Stay awhile and listen. Ethereal Breath of the Dying Zerker (berserker axe) DC is Death Cleaver, the unique berserker axe. Those 50% lifeleech barbs you might have seen/heard of are pretty much built for PvP. However, that is ok, as you can go into a crowd and stun everything around you. The berserker axe (elite war axe) has better 1-handed stats than most 2-handed swords in 1-H mode. A bvc has ~400% off weapon ED from strength and skills. Dueling is difficult as a Frenzy Barb because you have to get close to your enemy and physically attack them first, one swing at a time. Frenzy + Double Swing = as many as 6 swings per second (good with high elemental damage weapons, like Baranar's Star, especially against physical immunes). Needed in PvP. With an Ironbarb, who is defence orientated, focusing not only on defence rating, but also other factors such as resists, block, and getting equipment to add to these will vastly increase his effectiveness as a Tank/Brick character, able to defend against all that is thrown at him. Maces are great for MF runs though, since the IK maul (a mace class weapon) totally dominates act bosses and demons. Of course, clicking on one side of the crowd works, but there are much better techniques to use. With a good setup, getting 5K damage 1-handed isn't out of the question, and combined with 50% lifeleech makes short work of other barbs. The only exception is those cases where there is no corpse via things such as shattering, corpse explosion and redemption. Leech (both mana and life leech should aim for at least 5%/5%+ to be effective in hell mode). '+x To Minimum/Maximum Damage' = all non weapon +min/max damage. Arqade is a question and answer site for passionate videogamers on all platforms. Stack your Crushing Blow, Critical Strike and Open Wound mods. Range doesnt matter much either so one chooses PB instead of BA. Note that there is even a variant of the subclass called the Hybrid (throwing-melee combat) and they are sometimes even more effective. The range of taunt should be mentioned - it is slightly offscreen. In 0.8 many items had different mods. Grief and eth Death Cleaver hits hard but two Grief would be better. One point should suffice. Where a normal barb does melee he throws. Also in pvm whirls tend to be a bit longer so the usage of each weapon will approach 50%. What takes you 2 hits now might take 3-4 to die. Taunt can also be used to select a specific target, so you can use it to pick off dangerous/annying things first. Im not familiar with these acronyms - whats EBOTDz?? For PVP: Grief Ba + Beast BA, no contest there. We believe this is an automatic critical hit of 100%, so regardless of what the skill description says, your barb will do double damage each time. For PvM versatility and convenience has so much more value than raw damage does. Second hand I really liked Azurewrath in 2.3 patch - I was clearing Throne room in p8 much easier than with 2x Griefs or other combo. Rapid stun ability and party support, hey, who's going to argue with level 35+ BO? A good example is if you scatter a pack with Howl/Grim Ward, then bring a couple back with Taunt to pick them off at your leisure. Do I need points in Berserk? What is the mastery bug and why is Deadly Strike useless? What fun and interesting variants to try? Howl: Makes surrounding monsters run in fear away from the barbarian. Also, high damage = more leech. Press J to jump to the feed. So if you want to melee with a throwing axe, throwing mastery bonus will NOT apply. Why does my Battle Orders warcry keep resetting my health? Where IS is passive, and always in effect, Shout needs to be casted, and at the beginning it has a rather low duration. Maces pack a lot of power but are slow. Secondly, it adds an immense AR and damage bonus, a maxed berserk with a fast, high damaging 2-handed weapons = 1-2 hits kills, even on hell mode 8 player games. "Arreats","Face": Arreat's Face unique slayer guard.
You can use the aforementioned Grim Ward + Taunt Tactics. It's an extremely fun subclass rapidly gaining in popularity so don't be so quick to dismiss them as an underpowered variant subclass. These cruel swords are extremely popular, since they have 3 sockets that are automatic. Back to AR, generally a higher AR will serve you better, but notice that level difference plays a part too. Stun: One point needed as a prerequisite for Berserk. You'd only need 5-9 points in Natural Resist, beyond that isn't recommended as the diminishing returns factor is too high. This means that for each successful frenzy hit, your speed/attack speed will increase until you hit the cap. You want to make sure every shot counts, especially in PvP. But defence as in Defence Rating, well not as one might initially think. Am I better off putting a weapon with elemental damage in one hand than the other? The rest they shrug off.
