Warbringer Earthshatter Leveling Build

Build Introduction

Erupt the earth beneath your foes to deal destructive damage to your foes with this leveling build! This build utilizes Earthshatter and Sunder alongside no-cooldown Warcries to clear through the campaign and into low tier maps without a single issue. Love Warrior, but discouraged by playing melee on league start? Look no further than this build!

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Ascendancy

At the end of Act II, you can select your first Ascendancy. We generally recommend you ascend around Level 20. Electing to take an ascendancy will enhance the leveling process. If you struggle to ascend on either your first or second ascendancy, complete more of the campaign and return to it once you have leveled up some or acquired better gear. If you need information about ascending, you can see PatrickHatTrick’s helpful guide here.

We highly suggest using the Warbringer if you choose to use this league starter. If you opt for Titan or Smith of Kitava, you will run into issues with the interactions laid out in the guide below.

Warbringer

The Warbringer Warrior excels in either builds dealing with Totems, or in abusing Broken Armour and Warcries in order to deal damage and facilitate special interactions. This build will be taking advantage of the latter, thus taking these two ascendancy nodes.

1. Warcaller’s Bellow—This node is split into two. The first portion causes all corpses around you to explode when you shout. While this is a welcome addition for some extra damage, the real gem here is the fact it allows you to completely ignore Warcry cooldowns. This means we can pop Earthshatter as quickly as we can put it down and utilize it as a main damage skill.
2. Anvil’s Weight—This is a very powerful node, allowing all damage types to Break Armour. You won’t need a Support Gem to do this anymore, supplying us with an easy way to boost our damage.

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General Leveling Advice

We can not stress enough how important it is to check vendors for gear. Especially for Warriors! Your Mace will make up the vast majority of your power, while keeping your Armour value high will ensure you’re not falling over when the wind blows. Vendors reset their inventory every time you level, so check back frequently to see if there’s an upgrade. Alternatively, use the gamble vendor to see if you can pull a good weapon that way, if you have spare gold.

Ensure you’re completing all important side quests. It’s very easy to pass up free passive points while running through campaign maps. In case you need a list of all permanent stat boosts during the campaign, you can find those on our guide using this link!

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Leveling Passive Tree

The Passive Tree below can be followed through to the end of the Interlude and into early maps. Beyond that point, you should swap to an endgame setup. Follow along as you level using the arrows on the left and the right of the progression slider at the top of the Passive Tree.

Important Notes

In order to provide as smooth of a leveling experience to people across different skill levels, the nodes taken in this build are split relatively evenly between damage and defense. While the pathing is what we suggest based on certain pain points in the campaign (for instance, grabbing defensive nodes starting in Act 2 rather than Act 1) feel free to do whatever you wish based on the gear you have and how your league start is going. Not all experiences are the same, and some people will have better luck than others!

Certain nodes need context, which we’ll outline below.

• Resolute Technique: Removing the ability to crit will probably make people cringe, but this node removes any need to be concerned with Accuracy thresholds the entire time you play with it. This is especially important for this build, as Sunder has a lot of range and missing damage on it will feel awful.
• Vengeful Fury: Rage is an easy pickup for Warrior, but with how slow it attacks, and how often you’re going to take damage, it’s often better to build Rage from taking hits rather than dealing them. At the same time, this allows you to benefit defensively from Rage, making this node choice an easy pick up.
• Crushing Verdict: 50% increased damage is an insanely high amount for one node, but it comes with the caveat that it reduces your attack speed. We’ve tried to course correct the negative impact by taking Blood Rush earlier in the passive tree, but looking for Attack Speed on your Mace will make things a lot smoother as well.
• Ignore Pain: Another node that makes Rage more than just a damage amplifier, this node will add Stun Threshold per Rage to your character. There’s nothing more annoying than getting light stunned out of Sunder usage, and this aims to reduce that from happening as much as possible. The nodes that lead to this also increase your maximum Rage, which is a big deal.

Skill Gems

All of the Skill Gems that should be used during the leveling process are listed below. There may be a slight variation depending on which Act you’re currently progressing through. Notes for each Act will be listed below the Skill Gem tool.

Act 1 Notes

Act 1 will be the basic Warrior setup that’s been used for over the past year. You just don’t have many good choices to pick from, and Rolling Slam with Boneshatter is by far the best clear and highest damage on a boss you’re going to get. With Return of the Ancients, Brink I is now a tier 1 Support Gem, meaning you can take it immediately. This makes it much easier to prime enemies for heavy stun, meaning more Boneshatter clear and a faster Act 1.

This build wants a Two-Handed Mace! You want big hits because of the wind-up animations on your skills. Defensive nodes are taken in the passive tree to accomodate this, but do make sure you’re upgrading your gear when you can!

After killing King of the Mists in Freythorn, you’ll get your first 30 Spirit and a Level 4 Spirit Gem. Use this to craft Herald of Ash. This will be an insane increase to your clear speed, and also provide a nice visual when enemies die.

