[Guide] IK HOTA (Season 21)

Barbarian
50

Thanks for the doing the updates! But are the rolls still the same? Also at the end of one of the sections it talks about the IB set bonus still but has the reference to IB replaced, so maybe clean that up a little more to avoid confusion?

Edit: I finally got decent enough Remorseless and EF to play IK HotA a bit more. I was originally not sold on EF, but I must say, while the frenzy stacks falling off during RG is annoying, the attack speed with the stacks up are pretty awesome and the movement speed boost is very welcome! The fear on hit isn’t as annoying as I worried it would be, either. Even without the armor bonus of IB, the build is still quite tanky with Morticks.

51

Yes rolls should still be the same even with the weapons change and you are right I really need to delete that whole last section since it really doesn’t apply anymore since IB are no longer BiS.

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54

While playing a WWRend, I found a couple of Remorseless:

Primal (virgin)
1560-1940 dmg
STR
VIT
LPFS
+250% HOTA

ancient (virgin)
+1470-1790 dmg
+10% DMG
STR
VIT
+243% HOTA

ancient — currently in my IK toon
+1510-1830 dmg
9% DMG <-- enchanted
STR
23% AD
+236% HOTA

Which of the three to keep and what to reroll?
I was thinking of keeping the primal, and change vit to AD. Is this a good decision?

thanks!

55

Definitely get rid of the middle one. You want to either roll the primal from vit to AD and the third one roll the damage to AS. I’d try both of them as I suggested and see which works better. I am assuming the primal may be better since it has max HOTA damage.

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56

I’m testing IK HotA with 5 x IK and 2 x H90.

On the Fury side:
Base Fury 100
Remorseless being a MW adds 12 Fury (secondary)
IK Belt adds 12 Fury (secondary)
Paragon add 50 Fury
Total Fury = 174 which makes 34% CHC added

WotB has 10% CHC added
Battle Rage has 6% CHC added (2 pce of H90)
Paragon has 5% CHC added
Native has 5% CHC added
Gear (perfect) has 44% CHC

Total CHC with 5 x IK and 2 x H90 is 104%.

The bonus from H90 allows for some flexibility in CHC rolls and you could even sacrifice a 5% CHC slot off a ring. This could sub in an AD roll or AS to hit a break point.

H90 double shouts works great to get 60% dodge chance and the extra AD from Bloodshed is a really nice bonus too.

Downside is you need to lose the FotA shoulders but fury regen is normally not a problem.

Small bonus is EF. The fear roll kicks in every now and then and as HotA takes a few hits to kill the fear bonus is actually ok-ish.

I’ll keep testing but I’m liking the feel of the build. I’m rubbish at math - apologies. My PTR testing is limited as my latency in Oz is around 400+ so I’ll keep testing once H90 officially drops.

Keep on smashing barbros :hammer:

2 Likes
57

As long as you can keep your fury at max this is a possibility. Remember every time your fury dips that is a damage lose. Also something to take into consideration is you will be losing COE for RORG to fit h90 2p. Overall I would say this just gives new players another option when building during season start. Your major issue will be when in big density your Gavel wont be refunding fury and damage will fall off big time. You wont have the shoulders to help mitigate this problem.

2 Likes
58

Cheers Chris. All good points. Fury dropping could be an issue for sure.

59

Could anyone explain me IK vs LoD situation?

60

Why do we put fire damage on the amulet and bracers? And do we want our weapons ideally to do fire damage as well?

61

Hey Raz, the element damage type on the weapon doesn’t matter, but the element of the skill rune selected does. So, we are taking the Smash rune, which does the most damage, and the element on this rune is Fire. So when we get 20% Fire on bracers and 20% more on amulet, this makes our HOTA:Smash do 40% more damage.

But the weapons you’re using could have fire damage, cold damage, or physical damage, and it won’t make a difference.

