Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Build - Juggernaut
Jun. 24, 2023Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Build – Juggernaut
Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian – Lvl 70 Juggernaut Build Guide: In this Diablo 4Barbarian ClassBuild, I’ll show you how to play a Lvl 70 – Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian, which is made around the Walking Arsenal key passive. This build doesn’t use a single shout, and instead encourages you to constantly swap weapons to deal massive damage to both groups of enemies and single targets. If you are looking for a build to get you from the beginning of Tier IV up to the very late game, then thisDiablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Buildguide is for you!
This build continues ourLvl 50 Hammer of the Ancients Juggernaut build,making some adjustments to maximize performance thanks to the paragon boards and glyphs. The general idea with the build remains the same, we’ll useLunging Striketo close the gap with the enemies, followed up byGround Stompto stun them. Then, we’ll useHammer of the Ancientsto deal massive AoE damage, and finally useDeath Blowto finish off any remaining enemies. For big groups of enemies, we’ll be usingIron Maelstrom, which decimates everything on the screen while cycling through all weapons.
The best thing about this build is how engaging it is to play compared to most Barbarian Builds. Most Barbarians rely on shouts to provide you with passive bonuses and increased damage, leaving you with only 1 or 2 active skills that you actually use in combat, which becomes boring very fast. This build on the other hand gives you a ton of active skills that you can use depending on the situation, making it feel fresh and rewarding at the same time.
Both Hammer of the Ancients and Death Blow deal an insane amount of damage, and you’ll be often seeing damage by the millions on the screen when landing critical strikes.
As previously stated, the main improvements for this build will come from Paragon Boards and Glyphs as well as the increased item affixes. If you’ve been using ourLvl 50 Juggernaut Barbarianyou’ll only have to make one change and that’s the upgrade forDeath Blow.
We were initially using Death Blow as a Fury Generation mechanic to keep up with Fury spending when constantly using the HOTA. This changes once you unlock the “Core Reserve” and “Hungering Fury” rare nodes located on the Warbringer Paragon Board, as these not only increase your maximum fury, but also provides you with fury on kill, allowing you to constantly generate fury no matter what ability you are using to kill enemies.
Once you unlock those nodes, theFighter’s Death Blowbecomes irrelevant, and that’s when you’ll want to change the upgrade intoWarrior’s Death Blow. The new upgrade will give you 3 seconds of Berserking if you hit at least 1 enemy, meaning that you’ll be berserking all the time while in combat. This is very useful both for the Berserking mechanic itself, but also because you’ll be able to get the most out of your “While Berserking” affixes on your equipment.
The other 2 skills that you might be tempted to swap out, but I don’t recommend you do, areFurious ImpulseandExpose Vulnerability.
Furious Impulse is important as it will allow you to get started with your fury, which happens both at the beginning of a dungeon, and when fighting Bosses or Resource Burn enemies. On top of that, it will allow you to maintain your fury at max all the time, which increases the effect ofFurious Hammer of the Ancientsand theEdgemaster’s Aspect.
The other skill is Expose Vulnerability, which is somewhat replaced by theExploitglyph, as you’ll be ably to apply vulnerable on everything as soon as the fight starts. But once again, this becomes useful against Bosses or during long fights where you are fighting many groups at the same time.
For the weapon technique, we’ll take Two-Handed Axe Expertise, as we’ll be able to constantly maintain vulnerable on enemies.
Equipment plays a huge role on all builds as it allows you to build up damage thanks to the equipment affixes, but it is crucial for this build as you won’t have any shouts to support you and all your damage output and damage mitigation will come from your equipment.
The main thing you’ll want to look for is maximum fury, as this will increase the damage to your HOTA, and will reduce the percentage of Fury you are using. The other stats you should prioritize are the ones related to damage, such as Vulnerable Damage, Damage to close enemies, etc, as we are mainly focusing on killing stuff as quick as possible.
The last thing you should be looking for is Dexterity and Willpower, as these will allow you to unlock the Bonuses of your rare paragon boards, greatly increasing their bonuses and thus your overall power.
