Introduction This guide is meant to introduce the theory behind a build that could suit real Vikings that are tired of the same revenge-based build where stacking vitality and res all is the only viable option for later acts in inferno difficulty. You have two choices to slay: spam revenge or throw axes, easy one.
To smoothen the read, the following abbreviations will be used:
Skills
AS : Ancient Spear
BR : Battle Rage
GS : Ground Stomp
WC : War Cry
WOTB : Wrath of the Berserker
WT : Weapon Throw
General terms
AOE : Area of Effect
CC : Crowd Control
CHC : Critical Hit Chance
DH : Demon Hunter
DPS : Damage per Second
DEX : Dexterity
IAS : Increased Attack Speed
IFG : Initial Fury Generator
INT : Intelligence
RRCWT : Reduces resource cost of Weapon Throw by X fury.
STR : Strength
VIT : VitalitySections1. How does it work?
2. Skill Build and possibilities- 2.1 Group Build
- 2.2 Other viable skills
- 2.3 Passive Skills
3. Playstyle
4. Mathematics
5. Item choice
6. Pros and Cons
7. Additional Information, Balance edits (skill tests, BiS gear, etc.) - 7.3 Inferno Boss specific builds
8. Links
9. Summary
1. How does it work?The main idea behind this build is to stay out of melee range and still being able to cast spells. Since the Barbarian requires being in melee range to generate fury, it might seem farfetched to you earthlings. We will see that a traditional fury generator (bash, cleave, frenzy) will not be used for this build, thus giving us Barbarians the privilege to kite and attack at the same time. #swag
It is important to know what you need to become a true slayer, as a combination of various items and skills make this build possible, and the correct balance of itemization and skills make you a Lumberjack World Championship winner.1.1 Skill SynergyWithout further ado, here is the backbone of the build:
No Escape / Battle Rage (BR huehueheuhe) with Into the Fray
+
Weapon Throw
+
Crit Chance
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Waist cord with high Reduces resource cost of Weapon Throw stat (RRCWT), ideally 5 RRCWT.
A good balance of Critical Hit Chance (CHC) and Initial Fury Generators (IFG)will give us :
- i. Sustainable Fury Generator through No Escape / BR and Weapon Throw
- ii. Carry potential for a 4 player games and a free slot for War Cry for the lowborn with low resists (Impunity is possible with high CHC, although the Charge! rune is necessary with low CHC).
- iii. The chance to use more DPS oriented gear and still survive in inferno act3-4. Also not getting sent to Valhalla by pink horses is fitting for us.
- iv. FUN FUN FUN FUN
2.Skill Build and possibilitiesAll the skills used in this build will be covered and will help giving in depth information on how it works for the slower kind that still don’t understand by now.2.1 Group Build The standard build for the average geared folk is:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#fdPQik!YZf!acZZYZ
We will go through each skill and rune to examine various possibilities this build gives you.
i. Weapon Throw
Who would’ve thought? A Fury Dump / DPS skill as well as Sustainable Fury Generator. Two runes can be used and are pretty straightforward; I’m only putting Ricochet as usable to see if your still paying attention, but it’s a no brainer here.
- Mighty Throw: Gives your spell a whopping 130% damage up from 100%. The best rune with ideal gear since it gives you the most single target burst for hard packs and bosses. Let’s face it, if you need ricochet to clear white trash (I can use this because I’m white), you probably won’t make it versus a elite pack.
- - Ricochet : Gives your spell 2 more targets, which can be good for AoE but gives up a good amount of single target damage. It is also important to note that if you depend on the ricochet for fury generation, put revenge on your bar and go buy a shield. Seriously though you might need this rune for trash if you have low movement speed and you feel like you like AoE damage. *You will need to use Into the Fray rune, as explained below.
*A very important thing to note with this rune is that every crit does no longer generate fury as it does with Mighty Throw ; this probably has to do with the wording on your fury generation rune/passive (more on that in the Battle Rage skill section). You then need to use the Into the Fray rune on Battle Rage, which lowers your DPS even more (-15% from Into the Fray, -30% down from no Mighty Throw)
ii. Ancient Spear
Your second WT’ish spell, it also act as a great Initial regenerator IFG and Crowd Control (CC) ability, if you use the only viable rune for the spell ; Rage Flip. The damage from this spell is as big as my guns if you start chaining it with Critical hits. One trick to break the seemingly long animation is to hold the button down (don’t wait to see if you crit). What I do when not moving is Left Click then hold Right Click when this spell comes up until it’s down again which gives you maximum DPS. This skill is only used in groups when you have top notch gear, other options will be listed at the end of this list.
