LoN HotA Barbarian (Patch 2.6.5)

[Valks 2,375]

This thread is for comments and feedback about our LoN HotA Barbarian guide.

[QuiteaWoodsman 0]

Hi,

What barbarian leg piece would be a viable alternative to swamp land raiders?

Thanks

[Yolo 40]

There are no Barbarian specific leg pieces that have unique affixes, and only Pox Faulds have damage potential out of the non specific ones. That being said, nearly any of  leg pieces, including set ones as long as there is no active set bonus, can do the job, as long as they are Ancients, ideally rolled with STR/Vit/AllRes. 

However, if you want to push higher with this build, you'll need those WD pants. They have the unique ability to roll elemental damage as property, which increases the damage of your main damage dealing ability by a large amount.

The trick to get it fast is, you only need 50 levels to gamble it, which is a breeze if you equip a WD with a 70 2h weapon with a level 25 Gem of Ease. Clearly needs less dedication than putting together a full Ancient gear. 

[Guest nordstern]

How strong is this LoN-Build compared to the HotA-IK-build?

Is it be worth or only an enthusiast build?

[QuiteaWoodsman 0]

On 5/23/2019 at 6:10 PM, Yolo said:

There are no Barbarian specific leg pieces that have unique affixes, and only Pox Faulds have damage potential out of the non specific ones. That being said, nearly any of  leg pieces, including set ones as long as there is no active set bonus, can do the job, as long as they are Ancients, ideally rolled with STR/Vit/AllRes. 

However, if you want to push higher with this build, you'll need those WD pants. They have the unique ability to roll elemental damage as property, which increases the damage of your main damage dealing ability by a large amount.

The trick to get it fast is, you only need 50 levels to gamble it, which is a breeze if you equip a WD with a 70 2h weapon with a level 25 Gem of Ease. Clearly needs less dedication than putting together a full Ancient gear. 

Thanks for the advice.

[Elekim 4]

Something to correct:

1) In the intro page Convention of Elements is the cubed ring, while in the gear page it is Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac.

2) In the gear page it is written: " In the stats of the rings, try to obtain a combination of Crit Stats, Increased Attack Speed, and Cooldown Reduction". You can't get them all together with a socket, so maybe it should be better explicited which are the 3 desired affixes. The table seems to recommend to leave CDR out from both rings: isn't it too much?

3) The amulet has Intelligence among its stat priorities...

4) In the gems section one of the two following sentences should be modified: "Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and final jewelry socket during GR progression" and "Your final slot is best occupied by Pain Enhancer". Two final slots among a total of three is too much... ?

[Elekim 4]

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

1) In the Intro page Pauldrons of the Skeleton King should be replaced with Fury of the Ancients in the shoulders slot (as recommended in both the Skill and Gear pages).

2) In the skill page it is written: "Since the build is able to maintain a stable resource reserve most of the time (mostly due to the mechanics of The Gavel of Judgment and the Fury restoration from Furious Charge Stamina)". However, Stamina is not the recommended rune (not even an alternative) for Furious Charge anymore (it's Merciless Assault).

3) There is a couple of typos in the table of stat priorities: "Intelligence" as 5th affix for the Amulets, which should probably be changed into Strenght; and "(on Sun Keeper)" on both weapons that should be removed...

4) In the Gear page, it is written: "The build benefits from a good combination of Cooldown Reduction, Increased Attack Speed, and Area Damage on gear, as well as the usual recommendation for skill damage bonuses — Hammer of the Ancients %, in this case. As a rule of thumb, you will be aiming for ~50% CDR and 2.10 attacks per second while Wrath of the Berserker is active, which is achievable with max Attack Speed rolls on both rings and your slower weapon, the Echoing Fury".
Let me do some deductions concerning CDR, IAS and Area Damage (in the recommended setup with Leoric's Crown): tell me if I am wrong.
The goal of 2.10 attacks per second is said to be reached with maxed rolls on 3 items (i.e., 3 x 7% = 21%).
The goal of ~50% CDR should be reached with maxed rolls on 2 items (2 x 8-10% + 25% fron Leoric's Crown + 10% from Paragon Points = 51-55%%, depending if one or two of them are weapons).
Looking the table of stat priorities, Crit Chance and Crit Damage seem to be more important stats, as well as the sockets on jewelry, so I assume to keep these stats whenever possible.
Given this, the four primary stats on the Amulet will be socket, crit chance and damage, fire damage; however, The Flavor of Time can roll a 5th primary affix, which must be one of the guaranteed ones, in this case CDR (while Movement Speed should be re-rolled). So I consider 8% CDR from the amulet (robably CDR should be added to the lists of stat priorities for the amulet...).
Shoulders are a no-brainer: they should roll both Area Damage and CDR (8%, and we should be done with CDR...).
Echoing Fury naturally rolls Attack Speed, while its guaranteed "+ Damage %" can be re-rolled into somehing else: given that +50% CDR is already reached, shouldn't it be Area Damage? If so, Area Damage and CDR should be swapped in the list of stat priorities for Echoing Fury...
Since The Burning Axe of Sankis has "Fire Damage %", it can roll only 3 more primary affixes:High Damage Range, Strenght and one among CDR (less useful, since the 50% CDR is already achieved), Attack Speed (7%, like any other item) and Area Damage (24%, where all other items can roll 20% at most). Thus, Area Damage seem to be the best option here. If that's right, the list of stat priorities should be changed to have Area Damage in 4th place. I think CDR can stay at 5th place, since if you are missing some CDR (by using Hellfire Amulet or by bad rolls), the weapons are better at CDR (10% max) than other items (8% max)...
Magefist can have Crit Damage, Crit Chance, Area Damage and Attack Speed.
Thus we are left with just one more Attack Speed affix to roll, on a ring; the other ring should then be free to roll another Area Damage. Why isn't Area Damage among the stat priorities for rings?
Am I right? Should the quoted paragraph and the list of stat priorities be modified in some way?

