I started a WW/Rend Barb 2 weeks ago and I must admit that I enjoy it very much.
Remembering me the Barb I did in D2 and how I dramatically failed because of the polearm specs which I really wanted to use, I’m wondering now if it’s the same thing in D3.
I tried a Primal Heart Slaughter with the actual WW/Rend build, the damage is great but the CDR I would need to make it viable is nuts because the speed factor is too slow.
But maybe the answer isn’t to use a slow weapon with WW/Rend, maybe the answer lies elsewhere…
Is there any viable build with a slow weapon in D3?
Of all our major builds, only 2 use a 2-handed weapon: Fire EQ and Vile Charge. All other major builds rely on dual-wielding one-handed weapons, most often a build-specific pair of items or Istvan’s Paired Blades.
IK HotA can use Gravel of Judgment and cube remorseless and the build will work, as in function (unlike your example of not having enough cool down), but would just be down on damage/clear potential compared to the BiS dual wield Remorseless and Echoing Fury, or even the past Istvan’s Paired Blades build.
But if you’re after just a 2H playstyle, and don’t mind the clear potential gimp, it might be an option.
I have an Armory set with 5 Wastes and 3 IK pieces as an alternative to the standard 6 Wastes 2 IB setup. It works well in most cases, and is much easier to put together since you don’t need any CDR to maintain 100% WOTB. You replace Zodiac with RoRG and swap one skill for Ancients with Tough as One. Cube Ambo and Lamentation.
Damage wise, you loose 30% from IB and 25% from MoC, and you also loose 130% CHD and some stats, but the damage of Boulder Breaker is 70%-80% higher, so you it’s kind of on par. Get one with 10% ED and highest damage possible.
Defense wise, you attack slower so lose some recovery, and you loose 30% Armor from IB, but you gain tough as one so you are actually tougher.
It’s not the best set up for fishing higher GR, but is fine for most. It’s still more powerful than any other non-Rend build and is very easy to play. It should suit you if you want a 2-handed build.
I can appreciate what you’re saying–the build you’re using works in the sense that you can do some content and use it to acquire gear for other, better builds, but I want to be clear and say that every other major build is stronger.
What you’re using is a kind of old 4x Rend or WW build that was outdated years ago. In terms of damage potential, it’s not remotely close to Zodiac Rend. And as Rage pointed out, if you’re using Slam to deal damage, well, you’re shooting yourself in the foot, because there are better–much better–Slam builds to be had.
Mixing the Wastes set with any other set results in a much weaker build than any of our core builds. I really don’t recommend this to anyone. Keeping up perma-Wrath in Zodiac Rend isn’t hard.
Since some posts have been withdrawn, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I just came back to play a bit of barb on Xbox last month after over 6 years, so I don’t know much about what old builds you are referring to either. I know about all the ancient PvM and PvP builds more than 6 years old though.
From my experience during the last couple of weeks, the 3IK5Wastes rend is about 2-5 GR levels lower than 6Wastes Zodiac rend. Since rend is in general 10 GR levels higher than any other builds, I am saying it’s still stronger if you subtract those few levels.
OP wants a two handed build and he is already familiar with rend, so this seems fairly natural.
Hey, AB, welcome back to the game. A lot has changed in 6 years. The New Player’s Guide stickied in this forum breaks down our major builds, and this thread will help you sort out how builds rank when compared to each other.
Let me touch on something you mentioned:
Negative, ghost rider. Zodiac Rend (the 6 Wastes build you’re referring to) is much stronger than IK+Wastes for all content and at all levels of play. You can, of course, choose to use a hybrid build with IK, and if you find that to be more fun, more power to you–no one here will tell you how to have fun.
However, anything that a hybrid build can do, the core Zodiac Rend build can do better, faster, and with barely any more optimization required. Even if you’re only playing casually and don’t much care about fully optimizing your build, Zodiac Rend is much more efficient and powerful. The difference is much greater than 2-5 GR levels.
If the OP wants a build that uses 2-handed weapons, he can choose either Fire EQ or Vile Charge, or he can opt for IK/LOD HOTA and equip Gavel; it is, as was noted, weaker than the dual-wield (standard) build, but still quite powerful and fun.
Hope this helps. Let us know if you have more questions!
Well everybody is entitled to its own opinion so do you. I appreciate your helping others and I am trying to do the same. I don’t see why I cannot recommend IK rend if you can recommend Fire EQ or other builds with 2 handed. I have played all these builds a fair amount (of course not even close to what you and some others here have played as I said I just came back) but to me it’s the most powerful 2-handed build as of now for sure and I don’t see any other 2-h builds stronger.
As I said I play on Xbox now (with half the damage of PC to start with) and with 1000ish Paragon levels I can do 125 GR with 6 Wastes Rend and over 120 with 3IK Rend, with a few pieces of Ancients here and there but no Primals. So I am based all my recommendation on my own experience. I have already said 6 Wastes Rend build is stronger, so if you insist it’s a gap higher than 5 levels then a little bit evidence (even if it’s just paper math) will be more convincing.
And you will need to try this build with the same level of gears of course.
I think AB is almost certainly right that this (IK/Wastes Rend) would be the best build to use a 2-H weapon. I mean, what else would it be? This setup can probably do at least GR 138 (10 levels below the top ZR clear), which would make it better than Vile Charge, Leapquake, any variant of HOTA carrying Gavel, any variant of Slam carrying FotVP, Frenzy carrying Bastion’s, etc.
A 6-Wastes ZR build with Heart Slaughter or Furnace would be about equally strong (with more damage but less toughness), but OP has the concern of not enough CDR even with a Primal Heart Slaughter. That’s why I provided the option with IK Rend to remove the CDR requirement for OP in the first place with almost identical play style.
Ty all, it’s been very educative, as I play a Barb since around 2 weeks, all these information will save me a some time.
I simply don’t have fun anymore on my DH since I play the Barb, even though I got my Barb on the leaderboard I still consider myself a noob (which isn’t a bad feeling tbh).
Will give a try to everything mentioned here
If you run wastes/crimson it’s not difficult to keep WotB up 100%. I’ve played around with this and by stacking CDR in all of the usual places you can keep IP/Ignorance is Bliss and WotB/any rune up 100% even with a 2h weapon with OK density. It’s a bit squishy but actually pretty powerful. The IP is only if you want to go a bit higher, you don’t need it at all if you just want to run speeds.
