well basiccally
as you`ve already mentioned berserk means 0 defense... you will get hit by everything around you- having a shield will make you block regardless of the fact wether it is mb or not.. you have some dex there and a low blocking speed
not really a good idea to use a shield with slow block

I`d go for a 2 hand wepaon with a decent punch like death

resis can be gotten from other cheaper items, same goes for absorb
redemption does not matter.. any barb has hork a cola
defense is negated anyways

coh/fortitude are better armors, hell even lionheart is

physical damage is converted into magical damage--> gulli> arre
rares/crafts can have better stats than a raven--> one raven for a decent ring

only 2 hotos will actually make you hit a decent breakpoint(okay 105 is imho the only decent breakpoint) ( ah forget it, hoto+ spirit or even 2 spirits can...) but I`d always use 2x +3 bo spears because of the simplicity of it

resistances.. hmm ever seen natural resistance skill...

skillers on a melee.. naah I like my maxdam/ar charms

enigma for str= pointless a barb gains 4 hitpoints form one point in str....
1 small charm either has 2 str or up to 20 life.... better chopice to use your statpoints and get vita from charms.. if one needs them at all

also stats.
desx for items
vita for 2-3k life including bo
str as str can.. damage is our safetynet

merc:
insight froster with ll helmet and nice armor like treachery
reaper`s mighter with gulli and treachery

both offer more safety

well basiccally
as you`ve already mentioned berserk means 0 defense... you will get hit by everything around you- having a shield will make you block regardless of the fact wether it is mb or not.. you have some dex there and a low blocking speed
not really a good idea to use a shield with slow block

I`d go for a 2 hand wepaon with a decent punch like death
I am after the 400%ed, BONUS to Fire & Light Res & Redemption

resis can be gotten from other cheaper items, same goes for absorb
redemption does not matter.. any barb has hork a cola
defense is negated anyways
Defense is negated with Berserk, but NOT with Conc. As for Horcking bods for pots, damn pointless, but, there is mention to change shield to SS for "Find Item" skill

coh/fortitude are better armors, hell even lionheart is
Enigma gives: RES/LIFE/MANA/DR/FRW/STR/5% bonus to MAXIMUM LIFE/+14 LIFE PER KILL
and that is not including the obvious Strength and teleport

physical damage is converted into magical damage--> gulli> arre
Arreats > Guil .........Because it has more MULTIPLE benefits. Skill (AR/DMG/LIFE/RES), FHR, RES, DEF
rares/crafts can have better stats than a raven--> one raven for a decent ring
Rares/Crafted are limited, they have to have at least 16+DEX, but again you lose out on massive AR

only 2 hotos will actually make you hit a decent breakpoint(okay 105 is imho the only decent breakpoint) ( ah forget it, hoto+ spirit or even 2 spirits can...) but I`d always use 2x +3 bo spears because of the simplicity of it
Options mentioned in guide
resistances.. hmm ever seen natural resistance skill...
Hmmm, have you read the Guide?, Natural Res was mentioned. BTW it does state that all Synergies for this build is reached at lvl95, and you can opt for other skill to reach the BEST potential to 99.
skillers on a melee.. naah I like my maxdam/ar charms
Skillers are a good substitute, considering my build has all legit items found by myself, if i had more 3/20/20's, then i would of included them

enigma for str= pointless a barb gains 4 hitpoints form one point in str....
1 small charm either has 2 str or up to 20 life.... better chopice to use your statpoints and get vita from charms.. if one needs them at all
I have Enigma on which helps with me holding a Monarch (156 str) and not wasting points into Strength itself, then I get those points into Vita giving me 4 life per point, which means that I can have more 20 life charms in my inventory IF I HAD MORE. so, I get BOTH BENEFITS

also stats.
desx for items
vita for 2-3k life including bo
str as str can.. damage is our safetynet
There are 2 items options, 1 being PB requiring you to reach 136 dex, the other being a Berserker Axe which requires NO DEX

merc:
insight froster with ll helmet and nice armor like treachery
reaper`s mighter with gulli and treachery
I tried out A2 Merc, sucks for this build LITERALLY.
Insight: yes it is a good weapon for mana, does not give life, so the Redemption Aura covers both life and mana
Holy Freeze merc; good merc, but dead with IM in 3 areas of the game, and you do not receive Med aura either
Treachery is alright once Fade is cast, the defense sucks, the merc gets hit more, so dies more often, damn

