Max life Barb

[swirly]

I've been playing a barb a little bit lately and trying to figure out what build I want to do. In the process I've come up with the following build. I'm not sure if I'll use it or not simply because I am unsure if I would enjoy the play style, but I thought I'd post it for thoughts anyway just cause the idea behind it amuses me even if it is a bit nuts.

The build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/ba...bXU!Zbcccb

The basic idea: Base everything off of max life and stack it as high as possible. While still getting some strength, resists, whatever as needed of course.

Frenzy (Triumph): 8% max life heal over 6 seconds when a mob dies from a frenzy attack. I'm thinking 2 handed weapon which frenzy should hopefully make tolerable in regard to it's speed.

Whirlwind (Blood Funnel): Crits restore 1% max life. 2 handed weapon again to make whirlwind decent damage. There is no crit in the build which worries me some, but hopefully you'd get some heals from it.

Overpower (Revel): 8% max life heal for every mob hit. Crits again could be useful to lower the cooldown, but I just don't know how to fit something like Battle Rage in as much as I would like to. It'd cause deviation from the insane plan of everything being life based.

Furious Charge (Dreadnought): 8% max life heal for every mob hit. An escape skill too if I happened to get in trouble.

Revenge (Provocation): 5% max life heal for each enemy hit. Could run 8% with a different rune or 10% crit hit chance instead of the increased proc chance. I figure it being available more often is better though.

War Cry (Invigorate): Max life increased by 10%. Plus some armor and regen which doesn't hurt. One could justify the resistance one saying that the effective health gains make every bit of max life more valuable, but I like the obvious max life involvement instead thematically.

Nerves Of Steel: 100% vit to armor.

Inspiring Presence: 1% max life regen per second

Relentless: Occurs when below 20% life which since the build is all about increasing life should mean that 20% is still a good chunk. The only skill that uses fury is Whirlwind so that being free isn't bad. The idea of being knocked down to 20%, then whirlwinding for free and taking 50% less damage is rather fun. Maybe the Whirlwind heals with the 50% will maintain the 20% state for constant whirlwind. I doubt it, but fun wish anyway. Could run Ruthless or Weapon Master instead for more crit hit chance. Juggernaut might be an even more fun option though with the chance to recover 15% of max life. The added impairing reduction wouldn't hurt either. Just depends how often the build gets below 20% life and what the proc rate on Jugg is. The hope would be not often below 20% I suppose in which case Juggernaut would be better. I tend to play hardcore though so the 50% damage reduction appeals to me.

[Taelas]

Personally, I'd go with this:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/ba...ZXY!ZbZccb

... to build up crits.

You can get constant Whirlwind with Wind Shear, which is my preferred go-to for 2H Fury dumps.

[Jabberwolky]

I've been rolling with this build in hell diff

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/ba...ZUc!aaacbZ

I got tired of the whole "tank" idea and decided to go for dps and percent based healing. So far its worked out very nicely. The only problem i face is invulnerable champ packs...i have not been able to crack that nut with this build..but i have not tried to separate and kill them. At the moment I'm using a 2hander with 330 dps.

[swirly]

The max life build I posted before I was really intended for serious use. It was just a fun idea. In reality the build I'm aiming towards currently is http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/ba...Zbe!bcZcbc

The idea being heals and crits. Knockback on Cleave to try and slow incoming damage rate. Increased health globes from both Hammer and Battle Rage, both triggering off of crits. Crit with Revenge too. So the idea is to pop Battle Rage at the start of the fight. Revenge if it is up and I need a heal, Overpower if not. Hopefully then between the AOE from Revenge and Cleaves there will be enough crits to get Overpower back off cooldown. Charge with it's heal as a backup in case I manage to have neither of the others up. Plus it gets me out of situations.

Ruthless for a passive since i'll be critting a bunch. Should help kill things. Nerves of Steel since I need to keep my Vit up for all the healing and the armor will help buy time between heals. Superstition to help combat the various pools and such on the ground and spread out the need to use heals a bit more.

The concerns I have are that I don't have a freeze break. I'm also concerned if Hammer will end up feeling useful enough or not. Right now I'm running Whirlwind with the heal instead due to the heal on Overpower and Charge both being very late level and so I feel like I need something more than revenge to hold me over till I reach them. Whirlwind is also tempting because it is a movement skill too which is always handy. So I'm worried that Whirlwind will just be too good to give up for Hammer even though I really want to try the treasure/globes of Hammer. I'm running one hand/shield for added life between heals too. This makes the damage on Whirlwind not as good as it would be with 2H, but since i'm mostly using it for heals and movement that might not matter. It might be something to favor Hammer though since the animation on it should speed up from not being 2H.

[Ashock]

I'm not gonna argue about some of your choices, although they are problematic. However, no matter what your skills, you NEED to have War Cry. 50% more resists is completely necessary. Period.

