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Earthquake Barbarian Endgame Build Guide

Season 8 - Belial's ReturnEndgame

Last Updated:April 28, 2025|Changelog|FAQ

Welcome to the Earthquake Barbarian Build Guide! This is a comprehensive guide that focuses on the new "HotA Quake" setup introduced in Season 7, which uses Hammer of the Ancients and Mantle of Mountain's Fury for some seriously dangerous and explosive terrestrial destruction. This is an extremely powerful and versatile build that is ideal for pushing the highest levels of The Pit, as well as speedfarming all content in the game with a comfy and familiar Leapquake setup.

Earthquakes, as you may have guessed, are what give the build practically all of its power. They are created primarily by using Leap with the Bul-Kathos Aspect, Ground Stomp with the Earthquakes Aspect, and by triggering the Tec Rune; the latter being the most volatile of the bunch. Secondary sources, in some cases, also include Call of the Ancients with Arreat's Bearing, as well as the Executioner's Aspect when combined with skills that Overpower.

If jumping around like a madman and demolishing everything in your path sounds like your idea of a good time, then this is the build for you. Heck, if body-pulling multiple screens of enemies, hunkering down and then annihilating them all with a titanic swing of the Hammer of the Ancients sounds like your idea of a good time... then this build is also for you. Don't get too excited yet though -as with most builds, there are some integral pieces that must be acquired first before any Earthquake-focused setup can truly shine:

Requirements for this build

  • Tec (the strongest Earthquake by a large margin).
  • Moni (for use with Lunging Strike).
  • Mantle of Mountain's Fury (makes them go boom!)
Earthquake Barbarian Endgame Setups
Note

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.

Boss Powers

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian

Season 8 is the Season of Belial's Return. It allows you to tap into Boss Powers obtained from World, Event, and Lair Bosses throughout Sanctuary. The new seasonal mechanic, Apparition Incursions, is available at any difficulty level and gives you the opportunity to unlock a subset of these powers very early on. Various Apparition Monsters appear in these special timed events throughout Sanctuary. Defeating these monsters spawns 1 of 10 Apparition Bosses to hunt you down and defeating them grants you their Boss Power. After defeating the first Boss, continue the event for a chance to fight a second Apparition Boss, after which Belial himself joins the fray.

There are 24 Boss Powers available and the first time you defeat one of these Bosses, you claim their power for yourself. Boss Powers each have Main and Modifier effects to boost your build. 13 are available in all difficulties (from Apparition Incursions and World Bosses), while 11 can only be acquired in Torment 1 difficulty or higher from Lair Bosses and Lilith. You can equip 1 Main Power and 3 Modifiers, and all powers can be upgraded up to Rank 20, increasing the potency of both the Main and Modifier effect. You use Spectral Ash to upgrade these powers, dropped from Apparition Incursions and by defeating any Bosses. Boss Powers also scale with your Paragon Level, growing stronger as you progress.

Best-in-Slot Boss Powers

Main Power

  • Allek's Talons - It's nothing special, but at the very least, it allows us to activate our other Boss Powers easily since we're always spamming Lunging Strike.

Modifiers

  • Sinerat's Flames - Gives us a multiplicative damage boost that is based on Elemental Resistance. For this build, the focus is on Fire Resistance; Earthquakes are attuned to this element thanks to Ugly Bastard Helm and Incendiary Fissures.
  • Hatred's Embrace's Haste - Another Resistance-based Power, this time with the focus being Shadow Resistance. This is great for passively maximizing our Critical Hit Chance and allows us to prioritize other important stats on gear.
  • Harbinger of Hatred's Volley - Amazing for several reasons, the primary one being reliable Vulnerable application. Aside from that, it gives us another multiplicative damage boost and allows us to use a generator such as Lunging Strike or Bash to activate various effects that rely on spending Fury.
Earthquake Barbarian Endgame Boss Powers

Alternate Boss Powers

  • Blackmailer's Sabotage - Great defensive option that can be combined with Conceited to give it some offensive utility as well.
  • Flesh Reaper's Disruption - A good damage multiplier that relies on Crowd Control Duration to function. Decent option in the early game before the build is fully geared.

Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.

