This build guide relies on +% Vulnerable Damage Tempering affix from Rogue or Sorceress. Stacking Vulnerable damage on every offensive slot is a requirement for this build to work as showcased, since most of its power comes from Hemorrhage. Visit the FAQ section of this guide to find out more on how to unlock Tempering Recipes and craft your gear.
Welcome to the Flay Barbarian Specialized Build Guide! This build relies on Flay to apply massive amounts of Bleed on the target, which makes it one of the best choices to conquer high level content. In Season 4, with the addition of Tempered affixes, Flay duration can be extended to last over 20 seconds. With the use of Rupture, all accumulated damage can be dealt in one deadly blow. By adding Wanton Rupture and Weapon Master's all this damage can be done twice in a row, striking down even the deadliest foes.
Flay is a single target ability which makes this build most suited for Bossing and high tier Pits. We can lower the damage of this build to change it to one of the fastest Barbarians in the current meta. Enhanced Rupture and +% Rupture Size temper combined with Steel Grasp can easily defeat whole screens of monsters. Combined with Rage of Harrogath, our Leap cooldown is always ready to find more enemies to slay! This variant is recommended to start with as it is easier to gear.
Our Specialized Builds are lategame builds with specific requirements and purposes. In order to play them, you are expected to already have specific items and effects available. To get there, we recommend you use one of our existing lvl 50-100 Endgame Build Guides.
Requirements for this build to function:
- All listed Aspects from the Gear section with a focus on Moonrise and Adaptability.
- At least 3 weapons with "+% Flay Duration"
- 1000%+ total Vulnerable Damage
Gear, Skill Tree, and Paragon
(Speedfarming)
(Uber Bosses / Pit 120+)
This is the fastest setup possible to farm up to Pit 100 under 3 minutes. Perfect for gathering all the required gear and masterworking materials for Uber Farmer variant. Using Two-Handed Sword is recommended because of its inherent bonus to bleeding damage after killing an enemy and Enhanced Flay.
Gameplay
- Use Leap (set to Dual Wield) to move towards a group of enemies.
- Leap activates and refreshes Berserking from Battle Fervor.
- Use Steel Grasp to pull enemies and apply Vulnerable.
- Use Rupture to explode the pack of monsters. Enhanced Rupture should be enough to apply enough Bleed to kill all enemies.
- Optional: Use Flay to defeat the stragglers.
- Use War Cry whenever it is off cooldown.
- Use Rallying Cry to build Fortify and move outside the danger while Unstoppable.
Gear
- This build can be played with Melted Heart of Selig for extra survivability, but it's not recommended on Softcore due to a loss of a Cooldown Reduction. Whenever you want to push build to it's limit you can make following changes:
- Equip Melted Heart of Selig.
- Switch Bold Chieftain's on your ring to Adaptability.
- Optional: Switch Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty to Harlequin Crest to achieve even more toughness.
- Achieving 100% Rupture Size is not recommended due to the loss of damage caused by switching from Flay Duration. Tempering Rupture Size on one Two-Handed weapon is enough.
- Temper Damage while Berserking on one of the Two-Handed weapons to reach a full bonus from Blood Rage.
Paragon
See below for the selected Paragon Boards, Paragon point allocation, and the correct Glyphs you should use for the Flay Barbarian. Note: The Paragon Boards below are the final setup with no steps.
Level 15 Glyphs required: Ire, Disembowel, Exploit, Marshal, Wrath
This setup relies on high damage output of Flay to deal devastating amount of single target damage. This variant is optimized for level 200 Tormented Bosses, but is also capable of pushing high tier Pits.
Gameplay - Bossing
- Use War Cry.
- Use Flay to apply bleed for ~20 seconds.
- Use Double Swing once every few seconds to refresh your Berserking buff.
- Use Rupture twice to kill the Boss. We can do it twice because of Weapon Master's and Wanton Rupture.
- Boss is dead.
- If Boss is not dead, repeat the process. Use Challenging Shout and Iron Skin whenever you feel threatened. Remember that Metamorphosis grants you Unstopabble when you Evade.
Gameplay - Pits
- Use Rupture on packs of basic monsters. Enhanced Rupture should do enough damage to kill them.
