Whirlwind Barb Guide
You will not be able to use most of your equipment until level 70, when you get the strength bonus from your Annihilus.
This guide is assuming that you have completed all of the Stat/Skill/Resistances Quests, which are:
Act 1 -The Den of Evil (1 Attribute point per difficulty)
Act 2 -Radament (1 Attribute point per difficulty)
Act 3 -The Jade Statuette (20 life per difficulty)
Act 3 -The Tome of Lem Isen (5 Stat points per difficulty)
Act 4 -Izual (2 Attribute points per difficulty)
Act 5 -Save Anya (10 Resist points per difficulty)
Available Skills at 85: 97
Available Stats at 85: 440
Stats:
Strength: 71
If your Sandstorm Treks are +15 Strength and your Annihilus is +20 to Attributes, if not then this should be raised accordingly. For example, if your Treks are +13 Strength and your Annihilus is +15, your strength should be 78 as opposed to 71.
Dexterity: 120
If you use Ravenfrost/Angelics for your rings/amulet then this will get you to 220 dex for max block with an SS at level 99. If you choose to use Viper Whorls and Gale Shell then you will only have 190 Dex, but since most people don't make it to 99 in 1.10 this shouldn't matter to much.
Vitality: Rest
Energy: Base
Skills:
Max Whirlwind
1 in Bash
1 in Leap
1 in Leap Attack
1 in Stun
1 in Concentrate
Max BO
1 in Howl
1 in Battle Command
Max Axe Mastery (or sword mastery if you use Tactic 5 for attack, see below)
Max Shout
1 in Increased Stamina
1 in Increased Speed
1 in Natural Resist
Rest in Iron Skin
Equipment:
Eth BOTD Berserker Axe
The better the stats on this the better, 400+/15 is ideal but very expensive.
Perfect Base Defense SS with an Um/40/15 Max in it
You should have one of each, and switch them depending on what kind of character you are facing. When going against casters you should switch to Um, and when going against non-casters or people who deal strictly physical damage you should switch back to 40/15 Max.
Enigma
The strength requirement should be kept somewhere below 200, and the higher the defense the better. 1350+ is ideal.
Eth Zod Arreat’s Face
200%/6% is perfect, but these are very rare. Any Eth one would have better defense than a regular one, but if you can’t get an eth one then a regular one (perfect ones are not very rare and not very expensive, so shoot for a perfect one) works. If you use a regular one it should be socketed with a 40/15 Max Jewel.
Perfect Vitality Verdungo’s
+40 Vitality, these are not very expensive because you do not have to worry about Damage Reduction. This is because of the 50% Damage Reduction cap in PvP (8% on Enigma + 35% on Stormshield = 43%, the minimum on Verdungo’s is 10%).
Steelrends
60% Enhanced Damage and +20 Strength is perfect, but these can cost you a great deal, anything with 50+ Enhanced Damage will work, the Strength is not very important.
Eth Sandstorm Treks
13+ Vitality and Strength is better, and the more defense on them the better.
You have a few options for your rings/amulet -
Option 1: 1 Perfect Ravenfrost (or close to it), 1 Angelic Ring and the Angelic Amulet. This will give you some greatly needed AR and the Cannot Be Frozen mod, which you are currently lacking.
Option 2: 2 Angelic Rings and the Angelic Amulet. This will give you even more AR, but you will be missing the Cannot Be Frozen mod and will have to use a Cham rune in your SS as opposed to Um or a 40/15. This will lower your resists quite a bit, and as a result you will probably have to replace some of your charms with 20 Life/5 Resist charms in order to make up for it.
Option 3: 2 Viper Whorls and a Gale Shell Amulet. These are commonly duped and pretty easy to find. They will solve your resists problem, but you will still have to place a Cham in your SS. These will give you more life and mana, as well as +2 to all skills. You sacrifice a great deal of AR because you aren’t wearing the Angelic Set, however.
You also have some options for Charms:
Option 1: 39 3/20/20s and 1 Annihilus Charm. These will give you lots of AR, a nice boost to your life, and will add a decent amount to your max damage. You resists might suffer, though, depending on what option you chose for your rings/amulet.
Option 2: 3/20/20s mixed with 20 life/5 resists charm and 1 Annihilus Charm. The amount of 20/5’s you use depends on how many more resists you need, only use as many as you need to max out your resists (75 all). You will lose some AR and a bit of damage, but not a great deal.
Option 3: 10 Barbarian Combat Charms with Life, 9 3/20/20s and 1 Annihilus Charm. Your AR will suffer, as will your life, but your damage will rise. This option has not been tested by me yet. If anyone has done this PM me with the results, as I’m not rich enough and don’t have enough time to trade for 10 combat charms with life.
Option 4: Same as above, except instead of 9 3/20/20s use 20/5’s until your resistances are maxed.
Switch Weapons:
2 +3 Echoing Weapons (+3 to Warcries. Many people want ones with colors other than the standard yellow. Having 2 blue or red Warcry weapons may look cool, but also costs more and it’s up to you if you want to spend that extra amount just for looks).
Some other equipment you may want to have in your stash:
Demon Limb - This can be used to cast enchant before battle with its charges. Many people consider this being bad mannered, and in many clans and tournaments outside charges are not allowed. It will boost your AR by a great deal, and will also add a small amount of fire damage. Replenishing all 20 charges costs a little over 200k Gold, unless you use the Cube Recipe (see below).
