Dueling Guide v.1.01 Author: Styrofoam Version: 1.09 Page 1 Navigation I Overview II Statistics III Skills IV Equipment V Charms VI Hints & Tactics Change log: V1.01 Added the pros and cons of different set ups Added socketing advise Added Hybrid/Thrower strategies. First things first: I in no way consider myself a pro, but the Barbarian forum has several questions about Strength barbs, basically, BvB barbarians. As far as I can tell there is not a BvB dueling guide out there ? this is for dueling other barbs only a barb specialist. It will not fare well against other classes. If you are wanting to own amazons or sorceresses or necromancers then stop reading now and go to  for Darius's PvP S/S Barb Guide. Ok, now I have gotten rid of about 90% of you, to the last 10% who are still reading by no means take this advise as your BvB bible. Feel free to change whatever you see fit. Now, onto the good stuff. I: Overview BvB barbs are certainly the most powerful hitting viable PvP characters out there. They boast high damage, high leech and low life. A good point to aim for at first is 4.5k damage and 1.5k life. By no means is this the best you can have, but if you are just starting, don't be discouraged by these numbers. Bvbers are very expensive to make. In fact, if you aren't willing to spend a lot of your resources on one character, I don't suggest making a BvBer, because of the cost it takes to make them. II: Statistics Energy: Nothing. There are hardly any PvP characters I've ever put stats into energy. Mana should NOT be a problem with enough damage and leech. Vitality: (Nothing ? 50) If you can afford the top-notch charms and uber gear I'd suggest base vitality, as you will have enough life to get by. Though, for the poorer people (like myself) 50 vitality is more leeway. I know some bvbers that go to 100. I don't suggest this, because each point you put into vitality, you lose 1% damage. My current BvBer has 55 vitality and I am seeing that I have put too much into it. Dexterity: 222 at level 99 with items. 203 at level 90 is where I am suggesting. It all depends on the items you have. Again, each point you put in here is 1% less damage. Damage is king in BvB. More damage is more leech, and more leech is staying alive longer. *Note this was calculated with Stormsheild from 1.09 Strength: All the rest. 400+ with items is not uncommon by level 99. Sometimes lower levels can achieve 500. Each point is 1% damage. I can't stress this enough. Damage is king. III: Skills I will be mentioning swords, because the most common barbarian v. Barbarian subclasses uses them. However, I do realize some BvBers use Fury Berserker axe, or a cruel scourge or something of the likes. However, this is mainly geared towards the Sword wielding types. 1. Battle orders: This must be maxed. This gives you twice as much life, Mana, and on a lesser scale stamina. Without this, you won't last long enough to leech back your life, one good hit and you are history. 2. Whirlwind: This is important. It adds 8% ed per each level. It starts negative (which made me hate it when I was a n00b), but we know that Swing attacks just won't cut it in BvB. With the right sword, WW can hit a stationary target up to 6 times. Ouch. 3. Sword Mastery: This is important too. First, of all, it adds 123% ed at level 20. But more importantly is the Critical strike bug, which gets our swords 2x more damage on EACH SWING. Max this skill. 4. Shout: Why shout? A lot of people would disagree with my decision to max shout. I stand by it for BvB. Although shout is useless right now due to eth, I don't think that it will be in 1.10. If I am wrong, I am wrong, but I am not taking any chances. Shout is worth getting 20 skill points. If you choose not to max shout, then don't put any points into it (except of course the one to get Battle orders). 5. Iron Skin: Start pumping Iron skin after you get all of your other skills placed. For non-eth barbs, the defense will make it harder for you to be hit. Not to mention there isn't a lot of places for you to be adding more skill points. 6. Natural resistance: 1-5. Every now and again you will fight a barbarian with lots of elemental damage. I have 1 point in NR and I am fine. Most BvB is purely physical damage. 7. Increased speed: 1-5. There are some instances you will be fighting a Hybrid. These barbarians are incredibly fast, and you will need to catch up. But if you play public duel games, you won't find many hybrids, as they are rare outside these forums. IV: Equipment This is where the barbarian gets expensive. Weapon: There are a lot of options for the Weapon ? Again, I only mention swords, because they have a large advantage over all of the other weapons they can be cubed with three sockets. Before I go into the weapon choices a few things must be known. Whirlwind speed is based not on total IAS, but on IAS used on the weapon itself. There are points in IAS on a sword that gets you to the next Breakpoint, or a ?higher level? on your sword that allows you to hit more times. There are 2 breakpoints. The first one at -10 and the second at-35. The way this is figured is Take the speed of the sword, and subtract the Speed from it. For instance a Colossus Blade has a speed of 5. With 40% IAS you take 5 ? 