Superb idea! Inspired me to try it out, though I use a slightly modified build. I've never noticed that Taunt gives these wonderful penalties to the monster it affects, have they always been there? I just speculated what Taunt would be like with a few +skill adders, like 2x Echoing weapons for instance. Lvl 29 gives -61% Enemy dmg and AR, effectively providing you with a 150% boost to your life and defense. If we go to the extreme, maybe get a few more +skill items and a few +skill charms, lets say that gives us slvl 36 Taunt. That would reduce the monsters damage and AR by 75%, basically quadrupling your life and defense! Now stack it with Battle Cry and what happens, enemy damage goes beyond -100%. Would this really reduce their damage to 0 for a short period of time? Or is there maybe a cap to the penalties of Taunt?
In v1.10, where surviving long enough to manage to kill anything has become a bigger issue than doing enough damage to slaughter anything in sight, I can easily see Taunt becoming one of the most important barbarian skills.
Taunt does indeed seem like the key to most difficulties that v1.10 has created. I can imagine the Infector and his crew actually being managable now with Taunt, both for disabling the Inferno, and for splitting them up. That it doesn't work for Champs and Bosses isn't a problem, since the difficulty with bosspacks lies in often having to face 7-8 supercharged minions + the boss all at the same time because they seem to be quite unwilling to split up without giving them a push. Dividing them and then facing the boss 1v1, greatly simplifies matters.
The Frenzy/Taunt barbarian I started yesterday is doing great so far, using dual rare Flails (gambled). My projected skill plan is
20 Double Swing
20 Frenzy
20 Taunt
20 Battle Orders
1 Natural Resist
1 Inc Speed
1 Battle Cry
1 Battle Command
1 Berserk
8 Prereqs
The rest, if I ever go beyond lvl 82, in Mace Mastery
Currently in Act 2, gotten Double Swing to lvl 9 and pumping Taunt now. Double Swing is indeed an excellent low-level skill Brista, despite doing a relatively low 12-68 dmg, I'm killing faster than any of my previous v1.10 beta melee variants, and he's far more low-maintenance as well, hardly ever need to chug down either reds or blues.
For the late game, I had planned to use 2x Honor Scourges. The lack of IAS on the weapon will be made up by the very fast base speed. I hope that I'll be able to acquire whatever runes I need with a few NM Countess runs. 160-175% ED (if I get a superior item), +9 Min/Max dmg and 25% DS should result in enough damage to handle Hell monsters, and it gives tons of other bonuses I can use.
One final thing, why are 2-handed weapons are mentioned? They don't work with Frenzy or Double Swing, do they?
In v1.10, where surviving long enough to manage to kill anything has become a bigger issue than doing enough damage to slaughter anything in sight, I can easily see Taunt becoming one of the most important barbarian skills.
Taunt does indeed seem like the key to most difficulties that v1.10 has created. I can imagine the Infector and his crew actually being managable now with Taunt, both for disabling the Inferno, and for splitting them up. That it doesn't work for Champs and Bosses isn't a problem, since the difficulty with bosspacks lies in often having to face 7-8 supercharged minions + the boss all at the same time because they seem to be quite unwilling to split up without giving them a push. Dividing them and then facing the boss 1v1, greatly simplifies matters.
The Frenzy/Taunt barbarian I started yesterday is doing great so far, using dual rare Flails (gambled). My projected skill plan is
20 Double Swing
20 Frenzy
20 Taunt
20 Battle Orders
1 Natural Resist
1 Inc Speed
1 Battle Cry
1 Battle Command
1 Berserk
8 Prereqs
The rest, if I ever go beyond lvl 82, in Mace Mastery
Currently in Act 2, gotten Double Swing to lvl 9 and pumping Taunt now. Double Swing is indeed an excellent low-level skill Brista, despite doing a relatively low 12-68 dmg, I'm killing faster than any of my previous v1.10 beta melee variants, and he's far more low-maintenance as well, hardly ever need to chug down either reds or blues.
For the late game, I had planned to use 2x Honor Scourges. The lack of IAS on the weapon will be made up by the very fast base speed. I hope that I'll be able to acquire whatever runes I need with a few NM Countess runs. 160-175% ED (if I get a superior item), +9 Min/Max dmg and 25% DS should result in enough damage to handle Hell monsters, and it gives tons of other bonuses I can use.
One final thing, why are 2-handed weapons are mentioned? They don't work with Frenzy or Double Swing, do they?
In my mind, my dreams are real. No one's concerned about the way I feel.