The build centers around the mix of high damage output through increaded damage + crit and survivability through bloodthirst. The theory is that high damage output, coupled with bloodthirst gives a hight amount of self-heal.
The initial, general rotation would be something like this: Furious charge -> Battle Rage -> Hammer of the Ancients (15+ crit change) until overpower activates -> Heroic Leap to stun (to reduce taken damage) -> Overpower and Whirlwind fest depending on amount of enemies (damage + self-heal)
Possible spell changes:
- I chose two fury generating spells, since no passives increases fury generation. I am unsure how much fury the barb generates without any fury buff, so it might be a good idea to swith to something else if normal fury generation is fine. Any thoughts from beta players?
- Seismic Slam vs Hammer of the Ancients: Seismic Slam can have a higher damage output than Hammer of the Ancients. However, the idea is that the increased crit change with Hammer of Ancients will be more suitable when paired with overpower. Thoughts?
- Battle Rage versus Wrath of the Ancients: I chose Battle Rage because of the lengthy duration and low cooldown. I mainly wanted damage and crit, which it provides. Do the longer duration outweigh the lessened effects?
Weapon issues:
- 1h versus 2h: It seems like damage fits best with 2handers, while crit fits best with two 1handers. I honestly have no idea what to go with here.
Edit: I wanted an ´´active´´ build, where the effectiveness of the character depends upon what you press, not which buffs you have. One button smash builds are boring:(
Have any of you created your own barb builds? If so, what is your reasoning behind them, and what do you want to accomplish?
This build sacrifices leap attack and replaces it with War Cry. This is to provide a higher initial burst, so that you can deal high damage from the start, and effectively receive more health from bloodthirst.
Quoted justification: `` What if you sacrifice whirlwind and exchange it with revenge with an alabaster runestone? Both HotA and Revenge would proc overpower because of the +27 crit change revenge gives with the alabaster rune. Imagine if you use HotA on someone with all crit buffs active: +15 (HotA), +27 (Revenge with alabaster runestone), +22 (Overpower with crimson runestone), +4 (Battle Rage), +5 (Ruthless), +5 (Weapons Master) = 63 percent crit chance, from these buffs alone. Overpower would proc quite often.
Add +50 in critical hit damage from ruthless, and the damage output would probably be massive. The single-unit hits from HotA (with a crimson runestone) and the AOE from both Overpower and Revenge should result in quite a few deaths.
10 percent off that damage in self-heal from bloodthirst + the self-heal from revenge + the self-heal from War Cry with an alabaster rune would probably result in some decent self-heals.
And to top it off, the only spells that require fury are battle rage and HotA. The initial burst from War Cry should be more than enough.
However, a new problem appears. Massive damage output is not obtained before overpower procs for the first time. The highest possible damage output is not obtained before revenge procs for the first time. You would be required to spam HotA for a while before you blow up.
Revenge seems to fit the idea of healing through dealing though.``
I looked at your build and for PvE it seems great. Things make sense, except for *maybe* one thing. I'm not sure if you're going to have enough fury for hammer of the ancients or not. I realize you picked it up for when you float enough fury (or there are fewer targets) that you can use HoTA to quickly deal high damage and get out of tough spots.
With that said, maybe consider picking up war cry, since you got the extra damage on charge and have an AOE skill in whirlwind. You could pick up 50% more life, more life regen and more armor, as well as more fury, though now you might have excessive fury- you might not, who really knows. There's also the fact you'll be getting a lot of fury from being hit as a high aggressive low defense melee, meaning even more furry. Whirlwind will do about 190% weapon damage per second for 8 fury. This is extremely cost effective. In other words perhaps your build would work perfectly, perhaps not. Hammer would definitely deal more burst in a tight situation, though it may leave you fury starved, it may not. Know what I mean, like I don't even know if using overpower (dealing non spender skill damage) gives you fury or not? Depends on how much you get hit, how much fury that gives you, etc. I'm being way too critical though. I really like the build.
I'd been thinking of a build similar to this for pve myself, for a sustained dps build.
Edit: I have created several barb pvp builds. I've created several because it's one thing to talk about them and imagine how they will work, and it's another to play with them (gear being another factor). The main theory behind them is to streamline the build for pvp single target damage and survivability. To get as much utility as possible while having the highest single target dps as possible and obtaining as much survivability as possible. Because you have to choose from skills and runes you can't have everything, so you have to make sacrifices. My theory is about making the smallest sacrifices possible to have the highest possible outcome for these three concepts. I lug in mobility with utility. You can see them here.
