Immortal King's Will sockets

[SoulSkorpion]

I need some advice, here. I've just found the Immortal King's Will with my Paladin, and I've noticed that it comes with two sockets. I'm not very experienced with making Barbarians, so I don't really have any idea of what to stick in the sockets. Before you say "well, what do your current Barbs use? What do you need?", I don't really know, since I don't have a blunt weapon barbarian (the weapon with IK's set is some kind of maul.)

Basically, I was wondering what sort of stuff people stick in their barbarian's socketed headgear. I mean, I can think of stuff which would help, but I'd like to put in the best stuff I can, seeing as these things don't grow on trees. I assume there's something more useful than simply two perfect sapphires :)

[Superhal]

ed/max jewels usually, but some people customize it with other stuff based on their builds.

if it is perfect (40 mf,) throw two perf topz in it.

[Grandar King of Trolls]

ed/max is bugged and doesn't work anywhere except weapons. ed/str is better (40/9 is perfect).

And since the will is barb specific, I'm assuming you are going to make a barb? And since it isn't that great of a helm (compared w/AF), then I assume you are going to make an ik barb? If so, I suggest ww. So remember that ias only works in weapons for ww. So the two sockets in the ik maul should be ias items so that you can get 30% more and hit the last ww bp. I suggest 40/15's (if you can find them) or shaels or ??/15's (if you can't).

Speaking of which, where in the world do people get all these jewels? I roll like crazy and get squat. Maybe I can trade pruby's and pskulls for some. Those are the only things I don't roll jewels with. </rant>

[SoulSkorpion]

/me gets out the Diablo 2 Jargon Phrasebook...

Ah. Yeah, I'm going to make a barbarian for it. I don't particularly want to make a whirlwind barbarian (actually, I was thinking mostly into iron skin, shout and concentration). Does increased attack speed help significantly for slow weapons like mauls, or is it better to simply accept that it's always going to attack slowly and play around it?

Oh, bear in mind that I don't have the rest of the set (yet) :)

[BaNiSeR]

for IK barbs the best bet is WW.

im on my seccond IK barb now, first died at 74 :P and ive heard nothing but good things from other IK whirl-till-ya-hurl barbs. and those that have done non WW IK barbs said its not very good at all

[Shanksie1337]

I'll agree with the above posters - i love my IK WW barb, plus he looks sexy.

2*Shael the Maul, there are loads of threads about IK WW build.

[squigipapa]

See, I use ww and conc. pretty much 50/50, I always whirl into a crowd, and then run around conc'n everyone left after the whirl. I always conc bosses. I always conc single monsters, champs, uniques etc. I honestly coulden't play the barb without both skills, however maxing ww and 1 pt in conc is good, your conc dmg will be as high or higher than your ww dmg anyway.

[m1rage]

Although my IK barb is ww, I would imagine that Conc barb would be a bit tougher, especially since you have no shield and mauls are fairly slow to start with. It's definitely do-able, just going to be a lot tougher than a ww barb. Even at 86, sometimes aura champs/bosses can nearly kill me with careful ww, so I imagine it would be a lot tougher if you're surrounded.

Keep in mind this is only if you plan on using IK maul.

Unless you have the full IK set, most of the pieces of the set are pretty worthless (especially the helmet). Since the IK armor is tough to find/trade, I would probably just stick with mace/shield if you plan on going conc.

[WackenOpenAir]

Very simple: I wont use WW in hardcore.

And to the guy who said his IK barb died first time at 74:
You cant even wear IK at 74, so it isnt an IK barb yet. Also, dying is something you are supposed to NEVER do, for many players there can be no second time.

[Grandar King of Trolls]

Playing HC is a matter of personal preference. If you want to play an IK barb, I understand WW is the most fun way to go, and it is the way I am going to go with my IK in training. I also understand that WW isn't overly safe and you stand a good chance to die. A mid WW iron maiden from an oblivion knight = death. But so can lag and various bugs in the game.

If you want to stay alive, then I suggest a conc barb. If you want a conc barb, I suggest you follow Hal's guide and not use the ik set at all. He has explained at length why it is better to use a shield with that build, and I agree entirely. My (lvl 86) conc barb owns all, but I miss WW all the same. And to be honest, the ik set isn't THAT hard to put together unless you are being a 1.10 purist and refuse to use 1.09 equipment. My ik barb to be is only 40, and already I am recalling the olden days of whirling. It's fun, pure and simple. I feel like such a complete newb running around with my bonesnap, but it is soooo much fun. :)

[WackenOpenAir]

Playing HC is a matter of personal preference. If you want to play an IK barb, I understand WW is the most fun way to go, and it is the way I am going to go with my IK in training. I also understand that WW isn't overly safe and you stand a good chance to die. A mid WW iron maiden from an oblivion knight = death. But so can lag and various bugs in the game.

