The Vanguard 2h barb build
edit: Thanks to suggestion from Leh I'm going to call this build the "Vanguard 2h barb build", due to similarity in playstyle with vanguard class from ME universe.
Introduction
After gearing up normal sword and board tank barb until I can tank all the way to diablo, I've decided to start gearing up 2h dps spec for faster farming. I've experiment around with a lot of build and eventually came up with my own build: http://us.battle.net...RTik!ZYc!cZbbac
With this build you are no longer a tank and spank barbarian. You do not stare into enemies until they die of boredom. With this build you are the unstoppable juggernaut. Blood splatter and explode as you spearhead through ranks of enemies. Wherever you charge into, you leave a trail of destruction littered with dead demon corpses.
The main key around this build is the passive berserker rage (gives +25% damage when full fury) and Battle Rage (gives 30% damage buff and 3% additional crit chance). Both of these combined gives you 55% damage boost with 100% uptime. One thing this build is really good for is inflating your paper dps to make you feel better about yourself. My paper dps went up from 39k to a whopping 61k.
Now, let's get into the specifics.
Skills
Bash - Pulverize:
I choose bash over frenzy because, let's face it, if you use 2h you won't be standing still and let the stack builds up. If you are doing 2h build correctly, mobs will be falling left and right and you will not be able to let it build up anyway. You will be doing hit and run for single target most of the time so bash is the clear choice here.
For the rune, I choose Pulverize mostly by personal preference. Onslaught gives the best single target dps so that's also an option. However if you haven't tried Pulverize, I strongly recommend it mostly because it feels AWESOME. Seriously, it has one of the most satisfying animation/sound effect ability in the game, imo. Pulverize also offers you option to finish off multiple weakened mobs and also combo well with Bloodshed and Slaughter rune if you have high crit. Punish rune might also work if you can find the window to stack up.
Furious Charge - Merciless Assault:
This will be your main nuking ability. It has one of the hardest hitting ability in barb's arsenal. It does a whopping 195% weapon damage in a straight line (compare to only 155% from slam), dash into/out action, gets you out of jailer, and even do a mini knockback to enemies in the path. Merciless assault rune allows you to spam this abilities when you hit 5 mobs or more. If there's only a few mobs you will want to bash them into smithereens anyway.
Battle Rage - Marauder's Rage:
I know what you're thinking: Why have a rage spender when you're using berserker rage passive, right? The thing is that Battle Rage lasts for 30 seconds, consume 20 fury. But I've found that Warcry (which is a must have skills for all barb anyway) is also on 30 seconds cooldown and generates 30 fury. This means whenever warcry is off cooldown, you can hit battle rage, then warcry again to regain fury back to full, giving 100% uptime for berserker rage passive buff.
For the rune, Marauder's Rage is the simplest choice if you just want to have mad dps powerhouse. Another possible option is the Bloodshed rune if you have high amount of crit. This also combo really well with Furious Charge since Furious charge does so much damage, the chain explosion will basically wipe out anything near the path of your furious charge.
Warcry - Impunity:
Self explanatory. The 30 seconds cooldown works great to refill your fury whenever Battle Rage needs to be refreshed.
Ignore Pain - Ignorance is a Bliss:
Emergency button that gives you heal and reduce damage done. Basically whenever you find yourself low on health, pop this bad boy and use furious charge at as many mobs as possible and you should heal back to full.
For the last ability, we need a "burn" skill that will take down elite quickly (ideally before ignore pain runs out), I present to you two options:
#1st option => Earthquake - The Mountain's Call:
Earthquake offers a highest burst damage in barb abilities. In fact, I dare to say that it is the hardest hitting burst damage among all the classes. It also stacks with the current damage buff you already have. With the 2 passives giving you 55% damage, most elite packs will die before the Earthquake duration is up, freeing you the burden to figure out their abilities and silly notion like avoiding damage. The rune also works perfectly since the free cost will not ruin your berserker rage passive and the reduced duration is also nice when you found the next elite pack so quickly because stuff die so fast. The downside with this ability is against range mobs and shielded mob (but if you time it correctly shielded mob still dies before their shield could come up again).
#2nd option => Wrath of the Berserker - Insanity:
Used to be my #1 burst ability only until I've discovered that EQ actually gives better burst. The main appeal for this, however, is the crowd control immunity. If you want to just kill stuff fast, then EQ is slightly better, but if you want more controlled fight, wotb is also great. Test both out for yourself and choose one that suits your style better. If you have very high crit, slaughter rune is also something nice if you're hitting many mobs with furious charge or pulverize rune.
Passive: Ruthless, Weapon Master, Berserker rage:
All these buffs should be self explanatory since the goal is to ditch out as much damage as possible. Remember that dead enemies do not deal damage.
Playstyle
The playstyle is relatively straight forward. You open with CHARGE! CHARGE! CHARGE! until you cannot charge anymore. Aim your furious charge so it pass through as many mobs as possible. Try to make it so that you don't land somewhere nasty as the animation lock after charge can kill you sometimes (Desecrate arcane etc.). Once you charge back and forth most of the mobs will be dead on the floor. Good thing with furious charge is that most mobs will be temporarily stunned when hit so you won't be taking much damage from them. Finish up the remainders with some well aimed pulverize.
For elites, first make sure you have battle rage up and your fury is full. Then, walk into as many elites as possible, pop EQ and ignore pain and watch as they fall besides you. If after EQ mobs are still alive you might want to save furious charge for those frozen/jailer/nasty ground aoe. use IiB to heal up whenever you need to. Shielded mob might give you a hard time but with a well timed EQ they can still be burned down no problem.
Since there really isn't any fury spender, you don't have to manage your fury at all. Just make sure you use warcry right after refreshing battle rage and your berserker rage buff should be 100% up while fighting.
Gear
Good thing about this build is that it works with any type of gear, unlike some build that requires a lot of loh or crit chance. The only thing is you will need enough dps for this to work (and of course, some minimal survivability). Remember that the goal is to kill the enemies before they kill you, not outlasting them.
The single most important piece of gear is the 2h weapon. For 2h weapon you will only want to look at the min-max damage number and not the dps. This is because furious charge takes the same animation time regardless of your attack speed. I would suggest going for 0.9 speed mace here for the damage and the weapon master bonus. However, if you find bash animation taking too long to avoid some damage, this also works with slightly faster weapon.
Another stat that actually helps a lot with this build is lifesteal. I know you're thinking "but lifesteal is only 20% effective on inferno". The thing is even with 3%*.2 = 0.6% lifesteal, with the amount of damage you're dealing you will heal you about 1-3k for each furious charge (lifesteal works really well with aoe). Lifesteal stat is mostly ignored at the moment so it shouldn't be too expensive to fetch those gears on the AH. You can only get lifesteal on weapon or mighty belt. Try to get the one with close to maximum 3.0% as possible. Life on hit will not be as effective given how slow the swing timer is, but lifesteal will heal you more than life on hit could possibly give you with this build.
Conclusion
While this might not be the best spec in terms of survivability, it has very high maneuverability and gives you very high damage number. If you're bored with going sword and board and watch as mob dies from boredom, pick up your 2h and dash forward to enemy lines and start mowing them like a true barbarian would!
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