Can I still salvage my Barbarian?

**PureMelee** · 12-06-2012, 00:59

Here's my Barb's items/stats(buffed) (and my gold amount)
http://i.imgur.com/tpuDu.jpg
Here's my specs
1. Standard: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...VkP!Vbe!cccccZ
2. Destroyer: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...VkP!Vbe!ccZccZ

As you can see, pretty cookie-cutter stuff for the skill specs.. usually play with setup #1 when trying to play in Act 2, I go with #2 when farming Act1. Some discrepancies I know, like not using Sidearm. I have read all the data here and other sources regarding Sidearm, and although on paper it may statistically put out more damage, every time I test it out it seems to have a negative result with me. Also I have no Life on Hit which is one of my barb's main problems, but I'm told Sidearm only begins to shine once you have Life on Hit.

Also some may question using Death from Above instead of Iron Impact. I find that it's more valuable to me in situations where I'm losing (most elite fights in Act2+) to stun them stopping ALL attacks and run away (or simply directly leaping out of their reach) then it is to hit 28k armor for 4 short seconds while still taking boatloads of damage.

So anyway.. on to the main question I'm asking: Can I still turn this barb around?

I know I made a grave mistake neglecting Life on Hit and Block Rate. I could go into the reasons why they're neglected but really I just want it up front--can I save this barb? Or should I trash him and use my gold to buy a Demon Hunter.

Sad but true... I can't progress the way I am now. I know I somehow need to add around 800+ Life on Hit to my build without sacrificing much of the meager stats I have. I know my resistance is very low (the screenshot is after War Cry buff).. but c'mon now. Getting this stuff is EXPENSIVE.

If you think I can salvage my barb... well you can see exactly the items I'm using, and the gold I have. I have held out on upgrading for days and days slowly building up from 4 mil on like Friday, to near 7 mil now.. and regretted it, as I only see the prices of stuff like Stormshield and the like going UP instead of DOWN. To make matters worse, I can hardly sell anything anymore. I was selling stuff on the AH for like 50k a pop form Act 1 farming, now the stuff I farm in Act 1 virtually can't sell... it's just not good enough, even with like 100+ main attribute, res all, vit, etc.. just too low defense coming from Act 1.

So my question to you is, how can I go about getting some good upgrades for my barb to make him Viable. It is so clear to me that without Life on Hit I'm simply not viable at all... can 7 million even turn my barb around? I don't want to drop all my gold on upgrading only one slot and have that not be enough, y'know what I mean? I am hoping I can turn my barb viable at least to midway Act 3 with the gold I'm currently sitting on.

Of course, if you don't think that's possible, just be honest. Then I'll just roll a different character or something.

**galzohar** · 12-06-2012, 01:38

Well, buying a demon hunter will probably result in more loot faster simply because of balance issues. Has nothing to do with any mistakes you've made. Of course you can still salvage it, and much more easily than someone who just hit 60 and has no gear and little gold.

Your stats are pretty high. Just get a good shield and maybe a life per hit weapon.

In general, though, I'd try threatening shout. 25% damage reduction pretty much all the time is a lot. 4x armor from leap might be a big boost but for the 6 seconds it is not active you die much easier compared to if you had threatening shout. I find tanking on a barb being about being able to heal with revenge more than they damage and not die during the 1 second revenge cooldown or while CCed, and I think threatening shout simply does a better job.

By the way, if stuff are really easy for you when you're farming, you can replace tough as nails with berserker rage or brawler (I usually go berserker rage and battle rage instead of earthquake, but brawler might work better with earthquake).

**PureMelee** · 12-06-2012, 02:08

Thanks for the advice. Looking forward to more input. Also I know it's kinda lame asking people to think for me, but if people want to specifically pick out which pieces of my equip are garbo and need to be replaced with what specific items, I'm all ears.

I'm really trying to get the most bang for my buck. I'd like to make my barb viable sooner rather than later.

**galzohar** · 12-06-2012, 09:22

What you need to replace is the item that you can get the biggest upgrade for minimum gold. Which one that is depends on what deals you can snatch off the AH.

