06-20-2012, 09:23 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-20-2012, 09:25 PM by NotSoDarklord.)
... and everything in between. *queue collective groans at the title*
Greetings all,
With the recent reductions in damage to later Inferno Acts I'd love to get a feel for where the Lurkers are at on the spectrum of Barbarian playstyles.
From what I have seen most barbarian builds can be categorized into 3 major categories.
The Unstoppable Force
Glass cannon builds that focus on raw damage output and careful positioning to burst mobs down fast under the protection of cooldowns such as No Pain or Wrath of the Berserker. 2-hander builds are extremely common as well as dual wielding and even the occasional throwing specced barb. The key stats emphasized here tend to include a baseline level of resists to avoid getting one shot while maximizing offensive stats such as strength, crit chance, crit damage, and attack speed.
The Immovable Object
High resist builds with high %life/vitality sacrificing offensive stats to "tank" (or more realistically to bore) mobs to death until victorious. Sword-and-board is a given here. Barbs running tanky builds generally hover around 10k damage even up to late inferno. Particularly strong in group play running as constant interference between hard hitting mobs and squishy glass cannons.
Everything In-between
Hybrid builds that look to establish a balance between the two. Being able to take some hits and dish out respectable damage when needed.
Personally, I have grouped for the majority of my barbarian playtime. As a result I found building extremely tanky a viable strategy until the recent nerfs to damage where it now feels possible to be geared "too tanky". With inferno bosses gaining soft enrages after a few minutes the design of the game seems to lend itself toward stacking DPS gear on top of minimally sufficient tank stats.
As far as skills go I run Frenzy-Sidearm, Warcry-Impunity, Revenge-Provocation at all times. My remaining skill slots are filled, depending on my group composition, with some combination of Wrath of the Berserker-Insanity, Charge-Dreadnought, Threatening Shout-Demoralize, Earthquake-Call of the Mountain, Leap-Iron Impact, or Ignore Pain-Ignorance is Bliss. I would love to run more Weapon Throw-Stupefy but it's just so hard to fit the skill in with so many great skills to choose from.
I would be very interested in hearing about how everyone else is playing the class. How do you play your barb? How is that working out for you? What does your ideal gearset look like? Random barb thoughts vaguely related to my post?
Greetings all,
With the recent reductions in damage to later Inferno Acts I'd love to get a feel for where the Lurkers are at on the spectrum of Barbarian playstyles.
From what I have seen most barbarian builds can be categorized into 3 major categories.
The Unstoppable Force
Glass cannon builds that focus on raw damage output and careful positioning to burst mobs down fast under the protection of cooldowns such as No Pain or Wrath of the Berserker. 2-hander builds are extremely common as well as dual wielding and even the occasional throwing specced barb. The key stats emphasized here tend to include a baseline level of resists to avoid getting one shot while maximizing offensive stats such as strength, crit chance, crit damage, and attack speed.
The Immovable Object
High resist builds with high %life/vitality sacrificing offensive stats to "tank" (or more realistically to bore) mobs to death until victorious. Sword-and-board is a given here. Barbs running tanky builds generally hover around 10k damage even up to late inferno. Particularly strong in group play running as constant interference between hard hitting mobs and squishy glass cannons.
Everything In-between
Hybrid builds that look to establish a balance between the two. Being able to take some hits and dish out respectable damage when needed.
Personally, I have grouped for the majority of my barbarian playtime. As a result I found building extremely tanky a viable strategy until the recent nerfs to damage where it now feels possible to be geared "too tanky". With inferno bosses gaining soft enrages after a few minutes the design of the game seems to lend itself toward stacking DPS gear on top of minimally sufficient tank stats.
As far as skills go I run Frenzy-Sidearm, Warcry-Impunity, Revenge-Provocation at all times. My remaining skill slots are filled, depending on my group composition, with some combination of Wrath of the Berserker-Insanity, Charge-Dreadnought, Threatening Shout-Demoralize, Earthquake-Call of the Mountain, Leap-Iron Impact, or Ignore Pain-Ignorance is Bliss. I would love to run more Weapon Throw-Stupefy but it's just so hard to fit the skill in with so many great skills to choose from.
I would be very interested in hearing about how everyone else is playing the class. How do you play your barb? How is that working out for you? What does your ideal gearset look like? Random barb thoughts vaguely related to my post?
MaxPower#1485 60 SC Barb/32 HC Witch Doctor/22 HC Wizard/17 HC Demon Hunter