Staff Barb :: Possible?

[MalVeauX]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone bothered to use Insight on their barbarians, in a non-ultra-twinked fun way. The cheapest of the runeword, and the ulimately large bonuses in some departments (and dazzling in game effects) just make this runeword all too useful for casters on their mercs, but little used elseware I find. Anyhow, I was wondering if it would be possible to put some use to it.

A Sorc, with a staff such as Insight makes no use of the massive damage bonus, that a melee character would. I thought maybe a Paladin would be a good idea, but then figured it was silly because the meditation aura is wasted on him since he already has easy access to it. Then I though to myself, what about a crazy Barbarian with a staff who uses a single-target attack like Bash, Conc or Zerk? What if he had a Might/Meditation Merc following him around? Would that work?

So I looked at the staves and figured, the elites are pathetically easy to use. They have huge damage stats and extremely low requirements. They have poor range, but I'm not planning on WW'ing around anyways. The Eldar Staff and Shillelah look to be good to go, with 4 sockets max and the Shillelah being the fastest possible with the 4 sockets, so I figured I'd start there.

So what do you think? Is a massive damage "stick" worth beating things over the head with? Is meditation cool enough looking and fast enough to simply forget mana problems and just use an attack that you find fun and just wail away with it? There's little investment other than time, so why not right? Perhaps the faster cast rates would go well with a few silly warcries?

Anyhow - just thinking about a fun idea. The staff barb with meditation. A "stupid" shaman so to speak, who beats things over the head with the little glow stick.

Cheers!

[Pucho]

I'd say go for it! You don't loose anything, and you can have quite a few hours of fun with it.
I'd try some kind of hybryd warcry/melee build, to take advantage of the meditation aura.
Just a note, both shilellagh and elder staff have base speed [0]

[MalVeauX]

I wanted to use a Polearm at first, but realised that the requirements and speed of the 4 socket ones, which are obtainable, are ridiculously bad. So the staff was the only option. They're surprisingly good... but simply two handed and without range. Anyhow, it would sure be more interesting than yet another sword ...

Anyhow; here at Dii.net compared to Arreats, it seems the Eldar/Shillelah have a different speed, unless I totally read it incorrectly. Anyhow, I prefer the Eldar staff due to look, but when it comes down to speed, I might take the Shillelah for as much "boost" as possible.

I really can't decide which skill would be more enjoyable though:

1 - Bash :: The knockback sucks in my opinion, but the idea of it is just cool... It's also useful right away. Too bad the damage is very limited.

2 - Concentration :: Of course this skill is the #1 contender to be used. The damage is high and it synchs well. But it's oh-so-used, yet not used, thanks to there still being WW'ders out there.

3 - Berserk :: Another contender. Very cool option, but only available at level 30. It's synchs are at least casted types, which use mana, so that may lead to the meditation being used ultimately. With a blood tap wand on switch, I should have life/mana covered while I dish it out. And with the very low requirements of the weapon itself and the zero defence rating while using zerk, I could easily simply go base everything and pump vitality until it's over 400 for the massive health idea. Zerk and a few charms will have the AR high enough to hit things even in hell really (plus the huge bonus from Insight... huge!).

---- Others? Nothing else really stands out.

Currently thinking:

#1 - Berserk vita "insightful moron with a stick"
#2 - Concentrating shaman; Maybe getting some defense on this guy. Big man with a big stick.... Walking Tall (and not that crappy "teh rock" walking tall B.S.).

Can't decide! :)

[mastermind]

bezerk is a good due to the high dmg but due to the fact u are 2 handed u will have no shield so the minute u use bezerk u will have problem with crowd control as u will get swamped by monsters.

Unless u use howl or even a warcry for stun to help crowd control

I would say try Whirlwind as it is good for crowd control plus u will have higher dmg than bezerk in the long run.

[the boss]

HEYY NAJ'S SET HAS A NICE STAFF, check it out the naj's weapon has pretty nice average damage and you can complete this set and BE UNIQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also
Try Silence archon staff
Ebotd Archon staff (this weapon MUST be eth)
Naj's staff
Insight elite staff(like you said) :xmas9: :xmas30: :xmas10: :xmas23:

[Pucho]

Anyhow; here at Dii.net compared to Arreats, it seems the Eldar/Shillelah have a different speed, unless I totally read it incorrectly. Anyhow, I prefer the Eldar staff due to look, but when it comes down to speed, I might take the Shillelah for as much "boost" as possible.
The arreat summit have displayed it incorrectly for ages. You can check it in Dii.net or www.d2data.net.
I'm currently making a Berserker Sorc with this stick:

Passion
Elder Staff
'DolOrtEldLem'
Two-Hand Damage: 244 to 283
Durability: 28 of 30
Required Dexterity: 37
Required Strength: 44
Required Level: 55
Staff Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x97ad36a9
+205% Enhanced Damage
Adds 1-50 lightning damage
75% Extra Gold from Monsters
25% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to Berserk
+1 to Zeal
Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
Hit Blinds Target +10
79% Bonus to Attack Rating
225% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
Level 3 Heart of Wolverine (12/12 Charges)
Socketed (4: 4 used)

[MalVeauX]

Ahh great; so the Elder Staff is just as fast. Perfect. I love the look of the Eldar staff.

