Ok, well, the preview post dropped a little while ago, and it gives no clues about whether or not any of the Ethereals, including Barb Ethereals, will see any adjustment. My guess is: probably not.
So, that leaves us, generally speaking, with the following state of affairs:
Gimmershred is basically useless. There is no setup for any build in which you will choose to equip this item. For T16s, a QOL option like the BK swords will generally be better. For speed GRs, Grandfather will let you do higher content at speed. And for pushing, 30% move speed for 7 seconds becomes truly useless. So, if you find one while leveling up, great. Otherwise, it’s a bust.
Doombringer will be good for zbarb, and for lower level players running Frenzy, Rend, and IK HOTA. It will be the best for the Zodiac version of Pro-Slam, R6 HOTA, and possibly LOD HOTA as well.
Grandfather will be the best option for pushing Leapquake at all levels of paragon, and for Rend and IK HOTA at higher paragon. It is somewhat less effective for high pushing with Frenzy, since carrying Grandfather means you miss significant healing and damage mitigation from dual-wield plus Doombringer. And that means that dying is even more of a problem than normal. Ultimately, though, I still expect to see the highest seasonal Frenzy clears come with Grandfather. It will also be the best weapon for the BoM version of Pro-Slam, and, IF you can hit fast enough to keep your cooldowns managed, it will be the best weapon for LOD HOTA, at least at higher paragon.
So that’s the general overview. Here are a few numbers I came up with regarding each specific build:
LOD HOTA
Using Grandfather costs you Echoing Fury, which takes you from 12.5f HOTA to 20f.
12.5f is 60% more damage, plus 22% more from extra CHD, +95% total.
Grandfather is about 4269 weapon damage, DW is about 2400, +79% to Grandfather.
Grandfather is 3x rather than 2x, +50% to Grandfather.
Grandfather (1.79 * 1.5) / (1.95) = 1.377, Grandfather does about 37.7% more damage.
IK HOTA
AS with Doom/EF varies between 13f with no PE stacks to 9.5f with 30 PE stacks.
With Grandfather, AS ranges from 21f with 0 PE stacks to 13f with 30 PE stacks.
9.5f is 36.8% more damage than 13f. 13f is 61.5% more damage than 21f. Plus 22% more from extra CHD, 66.9% / 97.0% more.
Grandfather is about 4269 weapon damage, DW is about 2400, +79% to Grandfather.
Grandfather is 3x rather than 2x, +50% to Grandfather.
Grandfather does 60.9% / 36.3% more (with no PE stacks / 30 PE stacks), overall.
LEAPQUAKE
Use Grandfather. It gives 3x damage, and +10% CHC is roughly a wash with -24% AD. A bit of extra AS also shaves frames off SS, which helps your dps a little. Should be +7-8 GRs.
PRO-SLAM
Grandfather should only be used with the BoM version. With Zodiac, you’re asking to die.
Going from DW → 2H takes you from 13.5f / 20f (with/without 5 EF stacks) to 20f. 13.5 is +48% damage, plus about 20% more from CHC, about +78% total.
Grandfather is about +50% more damage total, but Zodiac version can attack constantly, without downtime (almost 2x total damage), so DW setup will be optimal for Zodiac setups.
For BoM setup, Grandfather will be superior, since you are very tanky, and the overall damage will be roughly 50% higher.
ZODIAC REND
It’ll be easier to play with Doombringer, but you’ll do more damage using Grandfather.
Doombringer has the advantages of about 15% higher damage from extra elemental damage (from your off-hand, Legendary Doombringer), and a “hard-cast speed bonus”, that gives roughly another +15% (1.75 aps vs 1.53). But, Grandfather deals about 50% higher flat damage and has a 50% higher multiplier, meaning it does about 70% more damage than a dual-wield setup.
