Barbarian Leap/Earthquake Build With Might of the Earth

Last updated on Oct 21, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 11 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 33, Patch 2.7.8 Main Build Solo Greater Rift Progression Nephalem Rift Farming
1.

Introduction

Strengthened by the powers of the Might of the Earth set, the Earthquake Barbarian offers a tight and satisfying rotation of synergistic abilities, disguised under a visual treat of rampaging AoE destruction, along with a hefty amount of crowd control to boot. This build is designed for Greater Rift solo progression, but we also have a speed farming variant, which you can find by clicking the link below.

2.

Quick Reference

2.1.

Skill Setup

The basic skill setup of the Earthquake Barbarian is displayed below. Read the dedicated Skills page for detailed information on choices, alternatives and build customization.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Earthquake Icon Earthquake Molten Fury Molten Fury Right Mouse Button Seismic Slam Icon Seismic Slam Rumble Rumble 1 War Cry Icon War Cry Veteran's Warning Veteran's Warning 2 Leap Icon Leap Death from Above Death from Above 3 Threatening Shout Icon Threatening Shout Falter Falter 4 Wrath of the Berserker Icon Wrath of the Berserker Insanity Insanity
Passive Skills
2.2.

Gear Setup

The required gear setup for the Earthquake Barbarian is listed below. Check the Gear page for detailed information on choices, alternatives, gemming, Kanai's Cube and Paragon distribution.

2.3.

Season 33 Theme — 4th Kanai Slot

With this Season's addition of a 4th slot in Kanai's Cube as a theme, your ideal setup will be:

2.3.1.

Altar of Rites

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

Altar of Rites Planner

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

2.4.

Legendary Gems

2.5.

Kanai's Cube

3.

How to Get This Build Going?

In this section, we will briefly go over how to kickstart this build into reality; which items you should aim for with priority when farming and gambling, and what is their relative priority for the functioning of this spec. Note that these suggestions are exclusively aimed at getting you up and running into endgame farming, and might not reflect the gear you need to wear for high-end Greater Rift solo or group pushing. This section also assumes a fresh Season's start, which usually is the point where most players work on assembling their first build with a particular set.

If the Might of the Earth set is part of the Haedrig's Gift for the Season, your simplest and most straightforward path to assembling the build is to complete the Seasonal Journey chapters up to Chapter IV. The Seasonal Journey chapters will gradually give you a complete class-specific set, giving 2-3 pieces for Chapters II, III and IV.

From the pre-game menu, choose and do this week's Challenge Rift. When successfully completed, this weekly event will grant you 5,1 million Gold, 475 Blood Shards, 370 Reusable Parts, 350 Arcane Dust Arcane Dust, 125 Veiled Crystal Veiled Crystals, 35 Death's Breath Death's Breaths, and 15 of each Bounty cache material: Khanduran Rune Khanduran Rune, Caldeum Nightshade Caldeum Nightshade, Arreat War Tapestry Arreat War Tapestry, Corrupted Angel Flesh Corrupted Angel Flesh, and Westmarch Holy Water Westmarch Holy Water. This will allow you some early Seasonal leeway to extract and reforge items in Kanai's Cube, speeding up the assembly of this build with the items recommended below.

Having some materials at your disposal, either from farming or the Challenge Rift, is particularly important when you get duplicate pieces of your desired set. When you do, you can use Kanai's Cube Skill of Nilfur recipe (10x Forgotten Soul Forgotten Souls, 10x Death's Breath Death's Breaths, 1x Set item) to convert into another item from the same set. You should never salvage duplicate pieces of a desired set before you have it assembled.

In order to assemble a MotE Leapquake Barbarian, you should do the following.

