Welcome to the Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Endgame Build Guide! This is a fan-favorite skill that returns to the franchise for Barbarians. While HotA naturally has a very small area of effect, we solve this by using the Aspect of Ancestral Force (which, conveniently, can always be imprinted via the Codex of Power). This moderately increases the radius of the impact, allowing us to obliterate small groups of enemies.
To support Hammer of the Ancients, we take a lot of the standard tools for the endgame. Our main generator, Lunging Strike, is used to keep our mobility and Fury up, as well as strengthen our bonks with its inherent utility in granting Berserking. With the help of Aspects such as Limitless Rage, Edgemaster’s and Earthstriker's, the bonking potential is immense! Wrath of the Berserker scales this even further with its ability to multiply our damage as we spend Fury. When combined, all of this leads to some absurd damage numbers.
To help keep things comfy, we also pick up two powerful shouts: Rallying Cry for Unstoppable, Fury generation and mobility, and Challenging Shout for a massive chunk of damage reduction when things get too dicey. War Cry is also used for a decent damage increase, but other viable options such as Ground Stomp and Leap will be described in this guide if "triple shouts meta" feels a little too stale.
For Season 3, we are utilizing the newly buffed Charge. Not only is it a great mobility tool, but with enough investment it offers us permanent uptime on one of our best pieces of endgame gear - Tibault's Will. Don't underestimate its base damage either, as it is more than capable of picking off enemies even on its own.
With all this at our disposal, nothing can withstand the pure power that Hammer of the Ancients can deliver. And with that... let's start smashing!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 50 Character and finished the Campaign. Level up with our Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Leveling Guide. If you are looking for a different Barbarian playstyle, check out all of our Barbarian Guides.
Season 3 - Season of the Construct
In Season 3, you obtain the Seneschal Construct through the Season Questline, then collect Governing Stones or Tuning Stones to add attacks and augment them to support your build. Only certain Tuning Stones work with a particular Governing Stone. Look at the bottom of any Tuning Stone tooltip to see if it is compatible with your Construct's currently equipped Stones. Lastly, they can be leveled up by getting duplicates to max out their power. Check out our full Season 3 guide for more information.
Note: All recommendations are speculative until proper testing during the season can be done.
Recommended Stones
- Flash of Adrenaline - The base skill grants us a damage boost, and we support it with stones that give us additional buffs.
- Duration
- Simply increases the duration of our damage buff.
- Tactical
- Decreases the skill's cooldown for better uptime.
- Initiative
- Before obtaining Genesis, this support helps our little guy keep up with us.
- Duration
- Tempest - This isn't used for damage, but rather as another way to support our character with even more buffs.
- Safeguard
- A constant damage reduction bonus as long as our Construct is attacking something.
- Resource
- As the name implies, constantly supplies us with more Fury.
- Swift
- Before obtaining Evernight, this just increases the rate at which we receive our buffs.
- Safeguard
Alternative Stones
- Swap Evernight in place of Swift - This should always be the first choice, but is listed as an alternative due to its rarity and being locked behind Uber Malphas.
- Swap Genesis in place of Initiative - Also listed as alternative for the above reason. Swap to this immediately if it is obtained to drastically increase the effectiveness of the equipped skill.
- Fortify can be used in place of Swift for more Fortify generation.
- Reconstruct is great early on, and even in late game for some passive sustain. Replace Flash of Adrenaline with it to benefit from this healing ability.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
This is a full melee playstyle. We methodically play around a rotation that enables the majority of our hits to Overpower and cause massive damage. This means that close attention is sometimes required in order to play optimally.
- Lunging Strike is our Fury generator of choice; it has a chance to grant us Berserking and is a means of utilizing Earthstriker's Aspect for big Overpower hits. This is dropped later on, but is still great for much of the leveling process.
- Hammer of the Ancients is a heavy hitting Core skill with a moderately high Fury cost. It shines when combined with Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients to regain Fury, and Furious Hammer of the Ancients for even more deadly attacks at full resources. The Offensive Aspect of Ancestral Force transforms this skill into an omni-directional shockwave that blasts most of the room to pieces.
- Rallying Cry is the Shout that boosts our Movement Speed and Fury generation. More Movement Speed improves our ability to traverse every area in the game, and also allows us to easily position ourselves to nuke hordes of enemies fast and efficiently. On top of this, it grants us Unstoppable on use, allowing us to avoid and break any crowd control effects.
