Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4)

Build Introduction

Welcome to the comprehensive guide for the Bash Cleave Barbarian for the endgame of Diablo 4. This new build, made possible by changes in Patch 1.4.0 and the new tempering system, is a powerful generator build with tons of damage, survivability, and speed. You will be able to smash your way through nightmare dungeons, the pit, and uber bosses with ease while not having to worry about managing your resources giving you full damage uptime. With that in mind, let us dive in.

Strengths

Powerful generator based damage
Fast attack speed
Great defensive power

Weaknesses

Requires specific tempers on items
Cooldown management

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Paingorger’s Gauntlets

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Aspect of the Moonrise

Aspect of Adaptability

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Bash Iron Skin Rallying Cry War Cry Challenging Shout Steel Grasp

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 58-point build. The additional 10 skills are completed using the Renown system.

Arsenal System and Weapon Selection

For this Bash build, we will be using 2-Handed Axe expertise for its bonus to Vulnerable damage. Even nerfed to 10% in Patch 1.4.0 this is still our strongest option. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills

Bash – We assign bash to our 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon to maximize our DPS. While you can assign it to Dual-Wield weapons assuming at least one of them is a mace, for this setup we will want to use the 2-Handed Weapons instead.

Paragon Board

We recommend using the following Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 21 version.

Starting Board

Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4) - Icy Veins (13)

Warbringer

Rotate this board three times when attaching it.

Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4) - Icy Veins (14)

Carnage

Attach this board to the eastern gate of Warbringer. Rotate this board twice before attaching it.

Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4) - Icy Veins (15)

Blood Rage

We attach this board to the Northern gate of the Carnage board. Do not rotate this board when attaching it.

Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4) - Icy Veins (16)

Decimator

We attach this board to the Eastern gate of the Blood Rage board. Rotate this board four times before attaching it.

Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4) - Icy Veins (17)

Hemorrhage

We attach this board to the Southern gate of the Carnage board. Rotate this board three times before attaching it.

Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4) - Icy Veins (18)

Bone Breaker

We attach this board to the Southern gate of the Decimator board. Do not rotate this board when attaching it.

Bash Cleave Endgame Barbarian Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4) - Icy Veins (19)

To see the Paragon Board in its entirety, CLICK HERE

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

The Season of Loot Reborn brings us an incredible shift in how gear and itemization are done. It is a major and will affect the game beyond Season 4’s confines. For further details, make sure to read our Tempering and Masterworking section below.

Legendary Aspects

Below, you will find all of the BiS (best-in-slot) Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important for this build. Remember that with Patch 1.4.0 all Legendary powers can be added into your Codex once you salvage or extract the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons as you could in previous seasons but now you have the option to upgrade these affixes if you find a higher roll of that affix. Let us go over what aspects you will need.

Slot	Gems	Legendary Aspect / Unique Item	Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Royal Ruby	Iron Blood Aspect	– Gain [2-5%] Damage Reduction for each nearby Bleeding enemy, up to [10-25%] maximum
Chest	Royal Ruby	Undying Aspect	– When you cast a Skill, you heal for [0.5-2.0%] life. Double this bonus while below 50% life.
Gloves	N/A	Paingorger’s Gauntlets	– Damaging enemies with a cast Non-Basic Skill marks them for 3 seconds. When a Basic Skill hits a marked enemy, the Basic Skill’s damage is echoed to all marked enemies dealing [100-200%] increased damage.
Pants	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Might	– Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds
Boots	N/A	Hectic Aspect	– After casting 5 Basic Skills, one of your active Cooldowns is reduced by [1-2] seconds
Amulet	Royal Diamond	Aspect of the Iron Warrior	– Iron Skin grants Unstoppable and [25-35%] Damage Reduction.
Ring 1	Royal Diamond	Aspect of Adaptability	– Basic Skills generate 3 additional resource when cast below 50% Maximum Resource and deal [20-80%] increased damage when cast above 50% Maximum Resource
Ring 2	Royal Diamond	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	– Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [1.0-2.0] seconds per nearby enemy up to a maximum of 6 seconds
2H Bludgeoning Weapon	Royal Topaz	Aspect of the Moonrise	– Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage gaining [40-80%] Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
2H Slashing Weapon	Royal Topaz	Rapid Aspect	– Basic Skills gain [15-30%] Attack Speed
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Royal Topaz	Edgemaster’s Aspect	– Skills deal up to x [5-20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource
Dual Wield Weapon 2	Royal Topaz	Aspect of Inner Calm	– You deal x [5-10%] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds.

Gems

Listed below are the best gems to socket into your items for each slot type.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Topaz for increased Basic Skill damage	Royal Ruby for increased maximum life	Royal Diamond for increased all resistances

For your jewelry it may be necessary to change the Royal Diamond for another gem for a specific type such as Royal Sapphire to ensure all of your resistances are capped at 70%

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

When in town you can visit the Alchemist to craft helpful elixirs which will provide a special effect and increase your experience gain. Crafting has been simplified in Patch 1.4.0, and there are fewer specific flowers to harvest; instead, almost all herbs in the world drop as Bundles of Dried Herbs, allowing you to craft the elixirs you want. Some elixirs cannot be crafted and can only drop from things like Helltide or Nightmare Dungeons.

For this build, we recommend Elixir of Advantage for the increased attack speed so we can continue Bash and cleave the hordes in front of us down faster. Craft the highest-value Elixir of Advantage you can so you can get the most attack speed possible.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded yellow affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that only drop from The Pit. Be sure to check our Tempering guide, our Masterworking guide, as well as our guide about The Pit for more details about these topics.

