Hybrid Barb

[PhatTrumpet]

Hybrid Barb

So I've never really splurged on a bunch of dupe-runes, but considering how cheap and common they are now and how crappy the D2 economy is at this point I figured I'd try it out just for the hell of it. I was pondering a somewhat eccentric hybrid WW/Zerk PvM Barb build. The idea is to combine the Teleporting, crowd control, and raw single-target damage output of a 'Grief'/SS Berserker with the versatility and AoE damage of a dual-wielding WWer.

The gear:

Arreat's (probably Um'ed)
Highlord's
'Enigma'
'Grief' Zerk / 'Beast' Zerk on WW switch
'Grief' PB / SS (probably Eld'ed) on Berserk switch (Wizzy / SS for Teleporting)
Bloodfist
TGod's or Verdungo's
Gore Riders
Ravenfrost / nifty rare

And the skills:

20 Berserk
20 WW
20 BO
20 Shout
one-point wonders (Sword Mastery, Axe Mastery, Inc. Speed, Nat. Res., BC, WC)
rest in Howl

Questions:

Considering all the +skills I will have (about +10), is one point in War Cry going to cut it or even be useful? The German skill planner says slvl 11 War Cry gives 3 seconds of stun, but IIRC that gets cut by 1/2 in Nightmare and 1/4 in Hell.

Should I switch Shout and Howl? Maxing Shout would increase my defense from ~7k to ~10k. Again though, considering all the +skills, does Howl qualify as a one-point wonder until I finish off the rest of my skills?

Merc: should the Warcries be enough crowd control so that I can go with the extra damage of a Might Merc? If no, would Holy Freeze be the best choice? Or maybe I should just be a little different and go with an Act 3 Cold Merc so he won't pwn himself on IM all the time.

Input appreciated, thanks.

 

[ComeOfAge]

For the merc you could also go an act1 faith bow mercenary. I find that she is often a better choice than an act3 merc and an act2 merc.

 

[Full_Circle]

An act 5 Lawbringer Crystal Sword merc rarely dies to IM, provides you with some Decrepify action for increased WW damage, and the usual KB undead. He's everything you need.

I would keep the points in Shout. The one I might consider reducing for points in Howl would be Whirlwind... I'm not sure 20 points is necessary.

Gloves - LoH is hawt.

 

[PhatTrumpet]

LoH... of course... why didn't I think of that?

It wouldn't really be as much of a hybrid if I didn't max WW, so I think I will stick with that. Besides, Howl functions fairly well un-maxed on my IK Barb, and the extra Zerk dmg won't be all that significant.

The only problems I have with the 'Faith' Merc are that the speed will go to waste and the damage boost isn't all that great compared to wearing it yourself (I already get Fanat from 'Beast' anyway).

Treb: What's your experience (or lack thereof) with War Cry on your Zerker (what slvl is it; how well does it work; do you use it very often)?

 

[Full_Circle]

My original berserker this season, the legit one, had 1 point in Warcry. It is marginally useful, but for most situations, you're just better off howling. It might be better for a Whirlwinder, though, since you can kill mobs better than a zerker can.

Neither of my Tele-Zerkers had any points in Warcry.

 

[PhatTrumpet]

RenaissanceMan

So I made him, and he was totally sweet. I played him to lvl 86, and then he died... exactly the way I expected him to, actually. Alas, my dreams of a fast, efficient CS- and Baal-running Barb are crushed... for now.

The gear ended up as:
Arreat's (socketed with a rare 26ed/-reqs/10allres jewel... because I had it laying around and didn't foresee a better use for it)
Highlord's
'Grief' Zerker + 'Beast' Zerker on WW switch (absolutely awful rolls on both... that's what I get for making them myself)
'Grief' PB + 'Eld' Stormshield on Zerk switch (PB was a decent roll... got it from Socialism)
'Enigma' Archon (which was completely idiotic because I had to re-strbug my gear every time I entered a game using a 29 str ammy, a 5 str lc, and Headstriker)
LoH
TGod's
Gore Riders
mid-ish Ravenfrost
dual leech ring

My Act 5 Pwnarific All-ethereal Merc had:
eth Arreat's
eth 'Lawbringer' Balrog Blade (BB instead of Crystal because I wanted him to be able to leech back enough life to sustain himself when things got hairy)
e-bugged 'Stone' Sacred Armor (he had ~32k defense after Shout... no aura)

My inventory was filled mostly with mediocre ar/lifers (also had Torch, Anni, and a BCombat lifer). I ended up with ~14k defense, 4.5k life, maxed resists, near lightning immunity, and 43%DR with max block on Zerk switch.

So what finally did him in? Oh I bet you can guess...

During the second wave of minions it momentarily slipped my mind that there were a couple Oblivion Knight corpses nearby. I spammed War Cry as they spawned (as usual) to try to keep them stunned until I could WW them to death, but right in the middle of one of my (short-ish) whirls one of the mummies came out of stun, resurrected an OK, who cast IM on me, which killed me before I even came out of my whirl.

I'm obviously pretty bummed about losing all that gear, but I actually laughed when it happened because it was pretty much exactly what I expected would happen. Overall, the build is surprisingly effective and nearly invincible as long as you can deal with that second wave of minions. If I ever get the itch to rebuild, I'll either dump more points into War Cry for a longer stun length or maybe just switch my strategy to spamming War Cry in between Conc attacks (although that can become rather tedious when Baal casts Decrep on you).

So... a very cool build if you have some wealth and are sick of the same old spellcasters.

 

[Socialism]

RIP

What a primo build though!

 

[Hp_Sauce]

Sorry about your loss PT. He looks like he was sweet!

Question:
why not just throw a Natures Peace in his backpack and throw it on when you're clearing the Throne Room?

-hps

 

[PhatTrumpet]

Simple: I didn't think of it. I thought of letting my Merc kill all the OK's ('Lawbringer' has SMRIP mod on it) but he killed kind of slowly (especially when Decrep'ed) and was fairly easily distracted.

That's definitely what I'll do if I ever rebuild, though. :thumbsup:

 

[rachil0]

Maybe another option is to use find item, find potion, or grim ward on the corpses of dead OK's. That takes them out of play too, doesn't it?

 

[Hp_Sauce]

Maybe another option is to use find item, find potion, or grim ward on the corpses of dead OK's. That takes them out of play too, doesn't it?

That's not a bad idea either. Or even if you decided to carry a Natures Peace and somehow your Merc managed to get a kill you could just Hork that body.

-hps

 

[Aldragon]

Hi, PT your welcome to check out the best PvM baba i´ve ever built . He´s a dual or single wielded sword. 1 is a ebotd CB other is a grief Zweihander (or whatever the name is) pst * Wenk or *Darkhistory on useast hcl ill show you his gear currently lvl 92, hes a rusher CS cleaner and tele baaler w me any time.
Al

 

[Socialism]

Hi, PT your welcome to check out the best PvM baba i´ve ever built . He´s a dual or single wielded sword. 1 is a ebotd CB other is a grief Zweihander (or whatever the name is) pst * Wenk or *Darkhistory on useast hcl ill show you his gear currently lvl 92, hes a rusher CS cleaner and tele baaler w me any time.
Al

haha I'd like to see this build : )

 

[Aldragon]

haha I'd like to see this build : )

You´re welcome to check it out too
Al