Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Leveling Guide

Season 6 is the Season of Hatred Rising. It features the Zakarum Remnants faction which hunts Realmwalkers, massive behemoths that roam outdoor zones and beckon Mephisto's hellspawn. Participate in these zone events and take down the Realmwalkers to spawn a portal to a Seething Realm. There you can acquire Seething Opals, new consumables that stack with Elixirs for a XP buff and the chance to gather extra rewards when defeating enemies. The types of Opals are:

Use these Opals at all times to earn reputation with the Zakarum Remnants faction and unlock further rewards.

Ground Stomp

Ground Stomp with its upgrade, Tactical Ground Stomp, deals tons of damage and also applies Vulnerable effect on enemies. Consider it your single target ability to deal with Elites and Bosses.

Charge

We'll be using Charge for some added mobility and additional source of Stun to benefit from Retribution. With enough ranks, it has a relatively low cooldown and can be used frequently as a traversal tool.

Iron Maelstorm

After reaching Walking Arsenal, we will want to add points to Iron Maelstrom and Furious Impulse. It is a very powerful, screen-wide ability that will help us to quickly get rid of group of monsters.

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 defense or healing, you may pick up Iron Skin instead of Mighty Throw.

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

Our choices are simple to make while leveling as Hammer of the Ancients. Remember that you must have a weapon leveled up to at least 1 before it can be equipped in the Technique Slot!

Weapon type - Hammer of the Ancients can only be used with a Two-Handed Mace.

We assign Bash our One-Handed weapons. We do to this to proc Furious Impulse by using Bash and Hammer of the Ancients back and forth. Bash requires a Bludgeoning weapon so make sure that you are using at least one One-Handed Mace.

We assign our Two-Handed Slashing weapon to Charge 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 will eventually change to Two-Handed Axe technique when we have a reliable way of applying Vulnerable to our enemies.

To get started as a Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian, always use your highest DPS Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon. Your other weapons are simply stat sticks, so their DPS is secondary. 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. Ancestral Force (Sunken Ruins - Scosglen)
2. Earthstriker's (Maugan's Works - Hawezar)
3. Relentless Armsmaster (Calibel's Mine - Scosglen)

Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Retribution (Abandoned Mineworks - Kehjistan)
2. Brawler's (Haunted Refuge - Hawezar)
3. Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan)

Great Uniques for this build

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

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. Dust Devil's + Fierce Winds + Berserking Finesse (enables the Endgame Whirlwind Barbarian)
2. Windlasher + Fierce Winds + Berserking Finesse (enables the Endgame Double Swing 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

• Bac + Xal - Moving around will cause you to gain bonus Maximum Life.
• Tam + Gar - Attacking with your Hammer of the Ancients will grant you more Critical Strike Chance.

Alternative choices

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

• Cir - Generates offering with Bash spam.
• Lith - Generates offering while standing still. Use as a replacement for Bac if it suits your gameplay more.
• Mot - Generates Dark Shroud.
• Wat - Spawns Decrepify to lower the damage dealt by enemies around you.

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 Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian is a fun to play leveling build that scales very well into the lategame.

• Use the newly added 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.
• Show demons that you have the biggest... mace!

Written by Kondyss