How Important are Masteries???

J

jblakely

Diabloii.Net Member
How Important are Masteries???

I am building a Frenzy Barb and I wanted to know how important Masteries are to them?

Traditionally I put 20 points in whichever Mastery I need so that I can get my AR up and hit stuff, but with new synergies, and especially with synergies on Frenzy barb points are very useful elsewhere.

So people have given me the following suggestions but are they better?

1) put only one point mastery of choice and let + skills take care of the rest.

2) put one point in each, or at least in axe, mace, and sword so I have better equipment choice.

3) dont worry about it, just find a weapon that ignores target defese and always hits.

It still seem to me that maxing it would be better than the synergies in the long run and that i should plan on two of the same weapon, but just wanted to hear some others idea on how to do it.

Also, if you have ignore target defence on one weapon, do you need on both.....or will it work with both since ya have it on one?

Any help would be appreciated. Rigth now I have the following, but I have held back 20 to fill in mastery and wonder if I can invest it in double swing or thaunt.

20 Frenzy
20 BO
20 shout
10 Double Swing
01 beserk, battlecry, taunt, leap
and all pre-reqs

Jack :drink:
 
D

DhR_PvP

Diabloii.Net Member
IMO the best frenzy skill lay out is:

20 Frenzy
20 Bo
20 Shout
15-20 Taunt
5-10 Mastery
1 zerk, bc, NR, Inc Speed
Pre-reqs of course

Really no need for leap(short range)
and higher lvl taunt would be more usefull than DS

if you have extra skill points they could go the the synergies or mastery
 
B

bres

Diabloii.Net Member
DhR_PvP said:
IMO the best frenzy skill lay out is:

20 Frenzy
20 Bo
20 Shout
15-20 Taunt
5-10 Mastery
1 zerk, bc, NR, Inc Speed
Pre-reqs of course

Really no need for leap(short range)
and higher lvl taunt would be more usefull than DS

if you have extra skill points they could go the the synergies or mastery
Click to expand...
you will have to find some good res items / charms if you choose to go this way...
 
J

jblakely

Diabloii.Net Member
Ok, I was a little wrong on my stats, that is what I was planning but I have not actually invested 20 in shout or 10 in double swing yet, I decided to wait until I heard from more peeps but forgot I did not place points yet. Right now they are at 1 only, thats why I still have 35 points left and mastery empty. So, im a level 77 barb with:

20 Frenzy
20 BO
01 Taunt, leap*, bazerk, battle cry, battle commnad, shout, all the passives (Resists, stamana, speed, and iron skin) and all pre-reqs.

* I use leap since I dont have teleport on this barb and sometimes I want to jump past things :).

points not used = 35

8 pts to skills from items......15 pts to shouts from items, charms, and weapon switch.

I am currently using:

Arreats 5% unsocketed
Archon COH
Draculs
Hearty Cord
Sandstorm (trying to get gores)
Raven frost
Carriun wind
High Lords
2 * Death Cleaver (thinking of Bezerker BOTD and Bezerker Doom for final weapons)

Stats with items on

Str = 159
Dex = 73
Vit = 314
Eng = 28

points not used = 130

Resits in hell are 75 without hell anya :)

Chance to hit act 5 hell monsters is around 50% (+/- depending on which one). :(

Chance they will hit me the same.

This is the problem, I need to do better than 50% and usually I take care of it with mastery, but by what I am seeing it sounds like I dont need to max to get good chance.

Jack :drink:
 
D

Diehard

Diabloii.Net Member
1) put only one point mastery of choice and let + skills take care of the rest.

This can work. Obviously, you will want to pump synergies for the extra damage. I'm not really fond of it, as it doesn't have the flexibility of the next option...

2) put one point in each, or at least in axe, mace, and sword so I have better equipment choice.

I had a lot of success with this setup, but it is much more effective when good equipment is scarce (like it was when the ladder started) and you don't have your "final" weapons lined up in advance. If you have two death cleavers with BOTD berserkers on the way, then by all means stick with axe only.

3) dont worry about it, just find a weapon that ignores target defese and always hits.

A number of decent runewords provide this effect, but remember that the big bad guys are immune to it.

Also, if you have ignore target defence on one weapon, do you need on both.....or will it work with both since ya have it on one?

It's a weapon specific effect.

If you are sticking with axes, then you might as well invest some points in mastery: 4 (best critical strike returns) and 10 (decent critical strike returns, +100% AR) are two obvious breakpoints. Keep in mind that since you aren't pumping up dex, your gear needs to provide a decent base of AR.

One difference in our builds is that I really like the warcry-battlecry-frenzy combo - stun your enemies, reduce their defense, and then smash them at high speed. Repeat as required. Of course, this means shout gets neglected (just 1 point).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top