Frenzy Build Type

S

skygoneblue

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Frenzy Build Type

I am working on an axe-frenzy barbarian, and I don't know which route to pursue...

Obviously, the core skills will be

20 Axe Mastery
20 Frenzy
20 Battle Orders

So, what do I use to support?

WarCry?
Taunt?
Double Swing (synergy)?

I don't know if I should go all out with the damage, or play more reserved with WarCry and Taunt.

Any suggestions/experiences are welcome.

Thanks!
 
I was contemplating this myself, and I pretty much decided the following:

-High points in Shout because I'm playing a MF Frenzy Barb, so I'll lose defense due to the focus on MF

-Max or high points in Double Swing depending on your weapon. If you're throwing any kind of BotD on your Frenzy Barb, you won't really need the extra damage from Double Swing in standard PvM, so you can put only low amounts. I, however, am rebuilding my account and therefore I have no wealth to work with when it comes to my barb. So I'll most likely need the extra synergy damage to help with my less than perfect weapons

-Mid points in Find Item for me because of being the MF Barb and all that. Obviously not for every build, it's just the train of thought I'm following

-War Cry isn't too necessary because your incredible attack speed will often interrupt monster's attacks, making it less important to have monsters stunned. But that's mostly because of my playing style and it might work fine for you.

I guess my point is that it will really depend on what you need to do. I need to worry about maxing my damage out first, so I'm going to max (or come close to it) Double Swing and put some points in Find Item due to the MF focus. I don't think War Cry is necessary, especially if you have good gear in PvM, but again, that's how I play. Hope that helped, even if I didn't list off what you should do.
 
the alternative to pumping shout to build your defense is to stun all local enemies with warcry and use taunt to bring any ranged attackers into your warcry radius, this combination shouldn't take more than 10-20 points and any excess points thrown into taunt synergize with frenzy, of course, if you're a MFer and only fight bosses that can't be stunned then this is less relevent
 
Ash Housewares said:
the alternative to pumping shout to build your defense is to stun all local enemies with warcry and use taunt to bring any ranged attackers into your warcry radius, this combination shouldn't take more than 10-20 points and any excess points thrown into taunt synergize with frenzy, of course, if you're a MFer and only fight bosses that can't be stunned then this is less relevent
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Warcry is almost too good i bet they'll nerf it in next patch.
Makes leveling mercenaries easy with a barbarian.
It doesn't work vs bosses but its so useful in Worldstone levels when you just rush into the Glooms and stun them all.
 
Dogbert said:
Warcry is almost too good i bet they'll nerf it in next patch.
Makes leveling mercenaries easy with a barbarian.
It doesn't work vs bosses but its so useful in Worldstone levels when you just rush into the Glooms and stun them all.
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If war cry is "nerfed" I bet I'll quit

I'd suggest going with Taunt and War Cry myself, espcially since taunt is a synergy
 
I'd almost go as far as to say warcry is a necessity if you are playing untwinked. Your attack speed is fast, but not fast enough nor damaging enough without some pretty high-end gear. Warcry vastly improves your survivability.

10 points in warcry gets you about a 3 second stun, which should be long enough.

Other than that, I reccommend shout. Sure defence doesn't matter if your opponents are stunned, but you can't stun chanpions or uniques (well, I've seen champions stunned by it, but not often), and defence really helps there.

So between 10 in warcry and max shout, mastery, frenzy, and BO, as well as 1 point wonders, you are up to about level 90. Any further points you earn can go to taunt/DS for damage.

If you feel you have enough defence, maxing shout isn't necessary, and any points you save here can go to taunt/DS. Shout is helpful for party play as well as your merc, though, and may be better in the long run if you play in groups vs. a little bit more damage from points in synergies.
 
Haha, I appreciate all of the responses, but I have basically gotten nothing decided. You guys have thrown all of the things that I was contemplating back at me.

I just don't know! :lol:
 
Alright, I'll try to nail it down. If you're playing untwinked or you don't have the best dmg, get used to using warcry. If you have godly equipment but are careless, get used to using warcry. If you think you have skill and don't need the safety net, go for max dmg. If you put points into warcry, make sure you have at least 3 second duration.

by the way, blizzard had stated that 1.10 was the last time that major skill balancing would be done, so anything else they do to skills should only be to fix bugs... if they stick to their word.
 
