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Build Guide

~ How to Barb ~

I see a lot of younger barbs making similar mistakes in how the approach solo GRs. Above I have explained gearing and what stats you want on which pieces of gear. Now I will focus on the play style of this build and how to optimize it.

Step 1- Skip ALL elites. This is the biggest issue I see over and over again. The time taken to kill an elite, for this build, exceeds the progression the elite gives you. There are a few exceptions. If you have been kiting an elite for a while it can slowly wear down in HP as you are working on white mobs. Sub 15% I will tunnel the elite and kill it. But I do NOT purposely kite the elite. The affixs make surviving much more difficult and generally not worth the progression.

Step 2- How little is too little? The answer is around 5 or less whites. A mob of 5 or less should be kited, if possible, to the next pack and killed with them. If the next pack is a ways away, leave the 5 pack. If the rift is so scarce that you NEED to kill them, you have already failed.

Step 3- Rend and die? This is a HUGE issue that some players have fixed using Ground Stomp then Rending. I do not like this as it is a band aid not a fix. If you WW into a pack, Rend mid pack, you will normally be 1 shot. How to avoid this is simple. WW through the pack, when you exit cast Rend at the very edge, WW around the outer edge of the pack and Rend again, then spin to win through them. With Rend lasting 15 seconds, you will NOT need to reapply it until you go to leave mobs behind letting Rend finish them off.

Step 4- Pylons and Usage

Shield- VERY self explanatory. Pop and WW your heart away!

Speed- Great pylon!!!!! The knock up the speed buff provides give you the ability to safely apply Rend mid pack. WW in, cast Rend and begin to WW again. Rinse and repeat! This buff is also quite useful in getting away from pesky elites that you have been dragging along behind you. Mostly those annoying wallers!!!

Channeling- Pointless for this build. It helps if you are having Fury issues and reduces CDs, but IK 4p handles CDs for us .

Conduit- This pylon is most effective on clearing trash. In MOST situations, Conduit+WW+Tornado will kill mobs as oyu WW past. Making clearing a breeze! Do NOT WW in one place while it kills a large white, this pylon is designed to be an AoE pylon, not single target so please use it as such!

Power- Oh ya!!!!! This is the king of all the pylons for WW!!! Optimally this pylon should be saved for the RG and I will explain why. This pylon does provide a HUGE boost to clear speeds for sure! However it is MOST useful sub 30% RG health. The reason for this is because of Ruthless passive ability. It increases your damage by 40% when the mob and/or RG is sub 30% health pool. Essentially creating an execute phase. Knowing WHEN to pop this pylon can be tricky and is very much rift dependent. A safe rule of thumb is 90% or more rift completion save pylon for the RG. When RG spawns slowly kite him back to the pylon and burn RG, ONLY popping pylon when RG is sub 30%. This will greatly decrease your RG kill times. Some things to keep in mind when sub 90% rift completion are how dense has the rift been? Will you be able to complete the rift in range of the pylon? If not then pop it and spin to win!!!

Step 5- How to kite and merge packs! Have you tried to kite a pack into another but your Templar and/or Ancients and causing the mobs to stand still? Of course you have! The trick to this is to WW far enough away that your ancients respawn on you. Then let them aggro something onto the next pack, if the packs are close enough you can WW- Rend onto the new pack then WW back in range and re-aggro the old pack. Causing both mobs to converge. This is especially helpful in those scarce density maps.

Step 6- The Rift Guardian... sigh. This is the trickiest and most RnG part of GRs. The wrong RG and it is either GG or nerd rage incoming! Each RG has a little trick. It comes down to figuring out that trick and using it. I will list a few examples below.

Orlash- He does 3 different laser beams of death and always in the same order. The first is cast on a his target, which is normally your Templar if you have taunt ability selected. This one is easy enough to avoid. The 2nd laser comes when he summons his clones and the clones will cast laser beam as well. This seems to be where most barbs die. The trick is when you see him summon his clones, WW away!!!!!!!! Don't stop WWing away until he teleports onto you. It is roughly 5-7 seconds from the time he summons the adds to the time he teleports onto you. This time frame is change depending on how fast you get away. When he teleports, he despawns his clones. After the teleport, he will cast his walling ability, then a few moments later another beam. This is the trickiest one to dodge. The trick is to be close to him when he casts the walls, making kiting through him and out the outside a breeze!

Man Carver- Besides dodging his melee attacks while WWing around him there are a few important things to know. His AoE chain ability will WRECK you. You can avoid this by staying VERY close to him. In WW distance the entire fight, no chains will be cast. His massive frontal axe slam that 1 shots is the next ability. This is recognizable when he jumps into the air 3 times, then he will slam his axe down. The ability snap shots the targets location then the first jumps goes off, so just WW behind him and GG.

Perdition- His charge ability is an instant 1 shot. You avoid this by WWing super close to him, never leaving WW range. Much the same way you do on Man Carver. His melee attack will crush you and two in a row is death. This is what makes this boss SOOOOOO tricky! If you stay at MAX WW distance you will out range his melee, while not procing his charge.

These are just a few examples, but there is one or more tricks for each and every RG. I suggest you just play around with them and test different strategies out when you face these RGs.

I hope this has been helpful in some way. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to leave a comment and I will reply promptly! Happy farming!