I also played D1 and D2 religiously. D1 and D2 both used an exponential experience model, where each level increased the xp by a formula (just google diablo 2 experience). In D3, it looks as though that was tuned down some. Also, the max level caps were available at release for D1 and D2 (50 for D1, iirc and 99 for D2), whereas for D3, they made it so you would cap early.
There are probably several reasons for this, but I would venture to guess it is so you don't outlevel an expansion. That way, when they release D3's xpac (which they probably will), you can actually have a challenge, instead of smashing through Na'Krul/Baal in a day after the xpac is released.
Yeah, but people who get paid to chain themselves to a computer like Method or whoever will probably cap Baal in a day, anyway. I don't really care that I can't grind XP anymore; I'm personally not a fan of "you must grind levels before you get to have fun," gameplay styles to begin with, though it's part and parcel of RPGs.
Your character HAD to use certain skills to make it through Hell in D2 (hammerdin anyone?) or it was exponentially more difficult. At the same time, as Blizzard recently stated, the way people were making it through Inferno was NOT intended. The AH does suck, and needs to be fixed, but nothing is EVER perfect on the release of a game.
We as gamers (those of us who have played games and remember D1/D2) have matured and expect a lot out of a game. However, D3 is fine as it is. Spending 100+ hours in a game is not the intended purpose of a game it's first week. They EXPECTED MOST people to take their time, not rush to the end.
Now that the gamed mechanics (force armor/smoke screen) have been fixed, everyone should be on a mostly even keel (except Barbarians) when it comes to Inferno progression. Btw, I play a DH.
I think people that expect they can use any skill build and any equipment setup they want and be able to clear Inferno without issues are idiots. If you've ever done, say, hard mode raiding in WoW (especially back when it was actually hard because mechanics required perfect execution; remember Ulduar hard modes?), you'll know what I'm talking about: some builds just won't fly, or if they do fly, they fly much worse than others.
I'm having a lot of fun with my 2H Whirlwind barb, critting things for ridiculous numbers and watching them explode. I also have a ton of fun when I go sword and board and focus on ranged combat with Ancient Spear and Throw Weapon. That doesn't mean I expect either of those to be viable in Inferno, especially not in a group.
Any combination of Frozen and Waller/Jailer tends to make me want to climb walls. Frozen, now you're Jailed. Frozen again. Frozen again. Jailed again. Now you're Frozen. Oh, look, now you're dead.
Frozen+Plagued isn't fun, either - either you never stop moving or you're going to get frozen on top of a pile of goo and die immediately.
1. Max lvl should take a long time, yes, you could get max lvl in d2 in 2 days if you had a set group with perfect gear and boosted the person to act 5 hell but that was waaaay down the road several years later, this is rediculous. Getting max lvl is and has always been a core feature in Diablo that many people strived for.
2. No uniques. It's a disgrace to find Grandfather only to find out that is has intelligence on it, uniques should be hard to find and be great items but they must have set attributes. Sure, rare items could possibly have greater dps but please leave the uniques alone, calling them legendary is a joke because for something to be legendary it must be known for being powerful, nothing will ever aquire the legendary status without legendary performance. Finding uniques in d1 and d2 was an awesome experience.
3. No chat. In d1 I made several rl friends from the ingame chat that automatically put you in the channel of your country. In d2 you could spend hours in the trade chat looking for that perfect trade, you interacted with people, you aquired bartering skills that you could use in real life. Now, you can play solo and aquire everything you need without having to talk to anyone, in fact you cannot talk to anyone because there is no chat ( wtf Blizzard, that's a no brainer ). Also, don't insert the super lame chat system you have in Starcraft 2 because that is just lame. Copy the chat from d2 where you could see peoples characters and where u could change channels, it was perfect. If something isn't broken then don't change it for gods sake.
4. Class balance. In d2 all classes were viable options. In d3 ranged players have a great advantage over Barbarians for example, simply because the monsters in hell / Inferno strike for such insane amounts of damage that you simply cannot fight in close combat. I have to rely on seismic slam right now because as soon as I go close combat, I'm done for.
5. No bragging rights. In d2 you got titles, in d3 you get nothing apart from achievments which I dont care for. I want to be King Tivook, not get 10 frickin achiev points that counts for nothing.
