The Upheaval Barbarian is one of the best builds for the class in Diablo 4 Season 6. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to set it up.
Thanks to the advent of the Vessel of Hatred DLC and Season 6, Upheaval has become one of the Barbarian’s best Core Skills. New gear and aspects turn it into a damage-dealing powerhouse for both single and multi-target encounters.
These updates have shot the build way up the rankings in our Barbarian build tier list. If you’re a fan of the class, this might be the most fun way to play it.
If you’re looking to make the most of the best Upheaval Barbarian build in Diablo 4 Season 6, this guide will help you fit out your character with the best skills and gear.
The Upheaval Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 6 combines the best of both worlds with massive damage potential and excellent survivability. Combining Combat Bash and Furious Upheaval offers a minimum damage boost of 120% and guaranteed Overpower before any added buffs from gear and passives are even applied.
The lynchpin of this build is the Mythic Unique Hellhammer which increases the size and damage of the Upheaval skill as well as a bonus 16 skill points with the right Greater Affix. This weapon alone makes the build sing.
As an added bonus, the traditional three-shout set-up offers a mix of damage reduction, defensive buffs, and added damage to the Upheaval Barbarian build.
Best Upheaval Barbarian skills
With the new level cap of 60 and the Skill Points afforded by grinding renown, you should have a total of 72 to invest in your Upheaval Barbarian build for Diablo 4. These are the ones we recommend.
Active Skills
| Active Skill | Upgrades | Points Allocated |
| Bash | Enhanced, Combat | 1 |
| Upheaval | Enhanced, Furious | 5 |
| Rallying Cry | Enhanced, Strategic | 1 |
| Challenging Shout | Enhanced | 1 |
| War Cry | Enhanced, Power | 1 |
| Call of the Ancients | Prime, Supreme | 5 |
Passive Skills
| Passive Skill | Points Allocated |
| Warpath | 3 |
| Pressure Point | 1 |
| Endless Fury | 2 |
| Martial Vigour | 3 |
| Imposing Presence | 3 |
| Belligerence | 3 |
| Raid Leader | 3 |
| Booming Voice | 3 |
| Guttural Voice | 1 |
| Aggressive Resistance | 3 |
| Prolific Fury | 1 |
| Pit Fighter | 3 |
| Slaying Strike | 3 |
| Thick Skin | 1 |
| Counteroffensive | 3 |
| Heavy Handed | 3 |
| Brute Force | 3 |
| Wallop | 3 |
| Unbridled Rage | Key Passive |
Best Arsenal setup for Upheaval Barbarian
Some Skills offer benefits when assigned to specific weapons and Legendary Aspects that boost power after swapping weapons.
These mechanics require Barbarians to assign different abilities to different weapons using the Skill Assignment pane. This is done by opening the character window, navigating to the Abilities tab, and selecting Skill Assignment.
For the Upheaval Barbarian, assigning both Upheaval and Bash to your Two-Handed Mace is the best option thanks to the bonuses from their skill enhancements.
Using different weapons also upgrades their Weapon Technique so swapping between them while leveling is a good idea for maxing out your potential power. You can assign one Weapon Technique which grants a permanent passive buff, regardless of the weapons you are using.
In this Upheaval Barbarian build, you should set your Technique Slot to the Two-Handed Axe. This will make all your attacks deal an extra 10% damage to Vulnerable enemies.
Best Upheaval Barbarian skill rotation
This is the best rotation for an endgame Upheaval Barbarian in Diablo 4.
- Challenging Shout
- Rallying Cry
- War Cry
- Bash
- Upheaval
- Call of the Ancients
Open encounters by casting your three shout skills to apply a series of offensive and defensive buffs. Keep these up as often as possible which should be quite easy thanks to some help from the Bold Chieftain’s Aspect and Rakanoth’s Wake; both of which work in tandem to significantly reduce cooldowns.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Use Bash to generate fury and focus on casting it 10 times to build up a 120% damage boost and a guaranteed Overpower when you finally cast Upheaval. As the name of the build suggests, this is your core damage skill. With the Unbridled Rage Key Passive, Upheaval will cost more Fury but deal increased damage.
Save Call of the Ancients for tougher encounters. It doesn’t offer a great deal of damage when cast but the passive buffs that the skill affords when active will greatly increase your overall effectiveness in a pinch.
Best Upheaval Barbarian Legendary Aspects
Tracking down these Legendary Aspects will be handy while you wait to get the Unique gear you need to run the endgame Upheaval Barbarian build.
| Aspect | Power | Dungeon | Region | Obol Gamble |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edgemaster’s Aspect | Skills deal up to [5- 25%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource. | Oldstones | Scosglen | One-Handed |
| Accelerating Aspect | Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [+] [10.0-30.0]% for 5 seconds. | – | – | One-Handed |
| Aspect of Anger Management | While above [55 – 40] Fury, you are Berserk, but lose 2 Fury per second. | – | – | One-Handed |
| Bold Chieftain’s Aspect | Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [10.0-30.0] seconds per Nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 6 seconds. | – | – | Rings |
| Aspect of Limitless Rage | Each point of Fury you generate while at Maximum Fury grants your next Core Skill [1-3]%[x] increased damage, up to 15 times | – | – | Two – Handed |
Best Upheaval Barbarian Paragon Boards and Glyphs
Once you hit Level 60, Skill points become a thing of the past, and Paragon Points take over.
