Diablo III- Skills Article VII: The Barbarian, Secondary Skill- Seismic Slam

Seismic Slam (30 Fury): Deal 155% weapon damage and knockback to all foes in a 45 yard arc.

As one of your better ranged options, many Barbarians will find Seismic Slam a very worthwhile addition to their arsenal.  Unlike your other ranged skills which are all secondary, Seismic Slam has no cooldown.  Sadly, using it repeatedly can drain your Fury faster than you want to think about- but sometimes it’s worth it.  Especially if, as a melee artist, you can find a way to handle or negate the Knockback effect inherent to Seismic Slam.  It can also prove to be an excellent way of destroying large amounts of the environment, if you’re reaching for an achievement or reward related to that.

Stagger (30 Fury): Deal 155% weapon damage and knockback with a 70% chance of a 1.5 second stun to all foes in a 45 yard arc..

Stagger turns Seismic Slam into an excellent way to stop things, particularly if you find you need to scrape something off the Wizard or Witch Doctor who you’re palling around with.  In fact, by adding on the stun, the rune can essentially negate the drawback that is knockback, allowing you to close with enemies that were standing far away, or even actively fleeing.  A very worthwhile addition to the skill, though it still doesn’t help if you want to use Seismic Slam while surrounded in melee.

Shattered Ground (30 Fury): Deal 202% weapon damage and double-strength knockback to all foes in a 45 yard arc.

Shattered Ground makes Seismic Slam even more impressive, at a mixed benefit/expense of increasing the knockback.  When you need knockback for something, it makes the skill incredibly useful- when you don’t, it makes it really flashy but can be a huge drag on your time.  Use this form of Seismic Slam sparingly, at best, unless you have a Witch Doctor friend who tends to get dogpiled a lot.

Rumble (30 Fury): Deal 155% weapon damage and knockback to all foes in a 45 yard arc.  For the next few seconds, random sections of the arc will tremble for an additional 30% weapon damage to anything in or passing through them.

Rumble makes Seismic Slam into an interesting temporary cone of damage that can impede foes and crush weaker minions without even paying attention.  The duration of the effect is a bit irregular, particularly since it appears as small circles of effect within the area afterwards, so it’s not totally stable.  However, in a crowd-control situation, the very instability of it can be immensely useful.  Just don’t rely on it as a sure thing.

Strength from Earth (15 Fury): Deal 155% weapon damage and knockback to all foes in a 45 yard arc.

Strength from Earth makes Seismic Slam immensely more Fury-efficient, and turns it into a highly useful way of handling multiple ranged enemies at once while still throwing a hit in melee.  The reduced cost makes the effect amazing- as long as you don’t mind the knockback.  Sadly, the knockback can still easily send things out of the area of effect, so the ability to re-apply it isn’t as awesome as it could be.

Cracking Rift (30 Fury): Deal 255% weapon damage to all foes in a 42 yard line.

Cracking Rift is probably the most useful rune for Seismic Slam, despite the fact that it reduces the area of effect from a cone to a line.  This is because it pumps up the damage so far and drops the knockback- and also doesn’t stand much chance of accidentally sending something you want near you flying out of your reach.