Barbarians have been suffering in terms of build diversity. Patch 1.0.8 came with quite a few changes to provide a few alternatives to the classical double tornado build.
This particular Diablo 3 Barbarian solo Inferno build has been thought out as a replacement with elite farming in mind. Hammer of the Ancients provides a lot of damage at the expense of Fury which will prove to be quite important for the build. Even if the build is not as efficient for large packs of mobs, it works decently against small groups, especially Elite and Champion packs. This makes it less efficient for Paragon farming but great for treasure hunting.
AoE skills are not completely compromised but the efficiency of the build has been proven by the creator to work best on elite packs. It falls a bit behind in terms of exp farming when compared with the Double Tornado build.
Let’s start with the skill setup:
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Left Mouse Button – Hammer of the Ancients with the Smash rune
Right Mouse Button – Whrilwind with Hurricane rune
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Action Key 1 – Battle Rage with the Into the Fray rune
Action Key 2 – Sprint with the Run Like the Wind rune
Action Key 3 – Rend with the Lacerate rune
Action Key 4 – War Cry with the Impunity rune
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Passive Skill 1: Animosity
Passive Skill 2: Ruthless
Passive Skill 3: Weapons Master
The Mechanics of the Build:
Gear is fairly important to this build. The biggest damage output is achieved with a two handed weapon with a lot of base damage. With a decent one hand weapon like a good Skorn, Rend becomes more efficient when fighting larger packs. It will also help to drain down elite packs. Attack speed on a two handed weapon will affect how often the Tornados will proc for damage when Sprint is used and the ticks of the Rend DoT damage will be affected but the biggest benefit is the damage output of Hammer of the Ancients.
Hammer of the Ancients has been buffed significantly a few patches ago. The Smash rune increases the damage to 406% weapon damage to all enemies in the strike area.
AoE damage can be enhanced with Attack Speed. Unfortunately, after 18% IAS, the benefits begin to diminish making it not worth the investment to get anything above that. In theory, 18% IAS means 18% more Tornado and Rend ticks per minute which tends to count a lot when the only way to an elite pack is trough a lot of trash mobs.
As mentioned, Hammer of the Ancients will be the main source of burst damage. It can be considered a burst damage skill despite the fact that it does not have a cooldown but it costs 20 Fury to cast. Even with Animosity, the skill cannot be used more than 6 times (2436% total weapon damage dealt with 6 hits) at full Fury. To make it a bit more spammable, some regen would be excellent. Battle Rage into the Fray combined with a decent critical hit chance will surely make a difference. For this purpose, the combination of Ruthless (5% extra crit), Weapons Master (10% critical hit chance with axes) and a Skorn is perfect for the build. Things get even better if a Templar is used for his 8% Fury regeneration.
If gold is not a problem, a Stone of Jordan would also be great. It can provide some extra Fury and some decent stats.
If gold is not a problem, a Stone of Jordan would also be great. It can provide some extra Fury and some decent stats.
