[Barb] H90 Focused Feedback

PTR Feedback
1

Introduction

Updated to PTR Patch 2.6.8 revision (2/13) results

In this thread, I hope to collate and discuss info and experiences about the new Barb set, the Horde of Ninety Savages (H90). For easy navigation, use the Table of Contents below.

Table of Contents

Feedback Guidelines

When posting feedback try using the following format:

GR(s) Cleared:
Main Stat:
Paragon:
Basic Build Info: (items + skills)

Strengths of the Set and Build:

Weaknesses of the Set and Build:

Critical Problems:

Additional Impressions or Notes:

Back to table of contents

Build Analysis

To better understand how the build is shaping up on the PTR, here’s a brief rundown analyzing top PTR clears.

  1. The Fear mechanic is ignored. No top clears use the Terrify rune on TS, and when Fear is used, it comes mainly from Echoing Fury or on-hit item procs. It’s worth noting that neither top PTR clear with this set uses any kind of Fear.
  2. The addition of Frozen to the 2-piece bonus makes the set bous more applicable against RGs but still suffers from the same problem: namely that Frozen is hard CC and, combined with Stuns applied by Frenzy, will quickly cap enemy CC resistance and thus nullify the damage bonus.
  3. Oathkeeper is a lock for a weapon. The second weapon varies between Axe of Sankis (for more DR and Fire damage), Azurewrath (for Cold damage and Freeze effects) or Echoing Fury (more AS and Fear).
  4. For Cubed ring slots, players use either COE/Band of Might or Unity. Toughness and damage mitigation are real problems with this build.
  5. Bloodshed is a lock. Contrary to the intended design of the set and build (use Fear to scatter mobs), this build, like every other Barb build, thrives in density where Bloodshed and AD (both are procced by Bastion’s) can clear trash while you Frenzy down elites. Furious Charge (Cold Rush) can be used to lock monsters in place, but the increased mobility of Merciless Assault (or Leap) provide options.
  6. Simplicity’s, Stricken, and Trapped are locks for gems.

Conclusions

Fear Mechanic
Right now, the intended Fear mechanic is being ignored and is more or less useless. Likewise, the addition of Frozen doesn’t fix the problem. The set’s 2-piece bonus needs to be revised.Major problems include:

  • RGs and Juggernauts are immune to Fear and thus the bonus is useless on them. WHile RGs can be Frozen, this doesn’t work for long because RGs quickly go CC immune due to Frenzy stuns.
  • Mobs go CC immune quickly due to Frenzy stuns and thus the Fear/Frozen bonus is useless on them.
  • Fleeing mobs are difficult to chase due to the build’s limited mobility.

Damage Reduction
Despite the update to 6% DR per Frenzy stack, many players still report poor or inconsistent damage reduction and a general lack of toughness. Crowd Control still presents a major issue for this build. The set’s 4-piece DR bonus needs to be increased needs to be increased again, and the recommended range is 7-8% DR per Frenzy stack.

Damage Output
Most players report that the set’s damage output is underwhelming and under-tuned. While the 2-set bonus still needs to be addressed, the 6-piece damage multiplier needs to be increased or the build will have no worthwhile use in any game mode or activity.

Build Mechanics
The following information was confirmed by Rage. I’m abbreviating it here for ease of access.

