i have a level 43 barbarian and have yet to hit inferno, was just wondering how viable my current build is for end game. please feel free to offer criticism, but try it out first.
at the begining of the fight i let mobs trickle towards me one at a time, using bash to stack damgae buff. Once there is a solid cluster of at least five, furious charge so the cooldown can be completetly reset. then ground stomp with increased range and vortex to get mobs closer together, then get to a distance by running or furious charge, whichever the situation calls for. once at a distance, spam seismic slam to continue stun lock and keep monsters at bay, they may be a couple of stragglers that you can hit with bash to continue stacking damage buff.
weapon throw with stun is for pesky casters and boss fights, and berserker rage is situational.
An interesting build. I first want to say that barb's are hands down the most gear dependent class in game, so there isn't any one specific build that works for everyone; you will have to build around your gear, and as you upgrade your build will change. If you're fresh out of Hell going into Inferno you will probably need tankier abilities like Ignore Pain so you can run in, safely generate fury with bash/frenzy, then run out and seismic slam spam. That being said, as a barb farming up some A1 inferno here's my 2 cents.
As Nathaneal stated already, you're going to be fury starved. Seismic slam and weapon throw are both ranged fury dumps; you'll be doing one or the other and I would consider seismic slam the superior. SS has some good runes depending on your build/play style so don't be afraid to play with them. Strength from Earth, Stagger, and Shattered Ground are great to mess around with. Cracking rift may work if combined with Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash.
With this build, you will also be having life regen problems unless you just happen to have a metric f*ckton of health regen, which you won't have as a fresh inferno barb, so you'll need some HP regen somewhere. Furious charge is a great skill, but I would re-rune it to dreadnought as there are better fury generators available. This turns charge into an emergency escape / health regen move. Something I like to do when I'm low on HP is charge through a group into a health orb for very fast HP regen (basically full HP.) Don't forget charge also gets you out of the jailed CC.
WotB may be viable when you have tankier gear and a higher dps weapon, but you'll definitely want the Boon of Bul-Kathos passive if you're going that route. For fresh inferno, I would leave it off your bars for the reason stated above (you won't be in melee range long enough for it to matter.)
So that being said, here are 3 builds you can try out on your journey to inferno.
1) Leveling build http://www.noxxic.com/diablo3/pve/leveling/barbarian/builds-skills-runes/levels-40-to-49
I used the noxxic builds up to 59 with pretty great success. You won't be getting roflstomped until Act 3 Hell+ so whirlwind builds are extremely viable while leveling for mad AOE/trash clears. Also, Nephalem Valor buff doesn't kick in until 60 so no worries on swapping skills (frenzy for cleave, Hammer of the Ancients for WW, maybe Relentless passive) for boss fights.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bhSQiV!YXe!ZccYac This is their lvl 59 build, which I really loved. Between Cleave (reaping strike) and Momentum (overpower) you will have tons of fury generation to dump into whirlwind, and Charge (dreadnought) with Revenge (provocation) gives plenty of HP regen.
2) Late Hell/Early Inferno Build http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#beSRkY!beV!ZYcbbY
This is the build I used going into Inferno with sub-optimal gear. You should be putting on some vitality at this point, and combined with War Cry (invigorate) gives a nice armor boost. Tough as nails can be swapped out for Inspiring Presence for HP regen while kiting. The idea behind this build is getting as many ranged Seismic Slams off as possible. War Cry every time its up for fury, and if mobs get close stun them with Ground Stomp. Foot of the Mountain rune gives 30 fury off the bat, and since they're stunned you have 4 free seconds to cleave cleave cleave for some extra fury off reaping strikes. Then kite and seismic slam. If you run out of fury and everything is on CD (or you get into a sticky situation) pop ignore pain, cleave until you're taking damage, then charge through them to safety. This will both heal you and take you up to nearly max fury. Back to seismic slam spam. The main con to this build is it is poor for bosses, but you most likely won't be soloing bosses anyway at this point.
3) Skeleton King through Butcher http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WeSVkY!beX!caccbZ
This is a modified version of the previous build. At this point, you should have the gear to somewhat tank in place without getting one shotted by packs of normal mobs. It relies less on Seismic Slam for damage, and instead keeps mobs stunned while we Frenzy all over their face and self heal with Revenge. We swap out Ignore Pain for Revenge (provocation); it adds dps, and you're tanky enough to survive long enough for the RNG to kick in and proc. We lose fury efficiency with Seismic Slam (stagger) and Ground Stomp (wrenching smash,) but you'll be getting plenty through Frenzy and Ground Stomp makes for nice tight groups to Revenge heal off of. If things get too hot charge out and kite while regaining HP with Inspiring Presence passive and War Cry when it's ready for enough fury to Seismic Slam. Don't forget that frenzy (with maniac rune) increases damage up to 20%, so when possible try to frenzy up to 5 stacks before slam spam for higher dps. You can also use bash if you'd like, frenzy is my personal preference for left clicking because the attack speed feels awesome. A big reason why I like this build for myself is once you have the gear it doesn't require skill swapping for bosses. This way you can farm catacombs/halls of agony and go straight into a boss with 5 valor stacks for phat drops. I sword n' board trash, then go dual wield on Butcher to meet the dps check before he enrages.
When your gear is to the point where Act 1 is on farm, feel free to replace war cry or ground stomp with Threatening Shout (Grim Harvest) for extra loot.
So those are some sample solo Inferno builds, obviously there are a lot of other viable choices out there based on gear and play style. For me personally these provided a nice balance between offense and defense, but depending on your situation or who you're playing with you can go for higher dps, pure tanking, stunlock, etc. Again, keep in mind these builds are for solo Inferno/late Hell and you can probably forego a lot of the tankiness for straight damage at your level. Whirlwind absolutely rapes at lower levels, and with the wind shear rune is self sustaining on 4+ mobs, so abuse it while you can hehe. Hope this gave you some build ideas to play with and find something that works for you, good luck.
