First off. barbarians wield swords or axes, that is the end of it.
Some Barbarians used to have big 2 hand weapons. They dont anymore because WW doesnt work. You may find the occasional IK Barb, but its difficult.
Finally, there is no such thing as a maces barbarian.
The only thing blunt has going for it, is Stormlash. Its ultra ultra rare, and really you need it Ethereal with Zod in. Still, people wouldnt use it over Grief.
my proposition is as follows:
Unleash the Scourge:
-Scourges can now roll 6 socket bases. (BOTD)
-Scourges can be used to make Lawbringer.
-Scourges can be used to make Death.
-Scourges can be used to make Beast.
-Scourges can be used to make Doom.
By the way: That 50% added damage to undead wouldnt break the meta. The way it works, its like adding 50% to your frenzy synergy, not to the base damage of the weapon.
To give the Scourge some competition, i request the following also:
-Make the Caduceus possible to drop bases without skills on. Clean white bases which don’t cost the earth to repair.
-Increase the drop rate of Caduceus bases to reflect the above change. If you want one with skills on it, you would still find it at the same rate as before.
-Make the Tyrant Club able to make Lawbringer.
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Hahaha yeah, somehow they messed that “fix” up big time, who would’ve though it would turn out bad…I mean it worked out so nice for shapeshifters…
Best fix would be have the Dev’s take an exam on Diablo mechanics and fire everyone that fails, after that hire some skilled modders and tell them to keep to the original concept of Diablo 2 but they are allowed to fix the game balance and place them in the team with Matthew Cederquist (I expect him to be the only one actually succeeding on the exam).
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Those would be solid changes to make blunt weapons more viable. Blizzard, make it so. 
These changes would only help 1h maces … Yet 2h maces … As all 2hers not called Mr. Sword would still be súper crap.
Fix 2h weapon damage … and by fix i mean buff the crap out of them
Fix 2h ww back .
And then … add a innate % crushing blow chance to maces While Also adding particular flavor to each weapon mastery (not swords , swords flavor is being able to be used as 1handers) …
I would say 2 handed weapons are absolutely fine, its the skill that is the issue. My argument has always been reroll WW back to the good times, then let it be overpowered for 1 ladder season and balance it from there.
Simple success. Its ok if its OP for a few months only.
The weapons arre NOT fine , You lose block chance /mf/ mods vs 1handers (dw) and shield…
Theres absolutly NO reason besides dumb roleplaying to use a 2hander over 1h variants.
The damage should be way higher… IF am losing that much goodies…
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I love using double upped 300ed Bonesnap on my Leap Attack barb. I don’t care how good or bad it is (it’s actually pretty good tho) but it sure it awesome.
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I agree. I would suggest both scourge, AND Legendary mallet do receive 6 sockets.
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Whats all this about blunts???
Blunts are totally viable I smoke the ALL the time. They work great!!!
They just need to fix whirlwind. Opening up the scourge and legendary mallet to 6os would be awesome for Frenzy barbs, but we need the ebotd tm returned to it’s glory of being the best ww weapon in the game.
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I agree with everyone that Whirlwind needs fixing - and that fix is a rollback to former glory.
I say though, once it gets there - 2 handed weapons will be fine at that point.
For Frenzy, conc, berseker etc - lets see some proper mace / hammer / flail bases. Flails look by far the best, they sounds the best, yet they are the worst. C’mon!
IIRC, legendary hammers are slow as hell - but 60% BOTD IAS or 50% Oath IAS will go a long way to fixing that. Why cant you make an Oath in a hammer anyway? madness.
Even with these changes, there are absolutely places for axes and swords - they will still be preferred. Lets give the bludgeoners a little loving though eh?
I feel Lawbringer has to come as part of this.
Current state of play - Legendary hammers = Nothing. Famine? Pheonix? Poo related runewords.
Tyrant club you could make a black and knockback everything. that would be poo.
Scourge you can make an eternity, which is poo also.
agreed blunt weapons could use some love
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Flails are often the go to when starting out. Steel and Malice are made and they get the character easily into nm, but yeah, other than a Frenzy barb using zoded stormlash paired with schaefer’s hammer and an infinity merc there is no other flail endgame build. By endgame I mean 99ing.
Botd 1 handers cannot compete with Grief, it’s only excellent in 2 handers. Until they fix it I’ll continue to play D2L on single player and ladder with 2 handers and Frenzy and Throw on D2R
Im glad you are onboard, even in this example is telling, you would need a helluva lot of IAS to get that Zoded Stormlash plus Shaeffers offhand to actually swing fast. Probably treachery AND highlords AND 20% gloves probably wouldnt max you out.
I Shael or Fervor the Shaefer’s, use LoH and HL. It works great. Not as good as Grief but it still works. In fact, I prefer this combo over any sword combo. This is /p8 with double Stormlash. Not far behind double Grief. Watch how fast it cuts through everything, including lightening immune.
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Watched the entire thing in the end. That was a cool video, never would have thought you would swing that fast. Good show.
A week ago i died in HC with my Frenzy barb level 88 on seal 3. I quit then as i lost my gear, saying i wouldnt start again until next ladder.
But now… Now im loading up and going again.
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I 'm glad you liked it. I’ve been practicing my opening game with a ssf frenzy barb for next D2R hc ladder reset. My goal is to get to hell Baal in 10 hours.
Thats ambitious - i hate to say it, but i think you will fail. You NEED an oath or an incredible unique to get there, with a Lawbringer offhand.
I mean, if you do it - it will be an incredible thing.
I now go Full frenzy, 1 in double attack, 1 in taunt, and 20 in inceased stamina. You run forever its amazing.
Im going to go Scourge oath, Caduceus Lawbringer and rely on Rals for the lawbringer. If i get ultra lucky on runes - ill go Serker axe Death, PB Lawbringer, treachery, 24 frenzy, LoH and hit max frames with a 0ias weapon. 20 in axe mastery 1 in swords.
If however i get a new computer, im going caster druid. Those spells looks so amazing on D2R. I love them. For the moment though, they lag me out.
The current world record for the barbarian is just under 7 hours, but that’s with static maps. It won’t be hard to do. I do it by upgrading Steel and Strength from morning stars through to devil stars. I go from Stealth to either Myth, Lionheart or Smoke, and Duress if I’m really lucky. I only put 1 point on Stamina and max out mace mastery, frenzy and double swing for the 160% enhanced damage to frenzy and to mitigate any and all mana burn.
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