Death Blow Barbarian Endgame Build Guide
Welcome to the Death Blow Barbarian Endgame Guide!
If you thought Death Blow woud never recover from the Season 6 Starlight + Invigorating Fury nerf, then you're about to be proven wrong! Extreme tankiness, even bigger Overpowers, permanent Shouts and insane healing, all of those are still possible for that one goal in making our beloved Weapon Mastery Skill rise from the Dead(blow) once more!
The main idea behind the build is sustaining a 100 Fury Death Blow (combining Crown of Lucion and Ring of Starless Skies) to trigger Banished Lord's Talisman guaranteed Overpower every 3 casts and Ring of Red Furor guaranteed Critical Strike everytime.
To achieve this, we are using Fighter's Death Blow and multiplying the Fury gains by Resource Generation bonuses such as the new Shroud of False Death, Yen's Blessing, a juiced up Rallying Cry and a few others. This allows us to reach that sweet spot where the costly Death Blow becomes self-sustainable!
When combined with up to 37 bonus Ranks from Overkill and +Core skill affixes (through The Third Blade) and the new Witchcraft Powers, be assured that our Overpower hits achieve absurd amounts of damage.
Feeling like giving it a try? Well, you're more than welcome to do so but first, take a note of the...
Requirement for this build
- The Third Blade
(yes, don't play it without acquiring this first).
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 QoL oriented Unique Witchcraft Power, despite its main use being to pack monsters it also has a good Damage output.
- Abyssal Resonance - The more fury you spend, the more damage you deal and the more you pack monsters ? This is ideal for our first Eldritch power!
- Purging Touch - Our second Eldritch power, we choose this power as it buffs all Eldritch powers, including our Death Blow casts turned Eldritch thanks to Witching Hour.
- Hex of Flames - Our third and last Eldritch power, outside of its decent damage output it is also our way of applying the Hex debuff to our targets in order to activate Elder Sigil and Phantom String bonuses.
- Soul Harvest - This Power dramatically increases Core Stats based on monster density and is a reliably strong choice, especially since we are fairly often casting a skill that has a cooldown.
- Aura of Lament - This is our Aura of choice, applying Slow in a wide radius and generating some Fury passively.
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
- Elder Sigil - This Gem is a set-and-forget damage multiplier for Weapon Mastery skills; it is enabled by Hex of Flames.
- Phantom String - Our build focuses on Overpower damage, so this Gem is a solid choice when paired with Hex of Flames.
- Witching Hour - Giving us the option to turn our Core-converted Death Blow casts into Eldritch every 1 second and buffing them further with Purging Touch? That's a staple.
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
NOTE:
Due to Yen's Blessing shenanigans and usage of Runewords, our skill bar only uses Five Skills (leaving one out) despite investing in Seven Skills (including 3 shouts). This behavior is intended (explanations can be found below).
- Lunging Strike can be used as a backup tool to generate Fury when needed and move in and out of monster packs. It is required to advance the skill tree.
- Death Blow is our primary damage and utility skill. As it generates and spends Fury, every cast will trigger Fortify (Irrepressible ), Vulnerable (Expose Vulnerability) and heal us (Invigorating Fury). Equipping The Third Blade turns it into a spammable pseudo-Core skill.
- Steel Grasp is used to group up enemies. Having tightly packed groups is important for this build as Death Blow on its own has very narrow coverage. Thanks to The Third Blade (again), it benefits from +Core skill ranks bonuses and becomes available without investing any Skill point.
- Call of the Ancients acts as an all purpose buff, increasing our damage, Attack Speed and generating Fury.
- Rallying Cry is a buff providing us a big Resource Generation bonus (to sustain our high Fury spending gameplay) and Unstoppable for its entire duration (preventing us from getting interrupted). Paired with Yen's Blessing and Booming Voice, when being the ONLY SHOUT assigned to our Skill Bar, we can benefit from its effects all the time (as long as it is on cooldown)!
- War Cry is our last buff granting us Berserking and a hefty Damage multiplier. DO NOT PUT IT ON YOUR SKILL BAR, as it is automatically casted by the Ohm Rune, allowing us to have it permanently active.
Skill Rotation
- Rallying Cry must be used whenever it is available; Yen's Blessing automatically refreshes it as long as it is on cooldown.
- Use Call of the Ancients pretty much whenever it is available for more damage and Fury generation.
- Use Steel Grasp to pull in surrounding enemies within Death Blow range and reuse it as you see fit. Ideally, group up monsters tightly against walls (pixel pull) to maximize your damage output.
- Start spamming Death Blow inside the largest pack of enemies and watch the magic happen as your Runewords automatically trigger War Cry and Qax as you cast; just make sure to enjoy the Overpowers!
- Use Lunging Strike if you need the mobility to quickly get in or out of a pack of monsters.
