Some of you may have seen my farming videos on youtube, but wondered how much of that was enabled by my gear (stormshield, string of ears, etc). Someone proposed and several people endorsed that I put all of my gear away, take 1 million gold and use that as a budget at the auction house to buy a completely new equipment set. The original challenge was for me to use this gear to complete the route of my first farming video: 5 stacks of valor then warden+butcher. I decided to accept, because I felt that I could show people what to buy and how to go about finding it, and also prove once and for all that you don't need millions in gear to be successful as a barbarian.
When I was done shopping, I felt so good about my set that with it I also completed my act 2 route (5 stacks then Belial), and then my Act 3 route (5 stacks then siegebreaker).
Also if anyone this this is impossible and wants to triple check that I didn't cheat, the unedited footage is available at www.twitch.tv/zrave (Also streaming Diablo 3 occasionally
I used my tank barbarian build, which I wrote a guide for here:
It was quite enjoyable, nice work. The only qualm I have is as far as I can tell, your follower is still decked out in the gear your standard character uses. Seeing as how well geared followers can get 7-8k+ dps (not to mention your follower seemed to have a ton of hp and/or resists), and your own dps was only 6k, it seems like a slight oversight given another person trying this out might not produce the same results. Other than that it was a very informative look into how proper item knowledge and player skill can make up for a smaller item budget.
Very cool video, but it doesn't justify what Blizzard has done to the barbarian. If the point of this video is to prove that Barbarians are in an okay state right now, that's silly. Basically you geared your character into a meat shield stacking ilevel 63 magicals with high vitality/all resistance--it does work. However, Barbarians should be afforded the ability to gear for damage, and dare I say even dual wield weapons *gasp*!
Speaking as someone who has a Barbarian with 10.5 k armor, 18% melee dmg reduce, 950 AR, & 47% block, it isn't fun hacking away at mobs until your eyes bleed.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I believe in the sand beneath my toes. The beach gives a feeling, an earthy feeling. I believe in the faith that grows, And the four right chords can make me cry. When I'm with you I feel like I could die, and that would be alright"
Very cool video, but it doesn't justify what Blizzard has done to the barbarian. If the point of this video is to prove that Barbarians are in an okay state right now, that's silly. Basically you geared your character into a meat shield stacking ilevel 63 magicals with high vitality/all resistance--it does work. However, Barbarians should be afforded the ability to gear for damage, and dare I say even dual wield weapons *gasp*!
Speaking as someone who has a Barbarian with 10.5 k armor, 18% melee dmg reduce, 950 AR, & 47% block, it isn't fun hacking away at mobs until your eyes bleed.
Except Blizzard have already stated they're fixing this in 1.0.3, so your righteous anger is kind of pointless.
More specifically: if slightly undergeared for the Inferno act you're attempting, you need to be defensive. Makes sense. However, as you get gear, you can start being a bit more offensive until eventually you can just nuke everything down within seconds. Inferno damage is being adjusted and the difficulty curve too, so it isn't nearly as crazy as it is right now.
Very cool, though I would speed up the parts in the AH where you were endlessly browsing, and slow down whenever you get to an interesting item (it is always good to see the thought process behind some of your item choices).
A question: what gear do you use on your enchantress? She hits like a truck (for a follower of course)
Except Blizzard have already stated they're fixing this in 1.0.3, so your righteous anger is kind of pointless.
More specifically: if slightly undergeared for the Inferno act you're attempting, you need to be defensive. Makes sense. However, as you get gear, you can start being a bit more offensive until eventually you can just nuke everything down within seconds.
I don't know if I like this design approach. It basically states that a defensive spec is superior and that we're supposed to eventually be *rewarded* with the ability to also use an offensive spec when we finally outgear the content. As in "defense = effective" vs "offense = fun". Aren't both ways supposed to be equal in both regards? Some people actually enjoy being a turtle (I know this from WoW :P) while others really don't and don't want to be forced into this spec to play this game as in killing monsters. Being a Barb actually consists alot of AH browsing and merchant grinding just to get the required money to play, which is sad
Not to answer for the OP, but Dex = Dodge, which is also an effective defensive stat. Since it seems he is going with a fairly defensive gearing strat, some Dex makes sense.
Dex does have a diminishing returns associated with the amount of dodge it gives, which means you probably don't want to stack it too much, but 100 is generally considered a reasonable number to shoot for, for a barbarian.
The first 100 points of dexterity are really valuable, you get 0.1% dodge per point for a total of 10% dodge. After that it drops precipitously to 0.025%, and gets lower still at higher levels. You only have 67 dexterity naturally so it's worth it to get one piece that has dex.
I was wondering how you gear your follower, as I have no idea what to do with mine, I played with friends all the way to 60 and never touched my follower, also their specs would be helpful, thanks zrave.
While I found all the videos to be entertaing it's quite clear to me that act 3 is where the level of difficulty surpasses the gear that you have equiped considering most of the video you had Tyrael with you (I'll confess I stopped and skipped a lot of that particular video when tyrael killed the bulls for you in icefall).
