Yup, thats right. It is another wacky build from me again. Yes this drummer is going to tackle the ancients again solo for challenge #4. However, he has just finished normal at lvl45. I only have 1 at the moment so I am playing Rick Allen instead of Phil Collins. In other words, its damn hard to be a one armed drummer. I am looking for wands with FOHydra as well as a decent 3os armor to make duress out of. He is relatively fully geared save the 1 wand and armor. I am always looking to upgrade his gloves ( dual leech + resist ) and jewelry. I have a raven for him, and I have an all res ring waiting for him at lvl48. I am not all that concerned with +ED from LoH as wands typically do 2 to 8 damage and that would only equate to 6 to 24, woo freaking hoo. This also means that life leech is of no concern either. Once duress is made, I plan on usuing my inven space to equip max damage + elemental damage charms. I need to get the damage up there, but I know it wont be much. How do I plan on killing things? Easy, Crushing Blow + Open Wounds = slow but painful death for critters.

Helm = Guilleme's hat ( 35% CB, some DS, str, I plan on socketing it but have nothing more than a 5 all res to stick in it. Hopefully i find a dual elemental damage jewel to cram in there.)
weapon1 = 1 wand with 1 to 202 lightning damage.
weapon2 = none ATM ( go def leppard's Rick Allen )
Armor = Unique Linked Mail ATM, looking for 3os armor for duress for its additional CB
Gloves = some rares with dual leech on em. 3% both ML and LL. Some res.
Belt = old standby of SoE
Boots = Goblin toes for the 25% CB only. Gores have more options and FRW but I am a frenzy barb and it is rather dificult to control at these speeds.
Amulet = +2 Warcries + DR of 2
Ring1 = some magical with extra gold and fire resists
ring2 = ravenfrost, decent ring but not stellar on the stats.

I fully expect to be doing around 100 points of physical damage each swing after all the mace mastery and frenzy skill points. I am not going to max the double swing synergy but I am thinking about maxing the berserk synergy for the magic damage. The skill point placement plan is as follows.

20 frenzy - still working on this, only for the AR bonus - the ED bonus is just window dressing.
20 BO - completed
20 mace mastery - yes it works for wands. I only have 1 in there now and will max this last.
1 in the speed masteries - stamina and speed
1 in the def masteries - resistances and skin. Depending on my final defense and resistance I may place more points here.
20 berserk - synergy bonus for frenzy for magic damage purely. I do not think I will need to switch to berserk in chaos because of IM. I mean, I will be doing really really pathetic physical damage.

Thoughts or suggestions are welcomed. If some one has a link to my previous post on the drummer stuff where there were detailed discussions about his gear, please post that link. I would like to re-read it and I am not paying 5FG to search this place.

very nice...very nice indeed...

Ring1 = some magical with extra gold and fire resists..

may i post a print of smtg here?

maybe u need,

Couldn't find your old thread for some reason. I found this thread though: http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=265293

Also, with dual suicide branches you could make an excellent singer (and drummer, hence the suicide sticks instead of wizzy's). Use dual weapon wands to recharge mana and start singing again.

But other then that, wouldn't Treachery work better? I mean, 45ias, lots of elemental resistance, some dr, and some decent poison damage? Sounds good to me.

This post was edited by yerkyerk on Nov 1 2007 12:23pm

I doubt you have somthing i need considering the ring in waiting is 12 fire, 23 cold, 36 light, 12 psn res with 55 AR as some LL or some such on it.

But I am always open to other options. Feel free to post what you have, just crop it so I dont have to wait to see all of the 800x600 screen.

This post was edited by The_Morpheus on Nov 1 2007 12:42pm

Good ole Durf.

I tossed the idea of a singer/drummer as Phil Collins is a pure whimp and I dont like him now that he won the Oscor over Matt and Trey for their song "blame canada." I just have a hard time seeing a caster character in a Barb. Using wands is about as far as I am willing to take it. I fully expect this character to be awesome in the first 2 difficulties and struggle like mad in hell. But then again, who knows. Treachery does not have CB, and the drummer is all about getting 100% CB.

Well, that's true, but I think with the ias you get from Treachery you'll trigger CB more often then with Duress (depends on other ias items and the percentage of CB you've got ofcourse). Treachery also makes your character look ethereal after you triggered fade- personally I think that's cool, but maybe you don't want an ethereal drummer

With enough fcr and +skills, I'm sure a singer barb wouldn't have too much problems soloing hell. Shouldn't be too much trouble reaching the 200fcr breakpoint (100 from suicide branches, 20 from gloves, 30 from vipermagi, 20 from rings and 20 from arach). Or go for the 125fcr breakpoint (or was it 105?) and make a hybrid drummer/singer.
I'm also sure Phil Collins isn't the only singer/drummer...

I dont have arachs and do not want to hunt for one. I tend to not hunt for upscale items.

The lead singer for the eagles, Don Henley is also the bands drummer, but I hate the eagles as they over charge for really bad music. Back in their heyday, it would have been worth it to pay $200 to see them perform hotel california or other great albums.

Again, I just dont see a caster in a barb. I know it is doable an viable in hell. It just contradicts what a barbarian is to me.

Don't see it as a caster, see it as a singer - if you can't imagine a barbarian singing you've never visited a decent death metal concert before.
Arach might be hard to come by - but can be replaced by a 20fcr helm or something. Doesn't matter - I know you don't want to go this way, so I'll just stop posting about a drummer/singer barb.

Still, I think Treachery is better then Duress for your purposes.

Deth metal is so not for me now that i have matured. No offense to anyone who listens to it, but I do have this need to understand what the singer is actually singing.

Treachery might be an option. I am more looking at duress as I have the Um to spare and I know I can re-use duress on other characters. Lemme calculate the CB.........one second.

Duress

+40% Faster Hit Recovery
+10-20% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Adds 37-133 Cold Damage 2 sec. Duration (Normal)
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
33% Chance of Open Wounds
+150-200% Enhanced Defense (varies)
-20% Slower Stamina Drain
Cold Resist +45%
Lightning Resist +15%
Fire Resist +15%
Poison Resist +15%

Treachery

5% Chance To Cast Level 15 Fade When Struck
25% Chance To Cast level 15 Venom On Striking
+2 To Assassin Skills
+45% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold From Monsters

so with the 35 from guilemes, 25 from goblins, duress adds 15 for a grand total of 75%

However, the added cold damage is really really nice. I hate poison damage as it resets itself as you strike again.

Treachery would be good as a prebuff but I am not about to prebuff 3x with this character. 1x for deamon limb, 1x for BO shouts, and then an additional 1x for fade. Too much for me.

This post was edited by The_Morpheus on Nov 1 2007 02:58pm

Sounds interesting, but a quick question. Does this build have to use wands to qualify as a drummer, or are you using them to get the elemental dame to kill off the creature after the CB does its job?