Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

@SirLister: About the only sword that is better would be Grief. OK, or eBOTD for a WW barb. Sets & Uniques just don't cut it.

For PI+MIs if you have Reapers on the merc, this should break the PI part. If it doesn't, I suggest you just leave him.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

The way I got that number was by inputing the numbers in spreadsheet, which calculates it for me. Horked drops are worth more than regular drops, in terms of runes (horked drops are the equivalent of p7 drops on all player settings), so if you want accurate numbers, you can't just use a multiplier like 1.55.

That said, with 50% horking instead of 55%, 62 second runs are the equivalent of 40 second no hork runs. In that case, I'd point out I thought the barb could be built more efficiently though.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

I though that the myth about horking being p7 was debunked?

Or am I misremembering? I recall someone said that it was initially thought to be treated like p7, but eventually was countered.

EDIT:

also, just tell us what your run times are currently, so we can see what an optimized Barb can do.

Also, here is what RTB had to say about it a while back.
 
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Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

The difference is that when you successfully hork a body, you won't ever get a no-drop. As it happens, on p7, the council's nodrop is 0, so in practice their horked drops are identical to a p7 drop. It was RTB who helped pointing out this flaw in my spreadsheet a couple months ago, so I'm pretty confident I have it right.

I'm sure there are others who can run more efficiently than me (like not picking up too many gold piles, which slows me down a lot), but my run time on p3 is 56 seconds, and on p7 it's 62 seconds. It's faster when I focus on getting good times, probably slower when I'm playing carelessely.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

OK. I see.

So my 40 seconds picking all gold/charms/jewels/rings etc sorc is a bit slower than your barb. I thought so.

But I probably got you beat on MF/GF :wink:
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

Damn, now I'll have to forward my Blizzy,too, to 1.13. But I was thinking of a bit more offensive kind. And those 2 Bers will probably be better off in Infinity than in Phoenix.

What do you think of this setup, ZeN:

Ormus, +3, +15%
Occulus (thanks for mentioning hydras don't trigger TP)
Shako
Mara's
Arachnid Mesh
Spirit Shield
FCR ring, Ravenfrost
Chancies (probably Frostburn when running Areas)

It should be enough to go through P7 council really fast.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

Denton said:
@ DZJB:
1.) IIRC my barb has close to 6k AR. Remember that character level helps with chance to hit.

2.) With high damage weapons and charms, Ruby (the edmg% one) jewel is probably ideal, even a plain one is good. Alternatively a nice +max damage jewel is good too, especially if you have a lot of off-weapon edmg% (titan build, Fort). Note that there's a bug regarding edmg% + min/max dmg jewels where the edmg% doesn't get added properly if it's socketed in anything else than a weapon. Anyone know does that bug still exist in 1.13c?

3.) I use Reaper's(Shael) + Kira's(IAS jewel) + Guardian Angel(IAS jewel) on my merc. That seems to work nicely, making him durable enough vs. hydras to survive until the council goes down. The Kira's' high resists help counter Conviction. An IAS jewel on the Reaper's would be enough to reach 42% IAS required for a 5 frame Jab on the merc, but I haven't bothered re-socketing it yet. (Faster attack = Decrep triggered more often = more constant life steal for the merc.)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the replies all.

1) Good to see some AR figures from other users. And yes, I know the formula for cth. But, I had forgotten about the extra AR to demons on my Oath BB's. Another reason why the LCS cannot be trusted.

2) Don't know if that bug is still around in 1.13c, but I probably will. I'll opt for a plain %ED jewel right now.

3) I'm a big fan of adding as much ias as possible on my merc as well. Guess I'll have to try the GA setup out. Though I'm still quite curious how he'd turn out with more mdr. Thanks to the new rune drop rates, I guess I'll have a Mal to spare in a while.


 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

nirolo said:
Damn, now I'll have to forward my Blizzy,too, to 1.13. But I was thinking of a bit more offensive kind. And those 2 Bers will probably be better off in Infinity than in Phoenix.

What do you think of this setup, ZeN:

Ormus, +3, +15%
Occulus (thanks for mentioning hydras don't trigger TP)
Shako
Mara's
Arachnid Mesh
Spirit Shield
FCR ring, Ravenfrost
Chancies (probably Frostburn when running Areas)

It should be enough to go through P7 council really fast.
Click to expand...

