Rend Barbarian

[Valks 2,375]

This thread is for comments and feedback about our Rend Barbarian build guide.

[Guest Chanclor]

The gear page recommends different bracers than the overview page. Strongarm Bracers vs Ancient Parthan Defenders

[Elekim 4]

Some minor points to fix, as usual:

1) In the the written text of the "Gear,..." page, Mara's Kaleidoscope and Xephirian Amulet are suggested as alternative amulets, while the following table suggests The Star of Azkaranth and Xephirian Amulet are the alternatives to the Hellfire Amulet...

2) As noted by another post, Strongarm Bracers are the suggested bracers in the "Introduction" page, while Ancient Parthan Defenders are suggested as best-in-slot bracers in the "Gear,..." page (where Strongarm Bracers are advised only if you don't have hard crowd control secondary stats in your gear).

3) Which are the best-in-slot Potion and Follower for the build? In the Gems section Thunderfury is mentioned: should this suggest the Templar as the best follower?

[Elekim 4]

Some minor corrections and clarifications to make the guide more complete and coherent (for new and casual players expecially):

1) The "Role in the Current Meta" section of the Intro page is missing: is it intentional?

2) Two more Wrath of the Wastes set piece should be labelled as "Best in Slot" in the table of stat priorities on the Gear page (with its IK counterparts marked as "Alternative"). Following the "Best in Slot" labels as they are now one will end up with 7 IK pieces, 1 Wastes, and a RoRG...

3) In the Gear page it written: "high damage range, good Strength and Call of the Ancients %, as well as Vitality are the desired stats on the Immortal King's Boulder Breaker". Why Vitality? The table of stat priorities lists "% Weapon Damage" before Vitality... And is Vitality really more important than "Life per Fury Spent" or the not-even-mentioned "Area Damage"?

4) Stone of Jordan (recommended on the speed farming variation) naturally has +Elemental damage % (hoping to get Physical...), Increase damage against elites (not rerollable), Strenght (that can be rerolled into a socket) and just one more stat: thus, the order in which its stat priorities are written should be choosen carefully. Given as it is, the recommended 4th stat is Crit Chance. Do you confirm it is more valuable than Crit Damage? Always?

5) For Pauldrons of the Wastes, is Vitality really more important than Rend% and Area Damage?
For the Torso slot, is Vitality really more important than Rend%?
Why is Armor among the stat priorities for the Pants? It is of little use for a Barbarian, it's the only item where Armor is mentioned as a stat priority, and it's the 5th affix on the list... Isn't it better to remove it entirely?
For Nemesis Bracers (best in slot bracers for the speed farming variation), is "Crit Chance" more important than "Physical Damage"?
For the Amulets, are "Crit Chance" and "Crit Damage" more important than "Physical Damage"?

6) In the Paragon Points section, the priority for the Core slot are: 1. Movement Speed up to 25% cap, 2. Strength, 3. Maximum Fury (up to personal preference), 4. Vitality. Since Strength and Vitality have no cap, it is not clear which is the recommended point allocation after one reached the 25% Movement Speed: all into Strenght? Or one point each into Strength, Maximum Fury and Vitality, and then rotating again starting from Strenght? Also, "up to personal preference" is vague and can be confusing...
Similarly, for the other slots, is there a recommended rotation for allocating Paragon Points? For example: is it better to maximize Crit Chance before moving to Crit Damage, or raising them both together one by one? Or PP should be spended to compensate gear imbalancies (for example prioritizing Crit Damage if you have more Crit Chance from gear)?

7) In the Gems section, when talking about Bane of the Trapped, the last part of the paragraph (", and your own crowd control secondary stats") should probably be removed, since CC secondary stats have been removed from the table of stat priorities since Ancient Parthan Defenders have been replaced with Mortick's Brace...

8] For the 5 sockets of Torso and Pants the guide suggests Rubies (for Damage) and/or Diamonds (for Toughness): how many of each? Is there a recommendation or it's completely up to personal preference? Is the choice linked to the stats rolled on gear, or to the number and allocation of paragon points?

9) The usual link to the Follower page is missing. Which is the best follower for the Rend Barbarian specifically? The Templar? With which gear (Thunderfury with Wyrdward? Freeze of Deflection with Justice Lantern? ...)? With which skills (Inspire or Guardian? Or, for the Enchantress, Mass Control or Focused Mind? ...)?

10) Which is the best Legendary Potion for this build?

