Discussion D2R Zeal Barb

[snickersnack]

I've been revisiting old builds with the new runewords and rebalancing in D2R. I wanted to find some good utility for the Hustle runeword, and if occurred to me that it might be a good prebuff for a Zeal barb. I respecced my FO Frenzy Barb into Zeal:

Weps: Grief PB, Passion PB
Switch: Hustle PB, Lawbringer PB
chest: Fortitude
Helm: Arreat's Face (pemerald, which I'll remove once he gets some levels and can put points into dex)
belt: Vergdungo's
gloves: crafted blood gloves (20% ias)
boots: Gorerider
ammy: Highlord's Wrath
rings: Ravenfrost, Dwarf Star
charms: torch, gheed's, life/ar/elementalDamage/maxDamage/mf

Merc 1: act 2 might
wep: Infinity eth GPA
chest: Treachery
helm: Andy w/ fire res and ias jewel

Merc 2: act 1 fire
wep: Harmony matriarchal bow, +3 skills
chest: Treachery
helm: Andy w/ fire res and ias jewel

I'll try out other mercs at some point.

Skills:
Frenzy: 1
Blade Mastery: 20
Increased Stamina: 20 (makes Frenzy buff last much longer)
Find Potion: 20
Find Item: 1
Grim Ward: 1
Battle Orders: 20
+ 1 point wonders

The Act 2 merc with Infinity works really well in that it buffs damage and basically negates all enemy defense, making AR a non-issue.
The Act 1 merc is also pretty nice in that we stack up extra run/walk speed, but the damage output suffers.
I think that it might be worthwhile to try Lawbringer/Hustle on the Act 5 merc.
For the Act 3 merc, I'm still trying to figure out a good kit. Maybe just buff Enchant?

Gameplay is fairly simple: prebuff with warcries, Frenzy things with switch until BoS and/or Decrepify proc, switch to main and Zeal with Grief until enough things are dead to warrant moving. Cast Grim Ward if things are too slow, then Find Item corpses after the area is cleared. The Act 2 merc really pumps up the damage, getting into 75k DPS territory according to maxroll (almost rivalling a well-built Hammerdin). The Act 1 merc works fine and is pretty fun. You can just zoom around like crazy with Frenzy stacks, BoS, and Vigor, but the damage lacks a bit. It's still totally viable, just not great compared to the desert moron. I don't have a Faith bow in D2R, so that's something to try eventually.

So far, /p7 TZs have melted at a decent pace. Nothing like my mosaicsin, of course, but it's nice to be able to see what you're killing long enough to enjoy it.

Any ideas on other things to try? BTW, I made a Zeal barb a while back.

 

[maxicek]

Aren't you short of + 3 All Skills for the 5 Zeal hits? Or is there an Annihilus too and you are relying on Battle Command? I made Passion in a +3 Zeal War Scepter for my Zeal Barb. That takes care of all the points required in one item.

Personally I prefer String of Ears over Verdungo's PvM, and I would go for LoH too. I don't think 25% CB is doing much at /p7, I would go for raw damage.

 

[SirName]

Aren't you short of + 3 All Skills for the 5 Zeal hits? Or is there an Annihilus too and you are relying on Battle Command? I made Passion in a +3 Zeal War Scepter for my Zeal Barb. That takes care of all the points required in one item.

Personally I prefer String of Ears over Verdungo's PvM, and I would go for LoH too. I don't think 25% CB is doing much at /p7, I would go for raw damage.

Whaat! That really works? Cool. Would a Priests shield (+paladin skills) also add to Zeal once it is enabled by Passion?

Edit: Anni and Highlords were mentioned as equipment so I would guess your guess about BC is right.

 

[snickersnack]

Aren't you short of + 3 All Skills for the 5 Zeal hits? Or is there an Annihilus too and you are relying on Battle Command? I made Passion in a +3 Zeal War Scepter for my Zeal Barb. That takes care of all the points required in one item.

Personally I prefer String of Ears over Verdungo's PvM, and I would go for LoH too. I don't think 25% CB is doing much at /p7, I would go for raw damage.

Yes, I wasn't really worrying about getting 5 attacks per zeal, but it's easy to get 4 attacks by swapping in a BK ring for DS. I also don't have an annihilus yet. According maxroll, using arach's to get to 5 swings barely improves DPS at all, but I'm assuming that those numbers are accurate. Maybe I'll try it out. The slows target might be useful... Then again, SoE is good, as you point out. In fact, if I'm losing DS, then the MDR on SoE would fill that gap.

Using a scepter didn't occur to me, but it turns out that the only ones I have with +zeal have fewer than 4 sockets or can't get 4. Time to start picking up white scepters that can get 4 sockets. (I'll just assume that I've already ditched a cadaceus with +zeal because clean was what I wanted at the time...)

Edit: Thanks for the link to your zealbarb. I hadn't looked at other builds and just went with what I knew from my own in 1.14d. I also have an eDeath CB and faith bow in 1.14d, but I don't want to move them forward. That next Jah rune that drops is going to have a lot of possibilities, and a Faith GMB is a possibility (I'll have to reread that post analyzing the base options).

Another edit: I've also tried a few different pairs of gloves. Drac's are good and I've also tried LoH and Trang's (just to see how much poison damage can be gotten, but on melee, it doesn't add much). I might go back to LoH as you're right about a few points of CB. I also have Steelrend, which I might try out after a respec at some point.

Whaat! That really works? Cool. Would a Priests shield (+paladin skills) also add to Zeal once it is enabled by Passion?

Edit: Anni and Highlords were mentioned as equipment so I would guess your guess about BC is right.

I have a barb torch but no anni yet. But no, a priest's shield wouldn't work as +class skills doesn't work on oskills for other classes. - maybe you already realized that though.