Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

[SideShowBob]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

For those who have Infinity already (cough, cough), would the Conviction aura (assuming it's on the merc) be on par, or maybe better than the merc using Reaper's Toll for the 33% ctc lvl 1 Decrepify? Maybe swapping in high end fire/lightning damage charms instead of +max damage in this setup?

The hard part with such a set up would be keeping good resistances
and decent life steal for your merc. You might also miss the effects
of Reaper's Toll on the Council's physical resistance. What would a
hypothetical merc set up be then? For survivability, maybe something
like:

Infinity + Chains of Honor + 'Vex' Kira's Guardian/'Ral' Andy's Visage?

To have truly worthwhile elemental damage would mean playing
a non-barb which would diminish your net efficiency (i.e., no item horking
available).

 

[maxicek]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

First, much like rack running, the council spawn is path-dependent. On my map if I take one route a few members spawn outside of the compelling orb room, and if I take the other they not only spawn all in the room they spawn in the same cluster.

Just wanted to agree with this. Generally I find that teleporting to the North of the council chamber then cutting into it South East keeps the pack in one place. In teleporting terms, the cursor is just above the horizontal when I start to tele from the WP.

 

[angeldesignpro]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

For those who have Infinity already (cough, cough), would the Conviction aura (assuming it's on the merc) be on par, or maybe better than the merc using Reaper's Toll for the 33% ctc lvl 1 Decrepify? Maybe swapping in high end fire/lightning damage charms instead of +max damage in this setup?

Don't have an infinity, but if I did, I can't imagine it topping Reaper's. Reaper's = instant 50% more damage, and actually more because decrep lowers defense too right? Plus it makes you and merc more survivable... all conviction would do is lower defense (not that important) and make them vulnerable to elemental damage you won't be doing a lot of even stuffed with charms.

 

[potter]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Decrepify Effect: Target's Speed, Damage and Physical Resistance -50%.
Does nothing to defense.
Agree however on Reaper's > Infinity here though.
You're gonna need a whole lot of elemental damage in order to top the x2 damage decrepify nets you

 

[sevenOfDiamonds]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Infinity does two things for a Trav barb.
1) Lowers defense by 83%. That is significant. E.g. with an AR of 5000 you will have a CtH of ~76%. Post Infinity the CtH is ~94%.
2) Overrides Conviction from the bosses. Their aura is level 11 iirc, so the level 12 aura will override it.

A lesser effect is that you hardly need any resist for this setup as your merc will not be convicted. Thus only LL and CBF is needed. A setup could be Ral'd Andy's + Vex'd (eth+up'd) Duriel's or Ral'd GBane (or Vex'd Tyrael's ) Heck, even a Cham'd Vipermagi will work I think. Another (rather expensive) alternative: Cham'd Andy's + CoH.

But I believe the people's court, i.e. Reaper's FTW.

 

[angeldesignpro]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Any benefit you get from infinity could be nearly perfectly replicated by putting some points in battle cry (since most trav barbs have extra anyway). It doesn't stack with decrep, but if you didn't want to use or didn't have Reaper's that would at least let you lower enemy defense without dropping a pair of Ber runes

 

[Kestegs]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Yes, assuming that the conviction aura does work the same as it does on a paladin that would easily solve the resists problem. Council conviction should be at level 10 as it is Mlvl/8, the game should round down as that is its favorite thing to do. And I agree that the AR bonus it will give is nothing to scoff at. I don't think it would ever be ideal, but if you had an Infinity and not a reaper's (How?) it could be a good solution.

 

[Xanadar]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

LK is getting really old and boring, so I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and make a trav barb despite some initial reservations. I've gone through Fabian's award-winning guide and the discussion in this and other threads and I think know the basics, but I figure I'd get some advice from the experts.

I have the runes for an Oath and a Grief. I need to decide if I want to go axes with the better range and damage and risk not hitting the last breakpoint with a low IAS roll on the Grief or if I want to go swords and make the Grief in a phase blade. What do you experts out there recommend? What would hurt me more, not hitting the last IAS breakpoint or the low range and high dex requirement on the PB? Also, how sub-optimal are 1.13c bases if I can't acquire 1.07 ones?

I think I'm leaning towards swords. I'd rather play it safe and upgrade once I'm richer (after all, the idea is to become a rich man from trav running :wink. I'll settle for less than optimal gear if it will still get the job done.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[sevenOfDiamonds]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

I went with PBs. Your skill will matter far more than BA vs. PB on runtimes.
Reg. dex: You'll probably go for a sizeable chunk of dex in any case for an AR boost.

 

[angeldesignpro]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

I went wit ha BA. I got lucky on the IAS roll, but I decide to do it because I figured as my first grief if the roll wasn't perfect it would still make a fine zealot or fury or slightly-slower-than-deal WW weapon.

I do and don't regret it. At first I was wary of the dex investment for a PB, but I've come around after some testing to the notion that you really only need 2-3K HP, and after that some points in dex isn't so bad. AR means damage in the long run, and even with grief having ITD and -25% def (that doesn't work at full effect against bosses) that AR is still handy for the offhand oath / landing hits on the bosses in the trav or on a baal run. It's also nice ot have the dex for when I throw on a SS for baal run safety.

I'd probably do it in a PB if I had to do it again.

For grief, there's little reason to use an .07 base. It's not indestructible, so unless you e-bug it, the .07 axe wouldn't do any more damage. Even ebugging is IMO barely worth it. Grief does so much freaking damage with it's +damage modifier that the extra weapon base damage isn't going to make a huge difference.

Now I've never used a 2-range weapon, so I'm not sure how much worse that is than 3. I do know that the durability on my BA is also a PITA, because I'm repairing it all the freaking time.

