I wanted to share with you my dual wield (non-WW/tornado) build that can farm A3 / beat inferno diablo. It seems to me like there is too much focus on the WW/tornado build and I want to show you there is another way to do it.
Props to kripp (if hes the one who came up with it) for making the WW/tornado build. It really is ingenious. But if you (like me) want to play a barb who can leap into an elite mob and tear them to shreads, keep reading!!
The build:
Cleave - gives you the ability to hit multiple mobs at a time. Combined with high crit chance and damage = you burn through trash.
Revenge (provocation) - HUGE health regain. Hit more mobs = get more HP. Scaled to how many mobs you hit. I like to keep it on my right mouse button so its easier to activate. Provocation rune is used for higher chance of activation. Revenge also does a huge amount of damage.
Leap (iron impact) - Leap (by itself) does not do that much damage compared to other skills. It is used for its mobility and hugely enhanced defense with iron impact. Can be used defensively or offensively. Offensively - jump into a pack and swing away taking much less damage. Defensively - for positioning (to avoid elemental damage - plauge, descrator, arcance, frozen, etc..), or just to get the heck out of the way.
Charge (dreadnaught) - HUGE health regain. Hit more enemies with it = more health back. I like to carefully plan where I place my charges to gain the max amount of HP back. Charge also does HUGE damage too, crits much higher than cleaves do. Charge can also be used offensively or defensively.
War cry with impunity - more resistances. Doesnt every barb use it?
Ruthless - increased crit chance and damage
Weapon master - 10% crit chance with mace or axe in main hand.
Tough as nails / nerves of steel - whichever gives you more armor.
Theory behind the build:
Life steal vs. LoH - I personally prefer life steal, so my opinion may be biased. LoH is limited by the amount you have on your gear (which can be very expensive) and it also does not scale with cleave very well (imo). Life steal however, scales up when you crit and when you hit multiple enemies with revenge and charge. With my build, when I crit vs a single target I usually gain back 1800-2200 life. When I hit multiple mobs with cleave it is usually >3-4K life gained (from cleave!!). When you factor in the bonus life gained from revenge and charge (with life steal), well you can see the amount of life gained back is immense. Life steal is however DPS dependent - without DPS to do damage, you will not get life back.
Crit chance and damage -this build is highly dependent on crits, without crits you wont be getting much life back from cleave. You will most likely need >40% crit chance to be successful. Weapon master (with an axe or mace on main hand) and ruthless will get you far on your way to that. Gloves (max 10%), amulet (8.5%), bracers (6%), helm (6%), rings (4.5%) will also get you much more crit chance. Crit damage is also hugely important. I would suggest 300-400% crit damage - see what kind of life you get back with life steal.
High health pool - revenge and charge (dreadnaught) both give a % of your life back (not based on damage) BUT life steal will give a bonus to this based on the amount of damage you do with them. Therefore, both revenge and charge benefit from a higher base health pool. I would suggest 50K HP as an absolute minimum for A3 farming. But the more the merrier.
How to gear for inferno
THE single most important thing for a barb to understand is effective health points (EHP). EHP, basically, means that there is a non-static (always changing) relationship between life, resistances and armor. Depending on how much you have of one, the value or worth of the other ones will increase or decrease. What this means for you in game is how much damage you can sustain without dying.
I have found the best way to use EHP is to use an EHP calc to compare gear upgrades. It allows you to get the best bang for your buck, and help you understand how much of an upgrade something is.
This is the one I use: http://rubensayshi.g...lculator/#intro (mega props to the guy/gal who made this).
Another important tool for a barb is a DPS calc. This is the one I use: http://www.diablo3theory.com/
Again, It will help you see what gives you the best DPS for your buck.
The great thing about this build is that you do not need to buy an single specific item. The only thing you specifically need in certain spots is life steal (if you decide against LoH). You can only get life steal on your weapons or on a mighty belt, limiting you to 9% max in total. A combination of the 2 may be the best way to go (esp if you dont have a super high crit chance %). LoH will balance out the times when you dont crit and LS for those huge gains when you do.
Things to focus on when buying your gear
Crit chance % - I would suggest at least 40%, buffed with passives. Keep in mind, there are MANY gear slots to get crit chance in (helm, ammy, rings, gloves, bracers). If you cannot afford it in one slot with certain other affixes, get it in another spot or give up on other affixes in that slot.
Crit damage - weapons give huge amounts of crit dmg. Weapons with base crit damage and a socket give HUGE amounts of crit damage (although very expensive). Keep in mind you do not need weapons with huge DPS b/c this build is more built around crits than normal damage. A weapon with DPS of 750-800 with high crit would probably be fine.