1. I don't think P7 is really that beneficial, but it could be. You should swap Shako for Nightwings then (I have one for Cows - with 5/5 facet in it).

2. Ravenfrost? Why? For cold novas from the Council? You don't need it. However Dwarf, at least one, is probably necessary, just for convenience.

3. FCR ring is also superfluous IMO - Oculus + Spirit get you to the BP, and you don't need FCR for Blizzard. It is also enough for SF. Skulders also has a nice MDR.

But, of course, I focused it on MF/GF more than anything, so...

My sorc (with CtA though) does just fine (I drink a potion once maybe 20 runs, maybe) with resistances as follows:

FR: 64, CR: 52, LR: 76, PR: 52

You really don't need all that firepower, of course it depends where your CM is. Mine is at 31 with the setup above and I am thinking about re-specing her to have a bit more SF. For Travincal that is.

Ever since I've made that Infinity - it is in constant use. Constant. Blizzy for Travincal and Cows. Pure Lite for Pits, Baal and even Travincal - although my Lite sorc Travincal map blows and I am reluctant to re-roll since she has a very very nice Countess map.



 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

I don't have a Nightwing's, unfortunately. Ravenfrost was a mistake, :D I thought of Dwarf Star as I wrote it. But all my sorcs are on 105% FCR, and I've never regreted it. Nice for teleporting, and also nice for IB spamming in between Blizzards.

I think I'll have to switch to sorc mod, though, I've made so many runs with Paladin recently, and some with a Barb, it is hard for me to position my sorc properly. I guess with 50-ish runs it will come back. Some advice on that?

Infinity is on its way, as soon as I get a good base.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

A little tip. Find a map where all the Council is in the inner room - close to the windows:

and don't teleport inside - just to the middle window and cast Blizzard in. Merc also doesn't wander that way - he stays in place:

see 1, 2, 3.

I don't think you would benefit too much from teleporting faster as there is a very short distance to do - from waypoint and back (to Act4, of course).

EDIT: again - I guess CtA helps with the ability to just tank hydras for the merc (Gaze w/Um and GA /um helps too). For some reason lightning casts from the Council almost never hurt too.

EDIT2: I cast 3 SF between Blizzards (just the time it takes for Blizzard to cool-off).

EDIT3: swapped one Dwarf for SoJ and went p5 and p7. 1 Dwarf is enough even with FR at 64. Difference between p3 and p5 is may be 2 - 3 seconds (from the looks of it, didn't measure) and tried p7 as well - 5 - 7 seconds more.

I will try it a bit on p5 and p7 and see if I like it better.

EDIT4: in fact, after running a bit on p5 - you don't even need one Dwarf. I went with 2 SoJs and Hydras don't hurt at all. I am guessing due to MDR on Skullders (or perhaps absorb on Spirit - I am not sure it applies to fire damage at all).
 
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Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

This one's for Fabian (and everyone else interested ofc). Since you said in the IFT you were interested to know more about the wolfbarb i'm running with i decided this would be the best place to post about it.

And as a picture says more than a thousand words a vid would say more than i can type so i made a short video of a typical travirun.

The run is done on p7 btw. And as you can see i'm after more than just runes, so runs would be a lot faster if that's all you're looking for. If anyone is interested i can post stats/skills/gameplay/... or whatever you want to know later.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

Yeah, I was wondering what made you use 1-hit attack char...

It seems to me, in general, this is as successful as WW (in comparison I mean, despite being slower attack) - is because of the somewhat chaotic nature of the WW. It hits fast, but half the time (I am exaggerating, of course) you are just whirling in the air.

I've got to make Frenzy barb to try it too.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

Surprised by that dmg output Cyrax, i'd be interested to see the full char load-up.

I haven't done many travi runs, have no real appetite for them but i've used a berserker when I do, and I'd guess my speed is comparitive with your wolfie Cyrax.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

Frenzy is terrible in comparison to whirlwind in the council. I originally tried my frenzy barb at the council and he was more effective using 1 point whirlwind then with frenzy.

If you are biting air with your whirlwinds then you either have stubby weapons which means you should get ones with proper range, or you need to improve your whirlwind technique. You should really be hitting every tick until the enemy is dead, unless you have very high FR/W and use whirlwinds to move between clusters such as I do.

