So I’m trying to decide a new class for the ladder.
My idea is WW with sword mastery.
Lot’s of builds I see choose axes or polearms. And Iv’e come across some opinions about how WW isn’t very good.
My goals are to chew through hell mobs and areas quickly when geared. I’m not really into frenzy or berserk.
My question is, when geared, can sword WW farm efficiently?
Any gear suggestions? If yes, What are the purposes of the items. How do they elevate the build to the next level?
ww is not bad , the issue you have only 1 valuable weapon option
good luck
all attack
all def
magic find
Whirlwind using eBotD TM in D2 LoD 1.14d is the most powerful end game build, as nothing else kills Diablo, Nihl, Throne and Baal faster - these monsters, in the last 5 character levels, is where all the experience comes from. The last 5 character levels is 99.9999% of the experience a character needs to get to 99.
Unfortunately with D2R, with the lack of mathematicians on the development team, they were unable to understand how ww worked in D2 LoD so they ended up breaking whirlwind with 2 handed weapons, cutting the kill speed of 2 handed weapons virtually in half.
Since 2 weapons is the only way to go now, I don’t play D2R, however, I did try out double grief in phase blades, and they still work well. Using the right act 2 merc and weapon for him, as well as using the right weapon on switch to curse bosses, I’m confident double grief will be the fastest boss killer in the game.
End game PvM:
Gface socketed with 15/15 jewel
Highlords
2 x Grief in PB (on switch Amp curse for bosses and Lister pack)
Enigma
Duel leech ring
Raven frost
Spider
LoH
Gorerider
7 rows of Sharp g charms, torch, anni and resist charms. Resistances don’t need to be maxed with this build.
Merc:
Andy’s
CoH
Infinity (removes 83% of boss defence as well as enhances elemental damage from charms and jewelry.)
Max out:
WW
S Mastery
BO
The rest put where you want. Some max howl others max Find Item or Shout and still others buff Nat Res. Zerk, etc… I personally max Battle Cry to curse large packs, removing all their defence and half their damage.
Practice the different ww techniques: tight triangles, kiting pack edges that mana burn (though I think mana burn was removed or made it child safe), kiting around huge packs, etc…
Keep in mind, if you are starting with Barb as your initial ladder build, you are going to be a bit behind other players (sorc).
Mainly it’s a wealth issue. If someone rushes you through hell on the cheap, you’re still going to need some decent items, a good weapon if nothing else, to be effective in the game. If 90% of the people are playing sorc and developing wealth at much faster rate, it’s going to be even more difficult for you to get good trades unless you get a few lucky hits.
If you are looking for the full Barb experience and want to play through - I think that is awesome. Be prepared to use weapons that aren’t swords in the beginning, because you’re going to have to use what you can access, until the next best thing.
Took me a long time before I scored a Lo rune for a Grief phase blade. When I first finished the game, I had Nords Tenderizer & Baranars Star - which are pretty much throw-away weapons for most people, but once I had them I was sooooo glad that I could finally start killing stuff.
The other thing that is a must is leech. You can keep WW going as long as you can keep leeching mana (&life). You can gamble for rings/ammy, use cube recipes. You might even get some Sigon set gloves and a belt which gives decent life leach. And sure, there are better items out there if and when you can get them.
Thanks for the tips on what to expect on the journey. For most non runeword Items I can grind nightmare cows if I need to, as a lot of good items are available with a smaller overall loot table. Something I have learned after spending a lot of time in hell. Not that hell is overrated, but it’s not always a land of cornucopia that some people may expect. It simply provides the access to certain loots and hr’s.
As for wealth building, I have about 10 ways to make ist income that can be done in normal, really it’s about waiting for the player base to get wealthy, so it’s actually beneficial for other people to profit ahead of me.
Start with some blue and low end unique/rare
Mid level to low end high level try to get crescent moon/lawbringer and oath.
End game is at least 1 grief.
My makeshift hc ladder build with whatever I could find. I didn’t get any eth swords, so I went with the first eth small crescent I found. Later, I traded a death cleaver for keys. Everything else was selffound:
Actually I have an update.
So I normal walked with my team. Got a rush through nightmare and hell.
Leveled to about 81.
One friend loaned me a light Gc and a Tal ammy to trade and get geared.
Another friend gave me laying of hands, angel amy, low war travs, a few lems, a pul, and a couple 3 os mageplates and later an arachs and 5os colossus sword.
So I traded the tal ammy early for a zod. The light gc for mal and ist.
Farmed nightmare cows until I got executioner swords.
Made STRENGTH AmnTir with them which got my damage up due to exceptional bases and my life leech going for cheap.
Made treachery for merc with one mage plate, and made Lionheart with the other to get my resistances up.
Traded pul for a gface.
Farmed pit until I found a 2 os colossus sword.
Made another STRENGTH with this elite base, Made HONOUR with the 5os.
Traded the mal for an arreats face, Traded the arachs for vex, and traded a handful of nefs for a eth collosus blade.
Larzuked, made BREATH OF THE DYING. Now I can do trav runs and Chaos runs easily. I can do other content, but with great difficulty as now I need gear that stops me from dying.
My leech isgood, but things like small groups of soul killers can still kill me in the middle of WW as I kill them. And I still have to top off my resistances.
You had lots of team luck btw. I was rocking a nord’s tenderizer and a baranar’s frenzy build with crappy resistances first. I exclusively ran countess for keys and runes in hc ladder. After I had my oath I could trade a death cleaver very cheap for keys. There were hardly any bases for trade. The first which dropped in a run determined my weapon mastery (eth small crescent). In retroperspective, I had to say axes pack a real punch and have very high/consistent average damage. Then I went on farming council which proved to be very difficult early on with subpar gear. I beat by now the game and even help my friends do ancients. All of my resistances are capped without torch or anni (don’t have). I have got all 3 anya quests, smoke armor, arreat’s face, some points in natural resistance, loh, highlords and charms in inventory I found on the way.
I can do p5 pits no problem. For above, I’m going to need grief soon.
Congrats! And HC too of all things. Respect!
I’m just softcore and I absolutely have wonderful friends that made this journey much easier.
I’m just documenting my journey and choices of gear, Really Just wanted to point out the low level cheap runewords and base choices that can be good stepping stones on the way to good stuff.
Barb experience is really about clawing your way up the areas you can run one improvement at a time. Definitely a difficult class to start ladder with.