My New Build: Hammer of the Ancients and Bash = DESTRUCTION :)der=0

[powpowboom]

pow,

Thanks for the response! It was pretty much what I was thinking. I have always liked playing rather defensive, its even the way I play hockey! So, right now I am using a shield, but I will try switching things up when I can get my res higher (each is at 200ish right now buffed- BIG problem). I will definatly look for items with those stats on it.

My stats right now are 1739 strg, 971 vit, 11.5k (armor buffed), 36k (dam buffed), 200ish res (buffed) Please comment on these numbers.

My goals are to get more items with strg/ vit/ crit dam/ crit chance. As you noted, both crits are so expensive (in one item)!

As far as the variations go, I will try them out. And I will be looking foward to more posts!



-Nick

Nick, 200 AR buffed? you will not survive act 3 with that. You're probably gonna have a hard time in act 2 inferno with that. 11.5k armor is plenty for act 3. What is the block percentage on your shield? It should be in the upper teens minimal, 20+% is preferred. If you're thinking about shield, a Helm of Command that gives you another 8% block is huge. I saw some really cheap on AH yesterday...post 1.0.4 helms for less than a million.

Going with a shield is a great idea. It really helps with survivability. I used a shield last night but i switched to a tank setup. I had to pull aggro for a DH I was playing with. You may want to keep your eyes open on my next thread as I have a very viable setup for board and weapon :P

36k buffed dps is probably sufficient, but obviously the higher the better. With my tank setup (with 1h/shield), my base dps is a tad over 40k. i find attack speed is a stat that isn't in the primary focus right now. Everyone is salivating over crit chance and crit dmg...but attack speed will raise your dps nicely

[Valmont]

i wonder what a nice Skorn dual hander would do with this build? :P

Nah, i'm using it's cousin with 2 very good extra lucky affixes:

[powpowboom]

Nah, i'm using it's cousin with 2 very good extra lucky affixes:

NICE!!! That is one sick mace!!! If you get bored of that mace, i'll buy it from you :P

[niarocci]

pow,

my shield block % is 24. My main problem is clearly my res. I also have to get a good mace/axe. The good think about this build is that is very viable provided you have the res/ crit needed. Strngth and vit I am ok with, but more is also nice!

Ill update with my progress as I add pieces.

[niarocci]

also, I am looking foward for your sword and board setup!

[Youngtimer]

@niarocci: I play HotA-Build with sword/board and I am very happy with it. If you can lower the Fury Costs of HotA you can spam it. You may have a look at my actual Barb, especially the shield: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/F...12/hero/799333

WotB is not fixed in my build, i have tried Ignore Pain/Ignorance is Bliss and Overpower with various runes in that slot. There are a lot of possibilities to try out.

@powpowboom: Do you have any ideas what i could upgrade next? I´m aiming for more even more dps

Greetings,
Youngtimer

[Dethklok]

With the help of legendary jewelery, you could reduce HotA's fury cost to... zero (or maybe 1). Mara's Kaleidoscope, Stone of Jordan and Skull Grasp all can have the mod. The problem, of course, is that getting crit chance on a legendary amulet/ring is even more expensive than usual. Getting all three might not be a good idea even if money is no object, but it might be worth it to try to get the resource cost to 10 or 5, at which point critical chance and Into the Fray could take over for infinispam.

[Valmont]

Aiming for IAS on my BIS and im having amazing results with my 2 hand weapon.
IAS means more hits = more health return = more fury return and fury management = safe hit with 0 interrupting.

*PS: immortal's king belt is mandatory and i recomend u guys to buy it first (life steal + maximum fury + bash damage). I'm actually recovering 6k+ health with my average crits on bash.

[liquid_mage]

Gave it a try to mix it up you can only double nado so much. I think it kills pretty fast, close enough to nado I don't mind playing it. Love the 400k crits. Right now i'm just doing it with my DW gear. May pick up a 2-hander and give it a whirl. It does seem like it is also a great S/B build.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/B...4/hero/3306320

[niarocci]

Just an update for me on this build. I am using pow's origonal mix.

My stats are now: 800-900 (res all), 45k dam buffed, 7k buffed armor, 43% crit chance (without hammer 5%), and +326% crit damage. I also have around 8% life steal.

I can solo a3 with little problem (may die once on an hard elite pack in a bad situation). I find that I only use ignore pain in situations with elite packs, so putting in another offensive skill here is a possibility (like beserker or revenge).

The only change I made was with Bash, I use the run that adds fury (you could also do this with cleave- which would be better in some cases) because I wanted to use my hammer more often (seemed like I wasnt enough).

I would like better items that add more strgh/vit in addition to all the stats I have now, and this obviously gets very expensive (espicially with gloves/ ammy/ and rings!). Also, I would love dual 1k dps weapons with all of the relevant stats (right now I have high 800's with the % attack, life steal, crit dam, and strgth stats).

So, overall I really like this build because you can really survive in a3 and it dishes out enough damage for you solo or to be effective in a 4-way public game


P.S. I tried just replacing Hammer with the new rend (bloodlust) and I found that the enemies just died slower. Elite packs I would have to kite. Because of the bloodlust run- I never died once using rend, but it isnt quite as fun to me as smashing.