Wolfbarbs-The ultimate guide (Revised verson)

Har-Megiddo: Well you're set up looks fine, as for what to socket into you items thing. Personally I like to Shael my StormShield since a Wolfs block is not all that fast, since you are using non-ethereal items (Or so it apears.) best thing you could probalby put in them is either Pul, Jah, and/or 40ED/9STR jewel. Last two socketables are for the fairly richer, other than that I don't have anything else to recomend.

Dr@kE~
 
wow.

I love the guide, i got me a 3/5/6/6/8/10/13 wolfhowl um'ed. I got my barb level 83 for gris caddy and necessary maxed skills (iron skin, mace mastery, bo/shout) and such. I own 90% of barbs in straight melee duels, druids aren't much of a problem unless they are wind druids with enigma, same with necros/hammerdins. Sorcs on the other hand are my favorite kills. I equip a doom berserker axe along with my gris caddy for the +2 bonus and holy freeze and when they get in range, they're cold and slow moving even with teleport, a few hits and they down. I use enigma for armor and I surprise most tele casters with run speed before feral even touches them.

I am thinking what'd be a good alternative for a barb weapon but it's hard to find most likely. A fool's phase blade of quickness, adds some damage, and tons of ar with ias. Shael it and it's about 40% ias short of a gris caddy but the AR bonus on it can give you an alternative for not dual wielding angelic rings for AR. I'm just thinking a rare dimensional or phase blade that has maybe good ed%, fool and quickness with a shael to make up damage, a bit slower but still good.
 
A rare Fool's Phase is great, having alot AR vrs those with much defense would get your hits in well. With 50 ias it can hit 6 frames, which is generally faster than any ones initial attack. Congrats on you success.

Dr@kE~
 
I've been dueling with my guy on USEAST LADDER for awhile and he is dominant. I use arkaine's for a prebuff and a 206% (in a superior tigulated) duress, along with gores and dracs to get sick open wounds. Also, whether or not you feel it's BM, psn scs really amp up your low dmg.

There's only 2 Paladins and 2 Barbs that have beaten me (and 1 barb i'm close to being able to beat), both with far superior gear and charms - but most BoTD/doom barb/palys and exile users still go down to my wolfie.

Lifetap using Paladins with BoTDs are a pain, but the way I beat them is with high defense, high AR, and life, coupled with enough open wounds and poison to nullify their lifetap.

Smite Palys are beaten without a huge range with OW + Psn pretty easy. You need to stand and take a couple hits from them while you try to land the first hit, then you (with walk, not run on), walk away and make them follow. They won't run or you can slam them as soon as you see em run. Once their life is down to zero, turn back around, step to the left or right, and try to land the final hit while tanking their smites. You'll need a lot of life to take all the hits, but with 5000+ life, it's not a big deal.
 
I'd edit if I could, but I wanna say I started adding some prebuff items to my preperation for dueling and now 2 of the 4 melee chars who could beat me (1 paly and 1 barb) i've beaten multiple times in a row without a single defeat. I'm amazed at a. how well prebuff helps b. how upset botd/exile/doom/enigma users get when I beat them with a *gasp* wolfbarb

I got an eth wolfhowl for zoding(133%, 4 feral rage, 12/14/12 stats - I might get better, but this isn't half bad) to up my defense by a little less than 200 prior to shouts + iron skin. :)
 
Awsome success, doesn't it feel great to have an underestimated build defeat such great and other known kinds. Prebuff is your best freind as a Wolfbarb, it can greatly increase every stat you have. The Wolfhowl you have has great stats on it, although a little more defense would help but if it means sacrificing good stats, don't.

Dr@kE~
 
Didnt read through the whole thread, but i'm wondering how a combo of Eth Botd CB + SS would do on a wolfbarb. I know that druids are faster with 2 handed maces/axes than swords, but does that apply to the barb in wolf form? A wolfbarb wouldnt necessarily have to use the eth botd cb with both hands, he could also use a shield like a concentrate/ww barb to enhance blocking. So i'm wondering if this combo would be good to use on wolfbarbs.
 