Act 1 Cold Arrow Merc weilding Faith lives longer, gives you faster attack rating (giving you more options for item selection) and also increasing your damage before Berserk Skill
Cold Arrow Merc has 2 benefits:
#1 Casts "Inner Sight" which decreases monsters DEF
#2 Fires "Freezing Arrow" & Cold Arrow freezing monsters that are not Immune Cold

both offer more safety

What you stated DOES NOT give more safety whatsoever, the main points of a Berserker is to use Howl to remove 95% of danger, there is basically nothing left that will threaten a PURE Berserker

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Aug 13 2008 01:58am

1.st of all death means indestructible, means use of ethereal baseweapons
ethereal baseweapons have 1,5 times the basedamage of non ethereal weapons
little example:
non ethereal berserker axe= 24-71 damage=47,5 average damage
ethereal berserker axe =36-106=71 average damage

- a 400% ed phoenix in a non eth berserker axe will deal an average damage of ~235+
- the lowest damage death (300 ed) in ethereal berserker axe will deal an average damage of 248

the bonus for the resis can come from other sources but the weapon damage is important, and same goes for the deadly strike of death, which is applied to all physical damage before it is converted into magical damage, and cb as a trigger is also one nice thing

phoenix is a joke, not a decent weapon...

even when using conce.. I deal more damage without using phoenix due to more basedamage and probably because I`d skill otherwise still nice ed+ more deadly strike and cb, not to mention more ar and crowdcontrol through glacial spike
besides we are talking about a berserker barb that may use conce to leach but that does not haapen that often imho...
If i don`t get forced into blocking animations and so on, I receivce less damage
If I freeze my opponents, I receive less damage
If I kill my opponents faster, I receive less damage

I would not go for a shield on a zerker or concer.. you have your warcries for crowdcontrol, use them... and horking comes up with a lot of potios in a short amount of time.-.. easy life and mana
easy crowdcontrol....
you have skills.. use them


enigma gives you 2 skillevels for your berserk and natural resis and 0,75% str per level (67% for charlvl 90=67% ed)
now looking at fortitude or CoH hmm 25-65 prisma, 200-300% ed... sorry man but because of the damage advantage of those two and the resistance advantage of those two.. I can go more for offensive stats in my other items and still maintain higher life then you
and by the way.. while using concentration I have far more defense with any of those two
because of stats and resis, even a lionheart beats enigma.....
your 5% maximum life are only added and not multiplied by BO your life after kill is nice, but come on... you are a barbarian with 2k+ life... which means that this life will never be any sollution to the lack of lifeleach

if you need runningspeed--> increased tempo... wait with fortitude I have even more ed, at less skillpoints, which means I could make this higher or even charge up frenzy ^^

teleport without fcr is pretty useless and with enigma you sacrifice life,damage and resistances.... not a nice armor

gulli> arreats because of str,cb ,enough fhr and most important 15% deadly strike
so let`s see
1k off weapon ed is pretty much a piece of cake to get with a berserker/any melee-barbarian
15% deadly strike means 15% chance to deal damage with 2 k off weapon ed
- (2000/100) * 15 =300
15% ds = 300% off weapon ed

the arre will not get you that much off weapon ed...
looking at the resis... I would say that by neglecting enigma and choosing a better suited armor, I can safely say that the resis do not matter
defense.. looking at armor.. I still have more
your skills are not that decisive because I have far more damage I can still change my inventory If I needed those skills...
fhr is on gulli
str is on gulli and with the ds even more than on arre....
arre has NO Crushing Blow