Helmet
Legendary Aspect
Luckbringer Aspect: This greatly increases the Lucky Hit chance while all passives of the Walking Arsenal are active. This is especially useful in combination withConcussion, which allows you to stun enemies while attacking with HOTA, and withWeapon Master’s Aspect, which allows you to Stun while using Death Blow as well.
Aspect of Numbing Wrath: This aspect allows you to quickly fill the Fortify Bar, which will increase the damage to your Overpower skills, as well as allowing you to use some paragon board nodes that require that you are fortified.
Affixes
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of the Protector: This provides you with a barrier when you damage an elite, allowing you to keep going at the beginning of a fight before you clear out most of the regular enemies.
Affixes
Legendary Aspect
Weapon Master’s Aspect: This aspect is a must for this build, as it provides an additional charge to Death Blow allowing you to use it more freely. The lucky hit stun effect is also amazing thanks to theLuckbringer Aspect.
Affixes
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of the Iron Warrior: This aspect is also crucial for this build, as it will be your onlyUnstoppablemechanic. It’ll also give you increased damage reduction whileIron Skinis active.
Affixes
Legendary Aspect
Wind Striker Aspect: This greatly increases your movement speed after you critically strike, which allows you to compensate for the lack of mobility of this build.
Affixes
Unique Equipment
100,000 Steps: These boots provide everything we need for our build. For starters, it’ll give you damage to stunned enemies and damage with skills that changes weapons. The added dexterity is great for the rare paragon nodes, and the +rank to ground stomp will reduce its cooldown.
Its unique effect will trigger when you get a full Walking Arsenal cycle (even if it’s still active), generating a ton of fury, and triggering a freeGround Stompthat stun enemies (theStrategic Ground Stompwill also apply, reducing the ultimate cooldown)
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Retribution: This aspect massively increases the damage you deal against stunned enemies, while also giving you a chance to stun enemies when they attack you from a distance, which helps with survivability.
Affixes
Unique Equipment
Overkill: This mace is amazing for this build, increasing the damage to your Death Blow thanks to the +Ranks and to the unique effect that creates shockwave allowing you to deal AoE damage with it, rendering it as useful as HoTA.
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Limitless Rage: This aspect allows you to increase the damage of your next HOTA attack when generating fury beyond your max level.
Affixes
Unique Equipment
The Butcher’s Cleaver: This unique axe is amazing when combined with theLuckbringer Aspectand theMortal Drawglyph. Its unique effect has a lucky hit chance to both fear and slow enemies when you hit them with a critical strike, meaning that they won’t attack you and that they’ll be crowed controlled which can trigger many of your equipment affixes.
Legendary Aspect
Conceited Aspect: This aspect increases all your damage while you have a barrier active. You’ll be able to achieve this by using either theAspect of the ProtectororIron Skin.
Affixes
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Encroaching Wrath: This aspect massively increases the damage of your Death Blow after you spend 100 Fury (3 HOTA attacks). This allows you to one shot elites and sometimes to even one shot bosses if used in combination with theEarthstriker’s Aspect.
Affixes
Legendary Aspect
Edgemaster’s Aspect: This aspect increases the damage to all your skills based on the available fury you had when you cast them. You’ll often be on max fury, so this provides a flat damage increase to all your attacks.
Affixes
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Ancestral Force: This provides an AoE to ourHammer of the Ancients, not only dealing damage but also applying all damage effects like stuns as well. It’s not necessary to slot it into a two-handed weapon, as you’ll be direct hitting elites, and you’ll want to finish off the other enemies with Death Blow anyway.
Affixes
Legendary Aspect
Earthstriker’s Aspect: This aspect will provide you with a guaranteed overpower attack with any of your skills after swapping weapons 10 times. The idea is to use it with Death Blow for single target damage, or with HOTA when dealing with big groups.
Affixes
For gems, you’ll want to slot:
When it comes to Paragon boards, we are mainly going to aim for rare nodes that increase our damage output, as well as glyphs that synergize with our build. Please note that the order in which I get the nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.
On the first paragon board, you’ll want to make a zigzag, first taking the rare node on the right and then taking the one on the left (make sure to grab the physical damage magic nodes as well). On the glyph socket, you’ll want to slot the “Territorial” glyph and assign 25 dexterity around it. The normal effect will increase damage to normal enemies, while the bonus effect will provide you with 10% damage reduction against close enemies. From here, head to the attachment gate and continue into the next board.
