GS Crafting Advice for Barb

[SylvanPhoenix]

So I'm starting to do Vale quests now and I'm planning out what I can do for GS crafting. I've looked things up and have somewhat of a sense about this but I wanted to get your advice on what's best for my 18th lvl DPS THF horc barb build.

Here are the 3-4 things I've gathered I should be building:

1. 45 HP goggles
2. double positive maul
3. MinII greataxe/greatsword
4. LitII greataxe/greatsword

I've read up on what's involved and realize this will be a serious grind to get all this. One of my guildies estimated a tier 3 item will take ~15 runs of Shroud to complete. Either way it seems like a pretty long haul to build even half this list. I don't mind grinding it out but it's going to take a while and I'll definitely hit 20th level and be doing epic runs with my guild before this is all complete.

So with that in mind, what do you propose I build and in what order?

If I can only build one of the tier 3 weapons which should it be?

Also, would it be worth building all of them to tier 2 then work on tier 3?

On the goggles, I see recommendations for triple earth as well as conc-opp.

My understanding is that's these are the triple earth:

Tier 1: Earth/Escalation/Material: +10 HP, +1 CON
Tier 2: Earth/Escalation/Material: +15 HP, +2 CON
Tier 3: Earth/Escalation/Material: +20 HP, +3 CON
Bonus 1: Summon Earth Elemental
Bonus 2: Earthgrab Guard

While these are conc-opp:

Tier 1 - Negative/Escalation/Material: +10 HP, +1 Str Skills
Tier 2 - Positive/Escalation/Material: +15 HP, +2 Con Skills
Tier 3 - Positive + Negative/Escalation/Material: +20 HP, +3 Con Skills
Bonus 1: Diplomacy +10, Haggle +10, Wisdom +6
Bonus 2: Concordant Opposition - On hit 4% chance to restore 30 HP or 22-32 sp

There seems to be more of a lean towards triple earth. Also, isn't it a bit cheaper since conc-opp has a dual shard?

Finally, for my tier 3 weapon, should I go with greataxe or greatsword? I happily wield both wasn't sure if there's a strong reason to go with one over the other.

Thanks everyone!

Cheers,
Sylvan

[rayworks]

Being a Barb, I don't think the conc-opp is really a good investment of your time and energy. I would recommend the weapon first followed by HP goggles. For the weapon, the falchion is generally accepted as "better" than the greatsword or greataxe due to its better crit profile.

[grayham]

Hello,

Please note this is from the perspective of saving you Large ingredients, as not everyone has 25-30 LDS hanging around...First of all I have put your priorities in a suggested order...

1. LitII greataxe/greatsword
2. 45 HP goggles
3. double positive maul
4. MinII greataxe/greatsword

Lit2 is a serious amount of fun, and a great weapon too. The traditional view was to build a Min2 first, since that's your DR breaker-but there are alternatives to that that can be acquired such as Epic Antique Greataxe or a crafted Holy Burst Good Greater Lawful Outsider Bane (?).

The goggles are certainly worth taking to Tier2, since that will bank you 30hp. On that note Conc opp is not hugely useful to a barb, best go for guards. You should also try and get a double positive maul to tier 2 as that will get you a raise dead clicky, which is a must in many peoples eyes, including mine.
It's not such a huge deal to try and get this one up to tier 3 as there are alternatives for an 'undead beater' that are not Large ingredients intensive, such as fury of the flame (epic/non epic) from the new quests and the Level 20 Mournlode maul from the Cannith challenges.

Hope that helps!

[SylvanPhoenix]

Thanks for the responses.

I do already have one DR breaker and can acquire more. I have a +4 holy silver greatsword of evil outside bane. I had it made for me when I was 15th lvl. I do appreciate other suggestions for reasonable weapons to go after beyond GS grinding.

For Lit2, is this the recipe?

Tier 1: Holy (Positive/Dominion/Material): +2d6 positive damage versus evil creatures
Tier 2: Shocking Burst (Air/Dominion/Material): +1d6 electric damage, extra electric damage on crits
Tier 3: Shock Blast (Air/Dominion/Material) + (Positive/Dominion/Material): extra electric damage on crits, +4d6 damage on natural 20s
Bonus 1: Lightning I - Chain Lightning 2/day (CL 16)
Bonus 2: Lightning II - Lightning Strike: 2.5% chance to inflict 500-750 damage

Cheers,
Sylvan

[Doomcrew]

If you' already have a DR breaker, don't worry about the Min II at all.
As for the Hp item, even a T2 item is worthwhile till you accumulate
the Larges.