[Frag]

I'm not gonna argue about some of your choices, although they are problematic. However, no matter what your skills, you NEED to have War Cry. 50% more resists is completely necessary. Period.

Only if you don't understand the game mechanics. Is it nice? Yes it is. Is it perfect and has to be used? No, because of EH multiplication instead of flat linear EH additiveness.

[swirly]

However, no matter what your skills, you NEED to have War Cry. 50% more resists is completely necessary. Period.

If you are going to make such a statement (which I'm inclined to feel like Frag about) could you at least be more specific. At what point do you feel it is required? To finish Hell? To play in ACT 1 Inferno at all? To finish ACT 1 Inferno? To play in ACT 2 Inferno? Etc. I feel like such a strong statement deserves at least that much specificity.

[NotSoDarklord]

If you are going to make such a statement (which I'm inclined to feel like Frag about) could you at least be more specific.

You can always overgear the need for impunity (as a melee barb). However, impunity will allow you to comfortably run through Act 2 Inferno with ~200 less base all resist. I would say that it is 100% required in a practical sense.

[Taelas]

swirly, you don't "need" a freeze break if you time your Furious Charges correctly; you're immune to CC in the middle of a charge. If you have Merciless Assault on it, the CD should be more or less a non-ssue. Of course, Dreadnought is the better rune in general.

I finished levelling my second Barbarian to 60 yesterday. The reason I rolled a second Barbarian was to try levelling with S&B instead of dual-wielding. (I was too impatient not to twink the hell out of the character, though.) The result is that while my original Barbarian has just entered Act IV of Hell, the new one has just entered Act 1 of Inferno. I finished with Hell before I hit 60, and went back to kill Diablo again (and Khom after that), just to get the last XP required. She was sitting at 60k life, 6k armor, and around 500 life per hit when I logged off (and around 5k DPS).

[RiotInferno]

Here's the build I'm currently using @ lvl 35:
Throw Weapon!

It was an idea I was playing around with, then I read this:
Ranged Barbarian -- Reddit

It definitely seems awesome.

[Ashock]

However, no matter what your skills, you NEED to have War Cry. 50% more resists is completely necessary. Period.

If you are going to make such a statement (which I'm inclined to feel like Frag about) could you at least be more specific. At what point do you feel it is required? To finish Hell? To play in ACT 1 Inferno at all? To finish ACT 1 Inferno? To play in ACT 2 Inferno? Etc. I feel like such a strong statement deserves at least that much specificity.

Act1 Inferno could be done w/o it, although you'd need very good gear to make up for that. Starting Act2 Inf, unless you've spend a few dozen million on the AH, you will be toast. You need to have at least in the 600s to resists to not be a constant smear, and w/o the 50% boost, you'd need to overcompensate by getting all resist gear, which would severely cramp your other stats.

Before Inferno, you can dual wield badminton rackets and get through it with almost any spec.

---

If you are going to make such a statement (which I'm inclined to feel like Frag about) could you at least be more specific.

You can always overgear the need for impunity (as a melee barb). However, impunity will allow you to comfortably run through Act 2 Inferno with ~200 less base all resist. I would say that it is 100% required in a practical sense.

Yeah, the only ppl who don't understand this, are those that have not hit Act2 Inferno. And those that are not Barbs, of course.

[swirly]

The thing with me is that I just tend to rebel at words like required. So my complaint is more with that than the rune itself. I'd agree that Warcry-Impunity is such a strong skill that most builds are stronger with it than without it. I just question that it isn't possible to do it without it. Not optimal obviously, but possible.

All that said, I run hardcore. I've already died before I even hit 50 which means I didn't even make it to the point where the build would be possible to try. There are just so many high level runes in it. Though I think the actual reason for the death is simply that I've not been playing as focused as I did on my first play through. I've seen all the content before so I've lost a bit of that scared feeling and I think that is getting me killed.

So seeing as how I can't even make it to 60 yet, if I were to ever make it past SK in Inferno (my only 60 char died just passed him) I'd be quite happy with the success of the build. My point being that we are kind of aiming at different targets.

All that said, there is a chance I'll end up running with it. Part of me is less than impressed with Battle Rage. I generally can feel the damage difference when it is active which is good, but I'm mostly concerned with crit hit chance and it only does 3%. Then all the proc runes for it only have a 5% chance on crits to go off. All those low amounts really make me second guess it. So I could see me swapping that out for War Cry-Impunity if I reached 60.

The worry I have is that I want crits, but feel like I'm giving them up everywhere. I keep debating switching Revenge to Provocation. I debate switching Battle Rage to War Cry. I debate switching to heals on Whirlwind which require crits. Plus Overpower is better with them. Yet if I do all of that then the only thing increasing my chance for crits is Ruthlessness. I could maybe switch that to Weapon Master and run maces/axes for 10% instead of 5%. Still, I just worry about how I'm going to be able to get my rate high enough to matter.

