PvM PDR Beserker build, would this work?

[madrettorrR]

Hi!

I'm thinking of making a PDR Beserker barbarian and am curious if this might work. So if you have some advice or a few things to point out, please go ahead!

First of all, It's based on a PDR-build, but hasn't the highest possible PDR as I want the barb to also be able to do some damage. I want the barb to equip a shield, so Frenzy is out of the order, I'll concentrate on a Beserker barb.

Items:
Armor: Gladiators Bane socketed with a Sol rune - 27 PDR
Helmet: Guilhaumes socketed with a Sol rune - 7 PDR
Amulet: 24 PDR amulet
Ring 1: Nature's Peace - 11 PDR
Ring 2: Nature's Peace - 11 PDR (don't need Raven, 'cause Gladiators already has CBF-mod on it)
Gloves: LoH - 20 IAS, 350% damage to demons
Boots: Gore Riders - Open Wounds, Deadly Strike
Belt: upped, upped Nightsmoke - 2 PDR (50% dam. goes to mana, res)
Weapon: Last Wish Beserker Axe (We need Crushing Blow, what makes it more sustainable than eBotD).
Shield: Gerke's socketed with a Sol rune 23 PDR
Switch: 2x echoing weapons
Stash: Torch + Anni

Merc (act 1 cold arrow): build with Andy, ethereal Fortitude and a Faith bow (to increase killing speed + damage).

As I said, I've chosen to replace some 'typical PDR-stuff' for items that improve killing, for example the Guilhaumes that brings Deadly Strike and Open Wounds. With this equipment we'll get a whopping 105 PDR and still have enough equipment to do some serious damage.

skillpoints
Bash: 1 (prereq.)
Stun: 1 (prereq.)
Concentrate: 1 (prereq.)
Beserk: 20
Howl: 1-20 (prereq. + synergy - max this last)
Shout: 20 (synergy for Beserk, + nice defense skill)
Battle Orders: 20
Battle Command: 1 (1 pt. wonder)
Taunt: 1 (1pt. wonder + prereq.)
Battle Cry: 1 (1pt. wonder)
Axe Mastery: 20
Iron Skin: 1 (1 pt. wonder)
Natural Resistance: 1 (1 pt. wonder)

So, what do you think? Could this work? Any advice on items or skillpoints?

[Master Zap]

Looks good.

Your going to want a Decrep merc. This will both boost your damage (more then fanat will give you) and double your pdr. This makes enemies deal 50% less damage right off the bat.

Reapers a2 merc Might merc or Lawbringer A5 barb.


Your now a pvm "god". Enjoy your run

I'd suggest going with a grief pb. The damage on this is huge. With berzerk you'll be able to dish out the pain big time. I normally just use goblin toes on my berserker for regular pvm stuff and don't notice any slow killing speed.

Your res are going to be hurting in hell, start stocking up on your large 25+ single res gcs and the small 9+ res sc's. Once you get your res in order your a tanking machine. I wouldn't worry to much about damage or your total amount of life. With a grief+ berzerk's 1200% ish Magic damage your set in the damage dept.

With your pdr phy will be negated. So res charms cover the rest.

IMO only grief will allow a great kill speed 1handed with a pdr rig. The runewords that compare , like Death and Botd are either too slow (death) or to low in damage (botd) A perfect botd has less avg damage then the worst grief. With bezerk you cannot leach, so that factor is out.

Throw in ITD and Deadlystrike + being able to be made in a pb, well that smells like win all over it.

Lastwish is also kinda slow and the damage is not that hot. The only place it will outkill the grief is on end bosses.



For your belt I'd suggest you use tgods. Damage taken to mana is massively nerfed on a pdr char. Built like you are, there will be few times when your actually taken damage, as such that mana mod isnt doing much for you. Gloams on the other hand, or LE's will hurt , tgods makes you light immune if your stack a little bit of light res to counter lower res and conviction.

[madrettorrR]

Thanks Master Zap!

That's really some usefull info... I will alter the build on some points you mentioned and will be starting this 'almost immortal' killer-build pretty soon. :)

[Nimbostratus]

Master Zap: Decrepify will have no effect on his damage output since it affects physical resistance.

