- Feb 19, 2021
- 177
- 255
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So I finally have my 1st new Pat since...2005?. It was tedious at times, but rewarding as always. Mostly untwinked, with just a little bit of MF/Rune runs along the way.
This character started back in the fall of 2018, during the hype leading up to Blizzcon, hype that was dashed by the poorly planned rollout of Diablo immortal. I got the character as high as A3 NM, and then went back to playing WoW.
2 plus years later, and this time, the hype was real. I dusted off the old barb and plunged back into the wilds of Kurast. The only item of note he had was an upped Bonesnap, and it worked very well splatting mobs in NM. I had one death in NM, vipers in Nil's room, but otherwise NM was a breeze.
We get into Hell, and things get tough. BS still has good killing power, but I was taking lots of damage and doing a lot of running and porting. So I reworked the barb into a sword and board Conc build, and the best one hander I had was...Hexfire. Much slower kill speed, but survivability was so much better. Finished A1 with no great drops.
Got into A2...and killing speed slowed to a crawl. I switched around a few weapons, like Coldsteel Eye, Sureshrill Frost, but nothing really did any better...so I parked the barb and rolled a Sorc. Got her into A2 Hell (eventually to A5), and started having trouble keeping the Merc alive, despite an eth Meat Scraper...so went back to the Barb, and for a while I'd alternate back and forth. During one of these back and forth, the sorc found Demonhorn's Edge, and that was a huge upgrade from the rare helm I'd had previously. After stalling with the Sorc on the Ancients, I focused on getting the Barb to Patriarch; much better survivability, albeit way slower. But things improved after finding what would eventually be my end game weapon, the Demon Limb.
The rest of the game kind of had a steady pace to it; a few deaths here and there but mostly pretty tanky, steady speed. The Ancients took a lifetime, and so did Baal, but in the end he died, and rewarded me with 4 useless rares.
One thing that made survival trivial in some areas was a wand with life tap that I had on switch. Quite a few packs were nullified by the amazing leech from that skill. I was praying for a Dracul's to drop, but alas, it was not to be.
As for the future...it is such a slow build that I can't see much beyond LK runs, as he has the double campfire map. Maybe if I had about 20-30% CB I'd maybe try to get to level 90, but for now I think I'll focus on getting the Sorc past Baal, and some other projects.
End game stats (regular/geared), Level 83
STR 148/161
Dex 207/207
Vita 163/163
Energy 10/10
Life 2057 (with BO,BC)
Mana 283
Def 4308
AR 5737 (Conc)
75 Resist All with BC
Skills: 20 in Bash, Conc, BO; 10 in Berserk, 8 in Shout, 1 in prereq's and utilities, and a point in axe/mace/sword mastery. I wound up using all 3 respecs on this character; from 2H Conc to 1H Conc, to 1H Berserk, back to 1H Conc, and I had a bunch of points saved for masteries but never found a better weapon than the DL, so I just made them one point wonders.
Gear
Demonhorn's Edge, bad roll, +1 to each tree
+1 Barb Skills Ammy
Demon Limb, 196% ED, 8% LL, socketed with 38% ED Jewel, 234% total ED
"Myth" Mesh Armor
"Rhyme" Luna
Laying of Hands
Rare belt, 30% CR, 13% PR
Natalya's Soul
2 really awful Rare rings that I could never seem to upgrade
135/37/15 Gheed's, +251 PD SC, bunch of various resist charms.
Merc:
Rockstopper
Duriel's Shell
Eth upped Meat Scraper, 115-596, 175% ED, 10% LL
As for finds, it was mostly slim pickings, but a few decent items: Flamebellow, Demon Arch, Wildhammer. Best rune drop was a Mal from the Hell HF.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to add a Mat post here in a few days!
This character started back in the fall of 2018, during the hype leading up to Blizzcon, hype that was dashed by the poorly planned rollout of Diablo immortal. I got the character as high as A3 NM, and then went back to playing WoW.
2 plus years later, and this time, the hype was real. I dusted off the old barb and plunged back into the wilds of Kurast. The only item of note he had was an upped Bonesnap, and it worked very well splatting mobs in NM. I had one death in NM, vipers in Nil's room, but otherwise NM was a breeze.
We get into Hell, and things get tough. BS still has good killing power, but I was taking lots of damage and doing a lot of running and porting. So I reworked the barb into a sword and board Conc build, and the best one hander I had was...Hexfire. Much slower kill speed, but survivability was so much better. Finished A1 with no great drops.
Got into A2...and killing speed slowed to a crawl. I switched around a few weapons, like Coldsteel Eye, Sureshrill Frost, but nothing really did any better...so I parked the barb and rolled a Sorc. Got her into A2 Hell (eventually to A5), and started having trouble keeping the Merc alive, despite an eth Meat Scraper...so went back to the Barb, and for a while I'd alternate back and forth. During one of these back and forth, the sorc found Demonhorn's Edge, and that was a huge upgrade from the rare helm I'd had previously. After stalling with the Sorc on the Ancients, I focused on getting the Barb to Patriarch; much better survivability, albeit way slower. But things improved after finding what would eventually be my end game weapon, the Demon Limb.
The rest of the game kind of had a steady pace to it; a few deaths here and there but mostly pretty tanky, steady speed. The Ancients took a lifetime, and so did Baal, but in the end he died, and rewarded me with 4 useless rares.
One thing that made survival trivial in some areas was a wand with life tap that I had on switch. Quite a few packs were nullified by the amazing leech from that skill. I was praying for a Dracul's to drop, but alas, it was not to be.
As for the future...it is such a slow build that I can't see much beyond LK runs, as he has the double campfire map. Maybe if I had about 20-30% CB I'd maybe try to get to level 90, but for now I think I'll focus on getting the Sorc past Baal, and some other projects.
End game stats (regular/geared), Level 83
STR 148/161
Dex 207/207
Vita 163/163
Energy 10/10
Life 2057 (with BO,BC)
Mana 283
Def 4308
AR 5737 (Conc)
75 Resist All with BC
Skills: 20 in Bash, Conc, BO; 10 in Berserk, 8 in Shout, 1 in prereq's and utilities, and a point in axe/mace/sword mastery. I wound up using all 3 respecs on this character; from 2H Conc to 1H Conc, to 1H Berserk, back to 1H Conc, and I had a bunch of points saved for masteries but never found a better weapon than the DL, so I just made them one point wonders.
Gear
Demonhorn's Edge, bad roll, +1 to each tree
+1 Barb Skills Ammy
Demon Limb, 196% ED, 8% LL, socketed with 38% ED Jewel, 234% total ED
"Myth" Mesh Armor
"Rhyme" Luna
Laying of Hands
Rare belt, 30% CR, 13% PR
Natalya's Soul
2 really awful Rare rings that I could never seem to upgrade
135/37/15 Gheed's, +251 PD SC, bunch of various resist charms.
Merc:
Rockstopper
Duriel's Shell
Eth upped Meat Scraper, 115-596, 175% ED, 10% LL
As for finds, it was mostly slim pickings, but a few decent items: Flamebellow, Demon Arch, Wildhammer. Best rune drop was a Mal from the Hell HF.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to add a Mat post here in a few days!
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