- Use Flay to apply bleed on Elites. Enhanced Flay applies Vulnerable and War Cry grants Berserking.
- In Boss fight, use tactics from "Gameplay - Bossing" section.
Gear
- For higher Pits, Melted Heart of Selig is a good choice to get more toughness. You can make the following changes:
- Equip Melted Heart of Selig.
- Switch Bold Chieftain's on your Ring to Adaptability.
- Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty is a good replacement before finding a Harlequin Crest. Another viable option is to equip a Legendary Helmet with the same stat as Body Armour shown on the planner and switch to Rage of Harrogath.
Paragon
- Why Berserker insetad of Enraged:
- This build refreshes its Berserking buff with Double Swing. Berserking duration nodes are not beneficial.
Season 4 - Loot Reborn
In Season 4, the Season Theme revolves around helping out the Iron Wolves. Compared to past themes, this one does not offer any borrowed power as the entire game has been redesigned with new itemization and crafting options, increasing player power substantially across the board. Instead, you can gather reputation similar to the Vampire Bounty Board from Season 2 to unlock rewards that supercharge your leveling journey to 100 with extra items, crafting materials and eventually even a Resplendent Spark to craft an uber unique.
We recommend to follow the seasonal questline until you unlock the reputation system, check which rewards suit you most and then follow your regular leveling path. To learn more, check out our full Season 4 guide for more information.
Gameplay
- Use War Cry to activate Berserking.
- Focus on the deadliest foes such as Elites or Bosses. Inflict huge amounts of Bleed using Flay.
- Use Rupture to instantly deal stored Bleed damage on the target. The explosion from Enhanced Rupture and Gushing Wounds will deal with smaller enemies in range.
- For crowds, use Steel Grasp to group stuff up.
- War Cry is another source of Berserking and a damage buff, while Challenging Shout and Iron Skin gives a ton of damage reduction while active. React to the environment and use them accordingly. Spamming all your abilities will result in lower uptime values since most of your Cooldown Reduction comes from Hectic.
Gear and Stat Requirements
Flay Barbarian requires specific Aspects, Uniques, Uber Uniques, and Affixes on your gear to perform its primary function. Only deviate from the list below after you have fully learned the intended gameplay style and strategies.
- Legendary Aspects:
- Moonrise:
- Priority for all variants.
- Adaptability
- Priority for all variants.
- Wanton Rupture
- Priority for all variants.
- Rapid
- Priority for all variants.
- Edgemaster's
- Used in all variants.
- Bold Chieftain's
- Used in all variants.
- Weapon Master's
- Used in all variants.
- Might
- Used in all variants.
- Hectic
- Used in all variants.
- Accelerating
- Used in Uber Farmer variant.
- Metamorphosis
- Used in Uber Farmer variant.
- Inner Calm
- Used in Uber Farmer variant.
- Bold Chieftain's
- Used in Leap + CDR variant.
- Giant Strides
- Used in Leap + CDR variant.
- Moonrise:
- Uniques:
- Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty:
- Can be used in all variants.
- Harlequin Crest:
- Can be used in all variants.
- Rage of Harrogath
- BiS for Leap + CDR variant, can be used in all variants.
- Melted Heart of Selig:
- Can be used in all variants. To implement this, move Adaptability to a Ring slot and remove the Bold Chieftain's.
- Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty:
- Other:
- Most importantly: this build requires the Bleed Augments Temper Manual in order to temper "Flay Duration" on weapons. It is not recommended to play the build without first unlocking this.
- Cutthroat Finesse or Frost Finesse is required to temper Vulnerable Damage on certain gear slots. Cutthroat Finesse can only be obtained by leveling a Rogue. Frost Finesse can only be obtained by leveling a Sorceress.
FAQ & Mechanics
Flay + Dual-Wielding?
Why no Rage of Harrogath in Uber setup?
How can I temper Vulnerable Damage on my weapons as a Barbarian?
I have tempering recipes, what now?
Why so much Critical Strike Chance and no Critical Strike Damage?
Which Elixir should I use?
Video Guide
Coming Soon!
Credits
Written by Kondyss
Reviewed by Snail