Patriarch chuck the Double Throw Barbarian w/ Gimmershreds and M'avina's set

[little birdy]

Man, I love it when a plan comes together! This was a very fun and satisfying romp through the world of Sanctuary.

I've been toying with the idea of a Double Throw Barb for a while now. I found a couple Gimmershreds while questing/farming with other characters a while back, so I wanted to put them to use. I just wasn't really sure what gear to combine them with. They offer a nice variety of elemental damage, so I wanted to build off of that. I was thinking about 'Duress' as an option for the armor, since it adds a chunk of cold damage. But I've used 'Duress' enough with other characters. Been there, done that. Then I remembered that M'avina's gloves get a pretty solid cold damage add-on if you equip enough set pieces. Maybe that would work? After looking again at M'avina's set pieces and bonuses, it seemed like a good, if a bit kooky, idea to me. These all seemed like attractive things to have with this build...

M'avina's True Sight Diadem
+30% IAS
+1 to all skills with two items
50% bonus to AR with three items
+25 all res. with four items

M'avina's Icy Clutch
+10 strength and +15 dexterity
+131-252 cold damage with four items

M'avina's Embrace
Solid bonus to defense
+30% FHR with three items

M'avina's Tenet
20% FRW
5% Mana steal
+25 all res. with four items

...plus another +20 strength and +30 dexterity for the partial set bonus. After thinking it over a few minutes, I very quickly advanced from the "Maybe it's a good idea?" phase of planning to opening up the new character screen, and chuck was born.

The path to get to level 70 to be able to equip all the gear was pretty dull. I muddled through Normal difficulty with a mixture of found/shopped/gambled magic and rare throwing weapons. (I played as much as possible as a throwing build from the start, rather than levelling with other skills and re-spec'ing later on. I actually managed to preserve all three re-spec's with Akara. Go me!) I got a damage boost at level 44 as I was able to equip two Deathbit unique Battle Darts I had kicking around in the stash. Those carried me through NM, even if progress became slow towards the end of NM. I completed NM at level 66 and then got the rest of the way to level 70 in NM Terror Zones rather quickly.

Hell difficulty was where the fun really started. My original plan included two Raven Frost rings, but I quickly realized that I didn't have any life steal in my build. Just one small oversight. I swapped out one Raven Frost for a Carrion Wind, which granted 9% life steal and a hearty amount of Poison res. I was a bit disappointed to lose the second Raven Frost, but changing that one ring helped quite a bit. It also proc'd lots of Twisters which looked cool even if they hardly did any damage. Style points matter

This guy absolutely crushed Hell on p1. It was fast and fun, almost no close calls to speak of. A higher players setting certainly would have been doable, but I guess I'm a creature of habit so I stuck to the usual p1 for Hell. I was having a blast being able to play so fast. I expected the pace to slow a bit in Act V Hell, but it really didn't.

It was nearly a flawless victory in Hell, except for one annoying death in the Frozen River on the way to rescue Anya. I got surprised by a nasty pack of Gloams that had Conviction while I was playing in handheld mode. I didn't see the aura in time. I'm blaming that one on the small screen But I managed to slowly and carefully recover my corpse without additional deaths, and then I got revenge on the pesky boss Gloam. As usual, I completed all quests. While I wasn't doing full clears, I didn't have to skip any monsters that I came across, beat the Ancients on the first go, got all the waypoints, etc.

Interesting finds along the way included one Cold skiller (I think that makes 4 skillers now for the Blizzard Sorc I almost never play!) and a Gul from the Hell Forge. The Act bosses were stingy with their drops. The best drop was a Skin of the Vipermagi from Hell Baal (low roll on the resistances though).

Here are the stats and all that good stuff:

STATS
Level 82
Strength: 95 (135 with gear)
Dexterity: 220 (285)
Vitality: 180 (190)
Energy: 10
Life: 1820 with Battle Orders
Mana: 336
Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison resistances: 75/39/75/75
Attack Rating: 13678 with Double Throw while Enchanted

SKILLS
Throwing Mastery: 20 (22 with gear)
Double Throw: 20 (24)
Dougle Swing: 20 (24)
Battle Orders: 16 (18)
Natural Resistances: 7 (9)
1pt in all prereqs and the 1-pt wonders

GEAR
Dual Gimmershreds
(Demon Limb on switch for Enchant)
M'avina's True Sight
M'avina's Embrace
M'avina's Icy Clutch
M'avina's Tenet
War Travs
Highlord's Wrath
Raven Frost, Carrion Wind
2x Barb Combat skillers
Misc. elemental damage (mainly cold damage), life, and resistance charms
[Sunder GCs were not required considering the various types of damage chuck was dealing with every axe thrown]

To chip in more elemental damage, I decided to go with an Act V Frenzy Barb for my mercenary, and I equipped him with two 'Crescent Moon' Phase Blades to proc lots of Chain Lightning and Static Fields. I feel like he really helped speed up my clear speeds, particularly in Act V where I'm sure we encountered the most Cold Immunes.

MERCENARY
Yrmenlaf, Level 82 Act V Frenzy Barbarian
Arreat's Face
Dual 'Crescent Moon' Phase Blade
Twitchthroe (until he didn't need the extra dexterity) then Duriel's Shell

This guy goes like nuts when he's Frenzy'd. Truly a mad lad. He soaks up everything's attention, and he seems to be almost impossible to kill. While he is getting swarmed by all the monsters and swinging away with his swords, my character Double Throws everything into oblivion. It's a strong and effective combo, if I do say so myself

I think my next project will be a Whirlwind Assassin. I've never used 'Chaos' before and Terrorized Andy gifted my Fire Ball Sorc an Ohm rune the other day... But first I need to go hunting for a good base claw to make it in.

