IK's Hammer good enough for Hell?

[Smiffy]

Hello all,
I haven't played a barb since way back but just recently i found this huge hammer from the Immortal King's set. Since i've heard that for to do well in Hell as a barb you need a very good weapon, can anyone tell me if this one is good enough in terms of damage output when playing SP on /players 5+?
Monsters don't have to drop like flies but 3-5 hits or 3-5 WW's is what i have in mind.

Greets, Smiffy

[Romasm]

Sure its nice. The full set or more parts of it will grand u nice bonuses also

[stephan]

No. You shouldn't expect to do Hell at players 5 very well. In fact, unless you get in the higher runewords, you shouldn't expect to do players 5+ fast at all with a WW barb. You won't be unsafe either though.

3-5 hits at players 5 would require a 10k+ WW.

[Mperor]

Like the others said, you can't open a way through an ocean of monster like a tornado, but judging from my IK WWer, you do relatively ok overall - definately a fun set.

3-5 hits may sound a little too demanding on an IK maul, though. But you can hit pretty fast - I can't really give you an approximation of the number of hits, because it's all spread out once you WW into a crowd...

But my 2 cents is: it's insanely fun and all-around if you're going for full IK. If you want killing speed, go for somethnig else, like a high-end RW.

[Smiffy]

I'll give it a go then and if /players 5 should turn out to be too slow for me there's always /players 3. Good enough.

Thanks for the input all.

[Erutan]

Forget about it.

A weapon with only 200% ed is never good enough for a barbarian.

That's probably why IK armor worths only a Um, :)

[stephan]

Forget about it.

A weapon with only 200% ed is never good enough for a barbarian.

That's probably why IK armor worths only a Um, :)
IK maul is good enough for a Barbarian (certainly when you start adding set pieces). It's just not possible to dominate higher player games with it.

[theShockeR]

The only thing I use an IK hammer for is to make an iron golem out of ;-)

[MrKaxe]

In HC, it's a lifesaver of a set! If you like feeling legit and glowing while you do, don the set! As said, sure you won't be the chief killer in a 5-8 player Hell game but you will be one hell of a tank!

[nex]

IK hammer is great. Yes, there's only 200ed, but it also has nice ed% to demons & undead and 35-40% of CB which is great with fast attack like WW. Only because duped runes are dirt cheap and everyone can have BOTD doesn't mean IK maul isn't good :smiley:

[AnEvilPeanut]

I've got a IK Barb and I love him. I never ever die. I also don't play 5-8 player games with him. So killing power isn't an issue. I use him to run D keys and travinical.

[Erutan]

IMO, IK Maul is particularly not good enough for a WW bar, not only because of its low damage, but also low speed which can never be compensated by the set bonus. As a WW 2h-weapon it must have at least -60 speed or ~300%ed damage. Yes legit BOTD is something like pie in the sky but Bonehew(unique ogre axe) is bloody cheap and has higher damage and speed than IK Maul.

[MrKaxe]

IMO, IK Maul is particularly not good enough for a WW bar, not only because of its low damage, but also low speed which can never be compensated by the set bonus. As a WW 2h-weapon it must have at least -60 speed or ~300%ed damage. Yes legit BOTD is something like pie in the sky but Bonehew(unique ogre axe) is bloody cheap and has higher damage and speed than IK Maul.

With 2 Shaels in the Maul it reaches 4fpa which is 6.2 attacks per second; nothing to be sniffed at...

[Cubbie]

The IK Maul by itself isn´t the strongest weapon, but still decent. But adding other items of the set adds some really nice elemental damage.
Like nex I think the IK set is one of the best melee setups concerning price/survivability ratio.
My IK mf barb is doing very well in hell, definitely not the fastest killer, but quite a tank and fun to play. For two shaels you reach the last WW breakpoint with it.
A problem could be to get all the items in SP especially the armor. The complete set is wonderful for beginners like me.

Cheers and Grüsse nach Kölle

[stephan]

IMO, IK Maul is particularly not good enough for a WW bar, not only because of its low damage, but also low speed which can never be compensated by the set bonus. As a WW 2h-weapon it must have at least -60 speed or ~300%ed damage. Yes legit BOTD is something like pie in the sky but Bonehew(unique ogre axe) is bloody cheap and has higher damage and speed than IK Maul.
You are aware the IK maul has 2 sockets right?

[onomastikon]

Can one actually use the socket quest to add a third socket to the Maul?
(Only IAS from the weapon itself, not other sources, matter for WW IIRC. But if you do a quick frenzy beforehand then switch to the maul? Probably just sillly...)

(Grüsse nach Kölle auch!)

[stephan]

Can one actually use the socket quest to add a third socket to the Maul?
(Only IAS from the weapon itself, not other sources, matter for WW IIRC. But if you do a quick frenzy beforehand then switch to the maul? Probably just sillly...)

