Matriarch/Patriarch/Guardian Archive Thread

Originally posted by Lord_Vega on Feb 1, 2006:

'Patriarch' DURF

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you... the 8th wonder of the world...

Da Ultimate deleted Force, aka DURF, my newest patriarch :wink2:



Details
*****
Name: DURF
Class: Barbarian (what else? Durfbarian says it all? ^^)
Level: 90
Experience: 1660014370

Stats
****
Str: 60/199
Dex:154/190
Vit: 321/352
Enr: 10/20

Damage (without might)
******
521-1340 (bugged display)
730-2580

Defense
******
10k after cries

Attack Rating
**********
27k

Life
***
4.6k after cries.
I couldn't get even close to TUB's 5.5K life, since I couldn't go with base str and much lower dex due to using Grief instead of EBOTD.

Skills
****
Max BO, axe mastery, whirlwind, shout and leap

Resists in Hell
**********
15, 72, 64, 10

Gear
****
'Enigma' breast plate
'Grief' zerker axe
'Beast' zerker axe
Arreat's Face w/39% ED j00l
Dracul's
Gore Riders
Arch Mesh/Dungo's
Dual Ravens
Highlord's


Most noticable finds with him were the IKSC and... get this... an eth 6 os zerker axe! Perhaps the game was trying to tell me something indeed :wink3:

Not much to tell about him, as just as his mentor TUB, he's been rushed through the game until around level 70, from which he did pit runs to level 90.

I believe he is now ready to kick some serious arse in the pvp arena of the SPF, and with time and patience, perhaps even surpass TUB's legendary status 😁

I would like to thank a few people for the help they gave me with this char.

*Robin, without you I would have no Enigma, so buddy, I couldn't be more grateful. May the day come when you lose your WoW CD, and come back here to get your armor back.

*Justin, thank you alot for the beast, even if it's just on a long-term loan :wink3: I worked so hard to pay you for that faith that I ain't even gonna' use anytime soon, but what the heck ^^ Can't wait to meet you and your new poisonmancer wearing that shiny new little piece of armor we've been working on!

*Kabal, the mentor of DURF, thank you alot for all the tips, tricks and long learning sessions. You've been a huge help and will continue on being so, as I sure have got much to learn still ^^
 
Originally posted by @LozHinge the Unhinged on Oct 21, 2009:

ClubberLang: A semi-twinked IK WhirlyBarb

Patriarch ClubberLang: an IK WhirlyBarb

This is actually my first serious attempt at a melee build. I decided to apply a theme to the character, which was that he would use the full IK set as end-game gear, he would be twinked with two-handed hurty-sticks in the meantime and that he would otherwise be untwinked (other than some Strength Charms to help with the 'Shifter). He is SC, RWM and was single-pass, players 8 all the way (except L5 Countess in each difficulty, I cheesed Players 1 to increase the rune-drop - I know, I feel so dirty).

He died to Lord de Seis in Nightmare purely as a result of my inattention, I didn't have the right skills readied. He also died somewhere else, Act 5 Hell but damned if I can remember where. I seem to recall a PhysImmune Frenzytaur ... no deaths to IM at all, which I am pleased about.

The weapon progression through the levels was thus: Bonesnap @24, Steeldriver @29, Gavel of Pain @45, Bloodtree Stump @48, Windhammer from 68 to 76 and Earth Shifter from 69 to 76 - the last two I alternated between fights, just for the hell of it. The Earth Shifter required that I twink on some Strength charms temporarily, as I did not want to spend any more stat points in Strength than I needed to equip the IKSC and the (other) IKSC. IK gear was equipped as and when I hit the appropriate level, the full set being in place at 76. Oooh, shiny aura!

Gameplay was mostly a breeze, but I now have a very good feel for why mana-burn is such a hated monster mod for meleers. Whirlwind was obviously the killing option of choice, but Concentrate, Berserk and Leap Attack also featured heavily. I chose to spend additional points in Berserk rather than Iron Skin, as seems to be standard practice. I'm happy I did, I seemed to meet a lot of PhysImmunes. Oops, enough blurb already.

Character
Name: ClubberLang
Class: Barbarian
Level: 89

Strength : 187/244
Dexterity: 20/ 40
Vitality : 323/323
Energy : 10/ 14

Life : 1482/3700
Mana: 97/414

Resists (All): 75%

Skills: - base/best switch
Whirlwind 20/28
Berserk 10/18
Pre-Reqs 5
Mace Mastery 20/26
Iron Skin 1/ 7
Nat Resist 1/ 7
Shout 20/27
Taunt 1/ 8
Howl 1/ 8
BO 20/27
BC 1/ 8

Equipment
Standard IK Gear
Helmet socketed with 2x Jewels: +4 Energy, +56 AR, +10 Min/+32 Max Dam in total
Maul socketed with 2x Shael
BO Switch: Echoing War Axe, Sounding Glaive

Code:
Ghoul Torc
Amulet
Required Level: 72
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x354851
Cold Resist +20%
34% Extra Gold from Monsters
32% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+1 to Barbarian Skill Levels
Level 1 Bone Spirit (22/22 Charges)

Storm Touch
Ring
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 68
Fingerprint: 0xdf0fd66c
+81 to Attack Rating
+4 to Minimum Damage
Fire Resist +7%
5% Life stolen per hit

Raven Circle
Ring
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 50
Fingerprint: 0x413d7d87
+98 to Attack Rating
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
Fire Resist +19%
Poison Resist +5%
4% Life stolen per hit
3% Mana stolen per hit

Snake's Grand Charm of Balance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 14
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xf039037a
+25 to Mana
12% Faster Hit Recovery

Sharp Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x152bbaa1
+69 to Attack Rating
+8 to Maximum Damage

Snake's Grand Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 23
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x694d34bb
+6 to Strength
+38 to Mana

Sharp Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0xce3c63b0
+76 to Attack Rating
+7 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Large Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0xd4032ddd
+48 to Attack Rating
+6 to Maximum Damage

Steel Large Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 44
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x426a12cf
+76 to Attack Rating

Serpent's Large Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xaaf93ed7
+5 to Strength
+30 to Mana

Steel Large Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 44
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 77
Fingerprint: 0x5a11e079
+17 to Life
+69 to Attack Rating

Fine Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x9c256118
+14 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage

Steel Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x5b8855b2
+31 to Attack Rating

Fine Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x988382d5
+10 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage

Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x5075f895
+20 to Life

Fine Small Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x9b555091
+1 to Strength
+18 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

Fine Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x5fbc9315
+20 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

5x minor MF SCs totalling 20%MF

The Merc
I chopped and changed a lot, but in the end, settled on an Act 2 Offensive, Blessed Aim variety. AR and CtH was a major pain in the second half of the game. The Merc was equipped with Duskdeep, Iron Pelt and a Strength Ogre Axe. The Meat Scraper figured large during the majority of the merc's career. Iron Pelt was probably the single most useful find for this character for questing purposes. PDR FTW.

Notable Finds
NM Hellforge: Ko
Hell H/F : Pul
Questing: An Ist (!)
Two Bonesnaps (in case he lost the one he twinked)
The nice-ish charms he ended up using
Highlord's Wrath - grailer!
Doombringer Champion Sword - grailer!
Iron Pelt - useful!
Fanatic's Grand Charm
Sparking Grand Charm
Mentalist's Grand Charm
Entrapping Grand Charm

Future Plans
No idea! He's fun, he may well get some WSK action as he is handy in a fight! He will be involved in the testing of various Blood Craft recipes - I've recently been having fun with this part of the game.

Thanks ...
The Immortal King - for his gear.
Cold493 - for his IK guide.
Anyone reading this.
 
Originally posted by @maareek on Feb 13, 2009:

Patriarch Fabian, upped Ribcracker Whirlwinder

After finishing Warren_Zevon, I knew I needed more Ribcracker ownage to sate my D2 blood lust, so the plans were laid for a WWer wielding the, as I like to call it, "Big Thwack, Thwack." Just before I began said char, Fabian held his farewell giveaway, in which he was kind enough to provide me with two items you'll see later on. In an attempt to say thanks, I went ahead and named the new char after him, and off we were. At first I thought this would be the first WW pat using an upped ribby in the mat/pat thread, but when he was about halfway finished I discovered there was one already. Goodbye stylepoints, I guess. That little snag behind us, let's get on to the good stuff.

Stats:

Character name : Fabian
Character type : Barbarian
Character level : 87

Strength : 230 (260)
Energy : 10
Dexterity : 20 (75)
Vitality : 270

Life : 3046 / 1267
Mana : 297 / 96

Damage:

Concentrate, with Might: 3514-6020; AR: 8011
Whirlwind, with Might: 3008-5167; AR: 8196
Berserk, with Might: 3626-6209; AR: 9211

Skills:

Whirlwind: 20(25)
Mace Mastery: 20(23)
Battle Orders: 20(23)
Natural Resistance: 13(16)
Shout: 10(13)
Find Item: 2(used on switch, so lvl=11)
Berserk: 1(6)
Battle Cry: 1(4)

Rest of the points are in required skills; no Increased Stamina or Speed. Got Natural Res to the point where Anya's reward would put me at 75 res all and Find Item didn't look like a good point sink so into Shout they went.

Gear:

Code:
Arreat's Face
Slayer Guard
Defense: 302
Durability: 49 of 55
(Barbarian Only)
Required Strength: 118
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x428b5bdc
+27 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+150% Enhanced Defense
+29% Enhanced Damage
All Resistances +30
6% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+2 to Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Realgar Jewel of Virility
Required Level: 42
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0xa7e7a0fa
+7 to Strength
+29% Enhanced Damage

Metalgrid
Amulet
Required Level: 81
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xf9c5ca51
+438 to Attack Rating
+307 Defense
All Resistances +28
Level 22 Iron Golem (11/11 Charges)
Level 12 Iron Maiden (20/20 Charges)

Duress
Chaos Armor
'ShaelUmThul'
Defense: 991
Durability: 67 of 70
Required Strength: 140
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xe4bdecde
+190% Enhanced Defense
+15% Enhanced Damage
Fire Resist +15%
Lightning Resist +15%
Cold Resist +45%
Poison Resist +15%
Adds 37-133 cold damage over 2 seconds
40% Faster Hit Recovery
33% Chance of Open Wounds
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
-20% Slower Stamina Drain
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x7672ccb4
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+249 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Plague Turn
Ring
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x822aee61
+99 to Attack Rating
All Resistances +8
4% Mana stolen per hit
10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+1 to Light Radius
Level 5 Charged Bolt (32/32 Charges)

String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 111
Durability: 22 of 22
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x42ba33ba
+176% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 14
Damage Reduced by 12%
8% Life stolen per hit
+10 Maximum Durability

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 156
Durability: 32 of 34
Required Strength: 94
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xa0a321b9
+20 to Maximum Stamina
+189% Enhanced Defense
+10 Maximum Durability
Requirements -25%
30% Faster Run/Walk
10% Chance of Open Wounds
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike

Soul Drainer
Vambraces
Defense: 144
Durability: 14 of 16
Required Strength: 106
Required Level: 74
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xa5e0acdd
+112% Enhanced Defense
6% Life stolen per hit
6% Mana stolen per hit
-50 to Monster Defense Per Hit
8% Chance to cast Level 3 Weaken on striking

Heart of the Oak (on switch)
Fabian's Flail
'KoVexPulThul'
One-Hand Damage: 1 to 24
Durability: 30 of 30
Required Dexterity: 35
Required Strength: 41
Required Level: 55
Mace Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xbdb1689a
+10 to Dexterity
All Resistances +39
Adds 3-14 cold damage over 3 seconds
7% Mana stolen per hit
Replenish Life +20
Increase Maximum Mana 15%
40% Faster Cast Rate
75% Damage to Demons
150% Damage to Undead
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
+3 to All Skill Levels
Level 4 Oak Sage (25/25 Charges)
Level 14 Raven (60/60 Charges)
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Echoing Flamberge of Butchery (on switch)
One-Hand Damage: 9 to 41
Two-Hand Damage: 13 to 52
Durability: 100 of 100
Required Dexterity: 49
Required Strength: 70
Required Level: 45
Sword Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x5156696b
+26 to Maximum Damage
+3 to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)

Ribcracker
Stalagmite
'Shael'
Two-Hand Damage: 320 to 479
Durability: 95 of 130
Required Dexterity: 35
Required Strength: 63
Required Level: 56
Staff Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xb0300f16
+15 to Dexterity
+100% Enhanced Defense
+287% Enhanced Damage
+30 to Minimum Damage
+65 to Maximum Damage
+100 Defense
+100 Maximum Durability
Required Level +7
70% Increased Attack Speed
50% Faster Hit Recovery
150% Damage to Undead
50% Chance of Crushing Blow
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Charms:

Code:
Sharp Grand Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xc557b5cd
+13 to Life
+62 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x1fb84863
+15 to Life
+70 to Attack Rating
+8 to Maximum Damage

Steel Small Charm of Balance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xac5a1299
+35 to Attack Rating
5% Faster Hit Recovery

Fine Small Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xdc6a7baa
+2 to Strength
+14 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 23
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0xe4b008f2
+24 to Life
+72 to Attack Rating
+9 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x17995e3d
+15 to Life
+73 to Attack Rating
+9 to Maximum Damage

Fine Small Charm of Balance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0x7b5c00ae
+19 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage
5% Faster Hit Recovery

Steel Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x4b9eb3b9
+17 to Life
+32 to Attack Rating

Sharp Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x56a2955b
+73 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

Steel Small Charm of Good Luck
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0x117aa9e2
+34 to Attack Rating
6% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Steel Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 53
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xa1a1be8c
+34 to Life
+124 to Attack Rating

Sharp Grand Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xa2602520
+6 to Life
+63 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

Steel Small Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x21f3dd6c
+1 to Strength
+29 to Attack Rating

I tried Steelrend instead of the Soul Drainers, but I didn't find the relatively small (~200-300) increase in damage to be worth the lost leech. 10% increase in CB was a non issue since 80% CB rolls quite often with WW anyway.

Waheed,Might merc:

Code:
Duress
Fabian's Archon Plate
'ShaelUmThul'
Defense: 2557
Durability: 31 of 31
Required Strength: 93
Required Level: 63
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x29899e45
+175% Enhanced Defense
+50% Enhanced Defense
+13% Enhanced Damage
Fire Resist +15%
Lightning Resist +15%
Cold Resist +45%
Poison Resist +15%
Adds 37-133 cold damage over 2 seconds
40% Faster Hit Recovery
33% Chance of Open Wounds
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
-20% Slower Stamina Drain
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (3: 3 used)

Andariel's Visage
Demonhead
'Ral'
Defense: 327
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Strength: 102
Required Level: 83
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xf9e86d95
+25 to Strength
+111% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +0%
Poison Resist +70%
+10% to Maximum Poison Resist
9% Life stolen per hit
20% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to All Skill Levels
15% Chance to cast Level 15 Poison Nova when struck
Level 3 Venom (20/20 Charges)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
'Shael'
Two-Hand Damage: 38 to 449
Durability: 65 of 65
Required Dexterity: 89
Required Strength: 114
Required Level: 75
Polearm Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x8b36d443
+219% Enhanced Damage
Adds 4-44 cold damage over 1 seconds
12% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -25%
20% Increased Attack Speed
Ignore Target Defense
33% Deadly Strike
33% Chance to cast Level 1 Decrepify on striking
Socketed (1: 1 used)


Thoughts:

I love this weapon. You can probably spend your runes and make something that does more damage but nothing, and I mean nothing, owns as hard as a Ribcracker. And I don't just mean cost for cost, I'm talking about the fact that none of the other options are as badass as the Ribby. I definitely understand why Nightfish loves it - it's the kind of item that just screams "make chars around me."

Play:

Normal:

Envy hat and gemmed maul + partial Arctic until ~lvl8, then Envy hat and gemmed maul + partial Sigon's until 15. 1.09 Ravenclaw + Iratha's gave way to Bonesnap, then upped Steeldriver. Re-geared at lvl 42, ran Baal until lvl 52.

Nightmare:

Kept the upped Steeldriver until lvl 56, when I could equip the Ribby. Arreat's, Duress, SoE, Gores, Ghoulhide, Ravenfrost, Manald and Saracen's rounded out the gear. Ran the whole way at p8, moved to Hell at 75. No Baal runs besides the quest one.

Hell:

Got to the Pits, put on p7 - later p8 - and set to work. Leveled up to 81 for Metalgrid, then kept going until 85 because I was really enjoying it, and had some nice finds. Moved on at 85, grabbed a Ko from the Countess and made tracks. p7 Andy was a joke; ran through most of Act 2; p5 Duriel barely got out a whimper. Got my fifth Tal's armor in Act 3 while grabbing the Gidbinn. p5 Meph acted like I was a blizz sorc. Act IV was my first taste of gloams - chumps that they were - which I ran past for the most part. p7 Izual died almost disappointingly fast, as did Hephasto. Forge dropped an Ist which was a very welcome sight, indeed.

The Chaos Sanctuary, Diablo's stronghold, was where the game finally decided to put up a roadblock. Multiple OK bosspacks, a couple of them paired with Pit Lord bosspacks, lied in wait, and required very careful navigation. No real NDE's before this point, but plenty occurred here - several times I ended up almost pinned into a corner surrounded by a huge pack of Doom Knights, Pit Lords and Doom Casters, unable to whirl because of the 2 or 3 OK's sitting patiently on the far side of the screen for the animation to start so they could GG me. With liberal use of potions and adept juking skills I managed to snipe the OK's and clear out the area. One ill-advised whirl lead to a single IM death, but considering the 5 OK bosspacks (4 of them Extra Fast, of course) I'm happy with that. Whole thing took between 30-40 minutes, which isn't especially long for the CS, but for a char this powerful that was completely unprecedented. I think now would be a good time to mention that the only problem I had problems hitting, besides Baal, after I left the Pits was with OK's. p5 Diablo (I'd been at p5 for the CS, as well ...yeah, I'm crazy), as you'd expect, dropped in about 15 seconds. Anticlimactic, much?

