Upheaval Barbarian Abattoir of Zir Build (Season 2 Updated)

This is a Season 2 Upheaval endgame build for Barbarian in Diablo 4 (D4) that capitalizes on Overpower to deliver a single devastating strike that can easily wipe out hordes of enemies. Read on for the complete list of Vampiric Powers, Skills, and Aspects you need and how to play the build for Season 2 and Abattoir of Zir (AoZ).

Upheaval Build Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Strengths

Great for Bosses and Dungeon Clearing

This build is amazing for dealing high burst damage that can kill enemies in a single shot. The build has no issues with Fury generation since you'll often be using a basic skill to ramp up the Upheaval damage, making it ideal for both mob clearing and boss fights.

Build Weaknesses

Clunky Rotations

One of the issues with this build is the clunkiness of Bash. Although this basic skill synergizes well with Upheaval, it can be troublesome to use at times since it has a slow casting speed. On top of that, you'll have to fish for Critical Strikes to activate Combat Bash, which can delay your use of Upheaval.

These issues are addressed through the presence of Ravenous Vampiric Power and Critical Strike Chance affixes, respectively.

Upheaval Build Overview

Build Summary

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Skills

Aspects & Uniques

Stats & Gems

Build Overview and Summary
Upheaval		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Build Overview and Summary
Upheaval		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Aspects and Uniques
Doombringer (One-Handed Sword) Harlequin Crest (Helm) The Grandfather (Two-Handed Sword) Tibault's Will (Pants) Banished Lord's Talisman (Amulet) Hellhammer (Two-Handed Bludgeoning) Ring of Red Furor (Ring) Aspect of Disobedience (Chest) Ghostwalker Aspect (Boots) Aspect of the Expectant (Gloves) Aspect of Limitless Rage (One-Handed Mace) Bold Chieftain's Aspect (Ring)

Build Overview and Summary
Upheaval		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Stat Priorities			Recommended Gems
・Overpower Damage ・Critical Strike Chance ・Strength ・Damage Reduction ・Damage while Berserking ・Attack Speed Bonus ・Total Armor			Royal Ruby (Weapon and Armor) Royal Diamond (Jewelry)

This build is all about hitting high burst damage using Upheaval. This is made possible through guaranteed Overpower strikes coming from certain Skills, Paragon Nodes, Uniques, and Vampiric Powers found in the build.

On top of that, you have an accumulation of different stacks of damage-boosting buffs such as Furious Upheaval, as well as other different ones like the Aspect of the Expectant, Aspect of Limitless Rage, and Edgemaster's Aspect.

The goal of this build is to create a one-shot Upheaval build that can take on high tiers of Abattoir of Zir dungeons and defeat Uber Bosses.

Upheaval Build Breakdown

Skill Progression

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Active Skills

Skill		Upgrade Path
Bash (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Bash	Combat Bash
Upheaval (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Upheaval	Furious Upheaval
Rallying Cry (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Rallying Cry	Tactical Rallying Cry
Challenging Shout (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Challenging Shout
War Cry (1 Point)	→	Enhanced War Cry
Wrath of the Berserker (1 Point)	→	Prime Wrath of the Berserker	Supreme Wrath of the Berserker

Passive Skills

Upheaval Passives
Imposing Presence (3 Points)				Booming Voice (3 Points)				Martial Vigor (3 Points)
Raid Leader (3 Points)				Guttural Yell (3 Points)				Swiftness (3 Points)
Aggressive Resistance (3 Points)				Pit Fighter (3 Points)				Thick Skin (1 Point)
Counter offensive (3 Points)				Heavy Handed (3 Points)				Brute Force (3 Points)
Wallop (3 Points)						Unbridled Rage (1 Point)

