Is there something that's bugging your mind about barbs? Do you think that they are shit? Do you think that amp is gone and will never come back? Let me introduce you, the following duo: Blade of Arreat and Battle Cry.
Yo dawg i heard yo' amp is fucked up so i put a blade and a battle cry in your warcries so you can reduce defense while you reduce defense.
Are you not convinced? Do you think sinking points in these 2 skills are even more shit than melee's current situation? Well, b.net noobs think that maxing out on prayer is even worse than current barbs. But, it's appearantly not as bad as b.net noobs think, right?
So, let's analyze these skills first:
1- Blade of Arreat:
Level 20:
Duration: 19.1 secs
Radius: 12
Enemy Defense Reduction: 25 Percent
Manacost: 49
Level 1:
Duration: 10
Radius: 12
Enemy Defense Reduction: 25 Percent
Manacost: 30
This skill, just like grim ward in original d2, effects enemies like an aura. Investing more than 1 point doesn't look that good as it does not improve the skill too much.
2- Battle Cry:
Level 20:
Manacost: 5
Duration: 48
Enemy Defense Reduction: 88 Percent
Enemy Attack Reduction: 44 Percent
Level 1:
Manacost: 5
Duration: 10
Enemy Defense Reduction: 50 Percent
Enemy Attack Reduction: 25 Percent
Unlike Blade of Arreat, this skill works like a curse and that's why i think that these two skills will work together.
Let's analyze the skill point distribution of a generic frenzy barb:
Warcries:
Howl -> 1
Shout -> 1*
Battle Orders -> 20
Battle Command -> 1
Combat Skills:
Double Swing -> 17
Double Throw -> 1
Frenzy -> 20
Masteries:
Weapon Mastery: 20
Increased Stamina: 20
Natural Resistance: 1
Iron Skin: 13*
*Iron Skin or Shout is up to player's preference. Iron Skin over Shout gives +13 PDR and 60% less increase on defense rating and shout gives 60% more defense rating without pdr bonus AND synergy on battle command and battle orders. If we shave 24 points on this build and distribute them like the following, we will get this newly made barb:
Taunt: 1
Find Potion: 1
Find Item: 1
Blade of Arreat: 1
Battle Cry: 20
The important point: Which skills to shave points from?
Here, my opinion is to shave points from battle orders and increased stamina, which is probably the most controversial decision possible. Here is the thing.
Increased Stamina gives 4% per hard point and Battle Orders give 15% for first and additional 3% per each hard point after first. Let h be the number of hard points. When h>15, increased stamina gives more bonuses than battle orders with same h. When h<15, battle orders gives more health bonus. At h=15, they are equal. So, if we cut battle orders all the way down to 1 and cut 5 points from increased stamina, we get the optimal health bonus with 24 hard points.
Our new skillset becomes:
Warcries:
Howl: 1
Shout: 1* (look above)
Taunt: 1
Battle Cry: 20
Battle Orders: 1
Battle Command: 1
Find Potion: 1
Find Item: 1
Blade of Arreat: 1
Combat Skills:
Double Swing: 17
Double Throw: 1
Frenzy: 20
Combat Masteries:
Weapon Mastery: 20
Increased Stamina: 15
Natural Resistance: 1
Iron Skin: rest*
*This time this is more important. After cutting battle orders all the way down to 1, we have this issue. Now, our buffcries last shorter than an iceberg in a volcano, so shout has one more advantage over iron skin. Make your choice accordingly. I'd prefer shout over iron skin this time. Even though it costs mana repeatedly, which is what we'll be short on in this build with repeated battle cries and blades, 30 seconds battle orders will be less mana-efficient compared to shout over iron skin.
So, here comes the questions:
1- Do they really stack?
2- Do 1 level blade and 20 level battle cry break a physical immunity? Like Hell Andariel or something of that sort?
Discuss.