So, with the new toys, we have in the season one ladder, I decided to cobble together an idea I have had for a barbarian for a while. It worked out better than I thought it would at first. I am still fine-tuning it and thought I would share it and see if any of the community has ideas for improvements. This is a fire and poison barbarian build.
Stats:
Strength 186
Dexterity: 87
Vitality: Everything else
Skills:
Combat
Bash: 1
Stun: 1
Concentrate: 1
Berserk: 1
Leap: 1
double swing: 16
Double Throw: 1
Frenzy: 20
Masteries:
Blade Mastery: 20
Increase Stamina: 1
Increase Speed: 1
Iron: Skin: 1
Natural Resist: 1
Warcries:
Howl: 1
Taunt: 1
Battle Cry: 1
Shout: 1
Battle orders: 20
Battle Command: 1
Find Potion: 1
Find Item: 1
Gear:
Helmet: Flickering Flame, barb hat +3 battle orders, +2 battle Cry, +3 Grim Ward
Amulet: High Lords Wrath
Armor: TrangOuls Scales Socketed 15% AS jewel
Belt: Trangouls Girth
Ring 1: Carrion Wind
Ring 2: 6% mana leach, 8 % life leach, 82 AR, 55 to mana, half freeze duration
Gloves: Trangouls Claws
Boots: Gore foot upgraded
Weapon 1: Flamebellows socketed with Amn rune
Weapon 2: Plague Fanged Knife
Swap: heart carver rondel, deamon limb tyrant club
Merc: Act 2 Might
Weapon: Insight Ethereal Thresher
Armor: Treachery
Helmet: Andarials Visage Socketed 15% IAS Jewel
So, we have a pretty standard frenzy barb at our core with the standard support. Leap for mobility, the one point in berserk for physical and fire immunes. Likewise, we have max battle orders, I am maxing double swing for the frenzy damage synergy. The rest of the skills are one-point wonders and pretty standard utility abilities for the barbarian. Likewise, I have a 14/14 torch and 11/15 Anni along with some AR, Max damage, and life charms.
The gear is an odd mix, but it works surprisingly well. The 3 pieces of trangoul’s give me cannot be frozen, 40 poison, 50 lightinging and 70 cold resist. Paired with my torch, anni, the resist fire aura from my hat and natural resist. My resistances are maxed out and I have a little over 3k health. Trangouls scales also offer 40% movement speed, paired with frenzy, increase speed and my boots I am at 260% increased movement speed when charged up.
On striking my weapons proc level 16 fire store and level 15 poison nova. Likewise, plague has the cleansing aura and procs level 12 lower resist when struck. These add a lot of elemental damage on top of my physical hits. The poison nova also gets boosted by the 25% increased poison damage off of trangouls claws. With battle command running I also have level 25 firewall at will. Paired with the -14% enemy fire resist from my hat and plagues lower resist proc it works pretty well. At least against nonfire immunes. I am using high lords for the +1 skills, IAS, and deadly strike. My off-hand ring and boots both provide some mana steal. Likewise, the carrion wind also helps my life steal as well as procing twister for a mild stun effect.
I also use the carrion wind’s poison creeper charges. It’s not amazing damage, but with trangoul’s claws, it does 400 to 450 over 4 seconds. Not to mention the -80% poison resist from plague when it procs. Not amazing, but a lot of players run 100 poison over 5 seconds small charms. So, it’s free passive damage and sometimes the vine can draw fire or get enemies to stand in a firewall.
The Merc is there for his might aura and to help draw fire. I am running insight becuase I don’t have the runes for something like pride or infinity to spare at the moment. Likewise, I don’t want to run reapers toll since decripfy would overwrite my lower resist proc. So, insight becomes my defualt pole arm for the moment, but I would be open to suggestions. Another benifit of running flickering flame is my resist fire aura means I don’t have to use a ral rune to counter the -fire resist from Andy’s.
It’s an experimental build that I am having good luck with so far. But, I would welcome any feedback or suggerstions on how it might be improved. Thanks for reading have fun.