***I do not take credit for coming up with this build, but this is merely a conglomeration of my research and my experience while using this build***
Why a wolfbarb?
A wolfbarb is a fun offbeat build designed for those who seek a pvp build that's quite out of the ordinary. If you're looking for a 1v7 I GG everything build then turn away now. The wolfbarb has many bad matchups and should not be built expecting to win in every duel. Also, this can be used in pubs and GM duels.
Pros of a wolfbarb
1.Access to all of the barbarian's passive skills and shouts.
2.Extremely viable melee pvper
3.Epic style
Cons to a wolfbarb
1.Expensive build- not for the cheap at heart
2.Hard to take down casters
Stats
Str- Enough for Gear (obviously)
Dex- Enough for Max block (unless ur going for a 2h weapon)
Vit- All rest
Energy- NOTHING EVUR
Goals
42%FHR- 4 frames- this is a very viable and very easily achievable target
86%FHR- 3 frames- also very easily achievable
48%FBR- 5 frames
31% IAS on weapon- 6 frame feral rage (more on this later)
6.5-7.2k life
Gear
Helm
Wolfhowl- No other choice here since this is what you use for attacking. Best wolfhowl gives:
3 warcry
6 feral rage/lycanthropy/werewolf
15 dex/str/vit
Aim for a perf warcry and pretty high feral rage. This helm isn't used very often so it should be obtainable pretty cheaply.
Socket it with a Ber if you don't have max DR. Jah if you want more life, or a Cham if you don't want to be frozen.
Weapon
Here's where things get weird and where builds can diversify. I'll start with what I've test and then I'll continue with what I've seen and read about.
Grief Phaseblade- This is the weapon I used. You need 31+ IAS in order to hit a 6 frame feral rage. IMO GriefPB is the best, but I have never tried some of the other options so I cannot say whether this is true.
Grizzy's Caduceus- Socket this with shaels and you can have a 4frame feral rage, but the dmg on the caddy is so low that it's not really worth it. HOWEVER, I have read about a build that uses the caddy along with psn charms to great effect. I have never tested that, so I do not know the effectiveness.
Eth 3os tombreaver- socket this bad boy with a zod and 2x 40/15s and you got yourself a GG weapon. This is perfect for chasing casters with, but I believe you need to dedicate a build around this in order for it to work (more on that later).
Switch
2x low res hotos for prebuffing shouts and werewolf
Armor
Fortitude- Best armor you can use. 300% ED, great defense, resists, life, DR. It's beautiful.
Enigma- Used for the FRW. It's useful sometimes for chasing casters and zons, but I honestly haven't put it to much use. Still a good option to keep open.
Bramble- Remember what I said about the Grizzy Caddy? You would use Bramble to coincide with the poison charms for maximum effect. Bramble also gives huge FHR so you don't need FHR charms.
Jewelry
Angelic set- probably the most useful because of the AR.
Shield
Stormshield- Best one gives str, resists, and much much more! Socket it with a shael to hit the FBR BP.
Gloves
Bloodfist- 30%FHR and 40 life are fantastic. I believe on wolf form only weapon IAS affects atk speed so the IAS is not so much.
Dracs- BM but still viable for the Open wounds and the +15 strength
Rare/crafted Gloves- never tried these, but look for ones with Strength and Dex and possibly CB
Steelrends- If you really want to put in that much strength, but you really don't have that much to spare.
Trang gloves- maximize that psn damage with the grizzy caddy build.
Boots
Gore riders- FRW, OW, CB, DS, fantastic boots for melee
Shadow dancers- you should have enough str for this with Stormshield. This is a great option because it gives you more FHR and can help reach the 86% BP. With shadow dancers, you also get dexterity. Overall Shadow dancers will give you more life because you will have less FHR charms in inventory and less pnts in dex.
Belt
Crafted Blood belt with nice mods for FHR
Dungos- Vit and Dr are nothing to scoff at. With a 15 DR dungos you can hit max DR with Stormshield.
Charms
BTorch- Obvious, as high as possible
Anni- also quite necessary, as high as possible
IDEALLY- You want 3/20/20s, but that's ridiculously expensive. Fill your inventory with enough FHR charms to hit the 86% BP after gear. Then just flesh out your inventory with 20 lifer SCs, or whatever lifers you can find/afford.
