Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

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umbrik

Diabloii.Net Member
Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

I'm going to make a Whirlwind Barbarian for PvM and I've checked some guides. So this is how I'm going to do it. Please give me some advice of other items and ways to place my attribute and skill points.

Skills
20 Whirlwind
20 Axe Mastery
20 Shout
20 Battle Orders
19 Ironskin
1 Natural Resistance
1 Incresed Speed
And the skills required for these.

Attributes
Strength: Enough for gear
Dexterity: Base
Vitality: Rest
Energy: Base

Gear:
Head- Upped eth Arreat's Face, socked Zod
Armor- Fortitude in Archon Plate
Weapon1- Eth BotD Zerker
Weapon2- Doom Zerker
/switch Weapons- 2 HotOs
Belt- Verdungos
Gloves- Dracul's
Boots- Upped Gores
Amulet- Highlord's
Rings- 2 Raven Frosts

37 3/20/20s
Anni
Barb Torch

So, start criticize!
 
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UberB

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

Switch Doom for Death. Otherwise you are fine AFAIK.
 
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HolyOne

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

hoto + cta > 2 hoto imho

i dont like much of the BOTD...Grief has same average and better IAS.

cant recall more :p
 
windwingwind

windwingwind

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

UberB said:
Switch Doom for Death. Otherwise you are fine AFAIK.
Click to expand...
You sure? Death BA can't reach the last WW bp.

eBOTDz/Beast or Griefz/Beast are better I suppose.

Switch the Dracula's to LoH since WW doesn't trigger ctc Life Tap and you are doing PvM so dont need more OW.

Dont place more than 1 pt in Iron skin.

Put 1 pt in Berserk for PI if you dont already have another plan for those.

And I think you missed 1 pt in Battle command in you skill layout.



 
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umbrik

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

Yeah I've been thinking of Beast, but when I tried Beast and compared it with Doom, I came to like Doom better because of the Holy Freeze.

And I forgot to write down the Batte command and the Berserk points, but I've planed to put one point into each ;)

The LoH suggestion was a good thought though, but 350% ED to Demons is the only good thing about them. Are you sure that there is no better option?

Where shall I put those points from Iron Skin then?

Thanks for your replies!
 
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BierWiser

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

Doom has good attributes, but you really don't need to slow down any enemies. WW is almost invincible, even without shield and using two weapons. Always use a Beast or something with Fanaticism.
 
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umbrik

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

It might me because I'm not a very good player but when it comes to PIs and Iron Maiden casters I think that it helps a lot to have Holy Freeze. Since you kill everything else really quick with both Doom and Beast I can only see it as an advantage.
And I don't want a merc running around ;)
 
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umbrik

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

windwingwind said:
You sure? Death BA can't reach the last WW bp.

eBOTDz/Beast or Griefz/Beast are better I suppose.

Switch the Dracula's to LoH since WW doesn't trigger ctc Life Tap and you are doing PvM so dont need more OW.

Dont place more than 1 pt in Iron skin.

Put 1 pt in Berserk for PI if you dont already have another plan for those.

And I think you missed 1 pt in Battle command in you skill layout.
Click to expand...

But why shouldn't I place more points into Iron Skin? And what should I go for instead?

Please also give some reasons why I should wear LoH, and if there are any other options. I won't face demons all the time. Maybe Steelrends are a good choise?


 
Jednowlosy

Jednowlosy

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

I've tried ebodtz/beast BAs and grief/grief PBs and the grief variant was like 10x more powerful. Uhh.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Barloc

Barloc

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

I liked using LoH alot in combination with other gears.
If weapon/shielded ww:
ebotdz (damage-leach-IAS)
HL (damage-IAS)
SS ( add IAS jewel)
Arreat (add ias jewel)
LoH (damage-fire res-IAS)
Raven F (obviously?)
Nature's Peace ( RIP-poison res)
T-God (light sorb)
Fort/enigma

Nice thing here is you hit the last breakpoint when using conc/zerk, which is nice since you'll want to zerk in places like throne/chaos where oblivion knights abound.