Thanks for reading!

 

[LouB]

I've always loved throw barbs and I'm also enamored with M'avina's set. very cool to see them combined.

 

[little birdy]

After finishing this write-up, I played around with different weapons. I swapped out the Gimmershreds for dual Demon's Arch unique Balrog Spears. They worked quite well too. You lose a decent chunk of elemental damage, though they do solve the problem of life steal, giving more flexibility on the other ring slot. Also Double Throwing javelins looks pretty goofy, which makes it kinda fun. I still like the Gimmers better though.

 

[SirName]

Love it! Did your playthrough answer the ancient question of how much wood(axes) could a wood(axe)chuck chuck if a wood(axe)chuck could chuck wood(axes)?

 

[little birdy]

Love it! Did your playthrough answer the ancient question of how much wood(axes) could a wood(axe)chuck chuck if a wood(axe)chuck could chuck wood(axes)?

That is an interesting question though, and something I meant to make mention of in my write up.

Early on in Normal, I made numerous trips back to town to repair and replenish my throwing weapons. But once you start building up some points in Throwing Mastery, that situation improves drastically. Once you have maxed Throwing Mastery, you basically never have to repair anymore.

Gimmershreds do not have the Replenish Quantity mod, and I never ran out of them throughout Hell. You have an OK chance of Critical Strike with Throwing Mastery maxed, and you get Replenish QTY via Throwing Mastery every time you crit. (You also get about 50% chance to pierce via maxed Throwing Mastery, which IME was plenty good enough. I didn't feel like I was missing anything not having Razortail in this build.)

So, yeah, with the right skill points placed, a Throw Barb can basically throw forever and ever. Can't put a number on it!

 

[LouB]

Dual spears brings back memories. My very first pat was a hybrid thrower beserker. It was back in 1.09, so no unique throwing weapons. At the end I had dual winged harpoons which I used most of the time. On switch I had a stormshield and I think a sureshrill Frost if I remember correctly.

I made two other throw barbs in 1.10 and 1.14 and usually used dual lacerators because of the repair issue ande even those would run out. D2R has really changed the throw barb, its made the return to town trips much improved. Also, you only dumped 1 point into double throw back then.

 

[PhineasB]

Very cool Pat! I’m still in D2L, and hadn’t noticed the skill tweak to replenish for throw mastery, but sounds like an absolute game changer for throw Barbs. Is that really the case? The biggest downside, as I recently saw with my v1.14 ThrowBarb, was the replenish / repair. With that addressed through skills, this build seems like more than niche to potentially high powered option!

 

[little birdy]

Very cool Pat! I’m still in D2L, and hadn’t noticed the skill tweak to replenish for throw mastery, but sounds like an absolute game changer for throw Barbs. Is that really the case? The biggest downside, as I recently saw with my v1.14 ThrowBarb, was the replenish / repair. With that addressed through skills, this build seems like more than niche to potentially high powered option!

Yep. Here is a screenshot of the tooltip for Throw Mastery on this character:


Max Throwing Mastery with only a modest +2 all skills on my gear grants:

• 56% chance to not consume QTY
• Replenish QTY on Critical Strike
• 30% chance Critical Strike
• (And almost 50% chance to Pierce)

My experience was that the Throw Barb is lower maintenance than a Javazon or Bowazon with regards to repairs / picking up arrows. You can throw and throw and throw, and more often than not you're consuming QTY on your throwing weapons--and sometimes replenishing QTY. Part of me wonders if they've almost made it too easy to not run out of throwing weapons. But, at the same time, this is not a wildly OP build, so it's not a big deal. Maybe it helps encourage more people to try something different.

I think a fully decked out Throw Barb optimized for physical damage with Lacerators (or Lacerator + Warshrike for added chance to Pierce?), 'Fortitude', etc. would be very strong. And probably capable of farming anything in the game without much trouble. (I supposed you'd want 'Enigma' for certain targets...) The core build only requires 60 points, so there are points to spare for Battle Orders, Find Item, etc.

 

[Miron]

Well done! Congrats on the pat!
Love those creative builds.

Did you used totem at some point?

 

[little birdy]

Well done! Congrats on the pat!
Love those creative builds.

Did you used totem at some point?

Thanks! I didn't use Grim Ward. But it is something I'm going to play around with in the future. I think it could be a nice addition. It's a skill that I tend to overlook.

 

[PhineasB]

I think a fully decked out Throw Barb optimized for physical damage with Lacerators (or Lacerator + Warshrike for added chance to Pierce?), 'Fortitude', etc. would be very strong. And probably capable of farming anything in the game without much trouble. (I supposed you'd want 'Enigma' for certain targets...) The core build only requires 60 points, so there are points to spare for Battle Orders, Find Item, etc.

I agree and think the D2R tweaks make this a really interesting character. Here is my ThrowBarb (D2L), who was in a themed MP group so not fully optimized, with a link down in the thread to one by @ffs that was more optimized:

Patriarch Bulls_Eye, Throw Barb and A3 Lightning Merc

Patriarch Bulls_Eye, Throw Barb with A3 Lightning Merc This guy is the sixth character in my Lesser Skills Sept, which focuses on less common (or commonly thought to be underpowered) skills for each class. I had a choice between Leap Attack or Throw Barb as the only builds I haven't made, and I...

www.purediablo.com

The video by max linked in write up shows how strong dual warshrikes were but the main limitation was repairs.

With that solved due to mastery, and an Enigma for mobility with might merc (and maybe Infinity to up Nova damage?) and Lacerators on switch for amp as PI solution, I think he’d be very solid. That actually may end up being one of my first characters if I end up shifting over to D2R; seems really interesting!