Anyone try a Frenzy Barb, recently?

Barbarian
1

I would like to play a Frenzy Barb. I don’t know if it can be done. If so, does it need to be paired with bleed, thorns, overwhelm, or vulnerable? Or can it stand on its own?

Is there a build/guide out there? I haven’t seen one yet.

Just tooling around in my head… Thinking of…

An aspect on a 2hander weapon to Increases Attack Speed to Basic Skills.
Bonus damage to Basic Skills on all 4 weapons.
6 Topaz gems for more bonus damage to Basic Skills.
Frenzy is fast and has damage reduction stacks.

I know there is the unique amulet to increase stacks, I have seen it drop a few times, but what other uniques would be ideal? Frostburn? To freeze mobs since Frenzy is fast attack? Azurewrath to launch a cold attack? You get a bunch since frenzy is fast? What else? I haven’t seen too many uniques drop, just duplicates of the same 4 over and over again.

I am guessing legenadary affixes: STR for damage, DEX for crit., crit hit, crit damage, life, + 1-handed damage? or is it + dual-wield damage? + damage when berserking, + damage to stunned enemies? maybe + damage to bleeding enemies?

Skills: I am thinking of Berserking all the way. Wrath of the Berserker with the Berserker passive. Of course, the passive to make dual-wielding 1-handers faster. Ground stomp for the stun? That would be nice with the aspect that stuns mobs if there are 5 or more. Iron Skin, more defense? Gain Unstoppable with aspect? Charge? Maybe with the Ancients aspect to slam enemies into a wall or just away from you? War Cry for damage boost. Either another shout or maybe the chains skill?

Of course, playing the paragon board game from 50-100. Very curious if anyone has set aside the time to figure out that situation. I have looked at them, but really haven’t gone through them all. I guess it depends on what weapons I use.

Thats another quest. Weapons? Mix or keep it the same? Two axes for the crit and the attack speed. But,… sword and axe just seem like a fun combo. Of course, you go into stunning mobs, might as well use two maces? Or would that be a diminishing returns nightmare?

Anyway, I will keep looking. Just curious to see if anyone has brained this knot yet.

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2

TLDR - on Eternal it is Hot Garbage. S1 with Barber and Berserk Ripping, suddenly it is viable. Anything is viable with Barber.

/end scene

3

Yeah, that’s how i feel doing my current upheaval barb. It’s a fun build, but damage sucks. However, with a barber, all I really need is crit hit chance and crit damage and I am melting mobs like crazy.

4

ALot is possible, i also have a upheaval barb, and while i dont rely on one skill, i have increased the effective ness by increasing its speed to cast and chance to summon and hell hammer recently,

the end of the day it’s a pack clearing skill, So far wouldn’t say it’s a boss/elite killer skill.

This is on eternal.

Have fun trying or wait for someone to figure it out, but i am thinking there is a berserker frenzy build that would be solid

I tend to spread and not build off one skill so fair to say my builds are whacky compared to the meta.

Overpower is a good consideration if running a high life and fortified build, that said it’s not made to be all chips in tbh, though it does seem possible, I think of it more as a lucky hit bonus proc damage, not something that needs to be a and or, it sits ontop of some builds. as so bonus proc damage. Sometimes combining with Critical.

EDIT- so far my conclusion is more or less if a skill feels weak, it’s power grows later with the right combination.

Meteor on my sorc right now was like that, and certainly in the early game i put it to the side, until i found how to make it shine a lot better.

5

I like(d) Seismic Slam in D3. However, it never really got any love. The very brief moment it did, it was squished in favor of WW/Rend and any zBarb build. HoTA got a little nod with the 4 way HoTA smash, but was… nerfed… soon after and it was just a seasonal thing too.

Now D4, I thought I would give Upheaval a try. I like it, it’s fun, a major trash blaster. It does struggle with elites and bosses, even with 10 stacks. It could use a bit of a damage boost and the cone effect needs to be a bit longer and wider to make it viable. But, at least in the season, the Barber makes it worthwhile. It just sucks that I am being carried by a caged heart and when the season is over, Upheaval is back to being meh at best.

