Sunday, December 30, 2012

Uberboss Stun Build

This barbarian build is for killing the ubers and helping to controll them with stuns. You can wear your normal gear which provides most damage and most survibility. Two 1hand weapons would be more optimal then a 2hand weapon, because of the faster attack speed.


 If you must increase your damage you should buy following weapon. "The Three Hundredth Spear"
High damage, a socket and high weapon throw damage would be ideal.



A further item to increase your damage would be a Stone of Jordan with 30% increased damage against elites. Reduced Weapon Throw fury cost is only useful if you also have a belt with reduced weapon throw fury cost otherwise it would be counter productive. You should have a total of 8 or 9 reduced fury cost. If you have 10 it won't work and your weapon throw will cost 10 fury and not 0 fury as estimated.



Skills

 

Skill #1 (Left Mouse)
Weapon Throw (Throwing Hammer)

Skill #2 (Right Mouse)
Ancient Spear (Dread Spear)

Skill #3 (1)
Overpower (Crushing Advance)

Skill #4 (2)
Wrath of the Berserker (Thrive on Chaos)

Skill #5 (3)
Battle Rage (Into the Fray)

Skill #6 (4)
War Cry (Impunity)

Passiv #1
Ruthless

Passiv #2
Weapons Master

Passiv #3
No Escape

Skill Calculator


Alternative if you have 8 or 9 reduced fury cost for weapon throw.
You can change Battle Rage rune into Marauder's Rage or Bloodshed for more damage or 3rd Passiv No Escape for a defensive passiv.

If you have reduced fury cost for weapon throw and battle rage (into the fray) and no escape you will gain to much fury and you must spent it with spamming battle rage, because if you are at full rage you won't get enough rage for keeping wrath of the berserker all the time.

Ancient Spear is for the start of the fight to get rage and later to heal yourself.
Overpower is your defensive button.


Ubers

King Leoric and Mahgda
The difficult's encounter on high monster power.

Two Strategies
1. All focus King Leoric

2. You stun Mahgda. All other stay on King Leoric and kill the skeletons, which are summoned by him, because they could be a problem for you. It's very important that you don't damage Mahgda to much or she will be immune and summon her adds. Sure you can damage her lower then 75%, but then you should cordinate it with your team mates, that they help you to kill her summoned adds as fast as possible.


Siege Breaker and Zoltun Kulle
Two Strategies
1. A melee or a well geared cm wizard tank Siege Breaker on the left or right side of the room. You and the other group members focus and kill Zoltun Kulle. Your stuns will help your group and especially your ranged partners to stay alive againts Zoltun Kulle.

2. You tank Siege Breaker on the left or right side of the room. The other group members focus and kill Zoltun Kulle. If you have problems with tanking Siege Breaker, you can wear a shield and/or use a loh weapon in your second slot. Damage should not be your assignment as long as Zoltun Kulle is alive.

Keep in mind, that you don't stun Siege Breaker if he grasps one of your team mates, because he won't let him free if you stun him during your team mate is grasped.


Ghom and Raknoth
This is the easiest encounter. Just focus with all other group members ghom, but if your group will move him out of the cloud you must switch to Raknoth. Other tactic is that you stay all time on Raknoth. Only problem for you are the small adds, which should be killed by your group members aoe damage.


Barbarian Guide Overview

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Keyfarmer (Barbarian) - Part II from II

This is the second part of my guide. Here you can find part I.

We already talked about gear and weapon choices.
Here you can see my Skorn. It was cheap, but it's very effective.



Furthermore I wear a Hellfire Ring, IK helm, IK belt, IK boots and Tyrael's Might.




I have following stats unbuffed without follower

Charakter Screen Damage: 93.939
Life 45.115
Armor 5.172 (63,29%)
All Resistance 542
Life Steal 2.9%


Strength: 1.960
Vitality: 1.143
critical hit chance 48,5 %
critical hit damage 436%


Keywarden - Act I - Farming Route

Startquest: 9. The Imprisoned Angel - The Cursed Hold

Waypoint: The Festering Woods
2 Elite Packs inside Warrior's Rest and Crypt of the Ancients

1-2 Elite Packs in the Festering Woods

Waypoint: Leoric's Manor
running back
1-2 Elite Packs outside

Waypoint: Cemetry of the Forsaken
1-2 Elite Packs inside the Defiled Crypts

Keywarden
Waypoint: Fields of Misery
This area is big and the Keywarden can be everywhere.


