The Hammer of the Ancients skill is one of the strongest burst skills in the game, with its damage ceiling unchallenged by most other skills. Combining it with all the innate buffing the Barbarian has, including the usual damage-buffing legendary effects, and The Hammer of the Ancients skill will bop bosses and trash so hard they will have a bad time. If you’re in the market for huge burst windows, perhaps looking to get the most out of beating Uber Lilith, or pushing those challenging bosses in the higher tiers of Nightmare Dungeons, then, here’s a look at an end-game Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Build, featuring Paragon, Skills, Legendary and Uniques, and more.

Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Build¶

Barbarian players are in a tricky spot with their builds and playstyles. While the class is good at end game, they do take a while to do what they need to do, which is becoming more apparent in how busted some other builds are, like the Bone Spear Necro, Tornado Druid, and Twisting Blades Rogue for example. So, the answer to the challenges that the Barbarian has with its bossing potential, the Hammer of the Ancients build, is the go-to for Barbarians looking to take on the hardest pieces of content. This is looking like the new Barbarian meta, as seen in our D4 class and builds tier list.

TOC:¶

• Skills
• Passives
• Arsenal System
• Legendary & Uniques
• Paragon & Glyphs

Hammer of the Ancients Builds: Skills¶

• Basic Skill: Lunging Strike > Enhanced > Combat - You’re largely using this for the dash part of it to make the build feel less slow. But, its modifiers do grant some bonus damage, healing, and Berserking if it crits.
• Core Skill: Hammer of the Ancients > Enhanced > Furious. The idea here is that Enhanced grants better Fury generation for each enemy hit with the Hammer of the Ancients, and it deals more damage for each point of Fury you had when you cast the spell.
• Skill 1: Rallying Cry > Enhanced > Tactical. Movement Speed and Resource Generation skills, which then get Unstoppable and 20 Fury immediately and better Fury Generation modifiers.
• Skill 2: Challenging Shout > Enhanced > Tactical. Challenging Shout taunts nearby enemies and reduces damage, while its modifiers grant bonus Max Life, and bonus Fury Generation when you get hit.
• Skill 3: War Cry > Enhanced > Mighty. War Cry is a DPS boost, adding 15% increased damage for a period. It also grants Berserking, and grants Fortify too, helping you with tankyness.
• Skill 4: Wrath of the Berserker > Prime > Supreme. Gain Berserking and Unstoppable, and your Basic Skills for ten seconds grants Berserking for 5 seconds. You also get better Fury Generation, and Movement Speed, and every 50 Fury spent grants damage bonuses to Berserk by 25%.

The premise of this build is you are trying to dump as many opportunities into two things. The first is Berserk windows, by making it so you can cast Hammer of the Ancient as often as possible to ramp its Berserk damage boost opportunities heavily. The other thing you’re scaling for is Furious Hammer of the Ancients, as the more Fury you have, the better its damage. This is good, as both the Berserker damage buffs, and the Furious Hammer directly buff each other, so you can really ramp your damage windows, especially when you have War Cry popped.

When you have all three damage factors from your skills applied, your base damage bucket will be huge, with it then multiplied by Vuln and Crit later on. This, of course, doesn’t even factor in any additional passives, paragon, or legendary and unique gear.

Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Build: Passives¶

Below is a list of passives you want to take throughout your skill tree

Brawling Passives

1. Booming Voice x3 Your Shout Skill effect durations are increased by 24%
2. Guttural Yell x3: Your Shout Skills cause enemies to deal 12% less damage for 5 seconds.
3. Raid Leader x3: Your Shouts heal you and your allies by 3% of Max Life each second.
4. Aggressive Resistance x3: Gain 6% Damage Reduction while Berserking.
5. Prolific Fury x3: While Berserking, Fury Generation is increased by 18%.

Weapon Mastery Passives

1. Pit Fighter x3: You deal 9% increased damage to Close enemies and gain 6% Distant Damage Reduction.
2. No Mercy x3: You have a 9% increased Critical Strike Chance against Immobilized, Stunned or Slowed enemies.
3. Hamstring. Your Bleeding effects slow enemies by 10%

Ultimate Passives

1. Heavy Handed x3: While using Two-Handed weapons you deal 15% increased Critical Strike Damage.
2. Wallop x3: Your Skills using Bludgeoning Weapons deal 15% increased Damage if the enemy is Vulnerable or Stunned.

Key Passive:

Unbridled Rage - Core Skills deal 135% increased damage, but cost 100% more Fury

Arsenal System¶

The Arsenal System for this build is not that interesting, largely thanks to you requiring a Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon to use Hammer of the Ancients. So, you will always get the Two-Handed Mace Expertise, which grants Fury generation, Lucky Hit.

The Expertise weapon of choice, however, is Two-Handed Sword. The reason for it is that the damage you deal is inflicted as Bleeding Damage. This is important, as it means that your passives, Hamstring, and No Marcy work together. The Sword bleed means that the enemies become slowed, and while they are slowed, they are then suspect to the increased crit chance from No Mercy. This should help you with your mob clear speeds.

