Diablo 4

[Fez]

7 hours ago, Slurktan said:

I've had the opposite experience.  Granted I've only done up to level 20 but Barb is the least fun of all the classes for me.  Running a straight wolf shift druid is much, much better than the barb at this point. And that's not even that good.

Dunno. Personal opinions and all that. I'm only up to 15 on Barb now, but I'm having a blast. If I pop rallying cry at the right moment I can have basically unlimited uptime on whirldwind if there's enough enemies around; it's very satisfying.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

20 minutes ago, Fez said:

Dunno. Personal opinions and all that. I'm only up to 15 on Barb now, but I'm having a blast. If I pop rallying cry at the right moment I can have basically unlimited uptime on whirldwind if there's enough enemies around; it's very satisfying.

That's the issue though, the barb needs a crowd and can't have it's movement impacted too much, at least early on. I had no issues with it until I got a bit past you. It's probably great with a party still but soloing sucks.

I absolutely destroyed Andy solo. Nice to see one of the old bosses. The story has referenced everyone of them except Baal at this point I believe. 

[RumHam]

I hit world tier III and my minions seems to be holding up pretty well. If anyone needs help let me know. 

[Relic]

Turned the corner on T3. Starting to feel pretty powerful again, even with pretty shit gear. However, running nightmare dungeons is getting a bit...dull?

[Slurktan]

10 hours ago, Fez said:

Dunno. Personal opinions and all that. I'm only up to 15 on Barb now, but I'm having a blast. If I pop rallying cry at the right moment I can have basically unlimited uptime on whirldwind if there's enough enemies around; it's very satisfying.

Absolutely.  I'll go back to the Barb in a bit but dealing with the bullet hell boss just made me not want to play it again ever at the time lol.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

58 minutes ago, Relic said:

Turned the corner on T3. Starting to feel pretty powerful again, even with pretty shit gear. However, running nightmare dungeons is getting a bit...dull?

Do you have to beat all the acts to upgrade like in D2? I've cleared out most of the map, but still have a bit to do at the bottom. 

[JGP]

1 hour ago, Relic said:

Turned the corner on T3. Starting to feel pretty powerful again, even with pretty shit gear. However, running nightmare dungeons is getting a bit...dull?

I feel you. I’ve only done a few, but it’s worth just for the Glyph drops. That said, been focusing more on the Tree of Whispers stuff which also gives rare glyph drops, and the Helltide events, which seem to be the only source of Fiend Rose drops required for enchanting gear. Got in on a World Boss kill last night as well. 
 

Might focus on opening up TIV today, and Renown [still haven’t done all the side quests or opened up every area]

[Arakasi]

All these game types get dull in the end. D2 endgame was about farming the same 2-3 spots over and over. It’s whether the sense of progression doing that is enough. As for myself been playing pulverize druid with my sons Sorc. But also been trying both ice shards sorc and twisting blade rogue on my own. Sorc seems the most fun playstyle but maybe the weakest of them late game. Ofc I’m in the 10-25 range with all 3.

[Darryk]

Well I managed to kill Vhenard, I'm moving up in the world!

[Arakasi]

I do like this game feels a lot more difficult then D2 did. (I don’t really remember D3) D2 was only difficult in a couple locations and the main reason later on the game became difficult in general was immunities/resistances.  My barb in D2R never got difficult at all because he bypassed immunities and I did p8 all the way through to Hell Baal.

Now caveat not at the point in dungeons where you get one shot and it turns into a glass cannon war. But there have been some fun bosses for my son and I and more generally tough fights where you have to be aware on positioning and use the room and line of sight to your advantage. Also some of the mini world event things are tough and I’ve died on a couple or not managed to get the mastery reward.

[Fez]

36 minutes ago, Darryk said:

Well I managed to kill Vhenard, I'm moving up in the world!