If I max Battle Command do I get +20 skills? Clicking faster has no effect, and the damage is simply that of each weapon hitting. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. It now has a nice little damage bonus (along with the original uninterruptible/defence adding attribute). Now imagine you wore a fortitude instead which added 300% off-weapon ED So forget any Ethereal cruel 3 socketed colossus blades of quickness please:). "Singing" barbs (which use warcries-only). A list of more specialised barb builds are: Some key things in regards to your items are: Since this is the template it's quite easy to figure out which direction you want to take your barb. Assassins can only dual wield claws. Enough base Str to use your weapon In D2X, critical strike and double strike WILL NOT STACK (regardless of what some sources state, this will never actually happen. The 1-handed maces can be good for Frenzy characters, but generally not well suited for a whirler as the slower speed and lower range go against them. 2 clear choices - Offensive, which gives a might aura, and defensive, which gives holy freeze. Cool, thanks for the calculator! "Andy"/"Lil D"/"Meph"/"Big D" - The 4 act bosses. If you are using normal attack (non-assassin), only your right-hand weapon will be used, If you are using normal attack (assassin), the claws alternate. Holy freeze is another choice for some, who prefer the crowd control ability.
At high levels, it definitely can't be ignored.
The cruel(prefix- 201-300 Enhanced Damage) modification is level 51. Yes, I know Talic whirls fast. Note that Battlecry seems to work on all monsters. Great if you want to whirl, also great if you don't. The unique boots "WarTraveller" also have the mod "adds 15-25 damage" which can increase your damage by a couple of hundred, handy for those who PvP. And we have the other end of the spectrum here. If you are on very low health, chances are you could die (if the final damage is greater than your barb's life, for example). New prefix and/or suffix, up to level 66 (this is *Completely Independent* of your character level.
Like from charms. Rest into Vitality It's very situational, however, and suffers from a small factor - it's dependant on your level. The chance of getting an item is based solely on the level of the Find Item skill, however the if an item is "found" then your normal MF will apply to determine what sort of item it is. (You need axe mastery). If you are buying them vs self rolling so you know what the ias is ahead of time, or can afford to reroll a few times and dont want to spend the dex then BA may be worth it. A Throwing barbarian is one of the most unique variants in the game. It's very good at early levels, before your big combat skills (Zerk, WW,Frenzy). Sometimes Damage Reduced. "CCS/B" - Cruel Colossus Sword/Blade. "Dual": Dual leech (mana and life leech) or dual stat - (str and dex). Contrary to popular belief, it's not as easy as the stereotype makes it out to be. Keep in mind that the whirlwind speed is determined by the primary hand's weapon speed, this is especially important if you are trying to hit a specific frame speed for WW on an assassin when selecting the right type of claw to use. Story: man purchases plantation on planet, finds 'unstoppable' infestation, uses science, electrolyses water for oxygen, 1970s-1980s. The good part is monsters, when stunned with warcry, don't do anything. Especially if you are runnign forti with a might merc. I'm looking for general information on how dual weilding works in Diablo 2: Barbarians (and Assassins, in the expansion) are the only classes who can dual wield.
This works much better than pumping dex. You can socket enhanced damage jewels in your helm/shield/armour. Choice between 1 hard hitting weapon, or two slightly faster but less damaging ones? How should we do boxplots with small samples? Thin of it as overriding their hit-and-run AI. Note some other skills can affect absorb rates (Conviction, Lower resist), and in PvP play, using a full absorb rig against an elemental damage user is frowned upon. i.e. If cost is no object, grief and beast do the most damage. WW is also the best PvP skill at a barbarian's disposal, due to it's uninterruptibility and AoE. Not all warcries stack like this (Taunt/Howl will override Battlecry, for example), but most will stack with Warcry. Increased speed no longer needs to be maxed, however. How does +demon damage from items such as Laying of Hands work? I like 2 handed eBOTD GPA or Ghost Spear for when I need Berserk against single targets, for example vs the council. No natural counter for Physical Immunes. So the main advantage is that you can potentially get more hits in. Take these numbers below with a grain of salt as they are crude guesses but it should help you understand the general idea. ETH right now does.
Even the Act bosses. Barbarians (and Assassins, in the expansion) are the only classes who can dual wield. This has been tested several times, so is proven to be a fact. At least one point should be invested. For one, all external (non weapon) IAS WILL NOT APPLY TO WHIRLWIND. "Gaze", "Vamp": Vampire Gaze unique grim helm, "GF", "Grandpa": Grandfather unique colossus blade, "MSLEB": Multishot Lightning Enhanced Boss, "LSabre/Sabre" - Lightsabre unique phase blade, "Singers": Singing Barbs - a variant class, "Storm": Stormshield unique monarch shield. Last thing is it is semi-useful in PvP, but it's sad to see it negated by one little thing. Leap attack is more of a utility skill nowadays. Frenzy + WW = almost "old school D2C" style WW, but maxing both isn't a good idea - it sounds good, but in practice you will find yourself using one much more than the other, essentially wasting 20 points. They must be hired in NM as in other difficulties their auras are different, and not as useful. Sword users are extremely spoiled since they have so many choices with a huge assortment of magical, unique, and set items available. Well, you'll love the Ironbarb. First the game calcuates the damage (after MDR and resists). Iron Skin: Increases defense. which is true. Thrower: Where this was once a crappy subpar-submerged-subclass, it is no longer. 1-5 Find Item If used by a pure berserker barb, you can gain extremely high damage. The only way that is notably simple to duel as a frenzy barb is to frenzy on monsters in the wilderness ahead of time to build up damage and attack speed. It also works on any of the other monsters in the game. 
