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+12

2.3 HOTA Fire Smash 60+ Guide

by last updated Sep 9, 2015 ( Patch 2.3 )
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Skills

  • Furious Charge Merciless Assault
  • Hammer of the Ancients Smash
  • War Cry Veteran's Warning
  • Battle Rage Bloodshed
  • Wrath of the Berserker Insanity
  • Call of the Ancients Together as One
  • Berserker Rage
  • Ruthless
  • Brawler
  • Rampage

Items

More Details

  • Legendary Gems

    • Bane of the Trapped
    • Pain Enhancer
    • Taeguk

Kanai's Cube

  • The Furnace
  • Bracers of the First Men
  • Unity

This is a 100% Crit hit chance HOTA/IK 6 piece build meant for higher greater rifts, speed farming and tearing through T9 or TX.


For paragon points you will want to max out maximum fury first to gain the crit chance then movement speed then strength.


Area Damage:

Area damage is still up in the air for stat priorities since it does not gain benefit from damage multiplies such as the generating benefit from focus/restraint, 6 piece from IK or bracers of the first men. I would still recommend having this stat instead of strength on your rings because it can proc off of hammer of the ancients, furious charge as well as bloodshed. For group play you will want area damage on your weapon instead of life per fury spent. If you can spare 15% on shoulders then i would put it on your shoulders as well.


Secondary Stats:

You will want physical resist on helm, chest, gloves, bracers, rings and ammy if possible. If you get lightning resist that will assist you for electrify pack on higher Greater Rifts and will need that on at least 2 items. Reduce damage from melee attacks is also recommended on items that cannot roll resistance either because you want all resist on them or because they cannot roll a resistance. Another choice would also be maximum fury as another possible secondary for more HOTA crit chance.


Cubed Items:

You will always want furnace as your weapon. You will want Bracers of the First Men in the cuve to maximize the damage from them unless you get a GG pair that rolls well with secondaries and main rolls. Then you can cube strongarms or if you want a larger health pool you can use Leorics crown. For solo play on higher Greater Rifts you will want unity in the cube and on your follower. For group play no matter the difficulty and for faster farming for T9 or TX you will want convention of the elements cubed. Please note you will never want to cube Gavel of Judgement because of it rolling 30-40% HOTA damage which cannot be gained if it is in the cube.


Main Stats:

You will want crit hit chance on your gloves, rings and bracers. You will want all resistance on shoulders, legs, and feet. You will want HOTA damage maxed out on Weapon, Helm and Feet. You will want vitality on Gloves, Shoulders, chest, legs, feet, and helm. You do not want crit hit chance on helm because with maximum fury in paragon points plus gear this should provide you with 95-100 crit hit chance. You will want %life in helm and reduce damage from elites on chest. You will want highest str gem in chest and shoulders but 60+ you may need to replace gems in chest with diamonds for higher survival rate. You will want life per fury spent on gloves and weapon for solo play


Passives:

There are only 2 required passives, ruthless and beserker rage for this build. I do recommend keeping brawler since you should be in melee range at all times. Rampage is good damage as well as providing additional armor but relentless, bloodthirst, superstition, nerves of steel and animosity because it increases your max fury by 20 hence increasing HOTA crit chance by 4%.


Legendary Gems:

Pain enhancer is an absolute must for the pure attack speed it brings increasing your damage and healing with LPFS. Bane of the trapped is another must since it is always active on anything you hit. Now the third gem is up in the air. You can go with taeguk or bane of the stricken both are solid choice. Stricken has a 3 second internal cooldown before it can be applied again but in higher greater rifts this can be some substantial damage plus its 25% damage to rift guardians is pretty insane. Taeguk does take some time to get it all the way up and managing its short 3 second window of falling off and worrying about death and having all its stacks fall off is a major concern as well. If you do use taeguk do not use battle rage to maintain it, just use HOTA every 2-3 seconds even when walking and directly before going to the next level and as soon as you enter the next floor. This will help maintain the stacks as well as help keep WOTB up at all times.


Healing:

For healing during solo play you will have LPFS on belt and weapon with roughly 3k LPFS essentially healing around 60k not to include LPH you have via paragon points but LPH is also viable but being secondary to LPFS. You will also be healing by spamming battle rage and hammer of the ancients giving you around 60k per battle rage and 60k per hammer of the ancients. You can also use bloodthirst which is about another 1k LPFS. That would put you at around 80k per hammer and 80 per battle rage spam. You will also be able to avoid 45% of all damage with WOTB up at all times and warcry: veterans warning and in groups it will be 55% with the healing monks mantra. You will not be able to avoid any kid of effect on the ground like molten, poison, frozen, frozen pulse, or reflects damage. But everything is can be dodged. IF I am missing any effects let me know.


Follower:

I recommend the templar because of his healing and stunning abilities. Equip him with a unity, ess of johan because you miss out on so much damage with everything spread out. For a weapon use the freeze one while under 20% life or thunderfury with wydward and shield of deflection as well. If you are going for more damage i would maximze str and putting sockets on each item with str as the gem. I would use bul'kathos wedding bad, a shield with crit chance and phys% on it, each ring having str and crit chance, ess of johan with str, crit chance, phys % and if possible a socket and finally a sunkeeper with either a red gem in it or a diamond because followers do not gain the same benefit as us using crit hit damage.


My Barbarian:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Bryant-1255/hero/65406479


Now I do not have perfect gear or many ancient pieces and missing resist all on some pieces altogether and vitality. I am currently around 800k+ hp. I do have a bettwer weapon for group play that rolled 40% HOTA damage with area damage but I need the vitality until i get some gloves with vitality on them. My chest pieces is pretty GG but low str and vit rolls. I haven't found a good mara's yet but can't pass up the ammy for anything else until I find one. Both my rings need phys or light resist on them. Mainly for me to even hit the leaderboards atm I need a weapon to have LPFS, people are saying going with vitality but I think that is a mistake since you will take damage period and need that LPH or LPFS on your weapon and then you could probably trade out the LPFS on your belt for % life or get rid of bloodthirst or both. Unfortanately I'm not a no life streamer who makes a living off of streaming who lives in my mothers basement but I do my best to make time for D3 and progress as much as I can and attempt to make top 200 US. I also try to keep my guides up to date but with a new job and moving soon it has taken a lot of gaming time away. but if I'm online i'm streaming so feel free to check out the average joe streamer vs those other nerds who every other words is BOIS haha: http://www.twitch.tv/devilsdawg2004


Like, comment, share and upvote. I will answer any questions and will be doing my Greater Rift 60 here shortly. I have been working 50 hour weeks lately so I wil lget to this as soon as I can.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Maximum Resource
Movement Speed
Primary Stat
Vitality

Offense

Critical Hit Chance
Critical Hit Damage
Attack Speed
Cooldown Reduction

Defense

Resist All
Life
Armor
Life Regeneration

Utility

Life on Hit
Area Damage
Gold Find
Resource Cost Reduction

Build Guide