[crawlingdeadman]

but it lowers monster's damage is the reason he wants it.

i just wonder how slow you're going to swing since lw doenst have ias. you have 20 ias and using a slow weapon... you're swinging at 13 frames. also crushing blow isnt as useful on a zerker. they're more about deadly strike, imo. i'm firmly with the grief pb option zap mentioned.

one last thing, maybe i'm just an AR whore, but you have hardly any. sure the ITD will work on most things, but what about all the champs, supers, and bosses?

[Master Zap]

@CDM

That's the beauty of Zerk , At say skill level 28 your looking at a 500% AR boost, one of the largest damage/Ar melee skills in the game. With one point in mastery you'll get about 100% more ar and damage with plus items.

Grief+ Loh = Max Zerk speed at 9fpa

I agree on the ds thing.

Perhaps the OP can sub gface for Arreat's with sol as a compromise which adds more AR , much needed Res and all those other mods we so love.

I dont see any trouble here with chance to hit, but in any event a couple of Fine Grand charm of XXX would easily pick up the slack if it's forseen as a "trouble" area. (or use Battlecry if your pdr is up to snuff)

Spot on with Decrep too

[crawlingdeadman]

i dunno, i'm using IK boots (for the ar) and angelic ring/ammy on my current tele zerker and it's still not enough to my liking. i get ~80% (edit: 83% i checked) cth baal. am i just over reacting?

what do you consider "good enough" AR?

[jimmah]

I've always wanted to make a Zerker and this sounds like fun. Think I'll try this "PVM GOD" next. :D

[MYK]

i dunno, i'm using IK boots (for the ar) and angelic ring/ammy on my current tele zerker and it's still not enough to my liking. i get ~80% (edit: 83% i checked) cth baal. am i just over reacting?

what do you consider "good enough" AR?

Is that CTH with Battle Cry curse active on Baal?

Baal is level 99, 2487 defense and 55% Chance to Block according to the Arreat Summit.

Last I checked the level difference made a really big difference in the chance to hit equation, and being blocked doesn't help your cause either.

As far as my own Melee preferences and berserker barb experience goes, I like anywhere between 7k and 10k AR. Less and I started to notice, more and it started to eat into life charms or other items. I get this pretty easily with IK bottoms™, Two Ravenfrosts and a steel GC or two.

Not that it's a huge deal if you miss a few times - you shouldn't be taking very much damage.

[madrettorrR]

Ok guys, thanks again for the usefull info to create this invulnerable PvM monster.

So lets change a few items:

Items:
Armor: Gladiators Bane socketed with a Sol rune - 27 PDR
Helmet: Guilhaumes (for Deadly Strike) or Arreats (Resistance or Attack Rating) socketed with a Sol rune - 7 PDR
Amulet: 24 PDR amulet
Ring 1: Nature's Peace - 11 PDR
Ring 2: Nature's Peace - 11 PDR (don't need Raven, 'cause Gladiators already has CBF-mod on it)
Gloves: LoH - 20 IAS, 350% damage to demons
Boots: Gore Riders - Open Wounds, Deadly Strike
Belt: Thundergods Vigor (lightning absorb), safety crafted belt with usefull mods and 4 PDR
Weapon: Grief Beserker Axe (Deadly Strike).
Shield: upped Gerke's socketed with a Sol rune 23 PDR
Switch: 2x echoing weapons
Stash: Torch + Anni

Merc (act 2 with might aura): build with Andariels Face, Reapers (for Decryp) and ethereal Fortitude

There's still 103 PDR on this build while it has 35 (Arreat's) / 50 to Deadly Stike (Guilhaumes). The Beserker Skill will solve most AR problems, although I'll keep a Demon Limb (lvl 23 Enchant) in my stash.

skillpoints
Bash: 1 (prereq.)
Stun: 1 (prereq.)
Concentrate: 1 (prereq.)
Beserk: 20
Howl: 1-20 (prereq. + synergy - max this last)
Shout: 20 (synergy for Beserk, + nice defense skill)
Battle Orders: 20
Battle Command: 1 (1 pt. wonder)
Taunt: 1 (1pt. wonder + prereq.)
Battle Cry: 1 (1pt. wonder)
Axe Mastery: 20
Iron Skin: 1 (1 pt. wonder)
Natural Resistance: 1 (1 pt. wonder)

Unfortunatly I'm not very wealthy at the moment, so I'll have to do a couple of Ancient tunnel runs before I can afford some items... But that shouldn't be much of a problem... I'm very eager to try this build! :)

[Matt]

I think you should be looking at a grief PB, not a grief zerker axe.

