Level 30 Whirlwind Barbarian Guideby ste91 version 1.0
IntroductionRecently I've had alot of people asking me what gear I use, or how to make a WW Barb, or however else they put it. Either way, they want to know how it's done.
So here goes.
I'm not going to write this guide like most guides, where you are given a specific item for each slot, because I find that Barbarians are one of the most versatile LLDs out there.
So I'm simply going to give you detailed information on each item that you might want to have in your stash. But keep in mind, while I think item swapping is fine, I do not like "pre-buffing".
Alot of guides just give you the name of an item but don't give a reason why it should be used. Of course some items are obvious, but I'm going to give as much information as possible.
I do put emphasis on using cheap, easy to obtain items, even though some people like to be perfectionists with perfect stat rare items...
NotesI'll just point out first...for those who do not know:
BVA = Barb vs All. They are versatile and can work well in almost any situation. They can have alot of resistances aswell as the option of having max block.
BVC = Barb vs Caster. Specifically made for killing casters, they move and attack fast. They generally have very high resistances.
BVB = Barb vs Barb. With high defence and attack rating, they are best at killing other WW Barbs or any melee chars.
This said, it is not strictly set as though a BVB couldn't kill a caster or a BVC couldn't kill a melee char. It also depends on the opponent.
All Barbarians should be able to get more life than most other LLD chars. Reasons for this are that Barbarians get 4 Life for every point of vitality and they also get the skill Battle Orders which rasies Life, Mana, and Stamina.
You should aim to achieve:
Atleast 1.4k Life (this is a low amount since above 2k is possible with good charms)
Atleast 1k damage in each hand
Atleast 60 FRW from items (easily achievable with boots that have 30 or 40 FRW and 15 FRW from PCrown if you use it, and the rest from charms) although I do recommend getting atleast 80 FRW from items
Max block available unless you're pure BVC
Atleast 75 all resistances
Stacked Lightning and Cold resistance
Atleast 3 frames per attack Whirlwind speed
ItemsHelmThere is much discussion over what the best sort of Barb helm would be. Personally I think the best would be a rare 1+ Barb/3+ WW/3+ BO/3+ Inc Speed OR Natural Res/2 sockets.
Then there's all the other options such as +WW/3 Sockets, 2+WC/3+ BO, 1+Barb/3+ BO, and so on. The possibilities are endless. Although, think for a minute... what are the chances of getting such a helm? Are you going to be able to compete in a "bidding war" for it? That is why I'm going to mention Peasant Crown. It is often under-rated for WW Barbs, and I think the reason for this was because some realms disliked the idea of having chars hellrushed, which didn't give them access to all 41 skill points. Which means that if you aren't using a helm with +WW, you are using alot of skill points just as pre-reqs to Whirlwind.
However, since almost everyone hell-rushes their LLDs nowadays, I think PCrown is definately up there in top helm choices. It gives Life, Mana, +Skills, Life Replenish, and FRW. Even though it only gets one socket, it's still a very good helm, and another thing is, almost anyone can easily get a PCrown. In my opinion the biggest downfall of PCrown is how it actually looks when worn. Not pretty at all.
I should also note - for BVB you might want to use a high defence Eth/Self Repair helm.
You should socket your helm with either Max Damage or Enhanced Damage jewels. Since WW is a low ED skill at this level, you might benefit more from ED jewels.
ArmorI recommend Peace runeword. Critical Strike is the main reason, although FHR and Cold Resistance are not to be ignored. Make this in preferably a "light" armor so that you do not lose any FRW. Make it in a high defence armor if you cannot find an Eth/Self Repair for BVB.
Another choice is a 3 socket armor with Life as a base mod. At level 30 you can get up to 80 Life. Unless you can afford jewels with atleast 21 Maximum Damage then I'd ignore this and just use Peace.
For BVB a high defence Ethereal/Self Repair Ornate armor is good.
ShieldIf going for a pure BVC you may not want to use a shield at all. But depending on your realm (and the number of melee-based damage chars on that realm) I think it is important to have a shield available to you in your stash.
Shield choices are:
Whitstan - fast and high rate of blocking, socket it with a Max Damage jewel.
Rhyme Grim Shield - resistances, decent blocking, cannot be frozen, a good all-round shield.
Artisans Tower Shield of Deflecting - highest damage shield possible because of the 3 sockets, although these are hard to come accross. Socket it with 3x Maximum Damage jewels. If you can't get a Tower shield, you may want to settle for a different Artisans XXXX Shield of Deflecting.
Make sure you have enough dexterity for max block.