PS: Didn't understand your statement about being active. There are 6 active skills for each class, 20+ to choose from. Regardless of what they are, at some point or another they become active skills. Some you hit more often, others less often. There isn't really an excuse for having too many similar skills and making bad builds. Even in my pvp frenzy spam build the only difference between it and another build is frenzy is used more often and another utility/damage dealing skill replacing weapon throw is used less often, but as often as possible or called for in a specific situation.
I looked at your build and for PvE it seems great. Things make sense, except for *maybe* one thing. I'm not sure if you're going to have enough fury for hammer of the ancients or not. I realize you picked it up for when you float enough fury (or there are fewer targets) that you can use HoTA to quickly deal high damage and get out of tough spots.
With that said, maybe consider picking up war cry, since you got the extra damage on charge and have an AOE skill in whirlwind. You could pick up 50% more life, more life regen and more armor, as well as more fury, though now you might have excessive fury- you might not, who really knows. There's also the fact you'll be getting a lot of fury from being hit as a high aggressive low defense melee, meaning even more furry. Whirlwind will do about 190% weapon damage per second for 8 fury. This is extremely cost effective. In other words perhaps your build would work perfectly, perhaps not. Hammer would definitely deal more burst in a tight situation, though it may leave you fury starved, it may not. Know what I mean, like I don't even know if using overpower (dealing non spender skill damage) gives you fury or not? Depends on how much you get hit, how much fury that gives you, etc. I'm being way too critical though. I really like the build.
I'd been thinking of a build similar to this for pve myself, for a sustained dps build.
Edit: I have created several barb pvp builds. I've created several because it's one thing to talk about them and imagine how they will work, and it's another to play with them (gear being another factor). The main theory behind them is to streamline the build for pvp single target damage and survivability. To get as much utility as possible while having the highest single target dps as possible and obtaining as much survivability as possible. Because you have to choose from skills and runes you can't have everything, so you have to make sacrifices. My theory is about making the smallest sacrifices possible to have the highest possible outcome for these three concepts. I lug in mobility with utility. You can see them here.
Thanks for the reply! I scoured the forums after I posted and realized that a bunch of people have posted their builds. Was unsure if I would get any response whatsoever.
Yes, it is for PVE. I forgot to mention that^^
Regarding War Cry: I can see your point regarding the fury issue. Are you suggesting to switch out HoTA and replace it with War Cry, or would you switch out something else? I chose HoTA to get a +15 percent chance to proc overpower. Still, not enough fury, no HoTA, no +15 chance to proc overpower.
Maybe War Cry could replace leap attack? The extra armor could negate the effects of losing the stun effect. Furious Charge seems like a keeper since it does more damage than heroic leap with the crimson runestone, in addition to generating fury. Would lose a bit of mobility and control of the field, which would suck, but I would much rather choose something more effective.
In theory, you would not generate any more than 30 fury from leap attack and furious charge, unless you get a fury bonus from dealing damage in addition. You would gain more than 45 fury from war cry and furious charge. Enemies would be hitting you a lot more. Attack Leap lets you avoid damage while being in mid-air and while enemies are stunned, so you would not get any bonus fury there. Having to spam furious charge and heroic leap sounds a bit frustrating. I guess we`ll have to see how barbs generate fury on their own.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Can't really say anything further until we've actually played with how much fury we will actually have. It's kind of hard to speculate just by reading tool tips and having seen limited gameplay from only low level characters with limited skills.
I keep getting stuck in this thought process when it comes to pve builds that you need the core pvp utilities, and that's just not the case. Yes warcry would initially give you double the fury from leap attack but the cooldown is three times as long, so leap attack would be a 50% fury gain over war cry in the long run, but you'd have more armor, more life, and more life regen. You'd have one less escape mechanism but I hardly believe anything more than charge is necessary, especially considering you want to live by means of killing things. I could be wrong but it seems like alabaster warcry is almost too good to pass up as it is in almost any build. I really like your build, I'm just trying to justify squeezing in warcry somehow lol
Sounds like a good idea to me. Can't really say anything further until we've actually played with how much fury we will actually have. It's kind of hard to speculate just by reading tool tips and having seen limited gameplay from only low level characters with limited skills.