[Kinerd]

Thanks for the responses.

I do already have one DR breaker and can acquire more. I have a +4 holy silver greatsword of evil outside bane. I had it made for me when I was 15th lvl. I do appreciate other suggestions for reasonable weapons to go after beyond GS grinding.

For Lit2, is this the recipe?

Tier 1: Holy (Positive/Dominion/Material): +2d6 positive damage versus evil creatures
Tier 2: Shocking Burst (Air/Dominion/Material): +1d6 electric damage, extra electric damage on crits
Tier 3: Shock Blast (Air/Dominion/Material) + (Positive/Dominion/Material): extra electric damage on crits, +4d6 damage on natural 20s
Bonus 1: Lightning I - Chain Lightning 2/day (CL 16)
Bonus 2: Lightning II - Lightning Strike: 2.5% chance to inflict 500-750 damage

Cheers,
Sylvan

That is the recipe. For the specific stats, see ddowiki.com.

15 runs is a little liberal of an estimate in my opinion, especially for a dual shard weapon. I would go:

1. double positive
2. lit 2
3. hp goggles
never. min 2

Reasoning: As a barbarian, your character is really good at having HP and reasonably good at doing DPS. They are probably pretty poor at raising people from the dead, so double positive.

[willox2112]

Thanks for the responses.


Tier 1: Holy (Positive/Dominion/Material): +2d6 positive damage versus evil creatures
Tier 2: Shocking Burst (Air/Dominion/Material): +1d6 electric damage, extra electric damage on crits
Tier 3: Shock Blast (Air/Dominion/Material) + (Positive/Dominion/Material): extra electric damage on crits, +4d6 damage on natural 20s
Bonus 1: Lightning I - Chain Lightning 2/day (CL 16)
Bonus 2: Lightning II - Lightning Strike: 2.5% chance to inflict 500-750 damage

I have a LitII heavy repeater and the above is the recipe I followed. Now, I was wondering if doing:

Tier 1. Shock (+1d6 electric)
Tier 2. Good burst (+1d6 Good, xtra damage on crits)
Tier 3. Shock Blast (Air) + (Positive)

would be a better option. Holy only does damage to evil creatures, while Good Blast damages all 'non-good' creatures. This includes obviously neutral alignments, like beasts, elementals, etc. that Holy does nothing against. You lose 1d6 of good damage vs. evil, but the extra damage on crits is very good... plus you still benefit from having a good aligned weapon. Can anyone comment?

[mroks28]

1. Lit II Falchion
2. Triple Air 45 HP- More Dex skills than con skills ie- Balance and Tumble or as an alternate you could go Triple Positive 45 HP- Cha skills like intimidate, haggle, and UMD if you use it.
3. X3 Positive Maul- the triple positive maul is still considered the best Blunt Undead beater.

[HungarianRhapsody]

My advice - when you make your Pos/Pos/Pos Maul (if THF) or Warhammer (if TWF), put 30% healing amp on the third tier.

Holy is 2d6 per hit
Good Burst is 1d6 + nothing on a 20 since you already killed the undead
Good Blasts is nothing on a 20 since you already killed it + another nothing on a 20 since it's already dead.

You might as well just stick with Holy + Good Burst + 30% healing amp since the healing amp will actually do you some good.

[Matuse]

No reason to stop at double positive. Go triple. The undead smashiness is waaaaay higher.

[smithj_2020]

My barb GS items and order:
MIN II GA
45 HP goggles ( I mean you are always thing and should have descent HP already)
Triple Positive Maul

[Cognoscentus]

/snip

My understanding is that's these are the triple earth:

Tier 1: Earth/Escalation/Material: +10 HP, +1 CON
Tier 2: Earth/Escalation/Material: +15 HP, +2 CON
Tier 3: Earth/Escalation/Material: +20 HP, +3 CON
Bonus 1: Summon Earth Elemental
Bonus 2: Earthgrab Guard

fyi: you get +1/+2/+3 to con skills (i.e. concentration) not con stat.

[haku-ba]

My Barb has Min II GAxe, Lit II GAxe, Lit II Falchion, Tripple Pos Maul and a Triple Earth Cloak.

I never use the Lit II GAxe. I rarely use the Min II GAxe. I almost always used the Lit II Falchion and the Triple Pos Maul is absolutely awesome for TR runs. The earth cloak (or whatever) is nice and cheap to make, and the earth ellie clickie is also nice for TR runs.

