Getting Caned in NM - What's wrong with this build

[davidcallan]

My wife and I have been playing DII & LOD since they came out, mostly soloing local.
Recently we've moved to the realms when 1.10 came out, and been solo-ing a barb. We're now NM, and in the Canyon of the Magii.. and we're being OWNED!..

What have we done wrong in our build, and what can we do to correct it?
please have a look at our build, and tell us what's wrong - at the moment we're pinned down in act 2, and cannot continue.
Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Callan and Winter.


Char: Barb, level 52.
Fire/Cold 75
LR 63
Poison:73

Str/Dex/Vit/Energy
137/138/74/29

Defence:671
Stamina:208
Life:407
Mana:186

Weapons:
4socket Battle sword, Fast attack
16-34 damage, +20-32 fire, +16-24 cold.
Culwen's Point war sword, Vfast attack
14-35 damage, +1 skills, %20 hit recovery, +60Attack rating, Poison length -50%

Armour:
130Def,
+15% attack speed, +15 damage (max), +100AR, 27%MF

Helmet:
38 defence.
+103 cold damage, 8%MF, LR/FR/PR (%) 23/30/30

Gloves:
Hailstone Claw Demonhide Gloves
CR +20%, 1/2 freeze duration, 16%MF

Belt:String of ears
6%life steal, 108Defence, damage reduced %12, magic damage -11

Bootzes:Wraith track demonhide boots.
+104 mana, %16 MF

Charms:
+25 poison/5 seconds.
+9 damage (max), +55 AR, +21 life
+2 dex, +2 mana
+16 stamina
+1 damage (max)

Warcries (the ones we use - all 3 in a trio)
Battle command (lvl3)
Battle orders (lvl2, lvl3 when BC performed first)
Shout (lvl5, lvl6 when BC performed first)

[essojay]

Welcome to the forums!

I'd say your equipment simply isn't able to keep up with the monsters.

You might want to do some boss runs (Normal Meph, and Baal mostly) to find better items.

There are also nice people who are willing to give away good items, so be aware of that too.

[acceleration turkey]

holy cow, you need way more life. i usually have around 2000 life at level 50 or 55.

pretty much any time you make a barb, all 20 points from level 24 to 44 should go into battle orders. there are very few builds out there which do not use max battle orders, and the ones that dont are highly specialized with elite gear. so, put new skill points in battle orders as you acquire them, i recommend.

also, your vitality is way too low and your dex is way too high. if you want to hit monsters more easily, cast battle cry on them. even at low levels it cuts defense dramatically (over 50%) and can give a character with sub-par equipment a fighting chance against classy melee monsters. your dex and vit should be reversed...your dex is so high i would almost recommend remaking the character completely. you simply dont need that much dex, but you really do need those points in vitality, especially if you are playing from scratch and arent handing down good gear to this barb. aim for 300+ points in vitality, and around 3500 life total.

[davidcallan]

holy cow, you need way more life. i usually have around 2000 life at level 50 or 55.

pretty much any time you make a barb, all 20 points from level 24 to 44 should go into battle orders. there are very few builds out there which do not use max battle orders, and the ones that dont are highly specialized with elite gear. so, put new skill points in battle orders as you acquire them, i recommend.

also, your vitality is way too low and your dex is way too high. if you want to hit monsters more easily, cast battle cry on them. even at low levels it cuts defense dramatically (over 50%) and can give a character with sub-par equipment a fighting chance against classy melee monsters. your dex and vit should be reversed...your dex is so high i would almost recommend remaking the character completely. you simply dont need that much dex, but you really do need those points in vitality, especially if you are playing from scratch and arent handing down good gear to this barb. aim for 300+ points in vitality, and around 3500 life total.

Thanks for that - erm.. sounds like we might have to pension off old Thaggie - it seems sad though - we've been through so much together....
We beefed up dex, as we had trouble getting decent hits on our targets..

Oh well..

Any other pearls of wisdom before we start out afresh??

Thanks for the quick replies, btw...

Ooroo
Callan and Winter.

