Trying to do Ubers with Melee Chars

Hey all,

Recently I just made a new Frenzy barb. The purpose of the build, and the character even, was to help me do ubers. I wanted another way of doing ubers without the repetitive haii-YAHHH! I hear from the Mosaic sin. I was doing some Baal runs and then i realized when i solo Baal i cannot even hit him(most of the time).

At level 76 currently, i have 6304 attack rating and the in game indicator says that i have a 53% chance of hitting Baal which i know is not true because he would've died a long time ago if i hit him half the time. I hvaen't done ubers with him yet but i figure that if i can't even kill Baal within 20 seconds i probably have no chance of killing any of the uber bosses. The worst part is, I spent a fortune on this build.

Main Hand: Grief Phase Blade
Offhand: Last Wish Phase Blade
Weapon swap: 1 hoto and 1 Wizardspike
Body: Chains of Honor
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gore riders
Helm: Arreat's or Guillames, depending on which on works better
Sash: Thundergod's
1 Raven Frost and 1 bk ring 5% ll


Sorry for the long text, couldn't find the build planner thing online.

Anyways, i had this problem as a dreamdin trying to do ubers with optimalized setup but came into the same issue which is that i wasn't damaging them. I hit them for every maybe 1/10 shots from Zeal, and I am willing to bet that i'll have the same problem with my Frenzy barb.

Any experienced barb players, help me out here please?

Uber Baal has a 55% block rate, so your actual chance to hit is ~25%...ish, because the character screen calculation is notoriously unreliable and shouldn't be trusted

There are two ways to boost your chance to hit. You can increase your attack rating, for example with Enchant from Demon Limb. And you should level up, because you are severely severely underleveled--the higher your level, the better your chance to hit. Uber Baal is level 110, and your chance to hit is modified by the ratio of your level to his level

You also need many charms with +max dmg and +AR.
Grand charm with +10 max dmg and + ~50 AR are very affordable and will give you a nice boost.

Another way is to use Angelic Raiment set.

You better have to use a swap with hoto and a Wand with Life Tap so you can use it on ubers.

What's your amu ? Depending on your IAS break point, a Highlord's Wrath is very strong.

I’d suggest Dracula’s grasp gloves for Life Tap. It’ll save u trouble of casting Life Tap using charges from gear. Lasts 8 seconds if i recall correctly. This works wonders for Smite paladin but u gotta make sure ur barb has high enough hit chance first

ohptsh wrote: 1 year ago

I’d suggest Dracula’s grasp gloves for Life Tap. It’ll save u trouble of casting Life Tap using charges from gear. Lasts 8 seconds if i recall correctly. This works wonders for Smite paladin but u gotta make sure ur barb has high enough hit chance first

IAS on gloves may be mandatory for breakpoint.
But I agree, if you don't need IAS, Dracul's Grasp are better for many reasons : life leech, open wounds (which will prevent ubers from self healing) and Life Tap.
Last Wish already has chance to cast Life Tap with a higher lever than Dracul's Grasp (lvl 18 vs lvl 10) so Laying of Hands is good.

I prefer Death than Last Wish for ubers because its almost 50% chance of deadly strike. Death has 50% chance of crushing blow which is decent compared the 60-70% on Last Wish.
Double Grief to reach another IAS breakpoint may also be OK.

Anyway, you already have Last Wish which is very expensive, so I'm assuming you won't change from it ^^.

Edit : Battle Cry may also help you reducing defense but will be overwritten by Life Tap and vise versa.

Here is one more thought (but I really think you should be around lvl 90 to do Ubers): Not long ago I helped two players who were stuck with the Ubers with my Zealer (at this time lvl 92). I got Mephisto and Diablo down in no time. But I could not kill Baal. One downside was that we were of course three players instead of one and that Baal was teleporting around to the other players and therefore my applied Open Wounds expired all the time. But I think the main problem was indeed the "chance to hit" because when I finally switched to Smite I got him down with no struggles, too.

I discussed this afterwards with @ShadowHeart and he had a very good advice. My merc was using The Reaper's Toll which is of course not a bad choice. But he recommended I give him an Infinity because this lowers not only the res but also the defense. And yes, my hit chance on bosses has since then increased significantly. E. g., I get DClone down in a shorter time than when my merc had The Reaper's Toll. Bonus for me: I had sometimes trouble spotting out mobs in low contrast areas because I am color blind. Now thanks to the Conviction aura this has significantly improved for me, too

Tornado_OLO wrote: 1 year ago

You also need many charms with +max dmg and +AR.
Grand charm with +10 max dmg and + ~50 AR are very affordable and will give you a nice boost.

Another way is to use Angelic Raiment set.

You better have to use a swap with hoto and a Wand with Life Tap so you can use it on ubers.

What's your amu ? Depending on your IAS break point, a Highlord's Wrath is very strong.

Yes I have highlords ready. I am using the cats eye right now to save me some dex

oOKIWIOo wrote: 1 year ago

Here is one more thought (but I really think you should be around lvl 90 to do Ubers): Not long ago I helped two players who were stuck with the Ubers with my Zealer (at this time lvl 92). I got Mephisto and Diablo down in no time. But I could not kill Baal. One downside was that we were of course three players instead of one and that Baal was teleporting around to the other players and therefore my applied Open Wounds expired all the time. But I think the main problem was indeed the "chance to hit" because when I finally switched to Smite I got him down with no struggles, too.