Act 5 started out ugly: Skeleton archers and quill rats in the Bloody Foothills, but turned out to be not bad at all - didn't see a single Frenzytaur. Majority of the Anya quest consisted of me fleeing from an Extra Fast bosspack of Ghosts for about half the map before Waheed finally caught back up with me. With them decreped I was able to zerk them to death, allowing us to walk right into...Frozenstein's pack backed up by yet another Extra Fast bosspack of Ghosts. Whee! Herded the ghosts around Waheed, then used long whirls that included the beasts to whittle the crowd down. Anya's quest reward got my resists up to 75 all which, with the WSK and its gloams on the horizon, sounded awfully nice.

Ignored Nihlathak; ran through to the Ancients; took them on at p1 without checking their stats (saw conviction but no fana or might so I figured no worries) and lost half my bulb on Talic's death blast. Back to p5 for the WSK: lvl 1 was a snoozefest, but lvl 2 had gloams and caster skeletons. Ran past everything, except for the third critter, bats, which I used to refill my bulb when I could. Stairs down were on the opposite side from the lvl 1 stairs and waypoint, but with 3k life and 75 light res I only needed 2 reds. Level 3 was stuffed with OK's, so I made a beeline for the exit. Throne had gloams, again, of course as well as Pit Lords and vampires, but the gloams were no problem with leechables around them; time for the waves. More disappointment. Lister was Stone Skin, and required a single red potion, but the rest were chumps. p3 Baal was tough to hit at first, but after I got in a few it got easier and easier - by the time Waheed got the decrep to go off I was making consistent contact and the big guy dropped like a wounded goat.

Finds:
-NM Forge: Io
-Hell Forge: Ist
-Tal's armor in the Flayer Jungle
-2/2/2 Tal's orb in the Pits
-Ko rune from Countess
-Um rune in the Pits
-3/3 Poison (die) facet in the Pits
-best hork: Buriza
-Graverobber's Skiller of Quality
-Aldur's hat from chest in Durance 3
-The Ondal's Almighty in the LCS shot
-Lots of nice socketables (eth 0os Thresher, eth 5os CA, eth Monarch, eth Balrog Blade, etc.)
-Plenty of crafting supplies: runes, pgems and jewels.

Fabian (the SPF poster) give me some great items, and Fabian (the char) certainly continued the giving. The most MF he had at any time was 19% (and that was just for Baal), and yet he scored all of those nice finds. Awesome. The Ist is the highest rune that's ever dropped from me, so I'm very well pleased with it.

Deaths:

Five. Same thing caused every one of them. Once in Normal CS, three times in NM CS and once in Hell CS. OK's can bite me.

Future:

Well, this guy has been so much fun and so lucky that it's awfully hard to just park him. That said, he's certainly not an efficient MFer since he can't pack as much MF or kill as fast as my poisonmancer in the Pits. I might try swapping out a sharp GC for a gheed's and the Soul Drainers for Chancies and see what happens from there. Most likely I'll do some runs with him from time to time when the urge hits, but I suspect he'll spend most of his time enjoying retirement. Was really fun, though.

As for the char on deck: an emulation of sirpoopsalot's Glacial Spike sorceress. Should be fun. After that, I'm not sure. I just finished Griswold's set, so I need to figure out some pally build; I've been wanting to do an amazon for awhile, and now I have a Windforce so I'll have to decide whether I want to go the javazon or strafer route; of course, now that I've seen the power of the upped Ribby, trying out Nightfish's "Daevana" sounds quite tempting as well; and then there's the upped eth Hone Sundan whirler I want to do, as well. I'm thinking I might have wanted to do that one before the Ribby, but we'll see.

Thanks for reading and I really hope some of you try out the Ribcracker WWer. It's not ground breaking stuff, but it's not seen nearly enough, in my opinion.

I'd also like to specifically thank a few people before I take off:

-Fabian, for his awesome giveaway and, of course, the HotO and eth Duress.
-Rummski, for the jewel in the Arreat's.
-Ravenlord, for the rare ring, 2 of the Sharp GC's and the Fine SC of Balance.
 
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Originally posted by maxgerin on Jun 24, 2006:

Class-specific Set Pat/Mat Countdown: 5 out of 7

Long overdued pat thread.
I always forget to post about this pat...since a month or two ago...:rolleyes:

Immortal King's WhirlWind Barbarian

Character name : Patriarch Nimrod
Character type : Barbarian
Character level : 88
Character exp : 1397708955

Strength : 190/235
Energy : 10
Dexterity : 20/80
Vitality : 300
Stat Points Rem : 15
Skill Points Rem: 5

Life : 3324 / 1389
Mana : 392 / 97
Stamina : 1498 / 454

Hell Resists
Fire: 75
Cold: 67
Lightning: 75
Poison: 75

Skills:

Warcries
1/7 Howl
20/26 Shout
20/26 Battle Orders
1/7 Battle Command
1/7 Find Potion
1/7 Find Item

Combat Masteries
20/26 Mace Mastery
1/7 Increased Stamina
1/7 Increased Speed
1/7 Iron Skin
1/7 Natural Resistance

Combat Skills
20/28 Whirlwind
5 for Pre-reqs (slvl9 with items)
1/9 Berserk

Nimrod's Gears:

Helm: Immortal King's Will (with 2 PTopaz)
Armor: Immortal King's Soul Cage (with 1 PTopaz)
Weapon: Immortal King's Stone Crusher (with 2 ed/ias j00ls: total of +32%ed/+30%ias)
Switch: Naj's Puzzler
Gloves: Immortal King's Forge
Belt: Immortal King's Detail
Boots: Immortal King's Pillar
Ring: Raven Frost
Ring: Raven Frost
Ammy: Highlord's Wrath

Backpack: mostly 7%mfsc's and a Gheed's

Merc Ahsab's (Might, level 88) Gears:
Helm--Guillaume's Face
Armor--Duress Archon Plate
Weapon--Eth Reaper's Toll

I don't think I need to say anything about the play...not that I recall it.
Died a couple of times, but that's before the set. After, barbs do become immortal.
Both NM and Hell Hellforges dropped good runes, iirc.
That's it...as far as I can remember.
Trying to reach clvl90, but too many projects on-going. But I will reach that before I can say the character is complete.

--maxgerin
 
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Originally posted by maxgerin on Jul 29, 2008:

Pat DeVaughn -- Dual Axe Whirler Barb

Pat DeVaughn -- Dual Axe Whirler Barb


Character name : DeVaughn
Character type : Barbarian
Character level : 90
Character exp : 1654839311


Stats:
Strength : 105/162
Energy : 10/35
Dexterity : 20/71
Vitality : 310/310
Stat Points Rem : 100
Skill Points Rem: 11


Equipment:
Helm: Arreat's Face ("Shael" / 6%LL)
Amulet: Crafted Dread Wing (+6 Resist All / 5% LL / 6% ML / +26 Mana / +7% FCR / 6% Regen Mana)
Armor: Fortitude Archon Plate (30% Resist All / gives +1 Life per clvl)
Weapon 1: Indestructible Eth "Beast" BA (+249% ED / +33 Str)
Weapon 2: Indestructible Eth "Grief" BA (+34% IAS / +397 Damage / -25% PR / +14 Life per Kill)
Switch Weapon: Naj's Puzzler
Gloves: Crafted Stone Finger (+10% IAS / +10% CB / +6% LL / +3% ML / +10% Cold Resist / +13 Life)
Belt: String of Ears (+8% LL / 15% DR / 12 MDR)
Ring 1: Rare Entropy Grip (+6% ML / +11% RA / +14% LR / +100 AR/ +9 Dex / +15 Energy)
Ring 2: Raven Frost (+20DEX / +248AR)
Boots: Gore Rider


Inventory:
8 Shimmering SC's of something, 3 Fine SC's of something, and 16 SC's of assorted Elemental/Poison Damage.
Total Bonus from Charms:
+38% Resist All
+25% Faster Hit Recovery (useless, next breakpoint is 86 and all I have is 75%)
+9--317 Lightning Damage
+57--100 Cold Damage
+29--49 Fire Damage
+ 2x +175 over 6 Poison Damage
+15% Faster Run/Walk
+29 Life
+7% Magic Find
+4 Dexterity
+2 Strength


Skills:
Whirlwind: 20
Whirlwind pre-reqs: 1 each (5 total)
Axe Master: 20
Inc Stamina, Speed, Iron Skin, Natural Resistance: 1 each (4 total)
BO: 20
Shout: 20
Howl: 1
ITEM BONUS: +2 All Skills, and +2 Combat Skills


Merc:
Ilzan--Holy Freeze
Helm: eth Andy's with +30% FR / +15%IAS j00l
Armor: eth "Fortitude" Archon Plate (+30% RA / +1.125 Life per clvl)
Weapon: eth "Infinity" Cryptic Axe (+289% ED / -47% LR)


Game Play:
Played Normal mostly on /p8. Used the always-handy v1.09 Raven Claw until clvl40+. After which I went with dual Butcher's Pupils until I can use Beast/Grief. Upon equipping those uber axes nothing can stop the carnage.
Nightmare was played mostly on /p8--/p5. Hell on /p3--/p1.
The clvl is kinda high cause I opted to run /p8 Pindle from early 80's until clvl90.
It took approximately the same time to quest and to level him through those runs.
Spent 1-1/2 weeks to quest on moderate playing mode, and 1 week to level on more dedicated playing.

Finds (those I cared to note down):
NM / Hell Forge: nothing interesting.
Spiritual Grand Charm of Sustenance
Heaven's Light (+278% ED / everything else variable is perfect)
Carrion Wind
Rare Shadow Claw Light Gauntlets (+10% IAS / +3% ML / +15% FR / +15% PR / +7% LR) not uber, but all the nice mods :rolleyes:
Halaberd's Reign <----- this one I'm not so sure, but I think it's from DeVaughn...


So, what should I do with those stat/skill points?
Maybe I should add some strength...realize I was relying too much on the +20str of CoH when I took it off for Fort and died, I got a problem with picking up my body and I have to re-equip CoH again just to use the Arreat's and those Axes. :badteeth:


Suggestions, Comments, Rants, whatever, will be appreciated. :)


Some acknowledgments:
(1) Jaedhann for telling me to make this build.
(2) DarkChaos for giving me those nice Shimmering and Elemental SC's, among other items.
And you guys for reading.
Thanks! 👍


--maxgerin
 
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Originally posted by @maxicek on Mar 16, 2010:

Patriarch The_Kurgan, 'Highlander' Themed WW Barbarian (rebuild)

The_Kurgan
Patriarch The_Kurgan, 'Highlander' Themed Whirlwind Barbarian

Survivors fleeing from the east tell tales of a great warrior re-awakened, a barbarian that strikes fear into the heart of every man. They even say that the demons and the undead fear his coming. As he cuts through his enemies, one cry can be heard above the din of the battle...

There can be only one!


This is a re-make of my original Kurgan. The first one was one of my first five SP characters, and it was in the pat thread that Aitrus first suggested that I should do a 2h sword sept. When I made the eBoTD it was obvious that I was going to make a WW barb, so I decided to rebuild one of my favourite characters. And as "There can be only one!" the original got deleted. I probably could have done a 1.13 re-spec on him, but I wanted to enjoy the pwn of the weapon whilst questing, so I did it the old fashioned way.

For those too lazy to click the ink and read the previous thread, he is based on the villain in the 1986 film Highlander. The skill selection is different to my original pat and the equipment has improved greatly. He still has the bone helm to get the look of The Kurgan in the first battle. If you haven't seen the film, it's a cult classic, watch it. Don't be put off by the useless sequels or the TV series.


Stats
Name: The_Kurgan
Class: Barbarian
Experience: 1682862189
Level: 90

Naked/Gear
Strength: 111/174
Dexterity: 124/200
Vitality: 300/330
Energy: 10/40
HP: 1393/1534 - Over 3K with BO.
Mana: 99/226
Stamina: 456/476
Defense: A bit over 10K

Whirlwind Damage: 4438-9732 / 7923 AR
Berserk Damage: 4996-11K / 8417 AR

Now those are damage figures that I like. The Berserk Damage is almost as much as that on my PDR Berserker, Urlik_Skarsol.

Resists
Fire: 81
Cold: 38
Lightning: 81
Poison: 59

MF: 39 Block: 25
GF: 117
FR/W: 44
FHR: 35
IAS: 100
FCR: 25


Skills
Bash: 1/2
Leap: 17/18
Stun: 1/2
Leap Attack: 1/2
Concentrate: 1/2
Whirlwind: 20/21
Berserk: 1/2

Sword Mastery: 20/21
Increased Stamina: 1/2
Iron Skin: 1/2
Increased Speed: 3/4
Natural Resistance: 6/7

Howl: 1/2
Shout: 6/7
Battle Orders: 20/21
Battle Command: 1/2


Equipment
Weapon: 1.07 Ethereal 'Breath of The Dying' Colossus Blade

Switch: 2x Echoing Swords

Helm: Natalya's Totem 'Shael'
Armour: 'Fortitude' Archon Plate
Belt: String of Ears
Boots: Gore Riders
Gloves: Laying of Hands

Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Ring1: Ravenfrost
Ring2: Rare 'Rune Gyre'

Inventory: Both Tomes, various AR / resist charms. It seems that I had a Gheeds in there too, I must have left that there when I was running the Pits. The inventory has much room for optimisation, I just muled on charms from the stash. Some of my better charms are on other characters and I couldn't be bothered to shuffle them around.

I was intending to swap String of Ears for Verdungo's when I equipped BOTD, but kind of forgot. With so much leech and so high damage it is almost like having life tap trigger from Dracul's - everything that is leechable fills the life bulb almost instantly.

Natalya's Totem was used to get the bone helm look. I chose it for the great stats and resists. I considered Vampire Gaze, but decided to see how I got on without the %DR on Nat's. Plus Vamp Gaze is green. Natalya's Totem is not quite Arreat's, but it is reasonably close.

Equipment Readouts:
Code:
Breath of the Dying
Colossus Blade
VexHelElEldZodEth
One Hand Damage: 198 - 520
Two Hand Damage: 467 - 923
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Level: 69
Required Strength: 144
Required Dexterity: 80
Fingerprint: 0x3fffe1eb
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion
50% Chance to cast level 20 Poison Nova when you Kill an Enemy
Indestructible
+60% Increased Attack Speed
437% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
+50 to Attack Rating
+200% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
7% Mana stolen per hit
13% Life stolen per hit
Prevent Monster Heal
All Stats +30
+1 to Light Radius
Requirements -20%
Ethereal
6 Sockets (6 used)
Socketed: Vex Rune
Socketed: Hel Rune
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Eld Rune
Socketed: Zod Rune
Socketed: Eth Rune

Fortitude
Archon Plate
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 1515
Durability: 49 of 60
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 103
Fingerprint: 0xe5dc704a
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+101 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +25
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

Natalya's Totem
Grim Helm
Defense: 253
Durability: 26 of 40
Required Level: 59
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0x38f8a23b
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+153 Defense
+18 to Strength
+26 to Dexterity
All Resistances +19
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 102
Durability: 13 of 22
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0xa25f3a2b
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
7% Life stolen per hit
+151% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 14%
Magic Damage Reduced by 14
+10 Maximum Durability

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 160
Durability: 25 of 34
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 94
Fingerprint: 0x48b98e1a
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Run/Walk
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
10% Chance of Open Wounds
+198% Enhanced Defense
+20 Maximum Stamina
Requirements -25%
+10 Maximum Durability

Laying of Hands
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 81
Durability: 6 of 12
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x549f30ea
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 3 Holy Bolt on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+350% Damage to Demons
+25 Defense
Fire Resist +50%

Rune Gyre
Ring
Required Level: 30
Fingerprint: 0x7f4de8b3
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+99 to Attack Rating
+9 to Strength
+70 to Mana
Poison Resist +28%
Half Freeze Duration

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x37b00278
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+218 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0xe4ab3648
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 1 - 30 Lightning Damage
33% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
Lightning Resist +35%
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15
Steel Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x459c89b3
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+100 to Attack Rating
+24 to Life

Lapis Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0xec5fd8a4
Item Level: 70
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +7%

Steel Grand Charm of Inertia
Grand Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0x42d76896
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+7% Faster Run/Walk
+127 to Attack Rating

Steel Grand Charm of Inertia
Grand Charm
Required Level: 35
Fingerprint: 0xa633a63b
Item Level: 60
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+7% Faster Run/Walk
+117 to Attack Rating

Steel Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0x11dfce2e
Item Level: 56
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+123 to Attack Rating

Tangerine Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x305f052a
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5% Faster Hit Recovery
Lightning Resist +5%

Steel Grand Charm of Life
Grand Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0x465235af
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+128 to Attack Rating
+16 to Life

Serpent's Small Charm of Lightning
Small Charm
Required Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0xf3e8ff6b
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 10 Lightning Damage
+17 to Mana

Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Required Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0x28220c5a
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
117% Extra Gold from Monsters
Reduces all Vendor Prices 11%
39% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x7ef2bcc5
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5% Faster Hit Recovery

Shimmering Grand Charm of Shock
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xd3c5766c
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 2 Lightning Damage
All Resistances +15

Shimmering Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0x3fabf97f
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Strength
All Resistances +3

Steel Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xc7d63c6c
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+29 to Attack Rating
+2 to Strength

Amber Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xf0d700ab
Item Level: 83
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Strength
Lightning Resist +10%

Echoing Flamberge of Lightning
Flamberge
One Hand Damage: 9 - 15
Two Hand Damage: 13 - 26
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 70
Required Dexterity: 49
Fingerprint: 0x3df0131b
Item Level: 97
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)
Adds 1 - 11 Lightning Damage

Echoing Bastard Sword
Bastard Sword
One Hand Damage: 7 - 19
Two Hand Damage: 20 - 28
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 62
Fingerprint: 0x3c8fe4f9
Item Level: 97
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)

Mercenary Equipment
Mercenary Type: A2 NM Offensive
Helm: Tal Rasha's HC
Armour: Treachery
Weapon: Reaper's Toll


Finds
Hellforge: Fal NM,Ko Hell.
Well finds were pretty good for a change - the benefit of playing at /players8 and 1.13b. I found an Um and Doombringer (one of my favourite swords) in the Jungle, Diablo dropped be a Gul and his Essence. I levelled to 90 in The Pits which rewarded me with a Gul and The Stone of Jordan. Probably my best find was in one of the open areas of Act 5:
Natural Grand Charm of Vita
Grand Charm
Required Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x99204302
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Elemental Skills (Druid Only)
+39 to Life

I have a lvl 90 wind druid, but I will probably end up trading this one for something more useful to me. I don't want to spread my PvP wealth over too many different classes.


