Patriarch DoubleTap, Double Throw Barbarian

[Zenigma]

Hello! I would like to introduce to the forums Patriarch DoubleTap, the double throw barbarian!
This is a character that I parked a few times before progressing him to the end, but as time went on, this character became more and more of a blast to play with.

~A few more introductory words~

A double throw barbarian is flavor of barb I have always wanted to play and build, but until I got gomule, it didn't seem feasible, because I was too unwilling to invest time into a character that I didn't know I would be able to even get the items for in the first place. However, I did get gomule, and not long after, I found an ethereal Demon's Arch while questing with one of my other characters, and I remembered how much appeal the throwing barb had, and promptly started him. By this time, I had a few items already which I figured would work well on him, and surprise surprise... here we are! Anyways, the Demon's Arch didn't see much use throughout his quest, but it certainly did have a crowning achievement in finishing off Madawc when my other throwing weapons had run out. (Madawc was far more annoying than Talic and Korlic for reasons I will explain later...)

Now, with neither further tangents nor ado, onto DoubleTap!

DoubleTap killed Hell Baal at level 86 after a long-winded fight. I frequented the Malah's shop for so many mana potions, because Mana Rift is all-powerful, and Baal has a lot of life on /p8...

~The Statistics~
Stat - Naked/Geared
Strength - 80/135
Dexterity - 170/240
Vitality - 265/265
Energy - 10/19

LCS readout:

Spoiler

View attachment 256

~The Skills~
Combat Skills:
Bash: 1
Double Swing: 20 (Gotta get that ED)
Double Throw: 20 (Gotta get that AR)
Frenzy: 1 (Gotta get that IAS and FRW)

Combat Masteries:
Throwing Mastery: 20 (Gotta get that ED and AR)
Increased Stamina: 1
Iron Skin: 1
Increased Speed: 4 (I liked putting a couple points here, because my defense wasn't worth getting more Iron Skin/Shout, and I just don't want to stop to hork right now; maybe I will later...)
Natural Resistances: 4 (Same as above, and it opened up a few inventory slots, which is always helpful)

Warcries:
Howl: 1
Taunt: 1
Shout: 1
Battle Cry: 1 (Nice to lead an attack with a chance to hit bonus)
Battle Orders: 20 (Gotta get that Life and Mana)
Battle Command: 1 (Gotta get that +skill)

~The Gear~
Helm: Guillame's Face
Armor: Treachery Dusk Shroud
Gloves: Dracul's Grasp
Belt: Razortail
Boots: Gore Rider
Weapons: 2x Gimmershred, 206/180 ED
Switch: 2x Spirit Longswords
Stashed/Inventory Weapons: Eth Demon's Arch, 165 ED, 11 LL; Blood Craft Flying Axe

Spoiler

Viper Cleaver
Flying Axe
Throw Damage: 31 - 136
One Hand Damage: 35 - 134
Quantity: 180
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 88
Required Dexterity: 108
Fingerprint: 0x9efa0f32
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
107% Enhanced Damage
+72 to Attack Rating
6% Mana stolen per hit
10% Life stolen per hit
+19 to Life
Replenishes quantity

Rings: Rare

Spoiler

Beast Coil
Ring
Required Level: 66
Fingerprint: 0xadd7768
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+95 to Attack Rating
+18 to Strength
+12 to Dexterity
+9 to Energy
+11 Maximum Stamina
All Resistances +5

; Raven, 240/17
Amulet: Cat's Eye (Because I don't have Highlord's Wrath)

Charms:
Warcry GC
13 all res GC
two 5 STR/37-38 AR GCs
3/18/13 SC
assorted light and fire res with nothing, life, fhr, or dex SCs

~The Simpleton~
Azrael, Nightmare Offensive Desert Mercenary (AKA idiot)
Weapon: eth Obedience GPA
Armor: Shaftstop, 197 ED
Helm: Tal's Mask

~The Journey~
Normal: Uneventful to my recollection... I apparently used my respec from Akara, but I can't remember why. Don't know if I misclicked it, or if I had screwed up; maybe I had more into strength than I wanted, who knows... Played on /p8 in its entirety. Rares and magic throwing axes and later war/battle darts worked out nicely.