I discussed this afterwards with @ShadowHeart and he had a very good advice. My merc was using The Reaper's Toll which is of course not a bad choice. But he recommended I give him an Infinity because this lowers not only the res but also the defense. And yes, my hit chance on bosses has since then increased significantly. E. g., I get DClone down in a shorter time than when my merc had The Reaper's Toll. Bonus for me: I had sometimes trouble spotting out mobs in low contrast areas because I am color blind. Now thanks to the Conviction aura this has significantly improved for me, too

Wow, i never knew Infinity lowered defense. Thanks for the advice, though i won't be relying on my merc because he dies too fast(with my higher levelled chars aswell)

marl71 wrote: 1 year ago

Uber Baal has a 55% block rate, so your actual chance to hit is ~25%...ish, because the character screen calculation is notoriously unreliable and shouldn't be trusted

There are two ways to boost your chance to hit. You can increase your attack rating, for example with Enchant from Demon Limb. And you should level up, because you are severely severely underleveled--the higher your level, the better your chance to hit. Uber Baal is level 110, and your chance to hit is modified by the ratio of your level to his level

Got it. Ill do some Baal runs and see if i can do Baal better and then try some of the uber bosses. Thanks for the advice

ohptsh wrote: 1 year ago

I’d suggest Dracula’s grasp gloves for Life Tap. It’ll save u trouble of casting Life Tap using charges from gear. Lasts 8 seconds if i recall correctly. This works wonders for Smite paladin but u gotta make sure ur barb has high enough hit chance first

Yeah you're right. Ill probably switch to draculs for ubers. I don't know how long exactly itll take for the Life Tap Wand to spawn from the merchants but I realy dont want to grind that stuff. As per my knowledge though, i don't thnik life steal from any of my gear or skills affects Mephisto and right now I only have around 2.1k hp after BOs, so I have some worries about just Life Tap and open wounds. If Mephisto manages to kill me within two very fast and high damage attacks I'm done. With more levels and optimalized setup though I think i might be able to get to 3k hp and maybe even some more from the Heart of the Oak charges of Oak Sage.

I just noticed, both Last Wish and Grief feature "ignore monster defense", doesn't that mean that I have a 100% cahnce to hit them, other than the x% chance they have to block?

wvgcswiglett wrote: 1 year ago

I just noticed, both Last Wish and Grief feature "ignore monster defense", doesn't that mean that I have a 100% cahnce to hit them, other than the x% chance they have to block?

No, "chance to hit" is always maxxed out at 95%. "ignore target defense" just takes your attack rating out of the equation, which equation also takes into consideration your and target's level. Also this only works on normal monsters. Uniques, boses, ubers still needs AR to hit.

From maxroll.gg:

AR = Attacker's Attack Rating
Dr = Target's Defense
ALVL = Attacker Level
TLVL = Target Level

Chance to Hit = min(max(200% * (AR / (AR + Dr)) * (ALVL / (ALVL + TLVL)), 5%), 95%)

https://maxroll.gg/d2/resources/hit-chance-mechanics

Ah. So thaaats why.

One more thing. I recently read a guide on doing ubers and the guide I read told me that to do ubers efficiently you needed a bonus of +200% on lightning and cold, while fire and poison weren't that important. If Mephisto's aura is -125%, -100% from hell difficulty and you need another 75% to max, shuoldn't that be a bonus of 300%? Or are we doing ubers in normal difficulty now..?

I mean, most guides just suggest to have 300% on lightning, because meph attacks with that element, for cold you just need that 75% max (so like you said about 200%) and for example Raven Frost ring for cbf (cannot be frozen)

AngeloDan wrote: 1 year ago

I mean, most guides just suggest to have 300% on lightning, because meph attacks with that element, for cold you just need that 75% max (so like you said about 200%) and for example Raven Frost ring for cbf (cannot be frozen)

Thing is, if max is about 200% then why do i need 300% on lightning? The penalty from hell(-100) and Conviction aura(-125) totals to -225, and you need another 75 to max it out, so am I correct in assuming that 300% is max?

wvgcswiglett wrote: 1 year ago

AngeloDan wrote: 1 year ago

I mean, most guides just suggest to have 300% on lightning, because meph attacks with that element, for cold you just need that 75% max (so like you said about 200%) and for example Raven Frost ring for cbf (cannot be frozen)

Thing is, if max is about 200% then why do i need 300% on lightning? The penalty from hell(-100) and Conviction aura(-125) totals to -225, and you need another 75 to max it out, so am I correct in assuming that 300% is max?

Yes, and this is the most important on light res. Rest is less important, because only minions attack with it (less dmg). You just need some life leech, Life Tap etc. Sorry, about cold I said it a bit wrong about maxxing.

As others have said you need more levels. Having done it with a Frenzy barb (lvl 92) years ago in d2, i thought it was easy with the right gear.
My lvl 84 Smiter had no trouble (as hit chance is 100%).
But my level 86 barb in d2r, with very similar gear to you, couldn't touch Baal, I could literally swing for 15 minutes and he would just heal, even with Gore Rider for open wounds.
Meph and Diablo were easy, but you need a much higher chance to hit for Baal. I would suggest you get to 90.
Also get a pre buff Treachery if you haven't already.

moot11 wrote: 1 year ago

As others have said you need more levels. Having done it with a Frenzy barb (lvl 92) years ago in d2, i thought it was easy with the right gear.
My lvl 84 Smiter had no trouble (as hit chance is 100%).
But my level 86 barb in d2r, with very similar gear to you, couldn't touch Baal, I could literally swing for 15 minutes and he would just heal, even with Gore Rider for open wounds.
Meph and Diablo were easy, but you need a much higher chance to hit for Baal. I would suggest you get to 90.
Also get a pre buff Treachery if you haven't already.

Lol i was talking about regular Baal..... Kind of a disappointment.. Anyways he's now level 85 and im planning to get hjim to at least 90 so he shuold be fine