  • Gather the full 6-piece Shadow set using the advice above, or by spending Blood Shards at Kadala. In order of gamble chance, you should spend for: Pants, Shoulders, Boots, Gloves, Helm, and Chest. A trick you can also use is to gamble for duplicate pieces with an easier gamble chance (i.e., Pants) and convert them into another piece from the same set using the Skill of Nilfur recipe in Kanai's Cube.
  • Upgrade rare (Hope of Cain recipe in Kanai's Cube) Two-Handed Mighty Weapons to get Blade of the Tribes Blade of the Tribes; this is a build-defining legendary weapon that increases Earthquake Earthquake damage and provides two additional sources that trigger its effect from War Cry War Cry and Threatening Shout Threatening Shout.
  • Gamble Boots on a Level 1 Barbarian (either your starting character or an alt) to get Lut Socks Lut Socks. This is a crucial piece for Leapquake Barbs, allowing you to triple Leap Leap before the cooldown triggers and enabling your whole rotation from the 4-piece bonus onwards.
  • Gamble Rings on a Level 1 Barbarian (either your starting character or an alt) to get Band of Might Band of Might, a massive source of damage reduction and a universally useful item for Barbarians. It is the only legendary ring available to level 1 Barbarians, making the gamble significantly easier.
  • Upgrade rare One-handed Swords to get In-geom In-geom; doing this on a level 1 Demon Hunter alt will improve your chances due to their lowest loot pool of legendary swords. In-geom In-geom greatly benefits early game Leapquake Barbarians, since it makes Wrath of the Berserker Wrath of the Berserker a much more readily available buff.
  • Gamble or upgrade rare Bracers to get Mortick's Brace Mortick's Brace; this legendary piece gives you all the runes of Wrath of the Berserker Wrath of the Berserker, adding the toughness of Striding Giant Striding Giant and the sustain of Thrive on Chaos Thrive on Chaos to the universally desirable Insanity Insanity buff, which we usually take on the skill bar anyway. As a bonus, gambling or upgrading this slot can yield Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, which are a staple farming item for your Follower.
  • Do Act I bounties to attain the act-specific Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur from Bounty caches. This will be helpful either in completing the basic set bonus, or mixing other helpful legendaries in the build as described in the dedicated endgame Leapquake Barbarian guide. Bounties will net you craftable set recipes as well, so you will be killing two birds with one stone. Bounties will also net you Avarice Band Avarice Band (Act III), another farming-oriented staple for most builds and classes, this one included.
  • While largely undesirable due to high costs, gambling or upgrading rare Jewelry is also possible; Convention of Elements Convention of Elements, the Bastions of Will set (Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint) and the Endless Walk set (The Traveler's Pledge The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose The Compass Rose) will all drastically improve this and other builds, with other standout pieces that can also substitute or be temporarily helpful in the face of Unity Unity, or Oculus Ring Oculus Ring and The Flavor of Time The Flavor of Time for your Follower.
4.

Changelog

  • 21 Oct. 2024 (gear page): Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 21 Oct. 2024 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 33.
  • 21 Oct. 2024 (this page): Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 09 Jul. 2024 (gear page): Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 09 Jul. 2024 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 32.
  • 09 Jul. 2024 (this page): Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024 (gear page): Added Season 31 advice for the unbound Kanai's Cube slots.
  • 10 Apr. 2024 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 31.
  • 10 Apr. 2024 (this page): Added Season 31 advice for the unbound Kanai's Cube slots.
  • 08 Jan. 2024 (gear page): Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 08 Jan. 2024 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 30.
  • 08 Jan. 2024 (this page): Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023 (gear page): Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 29.
  • 13 Sep. 2023 (this page): Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023 (gear page): Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 28.
  • 22 Feb. 2023 (this page): Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022 (gear page): Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 27.
  • 26 Aug. 2022 (this page): Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 13 Apr. 2022 (gear page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 13 Apr. 2022 (skills page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 13 Apr. 2022 (this page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 09 Dec. 2021 (gear page): Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 09 Dec. 2021 (skills page): Reviewed for Season 25.
  • 09 Dec. 2021 (this page): Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 22 Jul. 2021 (gear page): Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 22 Jul. 2021 (skills page): No changes required for Season 24.
  • 22 Jul. 2021 (this page): Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 31 Mar. 2021 (gear page): Revised gearing recommendations and added follower recommendation.
  • 31 Mar. 2021 (skills page): No changes required for Season 23.
  • 31 Mar. 2021 (this page): Revised gearing recommendations and added follower recommendation.
  • 18 Nov. 2020 (gear page): Revised main hand recommendations to match the changes to Blade of the Tribes. Added S22 Cube recommendation.
  • 18 Nov. 2020 (skills page): Revised main hand recommendations to match the changes to Blade of the Tribes.
  • 18 Nov. 2020 (this page): Revised main hand recommendations to match the changes to Blade of the Tribes. Added S22 Cube recommendation.
  • 30 Jun. 2020 (gear page): No changes required for Season 21.
  • 30 Jun. 2020 (skills page): No changes required for Season 21.
  • 30 Jun. 2020 (this page): No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020 (gear page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 12 Mar. 2020 (skills page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 12 Mar. 2020 (this page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 19 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Guide revised and updated for Season 19.
  • 19 Nov. 2019 (skills page): Guide revised and updated for Season 19.
  • 19 Nov. 2019 (this page): Guide revised and updated for Season 19.
  • 28 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Minor clarification to the gear and stat recommendations.
  • 22 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Item recommendations are revised for Season 18.
  • 22 Aug. 2019 (skills page): Skill recommendations are revised for Season 18.
  • 22 Aug. 2019 (this page): Item and skill recommendations are revised for Season 18.
  • 13 May 2019 (gear page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
  • 13 May 2019 (skills page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
  • 13 May 2019 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
  • 27 Jan. 2019 (gear page): Updated the Season 16 Cube recommendation.
  • 27 Jan. 2019 (this page): Updated the Season 16 Cube recommendation.
  • 16 Jan. 2019 (gear page): Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
  • 16 Jan. 2019 (skills page): Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
  • 16 Jan. 2019 (this page): Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 16.
  • 20 Sep. 2018 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 15.
  • 14 Jun. 2018 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 14.
  • 01 Nov. 2017 (this page): Changed build rank to Mid Tier for Season 12.
  • 31 Oct. 2017 (gear page): Some wording updates to the gem and jewelry sections (without changes in the recommendations).
  • 26 Jun. 2017 (this page): Guide updated for 2.6 and moved to new format.
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