Nightmare: Equally uneventful. Deathbits, replenishing crafts, all good. Also played on /p8 in its entirety.

Hell: Tried /p8 to start, but I couldn't do it with what items I had, so it went down to /p3. But sometime after I parked him in act 2 (I think), I found Dracul's on my blizz sorc, so those went on DoubleTap whenever he was played. After he was parked in act 3, Khalim's Eye stashed, and toon parked, I found a second Gimmershred and proceeded to gear him up. Both Gimmers in hand, I ramped it up to /p8 again and cruised through the rest of the game, some points slower than others. Ancients were smashed on /p8. Korlic, ES, LE, LI, CI, went down first, followed by Talic, MB, CE, FI, CI. Madawc, SS, EF, LI, ran me out of my Gimmershreds, and I knew this had a possibilty of coming, so I took the Demon's Arch out of the stash and put it back in my inventory, like the times before I had two Gims. I wielded a single throwing spear and poked 60 of them through Madawc's face to finish him off. Also, I didn't need any rejuvs during the fight (yay). I had to park Lister because he was PI/FI, and regenerated faster than I could lightning and cold damage to him... I crushed his minions, though. Then I wiped out Baal on /p8, too.

Deaths: well, playing while very drunk on wine and texting my very good friend doesn't bode well for me living, even with 2500 health (which is admittedly not all too high), especially while rushing to a waypoint. Also, taking screen shots are inopportune times bodes poorly, as well.

~Finds~
Hellforge: Ko
Pul in WSK 3
GC from Diablo (rolled this into a light gc with 22 GF, definitely will consider rolling it again later if I don't need any more light gcs that aren't high on health)
Druid Scummon GC with 12 fhr in Durance 3

~Parting thoughts~
- Running back to town to repair sucks more when your item doesn't have a replenishing mod on it. To fully repair both stacks of my Gimmershreds, it cost over 15k gold.
- This isn't an issue really if you pick up a couple pieces of armor between town visits
- Honestly, I didn't go to town nearly as much as one would expect for a /p8 run in late hell. It really didn't bother me at all.

~Plans for the future~
- Maybe Chaos Runs
- Marked for 99. If I can get my hands on a couple Warshrikes, I will definitely consider this, because he's so much fun!
- I'm actually going to invest in Find Item. I have nothing else to put the points into, and I have an open skill slot in f4, which is conveniently right before my buffing warcries and right after my combat skills, so it will fit into the rotation seamlessly.
- Also hoping to find a Jah, because I've wanted to upgrade to a faith rogue for a long time. And that might see use on other characters as well.

It's 4:16 AM now, and I probably left something out, so I'll edit this when I wake up probably. Thanks for reading. Questions, as always, are welcome. Happy hunting.

 

[espr]

Very cool! Throwbarbs are mega-classy. It's on my to-do list at some point as well. Great write up!

 

[Zenigma]

Thank you! I very much agree. Honestly, anyone reading this, don't let the prospect of going back to town dissuade you from building the class. Eventually, it will seem like less of a chore, more of an opportunity to rid your inventory of high-grossing items. Although I put it in my writeup that it sucks, it really isn't so bad, except for Hratli in Act 3. Why is that jerk so far away from the transportation hub of the town? Honestly, I just really dislike the way that Act 3's town is set up... aside from the town waypoint being right next to the town portals. That's awfully nice.
Also, I'm not sure in which patch they changed this, but if you run out of a stack of a throwing weapon (that isn't a potion), it doesn't disappear anymore. And that's just fantastic. So you don't necessarily have to keep an eye on how my axes, knives, or javs you have left in you weapon slots.

 

[xXxGrimmxXx]

You know who else dislikes the way that Act 3's town is set up?