- Challenging Shout is one of our main defensive buffs that grants us a huge percentage of flat damage reduction. It also helps with grouping up enemies with its inherent Taunt ability. Our area of effect isn't exactly the largest by default, so this secondary effect can be incredibly handy.
- War Cry is an additional way to help us keep up our Berserking status, and also just serves as a free damage boost whenever it's up. Using three Shouts generally is just a very comfy playstyle and allows for fast and relaxing farming.
- Charge does quite a few things for us. It's a travel tool, a means of inflicting Stun, a source of Unstoppable and Berserking, a damage dealer, and a Fury generator all in one with the proper gear setup.
- Wrath of the Berserker is an amazing way to start off every Dungeon and is also a great skill to fall back on when things get too dicey. It knocks back enemies, helps us cap our Fury, and serves as an additional source of Berserking and Unstoppable.
- The following generally describes our gamplay loop:
- Charge into battle to grant Berserking and also activate Tibault's Will. If the terrain allows for it, aim at a wall or other environmental obstacle to also inflict Stun.
- On the first pack of enemies: Use Wrath of the Berserker followed by Hammer of the Ancients in an attempt to dump enough Fury to activate Supreme Wrath of the Berserker. Once this damage bonus is granted, it will be active as long as we keep up Berserking. Use Charge and War Cry to refresh Berserking if it is ever about to fall off.
- Use Rallying Cry for a Fury boost if needed, and optionally Challenging Shout if there are strong Elites present.
- Smash away with Hammer of the Ancients. The ideal result is an Overpower that also is a Critical Strike, resulting in huge damage and likely a screen clear. Repeat the process or clean up with weaker hits if necessary.
- Mix in uses of Charge if Fury is ever low and to refresh the damage bonus from Tibault's Will. This skill also allows us to set up big Overpower hits in combination with Earthstriker's Aspect, so it is an integral part of our gameplay rotation.
- Wrath of the Berserker is always a great skill to fall back on for extra damage and buff extensions. At the very least, we want to pop it right at the start of Boss fights to ensure we have the large power spike it grants.
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, regardless of which weapon we have equipped.
The Two-Handed Mace is our main (and only) weapon of choice, since Hammer of the Ancients requires a Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon. While the Critical Strike Damage multiplier offered by its Arsenal bonus might seem highly situational at first glance, we are built to take advantage of it more often than not, since we are constantly afflicting our enemies with Stun and Vulnerable effects through various sources.
In the Technique Slot, the Two-Handed Axe further allows us to capitalize on this by increased our damage to Vulnerable enemies. Unfortunately, its secondary effect does not apply here - the limitation of the Technique Slot is that it does not allow us to benefit from the second bonus that is normally gained from reaching rank 10 with any weapon expertise.
Learn more details and how to unlock this class specification in our full Arsenal System Guide.
Resource & Cooldown Management
In order to play this build effectively, attention is required in overcoming our Fury-spending issue, which can be a massive drawback early on. The use of Unbridled Rage makes this problem even more severe. Here's what we do to help it:
- Use Tactical Rallying Cry. This is one of our main sources of Fury regeneration and we make sure this is active during any major fight.
- Fury Cost Reduction on gear if not using Banished Lord's Talisman. It can be rolled on an Amulet, and optionally the Boots.
- Resource Generation on our Rings. While damage stats are always more appealing, they mean nothing if we can't cast our skills. This should always be a priority stat when considering gear options.
- Aspect of Echoing Fury grants us 10 base Fury per second while we have at least one Shout active.
- Unrelenting Fury returns a percentage of Fury when killing an enemy or hitting a Boss. This scales with Resource Generation and is a very effective way of keeping our Fury constantly topped off.
- The Two-Handed Mace Expertise inherently gives us a chance to gain Fury on hit.
- On the Warbringer paragon board, we take nodes that grant us Fury on Kill.
Reductions to our Cooldowns are also important, but to a lesser extent. That said, without ways to mitigate their downtime, the build can definitely feel weaker, slower, and more clunky. We solve this by doing the following:
- Prioritizing a Cooldown roll on our Helm if not using Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty.
- Relentless Berserker's Aspect helps us keep our Berserking status from going on cooldown - if this ever falls off it is a large hit to our damage and survivability.
- Power Charge and additional points in the base skill are taken to increase its uptime.
