WW Barb - about Phoenix and Beast

[BLOK45]

1) In PvM:
What is better to use
a) Grief + Phoenix (350-400ed) or
b) Brief + Beast (lvl 9 fana)?

2) In PvP:
Phoenix or Stormshield?
If I wanted to use Phoenix, I would have to spend more pts on dext for max block instead of in vita, would have to somehow make up for lost 35% red dmg (i.e. CoA 2xBer), but I would have 350-400ed.
Is it worth it (assuming I had the runes for all that)?

Thanx!!!

[Zalcitabine]

For PvP:

I use both; i use a ber'ed SS for all melee/normal dueling. I have enough dex for max block with it. Against casters where i dont need damage reduction and/or block i use phoenix. I have around 50% chance to block with it but it doesnt matters since these attacks cannot be blocked (hammers, sorceress spells, bone spirits..). The +to max resists of phoenix is especially handy against sorcs/lightning javazon too from what i can tell. Hope that it helps.

Here's the rest of my setup:
Arreats 199ed (um'ed)
Highlords or Angelic
Dusk enigma 1305 def
Grief 400/40 :cool:
Ber'ed SS or Phoenix monarch (371ed)
Rares gloves: 20ias/11str/13dex/29 fire resist/8 light resist
Arach 113ed or Tgods 195ed or verdungos 15/38 (used for the vitality bonus)
Raven 249/20
Dwarf star or angelic ring or dual leech rare (for PvM)
Upped gores 205def

I find this to be most versatile: with some gear switch i can have either 25k ar (with enchant) and 50dr, or 85/75/90/75 resists. 20fcr is enough for me.

For PvM:

I would go for the max block/dr of SS, and use another weapon than grief (BotdZ). It isn't that expensive to repair (around 13k of gold when durabilty is at zero) but you have to repair it quite often from what i can tell.

[Omikron8]

you don't need a shield and beast gives a huge AR boost and crushing blow

use beast + grief in pvm

[Zalcitabine]

you don't need a shield and beast gives a huge AR boost and crushing blow

use beast + grief in pvm

I will assume you talk about a grief zerk unless you want to push two masteries. Thats 2 runewords to repair..quite annoying, especially if you think that you will need to reapir them every 10 minutes or so at the speed a barb attack. More hits to the armor/helm/rest of gear= again more repairs.

No need for ar boost in PvM - you will have around 8-10k with maxed mastery/ww and gear. That is plenty, i think.

Good luck wwing through packs of mana burn monsters.

[fredsta54]

Basically if you want to make a pimp barb you have to use these items-

phoenix etheral aegis (monarch? psssh) Redemption is pretty...
ebotd CB - Or Oath in some sweet-*** sword... not balrog blade
Enigma etheral sacred armour
eth upped zod attreats- or other eth zod barb helm (as long as it looks cool)

Owns pvp and pvm.

There are probably many setups that are far more effective than this, ebotd gpa, dual wielding, fort, duress, etc. I dont really care. This is what looks, and plays, the coolest imo. I just cant stand holding a BA... :D


Plz ignore this *useless* advice, unless you want to actually have fun playing d2 again







Fred

[Zalcitabine]

Basically if you want to make a pimp barb you have to use these items-

phoenix etheral aegis (monarch? psssh) Redemption is pretty...
ebotd CB - Or Oath in some sweet-*** sword... not balrog blade
Enigma etheral sacred armour
eth upped zod attreats- or other eth zod barb helm (as long as it looks cool)

Owns pvp and pvm.

There are probably many setups that are far more effective than this, ebotd gpa, dual wielding, fort, duress, etc. I dont really care. This is what looks, and plays, the coolest imo. I just cant stand holding a BA... :D


Plz ignore this *useless* advice, unless you want to actually have fun playing d2 again







Fred

Hehe, i agree, an ethereal gpa looks really silly on a barb, especially if he has some kind of light armor (like dusk/wyrm). Ethereal Cb looks real good too ^^

I am looking to make a barb that will use a botd gpa+scarab fortitude soon. I will go for berzerk + all it's synergies to see what kind of sick damage you can get with this :grin:

I made one ww barb wielding that kind of weapon last season and the damage was into the 10k iirc.

EDIT: just checked it out and the damage would be near 25k, with a might merc equipped with a lvl 20 pride polearm. That means almost 50k in the case of a critical strike.... :evil:

with only 150 str, no +damage charms and no off-weapon ed except fort

[the boss]

PvP, use stormshield, its a shield that shouldn't be taken off, except maybe you can switch off between duels for casters with Sanctuary Trollnest

[Omikron8]

I will assume you talk about a grief zerk unless you want to push two masteries. Thats 2 runewords to repair..quite annoying, especially if you think that you will need to reapir them every 10 minutes or so at the speed a barb attack. More hits to the armor/helm/rest of gear= again more repairs.

No need for ar boost in PvM - you will have around 8-10k with maxed mastery/ww and gear. That is plenty, i think.

Good luck wwing through packs of mana burn monsters.

8-10k ww AR ? Even with level 22 mastery, level 24 ww and dual ravens this isn't going to happen, more like 5-6k even with multiple grand AR charms

Repairing? I actually pick up gold/wand/armors unlike 99.9999%+ of other players on b.net who don't and then whine "OMFG I NEED GOLD FOR REPAIRS"

WWing against mana burners?

