Hammer of the Ancients (HotA) has always been a popular skill for the Barbarian class throughout the Diablo franchise. Following its return in Diablo 4, fans are naturally going to be looking to make a Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian build for the new season.
HotA makes you slam your two-handed hammer into the ground to deal damage to all enemies in a radius. Our D4 Hammer of the Ancients build works on that by improving its damage and giving you more Fury to spam the skill.
This build will ensure you pick the right skills and generate enough resources to clear the Nightmare dungeons and the bosses without breaking a sweat.
With this build, you will do substantial damage without compromising the defenses. So let us dive into the depth of this build to understand the mechanism of it.
- Skill Distribution
- Barbarian Arsenal System
- Gameplay and Skill Rotations
- Gem and Stat Priorities
- Gear Progression
- Paragon Boards
- Glyphs
- Elixirs and Incenses
Skill Distribution
In addition to the core HotA bludgeoning skill, there are a number of other skills from the Barbarian skill tree that make the Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian build work in Diablo 4.
- Lunging (Basic)
- Hammer of the Ancients (Core)
- Rallying Cry (Shout)
- Challenging Shout (Shout)
- War Cry (Brawling)
- Wrath of the Berserker (Ultimate)
Unless you are following a leveling build, the following is the skill order in which you can spend your hard-earned skill points.
| Unlock Order | Skill (Rank) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Lunging Strike |
| 2 | Enhanced Lunging Strike |
| 3 | Hammer of the Ancients |
| 4 | Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients |
| 5 | Furious Hammer of the Ancients |
| 6 | Hammer of the Ancients (Rank 2) |
| 7 | Hammer of the Ancients (Rank 3) |
| 8 | Hammer of the Ancients (Rank 4) |
| 9 | Hammer of the Ancients (Rank 5) |
| 10 | Ground Stomp |
| 11 | Enhanced Ground Stomp |
| 12 | Strategic Ground Stomp |
| 13 | Rallying Cry |
| 14 | Enhanced Rallying Cry |
| 15 | Tactical Rallying Cry |
| 16 | Challenging Shout |
| 17 | Enhanced Challenging Shout |
| 18 | Tactical Challenging Shout |
| 19 | War Cry |
| 20 | Enhanced War Cry |
| 21 | Power War Cry |
| 22 | Challenging Shout (Rank 2) |
| 23 | Challenging Shout (Rank 3) |
| 24 | Challenging Shout (Rank 4) |
| 25 | Challenging Shout (Rank 5) |
| 26 | Booming Voice |
| 27 | Booming Voice (Rank 2) |
| 28 | Booming Voice (Rank 3) |
| 29 | Raid Leader |
| 30 | Raid Leader (Rank 2) |
| 31 | Raid Leader (Rank 3) |
| 32 | Aggressive Resistance |
| 33 | Prolific Fury |
| 34 | Prolific Fury (Rank 2) |
| 35 | Prolific Fury (Rank 3) |
| 36 | Pit Fighter |
| 37 | Pit Fighter (Rank 2) |
| 38 | Pit Fighter (Rank 3) |
| 39 | Thick Skin |
| 40 | Counteroffensive |
| 41 | Counteroffensive (Rank 2) |
| 42 | Counteroffensive (Rank 3) |
| 43 | Heavy Handed |
| 44 | Heavy Handed (Rank 2) |
| 45 | Heavy Handed (Rank 3) |
| 46 | Wallop |
| 47 | Wallop (Rank 2) |
| 48 | Wallop (Rank 3) |
| 49 | Concussion |
| 50 | Concussion (Rank 2) |
| 51 | Concussion (Rank 3) |
| 52 | Wrath of the Berserker |
| 53 | Prime Wrath of the Berserker |
| 54 | Supreme Wrath of the Berserker |
| 55 | Tempered Fury |
| 56 | Tempered Fury (Rank 2) |
| 57 | Tempered Fury (Rank 3) |
| 58 | Unbridled Rage |
We have invested all the available skills points you can have at the end of the game. It means using the 50 normal skills points and the ones you earn by completing the Renown activities of different regions in Diablo 4.
All these upgrades are essential to building the best Hammer of the Ancients build in D4. So it is advised to go with the skills mentioned above.
Wrath of the Berserker is the ultimate skill you need for this HotA build. It allows you to go berserk and become unstoppable for a few seconds. You take reduced damage while generating bonus Fury.
So having the Lunging Strike and War Cry also makes it easy to activate Berserking to bring out the most benefits from this build active skills.
