Barbarian Upheaval Leveling Build (Season 6)

This is a Barbarian leveling build in Diablo 4 (D4). Read on to learn about the Barbarian Upheaval build and tips for leveling the Barbarian class for the Season of Hatred Rising and Vessel of Hatred Expansion!

All Barbarian Guides
Class Guide	Best Builds	Arsenal System

Barbarian Upheaval Leveling Build

Upheaval Build Summary

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems and Runewords		Mercenary		Playstyle

Build Summary
Upheaval Leveling Build
	Focus: Leveling, Farming
High single target DPS High survivability Damage relies heavily on Overpower Low mobility

This Season 6 Barbarian build uses the new Mighty Throw skill to support the tried-and-tested Upheaval leveling build. This build utilizes various Overpower effects for massive bursts of damage, along with good life recovery and permanent Berserking up time.

The combination of Upheaval and powerful Aspects allows the build to accumulate numerous damage multipliers, enabling the Barbarian to overwhelm enemies with devastating Overpowered Upheaval attacks.

Leveling Guide

Upheaval Build Skills and Passives

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems and Runewords		Mercenary		Playstyle

※ More skills can be seen by scrolling vertically.

Active Skills
Basic Skill Tree ┗ Frenzy (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced Frenzy 　　┗ Battle Frenzy
Core Skill Tree ┗ Upheaval (5/5) 　┗ Enhanced Upheaval 　　┗ Furious Upheaval ┗ Pressure Point (3/3) 　┗ Warpath (3/3)
Defensive Skill Tree ┗ Rallying Cry (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced Rallying Cry 　　┗ Tactical Rallying Cry ┗ Imposing Presence (3/3) ┗ Belligerence (3/3)
Brawling Skill Tree ┗ War Cry (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced War Cry ┗ Booming Voice (3/3) 　┗ Raid Leader (3/3) ┗ Swiftness (3/3) ┗ Aggressive Resistance (3/3) 　┗ Prolific Fury (3/3)
Weapon Mastery Skill Tree ┗ Mighty Throw (5/5) 　┗ Enhanced Mighty Throw 　　┗ Warrior's Mighty Throw ┗ Pit Fighter (3/3) ┗ Thick Skin (1/3) 　┗ Counteroffensive (3/3)
Ultimate Skill Tree ┗ Call of the Ancients (5/5) 　┗ Prime Call of the Ancients 　　┗ Supreme Call of the Ancients ┗ Wallop (3/3) ┗ Brute Force (3/3)
Key Passive ┗ Walking Arsenal

Upheaval Build Skill Progression

At the early stages of progression, focus on unlocking your Active Skills as soon as possible. If there are extra points you can spend waiting for the next Active Skill, use it to upgrade your current Active Skills or to further increase their ranks.

Booming Voice, Raid Leader, and Thick Skin are high-impact passive skills you can get early as they drastically improve the build's survivability and Life sustain.

While Call of the Ancients is our recommended Ultimate Skill to get, Iron Maelstrom is also a good choice as it makes activating the Walking Arsenal Key Passive. You can then get the rest of the Passive Skills after getting the Key Passive.

Upheaval Build Technique Slot

The Two-Handed Axe Expertise is the best offensive expertise, giving another damage multiplier to our Overpowered Upheavals.

There are a number of ways to inflict Vulnerable in this build. The Pressure Point Passive Skill gives our Upheaval a 5% chance to inflict the Vulnerable debuff for 2 seconds. Another source can be the "Chance to inflict Vulnerable" affix on Gloves, Rings, or Amulets.

Arsenal System and Techniques Guide

Upheaval Build Best Aspects and Affixes

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems and Runewords		Mercenary		Playstyle

※ More gear Aspects can be seen by scrolling vertically.

