Barbarians in Diablo 4 have some of the most satisfying playstyles in the game, from the ubiquitous spin-to-win style to the combo and rotation-based approach offered by the class' arsenal mechanic. There are a ton of ways to play the Barbarian class, and many of them can carry players well into the endgame.
One such method is a throwback of sorts to the previous game — it involves the classic Leap and Earthquake combo that makes players very mobile without compromising their damage output. This setup isn't as insanely overpowered as its past incarnation, given Diablo 4's watered-down approach, but the playstyle itself should feel very familiar to Barbarian fans.
Blizzard has released a new patch for Diablo 4 on June 27, 2023. Patch 1.0.3 introduces some bug fixes, gameplay changes, and balancing, but our Earthquake Barbarian Build guide remains accurate even after the update.
Diablo 4: Leapquake Barbarian Build
Skills | Total Points |
Battle Lunging Strike | 3 |
Furious Hammer of the Ancients | 7 |
Tactical Ground Stomp | 7 |
Power Charge | 3 |
Power Leap | 7 |
Warrior's Death Blow | 7 |
Earthquake is available only from Legendary Aspects. With that said, this build will be very item-reliant, and it might not work optimally until players get all the right gear pieces.
Battle Lunging Strike, Furious Hammer of the Ancients, and Warrior's Death Blow are this build's main offensive abilities. The latter two offer consistent one-shots against normal mobs and elites while Lunging Strike keeps the Barbarian moving while inflicting Bleed on every enemy it hits. Bind each ability to a different weapon to activate Walking Arsenal's damage bonuses.
Leap and Ground Stomp are the main sources of Earthquake if players have the right Aspects equipped. Casting each will create two separate quakes, both dealing damage to enemies standing over them. Standing on Ground Stomp's quake will increase the player's outgoing damage while Leap's quake will reduce the damage they take from monsters.
Any skill with Unstoppable will work here. Charge is a good stunbreak ability with a low cooldown that's great for fighting in tight spaces. Players can take either Rallying Cry or Wrath of the Berserker if they feel like they need a longer Unstoppable duration.
With all of these abilities together, players will get massive damage bonuses from Berserking, Walking Arsenal, and Ground Stomp, and enough survivability through Crowd Control and Leap.
Passive Skills
Skills | Points |
Imposing Presence | 1 |
Aggressive Resistance | 3 |
Prolific Fury | 3 |
Hamstring | 1 |
Pit Fighter | 3 |
No Mercy | 3 |
Tempered Fury | 3 |
Invigorating Fury | 3 |
Walking Arsenal | 1 |
The build relies on having high Fury and resource generation to keep HotA's damage high while simultaneously charging Death Blow up for an empowered hit. The passive skills above will provide enough Fury generation on top of added bonuses to outgoing damage and survivability.
Make sure to always keep using Death Blow to maintain the Berserking buff. Without it, players will lose Aggressive Resistance's damage reduction and Prolific Fury's resource generation.
Walking Arsenal is the preferred Key Passive because it boosts the damage of all abilities. Unbridled Rage and Unconstrained are good alternatives, but the former only buffs HotA while the latter is only active while Berserking, which can be an issue in long fights where there are no enemies to reset Death Blow with.
Use Two-Handed Axe Expertise to maximize one-shot potential and spend one point into Hamstring for the sake of getting extra damage via Battle Lunging Strike's bleed procs.
Gear and Aspects
Offense | Defense | Utility |
Veteran Brawler | Might | Giant Strides |
Edgemaster | Disobedience | Perpetual Stomping |
Encroaching Wrath | Tempering Blows | |
Berserk Ripping | Bul-Kathos | |
Inner Calm | ||
Earthquake |
The Earthquake and Bul-Kathos Aspects are required to get any actual Earthquakes going. They aren't as lethal as they were in Diablo 3, and players will have to make use of the added bonuses they provide to make the entire build work.
Edgemaster and Encroaching Wrath will be the build's main sources of damage. Stand on Ground Stomp's quake with a pre-charged Encroaching Wrath Death Blow to deal extreme damage to anything it hits. A level 74 character with unoptimized gear on Torment difficulty can deal up to 300K non-critical damage with a single Death Blow against a full-health elite on a Tier 25 Nightmare Dungeon.
Inner Calm's damage bonus will not disappear after dashing to enemies with Lunging Strike. This means players will be able to get 30% more multiplicative damage with HotA and Death Blow without being forced to stand still.
The rest of the Aspects focus on providing damage reduction and reducing the downtime between Leap casts.
Paragon Board
Warbringer is a great choice for players who want to capitalize on Hammer of the Ancient's damage with the Unbridled Rage passive. Flawless Technique is also good for those who want to stack up on Critical Strike Chance, and it makes Lunging Strike a decent trash mob killer if players have One-Handed Weapons bound to it.
Take Carnage next for its Berserking bonuses and its Dexterity-based Glyph socket, which will be used to slot in Mortal Draw for even more Critical Strike Chance.
As for the rest of the Glyphs, Exploit is mandatory on all Barbarian board setups. Slot it in the starting board, then use Strength-scaling Glyphs like Might or Ire in the Warbringer or Flawless Technique boards.
It's worth noting that while Flawless Technique's Critical Strike Chance bonus is additive despite being listed as multiplicative in the tooltip. This might be an oversight and could see some changes in the future.
Diablo 4 is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5.