TL;DR made a grief BA, got a high enough IAS roll, kind of wish it were a PB, but it still kills lots of monsters so I'm not too upset.

 

[Fabian]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

I'd go with swords and upgrade once you got richer, like you say. The investment in a Grief BA is quite large for someone on a budget (~Gul-Vex for the base, Vex+Gul for the Death, Lo+Mal for the Grief), and that's if you hit the 7 good IAS rolls out of 11. If you roll 30-33 IAS, it's not like the the weapon is useless, but it does very significantly less damage, and calls for being rerolled. That's probably a pretty big risk if it's your first high-damage weapon.

Stat point requirements is not an issue either way though, imo. No matter if you go Phase Blade or Berserker Axe, you should have enough Strength and enough Dexterity to wear either. Points in Dexterity is a pretty decent way of getting more AR, which is very important. It's not like you need all those points in Vitality anyway.

Making a Grief in a non-eth non-indestructible Berserker Axe seems by far the worst choice to me (sorry angel). Making a Grief in an ATMA-bugged 1.13 etheral Berserker Axe also seems pretty bad to me; if you going with the high-cost, high-risk option, why not choose the best base for it? Exact numbers will vary depending on setup, so take it with a grain of salt, but using a 1.07 eth base over a 1.13 eth base is about the equivalent of adding (or subtracting) 30 on the 340-400 damage roll.

For some other number comparisons (mostly concerning Fortitude vs Grief, but can be useful in any case perhaps), you might want to check out this post in the big Trav Barb thread.

Oh and also, try to find a 1.07 base for the Oath Balrog Blade (assuming that's what you go with). Balrog Blades have pretty big max weapon damage on their base damage (22-112 I believe for etherals), and so benefit more from the +50 Max ED% that 1.07 eth weapons get (an extra 56 on top of the 112) than most weapons.

 

[Xanadar]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Thanks for the input. Swords it is. Especially considering how I just found an phase blade in AT and the cube recipe gave it 5os.

 

[Corrupted]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Make Grief in a Zweihander. It's the best legit option for WW barbs. Make a PB later if dig zealots etc.

Edit: I'd hesitate to invest your highrunes into this if you don't enjoy barbs or doing a large amount of runs. If you only have one Lo and don't expect to find another within a reasonable timeframe I'd probably make Fortitude and just do with Oaths should you want to give the barb a spin.

 

[Kestegs]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Yes, go for the PB, It is a small difference to up to BA,but not worth it at this point. But you will be very unhappy if you don't hit that last breakpoint. And It's not like a PB is worthless, most other classes would probably rather have the PB anyways. The other bonus is that you don't have to repair a PB, and thats a pretty big deal actually. 1.07 bases are nice, but only for eth items. So unless you were going to ATMA bug the grief then there is not much reason to go with a 1.07 base.

 

[IVI E G A T O N]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Is the difference between Zweihander and Phase Blade for WW large enough to warrant loss of the indestructible mod on Phase Blades? Even disregarding the thought of other characters using it, wouldn't that mod alone be worth the relatively small damage and range increase? Then theres the loss in Berserk speed against PI Ismail...

 

[angeldesignpro]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Is the difference between Zweihander and Phase Blade for WW large enough to warrant loss of the indestructible mod on Phase Blades? Even disregarding the thought of other characters using it, wouldn't that mod alone be worth the relatively small damage and range increase? Then theres the loss in Berserk speed against PI Ismail...

Zwei is 20-37 base, PB is 31-35, so PB actually has more 'damage'. But base damage is all but irrelevant due to the way grief works. If you could make grief in a 0 damage weapon it would still be awesome.

Zwei has 50 durability, so that's better than the 26 on a BA. And swords look WAY cooler.

Zwei is the place to go for sure if you know that grief will get made, go on the barb, and not go elsewhere. That extra point of range is pretty clutch, and (most impotantly) the grief roll is guaranteed to hit the last BP.

Really it all comes down to range. If you want range 3, there will be sacrifices (stat points, durability, chance of a failed roll, etc.). If you're fine with range 2 on the PB, then all is well.

 

[DaveW]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Currently running the Council looking for Enigma and Grief runes. I'm using a eth BB Oath (1.13) and will get my Lo soon enuff for Grief (fingers crossed). I plan on making it in a PB. What are the pros and cons of mixing Oath+Grief in terms of damage output and range? Which hand should I equip the Grief in?

 

[angeldesignpro]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

Currently running the Council looking for Enigma and Grief runes. I'm using a eth BB Oath (1.13) and will get my Lo soon enuff for Grief (fingers crossed). I plan on making it in a PB. What are the pros and cons of mixing Oath+Grief in terms of damage output and range? Which hand should I equip the Grief in?

The con is that a PB is range 2 and a BB is range 3. I doubt that would have much of an impact on your damage output, however - particularly given how tightly packed the council usually is.

You should have grief in your main hand. My understanding of whirlwind mechanics is limited, but I have it on information and belief that your main hand weapon hits more often (perhaps because the first check or two only look to the main hand?). Another benefit is grief will do more damage than oath, so it will make a better base when you use Berserk against an immune to physical boss.

Good luck!

 

[hubb]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

^Yep, as you said only the main weap is used during the first hit check, so you want Grief to be your main/left slot* weapon. Mixing the PB/BB is no problem.

*above gloves, yes.

 

[DaveW]

Re: Teleporting Trav Barb Tips & Tricks Thread

^Yep, as you said only the main weap is used during the first hit check, so you want Grief to be your main/left slot weapon. Mixing the PB/BB is no problem.

So the slot above the gloves right? Thx for the infos.