This is why the Barb buff Proposal was successful!!!
4 Likes
I find Rage Flip to be one of the most fun skills to use in the game. It takes skill to nail that pixel-perfect pull that flings an elite into the exact right spot, and when you’ve cleared out a few screens of density and have a couple of elite packs still standing, there’s nothing in the game that comes close to Rage Flip in terms of quickly moving them across the map to your new engagement point.
Rage Flip just feels good to use. It’s hard to master, which I like, but it’s the feeling that keeps me, err, flipped!
You can use Demoralize, and it will provide some grouping, and offer some ability to re-position mobs, but it doesn’t compare with Rage Flip. Check out the video for my 125 clear and you’ll see what I mean. I make some GG pulls in that video, and a lot of what I do in terms of positioning isn’t possible without Rage Flip.
Mind you, that wasn’t even a difficult push for me. At 2.2K Paragon and 17K main stat, I could definitely push another few tiers without changing anything, and most of that potential is due to Rage Flip. In the way that hard-cast Rends are this build’s biggest source of damage, Rage Flip is the build’s true source of mobility. If you’ve crushed density and need to drag elites across the map?
Rage Flip.
Found an elite pack but need to quickly gather a few screens of density?
Rage Flip.
Found a Conduit, but know you need to quickly find and drag several elite packs to it?
Rage Flip, Rage Flip, Rage Flip!
You could almost say that hard-cast Rends + Rage Flip = Zodiac Rend.
Your DR issues stem from your choice of healing. If you drop the Life per Hit and take Swords to Ploughs (with the IB set), and you have perma-Wrath and Band of Might active 100% of the time, you shouldn’t be dying, and incoming damage should rarely be a problem. The exception, of course, is if you’re trying to fight in thin density. Remember, you need to hit lots of things to heal, so your problem is likely that you’re not collecting enough density and/or trying to fight small, isolated packs of elites/trash.
Thanks, bud. What I wrote above is just advice on how to optimize, but as always, if you prefer to play a different way, keep at it. The only point I see in D3 is having fun, and having it in the way you find most enjoyable. It’s a shame the game’s design more or less railroads players into narrow build options and play styles, but them’s the breaks, I guess.
Thank you both for your support. I agree: The Barb community is the best around, and we’re fortunate to have folk like y’all in the mix.
6 Likes
Not been pushing for a while. I’ve gotten all my augments up to 600STR and farmed 100+ keys tonight. Tomorrow I’ll see what I can do with them. Getting onto EU S20 leaderboard now needs a GR123 though.
2 Likes
Done a 116 with IPB’s. It was horrible, 4 straight tunnel & sewer maps, but I did clear it in 12:58.
Compared to 11:22 with the LotR set up, which does seem to push more damage, but not as tanky.
1 Like
Hi guys! Im with a HUGE problem to find a good Ancient Glove (with CHC+CHD+STR+VIT at least) so Im wearing one with STR+CHC+CHD+LpS, but Ive found one non Ancient with everything (STR+CHD+CHC+AD/VIT). Worth the change or should I stick with It? Already have a bad roll on boots (STR+VIT+ALL+LpS), but its primal…
Edit: Im at 15K STR ATM, but already have gems for +4 lv100 Caldesann’s (gloves included).
PS.: Im wondering this change because Im almost a week in intensive Farm for the gloves (speed gr 90, Bounties for reforge, etc). Still no signal of it.
GR122 with Paragon 1772
https://i.imgur.com/zEN6e5s.jpg
First map frozen area, second map good festering five packs with a power pylon, third map frozen area again, decent guardian. No conduit at all. Took 10 keys to get a playable map combo. With a decent map and conduit, 123’s definitely on the cards.
6 Likes
Hello guys, I really wanna thank you Free for this guide, and all of you for sharing all the info, it helped me a lot. Right now I’m trying to push GR 122 with almost 1400 paragon, gonna give it a few attempts tonight, I keep trying to learn how to use Ancient spear correctly. I want to ask you a few things, this is my current gear
https://www.d3planner.com/152574275
I’m trying to find a better FoT… man! it is really hard! yesterday a primal dropped so I was jumping around, almost crying a little bit but oh surprise this came out 
https://i.imgur.com/i3aXJ0K.png
Now I’m crying for real, very bad luck, so I will keep farming that amulet. What other pieces do you think I should look for replacement to improve my pushes? maybe shoulders? or are those ok?
Last question - when I should start looking for Area Damage on gear? should I re-roll the %damage on my IB’s for AD?
I appreciate all the effort you have put into this community, it is the best by far.
Sorry if my english is not perfect, greetings from Peru 
2 Likes
I just want to add my thanks to Free and the others for this guide and commentary.
