Eth upped Ribcracker. Make your build in here.

[Gimmershred]

Hey all,

this ladder i got my hands on an ethereal upped ribcracker and although it only hits the 6fpa break with whirlwind i am probably going to build a ww barb with it.

This weapon is all about style so i want to see how much style everyone in the barbarian forum has since i haven't posted much in this forum yet.
Tell me what kind of barb you would make and what gear he will use. Let your imagination roam free and let go of those cookiecutter thoughts.

Mine is currently equipped with a nightwings and a silks of the victor for an incredible sexy blue barb look. But i haven't started building a real barb for it yet, so i am curious what you all think is the perfect mix between style and effectiveness (maybe even wanna do some casual pvp with it).

Happy building around this sexy staff :laugh:

[Hp_Sauce]

Fortitude r/w Armour, for some reason I think ~600% Enhanced Damage (200-300 from staff & 300 from Fortitude) & 300% Enhanced Deffence (100 from staff & 200 from armour would be sexy. 20% chance to cast level 15 Chilling armour would be gravy too. If all the monsters froze while you were WWing through them they wouldn't be fighting back much. Also I think a barb running around with Chilling armour swirling around would be the sex.

A Pride r/w Polearm on your merc would be fun too, for the level 16-20 Concentration aura. Just to make sure you have a little extra damage. Might as well make it a Might Aura Merc as well.

Not much to kill the PI's with on this build though, I suppose 1 point in Zerk would get you by. You could stick a Dream r/w helm on him too, for an extra 600ish lightning damage. You could swap out the Pride Polearm for an Infinity in this case, to help increase the lightning damage, but Infinity is a bit Cookiecutterish.

Just need some resists and LL from your jewelry, gloves, and boots and your good to go!

Honestly I'm not sure if Crushing Blow works with WW but if it does, you could stack up on that some more too.

Thats what I'd build If I was rich with high runes and Items! Alas, I am not!

-hps

[Terenas]

perfect mix between style and effectiveness.
I think that such a concept is blurry and difficult to define at best.
While I once built some 'fun' builds back in the previous patches, I acknowledge that 1.10 changed all this. As far as style is concerned, my experience suggests me that _now_ a bit of it here and there can make your character look somewhat original, but I fear that centering on style only is a pretty effective way to make your character only viable for idling in channel.
If one were to posses enough single-mindedness to embrace such a daunting task, though, I think s/he would generally witness a more challenging game experience. :smiley:
(maybe even wanna do some casual pvp with it)
Good Luck.

@hps: I do not think that chilling armor freezes enemies. It only hurls an ice bolt to them. (and that causes a lot of problems)
On the other hand you suggests hr-involving gear...I might suggest to use the hrs to make some useful rw ?

Why not using a Tal's Armor (purple hue) and helm ? Not very original but nice resists.

[Omikron8]

zerk + warcry

[inanefedaykin]

Stun + warcry with gangel and guils.

[unnamednewbie]

I'll try to keep the stuff cheap; cheaper = any old item...

Stats:

Str: Base of what you need, or 200 for a nice round-off.
Dex: Base of what you need (want others to see your gear, right?)
Vit: rest
Energy: None

Skills:

(+prerequisites)
20 shout
20 battle orders
20 concentrate (or leap, for a laugh)
20 berserk (or leap attack, for a laugh)
1 ww

1 increased speed, increased stamina, iron skin, natural resistance
1 point into each warcry skill
rest into Iron Skin, or one point into each weapon mastery for goof-around swapouts

If you really wanted to ww, you'd choose faster weapons.

Gear:

Helm: Delerium (for style), Dream, Kira's, Crown of Ages
Armor: Fortitude (arcane)
Gloves: Dracul's Grasp, Soul Drainers, Lavagout (easy to find)
Boots: Gore Rider, Nats, Infernostride (for style)
Belt: Nosferatu, String of Ears, Dungos
Amulet: Highlord, Mara's, Metalgrid, Rising Sun, Cat's Eye (really helps), Crescent Moon
Ring: 100+AR/leech/resists rare rings, Carrion (for style), Wisp (for style), Ravenfrost, Dwarf Star
Ring/Amy: angelics
Charms: Resist/FHR/fast movement sc's and anything decent like low btorches and/or anni's

Whatever it is, make sure you have plenty of leeching going on.

Prebuffs:

Two spirit swords on switch for shout/bo, or a demonlimb/spirit sword for chant and extra AR.
Treachery armor for bonfire-activated fade.

Merc:

Act 1 Faith, Act 2 might/blessed aim Pride. I'd personally go with Act 1 Faith if you aren't partying with a zealer.

Armor: Shaftstop, Gladiator's Bane, Chains of Honor or e-Fortitude
Helm: Dream, Rockstopper, Stealskull, Blackhorn's Face, Crown of Thieves or Andy's Visage

Strategy:

Hit things until they die. Make use of auras, curses, and especially dedicated chanters.