Skills & Gameplay

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian
  • Lunging Strike is needed to progress the skill tree, but also enables the Moni + Tec Runeword, which is where all of our damage comes from. For every two uses of Lunging Strike, this combination spawns an Earthquake wherever the cursor is pointed.
  • Hammer of the Ancients becomes a core part of our skill rotation when it is combined with Mantle of Mountain's Fury. Equipping it makes this skill consume all of our active Earthquakes and then detonate them; the result is a chain of highly destructive explosions that are based on the duration of the consumed Earthquakes.
  • Rallying Cry provides us multiple buffs, with the most important ones being the invaluable Unstoppable and Fortify effects.
  • War Cry grants us the Berserking buff, but its main appeal is the generous multiplicative damage boost it gives while active.
  • Challenging Shout gives us huge damage reduction and a boost to our Maximum Life. This is a crucial skill for surviving the more difficult content in the game, such as higher levels of The Pit.
  • Wrath of the Berserker provides us with an excellent multiplicative damage boost when combined with Unconstrained, so long as we're spending Fury. This is accomplished by socketing the Harbinger of Hatred's Volley Boss Power.
Earthquake Barbarian Endgame Skill Tree

Skill Rotation

  • Use Lunging Strike to spawn Earthquakes from the Tec Rune. On PC, the Earthquakes appear wherever the cursor is pointed, meaning it's possible to hold the force stand still (SHIFT) and use Lunging Strike to spawn Earthquakes at range.
  • Once Earthquakes are active, use Hammer of the Ancients to detonate them on top of enemies.
    • The desired number of active Earthquakes required to quickly eliminate packs may vary depending on the content.
    • For weak enemies, this detonation phase can often be skipped entirely, as the Earthquake ticks provide enough damage on their own.
    • In high levels of The Pit and during Boss fights, there is a point where stacking many Earthquakes before detonating is more efficient for overall damage output. To keep things simple, aim for 4-5 seconds of stacking Earthquakes before dropping a Hammer of the Ancients.
    • Results may vary! Try to find the sweet spot for stacking and detonating based on your current gear level and the content you're running.
  • Cast War Cry, Rallying Cry and Challenging Shout whenever they are off cooldown to keep their buffs active.
  • Wrath of the Berserker can be used strategically for tougher fights and against Bosses for a large damage boost. However, with enough Cooldown Reduction, this is essentially a permanent buff and should be used whenever it is available.
Lungequake
(Mythic)
Leapquake
(Speedfarm)
Bashquake
(Pit Pushing)

(Coming Soon).

Note: Footage is from Season 7 and intended for demonstration purposes only.

Note: Footage is from Season 8 PTR and intended for demonstration purposes only.

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.

For this purpose of this guide, the Two-Handed Mace is our main weapon choice simply because Hammer of the Ancients requires it to function. When using the Pit Pushing variant, Bash should also be set to this weapon in order to benefit from both its Enhanced version as well as the Combat Bash specialization.

In the Technique Slot, the Two-Handed Axe Expertise allows us to deal 10% more damage to Vulnerable enemies. Thankfully, this build has very high Vulnerable uptime, so this is practically a no-brainer. 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 system in our full Barbarian Class Overview.

Paragon & Glyphs

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian
!
Important

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.

← Use the slider for progression steps →
Earthquake Barbarian Endgame Paragon
Tip

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.

Optional Glyphs

  1. Revenge
    • Replaces Wrath in Pit Pushing variant.
  2. Marshal
    • Replaces Ire in Pit Pushing variant.

Glyph Leveling Priorities

Level 15

  1. Rumble
  2. Ire
  3. Territorial
  4. Challenger
  5. Wrath

Level 46

  1. Rumble
  2. Challenger
  3. Ire
  4. Territorial
  5. Wrath

Learn more details about the Paragon System in our in-depth Paragon Boards and Glyphs guide.

Runes

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian

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. The Earthquake Barbarian focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

  • Moni + Tec - This combination allows us to spawn Earthquakes from any of our Mobility-tagged skills, namely Lunging Strike. Can also be used with Leap.
  • Poc + Zec - This Runeword passively helps reset our Ultimate. Spend Fury with Lunging Strike by equipping the Harbinger of Hatred's Volley Boss Power.

Alternative choices

If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:

  • Gar - Can be used early on to help cap Critical Strike Chance.
  • Ohm - Gives us a way to cast War Cry without having it on our skill bar. For Barbarians, this Rune scales with any additional ranks we have in the skill tree or on gear. If this Rune is chosen, Ground Stomp (or anything else) can serve as a replacement active skill.
  • Lith - Used for Pit Pushing.
  • Yul - Used for Speedfarming with Leapquake.

Learn more about Runes and how they work in our dedicated Runewords Overview and Runewords Tier List.

Mercenaries

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian

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: Subo

He's mainly used for his Seeker ability, which is just incredibly useful in all content since it reveals enemies on the mini-map; the value this has can not be understated. Aside from that, he just kinda shoots stuff and occasionally applies Stuns. His Iconic Skill, Cover Fire, gives us a pretty decent 25% damage multiplier as well when linked with Opening Fire.

