General WW Barb questions (very new)

I am a WW barb with a full set of waste gear, however I’m not sure what rings/weapons I need to use as there are several different build variants.

  1. Whats the deal with using the bul-kathos weapons (as I currently have equipped) versus the Little Rogue and Slanderer weapon set?

  2. Whats the difference between WW builds with ground stomp vs builds with sprints vs builds with all shouts? For instance, I was told to use threatening shout but I’m seeing many top guides ignore it and use War Cry instead?

  3. While leveling/getting pushed I’m finding TONS of gear. What should I be keeping? I just found out last night that a “puzzle ring” opens up the vault. I have forged several puzzle rings and I’m a bit annoyed with myself. I will now keep them obviously. Are there any other items like this I should be aware of?

  4. I feel a bit stuck with gear, I have the full wastes set, an obsidian ring of the zodiac and convention of elements but I’m not sure if these are correct. The only thing I have left to roll for via blood shards is the flavor of time amulet.

I’m really just a bit overwhelmed and would like some more direction/end goal as there are several variants of the WW barb and they all must have different purposes that I’m not aware of.

If you think of ANY other tips etc that would be appreciated as well.

If you find a ‘Bovine Bardiche’, put it in the cube and hit transmute. I hope you like steak :grin:

Keep your eyes out for Rainbow Goblins. They open a world of Teddy Ruxpins and My Little Ponies.

Rings - need a Band of Might.

Why do I need band of might? What am I pairing it with? I assume with this I’ll go with a build that utilizes stomp?

  1. Bul-Kathos weapons give fury generation (really useful for WW) and movement and attack speed. Istvan swords (Little Rogue & Slanderer) are more powerful option but one needs to use Windshear rune with WW to generate fury. Basically using Bul-Kathos weapons is more about convenience.
  2. Ground Stomp and Furious Charge are used to proc Band of Might which is a massive mitigation boost for WW builds. Pick one of them, WW builds tend to be a bit glassy. Using shouts is a bit self-explanatory, War Cry for defense, Threatening Shout for offense, etc.
  3. As mentioned already, you’ll need Band of Might for mitigation. Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is pretty much mandatory to maintain Wrath of the Berserker up 100% of the time. Convention of Elements is a nice boost to damage.
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Yes, you definitely want Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash.

There’s an incredibly detailed and comprehensive guide on the Barbarian forum…

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Check the link that Meteorblade posted. That is the ultimate guide to the Zodiac Rend build, and it will answer any and all questions. Once you’ve read the guide and followed it, you can post in the guide thread for additional help/suggestions.

Don’t worry: We’ll get your build sorted and you’ll be crushing new personal records in no time!

3 Likes

Can you elaborate a bit more on “mitigation” like when you state “Band of Might which is a massive mitigation boost” what exactly does that mean?

Also I have obsidian ring of the zodiac equipped already and my Wrath of the Berserker is by NO means up 100% of the time, in fact its up very infrequently. My CDR is like 25% … clearly I’m doing something wrong. At this point Wrath of the Berserker feels like a wasted skill since I’m unable to have it up often… any thoughts?

https://us.diablo3.com/en/item/band-of-might-P61_Unique_Ring_05

After casting Furious Charge, Ground Stomp, or Leap, take 80% reduced damage for 8 seconds.

So, imagine a mob does an attack which, if unmitigated, would do 1,000,000 damage to you. If you proc the Band of Might’s effect, you ignore 80% of that damage, so you only need to deal with 200,000 incoming damage instead. It means if you keep using the skills that proc the ring, you’re only taking 20% of the incoming damage, which can then be further mitigated by your all resist, armour and so on.

Ah damage mitigation was the word I was missing to wrap my head around it. If your CDR is high enough is there a way to essentially keep Band of Might procc’d non-stop (via ground stomp)? I see BoM lasts only 8sec but the cool down on Ground Stomp is 12sec.

Going to look over the guide now :slight_smile:

Furious Charge is sometimes preferred over Ground Stomp as its cooldown is shorter and can be even completely eliminated depending on the number of enemies hit when using the appropriate rune.

Of course Zodiac ring helps also.

I notice on your swords, you re-rolled for sockets. Do you happen to have any Ramaladni’s Gifts? If so go to the Mystic and change those sockets to ‘reduce cooldown of all skills by xx%’, then use the Ramaladni’s to get your sockets back? You might want to wait on using any Ramaladni’s until you get ancient weapons, though. Your call.

I don’t have any/or even know how to get Ramaladni’s Gifts. Is it a one time use item that adds a socket? Or is it usable over and over? Is it difficult to get? And yeah, maybe I’ll just wait until I get ancients.

About that, can I get ancient versions of my weapons from Kadala? I just feel lost after I complete a Grift. Like how to better push my gear.

It’s just a random drop. And it’s a one time use thing to add a socket to a weapon. It’s basically a free stat for a weapon.

You’ll usually be hungry for them early in the season, but by the end of the season you’ll have a stack of them you don’t really need.

Wow really? I have honestly NEVER even seen one. Ugh. So they can drop in Nephs or Grifts then?

Yep, it’s just a random drop from anywhere. There’s no way to target one unfortunately.

Ramaladni’s Gifts are drops that allow you to add a socket to weapons. One time use only. After the first one drops (finally) they seem to drop somewhat regularly after that. Most players have more of them than they know what to do with.

edit - Tinne and I must have been typing at same time :smiley:

Ah some day I will get to that point :slight_smile: May I ask, can I get ancient versions of my BK weapons through Kadala?

Yes you can get ancients from kadala. Expensive though. Best is upgrading rares in cube or just hoping RNG is in your favor

Technically yes, but it’s not advisable.

Weapons at Kadala cost more than most other slots (75 shards vs. 25 shards for armor slots). Plus, there’s no way to target a particular weapon type. So you end up gambling from the full weapon pool, so it’s exceedingly unlikely you’ll get the weapon you want.

For ancient weapons, you are far better off upgrading rare mighty weapons (Hope of Cain) with the cube recipe. That way you can specifically target mighty weapons to increase the chances of getting what you want. You’ll need some level 70 yellow mighty weapons to feed into the cube. You can either stockpile ones that drop or just craft them at the blacksmith (costs a little more in terms of materials).

You can also reforge BK weapons with the another cube recipe (Law of Kulle) to try and get ancients. You’ll typically want a couple of BK weapon as extras and reforge on those so that you can reforge without losing your primary weapons. Sometimes the results come out worse than what you started with, it usually take a number of tries until you get a good ancient one.

Upgrading rares and/or reforging will be FAR more efficient than gambling for ancient weapons.