Stash Gear
Wizspike- 75Res, put it in offhand against casters
2x Ravens- for freeze and cold sorb
Snow clash- cold sorb
Tgods- light sorb
2x Wisps- light sorb
Highlords- light sorb
2x dwarfstar- fire sorb
hotspurs- fire res
rising sun amulet- fire sorb
Enigma- chase casters/prebuff
Bloodletters- for lulz and maybe some help against smiters.
Skills!
Here is where you can diversify.
Melee build
20 BO
20 Shout
20 Iron Skin
20 Mastery (probably sword)
5 Increased speed
5-10 Natural resistance
1 to pre-reqs
1 to battle command
Caster build
1 to pre-requs and battle command
20 BO
20 Shout
20 Mastery (prob polearm for tombreaver)
20 natural resistance
Rest into increased speed
Hybrid build
I was thinking about this, but I have never tried it.
1 to prereqs
1 to WW
1 battle command
20 BO
20 Shout
20 Iron Skin
20 Sword mastery
5-10 increased speed
5-10 natural resistance
If one uses the hybrid build, theoretically one could dual wield or single wield a EBOTDCB which has decent range and help the matchup against smiters.
Strategy
Prebuff BO's and wolf, then switch and use feral rage. Pretty simple.
Barbs- Easiest of all classes IMO. Like all melee duelers, walk, don't run, and if the barb tries to WW you, don't follow him. Just stand there and hold shift and attack the barb. If you use a 2hander then it's gonna be much harder.
BvCs- no shield means they lose. Just do above.
BvBs- a little harder cuz they have a shield. Again do above and depending on gear you or him may win.
Singers- If you use a shield, then these guys are a walk in the park. Just chase him and swing at him.
Other- Just attack as normal. You are a solid melee fighter.
Druids- Shape shift druids are pretty easy, but windies are harder.
I think wolfbarbs are better pvpers than fury druids. I've only dueled 1 godly fury druid and even then we were on even playing fields. Generally you will have the advantage.
Wind druids- Some wind druids are impossible since there are 3 types of windy builds. Max block, max DR, and GG FHR windys are what are your bane. Put on cannot be frozen gear then chase the windy. Try and dodge his nados and then run in and swing a few times. If you find a non block windy, you can probably throw him into FHR lock and with that you can win, otherwise you're pretty much dead.
Necros- Usually tough.
Summoners- a joke. PVP summoners are hilarious but you have so much life that you can easily tank the summons. Just try and namelock the summoner and when he teles next to you own him. Or you can also stand there and kill his minions, that's also effective. You'll only die if they BM you with Iron Maiden.
Bone necros- HARD, If they spam bonewall and prision (BM), you're dead. It's very hard to chase them down and usually they have max block. Their spirits are relatively easy to dodge, but the spears are a little harder. This duel can last a long time if you're cautious.
Psn necro- also hard because you can't touch them and they'll jus tpsn you to death and teleport.
Paladins- HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD
Zealer- not as bad, usually only truly dedicated melee play zealers and thus their gear is pretty GG. You can do pretty well against them.
Hammerdin- you're pretty much dead. I've tried widowmaker and found that it's decently effective against most pub hammerdins, but GG hammerdins will still waste you.
Smiter- You're dead. Against GG smiters, you can't do anything. Against noob smiters, I have won easily using bloodletter on offhand. That lets me WW and I will WW away from the smiter while griefpb does dmg. You can try the hybrid build I mentioned and maybe use like a ebotdcb for extra range.
Foh- need some res stack
V/T- die to smite again =/
Charger- I've never really dueled a charger. I'd say stand still and then attack when they reach you.
Sorcs- hard for melee build, probably not as difficult for caster chaser.
Blizzard- impossibly hard, you need to be stationary to hit the blizzard sorc. Unless you stack sorb, they'll just drop a lbizzy on themselves then hit you with frost bolts (or blasts).
Fb- difficult, stack res then try and dodge their fbs as you home in on them
ES Light sorcs- def need to stack res against these guys. Only sorb if you need to BM.