2 Likes
62

Ok I’m at GR 103 solo (Paragon 775) with Unity ring and can’t seem to get higher than this. I use Remorseless & Echoing Fury… I know some people say to go Little Rogue & Slanderer…The annoying thing with GR 103 is the enemies have so much HP that my Echoing Fury isn’t proccing enough.

I haven’t augmented anything yet. How far can this set go solo with everything augmented? I really don’t want to play boring Whirlwind Barb.

I also took off threatening shout falter for Veteran’s Warning. I’m also using Esoteric Alteration, Bane of the Stricken, and Bane of the Trapped. Can you push Higher Greater Rifts with Threatening Shout instead of Warcry and Pain Enhancer other than Esoteric Alteration?

Maybe that’s where my problem lies. Need pro advice

63

Hey there, Raz. You’re doing great at your Paragon. I have a few comments and suggestions that may help.

You’re doing it right. Remorseless is required in the build. We used to use the Istvan’s set, but Remorseless provides more damage. As for Echoing Fury, you may consider switching to the Sankis Axe if things take too long to die; Sankis comes with a % Fire damage roll, and that’s going to make an impact right away.

That’s going to be a temporary fix, because I suspect that Echoing Fury will be the better weapon down the road as you gain better gear, Augments, and more Paragon.

Well, it really depends, but you can definitely crack 130 with it in non-Season. If you’re playing Season, I expect that you clear 120+ if you’re efficient with your farming and put in the time.

I’ve never been a fan of using Pain Enhancer, and if you read the guide, you’ll see that optimizing around attack speed is not a priority–CHC, CHD, and AD are far more important. If you’re having success with Stricken + Trapped + Esoteric, keep using it! As you gain more Paragon, I would consider switching Esoteric out for Bane of the Powerful–I much prefer that gem to PE.

As for your skill setup, the most optimized version of this build will look like this:

HOTA (locked)
COTA (locked)
Wrath (locked)
Battle Rage (locked)
TS (Falter)
Ancient Spear (Rage Flip)

The “locked” skills are absolutely 100% mandatory no matter how you run the build. The other two skill slots are flexible, and the above configuration is optimized for DPS. If used properly, Spear is going to help you quickly group massive amounts of density around elites, and Falter is going to boost your damage on them.

Of course, giving up War Cry means giving up a lot of toughness, so you might opt to keep War Cry and TS for a while, or give up TS while you learn how to use Spear.

Finally, moving away from Unity is inevitable. Do you have a link to your character, or can you import it into d3planner? I can’t located your profile anywhere.

64

on console thanks for the tips.

Is Merciless Assault Charge locked as well? How do you stay alive without Band of Might lol.

65

Yes, you’re right–gotta proc BoM. Been a while since I played HOTA haha!

66

So I’ve been playing with 0 points in Paragon core max fury. And maxed out resource Cost reduction in utility. So I’ll switch those around and enchant the belt with fury life. Is the belt the only piece that can do life on fury spent?

67

The only other piece of IK that can roll LpFS is the 2-Handed Boulder Breaker, and you aren’t going to be using that. But, assuming you’re using Mortick’s, you’ll have over 5000 LpFS from the Thrive on Chaos rune of WOTB.

68

Guessing that when you talk about the 30% Armor from Echoing Fury / Remorseless its a typo from when it used the Istvan set.

69

I have mortics in my cube so should I just keep 15% life on my belt instead? I’m starting to think life is better than fury life on it

70

Both are good. Adding that LPFS on the belt increases your healing by about 20%. I guess I’d base it off whether, when you die, it’s from “aggregate damage” (lots of smaller hits adding up to kill you) or from big one-shots.

If one-shots are the bigger problem, go with the Life%. If lots of little hits are the issue, then go with the healing.

1 Like
71

Ok two more questions. I have fire damage on my weapon does that have any benefit at all with the amulet and bracers? Also does the fire damage on the weapon work with convention of Elements.

Also is attack speed more important than area damage? What pieces of gear should have area damage? Thanks