Left Arm
17-03-2004, 07:34
Optimal Gear:
arreats face, ber
+2 barb 15+ cast amulet with dex, life, mana, etc
enigma dusk shroud
soj
10 fcr ring with str, dex, life, mana, etc
mage fist
arachnid mesh
imp shanks (or legit equivalent)
heart of oak flail
stormshield, sur
10x warcry gc with life
annihilus, stats more important than resist for this build
9x 17 mana/5 frw
Poor man gear:
arreats with perf saphhire
stormshield with hel
engima
imp shank
magefist
arachnid mesh
heart of oak or wizardspike, if wizardspike socket with fal
2 duped caster rings, 1 + soj if wizardspike
crafted barb amulet with + barb skills and life/mana
10x wc gc with + dex or + life
10x sc with mana
Weapon Switch:
Gavel of Pain martel de fer for pubbie
Wizardspike + 4 eth monarch for private
Ethereal monarch if not enough str
Alternating Gear for specific fights:
4x sapphire monarch (ethereal if low str)
4x ort monarch (ethereal is low str)
T-god
Irathra’s collar/ deaths glove
20 fcr circlet with +2 barb skills.
2 lacerators
+1-3 double throw barb helm with 3x 15 ias
hotspur boots
+3 warcry weapon
+3 BO barbarian helm socketed with deleirum,
extra soj
Stats:
str: base
dex: enough for block
vit: rest
energy: none
Skills:
1 leap
1 iron skin
1 inc stamina
1 natural resist
1 increased speed
20 howl
20 battle cry
20 taunt
20 war cry
20 BO
1 battle command
1 shout
max taunt last.
Breakpoints:
48 is the target fhr break. Arreat + imps (or legit equivalent) reaches 50.
105 is target cast break for 8 frames
200 fcr is buggy and double tele/missed cast/lags too much
63 is too slow.
Suggested hotkey setup:
Left click Leap
right click F1-8 (or choice): teleport, warcry, battlecry, taunt, battle command, battle orders, shout, howl
Comments on skills, stats, and gear:
mana/life added from +energy/vit on items is not multiplied with BO. mana/life added from lvl based mana/life mods is not multiplied by BO. thus base (direct numerical from items, lvl gain, stat points physically put in, quest potions) life/mana is most desirable since warcry barbs will be able to have lvl 50+ BO. for those who wonder, yes, a sur rune in shield adds more mana than wizardspike. at lleast for this build.
Leap gains 0.66 radius per lvl with a base 1.98 yard radius. Reaches about 0.5 screen at 600x800 resolution.
Max taunt last because this has no lvl-dependant pvp benefit.
Place points in the skills with 1 point as soon as you can, after + skills they reach lvl 12-15.
Before fights, equip all +skill items in Alternate gear section and BO for a 50+ battle orders. This will not run out (lasts 10+ minutes), and no need for recast.
Strategy Section
General Stratey:
You will run out of mana quickly, so in public games drink mana potions, and in private games, use the mana regeneration switch with wizardspike + 3 or 4 eth rune shield. To acquire a name lock without appearing to do so, use taunt, then switch skills using hotkeys at will. Always walk vs. attackers which have attack that can be blocked. Also, the gear switching in the specific tactics section are entirely optional and mainly applies to 1v1. The barb works fine without switching anything.
For future reference: the term “desync leap” in this guide refers to the technique of teleporting to a location and clicking leap at the opposite direction on the same screen. This causes the caster to teleport to the destination, disappear from the automap, and reappear a few seconds later at the leaped location. This allows u to “leap” almost 2 screen in distance while also giving you some breathing time. Very useful for attacking/escaping from high damage attackers.
Specific Tactics:
VS Wind Druid: When druid is 0.5 screen away, Leap in place. This causes any minions to be knocked back, destroying ranged-immunity, as well as stunning the druid. Your barb will land at the same time that the druid finishes being knocked back, except now he is disoriented and his minions, if any, are far away. teleport over and spam warcry. If they have bad hit recovery, they'll probably die and not be able to cast. if they have good hit recovery, they can begin casting after 3-4 warcries have connected. Therefore leave the area as soon as the druid is able to cast again. If the Druid teleports on top of you, WALK downward, casting war cry as you go. This makes his minions be stunned or die, and also allows your 10k defense to prevent block locking from the minions. For druids which do not namelock, keep howling the minions and dodging the tornadoes so they become useless and need to be reoriented or recasted. Optimally, the druid should eventually be forced to namelock you, which is an auto-win since the barb can use the aforementioned tactic.