Reinforcement: Raheir

He uses the Crater skill, which helps keep enemies grouped up. This can act as an extra defensive layer as well since it has the ability to inflict Stun.

Earthquake Barbarian Mercenaries

Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.

Stat Priorities & Item Progression

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian

To enable the Earthquake Barbarian to perform optimally, hunt for these stats on your gear with good rolls and aim to Temper ⚒️ & Masterwork Crit ↑ them accordingly. The green arrow ↑ indicates which affix is most impactful to Masterwork Crit, and it does not indicate how many Masterwork Crits you need on that particular affix. 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

  • 90%+ Critical Strike Chance (with Hatred's Embrace's Haste)
  • 70%+ Chance for Earthquakes to Cast Twice
  • 70%+ Earthquake Size
  • 25% Earthquake Duration
  • 450%+ Damage while Berserking (Blood Rage)
  • 500%+ Damage to Close Enemies (Force of Nature)
  • 3000+ Strength
  • Armor Capped 1,000
  • Resistance Capped 70%+
  • 15,000+ Life
  • 60%+ Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
  • 60%+ Leap Cooldown Reduction (Leapquake)
    • Aim for 4 second cooldown (or less)
Starter
Ancestral
Mythic

Item Progression Goals

Before you dive into the Endgame with the Earthquake Barbarian, take a look at this overview of the items used in the build. 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.

Starter
Ancestral
Mythic

Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.

Build Variants

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian

This section is designed to guide your Earthquake 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.

Starter
Ancestral
Mythic
Speedfarming
Pit Pushing

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

Earthquake Barbarian Starter Gear
Earthquake Barbarian Starter Skills
  • During early progression, Armor & Resistances should be prioritized in order to survive. Each Torment difficulty adds a penalty of -250 Armor and -25% to all Resistances and it's recommended to keep both capped at all times; this means having a value of 1,000 for Armor and 70% for each Resistance.
  • As masterworking levels and Paragon points are unlocked, character power naturally scales into the higher difficulties. As this happens, most of these stats can start being replaced with utility or offensive-oriented ones.
  • Focus on acquiring and improving the Earthquake themed Aspects, as these contribute the most to our damage output.
    • Bul-Kathos
    • Earthquakes
    • Executioner's
    • Incendiary Fissures
  • Boss Powers used in this variant are slightly different than the ones used in the final build - adjust them accordingly (shown to the right).
Earthquake Barbarian Starter Boss Powers
  • Juggernaut's and Steadfast Berserker's are both extremely important, especially at this progression point. The former is very helpful for reaching Armor cap, while the latter is a worry-free way of keeping Fortify.
  • Vehement Brawler's, Conceited and Exploiter's are all solid generic multipliers; the latter being effective only against enemies that are Unstoppable.
  • Moonrise is used for its Attack Speed and Movement Speed utility, which makes the build feel a bit smoother in the early stages of the game. Elements is a fine substitution here for some extra damage.

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

Earthquake Barbarian Ancestral Gear
Earthquake Barbarian Ancestral Skills
  • As gear is upgraded to Ancestral and more masterworking levels and Paragon points are unlocked, we can focus on replacing Armor and Resistance rolls with more desirable stats; however, staying capped at 1,000 Armor and 70% for all Resistances should always remain a priority for the current difficulty level.
  • Ugly Bastard Helm is an incredibly strong item that gives some 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 is the icing on the cake.
  • Mantle of Mountain's Fury turns our Hammer of the Ancients into a detonation device and allows us to lean into the "HotaQuake" style of play. Once this item is acquired, the priority becomes blowing up our active Earthquakes for huge bursts of explosive damage.
  • Fists of Fate, when rolled well, is a 50% damage multiplier on average and provides a lot of good stats along with it.
    • Don't use this item if it is rolled poorly. The Unique effect is the most important (aim for 280%+), but consider the other stats as well (usually Critical Strike Chance in particular, as it can roll as low as 0.1%). Legendary Gloves with Strength and an Offensive Aspect like Elements are solid placeholders, and in some cases they are just the better option.
  • Either Rakanoth's Wake or Yen's Blessing are used to help cap Resistances, the former being the most useful due to the extra Cooldown Reduction it provides.
    • If even more Resistance is needed, Tassets of the Dawning Sky is a decent temporary choice, but should be replaced as soon as possible.