I made a first attempt at a frenzy barb about a week ago. Now it's level 82. I used some warcry and some taunt. My warcry is a little over 4 seconds and it stuns the monsters around giving me a long opertunity to hack away. The skills in taunt give me a little boost in damage that I think is necessary. The only thing that I'm not satisfied with is my BO and Shout being a little low. I compensated for having my points spread out so much by getting as many plus to skills I could while never loosing power for it. I died pretty easily for a while, but damage reduction, increased attack speed, and lots of life leach made helped me out a ton. My character is pretty item dependant so I would recommend that you get Keep BO and Shout high and get warcry high enough to stop everything around you. Hope this helps.
 
if you have extra points, get high level berserk. you warm up with frenzy, and then mash away on stunned monsters with a 9 frame berserk. try to get a really high damage weapon for your right hand like an upgraded headstriker or deathcleaver. you will find that even though you are only using a one handed item, you will kill many if not most hell monsters faster with a frenzied berserk attack than with just frenzy. berserk has a much better attack rating, and its damage is largely unresisted. plus the points synergize frenzy with magic damage while helps you kill mana burn/phys immune monsters like ghosts without dropping defense and losing your mana. makes a great gift for the whole family!


[/quote dunbar] warcry may stun champs/uniques etc [/quote]

from my experience war cry has about a 5% chance to work on champs/bosses. even hell lister can be stunned if you spam enough, although it is hardly worth the mana. its a nice bonus when it happens though.

nerf warcry? why? doesnt make sense. that would be like nerfing bear life or nerfing holy shield. there isnt really a call to nerf defensive abilities. just because warcry can break down 20 monsters at once doesnt mean that you can kill as fast as a caster. you still have to kill the monsters yourself. warcry/bear life/holy shield dont help you kill very much faster, as in hammer or poison or lightning traps or fire sorc fast. and its not exactly idiot proof. it makes the game fun because you have to juggle hot keys. hardly a game-breaking strategy. i would expect blizz to nerf the BO/conc bonus to 5% from 10% long before they nerfed warcry duration or radius or doubled the mana cost.
 
ender wiggin said:
I made a first attempt at a frenzy barb about a week ago. Now it's level 82. I used some warcry and some taunt. My warcry is a little over 4 seconds and it stuns the monsters around giving me a long opertunity to hack away. The skills in taunt give me a little boost in damage that I think is necessary. The only thing that I'm not satisfied with is my BO and Shout being a little low. I compensated for having my points spread out so much by getting as many plus to skills I could while never loosing power for it. I died pretty easily for a while, but damage reduction, increased attack speed, and lots of life leach made helped me out a ton. My character is pretty item dependant so I would recommend that you get Keep BO and Shout high and get warcry high enough to stop everything around you.
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I don't see how shout would be trouble, in theory you're stunning every 3-3.5 seconds and taunting everything into stun range, you shouldn't be getting attacked a whole lot that you would need a ton of defense, 1pt in shout and 1 in iron skin seemed like plenty to me

I saw 2 barbs in a lengthy game I was playing, both frenzy barbs, it warmed my heart it did
 
pff screw bo, i put my points into shout for defense because without a shield you need it!

with 2 angelic rings and an ammy, paired with dracul's grasp, life tap casts quite a bit making bo nearly utterly useless

edit: then again i put points into axe and mace mastery lol, botd zerker for dmg, stormlash for static and crushing blow...just need a damn ber for my stormlash, 53% cb!
 
Vengeful Monkey said:
pff screw bo, i put my points into shout for defense because without a shield you need it!

with 2 angelic rings and an ammy, paired with dracul's grasp, life tap casts quite a bit making bo nearly utterly useless

edit: then again i put points into axe and mace mastery lol, botd zerker for dmg, stormlash for static and crushing blow...just need a damn ber for my stormlash, 53% cb!
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with all the elemental mosters, life is the new defense...
 
memememe173 said:
with all the elemental mosters, life is the new defense...
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naw max res and life tap can get u through anything!

besides, the higher defense you have, the less you get hit so less interuptions with your own attacks = more killing power!!!11!one
 
max res and lifetap will get you through anything as long as your ar is high enough and lifetap triggers, which is once again dependent on your ar being high enough.

Also, high def works up until about 10-15k in pvm, after that it's overkill, because the only monsters that will hit you are the ones with ignore def.
 
mstrnicegui said:
max res and lifetap will get you through anything as long as your ar is high enough and lifetap triggers, which is once again dependent on your ar being high enough.

Also, high def works up until about 10-15k in pvm, after that it's overkill, because the only monsters that will hit you are the ones with ignore def.
Click to expand...

yeah that's why i use 2 angelic rings + ammy :/
 
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