As has been proven times and times before... If you wanna improve your physical damage in PvM as Melee, nothing beats Gulli

rares and crafts can have dex,str,vita,resis,ar on board... with those rings I can get more free space in the inventory and thus your argument is negated

looking at my setupo I have far more off wepaon ed on my equipment than you with all skills invested.. I reach the samge damage a lot earlier/exceed it a lot earlier, which equals free points+ I have more resistances anyways

even a plain maxdam/ar charm beats a combat skiller always...
let`s see.
I`d play at 100% ds and probably 100% cb
more than 1,2k off weapon ed (1k berserk, 200 from might merc)
a +8 maxdam gc means:
4 avdam, 2400% off wepaon ed,=100 average damage gained with that charm and they are not that rarely seen

let`s see
enigma has few resis
enigma has little ed compared to other armors, you don`t have as much deadly strike as somebody else
with the str from enigma you do not gain as much as with a decent armor
str= damage
just looking at it...
you neither can hold up to the safety nor the damage of me....

If you want to achive the same thing, you need far more damage, which will make you loose your str gain from enigma, your resis gained from arre, your puny weapon, your shield

you neither have more damage nor more life...

wether you use a pb or not means only... you have a shield, you have block...

let`s see
more damage, more safety from a2 mercs, your redemption cannot give you any mana if it needs corpses
you are the slower killer with phoenix..
not as many corpses in the same amount of time...
I am already horking up potios while you`ll still be back there trying to kill monsters

dead In IM areas....
Leap, Taunt,Howl... leap to the mage, kill it, rinse and repeat

treachery can be precasted and gets activated pretty quickly.. merc reaches higher ias cap--> attacks mroe monsters in the same amount of time--> receives less hits..
he get`s BO and shout anyway... I really don`t see your problems with using barbarian skills to strengthen the char

the freezer, slows down cold immunes as well, you either don`t have to worry about mana with insight or give him a big puncher with obedience,hone,tombi or schnitters... hell one could even think of pride or infinity ^^ (ed or -defense ^^)

the mighter could do the same with schnitters and still give you more off weapon ed than faith

still my opinion is the same... this is not a good guide

This post was edited by Ancalagon on Aug 13 2008 04:08am

I am tired, so I have just ONE simple question for you now:
Have you actually made my build and tested it with your build to see which is better?
If you haven't, I suggest you go and do that, then, you will be able to comment on reality. NOT assume based on your theories.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Aug 14 2008 02:03am

well we still have the block, regardless, the weapon and the firestorm that say no to phoenix

setup let`s see
can I beat you.. hmmm


death champion axe (88-141 basedam--> 114 avdam for the baseweapon)
LoH
tgod/whatever
Gores
Gulli
Highlord
treachery
raven
statsring/ll/ml ring ^^

charlvl 92, you use anni+torch, I might as well do the same ^^

100% ds, 100% cb
average ed of death=342%
weapon damage:
(114 *4,42)=503 average damage
(88*4,42)=388 minimum damage
(141 *4,42)=623 maximum damage

now let us see
200 ed from str, 200 ed from might,153from mastery
berzerk +855%
[503 * (1+8,55+2,0+2,0+1,53)]*2 =15170 average damage
[388 *15,08]*2=11702 minimum damage
[623*15,08]*2=18789 maximum damage

2,27 attacks/s... and wait, I do nearly 3 times your mimimum damage..... o_O

ar:
do you really think that more than 700% basear, at least 30 dex from torch+anni,bonus of raven,maxdam/ar charms, death... is not enough ar
I doubt that

defense... berzerk, remember (for conce I have a decent deff from shout and howl and warcry...)
I have to add the glacial spike here, nothing is as nice as fighting frozen monsters...

life will be somehwat lower, ~ 4k if i decide for coward and vita as vita can but hey.. beats me.... I deal three times your damage.. I deliver far more 1 hit kills

resis:at least 30 from torch+anni
30 from anya
47% nat resis
=107 resis
fade, another 62 + 15% physdamred
169 resis
loh
highlords
tgod if we want to

75 69 85 69 is imho really enough to play... if I want more, I can use dwarf or whisp...

by the way.. berzerk transforms all your physical damage into magical damage, so if you increase the physical damage a lot, the magical damage increase will be even higher

can you tell me why I would want a build like yours that takes three times a long to take a monster down?

did you actually invest some time and thought about what you wanted to do before you wrote this insult that you try to call a guide?

