As for upgrades, the Efficacious Toxin gem might not be the best choice. I know it adds 10% damage, but that just stacks in with your other +damage bonuses. The poisons damage it deals is pretty minimal, even at 25 (325% per second). You could always try to use Taeguk, which will give you more + damage and some toughness, though its pretty annoying to keep the buff up. Another option is Pain Enhancer, which is much higher damage, and adds a massive speed boost when you have the bleed on several mobs.
I'm not sure how you are doing with surviving, but Superstition I find is key on surviving in higher G rifts. It might be worth dropping Rampage for Superstition if you find you are getting killed often. Rampage is great for clearing, but doesn't usually do much on the Rift Guardian. However, with freeze builds, survival may not be an issue for you yet.
Other than that, your Ring of Royal Grandeur could have some Crit or Crit Damage on it instead of the life per hit, but that may require farming more :PLuckily, they just did a massive buff to bounties, with nearly 100% chance to have a legendary on T6.
If I ever find a Rimehart, I will upload a video of it in action. You cannot swap gear in Greater rifts, so I'll probably pair it with the Sunkeeper for Champ packs. I also want to try rifting where I completely skip all champions & elites. In my experience (30+ greater rifts), there is no max level going down like in standard rifts... aka no Obelisk at the end, so you could use Rimehart and just leap your way to victory, skipping all non-whites. Not sure if it would be faster though, considering elites drop bonus orbs. Still, well worth trying out!
On a side note, I got some Depth Diggers today... 80% bonus damage to all generators on mine, not sure if the range is up to 100%. Cleave went from about 3-4.5mil to 7-9 mil per hit. I attempted some non-IK builds using them with Glove / Helm / Shoulders Earth set, but feel like the ancients more than make up the extra cleave damage (3-5mil per hit on each ancient every second or so), and they supply additional meat shielding.
I'll post a video tonight or tomorrow trying out IK Boulder breaker instead of DW, and using Tasker Theos for crazy Ancient speed. It's pretty amusing to watch, and EQ damage is about the same even without the 18% Cold and bonus Crit Gem due to the higher base weapon damage.
Agree to disagree all you want, it's your right to play fire. Telling others not to waste their time on a "sub Optimal" build because you feel Fire is better doesn't demonstrate WHY it is sub-optimal. A lot depends on what would be optimal... first for me would be group / solo play. Also, gearing choices. I'll show some quicky math on the new skill changes comparing Fire and Frost using the skill combo in my video:
Fire Cleave - 150% (plus explosion or extra fury gen)
Fire Rend - 1100%, 17 Yard Range
Leap - Call of Arreat
Fire Earthquake - 5100% Damage
Fire Call of the Ancients - 360% Damage
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)
Frost Cleave - 150% (plus 10% damage from all sources)
Frost Rend - 1100%, 12 Yard Range (plus 10% damage from all sources)
Leap - Call of Arreat
Frost Earthquake - 4200% Damage (Plus perma-freeze for 8 seconds)
Frost Call of the Ancients - 180% Damage (Plus 10% Crit from all sources)
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)
If you factor in ONLY the 20% bonus from cleave and Rend, EQ would go up to 5040% Weapon damage, Cleave 180%, Ancients 216%, rend 1320%. 10% Crit would add more as well... plus in GROUP you are contributing to ALL damage done... Fire cannot do that.
Obviously, if you're going pure fire... you probably wouldn't bother with IK set, instead going Cindercoat / Magefist etc for the super high fire damage. So yes, you will do more damage solo... but they closed the gap quite a bit. In group play Frost will be much, much better than Fire. Synergy is huge when trying to farm T6 as a group. So it really depends on playstyle. The ability to pull, lockdown, buff group damage, and have a small army (especially with the new mighty weapon spawning additional ancients) makes Cold a great option for people to try out.
This post was never to say Cold is better than Fire... it was to demonstrate how well they buffed Cold and made it viable.
Additionally, you cannot swap skills in any way. You need to start the greater rift ready to go through the whole thing without issue. If I had a Rimehart I would love to try it out, but alas I do not. Only reason I don't use Frosties is I'm doing dual set.