[Damric]

Make a bash/stun barb, and definitely keep the all blue look (tyraels or nice rare armor, perhaps a tiara so you can see blue facepaint).

20bash
20stun
20bo
1-20leap
1-20shout
1-20mace mastery
1 in 1pt wonders.

You could call it a Blue-Monk or something.

[ZappaFan]

I used a ribby & then upp'd it for my IK barb until I was able to actually equip all the IK gear. I love the sound a ribby makes when you're wacking stuff with it so I thought I'd toss that out there. Only shame about using a ribby on a barb is no benefit from any mastery... still love that sound tho. :)

note: I've seen it posted somewhere that mace mastery works with a ribby but I've honestly never believed that. it's a staff, not a mace.

edit: forgot to mention I was using Conc (doh). WACK!!

[Kordova]

i was under the impresion staves took mace mastery.
Eth is ok last bp is better, if it were i, i would try to get a non eth upp it, then sheal it, thats deliverin all your CB/DS/OW that you might have altogether more often instead of slightly more dmg on the weapon.

Go ww its fun, pvp viabuility is low but not out of the question

[struikje]

I'd go titan on it. Whirlwind with points in warcry :)

Mace masterie most deffinitely works with it.

[ZappaFan]

Mace masterie most deffinitely works with it.

Has somebody actually proven this somehow? I tried to find a credible source for this information and the only thing I could find was people saying that it did, but not really any sort of statistical evidence (such as somebody actually testing it out or finding it in the game code, etc).

[Kordova]

Wc is only usefull if its fully synergised stay away from it

its ez to test acctualy get yer ik baba hold a sword and check yer ar, then hold a staff if yer ar increases its using mastery

[ZappaFan]

Wc is only usefull if its fully synergised stay away from it

its ez to test acctualy get yer ik baba hold a sword and check yer ar, then hold a staff if yer ar increases its using mastery

OK now I really feel stupid. Yes, it's easy to test, I did, and it has been unequivocally proven to me once and for all (me eyes that upp'd ribby and ponders... :scratchchin: ).

Yes indeed, Barb Mace Mastery works with Staves (loud trumpets blare). :crazyeyes:

[Kordova]

haha dont feel stupid most ppl dont even know what unequivocally means...

Still IMEO its best to sheal a non eth upp'ed ribby

[georgegrozev]

Fun fact: Wands also benefit from Mace Mastery (found that out when I myself tested if the Ribcracker benefited from Mace Mastery, a few weeks ago).

[TheDarkSide]

Yes indeed, Barb Mace Mastery works with Staves (loud trumpets blare). :crazyeyes:


This is good to know as my Mace Barbarian has one equipped and I was going to ask this very question ...


:jig:

[Kordova]

hmmm to bad there is not a hevily damaging wand out there...ooo D-wield Dweb and max out psndmg sc's?

[Barloc]

hmmm to bad there is not a hevily damaging wand out there...ooo D-wield Dweb and max out psndmg sc's?

Funny you should mention that since I believe the OP actually made that build as well, somewhere....

[georgegrozev]

hmmm to bad there is not a hevily damaging wand out there...ooo D-wield Dweb and max out psndmg sc's?

Lets not forget Trang-Oul's Claws and Bramble.

[Avatar of Anubis]

I can say that I played around with this build myself and it ended up a lot stronger than expected. Since CtC effects don't work with WW, I ended up using Soul Drainers as my gloves with the ribcracker equipped.

I understand that everyone goes crazy for Fort armor, but I had a much easier time in hell using Duress. Everything seemed to go down a lot faster with that. Another good option is good ol' Shaftstop. Since you don't have much in the way of dr, it'll help take a lot of the heat off of you. CoH would probably also rock, but I don't have one to test this out. I forge-rushed like crazy to cube up a zod & upgraded from the eth ribcracker to an ebotd archon staff, so that's where all my efforts went. Once I did that, I switched back to Duress and Steelrend gloves for some CB. So far, it has worked out beautifully. I have very few problems, and it's surprisingly good for PvP. Apparently most people have no idea what to expect from a barb with a staff.

Oh, and yes; Mace Mastery affects staves. I waited until I had the barb's ribcracker on to start putting points in, and the damage shot up when I finally did.

[Kordova]

thats only 30 dr tho for the price of a low duress with better effects in the armor...
Is OW affective with blunt weapons?
and At what point is Dr affective? i know 50% is max but when do you see the most noticable returns?