I’m up to GR125 this season thanks to you guys. I hate fishing and generally can’t commit to playing in groups, so I’m not sure how much further I’ll go. This run was going poorly until I got Hamelin, so I think I can squeeze a couple of levels or so in before being capped by paragon + my own skill:
https ://gyazo.com/06ed7cf0281e9755f8fed6e8d1b5b92c
Regarding RF, I think it’s designed well but implemented poorly. Yes there is some skill to its use, but after getting used to it in D3, it’s just far less precise than “harpoon” type mechanics in other games. I don’t think it’s strictly about being pixel-perfect in the middle of a mobs hitbox - there’s some inconsistency on whether it actually executes and I think its some combination of netcode/ graphics/physics etc. in D3 that makes it more frustrating than it needs to be. Unfortunately, you still need to use it to make the most of the spec.
Anyway, that doesn’t change my gratitude - thanks all!
1 Like
I agree with you… I personally hate RF. I’ll use it out of necessity for GR pushing, but otehrwise I agree it’s imprecise and clunky. I don’t find it fun and I sympathize with those who go out of the way to not use it.
1 Like
I just can’t seem to be able to RF properly from afar and always just get one to few with it, if any…
So two things here. @Vulgrym Hamlin is our best RG for kill time so i’m not sure why you make it sound so bad. I hope for hamlim every time I spawn a RG.
Second @Blayze@Cyberpunk RF is the ability that separates decent clears from great or amazing clears. It also is the ability that makes WW actually require skill. No amount of solo clearing will give you guys the situational practice needed to learn spears ins and outs. Go play a zbarb and you will learn to love it. All you do is spear as a zbarb and learn to deal with its many difficulties. These are what make the build beautiful and the reason why WW is easy to learn but very hard to master.
5 Likes
I meant to say that Hamelin saved my otherwise crappy run, where I was making mistakes and had bad maps. I almost bailed on it. I worded it poorly but meant to say I think I have another couple of levels if I keep pushing.
1 Like
GR127 Down! Rank 106 Baby 
I’ve pushed this build further than I ever expected. Let’s see how far I can stretch P1600… starting to feel the limitations DPS-wise. Most of the guys above me have over 1000 paragons on me lol
Might be time to finally switch to my Primal Ambo/Doom.
10 Likes
Just got a 122, two medium maps then barracks, almost couldnt get it. Still isnt my record, Im aiming for a 130 at least (maybe I wont get it before season ends… but I’ll try)
https://imgur.com/a/ZbtqhsJ
Also, Im wearing this damn gloves/boots, hope I can find a better pair soon…
https://imgur.com/a/md73TE9
1 Like
For those of you pushing 130+, at what GR does paragon impact start leveling off and becomes almost a non-factor?
I’ve heard on the upper end (I’m guessing 135+), then doubling paragon (3000 to 6000) adds 2-3 GRs which I find pretty hard to believe.
Let me use a more precise example… at what GR would you say, an additional 1000-2000 paragon levels (5000-10000 main stat) make a very marginal difference?
A more scientific way to prove it out might be to determine monster scaling in terms of hp and incoming damage and compare that to relative gain in your own character’s dps and toughness with each incremental GR level. The mob HP scaling must be linear I’m guessing.
Question: how much does Lamenation’s Secondary +% rend damage matter? Is that secondary stat valued he same as +%physical damage or +%Rend damage from shoulders or chest? I have what I thought was a pretty well-rolled ancient lamentation, but the +%Rend is only 113. If I am calculating that correctly, it would be roughly 30% more damage if that was +150% rend damage - unless there are other variables that I don’t understand?
Lamentation is it’s own multiplier, so you can just straight up compare the multipliers between two belts without having to worry about anything else.
You just take the ratio of (1 + decimal version of Lamentation multiplier). The 1+ is there since it’s a bonus on top of your regular damage. E.g. if your regular damage is 1 and you deal 50% extra damage, you then deal 1.5 damage (1+50/100). For a 150% Lamentation, if you deal 1 damage before factoring in the belt multiplier, you deal (1 + 150/100) = 2.5 damage after.
I think you had the right idea, but you were missing the 1+ for your baseline damage in your calculation.
So to compare a 150% belt to a 113% belt, a 150% belt is (1+150/100)/(1+113/100) = 17.4% more damage than a 113% belt. A non-ancient belt with 140+ bonus will handily beat an otherwise well-rolled ancient 113 belt in the damage department.
1 Like
Thanks - great info!
What are the mechanics of the bloodbath rune for rend? It doesn’t explicitly state it, but does it apply 1 stack of rend that is capped with your other stacks? Or is considered a separate dot that isn’t capped by your rend stacks?
Bloodbath is like Rends cast by an entirely different character (who also has Lamentation equipped).
So you can get 2 stacks of Rend via Ambo or hard-cast, and 2 more from Bloodbath.
I think you might be right that this isn’t explicitly stated in the guide, but it is available in a link through the Build Mechanics section, which takes you to this post: Rend mechanics 2.6.7 - #3 by sVr-21743