I'll agree that fire out-performs in solo... but NOT in group play. I play almost 100% in group, usually 3-4 man groups on T6, and Cold gives the entire group a sizable damage boost. 20% Pure damage from Cleave / Rend combo, and 10% crit on anything the ancients hit... PLUS the pull from Leap activates my Strongarms for another 25% (has been confirmed by player testing to give entire party that damage). Fire doesn't come close to that level of group support.
As for the leap making freeze obsolete... have you actually tried EQ freeze? It lasts the ENTIRE TIME EQ is on the ground... 8 Seconds long, and with pull from Leap instead of Stun, you lock down way more creatures. Stun from leap is only 3 seconds long... If anything, the freeze from EQ makes death from above useless... unless you plan on using that to activate Haunt of Vaxo.
Quote from jonnsn
whats your gear? do you have frostburn and so on?
I added a link to my profile. The gear is identical to what I have in the video, though the skills are not. Combo of 3 Pcs IK set + 3 Pieces Earth set + Lut Socks. RoRG, SoJ, Haunt for jewelry, Sun Keeper / Utar's Roar for weapons.
Hey folks... been a while since I posted here. Been busy with a Crusader and wiz, but I was pumped to play the Barb again when Ladders go live. Not too long ago I posted a thread suggesting new cold skills on the official forums: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/12504791709
Although the changes are a little different than my suggestions, obviously someone at Blizzard (along with players I'm sure) were thinking along the same lines, and wanted to see something other than Fire at the top. Here is a very short video showing some of the new Cold skills they implemented on the PTR for 2.1.0: http://youtu.be/RHvRUJeVxqc
Please notice I am only on Torment 5, and have no unity. Why? Because I enjoy playing on T5 more than T6! T6 is doable, even without the unity on this build, but it's not very efficient.
For those who don't care to watch the video, here are the skills I'm using:
Cleave - Gathering Storm (Turns cleave into Cold damage, all enemies hit take 10% more damage from all sources for 3 seconds)
Rend - Mutilate (All enemies effected by Rend take 10% more damage from all sources)
Leap - Call of Arreat (Pull enemies within 16 yards upon landing)
Earthquake - Chilling Earth (Freeze all enemies and deal 4200% weapon damage over 8 seconds)
Call of the Ancients - Duty to the Clan (All enemies hit by the ancients have 10% higher chance to be critically hit)
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)
Summary: Cold Barbs will be amazing in party play! Pull / Freeze EVERYTHING, give 20% bonus damage, and 10% crit bonus to everything ancients hit! I'll be playing alongside a Crusader when the season starts, and can't wait to try the new mighty weapon that summons extra ancients when you use Hammer of the Ancients. I'll probably play around with dropping EQ / Leap combo, and replacing with Hammer / Revenge for the extra Ancients and 8% Crit. I'm also hoping to get some nice Tasker and Theos to make it crazy ancients time! The Haunt of Vaxo is amazing, especially if you can mix in some stuns, but the new Hellfire Amulet could open a ton of possibilities with providing the extra passive skill
Anyways, Hope this makes you wanna try a cold barb!
As for upgrades, the Efficacious Toxin gem might not be the best choice. I know it adds 10% damage, but that just stacks in with your other +damage bonuses. The poisons damage it deals is pretty minimal, even at 25 (325% per second). You could always try to use Taeguk, which will give you more + damage and some toughness, though its pretty annoying to keep the buff up. Another option is Pain Enhancer, which is much higher damage, and adds a massive speed boost when you have the bleed on several mobs.
I'm not sure how you are doing with surviving, but Superstition I find is key on surviving in higher G rifts. It might be worth dropping Rampage for Superstition if you find you are getting killed often. Rampage is great for clearing, but doesn't usually do much on the Rift Guardian. However, with freeze builds, survival may not be an issue for you yet.
Other than that, your Ring of Royal Grandeur could have some Crit or Crit Damage on it instead of the life per hit, but that may require farming more :PLuckily, they just did a massive buff to bounties, with nearly 100% chance to have a legendary on T6.
Hope this helps
On a side note, I got some Depth Diggers today... 80% bonus damage to all generators on mine, not sure if the range is up to 100%. Cleave went from about 3-4.5mil to 7-9 mil per hit. I attempted some non-IK builds using them with Glove / Helm / Shoulders Earth set, but feel like the ancients more than make up the extra cleave damage (3-5mil per hit on each ancient every second or so), and they supply additional meat shielding.
