The TLDR 2H Barb

[aerial]

You could make an argument that vs weaker targets, where moving and attacking quickly is sufficient, then speed still have decent synergy with earthquake. And it falls off once you stay stationary and attempt to spam it (then you lose shockwaves and your combined dps goes down).
I'd say main issue of the build is scaling of single target ability - sor. It has negative synergy against fast moving/teleporting enemies, being slightly delayed and requiring the target to sit inside the aoe in order to receive full damage.
Then mix in the cooldown, which pormotes really annoying gameplay of spamming other attack in between SOR. And the shorter sor cooldown is, the less efficient your filler attacks are going to be, you will miss frames. That and fact such gameplay is just annoying.

I'd say two routes would attempt to solve these issues:
- make SOR spammable, nerf it accordingly, but also set final power of it higher than current in the endgame, so it is more capable
- increase the cooldown of SOR, again increase its power accordingly, this gives time to more comfortably spam earthquake in between SOR usage, every 4-5s for example.

2nd solution however poses problem that was mentioned before, continous spam of earthquake against beefy target is largely diminished due to overlapping aftershocks.

Bottom line is, build would benefit from more single target potential, and less annoying gameplay in form of juggling 2s cooldown main skill.
Also looking back at the old iteration of build, way back to Ultimative days, it was more interesting, more skills were involved, Fortress was viable part of the build, added flexibility. It would be nice if these variants still had place in the game, and build gameplay would provide more variety and skills, rather than just spamming 1 or at most 2 abilities.

[cnlnjzfjb]

I would say:
1. 180% wdm on earthquake with no aftershock.
2. Design/Give a new skill for single target to replace SOR.
I dont think that would be much work for devs.

[MUS01]

I would say:
1. 180% wdm on earthquake with no aftershock.
2. Design/Give a new skill for single target to replace SOR.
I dont think that would be much work for devs.

X2.

[MUS01]

You could make an argument that vs weaker targets, where moving and attacking quickly is sufficient, then speed still have decent synergy with earthquake. And it falls off once you stay stationary and attempt to spam it (then you lose shockwaves and your combined dps goes down).
I'd say main issue of the build is scaling of single target ability - sor. It has negative synergy against fast moving/teleporting enemies, being slightly delayed and requiring the target to sit inside the aoe in order to receive full damage.
Then mix in the cooldown, which pormotes really annoying gameplay of spamming other attack in between SOR. And the shorter sor cooldown is, the less efficient your filler attacks are going to be, you will miss frames. That and fact such gameplay is just annoying.

I'd say two routes would attempt to solve these issues:
- make SOR spammable, nerf it accordingly, but also set final power of it higher than current in the endgame, so it is more capable
- increase the cooldown of SOR, again increase its power accordingly, this gives time to more comfortably spam earthquake in between SOR usage, every 4-5s for example.

2nd solution however poses problem that was mentioned before, continous spam of earthquake against beefy target is largely diminished due to overlapping aftershocks.

Bottom line is, build would benefit from more single target potential, and less annoying gameplay in form of juggling 2s cooldown main skill.
Also looking back at the old iteration of build, way back to Ultimative days, it was more interesting, more skills were involved, Fortress was viable part of the build, added flexibility. It would be nice if these variants still had place in the game, and build gameplay would provide more variety and skills, rather than just spamming 1 or at most 2 abilities.

Pretty good ideas... second solution has the added problem of teleporting bosses... or coward mobs (monsters running or moving away...almost every uber boss lol)... I really hate hunt goblins, lol.... but yeah, actual earthshaker needs a little rework in the actual SOR. It doesn't sinergize with wolf stance high IAS.

[Jampula]

It would be nice if these variants still had place in the game, and build gameplay would provide more variety and skills, rather than just spamming 1 or at most 2 abilities.

That's Median in a nutshell nowadays. And pretty much every ARPG.

I think it's much more interesting when nearly every skill has some cd, of course you need some spamming skill but the beauty of cd-skill is the power and you actually have to think when to use them.

[cnlnjzfjb]

I would say:
1. 180% wdm on earthquake with no aftershock.
2. Design/Give a new skill for single target to replace SOR.
I dont think that would be much work for devs.

X2.

In fact, no need to care much about earthshaker, cause we can have some hype about throwing barb next patch
And with the new passives in throwing tree and ele tree a bit reworked, I can already figure out some possible hybrid barb play styles more than just about throwing barb with those new throwing passives.

[MUS01]

How is this build supposed to kill Laz . I mean, I know LAZ is a purify boss. My question is about clear the totems. Seems like being melee is not possible.

[aerial]

How is this build supposed to kill Laz . I mean, I know LAZ is a purify boss. My question is about clear the totems. Seems like being melee is not possible.

You obviously respec for that one, and for many reasons, not just one you mentioned. You also want to be more tanky and need less damage.

On the subject of 2.6 patch, these new proficiency passives (can use 2 of 5) should be direct buff to the build, as every barb build will want to use them.
This most likely will not solve our problems, but it is better than nothing.

[cnlnjzfjb]

How is this build supposed to kill Laz . I mean, I know LAZ is a purify boss. My question is about clear the totems. Seems like being melee is not possible.

You obviously respec for that one, and for many reasons, not just one you mentioned. You also want to be more tanky and need less damage.

On the subject of 2.6 patch, these new proficiency passives (can use 2 of 5) should be direct buff to the build, as every barb build will want to use them.
This most likely will not solve our problems, but it is better than nothing.

Yeah, 40/41 spare skill points in return for some more LL + DS, sounds like buff for earthshaker in 2.6. But in late game, blood relic still wins, with 70 DS in 2.6.

[aerial]

So if we analyze 2.6 patch notes from perspective of physical 2h barb build, what are your thoughts?

Earthquake:
- Now deals more reliable damage in melee range
Shower of Rocks:
- Greatly reduced the delay before dealing damage

Looks both like a buff, how much, hard to say. Problem with SOR thing is, even if you benchmark fully maxed build against let's say Sapling Guards. They don't teleport, don't move out of sor, so this is pure dps check. And in my tests when I tried it, took way too long to kill them, even up to 15s, and that was with ethereal gotter axe, bunch of umo. Doesn't look like these changes would help this issue in any significant way.

Another change is those new passives in throwing tree.
But the way I understand it, you need dump 30 points in axe throwing skills (Stampede, Snake Bite, Overkill), in order to invest points into Bloothrist passive, and only then can select 2 out of 5 new further passives. That seems like a heavy investment, in skills we will never use.
This would make more sense to go 1h throwing axe/shield and still use some of the physical thrower abilities. But then is it even worth mixing it with earthshaker, could as well go pure thrower. Not sure about this one.