What happened with WW? Is this working as intended? Am I missing something? haha, it’s sooo awful.
edit: spelling error
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welcome to every patch since classic. WW has been nerfed every patch
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This isn’t just nerfed, it’s unplayable…
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couple things, for one you don’t pick up WW at 30. at around 37-38 is when you wanna respec into it. It actually does NEGATIVE damage at 30. Also when you finally do switch to it make sure you have the unique manald heal ring which most players eventually do find. Or you are gonna be out of mana quickly.
3rdly in LOD WW does kinda suck until you get insane gear. I have a 76 barb in non LOD and it tears everything up even when you have junk gear on. In LOD it was severely nerfed which sucks. I’m still doing it but it’s def not as fun as in classic mode.
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So patch 1.10 IMO was the final nail in the coffin for melee. The powers at the time decided it was best to balance melee around all the endgame super twinked gear everyone was running. The results is now trying to do like a solo self found whirlwind barb is extremely difficult.
I did the same thing at launch. The barb has a special place in my heart so I made my first char a barb but end of nightmare and beginning of hell you begin to feel the extreme gear dependency of whirlwind, even at level 20+ WW.
I eventually gave up and just followed the crowd and made a MF blizzard sorc. I’ll grind gear with her until I good enough drops to spec out my WW barb lol.
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Yeah WW is for endgame only, with great to godly gear. Not ok to good gear, it is reaally too bad it was nerfed so badly. I am thinking of rolling a Frenzy Barb, I haven’t done that before. Time or a bit of research to make sure it is viable.
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Frenzy is viable, but you’re going to need great weapons. I always consider barbs to be kind of expensive, for this reason.
Its got a massive -damage modifier at lvl 30 wit one skill point in it. stick with whatever you where using until you get some more levels under your belt
I lvld frenzy, respected to ww at 40 w 2x bloodletters. Already have a fully geared mf hammers in so I had half of my bis gear rdy for my barb before I made him. It’s true ww got nerfed when everything else got synergies. It’s strictly an end game build now if you ask me. Aside from dual griefs or something akin your ww barb will be struggling through hell. As nice as it would be to see a melee buff at some point, it’s a dubious prospect at best considering it’s a remaster not a remake and if they made changes it would most likely upset a lot of vets. Hopefully you get your barb up to par buddy. If you add me I’ll happily hook you up w some of my barbs leveling gear if you’d like.
It’s still good, but only with a lot of gear and the right balance of stats. It is also a deceptively complex skill with a ton of mechanics and things to learn about it and around the edges. If you really want to get into it, read:
https://www.purediablo.com/strategy/diablo-2-guide-ww-barb/
You’re also likely using a bad weapon. Get a Steeldriver great maul, then up it at level 34. That’s how I level most of my WW barbs these days.
Im on my 4th frenzy barb and love it (hardcore) - thats not to say hes any good. Hes pretty okay. Weapons as they say, are everything. max resists come as a must have, and if BO drops you will too.
For me, go Something great in main hand and lawbringer in offhand when you start hell, procs take away physical resists. Gear to survive, which includes damage reduction % and very high life. But know, you will never clear cows or anything really as fast as anything that attacks from range or casts spells - it wont happen.
What you are good at however, is things like Duriel, or Diablo, Or Baal - It is the getting to those bosses that is the tough bit, with the boss fight being straightforward.
You will struggle moving intop hell come what may. Get your merc geared up with an obedience and nice armour, and let him do the killing in the den of evil until you get a uniqe elite sword or a high dps runeword. That one item, alongside your lawbringer - will allow you to pensively solo your way through hell, where you would not have been able to best Blood Raven before it.
Have a great time! Welcome to the tribe!
Edit: 2x Bloodletters will get you through Nightmare with relative ease - but will NOT do for hell at all. What you can do, is the up them if you have the runes - it is a lot of runes but they will carry you through the first half of hell allowing you to farm for something more permanent.