10-11-2005, 01:05 AM
Baajikiil,Oct 7 2005, 02:45 PM Wrote:Okay, a little more information would help us: What are your skill and stat point allocations. Hardcore or soft(well, it has to be soft)? Single player or Realms? Ladder or non-ladder?
Unless your build is designed for berserk, it's best reserved for fighting phys immunes. A dedicated zerker will usually use a 2 handed weapon and often uses a high level warcry to stun monsters as he 'zerks them. Another approach is to use a sheild and a strong 1 hander. Berzerk is practically never used with a duel weilding setup because it will only use one of your weapons. The secondary weapon will have no effect whatsoever on your beserk damage(barring any +skills I guess). A dedicated berzerk barb can do massive single target damage that is the most unresisted attack type in the game. They are limited by the fact that berzerk does not leach, and is poor vs crowds.
Concentrate is in the same boat as berzerk: use a big 2hander for best effect. Concentrate actually has a pretty high ED when synergised with a max BO, and all barbs should max BO anyway. Again, it's another of the 1 point, or maxxed skills. A dedicated Concentrate barb can do massive single target damage coupled with very high defense. They are limited by lack of crowd control.
WW is a tricky skill. The number of attacks that WW provides is based solely on the speed of your weapons. Improved attack speed on your gloves or other gear does not help it at all. A WW barb will usually try to reach the highest # of attacks possible by using very fast weapons. Also, WW usually gets maxed or stuck with 1 point as with most barb skills. Weapon range affects WW, and a higher range weapon will often allow more hits. 2handed weapons are popular for WW barbs. Duel weilding will provide 50% more attacks than a 2 hander of the same speed, but 2handers offer more reach and usually around double the damage of 1handers. WW barbs have moderate damage, but can apply is frequently to a mid sized group of monsters, and quickly to a single target. They are limited by relatively low % damage and the high dispersal rate of their damage vs groups.
Frenzy is a fun skill. It does decent damage at decent speed, and speeds your running by a huge margin. Again, to get the most bang for your skill points it's usually best to max frenzy as well as a synergy. Frenzy barbs often look for crushing blow equipment to whittle down the hp of high hit point monsters with their quick attacks. You must learn to be careful while using fenzy; it's very easy to bite off more than you can chew by running into a dense monster pack at top speed. Frenzy barbs pack quickly applied moderate single target damage at breakneck movement speed, and are limited by poor ability to deal with crowds.
Your gear is a mixed bag. Arreats is one of the best helms a barb can hope for, but aldurs mace is clearly not hell sufficient. Your weapons are from 2 different classes, while mastery will only give one of them a boost(without splitting your points). SoJ is a great caster ring, but a barb would benefit much more from a manald heal or ravenfrost. Your belt is an end game belt for a Zon, but is lackluster on a barb(BTW, piercing attack means that your arrows/bolts/throws will have a chance to continue on after striking a monster).
Your gear needs tweaking for hell. Look over the Arreat summit's runeword pages for some inexpensive runewords that may add something to your build(especially weapons). Gamble or craft belts and gloves with useful resists and other mods. Running NM Baal can become tedious once you're already level 77, but you can find many of the high end exceptional uniques that will help round out your gear. Run the hell(or NM) countess to collect mid range runes for your runewords. If you can handle the hell countess runs, you can also level to around 83 or so comfortably there.
The main thing is to decide a build type for your barb and focus on it. I don't want to say your barb is broken, but mixing your skill points between many skills leads to a hard time for a melee character in 1.11. Learn to use warcrys effectively; both taunt and battlecry are invaulable is used well, even at only 1 point. Choosing a single weapon type and putting a few points into its mastery can really pay off as well. The critical strike chance will double your damage whenever it triggers.
After you decide which type of barb you prefer to play, read faqs specific to that type of barb. There are some good ones buried in here and at the AB. Getting the most out of your stats, skills, Attack speed, and special mods like crushing blow is integral to a successful melee character.
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Wow thanks for the detailed advice!
But yeah, I've decided to scratch my single player barb and to start a mulit player barb from scratch.
My plan to build this one is maxxed Concentrate with synergies, maxxed BO, moderate WW, moderate frenzy, and once I get a good weapon to stick with, I'll build that mastery.
Anyother suggestions?