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http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#aeSYPf!UhW!baZZcb
the main focus is stunlocks and fury generation
at the begining of the fight i let mobs trickle towards me one at a time, using bash to stack damgae buff. Once there is a solid cluster of at least five, furious charge so the cooldown can be completetly reset. then ground stomp with increased range and vortex to get mobs closer together, then get to a distance by running or furious charge, whichever the situation calls for. once at a distance, spam seismic slam to continue stun lock and keep monsters at bay, they may be a couple of stragglers that you can hit with bash to continue stacking damage buff.
weapon throw with stun is for pesky casters and boss fights, and berserker rage is situational.
As Nathaneal stated already, you're going to be fury starved. Seismic slam and weapon throw are both ranged fury dumps; you'll be doing one or the other and I would consider seismic slam the superior. SS has some good runes depending on your build/play style so don't be afraid to play with them. Strength from Earth, Stagger, and Shattered Ground are great to mess around with. Cracking rift may work if combined with Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash.
With this build, you will also be having life regen problems unless you just happen to have a metric f*ckton of health regen, which you won't have as a fresh inferno barb, so you'll need some HP regen somewhere. Furious charge is a great skill, but I would re-rune it to dreadnought as there are better fury generators available. This turns charge into an emergency escape / health regen move. Something I like to do when I'm low on HP is charge through a group into a health orb for very fast HP regen (basically full HP.) Don't forget charge also gets you out of the jailed CC.
WotB may be viable when you have tankier gear and a higher dps weapon, but you'll definitely want the Boon of Bul-Kathos passive if you're going that route. For fresh inferno, I would leave it off your bars for the reason stated above (you won't be in melee range long enough for it to matter.)
So that being said, here are 3 builds you can try out on your journey to inferno.
1) Leveling build
http://www.noxxic.com/diablo3/pve/leveling/barbarian/builds-skills-runes/levels-40-to-49
I used the noxxic builds up to 59 with pretty great success. You won't be getting roflstomped until Act 3 Hell+ so whirlwind builds are extremely viable while leveling for mad AOE/trash clears. Also, Nephalem Valor buff doesn't kick in until 60 so no worries on swapping skills (frenzy for cleave, Hammer of the Ancients for WW, maybe Relentless passive) for boss fights.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bhSQiV!YXe!ZccYac This is their lvl 59 build, which I really loved. Between Cleave (reaping strike) and Momentum (overpower) you will have tons of fury generation to dump into whirlwind, and Charge (dreadnought) with Revenge (provocation) gives plenty of HP regen.
2) Late Hell/Early Inferno Build
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#beSRkY!beV!ZYcbbY
This is the build I used going into Inferno with sub-optimal gear. You should be putting on some vitality at this point, and combined with War Cry (invigorate) gives a nice armor boost. Tough as nails can be swapped out for Inspiring Presence for HP regen while kiting. The idea behind this build is getting as many ranged Seismic Slams off as possible. War Cry every time its up for fury, and if mobs get close stun them with Ground Stomp. Foot of the Mountain rune gives 30 fury off the bat, and since they're stunned you have 4 free seconds to cleave cleave cleave for some extra fury off reaping strikes. Then kite and seismic slam. If you run out of fury and everything is on CD (or you get into a sticky situation) pop ignore pain, cleave until you're taking damage, then charge through them to safety. This will both heal you and take you up to nearly max fury. Back to seismic slam spam. The main con to this build is it is poor for bosses, but you most likely won't be soloing bosses anyway at this point.
3) Skeleton King through Butcher
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WeSVkY!beX!caccbZ
This is a modified version of the previous build. At this point, you should have the gear to somewhat tank in place without getting one shotted by packs of normal mobs. It relies less on Seismic Slam for damage, and instead keeps mobs stunned while we Frenzy all over their face and self heal with Revenge. We swap out Ignore Pain for Revenge (provocation); it adds dps, and you're tanky enough to survive long enough for the RNG to kick in and proc. We lose fury efficiency with Seismic Slam (stagger) and Ground Stomp (wrenching smash,) but you'll be getting plenty through Frenzy and Ground Stomp makes for nice tight groups to Revenge heal off of. If things get too hot charge out and kite while regaining HP with Inspiring Presence passive and War Cry when it's ready for enough fury to Seismic Slam. Don't forget that frenzy (with maniac rune) increases damage up to 20%, so when possible try to frenzy up to 5 stacks before slam spam for higher dps. You can also use bash if you'd like, frenzy is my personal preference for left clicking because the attack speed feels awesome. A big reason why I like this build for myself is once you have the gear it doesn't require skill swapping for bosses. This way you can farm catacombs/halls of agony and go straight into a boss with 5 valor stacks for phat drops. I sword n' board trash, then go dual wield on Butcher to meet the dps check before he enrages.
When your gear is to the point where Act 1 is on farm, feel free to replace war cry or ground stomp with Threatening Shout (Grim Harvest) for extra loot.
So those are some sample solo Inferno builds, obviously there are a lot of other viable choices out there based on gear and play style. For me personally these provided a nice balance between offense and defense, but depending on your situation or who you're playing with you can go for higher dps, pure tanking, stunlock, etc. Again, keep in mind these builds are for solo Inferno/late Hell and you can probably forego a lot of the tankiness for straight damage at your level. Whirlwind absolutely rapes at lower levels, and with the wind shear rune is self sustaining on 4+ mobs, so abuse it while you can hehe. Hope this gave you some build ideas to play with and find something that works for you, good luck.