GlovesBefore reading any further - I should point out here that the next 2 sections, aswell as this one (Gloves/Belt/Boots) it is useful to have EVERY item listed here in your stash. (Unless you are using rare items that cover all your needs).
Bloodfists - FHR and Life are the main reasons to use Bloodfists. Good gloves, you can't really go wrong with them.
Deaths - Poison Resistance and Poison Length Reduction. Very useful vs Poison Amazons or Poison Necromancers. Combined with Deaths Belt you get 15% all resistances aswell as 30% IAS if you want to use Concentrate with faster speed.
IK - Alot of stat points here. Although by the time you have enough strength to wear them, the extra strength points aren't really needed. The main reason to use these gloves is for the dexterity they give. I use these when I need max block. It saves 20 stat points which is theoretically 80 Life (before BO).
You may also want some crafted CB gloves. I have not yet used any.
BeltIK - The resistances are the main reason I use this belt. The strength is useful and can save a few stat points, and also add a small amount of damage. Teamed with IK Gloves you get 50+ Attack Rating aswell as 25% IAS which is useful for when you use Concentrate or another similar skill.
Deaths - Cannot be Frozen is the #1 mod on this item and is very useful vs Blizzard Sorcs. Read above in the gloves section for reasons why to use them with Deaths gloves.
String of Ears - Damage Reduction... enough said. Could save you vs high damage melee chars. I find this especially nice when Chargers are lucky enough to get a hit at you or vs other WW Barbs.
I have not yet got an Open Wounds crafted belt but when I get round to crafting one I will try it out. I think it would be nice although like I said I haven't tried one yet.
If you can find a rare tri-res belt then you eliminate the need for using IK belt. (A rare belt with good res and other stats would be much better than IK).
BootsSanders - very commonly used boots for LLD, and it's pretty obvious why. 40 Faster Run Walk is great for any char, aswell as 100+ AR for melee based chars and of course 15 Stat points. Although I do not make use of any of these stat points on my barb, the strength is ignored because I like to switch gear around, and the dex is ignored because sometimes I like to have crushing blow. Which brings me onto the next boots.
Goblin Toes - Crushing blow is nice vs chars with very high life, such as Fury Druids or other WW Barbs.
Natalyas - these are rarely seen in LLD, even though they boast some nice resistances and 40 FRW. Use these vs Lightning or Cold Sorcs, and of course FOH Paladins.
If you are able to get some rare tri-res boots with 30 FRW, then make use of them. They can be much better than Natalyas in terms of resistances aswell as having 10 FHR.
WeaponsHere you have a few choices depending on preference. The most popular choices are:
Axes (Nagas)
Flails (Knouts)
Swords (Gladius/Zweihanders)
Those are the most popular choices. And then of course there is the choice of either using Honor runeword, a "robo" (Shael runes for enough IAS and then damage jewels to make up for the damage), or just completely filled with damage jewels. I'd like to say first - if you're going to jewel weapons, don't use plain 15 Maxers, get some with Enhanced Damage aswell as Maximum Damage (Preferably atleast 15% ED and atleast 14 Maximum Damage). Remember ED/Max is bugged anywhere else so make use of it here.
This is confusing so I'm going to break it down into a few sections:
Knouts - they have the same range as Nagas with a bit faster speed and less requirements, but less damage. If you are using Knouts, I recommend 2x Honor Knouts. Cheap, easy, and simple.
The reason I dont recommend using Robo Knouts is because they only have 5 Sockets. Which now moves us onto the next type of weapon.
Nagas - these are definately my number one choice, although they are slightly slower and require more strength than Knouts, you do get the option of six sockets. Which allows you to make a pretty decent robo. My personal choice here is using 1x Robo and 1x Honor. Honor is nice because it is cheap and easy, and gives good damage (Deadly Strike). Robo is used to get enough IAS. Alternatively you could use 2x Robos, which is potentially alot better.
Bloodletters - a few people like the dual Bloodletter setup, which gives you +WW, meaning you don't have to skill Whirlwind. They are cheap, but having only 1 range really puts them at a disadvantage. Although they do have base IAS and usefull skills, so they make a nice cheap alternative to other weapons, plus that they are fairly nice to look at, being red.
Swords - You COULD use some swords such as Zweihanders or Executioner swords in a similar manner to how you would socket Nagas. But I think the best sword setup would be 1x Bloodletter and 1x Zweihander. The Bloodletter (socketed with a Shael) gives you your speed and +Whirlwind, while the Zweihander, socketed with 5 jewels that have Maximum Damage and Enhanced Damage provides you with a 3 range, high damage weapon. I personally think this is a good alternative to the everyday norm of using Nagas.
