Pimp that barb....

[Capteone]

Ladies and Gentleman.. Boys and Girls.. Who will be able to do it? Who can..... PIMP THAT BARB!


How do you play? Simple.
- Suggest items that should be upgraded first within the Barb's budget (1-3 million per item)
- Comment on how his skills could be improved, backing up your suggestions as necessary
- Constructively beat down the competition... we're not wimpy Wizards after all


What do I win?
- Peter from Family Guy can clarify this

The Build / Gear:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/S...3/hero/3142006

[torand]

The Build / Gear:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/S...3/hero/3142006

I honestly think your cheapest/best upgrade would be to upgrade the gem in your weapon. You could get a 90% crit gem pretty cheap (Within the 1-3 million range) or just save for the 100%, which only cost me 5.5 mil. 40% crit damage (That you will even re-use if you get a new weapon) without sacraficing anything is WAY worth 5.5 Mil.

If you are looking for an actual gear upgrade, I would get new Bracers that have Crit Chance as fast as you can. Helms get expensive quick to get Crit Chance/AR/Str/Socket, but you could upgrade your bracers pretty easily IMO.

EDIT: Oh yeah, my build/gear... http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/R...4/hero/4050690

[Asmodeous]

Got to agree with torand on this one. With a big nasty skorn going on, you want to land huge crits as often as possible. 20% base chance plus weapon master/ruthless (35%) isn't a big number given the top end barbs are pushing well over 50%. Helm and braciers are both lacking and you can pick up 10% and more on these two slots.

Low end IK items are turning up in the ah starting at a million with 90 odd strength for gloves, belts and I think helms now. Two of those together give a 60 all resist boost so you can keep an eye out for a helm + belt combo, together should beat your current helm/belt combo. Ik helm comes with an inherent crit hit chance, socket and life percent boost, well worth it if you can afford.

After that, strength, strength and more strength.

My barb is a sword and board build, not really relevant to your skorn barb, but if you want to have a look. 66k dps is unbuffed, goes to 99.8k dps (grrr) fully buffed so it shows the value of high crit chance/damage and a high strength score.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/A...9/hero/3662432

[Astrognomix]

First step would be to swap your skills... Battle Rage from Into the Fray to Marauder grants you another 15% damage. Rend build doesn't require a ton of fury, nor does it really benefit from the 15 fury on crit. Also I'd recommend Bash/Punish over Cleave, though I use two 1h weapons so it might not be as effective with your Skorn. Cheers.

*edit* Also, Thrive on Chaos Rune with your WotB isn't really useful with Rend build either, you will find way more use out of the Insanity Rune and just make sure you use it at full fury and are ready to Hammer the sh*t out of everything around with that 100% damage bonus.

[Capteone]

Extremely helpful posts thus far.. any others care to contribute to the conversation?

I am still a bit lost on the skills, I'll be honest. I had Into the Fray so that I would be able to use Hammer of the Ancients more frequently. Is this misguided? Am I misusing this skill?

[Asmodeous]

Im not an expert on Hammer of the ancients, only tried it out briefly and that was in v1.04. If I was going to try it out, I'd set my skills up almost identical to how you have and try it out from there and refine as needed. You are leaving some DPS on the table true, but generating a lot of fury back to extend your wotb and I don't care how much your gimp your dps. A barb in WotB mode with a skorn is going to turn things into goo, no two ways about it.

The only skill I'd change is Superstition. I'm more of a fan of Armor and your's is pretty low. Tough as nails or Nerves of steel, which ever offers the better return.

[volfe]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/V...3/hero/1255693

Here is my barb, any words of wisdom from my fellow barbs? Doing an all self found character (which is really awful in this game imo) so I guess suggesting upgrades is out of the question? Having an alright go at mp1 and I've been messing around with a lot of 2h HoA builds any advice?

[SnickerSnack]

Ladies and Gentleman.. Boys and Girls.. Who will be able to do it? Who can..... PIMP THAT BARB!


How do you play? Simple.
- Suggest items that should be upgraded first within the Barb's budget (1-3 million per item)
- Comment on how his skills could be improved, backing up your suggestions as necessary
- Constructively beat down the competition... we're not wimpy Wizards after all


What do I win?
- Peter from Family Guy can clarify this

The Build / Gear:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/S...3/hero/3142006

I'm using a similar build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/m...7/hero/4802397

Yes, HotA+Thrive+IntoTheFray works well. You aren't misusing the skill, you're using it just fine. I would guess that posters telling you to move away from that combo aren't aware of how well it works.

I use Insanity instead of Thrive on Chaos because elite packs go down before WotB runs out if I use Insanity. I'm sure Thrive works fine and especially on act bosses.

You might want to check out this post: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...=1#post8447019 and the video linked therein.

One last thing, I'll agree with other posters that you should get more crit chance. I only have marginally more than you and, while it's enough to keep HotA well, more is better.

[Ohmarinus]

Ohhh man I was so inspired by Skorn.. So I bought one, went into the keep depths lvl 3 and poof instadieded.

Are there viable builds with Skorn? I used to play with Sky Splitter and a Stormshield. Tried out the Rend/Revenge build but it's too slow to combine with Skorn. Will try the HotA build, but I am afraid I will never be able to survive without a shield. Is it good to take on some more Life Steal instead of life on hit?

Edit:
nvm, Sword + Board is so much better for my gear.

[Capteone]

Updated my gear. Please try to keep this thread on topic and not vulture it. There is a new thread button on the forum if needed.