- May 11, 2022
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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!
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