I'm not saying you're bad, quite the opposite. It's nice to know that even with poor gear players should be fully capable of progressing.
I'm currently in Act 3 right now and I have to say it's not easy. I'm fairly certain my gear is more than capable for the act but I'm having some serious issues. I run a nearly identical spec as you do in the videos and I have to say I'm a bit reluctant to drop berserker for charge but it seems charge just has so many more uses. Even though I am capable of killing champs/rares so far most of them have actually enraging on me since I'm taking so long.
Vallerian: your shield is holding you back. Get a Sacred shield with 25%+ block chance and then boost it with helm of command.
Have you tried using my build? I wrote a guide here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5594211428
Norsemang: I suggest you regem strength to vitality, at least 50k is a nice amount to have. Also boost your block chance with justice lantern/helm of command when you can afford it.
I spent 900k on the AH yesterday and didnt get anywhere close to the gear you got, and yes i took my time. I bet you are on US because the prices i saw seems alot higher than the ones in your vid.. A bit unfair
Tried this today with the 1.1 mil I had, finally managed to make some headway into Act 2. I'm at the point where it's a coin flip if I can take down elite packs (had a bad run of 6 in a row being Arcane/Frozen/Plagued/Desecrators), but it would seem that progression through A2 is almost harder than farming Belial himself with the act already completed, even if the gear is the same.
And you were right, upgrading my shield was money. The word's out on this though, all of the "Sacred Shield" models went through the roof in price. Good luck finding one of those with 27% block at 50k anymore!
At what point do you start transitioning in LoH stats? What stat do you sacrifice to get it? I understand the goal is to go into A3 with 1000+LoH, so do you eventually start scaling back STR to get there? Or do you cut back on Resist All in favor of LoH? I figure having some serious LoH would make life easier, but being broke, do worthwhile LoH items even drop in A2, or am I going to have to farm gold to buy it?
I got a relatively cheap amulet with 490 LoH, and made sure my weapon had a socket for the +300 life. It's funny how a weapon with +300 LoH will cost millions more than one with a socket. It's hard to say what to sacrifice for it, because the biggest obstacle is the increased cost; either you can afford it or you can't. I've beaten the entire game without LoH so it's not *necessary* but nevertheless it is a very strong stat.
Did a 5stack siegebreaker run with 16k dps, 850 dps weapon 30% ias total and 1200 strength, got +9% cleave damage on belt and +9% against demons on ring though so actual dps might be a little higher. The run was painfully slow, really feels like i need to boost my dps as well as my defense now....
Will need a bit better gear then the "1 mil setup" but maybe with the 1.0.3 patch it will change.
I've been boosting my dps ever since the Tyrael nerf, and it's currently at 18k. With my current gear I can complete the Siegebreaker run in 25 minutes, which is pretty good. You can check one of my runs here:
The gear requirement has gone up a lot, you actually need badass gear to do Act 3 now. I realize that a lot of you may now be unable to complete the run due to enrage timers, which sucks, but I think that we can work around that.
First, I suggest you guys try to play multiplayer. Since they also removed the increased damage from additional players, it is now viable to tank in a group. You may want to change a few skills, in particular Ground Stomp is great. Others you can try are Threatening Shout and Seismic Slam (Strength of Earth). Seismic slam is amazing against normal mobs but really struggles against elite packs, as they are immune to knockback. Also I found out the hard way that the little flowers in whimsyshire are immune as well.
Blizzard is also changing the loot tables soon, such that top tier loot will drop in Act 2. So being stuck there won't be the worth thing in the world!
Oh, yesterday I also did a full solo clear of the game s a sanity check. Starting at 5 stack Siegebreaker, I went down and killed Cydaea, Azmodan, then Iskatu, Rakanoth, Izual, and Diablo, rolling 5 stacks the whole way. It took me around 2 hours, but I did get 4 bosses worth of 5 stack loot so it was still good. In particular Cydaea and Azmodan are close to each other, so getting 5 stacks for them may be worthwhile. I will try this route again today.
Some of you may have seen my farming videos on youtube, but wondered how much of that was enabled by my gear (stormshield, string of ears, etc). Someone proposed and several people endorsed that I put all of my gear away, take 1 million gold and use that as a budget at the auction house to buy a completely new equipment set. The original challenge was for me to use this gear to complete the route of my first farming video: 5 stacks of valor then warden+butcher. I decided to accept, because I felt that I could show people what to buy and how to go about finding it, and also prove once and for all that you don't need millions in gear to be successful as a barbarian.
When I was done shopping, I felt so good about my set that with it I also completed my act 2 route (5 stacks then Belial), and then my Act 3 route (5 stacks then siegebreaker).
Check it out here:
Intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb8syAXN9OQ
Shopping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORN9vp2wZ8Q
Act 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xq_S8UKS5U
Act 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzC4fPG-tEo
Act 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drPMZhNkg8w
Also if anyone this this is impossible and wants to triple check that I didn't cheat, the unedited footage is available at www.twitch.tv/zrave (Also streaming Diablo 3 occasionally
I used my tank barbarian build, which I wrote a guide for here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5594211428
Enjoy!