Random Thoughts
When I was planning this character, I didn't want him to just be a high damage PvM melee character. I have so many characters that I have built with noble intentions to be things like melee Baal runners, but most of them never get played beyond Patriarch. Characters that get levelled further for me need to be either built as a MF character, or as a PvP character. So I decided that I wanted this build to be PvP capable. I'm not saying he will be as efficient a killer as a specifically designed BvC, but I wanted him to be able to go out on the Blood Moor and be competitive.

So that decided, how to build him? Well I wanted to be able to wear Fortitude PvM, so that strength requirement made BvC seem a bit pointless. BvB seemed a bit too limited. Sure, killing a few BvCs would be fun but, the way most SP PvP games seem to go, I would get fried by a sorc before I even got close enough. So I decided to build a BvA, hence the 17 points in Leap an the high Dexterity. The great thing about Natalya's Totem and BoTD is there is a huge dext boost, so getting max block isn't too big a deal. At one point I was contemplated using Beast in the off hand and pumping two masteries, but calculations showed that two swords would be better. Anyway, I can always re-spec him if I change my mind.

He started his journey in 1.12, but I converted to 1.13 just before he hit the nightmare Chaos Sanctuary. CS has really lost it's teeth with the IM removal. I quite like it now though, I always felt annoyed rather than beaten when I had an IM death. It isn't the same feeling as getting killed by a nasty boss pack. Hell was /players8 all the way, including Baal and The Ancients.

All that damage and leech made playing through the game a breeze. The Ancients were easy, Baal was marginally annoying because of his mana burn attack, but no real problem. In fact is was mana burn that gave me my biggest problems, and a couple of deaths. For me mana burn is the new IM. Lister spawned mana burn, but after I seperated the pack he went down fairly quickly.

So what make eBoTD so good?
On many fronts other cheaper weapons are better. Death is more damaging thanks to the deadly strike if you don't need IAS on weapon. 2x Grief will do more damage on a WW Barb. eBoTD is very liberating for other equipment choices. You don't really need any leech elsewhere and the stat boost is fantastic. What I really like is the damage to Undead. When you couple this with Laying of Hands, it is almost like wearing Fortitude. Add Fortitude in too and the damage is sick. I have played 2h sword characters at /players1 who had a harder time killing monsters than this build did at /players8.


Thanks
Thanks once more to Corrupted for returning the Zod rune / giving me an Enigma depending on how you choose to look at it.
Thanks if you have managed to read this far through the wall of text.


What Next?
At the moment I am trying to level up some characters for PvP Week. I'm also running Travincal like many others. That will keep me busy for a bit, but I think I will play some PvM assassins after that. I stil haven't found the motivation to play the Amazon for my second 2h Sword sept, I'm kind of hoping a nice rune drop will give me the inspiration I need. I also have a few more characters that have made Pat / Mat recently, so I may write then up after PvP week.
 
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Originally posted by MuddyWaters on Sep 30, 2008:

Questions bout Barb and Zon (and hi from Brazil)

Hi folks,

Sorry for my bad English, I'm brazilian, so don't bash me too hard lol.

I'm both a newcomer and an old timer to Diablo 2 and those SP forums. I played a lot of the game and posted here around the time of the 1.09 patch. I take a looong break from the game, but started playing it again for the sake of the old times. If by any chance, still there is some old timer around, let me know. I remember fine guys like Waimea, Greybeard, Hakai no Tenshi and many others. My username used to be just Muddy.

So, I got some questions. I always enjoyed the barb class, so I resumed my gaming with a brand new one. Sucker is doing fine until now, but I'm just I Act 3 normal and I intend to go all the way until hell. I want to make him a WW barb, because those used to be pure fun and very effectives characters. Was WW nerfed in the 1.12 version? Does it remains the most powerful barb skill or I should go for something else instead?

Also, I'm interested in buiding a Zon. I'm not experienced with the class, so my intention is to go for a very much cookie cutter build. I want to make a bowazon and need some tips on skills distribution. Or maybe someone can point me to a good guide.

I probably will have some other questions along the way, but those are enough for now. Thanks to all in advance

midnightvulture said:
Hi. I'm no old timer, but welcome back anyway.

WW is still a good barb skill, though it has been toned down a bit from the old days. As far as building a zon, lots of folks like either a fishyzon (named after Nightfish) which maxes Lightning Fury and Charged Strike and also Frozen Arrow and its damage synergy (I think it's cold arrow).

The other really popular choice is the Fury (pure lightning Spear zon). Guides for both are in the stickies.

Many other options are available of course, but some would require better gear. Both of those are fairly powerful with gear you can find yourself without a ton of trouble. If you're not against charity, there are a lot of giveaways in the trade forum to get you started as well.

Try a tournament while you're at it, IMO they're one of the best parts of the forum.

mv
Pijus said:
Just in case you don't know, things really changed since the 1.09 days. If you haven't played 1.10 or later hell difficulty, read some character guides to get an idea of how to distribute skill and stat points now.

I found this in the 1.10 patch notes:
"- Increased difficulty for high-level players to reduce future
exploitation of the game system.
- Made monsters tougher
- Beefed up monster difficulty in Act V, Nightmare, and Hell
difficulties. This was accomplished by improving monster stats (hp, ac,
etc.) and by boosting their AI/behavior in NM and Hell difficulties
(that is, by making decisions more often and by simply moving faster).
In Nightmare and Hell difficulties monster damages have generally been
increased -- dramatically in some cases."
Cius said:
Hey Muddy. Those two characters where also my fav's in 1.09 when physical damage reigned supreme. Nowadays in 1.10+ half of the monsters in hell seem to be physical immune so the old almighty whirlwind barb and multishot amazon are suddenly very underpowered. Definitely read up some build guides and try some casters first perhaps. Magezon and zerker barb are good options still though I should mention.
Antonio said:
Well, I wouldn't say that there is much of physical immune in Hell, it seems PI is the least frequent immunity and there are more ways to bypass it (ctc dectep, amp, elemental damage switch). But the thing is that for most physical damage characters you will need decent equipment (weapons primarily), while casters only need a good skill point allocation to do well in Hell. That makes casters much more easier to play if you don't have good equipment.

Lightning trap assassin, meteorb sorceress, summoning necromancer, LF/FA amazon... Those are all popular starting characters, not bound by very specific gear demands and very powerful.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that you can't make an untwinked WW barb or strafe amazon, it's just that there are easier ways (arguably more enjoyable too).
MuddyWaters said:
My barb got to Act 5 normal. Level 29. He's building his BO by now. He's is doing fine I guess. My problem seems to be both damage and leech. My weapons pretty much suck in the damage department. The guy has bad luck in finding good swords. In the other hand he as able to find some good low level bows that probably will help my incoming zon a lot. I’m not sure if I should continue pumping BO by no or start putting points in WW, that will be available at level 30 and returning to BO later. Any suggestion?

I considered the idea of turning him in a zerker, as ww seems to be nerfed nowadays, but WW is so much funnier than a swing attack that I could no resist to using it. Don’t kno if he’ll cut through hell, as the build definitively seems to be very equipment dependent…

Man, is funny to be back to dii.net…
Jcakes said:
IMHO, with an untwinked barb you probably want to max BO first with just 1 pt in WW (this way you will have more mana and WW won't cost you too much).
elponeis said:
MuddyWaters said:
Hi folks,

Sorry for my bad English, I'm brazilian, so don't bash me too hard lol.

I'm both a newcomer and an old timer to Diablo 2 and those SP forums. I played a lot of the game and posted here around the time of the 1.09 patch. I take a looong break from the game, but started playing it again for the sake of the old times. If by any chance, still there is some old timer around, let me know. I remember fine guys like Waimea, Greybeard, Hakai no Tenshi and many others. My username used to be just Muddy.

So, I got some questions. I always enjoyed the barb class, so I resumed my gaming with a brand new one. Sucker is doing fine until now, but I'm just I Act 3 normal and I intend to go all the way until hell. I want to make him a WW barb, because those used to be pure fun and very effectives characters. Was WW nerfed in the 1.12 version? Does it remains the most powerful barb skill or I should go for something else instead?

Also, I'm interested in buiding a Zon. I'm not experienced with the class, so my intention is to go for a very much cookie cutter build. I want to make a bowazon and need some tips on skills distribution. Or maybe someone can point me to a good guide.

I probably will have some other questions along the way, but those are enough for now. Thanks to all in advance
Epa! Brasileiro! Bem vindo 👋

I'll write in english.

WW in 1.10 upwards depends only on the weapon speed. Also, ctc doesn't work too. It is still very powerful, but IMO more weapon dependant now, as you'll need a fast, damaging weapon, good range. Spears and Polearms come to mind, 2x Shael IK Maul being a cheap choice.

About zon, I cant say much, but they lack some punch, IMO.
Ugla said:
elponeis said:
About zon, I cant say much, but they lack some punch, IMO.
They have a lot of pointy sticks instead, which they can deliver with surprising speed and accuracy 😉

@MuddyWaters: untwinked bowzons are not exactly cookie-cutters, but a frostmaiden with some physical backup should hold her ground just fine.
MuddyWaters said:
Thanks for the replies guys, very appreciated.

Well, level 45, Act 2 nightmare and things are looking a bit too messy. In normal Kurast I found the unique long sword and it helped a lot. But now my damage simply isn’t cutting anymore. I need something with some extra punch. I’m pestering the vendors but they never seem to have anything good. I’m building my BO and WW, (12 and 8 respectively). Let’s see hat happens.

I want to question about mercs. If I remember right, Act 2 mercs were the usual choice for a WW barb. Which kind is best? Defensive or offensive? I should hire them in nightmare difficult or other? I remember they had different auras if you got them depending on difficult level you hire them. That’s all for now.

PS: Fala elponeis, legal ver um compatriota a bordo.
Ugla said:
Normal difficulty:
defensive = Defiance aura (+% Defense)
offensive = Blessed Aim (+% Attack Rating)

Nightmare:
defensive = Holy Freeze aura
offensive =Might Aura (+% Enhanced Damage)

Barbs need damage => Might is the way to go. You can hire a merc of ~ your level nowadays.
MuddyWaters said:
An little update: Elzix was kind enough to offer me a merciless shamshir of gore. I’m not in my playing machine and I don’t remember right now if that’s the right name. I know it has 99% ED plus +13 to max damage. I hadn’t enough time to test, but I thing that this damage increment along with the boost provided by my brand new Act 2 nightmare merc should be enough to make me keeping going for a while.

I’m losing the 5% dual leech of the unique long sword, (which name I’m always forgetting), but I hope that the increased damage will make for it. My only leech now is in the jewelry. I got 3% mana in one ring and 6% life in the other. It’s not enough for continuous WW and I have to revert to CONC from time to time for leeching purposes.

I played a bit with the act 2 merc and he’s doing better than the rogue as expected. As I’m using WW, I’m always moving and the monsters had a tendency of swarming my merc. Rogue merc seems don’t support too much punishment, and if we encounter specially nasty foes, her life bar drops faster than I can come to rescue her sorry back. Since we started nightmare level, she was dying a lot. Act 2 merc seems stronger. Also I found the unique mask, that has a 50% chance of monster to flee. I put it in the merc, hoping that it will help him in not getting himself ambushed for mobs of enemies. Let’s see how it works.

The today questions:

Is nightmare Meph a good source for mid game itens? I’m thinking in farming him a bit when the time comes. Does anyone knows if him can drop all, or at least most of the exceptional unique swords?

I’m focusing my attributes points primarily in vitality and in strength in a lesser extension. Invested a few points in dexterity and none in energy (off course). I know PvP barbs has to focus a lot in vit and keep str em dext in the minimum. But as mine is a PvM character, I’m considering the idea of spending more points in strength to make him hit harder and relying in leech for keeping me alive. As I’m using a shield along my sword, maybe I should invest some in dexterity too, to help me with the %chance to block. I don’t know. Really would appreciate some thoughts on this subject.

Thanks to all that read so far. ;)
Fast Eddie said:
NM Meph is amazing to run for mid-level items, especially if you're untwinked or starting again, which you sound like you are. However, as most bosses, he is best run with a sorc, unless you roll a good map where the stairs are within running distance of the WP. I don't know about the types of things he can drop, but he can drop things like Chance Guards which will help your MF if you don't have them already.

If you are starting from scratch but don't mind getting free items (and who doesn't!) perhaps you would consider making a Trader Profile in the SPTF and looking at the Giveaway threads?

Take care.
MuddyWaters said:
Thanks for the advice, Eddie. I guess I will do some nightmare Mephs eventually.

And yes, I’m starting again with the game. All my previous characters and equipment were lost in a computer crash. In my old days I didn’t have any of the ultra rare stuff, but actually was able to find or trade for some decent gear like Arreat’s Face, Baranar Star etc. So it’s a bit strange to come back with empty hands, but in the end, it’s for good, because this way I must rely only in skill and knowledge to beat the game. It’s kind of a challenge, you know.

But if things go too hectic, I may check that giveaway thread. *laughs*
MuddyWaters said:
Well, level 69 right now. Finished nightmare, but hasn't ventured through hell yet. The character is now "mature" in his build. He has maxed sword mastery, WW and BO, 2 points in natural resistance, 1 in berserk, and 1 in battle commands. His shout skill level is about five and I will try to maximize it from now on, because of how well the synergies work with BC, BO and Shout.

I made some nightmare Meph runs before beating Baal, but I wasn't high level enough to beat Meph quickly and safely. But at least Meph provided with the weapon that made my life in Act 5 so much easier: the unique ancient sword, The Atlantian. After finishing Act 5 and gaining some more levels, I resumed my Meph runs. I found String of Ears belt that I will be using for questing, as for Meph runs I'm using Goldwrap.

I also find decent rare boots and gloves. Anya actually presented me with a half decent helm with some useful boosts to masteries and warcries.

Equipment goes like this:

- Weapon: the Atlantian (exceptional unique mythical sword): very good at the moment. Don't know if it would be enough to cut through hell. Seems like in 1.10 and after is possible to upgrade it to elite using the horadric cube and the 1 Fal Rune + 1 Um Rune + 1 Perfect Sapphire recipe. Ain't that right? Even then I don't know if it would be a good idea for two reasons. First, I doubt I will be seeing a Um rune anytime soon and second, the dexterity requirements will raise a lot, from 88 to 124. Maybe my best bet would be to look for a nice ED, low dexterity requirement elite sword in hell at some point.

- Shield: Stormchaser (exceptional unique scutum): nothing to write home, but at least helps with the lightning resistance. Really would like to have more blocking and general resistances in this slot.

- Armor: Rattlecage (unique gothic plate): found with some monster in the normal frozen tundra. The 25% crushing blow helps a lot. The Hit Causes Monster to Flee 40% can be annoying sometimes, as when the enemy lifebar is almost empty and he flees, but is also useful for mob control. WW around the monster pack and some of them will flee, allowing me to deal with the others. I was expecting to find something better with Meph, but hasn't luck until now. I'm thinking about to upgrade it with the Tal Rune + 1 Shael Rune + 1 Perfect Diamond + Normal Unique Armor --> Exceptional Version of Armor horadric cube recipe.

- Belt: String of Ears (exceptional unique Demonhide Sash). Very nice. Probably will be using it until the end of the game.

- Boots/Gloves/helm: rare ones with some useful properties like life leech in the gloves and boosts to skills, resistances and attributes.

- Jewelery: a decent rare ring with 6% life leech and other attributes. The other ring slot is occupied with a single attribute magical 5% mana leech. Mediocre I know, but it's my only mana leech source. The rare amulet isn't very good too, could use something better. I'm always gambling for rings and amulets.

- Alternative weapons: 2 +2 to warcries swords to boost the BC+shout+BO combo before the battle. Eventually to be replaced for two echoing weapons.

- Merc: Nightmare Act 2 merc using Face of Horror mask, Iceblink splint mail and Hwanin's Justice
Bill. He needs some urgent life leech.

I'm a bit bored from Meph runs, so I think I will try hell to see what happens...
MuddyWaters said:
Oh my. Tried some hell action and was surprised how hard it is in 1.12. Will level bit before a new try. Which level you guys think is ok for hell?
Pijus said:
Um... 70?
But IMO good weapons are just as important for a barb as level.
Low Key said:
I'd go with 75. Running Nightmare Baal is pretty good exp until that point, maybe a bit higher. Most Hell monsters are at least level 75 themselves, which affects things like chance-to-hit. Not that big of a deal with a spellcaster, but both melee characters and mercenaries benefit from having a high level in Hell.

Also, most builds cannot keep up a good killing speed in Hell on higher player settings. Dropping down to p1 or p3 might help too, if you're on a higher setting.
MuddyWaters said:
Yeah, I’ve noticed my chances to hit dropped a lot in Hell. Anyway, I leveled a bit, to level 73 and things are looking a little better. Most of the time I don’t have problems with the regular monsters. The worst are the chiefs. Seems Blizzard gave them quite a boost in the new patches. Things like curses that weren’t an issue in nightmare, now are deadly serious. Even then, I’m progressing slowly but steady. Just rescued old Cain in Tristan.

By the way, I’m playing on players 1, except for some experience runs in Act 5. I don’t have the equipment nor the patience for increasing it. I fully agree about the weapon being pivotal for a melee character like mine. I still using the Atlantian, but I doubt it ill cut for long. Trouble is, how to find a decent replacement? I think my best bet would be power shopping for a cruel elite sword, but that probably will take like a million of years. *laughs*
midnightvulture said:
One thing that will help your killing speed is to use two swords instead of sword+shield. You will hit more often that way, although I don't think it helps as much against single enemies. Maybe someone with a bit more knowledge can confirm that.