Skill Progression Breakdown

Recommended Skill Progression
Lv.2	Lv.3	Lv.4	Lv.5
Bash	Enhanced Bash	Upheaval	Enhanced Upheaval
Lv.6	Lv.7	Lv.8	Lv.9
Furious Upheaval	Combat Bash	Rallying Cry	Challenging Shout
Lv.10	Lv.11	Lv.12	Lv.13
Enhanced Rallying Cry	Tactical Rallying Cry	Enhanced Challenging Shout	War Cry
Lv.14	Lv.15	Lv.16	Lv.17
Enhanced War Cry	Upheaval	Upheaval	Upheaval
Lv.18	Lv.19	Lv.20	Lv.21
Upheaval	Booming Voice	Raid Leader	Raid Leader
Lv.22	Lv.23	Lv.24	Lv.25
Raid Leader	Swiftness	Swiftness	Wrath of the Berserker
Lv.26	Lv.27	Lv.28	Lv.29
Prime Wrath of the Berserker	Supreme Wrath of the Berserker	Swiftness	Heavy Handed
Lv.30	Lv.31	Lv.32	Lv.33
Brute Force	Brute Force	Brute Force	Wallop
Lv.34	Lv.35	Lv.36	Lv.37
Wallop	Unbridled Rage	Wallop	Heavy Handed
Lv.38	Lv.39	Lv.40	Lv.41
Heavy Handed	Pit Fighter	Pit Fighter	Pit Fighter
Lv.42	Lv.43	Lv.44	Lv.45
Imposing Presence	Imposing Presence	Imposing Presence	Martial Vigor
Lv.46	Lv.47	Lv.48	Lv.49
Martial Vigor	Martial Vigor	Aggressive Resistance	Aggressive Resistance
Renown Skill Points (Lv50 Onwards)
R1	R2	R3	R4
Aggressive Resistance	Thick Skin	Counter offensive	Counter offensive
R5	R6	R7	R8
Counter offensive	Booming Voice	Booming Voice	Guttural Yell
R9		R10
Guttural Yell		Guttural Yell

Technique Slot

The Two-Handed Axe Expertise is the best damage-boosting expertise for this build since you can consistently apply Vulnerable to enemies through the Exploit Glyph placed in your Paragon set-up.

Arsenal System and Techniques Guide

Best Vampiric Powers

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Vampiric Power Cost	Effect Explanation
Metamorphosis 2 2 2	When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse. This will allow you to easily get out of enemy Crowd Control by making you Unstoppable whenever you dash. Dashing will then also trigger Tibault's Will for additional damage and Fury. Furthermore, this also goes well with Prey on the Weak power to make enemies Vulnerable by applying Vampiric Curse.
Blood Boil 0 0 6	When your Core Skills Overpower an enemy, you spawn 3 Volatile Blood Drops. Collecting a Volatile Blood Drop causes it to explode, dealing 60% Physical damage around you. Every 20 seconds, your next Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. This will give you additional Overpower procs every 20 seconds. Your Overpower procs will also deal additional AoE damage, which helps in wave clearing.
Resilience 0 0 2	You gain 1% Damage Reduction for each 2% Life you are missing. This will provide you with additional survivability through huge Damage Reductions as your health goes lower.
Ravenous 3 0 0	Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds. Gives more attack speed in order to lessen the clunkiness when using Bash.
Sanguine Brace 0 1 1	When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance. This power will allow you to easily obtain Fortify and will provide you with a good amount of Critical Strike Chance.
Total Pacts Required 3 | 4 | 12

List of Vampiric Powers and Pacts Explained

Aspects and Affixes

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Best Weapons

Weapon	Aspects and Affixes
Two-Handed Mace	Hellhammer Upheaval ignites the ground Burning enemies for an additonal (XX) damage over 3 seconds. ・+X% Overpower Damage (Inherent) ・+X% Damage with Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons ・+X% Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ・+X% Damage to Burning Enemies ・+X Ranks of Upheaval
Two-Handed Sword	The Grandfather Increases your Critical Strike Damage by (60-100%). The other properties of this weapon can roll higher than normal. ・+X% Critical Strike Damage (Inherent) ・+X% Damage ・+X Maximum Life ・+X All Stats ・Ignores Durability Loss
One-Handed Mace	Aspect of Limitless Rage Each point of Fury you generate while at Maximum Fury grants your next Core Skill (1-2)% increased damage, up to (15-30)%. ・+X% Overpower Damage (Inherent) ・+X All Stats ・+X Strength ・+X% Overpower Damage ・+X% Damage While Berserking
One-Handed Sword	Doombringer Lucky Hit: Up to a (15-25)% chance to deal Shadow damage to surrounding enemies and reduce their damage done by 20% for 5 seconds. ・+X% Critical Strike Damage (Inherent) ・+X% Core Skill Damage ・+X% Damage ・+X Lucky Hit: Chance to Heal ・+X% Maximum Life