The only other skill you’d have access to is Infernal Cry. This will add a ton of fire damage to your attacks and cause enemies to explode on death that were hit by the warcry. Adding everything together, if you kill an enemy that has been hit by Infernal Cry and is primed for stun with Boneshatter, you’re going to have three explosions off the one kill. This makes a massive difference to your clear speed.

Act 2 Notes

Act 2 is when you’ll be able to come off the basic Warrior starting rotation, but not until you ascend your character through the Trial of Sekhemas. Typically, you’ll gain access to this trial around Level 20 or Level 21, and you shouldn’t wait to complete it. It’s fairly easy, just play carefully if it’s your first time. Ascend yourself to Warbringer after completing the trial.

At this point, you’ll have access to Level 7 Skill Gems. With your first one, cut yourself Earthshatter and slap Upheaval I onto one of the sockets. With your new Warbringer node allowing you to cast Infernal Cry on demand, and your new skill Earthshatter, you now have an extremely potent AoE at your disposal. This can be used for both mapping and bossing, at least until the end of Act 2 and the start of Act 3 when we get more additions to our arsenal.

Act 3 Notes

Either right before Jamanra, or right at the start of Act 3, you’ll get your first Level 9 Skill Gem. Cut yourself Sunder. This new skill rips the earth under your feet in a direct line towards enemies. It deals great damage, and with some Support Gems this will now be your main clear skill.

Do keep in mind, Sunder can not break armour! When you complete the Trial of Chaos, this is important to note. The node you take is all about breaking armour, but Sunder can’t due to being a Payoff skill and interacting with broken armour. This is a good thing though! You’ll break armour with every other hit on enemies, and Sunder will then break their armour further, allowing you to deal extra damage.

It may seem like an odd choice to include Scavenged Plating, but it’s very intentional. Since you’re constantly breaking armour, you’ll consistently have the 40% more Armour this Spirit Gem provides. The build has zero issues with damage, so this is taken to ensure your defenses continue to scale properly as you move through to endgame.

At Level 41 you can start using Level 11 Skill Gems, and this is where you’ll replace Infernal Cry with Seismic Cry. This pairs much better with the build in general, empowering your Slams (Sunder and Earthshatter) to produce Aftershocks, but also doing something far more important. Up until this point, you’ve been using Fire Attunement, since Infernal Cry added Fire damage to your skills. You no longer need to do that, and can use Brutality II instead. This allows you to take full advantage of the broken armour buff you just got.

Act 4 Notes

Nothing much changes here. Towards the end of Act 4, you’ll gain access to Hammer of the Gods. This is essentially a nuke to drop down on bosses after you’ve sundered their armour and stunned them to deal an obnoxious amount of damage. You do need to stun the boss first, so keep that in mind. Not just for damage, but because Hammer of the Gods requires Glory to use, and you build it through stunning enemies. Stunning a unique enemy will grant one full usage.

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Gearing Progression

As stated above, you really want a Two-Handed Mace for this build. There is an argument to swap out for a One-Handed Mace and Shield once you enter maps, but that is entirely dependent on you and your choice to make. The drop luck you have in the Interludes is likely going to be the determining factor here, as better defensive gear will make a world of difference.

An important note, Armour also applies to Elemental Damage is a game changer. Even just getting the affix on one piece of gear will make a huge difference. You’re heavily encouraged to keep a piece of gear with around 25% of this stat to ease the pressure of youre resistances as you work your way into endgame.

Offensive Modifiers

• Increased Physical Damage
• Added flat damage, differing based on Support Gems
• Attack Speed

Defensive Modifiers

• Armour also applies to Elemental Damage
• Movement Speed
• Resistances
• Stun Threshold
• Maximum Life

Runes

You’ll generally need to make this decision on your own. Runes are dependent on drop rate and the exact affixes on your gear. If you have a very high base Physical Damage, you’ll want to use Iron Runes. If you end up crafting a more Elemental Mace (pray you don’t), then adding in one of the three Elemental bases is likely a better play.

Campaign Buffs

• Valley of the Titans (Act 2)
  • 30% increased charm charges gained. You may swap this buff out later.
• Venom Draught (Act 3)
  • The Venom Draught selection should be made based on what you plan on playing for endgame. We chose Stun Threshold, however the decision is up to you.
• Halls of the Dead (Act 4)
  • Dependent on your endgame build selection. However, we suggest just taking all three Elemental Resistances.
• Qimah (Interlude 2: The Stolen Barya)
  • 5% Elemental Resistance, 3% Movement Speed, or 15% Global Defenses. You may swap this buff out later.

Flasks and Charms

While leveling, you will find several flasks and Charms. Upgrade your flasks as you go along, and if you fail to find flask upgrades, check vendors to buy them with gold.

• Health and Mana Flasks
  • Prefix: Increased Amount Recovered
  • Suffix: # Charges gained per second
• Charm
  • Staunching Charm (Bleed)
  • Stone Charm (Stun)

Changelog

June 1st, 2026: Passive tree updated for current patch
May 28th, 2026: Leveling guide created for Patch 0.5.