Also, don't neglect charms as a source of resistances, +AR, and other goodies. I would make sure to keep at least one cold damage charm (to chill enemies) and one poison damage charm (to stop them from regenerating) in your stash for all physical damage builds.

AR is very important for a melee character since if you don't hit you are killing slower and leeching less, which is a very dangerous and frustrating combination. It was something I didn't pay nearly enough attention to when I started playing, and my melee characters are much stronger now that that has changed. It's important to focus not just on +%AR, but also base AR. Angelic ring+amulet is a cheap and effective source of tons of base AR; charms can be good here too. %AR usually comes from skills. Good luck!

mv
MuddyWaters said:
Thanks for the advice, midnightvulture.

Two swords could be a good idea, but I don’t have anything really good for the second slot, so for now I’ll stick with the shield.

About the charms, in fact I already use them for providing both cold and poison damage to chill and prevent monster healing. ;)

About AR I think mine is ok, as I have AR boosts from sword mastery and from WW skill. Besides that I have some more provided by equipment. I think the problem is that I’m lower level than the monsters and incur in a to hit penalty. Angelic combo surely would help, except that I haven’t it *lol* Furthermore I need some leeching in the ring slot…In the other hand, I’ve found Atma Scarab. It has +20% to ar. How you guys rank this amulet? I’m considering to use it, but them I would have to quit my rare amulet with some useful attribute points and resists.

Anyway, just beat hell Andariel at level 75. Tough battle, but manageable. Had to drink a lot of purples. Act 2 should be a pain with all the non leechable skeletons.
Pijus said:
AR boosts are nice, BUT, it does nothing without base AR. Therefore Atma's scarab is quite useless. The ctc amp won't trigger mid ww either :(

Good sources of base AR are angelics, clegs gloves with another set item, hsarus boots+something(not really sure about which items though).
MuddyWaters said:
Pijus said:
AR boosts are nice, BUT, it does nothing without base AR. Therefore Atma's scarab is quite useless. The ctc amp won't trigger mid ww either :(

Good sources of base AR are angelics, clegs gloves with another set item, hsarus boots+something(not really sure about which items though).
It's funny how it is. I got Hsaru's boots an Clegaw gloves and even the IK boots... but nothing nore from their respective sets. *LOL*

Anyway, I keep going. Beat Radament and entered into the desert. The undead are a pain as expected. But the desert creatures (vultures, raptors, leapers, beetles, hunteress etc) are easier. So I'm taking my time with players 3 on to gain a couple of levels before venturing inside the tombs. Lvel is 77 right now...

Question: should I consider farming hell andariel a bit for MFinding purposes? I soon shall be high level enough to beat her without trouble...
midnightvulture said:
Hell Mephisto is much better, if you can reach him.

mv
MuddyWaters said:
midnightvulture said:
Hell Mephisto is much better, if you can reach him.

mv
I very much intend to farm hell Meph a lot when the time comes. So I can find some nice gear for all my future characters. Problem will be getting there. My *** was severely kicked in the maggot lair...:crazyeyes:
MuddyWaters said:
Well, last time I reported, I was stuck somewhere in Act 2. I decided to use my previous Larzurk’s socketing rewards and put a shael in my Atlatean sword and a Amn in merc’s Hawinin’s bill. I know those were cheap choices, but I don’t expect cross with a ED/IAS jewel laying around. Anyway that gave me a welcomed boost that allowed to go through the rest of Act2. It was challenging sometimes, but doable.

I was luck in the beginning of Act 3 and found the Eye of Etlich amulet. It has 6% life leech. As I already have 3% from my rare gloves and 7% from the String of Eras belt, I was able to dedicate both my ring slots to mana leech. I have a plain magical ring with 5% along a rare with additional 3%. With that setup, Act 3 was relatively easy. The durances were a bit harder, but Meph died without many trouble.

Act 4 was a different matter though. Battles were harder from the beginning. I had to resort to hit and run tactics a lot, but wasn’t able even to make to the first waypoint. I’m level 82 and finished to maximize my shout skill. I’m wondering where to spend my skill points from now on. I could put them in iron skin to boost my defense or spare a few in concentrate, which is my secondary attack skill. I think Iron Skin would be overall better, but as I intend to farm Meph, a high level concentrate would also be useful, as Meph seems to be non leechable and I need a mana cheap skill to use against him. Really would be grateful for some advice on that.

I’m not really sure of what to do next. I’m doing some experience runs in Kurast to try to gain some levels, but with my low killing power takes too much time to gain experience. I’m also farming the countess, so I could use the runes to upgrade my weapon and armor. Problem is that to upgrade the atlantian to its elite version, I would need a Lum and a Pul runes and I’m nowhere near of having those. At least I think it would be easier to obtain another shael to upgrade my armor to exceptional form.

Farming Meph could be good too, but for now I can’t defeat him quickly and safely enough to make it profitable, so that will have to wait a little. For now, I’m stuck to paying some visits to Andariel. Hope she will give me some useful equipment eventually. I also tried power shopping a new weapon, but to no avail. Ironically I found a cruel hydra edge (elite falchion) with amazing damage, enough to solve my problems if wasn’t for a little detail... damn thing is ethereal! Oh well, maybe I can use it for battling bosses

I must say that trying a melee build without a good weapon can be a frustrating experience...
Pijus said:
Did you max the 4 main skills allready? I mean WW, BO, Shout, and Weapon Mastery. Do you have a point in battle cry, find item, natural resists? I also like a point in increased speed and warcry. On my own no-twink WW barb I've put a point in double swing to help level up.

I recommend you go with find item.
MuddyWaters said:
Thanks, Pijus. I have BO, WW, Shout and sword mastery maxed, so I think I will spend some points in the “utility skills” like find item and Increased Speed.

Last time I reported, was stuck in Act IV. I took my time and leveled to 83. Then I was able to farm Meph a bit. I cannot run him very quickly, but was able to find some goodies, like Kira’s Guard tiara, with +66 to all resistances and the Soul Drain vambraces, with nice dual leech (5% mana, 6% life if I recall right). The huge resistance bonus from the tiara allowed me to exchange Tiamat’s Rebuke dragon shield for the Whitstan's Guard round shield. That improved my blocking percentage a lot. The leech from the vambraces were also welcomed , helping to maintain the WW going on. With this new setup I was able to advance a little more. The hellforge gave me a Gul rune, nice! I’ve made until the River of Flame waypoint. Let’s see how I can do at the Chaos Sanctuary. Wish me luck, guys.
Pijus said:
Increased speed? Is that neccesary? Eventually you will have some + skill items, and increased speed has pretty bad diminishing returns. So points above 1 aren't very well spent IMO.

I've always wanted to try soul drainers, but never had the chance. Note the -50 enemy defense per hit.
MuddyWaters said:
Pijus said:
Increased speed? Is that neccesary? Eventually you will have some + skill items, and increased speed has pretty bad diminishing returns. So points above 1 aren't very well spent IMO..
I agree. I intend to put just one point in both Find item and increased speed. With the prerequisites that would make 4 more skill points. Actually 3, as I already spent one in increased stamina (prerequisite for increased speed). As I'm already at level 83, I don't think I will have many more points. Anyway, any additional point after that will go in Iron Skin.
Pijus said:
I myself have 3 in find item at level 31, on my untwinked ww barb.
MuddyWaters said:
Mr Big D no more.

I made an assault to the Chaos Sanctuary. Took a lot of time for cleaning the place. Those pesky oblivion Knights and their iron maiden curse were a real pita. Anyway, after a lot of hit and run I finally finished all the minions and proceeded to break the seals. Just before I broke the first one and the fist wave of minions appeared, the computer crashed. I was like “WTF, I will have to go through all that again!?”.

But in the end it was a fortunate thing. When I was cleaning the Sanctuary for the second time, a monster dropped the Sazabi’s Cobalt Redeemer cryptic sword. It’s far from being a high rank weapon, but for my poor barb it is a nice blade. The sword is only 150% ED, but it has a great +418 % damage against demons mode. Diablo was an easy kill. Not even the merc died against him.

Now, I’m at Act 5, in my way to rescuing Anya. Demons make the bulk of the enemies, so the new sword helps a lot. I still have problems with undead, specially the non leecheables skeletons, but is doable. I think my greatest challenge will be the ancients. If I can beat them, the rest of the game should be easy.

I also made some Meph runs, just to feel how the Cobalt redeemer does against him. The results were great. My run time still is far from ideal, but Meph dies faster than ever. I need some more levels and some better equipment, which I expect Meph to provide eventually. But I think this character can be a solid Meph runner.

I was wondering about what character I want to do next. My preferences were torn between bowazon or javazon. The answer came from a Meph run last night. He was kind enough to give me a Bloodraven's Charge Matriarchal Bow. It isn’t a windforce, but seems like a hell viable weapon. She will have some exceptional bows in stock before she could use the matriarchal bow, like the Kuko Shakaku. And a Twitchthroe armor is also waiting for her.
Fast Eddie said:
Glad to see you're making good progress. I'm waiting for the day I have the guts to make a barb. However, I'm also having way to much with sorcs and necros to even think about planning a barb.

Good luck in future progress.
MuddyWaters said:
I tried the Ancients when I was level 84. As I suspected, they kicked my ***. The Sazabi’s sword doesn’t work very well on them. So I resumed my usual routine for those moments: MFinding and leveling.

I restarted doing Meph runs. Run him a lot of times and found some nice equipment. Got things like the Angelic amulet (already had the ring), Stealskull (for merc), Tal’s Mask, Duriel’s Shell (that replaced the Rattlecage I was using since normal) and some goodies that future characters can use (like the Witchwild String bow).

But for a while I could not find what I was really looking for: a good sword. Seems Meph has to be convinced to provide one. In my runs, I usually brings his life bar to almost nothing using my best gear, then teleport to town to put MF equipment: chance guards, stealskull, Goldwrap... you know the deal. Then I come back to finish him. I’m using Atma for muling purposes. Looking at my stash I realized I have a Gull dagger from nightmare Meph that I could add to the MF arsenal.

I teleported once again to Meph’s Durance and beat him to almost nothing. Back to town, I loaded my MF equipment. For the first time I put the Gull dagger in the shield slot. Back to Meph, a few whirlwinds and bang... he’s dead. Let’s see what he dropped. Hmm: blue bow, yellow helm, golden phase blade... Wait, ...golden phase blase?! That’s right: a Lightsabre! Just what I needed!

Gameplay changed once again. Now I can use the “players x” command to gain experience faster. I could even go for players 8, but I think for this character the best balance in terms of experience/killing speed is around 3-5. I started experience running the tunnels (glacial trail, ancient’s way etc). Except for the occasional boss pack with especially nasty modes combination (cursed, extra fast, PI etc....), nothing was a threat. In a matter of hours I gained two levels and stockpiled a lot of full rejuvs for a new fight against the Ancients.

At level 86 I went to Arreat Summit once again. I was expecting a hard fight. The whirlwinder get himself busy with my merc. I was surprised to see that the merc could take the punishment very well. He just needs a full rejuv from time to time. I focused on the thrower. Took a long time, but he died eventually. I went after the leaper. I just could not land enough blows at him to keep up with the mana and life leech. I started to chuck the full rejuvs and the leaper’s life bar won’t move. Then I realized my mistake: the Ignore Target Defense of the Lightsabre doesn’t seem to affect the Ancients. I drunk most of my rejuvs and couldn’t kill Mr. leaper guy. Merc died and both the remaining Ancients went after me. It was clear I couldn’t win, so I open a town portal and returned to Harrogath.

Time to ponder my options. Before I found the Lightsabre I was using Sazabi’s sword along the Angelic combo. My thanks to who suggested it previously in this thread. The angelic jewelry doubles my attack rating and greatly increases my chances of scoring a hit. The Lightsabre has the ITD mode, so the Angelic combo was kind of redundant and I dropped it for some rare jewelry when using the sabre. I figured since ITD seems doesn’t work with the Ancients, the AR boost from the combo could be useful once again. I returned to the summit to prove this theory. As I had only few full rejuvs remaining, didn’t expect to beat the old farts.

Once again the whirlwinder went after the merc and other two chased me. This time I could kill the leaper. But the rejuvs supply ended and I could not go on. Anyway I believe the angelic combo worked better than the previous equipment.

I also had another idea. Before finding Duriel’s shell I used the ratlecage for a long time. The crushing blow in the armor was really great, but the % monster to flee soon became an annoyance. It’s a pita to run after enemies all the time. I believe the CB would be very useful against those pesky Ancients. So I’m considering the idea of putting back the rattlecage and giving Duriel’s shell to merc for this fight.

Furthermore, I realized I’m up for a long fight, so I will collect a full stash of rejuvs before trying again. Any advice in beating the old farts would be very appreciated. Thanks to anyone that read all of this. :)
Damnatorius said:
wow, what a nice read. ANother item you might have that gives crushing blow, is guillaume's face. You could consider wearing that (resists aren't very important vs ancients) or puttin git on your merc.
Antonio said:
Yes, CB from Rattlecage will help you greatly with the Ancients (be sure to face them on p1, as the experience gained is not player setting defendant). Shop for a wand with Life Tap charges, that should keep both of you and your merc alive. If you need mana, buy mana pots and put them on the ground of Arreat Summit before the fight in case you're inventory doesn't have much free space. Good luck with the old grumps!
MuddyWaters said:
Damnatorius said:
wow, what a nice read. ANother item you might have that gives crushing blow, is guillaume's face. You could consider wearing that (resists aren't very important vs ancients) or puttin git on your merc.
Nice tip. Thanks! Unfortunately I haven’t the helmet, but Meph should provide me one sooner or later.
Antonio said:
Yes, CB from Rattlecage will help you greatly with the Ancients (be sure to face them on p1, as the experience gained is not player setting defendant). Shop for a wand with Life Tap charges, that should keep both of you and your merc alive. If you need mana, buy mana pots and put them on the ground of Arreat Summit before the fight in case you're inventory doesn't have much free space. Good luck with the old grumps!
The life tap wand idea sounds great. I decided to look for one. I prepared myself to spend a lot of time looking for one with the vendors. Say what? Ormus had one at stock on my first try! Now I’m the happy owner of a wand with 99 charges of skill level 5 life tap.

I also made more Meph runs and got two really nice pieces of equipment: the Dracul's Grasp Vampirebone Gloves and the Stormshield monarch! It’s official, meph is my best friend.

The Dracul’s Grasp has 25% Chance of Open Wounds, what will help to prevent the old farts from healing over time. It also has 5% Chance to cast level 10 Life Tap on striking. The drawback is that this mode doesn’t work with Whirlwind. But I thing I can use concentrate to activate it. If I can’t sustain the life tap with the gloves, I can resort to the wand. Anyway I’ll be virtually immortal. The stormshield will help to keep me safe and the rattlecage’s crushing blow should provide a damage boost. Sounds like a plan or what?
iomanip said:
Nice read! Keep it up and you will get there. CB is key to defeating ancients IMO. Use the wand and whirl away, probably will be tedious to wait for Draculs CtC to go off while making less damage.

Good luck!
MuddyWaters said:
I knew that with more AR and some crushing blow I could beat the old grumps. But I remembered how my character had a hard time until getting to “Meph’s ole goodies store” and decided that no way in hell my barb would stand in the summit wearing a cheap rattlecage armor. And my merc really could use something better than Stealskull, iceblink armor and Hwain’s bill. :) It’s their endgame afterall and they’re supposed to be properly dressed.

It was Meph farming time again. I actually leveled from 86 to 87 just with Meph runs. Then I went after the countess. I was in need of a Lum rune for finishing a lionheart armor. Also went for some runs in the Act 5 caves to find a good number of full rejuvs.

I was level 87 and a half when I stood again in the summit. Wearing Arreat’s Face, Lionheart hellforge plate, Lightsabre, Stomshield, String of Ears, Soul Drain vambraces and Gore Rider boots (with that sweet crushing blow we talked about, along some deadly strike and open wounds just to make it better). The jewelry was the Angelic combo plus a stoneraven.

This is my “AR” setup. Against regular foes, there’s no need for AR, since the lightsabre has “Ignore Target Defense”. In such occasions I exchange the angelic combo for the Eye of Etlich amulet and a nice rare dual leech ring and the vambraces for the IK gloves.

I really wanted a Vampiregaze for the merc, but Meph just keeps refusing to drop it. As I already had a Tal’s mask I didn’t care too much. But when I was running the countess for that Lum rune, she was kind enough to drop the gaze too. Merc now uses Vampiregaze, Shaftstop and Arioc's Needle Hyperion Spear.

I put two life tap wands in the alternate weapons slot. Brought a lot of full rejuvs and mana potions to the summit. In the end I used few of those. I started beating the thrower. Whirlwinder gone after Merc. The thrower went down easily. Both me and merc attacked the leaper and he didn’t stand too much. The ww guy was harder, because he was stone skin and we couldn’t hurt him too much. But he also wasn’t doing much damage to us. We could life leech him enough to keep ourselves at full health. From time to time I would cast the life tap charges just for extra security. Took some time, but eventually the last ancient was dead.

The worldstone keep was easy after that. Baal minions weren’t hard at all. Lister was the only possible menace, so I lure his minions away and dealt with them one by one. I got bored and went after Lister and his two remaining minions at the same time. They all died without much hassle and so did Baal after them. I got one more level in the process. That’s my first Patriarch since 1.09 and he will be dedicated to Meph running from now on.

Some final thoughs:

- the ww barb still is a fine character, totally hell viable. But he really needs good equipment, specially a good damaging weapon.
- Atma makes magic finding so much easier than the modified dll. You can keep a good map forever with it.
- My meph runs provided me with a bunch of nice equipment: IK set (minus armor), Baranar Star, Harlequin Crest, War travellers and so on... Now I got a basic stash that will greatly improve my future characters. I already started a bowazon that breezed through Act1 wearing the Artic Set.