Best Armor

Equipment	Aspects and Affixes
Helmet	Harlequin Crest Gain (10.0-20.0)% Damage Reduction. In addition, gain +4 Ranks to all Skills. ・+X Maximum Life ・+X% Cooldown Reduction ・+X% Resource Generation ・+X All Stats
Chest	Aspect of Disobedience You gain (0.25-0.50)% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to (66)%. ・+X Maximum Life ・+X% Damage Reduction ・+X% Total Armor ・+X All Stats
Gloves	Aspect of the Expectant Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by (5-10)%, up to 30%. ・+X Ranks of Upheaval ・+X% Critical Strike Chance ・+X% Attack Speed ・+X% Overpower Damage
Pants	Tibault's Will You deal 20-40% increased damage while Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource. ・While Injured, Your Potion Also Restores 20% Resource (Inherent) ・+X% Damage Reduction from Close Enemies ・+X Potion Capacity ・+X% Damage ・+X% Maximum Resource
Boots	Ghostwalker Aspect While Unstoppable, and for 4 seconds after, you gain (10=25)% increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies. ・+X Max Evade Charge (Inherent) ・+X% Movement Speed ・+X% Berserking Duration ・+X% Damage Reduction While Injured ・+X All Stats

Best Jewelry

Jewelry	Aspects and Affixes
Amulet	Banished Lord's Talisman After you spend 300 of your Primary Resource, your next Core Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. Your Critical Strikes that Overpower deal 80-120% increased damage. ・+X% Resist All (Inherent) ・+X% Critical Strike Chance ・+X% Overpower Damage ・+X% Resource Generation ・+X Ranks of All Core Skills
Ring	Ring of Red Furor After spending 100 Fury within 3 seconds, your next cast of Hammer of the Ancients, Upheaval, or Death Blow is a guaranteed Critical Strike and deals 10-30% bonus Critical Strike Damage. ・+X% Resist All (Inherent) ・+X% Fire Resistance (Inherent) ・+X Strength ・+X% Attack Speed ・+X Maximum Fury ・+X% Resource Generation
Ring	Bold Chieftain's Aspect Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by (XX) seconds per Nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 6 seconds. ・+X% Resist All (Inherent) ・+X% Element Resistance (Inherent) ・+X% Overpower Damage ・+X% Critical Strike Chance ・+X% Damage While Berserking ・+X Maximum Life

Best Gems

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Gem Type	Effect Explanation
Royal Ruby (Weapon)	+24.0% Overpower Damage This build relies on Overpower procs to deal huge bursts of damage.
Royal Ruby (Armor)	4.0% Maximum Life Since Overpower scales from your Maximum Life, additional sources for this stat will not only raise your survivability but your damage as well.
Royal Diamond (Jewelry)	5.0% Resistance to All Elements It's important to invest in Elemental Resistances since they are crucial to surviving elemental attacks from enemies.

If you have resistance affixes in your Chest and Boots you can replace the Diamond gems in your Jewelry and go for more specific resistances coming from Amethyst, Emerald, Ruby, Topaz, or Sapphire gems.

You will be able to gain a total of around 21.5% resistance to all elements at World Tier 4 if you decided to equip Royal Diamonds in all your Jewelry slots.

Paragon Board Setup

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Starting Board (Exploit)

Focus on taking defensive nodes on the Starting Board in order to increase your survivability as much as possible. The enemies you'll encounter in the Abattoir of Zir can deal devastating blows that can kill you in an instant if you don't invest in your defense.

• Exploit (Glyph): Excellent Glyph that will allow you to apply Vulnerable to all enemies and deal even more damage to them.
• Iron Strength (Rare): Grants Armor and maximum HP to increase your survivability.
• Tenacity (Rare): Provides Armor and Strength to further boost your defense.

Decimator (Dominate)

The Decimator is a great choice as the second board to immediately take advantage of the Vulnerable and Overpower damage multipliers coming from the board's Legendary Node. This board also has multiple Willpower nodes around the Glyph slot, which is great for increasing more Overpower damage through the Dominate Glyph.

