Monday 23 June 2014

Generalized Barbarian

Monday, June 23, 2014  sQren  



It it appears many Barbarians aren't really sure what to do! It gets filled with questions about what build to run, how to upgrade gear, and etc. I hope to answer a few of those here (so I can link people to them, later on) and help these newer guys get a hang of things. Really general stuff here, don't expect anything fantastic, and if you are anything but a beginner, you may not find much use out of this. If you have anything to add, let me know in the comments!

Barbarians really don't need toughness as much as we used to, so if you're still stacking those Vitality gems and All Resists, you may not need them as much as you think.

Gem Priority:

Helmet Use whichever you prefer!
  • Diamond for Cooldown reduction.
  • Ruby for Experience.
  • Topaz for Magic Find.
  • Amethyst for Health.

Armor Ruby or Diamond for most uses. Amethyst if you have low health.

  • Ruby for Strength
  • Amethyst for Health
  • Diamond for All Resist

Weapon Always use Emerald!
  • Emerald for Critical Damage

Builds

There are a couple builds that are viable right now, each one having a different use. Here are some main ones, to get you started.

Useful for less geared players while still enabling them to clear higher Torment levels. Based around getting as much Maximum Rage as possible, then using it all up in one huge Ancient Spear (Boulder Toss) hit!

Everyone has their own Whirlwind build, but as long as you're using Whirlwind (Wind Shear) you should not have any problems with Fury generation, especially with Unforgiving.

This build has a ton of variations as well, use whichever one you see fit. This is essentially maximizing your Single Target Damage.

Based on staying max range and attacking from afar.

Gear

It's really hard to recommend exactly what to go for with the removal of the Auction House and how Legendary/Set items are now Bind to Account, but here is some generalized information:

Strength > Vitality > Critical Damage > Critical Chance > Attack Speed

Along with this, +Skill Damage stats are really strong as well. This, including bonuses to Elemental Damage can cause a significant amount of extra damage, regardless of what the tool tips say!

Area Damage

If you are unsure of what Area Damage is, let me give you a short run down.

Every attack has a 20% chance to deal damage equal do your AreaDamage% to all nearby enemies. For example, if you have 30% Area Damage, you have a 20% chance to deal 30% of that hit to all nearby enemies! This stacks with Rend and Battle Rage (Bloodshed) to cause a huge amount of Area Damage to everything! Works great for Whirlwind builds as well!

Paragon Points

Core
  • Strength - Our best stat here, for the most part.
  • Movement Speed - Grab this if you are not maxed out at 25%.
  • Maximum Fury - Grab this one if you are running a Boulder Toss build.

Offense
  • Critical hit Damage - Pretty much our best stat here, try out the others if you'd like, however.

Defense
  • Life - Always an option!
  • Resist All - Really strong stat here.
  • Life Regeneration - Have not done any decent amount of testing, but this could potentially be strong if you already have a ton of All Resist.

Utility
  • Area Damage - Definitely the best thing for your points!
  • Resource Cost Reduction - For some builds, this helps tremendously to give you continuous use of your Fury Spender. I'm still biased towards Area Damage, however.
  • Life On Hit - For higher Torment levels, this could be good, but I feel the damage increase from Area Damage is way too strong to give up.
  • Gold Find - Essentially useless if you play on high Torment Levels, as your Gold Find maxes out at 300%.

That's my little Barbarian Generalization, hope it helped you. If I didn't leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

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