Let me present you an idea I had on WW:bloodfunnel and some special legendary, theorycrafted as it is, but awaiting testing and polishing by the userbase.
We barbarian of all classes are fond of crits, and it is still the case in PTR despite the profound changes the class receives in the upcoming patch. It is thus only natural that this item description spoke directly to my mind. The question arose: how to capitalize on this item? It works its magic while below 25% life, which is low enough that you can see the welcoming smile on Death's face (which appears as a big red smoke circling your screen: we've all seen that). As we've all learned by now, the only thing we say to death is 'not today', and we'll need a bunch of regen to keep us away from that fatal 0 health. Yet, we'd like a manageable way to keep it as much as possible below the 25%, to bring this item to its full potential.
The problem
Starting from the description of Shi Mizu's Haori:While below 25% life, all attacks are guaranteed Critical Hits, several problems arise if we want to seriously benefit from this item:
We need to stay below 25% life. We need a way to cap our healing at or below this level.
We need to stay alive (never drop to 0% life).
We need to benefit from having 100% crit.
The solution
The solution comes from itemization and skills.
You need the least amount of regen you can get. Zero regen works best.
You need the least amount of critical hit chance you can get from your equipment. Zero crit works best.
You need a good amount of mitigation
Let's leap into the core skills of the build:
Whirlwind/Bloodfunnel (WW/BF):Critical Hits restore1%of your maximum Life.
Relentless:While below30%Life, all skills cost75%less Fury and all damage taken is reduced by50%.
Skills not core but that synergize well:
Unforgiving:You no longer degenerate Fury. Instead, you generate2Fury every1seconds.
You can choose the other skills that suit best your playstyle. You'd certainly want some more mitigation though, and a way to break CC if you don't have Ice Climbers; because no WW, no regen.
Skill explanation:
Remember: you have no regen stats on your gear. The only way to regen is via WW/BF. While above the 25% threshold, you regenerate health only from the low 5% base crit of your barb (notwithstanding the health globes). Below 25%, however, since you crit 100% of the time, you regen a lot from WW/BF. In fact, you regen 20 times as fast when you are below 25%, as compared to when you are above this threshold.
You then only need the mitigation that keeps you alive below these 25%, but not so much as making the low 5% crit enough to get you healed past that point. The range is big enough that the sweet spot should be easy to find.
To stay alive below 25%, the passive skill relentless comes in handy. Not only does it double your toughness below 30% (in practice, it thus doubles the regen you get from WW/BF), it also solves most of the fury problem your build can have with its 75% resource cost reduction. This, along with unforgiving, allows for endless WW.
Overpower is a nice addition to this build. Not only does it DPS a lot, but it also benefits from having increased crit: no matter how low the proc rate for the cooldown reduction is, it should get high enough once every attack you make is a crit.
What is this build for?
First, I think that's the best use of this item. It's fun to come up with a theorycrafted build. It's even funnier if it works out (you tell me!). But that's not all:
100% crit is a nice boost in DPS, all the more so if you save one DPS stat on EACH item you wear! Indeed, you don't need CHC anymore from your gear; in fact you resent CHC on your gear, because it only makes you lose CHC by not letting you drop below this 25% threshold!
Yellow numbers in red smoke are beautiful and soothing to the eye (;)).
Say, you use the mistique to change all your crit on all your items towards toughness. You might well close to double it, making it even under relentless as your previous toughness. But instead of 50% or so crit, you now have 100% crit. Same toughness, double crit. That's the idea.
Test this build for me, please!
Is this build viable? I do not know. I think that's the best use of this item, which is fun in its own sake. I believe it could work wonders with a bit of patience and correct itemization. I hought it was a good idea and wanted to share it with you guys so that some of you, who had the chance to drop Shi Mizu's Haori, could test it for the community and provide feedback.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, looking forward for any feedback!
With all due respect, I really don't think finding ways to keep a Barb's life below 25% is ANY kind of viable build whatsoever. Especially not by using Blood Funnel to RESTORE life. If we're simply theorycrafting here, BEST possible way to make a "below 25% life" build for a Barb work is if you stacked an absolute CRAP TON of %Life, Vitality, Strength, Armor and All Res. That way, you have the largest possible window to keep critting during a Whirlwind.
