1h/Shield WW build (did not found. exists even?)

[:1]Hi.

I was thinking about making a Barbarian with an 1h sowrd and a shield for LoD HC Ladder. My aim is to be a living wall, a character what can join to a Hell game and dont have to ask if the town portal is safe or not, cuz it doesn't really matter for him. I read the barbarian builds and guides sticky, but there aren't any 1h/Shield WW build suggestions and I'm a bit scared. Is this really that bad?

I want to support my sorc friend during area MFing. As a caster+meele team we would go through AT and Pit runs with me hitting the bad guys, while he casting. For this (and because of the fact that I played a sorc myself, and I really need some hard action face to face) I want to make a barbarian who can stand still in hell without risking his life in most of the situations. Shield (75% block to be precise) is obvious for achieving that goal.

Please tell me if I'm thinking something wrong, and you even can tell me your experiences about playing hell with a 1h/shield WW bard. How easily (hardly) he survives, what to keep in mind, ect. I dont even know where to put points now after BO and WW are maxed. What should be my single target attack? I've read a WW/Conc build, but I have read many bad things about concecrate also. I'm not even sure, that WW is the way to go and not a zerker barbarian, for my purposes.

So basically, anything according to a survivability based (block capped, hihd defense) barbar is welcome.|||Hi. Often times you can look at that sort of build as a serious tank. Since barbs already have high life with BO, and a nice natural resist and defensive bonus, adding a shield boosts protection to greater heights. With the ability to block up to 75% and a possible huge resist boost, you can tank just about everything.

BUT... This weakens your potential killing by a lot, I'd say at least 1/2. This can and does at times pose a problem if you are really low on wealth and can't get a good weapon. You may be fine for awhile, but once you get to hell you could have big problems killing effectively.

On the positive side you can always swap the shield out for a second weapon, but you will have lower life too as you would have spent a lot on dex for max block.

I personally have build a lot of bvb type barbs which are normally shielded. I find them fine for pvm use and fun, but less effective then dual wielding.|||I coun ton my sorc mate doing the killing with the insane blizzard dmg due to the extremely good runewords for casters with low runes. Being able to stand the hits is a bit more important then doing the killing itself. By the time we can get enough high runes and items for me to be pimped i'll be fine

The thing I need to figure out is what way to go. WW/Conc, WW/Zerk, Zerk only... i dont really know. WW/Conc is my choiche right now, but it can change with your advices.

How effective is dmg reduce%? Is it worth sacrificeing a high runeword fro shaftstop for e.g?|||Dr is caped while PDR isnt.

Battle cry and a high PDR makes you VERY tanky.

Theres a PDR barb guide in the stickies but that was very gear intensive IIRC.

Edit

Just noticed youre making a HC toon.

I totaly agree with max block then|||I found that guide and that was interesting. Seeing the guys standing in hell in front of gazillions of enemies and being just fine is my idea with my actual barb Although with a sorceress backup I dont really care about killing a bit slow or being this strict on the gearing.

I'm not really sure I know how this reduction thing is working so a little help on that could come handy.|||Well, if you can afford it, a good setup for 1h/ww is a grief/stormshield. Hop in ravenfrost/thundergod/hotspur for taking elemental damage and you become practically invincible

For maximum style points you should use

- crown of ages (1 sock is enough and cheap)

- grief on a zweihander (swords give max style pts)

- forty/enigma on a wirefleece

Very good looking and very sturdy on the field. You can also put an eld rune on the shield for lowering dex requirements.

As to the build, there's really not much to it. Max ww, sword mast, battle orders, shout. Just don't die too soon |||So if i'm rigth the damage mitigation line is the following:

defense- block % - (cry?) - PDR -DR?

So if... let's say there is a type of monster with an attack of 200 dmg. If 10 of them attacks me 10 times that's 20.000 dmg (100 hits total). BUT my defense rating make them miss ~50% of the time. So that is only 10.000 dmg I take BUT from that 50 hits what can go trough my defense rating only 75% of them will be successfull so I only take 13 hits wich is 2600 dmg. (1950 if i cried). After this comes the PDR which is let's say 20 (this amount cant be hard to aciheve even without focusing on it) so the dmg I take is 13x180 ( or 13x130 if I cried [i need confirmation on this. so Battle Cry comes in calculation before the PDR or after?) and after the dmg left over will be mitigated with my 30% dr on the stormshield so 13x126 dmg I take total wich is 1680 during from 20.000. My calculations are correct? (I haven't calculated final dmg with battle cry because I'm not sure how it works, but would it be 1183 dmg in total?)

I have some question regarding this topic. What FBR does exactly? Lowers the frame to block? So if I block at 75% but I get 10 hits at the same time (theoretically) how many of that 10 hits can I block? only 1 of them? Or if I get 5 hits in a 1 sec period (24f) time I can only block as much as my FBR allows? (9% FBR = 6f Block = maximum of 4 blocks/sec; 42% FBR = 4f block = maximum of 6 blocks/sec?)

Edit

As I looked up in the arreat summit page, there arent really monsters (without mondifications) what can hit that much even on hell so the result is theoretical. Although it would be good to know where to test my barbarian in game? what monsters hits the biggest dmg on hell?|||Reducing physical damage:

Damage reduce % is very important e.g. Shaftstop/Stormshield/String of ears/etc.

The cap is 50% DR.

Shield block is capped at 75%, and it drops down to 25% while running, so make sure you are walking if you are in a tough area.

If both of these statistics are capped you will be fine when it comes to physical damage.

Reducing elemental damage:

Items that absorb elemental % such as ravenfrost are very important, and reduce a huge amount of damage. Try to get as much as you can.

Items that increase the maximum resistance above 75, such as thundergods valor, are also very important.

If you can get over 75 resist and elemental absorb % for an element or two, and you will be fine when it comes to elemental.|||My gear set is starting to form... the onl thing I dont know is how I'm gonna get max resist in Hell Nearly any of the wishlist items give them|||Yes griefz/ss barbs are the best choice for hc for more survivability. I would agree with that part having 50% dr and 75% block when it comes to hc. My opinion is go for it.