Lastly, we are going to take Unbridled Rage from the keystone passives. This massively increases your overall damage from all core skills, including Hammer of the Ancients.
The downside is that your core skills are going to cost more Fury, something which we are going to address in this Hammer of the Ancients build in Diablo 4.
Barbarin Arsenal System
The Barbarian Arsenal System allows you to assign one of four different weapons to each skill. For the Hammer of the Ancients build in Diablo 4, you should know that most of your damage is going to come from a two-handed bludgeoning weapon.
That two-handed weapon is going to go with your Lunging Strike (for Wallop) as well as your main HotA skill. You cannot change this.
It is also crucial to go with the Two-Handed Sword Expertise. So you can exploit advantages such as better damage output and great defense against bleeding enemies
Gameplay and Skill Rotation
In this Barbarian build, our primary emphasis will be on skills that boost the output of the Hammer of the Ancient skill and allow you to build up your plays around this skill. The selected skills will generate your Fury faster and help you inflict status effects like Vulnerable.
The different components of this Hammer of the Ancient build will help you eliminate your enemies even if you play at world tier 4 difficulty in Diablo 4.
Fury Regeneration
Almost every skill in Barbarian class drains your Fury at a substantial rate. Hence, it is imperative to utilize skills that help you regenerate it at a greater rate than the usage.
So we will try our best to converse and restore our Fury. Below are some of the skills, glyphs, and items you must utilize to keep your Fury tank full.
- Aspect of Echoing Fury: This is one of the best legendary aspects that you can use to generate Fury as a Barbarian. You need to use the shout skills to generate Fury per second. The aspect also allows you to stack the Fury as long as you keep using the shout skills.
- Wrath Glyph: You can generate 3 Fury on every critical strike using this rarely found glyph.
- Lunging Strike: You can generate 9 Fury by dealing 30 percent damage to any kind of enemy.
- Tactical Rallying Cry: With this skill, you can get up to 20 Fury, and your resource generation rate improves by a staggering 20 percent.
- Tactical Challenging Shout: Your Fury restores by three after every hit.
- Prolific Fury: This passive skill is perfect for use in Berserk mode, as it improves your Fury generation by 18 percent.
- Prime Wrath of the Berserker: with this Ultimate skill, you can enjoy up to 30 percent more Fury generation.
Hammer of the Ancients Damage Rotation
You must understand the damage rotation mechanism to properly utilize the D4 HOTA build. The knowledge will allow you to use your active skills in the proper order so you can take down any kind of enemy at every difficulty level.
You must use active skills in a specific order, and the order will remain small irrespective of the enemies that you come across. So we have given the skills below that you must rotate to bring out the best of this Barbarian build.
- Lunging
- Tactical Rallying Cry
- Tactical Challenging Shout
- Power War Cry
- Supreme Wrath of the Berserker
- Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients
The first three active skills are perfect for generating Fury and taking the damage output of Barbarian to the next level. Lunging improves your mobility and helps you inflict 30 percent damage to the enemies. Moreover, using this active skill, you get to generate 9 Fury with every strike.
The Tactical Rallying Cry is another excellent addition to these active skills as your resource generation improves by 20 percent, and you get 20 Fury.
Additionally, if you are taking any damage, you will get three more Fury due to the inclusion of the Tactical Challenging Shout skill. So all these skills keep your Fury at the maximum so you can use your other high-damaging abilities to bring down the enemies.
You must start the combat and use these three skills to generate Fury so you can have the upper hand in the battle.
Once your Fury bar is full, activate Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients to deal the maximum damage per Fury. This will take your damage to the highest level.
You should also use the Power War Cry when surrounded by enemies to improve your damage output by 10 percent.
With enough Fury, you must use the Supreme Wrath of the Berserker, as it takes your Berserker damage output up by 25x if you spend 50 Fury if the skill is active.
You just need to spam these skills in order to bring out the maximum damage for our Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian build in D4.
Gem and Stats Priorities
You need to pick the exemplary character stats for your Barbarian build in Diablo 4. The selection will ensure you generate the most impact with your character in every situation. So you must prioritize your stats in the following order.
- Strength
- Dexterity
- Willpower
- Intelligence
Strength is crucial for any Barbarin build, as it improves your armor and skill damage. Each point in strength improves your armor by one and skill damage by 0.1%.
With Dexterity, your critical strike and dodge chances improve. If you put one point in this stat, your critical strike chance goes up by 0.02 %, and a 0.025% improvement is seen in the dodge chance.
You need to put some points in Willpower as it improves your Fury generation by 0.1%. The stats also impacts the overpower damage and healing positively.