Other rarely seen alternatives are a Robo Polearm or Spear class weapon with 5 range, or Insight runeword (Polearm or Runestaff). A long range weapon would be nice, an Insight gives Medititation so it would throw away any mana problems you would encounter. But the main reasons why these sorts of weapons are not used is firstly because of the slow speed, and secondly because they require two hands at all times which means no shield.
CharmsThese should be Maximum Damage/Attack Rating/Life and Maximum Damage/Attack Rating/FRW Charms.
Alternatively you could use Life/Resistance Charms or Life/Mana if your mana is really low...
But primarily you should aim for 3/XX/15 and 3/XX/3 Small Charms.
As said earlyer, you will want a good amount of FRW if you are a BVC, so keep that in mind when deciding which charms to use.
If you cannot afford SCs, Grand Charms are a decent enough, they can get up to 10 Max Damage/76 Attack Rating/25 Life.
You may want to look into building a different character if you feel you cannot afford good enough charms, your life and/or damage will be low if you cannot afford good charms.
Switch2x Spirit Swords of your choice should be here for casting BC/BO/Shout.
Or you could use some 2+ Warcry Throwing weapons. Read the skills section to find out why.
SkillsThere are alot of questions about skill setups for Whirlwind Barbs. In the past, some realms have shunned upon hell rushing and prefered to keep their chars in normal difficulty. Which limits you to only 33 skill points. This made it hard to achieve good skill point allocation without using a helm that has +Whirlwind. Whirlwind requires 5 skills to get to it. Two of which (Leap and Concentrate) are sometimes useful. As I said before, almost everyone hell rushes their characters these days, so a +Whirlwind helm is no longer as important as it used to be. Assuming you aren't using a +WW helm, here is what I think the best skill setup would be:
(Note that when I say "max" I mean as many points as you can get into it at level 30).
Max whichever weapon Mastery you choose
1 to Whirlwind and all pre-required skills
Max Battle Orders, 1 point to all pre-required skills
1 to Battle Command
1 to Iron Skin
1 to Natural Resistance
1 to Increase Stamina
2 to Increase Speed
As an alternative you could put a point into Berserk instead of 2 into Inc Speed. Although since you have Concentrate I think Conc is much better secondary skill and lets you keep that extra skill point.
Now lets go over some other skills.
Frenzy - if you have an item that gives you +Whirlwind, you should have some spare skill points. If you are using two weapons, Frenzy is nice especially vs casters because you can take advantage of the extra FRW after you get your first hit. It also makes a better alternative secondary skill to Concentrate.
Berserk - nice damage and good alternative to Concentrate for vs casters. Although be careful, since Berserk reduces you to zero defence, you will have trouble vs fast hitting melee chars, because you will be constantly blocking.
Concentrate - you could build your Barb as mainly a Conc Barb with a point to Whirlwind, although it's better (in my opinion) to build it the other way round, as a WW with a point into Conc for a secondary attack.
Double Throw - if you are using 2+ Warcry weapons on switch, you could make use of them. Even though they most probably wont have much damage, they could still be useful if you don't want to get too close, or you just want to have fun. If you are serious about doing this, put a point or maybe more into Throwing Mastery.
You could always try a combination of Frenzy/Double Throw and power up DT with Frenzy.
Here are the links to different Barbarian skills:
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/barbarian-warcries.shtmlhttp://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/barbarian-combatmasteries.shtmlhttp://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/barbarian-combatskills.shtmlStrategyI will repost this guide with a strategy section, because I want to get opinions on the items and skill sections first. For now I'll just give a couple of tips:
The first one is a bit obvious, but I thought I'd say it anyway - make sure you are using the right item setup depending on your opponent. If you are losing alot of duels, try switching some gear around and you may get better results.
Some chars, such as Chargers, or melee chars who have less range than you do cannot attack you without potentially hurting themselves while you are Whirlwinding. Keep this in mind, but don't Whirl around like an idiot wasting all of your mana.
In some cases you may want to not use Whirlwind at all, for example vs Zealers, I find it much better to use Concentrate, because most of the time if I'm lucky enough to get good hits, I can kill an average Zealer in two hits using Honor Naga. More hits if using Robo because less chance of doing double damage.
Avoid doing very long Whirls, they put you in a bad position and you are stuck there until the Whirl ends.
Try to "string together" a few short Whirls around your opponent. I find that doing a "triangle" movement, when possible, works better than just going forwards and backwards.
Well that's all for now, I will repost this with a full strategy section later, I need opinions and corrections on the other parts first.
Also I haven't proof-read this or checked it for spelling or grammar mistakes or anything like that, so I'd appreciate it if someone did.
This post was edited by ste91 on Jan 22 2008 12:57am