Darkblade Barbarian build " Path of slaughter" So this is my first build, I did not spend much time tweaking all possible options but I kind of liked the way this builds plays out, here it goes… Bash + Gold Rune (Instigation) This will generate +10 fury while causing 145% weapon damage 20% Ground Stomp + Alabaster Rune (Deafening Crash) Besides inflicting 70% weapon damage to all enemies within 12 yards enemies will be subjected to 50% slowed speed + 9 second stun, now that's what I'd call DEAFENING CRASH! (generates 15 fury) Leap Attack + Indigo rune (Toppling Impact) This next attack follows up where G. Stomp left off dealing more 70% weapon damage to enemies within 8 yards hurtling enemies 6 yards and causing an extra 30% damage plus pushing them back in a chain up to 2 times. (generates 15 fury) So now we have generated 40 fury and we move on to… Seismic Slam + Indigo rune (Rumble) Geeeet ready to RUMBLE!!! Slam the ground causing a wave of destruction that deals 230% weapon damage knocking back targets in a 45 yard arc, the ground continues to shudder after the initial strike causing 30% damage. Rend + Obsidian Rune (Mutilate) Make 'em bleed!!! After shaking the ground a little rend will cause all nearby enemies to bleed for 210% weapon damage as physical over 10 seconds! Bloody hell! Last but not least it's slaughter time… Wrath of the Beserker + Alabaster Rune (SLAUGHTER ) You go into Beserk rage raising several attributes for 15 seconds, Critical hit 10%, Attack speed 45%, Dodge chance 20%, Movement speed 20%, and for EACH enemy you kill during these 15 seconds, their body explodes dealing 78% weapon damage to all within 15 yards. PASSIVES: Animosity: Increases fury regeneration by 10% to a max of fury increased to 20 Weapon Master: Bonus based on weapoen Unforgiving: Gain 1 fury every two seconds Hope this gets at least someone in the mood to spill some blood! Mind you I spent 20 minutes top coming up with this combination, I can only imagine the sick builds we'll see after realease! Till then let's keep dreaming! Cheers.
Heh, yeah I do think there are some flaws in this build. In my opinion, you chose the least favorable passives for the barbarian. Ruthless, Weapon Master and/or Brawler is so much better for damage and fury generation (weapon master with mighty weapons). For survival, Nerves of Steel. Seismic slam is a heavy fury spender. So to have another spender with this one feels like a waste. I rather get revenge best cold served for ~20% more critical chance which also increases your survival. Another option would be battle rage, coupled with ruthless (a must for any barbarian imo) and weapon master (for increased critical chance). Bloodshed with Wrath of the Berserker's Slaughter will be hilarious to try out. Splash damage all over the place. -Firehaert
Hey thanks for pointing it out mate , like I said I joined the forums to learn and indeed learning I am. I will revise the build and make changes, hopefully spend more then 20 min this time around. Regards
After giving a little more consideration on your suggestions I agree that Weapon mastery would be a better choice so I went ahead and replaced that for Tough as Nail, however I don't see why Animosity falls under the least favorable passives for this build, I would be trading 10% fury gain versus (5% hit) 50% damage, I would rather go for the extra fury gain in this case, so yeah I think is also a matter of personal opinion! I will keep working on this. Cheers.