-- Unfortunately I won't touch WhirlWind again. Tired of it, for years. I'm thinking conc right now. Zerk is cool, but I do want to actually be able to live a little bit.

I actually don't want to use sets and all that stuff. I like using the odd items that simply "shouldn't" be for a lot of characters. A meditation barb with a weird stick that normally should never see combat is a must ;) So insight elder staff it is! Maybe a Fort armor and some crafted gear for the rest!

Cheers! :)

[nickedoff]

Umm.

I made a Monk (staff barb) with my ebotd archon staff. He used Whirlwind and Serk.

A lot of LLD chargadins and fury druids use Insight for the Critical strike.

You could substitute the Fortitude for Peace. It'll add to your crit strike further.

[Varion]

There is a simpler way actually. Why not try the Ribcracker? Sure the dmg as a quarterstaff isnt all that great, but upgraded to a stalagmite it's pretty formidable. And it's strictly for a concentrator. +100 def AND +100% def gives it more defence than with most shields even at maxed ironskin. The def with it falls back a bit if shout is maxed too but it's no more than 1-2k. And for a whooping effect it also has great attack speed, as well as 50% crushing blow. I've actually tried this as the main weapon for my concentrator barb, and if you pair it with Guillame's face for the extra Crushing Blow... works TOO well if you ask me lol. You should be able to breeze everything up to hell with no more than 1-2 strikes. And consider this: I never got my quarterstaff to a stalagmite... which reminds me ;)
Well Good luck with it. Tested and approved in my humble oppinion!

P.S. no the AR is no problem at all if you invest even a bit in battle cry.

[MadPika]

(this post is kind of dead... last post 30th december... but anyways...)

This idea is great, I'm doing one currently on HC, all Vitality.

My "skill-plan" (this is a for fun build, and I don't accept to find ANY good elite items):

Berzerk - 1 point (Synergiezed)
Conc - 1 point (Synergiezed)
BO - MAX (for life and damage to concentrate)
Warcry - MAX (For damage and stun, so I can use zerk)
Howl - MAX (For Zerk synergy, and warcry synergy)
Mace mastary - MAX (THIS WORKS WITH STAVES!!)
The 1point wonders (shout, battle command, natural resist(well, I'll probably put some points in this) faster r/w, grimward, leap attack, battle cry and so on)
preskills - You can do the math ^^

A quick estimate gets this to like 90 skillpoints, which would be like level 80, right? A bit to high for me, but we'll see about that.

So basicly this is a warcryer with some heavy melee capabilities. Only need 1 point in each offencive skill (havn't really tried this one yet... ^^ Am currently building, level 15, I'm a slow pace player, so it'll probably take a while, not even hoping for hell ^^) with the synergies maxed, they get a decent ed %, and with mastary maxed... *drools*

First going to put in all preskills, putting left overs in mace mastary til I get Battle Orders, then max it (battle orders) while opening other skills, to increase both life, mana and damage of concentrate. when this is done, I'll probably focus a bit on warcry and howl, putting some skills in them to get the stun duration and damage while still keeping the mana cost down, then we max mace mastary, and then warcry, and lastly howl.

This can be customized for personal taste.

Insight seems quite nice (never really had it, only seen on this site ^^) with ed, meditation, critical strike and the rest... Meditation takes care of mana issiues, staffs having really low req, enabling base str. The theme of this build is endurance, having lots of life, meditation-mana and nice damage.

The basic strategy is, run in, warcry, battle cry, concentrate away, and berzerk when needed.

Haha, just wanted to tell about my thoughts... Ended up as a really budget build ^^ My first build then..! *nice battle win theme* Whatcha think? Should I get it a own thread? (I'll do so)

//MadPika

[xpumafangx]

I didnt read the other posters, if what i say go with what they say well.

ebotd archon staff, and cheaper eth upped ribcracker
On a concentrater or berserker build using warcry for stun.

You could even use warcry for damage and use a elited serpent lord with a jah rune for mana leech 100%. You should add 1 point in bash or some thing.