Speaking as someone who has a Barbarian with 10.5 k armor, 18% melee dmg reduce, 950 AR, & 47% block, it isn't fun hacking away at mobs until your eyes bleed.
Except Blizzard have already stated they're fixing this in 1.0.3, so your righteous anger is kind of pointless.
More specifically: if slightly undergeared for the Inferno act you're attempting, you need to be defensive. Makes sense. However, as you get gear, you can start being a bit more offensive until eventually you can just nuke everything down within seconds. Inferno damage is being adjusted and the difficulty curve too, so it isn't nearly as crazy as it is right now.
So yeah. You won the battle. Hooray.
A question: what gear do you use on your enchantress? She hits like a truck (for a follower of course)
I don't know if I like this design approach. It basically states that a defensive spec is superior and that we're supposed to eventually be *rewarded* with the ability to also use an offensive spec when we finally outgear the content. As in "defense = effective" vs "offense = fun". Aren't both ways supposed to be equal in both regards? Some people actually enjoy being a turtle (I know this from WoW :P) while others really don't and don't want to be forced into this spec to play this game as in killing monsters. Being a Barb actually consists alot of AH browsing and merchant grinding just to get the required money to play, which is sad
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sol77-2972/hero/66110450
Not to answer for the OP, but Dex = Dodge, which is also an effective defensive stat. Since it seems he is going with a fairly defensive gearing strat, some Dex makes sense.
Dex does have a diminishing returns associated with the amount of dodge it gives, which means you probably don't want to stack it too much, but 100 is generally considered a reasonable number to shoot for, for a barbarian.
DEX to dodge:
0 - 100 gives 0.1%
100 - 500 gives 0.025%
500 - 1000 gives 0.02%
1000 - 8000 gives 0.01%
Summed up:
100 dex-->10%
500 dex-->20%
1000dex-->30%
2000dex--->40%
3000dex--->50%
Source: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3660206725?page=1
I'm not saying you're bad, quite the opposite. It's nice to know that even with poor gear players should be fully capable of progressing.
I'm currently in Act 3 right now and I have to say it's not easy. I'm fairly certain my gear is more than capable for the act but I'm having some serious issues. I run a nearly identical spec as you do in the videos and I have to say I'm a bit reluctant to drop berserker for charge but it seems charge just has so many more uses. Even though I am capable of killing champs/rares so far most of them have actually enraging on me since I'm taking so long.
Mind critiquing my gear or giving me some tips?
http://i.imgur.com/scDK1.jpg
edit - If it matters I use enchatress with armor buff, charm, erosion and mass control
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyvmLPchIt8
Vallerian: your shield is holding you back. Get a Sacred shield with 25%+ block chance and then boost it with helm of command.
Have you tried using my build? I wrote a guide here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5594211428
Norsemang: I suggest you regem strength to vitality, at least 50k is a nice amount to have. Also boost your block chance with justice lantern/helm of command when you can afford it.
http://i.imgur.com/9e7Q6.jpg
And you were right, upgrading my shield was money. The word's out on this though, all of the "Sacred Shield" models went through the roof in price. Good luck finding one of those with 27% block at 50k anymore!
At what point do you start transitioning in LoH stats? What stat do you sacrifice to get it? I understand the goal is to go into A3 with 1000+LoH, so do you eventually start scaling back STR to get there? Or do you cut back on Resist All in favor of LoH? I figure having some serious LoH would make life easier, but being broke, do worthwhile LoH items even drop in A2, or am I going to have to farm gold to buy it?
Will need a bit better gear then the "1 mil setup" but maybe with the 1.0.3 patch it will change.
I've been boosting my dps ever since the Tyrael nerf, and it's currently at 18k. With my current gear I can complete the Siegebreaker run in 25 minutes, which is pretty good. You can check one of my runs here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_yi1k6X8fQ
The gear requirement has gone up a lot, you actually need badass gear to do Act 3 now. I realize that a lot of you may now be unable to complete the run due to enrage timers, which sucks, but I think that we can work around that.
First, I suggest you guys try to play multiplayer. Since they also removed the increased damage from additional players, it is now viable to tank in a group. You may want to change a few skills, in particular Ground Stomp is great. Others you can try are Threatening Shout and Seismic Slam (Strength of Earth). Seismic slam is amazing against normal mobs but really struggles against elite packs, as they are immune to knockback. Also I found out the hard way that the little flowers in whimsyshire are immune as well.
Blizzard is also changing the loot tables soon, such that top tier loot will drop in Act 2. So being stuck there won't be the worth thing in the world!
Oh, yesterday I also did a full solo clear of the game s a sanity check. Starting at 5 stack Siegebreaker, I went down and killed Cydaea, Azmodan, then Iskatu, Rakanoth, Izual, and Diablo, rolling 5 stacks the whole way. It took me around 2 hours, but I did get 4 bosses worth of 5 stack loot so it was still good. In particular Cydaea and Azmodan are close to each other, so getting 5 stacks for them may be worthwhile. I will try this route again today.