- In general, being smart with our cooldowns and not using them where they aren't needed drastically improves our gameplay flow. This means not using Shouts when no enemies are around, using Wrath of the Berserker selectively, etc.
Paragon Board
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 when they reach level 15!
Level the Paragon Board by scrolling. Each step optimizes progression.
Glyphs
We need to level up our Glyphs to increase their power and activate their Additional Bonus with surrounding nodes. Glyphs have a radius of 3 by default, this increases to 4 at Glyph level 15. Complete Nightmare Dungeons to obtain Glyph experience.
Note that there are some Glyph position swaps and a few adjustments to surrounding Paragon nodes once they reach level 15. See the last two steps in the Paragon progression above for details. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Level 15
- Ire
- Dominate
- Might
- Crusher
- Exploit
Level 21
- Ire
- Dominate
- Might
- Crusher
- Exploit
Optional Glyphs
These Glyphs are used in additional endgame variants and are not needed for the main build presented in this guide.
- Rumble
- Mortal Draw
Also check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Endgame Progression & Variants
When you start diving into the Endgame, you don't have all the tools available to achieve the final build versions. Let us guide you through different progression points to give you a smooth transition from our Leveling Guides to the final build version.
Progression Goals
Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. These are listed in priority order:
- Unlock the following Aspects from Dungeons:
- Ancestral Force in Sunken Ruins (Scosglen)
- Relentless Berserker's in Hakan's Refuge (Kehjistan)
- Unrelenting Fury in Hallowed Ossuary (Fractured Peaks)
- Echoing Fury in Siroccos Caverns (Kehjistan)
- Edgemaster’s in Oldstones (Scosglen)
- Veteran Brawler's Heretics Asylum (Kehjistan)
- Earthstriker's in Maugan's Works (Hawezar)
- Might in Dark Ravine (Dry Steppes)
- Disobedience in Halls of the Damned (Kehjistan)
- Ghostwalker in Broken Bulwark (Scosglen)
- Rapid in Buried Halls (Dry Steppes)
- Expectant in Underroot (Scosglen)
- Numbing Wrath in Heathen's Keep (Hawezar)
- Find the following Legendary Aspects either as a random drop or by gambling with Obols:
- Bold Chieftain's: Gamble Rings
- Put this on a Ring you aren't likely to replace soon.
- This optionally replaces Ring of Red Furor in the endgame setup.
- Earthquake: Gamble One-Handed Weapons
- This replaces Rapid.
- Limitless Rage: Gamble One-Handed Weapons
- This replaces Expectant.
- Accelerating: Gamble One-Handed Weapons
- Used before being replaced by Banished Lord's Talisman.
- Juggernaut's: Gamble Pants
- This replaces Disobedience.
- Ancestral Charge: Gamble One-Handed Weapons
- Used in any Charge focused variant.
- Bold Chieftain's: Gamble Rings
- Acquire the following Unique items either as a random drop or by farming specific Boss drops.
Note: You cannot gamble Unique items with obols!- Tibault's Will:
- Replaces Steadfast Berserker's and trades some defense for a large power increase.
- Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty:
- Replaces Relentless Berserker's, which is moved to our Gloves. An amazing helmet that offers us a little bit of everything in the way of offense. It is even a great defensive choice since it grants additional ranks of Aggressive Resistance.
- Banished Lord's Talisman:
- Replaces Accelerating and is our biggest source of increased damage. It has the ability to consistently grant guaranteed Overpowers and greatly multiply the damage if the result is a Critical Strike.
- Ring of Red Furor:
- Replaces Echoing Fury to give us a source of guaranteed Critical Strikes, as well as some other uncommon Ring affixes: Strength, Attack Speed, and higher than usual Resource Generation and Maximum Fury rolls.
- Godslayer Crown:
- Used in the Bossing endgame variant for some extra burst damage..
- Tibault's Will:
- If you're lucky enough to obtain the following Uber Uniques, they're useful for the build.
- The Grandfather:
- Replace Edgemaster’s with this, but move Edgemaster’s to replace Earthstriker's.
- Harlequin Crest:
- Replace Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty.
- Doombringer:
- Replace Earthstriker's. If used in conjunction with The Grandfather, replace Edgemaster’s.
- The Grandfather:
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Progression Setups
Follow the build's gearing progression from level 50 to 100, including the changes that need to be made as you obtain Legendary Aspects and Uniques.
