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Here is a video I made demonstrating the rings WORK perfectly fine, and apply damage on the FIRST hit, and both buffs apply to ALL damage.

https://youtu.be/jSR4aS8IKOQ

Without selecting the skill itself on your action bar, you will gain the base skill via leaping. Yes, it's decent damage, but it means you get 4200% as fire, regardless of what build / element you are choosing to play. Also, since you are required to use a total of 5 items to get the benefit, it would probably be worthwhile to use EQ for an extra stack on elite packs, since the set bonus allows it to be ready almost all the time.

Agree to disagree all you want, it's your right to play fire. Telling others not to waste their time on a "sub Optimal" build because you feel Fire is better doesn't demonstrate WHY it is sub-optimal. A lot depends on what would be optimal... first for me would be group / solo play. Also, gearing choices. I'll show some quicky math on the new skill changes comparing Fire and Frost using the skill combo in my video:

Fire Cleave - 150% (plus explosion or extra fury gen)
Fire Rend - 1100%, 17 Yard Range
Leap - Call of Arreat
Fire Earthquake - 5100% Damage
Fire Call of the Ancients - 360% Damage
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)

Frost Cleave - 150% (plus 10% damage from all sources)
Frost Rend - 1100%, 12 Yard Range (plus 10% damage from all sources)
Leap - Call of Arreat
Frost Earthquake - 4200% Damage (Plus perma-freeze for 8 seconds)
Frost Call of the Ancients - 180% Damage (Plus 10% Crit from all sources)
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)

If you factor in ONLY the 20% bonus from cleave and Rend, EQ would go up to 5040% Weapon damage, Cleave 180%, Ancients 216%, rend 1320%. 10% Crit would add more as well... plus in GROUP you are contributing to ALL damage done... Fire cannot do that.

Obviously, if you're going pure fire... you probably wouldn't bother with IK set, instead going Cindercoat / Magefist etc for the super high fire damage. So yes, you will do more damage solo... but they closed the gap quite a bit. In group play Frost will be much, much better than Fire. Synergy is huge when trying to farm T6 as a group. So it really depends on playstyle. The ability to pull, lockdown, buff group damage, and have a small army (especially with the new mighty weapon spawning additional ancients) makes Cold a great option for people to try out.

This post was never to say Cold is better than Fire... it was to demonstrate how well they buffed Cold and made it viable.

Hey folks... been a while since I posted here. Been busy with a Crusader and wiz, but I was pumped to play the Barb again when Ladders go live. Not too long ago I posted a thread suggesting new cold skills on the official forums: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/12504791709

Although the changes are a little different than my suggestions, obviously someone at Blizzard (along with players I'm sure) were thinking along the same lines, and wanted to see something other than Fire at the top. Here is a very short video showing some of the new Cold skills they implemented on the PTR for 2.1.0: http://youtu.be/RHvRUJeVxqc
Please notice I am only on Torment 5, and have no unity. Why? Because I enjoy playing on T5 more than T6! T6 is doable, even without the unity on this build, but it's not very efficient.

For those who don't care to watch the video, here are the skills I'm using:

Cleave - Gathering Storm (Turns cleave into Cold damage, all enemies hit take 10% more damage from all sources for 3 seconds)
Rend - Mutilate (All enemies effected by Rend take 10% more damage from all sources)
Leap - Call of Arreat (Pull enemies within 16 yards upon landing)
Earthquake - Chilling Earth (Freeze all enemies and deal 4200% weapon damage over 8 seconds)
Call of the Ancients - Duty to the Clan (All enemies hit by the ancients have 10% higher chance to be critically hit)
Battle Shout - Blood Shed (20% splash damage on crits)

Profile (Same gear I use in PTR, different skills): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Leland-1340/hero/10353235

Summary: Cold Barbs will be amazing in party play! Pull / Freeze EVERYTHING, give 20% bonus damage, and 10% crit bonus to everything ancients hit! I'll be playing alongside a Crusader when the season starts, and can't wait to try the new mighty weapon that summons extra ancients when you use Hammer of the Ancients. I'll probably play around with dropping EQ / Leap combo, and replacing with Hammer / Revenge for the extra Ancients and 8% Crit. I'm also hoping to get some nice Tasker and Theos to make it crazy ancients time! The Haunt of Vaxo is amazing, especially if you can mix in some stuns, but the new Hellfire Amulet could open a ton of possibilities with providing the extra passive skill

Anyways, Hope this makes you wanna try a cold barb!

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WhdkRj!dXe!YYZcYc
There are a ton of items out there that can add to your lightning skill damage, and with this build, despite the armory damage, it's more like 185k. The lightning proc from Fulminator is amazing, and hits all the time, especially when cleaving / Overpowering in a group. With this build, there are no rage spenders (aside from Battle Shout), so running Berserker Rage works very well. WIthout any item cooldown reduction, Earthquake is only 35 seconds and maintains your full rage.
Other items that would help this build (that I haven't been fortunate enough to get yet!):


And of course all the multitudes of items that can roll +Lightning Skill damage.

**Edit: made the link a little more noticeable**

Actually tonight I used a completely different Lightning build, and had a blast!

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WhdTjR!SgX!YYZbcY

Pretty much smoked Torment 3 farm runs! The new 4 Piece IK bonus turns Ancients in to a full-time pet, and with that rune, not only do they add to your lightning damage spec, they also absorb 50% of the damage you take! Mixing in 4 pieces of IK (Probably Helm, Gloves, Boots, Chest) with Thunderfury + Odyn Son, then fill in the rest with + Lightning pieces! I know what I'm planning for

There are a lot of factors that are added into your damage: Primary Attributes, Bonus attack speed, Bonus Min / Max damage, Crit %, Crit bonus %, overall increase damage bonus and of course, your weapons. I'll give you a brief overview on the order of applications:

1.) Weapon damage (this includes all bonus damage and speed modifiers in the tooltip)
2.) Minimum & Maximum damage bonuses from non-weapon items (including elemental bonuses)
3.) Primary attribute is compounded with total damage done (1 str=1% bonus)
4.) Crit damage and crit chance % (with 10% chance to crit, you have 90% chance to NOT crit, so those are now added together)
5.) All previous numbers are now multiplied by overall damage % bonus
6.) That sum is multiplied by attacks / second to give you DPS.

7.) for skill usage, the "white damage" dps is calculated into the modifier, so you'll never really see your DPS with bash in the UI, but it's going to be 150% of the white DPS listed.

Hope this helps you guys.

Check out this spreadsheet I made if you'd like! It does all the calculations for you, and you can see what DPS you'd be at with new items or comparing multiple stat sets:

Spreadsheet