FourTwoZero - Critical Whirlwind Barbarian

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FourTwoZero - Critical Whirlwind Barbarian


Biography
FourTwoZero is as dumb as they come. So much so that other barbarians are actually embarrassed by him. They say he got his name when someone tried to teach him to count so that he could better assess the battlefield. However, all he got out of the lesson was the names of three numbers, 4, 2, and 0, and the strain of learning those numbers caused him to forget his name.

Despite his staggering stupidity Four (as his friends call him) happens to be one of the most deadly barbarians to ever spin through a horde of demons. Some suggest that his lack of intellect is what gives him the ability to continuously spin without ever getting dizzy.

Concept
Originally FourTwoZero was going to be a dual-wielding Frenzy based build but I got over Frenzy pretty quick and decided to go with Whirlwind. In order to keep the build different from my other Whirlwind barb (SuperPsych) I started looking at skills that used a mechanic I hadn't really played with that much: Critical Hits. I found quite a few skills that trigger effects on critical hits and I even got a bit of a critical hit engine going.

Build: Skills

Profile: FourTwoZero


Weapons

Primary: Dual Wield, 1 Handed Axe (primary hand for Weapon Master crit chance bonus) with off-hand weapon (both with high critical damage mods)

Secondary: 1 Handed Axe and Shield


Strategy
The idea here is to keep Wrath of the Berserker (Thrive on Chaos rune) going for as long as possible. Thrive on Chaos adds 1 second to WotB for every 25 Fury gained while in WotB mode. To generate a ton of Fury I use Battle Rage (Into the Fray rune) which has a chance to generate 15 Fury every time I critical hit (I critical hit a TON with Whirlwind). With this simple combination of skills and some decent critical hit chance items I can stay in Wrath of the Berserker mode until the battle is over and there is nothing left to hit.

Passive Skills: Passive skills focus on increasing critical hit chance and elemental damage reduction.

Before Combat: Use War Cry (Impunity rune) and Battle Rage (Into the Fray rune) to boost defense and offense respectively.

Entering Combat: Leap (Death from Above rune) into the thickest group of monsters to stun as many as possible then hit with a Cleave (Scattering Blast rune). This will generate enough to max out your Fury. With Fury at max use Wrath of the Berserker and start attacking with Whirlwind (Blood Funnel rune).
 
Combat: Continue to attack with Whirlwind. The Blood Funnel rune will generate life while the Into the Fray rune generates Fury. Whenever Leap becomes available use it to stun enemies and get a quick boost of Fury.

However, even with a 52% critical hit chance you don't always generate enough Fury to keep Wrath of the Berserker going perpetually but when it does run out the cooldown is almost done allowing you to just go right back into WotB mode. If you find yourself low of Fury, one or two hits with Cleave will max it out.

Preferred Follower
Had to go for the Scoundrel when using a critical hit based build. Though I went with Hysteria instead of Anatomy because it does a lot more damage. My scoundrel currently does 9,753.36 damage.


-420