← Scroll for More Variants →
Once you have completed the leveling guide, only the Codex of Power Aspects are guaranteed. With this setup you can farm the Legendary Aspects and Unique items you need for the next progression point.
Upon finishing the leveling process and approaching the endgame grind, many of the Aspects we use are already available to us from the Codex of Power. There is no reason we shouldn't put them to immediate use, since they can be imprinted as often as needed as we upgrade our gear. We'll start by doing the following:
Gear
Helm, Chest, Pants:
- Relentless Berserker's
- Disobedience
- Might
Gloves, One-Handed Weapons
- Rapid
- Ancestral Force
- Earthstriker's
Two-Handed Weapons
- Expectant
- Edgemaster’s
Boots
- Ghostwalker
Amulet
- Veteran Brawler's
Rings
- Echoing Fury
- Unrelenting Fury
This gives us a functional build to begin farming with. Some Fury issues might be present early on until we find the required gear to solve them, but Hammer of the Ancients generally is less demanding here in comparison to other Core Skills.
Skills
The preliminary version of our build makes a few small changes to the skill tree to compensate for our lack of gear and to help ease early game struggles. Specifically:
- War Cry is taken to help with Berserking uptime and for a little bit of extra damage.
- Endless Fury is great early on for extra Fury generation, as we may be relying on Lunging Strike to offset our costs at this stage. We should be using this skill quite often anyway to proc Expectant, Earthstriker's, etc.
- Extra points in Charge are taken to help its cooldown and to boost its damage as well.
Optional Considerations:
- Call of the Ancients can be used instead of Wrath of the Berserker early on if we are really struggling for single target damage.
- If Fury management seems fine, Unconstrained can be swapped to Unbridled Rage for a little extra damage.
Gameplay
The only thing that changes in the early stages of the build is using Lunging Strike as an extra damage source and utility in generating Fury. Call of the Ancients, if taken, is very good in the early game as well and should be saved for Boss fights or encounters with many Elites.
In this setup, you have access to all Legendary Aspects, allowing you to pilot a much stronger version of this build. Additional Legendary Aspects are used to fill slots that may be replaced with Unique items later on.
Gear
At this progression point, the build is fully functional and most or all of the following has been taken care of:
- Resource Regeneration rolls on (preferably both) Rings.
- A well-rolled Aspect of Echoing Fury has replaced the Codex version.
- Cooldown and/or Fury Cost Reduction rolls are present on Helmet, Boots, and Amulet.
We also add more Aspects to the build and move around some others:
- Limitless Rage is placed on one of our Two-Handed Weapons for maximum effect.
- Accelerating goes on our Amulet.
- Juggernaut's replaces Disobedience for more of a consistent Armor boost.
- Earthquake replaces Rapid.
Paragon Related Gear Changes:
- Damage while Berserking should start being prioritized once the Blood Rage paragon node has been activated. Until then, generic additives such as Core Skill Damage or Damage to Close Enemies are better.
- With both Earthstriker's and the Bone Breaker node activated, we should be Overpowering pretty often. At this point, Royal Rubies should be socketed in all weapons.
Skills
- Ideally we pick up Ground Stomp and replace our Basic Skill. This gives us some Crowd Control, extra Fury generation, and a damage boost from Earthquake Aspect.
- If keeping Berserking status is no longer an issue, Challenging Shout should be taken to help with harder content that we may be approaching at this stage.
- If Fury is still an issue at this stage, continue using Combat Lunging Strike as we did in early endgame instead of Ground Stomp and its supporting Aspects.
Gameplay
With Ground Stomp, we are aiming to capitalize on the damage boosts from Earthquake Aspect, Wallop, and the One-Handed Mace Expertise. Methodical use of Ground Stomp is the only real change in gameplay, the rest is relatively the same.
In this setup, you have access to all Unique items and Legendary Aspects. This allows you to pilot this build at its peak efficiency. Let's take a look at the changes you need to make to implement them.
Gear
This is the final version of our build, and a few things change at this point.
- We equip Tibault's Will and Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty here.
- Banished Lord's Talisman is our best in slot Amulet. It is a very offensive item, and comes with some disadvantages - the loss of some Fury Cost Reduction, Cooldown Reduction, Movement Speed, and potentially an extra Defensive Aspect. If this feels like too much, an Amulet similar to the early game setup should be used instead.
