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I was planning on making a sword whirlwind barb. How should i place my stat and skill points? (Numerical value please, without added bonuses) How should my stats look by level 30 and by level 99.

I was planning of maxing ww, sword mastery, battle orders, iron skin, and not sure what else.

In addition do you have to place skill points on the prerequisite of a skill in order to get that skill or will it still count if you have an item that gives you that skill?

There are several variations of the WW-barb, but all basic builds use:

max Whirlwind
max Battle Orders
max Shout
max Weapon mastery (sword in your case)

That means you are lvl 83 when you have finished the main build. You must have at least 1 point in Berserk for the physical immunes, so let's say 84 then. You should also have 1 point in Natural resist, that makes you lvl 85.

Then you need:
1 Berserk
1 Natural resists

Now, you can put remaing points in Iron skin, Berserk or Concentrate. Or you can develop your warcries, 1 Battle commands, Howl,Taunt, Battle cry and Warcry. You can also put several points in Warcry so you can stun monsters before WW:ing on them.

Another option is to put more points in Natural resists and thus free up slots and sockets in your equipment and focus on increasing your damage instead.

For stat points, there are also several variations, most common is:
STR - enough to use your equipment
DEX - max block if you use shield, if not, enough to use your weapon of choice
VITA- everything else
ENERGY - base

A variation is the build called "Titan", that puts a lot of points in STR in order to maximise his damage. For this build you probably need items and small charms with vita, items wit damage reduction and you also need to take advantage of your Warcries in combat.

Good luck!

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot.

[quote="Barbarian]In addition do you have to place skill points on the prerequisite of a skill in order to get that skill or will it still count if you have an item that gives you that skill?[/quote"]

Yes. If you have a skill only on an item, you cannot use it as prereq, you must put at least 1 "real" point in it.

C Elegans suggestion is ideal for a BvB (Barbarian vs. Barbarian), just add a single point in increased speed.
If you are looking for a BvC (Barb vs. Caster), you should dual-wield, and replace max Shout with max Leap (not attack). But usually you will need an Enigma for PvP (should you want to). Since you dual-wield, you should also have base Dexterity.

[quote="CE]

Now"]

I have to disagree with CE here. I suggest placing a point in Battle Cry, Howl, Grim Ward and especially Taunt as quickly as possible, instead of waiting till you max your main skills. Every class (except the sorceress) needs some ways of managing the masses, breaking up large packs of strong monsters in small, manageable clusters. Warcries are very effective to do this: send monsters fleeing with Howl (or Grim Ward in the later stages of the game), taunt summoners and ranged attackers to you, and use Battle Cry to improve your to-hit chance against bosses and uniques. It takes some quick hotkey-fingers to use your warcries effectively, but once you get used to that you can't imagine life without them

PS: when WW'ing, always skirt the outside edge of monster packs. You don't want to get caught in the middle of a pack of fanatic Frenzytaurs while WW 'ing, especially if you're playing HC. That's why you should also put one point in Leap or Leap Attack: when surrounded, you can easily escape using Leap (hotkey it!). It's also useful in multiplayer: when you see that your necromancer or amazon teammate is being overwhelmed, leap into the fray and Whirlwind away.

I would have considered WW your anti-mass weapon. With this and max leap, you should fear none but Iron Maiden.

moltovir wrote:I have to disagree with CE here. I suggest placing a point in Battle Cry, Howl, Grim Ward and especially Taunt as quickly as possible, instead of waiting till you max your main skills.

I have always found Grim Ward pretty useless, but Taunt is well worth taking early.

That's why you should also put one point in Leap or Leap Attack

Both are prereq to WW.

Thanks or the info.

I am using a shield, but how do I know what the maxium block is and how much i should keep adding on dex?

Also, I was thinking about maxing battle orders, ww, sword mastery, and concentrate, should i max out iron skin or shout?

Does this look good?

@Barbarian: Max block is depending on what class you are, what block the shield has, how much dex you have and what level you are. If you equip a shield, you can see what the shield has in block. Then apply this forumla:

Total Blocking = [(Blocking * (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level * 2)]

So for instance, Stormshield gives max block with dex 222 if you are lvl 99 Barb.

You are actually making a hybrid WW/Concentration build. I never played one, but I've heard it's a very good PvM build. You will probably not be able to max Shout, but you should put all points you can spare there. One suggested skill point distribution for the WW/Conc barb is:

Max Battle Orders
Max Weapon Mastery
Max Concentrate
Max Whirlwind

1 Natural Resistance
1 Taunt
1 Battle Command
1 Iron Skin
1 Increase Stamina
1 Increase Speed
1 Leap Attack
1 Berserk

The rest in Shout.

What do you mean by PvM?

If i put a skill point on leap then leap attack then whirlwind can i go back and put a skill point on concentrate? Since concentrate is a prereq of whirlwind and since i got whirlwind going through another way?

Here is a picture of the skill trees http://www.d2items.com/skills.php

Thanks again

@Barb: PvM = player versus monsters, PvP = player versus player, ie people who duel against each other instead of against the monsters.

When there are arrows from 2 directions, like in the case with WW, that means you must put 1 point in all skills leading to your final skill. So for WW, you must put 1 point in both Bash, Stun, Concentrate, Leap and Leap attack.

a Con/ww hybrid is good. not many monsters can stand up to it. just remember to hit with Con first. if not you lose that def bonus when you ww.

Ok thx for the help

Which order should I max out my skills, I was going to max out WW then what (shout, mastery, concentrate, bo)

go with those that will power your attacks, then works on your main attacks. sure its not much power in the beginning but when you finish your main attacks you'll love it

@Barbarian: I haven't played Conc/WW barb, but I would agree with Demortis, max out WW and then everything that increases your killing speed. I would probably out a couple of points in Shout and Concentrate, then max out Mastery, then go back and continue on Concentrate, then Shout. The order is not so important, you will notice what you need as you play.

does mastery effect strength of whirlwind, thanks.

Masteries increase you damage, AR and % chance of critical hit. I will affect all you attacks, including WW.

also, should i place all my spare points on berserk or save them for like natural resistance/iron skin, (im going to get ww,mastery,shout,bo, 1 point on battle commands, concentrate)

wow that was a fast reply

@Barbarian: I happened to be online just as you posted the previous question

Regarding spare points after having maxed WW, Shout, Mastery and BO, you should put them in Concentrate I think. Or the other way around if you want to make a WW/Conc hybrid, max WW, Concentrate, Mastery and BO and put the rest in Shout.