Totally disagree. Ancient’s Oath is incredible. The stats on it are exactly what you want and it increases your damage in a HUGE way by grabbing so many monsters, pulling them together, and then slowing them all right in front of you.
Chains also grant vulnerable AND berserking. Oh yeah, and because it slows enemies, you don’t need a point in Hamstring. So if it gives you +5 ranks of steel grasp, it’s actually saving you 6 skill points, not 5.
Fantastic unique. I refuse to play without it.
I’ve been using Steel Grasp since I started D4. I’m aware of the benefits of the skill. The unique, however, is straight trash. You lose way too much damage and armor to gain 2 chains and some slow.
Terrible unique.
Who honestly puts 5 points into Steel Grasp lol. I use Steel Grasp and even with just the 2 Charges, 1 Rank and CDR, it is pretty much 100% uptime. You take Hamstring because you already need the Bleeding Conditional. I have never had a situation where having more Chains would be so greatly beneficial I could forgo everything else.
Ancient Oath is iffy. Losing a double boosted aspect is a huge lost. Having a 5.5 second recharge on Steel Grasp sounds good on paper, but isn’t really needed much in practice. Raise your hand if you ever died by pulling a Charging Tuskar.
Armor? On a 2h weapon???
It’s huge in practice, at least in nightmare dungeons. It’s probably the only 2h barb unique worth losing the boosted aspect for, because it gives you so much:
The result is you’re hitting 2x the enemies with every other skill you normally would. Especially useful for skill with very small areas like rend and double swing. And in a party setting, everyone will love you for grouping things up and making them vulnerable.
I think Ancient’s Oath looks way worse on paper than it actually is in game.
edit: should probably add that I play on hardcore, so the tons of utility this weapon brings outweighs a little bit of min/max damage.
I just discovered the joy of SG, when do these start dropping?
I would use ancients over overkill simply for the slow effect proccing no mercy after the hamstring nerf. If you cast deathblow right after a chains with AO you get that 9% crit chance. Depending on how vital that is, to me that’s what I would run.
You play in HC? I’m guessing you haven’t pull in 5 piggys yet…
So, you don’t understand how Strength works for Barbarian?
Ancient’s Oath is a trash item. If you use it, no matter what the situation, it is a loss. You’re sacrificing both damage and defense for 2 chains (that don’t always pull) and some slow (that you already have) - why would you do that?
Yeah you lose some damage and armor from the loss of strength…
But you’re also grabbing and ccing that pesky corpse bowman hiding in the corner, or those extra 3 mobs off to the side of the big pack of mobs…
Dont need that extra defense if those extra mobs are grabbed into your stunlock of death…also the chains are super reliable…not sure if you played with steel grasp recently or if you’re just thinking about release
But thats just what i think…i aint tryin to sell ya this unique that hard lol
You can get that benefit without using the Unique pretty much. Applying a Slow is not a selling point. Steel Grasp and Ground Stomp does the same thing.
I’ve played with Steel Grasp since I started. I’ve also tried Ancient’s Oath. It’s straight dirty hot garbage. Not worth a damn.
Steel Grasp with Audacity stuns them all when pulled, then you can Ground Stomp (if needed) after that to stun again.
The slow from Ancient’s Oath is pointless, useless, and not worth losing a 2H aspect and 3 multipliers. If it stunned, instead of slowed, and gave some sort of fat multiplier to pulled/stunned enemies, then it might be worth it - if they added strength and crit to the affixes.
Its really up to your build in the end of the day whether ancients oath is good for you.
You shouldnt discount the super shortened cd of steelgrasp. Faster chains means quicker pulls…keeps the momentum goin. When you pull/kill packs faster than your groundstomps 12 sec cd and audacitys 20 sec cd, then that slow on all the grabbed mobs is reliable and consistent.
Its not the best nor is it “hot garbage”. Doesnt have to be so extreme lol
So… I think I’ll try it, and if it sucks I’ll drop it 
What weapon are you replacing?
Ideally, you want crit, vuln, core, and strength on your 2H if you’re using Unbridled. If you’re not using Unbridled, you want to replace core with close or all stats.
If you have a weapon like this, with a big multiplier aspect, Ancient’s Oath is hot garbage, and will be a straight loss.
It is hot garbage. There isn’t a single build it is good for. If you wanted 100% Steel Grasp Vuln/Berserk uptime, Weapon Master’s Aspect alone does that and more. 3 Charges and Stun proc is better than the Slow. If Slow Slowed ATTACK SPEED, which it should, it would be good.
Keep in mind that Overkill has two component to it. Deathblow skill does damage. While the unique proc also deals damage. It’s possible to crank up Deathblow damage to ridiculous numbers. Then spam Deathblow through the entire dungeon.
So, I’m not really into “real” endgame yet, I’m planning my own build with Lunging Strike/Upheaval, then Death Blow, Chain Grasp, Iron Skin, and then arsenal ult or shout. I wanted to use the aspect that guarantees overpowers every 10 swaps as well.
My main problem I have in dungeons before using this build (playing HotA w/shouts to level) is that I very often feel like there’s more than a few enemies spread a little too far apart in awkward directions, so I wanted to try out chain grasp. And, with 2H Sword expertise getting nerfed a bit, I thought I might try to use Oath to proc a slow instead of hamstring for No Mercy.
Edit: I’m only level 61 and running nm 13s with HotA currently