[Ashock]

The thing with me is that I just tend to rebel at words like required. So my complaint is more with that than the rune itself. I'd agree that Warcry-Impunity is such a strong skill that most builds are stronger with it than without it. I just question that it isn't possible to do it without it. Not optimal obviously, but possible.

All that said, I run hardcore. I've already died before I even hit 50 which means I didn't even make it to the point where the build would be possible to try. There are just so many high level runes in it. Though I think the actual reason for the death is simply that I've not been playing as focused as I did on my first play through. I've seen all the content before so I've lost a bit of that scared feeling and I think that is getting me killed.

So seeing as how I can't even make it to 60 yet, if I were to ever make it past SK in Inferno (my only 60 char died just passed him) I'd be quite happy with the success of the build. My point being that we are kind of aiming at different targets.

All that said, there is a chance I'll end up running with it. Part of me is less than impressed with Battle Rage. I generally can feel the damage difference when it is active which is good, but I'm mostly concerned with crit hit chance and it only does 3%. Then all the proc runes for it only have a 5% chance on crits to go off. All those low amounts really make me second guess it. So I could see me swapping that out for War Cry-Impunity if I reached 60.

The worry I have is that I want crits, but feel like I'm giving them up everywhere. I keep debating switching Revenge to Provocation. I debate switching Battle Rage to War Cry. I debate switching to heals on Whirlwind which require crits. Plus Overpower is better with them. Yet if I do all of that then the only thing increasing my chance for crits is Ruthlessness. I could maybe switch that to Weapon Master and run maces/axes for 10% instead of 5%. Still, I just worry about how I'm going to be able to get my rate high enough to matter.

If you're HC, then just stay in Hell and don't even think about Inferno, unless you have a tonn of friends giving you items.

[ErickTheRed]

I entered my stats into an effective health calculator, and it showed impunity giving twice the benefit of invigorate, or 20%. Throw in the health regen and the fact I believe invigorate is party wide, and it's probably a viable but not optimal choice. I'm breaking into act 2 inferno with 400 base resists. Until you build up to that point the skills would be closer.

I found Whirlwind with Blood Funnel very disappointing. Even with Ruthless it just didn't do that much. Without it any health effects you get are dwarfed by what you get from Revenge. The build also has a ton of other aoe damage. Eventually I will come back to a Blood Funnel whirlwind build, but it will be a more dps oriented build with enough crit from other skills and gear and rely on Whirlwind for the majority of the healing.

[Frag]

If you're HC, then just stay in Hell and don't even think about Inferno, unless you have a tonn of friends giving you items.

Inferno (A1 at least) was EASY on my barb, despite being very trepid about it due to claims made by those like yourself. I had no AH gear, no twink gear as Swirly & I were the highest level people in our play group and heavily relied on the blacksmith for our lacking slots (which he was great for, fwiw). The game actually felt like the overall difficulty curve went down in A1 Inferno compared to the last few levels of A4 Hell for me, Swirly may have felt different.

Fwiw, every single person posting stats even for those in A2 Inferno had worse core stats than Swirly & I had before we did Hell Diablo, after which we jumped straight into A1 Inferno. If you're playing Hardcore, you're going to be overgeared by nature, and they have provided enough options that it doesn't mean it has to be twinking or AH'ing.

Erik: With 400 resists, I'm sure it did. We were around 90 (for me) to 170 (for Swirly, iirc) resists, and his dogs/garg lived a lot longer with the Health/Regen/Armor shout, and I didn't notice a drop in survivability for doing so.

[Ashock]

If you're HC, then just stay in Hell and don't even think about Inferno, unless you have a tonn of friends giving you items.

Inferno (A1 at least) was EASY on my barb, despite being very trepid about it due to claims made by those like yourself. I had no AH gear, no twink gear as Swirly & I were the highest level people in our play group and heavily relied on the blacksmith for our lacking slots (which he was great for, fwiw). The game actually felt like the overall difficulty curve went down in A1 Inferno compared to the last few levels of A4 Hell for me, Swirly may have felt different.

Fwiw, every single person posting stats even for those in A2 Inferno had worse core stats than Swirly & I had before we did Hell Diablo, after which we jumped straight into A1 Inferno. If you're playing Hardcore, you're going to be overgeared by nature, and they have provided enough options that it doesn't mean it has to be twinking or AH'ing.

Erik: With 400 resists, I'm sure it did. We were around 90 (for me) to 170 (for Swirly, iirc) resists, and his dogs/garg lived a lot longer with the Health/Regen/Armor shout, and I didn't notice a drop in survivability for doing so.

The only reason I was saying that about Act1 is b/c it's HC and one death is all you need. In reality, the real difference in Inferno is Act2 right from the beginning. You can be as mentally ready for it as possible, but you are not ready for what you see, until you actually see it. While for a softcore toon it's fine, it is not fine for a HC one.

Of course the positive is that you don't get burned out on constant deaths.

BTW, out of curiosity... what were your stats when you entered Inferno Act1 and what are your stats now that you've finished it?