Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

[Hammy]

Having tried both IK and gear suggested in this guide (except weapon, that was eDeath Colossus Sword => eBotD War Pike), I can say there's no contest in terms of safety and speed.

There are several problems with IK...

1) Shattered corpses - You WILL break all of the non-boss Council members, so Find Item is next to useless. The main reason behind using a Barb over another class is getting the double drop.

2) Lack of MDR - You need 25+ MDR to nullify the Hydras, even under Conviction. That is a huge factor in the difficulty of the run. Since the IK set has no innate MDR, you are left using BOTH of your rings for Dwarf Stars, or socketing Mal runes.

3) Low damage - The physical damage of IKSC just doesn't compare with even a bad roll on an Oath. This doesn't give you enough leech to be comfortable, in my experience. There only being 10% LL on the set doesn't help either.

Just my 2 cents. I use my IK Barb for Thresh/Eldritch/Pindle runs, since the first two are innately cold immune, so they don't shatter and I can hork them with Ali Babas. Pindle only breaks maybe 30% of the time.


-Hammy

[Painman]

IK set has an innate 10 MDR as part of the full set bonus, but that's just an academic nitpick... agreed that the set really isn't ideal for Trav running mostly due to the shattered bodies.

[xxnothing]

Hammy and Painman, I agree. I spent an hour running with my IK set on and I did indeed shatter too many monsters. It was also quite slow, but I only came close to dying ONCE...
I was amp'd as usual, and with there being a Might aura, Extra Strong, Mana Burn monster in there I almost got toasted. I couldn't see ANY red in my life bulb as I did the ol' S&E.

I was going to re-outfit him, but I don't see a really good base for Oath in my stashes.
Also of note, I just realized I am missing and entire stash which contained my Arreat's Face, among other items. :(

EDIT: Ended up making Oath in an eth 'zerker axe. I need to figure out what to pair it with though... I was going to make Oath in a Balrog Blade, until I realized I had no eth Balrog Blades. Was going to pair that with Azurewrath or maybe Dijiin Slayer for some style points. Something not often used...

Anyway. Maybe a Runemaster stuffed with a bunch of interesting jewels would be a fun pairing with the Oath zerker? Hmmm...

[JihadJesus]

2) Lack of MDR - You need 25+ MDR to nullify the Hydras, even under Conviction. That is a huge factor in the difficulty of the run. Since the IK set has no innate MDR, you are left using BOTH of your rings for Dwarf Stars, or socketing Mal runes.

Are you sure this is right? After I saw this I tried a new merc setup, Vamp Gaze + Glad Bane, which provided around 30 MDR with my rolls (don't remember exactly). The merc got completely fried. I had though this might be a better option than the Kira's/GA since that invariably gets him drilled as soon as he's amped or hit with a fanat pack, but the MDR didn't seem to have an effect.

His resists were only in the...50s, I want to say, but if MDR nullifies the hydra damage even under conviction resists shouldn't be the issue. I tried equipping my frenzier with the glad bane + SoE instead of my usual Treachery and had roughly similar results, but then I rarely have issue with the hydras anyway so that doesn't tell me much.

[Friiser]

As a cheap option,
Duress, Stone or Lionheart?
And where to make them?
Thanks in advance
>.<

Another option is the unique chaos armor "Black Hades". It has inherent ED to demons and three open sockets. Here is the one I use:

Spoiler

Black Hades
Chaos Armor
Defense: 1029
Durability: 68 of 70
Required Strength: 140
Required Level: 53
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x9f252087
+6 to Strength
+7 to Energy
+1 to Dexterity
+200% Enhanced Defense
+52 to Attack Rating
Lightning Resist +8%
+20 poison damage over 2 seconds
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
-2 to Light Radius
Half Freeze Duration
138% Damage to Demons
+339 to Attack Rating against Demons
+3 to Mana After Each Kill
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Eagle Heart
Jewel
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x616ed85c
+6 to Strength
+20 poison damage over 2 seconds
38% Damage to Demons
+27 to Attack Rating against Demons

Grim Whorl
Jewel
Required Level: 33
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x87222fcf
+7 to Energy
+52 to Attack Rating
32% Damage to Demons
+50 to Attack Rating against Demons
+3 to Mana After Each Kill

Beast Gyre
Jewel
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x4fb687eb
+1 to Dexterity
Lightning Resist +8%
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
29% Damage to Demons
+41 to Attack Rating against Demons

Coupled with my the rest of my gear, the Grief phase blade (+672% damage total), and my Oath cryptic sword (+588% damage to demons total) I've found it a good choice until I can find another LO for Fortitude.

