Halaberd's Reign = crap?

[CosmoNova]

I just got a +2 bo Halaberd's Reign in a pindle run, but considering its stat... a cheap arreat is still far better... Halaberd's Reign is much harder to get in mf considering it's high lvl, but.. what is it for? what kind of barb will use it? Is it simple a 35000gold?

Dear barbs, pls advice...

[Omikron8]

In 1.10 blizzard released many items that leave one wondering "what the hell where they thinking making this item ?"

this is most evident in the exceptional class uniques vs. the elite ones except in the case of oculus vs. eschuta and death fathom where there is some competition

halaberd's would need to be better than arreat mods or have a few really special unique mods that you couldn't pass up for melee, instead it and the demonhorn helm are a joke

[lumpor]

Yep. Same with earth keeper for the druid. Blizzard thought "lets make a helm with normal resistance to one element, increased maximum resistance to another element, percentual absorb for a third element and integer absorb for a fourth element! All the four different resistances!"

It was a fun idea, but the helm is quite worthless.

[Painman]

What did you expect from the folks who brought you Flamebellow... that item might have actually been worth using if they had made it so that the flames emanated from your *** (just like most of the Elite Unique item concepts that Blizz bestowed upon us in 1.10).

[Jarath]

I'm convinced the 1.10 elite unique items are some kind of horrible April Fool's joke gone wrong. Almost every single class specific unique item has the same thing in common; Almost double the level/stat requirements of the excetional unique but only half as good.

Also since we're in the barb forum, an old rant revived;

WHY WHY WHY WHY did they change the colour of Arreat's face? WHY?! It used to look so cool and UNIQUE, you saw a guy wearing a grey slayer guard and you knew instantly what he was wearing. Now it just looks horribly generic. :(

[lumpor]

there are some class-specific elite uniques that are ok. Ravenlore is THE helm for fire druids, dragonscale has som uses (although few), and jade talon has its uses. Wolfhowl lets a barb get a 3 frame attack. of course both elite sorc items have their uses.

But generally, yes, the elite class items suck. Especially demonhorns edge. If we compare them both (and both are perfect):

Arreats face:

More ed (meaning more defense when upgraded)
+1 more combat skills
30% fhr
20% ar bonus
+30% all res
20 str and dex

Demonhorns edge:

+1 more warcries
+1 more masteries
10% ias
Attacker takes 77 damage

And add to that that a perfect demonhorns edge is MUCH rarer than an arreats face.
Not only isthe chance to get a demonhorns edge smaller, but the chance that it is perfect is also smaller.

What the hell were blizzard thinking?

[Omikron8]

or look at all the new unique elite shields

*shakes head*

[lumpor]

Stormshield is great.

[Omikron8]

stormshield was around in 1.08/1.09

i mean stuff like medusa's gaze, spirit ward, spike thorn

[Damric]

spirit ward is pretty nice actually, with good def, block, res, and fade.

spike thorn is cool for builds that block too slow so you don't want increased block but still want good defensive mods.

medusa's gaze, ok this is very far fetched, but could an avenger put it to some use?

[Niniux]

Yeah, I think Spirit Ward is one of the best shields in the game.

[lumpor]

I don't really agree. It gives lots of resists if you include fade, but that's it. Can also not be mixed with other fade items

[Jarath]

Seems to me that putting ctc when struck on a shield with 64%-84% chance to block depending on your class is... counter productive to say the least. It'd be much easier to make treachery and that gives you level 15 fade to boot.

And add to that that a perfect demonhorns edge is MUCH rarer than an arreats face.
Not only isthe chance to get a demonhorns edge smaller, but the chance that it is perfect is also smaller.

And most importantly of all... Horned Helms look ridiculous.

[lumpor]

Yes, I always think of horned helms as "level 24" while I think of avenger guards as "level 30". Quite annoying when my level 31 barb has a horned helm and it felt like he was level 24