Area dmg > mainstat?

Im returning a barb from season 13 and ive made my way from 60 gr 700 paragon to 102 gr 1300 paragon but i’ve hit a wall, I’m at 3m base dps but its sort of strange, speed run 100 gr in 3-4 mins but fail 105s. I’ve looked at the top leaderboards and its clear they are giving up str rolls and cdr for area dmg. Its hard for me to tell if Im gaining any benefit from area dmg yet. I have a bul kathos set that each have about 3k dps ea which sits me around 3m dps or a set that gives me 45% area dmg at 2.7m dps, which totals me to 95% area dmg.

I cant really tell if its doing anything because 100 gr everything just instant pops and dies, cant really group things up as they die from 1 rend from ww procs, but in 105+, I pop lol and things such as rift gaurdian take me ages to kill.

leveling is hitting a wall and I’m running out of room to upgrade besides primals/calden despair and area dmg. everything is ancient with pretty decent stats and half way despair’d

any tips? am I heading in the right direction by getting area dmg on gloves/shoulders/weapons/rings

my barb, its not updated with my most recent gear? https://us.diablo3.com/en-us/profile/Noiz-1988/hero/132865090

This is very common, since the top of the LB have very high paragon. If they roll 1,000 STR off of their gear, they lose maybe 5% of their DPS and even less of their toughness in exchange for AD, but if you roll 1,000 STR of of your gear, you lose about 15% of your dmg, and a lot more toughness.

Keep in mind that when you look at the LB, you need to take into account that they are playing 12-15 min GRs, not 3-5 min GRs. The builds are completely different. If you are trying to go from 3-5 min GRs to 7-10 min, GRs, you need to change your build, and when you go from 7-10 min GRs to 12-15 min GRs, you need to make even more changes.

This includes gear, stats, skills, and passives.

Have you watched some build guides on YouTube? Or read up on some of the guides?

I see lots and lots of things I could put in this post, but it is mostly redundant with what is in the link below and the video.

https://maxroll.gg/d3planner/842428464#WW%20Rend%20Solo%20Speed

Before doing anything else, check out this guide…

Looking at your Armoury, it seems we caught you in your speed-farming stuff. However, things to be aware of for higher clearances…

  1. Chest + Legs need Diamonds in (not Rubies) for the All Resistance
  2. Chest + Shoulders are missing 15% Rend damage
  3. Both of your BKs have Attack Speed on them. Rend doesn’t benefit from this. 24% AD would be way better than an AS roll.
  4. You’re using BKs. For higher pushing you’ll switch to Istvan’s Paired Blades (Rogue + Slanderer)
  5. Rings. Because ORotZ has fixed affixes, it’s better to have it in the Cube, and have BoM equipped, as the BoM could roll with CHC / CHD / STR or AD.
  6. Swap out Nerves of Steel for Brawler.