sunshine666
New member
Today I want to discuss the current strongest build for the Barbarian class in Diablo 4, which is known as the Hammer of the Ancients (HoTA). This build has gained popularity due to its ability to deal massive amounts of damage, often reaching hits of 20 to 30 million.
The core strength of the Hammer of the Ancients build lies in the HoTA skill itself. Normally, HoTA delivers a powerful strike in a small area, but when combined with its aspect, it gains a shockwave effect. This shockwave inflicts significantly more damage than the initial hit, making it a crucial component of the build.
In addition, the build utilizes the Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients, which enhances Fury Generation. Fury is a vital resource in this build because the Furious Hammer of the Ancients rune increases damage by 1% for each point of fury spent. By maintaining a high fury pool, the build can achieve a substantial damage boost. For instance, with a maximum fury of 180, you would have a 180% damage increase.
To ensure a consistent supply of fury, the build incorporates shouts and a generator skill. These abilities help generate fury and sustain the damage output of the build.
This particular build deviates slightly from other builds by utilizing the Mortal Draw Glyph. This glyph increases damage when weapons are swapped. Dual wield weapons are assigned to the generator skill (Plunging Strike), while a two-handed weapon is used exclusively for HoTA. Swapping weapons enhances damage and Critical Hit Chance, contributing to the overall effectiveness of the build.
Another noteworthy aspect of this build is the utilization of the Kick skill, which is currently underrated but highly effective. Even at level one, Kick has a relatively short cooldown of ten seconds and can apply four seconds of vulnerability to enemies. Vulnerability amplifies damage, and this build benefits greatly from it since vulnerability can be stacked through various means. By incorporating Kick, the build gains a reliable source of vulnerability, rather than solely relying on the exploit glyph.
Moreover, using Kick grants the Berserking effect for three seconds and provides additional fury generation, complementing the build's mechanics. While there is flexibility to adjust skills like Prolific Fury and swap one of the Kick levels for Guttural Yell, this build primarily revolves around the aforementioned setup.
One unique aspect of this build is the decision not to invest points beyond Challenging Shout. This is due to the Enhanced Challenging Shout being less effective currently, making it a suboptimal choice.
In essence, activating a specific ability increases our maximum life but doesn't affect our fortify value. If we are fortified at full health and fortify value when we use the challenging shout, which is when we anticipate taking damage and dying, our maximum life is raised. However, our Fortify value lags behind and we lose the fortified state.
This situation also nullifies any damage reduction provided by the fortified state because activating the defensive skill turns off the damage reduction. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved as it seems illogical.
The rest of the build follows standard practices for a hoda build, so I won't delve into it extensively. The three crucial passive abilities to look for on the amulet are Wallop, which grants bonus damage against stunned or vulnerable enemies; Counter Offensive, which increases damage when fortification value is above 50% of maximum life; and Heavy Handed, which greatly boosts critical strike damage. These three passives are recommended for the amulet.
Moving on to the paragon aspect of the build, the key strategy revolves around utilizing various glyphs. The first board that is particularly important during leveling is the Warbringer board, which is incredibly powerful. It provides a significant increase in maximum fury, which is crucial because each point of maximum fury acts as a multiplier for the build's damage output. Thus, acquiring all the abilities on this board is highly recommended.
Additionally, the Exploit Glyph plays a vital role. When you hit an enemy for the first time, it applies vulnerable instead of bypassing barriers, leading to a substantial damage increase. This is especially useful against elite enemies, allowing you to swiftly eliminate them.
The second important glyph is Wrath, which replenishes fury whenever a critical strike occurs. This is a nice addition to the build. Another noteworthy glyph is Marshal, which helps reduce shout cooldowns. Mortal Draw provides a significant damage boost for skills that switch to new weapons, along with a substantial critical strike chance.
Other notable glyphs include Territorial and either Bloodfeeder or Imbiber, depending on the specific situation. Adjustments can be made for fighting Uber Lilith or switching to two-handed sword expertise for increased critical strike chance. However, the two-handed axe is primarily used.
When transitioning from one setup to another, points can be reallocated accordingly. For example, removing points from Berserk duration and redistributing them in a specific layout. The choice between Bloodfeeder and Imbiber depends on personal preference, with Bloodfeeder providing additional damage and Flay offering more damage and damage reduction. However, be aware that Imbiber can create a false impression of increased attack power, which may not reflect the actual damage output.
It's crucial that you prioritize acquiring the Warbringer and obtaining the maximum Fury nodes. This should be your main focus when leveling up your character initially because you won't be able to effectively support and level up multiple Glyphs at the start. By obtaining these nodes early on and then focusing on filling out your glyph enhancements, acquiring Warbringer for additional fortify value, and other related improvements, you will significantly strengthen your character as you begin your journey.
Regarding helmets, it's important to prioritize maximizing Fury cooldown reduction. Life and armor are also crucial for body armor. Aim to have four ranks of challenging shout and either prioritize damage reduction or opt for increased damage.
This damage multiplier is separate from many other factors and applies to all types of damage. It only synergizes with certain effects such as berserking, damage on your necklace, and War Cry. It functions as its own distinct multiplier and differs from damage related to core skills.
