Frenzy - Atma's vs Highlords

[neno]

Hello,

What are your opinions of this one?

I play single player and got frenzier at lvl 96 geared with:

Dual Grief phaseblades (40% IAS primary)
Fortitude AP
Arreats with 40% ed jewel
Ravenfrost, rare ring with str/dex, min dmg, some resists and mana leech
Gore riders
string of ears 7%ll/15% dr
Laying of hands

Ok, I played alot with grief/lawbringer combo until today, as I found Lo and made another Grief. I must say this is awesome, but after some testing I simply can't decide what amulet to use. When I go with highlords and merc that carries reaper's for Decrepify, I feel like doing better dmg (when Decrep is still not cast on enemy... is it due to higher deadly strike? I thought that wouldn't be issue as I have good % without highlords aswell), but when I go with atma and tomby on merc for example, and when I land Amp a player8 game turns into player1. Dmg is simply devastating, but 5% doesn't make it "permacast".

What are your opinions on these combos? And what my final set up should be? (p1 testing and advices aren't an option 'cos everything goes insta down on those settings with any combo)

Also, I am reading around CoH is better than Fortitude in general play, but is it really so? It does add some DR and more resists, but Fort gives ALOT more defense (shivering armor), life and +5 to max light resist...

Thx in advance.

[Akimbo]

From what I've read, CoH is usually used for Ubers only, and Forti, Enigma or Duress are used for general PvM.

As for the curses: Amp damage and Decrepify will over write each other. I don't feel atmas offers enough, and prefer maras or highlords alongside a reapers toll merc.

I just made a frenzy barb, he's lvl 66 atm, and he's going to be using enigma, maras and a reapers toll merc.

[neno]

I know that's why I put tomby on merc and not reaper's when I go with atma's... however, I use it for now, both comboes go nice... but I'd like to hear people's opinions aswell. ^^

[gakky]

I had the exact same setup recently. Atmas was nice but it always took way too long to trigger. Reapers on merc owns as the decrepify triggers very quickly - 33% chance and ITD. Until level 75 I use a rare on merc with %chance to cast amp damage.

The difference becomes very noticable in late Hell with groups of PIs. Atmas just does not cut the grade. It triggers well enough on bosses but barb already takes down bosses quickly.
The DS from HL adds significant damage. The IAS also starts your Frenzy faster.

COH is great, but Fort gives more damage and defense and is preferable (and cheaper) if you don't need the resists.

Also I added WW on left button. If you don't need ctc, WW kills twice as fast as Frenzy. This becomes very noticeable with grief and fort. The ITD and -def and extra ed null out most of the benefits of Frenzy - the huge %ed and %AR bonus.
WW also does not slow down under decrepify (Baal runs) and holy freeze, and you an ability to move through packs to get to those pesky summoners.
So I use Frenzy on right button for general running around then switch to WW for mobs. However I still find Frenzy better on the bosses due to the extra %AR.

[Hrus]

In SP you have to evaluate the prize of the runewords too.
CoH is way too expensive and there are a lot of probably better possible uses for that Ber.. (main to save for Infinity or Enigma)
And the best perks of CoH are +2 skills and massive resists, but barb doesn't need those too much, +skills are not crucial for barb builds and resists can be provided by Natural resistances...

[sirwhere]

Grief/Lawbringer + highlords works fine. You get the deadly strike and cast decrepify every 2 secs on average.

[neno]

I used that before my current setup with Dual grief and atma... it is safe but my new combo is far more devastating.