Life % - probably one of the most underestimated (and comparatively cheap) affixes. You can get life % on quite a few slots (helm, shoulders, belt, amulet, rings) which will give a huge gain in your total life pool.
Strength and vitality - your mainstays on every item. You should aim to have some sort of combination of these on each item. You should aim to have a bit more str than vit, but not excessively so. An important thing to think of when you are buying gear is what the total combination of strength and vit is. Ie if you are buying bracers with 110 str and 100 vit (=210 total stats) would be better than bracers with 150 str and 30 vit (=180 total stats). Also keep in mind that shoulders and belts can have up to 300 str.
Armor - It is important. This one is kinda a tricky one. If you can get items with +armor or i63 items with really good stats, go for it. It can be very expensive tho. In general, items with comparable stats that are i61 or i62 will be much cheaper than i63 items.
Goals to aim for with items
1.) >40% crit chance
2.) >50K HP
3.) All resist - there really is no specific number here, it is all dependent on your EHP. However for A3 farming, I would suggest a minimum of somewhere between 700-850 (buffed) dep on your HP, armor, etc. Try it and see what works for you. Just dont forget your EHP calc! Also, for A3 items with extra fire resist are great for those really annoying packs.
3.) DPS - being a dual wield build, you are dependent on DPS for your survival. Depending on where you are farming, i would suggest 40-50K. But see what works for you. With my current ~75-80K (with all rubys and enchantress) I destroy almost all stuff in A3.
Cost
If you are just starting out with this build, I would suggest setting a budget of 500K-1M per armor slot and spend as much as you possibly can afford on your 2 weapons. I wish I could say that it is cheap and easy to gear a barb for A3 farming, but it isnt.
Magic Find
As you can probably see, I have a lot of base MF on my gear. I have never done the switch thing and the simple reason for that is that I have gotten as many items that are worth a LOT from trash mobs as I have from elites / bosses. In my experience, I found having >200 MF (with 5NV) was the sweet spot for getting better drops. So start adding MF to you base gear now, before the swap nerf comes in and it gets stupidly expensive!!
So thats about it guys. If you have any questions, comments, critiques please post.
Using this build right now. My gear is ok at best, and it works quite well for farming act 1/2 pretty easy. A bit slow when on single target so was going to try switching out cleave for frenzy to see how that goes.
I haven't cleared act 3 yet, but I'll try it out later with this build.
This build definitely works but just one question, how can you justify leaving out WOTB? Triple damage + CC immunity makes most elite packs trivial, without it you will definitely struggle unnecessarily.
IMO the 30% damage from battle rage is better off replaced by WOTB. For trash, you don't realy need the damage boost, it's the elites that matter.
Life steal vs. LoH - I personally prefer life steal, so my opinion may be biased. LoH is limited by the amount you have on your gear (which can be very expensive) and it also does not scale with cleave very well (imo). Life steal however, scales up when you crit and when you hit multiple enemies with revenge and charge. With my build, when I crit vs a single target I usually gain back 1800-2200 life. When I hit multiple mobs with cleave it is usually >3-4K life gained (from cleave!!). When you factor in the bonus life gained from revenge and charge (with life steal), well you can see the amount of life gained back is immense. Life steal is however DPS dependent - without DPS to do damage, you will not get life back.
Don't forget the Bloodthirst passive if you can afford to drop the mitigation passive, that is another 3% lifesteal. Barbs really do have an opportunity to lead the charge in Lifesteal/high DPS builds with the belt and passives to boost the amount combined with the natural Strength focus for inherently high armor.
This build definitely works but just one question, how can you justify leaving out WOTB? Triple damage + CC immunity makes most elite packs trivial, without it you will definitely struggle unnecessarily.
IMO the 30% damage from battle rage is better off replaced by WOTB. For trash, you don't realy need the damage boost, it's the elites that matter.
I used WOTB before. I found waiting for the CD (2m or something) was a huge waste of time. Plus when WOTB runs out, you are out a whole bunch of DPS. Ive honestly found the increased damage from rage is a huge gain (dont forget the crit chance either). Rage takes me from 55K unbuffed to 75K. 20K dps gain ALL the time is huge.
Dont get me wrong, WOTB is amazing, but I would rather have more DPS all the time. Almost all elite packs are no issue for me. The ones that are, I dont feel that WOTB would help much.