My advice would be to make a Lit II Falchion first, as it crits pretty much 1 in 4 swings, then the hp item, with an earth one being cheaper. Go for a Triple Pos Maul before you TR or if you are running a lot of undead epics/abbots.

Once you get an eSOS you won't worry about GS weapons again pretty much until you TR.

With Arti's around these days LitII can break DR, so not a lot of point to make Min II stuff on weapons.

[Partydeluxe]

I use this crafting planner as it lets you combine and choose options real easy:
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~delalle...roud/index.php

What I usually make for my melee toons is LitII weaponry and a Haste Guard 45HP item. The haste guard is very nice to have and it's got 3x 1,5min haste clickies AND it's only one shard with 2 scales.

After that you are able to enter easier epics and hold your own just fine which means you can go run epic snitch and big-top for you Epic Antique Greataxe.

[cdr]

MinII is pretty much completely obsolete. Not worth the larges.

You don't need it while leveling, and at 20 you have the AGA (and cannith crafting if you have a crafter for +5 Holy Burst Metal of Greater X Bane). If you're having someone craft for you, +4 or +5 Holy of X Bane is ML13 or 15 and the only one you need (for doing shrouds at 17-19) is Holy Sliver of Evil Outisder Bane. Crafted out-DPSes MinII (and personal crafted greatly so); MinII is pretty sucky DPS really.

[Lonnbeimnech]

I have a LitII heavy repeater and the above is the recipe I followed. Now, I was wondering if doing:

Tier 1. Shock (+1d6 electric)
Tier 2. Good burst (+1d6 Good, xtra damage on crits)
Tier 3. Shock Blast (Air) + (Positive)

would be a better option. Holy only does damage to evil creatures, while Good Blast damages all 'non-good' creatures. This includes obviously neutral alignments, like beasts, elementals, etc. that Holy does nothing against. You lose 1d6 of good damage vs. evil, but the extra damage on crits is very good... plus you still benefit from having a good aligned weapon. Can anyone comment?

For me the litII is a general purpose weapon that I use probably 90-95% of the time, so I went with the type you mentioned. IIRC it does about 3 points less damage on evil mobs and about 12 more against neutral ones than the holy shock shock variety.

[Crann]

MinII is pretty much completely obsolete. Not worth the larges.

You don't need it while leveling, and at 20 you have the AGA (and cannith crafting if you have a crafter for +5 Holy Burst Metal of Greater X Bane). If you're having someone craft for you, +4 or +5 Holy of X Bane is ML13 or 15 and the only one you need (for doing shrouds at 17-19) is Holy Sliver of Evil Outisder Bane. Crafted out-DPSes MinII (and personal crafted greatly so); MinII is pretty sucky DPS really.

This.

See way too many people still recommending MinII's these days, let alone actually using them.

It is very easy to get far better DR breakers/boss beaters.

For a Barb...I'd get 3x Pos Maul first...no question about it, you need to be able to raise someone when things become pearshaped.

[Phemt81]

Barbarians need more hp?

[Kinerd]

I have a LitII heavy repeater and the above is the recipe I followed. Now, I was wondering if doing:

Tier 1. Shock (+1d6 electric)
Tier 2. Good burst (+1d6 Good, xtra damage on crits)
Tier 3. Shock Blast (Air) + (Positive)

would be a better option. Holy only does damage to evil creatures, while Good Blast damages all 'non-good' creatures. This includes obviously neutral alignments, like beasts, elementals, etc. that Holy does nothing against. You lose 1d6 of good damage vs. evil, but the extra damage on crits is very good... plus you still benefit from having a good aligned weapon. Can anyone comment?

The way I look at it is this... what is the (rough) breakdown of enemy alignments that I care about and would use a lit 2 against (so golems/constructs don't count)? I put it at about:

75% evil
20% neutral
5% good

Against evil, good/elec is +3.5 on hit, -5 / -3 / -1 on crit for x2 / x3 / x4 weapons, overall +36.5 for a fal/scim/rapier, +54.5 for a khopesh.
Against neutral, elec/good is +3.5 on hit, +5 / +3 / +1 on crit, overall +96.5 for fal/scim/rapier, +78.5 for khopesh.
Against good, good/elec is +0 on hit, +5.5 / +11 / + 16.5 on crit, overall +33 for f/s/r, +44 for khopesh.

All told, then, the good/elec is...
.75 * 36.5 - .2 * 96.5 + .05 * 33 = +9.725
.75 * 54.5 - .2 * 78.5 + .05 * 44 = +27.375

So I would go good/elec.