- Thanks to all that read my previous rants and helped with suggestions.
Damnatorius said:
Congrats on your first pat since 1.09 :)

My first pat/mat was an amazon, because my sorcs couldn't leave meph alone long enough to go to baal. I see you share my love for good ol' mephy :D

Arctic set is my preferred twinking gear for all my low lvl chars. The extra cold damage works very well until around act III, when you can start wearing better items.

Good luck on your amazon and thanks for the nice read.
 
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Originally posted by mwints on Jun 3, 2006:

(Patriarch) Someday

Well, here he is. The first barb I've patted. Ever.

http ://img308.imageshack.us/img308/5875/somedaylcs2ti.png
http ://img308.imageshack.us/img308/3137/somedayinv5ik.png


He began with the intention of being an IK Barb. But since I have never and still have not found the IKSC he had to make due. To be honest he didn't need the armor. Even if I find the armor, I don't know that I'll even put it on him (see armor below). I have to say he has been the easiest Pat/Mat I've had and pretty fun to play.

Well, enough of that. Here are the stats (all with items and BO,BC,Shout)

Patriarch Someday (someday as in someday I'll find that stupid armor *shaking fist*)

Level 83

Life: 3370
Mana: 271
FR: 48
CR: 34
LR: 75
PR: -13

Strength: 238
Dexterity: 78
Vitality: 281
Energy: 10

Concentrate damage: 2365-3971 (not including might merc)
Concentrate AR: 9158
Whirlwind damage: 1986-3449 (not including might merc)
Whirlwind AR: 9643

Defense 8377

Items:

IK helm (with 2 Ptopazes), gloves, boots, belt, maul (with 15% ias j00L and shael rune)
Armor: yep, Tal Rasha's (1 Ptopaz) for those who saw the pics...but I'll get to that later
Angelic ring and ammy for AR boost
2nd ring is Raven Frost

Stats (not including items)

20 BO
20 WW
20 MM
17 Shout
2-3 in NR (can't remember)
1 Berserk
1 Iron Skin
Rest in Prereqs

Gameplay:

He had no problems getting through Normal and NM. Mostly because I twinked him with an Upped Steel Driver. So he got to 74 no problem. My initial intention was to get him to 76 just to see how he did with the Maul on and then to park him waiting for the armor. But things went so smooth once he hit 76 in Act II Hell that I figured I might as well just finish him off. With the maul equipped I put on the Duriel's Shell for the resistances, life, and defense (was using Silks of the Victor for the mana leech until 76).

Had a few deaths in Hell. 1 in the Chaos Sanctuary but not to IM. 👅 Just me not paying attention.

Gloams were really not much of a problem thanks to taunt. Just ran forward, waited to see the lightning, retreated. Then inched forward and taunt, taunt, taunt, BERZERK! Dead gloams.

Now, for the Tal's armor. I mean, geez, he looks absolutely awful in this thing. But he pretty much flies through the Pits and Tunnels (much better maps than my Sorc has). So, I had to get the MF up there. The Tal's has 112 increased MF with the Ptopaz and actually increased all his resistances except poison. But man he looks horrible in purple. 😁

Future:

Well, he'll be MFing. I have him doing "super" MF runs. Sequentially:

Eldritch
Shenk
Pindleskin
Tunnels
Pit
Countess (repeat)

Once he gets stronger I'll probably see if he can manage the WSK and Baal too.

That's it for this one. Thanks for reading!
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by nilynrae on Mar 19, 2007:

First Melee Patriarch - Loeghaire

Well finally! It's only my second Pat (the first was a Fishy and I didn't list him here as I wasn't posting much at the time). I know he's a fairly standard cookie cutter too but when I found IKSC I thought I should at least give it a go and it was a lot of fun - more than I thought. And he found me some nice items so far.

He's the first melee character I've played in a very long time (the last was a zealot on Europe Bnet some years ago). I got hideously distracted for about a week by Hell Mephisto but I finally decided to get in gear and finish up. 😃

Stats:
Patriarch Loeghaire, L86 IK Barb

Stats are here.

Base Skills:
WW 20
Berserk 1
Iron Skin 3
Other non-weapon masteries 1
Mace Mastery 20
BO 20
BC 1
Shout 20
Find Item 2

Equipment:
IK set, Angelic Halo + Wings, Ravenfrost (20dex)
Stuffed Maul with ias/19mana and ias/ed jewels
Used also 37ed/+7 max and 2 topaz in other sockets
Switch: 2 ali's - plain at present
Swapped out Raven to Nagel 28%MF for Meph running.

MF hovered around the 310 mark.

HF Merc used Obedience polearm, ptopaz shaftstop, ptopaz Tal's Crest

Charms:
Code:
Small Charm of Fortune
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 70
Fingerprint: 0x42be6712
5% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Expert's Grand Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x8039e6fb
+10 to Life
+1 to Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)

Toxic Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 55
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0x2bf9d85e
+100 poison damage over 5 seconds

Iron Small Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x8d3e6ba5
+14 to Life
+19 to Attack Rating

Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb37d8ede
+20 to Life

Iron Small Charm of Balance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x6c7b717b
+24 to Attack Rating
5% Faster Hit Recovery

Steel Small Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0x3f959fc
+2 to Strength
+30 to Attack Rating

Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 62
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xe9b23c1c
83% Extra Gold from Monsters
27% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Reduces All Vendor Prices 13%

I really enjoyed running Hell Mephi - haven't done that since I had a sorc (long time again). I had a really nice map on the very first try! With the aid of a tele ammy which I switched out each time for the angelic wings (67% to hit Meph becomes 76% with it), I was able to hop over the wall and straight down. I also had a +1 skills/33MF ammy which I was using until I got the wings.

I played on /p8 until the end of act 1 hell. Then /p3 for most of the rest. Hard places were down to /p1. I died once when I accidently whirled near an OK that I didn't see - that was in NM while Baalrunning.

Things I didn't like:
PI mana drainers - and actually that's about it. Those ghosts were worse than anything else by far. I'm glad I won't really have to run into them again - and I don't think I'll level much higher except on Pindle... maybe.

I'll probably continue Mephi runs with him now. 😃
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Pucho on Jun 3, 2006:

Godric, WW barb pat (cheese alert)

Level 86

Godric pic

Ilzan pic



Strength : 145
Energy : 10
Dexterity : 20
Vitality : 350
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 0

Life : 4976
Mana : 327


Number of Items : 28

1: Fine Small Charm of Lightning
+14 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage
Adds 1-7 lightning damage

2: Fine Small Charm of Frost
+13 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage
Adds 1-2 cold damage over 1 seconds

3: Sharp Grand Charm of Greed
+72 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage
15% Extra Gold from Monsters

4: Sharp Grand Charm
+74 to Attack Rating
+10 to Maximum Damage

5: Fine Small Charm
+20 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage

6: Sharp Grand Charm of Balance
+50 to Attack Rating
+7 to Maximum Damage
12% Faster Hit Recovery

7: Fine Small Charm
+17 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

8: Sharp Grand Charm of Vita
+37 to Life
+52 to Attack Rating
+8 to Maximum Damage

9: Fine Small Charm of Sustenance
+11 to Life
+19 to Attack Rating
+1 to Maximum Damage

10: Horadric Cube

11: Fine Small Charm of Vita
+16 to Life
+17 to Attack Rating
+1 to Maximum Damage

12: Sharp Grand Charm of Vita
+43 to Life
+71 to Attack Rating
+9 to Maximum Damage

13: Fine Small Charm of Storms
+11 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage
Adds 1-23 lightning damage

14: Shimmering Small Charm
All Resistances +5

15: Shimmering Grand Charm of Storms
All Resistances +15
Adds 1-25 lightning damage

16: Arreat's Face
Slayer Guard
Defense: 333
+176% Enhanced Defense
+30% Enhanced Damage
+3 to Minimum Damage
5% Life stolen per hit
37% Faster Hit Recovery
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Raven Talisman
Jewel
+30% Enhanced Damage
+3 to Minimum Damage
7% Faster Hit Recovery

17: Highlord's Wrath
Amulet

18: Lothric's Arkaine's Valor
Balrog Skin
Defense: 1554
Item Version: Expansion
+38 to Life
+200% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +50%
30% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 to All Skill Levels
+172 to Life (Based on Character Level)
+215 to Vitality (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Perfect Ruby
Inserted into a Balrog Skin

+38 to Life

19: Raven Frost
Ring
+20 to Dexterity
+207 to Attack Rating

20: Rune Eye
Ring
+116 to Attack Rating
Fire Resist +3%
Lightning Resist +18%
Cold Resist +3%
Poison Resist +3%
7% Life stolen per hit
6% Mana stolen per hit

21: String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 104
+156% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
Damage Reduced by 15%
6% Life stolen per hit
+10 Maximum Durability

22: Gore Rider
Myrmidon Greaves
Defense: 183
+174% Enhanced Defense
Required Level +7

23: Soul Drainer
Vambraces
Defense: 133
+96% Enhanced Defense
6% Life stolen per hit
6% Mana stolen per hit

24: Tome of Identify
Quantity: 17

25: Echoing Crystal Sword of Measure

26: Echoing Crystal Sword of the Wraith

27: Oath
Berserker Axe
'ShaelPulMalLum'
One-Hand Damage: 152 to 502
Item Version: Expansion
+324% Enhanced Damage
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)

28: Oath
Berserker Axe
'ShaelPulMalLum'
One-Hand Damage: 148 to 490
Item Version: Expansion
+313% Enhanced Damage
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)


Mercenary Items :

1: Andariel's Visage
Demonhead
'Shael'
Defense: 323
+109% Enhanced Defense
9% Life stolen per hit
20% Increased Attack Speed
20% Faster Hit Recovery
Socketed (1: 1 used)

2: Duriel's Shell
Cuirass
Defense: 663
+174% Enhanced Defense

3: The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
Two-Hand Damage: 35 to 420
+198% Enhanced Damage
11% Life stolen per hit


Hellforge runes, Pul (NM) Um (Hell)
no great finds in his career
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by RobbyD on Sep 29, 2011:

Patriarchs Rulon and Aleksandr, 1.13 and 1.09 Whirlwind Barbs

In my second Battle of the Patches project, I picked the build that seems to be ubiquitous in all patches, the Whirlwind Barbarian. Rulon and Aleksandr were named after the famous heavyweight Greco-Roman Wrestlers - fitting for the brutes these characters are.

Aleksandr was created in 1.09, and Rulon in 1.13. I spared no expense in planning out their gear - I wanted to make the most powerful WW Barb possible in each patch. Their journey is documented in this thread

I have not cleared the Moo-Moo farm with either Barb, as cowing isn't really in either character’s plans.

So, without further ado, I am pleased to present:

***********************************************************************

Patriarch Aleksandr – 1.09 Whirlwind/Berserk Barbarian

Character name : Aleksandr
Character type : Barbarian
Character level : 84
Character exp : 983555838

LCS upon defeating Hell Baal
Baal Pat drop


Stats (Base/Equipped)
Strength : 149/213
Energy : 10/10
Dexterity : 90/110
Vitality : 266/296
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 0

Life : 3577 / 1245
Mana : 405 / 93
Stamina : 1780 / 416

Final Resists:
75/75/85/75

Final Skills:
Warcry: (Base/Warcry Switch after BC)
Prereqs: 1/13
Shout: 4/16
Battle Orders: 20/32
Battle Cry: 1/13
Battle Command: 1/13
Find Item: 1/31

Shout has 4 hard points because I originally planned to pump it with BO, but the duration for Shout in 1.09 is pathetic – you get like 2 seconds per point, so I abandoned that plan and revised it to pump Berserk (especially after I realized that in 1.13, Zerk gets a synergy from Shout that would make it an uneven comparison to 1.09 unless I pumped it).

Combat Masteries: (Base/Equipped after BC)
Sword Mastery: 20/29
Increased Stamina, Increased Speed, Iron Skin, Natural Resists: 1/10

Combat Skills:
Prereqs: 1/8
Whirlwind: 18/25
Berserk: 18/25

End-Game Weapons:

Combat Switch:

Code:
Dread Edge
Colossus Blade
'EthShaelShael'
One-Hand Damage: 115 to 296
Two-Hand Damage: 263 to 519
Durability: 27 of 50
Required Dexterity: 110
Required Strength: 189
Required Level: 65
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 56
Fingerprint: 0x7acf2ec4
+24 to Life
+346% Enhanced Damage
+2 to Maximum Damage
Adds 25-50 poison damage over 4 seconds
3% Life stolen per hit
40% Increased Attack Speed
-25% Target Defense
318% Damage to Undead
+356 to Attack Rating against Undead
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Eth Rune
Inserted into a Colossus Blade
-25% Target Defense
Required Level: 15
Item Version: Expansion

Shael Rune
Inserted into a Colossus Blade
20% Increased Attack Speed
Required Level: 29
Item Version: Expansion

Shael Rune
Inserted into a Colossus Blade
20% Increased Attack Speed
Required Level: 29
Item Version: Expansion

Aleksandr's Cruel Scratch
Highland Blade
'Eth'
One-Hand Damage: 96 to 277
Two-Hand Damage: 284 to 420
Durability: 27 of 50
Required Dexterity: 104
Required Strength: 171
Required Level: 65
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x1cc316b1
+20 to Life
+319% Enhanced Damage
+14 to Maximum Damage
7% Mana stolen per hit
30% Increased Attack Speed
-25% Target Defense
75% Damage to Demons
+125 to Attack Rating against Demons
+2  to Masteries Skills (Barbarian Only)
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Eth Rune
Inserted into a Highland Blade
-25% Target Defense
Required Level: 15
Item Version: Expansion

Ruby Jewel of Fervor
Required Level: 58
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x967c5c23
+33% Enhanced Damage
15% Increased Attack Speed

Vermilion Jewel of Fervor
Required Level: 50
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x399cfbd5
+14 to Maximum Damage
15% Increased Attack Speed

Many thanks go to WoRG for crafting these beauties in 1.07.

Warcry Switch:
Code:
Echoing Bastard Sword of Quickness
One-Hand Damage: 7 to 19
Two-Hand Damage: 20 to 28
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Strength: 62
Required Level: 45
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x6f644ffd
40% Increased Attack Speed
+3  to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)

Echoing Gothic Sword of Firebolts
One-Hand Damage: 14 to 40
Two-Hand Damage: 39 to 60
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Dexterity: 20
Required Strength: 113
Required Level: 45
Sword Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xb304a648
+3  to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)
10% Chance to cast Level 8 Fire Bolt on striking

Armor/Jewelry:

Helm: Arreat's Face (pTopaz)
Armor: Skullder's Ire (pTopaz)
Amulet: Rare "Dread Emblem"
Ring 1: Rare "Raven Gyre"
Ring 2: Rare "Entropy Knot" (H@xX0R 1.07 craft from WoRG)
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Gloves: LoH
Boots: War Travler (42 MF)

Code:
Dread Emblem
Amulet
Required Level: 66
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xc71d2dda
Fire Resist +20%
Lightning Resist +52%
Cold Resist +46%
Poison Resist +20%
7% Mana stolen per hit
Replenish Life +4

Raven Gyre
Ring
Required Level: 65
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0xebd2dc10
+23 to Life
+21 to Attack Rating
Fire Resist +11%
Lightning Resist +11%
Cold Resist +11%
Poison Resist +30%
7% Life stolen per hit
8% Chance to cast Level 3 Chain Lightning on attack

Entropy Knot
Ring
Required Level: 35
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 56
Fingerprint: 0x1d2a0601
+8 to Strength
+7 to Maximum Stamina
Lightning Resist +7%
Cold Resist +28%
23% Life stolen per hit


Charms:
Foul Small Charm of Pestilence (158/9)
2x Toxic Small Charm
Serpent's Grand Charm of Sustenance (52/26)
Fanatic Grand Charm of Sustenance (23)
Fanatic Grand Charm of Greed
Fanatic Grand Charm of Balance
Sounding Grand Charm of Strength
Sounding Grand Charm of Sustenance (29)
Expert's Grand Charm of Balance
Sharp Grand Charm of Inertia

Merc:
Weapon: Hone Sundan (AmnAmnSheal)
Helm: Blackhorn’s Face
Armor: "Smoke" eth Superior Scarab Husk (stolen from Schaefer's merc, but don't worry - he got a Gladiator's Bane to replace it)

Path to Pat
Aleksandr did the entire game, including Nihlithak on all 3 difficulties (Hell Nilly Death), on P8. He is the first character I’ve ever done that with in 1.09, and, as such, is the most powerful character I’ve ever played in this patch. He generally did full clears, but it was not a hard and fast rule. For instance, he didn’t kill every monster in the Arcane Sanctuary. He had one death to the IM curse in Normal or Nightmare Chaos Sanctuary.

Weapon Progression
I really went out of my way to make sure Aleksandr had the best weapons available at his level. An Envy Long Bow to start, then an Envy Crystal Sword to level 6, Full Death's at to level 25, a King's Grace Rune Sword at level 25, then dual Honor Zweihanders at level 30, and then my most proud move - 2x Cruel Legend Swords at level 44 (before he even took down normal Baal). I already had found a good roll Cruel Legend Sword at some point playing 1.09, so I took some pGems and rolled another one, with life leech! Legend Swords have innate speed of [-15], so a Sheal gets the last WWBP. Not only were these ridiculously powerful for the level, Aleksandr looked awesome wielding them (Black and Burnt Orange), and they stayed with him a long time (44 to 59). I learned something that would be the major irritation of playing him to the end - the repair expenses of Cruels and Crafts are significant to the point that he picked up staves, wands, and scepters to sell in town. At level 59 he got the best Chippie-rolled Cruel Champion Swords I had (including a Cruel of the Wraith!), and those looked even more awesome when wielded (Black and Blood Red). Finally at level 65, the h@Xx0r 1.07 crafts I got from WoRG as his endgame weapons. The best available, of course, but the bland white color of the swords was a bit disappointing after seeing how awesome the Legend Swords and Champion Swords looked.