(Grüsse nach Kölle auch!)
No, already socketed items cannot be used in the socket quest. Frenzy does not help WW speed either, neither does Fanaticism.

[Romasm]

Its that people got used to high damage runewords, and think that an ik barb is crap in killing. Well compared to the high ended RW's which are ethereal /indest + over twice as much ed than ik maul, the ik maul doesnt look good indeed. But it is a good set, it is cheap and great survivability. I use to love my ik barb. Now im used to kill things in an instant.

[AnimeCraze]

I think player 5 would be a bit problematic, but player 1~3 should work rather nicely. The crushing blow and the high speed makes up for the lack of ED. Though, if it is just the hammer itself (without the set), it will probably get out done by the ribcracker.

[Smiffy]

Thx for all the infos.
I somewhat hesitate to make a WW barb since i find the animation looks pretty silly. Stupid me but cannot help it. Will see.
Right now I'm using IK's gloves, boots and belt with my fanazealot and already like the added effects from just these three. Nothing to write home about but still...
While uber gear is very nice in terms of being able to up the /players setting i find it very nice too to know that there are still lots of items out there that i do not yet have and which potentially are able to drastically improve my char.

Anyway thanks and greetings.

(Und Grüsse zurück nach Kiel und anderswo!)

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

The Maul on it's own is nothing special in my opinion. It's got way too high of REQs for it's damage and is only range 3 for your whirls. If you're just using the Maul, I would strongly suggest you seek a different weapon.

However...

If you're using the whole set, that's a different matter. The Maul gets substantial bonuses with the full set.


Adds 211-397 Fire Damage (2 items)
Adds 7-477 Lightning Damage (3 Items)
Adds 127-364 Cold Damage, 6 sec. Duration (Normal) (4 Items)
+204 Poison Damage Over 6 Seconds (5 Items)
Adds 250-361 Magic Damage (Complete Set)


That is added when you're wearing the whole set. The magic damage is big there--remember in hell, they have auto-damage reduction, so magical damage is very nice. The poison stops the healing (big plus while you set up a new whirl). The rest is gravy (more than 1,000 extra damage possible there per hit).

For the big, big things, the Crushing blow is what will really shine. So try and get a perfect 40% crushing blow IK maul. Every % counts here since you cannot exchange boots/gloves/helm when using the full set.

Cheers, :smiley:

[Eilo Rytyj]

I can't believe everyone's hating on the IK set! Hell yeah it's good enough for Hell. Blizzard designed all the class-specific sets to be end-game viable, and powerful too. Just look at the Tal Rasha set, that thing's just overpowered in the hands of a Meteorb Sorceress.

For all those perfectionists out there, throw a couple of 40/15's in the weapon sockets and you'll ramp the weapon's damage up to 292-402 from 231-318 - a substantial increase. But I think we all agree the IK set's biggest asset is its aid to survivability. 3 Sols in the Helm/Armour sockets, and liberal use of Battle/War Cry, and you just don't die.

[nex]

Blizzard designed all the class-specific sets to be end-game viable, and powerful too.

Aldur's :sad2:

[Eilo Rytyj]

Aldur's :sad2:

I was waiting for that one.

I know, touchè...

[crawlingdeadman]

i say it's viable on a barb. i've never made an ik barb but i've made two ik wolf druids and they work just fine. imo you really do need as much as the set as you can get b/c the mods on it just keep getting better. all the elemental damage helps a lot vs phys immunes.

Aldur's :sad2:

which do you wince more at a wolf that glows or a wind druid that glows. it's just the worst set for either.

[TrapperC]

My IK barb has just gotten to the point (Lvl 76)where he can use the maul.

I'm finding it fun, but the problem is that if I get Iron Maidened while I'm WW'ing it's instant death.

eg I was just trying to help a guy with Diablo on normal skill (repeat NORMAL), and I died several times in the Chaos Sanctuary.:embarassed:

Are there any good tactics to avoid this problem (besides just waiting for my Merc to kill everything)?

[stephan]

Use a 1 point Berserk. It converts all physical damage to magic, so nothing will be returned by IM.

You still have to watch out that you won't get mana burned though, as without mana you will use normal attack.

[TrapperC]

Wow, thanks for the quick response stephan.

I'll be sure to try that out.

Thanks again, I was starting to get a little frustrated.

[MrKaxe]

I have started to use my IK barb to run Hell Trav (picked up the info in the Barb forum somewhere that it's a good place for him to run) and i'm finding lots of useful little things like skillers, jools etc and at the very least you get a ton of gold to gamble with! It is a quick and easy run due to the high res and life provided by then set and when my merc's Reaper's Toll kicks in its faster!

[jaxz]

Don't like IK set.... cuz Not fast enough for me, especially in a 8player game.