PRO TIP: Make sure to use the Hold Position key when attacking to maximize your Inner Calm buff.
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 Death Blow and Lunging Strike 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 permanent Vulnerable uptime thanks to Expose Vulnerability, 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
- Wrath
- Crusher
- Challenger
- Dominate
- Revenge
To Level 46
- Challenger
- Wrath
- Crusher
- Dominate
- Revenge
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 Death Blow Barbarian build focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
NOTE: Shouts triggered by Runes are affected by Shout bonuses (Skill Ranks, Enhanced Node, Passives and Aspects).
- Poc + Qax - This Runeword combination triggers the damage boost from Qax every 4 to 5 Death Blow (100 Fury per cast).
- Igni + Ohm - This Runeword combination triggers War Cry after casting 6 to 7 Death Blow.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Cir / Tam - Good early game alternatives 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.
- Tec - A cheap Invocation Rune that allows temporary use of the Earthquakes and Bul-Kathos Aspects.
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 Death Blow 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
- 115%+ Attack Speed (including the Carnage buff) to cast Death Blow 4 times per second
- Rank 35+ Death Blow from the various +Core rank affixes
- 90%+ Chance for Death Blow to Deal Double damage
- 450%+ Damage while Berserking (Blood Rage)
- 2500+ Strength
- 800+ Willpower
- ~200% Resource Generation Bonus (when buffed by Rallying Cry)
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%
- 35,000+ Life
- 180%+ Movement Speed
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Death Blow 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 Death Blow 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.
- To lower Death Blow cost to a sustainable 20-25 Fury per cast, we focus on Resource Cost Reduction affixes on our Two-Handers and use Weapon Master's to reduce the base cost by 5. One Fury per second affix along with Berserk Fury is used to ensure our Fury bar stays full; both trigger (partially) every 0.2 seconds, making them more reliable than Vocalized Empowerment.
- As we do not have Yen's Blessing yet, we put our three Shouts on our bar and get multiple Shout Cooldown Reduction Tempers and Bold Chieftain's to ensure permanent uptime.
- Gameplay is very similar to the Endgame versions with the sole difference being that we leverage Blood Boiling as a source of guaranteed Overpower, while also giving us nice AoE Damage when collecting the volatile drops.
- 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 keeping our Death Blow cost low is our primary focus.
- Remember, The Third Blade is required! The build is incredibly clunky without this item.
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.
- 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 can be useful for multiple builds; even though this is a wasted stat here, everything else is too good to pass up.
- Tibault's Will provides us with both damage and a damage reduction multiplier, as we're always Unstoppable thanks to Rallying Cry.
- Yen's Blessing gives a very decent chunk of Resistances. The main draw of this item is its ability to give us essentially a permanent Shout of our choosing, Rallying Cry in this case.
- Overkill will give us the gears to crank our Death Blow damage up, thanks to its massive +Skill ranks increase on top of its Unique effect creating an additional wave of damage.
- Banished Lord's Talisman and Ring of Red Furor allow us to start triggering Overpowers and Critical Strikes reliably.
- We swap our Key Passive to Unbridled Rage, as the Fury Generation bonuses from our newly acquired Uniques allow us to afford the skill cost increase.
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
- Ring of Starless Skies will be your first priority as it gives bonus ranks to Core Skills and a bunch of Attack Speed. Only equip Crown of Lucion once you have it so you can reach that sweet 100 Fury / Death Blow cast.
- While the stats on Shroud of False Death are "okay" at best, it provides us an additional Fury Generation Bonus affix and mostly 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.
- Finally, Doombringer is always a no-brainer for Overpower builds since Maximum Life naturally scales Overpower damage. Aside from that, it gives an incredible amount of extra damage mitigation and helps us face-tank.
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 are we not using Encroaching Wrath or Limitless Rage?
Why are we not using Harlequin Crest/Shako or Ugly Bastard Helm?
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™
Gameplay Video
Summary
The Death Blow Barbarian is an absolute "must try" for any Overpower enjoyer despite its narrow AoE capabilities. Here's why it's a great build:
- Up to 40+ Death Blow Ranks and massive damage output from Enhanced Death Blow, the Chance to Deal Double Damage temper and the guaranteed Overpowers provided by Banished Lord's Talisman. Enjoy the Overpowers every 3 casts!
- High defense from multiple Damage Reduction and Maximum Life sources (Doombringer), as well as permanent Fortify.
- High mobility with Rallying Cry and Shroud of False Death.
- High utility in being able to group enemies via Steel Grasp with no cooldown.
- Extremely easy to play, mainly using four skills, two of them being buffs.
- High Vulnerable uptime.
- Shooting Witchcraft powered death waves thanks to the new Witching Hour Occult gem is tons of fun!
Credits
Written by Beatdropper
Reviewed by snail