Project idea: Base str/dex singer barb

Project idea: Base str/dex singer barb

So here's the idea. Singer barbs get BO to huge levels, and thus have lots of life. What if I you put all your points in vita (410 at clvl 80, or BO-able 1640 life), and left everything else at base? Could you do it?

Gear ideas:
2x HotO in flail (41 str, 35 dex)
Vipermagi (45 str)
+3 warcries circlet /w str/dex or res (socket fal's/ko's or res)
+3 warcries ammy of the whale
Frostburns (60 str)
Arachnid's
2x SoJ
Silkweaves
Warcry charms and life/mana sc's

I could socket the vipermagi and circlet with fal's or ko's to get to the dex requirement (or I could cheat and use something like cat's eye to equip the Hoto's, which would then add their dex so I could use them) and fal's to get to the str requirement (or I could use charms).

What kind of life could I expect from such a build? Right now, with 6 skillers, I'm looking at a clvl 43 BO. 6k-7k? How about if I use the the Oak Sage on the HotO?

crg

 

Don't you ever, ever use a Fal or a Ko in any armor/headgear! Perfect emeralds/amethysts give the exact same bonus!

Other than that, well, I suppose that's what a singer barb should look like anyway. Be warned that your dmg will never be really high, and you are likely to chug down mana potions every 20 seconds (but you already knew that, didn't you?). Also, I don't consider temporarily boosting stats to wear items cheating, not even cheesy. Do it in-game, and there's no reason to think otherwise. In fact, I'm trying to plan my stats according to the item bonuses, but it's harder when playing untwinked.

 

I don't recall how wealthy you are CRG, but you could swap vipermagi for another armor (COH comes in mind, 1.09 Arcaine's too) and get 1 10% FCR ring or use a +3 warcries circlet of the apprentice to hit the 105% FCR breakpoint.

edit: the best helm is actually Delirium Primal Helm w/ +3 War Cry, +3 Battle Order, +1-3 Battle Comand or Natural Resistance or Berserk.
I would personnally go for a crafted caster ring w/ +resist +str 10% FCR to hit the 105% FCR breakpoint

 

I have a CoH, in an Archon, and a v1.07 Valor, however, those would defeat the idea of the build. The str requirements (103 for archon and 165 or 141 /w -15% req jewel for the valor) are too high and many points would be wasted. I'm not worried about defense because everything will be stunned. I'll have plenty of res (hoto/hoto/vipermagi/slvl 12 nat. res).

crg

 

I was mentionning COH for the +str +resist and +skills. If you have a Ber to waste you could make it in a plain breast plate, or wathever armor you can wear without investing in str

 

150 Life (Charms)
60 Life (Quests)
160 Life (Level 81)
1660 Life (Vitality)
90 Life (Amulet)

2120 Total (Pre-buff)

5533 Total (+161% BO Modifier)

6487 Total (+161% BO Modifier + 45% OS Modifier)

 

my latest WW barb almost reach 5k life with arkys (with around 100 life from charms) He was lvl 86, but BO was "only" lvl 31. The added life from arkys is huge, well worth the strength invested (and I didn't hel'ed it either)
of course, if your project is to skip the dex/str stat allocation, or if you need the 30% FCR from magi, go ahead.

 

Yeah, I've got a BvC barb that used 07 arkaine's and he gets about 6k life. I don't remember his BO, but it's similar to yours.

crg

 

That gets me thinking I wonder if you could make a wolf barb like strijdje's but with base strength and dex if you had the right gear. Although his barb was pretty decked out already what with the botd and all. Might be possible with an enigma breast plate or something although losing the 1.07 valor drops the life by quite a bit I imagine.

 

Wow! That's some nice life. My PURE Vit wolfy only has just under 6k (599x'ish)
The wolf which has no points in STR/DEX gets about 156 strength (requirements for Ethereal Edge,) so with the right equipment, it can be done quite easily.

I think I want a 1.07 valor, but the lack of +str would be a pain for me!

 

Unfortunatly I can't edit this post anymore but I just realised this could be a bit before a lot of peoples time so I should probably link to the pat thread for this character so they know what I'm talking about.

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=266603

This character also ended up being leveled to 99.

Pity the screen shots don't work anymore but it had 11k+ health(an update later in the thread puts him at lv91 with 13k life) and several thousand damage attack despite the fact he says it lacks damage. This is all if I remember correctly. Well the damage is atleast I know the life from all the posts in that thread. :tongue:

I bet we see a post from strijdje now he always knows when we are talking about him it's down right spooky. :hide:


Sorry for going a bit off topic CRG.