  • H90 2-piece does appear to double the rune effect of most of the important shouts properly.
    • TS: Terrify + Demoralize are both double duration. Falter’s dibs bonus is doubled.
    • WC: Veteran’s Warning gives 60% dodge. Impunity resistance buff is increased to 40%. For some reason, it seems to be a little screwy with Hardened Wrath. The base effect of WC is doubled from +20% armor to +40%, but the “extra 60% for 5 seconds” that is the rune effect is for some reason giving +100% of your initial armor
    • For Battle Rage, the base effect is doubled - +20% dibs and +6% CHC. (30% dibs for Marauder’s). Bloodshed damage is doubled-- 40% of recent critical hits. Into the Fray gives 2% chc per nearby mob. Ferocity move speed is doubled to 30%. Swords to Ploughshares healing is doubled as well.
      • In addition, the “chaining” effect definitely procs both Bloodshed and Swords to Ploughshares. **For Bloodshed, the result (assuming you’ve got optimal CHC + CHD rolls) is that Bloodshed procs deal about 37% of the total damage you’ve dealt via Frenzy, as an AOE.
      • STP’s effect is doubled by the 2-piece, and can also trigger once for every crit scored by the Bastion’s “chain”. Furthermore, somehow it is getting doubled again. For instance, StP, discounted to 75% effectiveness for Frenzy’s .75 proc rate, should heal 16092 per crit. But, I was healing 32k per crit, twice (two different green numbers, each 32k, for 64k total). So there’s an extra doubling happening somehow.
  • Bastion’s chains proc AD and Bloodshed.
  • The Bastion’s chains roll independently for crit on every enemy.
  • The H90 6-piece set bonus does not interact with Thorns damage.

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Links to Clears

The following recorded clears highlight H90 gameplay. Each clear is logged with the player name, GR tier cleared, Paragon, and date of clear.

Cendiesel
GR 128
Paragon: 6261
Cleared: 2/7
Video:

Seiya
GR 90
Paragon: 958
Cleared: 2/7
Video:

Rudi
GR 131
Paragon: 6145
Cleared: 2/8
Video:

Jimster
GR 118
Paragon: 2736
Cleared: 2/8
Video:

Note: Jimster opted to use Gogok instead of Stricken.

Free
GR 100
Paragon: 2308
Cleared: 2/8
Video:

Free
GR 110
Paragon: 2309
Cleared: 2/8
Video:

Kiwen
GR 110
Paragon: 1450
Cleared: 2/9
Video:

Note: Kiwen used Aughild’s with RoRG and Unity.

Shark
GR 120 (Hardcore)
Paragon: 3303
Video:

Raenil
GR 114
Paragon: 1168
Video:

Shivan
GR 90
Paragon: 862
Video:

Shivan
GR 95
Paragon: 866
Video:

Azerial
GR 115
Paragon: 1343
Video:

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15 Likes
2

RE-posting this from Barb forum.

Ok, here are my results in testing H90 so far. I’m highlighting a few of the most important points in bold .

H90 2-piece does appear to double the rune effect of most of the important shouts properly.

TS: Terrify + Demoralize are both double duration. Falter’s dibs bonus is doubled.

WC: Veteran’s Warning gives 60% dodge. Impunity resistance buff is increased to 40%. For some reason, it seems to be a little screwy with Hardened Wrath. The base effect of WC is doubled from +20% armor to +40%, but the “extra 60% for 5 seconds” that is the rune effect is for some reason giving +100% of your initial armor. I think you’d expect to see either +120% (.60 + .60) or +156% (1.6 * 1.6), so I’m not sure what’s going on there. My actual numbers (with, btw, paragon armor% at 0) were 8886 armor before shout, 21326 for 5 seconds, and 12440 after that.

For Battle Rage, the base effect is doubled - +20% dibs and +6% CHC. (30% dibs for Marauder’s). Bloodshed damage is doubled-- 40% of recent critical hits. Into the Fray gives 2% chc per nearby mob. Ferocity move speed is doubled to 30%.

Swords to Ploughshares healing is doubled as well.

In addition, the “chaining” effect definitely procs both Bloodshed and Swords to Ploughshares. For Bloodshed, the result (assuming you’ve got optimal CHC + CHD rolls) is that Bloodshed procs deal about 37% of the total damage you’ve dealt via Frenzy, as an aoe. Pretty good. This amount is unchanged no matter the density you’re fighting in, since Frenzy deals the same overall damage, whether that’s focused on 1 mob or spread between 30 mobs.

