[TheLiquidSnake]

Hello everyone,

Iam TLS from the clan Legendary Elite (LeE).

Maybe some of you remeber me or my clan, as we were under the top 10 hc player in the first ladder and under the top 50 hc player in the following two.

Our clan is planning to complete Inferno HC first this time and we spent much time theorycrafting HC party setup.

My job will be playing the barbarian and I want to share this community my results of calculating him for the HC mode, as a full finished build.
You have to take into account, that the runestones are level 4 and many effects will be much weaker. No one knows, how this delays the early game, but I calculated a setup for every stage of the game.

Maybe I will publish the builds for lower levels, after the game released and our clan finished the difficultly, so I have some practical informations, but for now I will share you a Inferno calculated skill build. Take into account, that right before Inferno you will have higher runes than level 4 and the effects will increase.

Our party setup will contain:
"Tank" Barb
"Support"/"Semi Tank" Monk
"Damage"/"Mobility advantage" Sorc
"Damage"/"Minion Control" Witch Doctor
For now we think this is a group for clearing the Hell and Inferno modes safer, than most other setups, but this can change until the game is finally released.

My Barb is concentrating on keeping mobs away from my teammates, while our monk heals and put his seals in the ground to stop minion moving. The Witch Doctor have lots of minions for soaking some major damage and the Sorc will limit enemy movement speed.
Additional the monk can pop his shield to the group for mitigating critical damage, so he is one of the core elements of this group.

My build focuses on stunning the enemy, avoiding critical damage and helping my teammates:
http://eu.battle.net...iSYk!aeV!ZcZbYa

(Skills and effect of "new" runes I have chosen are the same, as before the Patch)
Short Explanations on Active Skills:
Ignore Pain (Indigo)
This is for mitigating the high damage I will receive, after taunting the enemies

Revenge (Indigo)
Golden Runestone is also possible, but my personal preference is to get continiously life, than high heals.

Ground Stomp (Indigo)
This will stun the enemies and pull them closer to you, or better: pulls them farer away from your allies.

War Cry (Alabaster)
Armor + additional mantra (with max life increased) + Monk matra give a good life regeneration by its own

Threatening Shout (Crimson)
This will taunt the enemies away from your allies and secure you to be the main target, also reducing their damage, which is always good.

Ancient Spear (Indigo)
Another Spell for preventing the enemies attacking your friends and get the missing Fury for your Threatening Shout.

Summary:
As you saw my build don't rely on Fury with the exception of Threatening Shout, so I am fury independent and can choose, when to stun/pull the enemies back to me.
My main "damage source" is the Revenge, which will be up 90% of the time if I engage 3+ mobs.
How I skill for bosses will be decided, when rushing through SC to learn more about the different difficultlies and bosses.


Short Explanations on Passive Skills:
Pound of Flesh
As all in HC is about staying alive this passive will help you AND your party.

Superstition
20% Magic reduce is probably worth by itself, but the option to generate fury getting hit by range attacks is a badass bonus, so you can save your stun/pull for critical situations

Tough as Nails
100% more armor + 100% increased Thorn damage means more survivability and damage at the same time, as you should always have some thorn effect with you!

Summary:
This is a typical mitigation build for you and Pound of Flesh in combination with Gruesome Feast of the Witch Doctor provides a high garantue of having always 5 stacks up upon your WD.


Basic Infos:
General Scaling of the Barbarian:
http://www.d3sanc.co...dpost__p__12371

Basic equipment stats you need to worry about:
Normal:
comming soon


Hope I gave you some brainstormings for your personal playstyle on HC or SC with the Barbar.

Greetings,
TLS

Edited by TheLiquidSnake, 26 February 2012 - 09:27 AM.

[AlexRahs]

cheers bro, good read when i decide to run a barb

[Tusck]

Great info man, thanks for sharing.  When I get a chance after work I'm going to look over this more indepth.  

Also, if you guild recruiting noobs to HC?

[hnxpias5]

Really nice theorycrafting build, but I don't think 'Superstition' is good choice for PvM. 'Brawler' would be better on 'Tank' Barb, to deal more dmg. I don't think full survivability character is good, even if you are a tank. I also think, gold runestone on 'Ground Stomp' would be better, because you have only 2 fury generators, with big CD's (12 seconds on 'Ground Stomp' and 30 second on 'War Cry'). Btw. good luck with HC!

[TheLiquidSnake]

Tusck, on 17 February 2012 - 12:30 PM, said:

Also, if you guild recruiting noobs to HC?

We wil think about it after game realease.

In D2 we had a 6 man team climbing HC ladder, but at this moment only 4 members are back for Diablo 3.

If the other 2 returns 2, we think about opening a second HC group.

The only problem is, that we want to work together as a team playing years D2 together and the limitation to 4 was perfect for our conditions.

We may have some space for some randoms or newer clan members at some point, but I doubt we will get into Hell or Inferno with the newer ones (in HC)

Additional Info: We play on EU server and are located in Germany. One group member don't speak english and thats a big problem for international communication

Greeting,
TLS

Edited by TheLiquidSnake, 17 February 2012 - 12:40 PM.

[Kermanach]

Great info mate, I think tank barbs may be the only way to go on HC.

[zerue]

Good info and I wish you the best of luck in this project ^^

[Proter]

Yes realy nice info .... thank you much as well and good luck

[TheLiquidSnake]

I just have an Upgrade for ya:

A far friend of me got a Beta invite and I am able to play it now for a week.
I played through the Beta with the Barbarian yesterday and I have made some important experiences.

