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Here is the Raekor+Sage's build I've been using to farm Death's Breath this season. It is the fastest and most efficient way to farm I've found on the Barb thus far and keeps me easily stocked with Death's Breath and Greater Rift Keys.

HotA pairs very nicely with Raekors now and solves the single target problems. While am pretty burned out on charging after season 2, this get the job done beautifully!

Enjoy!

http://www.diablofans.com/builds/58427-raekor-speed-build-for-2-3-deaths-breath-farming

The real issue is this:

Why is doing this more fun, beneficial, and lucrative, than doing a Greater Rift the normal way?

Furthermore, no one is getting banned for this. Unless Blizzard issues in-game warning, players have fair grounds to play within the scope of the game, unaltered.

Blame QA, not the players who are just trying to keep up/compete/find some enjoyment in the grind. Bugs add interesting spikes in an otherwise static experience right now.

I'd also say that we discovered this by accident two days ago due to a failed GR cancellation and did not try to duplicate in days following, sighting that 2 minute GR35 runs were overall more beneficial in terms of primarily exp, but also total Legs + Bloodshards per hour.

Greetings!

I'm a former pro gamer seeking a top tier competitive Diablo 3 clan of mature, like-minded individuals who enjoy a min/max collaboration style of play. Broad intentions is to play most classes in a supportive roll for those pushing the top leader boards, or focus on one as needed for the team.

Why: My circle of friends aren’t playing Diablo 3 any longer. Didn't enjoy Season 1 and 2 as much playing solo, nor is that efficient.

Who: Male, Age 36

Where: Eastern US

Profile:

http://www.diabloprogress.com/player/gnada-1471

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Gnada-1471/hero/57480222

Goals:

1)Participate in highly collaborative and communicative team setting for efficient team oriented game play and push 2-4 player rifts.

2)Support clanmates in their pushes for solo Greater Rifts

-Assist with key making

-Shared loot runs

-Speed farming

-Powerleveling

3) Explore and test new builds for all classes each patch.

4) Enjoy the game in an environment of motivated and like-minded players who enjoy min/max, efficient game play

Favorite Class: Barbarian

Most Played Classes: Barbarian, Crusader, Witch Doctor, Monk

Paragon in Season 1: 554 (Diablo progress is inaccurate)

Paragon in Season 2: 642 (thus far)

Shoot me a message here on in game if you’d like to discuss!

Thanks,

Gnada#1471

TLDR; you are nerfing yourself significantly using Leapquake. Fun is subjective and important so do what you like, of course. Useful info below.

Long version

Aren't you noticing that you are doing considerably less damage and moving slower compared to Raekor? Leapquake does very poor damage compared to Raekor and generally cannot move as far, also with Ancient items that might not be so true any longer.

You really should consider Fire for this build instead of Physical. All the Fire runes involved do more damage. If you must use Physical and a spender, definitely use a Physical Spender.

You should consider using a 2H weapon with Leapquake for the additional weapon damage on a 4000+% dmg skill. The only exception in my mind would be if you need the CDR.

You need lots of Cooldown Reduction for an optimized Leapquake build, so get better gloves and RORG.

Berserker Wrath or Sprint over Avalanche for sure. Even Rend is better than Avalanche.

Considering using no spender and the Berserker Rage passive for more dmg at full Fury (especially if you have a lot of CDR).

Over all, you won't be an optimal Barb with this build, but it is fun to Leap around from time to time. Unfortunately, Leapquake hasn't been maintained by Blizzard and the Earth and/or Lut Socks are in need of a overhaul.

It would help if you expressed more of your goals so we can define feasibility for you.

1. Do you want to push into T6? Do you want to clear T6 within 10 minutes?
2. Do you want to push into Greater Rifts? Do you want to be competitive in doing so?
3. Are you set on playing Barb? Monks, Crusaders, and Witch Doctors all currently have much better support/tanking options to help other players than barbs do. Barbs are good at one thing right now: headbutt to kill.



Issues
If you just want to play around with your partner, you can certainly go 1h and shield on a Barb but with notable limitations. However, Crusader is simply a much better tanking experience with more options in a Duo, with more utility as they are designed to also do damage with 1h and Shield.

Barbarians currently take a MAJOR damage hit using 1h and shield. We have little to no abilities, gear or sets supporting shield use (unfortunate).

Builds
I found these builds which seems okay from a modern tanking standpoint. You don't need the Raekors set to make this generally work, but it will dramatically improve your mobility and damage output. Leapquake with the Earth set does very low damage in comparison, and doesn't even freeze mobs as well any longer.

