Sorry I haven't really been posting any more info on this, I've been really bored with the lack of any endgame besides gear farming. Thank you Liquidbeaver for that post, I think it breaks down everything really nicely. As for everyone saying that there's no way for this to work without a huge investment, I think it's really due to everyone looking for amazing gear to start off with. I really can't comment on the EU auction house, but you can pick up low dps with mid-high loh for much less than some people are saying. Like I've said over and over again, I've only invested about 1.5mil into my gear and can speed farm elites in act 1 and 2, and handle myself if I play smartly in act 3.
If you want to keep that high health, you can pick up blood funnel from Whirlwind, which scales incredibly with your health pool. Also, this build does work with 1h/shield just as well, if you're looking for some more defense. If you have any specific questions, feel free to hit me up on my stream where I can answer them live.
I may make another video with the same gear showing how easy it is to kill Inferno Diablo as well.
Play with what you feel comfortable with, and what you have fun playing. There are a ton of variations of this build, and all of them are just fine to play.
I'm making similar videos to show effectiveness against act1/2 packs tomorrow, I'm too tired to finish them right now. I used this build with this gear through the entirety of inferno, skipping very few packs. I don't usually play on softcore anymore, so I threw this gear together with what little money I had left on my softcore toons, which was about 3million gold. I really only spent about half that, though a few of my pieces I've found on my own. That is much cheaper than gearing out with high vit/resist gear, which averages at well over a mil a piece.
edit: I actually started this gearset/build as a cheap and easy way to get the inferno D Barb kill achieve, as I'm an achievement hunter. I then added the whirlwind setup and started to use it to farm elites when I didn't feel like playing hardcore. This spec is really meant for elite hunting, I was just showcasing how easy it was to kill belial with no effort even with the stricter enrage timer, something that I've seen overly defensive barbarians with much more expensive gear fail to do.
Yea, life steal is still very effective as your dps goes up, especially when your laying down so many attacks at once. I just didn't include it in this video since it revolves around being effective with very low base damage.
It looks like my second video will have to wait until the morning, having an issue with my encode and I'm too exhausted to deal with it.
edit: I was able to clear act 1 with ease with about 1/4 the loh I have now, I just used resist shout to help with the damage, and you can subsitute the Hurricane rune out for Blood Funnel if you're still hurting for healing.
My weapons took a bit of bargain hunting, but nothing too extreme. I believe a 2hander alternative to this build would be very effective and much cheaper, it's definitely worth a try and I'll keep an eye out for a 2hander to try it with. The downside of lifesteal is that it scales down in inferno, it's something like 8% life steal = 1.2% in inferno. However, you can get lifesteal on items that you can not get loh on, such as your belt. And life steal becomes more and more potent as your gear increases. It's definitely a viable stat for this build.
@Faithful The most important stats are crit and loh. Str is of course very nice, but totally a luxury stat. I would focus first on getting decent crit and loh, then defense, then damage.
@Maddog this build actually fairs surprisingly well against champ packs, especially with the immunity to CC that wrath grants. In later acts, you usually have to drop overpower for resist shout, unless you can play with a more defensively built barb in your group. I'm making a video of handling elites in early acts now, and I'll work on more videos for later acts tomorrow.
This build is strong because it works very well with very little gear, and then just gets ridiculously strong as your gear improves.
As I said in the video, I did all this with far less than 3million gold, and the market value of items has decreased quite a bit since. A similar gearset could be put together off of the auction house for quite a bit less if your sole objective is act 1 farming. This is a much, much cheaper alternative to the very expensive "tank" build alternatives. I think the most I've spent on a single item might have been 500k. You could replace most of the legendaries/rares that I have with properly itemized blues and still be quite effective.
(Formerly the Low Budget Barbarian Guide, changed because this build is not just about spending as little as possible, it is highly effective all the way though Inferno)
These are a series of video guides that I have made to show that you can gear out and play a damage based barbarian for far less gold than most think. I explain how to play the build, and how to set up your skills to maximize your damage, and what gear that you want to look out for while spending as little as possible.
With this build I am able to speed farm elites in act 1 and 2, and have progressed through act 3 and 4, albeit at a much slower and careful pace. I recommend sticking to act 1 and 2 farming in order to make gold, as kills/hour is what is truly important in elite farming. As it stands right now, the drop rate in act 3+4 compared the increase in difficulty makes for poor farming.
A short, text guide is just below the posted videos.
I will post additional videos to answer questions and demonstrate this build's capabilities as I am requested.
I'm shortening this post by just linking my video channel. https://www.youtube....notzizka/videos
For those of you who want a shorter text version, here are some key points:
The build:
1. The basic build
a. For added defense, swap Overpower for Warcry, then Animosity for Superstition
b. For extra healing, swap the Whirlwind rune Hurricane for Blood Funnel.
c. Frenzy can be swapped out with your choice of rage generator.