I'll post a video tonight or tomorrow trying out IK Boulder breaker instead of DW, and using Tasker Theos for crazy Ancient speed. It's pretty amusing to watch, and EQ damage is about the same even without the 18% Cold and bonus Crit Gem due to the higher base weapon damage.
Fire Cleave - 150% (plus explosion or extra fury gen)
Fire Rend - 1100%, 17 Yard Range
Leap - Call of Arreat
Fire Earthquake - 5100% Damage
Fire Call of the Ancients - 360% Damage
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)
Frost Cleave - 150% (plus 10% damage from all sources)
Frost Rend - 1100%, 12 Yard Range (plus 10% damage from all sources)
Leap - Call of Arreat
Frost Earthquake - 4200% Damage (Plus perma-freeze for 8 seconds)
Frost Call of the Ancients - 180% Damage (Plus 10% Crit from all sources)
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)
If you factor in ONLY the 20% bonus from cleave and Rend, EQ would go up to 5040% Weapon damage, Cleave 180%, Ancients 216%, rend 1320%. 10% Crit would add more as well... plus in GROUP you are contributing to ALL damage done... Fire cannot do that.
Obviously, if you're going pure fire... you probably wouldn't bother with IK set, instead going Cindercoat / Magefist etc for the super high fire damage. So yes, you will do more damage solo... but they closed the gap quite a bit. In group play Frost will be much, much better than Fire. Synergy is huge when trying to farm T6 as a group. So it really depends on playstyle. The ability to pull, lockdown, buff group damage, and have a small army (especially with the new mighty weapon spawning additional ancients) makes Cold a great option for people to try out.
This post was never to say Cold is better than Fire... it was to demonstrate how well they buffed Cold and made it viable.
As for the leap making freeze obsolete... have you actually tried EQ freeze? It lasts the ENTIRE TIME EQ is on the ground... 8 Seconds long, and with pull from Leap instead of Stun, you lock down way more creatures. Stun from leap is only 3 seconds long... If anything, the freeze from EQ makes death from above useless... unless you plan on using that to activate Haunt of Vaxo.
I added a link to my profile. The gear is identical to what I have in the video, though the skills are not. Combo of 3 Pcs IK set + 3 Pieces Earth set + Lut Socks. RoRG, SoJ, Haunt for jewelry, Sun Keeper / Utar's Roar for weapons.
Although the changes are a little different than my suggestions, obviously someone at Blizzard (along with players I'm sure) were thinking along the same lines, and wanted to see something other than Fire at the top. Here is a very short video showing some of the new Cold skills they implemented on the PTR for 2.1.0: http://youtu.be/RHvRUJeVxqc
Please notice I am only on Torment 5, and have no unity. Why? Because I enjoy playing on T5 more than T6! T6 is doable, even without the unity on this build, but it's not very efficient.
For those who don't care to watch the video, here are the skills I'm using:
Cleave - Gathering Storm (Turns cleave into Cold damage, all enemies hit take 10% more damage from all sources for 3 seconds)
Rend - Mutilate (All enemies effected by Rend take 10% more damage from all sources)
Leap - Call of Arreat (Pull enemies within 16 yards upon landing)
Earthquake - Chilling Earth (Freeze all enemies and deal 4200% weapon damage over 8 seconds)
Call of the Ancients - Duty to the Clan (All enemies hit by the ancients have 10% higher chance to be critically hit)
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)
Profile (Same gear I use in PTR, different skills): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Leland-1340/hero/10353235
Summary: Cold Barbs will be amazing in party play! Pull / Freeze EVERYTHING, give 20% bonus damage, and 10% crit bonus to everything ancients hit! I'll be playing alongside a Crusader when the season starts, and can't wait to try the new mighty weapon that summons extra ancients when you use Hammer of the Ancients. I'll probably play around with dropping EQ / Leap combo, and replacing with Hammer / Revenge for the extra Ancients and 8% Crit. I'm also hoping to get some nice Tasker and Theos to make it crazy ancients time! The Haunt of Vaxo is amazing, especially if you can mix in some stuns, but the new Hellfire Amulet could open a ton of possibilities with providing the extra passive skill
Anyways, Hope this makes you wanna try a cold barb!