40 and you get-35. This sword would hit the second Breakpoint. Further, we must mention the Eth bug. Currently, Eth is bugged so that weapons can carry defense to negatives, thus effectively having ITD (ignore targets defense) in duels. If you don't have ETH in your sword or a 08 Arreat's face, you will be at a disadvantage. With that being said, here are the swords: a) Ethereal Cruel (Elite sword) that can reach the second BP. Remember, all swords should meet the second WW breakpoint. Without the second breakpoint, you just won't hit enough. The catch with an ethereal sword is you almost always need two sockets. Good luck finding a good one. b) Cruel Colossus blade of quickness with three sockets. This is more realistic, because you can cube it. If you trade for a high Ed CCBQ with 3 sockets, be prepared for it to go ?poof? cuz they were duped a lot. c) Fury Barlog blade. Some rate this lower than a normal CCB but I don't. Fury isn't top notch because the damage is low, but it has life leech and eth. It's kinda expensive for a sub-par weapon though d) CCB. This has to hit the second breakpoint though. Sheal Sheal or 3 IAS jewels. There are other superb suffixes to go with the cruel swords. Any IAS mod can help tremendously for socketing purposes (readiness, Alacrity, swiftness and quickness). Also, Max damage mods like Butchery and Evisceration go well on a sword. But you have to remember to hit that second breakpoint, and eth rune, or 08 Arreat's Face. Shield There is only one option in my opinion. Stormsheild. What more can you ask for in a shield? High block. Cold and lightning resists, +30 strength (more damage) and the kicker 35% damage reduced. This is the most important mod on it. I don't suggest any other shield. But if you must then you have Whistan's guard or 08 Gerke's sanctuary. Armor There are only two set-ups for a barbarian I would suggest: Vampire gaze/ED armor/Storm/string; or 08 Arreat's face, Shaft, storm string. The first set up is probably the most common set up, and by far the best one. Though it's more expensive, it allows for the maximum amount of damage, while keeping 75% damage reduction. The second one is far less expensive, and thus easier to come by. This is the only real advantage to this set up, though. Not as much damage (120% less after sockets are filled). My suggestion lies with the ED armor. A) ED/Max armor. A BvBer needs all the damage he can get, thus, the ED armor is excellent. The best is a Jewelers armor of the Whale. Don't trade for one of these already jeweled, though, as they are almost all duped. B) Shaft stop: The only other armor I would recommend. 30% damage reduction is nothing to be gawked at. It also has +life. C) Lion heart armor: Not bad, but there is better. The Stats are good, and it even has some ed on it. Ed Armor is still much better. D) 08 Arkaine's valor: Okay, okay, this is VERY Duped, and really doesn't help you all that much in terms of damage, but it adds a GREAT deal of life. E) 09 Arkaine's Valor: VERY nerfed. At clvl 99 you get 49 vitality, and 2 more points to Battle order. That is a very LOW amount of life to sacrifice 120%ED and 45 max damage. Ok, now the pros and cons of each set up. There are 2 main set-ups that you will see. These are the ED/Max with Vampire gaze? and the Arreat's face with Shaftstop. Looking at each one individually and comparing the pros and cons of each. A) ED/Max + vampire gaze. This is probably the most preferred set up. It adds a LARGE amount of damage. And with the suggest 40% life leech, it leeches can leech back your entire life globe. This set up also allows for 2% more life leech than the other common set up. To see the significance of this, lets look at an example. With the above set up, lets assume we have a total of 42% life leech. (8 from gaze, 8 from string 22 from rings total, and 4 from our amulet.) We like this number. We have 1.5k Hit points, and we deal 6k WW damage. When we take into effect 75% damage reduction and the Ό PvP penalty? we deal 750 damage. We leech back 315 of it, or 21% of our total life. Without the ed/max armor; however, 6k Damage is increasingly difficult to achieve and 5k damage is still relatively high. At 40% leech of this amount, we have 250 hit points taken back? a sad 16% of your total life. The downside to this set up, though, is its cost, and the chance that something you acquire will be duped, and the rules against such armors in private play. B) Shaftstop / Arreat's rig. This is probably the most COMMONLY used set up that any barb uses. Though, I don't recommend this over the ED/Max, I recommend this setup to the newer players that cannot yet afford the ed/max set up. This is much cheaper to achieve. Instead of paying 10 or more sojs for each jewel to put into your armor, and 10 sojs for a good jewelers armor of the whale, you pay less than that for just the armor and 1 jewel. The Helm adds a small amount of damage with its +20 strength, and allows to save your stats that you would normally add to dexterity for blocking ? and put it strength instead. The +2 skills help out on battle orders for more life, and adds a whopping 42% ED from the other skills (SM and WW). The downside to this path is simple. Not enough damage. Its missing 120%ED and 45 max damage. That 120 enhances the potency of your charms, max damage on your rings, gloves, other jewels from shield and helm, and most importantly, adds a % damage that your sword has. IE: If your sword dealt 400 1h damage and you had a 100% ED armor, that armor would add 400damage + the other calculations from Max damage, minimum damage etc. With the lack of a large damage boost your leech will suffer. More damage = more leech. It won't do very much good to have 100% leech and deal only two damage. It's the same way as with this. And this lacks sufficient damage to survive. C) Other various rigs: most of these deal with 08 Arkaine's valor. Most use a ber'd 09 gaze, or an 08 gaze with 08 Arkaine's valor. There is an upside to 08 valor, and its LARGE AMOUNTS of life. This however, again is dwarfed by the lack of a sufficient amount of damage adding. The life that valor adds will only prolong your death, not prevent it. Perhaps the largest downside to the valor is finding a legit one. It's impossible to find one that won't vanish. Gloves Gloves vary from barb to barb. A) Crafted blood gloves with dual stats 6% leech. Other stats to look for are major life bonuses, Mana bonuses, and resists. The main stats though are 6% leech and dual stat. B) Immortal Kings forge. These have massive dual stats, and they are quite easy to get. Can't get more bang for the buck than IK gauntlets. C) Venom Grip Demon Hide gloves. They have 5% life leech, extra poison resist, but have poison damage. That is a downside because poison is usually frowned upon in dueling. Boots: There is only one pair of boots I can recommend. I see a lot of barbarians using Gore riders. I don't understand sometimes. Remember, you have 100% of 2 times damage in Mastery bug. Also remember they don't stack. Deadly strike is useless in 1.09. So, what boots? That is right. War travelers. With the 25 max damage on these things, you can easily add 200 ? 300 damage to your barbarian's whirlwind. Great boots. It also has dual stats, which means more damage and life. Jewelry Rings a) 11% Life leech rings with dual stats. These will definitely take a lot to get. And be sure not to get a duped one. Not too great. If you want to try and craft one, by all means, try. But it will cost you about the same b) Any other high life leech rings 8% and up. If you can't find a good 11% on, settle for a 8, 9 or 10% instead. Granted a good 10% is as rare as an 11% but you do need this leech to stay alive. c) Classic dual leech ring with +dex. Good all around rings. Not too much less leech than needed on a ring. d) Raven Frost. This generally is only needed against sorceresses and you won't be dueling them. However, if you find yourself out of ring options, use it. The AR and dex will help a lot. Amulets Well, there aren't many great choices. Highland's runs into the same problem we had with Gore riders. So that leaves us with a) Dual stat life leech or dual leech amulet. Might be tough to find one. This is what my barbarian uses. Remember, a high amount of strength and dexterity on an amulet is a good thing. b) Crafted blood amulets. These are becoming more and more popular. The stats to look for are dual leech, +Dual stats +skills and large life bonuses. Again, keep in mind that your amulet should help you in your endeavors to find max block with as little base dexterity as possible. c) Crescent moon Amulet: This has dual leech, and is very decent. It's not the best, but it's worth looking at. Helm Following the two suggested set ups here is what I am looking at. A) 08 Vampire gaze. I say 08, knowing that most are duped, but this is because without BER rune in something you won't hit max damage reduction. 8/8 dual leech is a very large bonus. 