I keep getting stuck in this thought process when it comes to pve builds that you need the core pvp utilities, and that's just not the case. Yes warcry would initially give you double the fury from leap attack but the cooldown is three times as long, so leap attack would be a 50% fury gain over war cry in the long run, but you'd have more armor, more life, and more life regen. You'd have one less escape mechanism but I hardly believe anything more than charge is necessary, especially considering you want to live by means of killing things. I could be wrong but it seems like alabaster warcry is almost too good to pass up as it is in almost any build. I really like your build, I'm just trying to justify squeezing in warcry somehow lol
Haha! If bloodthirst is going to be effective, I have to deal damage from the start, not after 10 seconds. Damage downtime means self-heal downtime. Self-heal downtime might be a problem since this is a very offensive build. The initial burst from War Cry might be more useful than the higher sustained fury regen from heroic leap. I think you have changed my mind a bit here.
I sort of wanted leap attack so I could jump around and keep my spells active, rather than being buffs. I don´t see the point in having an active spell that doesn´t fulfill its function though:p
Cool build, although I would take out revenge and get wrath of the ancients instead. I see how revenge works well with tough as nails, but wrath has effects that should be just as useful with boon of bul-kathos.
Regarding my own build: does dual-wielding increase fury gained? Dual-wielding might be the more viable choice then.
When it comes to static gains from skills like frenzy or cleave yeah dual wield gathers fury faster, but I don't know otherwise.
I personally think revenge works fine in Leetee's build. He's going to be using it what every 3 or 4 times he hits cleave so it'll leech tons of health (especially since he's spec'd for having more max health and it leaches 5 % of max hp meaning it scales) and earthquake has a 20 second cooldown so it will be off cooldown for each and every large scale battle. He's got aoe damage, aoe damage heal proc, buffs for life / life regen / 200% armor and cooldowns which will almost always be off cooldown (or still in effect in CoTA's case) to help dish out the hurt. It's like a tanking build that once every 20 seconds can blow up the screen quickly and potentially have near-permanent hard hitting pets. But now I've said that, is it the greatest idea to focus around having pets when you're wanting things to come to you and hit you? I might have gone another way. http://us.battle.net...YUiP!acT!ZaZYbZ or http://us.battle.net...YUbi!acT!ZaZYZb The only other skill he has that I don't quite agree with is leap attack. It seems counter productive to me to make a build based on being hit, and then use hit-preventative effects such as stuns. If he were to pull in battle rage, furious charge or another fury dump like hammer of the ancients (crimson) then that would be the skill to go, or at least change the rune.
Back to the original post I really like the second build listed, definitely going to try it. Massive crit+50% crit damage, good survivability and mobility and keeps the player switching between core attacks. Looks like a lot of fun.
This might be a dumb question, especially since whirlwind deals massive damage with the crimson runestone. What if you sacrifice whirlwind and exchange it with revenge with an alabaster runestone? Both HotA and Revenge would proc overpower because of the +27 crit change revenge gives with the alabaster rune. Imagine if you use HotA on someone with all crit buffs active: +15 (HotA), +27 (Revenge with alabaster runestone), +22 (Overpower with crimson runestone), +4 (Battle Rage), +5 (Ruthless), +5 (Weapons Master) = 63 percent crit chance, from these buffs alone. Overpower would proc quite often.
Add +50 in critical hit damage from ruthless, and the damage output would probably be massive. The single-unit(ish) hits from HotA (with a crimson runestone) and the AOE from both Overpower and Revenge should result in quite a few deaths.
10 percent off that damage in self-heal from bloodthirst + the self-heal from revenge + the self-heal from War Cry with an alabaster rune would probably result in some decent self-heals.
And to top it off, the only spells that require fury are battle rage and HotA. The initial burst from War Cry should be more than enough.
However, a new problem appears. Massive damage output is not obtained before overpower procs for the first time. The highest possible damage output is not obtained before revenge procs for the first time. You would be required to spam HotA for a while before you blow up.
Revenge seems to fit the idea of healing through dealing though.
I agree about revenge trading for whirlwind. The rune is preferable for a crit build (as yours is) as well. I think these builds that are coming out based around procs are also going to be very gear reliant. You're probably going to need a large chunk of precision so that you get these crit chains going and unlock overpower as much as humanly possible. Revenge is going to proc eventually because your damage is going to start up slow and just build and build as things start chain proccing.