STP seems bugged. Not only is its effect doubled by the 2-piece, but it can also trigger once for every crit scored by the Bastion’s “chain”. Furthermore, somehow it is getting doubled again. For instance, StP, discounted to 75% effectiveness for Frenzy’s .75 proc rate, should heal 16092 per crit. But, I was healing 32k per crit, twice (two different green numbers, each 32k, for 64k total). So there’s an extra doubling happening somehow. When you get into density, you can heal hundreds of thousands of life with one hit.

I’m pretty sure the chained Frenzy also procs AD , although not 100% sure-- even going through my footage frame by frame, it is tough to separate out a non-crit hit from the “chain”, from an AD proc. Ultimately, though, I did see some white damage numbers popping up on enemies not hit by the chain, and at the correct proportion for AD based on a nearby damage number. (i.e. Mob 1 gets hit by the chain, takes 100m damage, Mob 2 doesn’t get hit by the chain but takes 68m white damage. I had 68% AD.) Let’s call it “95% certainty”.

The Bastion’s chains roll independently for crit on every enemy. I think how it works is that if you have 10 stacks, the game says to itself “ok, that’s 11 hits”, calculates the “base” damage for this, divides this up between the number of targets, and then rolls independently for each one to see if it’s a crit. So if you are attacking a big group of enemies, some of them will most likely be hit by a crit, and some by a non-crit.

I’m not sure that the chain effect has an animation for every single Frenzy hit- I think it’s a bit like Bloodshed, in that it “keeps track” of the damage for a bit, and then dumps it all at once. The period is much shorter for the chains than for Bloodshed (way less than 1 second) but I don’t think it’s as frequent as the 5-6 times per second I was hitting with Frenzy. This may be why, despite fighting in pretty high density in the GRs I played, there was not much lag, despite the game obviously needing to calculate Bloodshed as well as (probably) AD. Not 100% sure about this animation thing, but the major takeaway here, as far as I can see, anyway, is “no game-crushing lag” .

Stricken stacks at the rate I expected it to (the Frenzy attack rate) . I ran a test using some low-level crafted weapons that gave me a 13 frame Frenzy. I tested initial conditions with Rend damage, hit my test subject for a minute with Frenzy, then Rended again, and the damage afterwards showed Stricken stacking at the Frenzy attack rate (i.e. you are not getting extra Stricken stacks from Bastion’s). One thing I still ought to check is a similar test on 2 enemies, because I suppose it’s possible that when the chain animates, it could apply an extra Stricken stack. Unlikely, I think, but somebody should make sure.

As for the Fear bonus, well, as I’m sure you all know it is a bit hard to deploy properly. If you want to do damage to a group of mobs, you need a second source of hard cc with a long duration. The 1.5 second stun from smite is inadequate, as soon as you pop terrify, the guy de-stuns and runs away.

I tested with Ground Stomp and FC: Cold Rush, and in both cases, they work much better if you freeze/Stun the mobs and then pop fear. If you do it the other way around, the freeze/stun will sometimes not stop the mobs from running away.

Finally, I did check to see if the 6 piece might be increasing thorns damage, even though it’s not written anywhere in the set. It does not appear to be. So: no thorns, just straight-up Frenzy.

20 Likes
3

I think add to the 2pc “whenever an enemy is feared, gain Max frenzy stacks”. This would help the fear mechanic not be useless, and it would help DR at the start of a right.

2 Likes
4

Thanks, Rage. I’m waiting for the stupid 24-hour limit on PTR copy to expire so I can port in my correct account. Really, really hate all the time-wasting restrictions on PTR participation.

Anyway, if you don’t mind, I’m going to add your test results to the OP and credit you. I want to make sure your results are visible even if your post gets buried down the road.

1 Like
5

To better understand how the build is shaping up on the PTR, here’s a brief rundown analyzing top PTR clears.

