The TLDR 2H Barb

Find a handful of guides and walkthroughs here!
Istaryu
Harpylisk
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BagboyBrown wrote:Why max wolf stance when CB has 0 affect against bosses?


Cb is not the only thing you get.
BagboyBrown
Acid Prince
45 | 0
Istaryu wrote:
BagboyBrown wrote:Why max wolf stance when CB has 0 affect against bosses?


Cb is not the only thing you get.

I think you'll find that bear stance is 1000x better. You can get IAS and FHR elsewhere and you don't need all that MS to begin with. But you'll never be able to make up for 50% Phys Res / 300% Bonus Defense. Need I remind you defense decreases your chance to be hit? Sure, CB will kill trash faster, absolutely. If you live long enough to do it, but when you get to a boss you'll need to dance cuz they slap doggies.
Istaryu
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BagboyBrown wrote:
Istaryu wrote:
BagboyBrown wrote:Why max wolf stance when CB has 0 affect against bosses?


Cb is not the only thing you get.

I think you'll find that bear stance is 1000x better. You can get IAS and FHR elsewhere and you don't need all that MS to begin with. But you'll never be able to make up for 50% Phys Res / 300% Bonus Defense. Need I remind you defense decreases your chance to be hit? Sure, CB will kill trash faster, absolutely. If you live long enough to do it, but when you get to a boss you'll need to dance cuz they slap doggies.


Image

Dont mind the massive amount of ewd you get from wolf stance. Need i remind you that offense is the best defense in this game?
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aerial
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I mean, feel free to go with bear stance, just gl getting damage. This build was changed multiple times, at one point it was using bear stance. I'ts been tested bunch of times, and skill tree isn't selected randomly. It does work better.
You get defense from spirit guide, its comparable. The trade here is different, 50% phys reduction vs: damage (ewd + crushing blow which makes huge difference int rash clearing, attack speed and movement speed). It is easier to get that ~35% phys res from gear/charms, and all other buffs mentioned above (you for example need 280 attack speed for axe, which most of it you get from wolf stance).
If you go bear, yes you get capped damage reduction%, your defense will be even bit higher, and not conditional (not based on proximity to wolf companions), but you will lose entire ewd bonus from wolf stance, speed, crushing blow, and movement speed. It feels pretty awful, no damage, walk like snail, and need ias on every gear piece to get to last 2h axe speed breakpoint.

Of course if you go screaming eagle route, elemental damage and pierce, then bear stance fits perfectly. You are still slow which sucks (its even worse because need to throw screaming eagle every pack), but you don't lose damage.

As for earlier posts asking about 1st acts progression.
I didn't focus on that because if you follow the skill tree, pick random items, it should be a breeze to level really. You don't need any special unique items through entire normal. If you want you can farm them as soon as in a1.. not optimal but possible. I would recommend getting to at least a5 nithlathak using random trash and farm some uniques there if you want. Ideally you wanna push even further into nightmare and make T4 uniques as T4 base items start dropping somewhere in A2 nm iirc. Then you waste least amount of crystals on them as you can just tranform T4 item into unique without need to upgrade tiers. It is most efficient way and applies to many builds.
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MUS01
Cog
201 | 3
Talking about damage, I'm still playing 2017 version. I feel the build seriously lacks damage, even before spirit guide damage nerf (15% per hard point, now it's 3%) Almost end game WS only gives me 275% ewd and spirit guide nearly 575. In comparison, I level up 1 paladin, holy melee, and he gets 775 from lionheart, and another 250% from Vindicate... the thing is my paladin is only lvl 110 (more ewd from lionheart, str (no signets at moment) andmore levels for vindicate), and I'm not counting the %ed that str bonus gives...and the -25% enemy physical resist that Collosseum gives... I can't think play the leveling process with almost no damage (Spirit guide right now is lame, almost no damage)
BagboyBrown
Acid Prince
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Maybe end, end game WS is better, I just killed nightmare baal and started hell, Lv 105 so I don't have any charms or gear or anything, but bear stance is working fine atm.
Diaco
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BagboyBrown wrote:Maybe end, end game WS is better, I just killed nightmare baal and started hell, Lv 105 so I don't have any charms or gear or anything, but bear stance is working fine atm.