[Master Zap]

I think you should be looking at a grief PB, not a grief zerker axe.

Good Call out +1

@the op

Grief in a Berserk axe with the amount of ias you have (and 35+ias roll) will berserk at 11fpa or 2.2 attacks a second. You will also have to deal with expensive repairs. The bulk of the damage comes from the +dam mod, so the base item isn't terribly important pending speed, or pvp range preferences.

A Phase blade will never break , and a 35ias roll with your items (20 ias from loh's) hits the fastest berserk attack rate at 9fpa , or 2.7 attacks a second.

With respect to Gerke's , my fav pvm shield. It's already your highest str item at 133 str to equip. If you up this to a Aegis, you going to need 219 str to equip it. The base block rate is the same on Pavise vs Aegis shield types (49% on barbs). The only benefit of uping the shield is increased defense. Your main attack berserk sets you defense at zero whenever you attacking, which is the only time your going to actually need your defense:crazyeyes:. The idea behind your pdr stack is negating damage taken or severely reducing it. In other words , who cares if they hit you, it might as well be a flick It wont hurt anyhow. :thumbup:

With Dex , the most you'll need is 136 for the phase blade. The lower block chance the better. Whenever your defense is at zero (the whole time you attacking) all blockable attacks go to a block check against the shield. When this happens you stop attacking :doh:. The shield is there for res and pdr. Block means more dex and less vit.

If you had a really nice pdr hat of some kind , Ive also had good results with Lanceguard Shield on my Zerker's.

15% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
30% Faster Hit Recovery (bonus with gbane there's you 48fhr bp)
20% Deadly Strike ((Haxxor! on a shield!))
+50 To Life ((yes please!))
Attacker Takes Damage of 47

It kinda helps makes up for not using Highlords , and with low block it seems like it was made for Zerk barbs. You'd have to sacrifice some pdr, but with a good hat it would still be tank worthy with the sol. Flavor to taste on this one.



@CDM

For AR Pvm anything Above about 8K at character levels 70+ is tolerable for me on all but the ubers for melee's. This will very depending on the build too.

With Conviction pallies anything over 2K ar seems plently

[crawlingdeadman]

@OP: i personally max howl first. it is one of the main reasons to make a zerker imo. also as synergies go shout is nigh useless on a zerker.

@MYK: that cth is what the lcs tells me. i didnt think the lcs took battle cry into consideration. 20756 AR, at lvl 91 gets me 83% cth.

[raishi]

So the only damage that this build has to really worry about is elemental damage...for this wouldn't a black oak, rising sun and a lightsabre with the tgods make you basiacally immune to elemental attacks? lose out on a lil pdr to be immune and in most cases get healed by elemental attacks...seems like a fair trade off to me...

EDIT: just got done putting this together was able to just leap my way through most of the chaos sanctuary ignoring everything but the bosses from the seals...only had issues with lord de sei after getting amped when surrounded by his minions when iwas trying to smack him...other wise just needed blue pots for the mana drain...

[madrettorrR]

@Master Zap:
Grief Phaseblade it is! Already started making one, I only need a mal to complete it. :)
I'll leave Gerke's in it's original state. I'll look into the Lanceguard soon.

@crawlingdeadman:
You're absolutely right about Shout and Howl. I'll max out Howl first. Shout is of secondary importance.

@raishi:
I don't like Lightsabre as it doesn't give me enough damage. I'll stick with the Grief Phaseblade on this one. Trading stuff for Blackoak and rising sun (already god Thundergods in my build) would cost me 39 PDR, I think that's too much. At least untill I'm able to get me my 2 socket SOL-ed Chromatic Circlet of Everlasting Life, but I guess that's almost impossible to get. ;)


Recap:
At the moment I'm 'just' level 40 (leveling 4 characters to the hellforge at once).