But really, even that's shaky at best.
Since hearing how Barbs are apparently getting some kind of short end of some stick or another, I decided to test out Whirlwind for myself, and found it really isn't so bad as long as your damage is nice and high and you have reasonable ways of keeping your Fury up. Like War Cry - Charge, certain runes on Overpower and Revenge, things like Ground Stomp, Leap and Threatening Shout also Generate, I believe, so using them smartly when they come off cooldown is a good idea (not to mention getting Cooldown Reduction Gear, and putting Paragon Points into CDR). Unforgiving seems like a popular choice, because I'm sure most Barbs hate that their Fury degenerates, and with a fourth passive slot, it should be easier to justify using it. I've had good luck with Animosity, that's good for extra Fury Generation and stocking, so you can Whirlwind as long as possible. Not to mention, there's now a WW rune called Hurricane that draws enemies closer to you as you Whirlwind close to them. So that's handy for grouping up guys, hitting them with Ground Stomp, pounding away with Bash - Instigation, things of that nature, then Whirlwinding again.
All in all...Whirlwind has NOT died. The OP/permawrath/spin-to-win Barbs have died, and good riddance. I'm probably going to throw Whirlwind on my own Barb(s) to find a cool way of using it, since so many people are convinced it's no longer worth it.
Your description is pretty much how I play WW on ptr now, and I enjoy it lots (way more than in d3v to be honest). The gameplay is nice indeed, and with some nice itemization, it can also be quite efficient (especially with the fire skills and + fire skill dmg. Also, did you mention ess of jordan?).
On the other hand, IF (and I say, IF) such a build based around haori can be made to work with the right gear, we are basically doubling our dps output.(depending on lots of factors). Granted, some is lost due to mitigation requirements (we only have 50% of our life -- not 25%, but 50%, thanks to relentless), so the build needs to have some proper itemization choices.
Say, you use the mistique to change all your crit on all your items towards toughness. You might well close to double it, making it even under relentless as your toughness now. But instead of 50% or so crit, you now have 100% crit. Same toughness, double crit. That's the idea.
Don't forget that under relentless, bloodfunnel's regen is twice more efficient that you can now experience. What's more, with 100% crit, it certainly procs about twice as much as what you can experience without haori (say, if you have around 50% crit). As a result, bloodfunnel, under this build, restores around 4x more HP that you can now experience with another build.
The goal is that whenever you get hit, you regenerate very quickly back to 25%, and not more than that.
Also, using WW/bloodfunnel makes sure that you don't regenerate if you're not critting. You can stack some regen next to that but the sweet spot will be all the more difficult to find (it's possible though-- thinking about life on hit).
Yet, before throwing it away, I think it is worth a small test.
Don't get me wrong, if you or anyone else can make this build work, they'll get a lot of respect from me. It'd be pretty impressive, :-D
For my playstyles, it just seems like way too much theorycrafting and not enough monster killing. Though, I respect other players who want to theorycraft, especially in a game like this that encourages players to just get out there and "dare to fail", experiment, try new combinations of stuff and see what works, and walks that fine line between efficient damage output and personal fun.
To me, this kind of build seems like too much of a balancing act. Like, you'd need to know how much damage you're taking vs. how much total mitigation you have from Armor, All Res, etc. Regen and leech just enough to not die, but still stay low enough to be working away.
I mean, your Crits are going to be 100% when you're below 25% life with that item...but when you happen to go above that, your Crits rely on just skills and gear. So damage output ends up being rather inconsistent, and potentially unreliable.
It's fun to theory craft these things but in practice it'll be very difficult to keep your helath below 25% at all times. In a group it'll be useless, as if someone picks up a health globe, there goes that.
I also thought about this item with the barb and increasing the HP pool alot to a point that 25% HP is actually a high value of health points and dropping all the CC for this item , but testing needs to be done.
Also I am not sure how it will work because you will end up getting 50% crit chance instead of 100% , just because when you have that 100% crit chance and you do WW then you will jump to 26% and lose the crit chance and next time you attack you got 5% crit chance then you take a hit and you are back to 100% , so it is gonna be probably 1 hit crit , next no crit and so on and that's 50% crit chance not 100% and if that how it works out in the end then it is not worth the hassle.
unless if you don't rely on WW to deal damage but only to heal you up to 20-25% health and then you use other abilities to deal damage until you drop back below 20% and then you WW alittle bit to get back up to 20-25%.