[acceleration turkey]

Thanks for that - erm.. sounds like we might have to pension off old Thaggie - it seems sad though - we've been through so much together....
We beefed up dex, as we had trouble getting decent hits on our targets..

Oh well..

Any other pearls of wisdom before we start out afresh??

Thanks for the quick replies, btw...

Ooroo
Callan and Winter.

the generel rule of thumb is not to beat your head against a wall trying to solve a problem, since there is usually a simple solution.

if your damage is too low and your attack rating is too low, strength and dex are not the answer. you can get more damage from a better weapon, and you can get better chance to hit from items and from battle cry. your contributions to strength and dex should only be necessary to equip your items. even then, you can pick a low requirement weapon family like axes and low strength armor like light armor / mage plate / archon plate so that you can devote almost all stat points to vitality.

the other reason to have dex is for blocking, but it appears that you are making a dual weild barb, so blocking is not going to be an issue. if you were using concentrate or berserk with a one handed weapon and shield, high base dex (150) is acceptible, but that is because a block rate of 75% substitutes for the life lost by having to spend so much in dex. i prefer high life to block, because not everything that can hurt you can be blocked.

in contrast, the only way to get good life is to commit to putting points in vitality...there is no piece of gear out there that gives +1000 to life, but there are tons of very high damage and armor-cutting tools available to you.

so, let your skills and equipment work as your offense, and let your stat points work for staying power. the marginal returns on damage from strength and attack rating from dex just arent worth it considering how far points in vitality can take you with battle orders.

good luck if you start over again or not. the guides in this forum have good general information as well.

[Gothrius]

My wife and I have been playing DII & LOD since they came out, mostly soloing local.
Recently we've moved to the realms when 1.10 came out, and been solo-ing a barb. We're now NM, and in the Canyon of the Magii.. and we're being OWNED!..

What have we done wrong in our build, and what can we do to correct it?
please have a look at our build, and tell us what's wrong - at the moment we're pinned down in act 2, and cannot continue.
Any help would be most appreciated.



One thing that has happened with Barbarians between 1.09 and 1.10 is the same thing that has happened to physicians between 1950 and 2000: there is a much greater need for specialization.

You haven't said how you've allocated your skill points (or have you?), but the difficulty of the higher levels of the game really do require that Barbarians specialize on a particular focus in order to achieve end-game viability. While there are some equipment fixes that will allow you to continue to play in mid-game, unless your skill point allocations are aimed at a particular type of build you may find that your guy just isn't very viable at end-game no matter what you do.

I'd spend some time thinking about what kind of Barbarian you like to play the most:

- a meat shield that has such defensive might that it seems like he rarely gets hit?

- a wild frenetic puissant frenzied mauler that dashes around at blinding speed with reckless abandon?

- a whirlwind specialist

- a thrower

Respectively, these types have been given different build names: the Concentrator, the Frenzy Build, the Whirler, the Thrower. There are other builds available, but these probably constitute the major build types.

Once you've decided the kind of Barbarian you want to build, I suggest you consult one of the guides available in this forum for tips on how to allocate skill and stat points, and what equipment to look for.

Halciet's Concentration Guide is a good guide for a first 1.10 Barbarian, and I highly recommend it.

[mstrnicegui]

Weapons:
4socket Battle sword, Fast attack
16-34 damage, +20-32 fire, +16-24 cold.
Culwen's Point war sword, Vfast attack
14-35 damage, +1 skills, %20 hit recovery, +60Attack rating, Poison length -50%

My guess is that you spend a lot of time swinging at enemies slowly picking off their life in small chunks. It sounds like you spend so much time trying to kill a monster that you make yourself more vulnerable to the rest who have plenty of time to pick away at you. I can see that you have a lot of elemental dmg to help you out, but the unfortunate circumstance is that barbs benefit most from physical dmg as that is where all the skill multipliers count towards. if you could get weapons that have closer to 70 max dmg your killing speed will likely be increased by more than double due to the enhanced dmg bonus from your attack skill of choice.