• Dominate (Glyph): Exceptional Glyph that will greatly increase your Overpower damage.
• Demolish (Rare): Pairs well with the Exploit Glyph placed on the Starting Board to deal more damage to Vulnerable enemies.
• Arrogance (Rare): Gives Strength and Damage Reduction from Vulnerable enemies.

Bone Breaker (Territorial)

The Bone Breaker is perfect for the build since it focuses on providing Overpower damage and uptime through the nodes available. More Overpower damage directly translates to more burst damage with Upheaval.

• Territorial (Glyph): Gives Damage Reduction from Close enemies while also increasing damage to them.
• Vigor (Rare): Grants Strength and Damage Reduction while Healthy for more defense.
• Brutality (Rare): Gives Strength and good Overpower damage for burst damage.
• Bludgeoner (Rare): Provides Two-Handed Blungeoning and Overpower damage increase.
• Bulwark (Rare): Pairs well with Sanguine Brace Vampiric Power to get more out of Fortify.

Blood Rage (Ire)

The Blood Rage board offers the best offensive Legendary Node out of all the boards. This Legendary Node will give you an overall multiplicative damage that scales with your Damage while Berserking stat. The damage multiplier can reach remarkably high values, which will take your damage output to an entirely new level.

Do not be misled about the Blood Rage Legendary Node's Bleeding condition, as this is only applicable to the additional 5 seconds of Berserking. You'll get the damage multiplier straight as it is.

• Ire (Glyph):Provides Damage while Berserking stat, which will also increase the damage multiplier given by the Blood Rage Legendary Node.
• Enraged (Rare): Further adds more Damage while Berserking stat and makes Berserking longer.
• Grit (Rare): Solely acquired for the Strength since this build can't apply Bleeding.
• Revel (Rare): Primarily obtained for the Strength since this build has no use for additional Bleeding damage.

Warbringer (Crusher)

The Warbringer board is used primarily as a placeholder for the Crusher Glyph. This is a great board for this Glyph due to the presence of nearby Strength nodes and the close distance of the Glyph Slot to the Board Attachment Gate.

• Crusher (Glyph): Provides extremely valuable damage multiplier to Overpower damage as well as a notable damage increase while using Maces.
• Conditioned (Rare): Grants Strength and additional Resistance to all elements, which is valuable against Elites with unique affixes.
• Raw Power (Rare): Gives Strength and additional Physical damage increase.

Carnage (Tears of Blood)

The primary purpose of the Carnage board is to house the new Tears of Blood Unique Glyph. This is arguably one of the best boards for this Glyph due to the presence of the Rare Node that gives Damage while Berserking near the Glyph slot.

Boosting this Rare node will significantly increase the damage multiplier coming from the Blood Rage Legendary Node.

• Tears of Blood (Glyph): The best offensive Glyph that will literally make you deal twice as much damage. This Glyph is the highlight of the entire board.
• Fierce (Rare): Grants Damage while Berserking, which will be further increased by the Tears of Blood Glyph.
• Brash (Rare): A great node to consider to get Damage Reduction from Close enemies, which will be embraced in this melee-oriented build.

Upheaval Playstyle

Upheaval Build Tips
Recommended Openers and Rotations Identify Guaranteed Overpower Procs Cast Shouts Around Enemies

Recommended Openers and Rotations

Trash Mob Opener and Skill Rotation

Boss Opener

Identify Guaranteed Overpower Procs

You can determine a guaranteed Overpower strike by identifying buff icons that are related to it. Keep an eye on these buffs, which can be seen just above your XP bar. Make sure to use Upheaval as your next attack whenever these buffs are present.

Cast Shouts Around Enemies

The best ways to utilize your Shouts is to always cast it around enemies. This will allow you to take advantage of Guttural Yell and Bold Chieftain's Aspect for Damage Reductions and faster shout Cooldowns, respectively.

Diablo 4 Related Guides

Build Guides and Tier List

All Season 3 Leveling Builds

All Class Builds

All Classes
Barbarian		Druid		Sorcerer
Rogue		Necromancer		Uber Lilith Builds

All Barbarian Builds

List of Builds
Barb Leveling (Leveling)	Double Swing (PVE)	HotA (PVE)
Rend Bleed (PVE)	Thorns Barbarian (PVE)	Upheaval (PVE)
Walking Arsenal (PVE)	Whirlwind (PVE)