So I'm wondering if a sword-and-board barb is viable all the way to and through Inferno. I completed Normal with it, and I'm having no issues in Nightmare (though, granted I haven't even reached Leoric yet), and I haven't died yet. I'm just shy of level 34.
The basic MO is to use the huge Fury income from Cleave and the two shouts and Leap on Whirlwind; stock up on Fury, burn it all off using Whirlwind, and repeat. Inspiring Presence provides the health regen, combined with health orbs dropped by monsters and various effects on armor to keep my health consistently high, and Superstition allows me to use void zones to WW almost indefinitely. Diablo was a joke; I just sat in the fire, kept Inspiring Presence rolling, and never stopped using WW except to rebuff myself.
But I'm guessing this will change once monsters start hitting hard enough to hurt. My main question is if sword and shield is even viable; a lot of stuff I've been reading seems to imply it isn't.
I've been using this build since all abilities were available. Similar to what Maniacman is referring to: Generate fury through Cleave and Shouts; when in trouble / lots of mobs / mobs keep running away, I stun using Stomp; when fighting Elites, I stun them using Seismic Slam.
Revenge is a MUST! It's healing is phenomenal when surrounded by mobs, plus (based on my abilities/passives) I am stacking alot of Vitality, meaning my % life is quite high! Revenge and Inspiring Presence generally provides alot of healing on its own. I sometimes swap out Rend for Ignore Pain ("Ignorance is Bliss" Rune) when I get into trouble with Elite mobs.
Damage output I think is fine; depends heavily on strength from gear and my weapon. Soloing Hell atm, and I'm doing fine.
I tried to change to a heavy DPS build with dual-wielding in NM and got obliterated; barely lasted a few seconds without getting 2-3 shotted! I don't know how some people do it! Shields are almost necessary for the Barb.
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there are actually a lot of ppl running around with dual wield and reducing their damage because of it!
- when you DW you will be hitting with your main hand and off hand, 1 after the other.
- DW increases your attack speed by 15%.
this means that if your offhand is less powerful then your main hand, there's a good chance that that actually becomes less dps, even with the 15% attack speed increase!
when you have a new main hand (or want to try finding a new offhand) you should always be checking how much damage increase you get from equiping it vs not having an offhand and consider in your head how much that damage increase is from the strength on the offhand!
for me, I found a shield with about the same amount of strength on it as my old offhand (100ish) and it was a dps increase! just because my offhand has 100dps less then my mainhand!
So shield is very much viable unless you have both a very good main hand and offhand it will be a better choice!
Now on a side note, when you're looking for a shield, get one with high armor and good stats, don't bother going for the blocking, since that really doesn't increase your survivability much, since the block is before the damage reduction from armor and thus blocking 2k damage isn't that much EH:
inferno random mob hits you for 10k with 2k shield block and 70% armor reduction:
10k - 2k = 8k - 70% = 2400 health loss
inferno random mob hits you for 10k with just 70% armor reduction:
10 - 70% = 3000 health loss
so a 2k block saves 600 health, with most shields having between 12% and 15% and even with the awesome ones having up to 20% chance that will at most be 1% damage reduction!
I have been using a sword (well a mace) and board up to leorics manner so far in NM. NO PROBLEMS! I use ground stomp, war cry and threatening shout as utility. Then frenzy with 8% heal rune, and WW. Finally, when things get extra hairy I let loose my wrath of the beserker.
I have inspiring presence as well, for that heal on the go.
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I swapped to shields at the start of nightmare. Now at the start of inferno, haven't given it up yet. Some ppl still roll with a 2 hander, but to that I just say have fun trying to progress and not die so consistently that you're broke from repairs.
Does Revenge proc off of attacks that you block? Wouldn't getting/stacking Dodge (Wrath of the Berserker + Striding Giant etc) make Revenge less effective? Also, wouldn't taking any sort of CC also reduce the effectiveness of Revenge since that's fewer hits you're taking?
Let's not start discussing revenge again ... almost all topics seem to end up with a discussion on revenge -.- (ps. blocks do trigger it, since you still take dmg, dodge doesn't I think).
im pretty sure dual wielding gives you 15% attack speed, not 25%.