[Valks 2,375]

Passed this all on to Deadset Elekim ?

[Elekim 4]

@Deadset: I saw you revised some stat recommendations on the Gear page (moving "Rend %" up, removing Armor from Pants, swapping "BiS" and "Alternative" labels from some set pieces,...), but the same should be done on the Speed Farming variation page too....

[Elekim 4]

On 8/26/2019 at 2:09 PM, Elekim said:

3) In the Gear page it written: "high damage range, good Strength and Call of the Ancients %, as well as Vitality are the desired stats on the Immortal King's Boulder Breaker". Why Vitality? The table of stat priorities lists "% Weapon Damage" before Vitality... And is Vitality really more important than "Life per Fury Spent" or the not-even-mentioned "Area Damage"?

@Deadset: You modified the table of stat priorities moving "Vitality" after "Life per Fury Spent", but you didn't change the quoted paragraph in the text ("...as well as Vitality...") nor the table on the speed farming variation page.

In addition, I didn't understand if and why Vitality is more important than "Area Damage" (a stat that is recommended on many other items, and that has its greater values exactly on weapons...). Can someone explain this to me?

[albabe 33]

I must be doing something wrong.  I've been messing with this build and besides being killed a lot, I never have much Fury.  The Barb is always hiccuping and farting.  I have much better luck with the old non-Rend build.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

Edited November 22, 2019 by albabe

[hakkd 0]

2 hours ago, albabe said:

I must be doing something wrong.  I've been messing with this build and besides being killed a lot, I never have much Rage.  The Barb is always hiccuping and farting.  I have much better luck with the old non-Rend build.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

I personally prefer to replace Ancient Spear - Rage Flip with War Cry - Veteran's Warning. Ground Stomp works well enough for grouping and War Cry helps with the initial Fury generation to start spinning. You shouldn't be having Fury issues regardless of this though. Make sure that you're not spinning when you're not hitting enemies (Then the WW Wind Shear rune isn't working for your generation) and you shouldn't be spending Fury on anything but Whirlwind and the occasional Battle Rage.

Also, if you're having issues with Fury then Aquila Cuirass does nothing for you. I would recommend (and also prefer) using Mantle of Channeling in the armor cube slot.

[hakkd 0]

In your speed variation of this build, you seem to be missing one very important part. You have no way to generate any Fury to get started, as much as Sprint would be nice I think you have to replace it with Furious Charge for the initial Fury generation to start spinning.    UNLESS I am missing something, please point it out if I am.

[albabe 33]

(Hey... the diablo3 Profile pages are back up!)

Thanx for the help!

I'm not a big fan of Ancient Spear either.

You got it... This build makes it hard to farm for matts because as soon as you stop hitting the badguys, you're fury takes a nose dive.

I used Bluddshed's Build.  And I swapped out the for the Istvan for the Bull Kathos.  Still does decent damage and I don't have to worry about Fury.

https://www.diablofans.com/builds/67451-2-6-7-ww-push-build

[Guest Green]

I use Bul-Kathos's Warrior Blood and Bul-Kathos's Solemn Vow to generate fury its less powerful than  The Slanderer and Little Rogue but its a good alternative I think.

[Guest Taolaw]

This may be a dumb question, but why have Rend as an ability when Ambo's Pride in the cube causes WW to apply it to targets.   Not being sarcastic, this is a genuine question.

[Guest Professor]

11 hours ago, Guest Taolaw said:

This may be a dumb question, but why have Rend as an ability when Ambo's Pride in the cube causes WW to apply it to targets.   Not being sarcastic, this is a genuine question.

For the Bloodbath rune on Rend. Since it allows for other things to bleed for that much damage behind you as you blend a path of destruction, it's nice to have it slotted as a skill. 

[Guest Nahka]

12 hours ago, Guest Taolaw said:

This may be a dumb question, but why have Rend as an ability when Ambo's Pride in the cube causes WW to apply it to targets.   Not being sarcastic, this is a genuine question.

The rune you select is applied as well, if you have it selected. If you don't have Rend selected, the vanilla plain Rend is applied instead.

[Guest Nahka]

My question is, why do you call for +physical damage on all the items that can gain it, when the Wind Shear rune converts the Whirlwind to lightning? And we're using the lightning rune for Rend as well. Have I missed something, or is that a mistake?

