How does Howl work?

[LupusPhoenix]

Title says it all. I'm wondering at the mechanics of Howl after my Barb has been having his 1 pt + skill bonuses howl do absolutely nothing in nightmare and hell (especially hell). I know the mobs are in range but they arn't affected and they arn't (always) blocked in by other monsters. I don't hear the terror effect and I don't see any animation other than my warcry.

[AgentMarth]

IIRC, there is a certain formula for it, and it depend on clvl and slvl.

You can have a level 65ish Barb in Hell with a maxed out and high Howl and scare stuff, but on the other hand, a level 80 Barb with one point which doesn't scare anything.

EDIT - Best I could find from the strategy compendium:

Howl has a limit on its terror inducing ability, designated by the formula slvl + clvl + 1, as compared to the monster’s level. Likewise, certain enemy types, as well as all act bosses, champions, and unique/super unique enemies are immune to this skill.

[LupusPhoenix]

Hrmmm. So basically with 1 point in the skill and some + skills I'm only going to scare stuff in hell once I'm 80ish.

I was 50-60 before so that explains why nothing ran away. Lol :P

I didn't get rushed through hell but I was the lowest level person in the group I quested with. Mainly I just tanked things (sorta) while the magely types did damage.

Edit: Mainly I'm wondering if I will need to put points in Howl for it to be effective while running Nihlathak, Countess, and any other nasties I decide to go pound into the dirt with my big hammer.

[lumpor]

Nah, just wait some levels. And you will find it more effective

[droogiemonTWC]

@ LupusPhoenix

Since you can't scare nihl because he is a super unique , the worst case scenario is that you will have to scare his buddies which are the exploding crazies .. 82 seems to be the highest they can go .. but ... Mlvl = Alvl if not receiving bonuses as a unique (or spawning in normal difficulty. Normal dif monsters have set levels. ).

Halls of vaught are one of those alvl 85 places, meaning .. if you were level 84 .. you would only need 1 point into howl for it to work on Nihl's minions. 84 isn't that hard to achieve so .. don't go crazy on investing in howl if running keys is the end game function of your barb.

BUT ... Its also a matter of taste and how twinked your barb is. Howl level affects how far and how long monsters are scared. So, If he has a ton of + skills and you are comfy @ 1 point don't invest further . Otherwise, sacrifice somewhere else for the points until you are comfy. But an slvl 5 ( 1 invested point + moderate skill eqp ) @ 84 should give you plenty of room and time to take out nihl.

[AgentMarth]

Yeah, its all just waiting on those levels. The only problem with a low level Howl (you should have level 2 at least, one hard, on BC) is the range. I like it to reach a high enough level to max out its range, otherwise it isn't as effective.

But yeah, once you level up, it will work just fine.

[LupusPhoenix]

Well my Barb is wearing IK (or he will be once I get ahold of the darned belt so he has the strength to use the maul in place of bloodtree stump) so it'll be level 5 howl soon enough. I've just been saving some points recently before deciding whether to take WW or Conc above 10 or to go ahead and max out shout or increase howl or something.

Right now he's got something like:
20 Mace
20 BO
10 WW
10 Conc
1 Berserk
1 BC
1 each of the other masteries
1 find item

I got up to lvl 76 now but I'll admit those last 20 levels + hell questing was mostly me doing shouts for people and tanking mobs and running like a madman for stairs/waypoints...

[Omikron8]

either pick 20 whirlwind or none at all, that skill is too weak to have anything taken away from it