D3 S28 Barbarian Fresh Level 70 Guide | 2.7.5

S24’s (Ethereal Memory) unique mechanic is the Ethereal Item system. Let me provide you a quick TLDR right here.

Ethereal items QUICK FAQ AND INFO

• Each class has THREE Ethereal weapons. They’re MONSTROUSLY POWERFUL.
• Ethereals roll with a random LEGENDARY POWER from an item of that class.
• Ethereals roll with a random CLASS PASSIVE from that class. (like Hellfire)
• Ethereals have their own “special stat rolls” which are incredibly powerful. Example of such is +100% (up to 300% for some) to all skill damage. Not only are they strong, but there are LOTS OF ROLLS. Wall of text level. Some of them are pretty unique like the DH “increase damage per paragon level”.
• Their drop rate is “rarer than ancients, less rare than primals”.
• Ethereals will vanish after S24.
• In case you missed it, Ethereals WILL vanish after Season 24. Ok?

For the purposes of this guide (a focus on Fresh 70), picking up an Ethereal will almost always be great for you. But, as your build gets more specific, obviously, the randomly rolled Legendary power will dictate its usefulness to your build.

Obviously, a well rolled Ethereal with a Legendary power you can use is a
giga-tier god-level world-shattering item.

REROLLING YELLOW ITEMS IS SUPER LEGIT, CHEAP, AND UNDERRATED.
Nicely rerolled yellows will carry you for a LONG TIME.

WEAPON: Craft or find a 2H Mighty Weapon. The stats you want are STR VIT LpH / LpWS. (LpH and LpWS: Life per Hit, Life per Wrath Spent) Socket is fine, too (Purple gem for LpH, Red for DMG+, Green for CHD+). Avoid any other stat for now.

GET ALL RESISTS INSTEAD OF ARMOR!

Barbarian is an STR Class – meaning you get free ARMOR from all the STR on your gear. This results in a huge lack of ALL RESISTS. So, in your reroll strategy REMOVE ALL ARMOR ROLLS as they’re pretty much USELESS – and replace them with ALL RESISTS. ALLRES is your best defensive stat by a LARGE MARGIN. Socketing Diamonds also gives you ALLRES. VIT is your other main defensive stat.

SELF HEALING: Life per Hit and/or Life per Fury Spent is pretty huge for your early game survival. You want at least some of it on your gear. LpH rolls on almost anything, but LpFS only shows up on MIGHTY WEAPONS and MIGHTY BELT. For barb’s playstyle, I value LpFS a little more than LpH, but having either or both isn’t bad early on.

Mighty Belt: Is a huge source of defense. STR > VIT > RES > LpWS. You’ll be surprised how a single item can give you a whole load of toughness on. Mighty Belts also roll Life per Wrath Spent!

Rings and Amulet: You NEED sockets to prep for legendary gems. Get any stat on these that you feel you’re missing. Feeling soft? Get defenses. Need DPS? Crit and STR. Feel free to roll “random helpful stats” on these for now, instead of the usual endgame CHC/CHD/STR.

GEMS: For body/leg pieces you’ll want Diamonds for ALLRES. Helm may vary (Amethyst for Life%, Topaz for resource cost reduction, Diamond for Cooldown Reduction) depending on your needs. For helm gems… Socket what you feel like you need at the moment. It’s likely going to be Topaz to help with resources, then Amethyst for toughness. I doubt you’ll need CDR anytime soon.

Helm, Gloves, Shoulders, Boots? I wouldn’t bother too much with these since we will get them from the Haedrig’s Gift bags pretty easily. Just try to reroll off the terrible stats.

IK, and barb in general, has a pretty easy seasonal journey.
So use the knowledge in this tab as “reminders” even for the future
even if you don’t need to tryhard on them now.

Chest / Legs: You want STR VIT ALLRES Sockets (3/2). Life% isn’t bad either. Even if you do get this from your free set – you want decent fillers here since they give such huge defenses.

Elemental% can be found on Bracers and Amulets. The element you want is Physical%.

Skill% (Rend%) can be found on Chest and Shoulder. Typically it’s safer to roll on shoulder but if you’re removing trash stats for it you can take it on chest too. Having it on both is great, at a cost to defensive stats. DO NOT GET WHIRLWIND% – rend is our main source of DPS.

Equip a pet! (Default F1 for “cosmetics menu”). They pick up gold for you!

Getting the “correct” stats beats getting the “perfect” stats for now. REMOVE USELESS STATS and get any USEFUL STAT for massive gains in power.

Remove useless stats

• Life Regeneration – garbage.
• Attack Speed – it usually an endgame tune-up stat.
• Excess Resource Cost Reduction – Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.
• Excess Cooldown Reduction – Only useful for an endgame “need”.
• Armor – Useless for us, take ALLRES instead.

