Diablo 4 HOTA (Hammer of the Ancients) Barbarian build guide

When I think of iconic Diablo 4 builds, I immediately go to HOTA (Hammer of the Ancients). While it’s not the most powerful build in Season 8, I had incredibly high hopes for it. It’s still very powerful, even with what few drawbacks that it has. It does require some effort put into the Barbarian’s weapon swapping system, and you aren’t really that mobile in the endgame, but what matters is that you can obliterate an entire screen of enemies easily.

However, if you enjoy smashing through enemies with tremendous force and Overpower damage, massive AOE clearing, and tons of big numbers, the Diablo 4 HOTA Barbarian is the build for you. It’s one of our favorite builds of Diablo 4 Season 8 for a very good reason.

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How the Diablo 4 HOTA Barbarian build works

The Diablo 4 HOTA Barbarian build is very much an Overpower/Earthquake build. We use a few skills, Uniques, and Rune combos that generate plenty of earthquakes, and then use HOTA + Mantle of Mountain’s Fury to break all of our earthquakes to clear the screen of any foes that exist.

You want to gather up as many enemies as possible, trigger earthquakes, and then blow them up. This is done with a few important triggers:

With some time and effort, a HOTA Barbarian can destroy pretty much everything in Diablo 4 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

• Aspect of Earthquakes (Causes Ground Stomp to create an Earthquake)
• Tec+Yul Rune Combo (Using skills with a cooldown triggers Earthquakes)
• Mantle of Mountain’s Fury (Makes HOTA trigger a seismic line that breaks Earthquakes)

This build runs HOTA, Rallying Cry, War Cry, Challenging Shout, Call of the Ancients, and Ground Stomp as our primary buttons. This build doesn’t really have a rage generating button, but through a variety of gear setups and Paragon picks, you should have enough uptime. Ultimately you build up your resources with Shouts, and Call of the Ancients, set up your earthquakes, and HOTA through them. It’s a very simple build to use.

For Season 8, Belial’s Return, we want to use a few very specific boss powers to make this build really pop off:

• Main Power: Grigoire’s Lightning Square
• Modifiers: Harbinger of Hatred’s Volley, Sinerat’s Flames, Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste

Frankly, Grigoire’s Lightning Square is one of my favorites, and I used it as a Necromancer for a long time. Hatred’s Volley helps with Vulnerable, Sinerat’s Flames helps our damage, and Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste grants critical strike based on Shadow Resistance.

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Ideal talents and Arsenal System choices for HOTA Barbarian in Diablo 4

The talents are pretty easy to figure out too, for a HOTA Barbarian in Diablo 4. It’s a pretty standard build, where the only primary skills that get 5 ranks are Ground Stomp and Call of the Ancients. Everything else only gets one. This might seem awkward, but it does give us way more passives to take advantage of, which is a real benefit to this style of build:

It's all about HOTA (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Talents

• Bash (Enhanced) x1
• Hammer of the Ancients (Enhanced, Violent) x1
• Warpath x3
• Ground Stomp (Enhanced, Strategic) x5
• Imposing Presence x3
• Martial Vigor x3
• Rallying Cry (Enhanced, Strategic) x1
• Outburst x1
• Tough as Nails x1
• Challenging Shout (Enhanced, Tactical) x1
• War Cry (Enhanced, Power) x1
• Booming Voice x3
• Aggressive Resistance x3
• Prolific Fury x3
• No Mercy x3
• Pit Fighter x3
• Slaying Strike x3
• Thick Skin x1
• Counteroffensive x3
• Call of the Ancients (Prime, Supreme) x5
• Heavy Hitter x3
• Heavy Handed x3
• Wallop x3
• Unconstrained

When it comes to the Arsenal system, we need to use Two-Handed Bludgenoning weapons, due to Hammer of the Ancients. You want to select Two-Handed Axe in your Weapon Technique slot as well, to grant Vulnerable to our enemies.

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Which Mercenaries should you pick for a HOTA Barbarian in Diablo 4?

