Gen_Hannibal
Diabloii.Net Member
Everything you ever wanted to know about IK barbs, but were afraid to ask... ooooohhh
OK bnet's down right now and I got nothing better to do than to sit here and read some of the strategy guides and there's just a few hints that I'd like to give to people considering making an IK barb:
#1 If he's gonna be IK make him IK all the way.
I know this sounds kinda stupid but take it from somebody who started a barb then got the exp pack 1/2 through. Once upon a time a barb was wandering around and found an IK set and discovered that even though he did massive ammounts of dmg with it, just because he'd spent a few points in the wrong skills he was screwed. How do I know this? Well that lvl ** barb still exists, but he's nothing more than a glorified mule now that my new barb who's 11 levels lower than him is dealing over 1000 more in dmg without any of my skills even maxed yet.
Whirlwind is nice. I use it quite a lot especially in cow levels where it's easy to get swamped all of a sudden. And berzerk probably deals more damage per hit than any other attack by any other class in the game. But there's a fundamental flaw with both of these that not too many people think about.
Whirlwind with an IK set means that you're only using the ogre maul. What's that mean? Well, whirlwind does add to your AR, BUT when you use whirlwind with only one weapon you're not getting the 50% bonus from dual weilding (see http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/barbarian-combatskills.shtml#concentrate for explanation) Also, whirlwind doesn't benefit from any synergies, save for the bonus from mace mastery even though that benefits whatever kind of attack you choose.
Now berzerk is a whole different story. As I said before, berzerk does MASSIVE damage but there's a BIG problem with it, defense. What's the point of putting on all this armor if berzerk makes it an almost surety that you're going to get hit due to the defense penelty it has? You can throw all the points you want into iron skin and shout you want but when that penelty kicks in, that's not going to mean squat. Besides, look at the synergies that berzerk has, shout and howl. Now howl's not a bad skill, but I don't see it as being something that most people are going to be willing to max out, especially since barbs WANT to keep those bad guys near so they don't have to go running all over the screen just to hit a guy. And as for shout, what's the point in maxing it out if your defense is going to go in the toilet everytime you try to attack a guy?
For my money, concentrate is the way to go. Sure, it's a little bit more tedious than just whirling through a crowd, but it gets the job done a lot faster than you might think. And when you look at how the synergies stack with concentrate vs. berzerk it's not really that tough. Since berzerk pretty much negates your defense when you're attacking (i.e. anytime there's an enemy nearby) then there's not much point in maxing out shout and you're not gonna max out howl either. So basically maxing out berzerk is gonna get you all the damage that you're gonna use, 435% magic (+ whatever it is when you add on the additional 7 skills you get from full IK). BUT, concentrate on the other hand synergizes with BO, a skill I have yet to find a barb guide on that DOESN"T tell you to max. BO adds 10% damage per level, so that's an additional 200% damage from a skill that you were already gonna use anyways. Level 20 concentrate gives you an additional 165% damage so add the 200% that you get from BO and you're actually not losing that much over berzerk. And with good ed jewels in the helm and armor, it's actually quite feasible to come out ahead of berzerk in damage, not to mention the bonus to defense that basically keeps you from being hit hardly ever.
Another good point to make with concentrate over berzerk... magic damage doesn't let you leech. Let's say that a monster DOES manage to get through your massive defense and hit you. When you're dealing over 5k damage that means you're leeching back 500 with every hit and that's just from the 10% ll from the set itself. That's not even counting any additional life drain you may do from rings, ammys, or 2nd mods on your ed jewels.
Now don't get me wrong, both of these skills are VERY good to have. I've got them both myself, but IMO concentrate should at least be the first of these that you throw any major points into. IK adds +7 to all combat skills so even if you only throw a point or two into ww and berzerk they should still be able to do the job in tight spots where concentrate isn't really a viable choice.
#2 Yes Virginia, there IS a mf barb.
Barb's have a REALLY overlooked ability that no other class can even come close to topping when it comes to mf'ing: find item. This basically gives you another chance to get items of just about every monster in the game, which is basically DOUBLING a barb's mf over any other class. Now here's where the problem lies. Just about every guide I've seen on barbs has it engraved in stone to: "never, ever, EVER put any points into energy. I don't care if you're being told to do it at gunpoint, don't do it. Don't waste that stat point on something you'll never use!" Well... I'm gonna do it! You can't stop me! I'm putting points into mana and there's nothing anybody can do about it! MUUUUUUUUUWAHAHAHAHA! Excuse me.