2. Battle Rage is your most important ability. If you don't keep it up, you will run out of rage and this will lead to issues.
3. Sprint' tornadoes are your main source of rage, not frenzy or whirlwind. If you don't have tornadoes down, you're going to run out of rage.
4. Wrath of the Berserker's main purpose is the immunity to CC that it grants.
The gear:
1. This build can work with very little gear and gets very strong as your gear improves.
2. The importance of stats for starter gear is as follow: Life on Hit > Crit %+ > Vitality > Resists
3. Added damage is something to look for as a luxury, strength and bonus crit damage both drastically improving this build performance.
4. Once base damage is high enough, Life Steal becomes and extremely dtrong stat, especially as it can be found in gear slots that LoH can not.
added note: Nobody should expect to spend next to nothing and start farming act 4 elites. This build is a great way to get started, and will easily clear its way through act1/2 with very basic gear. You can use that as a stepping stone to gear up a little more for further acts. Even so, I found that I spent far less on this build than an equally progressed tank barbarian would, and continued progressing much faster.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9_3ohDdNE&feature=youtu.be
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ouAAF5Vs60&feature=youtu.be
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
I may make another video with the same gear showing how easy it is to kill Inferno Diablo as well.
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
edit: I actually started this gearset/build as a cheap and easy way to get the inferno D Barb kill achieve, as I'm an achievement hunter. I then added the whirlwind setup and started to use it to farm elites when I didn't feel like playing hardcore. This spec is really meant for elite hunting, I was just showcasing how easy it was to kill belial with no effort even with the stricter enrage timer, something that I've seen overly defensive barbarians with much more expensive gear fail to do.
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
It looks like my second video will have to wait until the morning, having an issue with my encode and I'm too exhausted to deal with it.
edit: I was able to clear act 1 with ease with about 1/4 the loh I have now, I just used resist shout to help with the damage, and you can subsitute the Hurricane rune out for Blood Funnel if you're still hurting for healing.
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
@Maddog this build actually fairs surprisingly well against champ packs, especially with the immunity to CC that wrath grants. In later acts, you usually have to drop overpower for resist shout, unless you can play with a more defensively built barb in your group. I'm making a video of handling elites in early acts now, and I'll work on more videos for later acts tomorrow.
This build is strong because it works very well with very little gear, and then just gets ridiculously strong as your gear improves.
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides
These are a series of video guides that I have made to show that you can gear out and play a damage based barbarian for far less gold than most think. I explain how to play the build, and how to set up your skills to maximize your damage, and what gear that you want to look out for while spending as little as possible.
With this build I am able to speed farm elites in act 1 and 2, and have progressed through act 3 and 4, albeit at a much slower and careful pace. I recommend sticking to act 1 and 2 farming in order to make gold, as kills/hour is what is truly important in elite farming. As it stands right now, the drop rate in act 3+4 compared the increase in difficulty makes for poor farming.
A short, text guide is just below the posted videos.
My stream: http://www.twitch.tv/notzizka#
I will post additional videos to answer questions and demonstrate this build's capabilities as I am requested.
I'm shortening this post by just linking my video channel.
https://www.youtube....notzizka/videos
For those of you who want a shorter text version, here are some key points:
The build:
1. The basic build
a. For added defense, swap Overpower for Warcry, then Animosity for Superstition
b. For extra healing, swap the Whirlwind rune Hurricane for Blood Funnel.
c. Frenzy can be swapped out with your choice of rage generator.
2. Battle Rage is your most important ability. If you don't keep it up, you will run out of rage and this will lead to issues.
3. Sprint' tornadoes are your main source of rage, not frenzy or whirlwind. If you don't have tornadoes down, you're going to run out of rage.
4. Wrath of the Berserker's main purpose is the immunity to CC that it grants.
The gear:
1. This build can work with very little gear and gets very strong as your gear improves.
2. The importance of stats for starter gear is as follow: Life on Hit > Crit %+ > Vitality > Resists
3. Added damage is something to look for as a luxury, strength and bonus crit damage both drastically improving this build performance.
4. Once base damage is high enough, Life Steal becomes and extremely dtrong stat, especially as it can be found in gear slots that LoH can not.
added note: Nobody should expect to spend next to nothing and start farming act 4 elites. This build is a great way to get started, and will easily clear its way through act1/2 with very basic gear. You can use that as a stepping stone to gear up a little more for further acts. Even so, I found that I spent far less on this build than an equally progressed tank barbarian would, and continued progressing much faster.
My YouTube channel - D3 Video guides