Now, about to ding 95 in season, I thinking of another build. I still want to do something different than WW or HoTA. So, that’s where Frenzy comes to mind.

At least at 95 I have points to play with and I can mess around with different gear, but it’s not the same as progressing and getting stronger/feeling that sense of wonder when you get a good item or an upgrade.

I use guides as a starter point, then tweak the build as I play it to suit my playstyle and wifi. I tend to focus on as much tankiness as possible while still able to dish out the hurt to overcome my constant struggle with lag.

6

yeah, some skills are just trade off’s i liked slam also. Good pack clearers bad at bosses.

Kind of makes sense for some skills, and i have run it in a dual core skill setup with HOTA or DS. so that is also possible.

or i set it up so i can swap between UH and HOTA or whatever, that is also fun.

7

HoTA has that aspect that gives it a small aoe that makes Upheaval kind of irrelevant, still not has much fun as Upheaval, especially with Hellhammer. At least with the weapon, the forward animation looks a lot better. A few tweaks here and there and Upheaval can be a good contender with HoTA.

8

I thinking of a Frenzy build myself. Finally got the damn unique amulet to drop after playing my barbarian since release. Maybe have cooldown skills so I can weave them between Frenzy hits. Rupture has attack speed procs. If the attack speed is high enough, maybe some Lucky Hit procs can help somehow.

9

Upheaval does not even come close to HoTA unfortunately. The fact its Lucky Hit chance is garbage and Fury cost is more is quite odd. The mistake people make is thinking they can either build Upheaval the same as HoTA with Unbridled or focus on the Berserking synergy and go with Unconstrained.

My weird Upheaval/Rend/Gushing Wounds/Brawling/Iron Skin/Bash (Overpower), Earthstriker is quite good at everything and I have a feeling when S2 hits and Overpower gets a huge boost it will be really strong. I have very fast Attack Speed and with Skullbreaker/Anemia etc., the CC is nice. I am just focusing on maximizing Gushing Wounds procs and having everything perma-stunned. Don’t care about Overpower damage investment that much since it scales badly end game for Barb.

10

Frenzy animations are janky and out of sync. It’s like watching a dubbed Kung Fu movie when you click and swing. Other than that, people are blowing up 100s with np. rob has some nice videos on youtube with clears and builds.

11

  • Azurewrath procs on Lucky Hit with Core Skills - no bueno for Basics unless paired with a Core.

  • Ramaladni is the best unique weapon, as your fury should always be full.

  • Frostburn is ok, but lacks both attack speed and Lucky Hit Chance.

  • Fists of Fate is BiS for damage and stagger, yet lacks Crit Chance, Lucky Hit Chance, and attack speed.

  • Penitent Greaves are BiS for damage and stagger.

  • Battle Trance is BiS for damage reduction, but the unique aspect only works for other skills.

  • Frenzy is best used for damage reduction and to boost other skills like Double Swing, Lunging Strike, or Kick.

  • The Barber and Berserk Ripping make anything viable until October 17th.

12

I have great fun with my selfbuild Frenzy Zerker. :slight_smile:

“In the Grasp of the Frenzy Zerker”
LVL85/NMD59 - https://imgur.com/a/ycwSl74
Skills, Stats and Paragon - https://imgur.com/a/u2QIxrM

Would have to make a list of my Aspects, have done one for the german forum, will translate and add it here. I’m lazy rn, so just google translate :stuck_out_tongue:

First of all, I should say that I’m a Diablo veteran since D1 and Hellfire, but I’m becoming more and more casual. I’m not really a theory crafter either, I just like to experiment and am pretty good with numbers, percentages and probabilities. A lot of things are not optimized yet, and a “Pro” would probably get a lot more out of it.

Uniques:
Ancients’ Oath - 2H axe for +9 to Steelgrasp and 2 extra chains as well as slow.
Temerity - pants for barrier through overheal.
Tried the chest for CDR if you cause bleeding on an Elite, but it didn’t work properly, might still be an option.
I’m even still missing the necklace for Frenzy, I’m waiting for it to finally drop.