Stat Priorities: Gear, Gems & Malignant Hearts¶

These are likely the better stats to get on your gear for Season 1, taking into account some of the itemization stat nerfs:

• Vulnerable Damage is one of the better damage buckets, making it a great scaling multiplier on gear.
• Critical Strike Chance and Damage
• Cooldown Reduction is great for Shouts, but note it was nerfed heading into Season 1.
• Dexterity over Strength, as it is required for certain Paragon nodes and also helps us to reach 100% Critical Strike Chance. The other primary stats are not necessary, unless you’re trying to reach bonuses for certain Glyph slots deeper into your board.
• Fury Cost Reduction and Maximum Fury are very helpful rolls for throwing more HOTAs.
• Close Range Damage Reduction

In terms of the Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts, it largely depends on what you need for your build and where you are at If you defensiveness is fine, then you can go more offensive. Find yourslef weaker, then grab a utility or defensive options. For an offensive option, you may consider using Determination. This Malignant Heart offers the player better resource generation, and reduces resource drain against you, meaning your shouts do much better at gaining Fury, so you can slap with your Hammer more often. The Malignant Pact is okay, but only is you get the Devious option for full rage reset, which is perfect for Hammer high damage dumping with Edgemaster’s Aspect. If you would prefer more defensive options, largely thanks to slow nerfs, then The Calculated, Resurgent Life, or Prudent Heart are great choices.

As for Gems, you may consider Emeralds for Crit Damage, Skulls for Physical damage reduction in jewelery, and Sapphire in armor for damage reduction while Fortified, to scale with your shout barrier generation.

Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Build: Legendaries & Uniques¶

Here is a list of Uniques you may be interested in grabbing, but, they are not 100% essential, they are just the chase items that are great fits for your build

• Harlequin Crest (Shaco) - You want this for the +4 Ranks, meaning great power boosts to damage skills, and better utility on your Shouts.
• Temerity - Effects that heal you past full life grant a barrier.
• The Grandfather - Huge Crit Damage boosting, helping to expand your damage buckets further

Legendaries
Likewise, here is a list of legendary effects that can interact with your build very well. Most of these you want all the time, while some can be replaced, depending on if you have specific unique drops.

• Aspect of Ancestral Force - Hammer of the Ancient quakes outwards, adding some extra range to your skill for mob clearing.
• Aspect of Berserk Ripping - More benefits of bleeding damage synergy while you are Berserking.
• Aspect of Disobedience - Another early-game defensive aspect you can easily apply to your gear.
• Aspect of Echoing Fury - More Fury generation with Shout Skills, helping your Limitless Rage and Edgemaster’s damage bonuses.
• Aspect of Limitless Rage - Generating Fury while full grants more damage to your Core Skill. Helps get you even more Fury while you are recapped via Expectant and general Fury generation from your Shouts and Ultimate.
• Aspect of Might - Decent damage reduction legendary while you’re still in the lower end of the end game.
• Aspect of the Expectant - Good synergy with attack build-up for more bonus core skill damage.
• Chieftain - Lowers Shout Skill cooldown when cast based on enemies near the player when you shout.
• Conceited Aspect - Increases damage when you have a barrier, which is only worth it if you have Temerity.
• Edgemaster’s Aspect - More Resources means more damage.
• Ghostwalker Aspect - Easy movement speed bonuses while you get Unstoppable, which you do fairly often. Also allows you to move freely between enemies, preventing body-blocking deaths.
• Iron Blood Aspect - Gain damage reduction for each nearby bleeding enemy.
• Numbing Wrath - Each Point of Fury generated while at Maximum Fury Grants Fortify.
• Steadfast Berserker’s Aspect - An option for the neck if you don’t have Temerity. This grants Fortify when dealing damage while Berserking, which you can often via your ulty and Lunging Strike Crits.

Diablo 4 Hammer of the Ancients Build: Paragon & Glyphs¶

The Hammer of the Ancients Build doesn’t require many Paragon Boards, largely thanks to little synergy directly with Hammer. Instead, you’re opting for a Bleed Build, and ramping those bleed synergies for better passives and legendary synergy. You will also do much deeper runs getting nodes for your Glyph bonuses, and grabbing as many relevant rare nodes as possible.

• Starter: Exploit Glyph - You don’t have Vuln in this build, so need to get this in here as soon as possible for the damage bucket, and synergy with your passive.
• Blood Rage - Killing a Bleeding enemy has a 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. You want to glyph Marshal for the Shout CDR reduction.
• Decimator - Two-Handed Slashing Attacks have up to a 8% chance to make enemies Vulnerable for 2 seconds. - You want this because of the Expertise, and extended Vuln after your Exploit wears off. When you reach the socket, place the Disembowel Glyph for more bleed synergy and cooldown reduction for your shouts.
• Warbringer - For every 75 Fury you spend, gain 12% Max Life as Fortify. This should help you tank those higher and higher Nightmare dungeons, and make you more tanky as you start to approach Uber Lilith challenges. You also want to socket Wrath in the Glyph slot for bonus Core Skill damage via nearby Dex nodes, and more fury via Crits.

For the remainder of the points, you want to pick up any magic nodes with better bleeding synergy, physical damage synergy, and Vulnerable damage, like Demolish, Brawn, Raw Power, Arrogance and so on.