Overkiller Barbarian BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(get MAD, Charge headfirst into combat & Overpower your foes before dealing a final Death Blow)

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Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV‘s Launch is getting closer and it’s time to make some Ready-For-Launch full Builds/Theorycrafts that should be good for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I’ also plan to evolve them further when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Barbarian Class called Overkiller.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect + unique item + gems & sockets + suggested stat rolls + paragon boards that work well with the build which you can use to tinker. Alternatively, I’ve added build calculator links (mostly needed for the paragons)

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Overkiller) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

• (active) Lunging Strike – Lunge forward and strike an enemy for 30% (X – ?) damage. Generate Fury: 9 Lucky Hit Chance: 50% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic,
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Lunging Strike – Lunging Strike deals 30% (multiplicative) increased damage and Heals you for 2% Maximum Life when it damages a Healthy enemy.
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Combat Lunging Strike – Critical Strikes with Lunging Strike grant you Berserking for 1.5 seconds

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

• (active) Upheaval – Tear into the ground with your weapon and fling debris forward, dealing 70% (X – ?) damage. Requires a two-handed weapon Fury Cost: 40 Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core,
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Upheaval – Upheaval has an 20% chance to Stun all enemies it damages for 2.5 seconds.
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Furious Upheaval – Dealing direct damage to an enemy with a Skill that is not Upheaval causes your next cast of Upheaval to deal 8% (multiplicative) increased damage, stacking up to 10 times.
• (passive) Pressure Point – Lucky Hit: Your Core Skills have up to a 10%/20%/30% to make enemies Vulnerable for 2 seconds.
• (passive) did not pick any other Core passives to save points

Defensive Skills (Required Points: 6 )

• (active) I did NOT take any Active Defensive Skills due to lack of enough skillbar slots
  • (1st upgrade)
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
• (passive) Imposing Presence – Gain 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) additional Maximum Life.
  • (upgrade) Martial Vigor – Damage Reduction against Elites, is increased by 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative).
• (passive) did not pick other Defensive passives to save points

Brawling Skills (Required Points: 11 )

• (active 1 rank/level only) War Cry – Bellow a mighty war cry, increasing your damage dealt by 15% (multiplicative) for 8 seconds, and Nearby allies for 4 seconds. Cooldown: 25 seconds Tags: Brawling, Shout
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced War Cry – War Cry grants you Berserking for 4 seconds.
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Mighty War Cry – War Cry grants grants you 28% Base Life as Fortify.

• (active 1 rank/level only) Charge – Become Unstoppable and rush forward pushing enemies with you then swinging through them for 25% (X – ?) damage and Knocking them Back. Cooldown: 17 seconds Lucky Hit Chance: 33% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Brawling,
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Charge – Enemies who are Knocked Back into terrain by Charge take 15% (X – ?) damage and are Stunned for 3 seconds.
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Mighty Charge – Damaging enemies with Charge makes them Vulnerable for 2 seconds.
• (passive) Booming Voice – Shout Skill effect durations are increased by 10%/20%/30% (multiplicative).
  • (upgrade) Guttural Yell – Your Shout Skills cause enemies to deal 8%/16%/24% (multiplicative) less damage for 5 seconds.
  • (upgrade) Raid Leader – did NOT take this one
• (passive 1 point/rank only) Aggressive Resistance – Gain 4%/8%/12% Damage Reduction while Berserking.
  • (upgrade) Battle Fervor – did NOT take this one
  • (upgrade) Prolific Fury – did NOT take this one
• (passive) did not pick other Brawling passives to save points

Weapon Mastery Skills (Required Points: 16 )

• (active) Death Blow – Attempt a killing strike, dealing 120% (X – ?) to enemies in front of you. If this kills an enemy, the Cooldown is reset. Cooldown: 15 seconds Lucky Hit Chance: 50% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Weapon Mastery,
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Death Blow – Death Blow deals 100% (multiplicative) increased damage to bosses.
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Fighter’s Death Blow – If Death Blow damages at least 1 enemy, gain 20 Fury.
• (passive) Pit Fighter – You deal 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) increased damage to Close enemies and gain 2%/4%/6% Distant Damage Reduction.
  • (upgrade) Slaying Strike – You deal 8%/15%/23% increased damage against Injured enemies.
  • (upgrade) No Mercy – did NOT take this one
  • (upgrade) Expose Vulnerability – did NOT take this one
• (passive) did not pick other Weapon Mastery passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