Find item costs 7 mana points. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Except when you consider how many times do you see 20 or 30 guys lying dead on the ground? ESPECIALLY in cow games. Now I'm not saying to go nuts or anything and have like 1k in mana, but there's nothing wrong with having around 100-150 mana points by the time you reach level 75. Just one point here or there and it really starts to add up. You get 2 points of mana for every 1 point you put into energy and with your max BO doubling your mana. even having only 55 total points into mana would help a lot. Especially if you go with an soj instead of a BK ring which adds +20 to mana and +25% to maximum mana as well as the same +1 skills as BK ring has. (good little note here... until you manage to come across a couple +3 warcry spears try carrying a pair of the heart carver rondels as your secondaries to give you a total of +8 to find potion, find item, and grim ward to use when mf'ing dead bodies)
#3 Does this jewelry make my butt look big?
Ok so I already kinda got into this one in the last statement but I'm gonna go ahead anyways.
For rings: BK is nice if you can afford it, but there's really not a whole lot of need to have that additional 5% life steal, especially when you consider how much that's gonna cost you over an SOJ.
Now for the secondary ring... raven frost is nice for the cannot be frozen as well as the big boost to your AR, but if you make your dex and life pretty much tied for 2nd place just behind your strength (especially with the +560 AR bonus from the set, +450 for whole set and another +110 from the boots) it's not really needed. Not to mention that the boots also limit you to half freeze duration. Granted, it's not as good as cannot be frozen but... whatayagonnado?
For ammys: A lot of IK barb's like the highlord's. It's not a bad ammy at all. +1 to all skills, 20% ias, and a decent bonus to deadly strike.
I've also head a lot of people talking about metalgrid though and I have to say: STAY AWAY FROM IT! The ONLY thing that metalgrid will help you with is AR and if you've already got a decent ammount of points into dex or if you've decided to put on a good raven frost then you should be fine without that even. I know what you're thinking: "Well what about that 300-350 defense?" Look, you're WAY better off to go with something that'll boost ALL your skills including your shout another 10% so as long as you've got over 3500 defense then 10% MORE defense is going to be better than that.
Personally, I'd go with either a seraph's or a mara's. Both are +2 to all skills, so in my opinon they have just about every other unique ammy there is beaten hands down, with the possible exception of highlord's. But they've also got some other nice mods.
Mara's has +5 to all stats, which means you're getting another 20 to life, not to mention the fact that you'll only have to put 1 point into natural resists and still be maxed in hell. And that'll help you out a LOT when your resists are low until you can put on the full armor at lvl 76.
Now seraph's on the other hand, seraph's doesn't add to resists, BUT it does add to your AR for those of you who need it, and it adds a % to your damage vs deamons and undead. Now I have yet to find anywhere that says wether that helps with bosses, uniques, and super uniques, but even if it doesn't, I still think that it would be excellent in PVM.
#4 Don't go out in the cold without your armor!
This is what your mom told you growing up and it turns out she knew what she was talking about. What? You mean my mom was the only one who said that? (shrugs)
Don't go into hell until you're high enough level to wear your whole IK set. I don't care how bad arse you THINK you are, chances are you're gonna get SERIOUSLY worked in hell without it unless you've got charms/runes/or MAJORLY high uniques coming out the ying yang. I know it starts to take a while to gain those levels in baal runs when you used to be able to grab a level or two out of every one and now it's taking 4 or 5 runs just to get 1 level but STICK WITH IT!
And one last quick tip... on your way to getting to that level 76, occassionally take off all your equipment and check where your stats are just to make sure that when you DO get to level 76 that you'll have the 232 strength needed to wear the armor. Because there's nothing worse than having to run around with 1 single space open in your inventory because the rest is filled with strength charms.
Well that's bout all I got here, and I'm sad to say but I don't often check in one the forums (Damn wife's got me on a time limit for the computer, so it's sit here and read articles about D2 or actually PLAY it), but if anybody wants to make a comment, slam, add-on, etc to this feel free... just don't expect me to be reading it right away. Oh and for a more in-depth look at the concentrate barb, check out Halciet's article on it at: http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=506 (And Halciet if you happen to read this, that was my inspiration for throwing my old, messed up barb away. It was great. It was moving. It was a wonderful article written by an awesome guy. I cou;d've never done it without you. Did you ever know that you're my hero? You're the wind beneath my wings. :lol: OK I'm off to pick out a china pattern now. :xmad: Laterz.