Take better stats

• STR VIT – can’t go wrong with these. Your core stats!
• ALLRES Life% – Great defensive stats.
• Life per Hit /Life per Wrath Spent – Great early game sustainability.
• CRIT Stats (CHC / CHD) – More for endgame, but I’d take this over garbage stats.

For clarity this box contains info and builds if you currently have 0 pcs of the IK free set, going for 2 (you don’t have any Haedrigs gift bag, going for the first).

Good ‘ol Rend / WW / FC. A godlike “fresh 70” build that so happens to be related to the build we’re building up to. I put Frenzy in here to help out vs. Bosses and Elites.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

The entries in these early chapters are dead easy. The build above gives you a good balance of offense, defense and speed built in to help you breeze through this as mindlessly as possible.

Hard Mode on for Chapters 1 & 2. Clear through all the entries on Hard. Just up the difficulty to complete one Neph on Expert.

Don’t forget to level up all the NPCs in town. Completing your weekly Challenge Rift will help you get resources to do this easily, if you haven’t already.

When you’re done here, get your first free set from your mail, and proceed onward.

For clarity this box contains builds and info if you currently have 2 pcs of the IK free set, going for 4 (you have the first Haedrigs gift bag, going for the second).

Nothing much changes here, except we not use the “forever” Call of the Ancients from IK 2pc. Since that serves as a pseudo single target DPS skill, Frenzy becomes optional – you can put in Battle Rage.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accomodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

Difficulty: Although there are entries here that need to be finished on Master, you can still complete the bounty cache, if you haven’t already, on Hard. For the bounty, try to do the whole five acts as you’ll need to do this down the line anyway.

These entries are still on the easy side, so we can be a little lax with our build making as little sacrifices as possible to retain good DPS, Speed and some thought to defense. When you’re done with this chapter, collect your 2nd set of free set and let’s finish the next chapter for the remaining free gear!

For the Torment I, II and random entries, the previous build (no changes) should be enough. If you need a more tryhard variant, check out the Torment IV or GR20 tab for advice.

Same build concept, but getting mega buffs from Wrath of the Berserker. Use the passive “Boon of Bul-Kathos” if you feel you have problems keeping the buff up as you need it. Frenzy is totally gone at this point as an optional skill.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

This build will be the baseline for all entries in this tier (Torment II, IV, and GR20) While this build may seem overkill for the Torment II entries, you may as well prep up for the harder parts of this tier.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: Try your luck with 1H Mighty Weapons for Ambo’s Pride, of either of the Bul’Kathos weapon set pair.

Complete a Torment I Rift: This will be the minimum level you should be farming at should you need to do it. Increase if you can easily obliterate a rift. There’s also a “Kill a Torment II Boss” entry here which should be easy.

Complete any other odds and ends that you can, before proceeding to Torment IV.

No changes, really. Use Boon of Bul-Kathos passive if you’re having WotB uptime problems.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

In Torment IV things get real. For many of the free sets, this place is the breakpoint wether your build needs help or not. And for S24 and IK – shouldn’t be too bad.

• Kill Odeg – Keywarden in ACT I, Fields of Misery.
• Kill Sokahr – Keywarden in ACT II, Dahlgur Oasis.
• Kill Xah’Rith – Keywarden in ACT III, Stonefort.
• Kill Nekarat – Keywarden in ACT IV, Gardens of Hope 2nd Tier.
• Kill Specific Boss – Check your journal to see who it is this season.
• Keywardens maps have a key icon next to the waypoint. Purple arrows point you to their location after a short while once you’re in their respective map.

For the boss and all Keywardens – STRAIGHT UP RUSH TO THEM!
Ignore ALL TRASH and just beeline! Get it done ASAP!

You’ll really notice the if you’ve neglected your temporary yellow gear and rerolls. Hopefully you have powerful legendary to carry you (and even if you do), you will notice if you’ve neglected your gear. Refer to the very top setting up tab if you need help.

Either way, this is a good time to take a closer look at your items and get as many powerups and rerolls stated in the setting up tab above.

USE THE SAME BUILD AS THE TORMENT IV TAB!

IK GR20 is easy. No need to talk much about it. Careless play, repeated deaths and utter garbage gear are the only ways you’re going to fail. If you’ve followed the guide up to this point then you really, really shouldn’t be worried.

Just make sure you have the basics that i’ve mentioned many times. Self-healing (LpH, LpWS), ALLRES, a mighty weapon to trigger Weapons Master, and fixing your gear a bit..

You should have an idea of how strong you are given the tasks leading up to this. Be practical and don’t be afraid if your build needs a little help. If you’re weak – Quickly get FOUR GR keys, then complete lower level GR’s. Socket the best Legendary Gems you get (avoiding Legacy of Dreams, obviously).

The “ultimate” challenge gating you to getting your full six piece free set! The difficulty varies wildly on your class and seasonal set. As someone who has cleared GR20 with EVERY SINGLE SET AND CLASS WITHOUT ANY OTHER LEGENDARY – let me tell you, they’re not all created equal.