VS Fire druid: wear hotspur, otherwise the armageddon and fissure does way too much damage. Same strategy as wind druid, except fire can be resisted/absorbed. For transportation, short leap, since it keeps you off the ground, and when ur ON the ground, the druid is being knocked back if they’re close enough to fissure (leap radius at lvl 16 reaches ¾ screen) and try to maintain a line of sight barrier such as a rock, or bushes, between you and the druid, so fissure cannot be used. Good enigma fire druids use twister to stun and allow fire to kill, short-leap 1 inch away as soon as u see a teleport animation. The druid will be knocked back on arrival and be subject to a few warcries.
VS melee/rabies druid: Walk away, cast battlecry the first time and warcry the subsequent times. Leap once in a while if they’re substantially faster than you (which usually wont happen unless it’s a wolfbarb or they have vigor aura from teammate). They'll die.
VS Fire Trapper: Wear rising run and they're harmless. Otherwise, wear hotspur and reach the 48 hit recovery breakpoint with small charms or 12 % hit recov GC (since imps/rare boot is gone). Howl the shadow master. Dont bother namelock-teleporting them when they're running, since u'll miss. instead teleport in front of where u think they're going to be and start warcrying, has a much better chance to hit. If you get stunlocked, leap out. Leap is uninterruptible, if they have traps waiting at ur destination, prepare to leap again. 2 mana leap = cheaper than a stack of fire traps, u’ll get out eventually.
VS Lightning trapper: lightning absorb of some sort. Many trappers like to cast their traps all at once, close together, so run/leap around until about 8-9 shots have been fired from each trap. Then use the same teleporting strategy as above; the traps will run out after just 1-2 more shots, and the trapper will waste alot of time/mana trying to recast them. This is when they get hit by alot of warcries, and die. Usually, in a public game, trappers are the lamest of the lame; feel free to use an amp charge on Gavel, teleport over and own them with 3-4 cries, then steal their gold to repair your gavel. In private duels is this one of the hardest fights, try to waste they mana and LEAP, not teleport, around when baiting traps.
VS ww or claw assasin: Walk, howl the shadow master. 6 second casting delay = assassin will give up trying to make more shadow master after a bit. Walk around until they they dragon flight, then walk to the right hand side a bit and battlecry the first time, warcry subsequent times. if they run after you to claw or ww, then leap in place whenever they come within half a screen to knock them back, and then teleport over and warcry, then after 2-3 cries, walk away and warcry them as they chase. Also, leap at them when they're mid-ww, u'll end up at the position u clicked on, they will be knocked back as soon as they finish the ww and you can teleport over and do some warcries.
VS Foh paladin: Wear topaz shield. Dont move in and out since that exposes you to conviction excessively, and as u leave u'll be subject to a couple of freebie fohs. Therefore be as aggressive as possible and break off only if your mana is gone. V/T pallies have smite also and this can be annoying, but usually you have pretty good lightning reists already without a change of shield, and can simply put on a couple grand charms or something, and be fine. The smite will also be less powerful than if the paladin was pure smite, and use the smiter tactics below.
VS smite/zeal/charge: walk away and keep warcrying. leap perpendicular to the charge direction for about 0.25 screen distant and warcry, this both knocks them away, pulls u out of charge-lock, and also gives u an opportunity to yell again. dont forget to use battlecry the first time. Walk or leap around/between puddles, charge paladins hate puddles. Without charge, they’re simply another meleer running after a guy with a ranged attack, and be subject to warcries. If they are vigor-running, leap once in a while to open up the distance. For aggression, walk in arcs in a certain direction, then teleport to the opposite side. Usually this allows for a few free hits. The arcs minimize the change of being charged.