• (active) Wrath of the Berserker – Gain Berserking and Unstoppable for 5 seconds. For the next 10 seconds, dealing direct damage with Basic Skills grants Berserking for 25 seconds Cooldown: 60 seconds Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Tags: Ultimate,
  • (1st upgrade) Supreme Wrath of the Berserker – While Wrath of the Berserker is active, gain +20% increased Movement Speed and increase Fury Generation by 30% (multiplicative)
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Prime Wrath of the Berserker – While Wrath of the Berserker is active, every 50 Fury spend increases Berserk’s damage bonus by 25% (multiplicative)
• (passive) Wallop – Your Skills using Bludgeoning weapons deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased damage if the enemy is Stunned or Vulnerable.
  • (upgrade) Concussion – Lucky Hit: Skills using Bludgeoning weapons have up to a 10%/20%/30% chance to Stun enemies for 3 seconds, or up to a 15%/30%/45% chance when using a Two-Handed Bludgeoning weapon.
  • (upgrade) Brute Force – did NOT take this one
• (passive ) Heavy Handed – While using Two-Handed weapons you deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage.seconds.
• (passive) did not pick other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

• (passive) Unconstrained – Increase Berserk’s maximum duration by 5 seconds and increase its damage bonus by +25%.

Class Mechanic:

The Barbarian class mechanics is called Arsenal and this is how I believe it works:

The Barbarian class can equip 4 weapons at the same time: a Dual-wielding set of 2x One-Handed weps + two separate Two-Handed weapons (not dual-wielding those). They switch in combat between those based on what weapon is assigned to specific skills via the class unique Arsenal System. So each skill can have its own weapon assigned to it as long as it’s one of the 4 weapons equipped. The weps you don’t actually use work as ‘stat sticks’, even any aspects slotted on them. Here are the types:

• Dual Wielded 1-Handed Weapons on Barbarians can be either Slashing or Bludgeoning such as: Swords, Axes, or Maces. The game seems to clump all 1-Handed weapons together under the “Dual-Wielding” as far as Barbarians and their skill tags are concerned so regardless of Slashing or Bludgeoning type, a 1-Handed weapon will apparently not count as either.
• The two slots of Two-Handed Weapons can be occupied by Slashing type weps like Swords, Axes, & Polearms and/or by Bludgeoning Maces
• Ideally 1x 2h Slashing, 1x 2h Bludgeoning and a Dual-Wield 1h combo for the 4 weps if you go for a swap-centric build

Unique Item

In Diablo IV apparently (I have multiple sources that confirmed this) we can equip more than one unique item at the same time (not so ‘unique’ if we can get decked out in full uniques I guess). It seems that the one unique per build idea that Unique inherited from the Mythical gear they supposedly replaced was scrapped even before the closed beta tests. My top pick will be the following one but check the notes under the Aspects list for some additional picks:

Overkill (Two-Handed Mace)

+[31.5]% Overpower Damage

Death Blow creates a shockwave, dealing [16 – 30]% of its Base damage to enemies. Enemies who die to this effect also reset Death Blow’s Cooldown.

+[21 – 35]% Damage to Injured Enemies
+[4.5 – 12]% Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies
Elite_Kill_Damage (Struck’s note: I suspect this is X% dmg after killing an Elite for X seconds)
+[2 – 4] Ranks of Death Blow

The malformed snake creatures that live in the swamps are not content with simply killing their prey. They seem to take a malicious pleasure from inflicting as much suffering as possible before death.

Sockets & Gems

Full Diamonds is a good fit for many builds, not so much for this one due to not much Barrier sources. I’ve shortlisted 5 total gems that work well with the build so pick based on your preference. I’d recommend either of those for Weps: Diamond, Skull, Saphire or Emerald. For Armor: Diamond, Skull, Saphire or Ruby. For Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Overkiller) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

• Helm: Aspect of Might
• Amulet: Exploiter’s Aspect
• Chest: Weapon Master’s Aspect
• Pants: Steadfast Berserker’s Aspect
• Gloves: *Aspect of Inner Calm (see NOTE below)
• Boots: Relentless Berserker’s Apect
• Ring 1: Bold Chieftain’s Aspect (see notes for alternative choices)
• Ring 2: Bear Clan Berserker’s Aspect (see notes for alternative choices)
• 1H Weapon: Aspect of Brawler’s Aspect
• Off-hand: Edgemaster’s Aspect
• 2-H Weapon 1: Aspect of Encroaching Wrath
• 2-H Weapon 2 (see NOTE below): Aspect of Veteran Brawler

NOTE 1: Aspect of Veteran Brawler should go into the 2nd 2-Hander slot until the Overkill Unique 2-handed mace drops. After that, move it to the Gloves slot and discard the aspect there (Aspect of Inner Calm). 

NOTE 2: The two Resource aspects I put for the Ring slots can me mix-and-matched with those two other resource aspects in any ways between the 4: Aspect of Echoing Fury & Aspect of Berserk Fury. 

It's up to you which 2 of the 4 resource Aspects to take if you're not "feeling it" with the two I picked.

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 95 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown. The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

• LVL 95 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
• MAXed out points: Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 37 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

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This concludes the Overkiller Barbarian Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

XBOX

PlayStation

Official Website