25% damage reduced is great too. B) 09 Vamp gaze. This alone won't get you max damage reduction. A BER rune in it will though. Try and aim for as much life leech as you can. 8/8 would be perfect, and you need at least 17% damage reduced in order to have max PDR. C) Arreat's Face. Resists, +skills, AR boost, faster hit recovery. These are all nice Mods. But where is the Damage reduction. You should carry 75% all the time. Belt There is only one belt I recommend, String of Ears. The 8% life leech is needed to keep you alive. For the Vampire gaze situation, you will definitely need a perfect 15% damage reduction. With shaftstop, a 10% will do fine. There is no problem. Weapon switch: On weapon switch should be 2 echoing weapons. This adds a lot of life through +6 battle orders. V: Charms Charms are what make up a lot of your damage. Optimal charms are fine small charms of vita. If you can't afford them (don't worry neither can I) then a Fine small charm will suffice. Also, a +10 damage charm with +strength will add more damage than the small charms. Charms to look out for are +10 Max / +strength charms. These add mucho damage. Any decent damage charm with a life mod (for its size is a good thing.) Fine large charms and grand charms are bad, look for Sharp ones. They add a significant amount more damage than fine charms. VI: Hints and tactics General advise I am not a great PvPer but there are a lot of things I have learned in my duels with other barbarians. First of all, you will want to walk, not run. Walking has no penalty to it, while running makes your defense zero, and drops your blocking to 25%. Use this to your advantage. If you get a barbarian to chase you in run mode, you should turn around and WW through him. Avoid WW lock. WW lock is when you click on the character with WW and you keep following them all over until you finally get to them to hit them. This isn't as dangerous against a BvB as it is against an Amazon, but it is very annoying, and could end up costing you the duel if you are dueling a hybrid or a thrower. Hit them when they are vulnerable. I know this sounds obvious, but hit them when they just come out of a whirl. If you mindlessly trade whirls, you won't really get anywhere. What you want to do is Hit him leech what you need and make sure he doesn't leech. This sounds obvious too, but mindlessly trading whirls is not too great. Hybrids and throwers Against a Hybrid or a thrower you will want to Dodge the Javelins. Make sure you don't whirl too long or you will be hit several time with javelins. Load up on faster run/walk charms and try to make them go toe to toe with you with WW. They don't deal near as much Sword damage as you do and going toe to toe is a no no for a Hybrid. Wait for him to make a mistake and hit him with his javelins out. One well-placed whirl should do enough damage to seal the match, if not end it. Remember; don't let them hit you with their javelins. Make them stay close. Don't get cocky. If you have them on the ropes, play like you are about to lose. They capitalize on mistakes better than any other class. A well placed double throw and they are right back in the game. Try and run them out of javelins if you can. Remember, You will own them in Close combat. Also, don't make mindless attempts to whirl. They will sometimes try and run you out of mana. Don't let this happen. If they decide to go toe to toe with you, toggle your walk switch right before the Whirl. You won't get the running penalty. Use as many dirty tricks as you can to coerce them to come into range. Hide in houses if you have to. Socketing Advise This is probably the most asked question on the forums. ?What should I socket in my _______? Well, I will start with the most obvious. Sword: We've already discussed the breakpoints. You will want to find your weapon speed and make the Sword hit the second breakpoint. Most commonly, Ed/Ias jewels cover this quite nicely. Other times, the sword has the IAS already on it. Lets look at the most common mistakes on swords. Mistake 1: Needless IAS. Mistake 2: Not enough IAS. On a sword with no inherent Speed mods on it, you will need to hit the breakpoint with either Shael runes, or with ed/ias jewels. To find the Base speeds of the swords go here. After the second Breakpoint is met, socket an eth rune. While you may disagree with using a bugged item, I assure you, its for your own good. Now, if you have any left over sockets, socket an ed/max damage jewel in each. This is to soak up any extra damage you can. Again, it is imperative all of these needs are met in this order on the sword. 2nd Break point, ETH, Ed/max. For all of the rest of the equipment, you will want to socket ed/max damage jewels. 40/15 is the perfect, but extremely duped, expensive, and rare. I tried to cover as much as I could think of in the revised version. I know Darius is writing a BvB guide soon, but this should hold off some of the questions we get around here until he finishes it. Any more suggestions would be appreciated. thanks. 0 Please log in to post... Please log in. Use your Diii.net Forum account. Username: Remember me? Password: Want to register?     Lost password?