Frenzied Barbarian - Guide to Solo Hell/Inferno

[zelghadis]

First of all, sorry for my, sometimes, poor english. It's not my native language, and it's been really quite a while, since I last posted any guide here (like a year or more, when i still played WoW ;P). This guide is meant for people struggling with Barbarian on higher lvls of difficulty, not for pros who already cleared it all I've managed to solo hell, and with some adjustments to build and gear pretty much faceroll whole act I on inferno and am currently going through act II. Like any other build it's also gear dependant - you can makes things easier for yourself, but if you goto inferno geared in random items from begining of hell you will still die horribly



Basics

The basic of this build is big survivalibity. As Barbarian you will always get hit when you damage enemies, as you fight mostly in mele range. So our goal is to minimize damage you'll be getting, and ensure you will be able to fast enough get HP you lost back. Generally with this build you play Barbarian how it (at least in my opinion) should always be. No kiting, running away etc, just rushing into big waves of enemies - the bigger the better, as more of enemies you fight with the better survivability you have. some champion combos still can be problematic, but I haven't rncountered anything I couldn't beat since end of act I inf.



Gearing

The most important thiong you have to acquire to use this buid is a proper weapon. It has to do at least two things. First it MUST have lie-on-hit steal, second good DPS output. Other thing that really helps is good weapon speed, least important but still helping is gem slot and/or your main stat / vitality.

As for gemming weapon it depends on your overall damage. If your lifesteal*damage is higher than life-on-hit you get from best amethist you can acquire gem ruby, otherwise gem amethist.

As for rest of gear, it's good to get some weapon speed bonus on rings, but it's not a must. For hell it's enough to gear into STR > Armor > VIT, but for inferno (or even before, so you wouldn't get smashed from the start) it's good to start priorityzing All Resistances over anything else. It's also good to have head with gem slot, so you can get some extra MF from Topaz gem

Gemming Armor: Again it depends on your gear overall. If your survivability is good, your health most of the time stays over 66% etc gem rubies, if you have good DPS but less health gem amethists. If for example on inferno act I you have 3Xk HP but only 7k DPS - go rubies. If you have 9-10k DPS, but less HP go amethists.

Left Hand: There's two ways of doing things here. I personally use shield, but my gear isn't top notch at the moment. So If you dont have high-end gear go with some good shield with stats like mentioned above, if your gear and survivability is very good you can go with two fast lifesteal weapons (as you will then gain even greater attack speed) and then own even more even faster



Skills

There's plenty of rune/passives combinations depending on your preferable playstyle and/or gear, but I'll try to cover them all

Left Mouse Button: Frenzy - it will let you to quickly gain Fury and will prove itself worthy on killing solo enemies (like champions), combined with speed weapon healing you for quite a bit all the time.
Rune: There are 3 possible choices: For speeding up hell I used Sidearm, for extra AoE Cleave on big groups of mobs, if you have problems with self-healing (for example your resistances are atill to low, or your DPS is) go with Triumph - it's easy to quickly kill white trash mob in group with 5 stacks, and healing is very decent, for better Champion killing (especially on Inferno) i prefer to go with Smite, as with such attack speed you will have stuns appear very often.

Right Mouse Button: Furious Charge + Merciless Assault rune - it's your main AoE skill for clearing huge groups of mobs. Merciless Assault shortens cd on charge for 2 seconds per every enemy hit, meaning if there are more than 5 mobs you can simply spam it back and forward all the time till you kill all. If you miss charge, frenzy kill fast, and when skill is back up repeat again

Slot 1: Revenge + Provocation rune - with Provocation rune with every hit you get you have 30% chance to use Revenge, healing you instantly with 5% max HP for every enemy you hit. With huge pack of mobs on you you usually get revenge all the time, letting you not only to cast a very decent AoE, but most of the time heal you for a massive amount of HP all the time. As long as you are continuously getting hit and not receiving some crazy damage (like standing in fire or getting hit with kill abbilities) it makes you pretty much indestructible.

Slot 2: Ignore Pain + Ignorance is Bliss rune - it's your panic button, if things start to look ugly, you're loosing HP and Revenge is off / you're stuck behind a wall skill, champion is hitting you like a truck, you have no way of escaping fire at exact moment - it's your life saver - for 5 seconds not only you receive 65% less damage, but also gain 20% lifesteal (meaning that if you for example can popup Wrath of the Berserker you can easily turn lost fight into win

Slot 3: Warcry - not much to explain, 20% more armor all the time.
Runes: There are 3 possibilities and they're man reason you'll be using this skill. 40% bonus armor can seem nice but is simply not worth it compared to other runes - this basic 20% is just fine addition. Invigorate - gives you nice HP bonus plus small hp regeneration over time. Use this if you have big HP bulk (like 38-40k+ HP). Veteran's Warning - only use if you haven't fully acquired proper gear yet, meaning you have weak resistances (like 30%) and HP, this 15% dodge will give you some survivability. Impunity - the best rune for Inferno if you have your resistance gear set up (like you're already having 40-50% res on all), then this 50% buff will make you ioncredibly harder.

Slot 4: Wrath of Berserker - it's your "kill you all" skill, with Frenzy and Fast lifesteal weapon it makes you a f*cking killing machine. Save it up for Champions (you will be able to kill most of them before skill ends) or totally dead-end situations as panic button.
Runes: 2 Choices: If your survivability is very weak, go with Striding Giant - 60% to dodge with additional Ignore Pain and possible War Cry dodge buff makes you almost immortal. Otherwise I suggest going with Insanity: +100% additional damage lets you kill nearly everything in these 15 seconds.