Just as an FYI, you are still in early game. Mid game starts around 110 Ubers and end game around 125-130. You'll probably hit a brick wall dmg wise against 115-120 Ubers with bear stance.
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aerial
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MUS01 wrote:Talking about damage, I'm still playing 2017 version. I feel the build seriously lacks damage, even before spirit guide damage nerf (15% per hard point, now it's 3%) Almost end game WS only gives me 275% ewd and spirit guide nearly 575. In comparison, I level up 1 paladin, holy melee, and he gets 775 from lionheart, and another 250% from Vindicate... the thing is my paladin is only lvl 110 (more ewd from lionheart, str (no signets at moment) andmore levels for vindicate), and I'm not counting the %ed that str bonus gives...and the -25% enemy physical resist that Collosseum gives... I can't think play the leveling process with almost no damage (Spirit guide right now is lame, almost no damage)


You can get carried just by wolf companion, I used to level with t1 shark axe in this version all the way to hell, it was clearing very quickly, pretty much only via that +phys damage added to each tick of your attacks.
Damage was enough in early ubers too, problems started with tougher bosses such as astrogha, which took long time to kill.

Current wolf stance version does better, you gonna have no problem even killing akarat untwinked on your first run (where it was an issue with bear stance). You gonna again run into significant ramp in difficulty at bosses such as astro or especially kabraxis, then this build falls off compared to other stuff. These bosses can totally be killed, but its pretty hard compared to average.

BagboyBrown wrote:Maybe end, end game WS is better, I just killed nightmare baal and started hell, Lv 105 so I don't have any charms or gear or anything, but bear stance is working fine atm.



Level 105 is what you basically reach in few hours if you know what you are doing, thats still very early.
And I can assure you If you went wolf stance youd do better even at this stage, you would have much more attack speed with 2h weapon, move way faster, trash would melt instantly from barrage of crushing blows popping on them every attack. You would have less defense at that stage, and less damage reducion, but especially at that stage it isn't needed, more speed/damage works better.
That being said there is no wrong way to play it, I encourage people to experiment, almost any build can be modified and still perform well.
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BagboyBrown
Acid Prince
45 | 0
aerial wrote:
MUS01 wrote:Talking about damage, I'm still playing 2017 version. I feel the build seriously lacks damage, even before spirit guide damage nerf (15% per hard point, now it's 3%) Almost end game WS only gives me 275% ewd and spirit guide nearly 575. In comparison, I level up 1 paladin, holy melee, and he gets 775 from lionheart, and another 250% from Vindicate... the thing is my paladin is only lvl 110 (more ewd from lionheart, str (no signets at moment) andmore levels for vindicate), and I'm not counting the %ed that str bonus gives...and the -25% enemy physical resist that Collosseum gives... I can't think play the leveling process with almost no damage (Spirit guide right now is lame, almost no damage)


You can get carried just by wolf companion, I used to level with t1 shark axe in this version all the way to hell, it was clearing very quickly, pretty much only via that +phys damage added to each tick of your attacks.
Damage was enough in early ubers too, problems started with tougher bosses such as astrogha, which took long time to kill.

Current wolf stance version does better, you gonna have no problem even killing akarat untwinked on your first run (where it was an issue with bear stance). You gonna again run into significant ramp in difficulty at bosses such as astro or especially kabraxis, then this build falls off compared to other stuff. These bosses can totally be killed, but its pretty hard compared to average.

BagboyBrown wrote:Maybe end, end game WS is better, I just killed nightmare baal and started hell, Lv 105 so I don't have any charms or gear or anything, but bear stance is working fine atm.



Level 105 is what you basically reach in few hours if you know what you are doing, thats still very early.
And I can assure you If you went wolf stance youd do better even at this stage, you would have much more attack speed with 2h weapon, move way faster, trash would melt instantly from barrage of crushing blows popping on them every attack. You would have less defense at that stage, and less damage reducion, but especially at that stage it isn't needed, more speed/damage works better.
That being said there is no wrong way to play it, I encourage people to experiment, almost any build can be modified and still perform well.

Yea, I'm still looking for gear. I threw some items on him I picked up earlier, but it's not god tier by no means. Was struggling with the Butcher, but I got him down after a fashion. I noticed there's a throw barb and a gladiator barb set, but is there a berserker barb set? I don't have any pieces of it if there is.
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Crash
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BagboyBrown wrote: but is there a berserker barb set? I don't have any pieces of it if there is.


Tundra Walker
Tundra Walker
(Barbarian Windcarver Set)

Ancient Bronze
Grey Ranger
Steppe Sleeper
Vale Hunter

Set Bonus with 2 or more set items:
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
Physical Resist 5%

Set Bonus with 3 or more set items:
+125 to Maximum Damage
+50 to all Attributes

Set Bonus with complete set:
Gale Force: +1.3 Yards to Area of Effect
4% Chance to cast level 15 Stormblast on Melee Attack
4% Chance to cast level 15 Ancients' Hand on Melee Attack
4% Chance to cast level 15 Iceburst on Melee Attack
+5 to Barbarian Skill Levels
+200 to all Attributes