  1. The Fear mechanic is ignored. No top clears use the Terrify rune on TS, and when Fear is used, it comes mainly from Echoing Fury or on-hit item procs. It’s worth noting that neither top PTR clear with this set uses any kind of Fear.
  2. Oathkeeper is a lock for a weapon. The second weapon varies between Axe of Sankis (for more DR and Fire damage) or Echoing Fury (more AS and Fear).
  3. For Cubed ring slots, players use either COE/Band of Might or Unity. Toughness and damage mitigation are real problems with this build.
  4. Bloodshed is a lock. Contrary to the intended design of the set and build (use Fear to scatter mobs), this build, like every other Barb build, thrives in density where Bloodshed and AD (both are procced by Bastion’s) can clear trash while you Frenzy down elites. This also makes Ground Stomp (Wrenching Smash) a near-lock in the build and, again, goes against the intended design of the set. Finally, Furious Charge (Cold Rush) is used to lock monsters in place.
  5. Simplicity’s, Trapped, and Stricken are locks for gems.

Conclusions

Fear Mechanic
Right now, the intended Fear mechanic is being ignored and is more or less useless. The set’s 2-piece bonus needs to be revised. See points 1 and 4 above.

Damage Reduction
Many players report poor or inconsistent damage reduction and a general lack of toughness. Some players resort to using Unity to mitigate damage. The set’s 4-piece DR bonus needs to be increased, and there needs to be some window of coverage (for example, the DR can last for 5 seconds after you stop attacking) in order to allow us safer movement from pack to pack.

Damage Output
Players with 9k Paragon are currently capping out around GR 132 at over 14 minutes. The damage of the set needs a significant increase.

9 Likes
6

gr cleared: 115 (12:59)

main stat: 18800

paragon: 2775

infos: mediocre rolls missing 2 pieces elemental dmg and 1 piece critdmg, only the 50% ad from paragon, 48,6 cdr, wearing unity instead of coe and a doombringer offhand, warcry veterans warning, battle rage bloodshed, ts falter, gems ca. : stricken and bott 115, simp.str 95

strengths: riftguardian is the easiest in the whole rift, elitekiller if not too much density, performs pretty good in bad maps

weaknesses/critical problems: density takes a while and can get dangerous when gathering multiple elites in it, survivability when berserker is on cd (morticks), start of the rift and getting in a new floor losing your stacks can easily get you killed, slow

impression: might need more dmg to compete with ww and other top builds
(on top of the survival issues even with unity going higher than 115…)

4 Likes
7

Wait, what do you mean by “correct account”? Did you level up some gems or farm some gear on live, or something like that? If so, beware-- I think the PTR copy often uses an earlier state of your account. I’m not sure how much earlier, but it might not have any new gear / leveled gems you’ve completed in the last day.

Not a problem.

8

I forgot there’s a 24 lock-out from the time of your last PTR Copy, and I copied my account, realized I had erred, went back to Live to farm, then realized I can’t re-copy until tonight.

Sigh.

I’m not sure why there’s a 24 hour cooldown on PTR Copy, but it’s irritating.

9

No, that’s what I mean: even after you’ve farmed that stuff, when you copy again, I think that new gear may be missing.

Just wanted to clarify something:

Unlike a build like Leapquake, where your damage to each mob goes up the more mobs you pack into the AD radius, with H90, your AD dealt falls within a pretty narrow range, no matter how many mobs you cram in.

For instance, let’s say you’re fighting 5 mobs packed together.

With Leapquake, if your Earthquakes were doing 1100 damage per hit, and you had 114% AD, all 5 mobs would be taking 1003 damage each, from AD.

With H90, with your 11x Frenzy doing 1100 per hit, and 114% AD, those 5 mobs would be taking around 200 AD each (182 for mob 1 , 205 for mobs 2-5).

So, as you pack more enemies in, more of them will be taking that damage from AD and Bloodshed, which is good. But that damage amount does not actually scale up, which is bad. (It does mean the relative reward for fishing is reduced, which is, perhaps, good.)

10

Great feedback. You hit a lot of the boxes.

11

This is what I usually see, however, I have also seen times where this just die.