If you want to stay alive, then I suggest a conc barb. If you want a conc barb, I suggest you follow Hal's guide and not use the ik set at all. He has explained at length why it is better to use a shield with that build, and I agree entirely. My (lvl 86) conc barb owns all, but I miss WW all the same. And to be honest, the ik set isn't THAT hard to put together unless you are being a 1.10 purist and refuse to use 1.09 equipment. My ik barb to be is only 40, and already I am recalling the olden days of whirling. It's fun, pure and simple. I feel like such a complete newb running around with my bonesnap, but it is soooo much fun. :)

Yeah, you are in a totally different world.

[Grandar King of Trolls]

Yeah, you are in a totally different world.


HC vs SC? Yes indeed. Or was that a flame? :scratch:

[Superhal]

i'm having very good results with shout+ik (12k defense, under 15% to hit for most non-bosses) and it seems to be just as good as having a shield (except obviously vs elemental attacks.)

so a typical conc barb is pretty safe. the lack of shield would affect zerk barbs more.

[Xiamet]

The great thing about the IK set is that with 3 anya quests and 1 point in Natural Resists (with the IK's inherent skill bonuses) you're at maxxed resists in hell, which will help you tank most elemental attacks.

And even so, if you're getting a bit overhwhelmed with a multitude of elemental attackers, there's always the switch, where you can have your shield and eat it too...slap on a dual perfed diamond moser's for your switch and your resists remain high and you can block those elemental attacks. Conc away with your Nord's til the heat's off, and then switch back to IK Maul and Whirl away the rest.

Though I find that the only times I'm overwhelmed by any elemental attacks enough to force me to need a shield would be vs Gloams...and then, a shield may not be enough. This is where Howl/Taunt comes in...

-X

[Grandar King of Trolls]

i'm having very good results with shout+ik (12k defense, under 15% to hit for most non-bosses) and it seems to be just as good as having a shield (except obviously vs elemental attacks.)

so a typical conc barb is pretty safe. the lack of shield would affect zerk barbs more.


Good point! :thumbsup: I'll still whirl because I don't play HC.

[SoulSkorpion]

Thanks for the advice, peoples :)

I'm not going to go whirlwind (why? Don't wanna. *pouts*). So I'll mostly be using concentrate and all the defense-boosting skills. If my defense is very high (so I'm not having to beat the enemy back in order to not take damage, like with a zeal paladin), does increased attack speed really make all that much difference, or should I just go for damage?

[Ezail3]

If you are planning on using a maul and your going concentrate then IAS really doesn't matter, considering mauls are still relatively slow even with more ias. Just focus on dmg: 2x ed jwl your maul and ed jwl the rest of your equipment for dmg bonuses.

If you wanna use a maul why don't you just make a fury druid? fury gives mad ias + lot's of dmg. heh :cheesy:

[SkylineFanatic]

I say u shouldnt put topazes in the ik will..., i mean.. y do u need the mf unless u arent gonna mf.., even though any mf is better then none at all... If your not gonna mf with your ik barb ( i suggest u dont ) , Put 2 um runes or ber :thumbsup:

[Dodgydave]

ed/max is bugged and doesn't work anywhere except weapons. ed/str is better (40/9 is perfect).

Could you explain how this is bugged? Obviously it's in the max damage part if ed/str jewels are ok. I'm wondering because I was about to throw a 37/11max jewel into the helm and are now seriously worried about wasting it.
Would I be better going with straight ed jewels if I dont have ed/str ones?

Thanks

[egervari]

Lots of things work, although it's expensive. Since you'll have pretty much everything you need with the ik set (attack rating, leech, etc.), there are only a few things that you could possibly need. For instance, IK only gives 20% physical damage reduction, so you could use some more. Also, the set doesn't protect you completely from being frozen either (only half freezing duration). So, you could cham the IK armor to give you "cannot be frozen" and put two ber runes in the helm (giving 16% more pdr, giving 36% total). Then just use a +2 barb ammy with leech and strength and bk rings.