VS Hammerdin: DO NOT namelock-teleport them, you end up on top, which is where the hammers come out. instead, teleport directly to the bottom or left hand side, where its a blind spot. its pretty easy to accidentally click their name the first few times, if u do, leap away immediately. tele wil be interrupted by being hit by a hammer and most likely wont work, causing you to take more hammers and die, so use leap. its best to attack when theres few or none hammers flying yet, dont wait till hes sitting in the middle of a whole field. if they ARE in fact sitting a field of hammers, leap at them; they'll get knocked away and u'll end up in the direct center of the field, free of hammers. The only disadvantage is that they might charge you and knock u into the hammers again, but usually they're so surprised u aren’t dead that they don’t do this.
VS fire/lightning sorc: they guys have energy shield, usually. Put on hotspur/tgod where appropriate, and the 20 fcr circlet if you really must need 8 frame cast due to the loss of arachnid. Run around, dodge the fire balls, then namelock and spam warcry, or teleport to the opposite direction of where they are aiming their shots, warcry twice, short leap AWAY, namelock tele, and spam warcry. the latter method is the best but works best at high skills levels and low lag levels, since on missed step causes fball/lighting to be eaten. For sorcs that tele madly, just try to namelock and warcry, and leap in place when they’re anywhere on screen. If ur lucky the kb radius will catch them and you can tele over while they’re still finishing kb.
VS orbsorc: wear raven frost or sapphire shield or both. Same strategy as above.
VS Blizzard sorc: raven frost wont help, first hit of blizzard is bugged and absorb doesnt work. instead, drink about twenty thawing potions ahead of time ( gives +50 cold reists, +10 max reist, and lasts for 30 seconds; the duration stacks but the resist wont) also wear the sapphire shield. namelock tele and warcry. also, if they’re standing in the middle of a blizzard, short leap towards them in zigzags until u see them being knocked around. At this point, tele over and spam warcry. if u find yourself stuck in hitrecov due to inferior damage, leap away.
VS WW/ Ww throw hybrid Barb: Walk in random directions, leaping when they get close, and battlecry the first time and warcry subsequent times. Just don’t get hit, warcry > ww radius so eventually u win. While they are in mid whirl, leap at them. After finishing the whirl they’ll get knocked back and u get some free cries. Leap around and make the throw barb waste javs, but don’t get hit, they do 13 -15k even on hybrids. Getting hit = bad.
VS Warcry barb: Greet each other warmly and compare ur gear, then talk about how many sorcs you owned that day.
VS Bowazon: Warcry > bow shooting, period, so if you see their bow out, teleport over immediately and start warcrying; they'll lose if they try to tank.
VS Various Javelin zon: Lightning fury is harmless, but plague jav hurts. Wear irathras collar if you want, helps alot; also, if you DO get poisoned, go as aggressive as you can for the remaining duration since u cant get poisoned again. VS charged strike, wear tgods for sure, and keep walking away and casting warcry. since the bolts on charged strike are released BEFORE defense check, the bolts come out anytime they try to poke; therefore maintain a bit more distance between them than u "think" you should, and leap alot to keep them back. warcry when they get close; dont try teleporting on top of them unless your using like full absorb/resist, and while standing still, zons are almost impossible to hit. If you want to go aggressive, use the desync leap mentioned in the general strat section.
VS bonemancer: In a pubbie, use gavel amp charges and namelock-warcry. there, owned. In Private duels, equip barbarian hat with +1-3 doublethrow and the two lacerators. With the 45 ias from hat sockets, and 30 ias from the lacerator, that’s the 5 frame throw break. Open wounds pierces bone armor. While this is a bit deviating from the “warcry barb” theme, it DOES work… 8 frame tele with 5 frame doubelthrow is a very annoying combination. Open wounds does about 250-300 damage on ranged depending on ur lvl, which should be 85+. O yea, if it amps, be sure to take advantage of it. Don’t forget to dodge the spears, and always hide behind a rock or wall when waiting around, since IBS are flying about.
VS poisonmancer: stack antidote pots the same way you would for blizzard sorcs and thawing pots. wear irathras and keep namlock-teleporting; they have weak or no bone armor, and no high damage direct attack, so usually accurate teleporting and lots of antidote pots drunk beforehand + irathras will kill them easily. Another option is to use the throwing switch mentioned above.
Target life/mana is about 5.5k/1.3k, more if u have godly gear. with sage this gets as high as 6500. no, the mana is not deficient, if the correct tactics are used, even if warcry costs 50 mana a cast.
