Best Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Build in Diablo 4
Despite being a range-impaired class, the Barbarian in Diablo 4 is a monster on the battlefield—provided you play to its strengths using builds like Hammer of the Ancients or HotA for short. If you prefer smashing your enemies to bits as opposed to spinning, you’ll love this build. It’s all about using Shouts in an effort to gain a surplus of Fury for spamming Hammer of the Ancients!
Diablo 4 HOTA Barbarian Build Guide
In order for the Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian build to work inDiablo 4, you need a constant stream of Fury. While Hammer of the Ancients has a solid Fury-to-Damage ratio, you’ll still find yourself starved for that precious resource without a few key Aspects and skills.
All Skills Required for HotA Barbarian Build
Along with these skills, it’s important to pick the right Weapon Expertise. Hammer of the Ancients is exclusively a two-handed bludgeoning skill; in fact, you’ll be using it for all your offensive skills, including Lunge. As for your chosen Expertise, you have a few choices:
Since you’ll always have a chance to cause stuns through your skills, One-handed Sword Expertise can net you some easy Fury. However, there’s an alternative HotA build that takes Hamstring over Battle Fervor, in which case you’ll want Two-handed Sword Expertise to compound the bleeding effect.
Legendaries, Glyphs and Aspects to Equip
In terms ofAspects, this HotA Barbarian build requires very few to get started—three, to be specific. You’ll want the following:
As you may see, the best Aspects are all about keeping Shouts up for as long as possible, granting you a constant source of Fury. Alternatively, Aspect of Berserk Fury works here too if you lack Aspect of Echoing Fury as you’ll be Berserking quite often.
When it comes to Glyphs, go withExploit, Wrath, Marshal, Territorial, Disembowel, and Crusher. Ire is also a good one for bonus damage while Berserking, but replace it as soon as you get any of the aforementioned Glyphs for more consistent damage.
Hammer of the Ancients Skill Rotation
Ready to crush your enemies and see them driven before you? When you approach demons, activate your Shouts and start swinging with Hammer of the Ancients. The HotA Barbarian build is honestly that easy.
If there’s a particularly nasty demon, like an elite or a boss, use Wrath of the Berserker for extra damage. However, do attempt to avoid using HotA on tiny groups. You want to clump together as many targets as possible to generate more Fury with Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients.
That’s all it takes to make the HotA Barbarian build work in Diablo 4. You have to spend Fury to make Fury, essentially, which is where the listed Aspects come in handy. Since you can have Aspects in every slot, be on the lookout forEdgemaster’s Aspect, too. It’ll net you extra damage based on your primary resource!