- Ring of Red Furor is used to guarantee us a boosted Critical Strike on every third use of Hammer of the Ancients. It also gives us a nice Attack Speed bonus as well as a higher-than-average Resource Generation roll. This slot can also be occupied by Bold Chieftain's if more Shout uptime is desired.
Skills
A few skills are changed at this point:
- War Cry replaces Ground Stomp.
- Brute Force is taken as a multiplicative damage increase to our Overpower damage.
- Unbridled Rage is taken because we want to actively be spending Fury as much as possible in order to activate Banished Lord's Talisman, Invigorating Fury, Ring of Red Furor, and Warbringer.
- Optionally, Bash can be used over War Cry for more guaranteed Overpower hits, but it may feel more clunky. It's worth noting that the early endgame build with Ground Stomp is still perfectly viable - continue with that playstyle if it feels comfy.
Gameplay
The gameplay loop is relatively the same, but maybe a little more fast-paced. There is much more focus on smashing and spending Fury. The goal is to one-shot most groups of monsters with huge Overpower hits and move on, while paying attention to Shouts cooldowns and Berserking uptime.
This variant shifts some of our damage from Hammer of the Ancients and focuses it more on Charge. The result is less bonking power in exchange for ridiculous clearing ability, ideal for speedfarming all content in the game. Rather than being a pure Hammer of the Ancients build, this is more of a hybrid that combines two very high damage skills that complement each other very nicely, making it extremely well-rounded in the process.
Gear
- Brawler's goes on our Gloves, replacing Relentless Berserker's. With our high uptime on Charge, we can rely on it completely as our source of Berserking. With our newly added Brawler's Aspect, our clear becomes quite literally explosive... even small packs get destroyed by this once they are grouped up with Charge.
- Ancestral Charge replaces Limitless Rage. This gives our Charge a massive area of effect increase and a huge chunk of damage on top of it.
- Banished Lord's Talisman is replaced with Numbing Wrath. The combination of Tibault's Will and Charge makes it so we are pretty much always overcapping on Fury, which gives us a steady supply of Fortify generation. We take Cooldown Reduction and +Ranks of All Brawling Skills here for more Charge damage and uptime.
Alternate Setup
- We can lean more into Hammer of the Ancients damage by continuing to use Banished Lord's Talisman.
- To make up for the Cooldown loss on our Amulet, we should take Bear Clan Berserker's instead of Veteran Brawler's.
- Note that this version favors bigger bonks, and will result in lower damage output from Charge.
About Ring of the Ravenous:
- This can be the Ring used alongside Unrelenting Fury in either setup and is a great choice stat-wise; it also has the added benefit of providing Bleed. However, in its current state, it has a bad interaction with Earthstriker's and will sometimes force Rend to consume Overpowers (even though we don't actually take this skill). Not the end of the world by any means, and it is less impactful if using the Banished Lord's Talisman setup. Use it "at your own risk" - but in general, it is a fine option.
Skills
- Really the only thing that changes here compared to the standard endgame variant is putting more points in Charge.
- If using the setup with Banished Lord's Talisman, Unbridled Rage is the way to go to spend Fury quicker.
Paragon
- Use the slider to see the paragon changes between each version listed above.
Gameplay Showcase
This preliminary Gauntlet variant sacrifices some of its defense in favor of speed and mobility, while still retaining its high damage output. It's designed and tuned to be competitive in this specific game mode, but is also great for other speedfarming content as well. It is important to note that at the time of this update, the Gauntlet is not yet available, which means this setup can be considered speculative. It will be tweaked and updated as needed when we learn more about this content.
Gear
- Numbing Wrath replaces Juggernaut's and serves as our primary source of Fortify, which factors into our Overpower damage and allows us to benefit from Counteroffensive. Incoming damage in the Gauntlet is less of a concern than it normally would be at higher level endgame content, so we should be able to take the Armor loss. If it ends up being too much of a sacrifice, then we continue to use Juggernaut's and instead rely on our Seneschal for Fortify generation.
- Bear Clan Berserker's is nice here because ideally we want to be using Charge pretty much all the time to clear screens. Even the smallest amount of downtime can add up over the course of an entire run. This Aspect does become redundant if Harlequin Crest is used; in that case, Ring of Red Furor or Unrelenting Fury are better options.
- The "Movement Speed After Killing an Elite" affix is a great addition here on our Boots. The Resistance roll that is usually present here should be moved to the Chest Armor slot instead.