Thats about it, *blobs on USWEST for a fight or questions
arreats face, ber
+2 barb 15+ cast amulet with dex, life, mana, etc
enigma dusk shroud
soj
10 fcr ring with str, dex, life, mana, etc
mage fist
arachnid mesh
imp shanks (or legit equivalent)
heart of oak flail
stormshield, sur
10x warcry gc with life
annihilus, stats more important than resist for this build
9x 17 mana/5 frw
Poor man gear:
arreats with perf saphhire
stormshield with hel
engima
imp shank
magefist
arachnid mesh
heart of oak or wizardspike, if wizardspike socket with fal
2 duped caster rings, 1 + soj if wizardspike
crafted barb amulet with + barb skills and life/mana
10x wc gc with + dex or + life
10x sc with mana
Weapon Switch:
Gavel of Pain martel de fer for pubbie
Wizardspike + 4 eth monarch for private
Ethereal monarch if not enough str
Alternating Gear for specific fights:
4x sapphire monarch (ethereal if low str)
4x ort monarch (ethereal is low str)
T-god
Irathra’s collar/ deaths glove
20 fcr circlet with +2 barb skills.
2 lacerators
+1-3 double throw barb helm with 3x 15 ias
hotspur boots
+3 warcry weapon
+3 BO barbarian helm socketed with deleirum,
extra soj
Stats:
str: base
dex: enough for block
vit: rest
energy: none
Skills:
1 leap
1 iron skin
1 inc stamina
1 natural resist
1 increased speed
20 howl
20 battle cry
20 taunt
20 war cry
20 BO
1 battle command
1 shout
max taunt last.
Breakpoints:
48 is the target fhr break. Arreat + imps (or legit equivalent) reaches 50.
105 is target cast break for 8 frames
200 fcr is buggy and double tele/missed cast/lags too much
63 is too slow.
Suggested hotkey setup:
Left click Leap
right click F1-8 (or choice): teleport, warcry, battlecry, taunt, battle command, battle orders, shout, howl
Comments on skills, stats, and gear:
mana/life added from +energy/vit on items is not multiplied with BO. mana/life added from lvl based mana/life mods is not multiplied by BO. thus base (direct numerical from items, lvl gain, stat points physically put in, quest potions) life/mana is most desirable since warcry barbs will be able to have lvl 50+ BO. for those who wonder, yes, a sur rune in shield adds more mana than wizardspike. at lleast for this build.
Leap gains 0.66 radius per lvl with a base 1.98 yard radius. Reaches about 0.5 screen at 600x800 resolution.
Max taunt last because this has no lvl-dependant pvp benefit.
Place points in the skills with 1 point as soon as you can, after + skills they reach lvl 12-15.
Before fights, equip all +skill items in Alternate gear section and BO for a 50+ battle orders. This will not run out (lasts 10+ minutes), and no need for recast.
Strategy Section
General Stratey:
You will run out of mana quickly, so in public games drink mana potions, and in private games, use the mana regeneration switch with wizardspike + 3 or 4 eth rune shield. To acquire a name lock without appearing to do so, use taunt, then switch skills using hotkeys at will. Always walk vs. attackers which have attack that can be blocked. Also, the gear switching in the specific tactics section are entirely optional and mainly applies to 1v1. The barb works fine without switching anything.
For future reference: the term “desync leap” in this guide refers to the technique of teleporting to a location and clicking leap at the opposite direction on the same screen. This causes the caster to teleport to the destination, disappear from the automap, and reappear a few seconds later at the leaped location. This allows u to “leap” almost 2 screen in distance while also giving you some breathing time. Very useful for attacking/escaping from high damage attackers.
Specific Tactics:
VS Wind Druid: When druid is 0.5 screen away, Leap in place. This causes any minions to be knocked back, destroying ranged-immunity, as well as stunning the druid. Your barb will land at the same time that the druid finishes being knocked back, except now he is disoriented and his minions, if any, are far away. teleport over and spam warcry. If they have bad hit recovery, they'll probably die and not be able to cast. if they have good hit recovery, they can begin casting after 3-4 warcries have connected. Therefore leave the area as soon as the druid is able to cast again. If the Druid teleports on top of you, WALK downward, casting war cry as you go. This makes his minions be stunned or die, and also allows your 10k defense to prevent block locking from the minions. For druids which do not namelock, keep howling the minions and dodging the tornadoes so they become useless and need to be reoriented or recasted. Optimally, the druid should eventually be forced to namelock you, which is an auto-win since the barb can use the aforementioned tactic.