I will try to put them all together later on and share them with you.

One ahead: It won't be as easy as I thought to hold many monster away from your allies -> I will try to change the builds to a little more defensive.

Greetings,
TLS

[Tusck]

TheLiquidSnake, on 18 February 2012 - 05:56 AM, said:

I just have an Upgrade for ya:

A far friend of me got a Beta invite and I am able to play it now for a week.
I played through the Beta with the Barbarian yesterday and I have made some important experiences.

I will try to put them all together later on and share them with you.

One ahead: It won't be as easy as I thought to hold many monster away from your allies -> I will try to change the builds to a little more defensive.

Greetings,
TLS

Look forward to hearing what you have to say.  Any new info is always good.

[TheLiquidSnake]

4321, on 18 February 2012 - 06:33 AM, said:

There won't be nec in d3 so i don't know what to say here....

1. play the Witch Doctor then hes like the Nec -.-
2. Don't spam my thread with such ******

Greetings,
TLS

[zerue]

TheLiquidSnake, on 18 February 2012 - 05:56 AM, said:

I just have an Upgrade for ya:

A far friend of me got a Beta invite and I am able to play it now for a week.
I played through the Beta with the Barbarian yesterday and I have made some important experiences.

I will try to put them all together later on and share them with you.

One ahead: It won't be as easy as I thought to hold many monster away from your allies -> I will try to change the builds to a little more defensive.

Greetings,
TLS

Looking forward to, and please if you have a chance, take a videos too

[TheLiquidSnake]

Hey everyone I have some update for you.
It's about the scaling of the barbarian.

At level 1 he will have the following stats:

10 Strenght
8 Dexterity
8 Intelligence
9 Vitality
10 Armor
2,82 Base DPS


I think it's kinda important to know the barbarian scaling:

3 Strength per level
1 Dexterity per level
1 Intelligence per level
1,75 Vitality per level

resulting in:
2 Armor per level
0,07625 - 0,10555 DPS per level (this is caused by the strenght increased % damage)

Greetings,
TLS

Edited by TheLiquidSnake, 19 February 2012 - 04:52 PM.

[Gusher]

I think this may not make it far into hardcore
Reason being: Your focused on for being hit, and even though you may be a tank, you can very well be one shotted by an elite mob, or soemthing along those lines. Not to sure on how great this will be HC. I think you may need another way to generate life other than the monks mantra and health globes.
But then again, I don't know how hard the monsters are going to hit in hell or inferno difficulty, and depending on that, you may be just fine.
You may want to add a skill to help you escape in precariously sticky situations like leap attack, or you may want to throw in call of the ancients to have your own little army of tanks, taking the pressure off you when your in trouble. just my opinions tho, because call of the ancients may be a completely useless skill in inferno difficulty depending on how the ancients scale.
anyways, good luck on your hardcore experiences

[TheLiquidSnake]

Gusher, on 19 February 2012 - 06:03 PM, said:

You may want to add a skill to help you escape in precariously sticky situations like leap attack, or you may want to throw in call of the ancients to have your own little army of tanks, taking the pressure off you when your in trouble.

Hi, as I mentioned in my frist post I don't nead any escape mechanism

As I am not a noob I will never get surrounded by mobs with controlled movement and the CC of our sorc.
CoA will be a waste of skill on my group setup, as we have a
WD with more pets I could ever summon.

Gusher, on 19 February 2012 - 06:03 PM, said:

Your focused on for being hit, and even though you may be a tank, you can very well be one shotted by an elite mob, or soemthing along those lines.

As you mentioned: I am the tank. And all my actions are focused on being hit so I will not be one shotted by an elite mob.
That is the sense behind it and as I tried this in the Beta it is really insane how much defense a Barb can reach.
Any offensive skill will reduce my defensive and make enemies a more threat to me, so the chances increase I can be one shottet by an enemy.
You confilcting yourself in your post saying on the one hand I should decrease my defense and on the other hand saying I don't have enough defense to master Elite mobs.

Gusher, on 19 February 2012 - 06:03 PM, said:

I think you may need another way to generate life other than the monks mantra and health globes.
But then again, I don't know how hard the monsters are going to hit in hell or inferno difficulty, and depending on that, you may be just fine.

There won't be a need for other healing than the monks mantra, healing spells, the damage reduction he gives me + the increased life from globes and the spawning rate.
If your referencing to my post you should not only reference to the Barb, but to the whole group I am playing with!
It is not my job to heal, neither its my job to do damage or summon minions it's my job to soak damage and get the attention of enemies and thats what the build is focusing on.



And yes, your right, this build alone will not go through Inferno HC, but our group will, as it should be in HC content!
Not taking the group in context is like cirticise a fruit basket without taking in context there are not only appels in it..
Beacuse it have bananas and grapes and pineapples and pears, too.

Edit:
As a tank Barb I am using a shield and that alone prevents the monsters from one hitting me
Shields give such a huge amount of Armor compared to other slots you can wear.

Greetings,
TLS

Edited by TheLiquidSnake, 20 February 2012 - 06:15 AM.

[george]

i wish you good luck

[TheLiquidSnake]

george, on 20 February 2012 - 08:16 AM, said:

i wish you good luck

Good that luck is something I don't rely on much

Exceptions are loot and monster match ups

But thank you very much^^

Maybe the infos I give here helps other people surviving in HC or SC with the barb

Greetings,
TLS

[george]

good luck not only at  game good luck to win a bata key

[Raiko]

Thanks for the info, this should help a lot of people survive in HC.

[Nell]

thanks for this !