 

 

Keywarden - Act II - Farming Route

Startquest: 8. The Black Soulstone - Soulstone Chamber

Preparation: Get Checkpoint in Vault of Assasin 
You can find it in Desolate Sands, therefore use low Monster Power and use Sprint to find it. Get checkpoint then change skills and leave game and start your farming session on higher Monster Power.

Start Checkpoint Vault of Assasin
4-5 Elite Packs


Waypoint: Road to Alcarnus
1-2 Elite Pack in Alcarnus (Alternative if you don't get 5 Nephalem Valor Buffs)

Keywarden
Waypoint: Path to the Oasis
Start your run from the sout of the Dahlgur Oasis.






Keywarden - Act III - Farming Route

Startquest: 7. Heart of Sin - Kill Azmodan

Waypoint: The Core of Arreat
2-3 Elite Packs

Waypoint: Tower of the Damned Level 1
run in a circle back to the waypoint
1-2 Elite Packs

Waypoint: The Bridge of Korsikk
this area could be a little bit harder. If you have problems use next step.
2-3 Elite Packs

Waypoint: The Keep Depths Level 1
going down to Level 2
2-3 Elite Packs

Keywarden
Waypoint: Stonefort



Barbarian Guide Overview

Friday, December 28, 2012

Why I don't like ww/sprint!

ww/sprint builds are one of most efficient builds for farming experience or items, but I don't like them and this have some reasons.

  • I don't like the playstyle. I want stay in front of the monster and slay them, not running around or the monsters or away from them.
  • If an item or gold drops, I don't want run back to pick it up.
  • I don't want to have disadvantages if I take some more seconds to pick up items. If you don't speed up, you can't mantain Wrath of the Berserker.
  • I don't like the fury management. It's mandatory to have enough fury all the time for sprint.
Maybe I'm a little bit lazy in some points.

I like fast runs and sprinting around, but I don't like the feeling to have a disadvantage if I take 2 more seconds to pick up an item and my Wrath of the Berserker is running out or I don't have enough fury for further sprints after killing a group of monsters. Sometimes I play a HotA build also with sprint (marathon), wrath of the berserker (into the fray) on low monster power , but this build is much more forgivable. You can find this HotA build soon in this blog. - Fast Solo Farm Build on low Monster Power # 2

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Keyfarmer (Barbarian)- Part I from II

This barbarian guide is for key farming or group play on high monster power.
I can farm solo with moderate gear on mp8. Sure it could be a little bit faster with better gear, but it's ok for me.

To farm on high monster power you need enough survivability, damage and life return. One cheap method is to use the skill Rend with Blood Lust and Rend works at the best with a 2hand weapon, this leads us to following skill set.


Skill Set


Skill #1 (Left Mouse)
Our main fury generator and damage skill will be Cleave or Bash. There are many different combinations possible. I prefer Cleave with Broad Sweep.

Cleave (Broad Sweep)
generates 5 fury - 175% aoe weapon damage
The best solution in my opinion, because of the aoe damage.

Bash (Punish)
generate 8 fury - 165 weapon damage - increase damage 8% 5 sec after using bash, stacks 3 times 
Punish provides most single target damage and also increase rend aoe damage, but you are dependent on rend for aoe damage. 

Bash (Onslaught)
generate 8 fury - 165% weapon damage - 2 strikes for 25% weapon damage
Bash provides more fury, but that's not really essential. It has less aoe damage, but a little bit more single target damage.

Cleave (Rupture)
generates 5 fury - 140% aoe weapon damage - enemies explode for 85% weapon damage 8y radius
This rune is very bad, because monsters die to slow to get enough damage from this rune.

Skill #2 (Right Mouse)
Rend (Blood Lust)
cost 20 fury - 700% aoe weapon damage over 5 sec - 9% life leech
This skill heals us and adds further aoe damage.

Skill #3 (1)
Overpower (Crushing Advance)
12 sec cooldown - 165% aoe weapon damage - redirect 35% incoming damage over 4 sec
We use this skill, because it's reduce 35% of our incoming damage for 4 sec. This helps us to survive nasty elite packs.

Skill #4 (2)
Wrath of the Berserker (Insanity)
This skill helps us to melt elite packs. For many elite packs we will need longer then 15 sec, but it's very helpful against elite monster with frozen ability.

Skill #5 (3)
Battle Rage (Marauder's Rage)
Increase our damage bonus to 30% and critical hit chance by 3%.