I know I suggested warcry, but that is because I didn't think you were aiming for like a sheer beserker type build (given the topic title). If you were to go that direction entirely Daemaro has a pretty good build for it.
I think the build looks good, agree with most of the comments for improvement.. You'll have to probably choose either HotA or WW.. and I would either choose between bash or cleave, both have very interesting rune options.
The weakest element in this build tho... no defense. People always over-estimate life-steal. I have a feeling this character would get rolled by a room full of ranged/casters.
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"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
I agree about revenge trading for whirlwind. The rune is preferable for a crit build (as yours is) as well. I think these builds that are coming out based around procs are also going to be very gear reliant. You're probably going to need a large chunk of precision so that you get these crit chains going and unlock overpower as much as humanly possible. Revenge is going to proc eventually because your damage is going to start up slow and just build and build as things start chain proccing.
I know I suggested warcry, but that is because I didn't think you were aiming for like a sheer beserker type build (given the topic title). If you were to go that direction entirely Daemaro has a pretty good build for it.
Neither did I. I usually loathe crit builds because of the added randomness. Sorta liked the interdependence among spells here, though. I might try to create a more versatile hulk smash build instead.
NP, his build definitely dishes out the hurt start to finish (normally the finish) but I'm wondering if we'll be able to run builds like his without the best possible gear. My main fear for it is you summon all the creatures next to you and they like 1-2 hit you in inferno, but that's just speculation. Who knows what it'll play out like for sure.
Looks like a cheap version of my Boon of Bul-Kathos build, except you dont have half the fury-efficiency and for god-knows what reason you took 2 taking passives.
I took two "tanking" passives because I would actually like to SURVIVE while the 3 Ancients kill everything. I'm personally excited to see you repeatedly die in hell difficulty with your precious full rage bar.
And along those lines, I'm not respecting your self-coronation as princess of theorycrafting. A cheap version of your "Boon of Bul-Kathos" build? Drop the attitude, son, seriously. You don't wanna climb up this tree.
Good. Game.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
I know there's inferno. Your toon will die in hell.. get it? It's impossible to follow D3 development closer than me, so do us a favor and stop waxing your knowledge of the 4 difficulties like you know something, kiddo.
Anyway, I've had enough of your dirty, dirty mouth. You can talk all you like honey, I'll sleep fine tonight.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
In a previous post I stated that you would get 63 percent crit chance when all the buffs in the build procs. See OP or page 1 for why.
Imagine that you want a 100 percent crit chance with all buffs:
1-0.63 = 0.37. You would want to have 37 percent crit from gear and stats alone. Would this be at all possible?
Imagine that you for some reason have 37 percent crit from gear and stats alone, and you want to get your first crit so that you can use your first overpower. The skill you use for that is HotA. HotA has a +15 percent chance to crit.
You would then get 0.37 + 0.15 = 0.52 = 52 percent crit chance. 0.48 percent chance not to crit.
If you use HotA once, that means there is a 52 percent chance for you to get overpower.
If you use HotA twice there is a 1-(0.48)^2 = 0.77 = 77 percent chance for you to crit and get an overpower.
If you use HotA three times there is a 1-(0.48)^3 = 0.89 = 89 percent chance for you to crit and get overpower.
If it is possible to get 37 percent crit chance from gear, then I would view this as very viable.
However, if you can only get around 15 percent from gear, you would have a total of 30 percent chance of critting with HotA. This amounts to a 70 percent chance not to crit.
If you use HotA twice there is a 1-(0.7)^2 = 0.51 = 51 percent chance for you to crit and get overpower.
If you use HotA three times theres is a 1-(0.7)^3 = 0.66 = 66 percent chance for you to crit and get overpower.
This is not at all as viable as the first option.
The success of this build really depends on the ability to land that first critical strike to proc overpower.
The crit buff from revenge might increase those odds a bit, but it is hard to calculate how much, since it depends on how many hits you take...
Jesus christ, crit builds are frustrating.
Edit: If +37 crit isn´t viable at all, could frenzy be a viable solution? Many hits over a smaller period of time could generate a critical hit faster.