6. Portal system. Sucks. I know you can click someones flag and get instantly teleported to them but why change something like that? I liked the portal system. Flag system is a change that wasn't necessary.
7. Waypoint system also sucks, waypoints are useless because the game does not progress like the previous games, especially when you die. When pvp comes out I want to be able to track someone down like in d2.
8. Too easy. You can die an infinite amount of times and lose no experience. The amount of money you lose is not enough.
Tiv
#1: Yeah, having more levels would be pretty nifty. Hell, why not let us go all the way to level 100, but you stop gaining anything after level 60? Levels past 60 would just be for bragging rights; you wouldn't get new skills, nor would you gain stats.
#2: Uniques having randomized stats is pretty weird. I'm fine with uniques having stat ranges, but the stats themselves being randomized is stupid. Then again, I have real issues with Wizards being able to run around with greatswords and Monks using shields...
#3: Chat is still present, it's just not enabled by default. I'm totally fine with this, since public chat channels are filled with idiots and dudebros anyway.
#4: Game's been out for one week. It's way too fuckin early to be whining about balance.
#5: Banners, dude. Many achievements unlock bits and pieces you can use on your banner.
#6: Portal system was deliberately changed to avoid players being able to use portals to casually avoid fights they didn't want to deal with.
#7: Waypoints are waypoints. PvP will only take place inside the arenas, not in the open world, anyway.
#8: Agreed, it'd be nice if the death penalty was a little steeper, especially on Hell and Inferno.
I wouldn't say unfinished. I would say unbalanced. It many, many forms.
1.) Champion/Elites are harder than Bosses (Belial, Azmodan, etc)
2.) Auction House is dramatically effecting character progression. Items Lvl 50 are selling for 10-12k and are instant upgrades. No need to farm gear just go to the AH.
3.) No real difference between Magical and Rare items.
#1 is completely intentional. Blizzard's said they want the focus to be on the champions and elites, not the act bosses, which is why the act bosses don't even provide very good rewards compared to champs and elites.
#2 isn't an issue. Who cares if you can buy gear from the AH? People would buy it from players directly if the AH didn't exist. Blame the lack of stat requirements for item types if you want to blame anything.
#3 is incorrect; rares with the right affixes will always be the best possible items. Magic items can be very good, but because rares can have more affixes than magics, rares will always be better if we're assuming both item types have the same stats you desire. It's getting rares with those affixes that's the difficult part.
I think the biggest problem is the Auction House - I have no idea how to fix it or balance it. But it's fucked up. And I'm not even talking the bugs.
Frenzy+Smite gives you a consistent single-target stun, and Seismic Slam+Stagger for your Fury dump gives you a consistent means of stunning and dealing with groups.
Leap+Iron Impact gives you an on-demand AOE snare combined with a massive armor boost as well as mobility. Ignore Pain+Mob Rule gives you and your entire team a huge damage reduction cooldown.
Threatening Shout+Demoralize forces monsters to focus on you, letting you peel for your teammates, and War Cry+Hardened Wrath gives everyone a large armor boost. If your team is light on CC, you might want Terrify instead of Demoralize; the overall goal is to reduce incoming damage and also have an ability you can use to peel monsters off your teammates.
All of your abilities (except Ignore Pain) generate Fury, which is then spent on Seismic Slam.
Take Nerves of Steel since you'll be stacking VIT anyway. Inspiring Presence makes your shouts last longer and gives you some constant regen on top of everything else. I opted for Superstition over Juggernaut primarily due to the Fury generation mechanic, which will allow you to spam Seismic Slam (AOE stun) more often.
You'd want a speedy weapon gemmed for life-per-hit, which is why we went with Frenzy+Smite over Bash+Clobber, though pretty much any weapon is speedy once Frenzy starts going.
I haven't had an opportunity to test this, but it seems like it'd be the most effective overall build. You'd need to tweak it for some packs, but I'd expect this would be able to handle most anything at least decently well.
There is no frenzy in that build?
Derp, it didn't update. It's interchangeable; you'd use Bash+Clobber until you unlock Smite for Frenzy.
Frenzy+Smite gives you a consistent single-target stun, and Seismic Slam+Stagger for your Fury dump gives you a consistent means of stunning and dealing with groups.
