A Tale of Woe

[Occhidiangela]

Occhi!! Great to see you. I haven't been lurking much recently (bad Kas! no cookie!) so I'm not up on the news. Are you overseas right now or back in the states? Have you been well?

Thanks, been back since Oct 2004, though I seem to have left some of my sense of humor "over there."

Out of curiosity, if I want to go Ironbarb route, how much defense rating do I need to attain in order to actually reduce hell diff monsters' chance to hit me? The thought of facing Lister and co. with no shield is making me a bit nervous... Can it be done without godly unique and runeword elite armors? Should I push Shout to 20, Iron Skin to 5-10 or what?

The conventional wisdome is that Max Shout/Max BO is a good combination. One point in Iron Skin. One could go for a Defiance Merc on top of that, and let the DR pile up. If you do that, I suggest ensuring that Crushing Blow is on at least one weapon. For maces, two "Black" rune Word" flails might be just what the doctor ordered. (Check the Rune words, that one is not all that expensive.)

Alternatively, I'm still contemplating forgetting shout and iron skin and DR altogether and going for Warcry to stun monsters. Which build requires better gear, and which requires more skill point investment? I don't have much to work with here...

Good idea. If you put 10 points into Berserk, you add 10% magic damage to each of your Frenzy attacks. Worth considering as a synergy if you eschew heavy DR.

Also, I have slvl 1 Taunt right now, and it seems to only affect one to two monsters right next to me at a time. Is this due to limited range? Will I be able to effectively taunt packs if I get it high enough?

Taunt typically taunts one monster at a time. It's range is as far as you can reach with your mouse, if you select a target, and seems to me about "1/3" of a screen otherwise.

I'm seriously thinking of putting Ginsu on hiatus and starting a mace mastery frenzier.

Brilliant idea. The Unique Mace adds STR, and it has plenty of CB. If you find two, (66% total) you are in great shape, all you need to worry about then is chance to hit.

One last question from this inquisitive grasshopper: how useful is Berserk for dealing with phys. immunes?
*crosses fingers and hopes someone can help*

It is pretty good, your challenge will of course be crowd control. If you go Mace, a nice big two handed hammer/Mace and Berserk do some nifty damage. The problem there becomes attack speed.

Occhi