OK bnet's down right now and I got nothing better to do than to sit here and read some of the strategy guides and there's just a few hints that I'd like to give to people considering making an IK barb:
#1 If he's gonna be IK make him IK all the way.
I know this sounds kinda stupid but take it from somebody who started a barb then got the exp pack 1/2 through. Once upon a time a barb was wandering around and found an IK set and discovered that even though he did massive ammounts of dmg with it, just because he'd spent a few points in the wrong skills he was screwed. How do I know this? Well that lvl ** barb still exists, but he's nothing more than a glorified mule now that my new barb who's 11 levels lower than him is dealing over 1000 more in dmg without any of my skills even maxed yet.
Whirlwind is nice. I use it quite a lot especially in cow levels where it's easy to get swamped all of a sudden. And berzerk probably deals more damage per hit than any other attack by any other class in the game. But there's a fundamental flaw with both of these that not too many people think about.
Whirlwind with an IK set means that you're only using the ogre maul. What's that mean? Well, whirlwind does add to your AR, BUT when you use whirlwind with only one weapon you're not getting the 50% bonus from dual weilding (see http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/barbarian-combatskills.shtml#concentrate for explanation) Also, whirlwind doesn't benefit from any synergies, save for the bonus from mace mastery even though that benefits whatever kind of attack you choose.
Now berzerk is a whole different story. As I said before, berzerk does MASSIVE damage but there's a BIG problem with it, defense. What's the point of putting on all this armor if berzerk makes it an almost surety that you're going to get hit due to the defense penelty it has? You can throw all the points you want into iron skin and shout you want but when that penelty kicks in, that's not going to mean squat. Besides, look at the synergies that berzerk has, shout and howl. Now howl's not a bad skill, but I don't see it as being something that most people are going to be willing to max out, especially since barbs WANT to keep those bad guys near so they don't have to go running all over the screen just to hit a guy. And as for shout, what's the point in maxing it out if your defense is going to go in the toilet everytime you try to attack a guy?
For my money, concentrate is the way to go. Sure, it's a little bit more tedious than just whirling through a crowd, but it gets the job done a lot faster than you might think. And when you look at how the synergies stack with concentrate vs. berzerk it's not really that tough. Since berzerk pretty much negates your defense when you're attacking (i.e. anytime there's an enemy nearby) then there's not much point in maxing out shout and you're not gonna max out howl either. So basically maxing out berzerk is gonna get you all the damage that you're gonna use, 435% magic (+ whatever it is when you add on the additional 7 skills you get from full IK). BUT, concentrate on the other hand synergizes with BO, a skill I have yet to find a barb guide on that DOESN"T tell you to max. BO adds 10% damage per level, so that's an additional 200% damage from a skill that you were already gonna use anyways. Level 20 concentrate gives you an additional 165% damage so add the 200% that you get from BO and you're actually not losing that much over berzerk. And with good ed jewels in the helm and armor, it's actually quite feasible to come out ahead of berzerk in damage, not to mention the bonus to defense that basically keeps you from being hit hardly ever.
Another good point to make with concentrate over berzerk... magic damage doesn't let you leech. Let's say that a monster DOES manage to get through your massive defense and hit you. When you're dealing over 5k damage that means you're leeching back 500 with every hit and that's just from the 10% ll from the set itself. That's not even counting any additional life drain you may do from rings, ammys, or 2nd mods on your ed jewels.
Now don't get me wrong, both of these skills are VERY good to have. I've got them both myself, but IMO concentrate should at least be the first of these that you throw any major points into. IK adds +7 to all combat skills so even if you only throw a point or two into ww and berzerk they should still be able to do the job in tight spots where concentrate isn't really a viable choice.
#2 Yes Virginia, there IS a mf barb.
Barb's have a REALLY overlooked ability that no other class can even come close to topping when it comes to mf'ing: find item. This basically gives you another chance to get items of just about every monster in the game, which is basically DOUBLING a barb's mf over any other class. Now here's where the problem lies. Just about every guide I've seen on barbs has it engraved in stone to: "never, ever, EVER put any points into energy. I don't care if you're being told to do it at gunpoint, don't do it. Don't waste that stat point on something you'll never use!" Well... I'm gonna do it! You can't stop me! I'm putting points into mana and there's nothing anybody can do about it! MUUUUUUUUUWAHAHAHAHA! Excuse me.