Gear	Aspect and Affixes
Head	Aspect of Might ・Armor ・ Strength ・ Cooldown Reduction Temper: ・ Defensive - Worldly Endurance 　┗ Total Armor ・ Utility - Brute Innovation 　┗ Upheaval Size
Chest	Aspect of Numbing Wrath ・ Maximum Life ・ Any Elemental Resistance ・ Strength Temper: ・ Defensive - Worldly Endurance 　┗ Maximum Life ・ Utility - Brute Innovation 　┗ Upheaval Size
Gloves	Aspect of Anger Management ・ Ranks to Upheaval ・ Overpower Damage ・ Critical Strike Chance Temper: ・ Offensive - Berserking Finesse 　┗ Damage While Berserking ・ Utility - Brute Innovation 　┗ Upheaval Size
Pants	Weapon Master's Aspect ・ Maximum Life ・ Any Elemental Resistance ・ Strength Temper: ・ Defensive - Worldly Endurance 　┗ Maximum Life ・ Utility - Brute Innovation 　┗ Upheaval Size [/align]
Boots	Hectic Aspect ・ Movement Speed ・ Fury Per Second ・ Strength Temper: ・ Mobility - Barbarian Motion 　┗ Movement Speed ・ Utility - Barbarian Breach 　┗ Ranks to Pressure Point
Amulet	Blood Boiling Aspect ・ Cooldown Reduction ・ Critical Strike Chance ・ Ranks to Brute Force Temper: ・ Offensive - Berserking Finesse 　┗ Damage While Berserking ・ Resource - Ultimate Efficiency - Barbarian 　┗ Call of the Ancients Cooldown Reduction
Ring	Bold Chieftain's Aspect ・ Critical Strike Chance ・ Attack Speed ・ Strength Temper: ・ Offensive - Berserking Finesse 　┗ Damage While Berserking ・ Resource - Ultimate Efficiency - Barbarian 　┗ Call of the Ancients Cooldown Reduction
Ring	Aspect of Fierce Winds ・ Critical Strike Chance ・ Attack Speed ・ Strength Temper: ・ Offensive - Berserking Finesse 　┗ Damage While Berserking ・ Resource - Ultimate Efficiency - Barbarian 　┗ Call of the Ancients Cooldown Reduction
One-Handed Mace	Earthstriker's Aspect ・ Overpower Damage ・ Strength ・ Vulnerable Damage Temper: ・Weapons - Core Augments - Barbarian 　┗ Chance for Upheaval to Deal Double Damage ・ Offensive - Berserking Finesse 　┗ Damage While Berserking
One-Handed Mace	Aspect of Herculean Spectacle ・ Overpower Damage ・ Strength ・ Vulnerable Damage Temper: ・Weapons - Weapon Augments 　┗ Chance for Mighty Throw to Hit Twice ・ Offensive - Berserking Finesse 　┗ Damage While Berserking
Two-Handed Mace	Aspect of Sundered Ground ・ Critical Strike Damage ・ Strength ・ Maximum Life Temper: ・Weapons - Weapon Augments 　┗ Chance for Mighty Throw to Hit Twice ・Offensive - Worldly Finesse 　┗ Overpower Damage
Two-Handed Sword	Aspect of Encroaching Wrath ・ Critical Strike Damage ・ Strength ・ Overpower Damage Temper: ・Weapons - Weapon Augments 　┗ Chance for Mighty Throw to Hit Twice ・Offensive - Worldly Finesse 　┗ Overpower Damage

Upheaval Build Best Gems and Runewords

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems		Mercenary		Playstyle

Armor	Weapons	Jewelry
Ruby	Ruby	Diamond

For Gems socketed on your Armor, Rubies would be best since it gives high amounts of Strength, which should give you increased damage and a bit more damage reduction. Ruby Gems are also used in the Weapon slots for more Overpower damage, which this builds relies on.

For the Jewelry Gem slots, use any gems that provide Resistances to cap out your Resistances and avoid getting one-shotted in higher difficulties.

Upheaval Build Best Runewords

Runeword 1	Runeword 2
Cem Gar	Zan Tec

The best early-game runeword combination you can equip is Cem + Gar. This runeword grants a Critical Chance buff when you use evades, which helps reduce the cooldown of the Aspect of Sundered Ground, allowing you to trigger more Overpower hits more frequently.

While the next runeword combination is slightly less important, it's still an easy-to-get and effective option for burst damage against tough monster packs and bosses. The Zan + Tec runeword causes your Ultimate Skill to cast a powerful Earthquake, dealing additional damage to enemies.