Play Style:
Well, Aleksandr is a WW Barb, so generally it went:

a. Find monsters
b. Whirl through monsters until dead
c. Find more monsters

Aspects of playing Aleksandr versus Rulon had more to do with patch differences than anything else. There is no breaking PI in 1.09 with a Barb, and further, no Decrep-casting Merc weapon, meaning Berserk was his only option. That meant that this guy had to be left behind – the only reason the health bar is moved at all here is the poison charms Aleksandr was sporting, but it would have taken forever to rely on that poison to kill this guy (the duration was severely reduced from listed duration). That also meant the weapon switch could be dedicated to Echoing Swords, so his BO casted at a pretty respectable level. In 1.09, the bulbs don’t automatically fill up on BO, so when it gets cast at a high level, the bulbs look very empty. Luckily, with the ridiculous leech he sports (35%-38% life, 7%-14% mana), the bulbs fill up very fast. The Lightning absorb from TGod’s for Aleksandr and Blackhorn’s Face for the merc had the predicted impact of rendering MSLE a non-factor (I would just watch those fat white globs as he killed monster with no fear).

I was nervous about the prospect of fighting the Ancients on P8, but when it came time, that fight was very uneventful. A WW barb is well suited to that fight as the Leaper (Talic?) always landed where Aleksandr was a second earlier, but was whirling the other way.

Scariest Monsters
A big pack of ghosts were tough for Aleksandr to hack at – the 0 defense meant that he kept taking hits, and his modest mana bulb only lasted so long. However, by far the scariest monsters were Fetish Dolls. Those death pops are ridiculous in 1.09 – a single pop from Aleksandr killing a single normal (maybe minion) Doll resulted in the bulb immediately dropping to a very small puddle. If they were mixed in with Blunderbores or something, the leech would allow him to still whirl, but in isolation, I left the Dolls alone. I’m sure an extra strong PI Fana Frenzytaur would put a hurt on him too, but he did not run into such a monster on his path.

Observations on WW
This takes practice to get used to, but there are some definite pluses to using this skill. I really liked that he could WW through those fire outposts in the Act 5 barriers, and through Ghosts that he wanted to leave behind.

It’s not as good against bosses as Frenzy, IMO, but makes big crowds of monsters much easier to mow down.

Finds:
Hellforge: NM: Pul Hell: Hel

Drops: Something you can’t get in 1.13: Crystal Sword
Death’s Sash
Jalal’s Mane
Realgar Jewel of Fervor
Ko
Ko

Post-Pat Plans
He really seems to do the Cold Caves very well (getting cold from the Frozen Scourge breath only helps him out), and sports about 200% MF as geared now, so I might run some AW/Icy Cellar/Snapchip with him.


***********************************************************************

Patriarch Rulon – 1.13 Whirlwind/Berserk Barbarian

Character name : Rulon
Character type : Barbarian
Character level : 89
Character exp : 1510460776

LCS upon defeating Hell Baal
Baal Pat drop


Stats (Base/Equipped)
Strength : 124/208
Energy : 10/14
Dexterity : 108/136
Vitality : 298/328
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 0

Life : 3078 / 1383
Mana : 209 / 98
Stamina : 1592 / 453

Final Resists:
75/75/85/74

Final Skills:
Warcry: (Base/Warcry Switch after BC)
Prereqs: 1/7
Shout: 20/26
Battle Orders: 20/26
Battle Cry: 1/7
Battle Command: 1/7
Find Item: 1/7

Shout got pumped even before I realized what a benefit that would have on Berserk.

Combat Masteries: (Base/Equipped after BC)
Sword Mastery: 20/28
Increased Stamina, Increased Speed, Iron Skin, Natural Resists: 1/9

Combat Skills:
Prereqs: 1/9
Whirlwind: 20/28
Berserk: 5/13

End-Game Weapons:

Normal Combat Switch:

Code:
Grief
Rulon's Phase Blade
'EthTirLoMalRal'
One-Hand Damage: 31 to 35
Required Dexterity: 136
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 59
Sword Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x48cf5774
Adds 5-30 fire damage
+15 Life after each Kill
38% Increased Attack Speed
Adds +391 Damage
Ignore Target Defense
-25% Target Defense
Prevent Monster Heal
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
20% Deadly Strike
35% Chance to cast Level 15 Venom on striking
166% Damage to Demons (Based on Character Level)
-21% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Socketed (5: 5 used)

Eth Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
-25% Target Defense
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Tir Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Lo Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
20% Deadly Strike
Required Level: 59
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Mal Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
Prevent Monster Heal
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Ral Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
Adds 5-30 fire damage
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Grief
Superior Phase Blade
'EthTirLoMalRal'
One-Hand Damage: 35 to 39
Required Dexterity: 136
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 59
Sword Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x329e7901
+14% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5-30 fire damage
+12 Life after each Kill
36% Increased Attack Speed
Adds +391 Damage
Ignore Target Defense
-25% Target Defense
Prevent Monster Heal
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
20% Deadly Strike
35% Chance to cast Level 15 Venom on striking
166% Damage to Demons (Based on Character Level)
-23% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Socketed (5: 5 used)

Eth Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
-25% Target Defense
Required Level: 15
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Tir Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Lo Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
20% Deadly Strike
Required Level: 59
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Mal Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
Prevent Monster Heal
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Ral Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
Adds 5-30 fire damage
Required Level: 19
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Undead (PI/Gloam) Switch:
Code:
Oath
Highland Blade
'ShaelPulMalLum'
One-Hand Damage: 116 to 329
Two-Hand Damage: 354 to 509
Required Dexterity: 94
Required Strength: 161
Required Level: 49
Sword Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 72
Fingerprint: 0x5e5db5c8
+10 to Energy
+254% Enhanced Damage
50% Increased Attack Speed
Prevent Monster Heal
75% Damage to Demons
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
+12 Magic Absorb
Indestructible
30% Chance to cast Level 20 Bone Spirit on striking
Level 16 Heart of Wolverine (20/20 Charges)
Level 17 Iron Golem (14/14 Charges)
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)

Shael Rune
Inserted into a Highland Blade
20% Increased Attack Speed
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Pul Rune
Inserted into a Highland Blade
75% Damage to Demons
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
Required Level: 45
Item Version: Expansion

Mal Rune
Inserted into a Highland Blade
Prevent Monster Heal
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Lum Rune
Inserted into a Highland Blade
+10 to Energy
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Lawbringer
Phase Blade
'AmnLemKo'
One-Hand Damage: 31 to 35
Required Dexterity: 136
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 54
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0xb2a656e6
+10 to Dexterity
+233 Defense vs. Missile
Adds 150-210 fire damage
Adds 130-180 cold damage over 5 seconds
7% Life stolen per hit
75% Extra Gold from Monsters
Slain Monsters Rest In Peace
-50% Target Defense
Level 18 Sanctuary Aura When Equipped
20% Chance to cast Level 15 Decrepify on striking
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Amn Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
7% Life stolen per hit
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Lem Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
75% Extra Gold from Monsters
Required Level: 43
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Ko Rune
Inserted into a Phase Blade
+10 to Dexterity
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

I was a little underwhelmed with the performance of this switch. Most of the time I was better off with that INCREDIBLE Berserk with the Grief

Armor/Jewelry:

Helm: Arreat's Face (pTopaz)
Armor: Chains of Honor (Archon Plate) – Yes, I made another one for this character
Amulet: Highlord’s Wrath
Ring 1: Rare "Raven Knot" (see below)
Ring 2: Rare “Doom Coil” (see below)
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Gloves: LoH
Boots: War Travler (49 MF)

Code:
Doom Coil
Ring
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x39160d33
+14 to Strength
+4 to Energy
+80 to Attack Rating
Lightning Resist +23%
Cold Resist +10%
5% Mana stolen per hit

Raven Knot
Ring
Required Level: 46
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xdf7bb8c1
+78 to Attack Rating
Lightning Resist +9%
4% Life stolen per hit
5% Mana stolen per hit

Thanks to Greebo for the rings!

Charms: (I don’t have NEAR the charm wealth in 1.13 as I do in 1.09, and this selection reflects that)
Gheed’s Fortune (Rulon found one, and I found that ShocknAwe, my 1.13 Hybrid Zon from my first Battle of the Patches project, had one just a sliver better – 36%/157%)
Fine Small Charm of Dexterity (1/11, 1)
Foul Small Charm
2x Small Charm of Good Luck (7)
Steel Small Charm of Vita (33, 16)
Sharp Grand Charm of Greed (9/58, 35%)
Steel Grand Charm of Greed (131, 33%)
Fanatic Grand Charm of Dexterity (3)
Fanatic Grand Charm of Inertia
Fine Grand Charm of Life (6/39, 10)
Sharp Grand Charm of Greed (9/49, 19%)
Steel Grand Charm of Balance (126)


Merc:
Weapon: Reaper’s Toll (231%ED, 15%LL) – I believe I pilfered this from BobTheWarrior’s giveaway
Helm: Andariel's Visage (29 Str, 10% leech) with this jewel (found in 1.09 and held just for an Andy’s):
Code:
Bone Scarab
Jewel
Required Level: 37
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x43e69145
+30% Enhanced Damage
+29 Defense
Fire Resist +29%
18% Extra Gold from Monsters
Armor: "Fortitude" Wire Fleece

Path to Pat
Rulon did the entire game, including Nihlithak on all 3 difficulties (Hell Nilly Death), on P8. He is the first character I’ve ever done that with in 1.13, (I took my HaXX0r equipped Teslot with Time Travel Cheeze and Infinity gifted from Nagisa via BobTheWarrior through P8, but I did not do Ancients on P8 and I believe I skipped hell Nilly as well)… he did have a death, to a ridiculous Frenzytaur pack in the Red Portal under the Frozen Tundra. However, I do still think he’s qualified as OP.

Weapon Progression
An Envy Long Bow to start, then an Envy Crystal Sword to level 6, Full Death's at to level 25, a King's Grace Rune Sword at level 25, then dual Honor Zweihanders at level 30, and then the progression deviated into OP 1.13 RWs. Eth “Oath” Highland Blades (picked over Balrog Blades since the level req matches the RW… and I have a bunch of HBs from 1.09), then the real Cheeze – dual “Grief” Phase Blades. I made the first from totally self-found ingredients – Gauss found the Lo and the Superior (14%ED) 5os PB for the first, but I had to cube up some Ohm runes from selling 1.09 Raven Claws for the second one. As expected, these mowed monsters.

The twist came with the Merc. Being so used to 1.09, I was expecting for the Merc to keep the Hone Sundan until he could poke with the Reaper’s. But, a buddy of mine asked me “Why don’t you make Obedience?” I look at the stats on that, and asked myself the same question. Since I had a couple eth 5os Threshers in 1.09 (originally planned for Honor in 1.09), I brought one forward, and WOW, it’s a NICE runeword. This also gave me the opportunity to try a helm I’ve never used on a merc, a Crown of Thieves (I don’t have any Vamp’s Gazes in 1.13), and that was quite the effective setup.

Play Style:
Well, Rulon is a WW Barb, so generally it went:

a. Find monsters
b. Whirl through monsters until dead
c. Find more monsters

Since Rulon had access to weapons providing the Sanctuary aura, I made his weapon switch a Gloam/PI Undead setup instead of a warcry setup. Looking back, I probably would have been better served with Echoing swords (though I don’t have any in 1.13), but he still managed. The switch didn’t even really get used too much (no gloams at all in Hell WSK/BT!) but it was handy from time to time.

I was nervous about the prospect of fighting the Ancients on P8, but when it came time, that fight was very uneventful. A WW barb is well suited to that fight as the Leaper (Talic?) always landed where Rulon was a second earlier, but was whirling the other way.

The big hit actually came from NM Ancients, as an FE death explosion gave Rulon his first “Ouch!

Scariest Monsters
Quite a few more than 1.09 – Frenzytaurs in 1.13 are an absolute terror (his one death), and the extra skills the guest monsters have in Hell Act 5 are quite the annoyance sometimes. Act 3 Fetish Dolls weren’t nearly as bad, but the ones that appeared in the Icy Cellar were notably more scary. Many monsters pack a much bigger punch in 1.13 in 1.09, like the reviving skeletons in Pindle’s Court, the poison dealt by the spiders in the Act 3 spider holes, etc. Rulon really had to keep moving and leeching, and the Yo-Yo of his red bulb was significantly more severe than I have been used to. Bad WW destination clicks and Mana Burn monsters were quite scary as well.

Observations on Berserk
I’ve hit on my take on WW in Aleksandr’s write-up, and I am no stranger to Berserk, but I was pleasantly surprised at how effective Rulon’s Zerk was (not even pumped, but with the full Shout synergy). Zerk has such good returns from pumping, I’d love to try it out a full power.

Finds:
Hellforge: NM: Sol Hell: Lem

Drops: Given my much more meager 1.13 gear stash, Rulon picked up a lot of stuff I normally leave on the ground in 1.09, and aren’t really worth posting, but some nice drops did occur:

Death’s Gloves
Oculus,
Gloom’s Trap,
Grim’s Burning Dead,
Ginther’s Rift
Eschuta’s Temper (Nice skills roll)
Gheed’s Fortune (Decent MF, nice GF roll)
Trang’s Belt (an item I never found in 1.09)
Lem from NM Act 4
Mal from NM Act 5
Gul (the winning rune drop)

Post-Pat Plans
Hmmm… What might a dual Grief WW Barb be good at? A-Travin’ he will go!


Experience Progression Side-by-side:

Here are screenies I took as each Barb started a new act to get an idea how the XP progression differs:

Normal Act 2: Aleksandr Rulon
Normal Act 3: Aleksandr Rulon
Normal Act 4: Aleksandr Rulon
Normal Act 5: Aleksandr Rulon
Nightmare Act 2: Aleksandr Rulon
Nightmare Act 3: Aleksandr Rulon
Nightmare Act 4: Aleksandr Rulon
Nightmare Act 5: Aleksandr Rulon
Hell Act 1: Aleksandr Rulon
Hell Act 2: Aleksandr Rulon
Hell Act 3: Aleksandr Rulon
Hell Act 4: Aleksandr Rulon
Hell Act 5: Aleksandr Rulon

Next up for me:

1.07 Melee/Minion Artillary Necro (exploiting the unfettered Amp Damage in 1.07 and the nice Deception RW that comes complete with the bugged Eth rune CtH).

Anybody curious to see another build done side-by-side in 1.13 and 1.09? Let me know.
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by robdylan on Dec 16, 2005:

Introducing Patriarch Taz

Well, I did it! My kickass WW barb made Patriarch - and pretty damn easily as well. I finished Hell on P2 at level 86, but I reckon P4+ would've been quite doable if it weren't for the fact that my damn merc dies too quickly (along with his oh-so-useful Might aura)

Skills are pretty standard:
20 WW, 20 Mace Mastery, 20 BO, 20 Shout, 5 Iron Skin, 4 Nat Res, 1 Beserk, 1 Battle Command, pre-reqs.

As for gear:
Tal's Mask
Gloom Balrog Skin (he he!)
Shael-ed upped 294% ED Ribby (Man - this thing is uber-sweet)
Ghoulhide
Verdungo's
Gore Riders
Metalgrid
Raven Frost X2
Demon Limb on switch
3 Steel GC's
Fanatic GC
Sounding GC

With the Steel GC's, Demon Limb's enchant and the added AR from Metalgrid and 2 Ravens, my final AR is somewhere in the region of 9k. Maxed Shout together with my 1662 base def Gloom gives me around 18k defense as well. Life is hovering around 3.5k. Man, this guy is hard to kill

Merc is Act 2 Might, with Shaft, Guillaume's and AmnAmnShael Hone, although he dies far too easily.

Seriously, the only tough part was the PI's. Beserk is a great skill for taking them down if you're one-on-one, but the reduction in defense (together with the fact that you can't leach from the buggers) tends to make it pretty hard to bring down a pack of them. Add a Fanaticism enchanted mana-burn boss and you'd do better to go around!

Man - this guy really was fun to play from start to finish. I highly reccomend building one.

On to my next project. My MA Sin is sitting at level 23 in Act 2 Normal.
 
Originally posted by Rummski on Feb 5, 2009:

Patriarch Dervish - An Immortal King Whirlwind Barbarian

Patriarch Dervish - Immortal King Whirlwind Barbarian
:

The name is pretty basic, Whirling Dervish...hence Dervish for a Whirly Barb :) He was boring to level, but once the Full Set came on and I got a bit more used to whirling, game over. He's fun and has a great Countess map (40-45 sec runs with 3-5 boss packs per run as well). I'm planning 500 Countess runs with him and from there retirement.

Stats Stats in Full IK

Level 82

Strength : 209 (263)
Energy : 10 (22)
Dexterity : 98 (149)
Vitality : 193 (204)

Life : 3008 (with buffs)
Mana : 380 (with buffs)
Stamina : 1215 (with buffs)

Concentrate AR: 8986 (with all buffs but enchant)
Whirlwind AR: 8801 (with all buffs but enchant)

DEF: 12523 (with buffs)

All Resistance 75%

MF: 144% w/o Merc

Equipment

Main: Ask for Readouts
- Weapon: IK Stone Crusher - Shael / Shael
- Helm: IK Will - 2 PTopaz
- Armor: IK Soul Cage - PTopaz
- Belt: IK Detail
- Gloves: IK Forge
- Boots: IK Pillar
- Switch: "Heart of the Oak"
- Switch Shield: "Spirit"
- Amulet: Saracen's Chance +12 All Attributes / +24 All Res
- Ring1: SOJ
- Ring2: Raven Frost



Inventory Summary:
- 2*4 free squares
- 3 Sharp GCs (2 Greed, 1 Dex)
- 1 Shimmering GC of Sust. 13 Res All + 35 Life
- Bunch of Fine, Steel and Res SC with random suffix



Skills - max shown with Switch 2 less in Full IK Gear

Combat Skills:
1 (12) in Bash, Leap, Leap Attack, Stun, Concentrate, Bezerk
Max (31) in Whirlwind


Combat Masteries:
Max (27) Mace Mastery
1 (8) in Increase Stamina, Increase Speed
2 (9) in Iron Skin, Natural Resistance


Warcries:
1 (10) in Whatever the top left is, Find Potion, Battle Command
2 (11) in Find Item - rest will go here
16 (25) in Shout
Max (29) in Battle Orders

Mercenary

Ahsab, A2 Might:

Equipment:
- "Insight" Eth Cryptic Axe
- Vampire Gaze
- "Fortitude" Archon Plate

Thanks to Fabian for the Fortitude - Just a plain jane merc, he didn't have to do much.

