06-22-2012, 04:05 PM
There's another variant of the defensive barbarian which focuses on mobility. This build with leap and charge let's me handle many of the melee unfriendly abilities. The aim of this build is mostly to tank normal mob abilities, and use the movement powers to avoid damage from molten, fire chains, plague, arcane sentries etc. It can also be used for hit and run tactics - charge into enemies, revenge, leap out, and run away to heal some more.
Before the nerf (Seismic Slam used to affect minions and champions - it was one of my answers to invulnerable minions) Seismic Slam was amazing. Now it's something I'm used to and really awesome in the few cases I'm in danger of being overwhelmed by white mobs. It still has some uses when I'm in a fighting withdrawal against a boss pack. Leap has saved me so many times I can't imagine playing without it. It's especially useful against frozen. Charge is more aoe damage, healing, and movement. It also breaks jail. Between the two, the only movement controlling ability I really have to watch out for is nightmarish.
Even with my sub 10K dps I mostly don't have to worry about the enrage timer. In any case, the enrage timer is made to irritate those puny hunters and wizards. Sturdy barbarians can just tank through it as often as not, or I just pop into a nearby instance which resets it. If the mobs haven't been able to kill me in minutes I don't have to worry about being swarmed when I come back out.
With the recent patch I've been trying to figure out how to increase dps since I have enough defense. Changing my smite rune to sidearm is an obvious answer which works. Other than that, I haven't figured out if it's better to switch to more offensive oriented gear, or skills. In theory swapping Inspiring Presence for Berserker Rage is a large boost, but I really miss the healing when I have to play hit and run. I'm going to try to get some more life on hit or life regen and see if I can drop it.
Whenever I've tried switching to a more traditional tank build with Wrath of the Berserker and Ignore Pain I haven't felt it worked for me. Is the plan there to literally stand in everything and kill the packs before they kill you? What about fear/frozen/knockback or things that run away? It sort of works for me if I go back to Act 1, but I don't see it letting me kill packs in Act 3.
Before the nerf (Seismic Slam used to affect minions and champions - it was one of my answers to invulnerable minions) Seismic Slam was amazing. Now it's something I'm used to and really awesome in the few cases I'm in danger of being overwhelmed by white mobs. It still has some uses when I'm in a fighting withdrawal against a boss pack. Leap has saved me so many times I can't imagine playing without it. It's especially useful against frozen. Charge is more aoe damage, healing, and movement. It also breaks jail. Between the two, the only movement controlling ability I really have to watch out for is nightmarish.
Even with my sub 10K dps I mostly don't have to worry about the enrage timer. In any case, the enrage timer is made to irritate those puny hunters and wizards. Sturdy barbarians can just tank through it as often as not, or I just pop into a nearby instance which resets it. If the mobs haven't been able to kill me in minutes I don't have to worry about being swarmed when I come back out.
With the recent patch I've been trying to figure out how to increase dps since I have enough defense. Changing my smite rune to sidearm is an obvious answer which works. Other than that, I haven't figured out if it's better to switch to more offensive oriented gear, or skills. In theory swapping Inspiring Presence for Berserker Rage is a large boost, but I really miss the healing when I have to play hit and run. I'm going to try to get some more life on hit or life regen and see if I can drop it.
Whenever I've tried switching to a more traditional tank build with Wrath of the Berserker and Ignore Pain I haven't felt it worked for me. Is the plan there to literally stand in everything and kill the packs before they kill you? What about fear/frozen/knockback or things that run away? It sort of works for me if I go back to Act 1, but I don't see it letting me kill packs in Act 3.