Hey guys,
I am currently farming Travincal with a Whirlwind Barbarian and I need some help understanding how Whirlwind works. I’ve spend some time googling and messing with a calculator and I am still so confused.
Long story short, is a dual setup better than of a 2-handed no matter what?
Reading the changelogs, Whirlwind is now affected by all Attack Speed Gear. I’ve used a calculator to check the frames and I noticed that some weapons are not reaching the best frames despite adding tons of attack speed to the rest gear. So, does the weapon base attack speed restricts it? How exactly Whirlwind is benefited by AS from the rest gear then?
Eventually, what weapon would you suggest using for Travincal only? No need to analyze in the rest gear, just a quick answer.
Up front, the two hander does about twice the damage, and the dual wield hits twice as often. So that about evens out.
But if you have crushing blow that works on both weapons, like from boots and helmet. Then hitting twice as often, procs crushing blow twice as often. An advantage for dual wielding. If both weapons also have stats, like 20 strentgh, then that gives you 40 strength in dual wield, instead of 20.
Drawback from dual wield then becomes: you need two expensive weapons instead of one.
If you use berserk to finish of mobs or loners, the two handed weapons hits alot harder, basically twice as hard as the onehander you hit with in dual wield. I use berserk alot, as a one point wonder, together with whirl.
Edit for questions. 2: Not all weapons can reach fastest breakpoint. If so then reach tthe breakpoint before, and load up on other stats instead. Some weapons like Beast, adds Fanatiscm, that lower breakpoints. This can be an offhand in dualwield, together with hardest hitting eth weapon mainhand, for lowest breakpoint.
My advice is Breath of the Dying collosal blade in two handed mode. Done and done. Life leech, mana leech, damage sorted. You can basically wear whatever you like with BotD, Shacos and Dwarf Stars and whatever. Death is cheaper and hits probably harder, can use that in a col sword too. But it casts freezing, that makes some bodies melt and can’t be horked. It does not proc this freezing in whirlwind, so, can be used. But if you use berserk you might lose a find item body.
Ladder start, make an Oath in eth weapon and start farming. Unique sword Doombringer, is pretty good for starters too, as an ofhand weapon, if you keep your health about 3000, you can use the health bonus to get more strength and thus higher damage. Worth bying for um or mal to get started.
In general, yes, although there may be some exceptions. 2H used to be able to hit 4FPA and now can only hit 5 with a ton of IAS after 2.4, so 2H ended up with a stealth nerf.
The way they set the new break points did end up restricting some items (like many 2H) regardless of how much IAS you have. If you have a specific weapon/item combo you’re curious about, we can help interpret IAS calculator results…
If you’re running primarily Trav only it’s really tough to beat Grief/Grief in PB. My WW Trav MF/GF barb runs eBotD CB and eDeath CS for the visual/style points and it still slaps plenty hard, so there’s options, though. I ran with an Oath eBB using it 2H just for fun before I built the BotD and Death, and ran BotD 2H for fun for a little while as well.
On the less pricy end, Oath in a sword or axe is really solid, as is Unbending Will (Sword only RW). Lawbringer is a cool off hand b/c Sanct bug is fixed so you demolish undead, but WW doesn’t proc it’s decrep, and the cold damage makes it less ideal for trav runs (assuming you’re horking, and you should be).
Keep in mind if you’re having trouble with Hell Trav, NM trav is an option too that might help you get geared up enough for Hell Trav. You can also run a Rhyme or other shield that gives +res or other useful stats until you’re geared up well enough to take on Trav with 2x weapon.
Just the info I needed, thanks!
But any modifier on the weapon will not affect the other one, right? If one has Crushing Blow, it will only apply to that weapon?
Hmm, I always thought with enough AS it was possible for all weapons to reach the fastest breakpoint but in some cases it was impossible due to the massive IAS that was needed which was impossible to get.
I tried Colossus Blade Death at the maxroll D2Planner and it troubles me how is displayed as “Attack Rate: 7 frames (3.57 hits per second)”. It doesn’t have any IAS and yet no AS gear affects it any further.
That make sense now, I will definitely need some help once I conclude to the weapons!
Truth to be said, I just want to get away from Griefs and start using some items that are less common on other builds but would work greatly on Whirlwind. But it makes sense for Griefs to be the best possible option.
And that seems an option that I actually like!
Thank you for all the suggestions. I am an “Offline Single Player” player and I’ve been gathering items for years. Luckily, I do have almost everything I need, I just don’t know what is better. I recently moved my Frenzy Barb from 1.14d to D2r and Respected him to Whirlwind. My Frenzy Barb was using Grief + Beast in Berseker Axes and these are the weapons I am using right now and I have to say I am quite impressed with the result.
I decided to make him a pure Trav Runner since D2r has opened some more variety builds which nearly all require runes… that’s why I am trying to make him as optimized as possible.
Yes, if you have 1 weapon w/ CB and one without, CB will only come into play when the weapon with it hits. CB on things like helm and boots will have proc chance for both weapons attacks, though.
Great place to be! The Fant from Beast certainly helps on the break point front! Berserker Axes are also sweet. I like the “in game/on character” graphics for them much better in D2R now as well. In legacy they looked too much like the starter hand axe.
I use this calculator: search warren1001 attack speed
We can see collosal sword, it is a slow weapon, and Death doesn’t have any IAS. We need 35 IAS for 5 frame attack, and 89 for frame 4 whirlwind
Berserk is slower, a breakpoint at 58 and another at 83. Berserk with Death also casts Glacial Spike, which may destroy find item bodies. The other weapon that can be used, is a Collosal Blade, if you can find eth 5 socket, which is a little bit faster. I can see you need 75 IAS for 4 frame whirlwind with Death, which would be a strong choice then. 20 from gloves, 20 from amu, 20 from Andys helmet, and a 15 ias jewel for example.
You could also try and gamble a 2 socket barb circlet and put in 30 ias, together with 10 ias from goldfind belt.
Anyone has a video that shows how to optimally use WW?
I often hear to use it in small triangles for bosses, and to use short WWs if your offhand weapon is slower, so you dont lose frames with mh, but would be nice to see some actual footage.
Wow guys, thanks for the link. It’s a lot easier and comprehensible than the one I was using. May I just ask how reliable it is?
Also, the question Alex is asking is an intresting one. Is there any “trick” in using Whirlwind for maximum effect? Currently I am just doing small patterns around Councils.
I thought that they changed it in D2R so that the short whirlwinds aren’t really important any more. It was my understanding that you got two “free” hit checks at four frames regardless of your attack speed in LoD, but that wasn’t the case any more in D2R. I’d be interested to find out if I have it wrong.
Without the extra early hits, I can still see benefits in sticking close to an enemy to focus on them, and you won’t get stuck waiting for it to finish. I just didn’t think there was a DPS advantage any more.
When D2R launched I think one of them wasn’t happening, which is what prompted them to monkey with the ias BP in 2.4. Honestly not sure what the current state is. I try to do fairly short controlled ones for the reasons you mentioned. Staying in range and not going off half way across the screen hitting nothing.