Upheaval Barbarian Leveling Guide

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

Alternate Witchcraft Powers

• Piranhado - This power can be used as an alternative way to group mobs. Keep in mind that you require a Hex and an Aura to summon it.
• Hex of Shattering - The Damage Reduction is great and it is the most consistent way to apply a Hex when paired with Wave of Woe. Use it instead of Purging Touch if you want to slot Piranhado for better clear speed.

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

• Hungering Void - There is no better feeling for Barbarians than closing distance to their foes. And there is no better way of closing this distance than pulling a whole screen of monsters to you!
• Witching Hour - This Gem allows you to gain the Eldritch tag for the first Core Skill you cast every second. Keep in mind that it requires three or more Eldritch Witch Powers to work.
• Killing Wind - Since we use a number of Eldritch Witch Powers in this build, there is no way we are leaving this one out of the equation. Extra Movement Speed and Critical Strike Chance are always welcome.

Alternate Occult Gems

• Vile Phylactery - Possibly the strongest Gem in the game since it denies a killing blow against us. Use it in combination with Poison Frog Servant if you ever feel like you're dying too often.
• Wicked Pact - Best option for the beginning of your journey this season! It's a cheap option to boost Eldritch powers like Wave of Woe.

Leap

We'll be using Leap for some added mobility and additional Fury generation. With enough ranks, it has a relatively low cooldown and can be used frequently as a traversal tool.

Mighty Throw

Mighty Throw is one of the strongest hitting abilities in the Barbarian kit. It is a perfect addition to our build since the pulses from the thrown weapon count towards Furious Upheaval stacks. This way we can use our Core ability at its full potential more often than ever!

Key Passive

We finally pick up our Key Passive skill Walking Arsenal, which has great synergy with Relentless Armsmaster. We activate this ability by assigning each of our skills different weapon types and using them in combat. While all parts of this passive are active, we get a substantial boost to our damage and attack speed, as well as a ton of Fury generation. All of these things combined drastically speed up our leveling process and help alleviate any resource issues that may be present early on.

Final Journey to Level 60

At this point, most of the key synergies are unlocked and the gameplay loop is almost complete. As you level up, you unlock a lot of extra points that go into various offensive and defensive passives or max out certain skills. Check out the skills progression above to see where to put your points as you go, but feel free to deviate from the order displayed as necessary. For example, if you need extra mobility, you may pick up Rallying Cry instead of Iron Skin.

Barbarian Arsenal System

The Arsenal System allows Barbarians to use a specific weapon for every attack skill, each granting different Bonuses. The Technique Slot grants us 1 additional Arsenal Power of our choosing for every attack. The Weapon Expertise bonus we get from our currently equipped weapon and the Weapon Expertise bonus we get from the Weapon Technique slot stack with each other.

Unlocking the Arsenal System

The Arsenal System automatically unlocks when you reach Level 5. Opening the Expertise tab (Shift + C) shows all the different weapon types and their bonuses when using them. The Technique Slot unlocks at Level 15 via the Masters of Battle quest in the Dry Steppes which is very easy to complete. Simply walk northeast of town, kill some enemies, then walk west to a cave to slay the beast. After returning to town the Technique Slot will be yours!

How the Arsenal System Impacts Leveling

Upheaval can only be assigned to a Two-Handed weapon. For the highest damage output, you should always assign it to your best weapon. This process may be tedious, so it is better to assume that your strongest weapon is a Two-Handed Slashing one (since they are more common than Two-Handed Bludgeoning weapons).

Frenzy can only be used with One-Handed weapons, so there is nothing to assign here.

We assign our Two-Handed Bludgeoning weapon to Leap and Mighty Throw to meet the requirements to fully benefit from Walking Arsenal.

Weapon Technique - One-Handed Mace Expertise is a good choice while leveling because it will provide extra damage against Stunned enemies. We eventually change to Two-Handed Axe Expertise when we have a reliable way of applying Vulnerable to our enemies.