For those who own the Vessel of Hatred expansion, you can hire a Mercenary, and a secondary Mercenary as a support. HOTA Barbarian builds in Diablo 4 still use the best mercenary in the game, Raheir. We’ll pair him with Varyana as our backup. Here are the talent picks to choose:

Raheir Talents

• Ground Slam
• Raheir’s Aegis
• Bastion
• Inspiration

Varyana Talent

• Bloodthirst (connected to War Cry)

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Paragon loadout for HOTA Barbarian in Diablo 4

Here are our picks for the Paragon Boards (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Below is our recommended Paragon Board for the HOTA Barbarian in Diablo 4. It’s a pretty standard board that uses a few important, but powerful glyphs. Unfortunately, you may have to do a fair bit of grinding for them, depending on how lucky you are in-game.

Paragon Board Order

• First Board (Use Exploit Glyph)
• North to Warbringer (Use Territorial Glyph)
• East to Decimator (Use Challenger Glyph)
• South from Decimator to Force of Nature (Use Marshal Glyph)
• North from Decimator (use Rumble Glyph)

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Ideal gear and Legendary Aspects for HOTA Barbarian in Diablo 4

As with most endgame builds, Diablo 4’s HOTA Barbarian build has a few particular requirements. When it comes to Uniques, you must have Mantle of Mountain’s Fury, Fists of Fate, and Ugly Bastard Helm. There are a few non-codex Legendary Aspects you need as well: Aspect of Earthquakes, Aspect of Incendiary Fissures, and Executioner’s Aspect.

In the below table, you'll see that some of the ideal stats are broken apart. The first section are the ideal stats you want on the piece of gear, whereas the secondary stats are what you want to Temper onto them.

Gear Slot	Ideal Stats	Legendary Aspect
Helmet	Cooldown Reduction, Maximum Life, Strength | Earthquake Size, Ground Stomp Cooldown Reduction	N/A (Ugly Bastard Helm)
Chest	Strength, Maximum Life, Armor | Earthquake Size, Ground Stomp Cooldown Reduction (before Mantle of Mountain's Fury)	N/A (Mantle of Mountain's Fury)
Gloves	Attack Speed, Strength, HOTA Ranks | HOTA Size, Critical Strike Damage	N/A (Fists of Fate)
Pants	Strength, Maximum Life, Resistances | Ground Stomp Cooldown Reduction, Earthquake Size	Aspect of Bul-Kathos
Boots	Movement Speed, Maximum Life, Strength | Movement Speed, Earthquake Size	Aspect of Concussive Strikes
Amulet	Strength, Ranks to Counteroffensive, Ranks to Heavy Handed | Ground Stomp CDR, Damage While Berserking	Vehement Brawler's Aspect
Ring #1	Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage, Lucky Hit [X%] to make enemies Vuln | Damge to Close Enemies, COTA CDR	Aspect of Vocalized Empowerment
Ring #2	Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage, Attack Speed | Damage While Berserking, COTA CDR	Bold Chieftain's Aspect
Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	Strength, Maximum Life, Critical Strike Damage | Chance for Earthquake to Cast Twice, Damage While Berserking	Aspect of Earthquakes
Two-Handed Slashing Weapon	Strength, Maximum Life, Critical Strike Damage | Damage to Close Enemies, Ranks to Heavy Hitter	Aspect of Incindiery Fissures
Dual-Wield Weapon #1	Strength, Maximum Life, Critical Strike Damage | Damage to Close Enemies, Ranks to Heavy Hitter	Aspect of Elements
Dual-Wield Weapon #2	Strength, Maximum Life, Critical Strike Damage | Damage to Close Enemies, Ranks to Heavy Hitter	Executioner's Aspect

When it comes to your gear, Skulls go in Jewelry, and Rubies go in your equipment. Weapons receive Emeralds, except for your Two-Handed Bludgeoning/Slashing Weapons. These need a pair of Rune Combos:

• Bac+Tec (Travel 5 Meters to Trigger Barbarian’s Earthquake)
• Tam+Gar (Cast a non-channeled Core Skill to gain Critical Strike Chance for 5s)

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Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features:

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• Diablo 4 Season 8: Mendeln Summoner Necromancer build guide
• Diablo 4: Why Ichorous Salvation Gloves Unique is not obtainable