Got to her this morning on my barb. It was the first time I died in game; haven't beaten her yet. I felt like I was doing decent damage, it was just too hard to avoid the damage. Which feels like maybe a weakness of melee in general, rather than a barbarian specific problem? Not sure yet.

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, JGP said:

I feel you. I’ve only done a few, but it’s worth just for the Glyph drops. That said, been focusing more on the Tree of Whispers stuff which also gives rare glyph drops, and the Helltide events, which seem to be the only source of Fiend Rose drops required for enchanting gear. Got in on a World Boss kill last night as well. 
 

Might focus on opening up TIV today, and Renown [still haven’t done all the side quests or opened up every area]

I fought a world boss too, we barely beat it. Something the pestilent. Did some helltide farming which was cool. How do you open TIV? 

I'm still trying to get renown. I've gotten my four paragon points from the starting area. It's boring but following a map to all the altars of lilith seems effective. Some of the altars even give paragon points and you get renown just for finding them. 

[Slurktan]

21 minutes ago, Fez said:

Got to her this morning on my barb. It was the first time I died in game; haven't beaten her yet. I felt like I was doing decent damage, it was just too hard to avoid the damage. Which feels like maybe a weakness of melee in general, rather than a barbarian specific problem? Not sure yet.

That's the boss that got me frustrated with the Barb.  The bullet hell aspect is really annoying for melee. However I easily one shot her tier II on my werewolf druid.  I had to drop to  tier 1 to beat her with the Barb.  Barb just doesn't seem to do enough damage early on so the bullet hell gets out of control.

[JGP]

27 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I fought a world boss too, we barely beat it. Something the pestilent. Did some helltide farming which was cool. How do you open TIV? 

TIV isn't recommended before lvl 70 [and also requires a Nightmare Capstone dungeon] so that's out for now. I'm only 55, but TIII isn't very hard. 

Anyway, little burned out, prolly going to do some SWTOR pvp as a palate cleanser. Hope the D4 pvp is fun too.

Edited June 9, 2023 by JGP

[JGP]

48 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

I'm still going strong! T3 is a little much at 46 as everything is 53+, except Strongholds scale to +2 your level so I levelled up a bit doing those, which also helped with renown in each region too.

I wandered out into a Helltide zone at 50 and was _very_ slowly killing stuff until a random passerby invited me to a party and I followed along, killing stuff until I had enough thingies to open a Thingie Chest. A couple of nice Sacred items that worked out well for me and I can now hold my own.

I've read that running Nightmare dungeons before T4 isn't the mosat efficient way to do stuff, so for now I think I'll work on renown whilst getting together gear to run a nice WW  or HOTA build.

Hmn. I'm still running Flay/Rend/Deathblow. My Thorns is almost 70O before ability and item buffs [I got a leg that grants another couple hundred *Thorns during Berserking] I've also got the leg that does just over 3k AOE dmg if I kill a target hit within 2 seconds of using Charge, so wait until they get low then Charge through the group to setoff a chain of 3k explosions, and another that does aoe fire dmg around me when Berserking, etc etc. Got some decent defensive legs too, up to 50% armor increase on dmg, bubble on first elite engage, etc

Haven't died in quite some time, and I can take on 20 to 30 mobs without getting too sweaty. Dunno what TIV will be like but I am having very, very few issues with TIII content. Can't imagine changing it up yet especially now I'm getting a lot of Sacred gear upgrades and Sacred Aspects. I suspect it'll be the same with Ancestral stuff in TIV.

This might be my endgame build, iono. Time will tell. 

 

*just checked, 655 additional Thorns while Berserking 

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by JGP

[JGP]

 

Aight, fuck it. Full Metal Nerd incoming. 