Find item costs 7 mana points. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Except when you consider how many times do you see 20 or 30 guys lying dead on the ground? ESPECIALLY in cow games. Now I'm not saying to go nuts or anything and have like 1k in mana, but there's nothing wrong with having around 100-150 mana points by the time you reach level 75. Just one point here or there and it really starts to add up. You get 2 points of mana for every 1 point you put into energy and with your max BO doubling your mana. even having only 55 total points into mana would help a lot. Especially if you go with an soj instead of a BK ring which adds +20 to mana and +25% to maximum mana as well as the same +1 skills as BK ring has. (good little note here... until you manage to come across a couple +3 warcry spears try carrying a pair of the heart carver rondels as your secondaries to give you a total of +8 to find potion, find item, and grim ward to use when mf'ing dead bodies)
#3 Does this jewelry make my butt look big?
Ok so I already kinda got into this one in the last statement but I'm gonna go ahead anyways.
For rings: BK is nice if you can afford it, but there's really not a whole lot of need to have that additional 5% life steal, especially when you consider how much that's gonna cost you over an SOJ.
Now for the secondary ring... raven frost is nice for the cannot be frozen as well as the big boost to your AR, but if you make your dex and life pretty much tied for 2nd place just behind your strength (especially with the +560 AR bonus from the set, +450 for whole set and another +110 from the boots) it's not really needed. Not to mention that the boots also limit you to half freeze duration. Granted, it's not as good as cannot be frozen but... whatayagonnado?
For ammys: A lot of IK barb's like the highlord's. It's not a bad ammy at all. +1 to all skills, 20% ias, and a decent bonus to deadly strike.
I've also head a lot of people talking about metalgrid though and I have to say: STAY AWAY FROM IT! The ONLY thing that metalgrid will help you with is AR and if you've already got a decent ammount of points into dex or if you've decided to put on a good raven frost then you should be fine without that even. I know what you're thinking: "Well what about that 300-350 defense?" Look, you're WAY better off to go with something that'll boost ALL your skills including your shout another 10% so as long as you've got over 3500 defense then 10% MORE defense is going to be better than that.
Personally, I'd go with either a seraph's or a mara's. Both are +2 to all skills, so in my opinon they have just about every other unique ammy there is beaten hands down, with the possible exception of highlord's. But they've also got some other nice mods.
Mara's has +5 to all stats, which means you're getting another 20 to life, not to mention the fact that you'll only have to put 1 point into natural resists and still be maxed in hell. And that'll help you out a LOT when your resists are low until you can put on the full armor at lvl 76.
Now seraph's on the other hand, seraph's doesn't add to resists, BUT it does add to your AR for those of you who need it, and it adds a % to your damage vs deamons and undead. Now I have yet to find anywhere that says wether that helps with bosses, uniques, and super uniques, but even if it doesn't, I still think that it would be excellent in PVM.
#4 Don't go out in the cold without your armor!
This is what your mom told you growing up and it turns out she knew what she was talking about. What? You mean my mom was the only one who said that? (shrugs)
Don't go into hell until you're high enough level to wear your whole IK set. I don't care how bad arse you THINK you are, chances are you're gonna get SERIOUSLY worked in hell without it unless you've got charms/runes/or MAJORLY high uniques coming out the ying yang. I know it starts to take a while to gain those levels in baal runs when you used to be able to grab a level or two out of every one and now it's taking 4 or 5 runs just to get 1 level but STICK WITH IT!
And one last quick tip... on your way to getting to that level 76, occassionally take off all your equipment and check where your stats are just to make sure that when you DO get to level 76 that you'll have the 232 strength needed to wear the armor. Because there's nothing worse than having to run around with 1 single space open in your inventory because the rest is filled with strength charms.
Well that's bout all I got here, and I'm sad to say but I don't often check in one the forums (Damn wife's got me on a time limit for the computer, so it's sit here and read articles about D2 or actually PLAY it), but if anybody wants to make a comment, slam, add-on, etc to this feel free... just don't expect me to be reading it right away. Oh and for a more in-depth look at the concentrate barb, check out Halciet's article on it at: http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=506 (And Halciet if you happen to read this, that was my inspiration for throwing my old, messed up barb away. It was great. It was moving. It was a wonderful article written by an awesome guy. I cou;d've never done it without you. Did you ever know that you're my hero? You're the wind beneath my wings. :lol: OK I'm off to pick out a china pattern now. :xmad: Laterz.
)