Yer right tho i had an lld singer that, when playing with higher life players, used razorswitch, lol Purple_stickman was his name

i still stand by trying to deliver as much cb as possible

[Avatar of Anubis]

Haha. "Only" 30% dr? It's certainly true that duress is a phenomenal armor, in many cases even better than the overhyped fortitude. Even so, the point of shaftstop is that a ww barb using this ribcracker already does plenty enough damage and clearly has a lot of crushing blow going on in the first place. I understand that more never hurts, but this is a decision to be based on playstyle. It may feel too risky for some people to ww with no shield without the protection that shaftstop offers.

For others who prefer more offense, duress is a great choice. The cold damage is nice. Not really necessary since you should have a raven frost on this barb, but still nice. A smidgeon of enhanced damage, good resists, and the additional crushing blow are awesome.

I recently got unfathomably lucky and snagged a Tyrael's from the ancient tunnels, and have taken to using it on my staff ww barb. I put a shael in it, to supplement it's lack of fhr; and that's also working out very nicely. The "rest in peace" mod is a pain since he can't really use find item with the armor; but if that's not a concern then Tyrael's is a very solid choice. If you happen to find one or are comfortable trading for one, it's an option worth exploring.

Based on the mods given by the armors, I don't have a single doubt that both fort and CoH would be amazing for this build as well. I'm not as big a fan of fort as most people are, and I haven't been lucky enough to find another Ber to make a spare coh to test either one of them on this build; but I see no reason why they wouldn't work great. Also, I recommend travs for boots. That may seem random, but the damage they give is a tremendous help for this guy. You likely have enough cb, so gores probably aren't needed; unless you just like having more.

[Kordova]

honestly i would drop the raven altogether and cham my guilles, if this were pvm only i would probobly go w resists over Dr IMO its more deffensive considdering ranged elemental attacks are the biggest thorn in my side, The ar/ml/ll ring, as ar not being a problem due to my Baim merc using lololo tombreaver Ofcourse

[Avatar of Anubis]

Wow, stick a cham in a guillaume's helm? That's very expensive. With the exception of the Tyrael's, I'm referring to things that a casual legit player will have access to. I myself don't trade for anything except keys, so stuff like a cham to just pop into a guillaume is beyond my reach. But then, I'm also a big fan of Arreat's to use on just about any barb. The mods it offers are just phenomenal all around.

The OP never said if they are ok with trading for stuff like high runes, or even if they have the wealth to do so; so for the sake of we who don't have high runes falling out of the sky; I tend to offer cheaper options to the default stuff most others will give.

In any case, this barb build will work out just fine with no high runes at all. Unless the ribcracker is eth, of course. Obviously you will need to zod that. Other than that, this is a very cheap and effective build that can tear apart just about anything from a PvM standpoint. Ribcracker is not intended for pvp, and you'll likely get crushed. I can tell you personally that people will have a lot of nasty things to say automatically if you hop into a duel game with a barb wielding a staff. Mine gets taunted all the time, but people generally change their tune pretty quick.

Regardless of all that, just decide if your defensive problems come from the physical or elemental side & decide from there. Remember that you can socket a shaftstop & toss in an um or whatever else you like.

[Kordova]

zod in an upped ribby is an expensive way to go as well, i mean after all wasnt it you that mentioned forge rushing and cubing to zod, Being the most expensive way to go, all you neede to do is cube to an hr and trade for zod... :P. yer right if this were a budget what should i do thread i would surely go for a more affordable armor, huh tyreals? really your refering to tyreals . not only it being a ladder item only its one of the BEST non r/w armors in thye d2 world Whats the average price of t-might? Cham is 1HR anyone can afford 1 hr nomatter how poor they might be. G-bane is more to the budget liking. since you have CBF covered(only use for ravens in pvm) you can have the helm for a tasty rare jewel. like i have heard and said many-o-times Arreats is soo pre anni-torch, BUT IF ANNI AND TORCH ARE UNAVAILABLE ARREATS IS BEST]

Wealth is just a matter of lazyness. all it takes is one frenzy baba to run all keys(inexpensive) trade the keysets for hr, Then aquire uber gear(VERY expensive20+ hr) and uber the crap out of the game, Avg. cost of torch 4hrx 5 torches= 20Hr in a 5 run average, Last time i ubered i got a 19/20 ptorch..guess how much that went for?