Thunder God’s Vigor - Adds to your maximum Light Resists and adds to your light absorb. This is for fighting Trappers and Lightning Sorcs, and it will reduce their damage a great deal.
2 Wisp Protectors - These add 15-20% Lightning Absorb each, which can render Trappers and Lightning Sorcs practically useless against you. They can be somewhat expensive though, and aren’t necessary for most duels.
Rising Sun Amulet - Adds to your Fire Absorb, useful against Fire Sorcs and the rare Fire Trapper.
Dwarf Stars - Same reason as above.
Guardian Angel - This armor adds 15% to all your maximum resists, and can be very useful against casters. I would not recommend this armor, however, as it lowers your defense and you lose the ability to Teleport, which is one of your tactics for attack.
Additional 20 Life/5 All Resists - Use these in place of 3/20/20s if you need the extra boost for resists.
Ral/Ort Runes - Ral + Any Armor in the cube repairs the armor entirely, which is very useful if you are using a superior Enigma (fully repairing a superior Enigma can cost over 1.5 Million Gold). The Ort runes would be used along with any chipped gem for replenishing the charges in a Demon Limb, if you choose to use one. Ort + Any weapon in the cube repairs it fully, but since you are using eth BOTD with the indestructible mod you will not need to use this.
Tactics for Attack:
Tactic 1:
Chase down your enemy and the Whirlwind when you are close enough. This works well against Melee characters, as they don’t move while you Whirlwind them anyways. If you choose this tactic against Casters be prepared to take a lot of damage, as chasing them down can result in you having to tank a lot of hits.
Tactic 2 (primarily for Melee Characters):
The best way to Whirlwind against a melee character is not to Whirlwind through them, but to Whirlwind away from them. When a character moves to chase after you their defense lowers, and they will be forced to run into part of your Whirlwind. This gives them less hits, resulting in less damage on you.
Tactic 3:
Teleport next to your enemy and immediately Whirlwind. This should be used against casters, as you often can surprise them and prevent them from teleporting or running away before you can get a hit in. This may take some practice, and the first few times to try it you will probably find yourself Whirlwinding the wrong way, or missing with your teleport entirely.
Tactic 4 (primarily for other Whirlwind Characters):
Wait for the enemy to use their Whirlwind, then move out of the way and Whirlwind back. This will also take a bit of practice, in order to get the timing right for moving away. Whirlwinding at the same time as your enemy often results in neither of you getting hit, and can prolong the duel by a great deal.
Tactic 5 (requires eth BOTD CB and Sword Mastery maxed):
Remove your shield and WW with a 2 handed eth BOTD CB. This will give you an incredible damage boost, but should only be used against casters (if you remove your shield against melee characters and other WW barbs/bowazons you will most definately die). Use the same tactics as above, but you will be taking more damage so being able to kill quickly is a must if you use this tactic.
PvM uses:
This character is good for just about any PvM situation, with the exception of the end of Act 4 and the Worldstone Keep level 2 and on in Hell. Oblivion Knights cast Iron Maiden on you, and if you are caught in the middle of Whirlwind when they cast it you have no way of stopping, and are pretty much guaranteed death. Any other place in the game is easily beaten, both Solo and in games with multiple people. 8 Person games in hell can cause some difficulty, but usually you will have other characters helping you in this case.
Leveling
Some items that help with leveling:
Full Angelic Set
Full Death's Set
Coif of Glory (unique full helm)
Strength Charms (+5 Large is the best, and you get the most strength for the space it takes up, you should only need 1 though)
The first stat that you should work on maxing is strength, so you can use the Death set sword. This sword will give you a ton of cold damage, and you can one hit kill most things in Act 1 and 2. The Death gloves and belt give some nice bonuses for the low level as well, 30% IAS on the gloves, Cannot be Frozen, +15 all resists, and 8% Life Leech. On this barb you should use one Death sword and one Angelic Sword, along with the rest of the Angelic Set. This will give you nice attack speed and the full set bonus for Angelic as well as the decent damage with Death. Coif of Glory is a unique helm that blinds the enemy, and is very useful at lower levels because it can render most enemies useless for a few seconds.
Another easy option is to just get a high level enchant and run through 1 hit killing everything with your massive fire damage, but if you don't have a friend with a sorc than the above method works.
Where to level:
1-4 Den of Evil
5-9ish Stony Field/Cold Plains
9-14 Tristram Runs
15-20 Tomb Runs
20-24 Cows (getting a higher level to kill helps)
24-25 Ancients
25-45 Normal Baal
45-72+ NM Baal
72 and beyond Hell Baal
You should place all stats in strength to begin with, until your strength reaches 71. After this you should boost your Dex to 36 (so you can use Angelic Sword). Put some in Vit until you reach about level 15, and then put the rest into Dex that you need. Just put the rest in Vit from then on.
Skills:
Max Axe/Sword Mastery First (at level 19 it should be maxed)
Points in the Pre-reqs of WW and BO
Max WW as soon as possible (at level 49 it should be maxed)
1 Point in Battle Command/Natural Resist/Increased Speed
Max BO
Max Shout
Points in Iron Skin as you level.
This post was edited by Rhuman13 on Apr 22 2004 08:48am