I don't usually point towards Athene, but here he gave pretty good tips for those not very experienced with the AH:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx99R...eature=g-all-u

**BobCox2** · 12-06-2012, 09:35

LOL Never Mind

Tiger Attack

**YOUR** · 12-06-2012, 12:05

Hmm, I had similar issues when I entered Inferno, with my barb.

My advice might be strange, but thats what worked for me. Go for damage. Reduce those resistances. After all what gives you drops are bosspacks or bosses with Valor stacks. What I did was mostly skip resistances (limited myself to 500 physical/350 allres with Shout), and focus on geting IAS/CritC/CritD and go with a 2H weapon (with 1200++ DPS and CritD, those are fairly cheap atm). EQ+WOTB was nearly instantly killing any boss packs on Act 2.

I was using the following build at the time

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bVkRPT!ZbV!YccbZb
Your stats with Shout should look something like this
40k DPS
9k Armor
400 resists,
30+ crit
150+ crtid

My standard farming route was get 5 stacks (Alkarnus, Oasis, Mines, was picking the easier spots, with high chances) then Kuhle -> Belial. My death rate was fairly high, but it was paying itself.

Im still not using any LOH (150 from ring only) and while I replaced the 2H to a 1H+Shield, it was mainly, because the shield was giving 10% crit and 150str. The Allres+Armor is a neat bonus, but was not my primary goal.

But honestly, im thinking of salvaging my wizzard, because the barb just outshines the boring hit and run strategies

**PureMelee** · 12-06-2012, 22:39

Originally Posted by YOUR

Hmm, I had similar issues when I entered Inferno, with my barb.

My advice might be strange, but thats what worked for me. Go for damage. Reduce those resistances. After all what gives you drops are bosspacks or bosses with Valor stacks. What I did was mostly skip resistances (limited myself to 500 physical/350 allres with Shout), and focus on geting IAS/CritC/CritD and go with a 2H weapon (with 1200++ DPS and CritD, those are fairly cheap atm). EQ+WOTB was nearly instantly killing any boss packs on Act 2.

I was using the following build at the time

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bVkRPT!ZbV!YccbZb
Your stats with Shout should look something like this
40k DPS
9k Armor
400 resists,
30+ crit
150+ crtid

My standard farming route was get 5 stacks (Alkarnus, Oasis, Mines, was picking the easier spots, with high chances) then Kuhle -> Belial. My death rate was fairly high, but it was paying itself.

Im still not using any LOH (150 from ring only) and while I replaced the 2H to a 1H+Shield, it was mainly, because the shield was giving 10% crit and 150str. The Allres+Armor is a neat bonus, but was not my primary goal.

But honestly, im thinking of salvaging my wizzard, because the barb just outshines the boring hit and run strategies

Interesting... is act 2 the pinnacle of what you can farm with this setup? How do you do in Act 3?

**YOUR** · 13-06-2012, 00:04

Act 3 and 4 are different stories.

you need crazy gear to survive it. I was able to kill bosspacks and make it through the first 3 quests, but dying every 1-2 min is just not fun. The damage mobs deal there is outright brutal. However, my gear aint good enough for it too.

**Insicor** · 13-06-2012, 00:34

I can farm Siegebreaker with five stacks and minimal dying now with the following stats:

40k HP
37k DPS (36.5% crit and 274% crit damage)
1100 physical resist, 900-1000 for the others
8200 armour

If you stack crits really hard you can probably get away with only 800 resists. I only happened to have more because I was going the tanking route first, and I doubt it makes much difference.

**PureMelee** · 13-06-2012, 01:20

Well I tried out the 2-h dmg/crits build and I already have to say... I'm soloing belial /w 5 stacks now and I'm dying zero times getting to five stacks. (Though I still died on belial's 2nd phase a few times)

Wow, just wow. Incgamers you rock. lol some may think this is much too fast of a turnaround but I swear I'm not trolling. It actually works. This is great for soloing! And then I just switch back to my sword and board items when I join parties.

Thanks again guys. I don't even have much crits actually just boosting my damage by double has made a huge difference.
I could have gotten better, I didn't know what would be good or bad on a 2-h wpn so I sank some gold into a "meh" choice but it's still an amazing improvement over my defense-heavy build from before! Worlds above it!