[Superhal]

Could you explain how this is bugged? Obviously it's in the max damage part if ed/str jewels are ok. I'm wondering because I was about to throw a 37/11max jewel into the helm and are now seriously worried about wasting it.
Would I be better going with straight ed jewels if I dont have ed/str ones?

Thanks

in .09, max damage in sockets added to the base damage of the weapon, and then went through all the multipliers. getting 150+ extra damage from 15 max in your armor was pretty common. i believe this was the "bug", and they fixed it in .10. now, it (i have heard, haven't checked it myself) adds after the multipliers.

imho, added ed is a waste on the ik set, because of the extremely low base damage of the maul itself (@300 max.) in practice though, it acts as a much higher damage wep because of the "hidden" dam to demons/undead and elemental damage.

[Dodgydave]

in .09, max damage in sockets added to the base damage of the weapon, and then went through all the multipliers. getting 150+ extra damage from 15 max in your armor was pretty common. i believe this was the "bug", and they fixed it in .10. now, it (i have heard, haven't checked it myself) adds after the multipliers.

imho, added ed is a waste on the ik set, because of the extremely low base damage of the maul itself (@300 max.) in practice though, it acts as a much higher damage wep because of the "hidden" dam to demons/undead and elemental damage.

So just being technical the ed/max in armour isn't bugged now it's unbugged which makes it less effective than it used to be. Is that right? I suppose ber's would be the way to go but since I dont own them thats a no go. CBF can easily come from a ravenfrost. So I'm sorta outa ideas, I suppose I'll go with a couple of plain ed. jewels untill I think of something better.

[SoulSkorpion]

in .09, max damage in sockets added to the base damage of the weapon, and then went through all the multipliers. getting 150+ extra damage from 15 max in your armor was pretty common. i believe this was the "bug", and they fixed it in .10. now, it (i have heard, haven't checked it myself) adds after the multipliers.
That's a bug? Aw crap. Well, that explains why my paladin was doing so much more damage with +tomaxdamage jeweled armour than 47% enh dam armour. Actually, I was just about to ask whether it would be better to put +todamage stuff in the gear than to put enh dam. But if it's really a bug, I won't do it.

But either way, damage is the way to go, right? Don't need to put resistences or life steal in?

[Superhal]

from what i've seen, enhanced damage won't help much as the base damage on the maul is so low, and, in practice, the damage is so high anyway. you will already kill nearly everything in 1-2 hits. it's impossible to kill something in less than 1 hit.

imho, good sockets are:
tir runes or +mana per kill jewels, great vs phys immunes + zerk. zerk only costs 4 mana, so 1-2 tirs will cover you.

p topazes if the helm is near perfect (40 mf.) this would give a total of 135% mf.

um runes, if you don't want to have nat res (although with the +5 skills from the set, you could easily get all the res you need with only 1 pt.)

hel rune, if you can also hel the maul (not a ww barb.) the maul and armor have almost the same str req, so being a ww barb locks you into the 230 str req. however, you are already saving all that dex, so it seems to me a small sacrifice to put in more strenght.

ed and/or max is not bad, but other classes could use them more.

[EndTheory]

I ended up putting 2 shael in mace and ias jewels everywhere else. With the 25 ias set bonus and either a cats eye or highlords you will have 170 total ias which allows you to reach 11 frames and works quite well. As someone mentioned this is for non-ww skills.

[Herald of Doom]

2*shael the maul, unless you have ed/ias or usefull mod/ias jewels. Like someone said before, the dmg from the maul is kinda low, so %ED jewels don't help as much faster attacking. Remember, more hits over time is also "adding" dmg. I'm gonna use 34%ed/+ to life and a plain 39% jewel in the helm (cheap yet effective jewels) and a 38%/+6str jewel in the armor (effective and expensive). You don't really wanna waste an UM, 1 point in Nat res will cover all the res you need, and most people don't have ber's to put in a cheap helm like IK. Most people who have Ber's tend to use them for Enigma's ^_^. And even if you would like to use Ber if you're on Ladder as I am, you'll have a hard time finding a Ber, rest assured ;)

[Ezail3]

I ended up 2x shaeling the maul as well but im WW IK. I also put 2x p-rubies in the helm +76 life was that a waste ? should i hel it and put ed jwls instead? I also have a 30ed/10 dex jwl in the armor.

[Superhal]

for ww barb, 2 shael is good. you can improve with 2X 15 ias jewels though with good 2nd mods.

everything else is up to you. imho, what this thread has shown is that you can socket just about anything into the helm/armor.