I think this item will turn out to be interesting and alot of builds/classes will try to utilize it , but like you I don't have the item to test anything with it and I don't have the Beta to use the Mystic to reroll stats away.
I also think this chest will open up the option to play as glass cannon on Wizard/WD/DH/Throw Barb and Hand of Ytar or Bell Monk with Tzo Krin's Gaze(Wave of Light cast at your Enemy).
Throw barb with Seismic Slam(Freezing rune) and Avalanche and Ancient Spear Boulder Toss can probably dish out crazy damage without ever being touched.
Unless you are taking consistent damage it will be impossible to to stay under 25% life. If your mitigation ends up being so high you barely take any damage you'll hit the 25% even quicker.
Overall damage will be very low and increasing your defensive values will drop your offense even more. Cool idea though.
Let me present you an idea I had on WW:bloodfunnel and some special legendary, theorycrafted as it is, but awaiting testing and polishing by the userbase.
Introduction
I can't test it myself as of yet because hey, despite my best efforts, I didn't drop:Shi Mizu's Haori (http://www.diablohub.com/database/item/shi-mizus-haori/information/):While below 25% life, all attacks are guaranteed Critical Hits.
, which is core to the build.
We barbarian of all classes are fond of crits, and it is still the case in PTR despite the profound changes the class receives in the upcoming patch. It is thus only natural that this item description spoke directly to my mind. The question arose: how to capitalize on this item? It works its magic while below 25% life, which is low enough that you can see the welcoming smile on Death's face (which appears as a big red smoke circling your screen: we've all seen that). As we've all learned by now, the only thing we say to death is 'not today', and we'll need a bunch of regen to keep us away from that fatal 0 health. Yet, we'd like a manageable way to keep it as much as possible below the 25%, to bring this item to its full potential.
The problem
Starting from the description of Shi Mizu's Haori:While below 25% life, all attacks are guaranteed Critical Hits, several problems arise if we want to seriously benefit from this item:The solution
The solution comes from itemization and skills.Skill explanation:
Remember: you have no regen stats on your gear. The only way to regen is via WW/BF. While above the 25% threshold, you regenerate health only from the low 5% base crit of your barb (notwithstanding the health globes). Below 25%, however, since you crit 100% of the time, you regen a lot from WW/BF. In fact, you regen 20 times as fast when you are below 25%, as compared to when you are above this threshold.You then only need the mitigation that keeps you alive below these 25%, but not so much as making the low 5% crit enough to get you healed past that point. The range is big enough that the sweet spot should be easy to find.
To stay alive below 25%, the passive skill relentless comes in handy. Not only does it double your toughness below 30% (in practice, it thus doubles the regen you get from WW/BF), it also solves most of the fury problem your build can have with its 75% resource cost reduction. This, along with unforgiving, allows for endless WW.
Overpower is a nice addition to this build. Not only does it DPS a lot, but it also benefits from having increased crit: no matter how low the proc rate for the cooldown reduction is, it should get high enough once every attack you make is a crit.
What is this build for?
First, I think that's the best use of this item. It's fun to come up with a theorycrafted build. It's even funnier if it works out (you tell me!). But that's not all:Test this build for me, please!
Is this build viable? I do not know. I think that's the best use of this item, which is fun in its own sake. I believe it could work wonders with a bit of patience and correct itemization. I hought it was a good idea and wanted to share it with you guys so that some of you, who had the chance to drop Shi Mizu's Haori, could test it for the community and provide feedback.Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, looking forward for any feedback!
But really, even that's shaky at best.
Since hearing how Barbs are apparently getting some kind of short end of some stick or another, I decided to test out Whirlwind for myself, and found it really isn't so bad as long as your damage is nice and high and you have reasonable ways of keeping your Fury up. Like War Cry - Charge, certain runes on Overpower and Revenge, things like Ground Stomp, Leap and Threatening Shout also Generate, I believe, so using them smartly when they come off cooldown is a good idea (not to mention getting Cooldown Reduction Gear, and putting Paragon Points into CDR). Unforgiving seems like a popular choice, because I'm sure most Barbs hate that their Fury degenerates, and with a fourth passive slot, it should be easier to justify using it. I've had good luck with Animosity, that's good for extra Fury Generation and stocking, so you can Whirlwind as long as possible. Not to mention, there's now a WW rune called Hurricane that draws enemies closer to you as you Whirlwind close to them. So that's handy for grouping up guys, hitting them with Ground Stomp, pounding away with Bash - Instigation, things of that nature, then Whirlwinding again.
