Bul-Kathos Advice Needed

[:1]My (currently) Level 69 Frenzy Barbarian is using the two swords of the Bul-Kathos set, with the Mythical Sword one on the left (e.g. the first one that he equips with... which is the one that governs IAS... right?) and the Colossus Blade on the right-hand side. This is purely because the base speed of the Mythical Sword is "0" whereas that of the Colossus Blade is "5" (e.g. the Mythical Sword is slightly faster).

Now here is my question : Although he chops things up (slice 'n dice!) real good, the animation isn't quite as fast as some Frenzy barbs that I have played. Do I need to :

(a) Shael just the Bul-Kathos Mythical Sword?

(b) Shael the Bul-Kathos Colossus Blade?

(c) Shael both of them?

N.B. He is using the IK gloves, belt, hat (+15% IAS jewel) and boots, plus a Stone Runeword armor (love the Clay Golem!) and an Atma's Scarab amulet (for Amp to deal with pesky physical immunes).

I don't want to waste one or even two socketing quests if I don't really need to... in other words I only want to do it if it's going to get me to a breakpoint or something like that (I am too lazy to do the math myself).

One other miscellaneous question for you Frenzy Barb drivers : He is SO fast when charged up that it is very difficult to control him, he rockets from side to side of the screen almost like an unguided missile... I'm kind of afraid this is going to get him into trouble one of these days. Are there any tips about how to better control a juiced-up Frenzy Barb?

It's not all bad... even when frozen he is so fast that I hardly notice it...

Cheers and thanks in advance for any advice

Mr. Bill|||Well, here's the attack speed table for your weapons:

IAS attack speed [ticks] attacks per second

0 8 3.12

3 7.5 3.33

11 7 3.57

23 6.5 3.84

40 6 4.16

68 5.5 4.54

117 5 5

Personally, I'd go with an ed/ias jewel in the mythical sword and a shael in the CB for maximum ww speed (presuming you do that, too) and flexibility. As rule, I socket all weapons on a barb. If you don't need extra speed, you get better extra damage than from any other source.|||the base weapon speed of both ur frenzy weapons is averaged and from that point only the ias on the on hand and other equip except off hand counts. so the mythical sword needs a shael and off weapon ias would help too|||If the first swing with the primary weapon was successful, IAS on the off-hand weapon does count when swinging with that weapon. I can't get to Titanseal's script at the moment so I'm not sure about the breakpoints, but if putting a Shael in one helps, then it'll help for the other weapon as well.

Because of how base WSM is calculated (it's not just averaged) Frenzy should be slightly faster if you put the slower weap (ito base weapon speed/WSM, not IAS) in the left slot. If you don't want to use both quests you could just Shael the CB and use it as the primary weap.|||quoting spankehs frenzy guide, off-hand weapon ias does not affect the attack speed


Quote:








Base Weapon Speed and IAS

Frenzy checks the base weapon speeds in each hand and averages the difference.

Then it checks for any ias on main weapon and any other ias from other non weapon gear.

It never checks any ias from off hand weapon, so equiping a weapon with 0%ias here will not penalise you.

The idea is to max your weapon swing speed to 5 attacks per second.

Another common term is 5 frame animations per attack, or 5fpa




edit: also just played around with titanseals calc. while having frenzy as the attack skill, off-hand weapon ias does not change the attack speed|||Potential Calculator Inaccuracy for Frenzy Attack Speed by Onderduiker

The info about the script is either in the Amazon Basin thread of the same name, or in a newer thread or posts by Onderduiker somewhere here.|||way too much to read. i�ll just asume u�ve done ur homework and are right |||hubb- I do understand that calcs are refutable, however, It's interesting that I never see anyone complain about slow, 0% ias off-hand weapons, Like a Death CB for example, in the 4 years since Spankeh's guide came out. Maybe that's due to other criteria like any off-weapon ias that effects the final outcome. Is there any true, easy to use calc available?|||Ye, Frenzy's SIAS, off-weapon IAS and the fact that base WSM calculation is pretty screwed up makes noticing it tough. It's not impossible that they're wrong, but I'm willing to accept it seeing as Onderduikers' tests plus Hammerman's and Titanseal's theoretical equations (mostly) show the same breakpoints. I think Titanseal is still taking a break from D2 which is why his calc isn't updated; using the script is fairly easy if you choose the 'Calculate all' option.

That being said, there still seems to be some unresolved issues, and just how much IAS on the off-hand weapon matters doesn't make a huge difference. The major reason why people haven't been bothered by Death offhand is probably because it works well despite the slightly slower attack.

Perhaps a more important fact is that the WSM calculation seems to be influenced to a great extent by (right inventory slot WSM) - (left inventory slot WSM). I.e. you can gain a lot of speed by using a Colossus Sword in your left slot and a PB in your right slot, versus the other way around or using something like 2xBA.