1) ww in a circle
2) chug mana pots after each ww, you carry some right ?
3) let the merc tank while you zerk the bastards

[morotsjos]

PvP, use stormshield, its a shield that shouldn't be taken off, except maybe you can switch off between duels for casters with Sanctuary Trollnest
good advice.

edit: ahah will stop posting now ^^

[Dyn]

morotsjos




DiabloII.Net Member
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,337
Looking Leet ;P

[xtc]

Ive asked myself the same question before. I perfer Pheonix in PVM or for the sorb you get, the ED boost's ur ed nicely, but only part that sucks with it is theres no DR.. Unlike the stormshield with 30%DR at BASE, less u ber it or something.
But I go with a Pheonix in PVM.
and SS PVP

Ive never owned a axe barb before.. This is what i think about on the sword barbs.

[Dennis_KoreanGuy]

EBotDZ + Phoenix over ALL in PvM.

[BLOK45]

- I do not use mana pots at all. I carry 4 super healing potions, 4 full rejuv, 4 scrolls of id, and 4 scrolls of tp in my belt.
- For packs of monsters with mana burn I use long ww or ww on the edges of monster packs.
- My merc uses Insight so even if I get mana burned it takes just about 1 sec for me to tp out of trouble (enigma) or to ww through the pack again and refill some of my mana pool.
- My AR is about 6300.
- Just today I managed to make Beast ba and get rid of my worst possible Grief ba in the world (31/340) and trade for a much better one (35/394). Now I'm left with only 1 Um. Looks like Phoenix and Pride will have to wait a bit. :)
EBotDZ + Phoenix over ALL in PvM.
This is exactly what my friend uses and is convincing me is the best. He says that he has tried out all combinations with Botd, Beast, Grief, and Phoenix. But I chose to listen to many ppl here on the forum and go with Grief-Beast for now.

[Zalcitabine]

8-10k ww AR ? Even with level 22 mastery, level 24 ww and dual ravens this isn't going to happen, more like 5-6k even with multiple grand AR charms

Repairing? I actually pick up gold/wand/armors unlike 99.9999%+ of other players on b.net who don't and then whine "OMFG I NEED GOLD FOR REPAIRS"

WWing against mana burners?

1) ww in a circle
2) chug mana pots after each ww, you carry some right ?
3) let the merc tank while you zerk the bastards

Thats funny, my barb has more than 10k ar with only one raven and about 6 ar gcs. I have level 30 or so mastery and ww though iirc. Level 22 mastery is quite low for a end-game barb (since we are talking grief, phoenix and the like i will assume that it is for a end-game barb).

It is not the amount of gold used for repairing that bugs me (even if rws in elite armors cost habitually 50k per durability point to repair). In the case of armors, i usually use the armor till it reach 0 or 1 durability then cube it with a ral. What annoy me is having to visit Larzuk every 10 minutes or less to repair that pesky berseker axe with only 26 durability points..when i could just be playing.

The thing that bug me with mana burn is that ww cost 35+ mana. What it happens most of the time (to me at last): when you get burned you wont notice it immediately (because of lag, unsustained attention or whatever) and then right-click to ww. Instead of wwing you will run to where you clicked, taking some more hits at the same time. Very annoying. Sure, wwing on the edge of the pack helps but you will get burned anyways at some point.

Thats one of the reasons why i much prefer frenzy over ww for PvM. No shield but more damage/ar and less mana cost.

[Omikron8]

yes but frenzy is more fragile due to often being in ITD mode towards monsters

and frenzy requires way too much clicking, a lazy bastard like me just wants to hold the ww button down

[fredsta54]

- I do not use mana pots at all. I carry 4 super healing potions, 4 full rejuv, 4 scrolls of id, and 4 scrolls of tp in my belt.
- For packs of monsters with mana burn I use long ww or ww on the edges of monster packs.
- My merc uses Insight so even if I get mana burned it takes just about 1 sec for me to tp out of trouble (enigma) or to ww through the pack again and refill some of my mana pool.
- My AR is about 6300.
- Just today I managed to make Beast ba and get rid of my worst possible Grief ba in the world (31/340) and trade for a much better one (35/394). Now I'm left with only 1 Um. Looks like Phoenix and Pride will have to wait a bit. :)

This is exactly what my friend uses and is convincing me is the best. He says that he has tried out all combinations with Botd, Beast, Grief, and Phoenix. But I chose to listen to many ppl here on the forum and go with Grief-Beast for now.

wait, ebotd gpa > all weapons for pvm ww (excluding a godly rare)

And if you want to be styling, use a robo war pike :)





Fred

[BLOK45]

wait, ebotd gpa > all weapons for pvm ww (excluding a godly rare)

And if you want to be styling, use a robo war pike :)

Fred
I was talking about botd/grief/beast in berserker axes, not polearms or spears. :) I like my barb to be able to do hell with ease and be good in pvp also. That's why i don't ever use polearms.

[fredsta54]

I was talking about botd/grief/beast in berserker axes, not polearms or spears. :) I like my barb to be able to do hell with ease and be good in pvp also. That's why i don't ever use polearms.

Oh yeah, i forgot ebotd gpa SUCKS in pvp. Jk. Its not as good as grief/beast but it sure does hurt, more actually, the only advantage dual wielding has is more chance of open wounds, cb, ar from fanat, 9 frame zerk, locks into fhr better.... but if you talking about raw damage the ebotd gpa *will* hurt more







Fred

[morotsjos]

Oh yeah, i forgot ebotd gpa SUCKS in pvp. Jk. Its not as good as grief/beast but it sure does hurt, more actually, the only advantage dual wielding has is more chance of open wounds, cb, ar from fanat, 9 frame zerk, locks into fhr better.... but if you talking about raw damage the ebotd gpa *will* hurt more







Fred
Lies, dualwielding always does more damage than any twohander.