When it comes to Barbarians, there’s a difference between going primal and going primeval. Few things in this world embody raw strength more than picking up the nearest boulder and chucking it at your enemy. In this week’s Play Your Way, HappyFeet#21646 showcases the fine art of mashing your enemies with this primitive, yet effective, tactic.

About the Build:

Barbarians are brutes, exemplifying strength, rage, and raw power. From cartoons to high fantasy, these kinds of characters are known for their feats of unparalleled might. Kicking down doors, holding back legions of monsters, or lifting the nearest heavy object and hurling it at their foes, nothing screams “powerhouse” quite like they do.

Ancient Spear is a boulder choice in skill selection from the norm, wouldn't you say?

The Boulder Toss rune for the skill Ancient Spear captures how ridiculous and satisfying such an exploit can be. Dumping all your Fury into a concentrated crushing blow is gratifying in its own regard. By stacking supportive damage abilities, HappyFeet#21646 has built around this visceral and visually rewarding ability, rolling back the clock to primitive times when the only weapon you needed was whatever you could lift.

The Skills:

The Stone Age Barbarian focuses on making the best use of Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss); it splits the difference between damage boosts that benefit this skill and defensive abilities to keep you alive long enough to witness the destructive results.

Active Skills:

• Frenzy (Maniac)
  • Acts as Fury generator and secondary damage source
  • Rune provides a substantial boost to Ancient Spear once Frenzy reaches full stacks
• Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss)
  • Primary damage source
  • Provides area of effect and ranged damage to an otherwise single target and close-range build
• Call of the Ancients (Ancient’s Fury)
  • Offers some survivability by providing alternative targets for your enemies to attack
  • Provides a substantial and frequent source of Fury to fuel your Ancient Spear usage that only becomes more constant when using the Immortal King’s Call set
• Avalanche (Tectonic Rift)
  • Provides additional area of effect damage to more efficiently flatten your foes
  • Synergizes well with full Fury expenditures like Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss), rapidly speeding up the charge rate of this skill
  • Rocks fall, everyone dies
• Wrath of the Berserker (Insanity)
  • Provides an all-around damage boost to not only Ancient Spear, but all your other abilities
  • Enhanced alongside Call of the Ancients when using the Immortal King’s Call set, making this a natural choice
• War Cry (Impunity)
  • Provides much-needed Toughness to keep you crushing in close range

Passive Skills:

• Brawler
  • You’ll want to dive into the middle of crowds to benefit from this sizeable damage boost
• Superstition
  • Lessens the sting of non-physical abilities and enemy affixes to keep you in the fray
• Tough as Nails
  • All around toughness needed to keep yourself in melee range
• Rampage
  • Using this passive will help you build momentum by killing regular enemies for massive returns

Alternative Skills:

• Wrath of the Berserker (Striding Giant)
  • Replaces Wrath of the Berserker (Insanity)
  • Low on Toughness? This quick tweak to the build will get you back into melee more consistently
• Animosity
  • Replaces any passive; your choice!
  • Increases your Maximum Fury, directly increasing the damage potential of Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss)
• Unforgiving
  • Replaces any passive; your choice!
  • Provides a steady flow of Fury, reducing the amount of time you need to spend hitting with Frenzy
• No Escape
  • Replaces Brawler
  • If you’re going for more of a ranged build using Ancient Spear and Weapon Throw, this passive will net you more damage at a distance
• Weapon Throw (Balanced Weapon)
  • Replaces Frenzy (Maniac)
  • If you’re aiming for a more range oriented build, this is an option for better capitalizing on No Escape and The Three Hundredth Spear

The Items:

While not necessary for the build to function, this build greatly benefits from utilizing the bonuses of the Immortal King’s Call set. Overall, there’s a lot of flexibility available when it comes to gearing for this build.

HappyFeet's Barbarian is built to last, sporting an even split of damage and survivability.

Recommended Items:

• Depth Diggers
  • You’ll be hitting with Frenzy a lot to build Fury, so these handy pants are a great choice for making the most out of those smaller hits
• Stone of Jordan
  • An additional source of bonus damage to further enhance Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss)
• The Furnace
  • An additional source of bonus damage to further enhance Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss)
• Aughild’s Authority (3-piece bonus)
  • Used in conjunction with a Ring of Royal Grandeur
  • Provides the tankiness needed to fend off your foes

Complementary Items:

• Immortal King’s Call (6-piece bonus)
  • Rocking five pieces with a Ring of Royal Grandeur will enhance all your abilities, making Call of the Ancients and Wrath of the Berserker endlessly available to you
• The Three Hundredth Spear
  • A fair alternative to boost Ancient Spear’s damage potential if you haven’t tracked down The Furnace
  • Great when paired with a Doombringer for extra oomph
• Convention of Elements
  • Alternative to Stone of Jordan
  • Provides a substantial, but rotating, source of damage for spikier overall results

Recommended Legendary Gems:

• Molten Wildebeest’s Gizzard
  • Boosts your survival, especially with the Rank 25 shield unlocked
• Bane of the Powerful
  • Continues to compound all your bonuses into truly ridiculous territory
• Pain Enhancer
  • Benefits from the +% Physical damage you’ll be stacking to boost Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss)
  • Thematically appropriate

Recommended Stats:

• Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss) is your main source of damage, so you’ll want to focus on +% bonus to Physical damage
• Critical Hits are where you’ll get those completely outrageous numbers from, so ensuring you have a healthy amount of Critical Hit Chance and Damage is key
• +Max Fury directly increases the damage potential of Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss), making it a secondary stat worth stacking

Recommended Difficulty and Game Mode:

Let’s be up-front about this: this is a thematic and fun build, and not likely one with which you’ll be pushing the upper echelons of Greater Rifts. While you could roll your way a decent distance, this build is better suited to farming in Torment VI in Nephalem Rifts or Bounties. HappyFeet plays this build in Normal game mode, though with some of the suggested Toughness tweaks above, this build could easily be suited to Hardcore as well.

Why We Like This Build:

HappyFeet said it best in his submission; Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss) will put a smile on your face. It’s the kind of skill that has direct feedback reward tied to it. Building up that Fury globe to dump it all out in a massive explosion of huge numbers is instantly gratifying, compounded by immediately making Avalanche available. It’s a fun build and easy to pick up and learn, even if you’re new to the Barbarian world.

As a not-fan of spiders, crushing them beneath boulders seems an equitable alternative to burning them with fire.

Tell Us What You Think!

How does your Barbarian fare this Season? Are you rolling with the revamped Immortal King’s Call set? Have you ever experimented with tossing boulders around? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to send your build for a chance to be featured!

This marks the end of our latest round of Play Your Way features — join us next week to cast your vote on who should appear on our livestream for an hour of chat, rifting, and mayhem. See you then!