Yes the speed increases as you shift in to Wolf-form however since we dont attack like Fury we stick with the initial attack, which can be slow or fast in this case slower than normal. In my opinion if you want moderate damage and speed use a EBoTD berserker Axe over that due to the fact that the Collossus Blade is a 2-handed weapon and gets slower frames, you get the same range while carrying a shield, and Berserker Axes have much less requirements and much more damage.

Dr@kE~
 
A weapon that wasn't even considered.

If you use sword mastery for wolfbarb, 1 unique weapon comes to mind I think. 2 Handed Unique Espandon called Crainte Vomir (yea the name is weird). But here are it's mods off the arreat summit page:

One-Hand Damage: (20-24) To (67-78) (43.5-51 Avg)
Two-Hand Damage: (46-54) To (104-120) (75-87 Avg)
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 73
Required Dexterity: 61
Durability: 44
Base Weapon Speed: [0]
+160-200% Enhanced Damage (varies)
50% Increased Attack Speed
Slows Target By 35%
-70 To Monster Defense Per Hit
20% Faster Run/Walk
Damage Reduced By 10%

Upgraded to a Legend Sword which base Weapon Speed is -15, this is a great sword to stick a 40/15 in non ladder or a shael or high ed jewel in ladder. If upgraded to a legend sword it should do more damage than gris caddy (1 handed, a 175% legend sword ver of this would do about 55-156 1 hand damage) and you have a bunch of other mods, in terms of speed it can't catch up to the caddy but it's pretty fast on it's own. Slowing targets, faster run/walk (which is great for any wolfbarb) and damage reduction if you are lacking any. This weapon upgraded can provide itself as a poorman's choice compared to anyone who's willing to make a botd phase blade or even a botd war spike, it does less damage, but has more speed etc. You get the idea, there's many good reason why this weapon can be a great wolfbarb weapon, I'm even planning to find me a good 190%+ ed vomir and start a sword mastery wolfbarb.
 
I hadn't noticed this sword before but the mods look very good. Especialy in PvM seeing how much monster defense it takes off, with a shael rune and upgraded you can swing at 7 frames which is fairly fast for a 2-handed sword on a wolfbarb. About damage, im not sure it would rank near the Grisworld Caducues unless you plan on going 2-handed without a shield, I didn't think any weapons have damage reduction but it definatly helps with that if you arent using a Stormshield, great suggestion.

Dr@kE~
 
Hey guys, just finished reading the entire thread. I am currently working on a wolfbarb of my own, and I must say he's awesome. Haven't dueled with him a whole lot, just a few games when my gear wasn't complete, and got destroyed by a cheasy FOH'er (didn't have light absorb/resist gear on - was expected) and a Fireball sorc (same prob as the FOHer).

I've noticed a lot of people having no idea how to level a barb w/out Combat skills. It's not that hard at all, really - just slap on a Bloodletter to get up to +4 Whirlwind and duel wield with your best weapon at your current level - you won't be deadly, but at least you can deal moderate damage and leech some life/mana at the same time.

And a note on the problem of PvM vs Physical Immunes - just carry an Atma's Scarab with you, and if you face a phys imm, pop on the Atma's and wait for the Amp Damage to cast - it will break the physical immunity and they will go down fast.

My wolfbarb is currently using a BOTD CB, and for PvM I got 2 handed (with so much life/leech/AR/defense, I can tank hell lister no prob shieldless), and will probably use the SS when dueling melee. Just hit level 85, and I can see how much faster shael'd Azurewrath is, but I haven't tested it on the field yet.

I'm a little ticked, I socketed my 2/5/6/5/14/14/14 Wolfhowl with my Amazon's socket quest, dropped it to transfer to my barb, and got slammed with a Realm Down for the next hour....argh. That means I have to go through another 50 people with Wolfhowl's on mulecharxxx to find the best one. Ah well, my plans were to put a 34ed/+15 life jewel in it - that sound decent?

I'm still unsure of the armor - I really like the extra life/FHR/skills on my +2 valor, and I socketed it with a 7%FHR/req-15%/+6dex jewel, and it looks pretty impressive. But again, I haven't tested this gear out completely yet, all the public duels I've been have been full of heavy hitting elementalists, and I have yet to gather my anticaster gear over, and I have encountered zero melee characters.