Adams Budget ribby build(excluding anni-torch)
Upped non eth ribby~sheal'ed

G-bane/shaft~P`diamon or p-ruby i prefer ruby/Since gbane is basicly worth an um DURESS IS BUDGET

Blood Crafted belt assuming ow works with Blunt weapons If not String/IK-im currently uding 67l/27str/5%ow belt for pvp

Blood crafted gloves make sure its atleast heavy bracers and has tasty mods if not, Ik if yer using belt, venomgrip will get u by, Dracs suck as pvm ww babas go

Arreats~um'ed if u can afford my fav is still pruby~a nice circ or rarehelm is sexy if you are using ik gloves, and ik belt, then ik healm is almost ifnot better than Arreats pending on sockets

Gores~ gores are nice cheap and everywhere, if you really search for it you can get them from NM mephy or even free from a person on d2

Rings/ammy~ What are you missing? The rings should include AR/REZ/LL/ML/Stats-if no g-bane the raven is required
Amulets should have Skills/Rez/stats

Charms~imo not all that important pvm but focus on rez if yer lacking, and dmg/life/MANA

going this route you have up to 45%dr/up to 90%cb/60allrez(resist all only factor calculated 15 from duress)/up to 43%ow and the offensive power is increased w guilles helm

The only changes that would be made if you have anni and torch is guilles helm

This helm is my favorite item in the game 30%fhr/35%cb/15%ds add a 40/x/x rare jewel and you have the best BVALL helm in existance lol
using this helm even opens more choices like orphans goves and belt, granted v-grip and string would be better but u get the extra bonus of 35 to life from the set. but thats budget to the max and late hell you would be hurting

[Avatar of Anubis]

Let's try to keep this friendly, shall we? We're just offering suggestions, and frankly I really don't appreciate how accusational that last post of yours sounded. Yes, sticking a zod in an eth up'd ribcracker is already expensive; I'm aware of this. I didn't do this myself, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work. I mentioned hell-forge rushing to cube up to a zod, not cube any hr and then trade for one.

There are some of us on b.net who actually like to work a little for our high runes, not take the first chance to get our hands on a dirty duped one.

Also, I believe specifically mentioned that I was UNFATHOMABLY lucky in getting a Tyrael's to drop. I also specifically said that should someone else get one to drop, or if they are comfortable trading for one (which obviously implies they are ok with trading in the first place); then it's worth exploring. It's not like I said, "Use Tyrael's or die".

I guess I can kinda see your point about Arreat's helm being "pre anni-torch", but that seems a tad narrow-minded to me. There's a lot of people who simply lack the means to get these items; which yes I'm well aware that you already addressed this in your post. Just the same, I see no real reason not to use it for most barb builds. The resists are phenomenal, FHR is beautiful, and the 20% AR boost along with the str/dex boost is just amazing. That saves quite a lot points that can go into vita, instead of dex to boost that AR.

I'm also not so sure about raven frost's only PvM use being the cannot be frozen mod. It gives a veritable ton of AR, plus the dex boost gives even more. In my experience, WW barbs kinda suck on the AR side of things & Arreat's + Ravenfrost really helps out a lot. I suppose if you're somehow set on the AR front, then I certainly agree that guillaume's would be a great choice.

Oh, and good call on bringing up Gladiator's Bane. I honestly hadn't even considered that, but it would be a great way to supplement CBF if you choose not to use a raven. Plus then you wont' have to cham that guillaume's. Perhaps a shael would be in order, in that case; for the FHR.

[Kordova]

Hey man, im as freindly as it gets, no personal attacks at all, im merely giving my personal criticisums where i see they can b usefull in the game, I was not accusing anyone of anything. On the other hand i dont quit like be made in to sometype of greedy Hdin. i work for my items, keyrunning and trading was what is possible. I am simply offering the fastest most time freindly way of producing Hr's witch if ribby is non-eth is Not needed..frankly in my build plan Hr's are 100% irrelivant. this is not an "i need help thread" as mentioned, its a "build bouncing idea thread", meaning make a build and see what ppl think of it, criticisum should be expected. hell if i flamed every time ppl said stuff about my spelling i wouldnt be allowed on ANY internet forum. I like yer "Get a job" avatar...cute


about the ravens. The stalagmite only requires 35base dex this is esily aquired through rings and ammy, they only cost gold for a chance at an item worth 8times ravens pvm value. rings can also come with AR, up to 120 i belive. since this is pvm mainly, atleast my build is, your best freind is your merc, and in most cases B-aim is the barbs Greatest Offensive partner. 10k ar is satisfactory for pvm. Frankly ar is not an issue with the merc. the cold dmg is infantesimal a speck on the HP raidar, mana is not important enugh to keep it and the 20% cold absorb is really ho-hum. So you said "if you choose not to use ravens" and this is a suggested build idea i did choose not to use it. keep in mind he is not asking for help, or that anyones opinoin matters to him.

im not saying tyreals was being forced down their throat just as much as im not forcing guilles on anyone, and being narrow-minded would be fallowing suit and using arreats in this dangerously cooky cutter society, as mentioned style is a factor. This helm has 30%fhr, 30% comes from armor and 50% comes from weapon 110% fhr is unnecissary, you only need 7%to reach the most usefull bp, so 40/7%fhr jewel would be nice, but there is no damage motion made when yer whirling or hit my arrows, so IMO more fhr in this build would not be usefull Um for the rez maybe but i think a rare jewel, esily found, would benefit my build more.

450th post!!