Thought I’d try a bleed/thorns barb build this season, happy to report it’s pulling weight. Spotting quite a few blood/thorn-specific aspects that are buffing up nicely alongside the the Hemorrhage paragon tree and bleed-specific glyph.
Any tips for me on a build like this?
This might seem obvious, but maximize your thorns value. I tried to pvp without using the unique chest, to have more mitigation, was the idea, but, it doesn’t really work. You need A LOT of thorns to kill players reliably. This means you need to double down on mitigation elsewhere. You can forego thorns on other slots in exchange, this frees you up to pick better affixes.
Also, don’t fall for the hybrid bait, its bleed OR thorns, not a combination! There are only so many aspect slots and you need to choose what you are playing.
Well, when it comes to Thorn aspects, I’m not seeing a whole lot. I was wondering how you get more Thorns besides chance rolls on gear stats and gem slots. Recently saw the insane chest piece that gives 8 - 11K thorns or something, on the prowl for that. Only other aspect I’ve seen for Thorns is the one that has a chance to apply thorns to all enemies around you when hit.
Are there more than that? Because if not, as a barb and having the two extra weapon slots, I think the other 10 aspect slots can be bleed-specific and I’ll do just fine.
Skills: Outburst 3/3 and Tough as Nails 6/3 (amulet +3)
2H weapon: Thorns while berserking
Chest: Razorsomething (the chest you saw with only thorns)
You can gem thorns, but its not necessary, same with thorns affixes, they are not 100% necessary. As long as you are berserking, which you are when you use your shouts (you will run 3 shouts as any other barb), and you berserk when you spam Lunge with the specc for proccing berserk. HOTA barb is your ultimate counter, they do not procc your thorns, which is hilarious.
Also, you can use rend to spam on players who try to run away from you. Sorcs and necros often run away from barbs, so you still need something to kill players with
Finally, use Iron Skin with the healing specc, this is absolutely necessary to survive