Aspects:
Helmet: Lucky hit from 35% to 819 fortify when I deal damage in Berserk.
Chest: Iron Skin makes unstoppable and gives 26% DR.
Gloves: LH of 29% to stun opponent for 2 seconds if he bleeds.
Pants: Temerity (Unique).
Shoes: +1 charge for Weapon Mastery, LH of 55% the Weapon Mastery skills stun opponents for 2sec.
2H Mace: Crits with core skills increase Atk.Speed by 42% for 5sec.
1H Sword: 760 firedmg AoE when Berserk.
1H Sword: Attacks with Basic increase core damage by 10%, up to 30% max.
2H Ax: Ancients’ Oath (Unique).
Ring: When I stun a bleeding opponent, they receive 38% of their bleed as direct physical damage.
Ring: When I do damage in Berserk, 30% of the damage as bleeding.
Amulet: 0.67% armor when I do damage, up to 40.5%.

Hearts:
Devious: 35% chance of knockdown for 1.25sec if skill’s Atk.Speep is over 23%.
Vicious(?): 15% of damage received get’s absorbed, and explodes for up to 20k when I use a defense skill.
Wrathful: Barber: Crits and all damage thereafter for 2.4 sec are absorbed, and explodes upon expiration, 14% bonus dmg per sec.

Values:
In addition to the obvious dmg mods, I also have a few def mods, i.e. DR from bleeding, DR during fortify, DR from close/far, DR while injured, CIDR.
A bit of CDR, Basic atk.speed, Movementspeed and so on.

Weapons 6 topaz, armor 2 sapphires and 3 ruby.

As I said, I’ll see if I can upload the screens or try it with a video. :cowboy_hat_face:

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13

Your build seems to be all over the place. Your skill selection suggests it’s more of a Double Swing build than Frenzy. Few things I’ve noticed right away:

  • Crit Chance and Crit Damage are low
  • Vulnerable damage is low
  • Strength, Armor, and Life are very low
  • Gushing Wounds is the best Key Passive to take when using The Barber and Berserk Ripping
  • You’ve invested more into additive buckets than multiplicative ones - this hurts your damage immensely
14
  • Well, I’d say it is based as much on Frenzy as it is on DS; maybe even more for synergies.
    Remember, the stats in the screen are in town, so “unbuffed”, like my crit should be around 40-50% infight.
  • About 100% Vulnerable is already alot, sure you can use ever so more vulnerability in the current balance, and it surely a way to improve the damage later on. But for now it works.
  • About the armor, again, infight buffed it is higher. Strength, I dunno, sure more is always better, but I am still unsure about the comparison to several damage buckets, which one would be better, so I could probably get more from gear. And life, take into account, when starting the fight, I go in with 80% barrier on top (+), and during the fight I will constantly renew my barrier with Iron Skin and healthpots.
    (+)Thanks to the Temerity unique, you can chug a pot even when at 100% health, so the heal will be added into the barrier.
  • I imagined this build as a frenzy zerker, implementing bleed only to enable certain synergies and the damage bucket. And before certain fixes to certain aspects and interactions where applied, the bleed was indeed not more than that, barely doing damage in itself. Now, I see where the bleed damage has gone since those fixes, and it surely would pay out to capitalize on it, but still, I had an image of my character, and Bleed was never one of the main interests, and as long as my build works this way, I don’t see a reason to change.
  • Partly due to the item prefix system and how hard it is to get only desireable ones on an item, my equipment is composed of what Lady Luck allowed me so far. I know that multibuckets are where the true damage is at, but what you get if you stack ONLY crit and vul? Yeah, low damage stays low even if it get’s multiplicated. That said, the trick here would be to find the perfect balance, and I am sure I could shift more to the multi buckets, IF I actually get the gear for it, like I am happy with my 12% crit gloves… like in 50 levels the ONLY ones I found with maxroll crit, and rerolling mods is far too expensive, so only a limited option.

Anyway, I am actually more concerned about making my own build that is fun and performs good, than total min/maxing.

