View Full Version : Zerker, PvM, cheaper gear type build....
Never really made a true Zerker and I feel like doing one, give me something besides casters to run with in Baalz and CS runs and stuff like that.
Has anyone done the Upped Headstriker Zerker???
Now I realize its not the best item but its one of the few I have and the DS with PMH makes me feel like i could also use this as a DC killer. Technically speaking with the 100% DS eventually we are looking at a hypothetical 300 ED +the max per lvl or better weapon every hit so it sounds pretty good there.
Range one since it is Zerk shouldnt be a problem or is it?
Any other otpions for a "cheaper zerker" that you can suggest? I am really moslty looking at this guy being in mainly 2-5 player games and being able to smoke the average monster pretty well with maybe 1/2 -1/3 of the bosses being a struggle. Hell I tend to get bored with Godly so if there is no struggle he may collect dust!
Toss out your ideas........OH ya, right now my main source for AR will either be Angelics or Hsarus, or both as well as the fairly nice Zerk AR anyway.
PhatTrumpet
04-08-2004, 17:51
I tried upped Headstriker on a Conc Barb and didn't really like it. The DS is overkill since you can get some from Highlord's, Guillaume's, Gores, and even Weapon Mastery. The PMH isn't necessary when you're 1- to 2-hit killing things, and it doesn't come with any IAS.
What I really wanted to try was an upgraded Butcher's Pupil. The higher %ed and base damage of a Small Crescent compared to a Conquest Sword would easily make up for the lack of +max per char lvl. Shame I never got to try it out.
Well I like zerkers, so I always go two-handed with them.
I Like the IK set, or at least the maul, that shouldn't be hard to find.
Upgraded butcher's pupil works, so does upgraded bonesnap <-- that is real ghetto gear since you often find a bonesnap in normal while leveling, and you can upgrade it later when normal damage doesn't cut it anymore.
You won't go through the game very fast with a zerker anyway so you don't _have_ to have teh über 1337 itamz.
Since it's one target at a time and you have zero defense and no block, you have to go slowly and rely on your merc - the shout synergy come in handy there since with decent armor for your merc your shout will send his defense to ridiculously high amounts - you will only have trouble with him with a really nasty boss. So he's tanking, and any high damage weapon is good enough.
I like mauls since my stat points are better spent in vita than in dex (no block frees quite a lot of stat points).
I have an upgraded bonesnap in europe hcl I can hook you with if you come to europe (think I kept it on a mule, I'll check if you're interested).
Feel free to pm or whisper if you need.
Oh and range doesn't matter that much since it's one-on-one fight anyway, I find I often can hit monsters with Ik maul (range 3 if I'm not mistaken) from behind my merc while he takes the beating for me (or more exactly doesn't take it - max shout give my poorly equipped merc [duriel shell and darksight helm] around 9K def - it's easy to attain 15K+ with high def armor).
does Might influence Zerk since it is Magic? I suppose maybe either Defiance, HF or Barb Merc might be best if Might doesnt do any good. Maybe the "healer" merc might be a good choice?
i have a good high End Butchers also.
My thoughts with the Upped Headstrikers is for one, I dont have highlords, Gores, and even at this time no Gullieums. I totally intend to start him wiht the Headstriker and decide much later what to do abotu upping or changing. I also intened to get Weapon mastery last so changing weapons can be done wihtout lost skills.
Also, with the DS on Headstriker I am even considering only a 1 point mastery so the +skills I have gains there as Mastery doesnt help a lot. this might free up points for other things, like maybe Warcry or Battle cry , might with extra skills be able to get a substantil stun lenght wiht a low end mastery.
Still just kind of kickin things around ......
1. Yes, might works on Berserk
2. Someone talked about getting high ac... Berserk = 0 ac
3. Before you talk about equip, I suggest you decide: Shield or no shield?
There have been several debates about the zerk/shield scenario in your and my time STINGER, which are probably worth researching. Some of the following points are things I remember from them...
4. When deciding upon weapons, look into the fps breakpoints. Off-weapon IAS effects berserk attack speed.
5. Choose a merc wisely. If you go 2H weapon, you may have all the damage you need, but lack defense (no shield), so choose a freeze merc. Or perhaps go might merc/shield. OR complete overkill of 2H + might merc. I have seen successful zerkers do this. However, they were mostly solo players and stayed in controlled environments (never did public games). You could do an analysis of your damage vs. monster hitpoints to see what merc you would want...
