Summon Barbarian

May the Summon Barb rise again

ChiefShonah wrote:May the Summon Barb rise again

Sir please make a guide for HC for brainlets like me. I'm struggling.

I currently have a lvl 128 summon barb. Fautz is reasonable. Generally ok to play, I feel the summon barb has been buffed and is pretty strong now.
Here's the link to my char.
https://tsw.vn.cz/char/XOPOBOD
I do have several questions. Minions are beefy enough, I just need to figure out my gear and merc gear
Do I max specialization to put 75 points into spirits? Endurance? Wolf Stance or Bear Stance? Tenacity if Wolf Stance?
Should I put points into wolf companion to have 2-3 wolves? Should I put points into wolven guide for better damage or hunter's mark for pierce? How do I distribute state? 90% to strength for more damage, 10% to vitality? Anything beyond 1 point into mountain king? Immortal, 1 point or 15 points? Defender Spirit, max or no max? So many questions, so little answers. Hopefully when I level more, and maybe try scogs, will have better idea here...

Bearstance for sure, and you should use shield like toraja champ +2 minions sword if can afford/find, all gear shrine craft. 1 point in wolves/mark/king/immortal etc / if nephalem all str, if runemaster 600 str else vit. 25 all summons + endurance + specialization

but my version more for HC not softcore chads which play without any defence stances and playing wolf+nephalem :lol:

Gelgsus wrote:I currently have a lvl 128 summon barb. Fautz is reasonable. Generally ok to play, I feel the summon barb has been buffed and is pretty strong now.
Here's the link to my char.
https://tsw.vn.cz/char/XOPOBOD
I do have several questions. Minions are beefy enough, I just need to figure out my gear and merc gear
Do I max specialization to put 75 points into spirits? Endurance? Wolf Stance or Bear Stance? Tenacity if Wolf Stance?
Should I put points into wolf companion to have 2-3 wolves? Should I put points into wolven guide for better damage or hunter's mark for pierce? How do I distribute state? 90% to strength for more damage, 10% to vitality? Anything beyond 1 point into mountain king? Immortal, 1 point or 15 points? Defender Spirit, max or no max? So many questions, so little answers. Hopefully when I level more, and maybe try scogs, will have better idea here...

Ty for notarmory.
When I was playing I found wolves to be basically worthless, I only used them for the bonus cast speed. You really have to smax the mark for it to be worthwhile, and even then it's probably not as good as just maxing spirits + specialisation. That also affects spirit reave so all in all I think smax spirits is stronger (they also get bonus damage for more base points).

OnlyForFun wrote:Bearstance for sure, and you should use shield like toraja champ +2 minions sword if can afford/find, all gear shrine craft. 1 point in wolves/mark/king/immortal etc / if nephalem all str, if runemaster 600 str else vit. 25 all summons + endurance + specialization

but my version more for HC not softcore chads which play without any defence stances and playing wolf+nephalem

This too very useful ty.
I might try my next HC barb like this.
25 all summons + Spec, max Bear, get Runemaster, and use crafted gear.
Can someone explain how exactly spirit reave scaling works? Does Neph count towards the damage total for spirit reave or is it just the base damages?

OnlyForFun wrote:Bearstance for sure, and you should use shield like toraja champ +2 minions sword if can afford/find, all gear shrine craft. 1 point in wolves/mark/king/immortal etc / if nephalem all str, if runemaster 600 str else vit. 25 all summons + endurance + specialization

but my version more for HC not softcore chads which play without any defence stances and playing wolf+nephalem

Thank for the info. I looked up a bunch of people who are top SC ladder. They have some interesting choices.

https://tsw.vn.cz/char/WKBarb
Runemaster/Wolf Stance. Uldyssian's legion? 1 point defender spirit
Str/vit 50%/50%
https://tsw.vn.cz/char/tazar
One of the nephalem spirit/wolf stance folks you've been talking about. 6 points defender spirit
Str/vit 50%/50%
https://tsw.vn.cz/char/gangsta
Wolf Stance/Gladiator's dominance? But he is a summoner!! That's for deadly strike and Skeld's Battlesong so that guardian spirits get the deadly strike. Interesting build. 1 point defender spirit
Str/vit 50%/50%
https://tsw.vn.cz/char/HotshotGG
Runemaster/wolf stance. Also Skeld's battlesong... Only one point in runemaster. Full points in defender spirit.
Str/vit 50%/50%

I think for survivability 50% in vitality may be necessary, even if running nephalem spirit. Also a lot of people are skipping on defender spirit. He does not contribute much damagewise, and it still pretty tanky with 1 point. Also can be spam summoned forward to aggro the enemy. But that's less damage for spirit reave for boss killing? Lot's of things to think about.

Just wanna say Spirit Reave best boss killer skill for budget char ever. Some of the most annoying bosses for hit-base build such as Quov, Belial, Xazax etc. simply tag them handful of times & charm drop.

Never before in my life where bossing before 130 was this easy playing untwink TU gears.

Gelgsus wrote:
OnlyForFun wrote:
I think for survivability 50% in vitality may be necessary, even if running nephalem spirit. Also a lot of people are skipping on defender spirit. He does not contribute much damagewise, and it still pretty tanky with 1 point. Also can be spam summoned forward to aggro the enemy. But that's less damage for spirit reave for boss killing? Lot's of things to think about.

You're reading too much into the 50/50 str vitality split. There's simply nothing else worth putting stat points into after you get max benefit from shamanic trance. Unless they are HC i'm sure all these players maxed out the benefit from shamanic trance by pumping base pts into str before they started putting into vitality.

fr0gbug wrote:
Gelgsus wrote:
OnlyForFun wrote:
I think for survivability 50% in vitality may be necessary, even if running nephalem spirit. Also a lot of people are skipping on defender spirit. He does not contribute much damagewise, and it still pretty tanky with 1 point. Also can be spam summoned forward to aggro the enemy. But that's less damage for spirit reave for boss killing? Lot's of things to think about.

You're reading too much into the 50/50 str vitality split. There's simply nothing else worth putting stat points into after you get max benefit from shamanic trance. Unless they are HC i'm sure all these players maxed out the benefit from shamanic trance by pumping base pts into str before they started putting into vitality.

Even in HC.
The bonus is so good, since it is Total damage to spirits per point.
And 33% of 600 is 200%
And 66% of 600 is 400%
Which really is a lot.

And relatedly is the interesting tradeoff of jewels/gems vs runes for barb.
Some of the runewords (the 100% minion damage chest slot) are really strong, but they LIMIT the number of runes you can have. Furthermore you need quite a few gems to get max res which is really important, so it's a lot of balancing.
Also runewords mean you can only have jewels, not gems in the relevant slots, so it's even more balancing.
However the STR points and the scaling with shamanic trance makes it a lot more fun + interesting.