Life steal vs. LoH - I personally prefer life steal, so my opinion may be biased. LoH is limited by the amount you have on your gear (which can be very expensive) and it also does not scale with cleave very well (imo). Life steal however, scales up when you crit and when you hit multiple enemies with revenge and charge. With my build, when I crit vs a single target I usually gain back 1800-2200 life. When I hit multiple mobs with cleave it is usually >3-4K life gained (from cleave!!). When you factor in the bonus life gained from revenge and charge (with life steal), well you can see the amount of life gained back is immense. Life steal is however DPS dependent - without DPS to do damage, you will not get life back.
Don't forget the Bloodthirst passive if you can afford to drop the mitigation passive, that is another 3% lifesteal. Barbs really do have an opportunity to lead the charge in Lifesteal/high DPS builds with the belt and passives to boost the amount combined with the natural Strength focus for inherently high armor.
That is a good suggestion. I will have to try that out. Thanks.
I wanted to share with you my dual wield (non-WW/tornado) build that can farm A3 / beat inferno diablo. It seems to me like there is too much focus on the WW/tornado build and I want to show you there is another way to do it.
Props to kripp (if hes the one who came up with it) for making the WW/tornado build. It really is ingenious. But if you (like me) want to play a barb who can leap into an elite mob and tear them to shreads, keep reading!!
My build: http://us.battle.net...XSik!ZYV!Ycacac
My gear: http://i.imgur.com/cQ4aC.jpg
My stats: http://imgur.com/Fj8QJ
The build:
Cleave - gives you the ability to hit multiple mobs at a time. Combined with high crit chance and damage = you burn through trash.
Revenge (provocation) - HUGE health regain. Hit more mobs = get more HP. Scaled to how many mobs you hit. I like to keep it on my right mouse button so its easier to activate. Provocation rune is used for higher chance of activation. Revenge also does a huge amount of damage.
Leap (iron impact) - Leap (by itself) does not do that much damage compared to other skills. It is used for its mobility and hugely enhanced defense with iron impact. Can be used defensively or offensively. Offensively - jump into a pack and swing away taking much less damage. Defensively - for positioning (to avoid elemental damage - plauge, descrator, arcance, frozen, etc..), or just to get the heck out of the way.
Charge (dreadnaught) - HUGE health regain. Hit more enemies with it = more health back. I like to carefully plan where I place my charges to gain the max amount of HP back. Charge also does HUGE damage too, crits much higher than cleaves do. Charge can also be used offensively or defensively.
Battle rage (mauraders rage) - increased crit chance and damage. Enough said.
War cry with impunity - more resistances. Doesnt every barb use it?
Ruthless - increased crit chance and damage
Weapon master - 10% crit chance with mace or axe in main hand.
Tough as nails / nerves of steel - whichever gives you more armor.
Theory behind the build:
Life steal vs. LoH - I personally prefer life steal, so my opinion may be biased. LoH is limited by the amount you have on your gear (which can be very expensive) and it also does not scale with cleave very well (imo). Life steal however, scales up when you crit and when you hit multiple enemies with revenge and charge. With my build, when I crit vs a single target I usually gain back 1800-2200 life. When I hit multiple mobs with cleave it is usually >3-4K life gained (from cleave!!). When you factor in the bonus life gained from revenge and charge (with life steal), well you can see the amount of life gained back is immense. Life steal is however DPS dependent - without DPS to do damage, you will not get life back.
Crit chance and damage -this build is highly dependent on crits, without crits you wont be getting much life back from cleave. You will most likely need >40% crit chance to be successful. Weapon master (with an axe or mace on main hand) and ruthless will get you far on your way to that. Gloves (max 10%), amulet (8.5%), bracers (6%), helm (6%), rings (4.5%) will also get you much more crit chance. Crit damage is also hugely important. I would suggest 300-400% crit damage - see what kind of life you get back with life steal.
High health pool - revenge and charge (dreadnaught) both give a % of your life back (not based on damage) BUT life steal will give a bonus to this based on the amount of damage you do with them. Therefore, both revenge and charge benefit from a higher base health pool. I would suggest 50K HP as an absolute minimum for A3 farming. But the more the merrier.
How to gear for inferno
THE single most important thing for a barb to understand is effective health points (EHP). EHP, basically, means that there is a non-static (always changing) relationship between life, resistances and armor. Depending on how much you have of one, the value or worth of the other ones will increase or decrease. What this means for you in game is how much damage you can sustain without dying.
I have found the best way to use EHP is to use an EHP calc to compare gear upgrades. It allows you to get the best bang for your buck, and help you understand how much of an upgrade something is.
