Welcome to the Death Blow Barbarian Specialized Guide! This build is designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: delivering high-powered bonks that annihilate Bosses. This guide will showcase two variants; one with very optimized gear that relies on Earthquakes for a huge damage multiplier, and one that is a little more accessible in the early endgame and less gear intensive.
Our Specialized Builds are lategame builds with specific requirements and purposes. In order to play them, you are expected to have a level 100 character and all of the listed items available. To get there, we recommend you use one of our existing lvl 50-100 Endgame Build Guides.
Gear, Skill Tree, and Paragon
There are several ways to make a basic Death Blow setup, this is just one example. No Uniques are required here, but they will increase damage substantially. Gameplay loop is:
- Alternate Bash and Lunging Strike until Earthstriker's reads "7".
- Use Wrath of the Berserker → War Cry → Kick.
- Bash or Lunging Strike to activate Earthstriker's buff.
- Death Blow.
Paragon
See below for the selected Paragon Boards, Paragon point allocation, and the correct Glyphs you should use for the Death Blow Barbarian. Note: The Paragon Boards below are the final setup with no steps.
Level 15 Glyphs required: Crusher, Ire, Marshal, Might, Rumble, Twister
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
- This build requires proper setup to effectively fulfill its purpose, and involves playing around Earthstriker's Aspect. As such, make sure to assign weapons properly:
- Two-Handed Mace: Death Blow.
- Two-Handed Sword: Leap. (when Earthstriker's count = 0, always lead off with Leap!)
- Dual-Wield: Bash.
- Before engaging a Boss, we always want the Earthstriker's buff (visible near the bottom of the screen) to read "7" while we have the weapon assigned to Leap active. If Leap can be used continuously without this number changing, the setup is correct. To achieve this, alternate between Leap and Bash until Leap shows "7" on the Earthstriker's buff icon.
- Before engaging a Boss, we want to be using Leap as much as possible to stack up Earthquakes. This is why we prioritize Cooldown Reduction and Earthquake Duration on gear. When many Earthquakes are active, we get a large damage multiplier from the Rumble Glyph. With enough Cooldown Reduction, we can use Leap infinitely to achieve this.
- After the Boss spawns and there are many Earthquakes present, the following sequence needs to occur:
- Leap on the Boss to put an Earthquake under it and max out Fury.
- Use Wrath of the Berserker.
- Use War Cry followed by Kick to dump Fury. This will activate the bonus of Supreme Wrath of the Berserker and Ring of Red Furor, as well as generate enough Fortify from Warbringer to activate Counteroffensive.
- Bash once to activate the final stage of Earthstriker's. This will make it so our next attack will Overpower.
- Use Death Blow to delete Boss.
- In the event that this doesn't kill, the process can be repeated by alternating Leap and Bash to reactivate Earthstriker's.
Gear and Stat Requirements
These builds require specific Aspects, Uniques, Uber Uniques, and Affixes on your gear to perform their primary function. Only deviate from the list below after you have fully learned the intended gameplay style and strategies.
- Legendary Aspects:
- Earthstriker's
- Encroaching Wrath
- Bul-Kathos
- Earthquake
- Giant Strides
- Protector
- Conceited
- Fierce Winds
- Weapon Master's (optional)
- Elements (optional; can be replaced with Inner Calm)
- Uniques:
- Tibault's Will
- Ring of Red Furor
- Other:
- This build requires the "Earthquake Duration", "Leap Cooldown Reduction", and "Brawling Cooldown Reduction" Tempers to function as intended.
- Capping Armor and every single Resistance is not prioritized since this build is designed to end fights extremely quickly. If desired, various Strength or Maximum Life rolls can be replaced with Resistances, but generally it's better to just focus on countering whichever Boss is right in front of you (ex: Duriel = Royal Emerald in Jewelry slots).
- Cooldown Reduction:
- A lot of effort needs to be put into reducing the cooldown of Leap to be under 4 seconds. This is so it can be used continuously even when it doesn't have a target. At level 12, Leap has a cooldown of ~11.2 seconds. This means around 65% cooldown reduction is required to achieve this. With the gear listed in this guide we have enough to hit this number almost exactly, so there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room.
FAQ & Mechanics
Why Dust Devils?
Earthstriker's?
Why prioritize Maximum Fury?
Video Guide
Coming Soon!
Credits
Written by snail
Reviewed by wudijo