Doesn't seem like we got too many Barb lovers herein but I'm going to detail my Build and Gear

 

Build

Weapon Expertise: lvl 10 2H Sword technique. 20% of Direct dmg added to Bleeds over 5 secs, 30% increased Bleed dmg for 5 secs after a Kill

Basic: 1 point Flay. 136 initial hit, 986 Bleed over 5 seconds. Mods- Enhanced Flay [chance to make Vulnerable on Direct dmg] then Combat Flay, which provides 3% DR and 142 Thorns for 3 secs, stacks 3 times. The DR isn't as good as Frenzy, but the Thorns, yo

Core: 5 points Rend.  [I have 7 cause gear, so tooltip is higher] 577 Direct cleave dmg, 4619 Bleed to all targets hit over 5 secs. Mods- Enhanced Rend [Direct dmg extends Vulnerable by 2 secs] then Furious Rend for resource gen

 

Defensive: a few 

i. 1 point Iron Skin. 50% health barrier/absorb. Mods- Enhanced Iron Skin [13% more absorb] then Strategic Iron Skin which provides 15% Base Life as Fortify, double if cast below 50% life

ii. 2 points Challenging Shout. Taunt nearby enemies [lol almost the whole screen] for 42% DR over 6.42 secs. Mods- Enhanced CS [20% added to max life] then Tactical CS for resource gen

iii. 3 points Outburst. Gain 170 Thorns, and 28 Thorns for each 142 bonus Max life you have. Mod- 3 points Tough as Nails, increasing Thorns by 9%, and when struck enemies take 10% of your Thorns dmg as an add Bleed for 5 seconds [edit: missed listing this one]

iv. 1 point Imposing Presence. 5% max life add

 

Brawling: a few

i. 5 points Charge [I got 6, so tooltip again] grants Unstoppable [CC break, limited Immune, and GTFO] deals 1410 dmg then knocks all hit targets back. Mods- Enhanced Charge [enemies hit into terrain take a 510 Direct dmg add and are Stunned for 3 secs] then Mighty Charge which makes those hit Vulnerable for 2 sec

ii. 2 points Aggressive Resistance. 6% DR while Berserking. Mod- 3 points Battle Fervor  for 3 secs of Berserking if a Brawling Skill [ergo, Charge] hits 3 or more enemies

 

Weapon Mastery: a few

i. 5 points Deathblow. Attempt a killing strike dealing 5554 dmg to enemies in front of you, CD resets if you killshot [I have 2 charges of DB cause gear]  Mods- Enhanced DB  [100% more dmg to Bosses] and Warrior's DB for 3 second Berserking gain on DB hit

ii. 3 points Hamstring. Bleed effects slow enemies by 30%. Mod- 3 points Cut to the Bone for 18% more Bleed dmg to Vulnerable enemies

iii. 1 point Thick Skin. Each time you take Direct dmg gain 0.4% base life as Fortify

 

Ultimate: sweet fuck all

 

Key Passive: Gushing Wounds. DOT abilities don't crit, but this effectively changes that based off your crit chance and crit dmg modifiers, plus Overpowering a Bleeding enemy creates an AOE Bleed for 301 dmg over 5 secs

 

Ok, so that's the build.

 

 

Legendary Aspects

 

Armor et Jewelry [these vary between gear lvl and upgrades, same as all the dmg stuff]

• Basic Skills grant 20% DR for 4 secs
• Basic Skills get 24% attack speed [I got this on my Ammy, which grants 50% efficacy]
• Gain 0.50% Armor when dealing any type of dmg up 50%
• Dealing Direct dmg while Berserking adds 27% of the base dmg dealt as a Bleed add for 5 secs
• Weapon Mastery Skills gain an additional charge [Deathblow] + dmging an enemy with a Weapon Mastery skill has a 32% chance to stun on hit [DB is an AOE ability] for 2 secs
• While Berserking you deal 105 fire dmg per sec to surrounding enemies
• If a Core skill hits 5 or more enemies [Rend is a cleave] 35% of the resource is refunded [this one is off my Unique Ring]

 

