How would you play it? (Wolfbarb)

[Undying]

How would you play it? (Wolfbarb)

So now when my wolfbarb finally hit level 79 it's time to spend my statpoints, 400 of them before continuing to hell difficulty. Looking at CRG's titan wolfbarb I am very tempted at puting everything in str as i like doing lots of damage but I'm worried that my life will be so low that tanking in hell will be hard, if i had a 1.07 Arkaines then I'd go for the titan bulid but now it loks like I'll have to do with Duress since i play vanilla and looking at my rune collection that Enigma is far of into the future...

So I'm having trouble to decide here, not olny because the survival issue but also the fun factor, having lots of life is fun but if you can't kill anyting whats the point :tongue: So the question is, how would you play it? Titan or needed str and rest vit?

My current gear looks like this:

Up'ed Ribcracker
Harly (will be Wolfhowl)
Duriels shell (due to not spending any stat points yet)
Highlords Wrath
Ravenfrost
Goblin Toe
Laying of Hands
Nosferatus Coil

and

Chaos Finger
Ring
Required Level: 46
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xe85e0df1
+19 to Life
+23 to Mana
+107 to Attack Rating
Lightning Resist +30%
5% Life stolen per hit
5% Mana stolen per hit

Skills
Max BO, Shout, Iron Skin, Mace Mastery
1 in Increased Speed, NR and the prereqs

Also, is there a good table for ias breakpoints for a werewolf somewhere?

 

[nebux1]

dragoon calculator use barbarian under char class.
how do you leveled until 79. i need to build one myself

 

[Naab]

Gonna make mine with dex and str enought for tomb reaver with gear.THough i have 1.07 arkaines,i like huge life.

@nebux go to 1.07 and get a barb hat with 3 to ww or concentrate(they dont spawn in 1.10+).

 

[Spearthrower]

Was it 1.07 that class specifics started dropping? I have such a bad memory for this.... I thought it was 1.09.

What, pray thee tell, is a wolfbarb btw? So much new jargon!! heh

 

[Corrupted]

@nebux go to 1.07 and get a barb hat with 3 to ww or concentrate(they dont spawn in 1.10+).

Erh? I think they do.

I have one of those planned aswell, it will be a titan as a part of a twin project.

 

[Naab]

i mean that ww and conc cant spawn in 1.11 on barb helmets.atleast i havent seen one.

 

[Undying]

dragoon calculator use barbarian under char class.
how do you leveled until 79. i need to build one myself

Thanks!

I did it the hard way with the standard attack using Ribcracker all the way from 31. Did lots of Baalruns on both normal and nightmare on lan with my girlfriend as she leveled her strafer. When I finally was level enough for the up'ed Ribby then using only the standard attack wasn't too slow.

 

[Undying]

Was it 1.07 that class specifics started dropping? I have such a bad memory for this.... I thought it was 1.09.

What, pray thee tell, is a wolfbarb btw? So much new jargon!! heh

Wolfbarb is a barbarian built around the unique item Wolfhowl:

Wolfhowl
Fury Visor
Defense: 332-377 (varies)(Base Defense: 105-150)
Required Level: 79
Required Strength: 129
Durability: 35
(Barbarian Only)
+120-150% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+2-3 To Warcries (Barbarian Only) (varies)
+3-6 To Feral Rage (varies)
+3-6 To Lycanthropy (varies)
+3-6 To Werewolf (varies)
+8-15 To Strength (varies)
+8-15 To Dexterity (varies)
+8-15 To Vitality (varies)
Level 15 Summon Dire Wolf (18 Charges)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

 

[nebux1]

i was thinking about bloddletter + to WW and SM
and after a Passion RW for zeal and berserk until 79

 

[CRG]

I have learned through many, many pat/mat'd characters that you should max out one stat and leave the others as low as possible. This is simply stat optimizaiton. For wolfbarbs (I've built two), your damage is going to be low. Really low, as comparable to another character. Also, you don't need that much life. 1k is really enough, especially with the kind of LL you're doing. I believe I finished at 1.8k, which was plenty. Read this.A little Nighfish logic.. In otherwords, I'd go with the max str.

As for leveling, Baal runs are great (run only minions), because you need two forms of slow (chilled, holy freeze, decrep, clay golem, etc) to slow down your attack speed. In other words, the only way your attack speed is going to be slowed while running baal is if something spawns with a Holy Freeze aura.