All in all...Whirlwind has NOT died. The OP/permawrath/spin-to-win Barbs have died, and good riddance. I'm probably going to throw Whirlwind on my own Barb(s) to find a cool way of using it, since so many people are convinced it's no longer worth it.
Your description is pretty much how I play WW on ptr now, and I enjoy it lots (way more than in d3v to be honest). The gameplay is nice indeed, and with some nice itemization, it can also be quite efficient (especially with the fire skills and + fire skill dmg. Also, did you mention ess of jordan?).
On the other hand, IF (and I say, IF) such a build based around haori can be made to work with the right gear, we are basically doubling our dps output.(depending on lots of factors). Granted, some is lost due to mitigation requirements (we only have 50% of our life -- not 25%, but 50%, thanks to relentless), so the build needs to have some proper itemization choices.
Say, you use the mistique to change all your crit on all your items towards toughness. You might well close to double it, making it even under relentless as your toughness now. But instead of 50% or so crit, you now have 100% crit. Same toughness, double crit. That's the idea.
Don't forget that under relentless, bloodfunnel's regen is twice more efficient that you can now experience. What's more, with 100% crit, it certainly procs about twice as much as what you can experience without haori (say, if you have around 50% crit). As a result, bloodfunnel, under this build, restores around 4x more HP that you can now experience with another build.
The goal is that whenever you get hit, you regenerate very quickly back to 25%, and not more than that.
Also, using WW/bloodfunnel makes sure that you don't regenerate if you're not critting. You can stack some regen next to that but the sweet spot will be all the more difficult to find (it's possible though-- thinking about life on hit).
Yet, before throwing it away, I think it is worth a small test.
For my playstyles, it just seems like way too much theorycrafting and not enough monster killing. Though, I respect other players who want to theorycraft, especially in a game like this that encourages players to just get out there and "dare to fail", experiment, try new combinations of stuff and see what works, and walks that fine line between efficient damage output and personal fun.
To me, this kind of build seems like too much of a balancing act. Like, you'd need to know how much damage you're taking vs. how much total mitigation you have from Armor, All Res, etc. Regen and leech just enough to not die, but still stay low enough to be working away.
I mean, your Crits are going to be 100% when you're below 25% life with that item...but when you happen to go above that, your Crits rely on just skills and gear. So damage output ends up being rather inconsistent, and potentially unreliable.
The goal is not to revive ww, which is about fine now, but to double its dps, which would make it even more so.
Also I am not sure how it will work because you will end up getting 50% crit chance instead of 100% , just because when you have that 100% crit chance and you do WW then you will jump to 26% and lose the crit chance and next time you attack you got 5% crit chance then you take a hit and you are back to 100% , so it is gonna be probably 1 hit crit , next no crit and so on and that's 50% crit chance not 100% and if that how it works out in the end then it is not worth the hassle.
unless if you don't rely on WW to deal damage but only to heal you up to 20-25% health and then you use other abilities to deal damage until you drop back below 20% and then you WW alittle bit to get back up to 20-25%.
I think this item will turn out to be interesting and alot of builds/classes will try to utilize it , but like you I don't have the item to test anything with it and I don't have the Beta to use the Mystic to reroll stats away.
I also think this chest will open up the option to play as glass cannon on Wizard/WD/DH/Throw Barb and Hand of Ytar or Bell Monk with Tzo Krin's Gaze(Wave of Light cast at your Enemy).
Throw barb with Seismic Slam(Freezing rune) and Avalanche and Ancient Spear Boulder Toss can probably dish out crazy damage without ever being touched.
Damn I am excited for RoS.
Unless you are taking consistent damage it will be impossible to to stay under 25% life. If your mitigation ends up being so high you barely take any damage you'll hit the 25% even quicker.
Overall damage will be very low and increasing your defensive values will drop your offense even more. Cool idea though.