This post was edited by Ancalagon on Aug 14 2008 04:23am

You should learn how to calculate your damage properly.
100% DS (95% is correct)
100% CB (95% is correct)

I do 8445 Overall average Damage (not including DS or CB) and attack 3x faster than you do.
That means i do 25,335 Base average damage while you are doing 18789 including your CB and DS
Do not believe me, do the maths yourself.

Now if you want to Argue that I still need to hit them, look at Grief's other attributes.
..Ignores Target Defense (base minion)
..-25% to Targets Defense (All minions and bosses)
..Also the % damage Vs Demons based on Character Level was not included in my calculations
..Prevent Monster Heal comes in handy vs certain bosses.

Again you life does not stack up, but, that is not a problem.
Your res again is not the same. (Hmm, Conviction Aura Souls etc)
Your Attack rating is pitiful, so you do not hit often

Basically you have just failed dramatically quoting numbers to prove a point.

It is called TUNNEL VISION, you only want to see your way, MASS damage, no other solution, you have not realised also that the Damage is coming from a Phase Blade, not a Berserker Axe.





You can get 100% DS, but there the 5% chance it FAILS

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Aug 14 2008 05:34am

You can get 100% ds.

how comes that you wanna know better than blizzard..........
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/magic.shtml#sma

check your facts before you open your mouth..........

Source?
don´t say anything that you cannot proove

you do 2,7 attacks per second whith a phase blade
I do 2,27 with my champion axe

so you do 22% more attacks not more, not less

by the way.. I could switch from gores to wt`s, gain another 20 average damage and still maintain 97+% ds

so let`s see
average grief has +370 damage ( i have calculated with average death, too.... but hey i can repeat that with a 385 ed as well, easy)
pb has 33 average damage, -->403 damage does the weapon deal
right now you have
20 mastery,20 bo,20 shout 17 howl, otherwise you would not have prereqs,bc and nat resis....) + skills from eq which are clear bc,anni,torch,arre,eni,highlords

so let`s see
186 str
390 from phoenix
985 berzerk
173 mastery

22% crit
54% ds
-->64% chance to deal a deadly strike

403*18,34=7391 damage

64% deadly strike=946048
36 % no deadly strike=266076
-- damage per strike:12121

12121 *2,7=32727

comparison

15170 *2,27=34435




itd does not work versus bosses
target defense, wayne.. we have enough ar regardless of what setup
includes the off wepaon ed of ed vs demons, then I can include the 85% more cb and the higher range
pmh= wayne

should I include your damageloss due to firestorm cast delay
should I include the damageloss due to your block (27%)

my resis hmm let`s see
85% resis for lightning, another 29% stacked lresis(highlords ftw....), possibility to gain more resis from ring, charms.....

why is my ar pitiful.... give reasoning and proof of that...........
you have 136 points in dex, I have , assuming the same raven and average torch (which I would for your calculation as well)
~70, another 50% basear and 20% enhanced ar from death, not to mention mastery ands attack itself......

by the way...

looking at your assumptions and what you calculate, you should either show the calculations or return to your math teacher..............
there seems to be something wrong with that

by the way..
should I go for the fun and add a faith merc
which means I only need 44 ias for 2,5 attacks/s and include a fortitude as armor.......
to gain another 10% attackspeed and 300% more off weapon ed?

