Patriarch EighttotheBar – in boogie rhythm
Level: 84
St – 166 (209)
Dx – 103 (142)
Vt – 236 (236)
En – 10 (10)
HP: 1430, 2273 after BO
Mana: 145, 230 after BO
Def: 3924, 7630 after Shout
Resists:
Fire: 75
Cold: 75
Ltning: 75
Poison: 75
Skills:
Frenzy: 20 (25) +1 with BC
Double Swing: 20 (25) +1 with BC
Taunt: 20 (23) +1 with BC
Blade Mastery: 20 (25) +1 with BC
Bash: 4 (9) +1 with BC
Battle Orders: 3 (10) +1 with BC
Prerequisites and non-weapon Masteries: 1 (6) +1 with BC
Frenzy Damage: 1035 – 2610 & 1544 – 2200
Equipment:
Weapon 1:
BK Sacred Charge
BK Tribal Guardian
Weapon 2:
Upped Bloodletter x2
Arreat’s Face
“Duress” Dusk Shroud
Lava Gout
Gore Rider
String of Ears
Rare ammy, +1 skills and resists
Manald Heal & Raven Frost
Merc (Act 5 – Frenzy)
Rockstopper
Shaftstop
“Lawbringer” Superior Ancient Sword
“Crescent Moon” Superior Eth Ancient Sword
Random musings:
After finally finding Arreat’s Face (429th on the “grail” list!) I decided to drag my Barb out of semi-retirement and finish him off. The introduction of the Frenzy Barb merc and the changes made to the BK set (which I had tucked away) inspired me to experiment with a pair of frenzied Barbs to terrorise the countryside. I would have liked to add BKWB to the mix to complete the BK goodness, but alas, the ring was a no-show. In a brief summary, the experiment didn’t live fully up to my expectations; but more of that later.
Early doors, this build went well. I always seemed to have a few nice swords available, and I had a couple of 4/3 Bloodletters stashed away, so I was never short of damage. I had “Lore” in a nice Jawbone cap and that was tasty too. The Whirlwind on the Bloodletters was used more as a transport ability rather than an attack one before I upgraded them, but once upgraded, I was sort of alternating between Whirlwind and Frenzy. Once I got to equip the fully BK set, I thought things would pick up. I had a good amount of crushing blow delivered relatively quickly and the cold damage on the Duress combined with the fire damage in the BK set and Lava Gout (not to mention the ctc Enchant) meant I was delivering a reasonable amount of elemental damage too. The knockback on the Sacred Charge was a pain in the arse though; more on that later.
Okay, now back to the barb merc experiment. I was looking at runewords for swords that I could equip the merc with, and Lawbringer, with its ctc Decrep and Sanctuary aura, and Crescent Moon, with its ctc Static Field and Chain Lightning, looked like they would fit the bill nicely. Aaand this is where things started to break down. The knockback on the aura was more of a help than a hindrance, although there were times in Act 2 where it was marginally useful, but overall, but great. The Decrep was triggering less frequently than I had hoped and about half the time it did, the merc would immediately override it by casting Taunt; so again, not great. I could count the number of times Static Field triggered on one hand and Chain Lightning using both; so, yet again, not great. If I wanted Decrep, an Act 2 merc with Reaper’s would possibly be better, and would have given me the benefit of a Might aura, but survivability would have been a problem. The Act 5 merc could hold his own where an Act 2 one would have died.
Now for knockback. Do you know that the knockback on Sanctuary, and to a lesser extent from the BK set, pushes the monsters back exactly the correct distance so that those with Charge can hit you over and over again? Ask me how I know. I died several times to claw vipers and reanimated hordes, and I had more close calls than I care to remember. I had planned to max all of Frenzy’s damage synergies and Blade Mastery first, then decide whether to put points into Increase Stamina to extend the uptime of Frenzy or to put points into Battle Orders for the extra HP, but even before I had maxed Blade Mastery it had become a no-brainer; BO was a must! A single point in BO and BC made all the difference to the backend of Hell difficulty.
So to sum up, the build worked well enough, I suppose, but considering the investment in skill and stat points required, and the relative rarity of the BK set, I would have expected it to perform better. Or perhaps I’m just being a little fussy. Oh, and by the way, 434 items into the grail and I still haven’t found a Homunculus.
