Hey all,

PVE ONLY

I need advice on what you think is better for my WW barb. I am hoping someone smarter than me knows.

Arreat's only gives me a slight damage buff over G-face and I lose the 35% CB and 15% DS, despite this I often see Arreat's recommended in guides as the best.

My charms bring up the resistances and give FHR since they are 10/5s so all I really gain from arreats are the +skills, a bit of dmg and attack rating. I'm using a SA fort so the extra 100 def is negligible since that gives so much.

Am I missing something? It really seems to be like G-face is better with that 35% CB and 15% DS, but I don't really know how whirlwind works as an attack mechanic that well ... maybe arreat's offers something I don't see.

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

edit: I have a dedicated smiter for ubers and clones, so this is strictly for acts 1- 5

This post was edited by MystiKasT on Mar 11 2023 03:48pm

I prefer gface

if I may know, have you done testing between the two? I haven't yet but I think I will start. Curious if someone already has done a test what the results were.

This post was edited by MystiKasT on Mar 11 2023 03:49pm

for a pure dmg perspective, jsp had a thread with numbers a few years back showing that gface will out-dps arreats.

tough call. personally, i normally run arreats myself. but i remember the topic coming up before and gface did more damage.

This post was edited by C4NTWO on Mar 11 2023 03:55pm

Gface > arreats

Socket it with 30 max dmg jewel

Thanks a ton for your input. May I ask why Max damage is better than %enhanced damage? Is it because of the way whirlwind works?

If you could provide any insight I'd appreciate it!

I assume this is for softcore. Because I would never use gface for hardcore.

Generally for softcore mode:
If your resistances are good, then use gface.
If your resistances are bad, then use arreats.

Also it depends what you are running.

For example, chaos sanctuary doesn’t have big elemental damage from monsters. Diablo and Infector are laughable. But De Seis and his group hit hard with physical damage, and you can easily use howl on them. So gface works well here.

However, worldstone levels can have souls that have big light damage and sometimes spawn with conviction aura. And dolls can melt your barb like butter. Arreats can help a lot here with extra life and resist.

Also if you want to get extra defensive, Vgaze with a base of 20 dr isn’t bad.
COA is also very good.

Nevertheless, I prefer to use gface because of the high damage.
I get 80+ deadly strike with dual griefs, highlord, gface, and gore riders.

Oh yeah, sorry should have specified softcore. I run Worldstone level 2 first with each time, I've only died to the midgets with kitchen knives once, but I do have to spam full rejuvs when they are around which is kinda hairy.

I have the same as you except CB BOTD instead of Dual griefs, so it sounds like I'll stick with G-face. Thanks a bunch for your help! This decision was eating me up inside lol!

AFAIK...

The only reason to play barb is either a pitzerker/trav or farming torches.

For a pitzerker you need shako.

For ubers you need GFace.

And for a brainless chaos frenzy farming... I don't know. Pick one.

This post was edited by kayko on Mar 11 2023 04:17pm

40ed/15max is bugged, 40ed/15ias is a waste since you don't need ias. For dmg 30 max > 40ed/9str iirc
Try them out in maxroll and check the dps

Lo for 5% max lr, ber for dr, um for res are also solid options but I prefer more dmg





This post was edited by InTheZone on Mar 11 2023 04:25pm