Vitality question

[Farre]

Vitality question

My lvl 79 Barbarian has too little Vitality. So I decided, for my future Barbs, to put less points in Str and Dex and more in Vit. However, on reading some stats on Arreat Summit, I realised my current (over-inflated) Str and Dex had their utility: they were just barely high enough to wield the most demanding Swords and Axes in the game (like Phase Blade). So that's why I *could* not put more in Vitality.
Could I still have more vitality, without sacrificing the usage of those high-end items? (I'd rather not depend on +Str, +Dex armors/weapons as those come and go).
How would *you* solve this problem?

 

[QED]

Re: Vitality question

Your dilemma is part of the beauty and strategy of the game. How to spend your skill points, in my opinion, is the most difficult task there is. When looking on how to spend skill points, try to think in advance. I will assume you have already gathered your gear and this is not "untwinked".

1. What are the minimum requirements?
2. Do any pieces of equipment offer +attributes? Immortal King pieces, Natalya's pieces, and others come to mind.
3. Charms, charms, charms. They are your friends.
4. Do I REALLY want to use that huge polearm?

Lastly, depending on your setup, low vitality Barbs are very viable due to the Battle Orders skill. There are few builds, if any, that do not utilize this massive life increase. You could easily survive most situations in Hell with 1.5k life and a level 20 BO could provide you that.

I am more of an Amazon fan but Spearzon's have similar issues with high Str and Dex requirements on the weapons. The Amazon must rely more on defensive positioning (Decoy, Valk, Dodge, Evade, Slow Missles, etc...) and quick attacking instead of insane life numbers and defense like a Barbarian might have. There are some Barb loving folks on this forum that will chime in and provide there $0.02. Best of luck.

 

[DZJB]

Re: Vitality question

QED gave some excellent advice right there.

If you know what your endgame equipment will be, or if you already have it, you can all plan it out on forehand. Keep the str/dex boni in mind of some items, but don't count too much on charms. You might want to change your charms, and if you then can't meet requirements anymore, you'll have to wait until the next level. So, try to save up some statpoints. I usually keep around 20 or so unused on every char while questing. After that, I assign them if my char is wearing all his/her final gear.

If you don't, which is more likely to be your case, you can have a good look at the possible weapons/gear you char could be wearing. With the Barbarian, it's best to make a choice of weapon class through the mastery. So there's not really a point in trying to be able to equip the best axes AND swords. Checking out the Arreat Summit is a good plan, though the example you gave of the Phase Blade is the most extreme one: that melee weapon has got the highest dex requirement of them all, while it's avg dmg isn't exactly high. Same thing with Collossus Volges for example. It's a good weapon, but it's got a really high str requirement, while other polearms have better avg dmg, and less spread.

I hope people with a lot of melee untwinked experience can add some more too.

 

[imakeigloospat]

Re: Vitality question

You've got to remember that both Dexterity and Strength is quite useful to a barb even though you may have a little more than your weapons requirement.