WW starts with two hit checks at 4th and 8th frame where you hit with your primary weapon only. You can raise your AR by acquiring items that give to +AR. Against tougher foes, short whirls can quickly make mincemeat out of them, while leaving your barb with little damage.
So one of my questions wasn't answered. For the patient people, his killing power isn't as high, but as a defensive character he is pretty much king. Site design / logo 2022 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. A point in Berserk however will counter this problem quite effectively. Only a few monsters in the game can resist it, or are immune. However, defence is far from useless. Having all the damage but not hitting a high defense barb or paladin is of no use. Also, both of these are one of the few surprises in the PvP scene. In that time, most opponents flee so if you manage to land hits itd be mostly with Grief. Deadly Strike = Chance to do double damage as well, just like critical hits.
(weapon base damage )*enhanced_damage_on_weapon+added damage from all sources, Off weapon enhanced damage is Extremely fun. Beware some things cannot be taunted (eg Oblivion Knight, champions, bosses, etc). This is what i've observed, i hope someone can explain or confirm this. 1-handed: Conquest, Cryptic, Mythical With twin lightsabres, in most cases it will nullify any damage as absorbing 50% damage = half the attack deals damaged, but the other half is absorbed so essentially you take zero damage. Practice make perfect, as they say. It is not recommended use two of the same weapon, as the properties, particularly the auras on many of these weapons, would be redundant. Leap does have a knockback radius, but it is very small, and not much use. As you will be dual-wielding, you will have to choose between the three top masteries. Note: Applies to single opponents only. Why is this? You can look up the calcs online, its in fact more complicated than what i described as they take into account everything (open wounds vs deadly strike for instance) but the main reason is the increased off-weapon ED. http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=231548, http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=182586. In some areas it is better to have more life leech so there is less risk of dying, such as in the cow level. Statsbonus: Remember more strength increases damage, however some weapons are affected differently. Thanks mates. Good try to explain but a couple of corrections: Thats not how WW works . It's been tested and the answer is no. Swords, however, are the most versatile weapon's class due to the fact that they have a good damage/speed ratio, and have a usual range of 3. 20 Whirlwind Howl is often a prerequisite and not used after that, but sometimes you can use it to great affect. The choice is ultimately up to the player, but again Increased Speed has very sharp diminishing returns after level 10. With the rise of amas, beast might become obsolete. will affect all of your other attacks *EXCEPT* WW. 5-10K or even more berserk damage is very achievable, and extremely deadly. Admittedly, at early levels, the -% damage can be a pain, but this skill is well worth the effort. JavaScript is disabled. But the most popular is this -, 20 in Mastery of choice You might also pump str and wear laying of hands, both of which pump your off-weapon ED. "Def", "AC": Defense Rating. Lower life is acceptable as having that much leech (as well as the usual 75% block/damage reduction) will keep your barb alive. However, the speed is generally faster than if you just swung either of the weapons twice. Such a fast movement speed is hard to control. /r/Diablo is the greatest source for Diablo-related news and discussion on the Internet. What about two weapons of different speeds? A strong part of the barbarian is in his mastery skills. FI deserves 5-10 points, it has VERY sharp diminishing returns after that. Frenzy needs 2 weapons (so no frenzying with a war pike). They may have 2 as a maximum.). 2x grief becomes (800)*(7)=5600 The 3 chip recipe will always produce a magic sword regardless of what type the sword has before you cubed it. Concentrate: One point needed as a prerequisite for Berserk. Even with just one point you can use it in hell mode to get rejuvenation potions (pots are affected by difficulty, the higher the difficulty the better the potions).
