The TLDR 2H Barb

Which is the order of skills to put the points?

aerial wrote:I've been playing around with the build, made it to scosglen on ssf run.
With max immortal and weapon RW, this totals 55% dodge, which is pretty high, paired with our huge defense (effortless 1.5m thanks to shield).

Isn't Immortal avoid working only when you're standing still?

You have to stand still to deliver damage.

Looking at patch notes, finally a lot of changes for earthshaker tree:

► Show Spoiler

As far as Earthquake goes, significant buff, not sure if it needed it, it will be absolute steamroll for leveling with 200% aftershocks being spammed, from level 2. Heart of stone. AR bonus will be noticeable, crushing blow was high enough, shouldn't feel much different.
Main thing is SOR changes, and it is difficult to tell how it will perform without trying. From description it seems like it was adding lot of extra hits that were unaffected by damage modifiers, so removal of that, is compensated by reduced delay. Does this change makes it stronger or weaker in the end, hard to tell.
As for tectonics, instead of getting inconsistent proc chance, we get consistent procs (always), but weaker (short duration sor), but also scalable by strength and ewd, kind of double dip synergy, as these stats both add damage and with tectonics will also increase duration of procs. There is also new mechanic, that causes it to spawn on top of target, not our character, which could be fairly significant, depending how sor procs centered on barb were really hurting the dps, and "real life" dps where mobs are moving around.

Overall this looks fairly interesting, and should be stronger than before, also stronger in QOL sense, as procs will be more consistent, so aside from raw numerical power, build should feel better to play.

I ran this couple of patches ago with 1h, as 1h+shield was buffed some time ago to be 6fpa, and this helped to proc tectonics. Now with tectonics being 100% chance, there is no downside of using it with slower 2h axe. However problem still remains, shields are good, tons of defense, useful stats, there is

Gharaniq

Gharaniq
Barbarian Swords, Barbarian One-Handed Axes
Except Barbarian Two-Ha
'JahSilElq'
Runeword Level: 100
+(3 to 4) to Barbarian Skill Levels
Adds 5-10 Damage
Adds 120-115 Damage
+(171 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
Weapon Physical Damage +(60 to 80)%
+(81 to 100) to Strength
+(225 to 250) to Dexterity
5% Chance to Avoid Damage

really cheap high runeword, makes it difficult to compete for 2-handers.
I'd still do conquest helm + immortal combo to run over 50% avoid while standing still.
Angelic items could change things, depending how realistic it is to get good one, high new affix rolls, could be competitive to runewords.

EQ or Shower of Rocks work with Life on Hit or Life Leech?

aerial wrote:Looking at patch notes, finally a lot of changes for earthshaker tree:

► Show Spoiler
Earthquake: weapon damage is now 80%/200%, up from 70%/140%
Shower of Rocks:
Rewrote the entire skill mechanics from the ground up
Will no longer do extra 20 hits per cast that don't carry any weapon damage modifiers (WPD bonus%, deadly strike etc.)
Visuals no longer exist on the server, improving performance
Reduced delay between rocks by 25%, as a result damage per attack has increased by 29%
Fixed tooltip error regarding physical resist reduction (claimed: 5%, actual: 10%)
Tectonics: has received a major overhaul
Removed scaling chance to proc Shower of Rocks
Shower of Rocks proc is now always 100%, with a reduced duration, as long as you have enough Power
Power is gained based on your total Strength and Weapon Physical Damage bonuses
When maxed, grants 1 power per 100 Strength and 1 power per 10% Weapon Physical Damage bonuses
If you have less than 60 power then the skill has no effect
With 60 power: trigger a Shower of Rocks with 12% of the original duration on every Earthquake
With 140 power: trigger a Shower of Rocks with 25% of the original duration on every Earthquake
Tectonics procs will now spawn in front of your character instead of on top of them for better coverage
Fixed a bug where sometimes the skill would do no damage or have no visuals
Aftermath:
Now requires Heart of Stone
Tooltip now shows magic damage gained
Heart of Stone: Crushing Blow doubled, Attack Rating increased by 50%

As far as Earthquake goes, significant buff, not sure if it needed it, it will be absolute steamroll for leveling with 200% aftershocks being spammed, from level 2. Heart of stone. AR bonus will be noticeable, crushing blow was high enough, shouldn't feel much different.
Main thing is SOR changes, and it is difficult to tell how it will perform without trying. From description it seems like it was adding lot of extra hits that were unaffected by damage modifiers, so removal of that, is compensated by reduced delay. Does this change makes it stronger or weaker in the end, hard to tell.
As for tectonics, instead of getting inconsistent proc chance, we get consistent procs (always), but weaker (short duration sor), but also scalable by strength and ewd, kind of double dip synergy, as these stats both add damage and with tectonics will also increase duration of procs. There is also new mechanic, that causes it to spawn on top of target, not our character, which could be fairly significant, depending how sor procs centered on barb were really hurting the dps, and "real life" dps where mobs are moving around.

Overall this looks fairly interesting, and should be stronger than before, also stronger in QOL sense, as procs will be more consistent, so aside from raw numerical power, build should feel better to play.

I ran this couple of patches ago with 1h, as 1h+shield was buffed some time ago to be 6fpa, and this helped to proc tectonics. Now with tectonics being 100% chance, there is no downside of using it with slower 2h axe. However problem still remains, shields are good, tons of defense, useful stats, there is
Gharaniq

Gharaniq
Barbarian Swords, Barbarian One-Handed Axes
Except Barbarian Two-Ha
'JahSilElq'
Runeword Level: 100
+(3 to 4) to Barbarian Skill Levels
Adds 5-10 Damage
Adds 120-115 Damage
+(171 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
Weapon Physical Damage +(60 to 80)%
+(81 to 100) to Strength
+(225 to 250) to Dexterity
5% Chance to Avoid Damage
really cheap high runeword, makes it difficult to compete for 2-handers.
I'd still do conquest helm + immortal combo to run over 50% avoid while standing still.
Angelic items could change things, depending how realistic it is to get good one, high new affix rolls, could be competitive to runewords.

Guide still good to follow then? Or are there some changes in skill point distribution, etc now?

Should be similar, you want max tectonic, so maybe less in mountain king, as you run out of points.
Also note, you get this passive @ 110, but you won't have enough power right away to proc sor, needs at least 60 for that. So it really starts coming online around level 115 with more strength from gear, and more points into the passive.
SOR does work with leech, but you are leeching primarily with earthquake those 200% wdm novas leech super hard.

aerial wrote:Should be similar, you want max tectonic, so maybe less in mountain king, as you run out of points.
Also note, you get this passive @ 110, but you won't have enough power right away to proc sor, needs at least 60 for that. So it really starts coming online around level 115 with more strength from gear, and more points into the passive.
SOR does work with leech, but you are leeching primarily with earthquake those 200% wdm novas leech super hard.

I'll tip you 25 TG to just go through and update the guide to 2.9 :eyes:. Should mostly be the same content just some extra notes.