Any Tip, Tricks, or Hints... trying to complete a 150 GNR

HOTA uses WW to stack Stricken; also, this season the Shockwave does PHY damage; so try to get out one at least during PHY CoE cycle.

For reference, my not so good 150 clear at like P3100, SSF:

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UPDATE: DING Successful 150 GR completed on Barbarian and @ 13:34… and LOL, I had cdr, speed, and conduit (at the very end going into the boss fight)… I made the gear changes, did better “crawling” with the mobs/elites… and WW’ing a bit longer on the RG… so THANK YOU ALL for your contributions; truly hope other casuals can take this wealth of suggestions and get theirs done too! :slight_smile:

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Most of the time you will see 2-handed weapons as substitute items, but they’re comparable to a dual wield setup at some cases and sometimes even better. The idea behind using a 2-hander is always having the benefit of tighter damage range between min-max and 30-50% higher average damage than a dual wield setup.
This gives you a consistent result, but having dual wield with Echoing Fury tosses an extra variable that you need to keep track of. Obviously, game would reward you when you pull it off, especially when you think Barbarians have amazing passives such as Rampage.

If you check the maxroll guide on LoD HotA and bring up the simulator, you can see numbers for yourself. What I’m speaking is pure theory but numbers convinced me. When you open the simulator, as a Maxroll classic, you’ll see CoE buff active and 50 Stricken stacks are scaled already. First, disable CoE buff and negate the BotS stacks to have an idea about raw output. From there you can compare the models accurately. Do the math; you’ll lose 130% ChD, 24% AD and 15% IaS from dual wield but you’ll gain mad amount of DPS. I think it worth the trade on paper at least.

Another example of 2-hander being useful would be WW-Rend Barbarians. There’s this guide in maxroll suggesting Messerschmidt’s Reaver for Greater Rift Group speeds; as in lesser damage but consistent output:
https://maxroll.gg/d3/guides/waste-set-ww-rend-barbarian-guide
There’s a section for comparing 2-hander and dual wield but I think it’s incomplete as 2-handed arsenal have options such as; Wrath of Bone King, Heart Slaughter or Schaefer’s Hammer for 20-25% elemental damage bonus.

My idea is pure speculation by the way and I don’t remember seeing anyone using Gavel at the top 200. Possibly the issue is not the damage outpu but lacking recovery from the damage you incur due losing attack speed.

Grats again, Crumb!

Yeah, a change in an item or two because you didn’t understand what stats do what can make difference in a clear. Glad you got the help you needed. The really helpful Barbs on the Barb forum have left but there’s stickies on their forum that’s good for general information about builds that do a reasonable explanation of what items to use and why.

No other class put as much work into their class as they did or at least didn’t have the clout to get all the information stickied. I recommend you check out the Barbarian forum in the future. You might come away more informed.

In general, the dual wield or weapon/OH is going to be superior to a 2h. A 2h setup gives you 2 legendary powers, one in cube, one on the 2h. Dual or Weapon/OH gives you 3 legendary powers which usually dwarfs any advantage in sheet damage that a 2h can give.

As I said above, there are cases where you want to use a 2h, like meteor Wiz. The options are 2h Smoldering Core and 2h Grand Vizier which both buff Meteor. Most seasons, there are no 1h/OH combinations that have legendary powers to topple the ones of the 2h’s.

On top of massive difference with legendary powers, you also get a huge boost in affixes with dual or 1h/OH option. 2h can have 24 AD, 10 CDR, 7 AS, etc. Dual wield or 1h/OH can give you 48 AD, 20 CDR, 7 AS, etc. Build depending, this can outweigh the extra dps a 2h provides.

Ya, I kinda avoid giving someone serious advice on speculation. I don’t want to waste someone’s time or send them down a wrong path because “I have a theory”. I generally would rather have tested it myself or have direct examples before I throw out any advice on game play.

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