The TLDR 2H Barb

[aerial]

Not a bug, worked like that before. Hammer skill for zon is different case, special mechanics.

But for almost everything else, spell damage always affects direct melee hits, and amplifies whatever elemental damage you have (that includes poison, and all elemental passives, sin ways, nephalem spirit for barb, flat ele damage added to attack skills, basically all sources).
It isn't very useful however because it will only carry with direct melee hit to 1 target. So for instance if you use whatever skill you are using, that multihits like crazy, for example stormblast. You gonna hit that 1 monster that you originally aim with 100% WDM from normal weapon swing ONCE per animation (and that gets amplified by spelldmg) and then 30% wdm stormblast will also go through that monster (and through other targets if they are on its path), will multihit it bunch of times (due to its mechanics) and none of those hits gonna get multiplied by spelldmg. But usually its gonna do way more damage anyway, because of how many times it hits.
In case of poison and stacking duration via various mechanics, there actually is benefit of building spelldmg for it, because multihitting doesn't matter with poison. And windform happens to count as direct melee hit (with 150% wdm and extra poison). This is quite unusual case here, but it works, you can reach respectable amounts of damage. Just only vs single target, this has zero application for actual farming/clearing, your procs will deal just whatever listed tooltip of snake stance+windform (+whatever passives you have such as amatoxin oskill for example) and not include spell bonus.

I can give one more super ancient example when ppl used this.
Very long time ago, ppl used to kill bosses as sin, with normal attack skill (shadow refugee which hits 1 target with 1/1 wdm). Reason for that was to avoid aoe that for example killed statues in astrogha fight to heal it. Another reason was, it was worth to have multi-elemental attack, because of way how bosses were designed, they dropped their immunities randomly so with all elements carried by your hits, you increased the odds of damaging the boss. Vs situation if you had to get it to drop specific immunity, if all your damage was 1 element type, focused on one skill.
You maxed all ways, and then stacked spell damage, so your direct melee hits were dealing ways*spelldmg. It wasn't super good, but worked well enough to get nice clean kills.
It is no longer useful, with power creep, various new skills added to the game, buffed, but there was time when it was actually a thing to get special gear set for those "0 aoe" boss killer builds.

[Demonlord]

Wow interesting stuff man. Thanks for the clarification. Thats definitely something ill want to keep in mind though when working on other builds as an option then if i lack single target damage. This game does have a lot of mechanics going on that can be tough to figure out even with all the documentation. Ive already in a short time discovered a few things that seem to only be able to figured out through raw testing or sharing of information. Things like Snapshotting which have some huge implications in certain cases. (Like the Samael Kill with Holy+UH buffs by snapshotting the buffs with Belladonna for example) Thanks again aerial \m/

[Jo_Jo]

Has anyone tried Poison Barb on Labs? I mean levels 10+

I know this is about 2H Barb...but its the most active Barb thread around here, and i figure it would be the best place to ask.

[schroedinger]

I started a poison throw barb and leveled him to 120 without respecting and with nearly zero issues (mana perhaps). Maybe not the fastest killer, but it was smooth. Once you get Raptor and full No runes, it becomes quite powerful

Would you mind sharing a quick look at your items choice, skills plan and stats distribution? Thanks

Work is still in progress, right now at level 124: https://tsw.vn.cz/acc/char.php?name=Schauble

[nazh202]

I started a poison throw barb and leveled him to 120 without respecting and with nearly zero issues (mana perhaps). Maybe not the fastest killer, but it was smooth. Once you get Raptor and full No runes, it becomes quite powerful

Would you mind sharing a quick look at your items choice, skills plan and stats distribution? Thanks

Work is still in progress, right now at level 124: https://tsw.vn.cz/acc/char.php?name=Schauble

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try. Also, are the chest and shield core items or can I use crafted ones instead?

[schroedinger]

I am using them because I didn't get anything better so far, but I'll probably replace them asap, specially the chest and the helmet. The shield has some useful bonuses though (5% avoid damage, 1% block, high def, % life leech), specially for HC. In SC I guess I would use double wield.