This post was edited by Ancalagon on Aug 14 2008 06:13am

In your calculations for my setup you forgot the skillers and the 143% enhanced damage that comes from Faith. And you will now notice that the damage I stated was pretty much on the button.

I do not have the 2 year old link disputing the 100% vs 95% because there is the hidden 5% fail that is built in the programming after all the hacking with items etc.
So you can say that I am incorrect, I do not mind that whatsoever. You could also join up and read Battle.net forums if you wanted to find some of the older threads.

If you want to change your setup to make your build stronger, go for it, I do not mind at all.

I have already seen that a simple PB that has sad min/max damage with a Berserker barb still deals near enough damage
as a big badass Axe which has higher min/max dmg all round, and then being Ethereal, and on top of all that, the High % enhanced
damage from the runeword. Truelly makes you think whether you want SPEED or DAMAGE.

In the Long Haul, my build does deal more damage, whether it be 22% faster, multiply that over 50 monsters, I deal more dmg, now because i can teleport also, I can get to andy, meph, baal, Diablo a hell of alot faster than your Fort weilding barb that deals basically the same damage.

I think you have proven that my build works well, and the items have a purpose, overall you thought you had it in the bag with your calculating massive damage, then after really looking at calculating my build, you found the truth.

In your Comparison (which did not include my skillers or the 143% ed from faith)
there is only a 2k difference (if you include missing stuff, even less)
I can tele over walls, you have to run the long way. (I am faster)
I can run fast too, so again if it was a running race without "Skill" I would still beat you.
Now lets take Chaos Sanc. If you had a base point in leap, your Bounding distance would not get you into chaos faster than I can tele there, basically by the time you get to the first Seal, I would be on the last seal.

Thanks to you, I have made you fail, utterly and miserably.

you`re the one who is saying that ds and cb are capped at 95% so if you wanna make a point you better proove your statement

however the chance to hit a monster is capped at 95%, but this does not matter because if I hit a monster and have 100% deadly strike per hit.. I will trigger deadly strike always wether I hit or not

I also forgot me statting more str,
I did not include maxdam charms of inventory (who would use skillers...)
I also forgot to use faith myself and putting on fortitude and gaining another ias cap with the death setup....
I did not include the usage of WT`s (wchich would mean only 85% cb and 97% ds)
I also forgot to count in the sockets
I also forgot to count in the cb
I also forgot to add the additional might the merc gains from being lvl 92 and not 85 (+additional + skills on his eq) 200->280 (andy+ariocs)
I also had find potio+wc skilled--> less ed from berser ^^

including your faith,including phoenix,str,skills and deadly strike, you arrive at 3077% damage (including the first 100% of the weapon)
I arrive at 3176% off weapon ed (200 str, might merc,,100%ds,100%cb setup, skills as before) (including the 100% added for using a weapon)

your average damage is 403
mine is 503

you do 2,77 attacks per second
I do 2,27 attacks per second

you deal
34348 dam per second

I deal
36263 dam per second

do you really honestly think that extra combat barb skillers would be beneficial instead of using maxdam/ar charms.........^^

now let´s see

you block at 27% with your charlevel, 136 dex and using a monarch ( if you don´t believe me, consult a blocking calc, )
with the bersi: (20 base, 30 from torch/anni,20 from arre,20 from raven) -->17% block

you have 0% faster block- you block at 7 fpa

there are too many occasions where one is either in a group
(or you howl and hunt them down one by one, which is ineffective because thery flee)
you don´t use warcry--> no stun several monsters at the same time attack you
you don´t freeze groups faster attackers
or when you find a mix of melee and blowtube guys,archers and the likes....

firestorm has a chance of 40% to get casted
you do (if you don?`t block ^^)
2,77 attacks per second
40% of 2,77=1,108
~ once per second you trigger firestorm
firestorm has a casting delay of 0,6 seconds

which means that you only deal 1,08 attacks per second and not 2,77.....#

do you really think that I need to reequip?................

This post was edited by Ancalagon on Aug 14 2008 09:30am