Good assessment. 37% native crit chance sounds absurdly high, plus you're not taking into account the possibility of diminishing returns.
I haven't really seen a pocket slow 2H crit build that has a chance DPS-wise against a frenzy build. I may be wrong though, and would thoroughly enjoy being proven so.
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"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
I have a few serious questions regarding a Barb build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#TdkbYh!bYa!ZaZZZZ
The build centers around the mix of high damage output through increaded damage + crit and survivability through bloodthirst. The theory is that high damage output, coupled with bloodthirst gives a hight amount of self-heal.
The initial, general rotation would be something like this: Furious charge -> Battle Rage -> Hammer of the Ancients (15+ crit change) until overpower activates -> Heroic Leap to stun (to reduce taken damage) -> Overpower and Whirlwind fest depending on amount of enemies (damage + self-heal)
Possible spell changes:
- I chose two fury generating spells, since no passives increases fury generation. I am unsure how much fury the barb generates without any fury buff, so it might be a good idea to swith to something else if normal fury generation is fine. Any thoughts from beta players?
- Seismic Slam vs Hammer of the Ancients: Seismic Slam can have a higher damage output than Hammer of the Ancients. However, the idea is that the increased crit change with Hammer of Ancients will be more suitable when paired with overpower. Thoughts?
- Battle Rage versus Wrath of the Ancients: I chose Battle Rage because of the lengthy duration and low cooldown. I mainly wanted damage and crit, which it provides. Do the longer duration outweigh the lessened effects?
Weapon issues:
- 1h versus 2h: It seems like damage fits best with 2handers, while crit fits best with two 1handers. I honestly have no idea what to go with here.
Edit: I wanted an ´´active´´ build, where the effectiveness of the character depends upon what you press, not which buffs you have. One button smash builds are boring:(
Have any of you created your own barb builds? If so, what is your reasoning behind them, and what do you want to accomplish?
Edit 2: I created a small edit in addition to the original build because of the discussion going on in this thread. Here´s the link: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#TgkbYh!bYa!ZaZZZZ
This build sacrifices leap attack and replaces it with War Cry. This is to provide a higher initial burst, so that you can deal high damage from the start, and effectively receive more health from bloodthirst.
Eidt 3: Third build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#TgYbUh!bYa!ZaZZaZ
Quoted justification: `` What if you sacrifice whirlwind and exchange it with revenge with an alabaster runestone? Both HotA and Revenge would proc overpower because of the +27 crit change revenge gives with the alabaster rune. Imagine if you use HotA on someone with all crit buffs active: +15 (HotA), +27 (Revenge with alabaster runestone), +22 (Overpower with crimson runestone), +4 (Battle Rage), +5 (Ruthless), +5 (Weapons Master) = 63 percent crit chance, from these buffs alone. Overpower would proc quite often.
Add +50 in critical hit damage from ruthless, and the damage output would probably be massive. The single-unit hits from HotA (with a crimson runestone) and the AOE from both Overpower and Revenge should result in quite a few deaths.
10 percent off that damage in self-heal from bloodthirst + the self-heal from revenge + the self-heal from War Cry with an alabaster rune would probably result in some decent self-heals.
And to top it off, the only spells that require fury are battle rage and HotA. The initial burst from War Cry should be more than enough.
However, a new problem appears. Massive damage output is not obtained before overpower procs for the first time. The highest possible damage output is not obtained before revenge procs for the first time. You would be required to spam HotA for a while before you blow up.
Revenge seems to fit the idea of healing through dealing though.``
With that said, maybe consider picking up war cry, since you got the extra damage on charge and have an AOE skill in whirlwind. You could pick up 50% more life, more life regen and more armor, as well as more fury, though now you might have excessive fury- you might not, who really knows. There's also the fact you'll be getting a lot of fury from being hit as a high aggressive low defense melee, meaning even more furry. Whirlwind will do about 190% weapon damage per second for 8 fury. This is extremely cost effective. In other words perhaps your build would work perfectly, perhaps not. Hammer would definitely deal more burst in a tight situation, though it may leave you fury starved, it may not. Know what I mean, like I don't even know if using overpower (dealing non spender skill damage) gives you fury or not? Depends on how much you get hit, how much fury that gives you, etc. I'm being way too critical though. I really like the build.
I'd been thinking of a build similar to this for pve myself, for a sustained dps build.
