Immortal king set build

[Laozi]

Immortal king set build

I got the Immortal kings will set piece today and wanted to make a build centered around the set.

I have never made a barb nor been interested in making one because i think they are slow and weak in comparison to my freezealot .

What i wanted was a build that fit this set and was as hands free as possible (as in going through early hell not even thinking of using a potion). Bear in mind i need to have 230 some strength at level 76 to fit into the final piece.

 

[JME]

The two best options, which are pretty much the same option, are:

Conc/WW
WW/Conc

Just depends on where you want your focus.

I started out with an IK barb last ladder and my build was Conc/WW:

Max Conc
Max BO (synergy to conc and always useful to any barb)
1 pt WW (still worked great for crowd control with all the +skills IK provides and my additional end-game gear, 6 or 7k iirc with my merc)
Max Mace Mastery
Max Shout
1 point wonders (Battle Command, War Cry, Nat Resist, Iron skin etc)
Bash for the rest

For more of a WW/Conc oriented build just switch the amount of skills I put into Conc into WW instead. Then work on maxing conc, instead of bash, after everything else is done.

Personally, I like my build because I could still get plenty of crowd control from WW, conc could one hit kill pretty much anything anyway, and BO was a natural synergy for it and it gets maxed anyway. However, both will work great.

 

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

I'm also making an IK barb as we speak, but I am going for the second option, WW as the primary skill and conc as a secondary skill. That having been said, I'll still have conc as my left click and WW as the right click.

Assuming the build list above, it will take you to around level 80 to max out either WW or concentrate, and also max out battle orders, shout, and mace mastery once you figure in all the prerequisites and one point wonders. At that point, you really only have two options left for your barb. You can start building on either concentrate or ww - whichever one you decided not to max earlier, with the only other real possibility is to sink points into iron skin.

As of right now, I'm only level 30, so I'm a long way away from deciding what to do post level 80. Also, since my ww is only level 1 right now, I'm still relying almost entirely on concentrate as it is actually outdamaging ww.

Don't forget that some of the other items in the set give you strength bonuses, so you don't need to actually invest 232 hard points into strength to use the Stone Crusher and Soul Cage. You get +20 strength from the gloves, and another +25 strength from the belt, so really, it's not as much strength as you think. Also, there is NO dexterity requirement for any item in the set, so you can get by with base dexterity and apply points exclusively to strength and vitality.

 

[JME]

For most single targets conc performs very well since it receives a nice synergy from BO (which everyone maxes). However, don't underestimate how much damage WW is doing because it isn't the damage but the frequency that makes WW a potent killer.

Conc and WW really go well together, regardless of the method chosen for primary damage delivery.

 

[Laozi]

Thank you all for your useful and quick responses, i will start this barb tomorrow and fund him with my paladin.

 

[pbjax]

I have a lvl 81 IK WW Barb, and he pretty much doesn't die ever. He's also good with mfing and I do meph and andy runs constantly.

if you're doing WW, put 2 shales or 15ias jewels to get WW breakpoint. You have enough CB to kill meph pretty quickly.

I kill meph in under 1 min with a full party=).

Also, since IK is good with mf, carry around one of the Barb dagger things, that give 4 to Find Item. I've found many good items off of searching the Unique Monsters' bodies

 

[Davidus]

remember! comleting the IK set is just the beginning of the quest

with the right charm+socket+rings+amu combo you can inrease your damage/hp/utility greatly.

High leech+phs dam

the 10% leech on IK gloves is low. eqip 2 cathans and you notice a big difference

ED, ED/ias charm in sockets, cham in armor
Highlord's
2x leech+stats rare or just 2x carrion
max dam/other mods charms in inventory

AR+phs dam

2x angelic ring+amu (cham in armor) highest AR+life
raven frost+angelic amu+ring you can use a topaz or anything in the armor
2x raven+highlords less AR more damage you can use a topaz or anything in the armor

inventory full of max dam/x xharms

max elemental dam

2xraven+highlords
ED, ED/ias in sockets

inventory full of elelemntal dam charms(light the best imo) and Infinity on merc
cost a lot but the killing speed doubled^^

Max bo+shout

Highlords/3WC amu+2x BK 5

inv full of WC skillers
lvl45 BO+Shout... this IK barb have the highest life def ofc

Mercenary

Act2 might merc for all!

Helm
Ethereal andy(Ral)
Ethereal forty sacred armor cubed
Ethereal Reaper's(decrepify>pride) for all except the max elemental dam IK baba

with shout+bo your merc can solo everything except ubers

IK BARB IS UNDERRATED

 

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

I also agree that the IK barb is underrated. With the complete set, you get so many bonus skill points that you don't need to have your character choking on +skill charms to be effective in hell difficulty.

Also, since IK is good with mf, carry around one of the Barb dagger things, that give 4 to Find Item.

I'd actually recommend just carrying around two echoing weapons (+3 to all warcries) in your weapon switch. That will still net you +6 to find item, and it's usually more useful to get the bonus +6 to shout and battle orders as well (along with all of the other warcries to boot).

Davidus pretty much gives you the best setup for alternate equipment (especially regarding the sockets). However, if you're planning on making the IK barb an mfer, then you're best bet would be to load up the helm and armor with ptopazes. The set itself is a little light on mf. You get up to 50% on the helm (but potentially as little as 25%), and another 25% on the boots, and with only three other slots free - one of which is probably going to be dedicated to a Raven Frost - that's really not going to cut it in terms of mf. However, there are two open sockets on the helm, and the armor could be given a socket as well, taking you up to another 72% mf. Still not great, but with somewhere between 122% and 147% on the set, you can probably get close to 200% with a decent amulet and ring, which is doable for mfing. Also barb mfers are usually more apt to do pit and pindle runs than boss runs to make use of the find item ability.

The only other way to squeeze any more mf out of the set would be to socket the maul with Ist runes, but that is highly NOT recommended. The ogre maul requires another 30% increase attack speed to hit the last ww breakpoint, and since there's no such thing as 30% increase attack speed rune or jewel, you need both of those open sockets dedicated to increase attack speed. The most economic option there is shael-shael, however, ideally you could find two jewels that give 15% ias each along with a damage modifier.