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

Earthquake Barbarian Mythic Gear
Earthquake Barbarian Mythic Skills
  • Ring of Starless Skies is swapped in at this point for its large multiplicative damage increase, Attack Speed, and extra Critical Strike Chance if needed. This can be activated by equipping the Harbinger of Hatred's Volley Boss Power and attacking with Lunging Strike.
  • Tibault's Will is the best damage option in the Pants slot. It comes with some extra All Stats that help with activating certain paragon nodes, and a big chunk of damage reduction while we are Unstoppable. Before switching to this, make sure Resistances are covered by prioritizing rolls on other pieces of gear. Raheir's Aegis can also help with this.
  • Boots with Ranks to War Cry are best-in-slot for damage. Ghostwalker can be replaced if Movement Speed is already capped, but there aren't too many great options. Hectic or Wildbolt are the top contenders.

This Speedfarming variant optimizes the build for easy activities like Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons and lower Pit Tiers after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
‎ㅤ

Gear & Skills

Earthquake Barbarian Speedfarming Gear
Earthquake Barbarian Speedfarming Skills
  • Harlequin Crest gives us a massive amount of Cooldown Reduction and Skill ranks to help ensure Leap stays spammable. It's important to note that equipping this over Ugly Bastard Helm is a net damage loss. However, there is a point where this extra damage becomes completely unnecessary for content that is relevant to this setup, so prioritizing speed is the more efficient way to build.
  • Giant Strides is required for this setup, as it enables Leap to reset its own cooldown when it hits enemies.
  • Bul-Kathos gives us additional Earthquakes whenever we cast Leap, and a good chunk of damage reduction as well.
  • Since we don't have a reliable way to constantly spend Fury, Call of the Ancients is the superior Ultimate choice for damage.
  • The Aspect imprinted in the Boots slot comes down to preference. Slaughter is the lazy way to get some more Movement Speed in town, but it's by no means necessary.
  • Xan is a pretty solid choice to squeeze out some more damage, since it passively activates Warpath and Decimator for us. Jah is a good alternative for more speed.
Earthquake Barbarian Speedfarming Boss Powers
  • The goal with this setup is to have permanent uptime on Leap, regardless if it hits an enemy or not.
    • This Leap Cooldown Calculator can help track your progress in reaching this goal, as the requirements vary greatly depending on your current gear.
Earthquake Barbarian Speedfarming Paragon

This setup optimizes the build to push the highest possible Tiers in The Pit after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.

Gear & Skills

Earthquake Barbarian Pit Pushing Gear
Earthquake Barbarian Pit Pushing Skills
  • Pit Pushing variants drop the mobility of Lunging Strike and Leap in favor of damage.
  • Note that these setups are subject to frequent changes as the meta evolves.
  • Combat Bash provides us a way to guarantee an Overpower hit. Not only does this skill allow us to benefit from Warpath, Belligerence, and Decimator, it also enables the 1.4x damage multiplier from Violent Hammer of the Ancients.
  • Supreme Wrath of the Berserker is used in all pushing variants; it offers us the highest damage multiplier and solves Berserking for us when paired with Bash.
  • Outburst and Tough as Nails are required for the Grit damage reduction cluster (if desired) and activation of the Revenge Glyph.
  • Inner Calm is an excellent generic damage multiplier that is active as long as we remain stationary, which is often the case in high level Pit Pushing.
  • Qax is used to double the damage of our Earthquake explosions; in general, this setup involves playing around timing the activation of this Rune.
Playstyles
  • Skill rotation is relatively simple, spam Bash and then use Hammer of the Ancients approximately every 4 seconds.
  • Ideally, watch the icon for Qax near the bottom left of the UI. When you see it activate, press Hammer of the Ancients.
  • Gameplay (PTR footage - not indicative of the build's current power):
  • Elixirs and Incenses:
    • Elixir of Fortitude II.
    • Reddamine Buzz.
    • Soothing Spices.
    • Ancient Times.
  • When all relevant Paragon nodes below are taken, allocate any remaining points into Strength.
Earthquake Barbarian Pit Pushing Paragon

FAQ & Mechanics

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian

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.

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.

Summary

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Earthquake Barbarian

The Earthquake Barbarian is a complete monster that can be a chaotic and fast-paced speedfarmer, or slowed down and stacked with multipliers to allow it to absolutely destroy any content in the game. Here's what makes it great:

  • Permanent Berserking uptime thanks to Battle Fervor (or alternatively, Wrath of the Berserker).
  • High defense and passive healing with great uptime on Challenging Shout if needed, Bul-Kathos, and Defensive Stance.
  • High Ultimate uptime due to stacking Cooldown Reduction with Arreat's Bearing for speedfarming, or Ugly Bastard Helm for pushing The Pit.
  • Extremely high mobility; Leap has zero cooldown at all times with the proper gear.
  • Very little Fury maintenance - this is not a build that needs to spam spenders in order to do damage.
  • Great area of effect and absurd damage output via Earthquakes, with multiple ways to generate them.
  • Explosions!

Credits

Written by snail
Contributions by Beatdropper, Icytroll

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