Passive Skills:

Again there's a lot of possibilities to choose:

Nerves of Steel is a nice Armor increase if you have big amount of Vitality. In such situation choose it, otherwise not so much. Generally Tough as Nails is better option most of the times.

Berserker Rage: If you already have good survivability it's a very (and I mean VERY) good choice, as you will have maximum Fury for almost all the time (you use it only for Panic Button, and "Kill all" mode) 25% dmg boost is MASSIVE!

Inspiring Presence: Not so good later on, but at the begginig when you have low HP, resistances and Armor such additional HP regen can be helpful. You should change it when you acquire some better gear though.

Bloodthirst: Again it depends on your gear. If you already have high DPS (like 9-10k or more) it's very nice to have this one, especially on later Inferno (like beggining of act II) when you get a lot more damage than in start of act I. You will simply have additional 3% Vampirism for all your attacks/skills. If you are well geared choose it, otherwise not so much, as this is one of this skills "better you are, better it becomes".

Superstition: Practically a must for Inferno. Gives you even better survivability especially for this kind of fights you can have problem with. In mele fight you will already be hard with your Armor, and ability to instant Revenge heal, but extra Elemental damage reduction will help a lot in many Champion fights, as well when chasing Champion ranged mobs.

Tough as Nails: Again not too shabby skill, depending on what lvl of Armor you have (you gain +25%) - like before the bigger the better. Is one of possible 4 skill choices for good geared inferno play.

In conclusion: before getting better gear you should use Inspiring Presence and then other skills depending on what is your biggest problem, or possible boost (depending on stats you have, later on Superstition and again other skills choosing what will boost you the best. I personally use Superstition + Berserker Rage +Bloodthirst (sometimes change last one for Tough as Nails if it, but it all depends on personal preferences.



Playing Solo

The way to play this build is pretty simple. Keep your Warcry all the time (also use it every 30s for extra fury). If you have a big crowd of weaker mobs you charge through them forwards and backwards, as your Charge will be instant cd, when any of them hits you, you self heal and AoE dmg them with Revenge. Harder mobs you kill firstly using frenzy and dealing with others just by Revenge. If you're taking too much damage use Ignore Pain and start Charge/Revenge if you are in big group of enemies. Most of the time you won't even have to use Potions, just save them for extreme situations (like your Wrath and Ignore is down during champ fight, and you will die before cd). When encountering Champions and bosses focus on Champion - build up Frenzy, other mobs dps with Revenge, when your HP becomes low use Ignore Pain and then Wrath - you will gain massive attack bonus and will kill most of random champions in few seconds.

There are of course times when it becomes harder. Generally when fighting in narrow space when Champion uses lasers or other similar skills you will have either hope to DPS him down when Wrath is active, and if it doesn't work, escape before Wrath ends and kite him a little bit until you manage to take down these last few % of his HP.

Also when fighting single hard-hitting enemy, with no crowd of mobs around him to heal yourself by Revenge you will have to escape in low HP situations to kite and heal by potions, then jump back, Frenzy as much as you can (you heal with every hit - remember and rinse and repeat. It especially appeals to big boss battles, like Inferno Butcher. Also on such fights pop up Wrath only on full stacked Frenzy and with cd down od Ignore Pain.

The biggest problem are Champions with Shield and even worse Shield + Extra Health. These you will have to kite almost every time, as you usually won't be able to down them all before Wrath wears off.

Of course this are situations most builds would have problems with, so you're not so much screwed, as you have pretty decent survivability



Team Play

This build is generally not meant for playing in big groups (like 3, or 4 people), as you need as many mobs as possible to stay on you for it to work properly. having many people running around (especially mele), taking ads on them ironically makes it harder for you yourself to survive. It's fun though to run it with some ranged friend in 2men grup - you rush and take as many mobs as possible at yourself, when your teammate stays as far behind as possible (so he doesn't aggro too much on him) and just DPS down mobs. I used to play with Wizard friend and it worked pretty well (only change I made was to Ignore Pain to work on teammates, as Wizards tends to go down instantly if anything bad happens - it lowers yours survivability a bit, but can be realy helpful for teammate).



Credits
My friend Drunk, who I totally disagree with on the way Barb should be played, but during hours of arguments about our class we came to many decent coclusions

Lastly I'd like to thank everyone who manage to read through this whole wall of text. If you have any propositions on improving this guide or any constructive feedback/criticism please feel free to let me know here

Cheers

[zelghadis]

@tonic316: Its fairy simple. On weapon Rubies gives you better damage, while Amethysts give you +Life per hit. Your weapon for this build already needs to have lifesteal on it. So you should check if this extra dmg you will get from inserting ruby into slot (remember, damage will not be simple numbers on ruby, it depends on Str, crit etc as well) multiplied by your lifesteal % is higher or lower than +Life You would be getting from inserting Amethyst. If its higher, insert ruby, if its lower insert Amethyst.

[DDDevilz]

Keep in mind that % life steal is nerfed in higher difficulties (80% weaker in inferno), while life on hit items are not.

[BipolarBearr]

Very very informative and well written. I love it. I would rep if I could :/ It definitely helped me with my build. Considering I plvled my barb to 60 in 7 hours without so much as killing a single mob, I have no idea how to play it o_o. I understand much better what a barb actually does now.

[aionic11]

This is amazing, I was having lots of problems with Hell mode on my Barbarian, with this guide it made it 100% easier !

[Apidae]

Registered to say thanks for this guide. I've been having a lot of trouble with Inferno Act 1 simply due to having low armor and resists. I also had an odd ability set up before that was focused on CC to help with group play as opposed to full on DPS.

Also, I understand I should probably create a new thread, but I have to ask: What is a good goal for armor and resists to aim for? Played whimsyshire on inferno with a friend, and everything one shots me. lol

Thanks again for your guide.