This system makes you pick upgrades from themed boards loaded with buffs. Each path is unique, but the upside is you can tweak your Upheaval Barbarian build with specific Boards and Glyphs to boost your build exactly how you want in Diablo 4.
Paragon Board progression
For your Upheaval Barbarian build in Diablo 4 Season 6, you should unlock the following Paragon Boards in the indicated order:
- Starting Board
- Blood Rage
- Decimator
- Bone Breaker
- Carnage
Best Glyphs
The Paragon Glyphs below are the best ones available for this particular build. We’ve outlined which Glyphs to slot into which of the above Boards.
- Ire Level 100 (Starting Board)
- Dominate Level 100 (Blood Rage)
- Challenger Level 100 (Decimator)
- Wrath Level 100 (Bone Breaker)
- Crusher Level 100 (Carnage)
Best Mercenaries for Upheaval Barbarian
For an endgame Upheaval Barbarian in Diablo 4, you’ll want to set Raheir and Varyana as your mercenary combo for some extra defense and an easy way to draw enemies in close.
Set Raheir as your Hired Mercenary. He offers a massive boost to survivability thanks to skills like Valiance and Bastion which also grant Unstoppable in a pinch. Ground Slam also gives some extra offensive buffs for some extra utility.
Varyana is an excellent Reinforcement Mercenary if you bind her Ancient Harpoons to your Bash skill. This will pull in enemies before you use your Shout skills and make their cooldowns far shorter.
Best Upheaval Barbarian gear and Runewords
The Upheaval Barbarian build in Diablo 4 Season 6 relies on a few Uniques as well as Aspects you’ll need to farm via item extracts. It can be a bit of a chore to set up but with the recommended gear and Runeword combinations below, this build should sing in the endgame.
| Item | Socket | Item type | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ugly Bastard Helm | 2 Rubies | Helm | Casting Wrath of the Berserker causes you to explode, dealing [150 – 450] Fire damage. While Berserking, all damage you would deal is converted into Fire. You deal [10 – 30]%[x] increased Fire damage. |
| Runic Mail of Might | 2 Rubies | Chest | Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-10.0] seconds. |
| Edgemaster’s Runic Gloves | – | Gloves | Skills deal up to [5- 25%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource. |
| Arreat’s Bearing | 2 Rubies | Pants | Ancients you summon are empowered:Korlic creates an Earthquake that deals [158 – 202] Physical damage over 4 seconds when he leaps.Talic leaves behind Dust Devils that deal [315 – 405] damage while he whirlwinds.Madawc ignites the ground Burning enemies for an additional [158 – 202] damage over 4 seconds when he upheaves the ground. |
| Rakanoth’s Wake | – | Boots | When you cast a Skill with a Cooldown, you explode, dealing [150 – 450] Fire damage. |
| Hellhammer | PocKry – Invoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex Skill whenever you spend 5% of your Primary Resource. | Two-Handed Mace | Upheaval ignites the ground Burning enemies for an additional [300 – 495] damage over 4 seconds increased by 25%[x] for every 100 Strength you have. |
| Accelerating Skullsplitter | Ruby | Left Hand | Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [+] [10.0-30.0]% for 5 seconds. |
| Skullsplitter of Anger Management | Ruby | Right Hand | While above [55 – 40] Fury, you are Berserk, but lose 2 Fury per second. |
| Demonblade of Limitless Rage | LithXal – Gain 20% Maximum Life for 6 seconds whenever you stand still for 3 seconds in combat. | Right Hand 2 | Each point of Fury you generate while at Maximum Fury grants your next Core Skill [1-3]%[x] increased damage, up to 15 times |
| Ocelot’s Eye of Inner Calm | Skull | Amulet | Deal 5-13%[x] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds. |
| Ring of Starless Skies | Skull | Ring | Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10%[x] for 3 seconds, up to 50%[x]. |
| Bold Chieftain Band | Skull | Ring | Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [10.0-30.0] seconds per Nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 6 seconds. |
Best Upheaval Barbarian PVP build for Diablo 4 Season 6
Good news. This Upheaval Barbarian build for Diablo 4 Season 6 works fantastic as-is in the game’s PVP.
It has some sturdy defense to withstand other optimized builds and it deals a boatload of damage. The one drawback is that you won’t benefit from the usual reduced cooldowns it generates in PVE. For this reason, you should time your Shouts more carefully.
Now that you know how to craft this top-tier Necromancer build, make sure to check out our guides for the Druid, Sorcerer, Rogue, Barbarian, and Spirtiborn. There’s also our Diablo 4 Class tier list so you can see where this build fits in the current meta.