Leap+Iron Impact gives you an on-demand AOE snare combined with a massive armor boost as well as mobility. Ignore Pain+Mob Rule gives you and your entire team a huge damage reduction cooldown.
Threatening Shout+Demoralize forces monsters to focus on you, letting you peel for your teammates, and War Cry+Hardened Wrath gives everyone a large armor boost. If your team is light on CC, you might want Terrify instead of Demoralize; the overall goal is to reduce incoming damage and also have an ability you can use to peel monsters off your teammates.
All of your abilities (except Ignore Pain) generate Fury, which is then spent on Seismic Slam.
Take Nerves of Steel since you'll be stacking VIT anyway. Inspiring Presence makes your shouts last longer and gives you some constant regen on top of everything else. I opted for Superstition over Juggernaut primarily due to the Fury generation mechanic, which will allow you to spam Seismic Slam (AOE stun) more often.
You'd want a speedy weapon gemmed for life-per-hit, which is why we went with Frenzy+Smite over Bash+Clobber, though pretty much any weapon is speedy once Frenzy starts going.
I haven't had an opportunity to test this, but it seems like it'd be the most effective overall build. You'd need to tweak it for some packs, but I'd expect this would be able to handle most anything at least decently well.
I haven't started yet and am looking at getting the digital download at some point over the next couple of days. I have been busy with finalising my final dissertation so didn't want to pre-order ;).
I played the beta and enjoyed playing with the cleave ability as a primary attack. Does anyone know of viable builds that make use of it? At least for normal difficulty?
All the stuff I'm using is available at 33, but the core skills are available much earlier. The idea is that you're using Cleave with the Fury bonus to generate the Fury you'll be dumping with Whirlwind. Using Dust Devils for maximized damage out of your Whirlwind, with Battle Rage and Ruthlessness further boosting that damage. Furious Charge does a significant amount of damage (almost 200%!) to everything it hits, and runed for Merciless Assault, you can literally charge non-stop versus large groups, which does enormous damage. Since we're taking Ruthlessness, we're focusing on crits - so use Weapons Master and find yourself a nice hammer to beat things to death with, since axes are for pussies. I've been favoring Revenge over Overpower, but I think that's because after buying a top of the line 2H from the AH, nothing survives long enough for me to really get a good Overpower in.
War Cry runed for extra armor and Nerves of Steel give you some survivability, and you could trade Ruthlessness for Inspiring Presence if you want a bit more, though that'll be a steep drop in DPS.
It's focused more on dealing with groups of enemies rather than single targets; I replace Revenge with Earthquake and Nerves of Steel with Superstition if I want a build that's going to be reasonably good against everything without my needing to swap runes or skills around. I haven't tried it in team games yet but it's working just fine for me in solo Nightmare.
So after watching a few videos and reading some posts, I was inspired to fiddle with a Barbarian build based around ranged combat. It's working fine in act 1 Nightmare, which granted isn't particularly difficult. I've mostly been soloing with it, but I played with my brother and his buddy yesterday (also in A1 nightmare), where it performed fine. My barb's just shy of 37.
- Bash+Clobber is our melee ability. I've found that it's more useful, overall, than Frenzy+Sidearm for everything except really tanky bosses. The stun makes handling dangerous enemies easier for everyone. I expect Instigation will work out to be better once I can unlock it, simply because it results in faster Fury generation. Frenzy+Sidearm is definitely better for use against bosses with huge HP pools (Skeleton King, Butcher, etc.)
- Weapon Throw+Ricochet is our right-click Fury dump. I swap to Throwing Hammer against bosses that can be stunned, or Mighty Throw if they can't be stunned.
- Furious Charge+Merciless Assault is our mobility tool. Dreadnought is the eventual goal for use as an emergency heal, but Merciless Assault works fine until then. Furious Charge causes tons of damage and knocks enemies back, and with Merciless Assault you can literally charge non-stop against packs of enemies. I might actually swap to Sprint with Forced March for teamplay once I reach that level.
- Ancient Spear+Skirmish is our mouse4 ability (or I guess 2, if you didn't rebind your keys to something smoother.) It provides a decent nuke at 180% weapon damage, allows you to cherry-pick monsters out of a pack (fallen shamans, skeletal guardians, etc), and provides a sizable Fury boost.
