This blog post is mostly for myself, if anyone happens to read it that's also great! I will basically just be explaining the 3 effective BvB setups that have consistently worked over the years. In any BvB build, you need not to excel in one area, but rather find a perfect balance. These numbers you need to juggle are life, defense, attack rating, raw damage and open wounds.

#1 The Toothrow build

This build relies heavier on the Bleed aspect (obviously) rather than raw damage, however there needs to be some balance. 50% open wounds or higher should be the goal here. In order to make up for lost damage in not having a fortitude, we need to add raw damage wherever else possible. Things like steelrends, and a 2os Viso are great ways to achieve this.

HELM -- 2os 5bo Viso OR High Stats Barb Viiso Diadem
WEAPON -- Griefz
ARMOR -- Eth upped Toothrow
SHIELD -- 30/9/9/-15 or 30/60/9/-15 Stormshield
GLOVES -- Steelrends
BELT -- Dungos
BOOTS -- Upped Gores

#2 The Old School Fort build

This is the first of 2 effective builds revolving around the use of the Fortitude armor. This build has proven itself effective over time by balancing raw damage, bleed and defense very well. We use dracs in this build to achieve 35% bleed (along with gores). And a High defense, eth-rep viso is used to reach desired defense levels.

HELM -- 700+ defense, Eth-rep 5bo Viso OR Upped Arreats
WEAPON -- Griefz
ARMOR -- Sacred armor fortitude
SHIELD -- 30/60/9/9 Stormshield
GLOVES -- Dracs
BELT -- Dungos
BOOTS -- Upped Gores

#3 The New School Fort build

This build takes the raw damage up a notch by pairing a 2os viso with a fortitude. There are few helms out there good enough to make this build work consistently. A combination of 2os, high life, and added bonuses of iron skin and shout are ideal. The use of both dracs and rends have proven to work for this build, and a sacred armor fort is ideal to boost a lacking defense total. This is the true brawlers build.

HELM -- 2os 5bo Viso Helm
WEAPON -- Griefz
ARMOR -- Sacred armor fortitude
SHIELD -- 30/60/9/9 Stormshield
GLOVES -- Dracs or Rends
BELT -- Dungos
BOOTS -- Upped Gores

-Playstyles for each build will vary. The tooth build requires a bit of dancing and dodging with well-timed strikes, also allowing time for your opponent to bleed. The Fort builds will use an aggressive attack, staying on top of your opponent, landing big shots.

-As I briefly mentioned before, too much of a focus on one aspect will be largely unsuccessful. (For example, a stacked defense build with prudence, or mass life builds which neglect defense).

-Max block and 50% damage reduced are a must. Angelic rings + amulet, and grief are also must haves for any build.

-3/30/20 small charms are the go-to inventory choice, however swapping in other charms to manipulate your numbers is sometimes key to defeat different opponents. In my opinion, the best 3x charms for swaps are 10max/76ar/45life gcs, 45 life mastery gcs and 132/45 gcs.

I'm sure there's more I can note, however that's it for now.

Cheers