Before I sink points into Battle Command, how many levels does it raise your skills?
1 level, see https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_Command
Additional skill points only increase the duration and not the skill level bonus. It does receive additional duration from synergies - Shout and Battle Orders, which are common to pump points into depending on the build.
I would recommend only 1 point in Battle Command and let +skills from items and points into Shout and Battle Orders raise the duration.
Another tip for Battle Command is to cast it twice in a row, then cast Battle Orders and Shout. What that does is gives you the higher level Battle Command from getting the bonus from the first time you cast it on the second time you cast it. Then battle orders and shout also get the extra point bonus if you cast battle command first.
In general 1 point in Battle Command, 20 points in Battle Orders and some builds will max shout, some will leave it at 1 point and some will just put “extra” points there after maxing their damage skills and Battle Orders.
1 Like
Thank you.
I’m disappointed in the non-passive Barbarian skills. Whirlwind was almost useless and was a major reason for resetting my stats.
Whirlwind (WW) is very powerful, but the fact that it starts with very poor damage modifier (negative!) in the current patch and you have to dump points into it to get back into positive bonus can be painful, especially considering it’s high mana costs. Getting mana leach somewhere is basically required to prevent constant mana pot chugging!
It also uses weapon speed and weapon speed bonuses only to calculate how many hits it does (so Increased Attack Speed (IAS) on non-weapon equipment is useless for Whirlwind). There are specific break points that use the base weapon speed and any weapon IAS to calculate hit checks.
On top of that, there is apparently a bug in D2:Resurrected specifically that did not exist in the legacy game, that doesn’t do the “guaranteed” hit checks (also known as free hit checks) that it always does regardless of weapon speed at 4 and 8 game frames. So using a slow weapon will be extremely lack luster since you will be losing out on a lot of hits. In the legacy game you could still use a slow weapon by doing “short whirls” to maximize the hits and take advantage of the “free hits”.
That said WW is still pretty powerful. When I started D2R I made a Barbarian as my first character. I originally used the DS/Frenzy build up through Normal difficulty, but I didn’t find any weapons strong enough for Nightmare difficulty, so I ended up re-speccing into a WW build using an Insight Runeword in a Partizan. Insight gives Meditation aura that greatly increases mana regeneration, which helps a lot with the WW mana cost. This was enough damage to carry me into early Hell difficulty. That character now uses the Immortal King (IK) set, which includes an Ogre Maul that when socketed with an additional 30% IAS (via jewels or Shael runes) hits the best WW break point. The set isn’t as powerful as a combination of the very best unique and runeword items, but it is still strong enough to complete basically any area in Hell difficulty, and gets great resistances and therefore survivability from the various set bonuses.
If you’ve already reset then the ship has probably sailed, but we’d be happy to offer help/suggestions should you ever find the gear and the inclination to try WW again!
What build have you decided to go for instead?
Double Swing (DS) / Frenzy is popular. Concentrate is slow (single target) but safe (defense bonus on the skill) and does decent damage, and Berserk (converts your damage to pure magic) is great as a 1 point wonder for Physical Immune monsters and there are specialized Berserker builds also that maximize it and use it as the primary damage skill.
1 Like
Insidious, I’ve sunk a few points into Battle Cry, and it is working adequately. I’m thinking of sinking some points into War Cry.
What do you advise?
What build do you use now that you respecced out of WW? Frenzy?
The stun from war cry can be nice if you find yourself being overwhelmed, but note that it and battle cry will overwrite each other. That is to say, only one can be active on any given monster at once.
I keep it on my frenzy barb but find I don’t really use it much. I have pretty nice equipment on him though and only in Hell Act 2 so far, so I kill things before they can overwhelm me for the most part.
Are you having trouble hitting enemies without Battle Cry? I could envision a situation where you stun with War Cry but if your chance to hit is too low you miss them the entire time they’re stunned and have to start over again. But they can’t hurt you when they’re stunned and the stun duration isn’t reduced in NM or Hell game modes, which is nice. Doesn’t work on unique or boss monsters.
Insidious, my favorite character is the Barbarian, but I’ve never beaten Nightmare level with him. My current (fourth) Barbarian is using my best one-hand weapon and best shield, and he is progressing steadily through Nightmare.
I have used up all applicable passive skills, have rejected Frenzy, and am now trying Battle Cry and War Cry.
What weapon and shield are you using? Rares?
What is your main damage skill if you’ve rejected both Frenzy and WW? Concentrate?
Barb is my favorite character class as well.
Insidious, my main damage skill is War Cry, and it seems to be adequate.
In addition to saving valuable equipment and weapons, when I give up on a character, I keep his (or her) equipment for my next character, thus giving the new character a better chance of advancing farther.
My current barbarian is using a mace and a shield that are the best I have. Each weapon uses runes, but neither has the very best runewords because I don’t have the right gems (yet).
Hi Johnsdad,
Oh I have never had a “singer” Barbarian before that uses War Cry as main damage dealer, typically I use it to stun enemies while I still attack them to death 
Glad to hear it seems to be working out well for you.
The new pending patch, 2.4, has some buffs to Singer Barbs, I believe. They typically require some specialized equipment that’s a bit different than standard load-out for a Barb.
Since War Cry damage is based purely on the skill level, the damage of your weapon doesn’t factor in. Therefore +skills items become more important. Since it uses a lot of mana as well, especially at high levels, gear that would normally be more attractive to a caster is what you’d be looking for, such as Spirit swords, which give large bonuses to mana and faster cast rate, and a very nice +2 skills. The runes for that one are also pretty common, but sometimes finding a 4 open socket sword as a base can be hard depending on how far you are along, as 4 socket items can’t drop in Normal difficulty (but items with sufficient ilvl (item level) can drop that would get 4 sockets from Larzuk (Act 1 Quest 1 reward) or from the Horodoric Cube recipe that adds random sockets to an item.
One cool thing about a Barb is that he can dual wield Spirits!
The damage from War Cry is significantly lower than most spells that a caster gets, while having pretty significant mana cost, so it can be rough going without good gear, but if you’re having fun I’d say see how far you get! One benefit of it over some caster skills is that it stuns enemies.
The Maxroll.gg website I believe has you use the War Cry skill for leveling, and also has a Singer Barbarian guide, you may find useful. I haven’t used either so cannot directly endorse them, but I’ve read the leveling guide and it seems useful, especially in how it points out good progression runewords and gives advice on how to obtain the materials necessary to create them.
Barbarian Leveling Guide: https://d2.maxroll.gg/guides/barbarian-leveling
Barbarian War Cry Guide: https://d2.maxroll.gg/guides/war-cry-barbarian
Good luck!
Insidious Old Buddy (and everybody else), the key to War Cry is to carry charms that give you extra mana. I am carrying four mana charms and hve to use a mana potion only when I am in a heavy fight with a mob.
At level 61 in Nightmare, this is the highest I have gotten one of my four barbarians.
1 Like
Glad it’s working well for you! The jump from nightmare to Hell is pretty rough so hopefully you are able to keep going okay!
I was able to hit a new PB last night as well, making my first ever Grief for my Frenzy barb and it actually rolled pretty decent!
Make insight for act 2 merc, that will reall, help with mana, for war cry is also great double spirit sword.