- Battle Rage+Marauder's Rage is a no-brainer DPS boost.
- War Cry+Hardened Wrath is both for rage generation and for team use. I would probably go with Charge! if I were solo, for the extra Fury. War Cry guarantees you'll always have a Fury source to keep Battle Rage rolling and the armor boost is critical for helping everyone stay alive.
- No Escape is a no-brainer passive, providing substantial buffs for our ranged skills.
- Weapons Master is another no-brainer. While everything looks better with spears, No Escape's abilities hinge on crits, which means we're wanting an axe or a mace for the crit bonus.
- Our third passive is our only actual choice. I've taken Inspiring Presence with this build because the doubled shout durations means I can use War Cry for Fury more consistently, due to Battle Rage lasting longer, and the regen also helps me stay alive. Other options could include Animosity, Unforgiving, and Ruthless. If you're soloing or tapped to play as the meatshield for your group, you'll want Nerves of Steel.
The build can use any variety of weapons, though I would either go sword and board, or with a two-hander. Since you aren't spending a lot of time running in and swinging at things, dual wielding isn't ideal.
My general MO has been to generate Fury and then dump it all on Throw Weapon. If you've got a nice axe or mace for the crit bonus, you can throw for a surprising amount of time due to the Fury refunds on Throw Weapon crits. Use Ancient Spear to hook casters into punching range, or for Fury generation as needed. Always keep Battle Rage and War Cry up.
I personally don't think this build's more effective than traditional face-punching builds, but it's sure as hell a lot of fun
I suppose you're right. Unless Diablo had yet another card up his sleeve, why go through all this trouble just to fail? Perhaps his failure is essentially "programmed" into the fabric of reality?
Because by having the idiot hero kill him, all of the evils are back into play again, not stuck in a soulstone somewhere. Come to think of it, how the hell did Adria even get the souls of the three prime evils? They made a huge point in D2 about smashing the soulstones to permanently banish the three, and somehow Adria's supposedly grabbed their souls anyway?
Jesus christ, both D3 and SC2 are full of gaping plot holes. Metzen's really been going downhill lately :-/
Does Revenge proc off of attacks that you block? Wouldn't getting/stacking Dodge (Wrath of the Berserker + Striding Giant etc) make Revenge less effective? Also, wouldn't taking any sort of CC also reduce the effectiveness of Revenge since that's fewer hits you're taking?
Azmodan's fireball 1hit ko my witch doctor because I didn't think it would kill in 1 hit.
Some mobs that will explode when they die/near me...not too sure about that.
This mob in act 3 that will summon a poison hand/hook beneath me and I don't know i'm taking damage per second while standing on it till it is too late.
act 4 beginning when a ton of mob will spawn around you...
So anybody die at normal mode?
Admit it guys!
I've died twice. First time was on my witch doctor when I was about 90% asleep, fighting the monster trees in act 1. Didn't really see the giant, glowing green clouds/puddles of poison and died.
Second time was in act three, to fallen firemages. Greatly underestimated the damage they cause and figured I could just tank them while I finish killing the monsters closest to me. Nope.
Both cases were me just being dumb/not paying attention, not due to the game being difficult. None of the bosses were difficult in any way, shape, or form.
So I'm wondering if a sword-and-board barb is viable all the way to and through Inferno. I completed Normal with it, and I'm having no issues in Nightmare (though, granted I haven't even reached Leoric yet), and I haven't died yet. I'm just shy of level 34.
The basic MO is to use the huge Fury income from Cleave and the two shouts and Leap on Whirlwind; stock up on Fury, burn it all off using Whirlwind, and repeat. Inspiring Presence provides the health regen, combined with health orbs dropped by monsters and various effects on armor to keep my health consistently high, and Superstition allows me to use void zones to WW almost indefinitely. Diablo was a joke; I just sat in the fire, kept Inspiring Presence rolling, and never stopped using WW except to rebuff myself.
But I'm guessing this will change once monsters start hitting hard enough to hurt. My main question is if sword and shield is even viable; a lot of stuff I've been reading seems to imply it isn't.