Edit: I have created several barb pvp builds. I've created several because it's one thing to talk about them and imagine how they will work, and it's another to play with them (gear being another factor). The main theory behind them is to streamline the build for pvp single target damage and survivability. To get as much utility as possible while having the highest single target dps as possible and obtaining as much survivability as possible. Because you have to choose from skills and runes you can't have everything, so you have to make sacrifices. My theory is about making the smallest sacrifices possible to have the highest possible outcome for these three concepts. I lug in mobility with utility. You can see them here.
PS: Didn't understand your statement about being active. There are 6 active skills for each class, 20+ to choose from. Regardless of what they are, at some point or another they become active skills. Some you hit more often, others less often. There isn't really an excuse for having too many similar skills and making bad builds. Even in my pvp frenzy spam build the only difference between it and another build is frenzy is used more often and another utility/damage dealing skill replacing weapon throw is used less often, but as often as possible or called for in a specific situation.
Thanks for the reply! I scoured the forums after I posted and realized that a bunch of people have posted their builds. Was unsure if I would get any response whatsoever.
Yes, it is for PVE. I forgot to mention that^^
Regarding War Cry: I can see your point regarding the fury issue. Are you suggesting to switch out HoTA and replace it with War Cry, or would you switch out something else? I chose HoTA to get a +15 percent chance to proc overpower. Still, not enough fury, no HoTA, no +15 chance to proc overpower.
Maybe War Cry could replace leap attack? The extra armor could negate the effects of losing the stun effect. Furious Charge seems like a keeper since it does more damage than heroic leap with the crimson runestone, in addition to generating fury. Would lose a bit of mobility and control of the field, which would suck, but I would much rather choose something more effective.
In theory, you would not generate any more than 30 fury from leap attack and furious charge, unless you get a fury bonus from dealing damage in addition. You would gain more than 45 fury from war cry and furious charge. Enemies would be hitting you a lot more. Attack Leap lets you avoid damage while being in mid-air and while enemies are stunned, so you would not get any bonus fury there. Having to spam furious charge and heroic leap sounds a bit frustrating. I guess we`ll have to see how barbs generate fury on their own.
I keep getting stuck in this thought process when it comes to pve builds that you need the core pvp utilities, and that's just not the case. Yes warcry would initially give you double the fury from leap attack but the cooldown is three times as long, so leap attack would be a 50% fury gain over war cry in the long run, but you'd have more armor, more life, and more life regen. You'd have one less escape mechanism but I hardly believe anything more than charge is necessary, especially considering you want to live by means of killing things. I could be wrong but it seems like alabaster warcry is almost too good to pass up as it is in almost any build. I really like your build, I'm just trying to justify squeezing in warcry somehow lol
Haha! If bloodthirst is going to be effective, I have to deal damage from the start, not after 10 seconds. Damage downtime means self-heal downtime. Self-heal downtime might be a problem since this is a very offensive build. The initial burst from War Cry might be more useful than the higher sustained fury regen from heroic leap. I think you have changed my mind a bit here.
I sort of wanted leap attack so I could jump around and keep my spells active, rather than being buffs. I don´t see the point in having an active spell that doesn´t fulfill its function though:p
Not sure that I'm in love with tough as nails, but again, who knows. I'm guessing thorn damage will be on items mainly.
Regarding my own build: does dual-wielding increase fury gained? Dual-wielding might be the more viable choice then.
I personally think revenge works fine in Leetee's build. He's going to be using it what every 3 or 4 times he hits cleave so it'll leech tons of health (especially since he's spec'd for having more max health and it leaches 5 % of max hp meaning it scales) and earthquake has a 20 second cooldown so it will be off cooldown for each and every large scale battle. He's got aoe damage, aoe damage heal proc, buffs for life / life regen / 200% armor and cooldowns which will almost always be off cooldown (or still in effect in CoTA's case) to help dish out the hurt. It's like a tanking build that once every 20 seconds can blow up the screen quickly and potentially have near-permanent hard hitting pets. But now I've said that, is it the greatest idea to focus around having pets when you're wanting things to come to you and hit you? I might have gone another way. http://us.battle.net...YUiP!acT!ZaZYbZ or http://us.battle.net...YUbi!acT!ZaZYZb The only other skill he has that I don't quite agree with is leap attack. It seems counter productive to me to make a build based on being hit, and then use hit-preventative effects such as stuns. If he were to pull in battle rage, furious charge or another fury dump like hammer of the ancients (crimson) then that would be the skill to go, or at least change the rune.