Anyway, the basic progression goes like this, weapon wise (rest of gear doesn't really matter, as long as your AR iand LL is decent).
24: Bonesnap
29: Steeldriver
31: Ribbie
55: Upped Ribbie

Using standard attack isn't that bad. That's really it. And you can use just about anything to get yourself to 24. Once you get into higher levels, you start slowing down. You really notice in at about 76 when running NM baal. From there, you'll need to move to hell. I like the Pits. Leveling is slow, but once you get to 79, you'll be fine.

crg

 

[Liquid_Evil]

I've built a couple Wolfbarbs and I fancy the huge life pools. What are you getting with a titan build? Another ~250% off-weapon ED? That's nice, but at the cost of ~3500 life? That's just a huge safety margin to lose, sure you don't need it in most situations, but surviving Iron Maiden hits on the way to Baal is something not many melee chars can say. When you look at the skills: Lycanthropy, BO, and the best life:vita ratio of any character in the game, I draw the conclusion that these chars were made for high life. I'm not going to argue with CRG on which is better between titan and vita, I just like to capitalize on a character's innate benefits, and a wolfbarb just happens to be king of hit points.

 

[Llathias]

I basically know nothing about wolfbarbs, so this is a non-rhetoric question, out of curiosity:
What is the point of building a Wolfbarb, if you're not going to abuse HP? I mean, you're using a base lvl 3-6 attack skill that even the natural owner usually doesn't use as a main attack! Is it only about leech and defense?

On another (rather personal) note, I wouldn't trade a decent attack skill for more life, especially with a barb, who doesn't have problems with his lifebulb. Not to mention the build actually starts at lvl 79...

 

[Aman]

@Naab , whirlwind can spawn on a helm(i have one) though the chances of it spawning are very small.

 

[nebux1]

@Llathias a wolfbarb with good gear is in most cases imune to IM curse. you'll get insane life bonus, run walk and AR. but you loose some damage.
mine is now lvl 55 and is WW throught NM at P8 with Oath BB and Bloodletter.
more until 79. too bad blizzard didn't enable some werewolfes in game so when they bite you, you'll become infected.( Morrowind Bloodmoon).
try some MP games with DX wolfbarb and you'll get an idea about killing speed.

 

[nepeta]

@CRG: I prefer an upgraded steeldriver at L34 instead of a normal ribracker. The monster's hp will be low still, so damage>crushing blow. Compare:

Steeldriver
Martel de Fer
'Amn'
Two-Hand Damage: 212 to 344
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Strength: 85
Required Level: 34
Mace Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xcbb0dcf5
+248% Enhanced Damage
Heal Stamina Plus 25%
7% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -50%
Required Level +5
40% Increased Attack Speed
150% Damage to Undead
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Ribcracker
Quarterstaff
Two-Hand Damage: 59 to 162
Durability: 28 of 130
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 31
Staff Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x497e3dd7
+15 to Dexterity
+100% Enhanced Defense
+274% Enhanced Damage
+30 to Minimum Damage
+65 to Maximum Damage
+100 Defense
+100 Maximum Durability
50% Increased Attack Speed
50% Faster Hit Recovery
150% Damage to Undead
50% Chance of Crushing Blow

 

[CRG]

Nice steeldriver. I also used the steeldriver at clvl 34, but I disliked it because of its speed (and mine was shael'd). Thus, I believe that the ribbie is a better option at 31.

crg

 

[Undying]

What got me thinking was the damage, i knew that it was going to be low and also my main attack wouldn't be that quick so the damage/second would be very low compared to other characters. So i knew it would be slow killing and i had two options either go with high hp so that i could survive long enough when swarmed or go with optimizing the damage (titan build and as many fine/sharp charms as possible). I still haven't decided, currently I'm in the beginning of act 2 hell, have spent just enough str for Wolfhowl with about 2200 hp and my damage with might merc is ~2000 - 3100. While the last option probably suits my playing style the best I still dont want to die to easy to gloams and the like.

Also I'm considering giving up my vanilla status and go RWM as my two best runes are 2 x Ohm and i think a Fortitude armor would work pretty good on this build as i probably wouldn't have the patience to make a 1.07 rack runner to get Arkaines.

 

[nebux1]

throw fortitude make a grief. with it you can play P8 hell like it was at p1.
my would be wolf is at lvl 73 now.and it's even fun a zealot barb( uninteruptible attack).died few times for my need to use berserk when swarmed. 6 more levels to go

 

[CRG]

You're going to have stellar defense with a wolfie (20 shout/iron skin). Don't worry about vita! It's not necessary for this build.

crg

 

[Naab]

@Naab , whirlwind can spawn on a helm(i have one) though the chances of it spawning are very small.

Are u sure u didnt get it from 1.09 or 1.07?
http://www.purediablo.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3564907&highlight=wolfbarb+whirlwind#post3564907

Btw i made myself a nice helm to level.

Lore
Jawbone Cap
'OrtSol'
Defense: 11
Durability: 22 of 25
(Barbarian Only)
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 30
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x609a6145
+10 to Energy
Damage Reduced by 7
Lightning Resist +30%
+2 to Light Radius
+3 to Whirlwind (Barbarian Only)
+1 to All Skill Levels
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Socketed (2: 2 used)

But i think thanks to it i got wierd bug - every time i got a lvl and was whirlin same time ,my barb couldnt move anymore and i couldnt do anything else then s&e.