Whirlwind barb - act 2 interno (video)

[Raider]

- 20k Dps (with Battle Rage) dual wielding an Axe and a Mighty Weapon.
- 38k HP and res vary from 780 (physics) from 560 (fire) with War Cry on.
- 42% crit is base, 5% from Ruthless and 10% from Master of Arms (because of the axe in main hand), 8.5% from my Amulet, 7% from my glove, 3.5% from helm and 3% from the passive of the scoundrel.
- My LoH is 1200 (600 from amulet + 600 from amy off-hand Mighty Weapon that dropped today!)

I hit Belial today but not without some deaths but I still did not skip any elite mob. Some combinations like arcane + wall can trap u and instakill and some I killed just using sprint and not even coming close. I still have a lot to improve, some of my elemental resistances are very low as Plagued, Arcane and Molten mobs are the ones giving most of the trouble.

[Doppel]

I find Belial to be pretty easy with this Barb actually. His minions are so easy and in Phase 2 you just Sprint from side to side until he does his explosion thingy, and then it's just a matter of not getting hit which takes some practice (i find that i can get hit by one explosion, so that helps when making a mistake), and again Sprint is a huge boon to quickly run to a safe place when explosions are enclosing you.
Dunno if it's worth farming him though since the fight takes some time.

[aerial]

If you guys have problems with this tornado build, it is either not enough crit chance or attack speed (speed also increases frequency of hits, that helps entire process keep on going).

Recently I switched to classic 2h whirlwind build (volcanic eruption), and it works in a3/a4.
This one requires best items (overall solid stats and high damage). 1.03 patch also plays big role here, as it makes last acts lot easier to survive damage. The hidden "synergy" that allows it to work, is to use slow 2h weapon (preferably mace), to reduce whirlwind fury usage. If you have not much more than 1 attack per second, it hits about twice per second, and one "tick" of whirlwind, one cast is registered. That is so much different than used with dual wield, where without tornados, whirlwind burns entire fury in literally few seconds. Slow whirlwind hits way harder (but less often), but that gives us that fury efficiency, from cooldown generators. We still have all the movement whirlwind has, but there is no problem with fury generation. And it finally feels like proper barbarian, without abusing any questionable mechanics (like tornados, I'm pretty sure it will get nerfed, because it is just way too good).

[imthedan]

Aerial:

Can you post a link to your build? I checked the youtube video, but I didn't see the link. Thanks!

Also, will your build work for Act 2? What type of stats do I need? Thanks!

Also, what type of stats do I need for this to work? It's quite different than the traditional tanker revenge build, so I'm sure my stats are all wrong.

[blinkyvv]

ya i tried ww/ sprint/ nado build and get raped in a1 where as my normal wotb/ earthquake insanity build clears elites easy.
Using a axe and buffed in WoTB I have 42-50% crit hit i believe

whats sweet spot for crit hit/ and attacks per second we should look for on our chars

[Arthwyr]

If you guys have problems with this tornado build, it is either not enough crit chance or attack speed (speed also increases frequency of hits, that helps entire process keep on going).

Recently I switched to classic 2h whirlwind build (volcanic eruption), and it works in a3/a4.
This one requires best items (overall solid stats and high damage). 1.03 patch also plays big role here, as it makes last acts lot easier to survive damage. The hidden "synergy" that allows it to work, is to use slow 2h weapon (preferably mace), to reduce whirlwind fury usage. If you have not much more than 1 attack per second, it hits about twice per second, and one "tick" of whirlwind, one cast is registered. That is so much different than used with dual wield, where without tornados, whirlwind burns entire fury in literally few seconds. Slow whirlwind hits way harder (but less often), but that gives us that fury efficiency, from cooldown generators. We still have all the movement whirlwind has, but there is no problem with fury generation. And it finally feels like proper barbarian, without abusing any questionable mechanics (like tornados, I'm pretty sure it will get nerfed, because it is just way too good).

Could you please post your 2h build as well? What skills do you use instead of sprint-run like the wind?

[edistotiger]

I've played around with a few builds now and i can't get any of them to work as well as i would like.

None of the WW + tornado builds worked well for me in Act3. I've tried 1H + shield with 935 LoH and dual-wielding with over 1500 LoH, and i found neither provided sufficient healing with LoH being the sole source of HP recovery. I can kill white mobs and easy elite packs without much issue, but the nastier packs tear these builds up, and Shielding and Invulnerable Minions packs are nearly impossible.

Most recently I've been experimenting with the original 1H WW + Blood Funnel + Revenge build and I'm experiencing a bit more success so far. It's not as fun as Run Like the Wind + WW, but it's definitely better for survival.

The one thing i am still lacking, however, is an axe/mace with big LoH. Right now i have a socketed mace with 230str, and my old tanking spear with 935 LoH. Neither are really ideal for what I have been trying to do.

[aerial]

Could you please post your 2h build as well? What skills do you use instead of sprint-run like the wind?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...Pik!dgZ!bcaZYc

Currently something like this.

Stats are 50k health, 800 all resist, 2000 life regen, 6% life leech, 6.5k armor.
It is more than enough for 1.03 patch a3/a4.
Damage with 1277dps mace, 1800str, 40% crit chance and 250% crit bonus, if i charge up bash and stand next to 3 monsters (brawler) is over 100k dps. Crits of whirlwind are getting close to 100k per hit.
With insanity berserk something around 220k.
Whirlwind can clear all elites quite fast, ranged AI need to usually kill one by one with bash, as they run away. With this kind of damage, life leech really kicks in, heals that appear every 0.5s, can reach 10-15k life quite easily, so at some point, by sacrificing defense in favor of damage, we actually gain more defense because leech becomes stronger.
Im trying to use berserk only if packs are really hard, or they have crowd control (especially jailer). Better save it for such pack.
Still havent figured how to deal with multiple crowd control elites in a row, close to each other. Barb is basically forced to wrath of berserker, because you just cant deal with certain elite combos without cc immunity. Unless ofc stack all rare items with 14% crowd control reduction each..