Hello Barbarian fans, I just wanted to post my build considering the fact that I put a lot of effort and assessment in tuning the build along with the limitations in gear drops and AH prices.
For those of you who were like me and couldn't seem to get passed the act 1 inferno hurdle, only to learn that every act in inferno is a hurdle, then this build might help you out considering I haven't changed the build at all since I reached act1 inferno and its carried me to act4 (I haven't killed Diablo just yet).
I like to call it the "Play it safe/Hit and Run" build:
Left Click: Frenzy(Sidearm)
Right Click: Charge(Dreadnought)
Action Bar:
1) Leap (Iron Impact)
2) Ignore Pain (Iron Hide)
3) Revenge (Provocation)
4) Earthquake (Mountain's Call)
Passives: (With notes)
1) Superstition (20% damage reduction from sources other than physical... no brainer, plus a bonus +3 Fury proc)
2) Berserker's Rage/Brawler(This is your option considering how comfortable you are with your gear and mobility, but more damage is a necessity in Inferno.)
3) Boon of Bul-Kathos (I just might be the first person to recommend this, but for duration of play/ratio of encounters, it should speak for itself)
First off: The premise of the build is based on what a barbarian has historically lived up to: Leaping or charging into battle, except the nice thing about having leap and charge in the same build is the dual option of an escape route. When in combat, the idea is to reduce damage enough to stay alive while dealing enough damage to kill mobs and then bail out until your cooldowns are back. If you haven't found out by now, every barb is a dead barb in inferno with their skills on CD.
While in combat, mobs will always gravitate toward you, so using skills like Ground Stomp(Wrenching Smash) although seemingly useful, could be instant death for you in inferno since stun length is reduced and monsters are exponentially tougher. Kiting, unfortunately, is the only sure way to stay alive even as a barbarian.
Build continued after the page break..
So, the primary tool I use to stay alive is Ignore Pain: it lasts 7 seconds with Iron Hide and reduces all damage by 65% giving us a window of opportunity to deal a lot of damage. Which is where Earthquake comes into play. With an insane 2000% weapon damage in only a few seconds, its seriously underrated. The only con to Earthquake is that its stationary, so if you can't survive longer than 2 seconds even with Ignore Pain on, then obviously you're running to escape death which will lead mobs out of the AoE damage.
What I do is: leap in, getting an insane armor bonus from Iron Impact, set off my earthquake, pop ignore pain, then go to town with frenzy and Revenge as necessary.
Revenge procs more than I ever thought, and I use it at least once or twice every encounter (it especially helps on trash mobs when EQ is on CD) and sometimes with luck I can even stay there and full juve throughout an entire encounter.
Frenzy with Sidearm is a great single target attack (especially on bosses) that also pings nearby mobs in the forehead with sawblades, but you have various option with your left click to choose from.
Unfortunately for Barbarians in Inferno, everything does so much damage and has equally formidable defense and life, so you absolutely need to focus on your damage and mobility. Never did I think a barbarian had to kite through the entire end-game content.
A great tank in Diablo 3 isn't like a tank in WoW. You can have ridiculously high defenses and survive a few seconds longer, but you will NEVER kill anything, especially elites.
If you want to play the build and see where it takes you then try it out in Hell act 4 and see how it feels. Try hitting and running, utilizing your cooldowns effectively, use leap and charge to your advantage with the terrain and then pop Ignore Pain for that 7 seconds of glory tanking.
Furthermore, I've tried out the build using a 1h/Shield and also a 2h and both are pretty effective; EQ definitely maxes out with a 2h, while the 1h/Shield gives you better defensive bonuses. I would recommend getting a feel for how long you can last with ignore pain in either setup to determine which to use. Frenzy does however seem to respond better with a 2h spear vice axe/mace.
As I mentioned earlier, the build carried me to act 4, with average gear (each piece under 200k, except for the weapon) but what really got me passed the act 2 hurdle was critical % and crit damage bonus. I tried to maintain my armor, resistance, and life amounts while adding to critical % within my budget. Currently I'm at about 33% critical change with over 250% crit damage. Act 4 is no joke, and very expensive when looking for gear to ease the pain. I think I'll be farming act 2/3 safely for a while. :/ But, it will only get better with patch 1.03. Anyway, hope this helps and good luck.
