Minsc the Mad Boobarian

[Mo]

In the course of the last week I've found a couple of nice legendaries for a barb so I decided to finally roll one.  May I present to you:

Minsc the Mad Boobarian (link)

Build Description

Crazy Berserker.  Since he will be wielding a massive two-handed legendary mighty-weapon, I'll focus on dealing as much damage as possible before he inevitably is struck down.  My battle-mage Valsu is spec'ed as a tank also and I don't like character overlap.  Minsc will literally leap into battle and deal the pain.  My current thoughts on his build, include 1 defensive focused skills.  Healing will come from some skill runes. 

We will focus on strength (obviously), criticals, vitality and life on hit.

Link to skills

Active Skills

Primary: Bash.  Clobber
Secondary: Rend. Blood Lust
Defensive: Leap.  Iron Impact   
Might: Overpower.  Killing Spree
Rage: Earthquake.  The Mountain's Call
Rage: Wrath of the Berserker, Insanity

Passives

Ruthless
Bloodthirst
Boon of Bul-kathos


UPDATE: After playing through Inferno Act 3 MP1, I've pretty much decided on the skills above.  Most important skills are:

Rend:  Big damage and healing.  700% weapon dmg over 5 seconds with around 15% of that (minus Inferno life gain nerfs) coming back as health.  Minsc wouldn't live long without this skill.

Wrath of the Berserker with Insanity.  Insanity increases all damage by 100% for the 15 seconds.  Minsc dps moves up to over 100k with this skill.  Basically I've yet to find any elites that survive the 15 seconds of death and destruction this skill puts out, especially if they get caught in an Earthquake with damage of 4000% weapon and Rends for 1400%.

[420]

Since Barbarian is my favorite class I've got a lot of helpful (hopefully) insight into the various builds.

Leap
I recommend the Death from Above rune for Leap, good to leap into a group and stun them at the beginning of a battle or to just leap in place during battle to interrupt elite/boss attacks and give yourself a breather. Also, remember to use Leap in battle whenever it's ready as the cooldown is short and it gives you a nice boost to your Fury.

Bloodthirst
While Bloodthirst is nice, I find it somewhat lacking if you have a decent Life on Hit item. For instance, if you deal 10K damage (after damage reduction) you only gain 300 life (3%) and the range of life stolen varies with the range of damage dealt. I notice it's more effective if you have other % life steal items to stack with it. However, An item with 300 life on hit mod or a weapon with a Star Amethyst would be superior in that the damage return will be a set amount.

I would go Weapon Master, as you suggested, instead of Bloodthrist for the increased fury regen.

Secondary Attack
I strongly recommend going Whirlwind as your secondary attack, it is by far the most powerful attack in the Barbarian's arsenal and is made even more powerful when used in conjunction with skills like Wrath of the Berserker.

For Whirlwind's rune, Wind Shear will go well when combined with both the Fury generated by the Weapon Master passive skill (using a Mighty weapon) and the Thrive on Chaos rune for Wrath of the Berserker.

Critical Build
There are a lot of Barbarian skills that do fun stuff on with critical hits.

The Blood Funnel rune for Whirlwind recovers 2% max life per critical hit, regardless of damage done. That's a consistent 600 life per crit for a Barb with 30K max life.

The Battle Rage skill with the Into the Fray rune will build Fury faster than any other skill I've seen. And if you use Thrive on Chaos it will keep you in Berserker mode a lot longer.

Check out FourTwoZero's skills to see how he stays in Berserker mode as long as there is something for him to hit: Critical Whirlwind Barbarian Skills

-420

[Mo]

I agree with Death from Above.  Will most likely go in that direction.

Regarding Bloodthirst.  I won't have a life on hit weapon, as mine doesn't have a socket.  I'll need to find other items with life on hit. However, Rend and Overpower both seem to have strong life gain so I figure Bloodthirst will boost those very nicely. Also Earthquake will deal a crap load of damage over time, Bloodthirst should activate for this too. Opinion? Also any other passives that you like?

