Sword Barbarian

As title says, I’m currently playing a sword barbarian, using Iron Spiral/Stormblast. So far zero issues.

I need to get decent amount of - lightning resistance for later, but I need to keep survivability.

Yul runes can help for socketing into TU/set gear/SU gear. Sadly, most gear for midgame are runewords and therefore I can’t really do that without sacrificing lots of survivability. Ie: Erawan/Truce/Megalith/Urada. This would get me loads of survivability, but garbage boss killing speed due to lack of lightning pierce. Defense won’t be a great loss since every item will have more defense from the start.

If on the other hand I go for some ornate crafts blessed with abandoned for AR, I will lack life leech and %dr. Other breakpoints will most likely suffer a bit. Bosses would go down faster, but the same applies to me.

Even endgame feels the same, since I would have to choose between SBS which is awesome and a Natasha for high -res, admitting I am lucky on this. I could craft an Ancient Hand helm, and go for that instead. Same issue would appear with fire resistance and that won’t contribute to Iron Spiral’s convertion to lightning.

So basically feeling like stuck between a rock and a hard place. Having two seperate gear sets feels kind of ridiculous for one straightforward build like this and I’m not a fan of the idea. Any multihitting oskills I can use that are exclusively physical ? Blood Hatred is very nice, but the amount of -resistances is pretty low ( skill level 45 = ~13%). Helps a bit, but doesn’t fix much.

I must add that I love playing this manly two handed sword barbarian, I’d rather not spec in any other way.

Current skill setup:

Maxed: Wolf Companion, Spirit Guide, Wolf Stance, Runemaster, Daedalus and Immortal. 6 points in Iron Spiral for CD

Why on earth wouldnt you use deadulus on sword barb? It will solve your AR problem and will give some damage as well. You dont need to max your wolf compaion. Also you should get some extra points to put into ancients blood and push your other skills further more.

Other than that, you dont need much defense, 300k should be enough to do all content. Also getting -light res shouldnt be your priority since it only converts %30 of the damage.

Also your sword choice (Urada) seems garbage. The flat lightning damage isnt really good for your build, you need physical damage as your priority. Go craft yourself a good great sword, or make xis shark or some other high damage swords like qarak's will/durandal/carsomyr.

I use Daedalus. Forgot to write it. Shark was ofc on my endgame list, along with Carsomyr. Urada seemed good until I reach Teganze to get that Xis. Ancient Blood is overated to me, especially since skill IAS is mot a thing anymore. Wolf Stance also covers that. The only skillshaving good benefits (Increasing returns) from more base skill points is Wolf Companion, which you said it is not so useful to max and Daedalus.

I could try crafting a great sword, but I just don’t know which shrine to pick for that. Abandoned bless for AR is a must tho. Urada was meant to be between a TU4 and said crafted sword

Johnny Impak wrote:I use Daedalus. Forgot to write it. Shark was ofc on my endgame list, along with Carsomyr. Urada seemed good until I reach Teganze to get that Xis. Ancient Blood is overated to me, especially since skill IAS is mot a thing anymore. Wolf Stance also covers that. The only skillshaving good benefits (Increasing returns) from more base skill points is Wolf Companion, which you said it is not so useful to max and Daedalus.

I could try crafting a great sword, but I just don’t know which shrine to pick for that. Abandoned bless for AR is a must tho. Urada was meant to be between a TU4 and said crafted sword

Urada seems way worse than TU swords though. As far as i know wolf companion isnt worth your points? I think10 points is enough to get 2 wolfs so that their buff always effect you, but i dont know any other reason to give points into that skill.

Ancient blood is not about attack speed. It gives maximum points into other skills so that you can smax them even further. Which is where you dump your extra points.

For crafting, use intimidating and weird shrines, You can use abandoned for your AR problem and creepy for more str as well. if you get nothing with them, you can try with any other shrine since the mods you are looking for is not bound to them. Look for high damage. Any other affix that would help you is also appriciated (barb skills, %slow, good proc etc). I would recommend getting like at least 300+ max damage and high %ed. You can mo it to 200 ed and you would get like 3x the damage you have.

I have Urada for now. You were right on this one; Damage is on par with TU4 Great Sword. Should have kept it instead of bothering making a nice base for Urada. At least now I have one for TalXis.