I mean, running NMD60 on lvl85 is a good performance in my humble opinion. :wink:

15

Don’t take my observations the wrong way, I’m just trying to help you. I realize these numbers are while sitting in town, they’re low.

Strength, crit, and vuln are currently the best, most efficient, and most effective ways to scale damage. You have too much focus on additive damage and not enough on the multipliers.

Other than The Barber, Double Swing is your biggest damage dealer in this build, not Frenzy. That’s what I meant by it being more of a DS build.

Keep on keepin on, but you’ll notice a giant increase in damage output, with either skill, if you made the adjustments I mentioned. That’s without even addressing your aspects.

Cheers.

16

Yeah everything’s fine, and I was actually just trying to show my reasoning behind this build, not to disagree with you, I mean, I will certainly take your advice into account, like I could easily switch to Gushing Wounds to test it out, will probably do so later. :wink:

It’s all a work in progress after all, I mean, I am not even lvl100, and a huge part of the fun I had with D4 so far was starting up my Barb (and the Druid pre-season) and just try to figure out how to build him on my own. That means, I don’t look at guides, power rankings or other “meta” stuff, but I definetly am interested in conversation about the game in general and build choices, and open to advice, I mean, I wouldn’t be here if not :crazy_face:

Cheers :beers:

17

I’m not big on guides or meta builds either. Just trying to let you know how to get a lot more damage from looking at your screenshots.

I’m all about trying and making my own builds.

18

Attack speed has softcap. There was almost no improvement to my attack speed once the Frenzy unique amulet dropped for me. I couldn’t see it anyhow, and its supposed to go from 60% att speed to 100%.

Stun + frenzy + double swing is the best build if you gonna go ‘frenzy’ build. Double swing is free when enemy is stunned and it prolongs your berserking. There is an aspect or heart power that stuns enemies if there is 5 close enemies near you. There is ground stomp. There is aspect that stuns bleeding enemies on lucky hit proc (good with frenzy bc of att speed). And most importantly for this build, there is aspect that increases MULTIPLICATIVLY stun damage by 40x (use it on double hand).
It’s very good build because you stun all the time so enemies cant hit you or deal damage to you.

My rotation was: steel grasp, then stun proc by heart power, spam double swing, frenzy frenzy frenzy (you proc stun wih lucky hit on bleeding enemies), then ground stomp to stun them, double swing again etc etc.
If you have an aspect that applys bleeding to enemies while berserking, all enemies will have bleeding as soon as you steel grasp them and combined with stun bleeding enemies on lucky hit aspect, you will stun a lot with frenzy. And once they are stunned, your frenzy deals 40x damage as well as doubleswing or any other attack, and they are stunned often.

19

Don’t forget to level 2handed sword and use that as a technique. Thats a free 20% bleed every time you do damage. Also, if you swap weapons, there is an affiix that will boost damage every time you do that. I used that with HoTA and Double Swing (non-season) and Upheaval (Seasonal). Very fun.

I know that Frenzy pairs well with Double Swing and other Core skills, but I am curious if there is a build that relies on Frenzy for damage and skill procs. I am not thinking or looking for anything meta or gg, just fun and viable pre and post 100.

Lunging strike is OP as all f, I am sure it will get hit with a fat nerf stick. Bash is okay, but limited. Flay is useless unless you are desperate for bleed damage or it’s specific to a bleed build. Frenzy is a lot of fun and a staple to the Barb since d2. It needs to be on par with lunging strike, and I don’t mean nerfing lunging strike to put it down to frenzy’s level either. No, frenzy needs a lil’ tlc to make it fun and relevant beyond a fury generator.

Imo, all Barb basic skills should be used with any weapon. Imagine frenzy with a 2handed weapon, come on that is a Barb 100% all the way.

As for guides, they are merely a starting point. I tweak all my builds as I play to better suit my overall casual playstyle or whatever I dead I happen to be toying with at the moment.

20

A straight Frenzy build is possible now, only because of The Barber and Berserk Ripping. Even then, using Kick for fat nukes is the best way.

There’s just no multipliers geared towards Basics yet, so the damage isn’t there. Everything is geared towards Core skills. Brawling is second. Then Weapon Mastery.

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