Skills
- We take Leap as an extra form of mobility, mainly to prevent using Charge when no enemies are around. In some cases, it even allows us to clip through walls and other terrain. Lastly, it serves as another way to keep Berserking up, as a weapon swap for Earthstriker's, and also as a way to generate more Fury.
- War Cry is not taken on the skill tree, but is provided to us via Ring of the Ravenous.
- Unbridled Rage is used here for faster Banished Lord's Talisman procs, but Unconstrained is an option for more Charge damage.
- To help maximize Earthstriker's procs, configure Charge to use the Two-Handed Axe, and Leap to use One-Handed Maces.
Paragon
- The Bone Breaker node has more value in this type of content because we can strategically play around its 12-second timer if needed.
- Carnage procs are mostly fueled by Charge, but will give our Hammer of the Ancients some extra speed when we stop to use it.
This setup is designed to instantly kill a single target and create a big number™. It should not be used for any other purpose.
Gear
Some of these item swaps are completely unnecessary. The required threshold for instantly killing anything in the game is very low - we're really just maximizing our overkill damage for fun in this setup. The standard endgame variant is typically capable of achieving the same result with decent gear.
- Godslayer Crown is taken for its short burst damage. You could call this the only "required" item swap since it does add quite a bit of power when compared to Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty.
- Protector is used in combination with Conceited. Soulbrand can also be used here.
- Ring of Red Furor is to guarantee that we land a Critical Strike with our Overpower hit.
- Elements or Inner Calm can be used in any remaining offensive slots, if desired.
Skills
- We take Kick here as a Fury dump for Ring of Red Furor and Banished Lord's Talisman, as well as Vulnerable application. Believe it or not, a fully charged Overpower Kick can do a ton of damage on its own, as well.
- War Cry is maxed for more damage. If one cast of Rallying Cry doesn't instantly fill and overcap Fury, put points there instead.
Paragon
Wrath is swapped in for a little extra additive damage, but the usual Exploit is fine.
Gameplay
This variant requires very minimal preparation. We'll use Uber Duriel as the example here, since it's the only solo fight that needs an extra setup step:
- Spend 70 Fury to start "charging" Banished Lord's Talisman upon entering the dungeon. (One Hammer of the Ancients cast. Can skip this if in a group and another party member can kill a minion.)
- Bash some stuff on the way to the arena, if needed, to have a nice Fury pool before arriving.
- Spend the required materials to begin the fight; make sure Bone Breaker and Dominate are active when doing so (they have buff icons near the bottom of the screen).
- Bonk once to kill a minion, or let a party member do it. (Expends Bone Breaker Overpower).
- Duriel spawns. Cast skills in this order:
- Challenging Shout.
- War Cry.
- Kick (Expends all Fury and the Dominate Overpower, and should fully charge Banished Lord's Talisman in the process).
- Rallying Cry (Fully refills and overcaps Fury for Limitless Rage).
- Hammer of the Ancients (Expends Banished Lord's Talisman Overpower).
- Collect your new The Grandfather or Harlequin Crest (repeat process if unsuccessful).
Video Demonstration
(With unoptimized gear):
Hardcore Adjustments
Hardcore requires you to build into more defenses. Here are some tips to successful in this game mode:
- We can opt for more defensive oriented passives, such as Defensive Stance or Concussion. These can replace offensive options such as Wallop or Counteroffensive .
- Prioritize more defensive rolls on gear, such as Maximum Life on Rings.
Build Scaling & Stat Priorities
Learn about the important build scaling mechanics and stat weights.
Fury and Cooldown Reduction:
- As explained earlier, our Fury and Cooldown management are instrumental to our success as a Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian.
- With the Unbridled Rage passive (which is a huge multiplier to our damage), Hammer of the Ancients has an extremely high Fury cost. In order to be able to cast this skill frequently at maximum power, we need to put a lot of effort into maintaining Fury regeneration. One main source of this is Aspect of Unrelenting Fury and, if needed, Aspect of Echoing Fury.
- Cooldown Reduction is available on Helm and Amulet (if not using Banished Lord's Talisman).
- Resource Generation is available on Rings.
- Fury Cost Reduction, if desired, is available on Boots and Amulet.
Weapon Damage:
- Our Hammer of the Ancients only scales off the weapon damage per second of our Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon. This means that in all other weapon slots, the only requirement is an item level of 725 or more (to maximize ranges on the stats that can roll.) Weapon damage does not matter.