- Rage Flip : This is the only viable rune because it’s stupid to be using anything else ; why would you ever want to flip out raging that a mob one shotted you because you pulled him in ? What this does is provide you with a very good CC ability and adding a skill factor to the sissy strategy proposed. It is also very important to note the 28% weapon damage increase, making CHC stacking very proficient. This rune effectively separates mobs from each other (takes it away from its group into yours or just behind you) or pulls back a straggler onto the big pack of mobs (from your group to the enemy group) while doing massive damage.
iii. Wrath of the Berserker
Only used for the Super Saiyan animation. Careful of the fury cost you don’t want to get to 0 fury without a IFG. This can be a problem for those with low CHC (is why I put Into the Fray in for you folks!)
- Insanity: A very good rune for bursting an Elite inside a pack, or even bosses during specific phases. Arguably the best rune because of the burst it grants: 100% + damage, 10% CHC, 25% IAS? I’m in. In a CHC density build, it would be insane to throw away the other options: this scales too well with the critical hits.
- - Thrive on Chaos: This is mentioned because it’s actually possible to keep it up for quite awhile with a lot of CHC, which equates into high fury generation, nommean. The choice is simple: if you want to kill a manpiece of a boss where you can pretty much stand there and turret shoot, take this. Otherwise, go for Insanity: clearing just 1 mob in an elite pack is better than using this rune and only getting +5 seconds out of it because you need to kite while cleaning your nails and wiping for 30 minutes.
iv. Battle Rage
All barb skills are so boring. One thing: use with caution, it costs rage fury! Sadly every rune in this bar one (Ferocity) are usable so this section will take longer to write (and read, lol@u) than it should.
- Into the Fray: Gives you additional Fury Generation. Good with low CHC gear or in synergy with Thrive on Chaos. This is the rune I was using while I was at around 30-35% crit, or with high CHC (50-60%) and Impunity on WC.
*Note the wording on the spell : it says that there is a chance to gain Fury if you crit, which means absolutely nothing if you consider that other skills have the % chance of proccing on crit and No Return and Into the Fray do not. As we talked about in the Ricochet rune section, runes seem to affect the proc rate and not stats.
**This was tested by me for the No Return passive (which we have to use). Note that I wrote my results on pink post-it’s for optimal result :
Turns out IAS doesn’t affect the proc rate. It is 100% proc rate from 1.00 attack speed to 2.00, with 45% CHC. Now, if CHC would chance the proc rate at which this procs, it wouldn’t matter much because my playing at the sweet spot rate, 60-65% - explained in math section – I generate more than enough fury with the Impunity rune on War Cry and no Into the Fray on BR (I use the next mentioned rune).
- Marauder's Rage : The best rune, end of story ; it’s pretty much like Insanity, extra damage scales with the critical damage better than anything else. The price is big though : you need big fury generation.
- - Swords to Ploughshares : Interesting if you team up with a Witch Doctor with Gruesome Feast (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/passive/gruesome-feast) or something, just throwing that out there.
- - Bloodshed : Good AOE, eh!
v. Overpower
Pretty much only used with the 10% CHC for 6 seconds rune. Use this when it’s up you can even use it for melee attack while kiting (use it and click to move right after for close to no animation with high IAS)
*Do not underestimate the damage you can get from this spell. It’s the only spell you can use without turning around and it costs no fury.
- Killing Spree : Pretty much only used with Overpower on your skill build.
vi. War Cry
Good team buff + IFG, woot! Another very complicated skill.
- Impunity : +50% to all resistances, need I say more?
- - Charge! : For those with fury generation problems. You really need this until you get around 60%+ CHC because you will just keep running low and won’t be able to use WoTB and BR, which lowers your incredibly potent DPS by a good margin.
2.2 Other viable skills
For solo play, a few skills can be replaced to ameliorate your slayer’ing.
Ancient Spear–> Sprint
This is pretty simple : without a pet in front of you to tank (monk), you need to kite more. This skill gives you the ability to kite and do damage at the same time through the Run like the Wind rune.
- Run like the Wind : This will be used in conjunction with Into the Fray on BR so that you can keep using sprint if needed. Used for dire situations where you can’t turn around or just for ez-mode clear on some encounters if you don’t really like this build and you’d rather be playing a Demon Hunter but you want Diablo inferno achievement now.
Ancient Spear -> Ground Stomp
This is mainly for group play, if your ranged DPS bros have good AoE and you all get one shotted cause you have bad gear. I still use it with good gear cause I team up with a DH from time to time.
- Wrenching Smash : More range, acts as a IFG, gives your Demon Hunter’s skills more targets, etc. This is a good panic button life saver for any teleporting or fast mobs (including the white ones who charge or whatever), but requires some kind of coordination, which I’m sure all you barbarians have, no doubt.
Other build options will be covered in 2.3 with passives, and 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. See you there love xoxoxo
2.3 Passive skills No Return : This is the only reason why I thought of this build. Makes AS really strong against bosses and gives you +15% damage because it acts like Into the Fray for BR, so you can use Marauder’s Rage.
Ruthless : Really good passive, gives you free CHC and more Critical Hit Damage. A no brainer for this build but can be swapped out if needed, although I wouldn’t advise it : it’s good for DPS and Fury Generation, what else do you want ?