I am uploading a video right now.

At about 1:25 you can see it happen. Everyone around me takes a lot of damage. At 5:30, you can see an elite I am not hitting die, but what appears to be the elite I am fighting is still alive when there is an explosion. Not certain what is happening there as so many hits are happening at once.

Along those lines, watch 4:55 for something similar with the tree elite. You can see a chain going from it to another mob. But there was no way I hit it with frenzy.

At 3:20, you can see me lose stacks when I transitions levels, even with the SPEED Pylon.

6:55 for when the boss spawns and I lose all stacks.

I will update this when the video finishes uploading.

Edit:
And the video is LIVE:
https://youtu.be/QLGypP_2W6M

1 Like
12

Thanks, Jako!

I’ll look forward to seeing it.

13

One thing that keeps coming to my mind, as we are figuring out how this build works best, is that it is an extremely similar play style to HotA and quite frankly HotA plays much better than Frenzy. HotA, whether IK or LoN, lacks the single target of Frenzy, but performs better in density (likely due to the ease of adding AD to the gear). The playstyles are almost identical at this point and the Devs were trying to promote a unique playstyle, so there is that.

As of right now, given the play style, I would rather play HotA than Frenzy. HotA is a lot easier to group up mobs and push with and HotA has a lot more toughness. I think the devs need to change something so that it feels a lot more unique and not a copy of HotA with better single target damage.

I’ll post some run info this evening. Couple different setups I’d like to try, but I’m just not seeing why I’d choose Frenzy over HotA. If it is meant to be a RGK, that’s great, but then let’s make sure it is competitive with the other RGKs.

4 Likes
14

The information here seems to reinforce my own experiences with the set thus far. It seems to be headed in the correct direction for the most part, but damage mitigation seems sketchy at best and the fear mechanic seems to be counter intuitive to combat effectiveness.

Maintaining Frenzy stacks can be tough in a lot of situations, and the build quickly becomes ineffective as the stacks drop off. I think improving the up time of Frenzy stacks would be a huge improvement to the set’s performance, and reworking the fear mechanic is a good idea.

I think providing a CDR bonus from the set to make Wrath of the Berserker viable as a defensive option (and a decent offensive boost also) would be a good quality of life improvement. In the set’s current state, it’s difficult to take advantage of Ring of the Zodiac, and keeping up time on important skills is tough.

The reason I advocate for the above improvements is to help mitigate the crushing state the set leaves you in after a death or a period of poor mob density. There are very few routes back into effectiveness once your momentum is removed by losing your Frenzy stacks.

1 Like
15

https://youtu.be/QLGypP_2W6M

Here you go, I hope people agree with me on some of those odd spots, but feel free to tell me I made a mistake. Unlike some people, I am willing to admit when I am at fault.

16

GR(s) Cleared:
Main Stat:
Paragon: 1400s (NS)
Basic Build Info: (items + skills) using GS and FC for mobility and CC, no-fear TS, EF and oathkeeper weps

Strengths of the Set and Build:
I love the IDEA of frenzy barb: a melee character who is comfortable in melee range with minimal CC, and in the way I am using the build no WotB - I can’t keep it up anyway. Short terms CDs can be used with low CDR to keep them nearly always available, but plenty of passive CD through frenzy runes and EF affix. Excellent damage (though doesn’t feel equal between elites, and trash is iffy) especially on RG, I cleared a 100 with relative ease and not great gear.
Weaknesses of the Set and Build:
While I like the idea, I find the execution lacking. I judge this by the problems I find with this set and it’s items in usage, but also with the FEEL of the set/builds. I find the fear mechanic strange for a build that really needs to have mobs grouped and in melee range. Frenzy stacks lasting at 4 seconds (increase to 10 with the set) doesn’t make it easy to chase mobs, requiring FC for band of might and to chase. This is the only build I know of for barbs which involves standing still in melee range, and so far it feels punishing to do so, for the exact reason it is with other builds: tanking damage, elite affixes landing under char (no illusory boots) and generally not able to reach elites (and it isn’t a great elite hunter build, nor do I want it to be).
Critical Problems:
Clarity regarding how the double effectiveness of shouts works, with the necessity of fear to get the extra double dmg - I don’t see this working effectively as it is, though this is mostly a question (or dilemma) regarding survival: stay in a pack and get smacked or fear them and chase individual mobs.

