Hi all–
As the title says, I’m wondering if I’m missing something here. I’ve been using a ww zbarb pretty successfully (I think) up to 139 this season. I’m running pretty much the same build that the zbarb in the top non-season clear used. The other day, someone suggested I switch to the charge zbarb because it stomps better. That didn’t make any sense to me, but I thought I’d ask here. I really don’t like the charge play style, so I don’t want to switch unless there is a tangible, and notable, difference.
No it works fine all the way up. Although some ppl (usually the ones who dont play barb) prefer if you dont.
ww barb have better cdr which make grouping more easy and easy to maintain ip on team
TBH there’s absolutely minimum upside to WW Zbarb unless you are playing with 200+ MS ping.
Upside for WW Zbarb is the zodiac refresh which makes double stomping faster, however missing furious charge meaning lower mob skill interrupt ability since GS has a longer animation time than FC. Especially at RG/teleport affix. High proc rate from Bul Kathos blade do proc certain mob affix more frequent, making those affix more deadly, prime reason WW ZB was replaced by Charge in RAT XP runs
Biggest downside is mobility/scout range. Zbarb was created during season 5 replacing the then Globe Barb. First itration of ZB was WW, it was quickly evolved into Raekor due to its superiory. Scout Range isnt as big of an issue anymore as RGK these days can be demanded by ZB to assist. Mobility and longer setup/pull range is why Raekor is so dominant. RGK can only assist up to a certain efficiency.
Raekor allows Istavan Blades wheres WW locks Bul Kathos Blades. Increased APS is crucial in tight/high pressured/high speed pulls/stomps as APS enhances Spear/GS animations. Post Zmk era, ZB adopts storm shield for extra toughness, however dedicated ZB will always transit to IB in the shortest time possible.
If you want to play a casual ZB, play what ever you like. But if you want in depth, professional ZB, Raekor is far superior. Don’t look at NS though, as the player base is very low in NS-NA and you usually are stuck with limited choices.
I main ww zbarb. Been a casual 150 meta player for a few years now. Your first mistake is thinking there is a difference between sub 130 and above 130. For a zbarb what you need to do for your groups success does not change depending on the level. You do the exact same thing every time. There is downsides to ww zbarb but none of them will cost you a clear. They will however cost you time if you are hunting a low ranking on the leaderboards.
Charge is faster at scouting/pulling distant mobs
Charge has both stomp and charge for stuns. This is important on many RG’s. WW simply cannot stun most times on demand because the need to stomp for band of might. This becomes less of an issue at higher paragons as band of might is not needed a lot of the time on RGs. You would just save stomp on bosses that move around or teleport.
You will only notice a huge time difference on great map/trash combos as charge can aggro the entire map in a few seconds. This will mean 3-4 minutes on the leaderboards for page one 150 clears. I routinely clear 150s in the 8-10 minute range as WW.
2 Likes
Casual 150’s would be more than enough for me. My group has already done 140, so things seem to be headed in the right direction. Hopefully we can keep it going.
I know I’m late to the party, but you guys forgot the historical reasons: the 32s rotation of bazooka wiz made charge barb mandatory. you had to scout, find a good place for setup and drag whatever possible during one rotation.
the only rotation in today’s META runs is the CoE cycle so speed does not really matter anymore.
1 Like