Generated using absolutely no knowledge of game mechanics, just going by what the skills say, using a little bit of information from Diablo 2 as a baseline (armor = damage reduction, vitality = more health, etc.) Geared towards being an immovable object, specific to PvE.
The general MO is going to be to use Leap Attack to jump into the middle of a large pack of enemies with the rune to briefly massively increase my armor, immediately drop a Threatening Shout to taunt the enemies and debuff them, and then begin spamming Cleave for Rage and dumping that Rage into Rend (and Threatening Shout.) Leap Attack could be used to reach and taunt new packs of monsters or for the armor buff.
The Rend rune and Revenge will help me sustain myself while being pounded on by many enemies, and Wrath of Berserker (taken for the dodge bonus) is runed to last as I generate more and more Rage through Cleave spam. Cleave itself is runed to generate bonus Fury per enemy struck.
Passives are Superstition for the huge non-physical damage reduction component, Tough as Nails for the bonus armor and Thorns damage, and Relentless because I imagine I would be spending the first several seconds of each "pull" at low health as many monsters are beating on me. If that wouldn't be the case, Brawler would be a natural choice since I will be spending the vast majority of my time fighting more than 3 monsters at once. The build might not be effective versus single targets, though.
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No shit. I also like how his posts have no actual content other than to plug his Youtube channel.
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Yeah, but people who get paid to chain themselves to a computer like Method or whoever will probably cap Baal in a day, anyway. I don't really care that I can't grind XP anymore; I'm personally not a fan of "you must grind levels before you get to have fun," gameplay styles to begin with, though it's part and parcel of RPGs.
I think people that expect they can use any skill build and any equipment setup they want and be able to clear Inferno without issues are idiots. If you've ever done, say, hard mode raiding in WoW (especially back when it was actually hard because mechanics required perfect execution; remember Ulduar hard modes?), you'll know what I'm talking about: some builds just won't fly, or if they do fly, they fly much worse than others.
I'm having a lot of fun with my 2H Whirlwind barb, critting things for ridiculous numbers and watching them explode. I also have a ton of fun when I go sword and board and focus on ranged combat with Ancient Spear and Throw Weapon. That doesn't mean I expect either of those to be viable in Inferno, especially not in a group.
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Frozen+Plagued isn't fun, either - either you never stop moving or you're going to get frozen on top of a pile of goo and die immediately.
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#1: Yeah, having more levels would be pretty nifty. Hell, why not let us go all the way to level 100, but you stop gaining anything after level 60? Levels past 60 would just be for bragging rights; you wouldn't get new skills, nor would you gain stats.
#2: Uniques having randomized stats is pretty weird. I'm fine with uniques having stat ranges, but the stats themselves being randomized is stupid. Then again, I have real issues with Wizards being able to run around with greatswords and Monks using shields...
#3: Chat is still present, it's just not enabled by default. I'm totally fine with this, since public chat channels are filled with idiots and dudebros anyway.
#4: Game's been out for one week. It's way too fuckin early to be whining about balance.
#5: Banners, dude. Many achievements unlock bits and pieces you can use on your banner.
#6: Portal system was deliberately changed to avoid players being able to use portals to casually avoid fights they didn't want to deal with.
#7: Waypoints are waypoints. PvP will only take place inside the arenas, not in the open world, anyway.
#8: Agreed, it'd be nice if the death penalty was a little steeper, especially on Hell and Inferno.
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0
#1 is completely intentional. Blizzard's said they want the focus to be on the champions and elites, not the act bosses, which is why the act bosses don't even provide very good rewards compared to champs and elites.
#2 isn't an issue. Who cares if you can buy gear from the AH? People would buy it from players directly if the AH didn't exist. Blame the lack of stat requirements for item types if you want to blame anything.
#3 is incorrect; rares with the right affixes will always be the best possible items. Magic items can be very good, but because rares can have more affixes than magics, rares will always be better if we're assuming both item types have the same stats you desire. It's getting rares with those affixes that's the difficult part.
The AH is fine.
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Derp, it didn't update. It's interchangeable; you'd use Bash+Clobber until you unlock Smite for Frenzy.
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Frenzy+Smite gives you a consistent single-target stun, and Seismic Slam+Stagger for your Fury dump gives you a consistent means of stunning and dealing with groups.
