strike Damage.
• The Grandfather:
  • Very important since it essentially doubles the Critical Strike Damage stat.
• Why no Adaptability:
  • Multiplies base damage of Bash, but not the resulting Bleed.

Paragon

• Why Wrath Glyph:
  • Contributes to the Gushing Wounds damage multiplier.
• Why Hemorrhage:
  • Turns Vulnerable damage into a multiplier.
• Reaching Armor Cap:
  • If more Armor is needed, path through Iron Strength on the Starting board instead of Raw Power. Doing so costs an extra point, so be willing to sacrifice one elsewhere (probably Berserking Duration).