Weapon Master : Very versatile passive, if you need more cheap CHC use an Axe, if you can afford good IAS / CHC amulets and rings then you can actually reach 60% CHC without the 10% this gives. If so, you can use another weapon type.*
*You would think a viable option would be a mighty weapon for fury generation. WELL YOU ARE RIGHT HOLY SHIT HOW SMART ARE YOU??? This is in fact pretty damn good. With a Mighty weapon, it’s really easy to use Impunity on War Cry, Marauder’s Rage on BR, and still have ridiculous fury generation (as much as you’d have with Into the Fray) This makes Mighty weapons arguably the best choice without BiS in every slot, and even then you can argue that Mighty weapons are better because of less randomization. Mighty weapons give you the 15% that swords would give you from BR, and swords are the best choice ultimately for DPS, as well as the +3 fury per hit.
tl;dr If you have really low CHC, get an axe or mace. Otherwise, get a Mighty Weapon.*
* It is not out of the question to use a sword. If you feel you can rune Impunity on War Cry and Marauder’s Rage on BR with a sword, go nuts. This requires high end gear, and makes the build more random. With Charge! on War Cry, it is definitely viable. My monk tank likes the 50% all res so I don’t use a sword.
No other passives are really good for the build, you could suggest Animosity, but meh. I could see Inspiring Presence fitting, but I wouldn’t want to drop any of my other passives because of the great DPS they give.3. PlaystyleThe general playstyle is pretty simple. Bossfight videos will be posted in the 7.3 section.
In groups, you try to stay off-screen if you get one-shotted. You basically fish and aim on your tank. If you see your fury going up, you are doing it right. Try not to forget to refresh overpower. Battle Rage is used after you have a comfortable amount of fury or right away if you have Charge! on WC. If you run Ancient Spear, try to position yourself in between the tank and the ranged (this requires better gear/paying more attention to not die) so you can hook stragglers from the DPS’ers to your tank. This way, you can save your friends and make it easier for the tank. This is very useful for Belial phase 1 and 2. If you run Ground Stomp, just be ready to use it at all times to save your buddy buds bud buds (you can use it for yourself but you don’t die, you are a godlike machine of war.)
While solo’ing, you need to be careful : You don’t want to run recklessly while exploring and get jumped. Don’t forget that you need an IFG up to start fighting, so chain dying doesn’t work for champion packs. You can die once 30 seconds after using WC, and then you need to survive at least 30 seconds again if you really think you will die again. Again, if you run Charge! (you probably should), you apply it, then use BR, then use Sprint if needed. You need BR on if you want to start chain-sprinting. With 20%ish movespeed from items you can generally kite well without Sprint.
4. Mathematics*Keep in mind that these calculations are for optimizing the build at high levels of gear. If you use Charge! rune on War Cry and Into the Fray on BR, you need around 30% CHC. Charge! only is roughly 50%.
**These tests are meant for builds without a Mighty Weapon. They will prove it is possible to play this with low-end gear and a random weapon.
The mechanics of the build are pretty simple: lower the cost of weapon throw to 5 and then try to sustain enough fury to keep throwing. You have a 30 second cooldown IFG that generates either 30 fury or 60, and another one that generates 15 fury every 10 seconds and is reset by a crit.
Doing simple math, the fury return you get from No Escape is 14 and your weapon throw costs 5 fury. Since you need to be furious to go into a Battle Rage we’ll just make sure we can sustain a bit of fury with the initial 30 fury War Cry and WT.
Since there is a lot of variables possible (IAS / Kiting, etc.) we will keep this as simple as possible to get a benchmark on how much CHC you need.
Let’s say you can throw approximately 6 times every fight start (not counting the fury generated by ancient spear because it’s random and situational sometimes). What I mean by that is that you can’t cast it if your back is on a wall ; let me remind you that you don’t like it from the back.
Taking into account that you can use WT 6 times at least, we need to examine the generator spell : No Escape. If it procs twice, it gives you 28 fury, enough for 5 uses of WT.
That means you need to score a critical hit at least twice per 5 throws. You need the following formula to calculate it:
(100^5 - (100-x)^5 -5*x*(100-x)^4)/100^5.
A graph is definitely easier to interpret for those who lack the knowledge in probability calculations. X (horizontal axis) is your CHC. The Y (vertical axis) axis shows how likely is to happen.
Two interesting things are to get from this graph:
i. The curve is very linear in the middle. We like straight lines, they’re easy to understand. This means that CHC scales directly with the chance to generate fury: that was quite obvious from the beginning, but at least this means that there are almost no diminishing returns.
ii. It seems that the ideal value starts at around 60% CHC. However, we need to keep in mind that this is to remove any chance of downtime: a 40% CHC wouldn’t be unplayable, it could involve more kiting.
tl;dr Try to get 60+% CHC