Items:
Armor: Gladiators Bane socketed with a Sol rune - 27 PDR - acquired
Helmet: Guilhaumes (for Deadly Strike) or Arreats (Resistance or Attack Rating) socketed with a Sol rune - 7 PDR - acquired Guillhaumes
Amulet: 25 PDR amulet with +3 to combat skills - gambled a 24PDR plain one
Ring 1: Nature's Peace - 11 PDR - acquired
Ring 2: Nature's Peace - 11 PDR
Gloves: LoH - 20 IAS, 350% damage to demons - acquired
Boots: Gore Riders - Open Wounds, Deadly Strike - acquired
Belt: Thundergods Vigor (lightning absorb) - acquired
Weapon: Grief Phase Blade (Deadly Strike)
Shield: Gerke's socketed with a Sol rune 23 PDR - 22 PDR version acquired
Switch: 2x echoing weapons
Stash: Torch + Anni + Demon Limb - acquired

Merc (act 2 with might aura):
Andariels Face
Reapers (for Decryp) - acquired
ethereal Fortitude


skillpoints
Bash: 1 (prereq.)
Stun: 1 (prereq.)
Concentrate: 1 (prereq.)
Beserk: 20
Howl: 20 (synergy)
Shout: 1-20 (synergy for Beserk)
Battle Orders: 20
Battle Command: 1 (1 pt. wonder)
Taunt: 1 (1pt. wonder + prereq.)
Battle Cry: 1-? (lower enemy offense and defense )
Sword Mastery: 20
Iron Skin: 1 (prereq.)
Natural Resistance: 1 (1 pt. wonder)


I'm aiming for 100+ PDR. Thundergods and dual Nature's peace would probably help me a lot against glooms and Nihlataks Snakes.
Question: This build 'might' still suffer some damage against high end monsters. Would 1 point into Battle Cry be sufficient for that?

If this build proves to be viable I might write an official build for this one as it looks like a fun build! :)

[jimmah]

Since Gladiators Bane requires lvl 85 I would need something to level with. I found a 3 soc armour of Amicae. What's the highest amount of PDR you can get on an armour?

[Master Zap]

Since Gladiators Bane requires lvl 85 I would need something to level with. I found a 3 soc armour of Amicae. What's the highest amount of PDR you can get on an armour?


Amicea mod on Armors is the highest pdr one can get with up to 15pdr

Jewelers or Artisans of this can yield 36 to 43 with perfect bases. An Iron Pelt is just as good as a Gbane for damage reduction. One will need to use their ravenfrost with this however. From level 33 it's hard to beat.

With sol you can have 27 pdr out of this.
Iron Pelt
Defense: (234-528) - (311-605) (varies)(Base Defense: 138-153)
Required Level: 33
Required Strength: 61
Durability: 157
+50-100% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+ (3 Per Character Level) 3-297 Defense (Based On Character Level)
Damage Reduced by 15-20 (varies)
Magic Damage Reduced by 10-16 (varies)
+25 To Life
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)


vs
gbane at 85
Defense: 1255-1496 (varies)(Base Defense: 375-481)
Required Level: 85
Required Strength: 111
Durability: 135
+150-200% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+50 Defense
Cannot Be Frozen
30% Faster Hit Recovery
Poison Length Reduced By 50%
Attacker Takes Damage Of 20
Damage Reduced By 15-20 (varies)
Magic Damage Reduced By 15-20 (varies)

[jimmah]

Forgot about Iron pelt!

[sevencreature]

raishi: The only equipment you need to become immune+ to Souls&Gloams is TG Vigor (which is rather nice belt even besides this side effect - only annoying problems are FoH timer and insane repair costs).

Anyway, I have wondered for quite some time about Howl. Have anyone from you noticed this weird desync (?) effect it has on monsters? Basically they will scuttle away, but somehow some monsters will stay in a place for a some time with displayed moving animation (while they are actually somewhere else). I wondered if Leap is able to 'fix' this issue. Anybody tried that? The main reason I am not using Howl much (or as much as I would like to) on b.net with Barbs.

[crawlingdeadman]

i've noticed it. i use leap+howl extensively at times and it doesnt (leap) appear to help. i dont know why you'd be afraid to use it though. even if it shows them close, they are far away. usually the way i clear around nith is to howl, leap, howl, leap then start zerking him. after i lock on to him, i use war cry to stun any of the desynced dudes so they quit making me block then continue to zerk. wc, zerk, zerk, wc, then he's dead on the floor. this works well in other areas such as chaos sanc (love to go there) especially vs. the venom lords seal.

[sevencreature]

I am not sure if I want to invest a point into Leap just for it (hmm, well, since I am using Berserk mostly on left button - surprisingly - I could allocate one key to Leap instead of it on right one... true... :scratchchin: ). And I usually just use War Cry to stun smaller packs. I use Howl only for dangerous boss packs of small, multiple, fast moving and fast attacking (like Act V icy areas or Matron's Den Spearwomen variants for example). Or Venom Lord Seal guardians :) I like CS too (Berserkes are quite fun generally I think). It's not that I would be afraid to use it, rather I find it annoying having to chase them all the time (or Taunt them), so I am thinking twice before Howling usually. And that desync doesn't help it :)

EDIT: Just noticed that you wrote Leap doesn't help. Well, glad to hear that (I would have hesitate whether to get it or not :) ).

