humongous

[grobblewobble]

humongous

Currently I am building a WW barbarian (my first). Now I found a cool weapon: Humongous (unique axe). Those can spawn with 71.5 to 90 avg dam and mine has 87.. so it's a good one, too.

But I looked at the stats of Bonesnap (didn't find that one), and that one is so much better.. unfair! It has lower reqs, (much) higher dmg, extra dmg on undead AND more CB. What have the game designers been drinking?

So what do I do? Keep doing Diablo runs until I find my first bonesnap, or use my axe? I still have three respecs, so all options are open. Oh, I also have a woestave.

 

[zrk]

Re: humongous

Yeah they messed up unique item balance a bit in post-expansion patches. its pretty easy to get weapons with more damage than humongous - ie shopping great mauls with high ed so mace mastery is a no brainer for min maxing

 

[grobblewobble]

Re: humongous

Thanks for the tip, I shopped a nice hammer as you suggested and became a mace specialist.

Any suggestions for gear? Right now I have:

Hands of Broc
Gorefoot
Sigons Belt + Helmet
Angelic Ring (1x) + Armor + Ammy (Just found from Diablo, jay!)
Ring with Res Lit

This gives me about 70% fire resistance (Nightmare difficulty), pathetic other resistances and some leach.. I have many unique and set items by now, but only craptastic jewelry. So please don't suggest I wear a ring with 30 resist all or something, I don't have them. :crazyeyes:

PS: Oh, I have found an interesting rare armor, not sure if it is worth using. Over 400 defense, 20 Lit Res, 58 Life, 24% FHR.


EDIT:
After some calculations, I decided that the attack rating from that setup is just overkill and replaced the partial angel set with better resistance items. Can't say I regret it.

Also, I can't believe my luck: I gambled a Bonesnap!

I have to say that this character beats my Zeal paladin (modelled after Freds guide) by a mile. The killing speed is incomparably better. Hate to say it, but I guess there is a reason why so few people go with melee paladin.

 

[zrk]

Re: humongous

Yeah thats kinda the classic perk of WW being a 1 frame of attack so nothing comes close to it

 

[hubb]

Re: humongous

WW is a 4 frame attack. If you mean its rate is fixed regardless of weapon speed and IAS, then yes

 

[zrk]

Re: humongous

I dont think so.. i did tests and classic ww lost durability at 4 times the rate of expansion. Tests were done over entire time range of weapon durability, and long low damage wws, hence minimizing uncertainties over accuracy.
dual wielding test speed confirmed result though it lost durability at half speed, suggesting that both weapons arent used at same time

 

[sirwhere]

Re: humongous

get a 4 frames weapon in LOD and the same one in classic (low damage). then whirl a friend's character of similar level/defense/life.

if the classic one goes down 4 times as fast, then it's true

 

[grobblewobble]

Re: humongous

Without doing calculations, from what I have seen happening in the game I think that WW does more to speed up attacks then a paladins Zeal + fanaticism. So I guess that means:

WW Maul barb > WW Cleg Barb > Zeal Cleg Pal

(at least in terms of Dam/sec)

Lord Wutlol the barbarian became a damage monster the moment he turned level 30. He finished Nightmare mode about as fast as he could walk and find waypoints, monsters just dropped dead the moment he touched them. Well, some bosses took a couple of seconds, like Diablo.

He is in hell act 2 now. My main worry at this moment are boss packs with mana drain, because they stop him dead in his tracks and disable Leap, too. Any tips on dealing with them?

 

[WarlockCC]

Re: humongous

I'd say avoid and skip as much as possible, mana potions where you absolutely need to kill them(very rare). If you run into trouble with physical immunes, you'll need a single point in Berserk to kill them. If you have enough mana and a few extra points into leap, you can also make a clean path using leap, since it pushes enemies away, depending on your leap skill level.

 

[grobblewobble]

Re: humongous

Thanks for the tips. Yes, I did take one point berserk and also a few extra in leap. I love that skill, it reminds me of Samurai Jack.

 

[WarlockCC]

Re: humongous

It really is a funny skill. If you ever feel like making a fun character, make a barb with max leap. Even doing short hops will push enemies all the way off your screen if you keep hopping.

 

[HegemonKhan]

Re: humongous

qiuck comment about the topic:

Humungous is decent initially if you don't have anything better for axes, which you decided to use as your weapon type (until you got better weapons, and there ARE way better weapons, rares, lol)

Mace type weapons (Martel de fer/Mart 2H/2handed and Battle Hammer/BH 1H/1handed) do 1.1 damage bonus with pts in STR, so they rule the weapon types (except for 2H, as there's the Spear type: Lance) in terms of damage. they do have a shorter range (compared to axes): Mart 3 range and BH 1 range. And they do require more stat pts (compared to axes) as well: Mart 169 STR, and BH ??? STR (I forgot). Also they are slow attack speed, but this is irrelevant for ww use (but not for other skills).

all other (melee) weapons get no bonus damage: 1.0 damage bonus for STR points

Axe type weapons: do less damage (compared to Mace types), but have a greater range: 2H Ancient Axe (AA) 4 range and 1H Naga 3 range, and they take less stat pts: 121 STR for AA (I think) and ?? STR for Naga (i forgot)

Sword type weapons: they take *a lot* of stat points (STR+DEX), but they (2H/1H Execs and 1H ??? forgot the 1H swords' names) have some benefits too, if you don't mind the high stat point req of them.

Spear types (2h Lance): highest damage in game, but slow (irrelevant for ww), and high stat req as well (STR+DEX). And it has 5 range.

Pole Arm types: huge stat reqs and less damage,

(getting tired sorry...)

------

Axe Barbs can be good though, even if they don't do as much damage as Mace Barbs.

try making a titan (all stat pts into STR) Axe ww Barb (you can get like up to x7 damage with ww 1x, AM-axe mastery 1x, STR=500=x5), but you need a godly rare AA (?250-300? damage - I forgot their damage that they can get, argh)... but I remember they could do 2,100 damage per hit, so 2100/7=300 damage for AA.

or you can make a titan Naga frenzy barb ... but you need two godly nagas... and etc.. a very elite build, but it has uber potential... grins