VS Fire druid: wear hotspur, otherwise the armageddon and fissure does way too much damage. Same strategy as wind druid, except fire can be resisted/absorbed. For transportation, short leap, since it keeps you off the ground, and when ur ON the ground, the druid is being knocked back if they’re close enough to fissure (leap radius at lvl 16 reaches ¾ screen) and try to maintain a line of sight barrier such as a rock, or bushes, between you and the druid, so fissure cannot be used. Good enigma fire druids use twister to stun and allow fire to kill, short-leap 1 inch away as soon as u see a teleport animation. The druid will be knocked back on arrival and be subject to a few warcries.
VS melee/rabies druid: Walk away, cast battlecry the first time and warcry the subsequent times. Leap once in a while if they’re substantially faster than you (which usually wont happen unless it’s a wolfbarb or they have vigor aura from teammate). They'll die.
VS Fire Trapper: Wear rising run and they're harmless. Otherwise, wear hotspur and reach the 48 hit recovery breakpoint with small charms or 12 % hit recov GC (since imps/rare boot is gone). Howl the shadow master. Dont bother namelock-teleporting them when they're running, since u'll miss. instead teleport in front of where u think they're going to be and start warcrying, has a much better chance to hit. If you get stunlocked, leap out. Leap is uninterruptible, if they have traps waiting at ur destination, prepare to leap again. 2 mana leap = cheaper than a stack of fire traps, u’ll get out eventually.
VS Lightning trapper: lightning absorb of some sort. Many trappers like to cast their traps all at once, close together, so run/leap around until about 8-9 shots have been fired from each trap. Then use the same teleporting strategy as above; the traps will run out after just 1-2 more shots, and the trapper will waste alot of time/mana trying to recast them. This is when they get hit by alot of warcries, and die. Usually, in a public game, trappers are the lamest of the lame; feel free to use an amp charge on Gavel, teleport over and own them with 3-4 cries, then steal their gold to repair your gavel. In private duels is this one of the hardest fights, try to waste they mana and LEAP, not teleport, around when baiting traps.
VS ww or claw assasin: Walk, howl the shadow master. 6 second casting delay = assassin will give up trying to make more shadow master after a bit. Walk around until they they dragon flight, then walk to the right hand side a bit and battlecry the first time, warcry subsequent times. if they run after you to claw or ww, then leap in place whenever they come within half a screen to knock them back, and then teleport over and warcry, then after 2-3 cries, walk away and warcry them as they chase. Also, leap at them when they're mid-ww, u'll end up at the position u clicked on, they will be knocked back as soon as they finish the ww and you can teleport over and do some warcries.
VS Foh paladin: Wear topaz shield. Dont move in and out since that exposes you to conviction excessively, and as u leave u'll be subject to a couple of freebie fohs. Therefore be as aggressive as possible and break off only if your mana is gone. V/T pallies have smite also and this can be annoying, but usually you have pretty good lightning reists already without a change of shield, and can simply put on a couple grand charms or something, and be fine. The smite will also be less powerful than if the paladin was pure smite, and use the smiter tactics below.
VS smite/zeal/charge: walk away and keep warcrying. leap perpendicular to the charge direction for about 0.25 screen distant and warcry, this both knocks them away, pulls u out of charge-lock, and also gives u an opportunity to yell again. dont forget to use battlecry the first time. Walk or leap around/between puddles, charge paladins hate puddles. Without charge, they’re simply another meleer running after a guy with a ranged attack, and be subject to warcries. If they are vigor-running, leap once in a while to open up the distance. For aggression, walk in arcs in a certain direction, then teleport to the opposite side. Usually this allows for a few free hits. The arcs minimize the change of being charged.