Gameplay

Normal played P8 most with 1.09 Raven Claw and/or Crushflange - Full Sigon's. Easy Peasy...

NM played P8 until A3, and then P3 to get done with the difficulty. Ribcracker (285%) / Windhammer and switching in Duriel's Shell, and Final gear as levels progressed. It was boring and I contemplated quitting him all together. 3 IM deaths in the CS (I was so bored and didn't care just tried to power thru as fast as possible)

Hell played P1. Started around Level 70. Ran Countess (Lum on Quest) (See above about map) until Level 76 and then put on Full Set and he began to be fun. I guess I got the hang of him after putting the set on him. It pretty much went Switch, Buff, Switch, Whirl/Conc, rinse, repeat. No deaths or near death experiences, the Chaos Sanctuary was a slow crawl due to tons of OKs, but Bezerk and Rejuv Pots (20+) were enough to handle them. Diablo was a breeze, Act 5 was a joke, Ancients spawned very easy, and Baal and his minions were no match. Baal left his normal junk and Dervish was given his Patriarch label!

The IK set does a great job of keeping you alive, the leech for both mana and life is excellent and as long as you stay away from IM, you are pretty much Immortal.


Finds

- Hellforges: Ral / Hel / Lem
- Items: Pelta Lunata, Pluckeye x2, 199% Buriza, 197% Duriels, Lem x 2 from Countess runs

Future

Dervish will be seen in the Black Marsh and Forgotten Tower for the next month or so (depends on how quickly I finish my Pindlethon runs) I'm sure the Countess will be sick of getting smacked in the head by the Whirling Dervish.


Thank you for reading!

Cheers,
Rummski
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Schmaleop on Mar 9, 2007:

It's a celebration b....... Patriarch RickJames

Well i've pat'ed my first character, not many people can say that about an IK Barb :?

RickJames Lvl 87

Stats:

STR: 187
DEX: 49
VIT: 284
ENR: 10

Life: 1323
Mana: 96

Skills:

WW: 20
Mace Mastery: 20
BO: 20
Shout: 20
Item Find: 5
Pre-req and other useful skills: 1


I'm sure there is a way to do a printout of stats from ATMA but i don't know how to so i've just typed.

The character was pretty easy to play. I got a bit frustrated before i had the IK set on mainly because i had poor interim gear. Once the set was on though i only really struggled in hell when i was careless. Very strong character and i'm glad i've finally finished a WW barb (never did in my Bnet days).

Game was played on P8 for all of normal and half of NM i think, i remember toning it down to P4 at some point because i had very poor weapons and was whirling enemies for tedious amounts of time.
Hell was done on P3 throughout. I had 3 deaths in hell i believe; i forget the first but the second was to a group of Souls in Frozen river, the damage wasn't a problem but i took them for granted and whirled away and realised i wasn't leeching enough a little too late.
Third death was to a pack of fanatcism Hell lords in the ancients way, i thought it was a good idea to whirl the whole pack when i was cursed >.< Big mistake.

Other than that the CS was fine, Ancients were a doddle which i was very surprised about and WSK was ok as i broke up OK packs.

Main weakness for this character was physical immunes with mana burn or drain properties (Ghost boss packs droze me nuts so many times).

Oh and finally HF dropped this which i was pleased about.

What will be next?
I really should Mat my MF Blizz sorc (currently sat at lvl 88 with ancients and baal to go).
Other than that there is a NightFish FA/LF/CS'zon in the pipeline along with a Psn/Summon'mancer which i can't wait to level.

I'll also get to work on my Achilles project soon, a daunting task for my first HC char ;)

Schmaleop

PS. Anyone who has watched the Dave Chapelle show should understand the title 👍
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by scrcrw on Aug 28, 2010:

Patriach ww - Titan WW Barb

Hello from the dark side. :)
Now that I've decided to provide a bit of target practice on the Moor, I had to level an SC character. After several attempts I managed not to tick the HC box and ww, the Barbarian, was born. Pretty name, isn't it?
Putting points into Vit would be extremely silly for SC questing, so the Titan bit was obvious. A big stick seemed appropriate to take full advantage of all that juicy off-weapon ed:
Code:
Breath of the Dying 
Superior Great Poleaxe 
VexHelElEldZodEth 
Two Hand Damage: 349 - 961 
Durability: 28 of 28 
Required Level: 69 
Required Strength: 136 
Required Dexterity: 72 
Fingerprint: 0x978ee95 
Item Level: 85 
Version: Expansion 1.10+ 
50% Chance to cast level 20 Poison Nova when you Kill an Enemy 
Indestructible 
+60% Increased Attack Speed 
406% Enhanced Damage 
-25% Target Defense 
+53 to Attack Rating 
+200% Damage to Undead 
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead 
7% Mana stolen per hit 
14% Life stolen per hit 
Prevent Monster Heal 
All Stats +30 
+1 to Light Radius 
Requirements -20% Ethereal 
6 Sockets (6 used) 
Socketed: Vex Rune 
Socketed: Hel Rune 
Socketed: El Rune 
Socketed: Eld Rune 
Socketed: Zod Rune 
Socketed: Eth Rune

LCS (you can stop reading now)

Code:
Stats:
Strength: everything
Dex/Vit/Energy: the rest

Life: 1339 (BO/BC)
Resists: 75/69/80/48

WW Damage: 5k - 15k
AR: 8,2k

Skills: Max WW/Pole Mastery/BO, rest in Nat Res and Shout

Gear:
eBotD GPA (see above)
Forti Dusk
Arreat's (6ll, 9dex/20ed/50ar jewel)
Highlord's
LoH
Gores
SoE (8ll/15dr)
Raven Frost (17/239)
Rare Ring (7ll/4ml/118ar/21CR/6FR)

Charms: AR/max dam/life (207 in total)

Likes: big sticks, life leech, long whirls on the beach
Dislikes: unleechables, PIs, mana burn

Merc: eth Reaper's (Shael) / Andy's (Fervor) / Enigma BP

Gameplay: Titan all the way (axes first, respec'ed to polearms at 69). Made for juicy damage, even naked. /p8 all the way through Normal & NM, /p7 for Hell A1-A4, /p1 for A5 because I got bored.
The merc was kind enough to carry the PI solution. No, not Reaper's. That's not a PI solution on p7. Enigma of course. Teleport was just a quick switch of armor away. 👍 Enigma is actually an awesome merc armor. Makes him run faster and boosts his Might aura. Highly recommended. Well, wearing it yourself is better, but I was going for a nice looking LCS.

Deaths along the way? Annoyingly, yes. One to the explosion of the FE Council member in NM and another in A5 Hell to a Cursed/EFast/EStrong Frenzytaur pack in the Ancient's Way...
Otherwise ww was exciting but surprisingly safe. Long whirls through packs with multiple bosses were fun. Sometimes both the life and the mana bulb emptied and refilled several times during one whirl. 35% ll 4tw :)

Is there a point to this write-up? Umm, no, not really. Sorry. How about this:

Make a Titan. Vitality is overrated.

See you on the Moor! 👋
(there will be levelling and another respec...)

Bonus: Guardians Gone Wild!!! (sfw)
 
Originally posted by sirpoopsalot on Nov 23, 2007:

Patriarch Dizzy - two-fisted whirler

History:

Once upon a time I traded for a 4 socket, ethereal 1.07 Berzerker Axe. Then I made Oath in it. Then I made Oath again (because the first roll was horrid). And then I put it in my runeword stash and never used it... However, every time I saw it sitting there, I thought of the two Mal's I'd spent, the two Pul's I'd spent, and all of the other runes and trade items I'd spent - and the fact that I really didn't get any use out of the axe to make up for that cost.

So, eventually it became time to give it a whirl (pun intened 👅), and as usuall, I wanted to try something I hadn't tried before. I've done Whirlwind, but never a dual-wielding whirler, and I've never really used axes (other than my Gimmershred's conviction/ranger pally, which hardly counts). I've also never spent many points in Shout. It's also been a while since I've played a barbarian. Hence, Dizzy was born. He's a pretty generic whirly barb, but he's got some decent equipment (thanks to a little help from his friends).


Details:
Level 86
Life: 4024 (a personal best)
Mana: 268
Defense: 11000+ (respectable - I thought about using a Defiance merc to boost this)
Resists: 75f / 72c / 75l / 70p

Str: 143
Dex: 87
Vit: 382
Nrg: 20


The Good Stuff:
AR: 8120
Damage: 1291 - 4298 / 963 -3031

Other Bonuses:
- 40% Crushing Blow
- 32% / 88% Deadly Strike (depending on weapon)
- 22% Critical Strike
- 33% Open Wounds
- 4-frame whirl (6.2 attacks per second)
- 86 FHR (4-frames)
- 14% Life Leech / 10% Mana Leech / +8 Life per kill
- 0% FRW
- 0% Chill Negation or Freeze Duration... yes, he's not exactly a speed demon


Skills:
20 (26) Whirlwind
20 (24) Axe Mastery
20 (28) Shout
20 (31) Battle Orders
3 (7) Natural Resists
1 (7) Berzerk
1 (5) Battle Cry
1 (9) Battle Command
1 point prerequisites
3 points unspent


Primary Equipment:
Code:
Oath
Berserker Axe
'ShaelPulMalLum'
One-Hand Damage: 141 to 469
Required Dexterity: 49
Required Strength: 128
Required Level: 64
Axe Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x11d4bb24
+10 to Energy
+293% Enhanced Damage
50% Increased Attack Speed
Prevent Monster Heal
75% Damage to Demons
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons
+15 Magic Absorb
Indestructible
30% Chance to cast Level 20 Bone Spirit on striking
Level 16 Heart of Wolverine (20/20 Charges)
Level 17 Iron Golem (14/14 Charges)
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)

Death Cleaver
Berserker Axe
One-Hand Damage: 98 to 303
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Dexterity: 59
Required Strength: 138
Required Level: 70
Axe Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x37efc573
+311% Enhanced Damage
+12 to Maximum Damage
+8 Life after each Kill
40% Increased Attack Speed
-33% Target Defense
66% Deadly Strike
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Socketed With:
Ruby Jewel of Carnage
Required Level: 58
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x704bec7b
+34% Enhanced Damage
+12 to Maximum Damage


Arreat's Face
Slayer Guard
Defense: 337
Durability: 55 of 55
(Barbarian Only)
Required Strength: 118
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xf84b8ef7
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+179% Enhanced Defense
+38 to Attack Rating
All Resistances +30
5% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
15% Increased Attack Speed
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+2 to Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Duress
Archon Plate
'ShaelUmThul'
Defense: 1503
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Strength: 103
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 1
Fingerprint: 0x145c18ec
+200% Enhanced Defense
+17% Enhanced Damage
Fire Resist +15%
Lightning Resist +15%
Cold Resist +45%
Poison Resist +15%
Adds 37-133 cold damage over 2 seconds
40% Faster Hit Recovery
33% Chance of Open Wounds
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
-20% Slower Stamina Drain
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x33820334
Lightning Resist +35%
Adds 1-30 lightning damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to All Skill Levels
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15
32% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)

Blood Hold
Gauntlets
Defense: 15
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xa5ebee49
+6 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +18%
Cold Resist +20%
Poison Resist +23%
3% Mana stolen per hit
Poison Length Reduced by 25%

Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Mithril Coil
Defense: 133
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Strength: 106
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xa7a808ad
+38 to Vitality
+100 to Maximum Stamina
+103% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 15%
Replenish Life +12
10% Faster Hit Recovery

Goblin Toe
Light Plated Boots
Defense: 34
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 22
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x61924651
+60% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 1
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
-1 to Light Radius
25% Chance of Crushing Blow

Grim Loop
Ring
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xb617e5a9
+6 to Dexterity
+12 to Maximum Stamina
Fire Resist +26%
Lightning Resist +20%
4% Life stolen per hit
3% Mana stolen per hit

Blood Hold
Ring
Required Level: 46
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x5b9a96bf
+20 to Mana
Fire Resist +29%
Poison Resist +25%
5% Life stolen per hit
4% Mana stolen per hit

Other Gear:
Switch: CtA + HotO (I don't know where my Echoing weapons are :p)
Charms: Steel/Sharp/Fine Small/Grand Charm of Balance/<Life>/Dexterity/<damage> - all with 2nd mods.
Stash: Demon's Limb for Enchant charges (I used ~30 of them through all of Hell difficulty - including the time I spent on /players8)
Arm: Stop watch (672 seconds can be hard to keep track of :p)

I used Guillaume's Face for quite a while (late Act1 Hell), and I really wanted to keep using it for the CB/DS/appearance, but after trying to berzerk a normal wraith (mana burn) and having an attack sequence of: miss, miss, miss, miss, hit, hit, miss, miss, miss, hit, miss, hit, hit, miss, miss, kill I decided that was a little unacceptable. The Arreat's gave me a lot more AR, and the resists gave me a little more room for some AR charms, so I ended up with about 3300 more AR with Enchant - however, now I look pretty much like every other barb in the world. :embarassed:

Questing was moderately twinked, mostly geared around weapon/damage upgrades:
- Jewels of Envy until 15
- 1.09 Ravenclaw & Iratha's set until 30
- 2x Honor exceptional axes until NM
- 2x Butcher's Pupil until I could equip the Oath & DC


Mighty Merc (level86):
- eth Reaper's Toll (Shael)
- Vampize Gaze (10 Res. all jewel)
- Duriel's Shell (IAS jewel)


Notes:
1. I was hoping to do the entire game on /players8, but after spending 10-15 seconds on every normal monster in early Act4 (and much more on random bosses & champs), I said to heck with that. I did go entirely on /players8 until the RoF waypoint, then dropped down to /p1.

2. 0 NDE's. This guy is too sturdy, and has way too much life, to not have time to react to danger. There were a few times that I'd stop to take care of something in the middle of a pack/battle. Mana burn and unleechables were the only real threats, but they were usually more tedious than dangerous. Ancients didn't spawn PI, so they were a joke (they were cursed, mana burn, etc, but that really didn't matter).

3. However, that's not to say I didn't die. Iron Maiden being what it is, and my careless impatience being what it is... :rolleyes:

4. The low durability on the Death Cleaver wasn't as annoying as I expected - mostly it would last for about 9-10 minutes before wearing out, which meant I could head to town and recast Enchant before heading out again.

5. I miss Increased Speed and FRW. Whirling is awesome at slow speed, but running around isn't.


Notable Finds:
I didn't have any/much MF, but I would've thought that with all the time I spent on /p8, I still would've found more than I did. No such (relative) luck, but I kept detailed notes anyways:
- Sapphire GC of Sustenance (29 / 29) <-- my best drop
- Hellforge: Pul / Ist <--- ok, I was very pleased with these too
- Best Non-HF Rune: 2xShael
- Emerald SC (11%)
- String of Ears (12/10/6)
- Que-Hegan's Wisdom
- Coif of Glory (ethereal)
- Nagelring (26%)
... that's basically it (except for an occasional S/U item like Isenhart's)


Special Thanks: :flowers:
- Thyiad for donating both base axes to make Honor
- omgwtfbbqpwned for donating the high-end Death Cleaver
 
Originally posted by sirpoopsalot on Dec 4, 2008:

Patriarch Igor_Horkov - Whirly/Goldy/Pindly Barb

It's going to take me a while to figure out his exact details relating to the equipment he wears for his 2 remaining jobs, but he just killed Baal, so...

(hopefully the equipment list makes sense)


History:
As I explained recently in TheReadMenace's thread about Pindle runners, this barb was built with 3 purposes in mind. First was to try my Grief+Fortitude on a whirlwind barbarian and quest it through the game.

But since it took a few months to make Grief, I had lots of time to pre-plan this barbarian. When planning the skills, I couldn't think of a "good" 4th skill to dump 20 points in: (Sword) Mastery, Whirlwind, and BattleOrder's are obvious 20 pointers, but none of the others is especially necessary (or useful) for questing through the game. So I decided that I'd throw the excess in Find Item and then figure out how to make him a GF-runner (his second purpose) after he beat Baal.

Finally, when I was playing SpongebobIII, at one point in Act2 I was running around with a Sanctuary aura pwning physical immune undead. It dawned on me that Sanctuary + Find Item + reasonably fast kills + MF = a very solid Pindle runner. Since I've never once used Azurewrath before, mixing Pindleskin, Azurewrath, and MF runs became his third purpose.


Details:
Level85+
Str: 172+
Dex: 136+
Vit: everything else
Ene: base
Currently unspent stat points: 42

Resists:
Questing: 75/64/80/75
GF: ~50+f / ?? for the rest
Pindle: no idea

Life: ~2500
Mana: ~200
Damage & AR: ????
... but my AR is pretty low; that's my biggest concern so far, since Grief's ITD doesn't work on boss-types. It's also why I put an Eth instead of an Eld in the Azurewrath.

Skills:
20 Sword Mastery, Whirlwind, Battle Orders, Find Item
2+ Increased Speed
1 Natural Resists, Berzerk, Taunt, Battle Command, prereq's
remaining points will likely go into Increased Speed, with maybe one or two making it into Natural Resists.

Equipment:
Code:
- Weapon1:  Grief Phaseblade (356)
- Weapon2:  ethereal Oath Colossus Sword  (1.07 hax, 332%)
- Weapon3:  Azurewrath (eth rune)

Grief + Oath, will be for questing & GF runs
Grief + Azurewrath will be for Pindle runs.


