I have recently got my barb geared up thanks to the helpful people here giving me tips and helping me in game.
Now I have a question relating to my tank build and weapon choices. I have been told that if you go Life on Hit on your weapon you go with over 700 as a base line which I totally understand. NowI have an axe with 880 LoH and 178 dex (stole from my monk) and 80 crit damage with around 720 DPS. The DPS is low and I'm finding it hard to be able to DPS down elites in a timely manner in the later acts (11-13k DPS depending on gear set up).
Now I have got roughly 70k health, 850+ on all resists with shout (1.1k physical) and 9500 armor. I'm wondering if my health pool is big enough to forgo the LoH weapon and just go for a Vit/Str weapon with 900+ DPS for more damage output, or should I just suck it up and keep saving until I can afford a LoH weapon with vit/strength and decent DPS? Would it be viable with my health to run with a 300 LoH gem in a socket as my only LoH in later acts or would I start to have some issues?
Finally one question regarding belts. I have a 14% string of ears but am thinking I would get more output with a res all strength/vit belt both defensively and offensively. I havn't run it through the EHP calc yet as I'm about to head off to bed, but what would be your thoughts on this as a community?
Well, think about it: you have 880 LoH, and assuming you use Frenzy that gets changed to 662 LoH. If you only manage to hit 1 time a second for just a minute, and you assume that you never cap out on health, that's an extra 39.7k health you'd otherwise not have.
If anything, I'd say you could drop some of your defense and get some offense in there. Maybe try dual-wielding or 2H spec. Don't be afraid to stray from tank Barb, especially after 1.0.3.
Drop ur health to 50k, res to 500, triple ur dps and tadaa you can farm a3.
and yes - loh does suck
It only works brilliant with ww build.
Or Frenzy tank build. Any 2H DPS build really benefits from >=5% Life Steal.
And I totally forgot about your belt question. Really, you had the right idea with running it through an EHP calculator. Without knowing all your stats with one belt and the other belt we really can't tell you. Put it in the calculator, and if the more DPS-friendly one is enough of a gain in damage that the defensive sacrifice is worth it, go for it. You know your character better than us.
I would suggest you use the barbarian DPS spreedsheet posted on the front page recently to see what effects reducing some stats has on your effective life pool. I was looking at changing my string of ears to a better belt but it turned out I was better off with the string (mine is 19%).
I also used it recently to determine that my gloves are total pieces of junk that need to be replaced... its a really good tool.
Thanks for the replies. I have done some testing with belts and found I can get more DPS by swapping out my String for a more DPS focused belt, but loose up to 150k EHP (from just over 2 mill to 1.85 mill or so) I would gain 1.1k DPS which would be nice.
I did some inferno pony runs and found that I can survive pretty well in there and only died to a hoard/nightmare/frozen/plague group cos of constant CC's and chain fears when I didn't have WotB up. Apart from that the times I did die on other elite packs was because I derped more than anything else. The issue I have is my DPS is very low and am looking into fixing that with a better weapon and more strength/DPS stats.
It works the best with WW build, otherwise it's still a good stat providing aditional hp regen over time. Although as a sword&board barb i actually ignore LoH becouse revenge/furious charge/health globes are enough hp regeneration for me and i mostly don't stand and right click enough time to really benefit from LoH.
I'm working towards gear that gives life per second... first of all it's much cheaper to purchase than LOH.. and second of all it heals you if you're kiting away where as LOH you have to be in their face thus if you're low on health you're going to die. life per second is always working no matter what you're doing.
Also at 63k health.. the passive talent that doubles your shout duration and gives you a 1% health regen actually is pretty good. Whenever I need help in downing something, I'll pick up that talent and watch as my health globe goes up 1% at a time. It ticks for 300-500 per time thanks to my added life per second on my gear. With that much I really don't need LOH... I feel it would be overkill.
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I have recently got my barb geared up thanks to the helpful people here giving me tips and helping me in game.
Now I have a question relating to my tank build and weapon choices. I have been told that if you go Life on Hit on your weapon you go with over 700 as a base line which I totally understand. NowI have an axe with 880 LoH and 178 dex (stole from my monk) and 80 crit damage with around 720 DPS. The DPS is low and I'm finding it hard to be able to DPS down elites in a timely manner in the later acts (11-13k DPS depending on gear set up).
Now I have got roughly 70k health, 850+ on all resists with shout (1.1k physical) and 9500 armor. I'm wondering if my health pool is big enough to forgo the LoH weapon and just go for a Vit/Str weapon with 900+ DPS for more damage output, or should I just suck it up and keep saving until I can afford a LoH weapon with vit/strength and decent DPS? Would it be viable with my health to run with a 300 LoH gem in a socket as my only LoH in later acts or would I start to have some issues?
Finally one question regarding belts. I have a 14% string of ears but am thinking I would get more output with a res all strength/vit belt both defensively and offensively. I havn't run it through the EHP calc yet as I'm about to head off to bed, but what would be your thoughts on this as a community?
Thanks guys
If anything, I'd say you could drop some of your defense and get some offense in there. Maybe try dual-wielding or 2H spec. Don't be afraid to stray from tank Barb, especially after 1.0.3.
And I totally forgot about your belt question. Really, you had the right idea with running it through an EHP calculator. Without knowing all your stats with one belt and the other belt we really can't tell you. Put it in the calculator, and if the more DPS-friendly one is enough of a gain in damage that the defensive sacrifice is worth it, go for it. You know your character better than us.
I also used it recently to determine that my gloves are total pieces of junk that need to be replaced... its a really good tool.
dafuq
I did some inferno pony runs and found that I can survive pretty well in there and only died to a hoard/nightmare/frozen/plague group cos of constant CC's and chain fears when I didn't have WotB up. Apart from that the times I did die on other elite packs was because I derped more than anything else. The issue I have is my DPS is very low and am looking into fixing that with a better weapon and more strength/DPS stats.
It works the best with WW build, otherwise it's still a good stat providing aditional hp regen over time. Although as a sword&board barb i actually ignore LoH becouse revenge/furious charge/health globes are enough hp regeneration for me and i mostly don't stand and right click enough time to really benefit from LoH.
But I have 63k health so my revenge keeps me up.
I'm working towards gear that gives life per second... first of all it's much cheaper to purchase than LOH.. and second of all it heals you if you're kiting away where as LOH you have to be in their face thus if you're low on health you're going to die. life per second is always working no matter what you're doing.
Also at 63k health.. the passive talent that doubles your shout duration and gives you a 1% health regen actually is pretty good. Whenever I need help in downing something, I'll pick up that talent and watch as my health globe goes up 1% at a time. It ticks for 300-500 per time thanks to my added life per second on my gear. With that much I really don't need LOH... I feel it would be overkill.