Additional Impressions or Notes:
In general, there seems to be nothing in this set to DO except frenzy which itself is not immediately clear how to survive or what CDs to use besides shouts - we have no way to get CDR enough to keep up perma-WotB - though this is overused in all current builds. How does a primary skill build use anything other than short CD’s, and how do we balance not having the super form benefits of WotB in a build where getting walled, jailed, or frozen is a real issue? I don’t see any clear indicators in the set that reward other skills than shouts and frenzy - CC immune comes into play quickly also, which means most of what we have to deal with is straight damage in packs (not fun).

1 Like
17

Hey man, in the process of watching your video, taking notes as I go…

When I said “narrow range” for AD, I don’t mean “totally useless”, just that, unlike with a real AOE build like Leapquake, your AD never grows way beyond the damage of your base attack that is proccing the AD. Based on the math and charts you and I worked through, we’re pretty much agreed on that, right?

Looks like a Bloodshed proc kills them all. There’s probably some AD mixed in there too. Right before Bloodshed procs, hits of Frenzy chains have reduced most of those mobs to maybe a bit less than half life, all before a Bloodshed proc has occurred. Then the proc comes, and wipes them out. That makes sense to me. In my own testing I did verify that Bloodshed was proccing at 40% of recent crits, discounted by 25% for the Frenzy 75% proc rate. All this lines up, in my mind.

At 4:51 there are 2 Bastion’s chains that line up almost exactly with 2 elite Health Link chains. Might that be what you’re seeing? Or if you mean the tree elite (the one with 8.318T max life), at 4:55, he gets down to about 182B, and then something kills him. Might be a chain, AD, or Bloodshed… maybe all of the above. Hard to tell.

Thanks for recording, good work!

18

GR(s) Cleared: Ran from GR 105 to 115, nonseasonal. Cleared 115 in ~8:30 (no conduit, 1 good floor, then 2 meh floors).
Main Stat: ~17500
Paragon: ~2960
Basic Build Info: (items + skills)
Main skills: WotB - Insanity; Battle Rage - Bloodshed; War Cry - Veteran’s Warning; Threatening Shout - Terrify; Furious Charge - Merciless Assault; Frenzy - Smite

Passives: Berserker Rage, Ruthless, Nerves of Steel, Boon of Bul Kathos

Gear: 6-piece H90, Undisputed Champion, Nemesis bracers (edited - thought I had used Morticks). Weapons: Echoing Fury and Oathkeeper. Jewelry: Traveler’s Pledge/Compass Rose + CoE.

Cube: Bastion’s Revered, Depth Diggers, BoM

Gems: Simplicity’s Strength, Bane of the Stricken, Bane of the Trapped

Strengths of the Set and Build:
-Elite/RG Killing
-Recovery (Simplicity’s strength was doing work. Even without a LPH roll, recovery did not seem to be an issue.)
-Buffed shouts are dope

Weaknesses of the Set and Build:
-Toughness and CC effects outside of WotB
-Fast running elites
-Short duration of frenzy (especially in floor transitions)

Critical Problems:
My impression is that this set’s viability lies with number tuning. I did not find the mechanics broken or as frustrating as feared.

Additional Impressions or Notes:
I played the build as an elite hunter, using fear to scatter mobs around yellows, especially before the CoE cycle. I began playing this build using force standstill a lot, but eventually let myself lock onto the elite holding left click, allowing the barb to auto chase the elite. More often than not, this worked out ok. My only area damage was from paragon. I was operating under the assumption that AD would not proc, but it sounds like that assumption was wrong. I had just under 50% CDR, and I popped WotB when I found elite packs. I would kill some trash–at least enough to keep up Echoing Fury–but I skipped a good chunk of it in favor of hunting the next elite. I didn’t have a good Sunkeeper to test in place of Echoing Fury.