This is the one I use: http://rubensayshi.g...lculator/#intro (mega props to the guy/gal who made this).
Another important tool for a barb is a DPS calc. This is the one I use: http://www.diablo3theory.com/
Again, It will help you see what gives you the best DPS for your buck.
The great thing about this build is that you do not need to buy an single specific item. The only thing you specifically need in certain spots is life steal (if you decide against LoH). You can only get life steal on your weapons or on a mighty belt, limiting you to 9% max in total. A combination of the 2 may be the best way to go (esp if you dont have a super high crit chance %). LoH will balance out the times when you dont crit and LS for those huge gains when you do.
Things to focus on when buying your gear
Crit chance % - I would suggest at least 40%, buffed with passives. Keep in mind, there are MANY gear slots to get crit chance in (helm, ammy, rings, gloves, bracers). If you cannot afford it in one slot with certain other affixes, get it in another spot or give up on other affixes in that slot.
Crit damage - weapons give huge amounts of crit dmg. Weapons with base crit damage and a socket give HUGE amounts of crit damage (although very expensive). Keep in mind you do not need weapons with huge DPS b/c this build is more built around crits than normal damage. A weapon with DPS of 750-800 with high crit would probably be fine.
Life % - probably one of the most underestimated (and comparatively cheap) affixes. You can get life % on quite a few slots (helm, shoulders, belt, amulet, rings) which will give a huge gain in your total life pool.
Strength and vitality - your mainstays on every item. You should aim to have some sort of combination of these on each item. You should aim to have a bit more str than vit, but not excessively so. An important thing to think of when you are buying gear is what the total combination of strength and vit is. Ie if you are buying bracers with 110 str and 100 vit (=210 total stats) would be better than bracers with 150 str and 30 vit (=180 total stats). Also keep in mind that shoulders and belts can have up to 300 str.
Armor - It is important. This one is kinda a tricky one. If you can get items with +armor or i63 items with really good stats, go for it. It can be very expensive tho. In general, items with comparable stats that are i61 or i62 will be much cheaper than i63 items.
Goals to aim for with items
1.) >40% crit chance
2.) >50K HP
3.) All resist - there really is no specific number here, it is all dependent on your EHP. However for A3 farming, I would suggest a minimum of somewhere between 700-850 (buffed) dep on your HP, armor, etc. Try it and see what works for you. Just dont forget your EHP calc! Also, for A3 items with extra fire resist are great for those really annoying packs.
3.) DPS - being a dual wield build, you are dependent on DPS for your survival. Depending on where you are farming, i would suggest 40-50K. But see what works for you. With my current ~75-80K (with all rubys and enchantress) I destroy almost all stuff in A3.
Cost
If you are just starting out with this build, I would suggest setting a budget of 500K-1M per armor slot and spend as much as you possibly can afford on your 2 weapons. I wish I could say that it is cheap and easy to gear a barb for A3 farming, but it isnt.
Magic Find
As you can probably see, I have a lot of base MF on my gear. I have never done the switch thing and the simple reason for that is that I have gotten as many items that are worth a LOT from trash mobs as I have from elites / bosses. In my experience, I found having >200 MF (with 5NV) was the sweet spot for getting better drops. So start adding MF to you base gear now, before the swap nerf comes in and it gets stupidly expensive!!
So thats about it guys. If you have any questions, comments, critiques please post.
Thanks for reading!
I haven't cleared act 3 yet, but I'll try it out later with this build.
IMO the 30% damage from battle rage is better off replaced by WOTB. For trash, you don't realy need the damage boost, it's the elites that matter.
Don't forget the Bloodthirst passive if you can afford to drop the mitigation passive, that is another 3% lifesteal. Barbs really do have an opportunity to lead the charge in Lifesteal/high DPS builds with the belt and passives to boost the amount combined with the natural Strength focus for inherently high armor.
I used WOTB before. I found waiting for the CD (2m or something) was a huge waste of time. Plus when WOTB runs out, you are out a whole bunch of DPS. Ive honestly found the increased damage from rage is a huge gain (dont forget the crit chance either). Rage takes me from 55K unbuffed to 75K. 20K dps gain ALL the time is huge.
Dont get me wrong, WOTB is amazing, but I would rather have more DPS all the time. Almost all elite packs are no issue for me. The ones that are, I dont feel that WOTB would help much.
That is a good suggestion. I will have to try that out. Thanks.
Im guessing you made this?
Most accurate I found for DW and easiest to use. Props!!