LoH + Nature also helps balance off your res (fire-poison) if by chance you want to switch to Enigma - which most people like to. RIP on nature is nice when oblivion nights
could get revived, but thats being overly cautious. Some crafted/rares are good too, especially if you went with grief-phase and wanted a lil more leach.

I like T-God for the sorb when I get mobbed by ghosts--?drawing blank..
Especially in a nasty TP while Baaling.

It's defineatly safety build, and just about any dual weilded option kills faster. You could easily equip beast tho- which rips things up nicely.

Thing about doom. I had one and i didn't like the damage or repairing. Also, I think when monsters pop into ice-cubes, there drops are affected.


edit: also, the Damage to demons on LoH is pretty sweet. I would think that once your level is high enough to equip all that, you're gonna boss run/lvl most of the time anyway= demons. Otherwise rends/crafted CB/ or dracs are fine- crafted especially with 20% ias on em.
 
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umbrik

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

Wait. The only IAS that affects ww is the one from your weapons, so IAS from LoH, SS, arreats and so on are useless. And the build already has max res so...
I agree it's a pain having to repair Doom though...

But thanks for reply, I think I'll change dracs for LoH now.
 
Barloc

Barloc

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

umbrik said:
Wait. The only IAS that affects ww is the one from your weapons, so IAS from LoH, SS, arreats and so on are useless. And the build already has max res so...
I agree it's a pain having to repair Doom though...

But thanks for reply, I think I'll change dracs for LoH now.
Click to expand...
Yes quite right. The additional IAS is for Berzerk, that's the breakpoint I'm talking about. Even though you are ww, I just think your going to berzerk alot - I do, but that's just me. It's just fun and effective when you do berserk at top speed.

Otherwise, ebotdz+HL hits just one notch below max, which isn't bad either.

These are just recommendations that can enhance your play experience, like using enigma for example. Otherwise, there's really nothing wrong with anything that you chose in the first place- just scrap what you don't like.



 
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galzohar

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

Even maxed berserk with maxed synergies at top (9 frames) breakpoint you will not do more damage/second than just whirlwinding (since ww is 4 frames per attack, more than 2x the speed, while dealing more than 1/2 the damage per attack). Berserk is really just a 1 point to kill PIs/IM unless you're too cheap/lazy (which doesn't make sense as it takes no time to stock and actually speeds you up) to use mana potions against unleechable mobs, and are not afraid of dying standing still to attack while having 0 defense.
 
Barloc

Barloc

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

It's playing style too. I forget that many people are just total Baal run/ Chaos leechers when they level, so they do nothing more then enter TP and just stand there the entire time. I'd rather join in the killing, after giving BO, and Berserk is the best way to hit the ground running in those area regardless of any calculated damage/second. Not worth giving up xp on accidental death, especially when your 90+. Also, since it's so easy to hit max breakpoint for zerk without compromising your main ww skill- why not?
 
Barloc

Barloc

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

BierWiser said:
Grief's top IAS is 40% while BOTD's is 60%.
Click to expand...
Unless it's a 40% IAS Grief Phase Blade, which would be 10% faster overall than ebotdzerker due to the base speed advantage (phase= -30 / zerker=0)



 
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galzohar

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Advice for PvM Whirlwind Barbarian

If you're using whirlwind, any 1h/sword BotD is just as fast as any [5] or faster grief. 2h weapons [0] or faster will also have the exact same speed using BotD.

For normal attacks, note also that [-30] weapon with 40% IAS is not 10% faster than 60% IAS weapon. On one hand there are diminishing returns that don't apply to the [-30], but then again 1.7X speed less than 1.1X of 1.6X (1.1*1.6=1.71). So to get real results go to the german attack speed calculator, calculate (damage/hit)/(frames/hit)=damge/frame (multiply by 25 if you want damage/second) for both weapons and see what wins.

Again for whirlwind it's quite easy since you realistically only use 4fpa weapons so higher damage=better as long as it allows you to keep 4fpa.
 
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