6. Since your attack is interruptable, Faster hit recovery as well as fast shield block (if applicable) may be worth investigating.
Just some thoughts,
Lum
_OrpheusPrime_
04-08-2004, 22:34
Cheap and effective, 2h Zerker. Use Howl for crowd control. 2h allows you to use just about any cheap exceptional uniq axe/club/pole and still deal out a helluva lot of damage.
PhatTrumpet
05-08-2004, 00:43
Plus, with a two-hander you'll have tons of points left for vitality, thus increasing your life to ungodly amounts and greatly reducing your chance of being sent into hit recovery animation. As a one-hander, you'll be going into block recovery and hit recovery quite a bit, which makes you whiff a whole lot more in 1.10 compared to 1.09 (if you're just holding down the mouse button, your attack directly after a hit or block recovery will pretty much always miss for some reason... one reason melee is all but dead in 1.10).
I've always wanted to try a Staff zerker barb.*drools at upgraded ribcracker*
NightShade
05-08-2004, 02:41
The lovely thing about the ribcracker eh?
It makes great 2h barbs.
Between that and WarCry + howl, you can make a very very effective 2h zerker. Guilmes + Rib = 85% cb = Owning quite effectively.
I would love the Ribcraker also........just dont have one, but since I will go mastery last, and upgrade and the last possible moment anyhting is likely to be my final weapon.
I made an upped Ribby WW Barb on Ender and he smokes.
_OrpheusPrime_
05-08-2004, 09:06
I would love the Ribcraker also........just dont have one, but since I will go mastery last, and upgrade and the last possible moment anyhting is likely to be my final weapon.
I made an upped Ribby WW Barb on Ender and he smokes.
If you go mastery last you will more than likely have AR problems.. just a heads-up. My 2h zerker did that last season, ended up using angelic for a while to make up for it.
2. Someone talked about getting high ac... Berserk = 0 ac
5. Choose a merc wisely. If you go 2H weapon, you may have all the damage you need, but lack defense (no shield), so choose a freeze merc. Or perhaps go might merc/shield. OR complete overkill of 2H + might merc. I have seen successful zerkers do this. However, they were mostly solo players and stayed in controlled environments (never did public games). You could do an analysis of your damage vs. monster hitpoints to see what merc you would want...
Just some thoughts,
Lum
2.That's because zerk= 0 def that shout becomes useful: High def was meant for the merc: it IS nice to have a reliable tank when you have zero def yourself. Wouldn't be worth it it it wasn't a berserk synergy, but come in handy since you'll be maxing it anyway.
5. Overkill is good. Or maybe that's juste me. :lol:
You have no def anyway, you WILL get hit, some you might as well get those 150+ points in vita.
CreLuSioN
05-08-2004, 12:59
i couldnt kill **** in hell till i putted my duel gear on gf storm arreats max dmg/life armor max dmg charms lol so i think low budget in hell cant be done unless your leeching all the time
i couldnt kill **** in hell till i putted my duel gear on gf storm arreats max dmg/life armor max dmg charms lol so i think low budget in hell cant be done unless your leeching all the time
Sure you can but you won't be really fast.
No 99 running here.
Ah Hell, my current WW Barb with Butchers kills fine wiht his lvl 2 Zerk in 2-4 player games. I am not looking to build a 8 player killing machine as I am no where near having that kind of gear. The whole goal is to be able to howl away the minions and beat the pissout of the boss faster than he can regen!
Once I get to that point I will work on improving the killing speed.
BTW, Andy was so kind to give meHighlords last night.
Also, I had every intention to use Angelics (3) pcs for a very long time. Seeing as how the D only being 265 or 285 not being a big issue with most of the time being at 0 D due to Zerk, but those (3) pcs give some really nice things and not just AR.
My only real issue is end game weapon, hell I could be using some freaking pole before it is all done, it all depends on what falls!
