Basic Math - The Failure of Diablo Melee

[Bizono]

I'm cruising through Hell SC with a defensive spec'd Barb. Only thing that has given me any trouble at was one elite pack with a particularly unfriendly set of mods (extra fast, shielding, those flame rope thingies, iirc) and I skipped them after dying a few times. Bosses are trivial - I just sit there holding the attack key and spamming revenge when it procs. I have over 40k health at level 57, and I try to find gear with life on hit, ele and phys resists, stam, vit, and +life %. Killing stuff is slow, but I generally just drag as many mobs into one spot and blast them down with revenge procs, occassionally using a health pot for elite/champ packs.

Now, it's probably true that offensive oriented Barb (or Monk) specs are struggling to stay alive in Hell and Inferno. Can't speak to that. But defensive spec'd Barb through Hell is fairly easy (only deaths through Act 2 was to previously mentioned elite pack).

My current spec: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/ba...Veb!accbZY

Going to switch to Impunity for Inferno or at level 60, and might drop Threatening Shout for Earthquake to help speed up killing bosses etc. But I wanted to play a defensive juggernaut, and that's what this spec does and does well.