Leap+Iron Impact gives you an on-demand AOE snare combined with a massive armor boost as well as mobility. Ignore Pain+Mob Rule gives you and your entire team a huge damage reduction cooldown.
Threatening Shout+Demoralize forces monsters to focus on you, letting you peel for your teammates, and War Cry+Hardened Wrath gives everyone a large armor boost. If your team is light on CC, you might want Terrify instead of Demoralize; the overall goal is to reduce incoming damage and also have an ability you can use to peel monsters off your teammates.
All of your abilities (except Ignore Pain) generate Fury, which is then spent on Seismic Slam.
Take Nerves of Steel since you'll be stacking VIT anyway. Inspiring Presence makes your shouts last longer and gives you some constant regen on top of everything else. I opted for Superstition over Juggernaut primarily due to the Fury generation mechanic, which will allow you to spam Seismic Slam (AOE stun) more often.
You'd want a speedy weapon gemmed for life-per-hit, which is why we went with Frenzy+Smite over Bash+Clobber, though pretty much any weapon is speedy once Frenzy starts going.
I haven't had an opportunity to test this, but it seems like it'd be the most effective overall build. You'd need to tweak it for some packs, but I'd expect this would be able to handle most anything at least decently well.
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I'm currently level 37 and toying with a 2H build after buying a decent 2H weapon from the AH, focusing on AOE damage. The build I'm using looks like: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bhSVik!ZYb!ZaZaaa
All the stuff I'm using is available at 33, but the core skills are available much earlier. The idea is that you're using Cleave with the Fury bonus to generate the Fury you'll be dumping with Whirlwind. Using Dust Devils for maximized damage out of your Whirlwind, with Battle Rage and Ruthlessness further boosting that damage. Furious Charge does a significant amount of damage (almost 200%!) to everything it hits, and runed for Merciless Assault, you can literally charge non-stop versus large groups, which does enormous damage. Since we're taking Ruthlessness, we're focusing on crits - so use Weapons Master and find yourself a nice hammer to beat things to death with, since axes are for pussies. I've been favoring Revenge over Overpower, but I think that's because after buying a top of the line 2H from the AH, nothing survives long enough for me to really get a good Overpower in.
War Cry runed for extra armor and Nerves of Steel give you some survivability, and you could trade Ruthlessness for Inspiring Presence if you want a bit more, though that'll be a steep drop in DPS.
It's focused more on dealing with groups of enemies rather than single targets; I replace Revenge with Earthquake and Nerves of Steel with Superstition if I want a build that's going to be reasonably good against everything without my needing to swap runes or skills around. I haven't tried it in team games yet but it's working just fine for me in solo Nightmare.
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The build currently looks like http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#afSdik!fYX!aZZZaa
It's currently focused on working with others, which is why I'm not taking any tanky passives (Nerves of Steel, etc.)
The breakdown:
- Bash+Clobber is our melee ability. I've found that it's more useful, overall, than Frenzy+Sidearm for everything except really tanky bosses. The stun makes handling dangerous enemies easier for everyone. I expect Instigation will work out to be better once I can unlock it, simply because it results in faster Fury generation. Frenzy+Sidearm is definitely better for use against bosses with huge HP pools (Skeleton King, Butcher, etc.)
- Weapon Throw+Ricochet is our right-click Fury dump. I swap to Throwing Hammer against bosses that can be stunned, or Mighty Throw if they can't be stunned.
- Furious Charge+Merciless Assault is our mobility tool. Dreadnought is the eventual goal for use as an emergency heal, but Merciless Assault works fine until then. Furious Charge causes tons of damage and knocks enemies back, and with Merciless Assault you can literally charge non-stop against packs of enemies. I might actually swap to Sprint with Forced March for teamplay once I reach that level.
- Ancient Spear+Skirmish is our mouse4 ability (or I guess 2, if you didn't rebind your keys to something smoother.) It provides a decent nuke at 180% weapon damage, allows you to cherry-pick monsters out of a pack (fallen shamans, skeletal guardians, etc), and provides a sizable Fury boost.
- Battle Rage+Marauder's Rage is a no-brainer DPS boost.