You can stun them, but not all the time, perhaps 50%. REGARDLESS of what sources said they do, extensive testing has proven that this extra bonus is non-existant or not enabled. What is the best Mercenary for a Barbarian? Well, in D2X, berserk is INCREDIBLE. Grief, EBOTDz will do lots of damage and take care of your mana and life needs. Ahh I see, I wasnt aware of that quirk for whirlwind, the first part definitely skews it heavily in favor of making the second weapon an ED booster especially for short whirls. One point is more than enough. https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/index.php?title=Barbarian_FAQ&oldid=13814. How does the accuracy (or "chance to hit") work in Diablo 2? For example, you cast Battle Command, then BO, but when you refresh your warcries, you forget to cast your BCom before your BO. Some monsters cannot be stunned 100% of the time, notably stuff like "special" monsters like Champions/Uniques. In PvP it is a different matter, some argue that maxing is worth is as there is nothing better for a barb to put his points in, but other like to put it at 10 and let those charms with faster run/walk do the job. Bows/ Xbows: dex / 100 Actually, many players dislike the use of a shield when berserking. IAS = Improved Attack Speed? WW speed is fixed, although you can go slower if chilled (sometimes resulting in many more hits due to slower movement). If you are using whirlwind, the right-hand weapon will always hit first. (in Hell Mode) Just buy any one, since the mods get rerolled with the recipe. Thus most other 2-handed weapons are unable to get to the 2nd BP without a speed mod. Enough base Dex to use your weapon (or to keep blocking at 75%) Bash: One point needed as a prerequisite for Frenzy. You can leech much better with this and it leaves very little time for the enemy to hit you (and even if they do, you are probably whirling/killing/leeching). See, the difference between 1000 and 2000 defense rating is almost nothing. It makes him the king of melee combat, and rightly so:) Of course the other skills are still very powerful and the basis of many variants. Regarding bases I prefer PB though since any roll will let you hit the last WW BP, whereas with BA you need 34 or more IAS. Both of these skills are very similar, having large diminishing returns later on. Polearms do require a larger investment in both dexterity and strength than other weapon classes so you end up with fewer points available to put into vitality. True ITD does NOT work in PvP. This skill only gives a +1 skill bonus. However to get the healing effect, you have to take into consideration your resistances and other Lightning Absorb gear (Thundergods/Blackhorns mask for example). Normally, true ITD (such as granted by the Jah rune) WILL NOT WORK IN PvP. No. But, if you are going for defence route, maxing Shout first is a much better choice as the duration and% defence bonus gets very large at high levels. Firstly, it is pure magical. He offers stiff competition in PvP, but against some other classes he can be pasted. Mostly helpful if you are into dueling. Whats wrong with Whirlwind, except not registering initial 2 hits? All daggers/wands/scepters as well, but only a few of them are worth doing so. Dracul's Grasp and Last Wish are popular for their Life Tap proc. If you are willing to use swords, Grief or EBOTD and Azurewrath is an interesting combination as the aura makes killing undead easy. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I would personally use Grief Zweihander and Berd Azurewrath. Theoretically the lower level barb should require a few passes to hit the high defence barb (as the description reads "-25% target defence", assuming that each hit lowers your opponent's defence), but this does not hold true.
Roughly 1/3 of the monsters in the game don't take your defence into account.
2-handed: Champion, Colossus Sword, Colossus Blade For the Secondary Weapon, pick another one of the above. Naturally, this is on paper only, and WW doesn't look very impressive on paper. WW is an Area-Of-Effect skill that allows a barbarian to hit single or multiple targets many times. A barbarian's already-powerful abilities can be enhanced further with his excellent array of warcries. This means your runs are faster which in the long run maximises your chance of getting items. Weapon Mastery: Boosts attack rating and damage with a specific class of weapon. Increased Run/Walk is open to debate, but for PvM builds, it is more of a luxury then anything. I wouldnt use Whirlwind until they fix it. where AR = Attack Rating; alvl = Level of Attacker; dlvl = Level of Defender; Ddef = defense of defender. Concentrate was improved a lot in D2X. This results in many combinations, for example you could put 2 x Shael runes to boost speed and an Ohm rune to further increase damage.
For some reason they lack the popularity of other masteries which is strange, as both 1-handed and 2-Handed varieties are excellent. A golden rule is "Damage is King". But you can't dual wield with Axe of Fechmar because it is a 2-handed axe not a 2-handed sword. For example, if you are getting the cow leg, you can howl and scare away all of Rakanishu's minions and clear a path to the red portal. The second weapon isn't used. In 0.9 the +damage bonus is added on to the base damage of your weapon. Battle Cry: Weakens monsters. ITD only works against normal monsters. Are they on their own separate attack timers or is it a chance to swing both at the sametime thing?
Additionally, any runes, jewels, or gems that where socketed before cubing will be lost. US to Canada by car with an enhanced driver's license, no passport? But you'll need a lot to see a difference. Double Throw can give a very high AR, reaching 9-10K is possible, and effective. So it is Grief (4th), Grief (8th), Beast (10th), Grief (12th), Beast(14) and so on. Some builds can benefit from Taunt's ability to pick things off like this. Please. Double Throw: One point needed as a prerequisite for Frenzy. Don't bother with this in PvP, unfortunately the radius is a great inhibitor. Leap Attack. Do weekend days count as part of a vacation?