[MYK]

You don't put one point into Leap Attack!?!

The Guardians of Bul Kathos are ashamed!

[jimmah]

How well does this char work as a Titan? Survivability wouldn't be a problem I guess, but I'm not sure a Zerker gets that much more damage being a titan?

[MYK]

There's not a real big raisin to make a Titan Berserker outside of the challenge. Berserk with two synergies pumps out gobs of ED%. The gain from going all in Strength wouldn't make as much of a difference as it might for Concentrate or Whirlwind, both of which are fairly low ED% bearing attack skills.

[jimmah]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

[sevencreature]

MYK: Ah, well, had Leap Attack provided that feared 'Leaper' invincibility mode on demand, I would consider it (:whistling:) - so far I have only encountered its lesser sibling's appropriately less advanced feature though - infamous 'unable-to-leap-till-rejoining' aka 'broken legs' mode... I bet Bul Kathos was leaping only because they didn't actually known Enigma in his ancient times anyway :whistling:

[MYK]

So, you're going to not do something because there is a small probability of it having a negative effect?

.

That's certainly an interesting philosophy.

[sevencreature]

Oh, you mean I haven't picked up Leap because of that HR animation in mid-air causing bug? Of course not. Seems my joke attempt failed rather terribly.

To the question of doing something if there is a danger of negative effect - depends on probability and the 'effect'. For example I don't plan to play Russian roulette anytime soon for example.

[Master Zap]

The best part of popping a point in leap (or a couple ftw) is getting the radius for kb at its max. Then you can be a goldfind barb too.

Pulling 300-800K per fast trav run is a hoot all barbs should try(not to mention the other goodies). Leap is the best skill for this as it shuts them down without needing massive mana for warcry. You just stand in the middle of the room , monsters all pinned to the wall as your merc makes short work of them. Sometimes you'll need to stand in the hydra's, but if your smooth they hardly even cast those.

[Damric]

Not a true pdr-zerker weapon because you can't use a shield, but I was thinking an ethereal zod'd Executioner's Justice glorious axe would be a sweet weapon for zerking with the decrepify going off.

[madrettorrR]

@Damric: The stats 'seem' nice, but personally I rather wield a one-handed weapon and a shield with PDR stats than a two-handed axe with nice stats. I also bet it's pretty difficult to reach a nice speed framerate with this axe (seeing the runespot is already taken by a Zod instead of a Shael). You need to change certain items for IAS items and that usually means even less PDR. My choice -> Just keep the Grief + LoH + Gerke's combo with a merc that provides Decreip.

@Everyone:
Here's an update. I haven't got the time to play a lot lately, but still managed to get my char up to hell difficulty at lvl 73. I'll probably be able to play again on sunday. I'll try to get to level 85 then.

Character as it is now:

Items:
Armor: Shaftstop (got 27 PDR Gladiators Bane in stash)
Helmet: 7 PDR Guilhaumes
Amulet: 24 PDR plain amulet
Ring 1: Nature's Peace - 10 PDR
Ring 2: Raven Frost (11 PDR Nature's Peace in stash, will change as soon as I can use Glad' Bane)
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gore Riders
Belt: Thundergods Vigor
Weapon: Rare sword with enh. damage and fools mod (still in search of a mal for Grief)
Shield: 22 PDR Gerke's
Switch: 2x echoing weapons
Stash: Torch (can't use this one untill lvl 75) + Anni + Demon Limb

no Merc yet

skillpoints
Bash: 1
Stun: 1
Concentrate: 1
Beserk: 20
Howl: 8
Shout: 1
Battle Orders: 20
Battle Command: 1
Taunt: 1
Battle Cry: 1
Sword Mastery: 20
Iron Skin: 1
Natural Resistance: 1

attributes
STR: 90 With bonusses this should be somewhere around 133 for Gerke's
DEX: 100 with bonusses this should be somewhere around 136 for Grief
VIT: all the rest
ENE: nothing

[jimmah]

Hows it working out playing? Do you feel IMMORTAL? :D

[madrettorrR]

Don't know yet.
Haven't really played in Hell mode yet. On Nightmare I hardly got physical damage, but I guess I need to boost my PDR on Hell for doing that (at lvl 85 I will have 38 more PDR than I have now, that would solve that).
Unfortunatly I still have some elemental damage. But as I haven't maxed my res yet (can't use torch until level 75) that isn't a big worry.
The zerkdamage isn't that high yet... probably around 2k, but that will increase greatly as I put more points in the Synergies and when I start using Grief.

