I just found a Blackguard with 2903 DPS, 1000 str, and a socket. This is WAY more damage than I have seen on a 2hander before so I wondering if it would be worth building a spec around. Currently I'm a running a fire HotA build with a Cindercoat and spamming fast, high damage, low cost hammers with 2 green gem 1handers. I switched to the Blackguard and tried my spec and it seemed like my hammer crits were about the same damage but much slower.
Basically, how can I best take advantage of this crazy high DPS 2hander?
I think there's a bit of a bias happening when people compare 1h crits to your 2h crits. Due to the emeralds, the critical hits might appear similar between dual wield and 2h, but your non-critical hits should be significantly stronger with a 2h weapon.
If you want to stick with fire skills, both the Raekor's set and Earth set lend themselves to 2h weapons and fire skills, but you'd need 3-4 pieces of a set to really realize those play styles.
Rend, Furious Charge (and Leap, somewhat), Earthquake (to a lesser extend Avalanche), Revenge (to a lesser extent Overpower) benefit from 2h.
WW can be used with a 2h fairly effectively, but it doesn't really benefit from one.
Because 2h weapons build and spend fury a bit slower than dual wielding weapons, non-attack fury generation becomes relatively more important for them. The Unforgiving passive, IK 3 piece set bonus, War Cry (especially with Charge!), Threatening Shout, Furious Charge (especially with Stamina), and Overpower (with Momentum) can help you generate fury to use high-damage spenders without having to slowly hack away with Bash, Cleave, or Frenzy.
Another benefit of using some fury-generating skills is that the "cooldown reduction" magical property increases both your damage from your resource spenders and your resource generation from other skills, similar to the way attack speed works with the primary skills.
I'd recommend some combination of Rend, Furious Charge, War Cry, Overpower (momentum), and a spender, probably either Hammer of the Ancients or Whirlwind, along with Earthquake as a cooldown skill for burst damage. Based on how much fury you can generate, you can swap out skills for things like Sprint or Battle Rage.
Quote from Cularic» I think there's a bit of a bias happening when people compare 1h crits to your 2h crits. Due to the emeralds, the critical hits might appear similar between dual wield and 2h, but your non-critical hits should be significantly stronger with a 2h weapon.
Well said overall! Crits without the extra Emerald seem the same on a 2hander, but base damage of skills mentioned above only count your main-hand damage. Raekor's set, giving Charge all runes, is an amazing fury-builder by itself, hits like a truck with fire stacked damage, AND stuns everything. 2 Hander works best for this. I currently run Earth build, Leaping 3 times with Lut Socks and using Frost rune Earthquake for the perma-Freeze effect. I was using an Azurewrath + Sunkeeper for a while, and the average hit with earthquake was about 4 mil, with 6-8 mil crits. Now with a 2-hander (Sledge), it hits around 6 mil, with 12 mil crits!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/leland-1340/hero/10353235
Don't let sheet dps fool you either! Mine says 518k on D3 site, and only goes to about 710k with shout up. I crush on T5 solo, and everything is perma-frozen from Earthquake, so I take almost zero damage except for bosses. Try to find the combo of skills that lends utility for survival, while still doing nice damage. Have you ever tried Seismic Slam with the Shattered Ground Rune? (Fire damage + knockback) Works extremely well, especially if you can get some Strongarm bracers!
Basically, how can I best take advantage of this crazy high DPS 2hander?
Char link with the 2hander for now:http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Krentz-1513/hero/3420498
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Krentz-1513/hero/65760215
If you want to stick with fire skills, both the Raekor's set and Earth set lend themselves to 2h weapons and fire skills, but you'd need 3-4 pieces of a set to really realize those play styles.
Rend, Furious Charge (and Leap, somewhat), Earthquake (to a lesser extend Avalanche), Revenge (to a lesser extent Overpower) benefit from 2h.
WW can be used with a 2h fairly effectively, but it doesn't really benefit from one.
Because 2h weapons build and spend fury a bit slower than dual wielding weapons, non-attack fury generation becomes relatively more important for them. The Unforgiving passive, IK 3 piece set bonus, War Cry (especially with Charge!), Threatening Shout, Furious Charge (especially with Stamina), and Overpower (with Momentum) can help you generate fury to use high-damage spenders without having to slowly hack away with Bash, Cleave, or Frenzy.
Another benefit of using some fury-generating skills is that the "cooldown reduction" magical property increases both your damage from your resource spenders and your resource generation from other skills, similar to the way attack speed works with the primary skills.
I'd recommend some combination of Rend, Furious Charge, War Cry, Overpower (momentum), and a spender, probably either Hammer of the Ancients or Whirlwind, along with Earthquake as a cooldown skill for burst damage. Based on how much fury you can generate, you can swap out skills for things like Sprint or Battle Rage.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/leland-1340/hero/10353235
Don't let sheet dps fool you either! Mine says 518k on D3 site, and only goes to about 710k with shout up. I crush on T5 solo, and everything is perma-frozen from Earthquake, so I take almost zero damage except for bosses. Try to find the combo of skills that lends utility for survival, while still doing nice damage. Have you ever tried Seismic Slam with the Shattered Ground Rune? (Fire damage + knockback) Works extremely well, especially if you can get some Strongarm bracers!