Weapons

• After generating 100 Fury your next Core skill generates a Dust devil that does 536 dmg to enemies behind your target [I got this on a 2H for dmg x2 otherwise it'd be half that]
• Gain 655 Thorns while Berserking
• After generating 100 Fury your next Weapon Mastery skill [Deathblow] deals 98% extra dmg
• Enemies hit by Charge, if killed within 2 sec will explode for 3126 dmg to surrounding enemies [this can chain pretty smooth when there's lots of mobs; on my other 2H]

 

Whenever you can, via gear you want to stack as much dmg to Bleeding, Vulnerable, and Injured enemies as possible. +to Overpower is cool, but not necessary. Also, dmg to Crowd Controlled enemies [because of the slow on Bleeds, Charge's KB, and Stuns] and as much Thorns as you can get as they likewise Bleed and slow enemies that hit you. Good dmg too. Last, got a piece of gear [Boots can get a few different inherent movement affixes] that grant 2 more additional charges of Evade. So between Evade and Charge, you got a lot GTFO capability.

For jewel sockets, went with dmg reduction while control impaired [Topazes] in armors; All Resist [Diamonds] in Jewelry; +dmg over time [Amethysts] in weapons

There's a lot of synergies there between Build and Gear but none of you are dumb, so to wrap it-- I'm currently eating TIII solo with ketchup, and whether lvl 70 or no, will prolly move up to TIV as soon I have enough resists to make it neutral [40% resist] 

 

 

 

tldr: fuck you, my Barb is awesome

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by JGP

[Fez]

7 hours ago, Slurktan said:

That's the boss that got me frustrated with the Barb.  The bullet hell aspect is really annoying for melee. However I easily one shot her tier II on my werewolf druid.  I had to drop to  tier 1 to beat her with the Barb.  Barb just doesn't seem to do enough damage early on so the bullet hell gets out of control.

I died a second time on my whirlwind build. So I swapped to a bleed build and easily cleared it. Unfortunately bleed doesn't seem that fun outside of boss fights; too slow to ramp up the damage against trash. 

It's a shame that you can't save build templates. Even if you have to pay to respec each time, it would be nice if you could save what you want. Because I could see it getting really old real fast if I regular need to swap around.

[JGP]

3 minutes ago, Fez said:

I died a second time on my whirlwind build. So I swapped to a bleed build and easily cleared it. Unfortunately bleed doesn't seem that fun outside of boss fights; too slow to ramp up the damage against trash. 

It's a shame that you can't save build templates. Even if you have to pay to respec each time, it would be nice if you could save what you want. Because I could see it getting really old real fast if I regular need to swap around.

 

Stick with it if you can, Fez. I'm not even that geared and I'm seeing 15 to 18k DB crits, and when it Overpowers upwards of 24k. Between the copious Bleeds and hits like that, them Boss and Elite bitches are giving me their lunch money on the regular.

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, JGP said:

 

• If a Core skill hits 5 or more enemies [Rend is a cleave] 35% of the resource is refunded [this one is off my Unique Ring]

 

That's the same ring I got from Lilith. The only other unique I've found is a helm that makes the bone spear skill leave behind echos that expload. 

If you're interested and it's possible to team up for that nightmare capstone dungeon I'm level 60 and feeling pretty strong. Well not me so much as my army of fourteen minions.  

[JGP]

7 minutes ago, RumHam said:

That's the same ring I got from Lilith. The only other unique I've found is a helm that makes the bone spear skill leave behind echos that expload. 

If you're interested and it's possible to team up for that nightmare capstone dungeon I'm level 60 and feeling pretty strong. Well not me so much as my army of fourteen minions.  

Totally interested. Kind of distracted right now with an unwell kiddo but down for later tonight/this weekend. 

[I also intend on swapping out the Aspects of the Unique ring (I generate lots of resource) and the Dust Devil weapon effect once I get better quality gear for those slots]

 

edit: batteltag is Hagakure#1627, though I'm always set to Show as Offline lol

Edited June 10, 2023 by JGP