- War Cry+Hardened Wrath is both for rage generation and for team use. I would probably go with Charge! if I were solo, for the extra Fury. War Cry guarantees you'll always have a Fury source to keep Battle Rage rolling and the armor boost is critical for helping everyone stay alive.
- No Escape is a no-brainer passive, providing substantial buffs for our ranged skills.
- Weapons Master is another no-brainer. While everything looks better with spears, No Escape's abilities hinge on crits, which means we're wanting an axe or a mace for the crit bonus.
- Our third passive is our only actual choice. I've taken Inspiring Presence with this build because the doubled shout durations means I can use War Cry for Fury more consistently, due to Battle Rage lasting longer, and the regen also helps me stay alive. Other options could include Animosity, Unforgiving, and Ruthless. If you're soloing or tapped to play as the meatshield for your group, you'll want Nerves of Steel.
The build can use any variety of weapons, though I would either go sword and board, or with a two-hander. Since you aren't spending a lot of time running in and swinging at things, dual wielding isn't ideal.
My general MO has been to generate Fury and then dump it all on Throw Weapon. If you've got a nice axe or mace for the crit bonus, you can throw for a surprising amount of time due to the Fury refunds on Throw Weapon crits. Use Ancient Spear to hook casters into punching range, or for Fury generation as needed. Always keep Battle Rage and War Cry up.
I personally don't think this build's more effective than traditional face-punching builds, but it's sure as hell a lot of fun
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Because by having the idiot hero kill him, all of the evils are back into play again, not stuck in a soulstone somewhere. Come to think of it, how the hell did Adria even get the souls of the three prime evils? They made a huge point in D2 about smashing the soulstones to permanently banish the three, and somehow Adria's supposedly grabbed their souls anyway?
Jesus christ, both D3 and SC2 are full of gaping plot holes. Metzen's really been going downhill lately :-/
0
Just seems like a bad skill overall.
0
I've died twice. First time was on my witch doctor when I was about 90% asleep, fighting the monster trees in act 1. Didn't really see the giant, glowing green clouds/puddles of poison and died.
Second time was in act three, to fallen firemages. Greatly underestimated the damage they cause and figured I could just tank them while I finish killing the monsters closest to me. Nope.
Both cases were me just being dumb/not paying attention, not due to the game being difficult. None of the bosses were difficult in any way, shape, or form.
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My build looks like http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bhXfgk!bXe!ZaabZa
The basic MO is to use the huge Fury income from Cleave and the two shouts and Leap on Whirlwind; stock up on Fury, burn it all off using Whirlwind, and repeat. Inspiring Presence provides the health regen, combined with health orbs dropped by monsters and various effects on armor to keep my health consistently high, and Superstition allows me to use void zones to WW almost indefinitely. Diablo was a joke; I just sat in the fire, kept Inspiring Presence rolling, and never stopped using WW except to rebuff myself.
But I'm guessing this will change once monsters start hitting hard enough to hurt. My main question is if sword and shield is even viable; a lot of stuff I've been reading seems to imply it isn't.
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Generated using absolutely no knowledge of game mechanics, just going by what the skills say, using a little bit of information from Diablo 2 as a baseline (armor = damage reduction, vitality = more health, etc.) Geared towards being an immovable object, specific to PvE.
The general MO is going to be to use Leap Attack to jump into the middle of a large pack of enemies with the rune to briefly massively increase my armor, immediately drop a Threatening Shout to taunt the enemies and debuff them, and then begin spamming Cleave for Rage and dumping that Rage into Rend (and Threatening Shout.) Leap Attack could be used to reach and taunt new packs of monsters or for the armor buff.
The Rend rune and Revenge will help me sustain myself while being pounded on by many enemies, and Wrath of Berserker (taken for the dodge bonus) is runed to last as I generate more and more Rage through Cleave spam. Cleave itself is runed to generate bonus Fury per enemy struck.
Passives are Superstition for the huge non-physical damage reduction component, Tough as Nails for the bonus armor and Thorns damage, and Relentless because I imagine I would be spending the first several seconds of each "pull" at low health as many monsters are beating on me. If that wouldn't be the case, Brawler would be a natural choice since I will be spending the vast majority of my time fighting more than 3 monsters at once. The build might not be effective versus single targets, though.