Damage while Berserking:
- One of the biggest sources of increased damage for us. Berserking acts as a 1.25x multiplier while it is active, and this damage scales even higher with the help of the Blood Rage paragon node. Because of this, we want to prioritize Berserking at all times and take Damage while Berserking anywhere that it is feasible - on gear and the Paragon Board.
- War Cry is a great way to instantly activate Berserking.
- Relentless Berserker's Aspect is important for keeping Berserking up during fights.
- Wrath of the Berserker is yet another way to activate this status.
- The One-Handed Mace Expertise grants us a chance to activate Berserking through Lucky Hits.
Overpower:
- Another large source of damage. Attacks that Overpower give us a baseline 1.5x multiplier, and we scale this as much as possible through other means.
- Earthstriker's Aspect, Banished Lord's Talisman, as well as the Bone Breaker paragon node are our main ways of ensuring Overpower.
- Brute Force is a passive that gives us a massive multiplier to our Overpower damage.
- Overpower Damage implicitly rolls on both One-Handed and Two-Handed Maces.
- The Crusher Glyph multiplies our Overpower damage when enough Strength is allocated within its radius.
Critical Strike Damage:
- This is no longer as needed as it once was due to it being an additive source of damage, but it's still nice to have when possible. Even though we don't prioritize them, Critical Strike Damage rolls (and any additive damage roll) on all of our weapons apply to us even if we are not using them, including the Royal Emeralds socketed within. Whenever a Critical Strike is dealt, the resulting damage is multiplied by 1.5x
- Heavy Handed is a separate multiplier to our Critical Strike Damage.
- To help our odds of dealing Critical Strikes, we take Critical Strike Chance as a priority roll on Gloves and Rings. In some variants, The Mortal Draw further increases this chance.
Vulnerable Damage:
- This status acts as a 1.2x multiplier to our damage. We don't actively try to scale Vulnerable damage beyond this, since anything beyond this is also considered additive.
- Exploit allows us to inflict Vulnerable whenever we initiate combat, and is our primary source of application. However, once its duration ends, we have to wait quite a while for its effect to activate again.
Damage from Stuns:
- Enhanced Charge is our main way if inflicting Stun. Early on, other viable options are Ground Stomp and the Concussion passive.
- Wallop multiplies damage if enemies are Stunned or Vulnerable.
- Similarly, the Two-Handed Mace Expertise also acts as a damage multiplier against enemies who are Stunned.
Limitless Rage and Edgemaster’s:
- These Aspects are damage multipliers that significantly increase their effectiveness when we are capped or overcapped on Fury, another reason why our resource management becomes so important.
Ancestral Force:
- An Aspect specifically made for Hammer of the Ancients. It is a damage multiplier and also provides a way to increase this skill's area of effect.
Damage Reduction:
- Challenging Shout is one of our main sources of damage reduction. We can further increase its effectiveness by rolling + Ranks of this skill on our Chest Armor.
- We take various forms of damage reduction through rolls on our gear, such as:
- Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
- Damage Reduction while Fortified
- Aggressive Resistance is a source of damage reduction while we are Berserking.
- Pit Fighter offers us a small amount of Distant Damage Reduction.
- Aspect of Might gives us a nice amount of damage reduction when we hit with Lunging Strike.
- There is a stacking damage reduction with our Shouts thanks to Guttural Yell.
Fortify:
- While we are Fortified, we gain a baseline 10% damage reduction that can be scaled even further with Royal Sapphires in our Helm, Chest Armor, and Pants.
- Numbing Wrath can be used to constantly generate Fortify.
Armor:
Another form of damage mitigation. Armor is important as it is not conditional and always in effect. It reduces all incoming Physical damage by a percentage, so a high armor value is extremely ideal.
- Our Strength stat inherently grants us Armor, with a 1:1 ratio.
- Aspect of Disobedience increases our total Armor by a percentage
- Royal Skulls can be socketed in Amulet and Rings for additional Armor, but they contend with gems that grant Resistances.
- % Total Armor rolls are taken on non-Unique Helmet, Chest Armor, and Pants.
Unstoppable:
- Enhanced Rallying Cry is our main source if prolonged Unstoppable.
- Charge grants us this effect during its attack animation.
- Wrath of the Berserker provides us Unstoppable for 5 seconds on use.