25k defense
4.8k life
9k max damage (2handed BOTD CB vs casters)
3.6k max damage (1hand BOTD CB with SS)
2.3k max damage (shael'd Azure + SS)
*10k AR*

My AR is really lacking. I'm currently using 2x Ravens (218 AR + 240 AR) and a (335 AR/29 resist) Metalgrid - Angelics combo would up that by a lot more than my current setup? I also have a demon limb on a mule somewhere, and I'm considering Enchanting myself, assuming the AR bonus is big enough. What's the ideal AR? 15k? Comments?

Thanks!
 
AR is easily solved with Demon Limb enchant and Angelics Rings + Amy

I am considering going with an upped Toothrow for the 7% boost in OW (defense should stay nearly same or maybe increase, and +10 str, which I can remake my barb for 10 extra vit) over Duress, and socket with a shael and hit the breakpoint with fhr charms or using an upped crow caw for a 2% boost in OW, 15 dex (remake for 15 points in vit) and shael it - using less fhr charms.

I need to know what the fhr breakpoints for a barb in wolf mode are. Is the one I'm thinking of 42 or 46%?
 
Seeing how a few sword barbs are around,if any ladder sword barbs doing wolfbarb are listening, try to find a unique espandon and upgrade it to Legend Sword and shael it, the 1 hand damage should be sufficient and in terms of non elemental damage it's better and just as or even faster than a shael'ed azurewrath or lightsabre. I've been doing MF runs and I oddly haven't found that sword yet, that and I need an extra Pul rune to upgrade it.
 
Hey :)

I've read this guide a couple of times and it looks really good, I also decided to make a wolfbarb. :thumbsup:

I got a question though, I'm playing single player and I don't have all the supplies to get the very good stuff.. I do however are pretty wealthy so I have most of my gear ready. I will also be dueling with this barb which is also a point which should be taken into notice.

I'll be using:
Wolfhowl (doh)
Not sure about the jewelry, but probably angelic amu+ring (and maybe 2 rings)
Shael'd Azurewrath (don't have a gris caddy)
Stormshield
Goreriders
Verdungo's
Steelrends

I haven't listed my armor since that is what my question is about...
I've looked trough my stashes and came up with a couple of possibilities (sp?):

1. Templars might
Defence 1857, by far the best defence armor I got, but the mods aren't that great for the strength req.

2. Etheral GA
Defence 1153, has yet to be upgraded but will then have decent defence and quite usefull mods.. not sure if an etheral armor will stay etheral though.

3. Steel Carpace
Defence 1662, quite nice defence but the mods could be better.

4. Arkanes
Defence 1300, poor defence on this one and on top of that it's only +1 skills... It's still a nice armor though.

5. Stone runeword
I don't have this one, but I have the runes for it.. all I have to do is find a nice armor for it.

6. IK armor
I haven't seen anyone list it so far but here's the deal: If you equip IK armor (1301 def on mine) along with the boots and gloves you will get really nice bonusses on top of the items. 50% EDef on the armor + 40 Light res, 150 def on the gloves.

So, now for my question..

Which armor should I pick? (you didn't see that one comming huh? :D )

Thanks in advance
:drink: Sint

ps. I hope I haven't left one out, stuff like Enigma or tyraels etc. are beyond my wealth.

EDIT: I tested with my IK barb, but the armor + gloves + boots isn't working.. you don't get the 50edef/40lr on the armor but 25% fhr + 40 cold res, so the defence is stuck at 1001 making this a pretty.. bad armor hehe I also left out duress, I'm not sure if it works on SP but I also don't want to use it.
 
You will be best off with a Steel Carapace here, IF you can afford its strength requirement. Anything else I always recomend Valor.

Dr@kE~
 
Zero-unit said:
You will be best off with a Steel Carapace here, IF you can afford its strength requirement. Anything else I always recomend Valor.

Dr@kE~
Click to expand...

I am also thinking of going with a steel carapace, would a -15% req jewel help? the str to wear it would be way to high, and with the jewel it would go down to about 175 should i invest that much into it? i am also using a shaeled lightsabre, so i would need alot of dex also, this leaves NOT my wanted 300+ vita points, i could probably get about 250+ vita would this be enough?
 
Log in to Reply / Create Site Account
Remove Ads - Go PurePremium

Latest posts

Back
Top