I also put together a relatively similar LoD Frenzy build. The DPS was noticeably worse. Losing a legendary gem was a big deal, but I also found myself wanting to isolate an elite and burn it down. Missing the buffed shouts and fear bonus from the H90 2-piece was noticeable.

I felt like, with my current playstyle and gear/paragon/augments, I’d cap out or have to do a lot of fishing around GR 121. In no way am I suggesting my approach to playing the build was optimal. However, I enjoy the idea of having a solo barb build that can hunt elites. I’m interested to see what more testing yields from better and more powerful players.

I’d agree more damage would be nice, which I see as a matter of number tuning. Toughness inside of WoTB with Morticks felt fair, but (1) WotB is not up more than 50% of the time and (2) I wasn’t pushing super high.

My (probably unpopular) opinion is I kind of like the use of fear to isolate and burn elites. I had more fun than frustration.

19

Hey, just wanted to add my 2 cents to this discussion.

GR Cleared: 117 (non-seasonal)
Main Stat: 19168
Paragon: 2678
Basic Build Info:

For gems I am using Bane of the Trapped, Bane of the Stricken, and Simplicity’s Strength.

Jewelry: Band of Might, Endless Walk set
Weapons: Oathkeeper and Echoing Fury
Belt: The Undisputed Champion
Bracers: Mortick’s Brace

Cubed Items: Bastion’s Revered, Depth Diggers, Convention of Elements

Active Skills:
War Cry (Veteran’s Warning)
Battle Rage (Bloodshed)
Threatening Shout (Falter)
Wrath of the Berserker
left mouse: Frenzy
right mouse: Leap (Iron Impact)

Passive Skills:
Ruthless
Boon of Bul-Kathos
Berserker Rage
Inspiring Presence

Strengths of the Set and Build:
Overall I like the set design. All of the set powers are useful and the double shout effectiveness is very noticeable. I think this will be a very good character to group with because you get all of the following group buffs:

60% dodge to whole party
50% increased damage for whole party to monsters affected by Falter
9% health regeneration per second to whole party

Also, as others have noted, the build is very good at single target damage and could be put into an RGK role, so you can have some of the benefits of a support character and an RGK in one character. Finally, it has really good movement speed.

Weaknesses of the Set and Build:
It’s hard to maintain Frenzy Stacks to keep up the damage reduction bonus full time, and since I’m not using a spender, there’s no way to incorporate obsidian ring for reducing the cooldown of Wrath of the Berserker. Also, due to the importance of using both The Undisputed Champion and Depth Diggers, you can’t incorporate the Captain Crimson Set for helping increase cooldown reduction either. So just because Wrath of the Berserker is so good, I feel compelled to use it. The same goes for Leap, which I am using to proc Band of Might. Personally I feel like the armor bonus from Iron Impact outweighs the utility of any of the other options for proccing Band of Might, but I’d like to have Iron Impact up all the time and I don’t have enough cooldown reduction for that either.

Critical Problems:
Nothing major aside from suffering from a lack of cooldown reduction. I don’t feel that this issue is game breaking but the inconsistency of mitigation is very noticeable even with a decent health pool and gaining lots of life from attacking.

Additional Impressions or Notes:
I really like the gameplay of this set. As is it seems weaker in damage and mitigation compared to rend barbs, and I feel like to compete with rend barbs both mitigation and damage should be improved a bit. I’m glad that Oathkeeper is being given a chance to shine. Is there any chance we could see a one handed frenzy weapon designed specifically to work with this set? I feel like the other one handed weapon choices are lacking.

1 Like
20

One additional note: watch out for mobs that reflect projectiles. Pretty sure they were sending the sidearm axe back into my face, which hurt a lot.