To get started as an Upheaval Barbarian, always use your highest DPS Two-Handed Slashing Weapon. Your other weapons are simply stat sticks, so their DPS is secondary. It is advised to also keep an eye on a Two-Handed Bludgeoning weapon that we can assign to Mighty Throw. Its damage can easily become higher than Upheaval if we get lucky with Aspects. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. While you don't have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you acquire the right ones. For example, % Damage, Damage to Close, Vulnerable Damage, etc. all work as long as you activate their conditions. Likewise, you can temper multiple defensive options such as Resistances, Life, Armor to fill gaps in your survivability. Tempering low level gear is relatively cheap and the results can be very impactful!

Tip: For the early game, Elemental Surge Weapon Tempers are very powerful due to their high base damage, especially if you are twinking. If you find these, you may want to keep imprinting them on your weapons for an easy time.

The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary or salvaging items with these powers. Check out our Map Tool to locate these Dungeons.

For leveling, there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them. In addition, keep an eye out for powerful Unique items you may find for this or other builds.

Must-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Earthstriker's (Maugan's Works - Hawezar)
2. Relentless Armsmaster (Calibel's Mine - Scosglen)

Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Bul-Kathos (Light's Refuge - Hawezar)
2. Iron Warrior (Carrion Fields - Dry Steppes)
3. Expectant (Underoot - Scosglen)

Great Uniques for this build

1. Ring of Red Furor
2. Banished Lord's Talisman
3. Hellhammer

Jackpot Drops

As you level up, you may get lucky and find some great random drops. Some of these can massively amplify your power and speed up the leveling by switching to another build. Keep in mind that there are many more Aspects and Uniques that can be useful to multiple builds; this just lists some of the most impactful ones. While we usually recommend starting with Endgame Builds at level 60, you often can make them work earlier with these drops:

Build-defining Combinations

1. Executioner's + Incendiary Fissures + Tec (enables the Endgame Earthquake Barbarian)
2. Dust Devil's + Fierce Winds + Berserking Finesse (enables the Endgame Whirlwind Barbarian)
3. Moonrise + Adaptability + Shard of Verathiel (enables the Endgame Bash Barbarian)
4. Rage of Harrogath + Ring of the Ravenous (enables the Endgame Rend Barbarian)
5. The Third Blade (enables the Endgame Mighty Throw 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 Whirlwind Barbarian focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

• Cir + Ceh - This easy to get Runeword allows you to spawn friendly companions that deal significant damage and make enemies Vulnerable.
• Bac + Tec - This Runeword lets you spawn Earthquakes that deal massive damage.

Alternative choices

As long as you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:

• Moni - Very strong replacement for Bac early on. Lunging Strike has a mobility tag which makes it very easy to use with this rune. Use it instead of Frenzy.
  Cem - Generates offering with Evade. Very useful early on.
• Vex - Grants more Skill Ranks. If you manage to time your cooldowns with this Rune, you will deal significantly more damage.

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: Varyana

She provides us with guaranteed Overpower hits. Earth Breaker is also an area Ability, so she can help us get rid of hordes of enemies. She also aids us with Reprisal to kindly remind enemies to not get too close.

Reinforcement: Raheir

We choose Bastion to be used while we are injured. This will usually result in us surviving a lot of hits that would be deadly otherwise.

In Diablo 4, you can level by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, completing Helltide activities, grinding Dungeons, clearing Strongholds, fighting in the Undercity of Kurast or interacting with the Seasonal Mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are equal.

Paragon & Glyphs

Use the slider to see 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.

Glyph Leveling Priorities

The Upheaval Barbarian is a fun to play leveling build that scales very well into the lategame.

• Use Upheaval, Ground Stomp and Mighty Throw to unleash your full potential!
• Focus on scaling generic damage modifiers instead of skill-specific effects to boost your damage.
• Stun enemies with Ground Stomp to stay safe and increase your damage!
• Gather Critical Strike Chance, Attack Speed & Overpower Damage on your gear.
• Crush your enemies with powerful blows!

Written by Kondyss