Maybe. The Fear bonus is obviously the loose end. With a little tweak, it could be really powerful–easily able to make up the damage the build desperately needs–but as is, it’s out of place, mechanically speaking.
Good question. We’ll find out soon.
Maybe it’s a jack of all trades. If there is no Elite present, then you don’t cast fear. This will allow you to take out mob for progression by chaining them. If there is an Elite, then you cast fear to mow it down, one on one. Then you can go back to chaining mobs again.
Suggestion for the 4 piece - All Tactics abilities now gain all runes. No longer reduces damage taken per Frenzy stack.
This would add quite a bit of toughness via skills (Threatening Shout slows, fears, reduces damage, increases their damage taken, are taunted AND slowed, War Cry gives increased resistance, life, dodge, and the bonus armor, Battle Rage gives solid self healing in addition to all the damage). I feel that it would be enough to make up for straight 50% DR, and would take care of the whole initial “Feared mobs run away” thing, since they’d be taunted AND slowed AND feared.
I guess if they don’t get a debuff icon over their head like fleeing enemies, then the answer would be no.
I’d have to work through the numbers, to see how much defense this would actually give you, but- Bro! - you want those mobs to run away. Build doesn’t work otherwise.
If it really turns out that way, then it exactly as Free says:
In which case the Devs should really consider dropping the chain effect and just make it a pure Elite killer. 
While catching up on this thread, I also considered this.
If only the first attack procs stuff, then there is little reason for having an additional attack per Frenzy stack, you can just have the second attack have it’s damage increase by 100% per Frenzy stack.
Still haven’t catched up fully, but I admit that I’m not a fan of the elite hunting playstyle. I honestly hate leaving stuff alive and moving on to the next elite. The poor minions should have the same right to be slaughtered as the elites.
But I don’t need to love all Barb sets.
Putting aside the fear mechanic this build is very close to as powerful as AOV sader. I would still like to know if double shouts are for the selected rune as well and if party members get the double bonus. I think when sader gets the stutter step taken away this will be #1 RGK. I know for sure it will stack stricken alot faster. Looking forward to thursday for testing.
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If the 2-piece set bonus doesn’t buff the Rune, Threatening Shout > Falter will not benefit from the set in any way. Though, looking at all the TS runes, several of them have problems with this set bonus:
Intimidate → slow down enemies by 120%?? Just immobilize them?
Falter-> If the rune doesn’t benefit from the bonus, then the skill itself won’t be affected by the bonus since the rune replaces it. And if it does affect the rune, will it be a 50% damage bonus for 12 seconds?
Grim Harvest → Well, it’s not like it actually says the % for them to drop health globes.
Going to be really sad if the only thing that the set bonus does is double the duration of the unruned skill, lol. Not exactly out of the realm of possibility.
I dunno man, I’m really not sure the damage is there for that.
A level 150 RG in a 4-man rift has about 2.1 quintillion life. Running the numbers, I think a Barb with this build, around 6k paragon, will be doing an average of about 4.73 trillion damage per hit on average (factoring in some cyclical stuff like WOTB cycles and CoE), and hitting a little more than 6x/second. Taking the escalating bonus of Stricken into account, you’re still going to need around 6000 hits to kill the boss, which will take you around 900 seconds… basically an entire 15 minute rift.
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I would be honest, this set is just wrong in numbers, like the OP said LoN 9750% vs 10000%.
The buff of this build is truly on the 2H weapon, and the only usefull thing from the set is the 2p bonus, and the option to use with other sets, as double the effects of some shouts runes could be interesting.
To me, Chasing enemies is just a bad idea as a melee character, the set would be probably 2-3 GR better in numbers? Not enought for the toughness you lost against LoN build and the opening of new combination with season theme.
Sadly I know what will happen like last patch, not enough damage, increase the numbers, and hydra sets is going to the same way. And just to say that after the “final Nerf” to bazooka, the WD is looking to that place with the numbers of the new set…
Unless there’s a hidden mechanical interaction with Bastion’s and the set, this build is nowhere close to AOV Sader. Without Bastion’s, this is barely stronger than a LOD Frenzy build.
Well, all Barb builds rely on massive density and all but R6 HOTA do a terrible job at hunting elites, so I’m really glad to have a build that seems to work like Shadow Impale. If this build works as intended (or what we think is intended), all those narrow, empty maps with no trash and too many elites are suddenly gold mines. It will really cut down on the fishing for GR pushes, and I’m all for that.
This is an important point, and I want to emphasize that if this works the way we think it’s going to work, I’m not in favor of getting rid of the Fear bonus. Rather, it needs to be substantially increased or modified. Here’s an example:
Feared enemies take 500% increased damage.
Or:
Frenzy deals 150% increased damage for every active shout.
You get the point. Lots of simple ways to keep the emphasis on Fear, clearing out trash, and bursting down elites. I guess what I’m saying is that the Fear effect should be what initiates our burst; you charge into some elites, hit Terrify, and for the next few seconds you are dealing insane burst damage before the elites go CC immune or die.
Yeah, there are lots of good fear- centric options you could use:
Feared enemies take 500% increased damage.
Feared enemies take 200% increased damage for every consecutive second they are Feared.
Your Frenzy damage is increased by 100% for every Feared enemy within 50 yards.
Frenzy deals all its damage again to Feared enemies (i.e. you hit a target for X damage, all enemies currently under the Fear effect also take X damage).
Feared enemies lose 0.25% of their maximum life for every yard they run.
Feared enemies soil themselves, causing an awful stench that deals 60000% weapon damage per second.
(Yes, these are increasingly ridiculous… just having fun here!)
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Feared enemies call their parents and try to explain, but it’s a bad time and anyways reception is awful in Sanctuary.
Feared enemies think coal is coming back.
Feared enemies fear fear itself.
Is that like bringin’ sexy back?
Feared enemies talk to their therapists, and you know what, it’s working, and they’re getting better, and the Zoloft is kicking in.
Yes, but with more black lung and crushing poverty.
“Bringin’ Phlegmy Back”