Lastly, Intelligence is not important for any Barbarian build, as it only improves your resistance against the elemental attacks by 0.05 %.
For this D4 Hammer of the Ancients builds, we are going with the following gems combination to bring the best out of this build.
| Type | Gemstone | Effect |
| Weapon | Emerald | You receive 12 percent boost in your critical strike chances against vulnerable enemies. |
| Armor | Sapphire | You get a 3 percent damage reduction when fortified. |
| Jewelry | Skull | Increases your armor by 250. |
Gear Progression
Unique Items
You will rarely encounter these unique items in Diablo 4. But some items, if found, fit perfectly in this D4 HOTA build. So we are mentioning some items you can use in this build.
Harlequin Crest: one of the best helms for all the builds and can be used for all the builds.
The Grandfather: This one provides a two-handed slashing weapon with all the Barbarian builds.
Range of Harrogath: This is a chest piece that you can use to reduce your skills cooldown against the Elite enemies.
Legendary Aspects
The legendary aspects can be acquired through the Codex of Power or the legendary gear. You can visit Occultist to remove the aspects of the gear and use them on your desired equipment.
So we have mentioned the best legendary Barbarian aspects you can use with our Hammer of the Ancients build in Diablo 4.
| Slot | Aspect | Modifier |
| Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon | Edgemaster’s Aspect | StrengthVulnerable Damage |
| Dual Wield Weapon 1 | Aspect of Limitless Rage | Vulnerable DamageCritical Strike Damage |
| Dual Wield Weapon 2 | Accelerating Aspect | Vulnerable DamageCritical Strike Damage |
| Two-Handed Slashing Weapon | Aspect of the Expectant | Vulnerable DamageCritical Strike Damage |
| Helm | Aspect of Might | Cooldown ReductionStrength |
| Chest | Aspect of Obedience | Maximum LifeDamage Reduction when fortified |
| Gloves | Aspect of Berserk Ripping | Critical Stik Chance |
| Pants | Iron Blood Aspect | Maximum LifeTotal Armor |
| Boots | Ghostwalker Aspect | Berserking DurationFury Cost Reduction |
| Amulet | Aspect of Ancestral Force | Fury Cost ReductionCooldown Reduction |
| Ring 1 | Bold Chieftain’s Aspect | Resource GenerationVulnerable Damage |
| Ring 2 | Aspect of Echoing Fury | Resource GenerationVulnerable Damage |
Paragon Boards
The Paragon Boards play a crucial role in this late-game build of Barbarian in Diablo 4. You can make use of this system to gain special passive bonuses.
- Brawn: Your physical damage output increases by a maximum of 20 percent, and maximum life goes up by 4 percent.
- Raw Power: Your physical damage increases by up to 20 percent, and strength improves by 10.
- Iron Strength: Strength improves by ten and armor by up to 200.
- Hunter Killer: You will gain 32 percent extra damage to the Elites and a 14 percent bonus movement speed upon killing one.
- Warbringer: You will receive 12 percent of your maximum life as fortify if you spend 75 Fury.
- Brash: This is perfect for close-range combats as you will receive up to 9 percent reduced damage from such enemies.
Glyphs
You can make use of the different Paragon Boards to select the most suitable Glyphs for our D4 Barbarian build. We are mentioning the one that you should unlock in the following order.
- Crusher: Your Mace damage output will improve with every five strength you purchase.
- Exploit: You will deal 1 percent more damage to all vulnerable enemies on every five dexterity. Moreover, the regular enemies will turn vulnerable upon taking damage.
- Territorial: You can deal 2 percent bonus damage to close-range enemies by purchasing five dexterity.
- Marshal: Improves the magic nodes by 25 percent and reduces the cooldown on shout skills by 1.2 seconds.
- Ire: Your damage output while Berserking improves for every five strength.
- Wrath: You have 1.5 percent more chances of inflicting critical strike damage using your core skills. Moreover, it will allow you to generate 3 Fury on every usage.
Elixirs and Incenses
For the Diablo 3 Hammer of the Ancients build, it is recommended to go with the Precision Elixir. This will allow you to enjoy a greater critical strike chance and damage.
On the other hand, we are going with the Reddamine Buzz for Incenses. With this item, your maximum life will increase by 500 for every surrounding player. So if you have 4, your life will go up by 2,000, making this a powerful addition to our build.
Moreover, you can also go with the Elixir of Cruelty, as it improves your critical strike chance. However, equip the Expertise elixir if you want to reduce your resources cost. Our best Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian build is completed with all these.