Weapon Switch (for horking): 
- 2x LemLem AliBaba's (GF)
- 2x MF jewels AliBaba's (Pindle)


Armor: 
- Fortitude (questing),
- Wealth (GF),
- Fortitude / Skullder's / Tals / ??? (for Pindle)


Helm:
- Arreat's (questing)
- Lem'ed Crown of Thieves (GF)
- Shako / Arreat's / ???? (Pindle)


Amulet:
- Tancred's Wierd (questing & Pindle)
- Cresent Moon (GF)


Ring1 (might potentially swap out for Pindle runs, but I doubt it):
 
Beast Grasp
Ring
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x6e9e41f4
+12 to Strength
+13 to Dexterity
+115 to Attack Rating
Fire Resist +21%
Lightning Resist +7%
Cold Resist +7%
Poison Resist +7%
+50 poison damage over 3 seconds


Ring2:
- Dwarfstar (GF)
- ????  for Pindle (Nagel or dual-leech is most likely)


Gloves:
- Dracul's (questing)
- Chance Guard's (GF & Pindle)


Belt:  Goldwrap Battlebelt
(I'm going to try some crafting to get a replacement with resists, GF
and maybe FHR, but who knows if I'll get anything decent).


Boots:
- Infernostride (GF)
- Tancred's (questing & Pindle)


Charms:
- 1x Gheeds
- Resists & Sharp/Fine of various sizes & details

Mercenary:
Level85, Might aura
Reaper's Toll (Shael) / Obedience eth Thresher
VampGaze (IAS) / Kira's Guardian (IAS)
Duress / Fortitude / Shaftstop (IAS) / Guardian Angel (IAS) / eth Treachery

Like the rest of my gear, his has been in a state of flux so far. The emphasis will be (and has always been) on making him survive (1st) and making him kick butt (2nd). I may rely on my mercs for tanking and making the occasional kill, but I don't EVER rely on them for MF (they're too slow to be consistent for that).

For the weapon, he started with Obedience, but the Reaper's became more useful later on when he started battling monsters that were higher level than him (it keeps him alive better). I might try switching back to the Obedience around level ~88+, but it's possible I'll stick with the Reapers. Or maybe I'll (somehow) get my hands on another eth Reaper's and settle it that way.

For the armor & helm, if I'm not using the Fortitude myself, I'll probably stick that on him. Otherwise he'll use Shaftstop for PindleRuns and who-knows-what for GF runs. Likewise, Vampgaze is a certain for Pindle runs, but the Kira's might become more desired if I feel it's safer for GF runs. At the moment, I don't have an Ist for Delerium, or that would get some consideration too.


Finds:
- Dol/Io Hellforge. :( (two characters in a row with not one rune over Lum)
- Shimmering Jewel of Hope (8/16)
- Blood Raven's Charge
- The Redeemer
- Bonehew
- Fanatic GC of Life (12)
- Vermillion Jewel of Wrath (+20)
and so close:
- rare gauntlets: (22l / 11c resists, 3% LLeech, 10 IAS, +2 Passive & Magic)... d'oh.


Notes:
1. Have a look at my boots & amulet. Nice & stylish, eh? I've often wondered why Tancred's aren't used more for some pure-MF builds. Since this barb doesn't gain a lot from those slots it's a perfect combo for boosting his MF and allowing him to use other slots for more useful gear. For example, compare Fortitude + 2x Tancreds to WarTrav's + Tal's Armor + Highlord's... it's probably reasonably close in effectiveness, but the 300% ED on the Fortitude is something I'd like to keep (and it might actually be the better combo).

2. Questing was pretty straight forward and uneventful. He's only a little stronger than my Oath+DC whirler (from what I remember), but having both weapons indestructible is an improvement.

3. I died quite a bit, mostly because my equipment was in a constant state of flux and I had ~150 stat points saved (combined with a moderatly heavy investment in dex & str) - and I would whirl through anything... (read: "hmm... there's 3 Oblivion Knights on the other side of this massive pack of Abyss Knights... I should run around to avoid IM, but a direct whirl is much easier, and maybe I'll be lucky :scratchchin:").

4. He's still a little fragile for GF runs, depending on the spawn, but I haven't tried that task in 4 levels, so maybe it's better now that he's 85. I think 2-3 more levels and some practice will do the trick. Before fighting Ancients, he went from 81 to 84.5 on /p7 Pindle runs (with questing gear) and I don't think he'll have the slightest problem running Pindle - at any setting.

5. Speaking of Pindle, I think I'll do some testing on him for a bit. I'm sure I can spank him on lower settings, but I want to try some higher settings setups that maximize speed, MF, and safety. Once I get those somewhat figured out I'm going to do a proper comparison between him and my Blizzsorc. I'm pretty sure he'll outperform the Blizzy on lower settings (horking = 52% more items, meaning if his MF and speed are moderately comparable, the barb should win), but I'm not as sure about maintaining MF, speed, and safety at higher settings.

I'll post that comparison in its own thread when I'm more confident of my findings. Many folks might not read Pat threads, but anyone with thoughts on seriously running Pindleskin will (hopefully) want to read that thread.

6. This post has the links to the obligatory GF-running screenshots.



Thanks:
- Jaedhann for donating all of the ingredients (including runes) for the Oath, as well as his GF barb writeup (that was a nice sanity check for my Travincial planning and for tracking down +GF gear).

- Bassen (and Wanchu as the original source) for donating the Azurewrath
 
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Originally posted by stephan on Apr 1, 2007:

Patriarch Priscus

While I skipped making a Mat/Pat thread for my Meteorb and Winddruid, I'm writing this one up because it worked even better than I expected. Priscus is a WW barb using an upped shaeled Ribcracker and The Disciple set.

Stats, Skills and Equipment

Level 79 / 678324436 exp
96 str
40 dex (to carry the echoing weapons I had)
329 vita
10 energy


Skills

20 WW
18 Shout
19 BO
20 Mace mastery
1 Increased stamina
1 Increased speed
1 Iron skin
1 Natural resistance
1 Battle command
1 Berserk

Rest in prereq and I managed to waste a point in bash somehow, but it doesn't really matter.

Equipment

Upped shaeled Ribcracker
The Disciple set (armor socketed with Ort)
Vampire Gaze (6 ll / 8 ml / 19 DR%)
Ravenfrost/Rare ring with 8 ll and some AR

2 echoing weapons on switch.

Some thoughts

First of all, increased speed and CBF is not really what a WW barb wants. But I am used to assassins and I hate being slow so I opted for those anyway. Secondly, while The Disciple is not a bad set, for melee chars it seriously lacks an AR bonus somewhere. While extra AR doesn't seem that important for WW, it does matter for a 1-point berserk. I just opted to get a blessed aim merc in the end. The set leaves the weapon slot open, however, which still makes it very usable. Vampire Gaze is the ideal helm for the build. The life/mana leech makes Priscus practically indestructible.

As for Ribcracker, there are no words to describe how awesome this weapon is. It combines huge offensive and defensive capacities in one single stick and it looks pretty cool too. If you look at Clvl and str/dex requirements and compare it with other 2h elite uniques it only becomes better and better and better...

The build was very, very easy to play. Besides the CS and physical immune mana burners (I guess this is where the IK set really shines), he is really ripping through Hell like it is Normal. Even things that normally might require a little bit more carefulness like Ancients and Lister's pack went down very easy.

Drops were very disappointing besides the Ist I got from HF. I have no idea what to do with it however. There aren't any sub-Vex runewords I can use it for (besides delirium, which I can't imagine using), so it might just end up in my Meteorbs Occu. I don't like to save up runes for cubing, runes are meant to be used, and the only (IMO) worthwhile and attainable RW that way would be Chaos. (I'm open to other suggestions though)

So that is number 4 out of 7. Next will be probably be a bonespear/summon hybrid or a Witchyzon. I have absolutely no idea what to do with my Paladin... might as well go Hammerdin and complete the cheesy seven. 😁 I still have my Immortal Queen to work on too.
 
Originally posted by SunsetVista on Aug 25, 2012:

Patriarch Trogdor - WW Barb
1.13 Softcore RWM GoMule/ATMA

Name: Trogdor
Class: Barbarian
Experience: 1003789856
Level: 84

Naked/Gear
Strength: 163/208
Dexterity: 112/147
Vitality: 225/245
Energy: 10/30
HP: 1081/1250 (2257 with BO)
Mana: 93/309
Stamina: 375/435
Defense: 28/986
AR: 545/17556

Resists in Hell (F/C/L/P): 75/75/75/67

Skills:
20 WW
20 Sword Mastery
20 Battle Orders
20 Shout
1 iron skin, natural resist, increased stamina, increased speed, find potion, find item, berserk
1 in prereqs

Gear:
Head: Arreat's Face (Ith)
Body: 'Lionheart' Mage Plate
Amulet: Stone Wing (rare, see readout below)
Belt: String of Ears
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gore Rider
Ring 1: Dwarf Star
Ring 2: Bahamut's Ring of the Wraith (118 mana, 4% mana steal)
Weapon 1: 'Grief' Phase Blade
Weapon 2: 'Oath' Eth Balrog Blade
Weapon Switch: 2 Heartcarvers

Merc:
Azrael
Act 2 holy freeze
Head: Tal-Rasha's Horadric Crest
Body: Duriel's Shell
Weapon: Hone Sundan (Shael, Shael, Amn)

Code:
-----
Lionheart 
Mage Plate 
HelLumFal 
Defense: 257 
Durability: 46 of 60 
Required Level: 41 
Required Strength: 47 
Fingerprint: 0x226d3c6 
Item Level: 85 
Version: Expansion 1.10+ 
20% Enhanced Damage 
All Stats +10 
+15 to Strength 
+5 to Dexterity 
+10 to Vitality 
+50 to Life 
All Resistances +30 
Requirements -15% 3 Sockets (3 used) 
Socketed: Hel Rune 
Socketed: Lum Rune 
Socketed: Fal Rune
-----
Grief 
Phase Blade 
EthTirLoMalRal 
One Hand Damage: 31 - 35 
Indestructible 
Required Level: 59 
Required Strength: 25 
Required Dexterity: 136 
Fingerprint: 0xc20d8666 
Item Level: 85 
Version: Expansion 1.10+ 
35% Chance to cast level 15 Venom on striking 
+37% Increased Attack Speed 
Damage +385 
Ignore Target's Defense 
-25% Target Defense 
+157% Damage to Demons (Based on Character Level) 
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage 
-22% to Enemy Poison Resistance 
20% Deadly Strike 
Prevent Monster Heal 
+2 to Mana after each Kill 
+13 Life after each Kill 5 Sockets (5 used) 
Socketed: Eth Rune 
Socketed: Tir Rune 
Socketed: Lo Rune 
Socketed: Mal Rune 
Socketed: Ral Rune
-----
Oath 
Balrog Blade 
ShaelPulMalLum 
One Hand Damage: 85 - 434 
Two Hand Damage: 318 - 686 
Durability: 26 of 26 
Required Level: 53 
Required Strength: 175 
Required Dexterity: 77 
Fingerprint: 0x37ee5003 
Item Level: 80 
Version: Expansion 1.10+ 
30% Chance to cast level 20 Bone Spirit on striking 
Indestructible 
+50% Increased Attack Speed 
288% Enhanced Damage 
+75% Damage to Demons 
+100 to Attack Rating against Demons 
Prevent Monster Heal 
+10 to Energy 
+13 Magic Absorb 
Level 17 Iron Golem (14/14 Charges) 
Level 16 Heart of Wolverine (20/20 Charges) Ethereal 
4 Sockets (4 used) 
Socketed: Shael Rune 
Socketed: Pul Rune 
Socketed: Mal Rune 
Socketed: Lum Rune
-----
Stone Wing 
Amulet 
Required Level: 51 
Fingerprint: 0x1023b912 
Item Level: 84 
Version: Expansion 1.10+ 
+2 to Masteries Skills (Barbarian Only) 
+10% Faster Cast Rate 
+7 to Minimum Damage 
Cold Resist +27% 
All Resistances +11 
Poison Length Reduced by 75%
-----

Notes:
This was the first character I made in LoD 1.10+, sometime around 2008 or so. I finally got around to patting him, as you can see. Trogdor is my 2nd character ever, after an Assassin in unpatched LoD with a point in every skill who almost made it to Normal Baal. I'll write what I can remember about the journey.

Going untwinked as a WW barb was tough at first. Mana was a problem and I had no idea what I was doing. I struggled to find a decent weapon to lvl with before I even knew about WW breakpoints. Because of the mana problems, I lvled to about 50 in Normal using only Concentrate on /players 1. Yeah. I had Berserk for an Iron Maiden/PI Solution. I think Trogdor did most of Nightmare and Hell also on /players 1, until I finally made some nice swords.

I needed better stuff, so I started some other characters to mf. Trogdor's gear kept getting better and better. I wanted to gear him up to run Travincal for runes, but to do that I'd need some runes to start with, so I made a Zon for Cows. I finally got the things necessary to make an eth Oath. That made a huge difference in his WW damage. With the advent of 1.13, I finally found enough runes to cube a Lo for Grief. At that point (I think Hell Act 5), Hell /players 8 was a breeze, except for mana burn. The Ith in the hat is supposed to help with that. If I were to rebuild, I'd put some points in double swing I think, to help leech mana back faster.

I ran Pindle for a level or two, and tried out the Pits as a lvling spot also. I do not remember any particular finds from this character. Hell hellforge was Fal.

I have a note here saying that all 3 of the Ancients were mana burn. That was rough. Not. Grief/Oath is ridiculous.

With no Iron Maiden anymore, WSK was hilariously easy for a change. I just WW'ed everything, even gloam and viper and OKnight bosspacks. The only trouble came with some PI frenzytaurs. Those were taken care of carefully with Howl and Berserk.

Baal dropped Blackhorn's Face.

The future for Trogdor is Travincal. He may do some more Pindle runs to get some levels, then I'll regear the merc (still looking for a reaper's toll) and hit the council hard.

This makes 5/7 character classes I've finished Hell with. Still need to do Assassin and Druid.

Thanks for reading!
 
Originally posted by Swiller on May 3, 2007:

Patriarch Mwints: The Immortal King

The two men sat at the entrance to the Worldstone Chamber--Leharas catching his breath, Mwints idly cleaning the black blood of demons from his gloves. In the chamber below them lurked Baal, the Lord of Destruction.

"Why did you come here?" Mwints asked of his companion.

Leharas shrugged. "I'm a mercenary. It's how I make a living."

"Dying ain't much of a living, boy." Their eyes met, and without a word, both men stood and descended into the eerie red glow.

Below, Leharas felt fear. They has fought many battles against the minions of Hell, yet the greatest challenge awaited. But hark! Once, twice, three times a mighty bellow issued from mouth of Mwints. The walls seemed to shake, so resonant were the shouts of the powerful Barbarian. And with each cry, Leharas felt his fear abate. If he were to die this day, it would be alongside the greatest warrior he has ever known.

Legs pumping furiously, the two charged across the bridge toward the Lord of Destruction. Toward death. Toward glory.

And for once brief moment, Leharas recognized fear in the satanic eyes of Baal.



STATS

Strength: 187 (232)
Dexterity: 25 (75)
Vitality: 298
Energy: Huh? What's that?


SKILLS

Howl: 1 (6)
Taunt: 1 (6)
Shout: 20 (25)
Battle Cry: 1 (6)
Battle Orders: 20 (25)
Battle Command: 1 (6)
Find Potion: 1 (6)
Find Item: 1 (6)

Mace Mastery: 20 (28)
Increased Stamina: 1 (9)
Increased Speed: 1 (9)
Iron Skin: 1 (9)
Natural Resistance: 1 (9)

Bash: 1 (8)
Stun: 1 (8)
Concentrate: 1 (8)
Leap: 1 (8)
Leap Attack: 1 (8)
Berserk: 1 (8)
Whirlwind: 20 (27)


GEAR

Obviously, I wore the complete Immortal King set. I also wore the Angelic Wings/Halo combination for the attack rating bonus, and Ravenfrost for more Attack Rating and the invaluable "Cannot be Frozen". On switch I have two Blades of Ali Baba, one of which may be replaced by a Heart Carver. Three Mastery skillers (sadly, with no secondary mods) complete the setup.


MERCENARY

Leharas, the Act II Might mercenary.

Vampire Gaze
Duriel's Shell
The Reaper's Toll


ANALYSIS

Very cool, and very fun. And it's nice not to worry about gear selection. Essentially I wore Sigons until I could start swapping out pieces for the Immortal King set. I used a maul with six Hel runes until level 24, at which point it was replaced with Bonesnap. Bonesnap lasted until level 48, when it was replaced with Bloodtree Stump. From that point it was simply a steady climb to level 78 so I could equip the Immortal King's Soul Cage and Immortal King's Stone Crusher.

The mercenary was an issue. Despite having The Reaper's Toll, I made an "Obedience" giant thresher for him. What a waste that was! The damage was respectable, and of course it has a good amount of Crushing Blow. But you can get that from other weapons, like Hone Sundan. It just isn't worth the relatively rare (to me, at least) Ko and Fal. Besides, the Decrepify and high life leech on the Reaper's Toll are just invaluable, especially to a melee build like this one.

I experienced a few minor setbacks. My inventory was full when I visited Malah after the Anya quest, and thus the handy scroll of resistance went to the ground. I forgot it was there and exited. Later (and don't ask me how) I SOLD my Immortal King's Stone Crusher. As Hratli's inventory was full, it basically vanished. Luckily I had a few spares, but with less than perfect crushing blow.

In case you were wondering, the character is named after our former forum member, mwints. He gave me the Immortal King's Soul Cage, and without it this build wouldn't have been possible. I'd been looking for that particular sacred armor for a long time, and had given up hope. Thank you, mwints.

Also thanks go to Cattleya and CrazyRunnerGuy for convincing me to dump the Blessed Aim mercenary in favor of a Might one, and to all of you for reading this long winded post.


IMAGES

http ://img64.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot016mb6.jpg

http ://img105.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot017ac9.jpg

http ://img105.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot013ra0.jpg

http ://img64.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot011tu0.jpg
 
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Diablo 4 Interactive Map
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