VS Hammerdin: DO NOT namelock-teleport them, you end up on top, which is where the hammers come out. instead, teleport directly to the bottom or left hand side, where its a blind spot. its pretty easy to accidentally click their name the first few times, if u do, leap away immediately. tele wil be interrupted by being hit by a hammer and most likely wont work, causing you to take more hammers and die, so use leap. its best to attack when theres few or none hammers flying yet, dont wait till hes sitting in the middle of a whole field. if they ARE in fact sitting a field of hammers, leap at them; they'll get knocked away and u'll end up in the direct center of the field, free of hammers. The only disadvantage is that they might charge you and knock u into the hammers again, but usually they're so surprised u aren’t dead that they don’t do this.
VS fire/lightning sorc: they guys have energy shield, usually. Put on hotspur/tgod where appropriate, and the 20 fcr circlet if you really must need 8 frame cast due to the loss of arachnid. Run around, dodge the fire balls, then namelock and spam warcry, or teleport to the opposite direction of where they are aiming their shots, warcry twice, short leap AWAY, namelock tele, and spam warcry. the latter method is the best but works best at high skills levels and low lag levels, since on missed step causes fball/lighting to be eaten. For sorcs that tele madly, just try to namelock and warcry, and leap in place when they’re anywhere on screen. If ur lucky the kb radius will catch them and you can tele over while they’re still finishing kb.
VS orbsorc: wear raven frost or sapphire shield or both. Same strategy as above.
VS Blizzard sorc: raven frost wont help, first hit of blizzard is bugged and absorb doesnt work. instead, drink about twenty thawing potions ahead of time ( gives +50 cold reists, +10 max reist, and lasts for 30 seconds; the duration stacks but the resist wont) also wear the sapphire shield. namelock tele and warcry. also, if they’re standing in the middle of a blizzard, short leap towards them in zigzags until u see them being knocked around. At this point, tele over and spam warcry. if u find yourself stuck in hitrecov due to inferior damage, leap away.
VS WW/ Ww throw hybrid Barb: Walk in random directions, leaping when they get close, and battlecry the first time and warcry subsequent times. Just don’t get hit, warcry > ww radius so eventually u win. While they are in mid whirl, leap at them. After finishing the whirl they’ll get knocked back and u get some free cries. Leap around and make the throw barb waste javs, but don’t get hit, they do 13 -15k even on hybrids. Getting hit = bad.
VS Warcry barb: Greet each other warmly and compare ur gear, then talk about how many sorcs you owned that day.
VS Bowazon: Warcry > bow shooting, period, so if you see their bow out, teleport over immediately and start warcrying; they'll lose if they try to tank.
VS Various Javelin zon: Lightning fury is harmless, but plague jav hurts. Wear irathras collar if you want, helps alot; also, if you DO get poisoned, go as aggressive as you can for the remaining duration since u cant get poisoned again. VS charged strike, wear tgods for sure, and keep walking away and casting warcry. since the bolts on charged strike are released BEFORE defense check, the bolts come out anytime they try to poke; therefore maintain a bit more distance between them than u "think" you should, and leap alot to keep them back. warcry when they get close; dont try teleporting on top of them unless your using like full absorb/resist, and while standing still, zons are almost impossible to hit. If you want to go aggressive, use the desync leap mentioned in the general strat section.
VS bonemancer: In a pubbie, use gavel amp charges and namelock-warcry. there, owned. In Private duels, equip barbarian hat with +1-3 doublethrow and the two lacerators. With the 45 ias from hat sockets, and 30 ias from the lacerator, that’s the 5 frame throw break. Open wounds pierces bone armor. While this is a bit deviating from the “warcry barb” theme, it DOES work… 8 frame tele with 5 frame doubelthrow is a very annoying combination. Open wounds does about 250-300 damage on ranged depending on ur lvl, which should be 85+. O yea, if it amps, be sure to take advantage of it. Don’t forget to dodge the spears, and always hide behind a rock or wall when waiting around, since IBS are flying about.
VS poisonmancer: stack antidote pots the same way you would for blizzard sorcs and thawing pots. wear irathras and keep namlock-teleporting; they have weak or no bone armor, and no high damage direct attack, so usually accurate teleporting and lots of antidote pots drunk beforehand + irathras will kill them easily. Another option is to use the throwing switch mentioned above.
Target life/mana is about 5.5k/1.3k, more if u have godly gear. with sage this gets as high as 6500. no, the mana is not deficient, if the correct tactics are used, even if warcry costs 50 mana a cast.
Thats about it, *blobs on USWEST for a fight or questions