@Cyrax: For a comparison I timed some /p7 whirlwind runs and got runs about 55-60 seconds long, and I pick up and stash even more stuff than you do.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

My WW barb has double 1.07 eBA Oath, and I know how to whirl properly. Thing is - no matter how you good you are (and Fabian's video is there to show that) - you don't always whirl over/next to the monster - sometimes you miss and sometimes the monsters are a bit apart. So some of the swings are hitting air while you get to the next enemy or after you already killed one. The percentage is not high (I said that half the time is exaggerating it) - but it's enough to bother me.

Frenzy, OTOH, gives you a targeted attack and huge FRW should get you into the fray very fast. This is a theory.

I find it very hard to believe that your Frenzy barb was any worse than Corax's wolfbarb (which is not to say it was bad). Perhaps you could share your gear on that Frenzier?
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

The reason i'm using wolfbarb is a) i'm not that good with whirling, b) i don't have great gear for a whirler (i've put one on hold for that reason), and c) i think the wolfbarb is 100% safe whereas the whirler may have a difficult time with certain bad spawns.

His gear is:
highlords wrath
wolfhowl (40% ed jewel)
enigma bp
stormshield (pdiamond)
grief pb
laying of hands
IK belt
gorerider
ravenfrost
rare ring with ml/ll
and 2x spirit on switch (not rich enough yet for dual hoto, which would increase teleport speed)

Merc is wearing reaper's, guardian angel and kira's

I have ~4.9k life, LCS lives up to it's name and says damage is 753-1284 (861-1612 for berserk in case of PI's), AR ~9600, defense ~15500 and resists maxed (all still positive when under effect of conviction aura)

Str/dex/vit are 263/182/310. This could be improved because you don't need that much life for just running travi. Originally this char was intended to be able to withstand anything when running Baal. Most of the time i could even (just) survive hitting myself once with IM.

@Pyrohemia: I suspect you have some space in your inventory to pick stuff up, where i loose time to open inventory (filled with max dam/ar sc's and a gheeds) and drop things in the cube. So i could also win some time by clearing some space there as i don't need all those charms for running travincal. If that's not the case i take my hat off to you sir.
Also i could improve skillwise. I have 20 pts in iron skin and 20 in shout which could be relocated to increased speed and/or find item. So if you want to optimise there's still enough room for improvement.

@ZeN: The name is Cyrax. Unless Corax also has a wolfbarb :D
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

To Zen:
1) Nobody is perfect, but I don't miss more than one whirl per run and I whirl FAST (high increased speed + 115% faster run/walk) so a missed whirl is about half a second lost.

2) Frenzy, at best once charged up after X hits (say, 10), hits once every 5 frames. Whirlwind hits twice every four frames after the first 4 frames. That is more than twice the hits per second. With the amount of gear and skill based enhanced damage you should have, the extra damage from frenzy is minimal compared to hitting more than twice as often.

Also, frenzy is interruptible which can slow down your attack speed further.

Lastly, frenzy's faster run/walk needs to be charged up which makes it useless for running to the council.

The frenzy barb used:
Eth Grief zerker (+353)
Eth Lacerator
Enigma
Usual LoH, Arreats, etc.

(Both weapons hit the last WW breakpoint.)

The fact that 1-point whirlwind was so noticeably better than frenzy was part of the reason why I made another grief last year.

-------

I also did some more timed /p7 runs.
Time for a typical run including picking up 3-5 items was 47-50 seconds.
I never made it to 80 seconds even on the run where my Merc died for the first time in ~1k runs and I went to town and rehired him before finishing the run, or the run where I went to my stash to clear my inventory 3! times in one run.

I was really hoping for a run with nothing to pickup to try for 40 seconds, but I got bored before it showed up.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

The main problem with any other attack besides WW is that Holy Freeze is going to slow you down a lot. Well a Wolf would be to overcome most of it I guess.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

I'm sure that decrepify doesn't matter for the wolf's attack speed. And from what i've seen so far i don't think that HF does slow me down.
 
Re: Travincal Running WW Barb Mini-Guide

Ah, well if you've outstacked decrep HF doesn't matter either, that's correct. It would hurt Frenzy though.
 
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