Level: 84
St – 166 (209)
Dx – 103 (142)
Vt – 236 (236)
En – 10 (10)
HP: 1430, 2273 after BO
Mana: 145, 230 after BO
Def: 3924, 7630 after Shout
Resists:
Fire: 75
Cold: 75
Ltning: 75
Poison: 75
Skills:
Frenzy: 20 (25) +1 with BC
Double Swing: 20 (25) +1 with BC
Taunt: 20 (23) +1 with BC
Blade Mastery: 20 (25) +1 with BC
Bash: 4 (9) +1 with BC
Battle Orders: 3 (10) +1 with BC
Prerequisites and non-weapon Masteries: 1 (6) +1 with BC
Frenzy Damage: 1035 – 2610 & 1544 – 2200
Equipment:
Weapon 1:
BK Sacred Charge
BK Tribal Guardian
Weapon 2:
Upped Bloodletter x2
Arreat’s Face
“Duress” Dusk Shroud
Lava Gout
Gore Rider
String of Ears
Rare ammy, +1 skills and resists
Manald Heal & Raven Frost
Merc (Act 5 – Frenzy)
Rockstopper
Shaftstop
“Lawbringer” Superior Ancient Sword
“Crescent Moon” Superior Eth Ancient Sword
Random musings:
After finally finding Arreat’s Face (429th on the “grail” list!) I decided to drag my Barb out of semi-retirement and finish him off. The introduction of the Frenzy Barb merc and the changes made to the BK set (which I had tucked away) inspired me to experiment with a pair of frenzied Barbs to terrorise the countryside. I would have liked to add BKWB to the mix to complete the BK goodness, but alas, the ring was a no-show. In a brief summary, the experiment didn’t live fully up to my expectations; but more of that later.
Early doors, this build went well. I always seemed to have a few nice swords available, and I had a couple of 4/3 Bloodletters stashed away, so I was never short of damage. I had “Lore” in a nice Jawbone cap and that was tasty too. The Whirlwind on the Bloodletters was used more as a transport ability rather than an attack one before I upgraded them, but once upgraded, I was sort of alternating between Whirlwind and Frenzy. Once I got to equip the fully BK set, I thought things would pick up. I had a good amount of crushing blow delivered relatively quickly and the cold damage on the Duress combined with the fire damage in the BK set and Lava Gout (not to mention the ctc Enchant) meant I was delivering a reasonable amount of elemental damage too. The knockback on the Sacred Charge was a pain in the arse though; more on that later.
Okay, now back to the barb merc experiment. I was looking at runewords for swords that I could equip the merc with, and Lawbringer, with its ctc Decrep and Sanctuary aura, and Crescent Moon, with its ctc Static Field and Chain Lightning, looked like they would fit the bill nicely. Aaand this is where things started to break down. The knockback on the aura was more of a help than a hindrance, although there were times in Act 2 where it was marginally useful, but overall, but great. The Decrep was triggering less frequently than I had hoped and about half the time it did, the merc would immediately override it by casting Taunt; so again, not great. I could count the number of times Static Field triggered on one hand and Chain Lightning using both; so, yet again, not great. If I wanted Decrep, an Act 2 merc with Reaper’s would possibly be better, and would have given me the benefit of a Might aura, but survivability would have been a problem. The Act 5 merc could hold his own where an Act 2 one would have died.
Now for knockback. Do you know that the knockback on Sanctuary, and to a lesser extent from the BK set, pushes the monsters back exactly the correct distance so that those with Charge can hit you over and over again? Ask me how I know. I died several times to claw vipers and reanimated hordes, and I had more close calls than I care to remember. I had planned to max all of Frenzy’s damage synergies and Blade Mastery first, then decide whether to put points into Increase Stamina to extend the uptime of Frenzy or to put points into Battle Orders for the extra HP, but even before I had maxed Blade Mastery it had become a no-brainer; BO was a must! A single point in BO and BC made all the difference to the backend of Hell difficulty.
So to sum up, the build worked well enough, I suppose, but considering the investment in skill and stat points required, and the relative rarity of the BK set, I would have expected it to perform better. Or perhaps I’m just being a little fussy. Oh, and by the way, 434 items into the grail and I still haven’t found a Homunculus.
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