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Despite pouring over at least half a dozen Barb guides, I couldn't find an explanation of exactly how Berserk works.
Does it change the weapon damage into magic damage and then apply the bonus to magic damage?
Does it increase the damage of warcry?
I ask this because I am building a MF barb and despite having a level 23 berserk and sword mastery, It taes all damn day to kill meph...... How can I get my damage up to useble levels and still use 2 blades of ali baba?
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Last I knew: Your complete physical damage, enhanced by Skills, Charms, Items, Auras... EVERYTHING... is converted into a magical attack.
Garnered Wisdom --
If it has more than four legs, kill it immediately.
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Except for elemental charms!
However things like +3max dmg small charms etc. are included!
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Critical strike, Strength, Might, Mastery and so on all stack
The one that doesn't is Amp (also Decrep)
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Okay, but solo, how do people kill hell meph using 2 babas'?
"Once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk the earth with
your eyes turned skyward, for there
you have been, and there you will
always long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci
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@Albion:
I might suggest using normal questing weapons on your first switch, whittling down Meph's health to a sliver with those, and then switching to the Blades of Ali Baba to let your Mercenary get the last hit. This is roughly the strategy that my MF Wolf follows, except with only one Blade.
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I'm with FenrisWulf on this one.
If your weapons aren't doing enough damage late in the game with Berserk, try finding better combat weapons (It's up to you what to use), using those to whittle down any tough boss, monster or enemy you find, switch to your MF weapons, and get the last shot with those (Or let your merc get the last hit, if he's got good MF as well.) I use and MF barb, but I haven't played him much (He's in single player), and he's doing OK with some basic items, but lots of MF on his rings, amulets, armour, etc.
Yeah, that's all.
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If you want to use the ali baba's exclusively (for whatever reason) try frenzy instead of berserk. That should allow you to take him out without using the switch quite nicely.
Granted, using a better sword/shield on your switch to whittle him down (as suggested above) is at least as easy, particularly if we're talking about a pre-existing character (ie if you're starting from scratch, consider frenzy; otherwise weapon switch works fine).
The reason having slvl 23 berserk/sword mastery isn't enough is because this is a melee character, and a melee skill. Where spell type skills are dependent wholly on the skill level, melee (or most missile) skills are dependent primarily on the weapon used (though skill level maters as well, of course). Ali baba simply doesn't have the base damage for any level of berserk/mastery to boost to be a serious end-game weapon.
gekko
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I'd like to be able to use the baba's exclusively if possible....
Here's a thought, If I frenzy up and then Berzerk while frenzied, do I get the whomping damage bonus I am hoping for?
This guy is ready for hell ancients and having a point into double swing means I can get level 2 frenzy in about 10 minutes max. (with help for now....already said he kills SLOOOOOw <_<
"Once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk the earth with
your eyes turned skyward, for there
you have been, and there you will
always long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci
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Quote:Here's a thought, If I frenzy up and then Berzerk while frenzied, do I get the whomping damage bonus I am hoping for?
Nope. You will get the increase to IAS and Run/Walk for that ~6 second duration that Frenzy lasts... but no extra bonus to your damage.
Garnered Wisdom --
If it has more than four legs, kill it immediately.
Never hesitate to put another bullet into the skull of the movie's main villain; it'll save time on the denouement.
Eight hours per day of children's TV programming can reduce a grown man to tears -- PM me for details.
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nt
"Once you have tasted flight,
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It's still pretty good - Frenzy's ias and frw paired with Berserk's huge AR & damage & ability to ignore GPR
I think you will really struggle though if you use Ali's. I would suggest a good pair of weapons with Wealth, Chance guards and Goldwrap would be more much fun. Of course you can keep Ali's on the switch for final hits on bosses and for Find Item
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Frenzy before beserk usually guarantees maximizing your hits per second (assuming decent lvl frenzy), and with Ali-Baba that can be a noticable difference from its normal attack speed.
Killing exclusively with Ali-Baba is only potentially feasible in NM 1-player games. In hell, you'd have to be very patient and have a lot of life leach.
In general, I only add MF% if it doesn't detract from my killing speed, which precludes fighting with Ali-baba swords (besides final blows of course). Quantity is just as important as quality.
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