5) Among the three recommended rings, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is the only one that cannot have all the first four recommended stats (Socket, Crit Damage, Crit Chance, Attack Speed) at the same time: thus, in a perfect scenario with good-rolled rings, it should be the recommended ring to cube (as recommended in the Intro page, and by necessity in the Legacy of Nightmares variation). Thus, in the table of stat priorities, Band of Might and Convention of Elements should be labelled as "Best in Slot", and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac should be labelled as "Alternative" (and added to both Ring#1 and Ring#2 lines in order to keep the possibility to cube any one of the three rings as said in the text of the Gear section and of the Cube section).
In the Gear page, it is written: "At least initially, it is recommended to wear the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, since it rolls innately with valuable Attack Speed, CDR and Crit Chance bonuses". Is it worth to recommend this ring if it's the only one that is impossible to roll with the first four stat priorities recommended in the following table? Or at least shouldn't it be recommended ONLY initially (instead of AT LEAST initially)?

6) For the Helm slots, is the Soket more important than "Hammer of the Ancients %" and Crit Chance?
For Cindercoat, is "Fire Damage %" really less important than Strenght and Sockets?
"Fire Damage %" should be added to the list of stat priorities of Magefist and The Burning Axe of Sankis too (since it is mentioned for every other item, including Cindercoat and Swamp Land Waders).
For Magefist, why is Crit Damage in 1st place instead of the guaranteed Crit Chance?
Swamp Land Waders have 5 primary affixes, so one (maybe Resist All?) should be added to the list of stat priorities.
The Flavor of Time can roll 5 primary affixes, including a guaranteed Movement Speed (that should be re-rolled into something else) and Cooldown Reduction; CDR will be forcefully kept, but it's good news since it's also useful to this build: shouldn't it be added to the list of stat priorities for the amulet (as a signal for casual players not to re-roll it)? Having CDR guaranteed on the amulet, maybe the recommendations to how to allocate CDR, IAS and Area Damage between items should be revised (see point 4, above)?
For the Amulets, is "Fire Damage %" really less important than Crit Damage and Crit Chance?

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

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) In the gear page, it is written: "For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower." That page should be updated (it dates back to 2016, it considers damage-dealing follower's builds viable alternatives when they are not, it lists useless stats like Vitality and All Resistance as "stat priorities", it does not mention useful secondary stats like Chance to Freeze in the tables of stat priorities, etc etc...)
In addition, it is not clear which is the best follower for this Barbarian build specifically: which one (Templar, Scoundrel, Enchantress)? With which gear (Thunderfury with Wyrdward? Freeze of Deflection with Justice Lantern? ...)? With which skills (Inspire or Guardian? Mass Control or Focused Mind? ...)?

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

[Guest Islidur]

Just put this build together to do the GR45 conquest and flew through it, thanks.

[Guest Sammash]

Several build guides on this site (including this one) recommend Leoric’s Crown for the Helm slot. During S25, basically every build uses a soul shard in the helm. 
 

Does this item’s power work with Soul Shards? The item card’s wording of its power would seem to suggest not. 
 

Please clarify in the guide(s) whether a different item should be used during S25.

[Guest Haake]

On 12/26/2021 at 12:34 PM, Guest Sammash said:

Several build guides on this site (including this one) recommend Leoric’s Crown for the Helm slot. During S25, basically every build uses a soul shard in the helm. 
 

Does this item’s power work with Soul Shards? The item card’s wording of its power would seem to suggest not. 
 

Please clarify in the guide(s) whether a different item should be used during S25.

No, Leoric's Crown does not work with the legendary shards.  That's a carry over from last season, as HoTA/LoD build is very, very heavily CDR reliant.  An Andariel's Visage w/ +Fire% is your best choice for a helm slot, but sometimes you're just gonna wear the first ancient that comes your way until you can better optimize your gear.

Tip - While you're working on acquiring ancients/CDR and leveling up your LoD gem to make a HotA/LoD build work, wear an Immortal King's set.  With the buff to Remorseless, an HotA/IK build is massively more powerful than it once was, and will initially be much stronger than HotA/LoD due to it not necessitating CDR/Ancients and a LVL99 gem to work.  As you gear up though, HotA/LoD will outpace in damage and effectiveness and you can transition to that instead.

[Guest Elvis]

Why are you recommending Leorics crown for season 25? It's worthless for soul shards, right?

[Guest Coel]

For Season 28, the Illusory boots could be replaced, as the Altar naturally grants the same bonus. There aren't any with specific bonuses that would be useful though, so really the alternative is just "whatever boots give HotA damage",