For gloves, focus on attack speed, critical strike chance, ranks of Hammer, the Ancients, and either Lucky Hit or Critical Strike Chance against injured enemies. When it comes to pants, the choice of Temerity is highly recommended.
Assuming we have sufficient tankiness, we can forgo using bulky damage reduction pants. This option also provides a barrier, which enables us to use the conceited aspect for even more damage. However, it's advisable to switch this out if you plan to delve deep into nightmare dungeons.
For boots, prioritize movement speed, maximize aid charges, and consider Fury cost reduction as essential. Additionally, aim for dodge chance, fortified generation, shrine duration, and other relevant enhancements. The amulet should focus on Fury cost reduction and cooldown reduction, both of which are highly important.
We have a particularly damage-oriented piece, with heavy-handed providing additional damage. When it comes to rings, the ideal choice would involve resource generation, vulnerability crit, and overall crit chance. As for weapons, all non-two-handed mace weapons should be swords. Prioritize vulnerable damage as the top attribute, followed by critical strike damage and strength. Core skill damage or overall stats can be considered as well.
As for the mace, the only weapon for which item power matters, prioritize high item power, followed by vulnerable damage, critical strike damage, strength, and damage to core or overall stats for all aspects. Ancestral Force on the chewing head weapon is beneficial for increasing the damage of shockwave, as mentioned earlier.
Another crucial aspect is Limitless Rage, which amplifies damage when generating fury beyond the cap. It serves as a significant multiplier. Conceited is another crucial multiplier and finds its place in the amulet. Furthermore, focus on critical strikes with core skills and increasing attack speed for improved mobility and overall speed. Edge Masters provides additional damage, while Aspect of the Expectant also enhances damage. Bold Chieftain's Aspect allows for faster shouts, although it may be replaced with a ring providing Berserk Fury if facing Uber Lilith. However, it remains a solid choice for other aspects of the game, enabling faster shout regeneration. Echoing Fury ensures that shouts generate fury effectively, helping to fill up your bar quickly.
Rapid Aspect is highly beneficial, as it should be active at all times and even provides damage reduction if you don't hit an enemy. Disobedience is currently considered essential in every build, despite its drawbacks. It grants substantial armor, which serves as a crucial layer of defense. Temerity is a recommended choice for boots, granting the unstoppable effect and a slight increase in movement speed. This summarizes the gear considerations.
As you progress through the treacherous dungeons of Sanctuary, it's crucial to optimize your gear to enhance the devastating power of your HoTA build. Investing in high-quality weapons, armor, and accessories is key, and you may even want to consider buying cheap Diablo 4 gold to acquire the best equipment available, so check u4gm!
The core strength of the Hammer of the Ancients build lies in the HoTA skill itself. Normally, HoTA delivers a powerful strike in a small area, but when combined with its aspect, it gains a shockwave effect. This shockwave inflicts significantly more damage than the initial hit, making it a crucial component of the build.
In addition, the build utilizes the Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients, which enhances Fury Generation. Fury is a vital resource in this build because the Furious Hammer of the Ancients rune increases damage by 1% for each point of fury spent. By maintaining a high fury pool, the build can achieve a substantial damage boost. For instance, with a maximum fury of 180, you would have a 180% damage increase.
To ensure a consistent supply of fury, the build incorporates shouts and a generator skill. These abilities help generate fury and sustain the damage output of the build.
This particular build deviates slightly from other builds by utilizing the Mortal Draw Glyph. This glyph increases damage when weapons are swapped. Dual wield weapons are assigned to the generator skill (Plunging Strike), while a two-handed weapon is used exclusively for HoTA. Swapping weapons enhances damage and Critical Hit Chance, contributing to the overall effectiveness of the build.
Another noteworthy aspect of this build is the utilization of the Kick skill, which is currently underrated but highly effective. Even at level one, Kick has a relatively short cooldown of ten seconds and can apply four seconds of vulnerability to enemies. Vulnerability amplifies damage, and this build benefits greatly from it since vulnerability can be stacked through various means. By incorporating Kick, the build gains a reliable source of vulnerability, rather than solely relying on the exploit glyph.
Moreover, using Kick grants the Berserking effect for three seconds and provides additional fury generation, complementing the build's mechanics. While there is flexibility to adjust skills like Prolific Fury and swap one of the Kick levels for Guttural Yell, this build primarily revolves around the aforementioned setup.
One unique aspect of this build is the decision not to invest points beyond Challenging Shout. This is due to the Enhanced Challenging Shout being less effective currently, making it a suboptimal choice.
In essence, activating a specific ability increases our maximum life but doesn't affect our fortify value. If we are fortified at full health and fortify value when we use the challenging shout, which is when we anticipate taking damage and dying, our maximum life is raised. However, our Fortify value lags behind and we lose the fortified state.
This situation also nullifies any damage reduction provided by the fortified state because activating the defensive skill turns off the damage reduction. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved as it seems illogical.
