New WW Barb: Gear combination and Merc?

My Barb is level 47 now and it's really fun to play right now. But I'd like to discuss with experienced players about after change effects and any other suggestion about weapon besides Grief. Yes, I watched Dbrunski's video and yeah, Grief is always best in slot but, for example, how about Grief + Beast in BA instead of 2 PB Grief?

And what about Act 5 merc with upped

Eth Headstrikers instead of Act 2 might?

You can give Beast to your merc if you want

Fanaticism. It can be used by Act 5 merc and you still will be able to use dual Grief.

The other choice can be Pride with Act 2 merc (for

Concentration). I think it would be hard to beat Act 2 Might + Pride merc overall, because the damage bonus stacks

You can also try out Faith with Act 1 merc (also

Fanaticism). It gives higher level

Fanaticism than Beast

louner wrote: 2 years ago

You can give Beast to your merc if you want

Fanaticism. It can be used by Act 5 merc and you still will be able to use dual Grief.

The other choice can be Pride with Act 2 merc (for

Concentration). I think it would be hard to beat Act 2 Might + Pride merc overall, because the damage bonus stacks

You can also try out Faith with Act 1 merc (also

Fanaticism). It gives higher level

Fanaticism than Beast

Good points, thanks. I didn't know that Act 5 merc can use axes. I can try Act 2 merc with Pride and Might and for my barb, Grief + Beast.

For completely different approach: What do you think about full IK set?

basicnecromancy wrote: 2 years ago

louner wrote: 2 years ago

You can give Beast to your merc if you want

Fanaticism. It can be used by Act 5 merc and you still will be able to use dual Grief.

The other choice can be Pride with Act 2 merc (for

Concentration). I think it would be hard to beat Act 2 Might + Pride merc overall, because the damage bonus stacks

You can also try out Faith with Act 1 merc (also

Fanaticism). It gives higher level

Fanaticism than Beast

Good points, thanks. I didn't know that Act 5 merc can use axes. I can try Act 2 merc with Pride and Might and for my barb, Grief + Beast.

For completely different approach: What do you think about full IK set?

I never used IK much, can't help here. Always seemed like a starter option to me and when I started playing barb i was able to make him some runewords from the Ground up. I started off with dual Oath then moved to dual Grief

Beast is a waste. Just go with dual Grief in PB and you don't even have to worry about IAS or

Fanaticism. This patch, whether it was intended or not, made Grief a weapon of only choice.

Thanks for the answers. Another question: I see some builts using Grief in PB and Beast in BA. How viable is this without, for example,

Axe Mastery? Is there a significant difference when getting sword only main hand?

I never tried that combination because mainly I'm looking for max damage output.
However, if you are not exclusively a gold find barb then Death on

Eth BA may be a viable option since you can add IAS from other equipments.

Thank you but I already have Beast and Grief. What I try to figure out is that should I make another Grief on a BA and respec to

Axe Mastery or is it okay with on main hand PB Grief and BA Beast.

As far as I know, A5 Merc can use swords only.

Tetra wrote: 2 years ago

As far as I know, A5 Merc can use swords only.

You are right, my mistake

WW 20,

Axe M 20, Sword M 20, BO 20 and whatever left to FP. Is this okay distribution for WW horker with Grief and Beast?

Beast is perfect for summoners but imho has too low damage to be optimal for melee fighters. I don't know how WW attack speed works exactly, but my choice for dual wielding barbs (

Frenzy barbs) would be Grief and Death for swords, and botd or Grief and Death for axes. If you plan to do bosses/ubers you will need some good CB and Grief/botd lacks it completely, while Death gives you a whopping 50% CB and deadly strike. For axes i'd go for botd because with its 60% ias you don t need to depend on the roll to reach max attack speed, it is indestructibe so no need to continously repair it, and also because it is really awesome, with that dual leech and +30 attr and very high damage.
On the other hand, i am really not sure if a5 mercs can wield axes.

oh, if you plan to only hork trav and not run

Baal/ubers, go for what you already have, Grief and Beast will be more than enough since a buffed barb is unkillable and it smashes every

Council Member in a matter of seconds, no need to loose your head to calculate which combo makes you save some fraction of seconds on every run. If you don t want to rely on your merc reapers to kill that physical immune

Council Member that sometimes spawns, get yourself a Lawbringer, cheap and effective in these cases with

Decrepify chance

Quick question: HOw does the damage calculation work with WW using a weapon+shield instead of weapon+weapon?

Steccothal wrote: 2 years ago

oh, if you plan to only hork trav and not run

Baal/ubers, go for what you already have, Grief and Beast will be more than enough since a buffed barb is unkillable and it smashes every

Council Member in a matter of seconds, no need to loose your head to calculate which combo makes you save some fraction of seconds on every run. If you don t want to rely on your merc reapers to kill that physical immune

Council Member that sometimes spawns, get yourself a Lawbringer, cheap and effective in these cases with

Decrepify chance

Thank you for the answers. I already have a Pala to run Ubers so my Barb will beTrav horker. So I plan to use Beast and Grief but do I need to invest

Axe Mastery? This is the question.

basicnecromancy wrote: 2 years ago

Steccothal wrote: 2 years ago

oh, if you plan to only hork trav and not run

Baal/ubers, go for what you already have, Grief and Beast will be more than enough since a buffed barb is unkillable and it smashes every

Council Member in a matter of seconds, no need to loose your head to calculate which combo makes you save some fraction of seconds on every run. If you don t want to rely on your merc reapers to kill that physical immune

Council Member that sometimes spawns, get yourself a Lawbringer, cheap and effective in these cases with

Decrepify chance

Thank you for the answers. I already have a Pala to run Ubers so my Barb will beTrav horker. So I plan to use Beast and Grief but do I need to invest

Axe Mastery? This is the question.

Meh, given that your main Grief already gives you a good dmg, you wont get that much dmg from that Beast in any case and you only benefit from its aura, it might not be worth it to max it out if you need some more points in other skills, i.e.

Berserk could give you some useful magic dmg with its sinergy (don t actually know if it has a sinergy with ww tbh). But if you spare some skill points, instead of wasting em on one point wonder skills,

Axe Mastery would be nonetheless useful

Thanks a lot, spend some time experimenting on it.

and dont put Grief into a berserc

Axe. you would have more range, but you have to repair all the time and this is very annoying.

Phase Blade is the way to go

basicnecromancy wrote: 2 years ago

louner wrote: 2 years ago

You can give Beast to your merc if you want

Fanaticism. It can be used by Act 5 merc and you still will be able to use dual Grief.

The other choice can be Pride with Act 2 merc (for

Concentration). I think it would be hard to beat Act 2 Might + Pride merc overall, because the damage bonus stacks

You can also try out Faith with Act 1 merc (also

Fanaticism). It gives higher level

Fanaticism than Beast

Good points, thanks. I didn't know that Act 5 merc can use axes. I can try Act 2 merc with Pride and Might and for my barb, Grief + Beast.

For completely different approach: What do you think about full IK set?

no merc can use any Beast

basicnecromancy wrote: 2 years ago

My Barb is level 47 now and it's really fun to play right now. But I'd like to discuss with experienced players about after change effects and any other suggestion about weapon besides Grief. Yes, I watched Dbrunski's video and yeah, Grief is always best in slot but, for example, how about Grief + Beast in BA instead of 2 PB Grief?

And what about Act 5 merc with upped

Eth Headstrikers instead of Act 2 might?

I have been pondering the same thing lately considering the changes and for me BIS is now Beast/Grief in PLAIN BASE zerkers (for pvm mainly and coincidentally for pvp too)