Skill #6 (4)
War Cry (Impunity)
Increase armor and resistance by 20%.

Passiv #1
Ruthless

Passiv #2
Weapons Master

Passiv #3
If you choose a offensive or defensive passiv depends on your gear. If you have very good damage and enough defensive, you can get Bloodthirst (gain 3% of all damage done as life). This skill will help you against elite packs with reflect damage.

* Defensive
Nerves of Steel or Tough as Nails for more armor.
Superstition redcues all non physical damage by 20%.

*Offensive
Brawler increases your damage by 30% as lons as there are 3 enemies within 8 yards.

I prefer a defensive skill.


Skill Calculator


Gear

Overview
I recommend 40.000 life, ~500 all resistance, 90.000 damage whitout warcry, battle rage and follower.

I wear a hellfire ring and socket a ruby into my helm slot for additional experience.

Weapon
2 Hand Weapon (Axe, Mace or Sword) preferable Skorn.

Skorn should have high dps (>1200), high strength (>320) and high critical hit damage (>185).
This skorn should not be this expensive.

If you have more money to spent, then we will look for more dps and the +1 random magic properties. The most useful and also most expensive are following properties.

*) Damage Dealt is converted to Life
*) additional Strength
*) Vitality


Radiant Star Emerald
If you can afford, buy a Radiant Star Emerald for your weapon. If you can't afford take a cheaper emerald.


Mighy Belt
There are many solutions, the cheapest method will be a Immortal King's Tribal Binding.
Your belt should have following stats.

Damage Dealt is converted to Life
Increases Cleave Damage by 13-14%.


Movement Speed
All fight's last longer, but for searching after the keywarden I would suggest 24% movement speed. It's not mandatory, but I would suggest 24%, because we don't have sprint. If you are only farming on high monster power and aren't interested in key runs, then you don't need it.

There are 4 pieces with 12% movement speed, which are a reasonable solution to this problem.

Boots
Bracers - Lacuni Prowlers
Chest - Tyrael's Might
Pants - Inna's Temperance

I think all depends on how much money you have. Items such as Immortal King's Eternal Reign (Chest),  Ice Climbers (Boots) with movement speed  or Lacuni Prowlers with critical hit chance are very expensive.

Following ranking by me, cheapest method first. I wear the cheapest method as long I can afford an Immortal King's Chest and Lacuin Prowlers with critical hit chance and strength. (method 3b)

1. Tyrael's Might + Boots
2. Tyrael's Might + Lacuni Prowlers with critical hit chance + Ice Climbers without movement speed
3a. IK Chest + Lacuni Prowlers with critical hit chance + Ice Climbers without movement speed + Inna's temerpance with strentgh
3b. IK Chest + Lacuni Prowlers with critical hit chance + Boots
4. IK Chest + Lacuni Prowerls with critical hit chance + Ice Climbers with movement speed


2 pieces Immortal King's Set
These are mandatory for very cheap 60 resistance to all elements.
For a starting gear set I can recommend Helm, Belt and / or Boots.

Ring
Stone of Jordan is very good for this build and for higher monsterpower.
Increased damage against elites should be very high. (25-30%)
Increased cleave damage should be 12%. (maximum)

The 2nd ring should be a hellfire ring if you are interested in leveling.


Shoulders
minimum requirements:
high strength (>200), vitality,

Legs
minimum requirements:
viality (>150), all resistance, 2 sockets,

Gloves
minimum requirements:
9% critical hit chance, strength or vitality, critical hit damage or all resistance,

Ring, Amulet
minimum requirements:
critical hit chance, strength and / or vitality,

Wrist
minimum requirements:
all resistance, strength and / or vitality,



In the second part I will post my stats, screenshots and farming routes to get 5 fast stacks before killing the key warden.

If you have any questions about skills and runes or gear, feel free to ask me in the comments.



Barbarian Guide Overview

Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Big Barbarian Guide - Overview

I'm not a big fan of ww/sprint builds, so I tried many different skills to have fun and be efficient.

This is an overview post, where I will link to all my different mini barbarian guides.


WW / RLTW (Tornado) Basic Guide

Keyfarmer on high Monster Power - Part I
Keyfarmer on high Monster Power - Part II

Uberboss Stun Build

Uberboss Damage Build

Cleave Blow Up Barbarian - fast solo farm build for low Monster Power

Thunder Barbarian (HotA) - fast solo farm build for low Monster Power