If I put it like this; what does animosity give you per skill used? Let's say seismic slam is our fury spender and bash with golden rune (rank four +4 fury). Without animosities 10% fury, your fury generation will look like; 10 fury | bash 20 fury | bash 30 fury | bash 0 fury | seismic slam and this will loop.. With Animosity +11 fury | bash +22 fury | bash +33 fury | bash +3 fury | seismic slam +14 fury | bash +25 fury | bash +36 fury | bash +6 fury | seismic slam You need to use bash 10 times before animosity gives you enough fury to be worth anything and the only thing it does now is reduce the amount of bash attacks you need to use before you can use your forth seismic slam. 10% fury gain vs 50% more crit hit damage (our base crit hit damage is 150%). 225% critical hit damage is nothing you should give up as a barbarian. This passive is insane. So yes, I do put animosity in the bottom of the list for a reason. In my opinion, if you aren't using weapon throw nor going hardcore. I would suggest weapon master, ruthless and brawler. The damage increment is insane. -Firehaert
Keep in mind the Bash is not the only Fury generator here mate, also we need to look at the whole picture and see how it would play out in the end for ex: Unforgiving which would give me 1 fury every two seconds. I do see your point and really appreciate your explanation! it has really helped me! Please share your build here so we all can learn from it! Regards
I've had some limited access to the beta and there are a few things I got to understand during my few hours spent rampaging with the barbarian. You are always swarmed so brawler is an awesome passive. It's downfall are the bosses but hopefully just like skeleton king does, the other bosses will summon minions to assist him in battle. Revenge is insane and so will the runes addition be ever welcomed. Bash's knockback is the most annoying function of all skills so the moment you get cleave or frenzy, you will want to switch but I guess that goes down to personal preference. My builds aren't heavy fury based. Even if they were, I would not go with animosity since it is only 10% nor unforgiving which is 30 fury per minute. I do think his build already got high enough fury generation esp. with leap and ground stomp. So yes and no, Cothiq. It havn't all been tested since that is impossible but make it a bit more clear how I think regarding the passives. All my builds have battle rage' blood shed (critical hits have a chance to cause an explosion of blood dealing 21% damage done to all other nearby enemies). With weapon master, brawler and ruthless. You will get if use sword/daggers 40% more damage, 5% more crit and 50% more critical hit damage (from base 150% critical hit damage to 225% critical hit damage). If you go with axe/mace, you'll get 30% more damage, 10% crit and 50% more critical hit damage (from base 150% critical hit damage to 225% critical hit damage). What do you get with fury based passives? A few more seismic slams, rends per minute. So you choose to either make the passives affect all your abilities (better synergy) or get a few more fury spenders per minute.
Lol unfortunately I have not been able to get my hands on a beta key yet, but even if I did the level cap on beta is 13, there are no runes available and many of the skills and Passives also are not available, reason why I mentioned that until the game releases and we are able to test various builds we won't really get the whole picture of how effective it may or may not be. Unforgiving for ex: will not be available until you're level 30 (nightmare difficult) a lot will change the game play at this point such as the gear your hero will have available. So yeah it's a little too early to say what is effective and what's not. We shall wait and see!
Thank you for the in depth explination of the thought processes you have going with your build, Fireheart. I think I will be using a similar mindset when piecing together my barbarian. Until I understand more about how to *effectively* play a magic class, i prefer to go melee, and just beef up the melee aspects... Especially for synergy :] Thats awesome that you were able to play it, even if it wasnt for very long. Darkblade, I'm excited to see what we all discover during our first play-through... I'm also curious to see your build after playing a bit, as you seem to have a different approach. Its interesting to speculate, but the really interesting speculation will start after we can play it out. I'm also quite excited to use the auction house. My partner is planning on playing with me, which brings me to another question: what two classes do you think would play really well together as an evil-stomping duo? I guess you could just stick monk in with any other class, since he can heal... But thats too easy. What are your thoughts?
For a class combo, a heavy tank of a barbarian would probably work nicely with a pure damage wizard or demon hunter. I've actually worked on a few builds of my own like that, but I've only really gotten to try the beta on wizard and DH when my brother visited. As for my understanding of the resource system: Unlike spell spamming in D2 you want one good generator, or a few with cooldowns, to build up to higher damage attacks, but you only really want one big spender if it has no cooldown. The problem with having multiple spenders like that is that, despite your choice of damage output, you just lowered the overall effectiveness of the build by putting in skills that won't necessarily get used.
This is from a barbarian's pov. If I could choose my teammates class, I would most definitively go with a monk. Not that he can heal, I will have no problems keeping myself up. It is his Mantras I want. Mantra of Retribution (transgression) which increases attack speed or what I really want is Mantra of Conviction (increase damage done to enemies), both Intimidation (less damage taken) and Overawe (increases the damage done to enemies even more) are quite awesome. Selfish reason no doubt but every class in D3 can dish out damage. None other than the monk (iirc) can buff your damage by that amount.
Hmm... I can't wait to try out several builds Does anyone know if there will be a "reset skills" feature? Perhaps as a quest reward, or, since gold will actually have value, reset them for a price?
No skill is set in stone. You can just go to the Nephalem Altar in Town and swap em out. Check the video to see how it works.
Thank you, Fireheart! That's a very intriguing feature... Do you still use skill points the way D2 was used? Like, swap a skill and beef it up? Do you can a point each level like that, or does it level up based on how many times you use it?
You will gain all skills and passives between level 1-30. You don't have to use skill points. You gain 'em as you level and there is no leveling em (beefing it up). The difference now is the rune system. http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/runestones.xml