As for WW.  I know you love this skill and it's probably the most popular barb skill but for some reason it doesn't appeal to me very much.

Lastly, what's your take on Frenzy? I actually haven't used it much but the life gain rune seemed nice.  My other option is sticking with Bash and Instigate for quick Fury.

[420]

Regarding Bloodthirst.  I won't have a life on hit weapon, as mine doesn't have a socket.  I'll need to find other items with life on hit. However, Rend and Overpower both seem to have strong life gain so I figure Bloodthirst will boost those very nicely. Also Earthquake will deal a crap load of damage over time, Bloodthirst should activate for this too. Opinion? Also any other passives that you like?

Yeah, Bloodthirst should compliment any other life steal and any big damage attack since it scales. I know for sure that you can find Life on Hit mods on weapons, rings, and amulets. I've an amulet with 499 Life on Hit and one with 621 LoH. Oh, and don't forget that Mighty Belts (Barbarian only) can roll a life steal mod, highest I've seen is 3%. I saved bunch of them if you want one.

For other passives, I like Tough as Nails, the +25% armor is a big boost at high levels, especially if you use a shield, but my dual wielder uses it too. However, that's pure defense and you aren't going that route. I've seen a lot of Barb builds using either Animosity or Superstition which both look like they could be pretty powerful if you have something to sink your Fury into.

Throbble's barb uses Unforgiving (which got a huge buff in 1.0.5) for the Fury regen, Bloodthrist for life steal, and Boon of Bul-Kathos because she uses all 3 "Rage" skills.

As for WW.  I know you love this skill and it's probably the most popular barb skill but for some reason it doesn't appeal to me very much.

Blasphemy!

Lastly, what's your take on Frenzy? I actually haven't used it much but the life gain rune seemed nice.  My other option is sticking with Bash and Instigate for quick Fury.

I was using this for awhile with SuperPsych in conjunction with Whirlwind. I'd start off by attacking with Frenzy until I got it up to 5 then Whirlwind with the bonus 75% attack speed, stopping occasionally to hit once with Frenzy to keep the stack at 5. Eventually, however, I realized I needed at least one way to stun enemies and since SuperPsych is an armor whore and uses the Iron Impact rune with Leap I opted to switch Frenzy out for Bash with the Clobber rune.

[Mo]

Made it to level 60 last night! Currently DPS is around 50k and Crit chance around 35%.  Next to improve it either Crit dmg which currently sits at 100% or All Resists since my resists are all around 180-300.  Armor is 6k or so.

I will see how Inferno goes and make a decision on skills and where to focus on upgrades.

[420]

Throbble says Minsc's weapon has the coolest VFX of any item in Diablo III.

What I want to know is, how do you swing that thing without chopping the horns off your shoulders?





-420

[Mo]

As with everything in life....practice makes perfect!

[Mo]

Updated.

[Mo]

Thinking of swapping out Boon Of Bul-Kathos for Relentless.  While 30 seconds faster cooldown on two of my most powerful skills is nice, Relentless seems like it can really improve survivability at the cost of a little more patience required for Earthquake and Berserker...

[420]

Thinking of swapping out Boon Of Bul-Kathos for Relentless.  While 30 seconds faster cooldown on two of my most powerful skills is nice, Relentless seems like it can really improve survivability at the cost of a little more patience required for Earthquake and Berserker...

Could be good idea. I only suggested that Throbble use Boon Of Bul-Kathos because her barb is crazy enough to use all 3 Rage skills and the reduced cooldown means she can almost always have at least one of them active.

I've never tried Relentless but it seems similar to the Divine Protection rune for the Monk's Mantra of Evasion which my second Monk build uses. And that skill has saved both me and other players from dying on a number of occasions. In fact, I'd like to see how well those two skills compliment one another. We'll have to test it out.

-420