Changing barb set-up for trav-running.

Sup y'all. First, I want to say thank you to everyone that contributed to the threads I made before this about the development of this barbarian. I Guardian'd him on SPHC !! 2 days ago. I made a thread about in the SPF, 'Guardian TheGeneral*'. Very very happy about that and how the IK gear worked out for me.

I had a lot of good luck with this barb, found Jah rune, Lo rune, Ormus robes, etc. Now I want to take him to the next level. Right now he's using full IK-set with Highlords Wrath ammy, Ravenfrosts rings/sometimes dwarf star for running trav or crafted leech ring for general leveling. He's level 87 now.

I just made a huge trade. I traded the Jah for a bunch of stuff for other characters, and I should have thought of this, but I didn't so oh well. But, I'm thinking about changing him up like this:

--Grief Phase Blade or Beserker Axe (I prefer phase blade appearance and style, but any comments/advice on this choice would be great)

--Stormshield (I only have one Lo and neither pul or um to make an oath right now, although I guess eventually I'll dual-weild.

--Arreats Face instead of IK Helm.

Now that leaves me with IK armor, gloves, boots, belt. Giving: 40 fire resists, 40 cold resists. If I keep the IK helm instead of switching to arreats, it gives me:

10% mana leech from the gloves,

40% lightning resists set bonus on the armor

85% MF on the helm

Dropping the Maul I lose 50% +all resists from total set bonus, and 3 skill levels, but Um'd Stormshield gives 22% Fire Resist, 82% Cold Resist, 47% Lightning Resists, 22% Poison Resists.

If I added arreats I'd add another 30% resist all. However, I would lose the mana leech on the gloves, which is my main concern.

What do you guys think about that set up as WW-trav runner?

Grief phase/BA

Um'd SS (35% DR)

IK Armor/Glove/Boot/Belt (20% DR = 55% DR)

Arreats (30% resist all, ll, big bonus to AR, and FHR).

Think that's viable? Someone on my last thread said a one-handed grief would do way more damage than IK Maul. Well, now's my opportunity to try it! I'm kind of pumped!

BTW, I'd hope eventually to switch to dual grief's and drop the SS maybe.

Thanks for any advice. And any thoughts on how this build would fair elsewhere in the game... Chaos Sanctuary, WSK, etc.



*EDIT*

I'm a huge dumbass, apparently. LOL. God damn you sleep-deprivation. Ok, I clearly can't use the SS on my barb, because I got it traded from a SC player and I'm a HC player. I don't have the arreats yet. NONE OF THESE ITEMS THAT I SPOKE OF, HAVE I PUT ON, OR USED ON MY BARB YET. SO NO, I HAVE NOT BEEN CONTAMINATED. Just clearing that up. I'm glad I type/plan these things out before I actually do them.

Instead of SS, I'd be using Gerke's Sanctuary, which I found in HC with my barb earlier today.

EDIT AGAIN

Ok, I might be getting a HC SS from a friend on here, and a HC arreats.|||Also, assuming I am getting a HC arreat's, which it looks like I am.. do you think it would be a good idea to socket it with my Ruby Jewel +40%ed.? Would that be beneficial enough to warrant using the socket quest, the jewel, and not use the socket for anything else?

Since I'll be starting with 1h grief, I don't really understand how Grief works. Where does the damage come from? I know there's +dmg to demons, but how does the Venom mod. work? I heard something about 'charging it up' ? If someone would explain that to me I would really appreciate it, because I know everyone talks about it being the best PvM weapon, but I don't see it because I don't understand how all the mods work.|||Code:

Grief

35% Chance To Cast Level 15 Venom On Striking
+30-40% Increased Attack Speed (varies)
Damage +340-400 (varies)
Ignore Target's Defense
-25% Target Defense
+(1.875 per character level) 1.875-185.625% Damage To Demons (Based on Character Level) 
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
-20-25% To Enemy Poison Resistance (varies)
20% Deadly Strike
Prevent Monster Heal
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
+10-15 Life After Each Kill (varies)

The +damage is what makes Grief good. Don't worry about Venom. For Council, as long as you have Fire Resist, Lightning Resist, and some DR% you should be fine. WW barbs make good mfers. I like the Pits just because it is a pretty easy area, but wherever you like to run you should do fine.

I wouldn't put an ed jewel in the Arreats. Something to do with math, etc etc, it just doesn't add as much damage as it should. Something with resists or life would probably be better.|||You want to run travs then I suggest you to wear a dwarf star for fire sorb and gold find.