Seismic Slam Barbarian Speed Farming Variation

The Seismic Slam Barbarian can deal reasonably well with Normal Rift farming all the way through the highest Torment difficulties. The build variation suffers from minor inconveniences compared to top tier speed farming builds (conflicting bracers, competing belts), but otherwise handles the task with ease. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Seismic Slam Permafrost Leap Death from Above 1 Battle Rage Ferocity 2 War Cry Impunity 3 Wrath of the Berserker Insanity 4 Call of the Ancients Ancients' Fury
Passive Skills
No Escape Rampage Ruthless Pound of Flesh

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

Similarly to the GR progression base build, Seismic Slam Barbs will maintain both Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients at all times during speed farming — in standard rifts however, you will be relying on In-geom resets, so prioritize elite hunting overall. Buffs like Battle Rage and War Cry should be cast at regular intervals, mostly to maintain their speed buffs — from Ferocity and Chilanik's Chain respectively. Naturally, you will decimate your foes with Seismic Slams and reposition around the rifts with Leap.

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

• Your main damage dealer remains Seismic Slam, with its strongest rune — Permafrost.
• Your movement tool is still Leap, as it ties into the set too neatly to be ignored. The rune of choice is still Death from Above.
• You should exchange the damage-oriented Bloodshed rune of Battle Rage, which is better suited to the damage demands of GR pushing, for the speed buff of the Ferocity rune.
• War Cry Veteran's Warning is also present in the speed farming version of the build, and aside from its survivability value, it adds a movement speed buff angle via the equipped Chilanik's Chain.
• Call of the Ancients remains on your skill bar, but due to the loss of Fury of the Ancients in the Cube, you will have to slot the Ancients' Fury rune on your bar.
• Wrath of the Berserker Insanity is an omnipresent self-buff in both versions of the build.
• Rampage, Ruthless and Boon of Bul-Kathos are still a solid foundation of your passive selection.
• In your passives, you can optionally replace No Escape with the globe-fueled movement speed bonuses of Pound of Flesh.

Most of the gear from the Greater Rift progression build will still make sense for speed farming, but a few variations will be necessary in order to maximize your productivity and momentum during regular Rift clears.

You are still relying on the Might of the Earth 6-piece set bonus, and unlike the GR progression main build, it will not be necessary to mix in the Cpt. Crmison set — allowing you to equip all 6 MotE pieces and free up the Cube for other jewelry.

Both the balancing act of the Endless Walk set and the sustain attack-based cooldown resets of Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac greatly diminish in usefulness during Normal Rift farming. That progresion-oriented jewelry will be better replaced by a split between a Cold damage Stone of Jordan (for the permanent damage increase) and an Avarice Band (for the synergy with Boon of the Hoarder).

Complement these rings either with the Hellfire Amulet of Strength from the base build, or with a Squirt's Necklace for another massive damage multiplier (make a point to swap Bane of the Powerful for Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard if you opt for the latter). The former favorite for the amulet slot, The Flavor of Time, is not recommended in solo play simply because it can be worn by the follower and emanated onto you — but should be worn during group play.

When doing runs in the Torment difficulties, the toughness and damage from the Cpt. Crimson set will be overkill, so you can easily replace the belt with either Chilanik's Chain (for the extra movement speed when you use War Cry) or Goldwrap (its combo with Boon of the Hoarder and a cubed Avarice Band can render you practically immortal as long as you pick up gold).

During speed farming, you will be better off using the utility-driven combo of In-geom and Fjord Cutter. The former will ensure an unbroken chain of Wrath of the Berserker activations despite the lesser Seismic Slam spam in standard rifts, while the latter will reward you for it with a massive damage bonus to your main damage skill.

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

This Season comes with the theme of Angelic Crucibles — consumable items that empower Legendary items with perfected Ancient-level stats, as well as infuse them with one of three unique, powerful, class-specific abilities at random. For this build, both the Wrath of the Berserker and Whirlwind Sanctifications are viable and important to consider. For this build, we recommend that you substitute War Cry from the regular build, and use Whirlwind Dust Devils to proc the following power:

• Whirlwind Sanctification: Whirlwind pulls in and holds all enemies within 25 yards.

If you decide against this alteration, you can safely fall back to the (easier to use) Wrath of the Berserker Sanctification, which reads:

• Wrath of the Berserker Sanctification: Hitting enemies generates stacks of Tempest Rhythm. Activating Wrath of the Berserker consumes 50 stacks of Tempest Rhythm and startles enemies within 16 yards, causing them to take 2% increased damage per stack for 20 seconds. Max 50 stacks.

Use Angelic Crucibles on an item that crosses over most (if not all) variants of a build, and is also an item that is relatively harder to perfect than other slots (since sanctifying an item maximizes its stats). In the case of this build, a good candidate for Sanctification is the Fjord Cutter.

You can read more on Angelic Crucibles and the sanctification process in our dedicated Angelic Crucible Mechanics guide.

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).

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

Bane of the Trapped remains a universally desired damage amplification gem.

In farming content the value of Bane of the Stricken diminishes greatly, and it is best replaced by the speedrun staple Bane of the Powerful for its overall damage and toughness increase. Note that if you opt for Squirt's Necklace as your amulet, you should use the shielding powers of Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard in this slot instead.

During Normal Rift runs, you can also swap Gogok of Swiftness out for Boon of the Hoarder to encase yourself in a near-impenetrable layer of defense and speed from the interaction with the (potentially) worn Goldwrap and Avarice Band.

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

Fury of the Vanished Peak is non-negotiable in Seismic Slam builds, since a large part of your damage and resource management stem from its power.

During speed farming, your armor Cube slot is best taken by Nemesis Bracers, since the extra elites spawned by its legendary power feed directly in your In-geom cooldown resets.

Freed up from the Ring of Royal Grandeur required in the GR build (where it helps to fit both MotE and Cpt. Crimson), the speed farming build is able to take Band of Might in its stead for some extra mitigation that fits snugly into your rotation, or adjust to other, quirkier alternatives — i.e. Squirt's Necklace.

The recommended follower for this build during standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her numerous utility bonuses, allowing you to smooth out your speed runs even further.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

The preferred potion for this build is Bottomless Potion of the Leech due to its Life per Hit bonuses, which synergize perfectly for the high attack speed and sustain-through-attacks playstyle of the build.