TheCerberus
05-08-2004, 17:53
Berserk may work but on my Asia Berserker it was the most boring thing I had. More so that a FoH pally. I tried to make it as complicated as I could, timing war cry with my defense duration, lining up monsters with taunt/howl and picking them off, but it was too boring. I only played in parties to give BO and be around other people, and if noone was on, I shopped Ormus. Very boring skill IMO.
Berserk may work but on my Asia Berserker it was the most boring thing I had. More so that a FoH pally. I tried to make it as complicated as I could, timing war cry with my defense duration, lining up monsters with taunt/howl and picking them off, but it was too boring. I only played in parties to give BO and be around other people, and if noone was on, I shopped Ormus. Very boring skill IMO.
Classic Zerk and Xpac Zerk are two toally different things really. The ability to have many +skills as well as having a 200-500 1 hand, or 350-1100 two hand damage vs maybe 100-150 1 hand or maybe 250-300 2 hand in Classic. Not to mention DS, CB, PMH, Max, OW...etc mods and also having many ways to boost the speed where in Classic you really only have Glooves or Twitch and Wrap.
My current WW Barb kills faster wiht his Butchers with lvl 2 Zerk than my lvl 75 Conc Barb did with maxed skills and synergy in Classic from last season.
It is actuall pretty simple with items to get probably lvl 30 Zerk or at least 26-28, and hell the Butchers not upped is already 158 or higher I dont remember, slap on Gores or Gullieums and have a bunch of CB, Highlords DS, or use the Headstriker for 100% DS. There are just soo many ways to do it and we wont even discuss some of the poles and thier potential.
An Upped Ribby is like 450ish or better with 50% CB, prett low reqs and really quick from the get go, add a Shael and its faster....etc I think you can see the potential. Ribby is also a nice fun weapon as it makes that lovely hammering sound that very few weapons make. I always loved those Ribby Bears and Wolfves in 1.09.
Besides, if you make a maxed out WWer and decide to run Baals you are going to have to resort to that low lvl Zerk or leech most the time anyway so why not max out the Zerk, have a lvl 1 invested WW for the hell of it and a big arse weapon and be able to smack on things and do damage anywhere?
NightShade
05-08-2004, 18:49
Barbs only have a few things going for them :
Life
Stun time
Damage.
Life from BO, stun from WC and damage not from the wepon, but from the wepons mods.
My low geared zerker would look like this :
Guilmes - 15% crit 35% crush +str
Bloodfists
Deaths belt (frozen zerker= doomed)
Twitch - Ias
Goblin toe
Res/AR rings/ammy
Rib Cracker
Dual bo sticks
Ahhhh the loverly "thok" of the ribcracker. Aesthetics are the way to go for melee....find a weapon that makes a pleasing sound and go make some music...I think thats what i always like best about the freezealot...really nothing interesting in playing them but they make nice sounds that come in rapid little bursts when your zealing...
Ah, shout for Def on merc. Good idea. My barbs have always been the tank, desperately trying to keep my merc alive, so that's a new concept for me to grasp. :P
Sounds like we're gearing toward 2H berzerk. I would recommend a maul barb. There are some easy ways to get POWERFUL mauls. I rank them as follows:
1. Upgraded ribcracker (falls under maul mastery, right? Dunno if in price range)
2. IK maul (not too difficult to get and oh so awesome)
3. Upgraded Steel driver (from lvl 26 to lvl 99! :P )
4. Upgraded bonesnap
Kudos on the highlord's. That will help a LOT! :)
If you go Highlord's I would reccommend 2x ravenfrost for rings. helps AR lost by angelic and frees belt slot from death's belt. Might be a little high on the price range.
Boots: Sanders have AR, Sigon's does too (maybe with helm and gloves? IAS/MF/Def/AR on helm and boots)
Belt: I would have to say Thundergod's is a must with all the gloams... dunno if that's in the price range. Maybe Mavina's or Credendum next...
Helm: Sigon's (see above), Guillame's is good. Arreat's definitely takes the cake here though... make that a long term goal :P
Armor: I personally use Lionheart on almost every character I make. Cheap and oh so effective. There are some IAS armors that would probably help, but check to see where you are with IAS Breakpoints with the other equip.
Gloves: A matching pair to one of the set items listed above? Can't think of any others I like for this build off the top of my head.
Some thoughts,
Lum
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