08-02-2006, 08:39 PM
Quote:Angel' date='Aug 2 2006, 03:10 PM' post='115001']
I'll take that into consideration:)
I traversed the desert towards Lut Gholein with my barbarian today. I still haven't used any skill points. I think I've confused berserk with frenzy (or vice versa). Which is the better skill to use?
It's been a while since I've played a high level barb - since blizzard apparently dislikes the idea of the melee heavy class actually being proficient at melee - but the determinant factor will be equipment and style of play.
Beserk is a slower more methodical kind of play, which is in essence just whacking everything in sight with a big stick. I had a beserker back in 1.10 that was incredibly strong, and could even do solo baal runs on Hell with little difficulty. 1.11 Ladder play tipped the scales against melee, so I'm rather certain this build doesn't fair as well as it used to.
Frenzy on the other hand is like playing with ADD. Your character moves incredibly fast, and you spend your time stringing one monster hit to the next, playing off the frenzy boosts that come after each successive hit. It appears that Frenzy barbs are just as popular, if not more popular than beserker barbs these days (I just started playing on USEast again in the last month, so my understanding of end game is still a bit limited).
Frenzy barbs dual wield high damage 1h weaps such as 1h axes. Beserker barbs have a bit more freedom, but at least in 1.10 they were mostly sword wielders due to their increased speed (and the ability to wield a stormshield when needed).
More than stylistic concerns, it's important to note some oddities about Beserk. Beserk converts melee damage to Magic Damage. This can be a big plus since there are almost no Magic Immune monsters in Hell (except for Achmel and his mummy summoning bretheren). On the downside, while attacking your barb is reduced to zero armor. Armor issues aside, the biggest disadvantage is Beserk can't leech.
A fellow lounger on USEast found a good way to counteract both of these problems, the warcry 'War Cry'. The skill stuns the surrounding monsters long enough to kill safely. By using War Cry he was able to pull off a hell baal solo run in 1.10 with only using 1 super healing potion and no leeching attacks. The alternative to using War Cry is to put concentrate on left click. Concentrate works as a 1 point wonder (and a pre-req for) beserker builds. The chance to be uninterupted helps when a mob has surrounded you. Whenever your orb gets low alternating a concentrate attack here and there keeps both orbs full. Other solutions I've seen involved using WW to leech.
As for the pro's and cons of frenzy, I'll leave that up to a more experienced lounger.
If your style of play is fast paced (as it seems to be from a few of your posts), it may be worth logging into a few barb channels/high level games and asking barbs what skills they use. Most people won't be very helpful, but a majority of them will at least grunt out some very helpful tidbits.
Cheers,
Munk