Rend Build - what's ancient spear for?

[Adaminion-1741]

Hi there! I love Rend build and got to easily do GR110 in season 21 but the way I use it is with Bul-Kathos, I know most use Istvan’s Blades and… that’s the part I don’t get… they all use Ancient Spear/Rage Flip skill. With my build I just aim at crowds and Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash pulls my victims to me… I try to play with Ancient Spear but I don’t see how it’s really helping me.

The reason I’m asking is 'd like to aim a bit higher than 110 and even with a very decent gear and critical 53%/600% I wasn’t able to get to 115. Almost all builds from the leaderboard use Istvan’s and it seems to mean the Ancient Spear is a must. Can someone please explain the actual physics on how to use this skill exactly?

[Meteorblade-2266]

@Adaminion-1741

Can someone please explain the actual physics on how to use this skill exactly?

Short version
Ancient Spear / Rage Flip allows you to gather lots of mobs into huge packs. This is important so that when you manually cast Rends (which, unlike the auto-applied Rends from Ambo’s, benefit from Area Damage) they can hit as many targets as possible.

Long version

[Guide] Zodiac Rend (Season 20)

Introduction This build guide explains in painstaking detail the Zodiac Rend build, our strongest and most versatile Rend and Whirlwind build, for pushing solo Greater Rifts and speed-farming T16. If you’re familiar with the Barb class, skip down to Part 1. If you’re new to this build or the Barb class, or just trying it out for Season 20, please read the primer below.

Click the arrow for details

<a name="build-primer-2" class="anchor" href="#build-primer-2"&g…

Usually, when players that are newer to the build hear “density” and “lots of it” they vastly underestimate how many mobs that means. We’re not talking 20-30. Sometimes we’re talking about an entire map’s worth, and then popping them all next to a pylon. If you want to see an example…

METALHEAD s21 GR137 Barb Solo Rank 1

Around 5 minutes 30 seconds shows a nice open map, multiple elite packs, plenty of trash, and popping a Conduit pylon.

[Apache222-1831]

You dont NEED it. If you run captains with the BK swords you can do a 125 w/o sweating it too much. It’s just squishy and you need to be able to manually move around to avoid taking lots of damage.
Casually playing and goofing around. Rage flip and IB swords aren’t my go-to. It’s a lot of busy work.

[Adaminion-1741]

A picture speaks a thousand words, a video - a million. Thanks, I get it now! Guess I know what I’ll be using next season

@Meteorblade-2266

This is important so that when you manually cast Rends (which, unlike the auto-applied Rends from Ambo’s, benefit from Area Damage)

OMG, I never knew that! Now it makes sense why with decent gears I didn’t have damage I expected! Tyrael himself must have sent you, thanks

[Phoenix-1330]

As a player who was converted by Free to using Spear, I can highly recommend taking a look through the guide, and taking the time to learn to use it.

It will feel a bit strange for a while, but then will become second nature.

And if you have any questions, feel free to ask away in the guide thread, lots of people with lots of knowledge lurk around in there.

Happy hunting.

[Meteorblade-2266]

@Adaminion-1741

OMG, I never knew that!

Well, the information is in the Guide I linked too…

@Free-1746

If you’re looking for the TLDR version, here’s what you need to know about Rend’s damage:

• Rends applied via WW + Ambo’s do not benefit from attack speed or area damage
• Rends applied via hard-cast do benefit from Area Damage
• Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage are direct multipliers to Rend (hence why Into the Fray is so good in the build)

Good luck with your clears. If you read through the guide thread you’ll find people often post their personal bests with the build too. Look forward to seeing yours.

[chris-11418]

Let me put it like this Kicius. A veteran barb with spear but bad gear and willingness to fish would go higher then a barb without spear and perfect gear.