questions/ Rate the poor man gear for t3h barb o.O

[Sober_Irishman69]

yea, im really much more poorer (is that a word? o.O) that i thought... but i want to make a WW barb since they look sweet, especially with the WW graphic in 1.10. First barb in 1.10 too... i read the WW guide, and basically i was wondering...

1) is doomie good enough for a WW barb? a shael hits the first BP, its got 40% more life and 6ll, good dmg as well.

2)armor? i have choices like shaft, but i was also thinking prudence as well, but i cant find an etheral 2 socket armor. -__-

3) skill charms or max dmg charms? i have like 4 warcry charms, but should i use max dmg charms (left over from .09) for more dmg?

the rest of the gear looks like:
helm: 29ed/5min/9str arreats (o yea... go .09 titans ^^)
gloves: havent decided... seems like i only have... ik gaunts o.O
boots: travs
belt: siggards (.09 nos)
armor: dunno
shield: whistans or spike thorn, bother are pdiamonded
ammy: +1 barb/4ll/10 all res/13str crafted ammy
rings: raven/manald(<--- no ml...)
weapon will be doomie till.... i get more advice lol

it all looks good from my point of view, does anyone have answers for me? and suggestions/flames are welcome :D

-Sober

[Omikron8]

Alright a few suggestions

Do not use ed/max or ed/min jewels in armor/helm/shield. They are bugged and give far less damage than intended.

Armor use duress. It will cost you an UM rune to make but the crushing blow, open wounds and defensive mods are worth it; that and an UM rune is cheaper than the Mal for prudence.

Amulet: Highlords, there really is no substitute and should be cheap to obtain

Rings: Raven + Manald works good for my polearm ww barb

Belt: Tgods or Verdungo's, both are cheap but i prefer tgods for the strength and light absorb

Boots: Travs all the way, nice to not see a gore rider fanatic for once

As for your weapon dilemna i'll be blunt. If you are determined to be sword/shield AND whirlwind I would strongly recommend to NOT pick swords. There are so many cheaper choices in the other weapon classes that reach the final whirlwind breakpoint (-35 for one handers) and are inexpensive:

Death Cleaver (Even a non-eth one, put an ED jewel in for more damage)
Razor's Edge
Baranar's Star
Butcher's Pupil (Upgraded)

just to name a few.....

Unless you have a BoTD with duped runes or some crazy rare ethereal colossus blade with lots of ED+IAS you WILL struggle in hell with a whirlwind sword barb. I have always believed that the combination of shout+battle orders makes shields pretty obsolete for barbarians as long as your defense, life and resists are good.

Edit - As for charms, just hordes any small charms with life, max damage or resists. Same with large vita charms, sharp grand/large charms, etc. They will aid you more than any skill charm can. A physical damage character should always concentrate on damage/life/resistance charms instead of skill charms.

[Adaianu Steelwind]

"Amulet: Highlords, there really is no substitute and should be cheap to obtain"


This is untrue, Highlords doesnt do a great deal for a ww barb. Ias is ignored, hes prolly got maxxed mastery so the crit strike is so/so and +1 skills is easy to get. Id go with maras on a WW barb, or a crafted/rare barb ammy.

Drop the shield and the doombringer will work fine. You dont need no stinking shield! Duress is in fact an awesome armor, and I would recomend gore riders over war travelers for any barb. Adding 10-15 damage compared to open wounds and crushing and a bit more crit? Doesnt even come close.

my 2 cents.

[Omikron8]

Oh really?

Deadly strike is king for a barbarian and at level 90+ the amulet adds over 30% of it. I know the IAS is ignored but the lightning res helps a lot in Baal Runs. Mara's is definitely a caster amulet with the +skills and resistances. A barbarian without insanely rich weapons needs all the damage sources he can get and highlords is one of the best sources.

As for war travs the damage increase isn't just +15-25. It adds to the base damage of your weapon so is multipled by strength, skills, might aura (merc), etc. This can easily add +200-400 damage to your attack. You can then further multiply this damage increase with deadly/critical strike. The use of highlords also eliminates the need for goreriders. Open wounds doesn't really become a force until you hit level 90 because it depends on character level, and i doubt that a 10% chance is going to make a world of difference.

15% Crushing blow is pretty much insignificant in hell as # of players and physical resistance will likely render it to double digit damage at best.

Of course in the end this is a matter of opinion but in my experience in hell on last ladder season with my whirlwind polearm barbarian, highlords+war travs helped me a lot more than goreriders + *insert skill/res ammy here*.

A level 20 mastery adds 21% chance critical strike so i don't see how a 30% or more increase in deadly strike is "so/so", if anything it is a huge difference in killing speed.

[Adaianu Steelwind]

My only arguement is this, deadly strike and critical strike are not added. So it isnt that much of an addition. It wont give him 50% double damage it gives him 2 seperate chances for double damage that are about the same odds. But I can see your view also, it's preference. But keep in mind +2 skills ups his mastery, his damage, his AR, his resists, his run speed, defense, and life more then 1 :P I think people overlook skills on barbs a bit, my old frenzy barb had lvl 45 frenzy and it was fun lol.

As far as crushing blow, it has the most damage potential of any attack (I think) a flat chunk of life removed from lets say.. Hell baal. Since using the doombringer his damage is suffering as you say, crushing blow is sure to help quite a bit. It's this reason I say gores with duress over war travelers.

Just offering the guy some views.

[spencerjrus]

its really sad how high of dmg you need in 1.10 to kill as a baba.

[Omikron8]

its really sad how high of dmg you need in 1.10 to kill as a baba.

My whirlwind polearm baba in first season used a BoTD eth great poleaxe to hit 10k whirlwind with stuff like steelrends, highlords and a might merc. He also had duress for the crushing blow. The sad part is that in 5+ player games in hell worldstone the monsters stilll put up a serious challenge (in terms of staying alive). My chance to hit was around 80% and lots of monster packs still took a half a minute or so of whirling to take down a handful of enemies. So all i can say is that YES the damage equipment and weapon required for decent SOLO killing speed in hell difficulty beyond a one player game is just crazy.

[mstrnicegui]

I'd have to say that ww isn't nearly as quick a killer in pvm as people make it out to be. Crushing blow helps a lot, but even with that, my conc barb was killing almost as quickly with similar gear. I kill at very similar speeds with most of the barb builds I try. It's not horrendously fast like a hammerdin, but a barb has so many viable builds it's fun to play them.

[Sober_Irishman69]

ok, i see the importance of a duress armor... yes, i missed te fact that there was crushing blow on it as well... hmm, i guess ill use that.

as for hte wep.... i have 5 pts in sword mastery already >.< and im lvl 12 and rushed to a5 norm... i guess ill just have to go with it and see what i can pick up :p

-Sober