Raekor Tank
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/3106-48-working-barbarian-tank

Leapquake Tank
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/994-support-and-good-dps-for-gr30-4man-grps



Elite Nullifer Sortofatank (doesn't use a shield, but you can get ideas from this excellent thread)
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/1218-2-1-2-ancient-elite-nullifier-gr-40-1-ranked

Also, the Barb ability Ground Stomp - Wrenching Smash is super good for utility and tanking + helping out others, so that shouldn't be overlooked though.



Hope that gives you some places to start.

Based on the 500 or so T6 rifts I've done since the meta changed last patch, I can conclusively say that in my personal experience full T6 clears are better in most cases which two notable exceptions:

If you are clearing too slowly as a group and need 25 blood shard cost gear, go ahead and get your ~100 shards and close out, rinse and repeat. Clearly very slowly likely warrants a trip to T4 or T5 until you are ready, but that's another matter.

If you need primarily exp, you should be doing Greater Rifts in a group around LvL35.

Greater Rifts are probably underrated for loot potential too at LvL30+ by most of us.

Do full Rift clears if...

You primarily need weapons, jewelry, consumables, gems, crafting mats, exp, etc... you should be doing full clears efficiently with a well formed group. Especially if you play with sound and know to listen for goblins. TIP: You should always hear a goblin before you see it on the map. I find a blood thief the majority of my T6 clears as a result of this. Last night I had 4 double goblin pack rifts in 2 hours. That's a game-changing series of events for almost any player.

Opportunity Cost for Full Clear has improved considerably (the new meta):

-Most viable (and popular) builds have increased in damage, particularly AOE damage, thus faster clear times are now possible

-Goblin Packs and new Goblin types, particularly Blood Thieves and Malevolent Tormentors, have dramatically improved potential for loot per hour

-Increased legendary drop rates (% chance, amount trash mobs killed and breakables exposed as risen due to increase in AOE build prevalence.

Bottomline: do what is most efficient for you and your group

Etiquette: if you want to close a rift before you reach the end marker, discuss with your group

Wow, you've been busy!

Thanks for organizing and sharing this. Will be interesting to see what changes between now and deployment (hopefully soon).

After playing on the PTR, I really think they need to permanently increase the drop rates a bit. Way more fun

Greatly looking forward to more build options for all classes. This was sorely needed... especially my favorite: Barb!

Friends, I have an inventory problem. I imagine many other players (but not all) do too. Let's work together to make the game more enjoyable!

• I play all the classes. I play a 2-3 builds per class depending on the class.
• I play normal, I play seasons.
• I have an inventory management problem.
• I don't like deleting characters, but I do to try each class each new season.
• I don't like shuffling gear around constantly.
• I do like melting down above average legendary items due to Ancients.
• I don't like clutter, I don't like inefficiency.

The problem:

More viable builds are coming into play. This issue is going to get worse with new sets being introduced in 2.2.

Solutions:

• Searchable inventory (by stat, similar to old Auction house?)
• More stash tabs (at least one per class)
• More stash rows
• More Character slots

These items in whole or part would greatly reduce the labor and frustration of D3 inventory management. And yes, if necessary I would gladly pay $2.95 or whatever it takes to justify the development per feature.

Quality of life in a game where the grind and search for items can be a serious challenge is important. Seems like Blizzard is focusing on this more in 2.2. Hopefully this big QoL issue is addressed soon.

Lastly, what awesome things do you currently do to make inventory management a little easier?

This depends on the situation.

I'm thinking that you could possibly mage a pretty effective COLD based support barb with Mutilate (20% extra damage for all) and Cold LeapQuake (mass freeze).

But, why would you not just freeze everything with Raekor?

I went so far as to make a build for this:

http://www.diablofans.com/builds/52126-barb-season-2-leveling-build

Here's the skill layout:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WckRSU!YZhj!bcbcZc

A few optional items here for sure. I'm stacking physical gear as I find it and crit and crit dmg too of course.

Had bad set item drops so far, but decent luck with weapons. I can fly through T2 with this.

Let's not forget that WW is still weak unless you have the ring and supporting items.

If you find an Undisputed Champion belt (or perhaps even without one), this build is stellar:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WckRSU!YZhj!bcbcZc

Very good single target with Frenzy + every rune.

Excellent AOE with Rend - Bloodbath and Battlerage - Bloodshed and for large groups of mobs, Furious Charge.

The rest is up to you.

I find that just moving fast and procing Strong Arms and buffing the team's damage is great. As of right now, I'm having no problem contributing significantly with both damage and buffing with a standard Jade Harvester setup: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Gnada-1471/hero/10670487

There are definitely other ways to contribute on speed runs, some of which I think you've touched on.

As long as you can keep up, proc Strong Arms, and throw in a notable damage boost or buff, you're doing everything you need to.

Really only need 1-2 primary damage classes now. The rest can be contributing in a sense of utility or split farming as the group composition dictates.