Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

[Fabian]

To me it sounds like so many other builds I've seen suggested. It's probably alright and good and all, but how is it better than just whirlwinding? Slow attack speed, single target attack? I doubt that can compete with mowing the entire council down in 5-7 seconds. Especially if it puts a strain on the number of skill points you can devote to Find Item.

Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong

[Asmodeous]

Ah, forgot to mention one important factor there.

It's cheap.

Uber WW barb that can mow the council down in that sort of time is packing what? Fortitude, Grief, Beast, Death, etc?
Berserker can use just about any weapon. Spell steel for example is a surprisingly good one here. Oath, Insight (remembered the name now) and Treachery are all Meh nowadays in v1.13 to get the runes for.
Items like loH, gores, dwarf stars are pretty easy to get. Trangs belt and arreats would be the hardest to get bits but even these can be replaced. After all, we dont need the leech from arreats, its their mainly for skills and resists and the belt is merely opening a ring slot by moving CBF to the belt slot.

It's a trav runner on a bit of a budget. Though I am mucking around with the concept to see how it will go at an uber level.

[Pyrohemia]

If you swapped in a 1.07 LoH for the regular ones, you could then use two ravenfrosts for rings which will improve your attack rating and give CBF. Then you can use a better belt than trangs.

Then again, I guess that 1.07 LoH isn't budget which is the point of your build.

[JihadJesus]

Can I use this thread to talk about the frenzier I'm converting for running the Council? I've got a few questions and I'm just starting to optimize him so I'd like some input.

1) What are the council member immune to? I'm using a Shaefer's on the main hand partly because of the ctc Static, which won't work with whirl, should even things up a touch. But I can't tell what the immunities are - it looks like it's fire OR lightning, with no real rhyme or reason.

2) Any tips on sorting the crap? I've heard a lot on hear about how whirl is vastly superior because the kill speed is so much faster, but I probably spend 2/3 of the time picking through the piles of blue junk, gold, etc to see if there are any runes.

3) My lvl 85 merc dies. A lot. If I load him up to keep him from getting roasted (Tal's mask, Duriel's shell or something) he gets whipped when amp triggers (which it always does). If I equip him for DR, he gets flamed to death. Fast. I'd like to keep him around, but he just can't seem to handle it. Weapon is Reaper's Toll so he should be fine there, but I can't keep him alive.

4) Why bother with tele? It only shaves a second or two over running and drops your hork value by 4-5%. I don't see how you come out ahead there.

[Kimppi]

1) Ismail and his minions are immune to fire. Geleb is immune to fire and lighting and his minions are immune to lightning. Toorc is immune to cold and fire.

2) From what I can tell, the game always places the newest items on top of the pile if there are more than what the game can show on screen. If you hold alt while horking you should see all the items that drop.

3) Kira's and Guardian Angel.

[Fabian]

3. Reaper's/Kira's/Guardian Angel. Try to gain a few more levels too, I think I've read people saying 87 or 88 is the point where the merc has a much easier time.

4. If you get a map where all the council members spawn inside their little house, preferrably in the lower left corner, you can teleport right onto them from way outside, saving much more than a second or two. In addition, the merc will be standing there right next to you, ready to provide Decrep within a second or two. Furthermore, this will help in "normalizing" your runs, meaning you want the same thing to happen every run. When the council members start running about in every direction, you can't have them dead on the floor in 10 seconds. Having them all in one place, and you always being in that same place, helps a lot with whirling accuracy, and safety.

It's also worth noting that 60 second runs with 55% hork are a bit less efficient than 58 second runs with 51% hork on p3. I suggest trying out Teleport, and if it really only saves you 1 second, definitely go ahead and not use it.

[JihadJesus]

Well, I pretty much have to have it on switch since with the slow weapons I need the Highlord's. Makes it a royal pain. I'll try alt-ing while I hork, that will probably help a ton, and I loaded up with various merc gear so I can try out different setups.

[scottee]

I'm beginning to wonder if I've made a colossal mistake in my WW barb planning. Well, okay, not that big, but still.

I've been planning on using Atma's Scarab rather than Highlord's. It seemed to me that the Amp would speed runs up more than Decrep from Reaper's, and I was hoping to make a real try at having good, fast runs even without dual Grief's and Fort. Then I noticed where someone earlier in this thread said that their Schaeffer's (or maybe their "Lash) wasn't great for WWing, cuz the SF doesn't proc.

Despite having played this game for a good while now, this will only be my second whirler ever. I have absolutely no idea if the Amp will proc from WW hits or not. Can anyone tell me?

[mattinm]

I have absolutely no idea if the Amp will proc from WW hits or not. Can anyone tell me?

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but CtC on attack/striking doesn't work with WW, so Amp isn't going to be casting :(

[scottee]

Well, crap. I shoulda known there was a good reason why everyone wasn't using Atma's.

On another topic, I just found this a few days ago:

Shadow Edge
Gothic Sword
One-Hand Damage: 46 to 132
Two-Hand Damage: 128 to 198
Durability: 23 of 40
Required Dexterity: 20
Required Strength: 113
Required Level: 48
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xe7740a3d
+230% Enhanced Damage
+60 to Attack Rating
Adds 1-5 fire damage
40% Increased Attack Speed
166% Damage to Demons
+259 to Attack Rating against Demons
Level 1 Enchant (7/11 Charges)

and I was thinking about upping it and using it alongside my newly-made Grief once I reach Trav. According to Titanseal's calc, it reaches the last WW bp without any further IAS after upping, so I should be able to put a Ruby jewel in there, at which point it would do approximately 90-200 weapon damage. If I ever get to the point where I could afford a 40%/+15 maxer, I'd be nuts to even think about using it for something like this, so I'm assuming 40% ed is the best socketing option.

1). I'll be using LoH but not Fort (I assume). I'll obviously max WW and mastery. I should end up with ~200 Str and ~150 Dex. I'll most likely level to 90 before I settle in as a full-time Travrunner. Given those parameters, can anyone (who can do maths) tell me whether the ed to demons, the AR, and the Enchant charges (more AR) would make this even close to a reasonable alternative to an eth Oath BB or CS? (Probably not going to get a 1.07 version, it appears).

2) Even if the damage does suffer a bit, how many style points does a rare like that get on a serious runner

Thanks!