IK Tanker Barb

[Guest]

I'm making a tanker barb using IK set. Should I use whirlwind or concentrate?

I also need some help with my other skills. Everybody says to max that one that lowers enemies' AR and damage and stuff. This true?

How many points in mace mastery?

How many points in Iron Skin/Natural Resistance?

[Chameleon]

Should I use whirlwind or concentrate?

Concentrate, tanks are slow moving and draw a lot of attention away from others. You stand there and take a pounding for the benefit of the others around you :D.

I also need some help with my other skills. Everybody says to max that one that lowers enemies' AR and damage and stuff. This true?

Battle Cry - this is 1pt wonder if you have decent +skills and with the IK set you do :D.

How many points in mace mastery?

I would eventually put 20 but that would be like the 2nd or 3rd thing to maxed. You are planning tank, not a brute but in the end, he will be both :D.

How many points in Iron Skin/Natural Resistance?

1pt in both, you don't need anymore.

skills:
Battle Orders - 20 (more life/mana/stamina, time synergy for Battle Command, how can you go wrong)
Concentrate - 20 (damage synergy from Battle Orders :D )
Shout - 20 (same defense bonus as Iron Skin but your whole party benefits this way)
Mace Mastery - 20 (least important, since it only affects your own damage, nothing else, and you are a tank, don't be greedy)

1pt wonders:
Berserk (immune to what?) (damage synergy from Shout)
Natural Resistance (is the wind blowing?)
Battle Command
Battle Cry
Leap Attack (always nice to just jump across those lava flows)
Find Item (I hardly ever resist a chance to Hork, with Dual Heart Carvers this will have a very nice percentage).

This is 95 pts spent so far, I think, you could max the Battle Cry at your leasiure from here on to lvl99.


** Now time to get my opinions flamed :D

[Baajikiil]

Either WW or conc are both fine choices for an IK barb. As mentioned, if you're planning on tanking alot, Conc is your best bet as it gives your teammates better cover. WW may be a faster group killer, but conc is much more controlled/safe.

Battlecry(lowers damage/defense) and taunt(lowers AR/damage) are great skills, but I don't think they are worth putting points into for an IK barb. Let your +skills up battlecry useful duration, and leave it at that. Remember that it's only useful if there are no necro curses around. Battlecry will overwrite curses such as amp/decrep and is most often less useful than either of those. Taunt is situational, and is more for the tactical advantage than the AR/damage reduction. Same thing applies to overwriting curses.

Max mace mastery(eventually).

IK set gives alot of defense naturally, and with conc maxed you should have a low chance of being hit anyway. Ironskin doesn't seem worth worth the investment, and NR is boosted to a decent lvl by the set. Leave both at 1.

As for shout: It's a good party skill, but if I were you I'd go with max warcy instead. Some boss packs such as fanat/BA minotaursster can bypass a high defense rating. Max warcry will stop all but the leader in their tracks for over 4 and a half seconds.

I think both shout or warcry will do though. In fact, it's hard to go wrong with the whole IK set :)

[Guest]

Where does IK armor drop? I have everything but the armor and belt.

[Chameleon]

IIRC, IK Soul Cage was in TC90, thus it would now be in TC87, meaning the only places in the game that you can find it are (according to Nobbie MF Guide)from uniques in the following Level 85 areas:
Act1: The Pit (levels 1 and 2), Mausoleum
Act2: Maggot Lair (level 3), Anicent Tunnels
Act3: Sewers (level 2), Ruined Fain, Disused Reliquary
Act4: River of Flame, Chaos Sactum
Act5: World Stone (levels 1, 2, 3), Throne of Destruction, Worldstone Chamber

[Guest]

40 levels later, and I'm getting weary of concentrate. I can't kill stuff with any decent speed! If I remake my barb using whirlwind, will he still be viable?

[Chesspiece_face]

Unfortunately if you want any serious response to your questions we are going to need much more information regarding your character. what are his stats/skills/equipment? What do you want him to do? What merc are you using? What is the merc equiped with?

unfortunately from the vague descriptions of your problems i'm seeing the end result will probably to remake your character. But i can't say for sure until i see some hard stats.

[Guest]

I'm not using a merc. I have equal strength and dex, not sure what they are though. I just hit level 40. I'm using all the IK stuff I can. The rest is Sigons.