Grim Ward + Sunder?

Barbarian
1

Like many I wrote off Physical Sunder Charm as mostly not worth it for Barb since Berserk and/or decrep/amp procs are so effective against PIs and don’t have nearly the draw backs.

Discussion in general about Grim Ward prompted me to research it a bit. It sounds like it actually works the same was as Amp in terms of reducing physical resistance to increase enemy damage (although it has more limitations b/c the target needs to be able to be feared).

In general Sunder Charms seem to be much more effective when you are able to then further reduce the broken immunity using additional items with -res. Cold Mastery reducing cold res is the obvious example of this being super effective.

Does Barb have something similar (albeit worse) with Grim Ward + Physical Sunder being able to reduce it down? Now that Find Potion often gets more hard points due to the bonus it gives to FI, and it also gives Grim Ward additional damage bonus, I’m wondering if there’s an opportunity there?

I’m a NL character since I don’t have enough character slots and don’t want to delete my NL characters that I enjoy playing, so I can’t really test, so it’s just theory crafting at this point, but wondering if people have thought about the interaction with Physical Sunder much? Since Grim Ward in general isn’t super popular, it seems possible that it could have flown under the radar by a lot of Barb-bros.

2

There is no reason other than maybe hardcore where you should ever get grim ward on a barb.

The fear makes it so annoying.

To your point and if I recall correctly grim ward adds enhanced damage, it doesn’t lower enemy physical resistance.

3

Yeah I’ve never used it either, even after the damage buff, seemed like fear was too much of a hurdle by end game where you don’t really need that extensive CC, and Barb is already so skill point constrained. Agreed that maybe HC would be a reasonable use of it.

FWIW I think that’s what the patch notes and tool tip say, but people who have dug into the files show that it apparently modifies monster stats the same way amp damage does.

Just was sort of brain-storming on Phys Sunder maybe actually being more useful if you could further lower Phys Resist with Grim Ward. Either way seems like the negatives of Sunder make a single point in 'Zerk or procing decrep from merc or LB a much more viable option for PIs than Sunder.