06-18-2006, 08:33 AM
>Let me put it this way. After experimenting with other builds along the way here and there, I realized a long time ago that the only fun Barb at least to me is a WW Barb.
I'm not disputing your or anyone else's personal preference and experience, I'm talking about the relevance of it, mostly in the context of a solo\sp\notwink Concentrator w\shield. You brought up an excellent point regarding the potential trouble of Hell Mode for most melee builds. That's incredibly relevant. What you or I personally find enjoyable, probably not so much.
>For a WW Barb, BOTD is by far the best weapon and the only one that makes a Barb viable in Hell MP.
Again, considering we're talking about a 1h Concentrator in solo SP, that has little to no bearing on the debate. But for what it's worth, although I disagree that a BotD is the best and only weapon for a WWinder, I don't for a second dispute that a Whirler needs a raw heavy damage weapon not only to kill but to leach, so he won't run out of gas in order to whirl, so he could survive. Especially since WW doesn't work with CtC effects iirc.
But in the context of a solo 1h Concentrator, he's probably better served with a fast weapon that has CtC AoE effects, to compensate for his 1 on 1 attack style and lack of raw damage. A Schaeffer like you mentioned, or Crescent Moon or a LawBringer might be a better fit. Out of the 3, iirc only Schaeffer and CMoon is potentially available to him as an endgame weapon, since he's not in Online Ladder.
> I cared about that stuff in D1 and in fact all my warriors in D1 were completely pure from start to finish.
So was mine. Not out of any need to get an 'ultra pure super l3git eagle scout' badge or anything silly like that. If anything I was too lazy to trade even between my own chars.
> D2 is different and besides, if by far the most fun I could have was using a weapon requiring a Zod, so be it.
Unless you're talking about Open Realms or a test char situation, then I guess we just have to agree to disagree. Mostly because (at least imo) of how little it applies to the original topic, I think if we start throwing out very high end items like BotD, or me mentioning an Act2 Merc is powerful when kitted out with a Doom weapon and clad in a Chains of Honour, we might as well be talking about a different game. Because in a lot of ways it is a different one than what the original poster is playing.
I'll readily admit I myself don't play the game in 'stock' form much nowadays. I'm mostly into mods or offline sp with the runes. txt file enabled. I'm tired of seeing bliz patches putting most of my chars into a coma, so while I disagree with you on the ZOD, I think I see where you're coming from. Especially if you had a high level char that got hit with 'improvement' during the change to 1.10. My lvl 80 1.09 Martyr got Schiavoed in 1.10. But hey I guess I should thank my lucky stars my Martyr didn't get improved the way the Amazon's Immolation arrow did. Bliz sure made an example out of her on that one.