 

Meh. Don't worry about it. One of the reasons for my HF rushing (rusher is in act 4 NM, atm) is to get another HotO for a Wolfie (instead of packing the Hoto and an echoing weapon). If I'm crazy enough, I'll go RWM for a Grief weapon and Fort armor. If so, I'd make the a wolfbarb with the following:

Wolfhowl
Grief Phase/SS
2x HotO on switch
Fortitude (Enigma in cube, if I ever get it)
LoH
2x Raven
Atma's
T-God's
War Trav's

Inventory filled with Sharp GC's of life/sus/vita and other to fill holes.

I think the build would work incredibly well. The damage from grief/fort would be overwhelming, as would attack speed (31% IAS on the grief gets me to 7 fpa). The only issue is that you lose a lot of life if you use a shield and go for blocking, despite how tough it makes the character. And besides, if you invest the dex to use a pb, you might as well go with blocking.

crg

 

2 HotT :greedy: When I quit I was still stuggling to make my first.

 

Well, it's really an easy runeword to make if you've been through the HF a few times. Vex = 2 Gul, the highest rune dropped at hell HF, and the countess can drop Pul quite easily. The idea would be to have the two HotO's on switch for the 80% FC (hit the 65% BP for tele) and the res (both from the +6 to NR and the +30-40 on each so you don't get smoked by gloams like my pally does).

Here's the thing about runes and runewords, but first, a little crg character philosophy (remember, I always aim for super-optimization and efficiency):

Characters are sorted into a few developmental stages: First-runs, optimized and god amid mortals.

Beginning
These are your first few characters that you build. Their stats are erradic because you didn't have anything to give them ahead-of-hand. Think your met/orb builds and hammerdins with too much str/dex and points in energy. They are designed (generally) to MF and feed the next two stages.

Optimized
Optimized characters have their stat points and gear pre-planned. Also, the person also has the gear before beginning the character (generally). Plain skillers and jewels are socketed, and runes up to Vex (maybe Ohm, if you're lucky) are available.

Most people have the gear to make characters that end up here because of the time and character investment it takes to go further in character development.

God amid mortals
These characters are the epitome of character development. Not only are the characters pre-planned, but they are designed with a specific intent in mind (i.e. MF'ing [pick your target], baal running to 99, PvP (generally designed around a rule-set) or just PvM (anyone who plays the whole game at /p8)). Their gear is close to perfect (always room for slight improvements) and they are generally riddled with runewords. Charms and jewels are dual-modded.

Now, there are different levels of characters in this status. Think of characters as rapids in a river. Rapids are classified according to difficulty, obstacles length, wave height and water volume. There are C-I, C-II, C-III, C-IV C-V and C-VI. C-I through C-IV are measured mostly by wave height, where 1/3 meter equals one level. Between C-I and C-IV, there are no non-integer classes (like C-1.7, for example). However, rapids between 5.0 and 6 do move up by .1 each class. Moving up by .1 is like going from C-1 to C-2. Impossible and never-run rapids are C-VI, and they scale down from there by values of .1 (as soon as someone runs one and lives to tell about it).

Such is like these characters. Each skiller of vita or ruby jewel of fervor bumps characters up a notch or two. While the improvement is statistically small, the benefit is huge, especially when one piles on more and more of these small benefits.

Make sense?

A few examples:
Lycan, by strijdje
TUB, by Kabal
Raging_Behemoth, by Zhao_Yue
Dynasty (and its predecesor, Achmel), Euthanasia and Murdercat, all by Liquid_Evil
Ayla, by Grogs (99 blizzardess)
Fortuna, by Tweety (99 blizzballer)
Kara, by DarkChaos (99 Blizzballer)
Many PvP'ers (Sorry folks, but PvP is all about optimization)
Any character who is high up in the Race to 99 ladder

Back to runes, briefly: Runes (and runewords) are create that aura of invincibility for our characters. They are there to augment our already strong builds, and some of them (CtA, Exile, Grief and Enigma, to name a few) instantly take characters from Optimized to god amid men (grief and enigma expecially). High runes are quite unnecessary to beating the game (check out TWD III for proof, where no runewords are allowed), they push characters beyond a certain efficiency point.

crg