Ulfhednar's No Basic Skill HotA + Upheaval Barbarian Build

It’s no secret that basic abilities feel painful to use when compared to core skills. Luckily Ulfhednar has an answer for Barbarian players looking to ditch their basic abilities to run two massive damage core skills with huge fury generation! Today we will go over UIfhednar’s No Basic Skill HotA + Upheaval Barbarian Build. Check out the full build here!

How It Works

• Fury Generation: Ulf takes advantage of some powerful synergies to maximize fury generation despite not running a basic ability

  • Challenging Shout: Ulf’s challenging shout has a 20-second cooldown and is active for 15 seconds, leaving five seconds of downtime. Ulf uses tactical challenging shout to taunt enemies and generate fury when taking damage.
  • Rallying Cry: Also used for fury generation alongside Challenging Shout, Ulf Specs for Tactical Rallying cry to further increase fury generation.
  • Bold Chieftains Aspect: This is where things start to come together, with high uptime on Challenging Shout, and the further use of Rallying Cry, Ulf takes advantage of this aspect to reduce the cooldowns of his shouts by up to 6 seconds. This allows for permanent uptime on Challenging Shout and an incredibly low cooldown for Rallying Cry.
  • Aspect of Echoing Fury: Finally, to cement shouts as generators Ulf uses this aspect to generate fury every time a shout is used. With the high uptime on both shouts, this means an additional stream of free fury generation.
  • Furious Impulse: This passive allows for even more fury generation when swapping weapons
  • Enhanced HotA: This upgrade to HotA allows the player to gain additional fury per enemy hit by HotA. When stacked with all the fury generation above it means that you’ll never find yourself struggling to refill your fury.
  • Two-Handed Mace Expertise: This can be used to gain additional fury as it allows the player to have a lucky hit chance to generate fury when using a two-handed mace since that is the weapon this build uses for HotA and HotA is our biggest damage button it allows for even further fury generation if players decide to sacrifice the crit chance and damage to vulnerable from Two-Handed Axe Expertise, this is not recommended but can be done.
• Damage: Ulf runs 2 core skills in this build alongside some powerful aspects to put out insane damage

  • Hammer of the Ancients: The dopamine button, HotA puts out massive damage, Ulf specs into Furious HotA for additional damage based on fury consumed, with massive generation from the synergies above this means that he maximizes HotA damage.
  • Upheaval: Ulf specs into furious upheaval, with HotA, Rupture, and Steel Grasp Ulf has no shortage of low cooldown abilities to quickly stack Upheaval and ramp up its damage
  • Rupture: Ulf specs into Warrior's rupture, this allows him to use rupture for its bleed damage and also the free attack speed buff further increasing damage
  • Critical Strike: When maxed out this build has 100% critical strike chance, coupled with the stat priorities on enhancing critical strike damage you hit things hard
  • Walking Arsenal: Easily the best passive for this build since you are quickly rotating between all three weapon types and therefore gain access to the 15% increased damage buff very quickly
  • Aspect of Limitless Rage: Despite running two core skills this build constantly has fury overflow when fighting larger packs of enemies, this aspect grants a percent damage buff based on fury generated beyond maximum, allowing for free damage
  • Edgemasters Aspect: For similar reasons as running Aspect of Limitless Rage, Edgemasters works great here because of the massive fury generation between high uptime shouts and other forms of fury generation in the build
  • Aspect of Ancestral Force: With HotA being the largest source of damage this aspect is a top-tier pick to further enhance its damage by sending quakes outwards upon cast
  • Smiting Aspect: This aspect further increases crit chance against injured enemies and grants increased cc duration when health, both bonuses that synergize well with the build
    
• Weapon Stats to look for

  • Strength
  • Vulnerable Damage
  • Critical Strike Damage (socket Emerald for the crit damage to vulnerable)
  • Damage to Close/Core Skill Damage
  • All Stats
• Weapon Expertise

  • Two-Handed Axe: Spec into this for the increased damage to vulnerable and increased crit chance against vulnerable enemies. If your fury generation feels good this is the best way to go for damage.

Paragon

The focus when plotting paragon for this build is to maximize crit chance, crit damage, vulnerable damage, and then defensive nodes.

• Starting Board: Ulf grabs all 4 rare nodes on this board for the increased offensive and defensive stats. The glyph here is exploit for the increased damage to vulnerable enemies.

• Weapons Master: This is the next board, here Ulf skips the legendary node spinning the board so the glyph socket is in the bottom right. He grabs hunterkiller, brute, iron strength, and raw power. These nodes are mostly damage focused with iron strength also giving armor. The glyph here is Marshal which reduces shout cooldowns helping with additional fury generation.

• Decimator: This board is attached to the right of Weapons Master and spun so it’s upside down. Here Ulf also skips the legendary node, he grabs pillage, arrogance, and demolish for the increased damage to vulnerable and the damage reduction from vulnerable enemies. The glyph used here is Might which grants increased damage while wielding two handed weapons.

• Warbringer: Attached to the bottom of Decimator this board is rotated so the glyph socket is in the top right. Ulf grabs core reserve and raw power for additional max fury and damage. The glyph here is Territorial, a defensive choice, which grants additional damage reduction from close enemies.

• Flawless Technique: Attached to the right of Decimator Ulf grabs Havoc, Slayer, and Brash for the crit damage, armor, and damage reduction from close. The glyph used is Mortal Draw which grants a huge bonus to critical strike chance and weapon damage when swapping weapons.

• Carnage: Attached to the right of Flawless Technique and rotated so the legendary node is on the bottom Ulf grabs Fierce and Brash for the increased damage and damage reduction from close. The glyph used here is Wrath which grants increased crit damage and fury gen when landing crits.

Wrapping it Up

100% crit chance, massive crit damage, two core skills, high passive fury generation, 100% uptime Challenging Shout, and powerful defensive stats to follow. This Barbarian build has everything fun about Diablo IV packed into a single package. For players looking to ditch the basic abilities and watch elite packs get one shot with two rotating core skills Ulfhednar comes in clutch! Huge shoutout to Ulfhednar for creating this powerful build, check out his channel here. To see the build yourself feel free to click here for a link to Ulf’s build in our calculator!