02-26-2003, 01:31 AM
I got bored of my uber-twinked chars with the godly item builds and such, and started looking for something NEW. something unique. something thats actually PLAYABLE. my bard... sure, he can stun a group of monsters around him very effectively, but he cant DO anything with it. so, i played around a bit, and found something really strange. I present to you: The Pacifier.
slvl 49 taunt causes -101% damage and -101% attack rating, making you literally impossible to hit by any non-boss monster, and causes them to follow you. now, if the target cant land a hit on you 95% of the time (theres a 5% min cap on AR) and that last 5% of the time its attacks do negative damage to you, what happens then? it heals you! this is one variant i think combines the viability that most people want with the break from being a cookie cutter build.
unfortunately, you dont have many choices on equipment for this build. this is what it takes to achieve slvl 49 taunt:
+3 warcries barbarian helm with +3 to taunt
+3 warcries amulet
+3 warcries 1hweapon x2 (like echoing swords for example)
+1 warcries grand charms x10
+1 all skills armor, such as spirit shroud, que hegans or vipermagi. arkaines valor requires slvl 85, and is impractical for this variant.
+1 all skills rings, such as The Stone of Jordan or Bul Kathos' Wedding Band x2
this leaves a 1x10 space in your inventory, and your choice of gloves, belt, and boots, as well as your 2nd weapon slot.
thats only +28 skills, you say? well, the barbarian comes prepared for this: Battle Command! It adds that last required +1 skills you need in order to go from "practically immune" to "literally immune."
now, of course you'll need to max taunt. what else is needed? lets see:
you have immunity to all melee attacks, so the only attacks to fear are ranged attacks. get some nice resists (somehow) and that will no longer be an issue. ranged physical attackers, although they arent melee, do depend on AR, so they dont do damage once taunted either.
Now, your damage capabilities are suffering quite a bit here. Luckily, we have a ton of points left over, so you can distribute them however you wish in order to make yourself still capable of dealing damage. personally, id choose berserk. with berserk, you get some huge damage boosts, and the 50% physical immunity in hell no longer means anything to you. you cant leech, but with a vast majority of attackers rendered offenseless against you, life leech shouldnt be much of a problem. your only concern after that is mana leech, and at 5 mana per pop, berserk isnt likely to put you in a need for amassing energy. for this reason, id recommend using 2 sojs and a que hegans armor for the mana boosts.
any questions, comments, or addons would be greatly appreciated, i just came up with this so there's likely stuff to be worked out. also, if someone else has done this before, and im not the first to come up with it, then let me know so i dont piss someone else off :P
slvl 49 taunt causes -101% damage and -101% attack rating, making you literally impossible to hit by any non-boss monster, and causes them to follow you. now, if the target cant land a hit on you 95% of the time (theres a 5% min cap on AR) and that last 5% of the time its attacks do negative damage to you, what happens then? it heals you! this is one variant i think combines the viability that most people want with the break from being a cookie cutter build.
unfortunately, you dont have many choices on equipment for this build. this is what it takes to achieve slvl 49 taunt:
+3 warcries barbarian helm with +3 to taunt
+3 warcries amulet
+3 warcries 1hweapon x2 (like echoing swords for example)
+1 warcries grand charms x10
+1 all skills armor, such as spirit shroud, que hegans or vipermagi. arkaines valor requires slvl 85, and is impractical for this variant.
+1 all skills rings, such as The Stone of Jordan or Bul Kathos' Wedding Band x2
this leaves a 1x10 space in your inventory, and your choice of gloves, belt, and boots, as well as your 2nd weapon slot.
thats only +28 skills, you say? well, the barbarian comes prepared for this: Battle Command! It adds that last required +1 skills you need in order to go from "practically immune" to "literally immune."
now, of course you'll need to max taunt. what else is needed? lets see:
you have immunity to all melee attacks, so the only attacks to fear are ranged attacks. get some nice resists (somehow) and that will no longer be an issue. ranged physical attackers, although they arent melee, do depend on AR, so they dont do damage once taunted either.
Now, your damage capabilities are suffering quite a bit here. Luckily, we have a ton of points left over, so you can distribute them however you wish in order to make yourself still capable of dealing damage. personally, id choose berserk. with berserk, you get some huge damage boosts, and the 50% physical immunity in hell no longer means anything to you. you cant leech, but with a vast majority of attackers rendered offenseless against you, life leech shouldnt be much of a problem. your only concern after that is mana leech, and at 5 mana per pop, berserk isnt likely to put you in a need for amassing energy. for this reason, id recommend using 2 sojs and a que hegans armor for the mana boosts.
any questions, comments, or addons would be greatly appreciated, i just came up with this so there's likely stuff to be worked out. also, if someone else has done this before, and im not the first to come up with it, then let me know so i dont piss someone else off :P