Unstoppable is our means of ignoring or escaping the many types of enemy Crowd Control effects.
Our Damage Explained article explains how to scale your Offense.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Stat Priorities
There are many stats and status effects that generate on gear, but many are not important for your build. See below for a general breakdown as well as a per slot priority list in the list.
- Helm: Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty
- Maximum Fury
- + Ranks of the Aggressive Resistance Passive
- Damage while Berserking
- % Chance to Become More Enraged (60)
- % Attack Speed
- Otherwise Look For: Disobedience
- Cooldown Reduction
- Maximum Fury
- Damage while Berserking
- Maximum Life
- % Total Armor
- Strength / All Stats
- Resistance (as needed)
- Crowd Control Duration
- Chest Armor: Juggernaut's
- Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
- Damage Reduction while Fortified
- % Total Armor
- Maximum Life
- Damage Reduction
- Resistance (as needed)
- Gloves: Relentless Berserker's
- + Ranks of Hammer of the Ancients
- Critical Strike Chance
- Attack Speed
- Strength / All Stats
- Overpower Damage
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Pants: Tibault's Will
- Increased Damage while Unstoppable (40%)
- Maximum Resource
- Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
- % Damage
- Potion Capacity
- Otherwise Look For: Steadfast Berserker's
- % Total Armor
- Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
- Damage Reduction while Fortified
- Damage Reduction
- Maximum Life
- Resistance (as needed)
- Boots: Ghostwalker
- Movement Speed
- Cold / Lightning / Poison Resistance
- Cold / Lightning / Poison Resistance
- Cold / Lightning / Poison Resistance
- Resistance (as needed)
- Damage Reduction while Injured
- Fury Cost Reduction
- Strength / All Stats
- Movement Speed for 4 Seconds After Killing an Elite
- Amulet: Banished Lord's Talisman
- Critical Strikes that Overpower Deal Increased Damage (120)
- Critical Strike Chance
- Resource Generation
- Overpower Damage
- Otherwise Look For: Accelerating
- Cooldown Reduction
- Fury Cost Reduction
- + Ranks of the Brute Force Passive
- Movement Speed
- + Ranks of the Counteroffensive Passive
- + Ranks of the Wallop Passive
- + Ranks of the Heavy Handed Passive
- Ring 1: Unrelenting Fury &
- Damage while Berserking
- Resource Generation
- Maximum Fury
- Critical Strike Chance
- Maximum Life
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Physical Damage
- Ring 2: Ring of Red Furor
- Resource Generation
- Bonus Critical Strike Damage (30)
- Maximum Fury
- Attack Speed
- Strength
- Otherwise Look For: Echoing Fury
- Damage while Berserking
- Resource Generation
- Maximum Fury
- Critical Strike Chance
- Maximum Life
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Physical Damage
- Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon (Mace): Limitless Rage
- High Damage per Second
- Damage while Berserking
- Strength
- Overpower Damage
- All Stats
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Dual-Wield Weapon 1 (Mace): Ancestral Force
- Damage while Berserking
- Strength
- Overpower Damage
- All Stats
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Dual-Wield Weapon 2 (Mace): Earthstriker's
- Damage while Berserking
- Strength
- Overpower Damage
- All Stats
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Two-Handed Slashing Weapon (Axe): Edgemaster’s
- Damage while Berserking
- Strength
- Overpower Damage
- All Stats
- Damage to Close Enemies
This build benefits the most from the following consumables:
- Elixirs: Elixir of Cruelty, Iron Skin Elixir, Elixir of Fortitude, Heady Assault Elixir & Heady Precision Elixir
- Incenses: Song of the Mountain, Reddamine Buzz & Chorus of War
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.
Why take Blood Rage with no source of Bleed?
Why am I running out of Fury?
How do I assign skills to the correct weapon?
Mechanics
Learn about the mechanical details which makes the build tick.
Furious Hammer of the Ancients
Summary
The HotA Barbarian is a strong melee build that controls the battlefield. It is relatively fast-paced and can deliver some of the most ridiculous damage numbers in the game when fully optimized. Charging into battle with a Rallying Cry and following up with an absolutely devastating atomic smash with Hammer of the Ancients will always feel way too satisfying.
Hungry for more Guides?
Barbarian Guides
General Guides
Credits
Written by snail
Contributions by Slothmaster
Reviewed by Facefoot
