One idea of how fear can work for frenzy barbs

Assuming that the fear mechanic of H90 stays as is, and fear becomes a mechanic of a new barb set, ideally I’d like to find some usage for the Pandemonium Loop ring in conjunction with EF and/or Rechel’s ring.

For some time I’ve been wondering what kind of class would potentially do well with such a mechanic (fear = run speed and exploding mobs) and I thought that I’d # of feared mobs somehow played into scaling Area Damage, etc. then this could be a useful and/or fun mechanic to have.

Imagine this: H90 frenzy barb charges/leaps into a pack, fears ensue, monsters end up charging into each other and exploding, more mobs feared and taking damage, running in small circles. Barb increases in power with feared, bleeding enemies, chained within decently close proximity for explosions, enabling an ever-increasing damaging barb to blast elites and then clean up wounded trash (with ruthless passive).

Partly I’d like to see a shake up in jewelry choices for GR pushing that prioritize things other than elem damage bursts of CoE. I’d also like to see different gems in play, but that’s a different story. Maybe even a new Gem rewarding the use of CC with a dmg/DR buff?

In sum, this post presents an idea and vision for what a fear-inspiring shouty frenzy barb could be and do, inflicting dmg CC in mobs rather than taking the CC and dmg (as of this moment WotB is not a super viable skill for H90). We keep ourselves alive by killing (duh) but in a unique way yet to be seen by barbs. Plus I like the idea of demons running around in self-destructive circles while I run around chopping their faces off.

i agree to what you posted in other threads in regards to the Secheron bracers.
another soultion would be to somehow rework the
Invirogating Gemstone:
it allready has some kind of CC immunity.

Since we cant have perma WotB with this build the Morticks Bracers are useless.
so we lack perma CC immunity. this is a serious issue!

so eihter we need reworked Bracers or Depth Diggers
or the Invirogating Gemstone. For more survivabvility.

The thing with the 2pc bonus and fear machacnic ist tricky and contradictory atm.

i lceared two GR 100s non seasonal but i cant imagine to push higher. have like 3000 Paras nonseasonal.

Good thoughts!

Forgot to mention this in my last post, but as far as gems we will obviously be using simplicity’s strength (no brainer) and stricken and trapped seem the likely candidates.

However, it got me thinking as I was playing that 1) this build has no immunity to CC without WOTB, and 2) it really needs to be able to sustain health while getting hit in the middle of a pack. I am playing NS right now, so I can imagine that perhaps a setup for cube might look like Bastions, depth diggers, and aquila/messerschmidt’s/furnace/stone gauntlets could be a viable setup with one less jewelry slot. Any set combinations seem out of the question with a necessary belt slot, no need for RCR, and no practical use for CDR at this point - though I have made some suggestions about cooldowns previously.

So with my NS barb, what can I do with my jewelry and gems to make this barb work? Assuming damage were high enough that stricken wasnt necessary - perhaps some effect could be added to Sescheron bracers that the longer you attack you build up damage (perhaps with a release-explosion mechanism like TR -flurry?) - i could feasibly see one of a few options working for gems which otherwise are never used for anything but augments:

  • Invigorating gemstone: the heal and the immunity to CC are great with this, and if there were a way to use stone gauntlets along with depth diggers - perhaps switch out the pants or the glove slot for a ring or ammy? - a NS barb could stay alive in the middle of a pack for a good while longer.

  • Moratorium: I know, these gems are terrible and no one uses them. But Moratorium could answer the problems this build faces: need to stagger damage to keep up with sustain, with a chance to cancel it. I could see a damage management strategy emerging with a build focused on damage and healing where, like with Trag’oul set, the health bonus somehow advantages us or make our damage go up? I’m getting ahead of myself…

  • Esoteric alteration - no explanation required, really. The sheer amount of elemental affixes hurts bad, and I could even see a few passives shuffling to include superstition instead of cheat death if this could be sustained.

There are other possibilities here, but generally I see too much of a preponderance in builds to rely upon offensive gems and almost none which use defensive gems except where no suitable offense gem can be found.

Note: I could also see a stricken mechanic worked into the set itself, which would isolate its benefit to frenzy barbs only - the LOD frenzy might get better by the Bastion update, but it has thorns to give it a bit more bite in any regard.

Here is two ideas i’ve had after playing H90 for a while.

For fear to be relevant they could add an effect on Oathkeeper or H90 that casts a 80% slow AOE over ~10 yards that lasts * secs after hitting the same mob a number of hits.

For my other idea, first a question.
Who aside from the Frenzy Barb uses EF?

If no other class does, the most simple solution that comes in mind is scrap the fear mechanic of the set and and EF and change it for a taunt mechanic.

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taunt, and weaken, imo - cant be cc’d by that monster or its pack maybe? I really feel like the lack of reliability from WotB - no perma uptime - really makes this suck from weakness, plus being boring.