Spoiler

xD All joking aside, Cool write-up, and +1 for it being a Thrower!
I have a sneaking suspicion what you derived the name "DoubleTap" from, would you mind enlightening me, to confirm/squash my assumption? :3

 

[Mir]

Congrats on the pat, good luck with your plans for him.

I already have a thrower but only recently got an idea for a fun equipment for him . If you want you can try it too, get a point in grim ward and put myth armor on, they will work quite well.

 

[Zenigma]

Thanks. The plan are actually going quite well; I'm running CS on him on /p8 and gaining tons of experience with fun gameplay, so it doesn't bother me that it's slower than a hammerdin. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be using any armor other than treachery, because the IAS, fade, venom, FHR... it's just too good to give up, and it has 30 cold res to boot. Fade and IAS are the big draws, making a massive difference, because yay for 75 fire, cold, and lightning resists, and one frame less per attack is more substantial at faster and faster throw rates.

 

[espr]

Making mobs dance around grim ward does sound entertaining though.

 

[Zenigma]

Yeah, that does sound amusing, but I would worry that they might fly off before taunt would proc, and the you'd have to chase that crybaby down...
But that certainly would be interesting. I want to see that, so someone out there, make a video of this.

 

[BobCox2]

I love Throwers - Nice build Had not thought of treachery, It has some very good points for the build.

 

[Zenigma]

It most certainly does; you get DR, all res (both from Fade), huge IAS, Venom (which rocks, because you'll be applying it to so many enemies so frequently), and FHR. All that for the low cost of a Lem and some low runes and whatever base you decide to stick it in (I've always been a huge fan of Dusk Shrouds, despite the fact that they look downright foolish on necromancers). If you ask me, in terms of utility, Treachery is a phenomenal rune word.

 

[Zenigma]

I have a sneaking suspicion what you derived the name "DoubleTap" from, would you mind enlightening me, to confirm/squash my assumption? :3

I got the name from the shooting technique. A double tap is an event where one fires two shots into the same place in quick succession. I figured it would be fitting for a character that does just that. Looking back, I remember now there being a perk in CoD4 called "Double Tap" which increased your rate of fire with guns. Didn't think of that when creating the character though

 

[xXxGrimmxXx]

I had the meaning of "DoubleTap" correct, but not the derivation.

Was this a single playthrough? No re-runs of Countess/Andy/Blah?

 

[Zenigma]

He was twinked, so I didn't really need to re-run areas. I did a single pass, to the best of my memory,except I killed Shenk and Eldrich a few times because I sat down a couple of times only to be taken away from the computer to do chores and pick people up and such. For all intents and purposes, you should consider him a single pass, but I by no means was exhaustive in clearing areas of monsters and kicking open barrels.
But he is running CS now, and I'm very much enjoying it.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Great write-up! And yes, I hate the way Act 3 town is set up as well. Also, when you load the game, you're quite far away from anything useful. I don't really want to shoot the breeze with Meshif, so everything is a long way off. I feel like then I load Act 3 I should just be standing next to Deckard, the Stash, and the WP, like in Act 1.

 

[Mir]

Making mobs dance around grim ward does sound entertaining though.

Yeah, that does sound amusing, but I would worry that they might fly off before taunt would proc, and the you'd have to chase that crybaby down...
But that certainly would be interesting. I want to see that, so someone out there, make a video of this.

Here you go, I'm listening to the radio so no sound...

 

[Zenigma]

Here you go, I'm listening to the radio so no sound...

It's private D:

 

[Mir]

My mistake, try again.

Is it ok now?

 

[espr]

Worked for me just now, and Myth certainly looks effective.

 

[Zenigma]

That's glorious, especially in an area where enemies can't run all too far away.

 

[uglyfred]

I tried Grim Ward on my thrower but was disappointed that it's not an especially good match with the build. You need to run up to a corpse to cast it and that usually puts you closer to the alive monsters (i.e. monsters you want to keep at range). But I really like the ranged flee/taunt dichotomy that mir's video shows. Thanks for posting it.

And thanks for the writeup, Zenigma. I hope you continue to enjoy kicking butt with him.