[nazh202]

I am using them because I didn't get anything better so far, but I'll probably replace them asap, specially the chest and the helmet. The shield has some useful bonuses though (5% avoid damage, 1% block, high def, % life leech), specially for HC. In SC I guess I would use double wield.

I get you. However I read somewhere saying that the offhand weapon when dual-wielding doesn't work properly. Can anyone tell me if it's true

[Diaco]

The only things that work from the off-hand weapon are:
* Skill bonuses
* Attribute bonuses
* + to Life/Mana/Maximum Stamina
* Maximum Life/Mana %
* Replenish Life
* Regenerate Mana %
* + to Life/Mana After Each (Demon) Kill
* % Damage Taken Goes to Mana
* Attacker Takes (Lightning) Damage
* % Extra Gold From Monsters
* % Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
* +% to Experience Gained
* Reduce All Vendor Prices %
* + to Light Radius
* % Increased Chance of Blocking
* % Faster Run/Walk /Hit Recovery/Block/Cast Rate
* + Defence (vs Melee/Missile)
* +% Enhanced Defence
* (Magic) Damage Reduced (by %)
* Resist +%
* +% to Maximum Resist
* + Absorb (%)
* Poison Length Reduced by %
* Half Freeze Duration
* Cannot be Frozen
* +% to Skill Damage
* -% to Enemy Resistance
So, pretty much nothing that has to do with applying damage works, except for elemental skill damage and -res

[Demonlord]

Has anyone tried Poison Barb on Labs? I mean levels 10+

I know this is about 2H Barb...but its the most active Barb thread around here, and i figure it would be the best place to ask.

I pushed mine to T12-13 and let me tell you even with 89,89,89,90 Res it gets rough in there you dont want to take many hits at all. And the Damage on Stampede falls off pretty hard as well. (Mostly because of your poison duration getting gimped so hard) You get to a point where you have to use Snake Bite on a lot of the more tougher things. Its doable but your going to have to work for it.

Shield of Hakan as well as the Witchhunter's Hood are almost mandatory (If you are not running them already) Because thats +4 to ALL Max Res which is huge for Lab. Also want a perfect Kabraxis Charm as well. These things with Azmodan Charm should put you at 85 res. (Poison should be 90 at this point) Doing things like taking out runes for +Res Gems also may be nessisary to get to 90 all res or close but thats what you want to aim for in Lab. Thats how i hit my Res Numbers while still keeping Max Block. But, even with all that bring a inv full of potions and your A-Game for kiting. And you may even consider using Edyrem for Meat Shields at times when possible. They can be helpful and really every little bit helps in that place.

You may also consider getting a good rolled Natasha Chest if you get really serious about pushing to T15 to make up the rest of the Max Res to hit 90 on gear alone. Just make sure it hits good Max Res and Pierce Rolls. +skills would be a plus but the latter two are the most important. This can save you using gems to make up the rest and allow some point from Dex over to Vit possibly. Not been able to get my hands on a chest yet but its an idea anyway. I also need test how much overcapping Res helps in there which im sure it does especially on bosses like Phoboss.

[nazh202]

The only things that work from the off-hand weapon are:
* Skill bonuses
* Attribute bonuses
* + to Life/Mana/Maximum Stamina
* Maximum Life/Mana %
* Replenish Life
* Regenerate Mana %
* + to Life/Mana After Each (Demon) Kill
* % Damage Taken Goes to Mana
* Attacker Takes (Lightning) Damage
* % Extra Gold From Monsters
* % Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
* +% to Experience Gained
* Reduce All Vendor Prices %
* + to Light Radius
* % Increased Chance of Blocking
* % Faster Run/Walk /Hit Recovery/Block/Cast Rate
* + Defence (vs Melee/Missile)
* +% Enhanced Defence
* (Magic) Damage Reduced (by %)
* Resist +%
* +% to Maximum Resist
* + Absorb (%)
* Poison Length Reduced by %
* Half Freeze Duration
* Cannot be Frozen
* +% to Skill Damage
* -% to Enemy Resistance
So, pretty much nothing that has to do with applying damage works, except for elemental skill damage and -res

Thank you. So maybe a crafted weapon can be viable to increase poison skill damage and pierce