I made an average good Ancient Hand helm, which is a big step up from Stormblast. Mana is an issue tho, stat charms will likely fix this later.

With change of bosskilling skill, I envision my gear as follows:

Weapon : Crafted Great Sword. Ideally with high flat damage and Hammertime/Claw Tornado proc. I’ll go for Fascinating shrine and bless with Intimidating.
Helm: Crafted Avenger Guard, oskill Ancient Hand. This can spawn with life leech, attack speed etc. Just a matter of getting good roll.
Body: Currently wearing Werecat. Going for Erawan once I hit 120.
Belt: Currently using Wormtongue. Going for Truce at 120. Will attempt to get 2% life leech jewels with AR% to cut the losses.
Gloves: Currently using Featherclaw. Going for Fire set gloves. Awesome gloves on many aspects, especially for the -fire resistance to help for Ancient Hand damage.
Boots: Currently using Lionpaw. Going for Fire set boots. Nice mods, + 8 to Wolf Stance for 2 pieces bonus and + to wolf companion.
Rings: Using 1 Ripstar and 1 Empyrean Band. I’d like something like this: Unseelie Curse, skills, - fire resistance, life. Later on, using a Path of Brutality to convert + skills to deadly strike will boost damage.
Ammy: Currently using Athulua’s Oracle. Will keep it for midgame since that massive AR bonus is very useful. Also gives space for MO’s.

At 120, I will be able to replace most resistance runes for Rha for - fire resistance admitting my breakpoints are still covered. Would have loved to use full fire set, sadly I get Ancient Hand from helm, so nope. Skills will stay mosty the same. Thinking about putting 20 in Spirit Guide and 10 in Runemaster to free some points for later to invest into Wolf Companion. More flat damage inflicted means more leech after all.

This setup seems well balanced all around. Theorycrafting all this took way longer than it should bug hey, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Johnny Impak wrote:I have Urada for now. You were right on this one; Damage is on par with TU4 Great Sword. Should have kept it instead of bothering making a nice base for Urada. At least now I have one for TalXis.

I made an average good Ancient Hand helm, which is a big step up from Stormblast. Mana is an issue tho, stat charms will likely fix this later.

With change of bosskilling skill, I envision my gear as follows:

Weapon : Crafted Great Sword. Ideally with high flat damage and Hammertime/Claw Tornado proc. I’ll go for Fascinating shrine and bless with Intimidating.
Helm: Crafted Avenger Guard, oskill Ancient Hand. This can spawn with life leech, attack speed etc. Just a matter of getting good roll.
Body: Currently wearing Werecat. Going for Erawan once I hit 120.
Belt: Currently using Wormtongue. Going for Truce at 120. Will attempt to get 2% life leech jewels with AR% to cut the losses.
Gloves: Currently using Featherclaw. Going for Fire set gloves. Awesome gloves on many aspects, especially for the -fire resistance to help for Ancient Hand damage.
Boots: Currently using Lionpaw. Going for Fire set boots. Nice mods, + 8 to Wolf Stance for 2 pieces bonus and + to wolf companion.
Rings: Using 1 Ripstar and 1 Empyrean Band. I’d like something like this: Unseelie Curse, skills, - fire resistance, life. Later on, using a Path of Brutality to convert + skills to deadly strike will boost damage.
Ammy: Currently using Athulua’s Oracle. Will keep it for midgame since that massive AR bonus is very useful. Also gives space for MO’s.

At 120, I will be able to replace most resistance runes for Rha for - fire resistance admitting my breakpoints are still covered. Would have loved to use full fire set, sadly I get Ancient Hand from helm, so nope. Skills will stay mosty the same. Thinking about putting 20 in Spirit Guide and 10 in Runemaster to free some points for later to invest into Wolf Companion. More flat damage inflicted means more leech after all.

This setup seems well balanced all around. Theorycrafting all this took way longer than it should bug hey, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ancient hand is full conversion skill, so you cant get any lifesteal from it, which makes it kinda meh for normal bosses. Also you need to get a lot of pierce to really get benefit from him. You also might wanna get Grandfather instead of crafted helm. Also mana will always be an issue unless you get mana on attack on your gear. Because you cannot leech mana from AH as well. So you might wanna use some mystic orbs on your weapon about this.

