S-TIER | BUILD BARBARIAN Appel des Anciens (@PXX) | SAISON 13

ENDGAME | PIT PUSH | SPEED FARM BARBARE

Build Overview

The Singer Ancient Barb is one of the most demanding and most powerful Barbarian builds of Season 13. Designed and optimized by PXX and Touming, this build achieved world rank 1 on the Pit 150 leaderboard — the hardest Pit tier in the game in Season 13. The concept revolves around a continuous spam of battle shouts to maintain as many active buffs as possible at all times, then triggering Call of the Ancients and Mighty Throw as ultimate damage sources via the Zan rune.

Unlike simple-rotation Barbarian builds like Whirlwind, the Singer Ancient Barb is a so-called "piano" build: six different skills must be pressed in a tight rotation every few seconds. War Cry, Challenging Shout, Rallying Cry and Iron Skin stack together to create an extremely brief but devastating damage window. Without this strict rotation, the build loses a large portion of its power.

The mythic Heir of Perdition is the centerpiece of the endgame build, combined with the Aspect of Heavenly Strength on the chest piece to transform each shout into a Strength multiplier. The Banished Lord's Talisman charges in just three shouts to trigger massive Overpower bursts. This build represents the apex of Barbarian potential in Season 13.

A secondary variant, the Bond Fun, uses Leap and Wrath of the Berserker with the Chainscourged Mail for a speedfarm and faster clear gameplay — less optimal for Pit 150, but excellent for farming mid-tier content with style.

Pros and Cons

Recommended Gear

The mythic helmet Heir of Perdition is the most important piece of the endgame build. It directly amplifies the damage of Call of the Ancients and interacts with the Cir and Vex runes for specific triggers. The runes socketed in the mythic slot are essential for the Pit 150 clear — do not underestimate their role in the DPS window.

The legendary chest piece with the Aspect of Heavenly Strength is the first priority piece before obtaining the mythic. This aspect directly converts Strength into a damage multiplier for all skills, and each active shout amplifies this bonus. The Zan and Gar runes in the chest piece enable respectively the ultimate trigger of Mighty Throw and the passive survivability bonus.

The unique Pants Arreat's Bearing provide Strength and Barrier generation, two stats crucial for survival at the highest Pit tiers. Two Ruby gems in the sockets maximize total Strength. The unique amulet Banished Lord's Talisman is the second absolute priority: it activates after 275 resources generated via shouts, which corresponds to only three successive shouts in practice — triggering a devastating Overpower.

For weapons, the sanctification technique is key: sanctified weapons gain a unique gem power, and the "indestructible" property can be deliberately broken to reroll the Sanctified power and reach an optimal affix. The Aspect of Apogeic Furor on ring 2 and the Wildbolt Aspect on boots complete the kit with additional Vulnerable and Mighty Throw range multipliers.

For the Bond Fun variant, the Chainscourged Mail replaces the Arreat's Bearing, and the Tidal Aspect on the legendary amulet provides additional Barrier scaling during Leap sequences. The Ring of the Ravenous brings ideal damage over time for packs.

Horadric Seal S13

The Singer Ancient Barb's Horadric Seal relies on the Bul-Kathos' Pride set in a 5/5 configuration, with the five canonical charms Fer, Linta, Beru, Mlor and Phoba. The unique charm slot is occupied by Crown of Lucion, a mythic charm that multiplies the damage of all skills as Strength increases — a direct synergy with the Aspect of Heavenly Strength and the Strength Greater Affixes present on several slots.

The recommended Legendary Seal carries Critical Strike Damage as its main stat, with two additional unique charm slots (+1 each) to unlock up to seven unique charm slots in total. This configuration allows stacking as many Crown of Lucion or other Strength/damage charms as possible depending on account progression. The Seal is accessible without prior mythic farming, which is one of this build's strengths.

Gameplay Tips

The main rotation of the Singer Ancient Barb follows a precise order that must become instinctive. Start with Mighty Throw (approximately every second via the Zan rune), immediately follow with Challenging Shout to apply the Weakened debuff on enemies, then War Cry to activate Vulnerable and generate Fury. Rallying Cry follows for the Barrier and resource generation. Iron Skin fourth for Armor and Regeneration, then Call of the Ancients as the ultimate buff as soon as it is available. The golden rule: never let a shout expire without immediately recasting it.

The Zan rune in the chest piece is the central trigger of the build: each cast of Mighty Throw activates an effect that temporarily amplifies the damage of Call of the Ancients. This buff window only lasts a few seconds, so Call of the Ancients must be cast in the moments that follow. Missing this window on an elite pack costs a large portion of the sequence's damage.

The Banished Lord's Talisman charges at 275 resources generated — roughly three successive shouts. In practice, casting War Cry, Challenging Shout and Rallying Cry in sequence is enough to trigger the Overpower. Always position yourself at the heart of dense enemy packs before this trigger to maximize AoE damage.

For the Bond Fun variant, Leap with the Pull upgrade allows grouping enemies before the shouts. Combine with Wrath of the Berserker to activate permanent Berserking and benefit from the Tidal Aspect which scales the Barrier on each jump. This variant is far more mobile and less punishing on small groups.

Skill Tree

The skill tree of the main Pit 150 variant allocates almost all its points into shouts and the passives that amplify them. War Cry, Challenging Shout and Rallying Cry are maxed at 15/15, as is Call of the Ancients. Iron Skin is kept at 4/15 — sufficient for Armor uptime without wasting points on higher ranks. Mighty Throw stays at 1/15: its sole role is to trigger the Zan rune, not to deal direct damage.

The Basic and Core branches of the tree are not allocated in the Pit 150 variant — all points go into Defensive, Brawling and Ultimate passives. The Bond Fun variant incorporates Leap at 1/15 and Wrath of the Berserker at 6/15, trading some secondary shout points for mobility and Berserking.

Mercenary S13

Paragon

The Singer Ancient Barb's Paragon revolves around five boards in this order: Start, Carnage, Blood Rage, Warbringer, and Weapons Master. The starting board allocates 38 nodes with the Might glyph at rank 100, which directly amplifies damage during full-buff phases. The Carnage board with the Dominate glyph maximizes offensive potential against elites and Bosses.

Blood Rage with Challenger optimizes the conditional damage bonuses tied to Berserking and active shouts. Warbringer with the Wrath glyph reinforces Fury generation — essential to keep the Banished Lord's Talisman permanently charged. Finally, Weapons Master with the Marshal glyph reduces the cooldowns of ultimate skills, enabling near-permanent uptime of Call of the Ancients. All five glyphs are at rank 100/100.