List of All Runewords

Upheaval Build Best Mercenaries

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems and Runewords		Mercenary		Playstyle

Mercenary	Reinforcement
Raheir	Varyana

Add Varyana as Your Main Mercenary

Since our Build focuses on triggering Overpower as much as possible, recruit Varyana as your Main Mercenary with the Earth Breaker skill with the Dismembering upgrade. This guarantees an Overpower to our first hit against enemies hit by Varyana's Earthbreake.

Make sure to grab Varyana's Reprisal passive skill to help with our survivability a bit. Note that having Varyana as our Main Mercenary allows us to gain Movement Speed as we gain Massacre stacks by killing hordes of enemies. You lose this movement speed bonus when you haven't killed an enemy recently

Varyana Mercenary Guide

Choose Raheir as Your Reinforcement

With Raheir as our Reinforcement Mercenary, he can save use from dicey situations with the Bastion skill set to trigger when we are hit with a Control Impairing Effect. This skill gives us Unstoppable and allows Raheir to instead take most of the damage dealt to us.

Raheir Mercenary Guide

Upheaval Build Playstyle and Tips

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems and Runewords		Mercenary		Playstyle

The playstyle of the Upheaval Barbarian revolves around weapon swapping and guaranteed Overpower damage coming from certain skills and aspects. The usual rotation is as follows:

1. Start with a Mighty Throw to hit densely packed mobs or elites, then alternate between Frenzy and Upheaval. With the Attack Speed bonus from both Mighty Throw and Frenzy, you'll easily reach the 8 weapon swaps to trigger Earthstriker's Aspect for a guaranteed Overpowered Upheaval.
2. Use Rallying Cry to escape dangerous situations and use War Cry to quickly finish off tanky elites. Both of these Shout Skills will trigger the life heal from the Raid Leader Passive Skill for bonus Life sustain.
3. While you cycle between Frenzy and Upheaval, occasionally use Mighty Throw to trigger the third buff for the Walking Arsenal Key Passive.
4. Save the Call of the Ancients Ultimate Skill for Bosses or tough Elites.

Barbarian Leveling Tips for Season 6

Season 6 Leveling Tips
Start on Hard Difficulty Obtain the Earthstriker's Aspect Choose the Right Weapon Expertise Don't Forget to Increase Your Resistances Play Through the Seasonal Content

Start on Hard Difficulty

Difficulties have been revamped for Season 6 and Hard is one that you can access from the start for more EXP and Gold. If you're following our recommended leveling build and have a good understanding of optimizing early game leveling, we recommend playing on this difficulty. Otherwise, you can choose the Normal difficulty to clear things faster.

Difficulty Tiers and How to Unlock

Obtain the Earthstriker's Aspect

The Earthstriker's Aspect allows the build to gain a reliable way to Overpower the Upheaval skill. This is an essential Aspect for the build and you can obtain it by clearing Maugan's Works in Hawezar.

Choose the Right Weapon Expertise

The Barbarian's Arsenal System, which unlocks at level 5, allows the class to get bonus effects when assigning specific Weapon Types to their skills. We recommend equipping Two-handed Mace, Two-handed axe, and One-handed axe weapons immediately and raise their expertise to level 10 as these would greatly benefit the build.

At level 15, you'll also unlock the Technique Slot which allows you to apply a bonus weapon effect to all weapons. It's best to choose the Two-Handed Sword Expertise in the early game for bonus Bleed damage, then switch to the Two-Handed Axe Expertise once you get a consistent way to inflict Vulnerable.

Arsenal System and Best Technique Slot

Don't Forget to Increase Your Resistances

Players are often complacent with the bonus armor coming from strength-scaling characters like the Barbarian, making them overlook at resistances in the beginning. We recommend having affixes and gems that increase your resistances on your gear and to get them as high as possible to have a balanced defense across the board.

Play Through the Seasonal Content and Activities

At the start of your Season 6 journey you'll want to participate in Seasonal Activities. Helltides are a reliable way to farm for most of your early game gear and Aspects.

If you have the Vessel of Hatred expansion, you can also farm gear and power level in the Kurast Undercity once you get the build going and get faster clearing monster packs.

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