The TLDR 2H Barb

aerial wrote:Here little sample, comparison of skills vs avatars in khalimgrad, all instances same stats/gear.
Size of the target probably is a factor here and ofc fact that they are all stationary, but nevertheless here it goes:

Best skill for barb comes from a boot right? Tested a boot with +15 Whirlpool was faster then death gaze.

What build should I use as barb to do endgame? At lvl 125 it sux even with a 420-575 sacred labrys

NecroGG wrote:What build should I use as barb to do endgame? At lvl 125 it sux even with a 420-575 sacred labrys

Thing with whirlpool is, that damage is correct vs stationary target that doesn't move away/teleport. So it wont be the most efficient skill in every case.

As for damage for endgame, screaming eagle setup, paired with banish proc, -enemy all resistances on gear is vastly superior in terms of damage numbers. You can count on 7-8x more damage with it.
Ofc it has its flaws, need to debuff every screen with screaming eagle, which makes it pretty annoying for farming. But for straight single target damage, conventional phys based build is no match.
This build was discussed in this thread more than once, feel free to check some pages back.

I haven't gone through the entire thread, but the first post doesn't cover what I'm looking for. I'm looking for absolute beginning of the game information. Normal difficulty Act 1-5 tips. My last experience with this mod was at least 5 years ago, and I'm pretty sure I didn't get out of Act 1 back then.

timmermac wrote:I haven't gone through the entire thread, but the first post doesn't cover what I'm looking for. I'm looking for absolute beginning of the game information. Normal difficulty Act 1-5 tips. My last experience with this mod was at least 5 years ago, and I'm pretty sure I didn't get out of Act 1 back then.

I picked up Median XL back in June, and had not played vanilla D2 or any other mod in 15 years or so.
I didn’t want to waste time trying to figure things out on my own, so came across the guide subforum, and settled on this one.

Read through some other pages like Cube Recipes for starters, and then affixes, TU, SU, RW items, etc as you get further.

I had no trouble at all until Hell Diablo, which wasn’t really bad either I just died 2 or 3 dozen times, and probably my fault, not enough fire res or something. This guide got me through at least half of the uber content... and was running Fauntz, farming Tganze, etc, before I switched to the War Cry build.

Early/mid game was a breeze though, just whip up cheap runewords then make some TU, invest your skill points/attributes correctly and you’ll be in the late game before you know it

Why max wolf stance when CB has 0 affect against bosses?

BagboyBrown wrote:Why max wolf stance when CB has 0 affect against bosses?

Cb is not the only thing you get.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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)