Back to the original post I really like the second build listed, definitely going to try it. Massive crit+50% crit damage, good survivability and mobility and keeps the player switching between core attacks. Looks like a lot of fun.
Add +50 in critical hit damage from ruthless, and the damage output would probably be massive. The single-unit(ish) hits from HotA (with a crimson runestone) and the AOE from both Overpower and Revenge should result in quite a few deaths.
10 percent off that damage in self-heal from bloodthirst + the self-heal from revenge + the self-heal from War Cry with an alabaster rune would probably result in some decent self-heals.
And to top it off, the only spells that require fury are battle rage and HotA. The initial burst from War Cry should be more than enough.
However, a new problem appears. Massive damage output is not obtained before overpower procs for the first time. The highest possible damage output is not obtained before revenge procs for the first time. You would be required to spam HotA for a while before you blow up.
Revenge seems to fit the idea of healing through dealing though.
If noone bothered to read OP, here is the link to the third solo build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#TgYbUh!bYa!ZaZZaZ
I know I suggested warcry, but that is because I didn't think you were aiming for like a sheer beserker type build (given the topic title). If you were to go that direction entirely Daemaro has a pretty good build for it.
The weakest element in this build tho... no defense. People always over-estimate life-steal. I have a feeling this character would get rolled by a room full of ranged/casters.
-Thomas Jefferson
Neither did I. I usually loathe crit builds because of the added randomness. Sorta liked the interdependence among spells here, though. I might try to create a more versatile hulk smash build instead.
Thanks for the tip! I will check him out.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#dcgiQP!TWe!bbabbc
-Thomas Jefferson
I took two "tanking" passives because I would actually like to SURVIVE while the 3 Ancients kill everything. I'm personally excited to see you repeatedly die in hell difficulty with your precious full rage bar.
And along those lines, I'm not respecting your self-coronation as princess of theorycrafting. A cheap version of your "Boon of Bul-Kathos" build? Drop the attitude, son, seriously. You don't wanna climb up this tree.
Good. Game.
-Thomas Jefferson
Anyway, I've had enough of your dirty, dirty mouth. You can talk all you like honey, I'll sleep fine tonight.
-Thomas Jefferson
Love and peace
Imagine that you want a 100 percent crit chance with all buffs:
1-0.63 = 0.37. You would want to have 37 percent crit from gear and stats alone. Would this be at all possible?
Imagine that you for some reason have 37 percent crit from gear and stats alone, and you want to get your first crit so that you can use your first overpower. The skill you use for that is HotA. HotA has a +15 percent chance to crit.
You would then get 0.37 + 0.15 = 0.52 = 52 percent crit chance. 0.48 percent chance not to crit.
If you use HotA once, that means there is a 52 percent chance for you to get overpower.
If you use HotA twice there is a 1-(0.48)^2 = 0.77 = 77 percent chance for you to crit and get an overpower.
If you use HotA three times there is a 1-(0.48)^3 = 0.89 = 89 percent chance for you to crit and get overpower.
If it is possible to get 37 percent crit chance from gear, then I would view this as very viable.
However, if you can only get around 15 percent from gear, you would have a total of 30 percent chance of critting with HotA. This amounts to a 70 percent chance not to crit.
If you use HotA twice there is a 1-(0.7)^2 = 0.51 = 51 percent chance for you to crit and get overpower.
If you use HotA three times theres is a 1-(0.7)^3 = 0.66 = 66 percent chance for you to crit and get overpower.
This is not at all as viable as the first option.
The success of this build really depends on the ability to land that first critical strike to proc overpower.
The crit buff from revenge might increase those odds a bit, but it is hard to calculate how much, since it depends on how many hits you take...
Jesus christ, crit builds are frustrating.
Edit: If +37 crit isn´t viable at all, could frenzy be a viable solution? Many hits over a smaller period of time could generate a critical hit faster.
I haven't really seen a pocket slow 2H crit build that has a chance DPS-wise against a frenzy build. I may be wrong though, and would thoroughly enjoy being proven so.
-Thomas Jefferson
And yeah while I'm sure crit builds will be incredible in the long run it seems like a bit of a hassle.