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Kanai's Cube

• 

  • In-geom

  

  Legendary Sword

  • 4.2 Damage Per Second
  • Secondary Stats
  • • Your skill cooldowns are reduced by 8 - 10 seconds for 15 seconds after killing an elite pack.
    • One of 8 Magic Properties (varies)
    • +10 - 15% Damage

    • +(132 - 308) Physical Damage

    • +(132 - 308) Fire Damage

    • +(132 - 308) Lightning Damage

    • +(132 - 308) Cold Damage

    • +(132 - 308) Poison Damage

    • +(132 - 308) Arcane Damage

    • +(132 - 308) Holy Damage

  • + 2 Random Magic Properties
  In-geom
• 

  • Chilanik's Chain

  

  Legendary Mighty Belt

  • 27 - 31 Armor
  • Secondary Stats
  • • Using War Cry increases the movement speed for you and all allies affected by 30 - 40% for 10 seconds.
  • + 4 Random Magic Properties
  Chilanik's Chain
• 

  • Band of Might

  

  Legendary Ring

  • Primary Stats
  • • Critical Hit Chance Increased by 3.5%
  • Secondary Stats
  • • After casting Furious Charge, Ground Stomp, or Leap, take 60 - 80% reduced damage for 8 seconds.
  • + 3 Random Magic Properties
  Band of Might

Hi All, welcome to my indepth guide on support barb. In this guide I will provide in-depth explanation of how to play and gear a zbarb at a deeper level than usually addressed. This build is not unique, nor was it developed by me, but is the evolution of many people's theorycrafting and testing over all the seasons. I will focus on the standard loadout, but also explain different alternatives for skills and gear where applicable..

The thing I hope most sticks is the explanation of how to actually play the role properly, as a zbarb is the most important factor in the success of your group. While the dps strength sets your potential, the zbarb is the biggest factor in how close to that potential you will get.

I have started to write a zbarb guide many times over the years, but it is difficult to write. So this guide will build slowly over time, otherwise it will never happen.

General Stat Priorities:

CDR: Cooldown reduction (CDR) is a core stat and should be on every item that it can be.

Why: High CDR allows for overlapping Ignore Pain (IP) that is essential for survivability. Other skill benefit from high CDR, but IP is the focus.

IAS: Increase Attack Speed (IAS) is also a core stat as should be on as many items as possible. There is a tradeoff between suvivability and IAS at lower paragon / higher tier, but an optimal build will have max IAS on every item possible.

Why: IAS modifies the animation speed of Furious Charge, such that higher attack speeds means faster charges, meaning better pulls. It also increases the number of hooks you can do.

RCR: Resource cost reduction is a helpful, but not essential stat to have. The benefit won't often be noticeable, so only look to add it once you are tanky enough and are seeking to optimise a high paragon build. An optimal build will have a large number of RCR rolls.

Why: RCR allows you to have more fury available for hooks without the needs to use a CC on mobs (Furious Charge) to generate more.

AR: All Resistance is a fantastic stat to have rolled on items, as it cannot be allocated though core paragon points (vitality and armour can be though). High all res will greatly increase survivability.

% Life: same as all resistance.

Vitality: At lower paragon having vitality on gear is super important to buff survivability, but as you paragon and augments increase it becomes less important as it can be endlessly added through paragon allocation.

Armour: Armour, via strength or armour rolls, is useful for toughness, but less important to have rolled on gear due to the ability to allocate it via paragon points. At high paragon armour, vitality and strength rolls can be considered interchangable. Aim for 18k armour, as beyond 18k the diminishing returns becomes very noticable.

Elite damage reduction (chest) and ranged / melee reduction are also fantastic stats to get. Their benefit will become exponentially better than any other stat the higher your paragon and augments.

Life Per Hit: Use LPH gems in your weapons, but you don;t hit enough per second to make it a worthwhile stat elsewhere - but it isn't bad to have.

Life per second: Is a dead stat to you, as you will have 2mil + health, so even 10k per second is meaningless.

You cannot have the following stats rolled on any gear, or in paragon points:

AD: Area damage doesn't help you as you do no damage. What it will do is introduce a lot of lag to the game, slowing down movement and potentially causing crashes.

Stun on Hit / Freeze on Hit: These rolls cause Crowd Control (CC) to monsters and bosses that impairs your ability to pull them quickly, and which can also reduce the damage your dps' cause to them.

Blind on Hit: Same as Stun / Freeze, but it can also cause monster or the boss to move from a good position you have them in.

Fear on Hit: Also counts as a CC, and can ruin good setups, but doesn't affect bosses.

Annoying stats, but liveable:

Immobilise on Hit: Won't CC bosses, but can slow pulling on monsters through out the rift;

Knockback on Hit: Won't CC bosses, slows pulling during rifts, and can push mobs in to bad spots occassionally.

Paragon Priorities