Hammertime/Claw tornado are weak procs. Something like searing glow, miasma,shower of rocks, mark of the wild would be better. Something that has utility.(Since proc damage arent gonna be good). Also it would be better if you bless with fascinating as well. You need as much pierce as possible, its probably much more valuable than deadly strike at this point. Though if you are lacking %ed from the item, intimidating is probably best.

Erawan is good, but khazra would probably your best in slot. Truce is a weak choce for belt, you might wanna get Cinadide's Bender, or even Celestia's Ribbon if you want more physical resist. Your best in slot is probably Dementia or Champion of the Triune or a godly crafted pierce belt.

Set boots is a bad idea. The wolf stance and wolf companions isnt conna combine with yours. It will be a seperate weaker version of your own skill. So its worthless. Try to get Nephilim if you wanna go cheap, or you might go with Windrunner, or a crafted boots.

You can only get +1 from rings, which isnt worth converting with the effigy. Unselie curse is on kill so it will not be as effective as well. As a cheap choice i would recommend assur's bane, emp bands and ripstar. Giant's knuckle or Bad mood (if you dont need physical resist) is probably your best in slot.

For amulet, Athulua is decent if you need AR. You might find some godly rare with 25 flat damage, +skills, +life, and a good proc. Or if you want a unique one, Beads of the snake queen or Quov tsin would probably be your best bet. If you feel like you need more phys res, Dyers eve is also good. High fire pierce Tesseract would also work.

As i said there is no point putting points into wolf companion. Its only to increase the number of wolfs. You will not leech under any circumstances if you use ancient's hand.

You are very early into gear and you already think your whole char needs to change. This is wrong. You need to get your sigs/charms done, upgrade your gear, and then decide "Ok, my build is not working properly, i need to change some stuff." You are rushing.

Also i dont think an ancient hand build without grandfather would work, feel free to prove me wrong though.

The whole build doesnt looked balanced all around imo. Its a mediocre damage, meh surviveability build with low pierce. It would probably be just better if you continue as stormblast and go full phys.

too many options for each slot
if u wanna discuss im free to do so

wisp me *papas

I was sure the bonus from fire set was stacking with the skills from barb. In this case yes, I’ll go for Nephilim and later to Wind Runner. Made a decent sword with time strike proc, mo’d with life leech and socketed with Jah. Huge game changer. Max damage is only 180 ish though.

I need physical resistance. Currently dying on Lord Primus because 200k def/ no %dr. Using bear stance will cut my damage and speed too much. Erawan, truce and Nephilim will carry me up to 120’s. I do not have Khazra or BIS belt you mentioned. Singleplayer here. Will relate my experience with said runewords. Right now everything feels smooth. Except for Inarius wrecking me with Abyss. Will put perfect onyxes to fix this part.

Johnny Impak wrote:I was sure the bonus from fire set was stacking with the skills from barb. In this case yes, I’ll go for Nephilim and later to Wind Runner. Made a decent sword with time strike proc, mo’d with life leech and socketed with Jah. Huge game changer. Max damage is only 180 ish though.

I need physical resistance. Currently dying on Lord Primus because 200k def/ no %dr. Using bear stance will cut my damage and speed too much. Erawan, truce and Nephilim will carry me up to 120’s. I do not have Khazra or BIS belt you mentioned. Singleplayer here. Will relate my experience with said runewords. Right now everything feels smooth. Except for Inarius wrecking me with Abyss. Will put perfect onyxes to fix this part.

Erawan %16 pr, truce %11, ta trophy %5, thats %32 easy. You can use witchhunter's hood(Set item, easy to find) if you give up on the ancients hand idea(It seems so because you are mo'ing your sword with leech) thats another %5. From there it gets a bit tricky, because physical resist rings, amulets and gloves are pretty rare, there is runeword boots but they are useless except that %5 pr so i wouldnt recommend them as well. Around %35 pr should be fine though.

Also those set items are as rare as sacred uniques so i doubt you will find them in singleplayer. I played sp for 5 years and one time i tried ladder and i had much more fun. I would recommend doing the same.

Also you keep getting runewords but you also have runemaster so the two doesn't go along together very well. I would recommend sticking with crafts/sets/uniques.

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