The TLDR 2H Barb

Find a handful of guides and walkthroughs here!
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aerial
Cow Ninja
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Not much going for it, -cold res is ok, but thats about it.
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lunar.seven
Grubber
325 | 8
i rly like the uber/challenge/lvling_progression_list you made, awesome :)
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Wulf
Onyx Knight
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Aerial, we demand updated Youtube videos of all uber clears :)
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aerial
Cow Ninja
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Thers bunch of changes to uber balance coming for next patch, so thers be another few that will be outdated in videos.
Overall it doesn't look that good for build, to be no-respec all-rounder.
Certain ubers, like current 1.1 uldyssian is pretty punishing for just defense based builds. Where in 1.0 it was super easy for healer barb tagging him with fortress.
Being melee in rifts also isn't ideal, these guys hurt a lot, especially early on.

I did one run before 1.1 with wolf version, and in general experience was positive.
It did feel like we deal more damage overall, because of wolf stance ed bonus, even at cost of losing auto-hit capability from visegrip gloves. We need to sacrifice some stats to get AR, and AR will never be as good as visegrip, but overall balance was still in favor of wolf stance, because how much free enhanced damage we got.
Another HUGE qol differene is hitting max attack speed breakpoint completely effortlessly with wolf stance. That and hit recovery, walking in turbo mode. Really does feel nice, closing distance between packs faster. This amplifies feeling of build clearing stuff faster even more.
There was little bit of weaker spot after finishing leveling, where bear version had more defense out of box. With wolf one you need to take look into MO and try to pump that defense there actively, add some tcd mo, to get us to level comparable to bear. Bear in 1.0 you just ignored that transition defense was good enough. Iotss is good test, but you can get enough defense with wolf stace for that. Later as you get charms, defense will skyrocket and you will reach comparable values to bear stance.
We get whirlwind as movement tool which really trivializes bunch of ubers, that before required lot of careful running and using tslam (which got nerfhammered hard going form use every 4s to 15s).
Not forget about 40ish CB from stance which we didn't have before. It makes multihit attack like deathgaze vs trash so much stronger, that alone feels like at least 2x damage.

I'm thinking one respec to similar build except with overkill throw as attack would solve multiple annoying bosses, such as kabraxis, you could beat him on budget while staying ranged. Build is literally the same, except you invest bit in overkill to get enough axes, at cost of having melee skills.

Overall I can still recommend this, its definitely fun to play char that can tank through most of the content.
Only downside for 1.2 seems that theres no changes to barb planned as far as I can tell, so don't think itll be very popular. If you see 1.2 announcement, thers trap sin overhaul, big changes to bowazon and unholy melee, and then honorable mentions, but no word about barb.
I'd honestly like to do a run with this build in 1.2, but thers lot of other new stuff to play so haven't decided yet.
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kortt
Core Lord
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Aerial ! I love your build for Barbarian! In the 19th season I achieved good success with you! But in the 20th season he was cut, and I had very little life ... And I played another. I hope you make a good build on another person. Really looking forward to. Thank!
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aerial
Cow Ninja
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That is strange you found life being very low, it should be comparable.
If we replace nerfed ancient blood with daedalus, life gain is about same (little less early, and then it picks up later as skill as incresing formula).
Only big difference comes from chest piece, KRA armor had +500 flat life (boosted by all %life from anc blood), while nih armor has 25% vitality, arguably worse, but still towards later stages with signets in vitality should be close.
There is difference in physical resistance, as baseline we get 10% belt, 15% chest, and 4% helm, some other items 0-1% that is total of 30%, instead of easy 50 with bear stance.
But combining all these factors difference should not be too big.
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aerial
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Ok to sum it up almost no changes to barb.
2 buffs, not related to 2h axe spec:
EAGLE STANCE: increased life regeneration by 19%
GLADIATOR'S DOMINANCE: greatly increased the bonus magic damage to Overkill and Rebound

Eagle heal is technicallyn a buff fore healer spec.
Throw skill magic damage I still don't think this will be that significant, skill like overkill gets so much damage via 110% WDM, bonus damage would need to be really really high to matter. Block and deadly strike are already amazing.

Build I think stays the same. Can't think of anything that was wrong with melee approach.
Alternative would be going same thing, except not melee but overkill with shield having 15-20 in overkill.
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JustinSymbio
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Do you consider the nerf to base item damage bonuses from stats impactful on melee builds, aerial?
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aerial
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Insignificant, this progression build gets enough str to equip gear and rest into vitality, we are getting lot of ewd from wolf stance, so this really doesn't affect it as much as if you went full str and stack 7-8k str. Even Then I don't think this makes big differnece.
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Geeko
Jungle Hunter
29 | 1
Thx for the guide, Im gonna do this build in season 21, I still think its the strongest barb build, at least for melee + fortress can help kill bosses