Council runner questions

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Dec 22, 2008
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Council runner questions

Is there a viable build for a council horker without using high end runewords?
I'd like to be ready when 1.13 comes out of beta.
 
Re: Council runner questions

Oath would be nice, don't know if you would consider that high end or not. Otherwise Death Cleaver seems to be a popular choice for whirlwinders. or maybe Rune Master?

Fortitude can be replaced with.. I don't know. Black Hades? Arkaine's Valor? Gladiator's Bane? Duress is probably not so good because of the cold damage. Skin of the Vipermagi if you need resists, maybe.

Really, I think to sum up you need life leech, mana leech, teleport (Naj's on switch should work well), and probably high resistances. Then, try to raise damage and AR as much as possible, and I'd expect you'd be pretty safe on p1 at least. That's not to say Fortitude and Grief and similar things wouldn't help a lot.
 
Re: Council runner questions

I think 2 hand weapons like Bonehew, Reaper's Toll, Windhammer,IK maul can also be used.I guess they also deal decent damage and are easier to get.Also except Reaper's Toll, I think all other weapons mentioned can also reach the 4 frames attack by shaeling.
For armour, I think Iron Pelt(DR,MDR,cheap) and Duriel Shell are also nice apart from those mentioned and are easier to get.
 
Re: Council runner questions

The OP actually asked for a build. The standard whirly barb seems to be fine with even mediocre items for that particular venture.

20 whirlwind
20 weapon mastery
20 battle orders
20 find item
rest in shout?
some one point wonders (natural resistance, berserk etc)

Something like that. As the other posts suggested, this build is very accomplishable with less than stellar equipment. Remember to utilise your warcries for safety. If you don't have some of the items that have been suggested for your endgame barb then spend some time running Hell Mephy and he'll be happy to drop most of them - you'll have an IK maul in the first hour usually :p
 
Re: Council runner questions

I'd go with:

Skills:
20 whirl & mastery
15-20 BO & Find Item
5+ Increased Speed
~5 Natural Resists
1 Berserk, one-pointers, prereq's

Remaining points split between Find Item, Battle Orders, Increased Speed and Natural Resists, as you feel fit.


Important Note:
A lot of folks say "definitely no" to the thought of having Increased Speed on whirlers, but in my experience it's a fantastic skill for a council runner. Increased Speed gets you through town and to your targets faster (i.e. faster runs) and helps reduce the 'need' for the teleport that Fabian mentioned (i.e. your equipment choices are more flexible).

The trick to putting Increased Speed on a council-whirler is to actively avoid items that provide Cannot-Be-Frozen. Since at least one of the council is always Cold Enchanted (and Hierophants will be casting Blizzard's regularly) you can run up to the council at full speed then have your run speed slow down drastically for whirling (which is a good thing) as soon as you get chilled. Throw on the occasional Holy Freeze aura and you'll whirl slowly enough (almost) all of the time.

I've done about 2k council runs, and I would estimate that for every run that I end up whirling more quickly than I'd like for several seconds while waiting to get chilled, I get an equal number of runs with Holy-Freeze auras and chilled together, and me wishing I had more movement speed... and I also get ~50 addition runs where my high-FRW/no-CBF approach works exactly like I wanted.



For gear, it's about like Fabian said... big-damage, big-leech, whatever attack-rating boosts you can scrounge, and high resists (fire & lightning primarily, though cold can be important too). I wouldn't put teleport as critical by any stretch, but it has a pretty big effect on your run times, so if you can squeeze it in without much sacrifice, do so.

The only other thing I would add would be trying desperately to get a Reaper's Toll for your merc. The -50% Physical Resistance caused by the Decrepify curse will make your barb a lot more powerful, and it'll help the merc's damage & leech (& survivability) too. If you can't get Reaper's Toll, I'd actually try a Barbarian merc with a Lawbringer (assuming you're playing with RWM) as my first solution - that's how handy Decrepify is.

After those you can flesh out the build however you please.
 
Re: Council runner questions

Cold damage doesn't shatter as many corpses as you'd think. My barb wears Azurewrath and my merc has Reaper's Toll which both deal cold damage and I get maybe 1 shattered corpse in 3 runs. When you compare this to faster runs and more safety, I'd say it's worth it, so Duress is a viable option.
 
Re: Council runner questions

Im actually using a Lionheart Great Hauberk.
 
Re: Council runner questions

I have a noob question, would a frenzy build work? It seems the standard is always WW. But frenzy can attack pretty fast, and adding two fast big damage weapons, it should kill fast. Or did I miss anything?
 
Re: Council runner questions

Frenzy barbs will have problems getting decent %chance to hork because of all the synergies. I tried one with Oath/Stormlash and it was pretty awful compared to my Whirler with less fantastic equipment.
 
Re: Council runner questions

Im actually using a Lionheart Great Hauberk.

Yeah, Lionheart is great.


I'm personally having problems getting my Oathwhirler to work really well, but I'm getting somewhere.

Also, if you have AR problems, IK boots add a nice 110 AR.

All right, I figured out a working setup. I hope this helps.
GentleHuricane, level 90
20 Sword Mastery/Whirlwind/BO/Find Item
5 Natural Resistances
2 Increase Speed

Head: 6% Arreat's Face socketed with a mediocre 26% ED Jewel
Body: +2 Arkaine's Valor socketed with a +14% Resist All Jewel
Amulet: Metalgrid 440/305/32 Metalgrid
Belt: Thundergod's Vigor
Ring 1: Dwarf Star
Ring 2: 5% ML/4% LL rare
Boots: IK Pillar
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Weapon 1: "Oath" Colossus Blade from 1.07; 180 - 473 damage 1-handed
Weapon 2: "Oath" Balrog Blade from 1.07; 97 - 495 damage 1-handed
Switch: Dual Echoing spears bought from Malah
Charms: 2x 14% Resist All GC:s
5% Resist all/3%FRW SC
A couple of Steel/Sharp charms

This setup shouldn't be horribly expensive. Oath is ShaelPulMalLum, and a 1.07 base costs around Mal, so the weapons should end up somewhere around Gul + Um if you trade for it. If you don't trade, really, you'll be fine with non-1.07 bases. Metalgrid is kind of expensive, but there are other options there - A rarae can work especially well, and Crescent Moon is pretty nice.


 
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Re: Council runner questions

I'll be building mine with double swing. all the speed of frenzy with less +ED% but only 1 synergy.
 
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