frenzy barb with phase blades?

currently at lvl 62, having lots of fun,

Mace class, slightly twinkled, but the repair cost is killing me, for now I try to rune repair as much as possible, but eventually I'll run out of rals and orts... so as every

Frenzy barb who will end up with Grief, I plan to use

Phase Blade as its indestructible, but at the huge cost of putting points in dex, I wonder is it worth it or there are some hidden problems down the road? how are you

Frenzy barbs dealing with the high cost repair problem?

My

Frenzy exists to Hork in the Trav. Drops a ton of money, in addition to selling the trash drops, so he is pretty stable cost-wise. You probably aren't there yet, so maybe NM Trav? Or just be more deliberate with picking up the trash to sell. I love the Necro wands. Two slots, and even the whites will go for 30K in NM pretty regularly if they have + to 2 or more skills. Not so much with the sorc wands, oddly enough.

And I feel your pain on the repair costs. I run a Fortitude

Sacred Armor and dual Grief in Colossus Swords because I'm rich! Ah hahahahahaha!!!! Also, the damage in them is nice. But mostly because I am rich. Ah hahahahahaha!!!!

every DEX point used for equipping a

Phase Blade Grief is well spent: not only that runeword is the single most powerful weapon for a melee character but DEX points will also increase your Attack Rating, which is essential for melee.

on top of that, if you run a shield in the off hand, DEX points will also rise your Chance to Block (this is mostly useful for HC characters though)

and to answer your second question: look for indestructible weapons while you are building your way to Grief. An Ethereal

Balrog Blade Oath is a classic: the runes can be farmed in Hell Countess but the base can be painful to get. Hell Cows with no Magic Find (or as less as you can get) is your best shot there. Or just trade it here

speaking of: I just upgraded my dual Ethereal

Balrog Blade Oath setup to Grief + Oath so I can spare one for

Pul +

Mal if you are interested, I don't think I will use it anymore

Yea, I encountered this issue when building my Barb. Basically make your runeword in a non superior armor and use indestructible weapons.

So I ended up with a near perfect non superior Archon (520Def) and made a Fortitude and use dual Griefs in Phase Blades. It doesn't kill as fast as a sorc/hammerdin but I just hork and gold find with him.

Prior to using dual Griefs I was using a Grief+Balrog Oath combo.

solid advices and thanks for the offer for now I'll stick with my dual Black (for CB) and dual

Zakarum's Hand (both

Mace class), they hold all right even in hell, but I'll be definitely moving onto sword class later on and looking for nice base, eventually I'll turn my bard into gold find, I started this class purely for the gambling lol

A true barbarian dies with an

Axe in his hand, preferably Breath of the Dying and Death in an

Eth

Berserker Axe. Then you finish it off with Chains of Honor in a superior

Archon Plate base because you're ballin. Sorry I'm getting off topic, to answer your post yes the

Phase Blade is a common

Frenzy barb base and a good one, try Grief with Lawbringer in your offhand for a solid combo.

If you plan to have the most efficient weapons and the perfect-by-the-book build, go for the grey and sad Grief and Lawbringer in pb combo.
If you plan to have fun and smash and destroy everything in your sight, screaming like a ball of Fury, go for Death and Breath of the Dying in

Eth

Berserker Axe. Then top these axes with guillaume, highlords, Chains of Honor (in sup

Sacred Armor for my taste),

Gore Rider,

String of Ears and some nice

Blood Gloves.
I have both these builds and no doubts, the axeman is the funniest uber killer i have ever met, the swordman is efficient to melt devilkins and such.
Your choice according to what you want

Steccothal wrote: 3 years ago

go for the grey and sad Grief and Lawbringer in pb combo.

I never understood this one: Lawbringer grants Slain Monsters Rest in Peace which will prevent you from horking, right? Outside

Nihlathak, where it makes A LOT of sense, what's the purpose of shooting yourself in the foot?

Narmer wrote: 3 years ago

Steccothal wrote: 3 years ago

go for the grey and sad Grief and Lawbringer in pb combo.

I never understood this one: Lawbringer grants Slain Monsters Rest in Peace which will prevent you from horking, right? Outside

Nihlathak, where it makes A LOT of sense, what's the purpose of shooting yourself in the foot?

I never horked in my life and i don t plan to do it in the future. I play to have fun and dismembering dead bodies to look for items seems to me exactly as fun as it sounds. Then Lawbringer is extremely useful for barbs to counter physical immunities, with its aura (even if inly works on undead) and

Decrepify chance

fair enough, now I understand why the Ancients came from different tribes

AR > 10k so pump your dex

so how do both weapons states/mods work with each other? is it recommended to use the same runeword weapon or its better to use different on both hands

The only thing that matters for

Frenzy is that you equip the weapon with the most IAS to your main hand (slot above gloves; this is normally your primary hand when you enter a new game, recover corpse, etc).

Also heads up that dual wielding and attack speed interaction is going to be update in 2.4.

If I understood patch notes correctly, it’s not going to matter any more which hand wields what but I haven’t tested it in the PTR, though.

Frenzy horker barb here. After many different weapon combos, I've landed solidly on PB Grief + 6 Isted PB. Don't really need anything powerful in offhand since main hand Grief seems to kill everything very quickly. That extra 180% MF can make quite a difference!

If I wasn't MFing and horking, then as others have mentioned, Lawbringer is the way to go in offhand (and very inexpensive). Adds a TON of extra damage and survivability. I can fly through CS/WSK like it's nothing with it equipped (thanks to

Decrepify +

Sanctuary Aura). I even prefer it over dual griefs in certain cases.

And last, but certainly not least, is Last Wish. I've got 3 Jahs so far with a perfect superior PB base and planning to make that as soon as I find

Ber +

Sur for best offhand when running Ubers (did lots of testing in single player with hero editor).

so for example by equipping both Grief and Lawbringer at the same time you get the mods from both runewords right (even if its overkill)?

weegee wrote: 3 years ago

so for example by equipping both Grief and Lawbringer at the same time you get the mods from both runewords right (even if its overkill)?

Yep Yep, Grief is strong enough that you can use your offhand as a way to cover holes in your setup, Silence in a

Phase Blade is another interesting offhand choice, +2 skill, 75 all res, hit recovery, mana steal, some mf and even a little crowd control with blind/flee. There are quite a few options to play with once you have a good main weapon.

WillieB wrote: 3 years ago

weegee wrote: 3 years ago

so for example by equipping both Grief and Lawbringer at the same time you get the mods from both runewords right (even if its overkill)?

Yep Yep, Grief is strong enough that you can use your offhand as a way to cover holes in your setup, Silence in a

Phase Blade is another interesting offhand choice, +2 skill, 75 all res, hit recovery, mana steal, some mf and even a little crowd control with blind/flee. There are quite a few options to play with once you have a good main weapon.

damn coming from a necro, a melee barb's got so many bloody choices... Oath, Lawbringer, Death, BOTD, Grief now Silence is even more interesting as an off hand it even offers decent enough mf

one question remains though, I assume you don't actually benefit from using dual Grief right as the

Frenzy/

Double Swing attack takes account of only one weapon at the time for attacking, so it wouldn't be economical to make two griefs, am I right?

weegee wrote: 3 years ago

one question remains though, I assume you don't actually benefit from using dual Grief right as the

Frenzy/

Double Swing attack takes account of only one weapon at the time for attacking, so it wouldn't be economical to make two griefs, am I right?

I think if you want a pure damage setup dual Grief is best, but you're limiting your gearing options and will have to find a source of mana steal from somewhere. I think you would better off rolling a Fortitude with your second

Lo rune if you don't have good armor yet.