Bloody Hammer build

Barbarian
1

Rupture.

Go ahead and roast me if u like. I have extra points in RL thick skin (ha).

Backstory:
I play a survival HotA build (as i call it) influenced by a player posting here by the name of Yliche. (WHERE U AT YLICHE, NEED U) It was amazing for clearing the tougher content/pushing. I utilize lunging strikes over the dual weild basic, as it provides extra mobility, and appropriated points from dual weild passive to 2h elsewhere. Great defenses… Great damage too.
Then the patch happened.
Post patch, but still pre season, I was able to still steamroll through NM content set 20+ levels higher than me.

That being said, My plan was to roll this build into S1.

So i come across the rupture unique before and tried some different things but ultimately joined the band wagon consensus of it being sub-par/inefficient/sub-optimal/not as good as (X)build, etc. Yada yada
Now, in S1 i have come across it again. The sword had some monsterous dps on it compared to what i was picking up otherwise, so i equipped it for the time being.

Then i got bored. Lets check rupture out again.

I’m specd with your typical shout hota build. You pop 3 shouts in order and start lunging and hammering. Repeat.
-U keep wrath on the side for your “oh $#!+ cant move” button.

I dropped the wrath off the hotbar and placed rupture there.

HotA technique is to tap mobs and do a quick kite to orient the masses to kinda of get in a line. (Imagine a bunch of kids at recess when the whistle is blown and they all run to get in line by the teacher). Once they are semi grouped, you drop the aspectd hammer.

Using this same technique you apply a rupture. It creates the blood pool. The little kids all in line walk through the bloodpool.

Everybody, EVERYBODY gets hamstringed.
EVERYBODY. Its beautiful. ITS SO EFFICIENT. You kite them right through it.

Then SMASH with all the +to CC +to SLOWED +To BLEEDing etc.

I need help theory crafting. Theres something here.
This has NO points towards rupture. I REPEAT this is a HotA build with lunging strikes. Simply using whatever skill point value that comes on this decently powered(dps) unique sword.
Take into account post batch blues. This puts BLEEDING and HAMSTRING on everybody so efficiently its mind blowing.

We can drop 2 hand sword technique and beserk ripping and apply that somewhere else. Theres so much else… stat prioritys etc. I really feel theres something here.

Ive incorporated accelerating and rapid into the build and then we have hearts now increasing attack speed. It helps HotA build with fury gen and lungeing strikes, and amzingly helps timing of rupture.

I see high NM pushing where we drop a blood pool in a doorway and attract mass pulls through it and be waiting on the otherside lunging and hammering.

Anybody have any legit input?

2

This sounds so wildly inefficient. If you are only using Rupture to provide a Bleed Conditional, you could achieve the very same thing with Thorns if you wanted to drop the 2H Sword Expertise or Berserk Ripping. You end up giving up either a guaranteed method of applying Vulnerable and Berserk (Kick/Steel Grasp) or Iron Skin (Unstoppable, DR, Barrier, Heal).

You would be better off grouping enemies up with Steel Grasp and the multiplicative Damage on a Good 2H Sword with the doubling effect from the Aspect slot. With Fields of Crimson, you potentially lose 60% Damage Bonus from Limitless Rage, 40% from Edgemasters, 40% from Retribution, etc.

1 Like
3

Anytime u add a unique u lose some stats, its part of the checks and balances. General consensus (mostly) on any min-max build is to drop uniques because of this.

Pros and cons. The pro being a very efficient way of controlling the environment and applying these qualifier debuffs to boost damage

Con(s) is loss of the 1 stat stick? Thats all?

Post patch, vulnerable doesnt feel like #1 stat priority anymore. Core skill and crit dmg seem more potent, along with hella AS to generate fury.

Also having the hardest time finding resource regen on rings

4

Vulnerable Damage is still the number 1 priority stat. You can try to stack additive damage types and it does not even come close even with the 40% nerf. You do not just lose a Stat Stick, you lose an entire Skill Slot and an Aspect. Rupture does not have a Pull effect nor does it Generate Fury nor does it provide Unstoppable, and as a matter of fact, the animation itself is problematic with the cast speed. To your point about Fury Generation, you could take Leap giving you 40 Fury (unmodified) with a 5 second CD with Giant Strides. If you take the points, you grt Berserking for 3 seconds. The Leap bound to a 2H Slashing will apply Bleed and Hamstring by itself.

5

Play how you want and have fun but it seems you would just be better off using grasp.

6

I did the leap with and without points. Even with the additive fury gen i still felt starved. It was quite a few levels ago… perhaps i will revisit.

My backstory included my need at the time of this dicovery; a harder hitting 2 hand sword (how hard the thing hits is #1 stat above all other right? Espeacially when its a 300+ dps upgrade…) and then got bored so tried rupture on the hot bar no investment

I have ancestral force, beserk ripping, expectant and was still hunting limitless rage.

I play HotA as intended.

Im just looking into this intriguing detail. Have you actually tried this? Just go try it once… i wish i could drop a video of it happening

Its quite nice. Same technique i use with the hammer smash im basically doing with the rupture… the extra AS helps with that sluggish part of the rip release. Very goofy at first… it wasnt till like 20 mins of playing around where i found this like, sweet spot, of everything just falling into place correctly. The way they all walk into it and then all start popping bleeding numbers and are swirled at their feet from slow… ive not seen my aspect and sword technique compile this much pixelated action in the same time as the one second sacrificed to the sluggo mechanic. This visual leads me to believe the other method isnt as efficient.

Idk. I am NO builder/crafter. Not claiming to be. I just feel something benificial is being overlooked.

7

You had a Hamstring skill a week or more back that used to work and because it doesnt work anymore you are wasting valuable slots trying to make things work like before that simply aren’t going to work like before. Because that was one of the kill Barb nerfs. It WAS a death sentence… Hmastring is wasted once an enemy is at 79% life. It isn’t even there. But Rogue has skills like Exploit that increase flat damage to enemies that are Healthy AND Injured LOL. They should NOT change Exploit… They SHOULD ABSOLUTRLY fix Hamstring. Make it the same as before. HOTA is one of the game’s most iconic builds and players love it! And now it sucks

1 Like
8

I kept playing around with it yesterday and… yeah, i concede. Back to shout hammer.

9

@ ShaunFamilyM
Possible to put the aspects and items, skills, etc on maxroll.gg build planner or d4builds.gg (or any other planner of your choice)?

It will help in seeing your initial build and quickly gear (or assign points and skills) accordingly.

I am interested in checking this out and testing further.