[darkgreenwax 412]

13 hours ago, Guest Taolaw said:

This may be a dumb question, but why have Rend as an ability when Ambo's Pride in the cube causes WW to apply it to targets.   Not being sarcastic, this is a genuine question.

I believe it needs to be on your skillbar for it to proc off item effects.

For instance, if rend is not on your skill set up, then ambo's pride will not cast it, since it is not on your skill bar. Items like ambo's pride "pull" the skill from your skill bar, not automatically on its own.

[darkgreenwax 412]

Also, wondering if anyone has tried using Unity instead of Band of Might? Unity is not 80%, though split damage is nothing to sneeze at, and it allows you to put something else in the Ground Stomp slot. it also is always on 24/7 with no upkeep.

edit: because I'm below 100 still, I actually think keeping band of might, but replacing convention of elements with unity would be the better choice, come to think of it.

DOUBLE EDIT: Right after typing this comment I got my obsidian ring of the zodiac to finally drop, and realize how ridiculously easy it is to keep a 100% uptime on Ground Stomp. WELP. *tosses unity ring into the river*

Edited November 25, 2019 by TyZone
added thought

[Taralyth 2]

13 hours ago, TyZone said:

I believe it needs to be on your skillbar for it to proc off item effects.

For instance, if rend is not on your skill set up, then ambo's pride will not cast it, since it is not on your skill bar. Items like ambo's pride "pull" the skill from your skill bar, not automatically on its own.

This is incorrect. It DOES apply rend. Rend however will not have any rune effect if it isn't equipped.

[darkgreenwax 412]

11 hours ago, Taralyth said:

This is incorrect. It DOES apply rend. Rend however will not have any rune effect if it isn't equipped.

Yes, Taralyth is correct. I discovered this playing around with the skills tonight. I was thinking "uh oh, I made that comment on icyviens..." then I thought "ah let's be real, 1000s of visitors, someone will correct me :P"

[Guest Deckard_cain]

On 11/21/2019 at 10:03 PM, hakkd said:

In your speed variation of this build, you seem to be missing one very important part. You have no way to generate any Fury to get started, as much as Sprint would be nice I think you have to replace it with Furious Charge for the initial Fury generation to start spinning.    UNLESS I am missing something, please point it out if I am.

Hello together. I have exactly the same problem with the speedfarming build. If using EchoingFury and AmbosPride insteal of Buls, Fury is dropping very fast and at the beginning I have no Fury to start at all. That makes up for very dangerous situations where I find myself left with no Fury in masses of Enemies. Can somebody explain if it's meant to be played that way please?!

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/25/2019 at 10:04 AM, Guest Nahka said:

My question is, why do you call for +physical damage on all the items that can gain it, when the Wind Shear rune converts the Whirlwind to lightning? And we're using the lightning rune for Rend as well. Have I missed something, or is that a mistake?

Whirlwind isn't the damage dealer here and Rend is using a Physical rune.

[DeathMonger 0]

21 hours ago, Guest Deckard_cain said:

Hello together. I have exactly the same problem with the speedfarming build. If using EchoingFury and AmbosPride insteal of Buls, Fury is dropping very fast and at the beginning I have no Fury to start at all. That makes up for very dangerous situations where I find myself left with no Fury in masses of Enemies. Can somebody explain if it's meant to be played that way please?!

What I'm running right now is Unforgiving in place of Berserker Rage.  Berserker Rage is no good anyway if you're not near maximum fury.  The other option as you mention is to keep Buls instead of Echoing Fury and Ambo's Pride, which is what I was running until I finally acquired Ambo's and rolled a decent Rechel's Ring.  I think speed runs are faster with the Echoing/Ambo's/Messerschmidt's/IgnorePain combo due to overall movement speed, but you've gotta have ample fury generation for it to really work.  I don't see how it can work without either Buls or Unforgiving.

In fact, prior to finding the Ambo's so I could switch to the full recommended combo, I was running Band of Might with Furious Charge, and even with that and Buls I had Unforgiving to make my fury management easy.

[Guest Deckard_cain]

Dear DeathMonger,

thank you for your explanation. I liked the Ambos/Echoing for its speed, but the lack of Fury (I even tried Unforgiving as well) was really  downside (especially in hardcore mode). FuriousCharge was also my favourite, because you can dash several times for an amplification of Fury. Thank you again for your reply.

[Guest Never any fury]

Build seems to work besides that i never have any fury, ive sacrificed the ancient spear for a primary skill just so i can have some fury. Any sugestions?