Edit 2: This was originally brought up by Ohmogrande (sp? - sorry, I can never remember how to spell your name) several pages ago.

[ch1zra]

how would Arriocs Needle behave on trav runner ?
I'm not using RWM so no death/oath/fort combos can be made...
current setup:
string of ears
guilaumes
gloom kraken shell
goblins
LoH
BKB
angelic combo (which boosts AR pretty nice, but I feel it lowers my dps/survivability horribly)

and as weapons, for the moment trying out windhammer, IK maul, dual djin slayers (shael)

moron gear :
reaper
eth ornate plate Stone
guilaumes

I know my gear is crappy, but hey, that's why I pindle with my blizzy, and hunt runes with whirlie :]

anyway, Arriocs will be available in 2 lvls, so I was wondering should I even consider it ?

[hubb]

Your gear isn't even close to crappy. Definitely give the Arioc's a try, the ITD should contribute greatly in addition to its damage. If you can Shael it you've got a great weapon.

By brief inspection I would rank them:
Arioc's (Shael)
Windhammer (Shael) / IK (ShaelShael)
Dual Djin Slayers (Shael)
Arioc's (unsure about where this goes, also depends on roll)
Windhammer

[scottee]

Are you sure this is right? After I saw this I tried a new merc setup, Vamp Gaze + Glad Bane, which provided around 30 MDR with my rolls (don't remember exactly). The merc got completely fried. I had though this might be a better option than the Kira's/GA since that invariably gets him drilled as soon as he's amped or hit with a fanat pack, but the MDR didn't seem to have an effect.

His resists were only in the...50s, I want to say, but if MDR nullifies the hydra damage even under conviction resists shouldn't be the issue. I tried equipping my frenzier with the glad bane + SoE instead of my usual Treachery and had roughly similar results, but then I rarely have issue with the hydras anyway so that doesn't tell me much.

Remember that the ~25 MDR figure assumes that you're wearing a Dwarf Star. Without that, I figure you probably need closer to 50ish MDR- so, for the merc, that means perfect MDR rolls on both pieces, as well as mals socketed.

Edit: Actually, on further consideration, I'm not sure that even 50 MDR would be sufficient without fire absorb. Anyone know what kind of damage output the hydras actually do?

[zemaj]

the wiki knows.

not sure if that takes into account the buff hydras got in 1.13c though.

[dpskane]

not sure whether it has been mentioned before, but i actually like an UPGRADED SKULLDER'S IRE as armor. call me crazy, but i gave up my fortitude for it. i do not have a teleport source, i use the method of running up the stairs and entering the durance to get my merc into the frail.

setup:
upped arreat (6%LL and 193%ED)
upped skullder's ire (191% ED)
LoH
string of ears (unfortunately still looking for a near-perfect one before i upgrade it)
gore riders (like string of ears)
2 fantastic dual leech + resists rings

weapons:
2x grief

merc:
reaper's toll
vampire gaze
fortitude

when i got my fortitude (yesterday ^^) i tried it on my barb, while my merc had a 3800 def stone. the kill speed difference could be felt, but the overall difference in time needed was negligible after couple of test runs. 30 'average' runs and the fortitude setup was ~50sec faster in total.
ok, that's worth it, you'd say. i disagree. skullder's gives ****loads of MF and i found the council to be especially good in dropping class specific uniques and jewelry, making andariel runs totally obsolete for me. the uniques i found so far are in the same value range as the runes i found.... ok, i surely was lucky, but still....
findings:
1 maras (29res)
2 SoJs
1 highlord's
1 metal grid
5-10 rainbow facets (not a single 5/5, but still....)
couple of gheeds
and, though not jewelry, couple of class specific uniques, i.e., arreats, jalal's (found 4 of these, but no HoZ so far), oculus, etc.

since i enjoy seeing golden letters, even IF the value of extra uniques in expectation would not justifiy the extra amount of time needed, i also think that skullder's makes the whole council running less boring