On this board you’ll want to rotate until you have the “Bludgeoner” rare node on the bottom right.
Start by heading into theBludgeonernode and getting all the magic nodes as well. Once you have it, head back and turn left aiming for the glyph socket. Here you’ll want to slot the “Exploit” glyph and assign at least 25 dexterity around it. This will increase your Vulnerable Damage, while its bonus effect will allow you to make enemies vulnerable as soon as you hit them. Once you get the Glyph to lvl 15, make sure to continue adding Dexteirty to maximize its efficiency.
Once you have the socket, take the “Brutality” rare node and its magic nodes, which increases your Overpower Damage as well as the “Vigor” rare and magic nodes that provide you with damage reduction while you are healthy.
Now that this section is covered, head back to the “Bludgeoner” rare node and continue right until you reach the attachment gate, where you’ll slot the Warbringer Board.
You’ll want to rotate the board until you have the “Core Reserve” rare node on the top left side. Head straight for it and take it in combination with all its magic nodes. As previously stated, this node in combination withHungering Furyallows you to swap your Death Blow’s upgrade, so try to prioritize getting these before the rest on this board.
From there, head right and get the glyph socket. Place the “Mortal Draw” glyph and assign at least 25 dexterity around it. This glyph massively increases your damage when using a skill that swaps to a new weapon, as well as providing the skill with an 18% chance to critically strike. This glyph provides the most amount of damage for this build, so make sure to assign as much Dexterity as possible once you upgrade it to lvl 15 and its range increases.
From here, head straight down and take the “Hungering Fury” node and the magic nodes around it, which will allow you to swap fromFighter’s Death BlowintoWarrior’s Death Blow.
The last thing you’ll want to take from this board is the rareRaw Powerlocated on the right of the glyph socket. Once you have that, head to the attachment gate on the right and attach the Weapon Master board.
Rotate the board until the socket is on the bottom left part. First, make your way towards the middle, where you’ll get the “Hunter Killer” nodes.
From here, head down and take theRaw Powernodes and then head for the glyph socket where you’ll put the “Crusher” glyph which increases your damage with Maces as well as the overpower damage while using maces. Make sure to assign at least 40 strength around it.
Now head back to the “Hunter Killer” node, and make your way down through the middle to get the “Brute” node and its magic nodes.
Now that you have the most important parts of each board covered, you’ll want to go back and start getting the remaining rare nodes “Fortified” nodes.
For starters, get the unique “Warbringer” Legendary Node, which provides you with 12% fortify for every 75 fury you spend. Once you have this, head for the “Guarded Advance” node located on the same Warbringer Board.
Now that this board is complete, head back to the Bone Breaker Board, and take theInner Strengthnode located near the middle and then theBulwarknode on the top right to finish the board.
When starting a fight against elites, it’s best to use lunging strike and then ground stomp as quick as possible. Elites are usually close to each other, and if you stun them you’ll be able to hit all of them at the same time for the maximum possible damage.
Iron Maelstromleaves you very exposed until you finish the sequence, so if you are facing many enemies, try to use an evade to step back a little bit instead of using it right in the middle of a pack of enemies.
Make sure you avoid Melee Defender and Resource Burn affixes while running Nightmare Dungeons, as these have a very negative effect on the build.
Remember to keep an eye on your Encroaching Wrath and Overpower bonuses, as these will often allow you to one shot elites and even bosses.
Be sure to check out ourDiablo 4 Wikifor any other questions you have about the game and theBuildspage if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as ourGetting Started GuideandBest Class to Playif you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
Ryuga
Lover of Fluffy Cats, Anime and Homemade Meals. Ryuga enjoys playing and writing about all types of games, with a strong preference for Roguelikes’s, RPG’s and ARPG’s
This build is truly amazing. Thanks for sharing. Something other than a barb that just sings the whole fight.
Thoughts on switching out the conceited aspect with the earthquake aspect? I am running this build and feel like I ground stop a lot more than I have a barrier up. Maybe I am just engaging wrong.