Slot	Gems	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	Royal Ruby	1. Maximum Life 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Strength	1. +Ranks to Imposing Presence Barbarian Protection 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Chest	Royal Ruby	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. +Ranks to Imposing Presence Barbarian Protection 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Gloves	N/A	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Maximum Life	1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse 2. + Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control
Pants	Royal Ruby	1. Ranks to Bash 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. +Ranks to Imposing Presence Barbarian Protection 2. Crowd Control Duration Natural Schemes
Boots	N/A	1. Armor 2. Movement Speed 3. Needed Resistance	1. Movement Speed Natural Motion 2. +Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control
Amulet	Royal Diamond	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance	1. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse 2. +Ranks to Imposing Presence Barbarian Protection
Rings	Royal Diamond	1. Attack Speed 2. Crititcal Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse 2. War Cry Cooldown Reduction Brawling Efficiency
2H Bludgeoning Weapon	Royal Topaz	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Bash Cleaves for (82.5-105%) Damage Furious Augments 2. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse
2H Slashing Weapon	Royal Topaz	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Bash Cleaves for (82.5-105%) Damage Furious Augments 2. Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse
Dual-Wield Weapons	Royal Topaz	1. Strength. 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage	1. Bash Cleaves for (82.5-105%) Damage Furious Augments 2. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse

Rotation and Playstyle

This build uses a very straightforward generator playstyle. We have no Fury spender beyond one button and we only use that for a buff, as explained below in the Advanced Information section, but let’s quickly go over our skills:

Bash – Our main attacking still. We bash at all times
Steel Grasp – Our grouping skill to get mobs close together for easy bashing and to proc our Paingorger’s Gauntlets
Use War Cry and Rallying Cry for their buffs on cooldown
Use Challenging Shout whenever you need the defense
Use Iron Skin as often as possible to provide a barrier and damage reduction to ensure survival.

Unique Items and Uber Uniques

Below, you will find the useful uniques for this build. Remember, you cannot temper Unique Items to add any affixes to them but you can improve their power through Masterworking.

Paingorger’s Gauntlets – These powerful Basic Skill enhancing gauntlets go perfectly with our setup and provide some incredible group clearing for packs of elites in the world and in the pit.
Harlequin Crest – Especially powerful in Patch 1.4.0 as damage reduction is hard to come by on gear. This will provide us with ranks to our Bash and Kick as well as easier cooldown management. If you find one of these, replace the Tuskhelm or any other Legendary helm with it.

Season 4: Loot Reborn

Unlike past seasons there is no overarching theme for season 4 as Blizzard are focused on the absolutely massive loot overhaul which is sure to change the game in big ways. There will also be a reputation to be gained with the new Ironwolves during Helltides and this faction grants several tempering manuals and even a resplendent spark! Below we will list relevant changes to the Barbarian clash for this Bash Build

Barbarian’s innate 10% Damage Reduction has been removed
Two-Handed Axe Technique has been reduced to 10% from 15%
Hectic Aspect Cooldown reduction reduced from 2-4 seconds to 1-2 seconds.
Kick damage range increased from 2.2 meters to 3 meters, additional damage when an enemy is knocked into a wall increased from 70% to 105%
Power Kick Damage per 10 Fury consumed increased from 20% to 25%
Blood Rage Damage increased by Berserking bonus reduced from 25% to 10% and caps at 30%x damage bonus

Advanced Information

Below, you will find every additional piece of information you need to know for a more in-depth look at this build.

Build Mechanics

While very straight forward there are a few things to understand about playing this build of bash. Steel Grasp serves not only to group mobs, but also to proc Paingorger’s Gauntlets and trigger Berserking for us through Fighter’s Steel Grasp which we’ll enhance even further with our tempers and our key passive Unconstrained.

The rotation should be, keeping your shouts going and Iron Skin as needed and then pulling large groups together with Steel Grasp to debuff them with vulnerable from our Exploit glyph and trigger our unique gloves, and then strike out with Bash to clear the packs with our massive damage boost and then move on to the next pack. A simple build yes, but extremely potent.

Paragon

We recommend using these Legendary Nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version of that glyph.

Rare Glyph	Effect
Territorial	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [10%] increased damage to Close targets – Additional Bonus once 25 Dexterity has been purchased within the glyph’s range: You gain 15% Damage Reduction against Close enemies
Exploit	– For every Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets – Additional Bonus once 25 Dexterity has been purchased within the glyph’s range: When an enemy is damaged by you, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy
Might	– Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. – Additional Bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed Weapons.
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while Berserking – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: While Berserking, you take 10% reduced damage from Elites
Marshal	– Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: After casting a Shout Skill, the active Cooldown of every other Non-Shout Skill is reduced by 2 seconds.
Undaunted	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage while Fortified – Additional bonus once 25 Willpower has been purchased within the glyph’s range: You gain 10% damage reduction the more Fortify you have.
Carnage	While Berserking, Critical Strikes increase your Attack Speed by +2%, up to +16% for 6 seconds.
Blood Rage	Killing a Bleeding enemy has a 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. Your damage is increased by x25% of your Damage While Berserking bonus.
Decimator	Each time you make an enemy Vulnerable, your damage is increased by 10% for 5 seconds. Overpowering a Vulnerable enemy grants an additional x10% bonus for 5 seconds.

Important Notes

Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the correct orientation to match the images shown below.
Attach the boards in the order shown as bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order
Additional bonuses on Rare Glyphs may not be obtainable until they gain the increased radius at level 15.