Sins-
WW sins- easy, just take them down like barbs
Ghosts and hybrids- a little harder, good ones can ww and mind blast you for victory letting their traps wittle your life down. Just utilize the barb strategy and you could win. Stacking sorb might help a little.
Pure trappers- with mindblast you're pretty much dead, but if you stack full sorb they cant touch you.
Amazon-
Javazons- hard because CS hits for a lot. You need to use sorb to win.
Bowazons- Super easy usually. Most bowas are glass cannons. You have enough health to tank their arrows. Try to come in at an angle and move around the bowa so that you're not directly in the path of the GA. Once you make contact. Your blows will either 1 or 2 shot them or send them into dodge lock and then you'll 1 or 2 shot them.
Plaguezon- havent dueled many of them, but you have a lot of life so you can take a few psn javs. Just chase them down like bowas and they shouldn't be too difficult.
In conclusion
Wolfbarb if you haven't noticed, is not the most GG build, but it's a lot of fun to play and a worthy investment for those who enjoy offbeat builds. It's quite viable for melee duels and should not be looked over as a caster chaser. I look for critique that will help me improve my own wolfbarb with new ideas from other people
Thx for reading this =D.|||Well Wolfbarb may not be GG Build but Mass R/W Wolfbarb may be.|||Quote:
Well Wolfbarb may not be GG Build but Mass R/W Wolfbarb may be.
no. just no.|||Thanks for posting this
I liked it how you don't pretend that it's DA BEST CHAR EVER but instead openly discuss its strengths and weaknesses.I've never had a wolfbarb before but they seem to be a fun build indeed. They have massive life and actually hit pretty hard if they have good charms and items. the main problem, as you've pointed out in your guide, is that in order to hit someone you need to catch them so defensive casters simply can't be beaten
I know at least two players from this forum who have wolfbarbs - I wonder if they'll offer any comments.|||shael is good helm socket option
fortitude dont have dr
jewelry - no mention of raven? cbf is must have on equipment and you dont have it. other options are highlords, cats eye, metalgrid
shael in storm is not so mandatory since they change the way blocking work
i think best is rare jewel -15%, 7 fhr adds. also options are resists jewel/um or eld (saves a lot of dex --> more life)
with high lev of werewolf+ bo, jah gives less life then ruby in helm
goreriders, rare resist/fhr/dex boots are also a option
add doom as off hand weapon vs amazons
you have to mention frw/dmg/ar charms
20 points in natural resists is senseless
good bvc will always kill you, primarily cause of more range
bvb you cant win (any good), otherwise wolfbarbs will be called bvb
fury druid --> if he is rabies hybrid you will have tough time
poison necro must get in your screen, try to desynch
my wolfbarb:
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/9...enshot046t.jpg
Quote:
I know at least two players from this forum who have wolfbarbs - I wonder if they'll offer any comments.
i guess i m the one...|||Quote:
Well Wolfbarb may not be GG Build but Mass R/W Wolfbarb may be.
Quote:
no. just no.
Quote:
...
poison necro must get in your screen, try to desynch
...
Which will happen with Mass FRW.
P.S.: I like the way how I give other people constructive criticism and friendly behaviour while other people don't. =)|||The first draft is looking pretty good. It might be worth including a link to TheDragoons wereform IAS/FHR calculator somewhere for a reference. Just remember the feral rage output from the calculator is incorrect. There is a discussion about this somewhere in the druid forums, I'll have to go digging for it.|||Quote:
The first draft is looking pretty good. It might be worth including a link to TheDragoons wereform IAS/FHR calculator somewhere for a reference. Just remember the feral rage output from the calculator is incorrect. There is a discussion about this somewhere in the druid forums, I'll have to go digging for it.
No it doesn't. It say Fortitude has DR and lacks Structure. Sorry.|||cormac mcart, what are you talking about?
there is disscusion in the old wolfbarb guide also (wolfbarb speed attack)...|||Quote:
No it doesn't. It say Fortitude has DR and lacks Structure. Sorry.
I beg to differ, it has pretty good structure and makes an easy read.
I was also thinking that enigma might be a good choice of armor, let's you stat more to vita and gives some frw on top of 2 skills and some dr%.
I also agree that maxing natural resistance is a waste of skill points. The diminishing returns hit hard.
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