Sword and board is definitely viable, the real question is, is dual wielding/2hander viable in inferno.
edited post for +aspd and I think that's the better question and matching it; is any skill build without at least 2 passive and 3 active defensive skills viable.
I get the idea that the way they intended to be able to play a 'real' barb (like the feeling you get when doing normal and you can just go mad in melee instead of kiting/shield and being a support b!tch in your group) would be if you can get such good gear that you're running around with 40k hp, good lifesteal and enough damage to make the lifesteal count ...
I used one hander and shield all through NM and into Hell, it gives a lot of stats plus armor and block. But like stated, your weapon needs to be the best you can get at your current level.
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My build looks like http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bhXfgk!bXe!ZaabZa
The basic MO is to use the huge Fury income from Cleave and the two shouts and Leap on Whirlwind; stock up on Fury, burn it all off using Whirlwind, and repeat. Inspiring Presence provides the health regen, combined with health orbs dropped by monsters and various effects on armor to keep my health consistently high, and Superstition allows me to use void zones to WW almost indefinitely. Diablo was a joke; I just sat in the fire, kept Inspiring Presence rolling, and never stopped using WW except to rebuff myself.
But I'm guessing this will change once monsters start hitting hard enough to hurt. My main question is if sword and shield is even viable; a lot of stuff I've been reading seems to imply it isn't.
I've been using this build since all abilities were available. Similar to what Maniacman is referring to: Generate fury through Cleave and Shouts; when in trouble / lots of mobs / mobs keep running away, I stun using Stomp; when fighting Elites, I stun them using Seismic Slam.
Revenge is a MUST! It's healing is phenomenal when surrounded by mobs, plus (based on my abilities/passives) I am stacking alot of Vitality, meaning my % life is quite high! Revenge and Inspiring Presence generally provides alot of healing on its own. I sometimes swap out Rend for Ignore Pain ("Ignorance is Bliss" Rune) when I get into trouble with Elite mobs.
Damage output I think is fine; depends heavily on strength from gear and my weapon. Soloing Hell atm, and I'm doing fine.
I tried to change to a heavy DPS build with dual-wielding in NM and got obliterated; barely lasted a few seconds without getting 2-3 shotted! I don't know how some people do it! Shields are almost necessary for the Barb.
Regain Faith, when there is little reason for Faith...
Create Hope, when Hope is forlorn...
there are actually a lot of ppl running around with dual wield and reducing their damage because of it!
- when you DW you will be hitting with your main hand and off hand, 1 after the other.
- DW increases your attack speed by 15%.
this means that if your offhand is less powerful then your main hand, there's a good chance that that actually becomes less dps, even with the 15% attack speed increase!
when you have a new main hand (or want to try finding a new offhand) you should always be checking how much damage increase you get from equiping it vs not having an offhand and consider in your head how much that damage increase is from the strength on the offhand!
for me, I found a shield with about the same amount of strength on it as my old offhand (100ish) and it was a dps increase! just because my offhand has 100dps less then my mainhand!
So shield is very much viable unless you have both a very good main hand and offhand it will be a better choice!
Now on a side note, when you're looking for a shield, get one with high armor and good stats, don't bother going for the blocking, since that really doesn't increase your survivability much, since the block is before the damage reduction from armor and thus blocking 2k damage isn't that much EH:
inferno random mob hits you for 10k with 2k shield block and 70% armor reduction:
10k - 2k = 8k - 70% = 2400 health loss
inferno random mob hits you for 10k with just 70% armor reduction:
10 - 70% = 3000 health loss
so a 2k block saves 600 health, with most shields having between 12% and 15% and even with the awesome ones having up to 20% chance that will at most be 1% damage reduction!
I have inspiring presence as well, for that heal on the go.
Just seems like a bad skill overall.
edited post for +aspd and I think that's the better question and matching it; is any skill build without at least 2 passive and 3 active defensive skills viable.
I get the idea that the way they intended to be able to play a 'real' barb (like the feeling you get when doing normal and you can just go mad in melee instead of kiting/shield and being a support b!tch in your group) would be if you can get such good gear that you're running around with 40k hp, good lifesteal and enough damage to make the lifesteal count ...