Whirlwind Barbarian Build

[Vlad 411]

This thread is for comments about our Whirlwind Barbarian Build for Diablo 2.

[Heartgrave 0]

Hello!

You have swords picked for mastery, but a the weapons are mostly Ettin Axes if you click them. How should this build go?

[Oxygen 446]

6 hours ago, Heartgrave said:

Hello!

You have swords picked for mastery, but a the weapons are mostly Ettin Axes if you click them. How should this build go?

Adapt your Mastery to your weapon of choice! I believe Sword Mastery was shown as an example because listing all 5 relevant Masteries would be a bit overwhelming as far as text goes. It may be worth making the text more clear however, which I will later today. As always, thanks for the feedback!

[Gogisch 0]

Do you know if the movement speed (walking/running/skill) changes the whirlwind attacks? Especially on bosses - could it be better without the skill and boots? And even while walking?

[Gonodz 0]

Hey,

 

I have about 15k hours on barbs in d2, your barb guides are lacking a little bit, I've put a few guides on reddit and got a lot of positive feedback, and also get a lot of messages/private convos from people following guides from this site but getting stuck as there isn't really an informative guide here on getting past the difficulty bump in gearing, for example your guides tell people to put 1 in natural resistance while maxing shout, when the reality is you actually put points into NR until you are capped depending on gear and then dump points in to shout. Another example is your guide completely omitting some extremely cheap and effective weapons that can be picked up for a few perfect gems and is vastly superior to anything you listed for starter gear. Another example is your choice of weapons for endgame gear, without going in to what situations you would take which etc (the frenzy guides also are not good here).

People don't really need too much help with barbs on endgame gear, it's been public knowledge for 15+ years what's bis, but people do need help actually getting to the point where they can farm CS/trav fast and safely (If they play HC).

If you want some pointers for your guides, or even a better one written up, I would be more than happy to help.

Edited 1 minute ago by Gonodz

Edited November 9, 2021 by Gonodz

[MrLlamaSC 5]

Well what sort of item changes would you make? I still think my barb guides are decent and give fine budget options to use (the budget gear section really has a lot of quality options in it for different parts of the game) but I'm always open to suggestions for what you think could be changed there!

In terms of Natural Resistances, yes while leveling you'll be putting more there but for the skill build part I am trying to aim that more at what you will be speccing into later. I don't think it's necessary to place there until you max res but yes having a few points there can be helpful until you can respec out of them later.

[MrLlamaSC 5]

On 11/5/2021 at 12:39 PM, Gogisch said:

Do you know if the movement speed (walking/running/skill) changes the whirlwind attacks? Especially on bosses - could it be better without the skill and boots? And even while walking?

You will still hit on the same number of frames but if you are slower you can hit more. This is sometimes why people dont mind being slowed while whirlwinding through a boss because they get more hits in since they are in there longer!

[Gonodz 0]

On 11/10/2021 at 8:46 AM, MrLlamaSC said:

Well what sort of item changes would you make? I still think my barb guides are decent and give fine budget options to use (the budget gear section really has a lot of quality options in it for different parts of the game) but I'm always open to suggestions for what you think could be changed there!

In terms of Natural Resistances, yes while leveling you'll be putting more there but for the skill build part I am trying to aim that more at what you will be speccing into later. I don't think it's necessary to place there until you max res but yes having a few points there can be helpful until you can respec out of them later.

Hey sorry I missed this, I didn't get a notification assuming you were talking to me.

You shouldn't be running Verdungo on a WW barb, you don't get put into hit recovery animation during whirlwind and already have 30% fhr from Arreats. So the extra 10% FHR on Verdungo doesn't take you to a new breakpoint (48%) unless you have minimum 2 5% charms, meaning all Verdungo's has over String is 160 HP since the life from vitality is not effected by battle orders.

Essentially you are giving up 8% life leech and 15 flat magic damage reduction for 160 hp. Considering your other picks are Arreats (6%) and nothing else, it would leave you at just 6% lifeleech, even with a gg dual leech ring you are still only at 14% life leech.

String has 8% life leech and up to 15 flat magic damage reduction, it's just a better all around belt for Frenzy and Whirlwind (Unless you are running BOTD, then it's debatable since you have very high life leech already), but as a general rule of thumb, string = pve, Verdungo = pvp. My whirlwind and frenzy barbs all run string, I have 4 FHR small charms on my frenzy barbs for the next breakpoint as it's useful, for whirlwind it's not really needed and string definitely eclipses Verdungo.

The rest of the guide is pretty solid, leveling section is very good - a lot of people used to overlook Obedience/Insight. Although Arioc's needle is often missed out,  without a highlords Bonehew is the best "entry level" ww weapon, with a highlords however Ariocs overtakes Bonehews damage when you factor in ITD and also frees up a ring slot (don't need to run angelic). The only downside Arioc's has is the level requirement, aside from that it's probably the strongest cheap 2 hander in the game. 

If you make a new guide for ladder, I think it's worth talking about ww ias breakpoints and how slower weapons still hit the same amount of times as faster weapons during the first 8 frames, it's important to know this when using obedience/insight.

I would say always recommend double grief, but appreciate giving people a bit of variety in selection is probably an important part of your guide so can understand why you included other picks.

But yeah, the tldr of this is just swap out Verdungo's for String

 

Edit: Merc gear should be changed too, decrepify simply put gives you a multiplicative 100% damage modifier, your gearing focus should be survivability followed by # of decrepify procs per second. You aren't a caster so don't rely on your merc to kill anything you can't, so fortitude is a very expensive and inefficient choice, you can kill everything as a barb so your merc should simply be considered a decrepify bot. Considering you have a high level shout, your merc is fairly tanky with an eth treachery in a good base, andariel helm with a 15ias/fire res jewel, however even something like a gaze with a 15 ias jewel is fine too. Only area this rule doesn't really apply is travincal where your merc will die too fast without a pre proc'd treachery.

Edited November 24, 2021 by Gonodz

[Trace 0]

Hi, I noticed in the tree you have sword mastery picked for weapons but in words you state mace (under Skill Early Leveling) "4 points to Mace Mastery Mace Mastery" then in another place it is mentioned that most of the weapons are "Ettin Axes" which of the above is the weapon of choice for most? I guess if it isn't sword I will have to either use my 1 respec or 2 start all over again. Also, on another site it discussed how to respec on "Offline" I did what it said but I didn't see the change when I pressed the "A" and apparently that doesn't apply to skills? Thank you in advance for your time.