Diablo 4 Barbarian BuildHammer Time 2.0 Barb (Season 2) HoTA S Tier

In what order to unlock the boards?

You want do it this way:

• Board 2 is Warbringer
• Board 3 is Blood Rage
• Board 4 is Carnage
• Board 5 is Bone Breaker

I recommend this order so that you can slot in the more important Glyphs (Ire, Wrath & Dominate) early as well as to make sure the last board is the one that has the least amount of Yellow/Rare nodes in it (in case you lack core stats). We're using 5 Boards go getting the Stats required for the Rare (Yellow) nodes on boards 4 and 5 may be a problem at first but with the uniques and the right gear rolls it will eventually be okay. You may also need to slightly modify HOW you reach from one cluster & board to another if you lack a specific stat.

Why pick those boards?

I've selected the boards based on two criteria: how much of the bonuses my glyphs require are within range of the socket (Str, Wil, Dex) and also what yellow & blue node clusters I can take from those boards. Since we're using 5 boards it meant we can not Invest heavily into the yellow & blue clusters in all 5 boards and sacrifices had to be made. There are amazing synergies in each of the 5 boards for both DPS and Survivability and I focused on patching up the Armor & Resistances above all else.

The Starting Board has 70 STR near the socket making it a very good choice for our 1st STR Glyph (Ire)

Warbringer has 49 DEX near the socket making it a very good choice for our 1st DEX Glyph (Wrath)

Blood Rage has 44 WIL near the socket (there are Boards with 54 but it's a worth it sacrifice) to get good dps from our only WIL Glyph (Dominate). On top of that the Blood Rage Legendary Node is a MUST HAVE & an amazing synergy for EVERY BARB build. The board also has a crucial +x% Damage while Berserking nodes cluster near it.

Carnage is a perfect fit board for any Barb build. It has two Damage while Berserking clusters (one near the glyph socket even) as well as a some decent Survivability blue and yellow node cluster (also near the socket). This board also has a solid 49 DEX near the socket for our Territorial Glyph's bonus dmg. Alternatively, Might, Marshal, or Revenge can be slotted here to boost the 3x5% or the 2x10% Damage while Berserking nodes for extra Blood Rage multiplicative dmg results.

Bone Breaker has enough STR near the socket to activate the bonus effect of our 2nd STR Glyph (Crusher) for x30% Overpowoer Damage. This board also has two Rare/Yellow +Overpower Damage node clusters, 1 of them is even near the Socket. There is also a decent survivability cluster near the socket too.

In what order to Level Up the Glyphs?

First, focus on getting all of the Glyphs to lvl 15, 1-by-1 and in this order: 1. Ire/Wrath (if you don't have Bloodrage yet delay Ire) 2. Ire/Wrath (if you don't have Bloodrage yet delay Ire) 3. Dominate 4. Crusher 5. Territorial

Then, get all of the Glyphs to lvl 21, 1-by-1 and in this order: 1. Ire/Wrath (if you don't have Bloodrage yet delay Ire) 2. Ire/Wrath (if you don't have Bloodrage yet delay Ire) 3. Dominate 4. Crusher 5. Territorial

Note about Gear: Godslayer Crown is what I picked for the Helm Slot BUT if you get uber lucky with some Uber Duriel kills and get a Shako/Harlequin's Crest it's going to be an obvious good pick as well, if fact it seems like the best-in-slot Helmet due to how much base damage HotA gets from 4 extra ranks vs the x60% from Godslayer. Hell, even Andariel's Visage will be worth using if it drops, for High Tier mobbing especially so. I tried Harlequin Crest instead of Godslayer's Crown and can confirm that the DPS is better for this build with the Uber Unique, so good luck on getting one!. Andariel's Visage was also a solid synergy when i tried it but the overal dmg per hit suffered.

The goal is to get 70 Resistance in Each element + 13 400 (or higher) Armor. This much armor is needed for Tier 100 NMDs.

As a Barbarian we can take a TON of +Armor paragon nodes that help with that aspect of survivability BUT you'll still need to get Resistances from some gear rolls as well as maybe the Jewelry Sockets EVEN considering we took some Resistance clusters from the paragons.

Add to that the All Resistance bonus from an Amulet + 2x all resistance, 2x single resistance bonuses from unique & legendary the rings (for me this was +28.5% + 12% + 10.8% all resistance & +10.8 + 12 % Fire Resistance). Ring of Red Furor gives Fire Resistance, in my case 10.8 as it was NOT in the maximum item power bracket and my legendary ring gave the maximum 12.

And that made me pretty close to capped on all resists but still needed to slot in at least 1 resistance gem in the Amulet or Rings. I also had plenty of Resistance Rolls from Gear but not that good ones: 39.7% (out of 60 max) Poison in the Chest, 46.5% (out of 60 max) Cold & 55.5% (out of 60 max) Shadow in the Boots, 42% (out of 60 max) Lightning in the Pants. The result was that without a Diamond in 1 of the 3 slots lightning was 65%, cold was 69.5% and poison was 63.8%, the rest were overcapped. So i used 1 Diamond that left only poison uncapped at 67.9%. With closer to 60% on the gear rolls you won't need that Diamond That means 2x Royal Skull gems for a total of 500 extra Armor can go in 2 of the 3 slots in my case but 3 Skulls for 750 Armor is also possible if one gets higher resistance rolls than me.

You may need to do things differently than me & you may have less or more INT too (I have 450 which gives 11.2% all resist).