Anyone 2-handing in act 3 & 4 inferno?

[BlackAdder]

I always loved two-handing and was considering to buy a 10 mil. stormshield to hopefully advance to act 3 inferno, untill i saw an mighty two-hander axe with 1336 damage (1 attack per sec), 976 life on hit and 8% damage against elites , it was love on first sight and so I spend all my 10 million on it hehe. First question: was this a good buy you think :P?


Anyway I already noticed I took a lot more damage than with a shield, so while my damage is boosted from around 21 to 33k damage (with battle rage) I cant survive act 3 yet (couldnt either with a shield so that makes sense). So my question is who here is farming act 3 and on inferno with a 2-hander barb?

And do you guys have general tips for two-handers, what's more important: ias, crit, loh? Different skill set-up than a tank barb? I guess seismic slam and eq would be a lot better with this much damage now.

And was resistance and armor should i have now i dont have 30% block chance from a shield anymore?

everything two-hand related, discuss here :P!

thanks

[Nostalgia]

I use a 2hander with my throw wep spec. However I havent used the spec ina while as I find it unstable against certain affix types. Now I use a sheild and strong life on hit wep or switched to my 2 1handers.

One thing that I liked about 2handers is the slower attack speed (read: slower drain of rage). This allows me to wirldwind longer than if I had 2 1handers or a 1hander and sheild. You have a mighty wep as well so with wep master you can gain even more.

I'd suggest try a bunch of different specs with that in mind. Nice wep btw little jelous. haha

[Insicor]

I primarily try to find ones with +str, +crit dmg and an open socket, and to a lesser extent +vit, to get the biggest boost to DPS.

[edistotiger]

I'd recommend a socketed axe/mace with a critical hit damage gem, and the weapon master passive.

The best 2h builds that I've tried are probably Seismic Slam and WotB+EQ. Both of these builds greatly benefit from armor with high resists and life regen.

[galzohar]

10mil imo a bit of a waste on a weapon with no crit damage and/or socket (which will be used for crit damage too of course). IIRC (not sure) you can get 1100-1200 DPS weaopns with both crit damage and socket for less than 10mil and they'll do a lot more if you have a good crit value (which you should if you're trying to deal lots of damage - Enough to kill them during the 5 seconds of ignore pain life steal god mode).

Mace is slightly better than axe due to the higher earthquake damage. You are using it for earthquake, right? For most other skills that are worth using, dual-wield is generally better.

[BlackAdder]

Thanks for all your great comments so far, gives me quite an insight in the whole two-hander style .

10mil imo a bit of a waste on a weapon with no crit damage and/or socket (which will be used for crit damage too of course). IIRC (not sure) you can get 1100-1200 DPS weaopns with both crit damage and socket for less than 10mil and they'll do a lot more if you have a good crit value (which you should if you're trying to deal lots of damage - Enough to kill them during the 5 seconds of ignore pain life steal god mode).

Mace is slightly better than axe due to the higher earthquake damage. You are using it for earthquake, right? For most other skills that are worth using, dual-wield is generally better.

Not at home right now, so not able to chech the AH, but yeah I guessed as well it might be a bit overpriced seeing as it was on the AH already for quite a while when i bought it, oh well still an awesome loh-weapon.

Not using EQ yet, tried it now and then but always feel too dependant on it, not reliable. I like to have a build with no long cooldowns and being able to handle anything without waiting for cooldowns. What i have now is: war cry (impunity), revenge (provocation), ignore pain (extended to 7 secs), frenzy (sidearm), furious charge (dreadnought) and ground stomp (wrenching). So in times of panic i can charge out or pop ignore pain, for healing i have revenge and charge, for AoE dmg i have revenge and frenzy's sidearm. And the stun from ground stomp, thinking about maybe changing that to leap with extra armor rune. So when in need i can leap and have 300% armor, or with ignore pain im invulnerale or charge out with furious charge. Think im gonna try that for starters.

I have to say that i only played act 1 yet, after trying act 3 and getting totally raped. I think i really need more armor (currently 7600) and res (500-600 or so). So just testing out builds in act 1 now, gonna try act 2 tonight as act 1 was quite easy. My passives are hard as nails and the other armor passive, and berserker. I got 1.13 attack per second and a total of 1200 loh, i want to raise this to 1600 or so, and my attack speed at least with a ring with 8 or 9 % ias.

Let me know if you got any advice.

[MagisterMan]

Is there any confirmation that earthquake is based on base weapon damage and not dps? I've heard very conflicting statements regarding it.

[edistotiger]

I've never really "tested" it, but it really felt like EQ did more damage back when i was using a 2h mace.

[BlackAdder]

Nice wep btw little jelous. haha

the weapon is for sale in the trade section!

[SlaX]

I managed to finish Inferno as a 2hand and I found that LoH is useful up until the end of ACT 2, but you simply take too much damage in ACT 3~4 to regain enough life back. I ended up dropping most of my hp regen/life on hit and focused everything on DPS/AR/Crit/Crit Hit.

I had to change to Cleave instead of Frenzy to survive in Act 3 onwards, it is either kill or be killed situation, so a few big heavy hits are a lot better than single target DPS.

I got a Mighty Weapon as well, I thought Weapon Master would provide me bonus with Axe/Fury regen, how wrong I was =(, so I would recommend finding an Axe if your crit hit is at least 200%, or go for a Sword.

Resist is a must for us, ACT 1 = ~200, ACT 2 = ~400 and ACT 3~4 I run with 700 AR with 1000 for Fire/Physical. You will need to always have Leap (iron Impact) and Ignore pain(Ignorance is a bless or the duration rune) up even for some white mobs.

The guide line I used for myself is, if I can't kill an elite within Ignore Pain/Earthquake/Wrath, I can't do this act yet. Or if you can't kill white trash within Leap/Ignore Pain/Leap.

You must have Relentless as a passive, it's such a great skill!

Act 1 I can pretty much spec anything
Act 2 I need to run with Overpower (Crushing Advance) with LoH, Wrath, Leap, Frenzy, War Cry and Revenge (Provocation)
Act 3/4 Ignore Pain, Earthquake, Wrath, Leap, Cleave and War Cry

Diablo: No I can't kill him with 5 NV! I need Frenzy (Side arm) instead of Cleave and Ancient Spear with Healing (instead of Earthquake)

Passives are always: Tough as Nail (this gives me more armor than the Vitality one, pick which ever gives you more armor), Berserker Rage (If I can get a different type of weapon I would prefer weapon master) and Relentless

If I get surrounded, I will die! So it's a lot more positioning compare to tanking build for sure, which is what made it fun!

So my current set up is.

40k DPS

8000 armor (buffed)
700 AR (buffed)
1000/1000 Physical and Fire (buffed) you will need it to survive ACT 3/4
300 Life regen
274% Crit hit
30 Crit chance

35k HP

I am using a 1200 Axe with 252 STR and 100 something Vitality + open socket with 70% emerald. A steal at 500k!

I found that when gearing, Str/Armor > Crit chance/Crit Hit > AR > Vit (provided you have at least 30k)