Barb's Cleave + Rupture is way too good. This is all I'm doing.der

[zeze]

This is all I'm using. It's the end-all splash auto attack that kills 99% of all monsters in the stage. Rupture rune makes it just stupid. It's basically a corpse explosion which deals ANOTHER +85% weapon splash. This totals to 215% (120% cleave + 85%) rape damage that belittles ALL other skills in the game.

When was Cleave gained, level 5-7? It's ALL I'm using even at level 19. I've tirelessly switched to other high level/new skills and they all just suck compared to it.

They should've made it much weaker so there's a healthy compromise between crowd splash vs. let other skills shine for single targets. Now you can just Cleave anyone.

'But game will get harder and you'll need other skills!'

I highly doubt it, because all the skills are already weapon % based. 215% is way too good WHILE other skills aren't much better (150% bash or frenzy).

That is all. I expected more variations of healthy choices. Cleave cleave cleave.

[ThomasJ]

Well if you are in normal mode then yeah the game is super easy no matter what combo you are using.

[Skuabbles]

Lol I'm doing the same in normal as well, but I feel like Blizzard is really going to enforce the use of all equipped skills in later difficulties. In normal it's just a matter of efficiency. I'm having huge success using Leap with the armor buff rune, following that with a Ground Smash with the rune that drags the monsters in, using Rend with really any rune, and then while they're bleeding out, popping them with Cleave + Rupture. Great fun. I think it later difficulties the hard part will be mixing in high damage single target skills as well. In normal it's just an AoE fest. I'm alright with that.

[Cincinnati]

All i'm doing is pretty much dashing strike + crippling wave and using the overload of Spirit to spam the dodge aura skill. Crippling is just an insane aoe skill considering it's free to use.

[ElementEight]

I liked that idea, but thought it lacked single target DPS. Wrench + Smash can really clear up groups quickly as well.

[Lendari]

I noticed on my monk the difficulty through act 1 was much harder than through early act 2. The skeleton king in particular seemed MUCH more difficult than in beta, like 10x harder. I was kinda getting a little excited. Then I killed the butcher (hope that's not a spoiler) and the difficulty curve seemed to change again.

Now I'm nearing the end of act 2 and it's all trivial difficulty again I really only use auto attack and heal.

[cozmiccc]

Lol... Actually I don't like cleave much and instead preferred Frenzy with fast dual-wield weapons. It's way more fun IMO

[zeze]

Lol... Actually I don't like cleave much and instead preferred Frenzy with fast dual-wield weapons. It's way more fun IMO

If that's more fun, then fine.

But mathematically, Frenzy just absolutely sucks 95% of the time except focusing bosses. I tried to LOVE frenzy, I kept trying it. Barb can click 12 times to dispatch 4 enemies... then I realized you can click twice to totally wipe the same 4 enemies with Cleave.

Dual wield is bad so far. You're just alternating the weapons and does not increase the DPS much, at the big cost of not using a shield.

[zapotek]

I'm having huge success using Leap with the armor buff rune, following that with a Ground Smash with the rune that drags the monsters in, using Rend with really any rune, and then while they're bleeding out, popping them with Cleave + Rupture. Great fun. I think it later difficulties the hard part will be mixing in high damage single target skills as well. In normal it's just an AoE fest. I'm alright with that.

Very interesting. Have tried tons of combinations and what you just wrote is the build I found to be best at lvl18. Rend with range add / rupture cleave / ground smash with the dragging rune / leap attack / sprint. Since you get so much extra rage and only rend to spend it on sprint can be kept on alot so very comfortable.

[Widukind]

I think frenzy will be a very nice skill in higher difficulties, when you have to be much more focussed on bringing down monsters one at a time.