[jimmah]

Doing nm baals right now, lvl 66. I can't decide on soled Guillames or soled Arreat. Hmm...

[sevencreature]

Depends on whether you need more (200+ after BO, even more if you have a lot of vita charms) life and resists or possibly slightly more damage (not sure about exact numbers - skills and %AR vs. CB and DS). For non PDR Berserker, Arreat's is hard to beat, I am not completely sure how it works if you are highly resistant to damage though... I would probably still choose Arreat's.

[madrettorrR]

ok, small update:

I had internetproblems, so I couldn't level my char. I'll start doing this again one of these days.

I've also been thinking about this char. And a high amount of PDR is great, but I've noticed that he was still vulnerable for elemental damage.

I've been thinking of changing some items.
helmet: magic '3 sol socketed chromatic coronet of life everlasting'
amulet: magic 'echoing amulet of life everlasting'
ring1: RavenFrost
ring2: Dwarf Star
armor: Guardian Angel with Sol
belt: thundergods
gloves: gloves with 20 IAS, mana leech and replenish life (if that's possible)
boots: Hotspur / Gore Riders
shield: jewelers monarch of amicae with 4 Sol (impossible to get, but one can dream ;) )
weapon: Grief Phaseblade


With these changes I would still have more than 100 PDR (probably 120->130) and I would have gained incredible elemental defenses:

90 max cold resistance
95 max fire resistance (unfortunatly 95 is max, hotspurs 'would' have given 100 max res)
95 max lightning resistance (unfortunatly 95 is max, thundergods 'would' have given 100 max res)
90 max poison resistance

20% Lightning Absorb, 15% Fire Absorb and 20% Cold Absorb will probably solve the last bit of any resistance problems. Probably only poison can still do a very slight amount of damage.

[MYK]

ok, small update:

I had internetproblems, so I couldn't level my char. I'll start doing this again one of these days.

I've also been thinking about this char. And a high amount of PDR is great, but I've noticed that he was still vulnerable for elemental damage.

I've been thinking of changing some items.
helmet: magic '3 sol socketed chromatic coronet of life everlasting'
amulet: magic 'echoing amulet of life everlasting'
ring1: RavenFrost
ring2: Dwarf Star
armor: Guardian Angel with Sol
belt: thundergods
gloves: gloves with 20 IAS, mana leech and replenish life (if that's possible)
boots: Hotspur / Gore Riders
shield: jewelers monarch of amicae with 4 Sol (impossible to get, but one can dream ;) )
weapon: Grief Phaseblade


With these changes I would still have more than 100 PDR (probably 120->130) and I would have gained incredible elemental defenses:

90 max cold resistance
95 max fire resistance (unfortunatly 95 is max, hotspurs 'would' have given 100 max res)
95 max lightning resistance (unfortunatly 95 is max, thundergods 'would' have given 100 max res)
90 max poison resistance

20% Lightning Absorb, 15% Fire Absorb and 20% Cold Absorb will probably solve the last bit of any resistance problems. Probably only poison can still do a very slight amount of damage.
GA offers a good set of attributes, but I find it to be not ideal.

Thundergod's Vigor and Infernostride boots take care of important resists. With a single Ravenfrost CE novas aren't problematic. With a second one and 0 cold res you won't really take much Cold damage at all. That's my setup. I have a hard time not wearing two of them on melee characters, the added mana, AR and Dex all prove to be important.

Consider Treachery. It brings resists, IAS and my favorite: curse duration reduced while Fade is proc'd. You take around double damage with Amplify Damage on your Barbaric head, best get it off of there ASAP, eh?

Gloves can be anything. Bloodfists are always in style and FHR is cool to have against Auto-FHR inducing enemies.

You goofed a little on the helm. Artisans grants 3 sockets, the blue one you have listed can get 2 sockets. I used a plain 21+14 PDR one last time I went with the circlet route, it worked great.

Good luck~ Myk