The rest of the build follows standard practices for a hoda build, so I won't delve into it extensively. The three crucial passive abilities to look for on the amulet are Wallop, which grants bonus damage against stunned or vulnerable enemies; Counter Offensive, which increases damage when fortification value is above 50% of maximum life; and Heavy Handed, which greatly boosts critical strike damage. These three passives are recommended for the amulet.
Moving on to the paragon aspect of the build, the key strategy revolves around utilizing various glyphs. The first board that is particularly important during leveling is the Warbringer board, which is incredibly powerful. It provides a significant increase in maximum fury, which is crucial because each point of maximum fury acts as a multiplier for the build's damage output. Thus, acquiring all the abilities on this board is highly recommended.
Additionally, the Exploit Glyph plays a vital role. When you hit an enemy for the first time, it applies vulnerable instead of bypassing barriers, leading to a substantial damage increase. This is especially useful against elite enemies, allowing you to swiftly eliminate them.
The second important glyph is Wrath, which replenishes fury whenever a critical strike occurs. This is a nice addition to the build. Another noteworthy glyph is Marshal, which helps reduce shout cooldowns. Mortal Draw provides a significant damage boost for skills that switch to new weapons, along with a substantial critical strike chance.
Other notable glyphs include Territorial and either Bloodfeeder or Imbiber, depending on the specific situation. Adjustments can be made for fighting Uber Lilith or switching to two-handed sword expertise for increased critical strike chance. However, the two-handed axe is primarily used.
When transitioning from one setup to another, points can be reallocated accordingly. For example, removing points from Berserk duration and redistributing them in a specific layout. The choice between Bloodfeeder and Imbiber depends on personal preference, with Bloodfeeder providing additional damage and Flay offering more damage and damage reduction. However, be aware that Imbiber can create a false impression of increased attack power, which may not reflect the actual damage output.
It's crucial that you prioritize acquiring the Warbringer and obtaining the maximum Fury nodes. This should be your main focus when leveling up your character initially because you won't be able to effectively support and level up multiple Glyphs at the start. By obtaining these nodes early on and then focusing on filling out your glyph enhancements, acquiring Warbringer for additional fortify value, and other related improvements, you will significantly strengthen your character as you begin your journey.
Regarding helmets, it's important to prioritize maximizing Fury cooldown reduction. Life and armor are also crucial for body armor. Aim to have four ranks of challenging shout and either prioritize damage reduction or opt for increased damage.
This damage multiplier is separate from many other factors and applies to all types of damage. It only synergizes with certain effects such as berserking, damage on your necklace, and War Cry. It functions as its own distinct multiplier and differs from damage related to core skills.
For gloves, focus on attack speed, critical strike chance, ranks of Hammer, the Ancients, and either Lucky Hit or Critical Strike Chance against injured enemies. When it comes to pants, the choice of Temerity is highly recommended.
Assuming we have sufficient tankiness, we can forgo using bulky damage reduction pants. This option also provides a barrier, which enables us to use the conceited aspect for even more damage. However, it's advisable to switch this out if you plan to delve deep into nightmare dungeons.
For boots, prioritize movement speed, maximize aid charges, and consider Fury cost reduction as essential. Additionally, aim for dodge chance, fortified generation, shrine duration, and other relevant enhancements. The amulet should focus on Fury cost reduction and cooldown reduction, both of which are highly important.
We have a particularly damage-oriented piece, with heavy-handed providing additional damage. When it comes to rings, the ideal choice would involve resource generation, vulnerability crit, and overall crit chance. As for weapons, all non-two-handed mace weapons should be swords. Prioritize vulnerable damage as the top attribute, followed by critical strike damage and strength. Core skill damage or overall stats can be considered as well.
As for the mace, the only weapon for which item power matters, prioritize high item power, followed by vulnerable damage, critical strike damage, strength, and damage to core or overall stats for all aspects. Ancestral Force on the chewing head weapon is beneficial for increasing the damage of shockwave, as mentioned earlier.
Another crucial aspect is Limitless Rage, which amplifies damage when generating fury beyond the cap. It serves as a significant multiplier. Conceited is another crucial multiplier and finds its place in the amulet. Furthermore, focus on critical strikes with core skills and increasing attack speed for improved mobility and overall speed. Edge Masters provides additional damage, while Aspect of the Expectant also enhances damage. Bold Chieftain's Aspect allows for faster shouts, although it may be replaced with a ring providing Berserk Fury if facing Uber Lilith. However, it remains a solid choice for other aspects of the game, enabling faster shout regeneration. Echoing Fury ensures that shouts generate fury effectively, helping to fill up your bar quickly.
Rapid Aspect is highly beneficial, as it should be active at all times and even provides damage reduction if you don't hit an enemy. Disobedience is currently considered essential in every build, despite its drawbacks. It grants substantial armor, which serves as a crucial layer of defense. Temerity is a recommended choice for boots, granting the unstoppable effect and a slight increase in movement speed. This summarizes the gear considerations.
As you progress through the treacherous dungeons of Sanctuary, it's crucial to optimize your gear to enhance the devastating power of your HoTA build. Investing in high-quality weapons, armor, and accessories is key, and you may even want to consider buying cheap Diablo 4 gold to acquire the best equipment available, so check u4gm!