The TLDR 2H Barb

plookey78 wrote:Seems like earlier you said screaming eagle doesnt work with offhand throwing axe, are you sure about that? I tried using it in offhand and it seems it works, all the animations play and enemies get the debuff, visually atleast.

edit:
hmm, it seems it worked for me for a while but then i switched up my weapons and cant get it to work again for some reason, very weird..

you need to watch what weapon is really your main hand on your character (not inventory), by swapping them you can swap weapons
you probably had throwing axe as main hand initially, and you though it was in offhand
fact that you put it in right slot, does't mean it automatically always counts as offhand
just keep track visually whats main and offhand on character model
if throwing weapon is offhand, then you only get visuals of screaming eagle, but no effect

Why sacred craft Weapon it just have cold spell dame? and what is DR MO?

Doesn't seem like there are any changes in 1.6.
Snake bite shouldn't stand out that much as single target anymore, which you could interprete as indirect buff to windform poison as single target, because that stays the same.

Hello just curious since ancients hand got a small dmg increase if its still good to use with vs sam without bunch of umos.

It has highest damage of 3 skills: iceburst, stormblast and anc hand, but depending on setup, will be worse than double stormblast.
But these are different builds different sources of scaling so it is apples to oranges pretty much.

Heya, I've been meaning to post for awhile now.

Huge thanks for this guide, which has served me very well.
I haven't played D2 in over a decade, and came across Median XL when Season 24 just kicked off. I decided to try Barbarian, a character I never bothered with back in the day.

This build is pretty straight-forward and I feel like I've been progressing very well. Your videos are also super helpful. For instance, I was clueless on Judgement Day until I watched your video. I haven't been able to take down Xaxax yet, but I did get the belt and am using your technique - I just haven't tried enough times to luck out.

I spent hours upon hours on Kabraxis, and when I did finally take him out I lucked out with a 3/3/3/2 charm. :bounce:

I couldn't take him out after respec to max out Fortress - I just had to try different techniques and timings until I had it down perfect.

Fortress worked for me with QT but it took a very long time.

I guess my only complaint with your guide is I am sure there must be further gear progression for the super-late game. Your guide has been a roadmap to success for me to level 134 where I am now, but now I'm kind of just trying to figure out where to go from here on in terms of gear. I imagine from 6x Jah, next would be 6x Xis/Shaad? Anything else to strive for besides what you stated?

Also, any advise on Hell Baal? I chipped him down to like 80% health before I was overwhelmed by his summons.
My deathgaze dmg is 4,592 - 10k
691k Defense

Thanks again!

baal:
hit and run, and when he spawns minions you must try kite them away and kill away from him, and then continue, don't try fight with minions near, because it can get out of control

endgame gear:
it was mentioned here multiple times, but this guide aimed more for ssf progression, so listing bunch of SU will be impossible goal for many players
another problem is, that this doesn't really scale that well with high end gear, so ppl will get baited into buying expensive su, and then end up being disappointed

Overall this build really isn't that powerful later on, compared to stuff that emerged since then. It was originally created before bosses even had timers, so you could take your time and beat everything with enough patience. But now since many encounters lock if you die, and you need to beat then in certain timelimit, thats big problem for low dps builds, such as this one.

Either way I'm glad it was helpful.

There was more variants discussed here, such as shield+sword version which is competitive if not better to axe. In 1.6 sword spiral reaches 80% wdm which is very respectable. And shield helps tremendously with its massive defense bonus.
Another cool variant is poison melee windform option, which has very good single target. it is completely different build though.

Well, the most important thing about baal wasnt noted. Baal has a chance to summon stuff on striking, so try to dodge everything he trows at you, especially the black circles.

Awesome, thank you both for the replies!

Baal: The kiting aspect sounds easier than done, but it sounds like it’s the only way. I’ll be sure to dodge the black holes. I feel a bit more prepared already!

Moving forward: I’ll look into other Barb builds then. It’s a shame to hear this one doesn’t really go too much further.

In any case, I’m still very satisfied with this guide and largely just wanted to say thanks

You can get bunch of stuff done with it, but there are just builds with better single target on budget, and for sure better builds for clear speed.

I might do a run with 1h/shield variant and add is as alternative. It has some interesting pros, such as decent duncraig clear with windform as movement and sword spiral as good aoe clear in the middle of packs. Could also update bunch of uber videos that got outdated.