Nonconventional Builds and the 10 Million Gold Barbarian

"We can rebuild him. We have the technology." - The Six Million Dollar Man

"We can rebuild her. We have the auction house." - Lezard talking about Genie's barbarian

It started out as a random question with no real thought behind it.

If I remember things right, it was the fourth-umpteenth Raoha run of the day, somewhere between the waypoint of Rakkis Crossing and Fields of Slaughter. It may have had something to do with the fire-chained Fallen Mongrel champions that nearly tore us apart. Or maybe it was the third Immortal King's boots we dropped on that run. Whatever it was, I absently asked my partner while spamming Blizzard, "How come you don't play your barb anymore?"

I could hear the frown on Genie's face over Skype - she started off her Diablo 3 career as a monk during the horrible days of the pre-1.04 patch, and eventually leveled a 60 of every other class. She had fun as a barb during the first few levels of paragon - it was her first time packing a heavy two hander, and she started tripping out every time she saw a 100k crit - but it quickly wore thin with the next dozen deaths. Her gear wasn't good enough to sustain decent life steal, much less build as a WW barb, and she'd read and heard how expensive it was to 'decently gear' a barbarian.

I thought about that for a bit as we kept farming. Granted, if you wanted a Mempo, a Witching Hour, and a Lacuni's with crit, str, and vit right out of the gate, you were gonna pay through the nose for it. But I've dropped a fair share of mediocre IK pieces and while those reliably sold out, they didn't sell for all that much - a couple of million each, tops. As for weapons, if you wanted to dual wield, well, sure you were going to shell out a ton. But again, the WW barb spec was off the table, and she preferred the novelty of two handed hammers and axes anyway.

Ok, I thought, I might be able to help her shop for gear at a decent budget. But what about the spec, though? I couldn't think of anything that would be helpful except for a Rend: Bloodlust-based barbarian, which would help cover the sustain issue. But while she thought Rend was okay, she wasn't a fan of it, and again, she wanted to see the big yellow crits. Then I remembered the spec I was trying out with her Witch Doctor; while there are few barbs out there who like relying on health globes, I was doing okay on mp4-5ish with crap tanking gear. Hell, I thought then, this just might work.

"Ten million gold," I said right then. "If you can spare ten mil, I can fix your barb."

It took some persuading against a healthy dose of skepticism (she knew that you could barely buy a decent crit/str/vit Lacuni for 10m) but after a couple of minutes of browsing the auction house, I was able to point out some okay deals. A few more minutes later, the deed was done.

For an easy 10 million, you too can be the proud owner of this Immortal King showcase!

We decided on completing the IK set (minus the hammer, which I personally think could use some vitality by default) because each piece gave good value considering the gold spent. The IK chest piece alone pretty much packs all the basics you need, plus 3 sockets guaranteed. The 2 set bonus makes up for any piece with lower than desired ARes (in this case, the Triumph), while the 3 set bonus is just candy. The 5 set Fury gen bonus is supposed to be somewhat buggy, but it works most of the time from what we've seen. Of course, the Skorn will consume most of your budget, but it's well worth it. Incidentally, I remembered that we could have gotten a slightly weaker one for 3-point-something mil, but since we were still well within budget we figured to get the best one we could.

The end result was spectacular - I still remember her delighted laugh when the first 1m HotA crit landed. Between her life steal and the ridiculous number of health globes that drop, her life points don't seesaw as dramatically anymore (600k+ ehp also helps). Now she plays her barbarian a LOT more than she used to - in fact, we took her barb for a spin against MP5 Ubers with no problem. Not bad for a 10m budget.

THE STATE OF PLAY: HOW CASUAL CAPITALISM WORKS

There's a lot of talk on forums and websites about how hard it is to get 'decent gear', or for that matter, the money for the gear. You look around for your Best In Slot offerings, and a half baked Mempo Of Twilight   with barely any crit runs you up to several hundred MILLION in gold. People start spending days trying to snipe thousand-gold bids that some drunk guy mistakenly posted after his last frat party, fail, and start crying on the forums about how the auction house has ruined Diablo 3.

I'm sorry, people, but it ain't that hard.

So I have spent an hour or so in a single day browsing the AH, but just because I like seeing what's on sale for any given item I've been thinking about. I'm not even talking about endgame gear like a Witching Hour or a rare quinfecta ring; just random things I'd like to try builds with, like a Dawn for a stunlock demon hunter, or a Last Breath for a CC-heavy witch doctor idea I've been having. I've got a decent feel for the market, but I've spent nowhere near enough time on it to be an expert. That's because I didn't feel like I needed to.

Now, I've heard a LOT of complaining about how playing the AH has become a necessity - I've never understood that. You don't like the AH, then don't use it. Personally, I'm happy that there's a place where I can drop good gear that I don't need. No more spamming the chat rooms in Bnet a la D2, no more of the tense circling or the click-trade-and-run tricks scammers used to pull. Praying to the gods for the EXACT drop you need isn't exactly the best way to get your gearset completed. It took my werewolf druid SEVEN years of playing before I finally dropped my BiS socketed Windhammer. If I have to pay 500 million to save myself seven years, then I'm all for it. Instead of seeing the AH as a hindrance, use it to your advantage. Take a couple minutes between runs to price check on what you're selling or what you're seeking. Don't have enough gold? Keep farming. You could spend hours glued to the screen for that perfect deal, but then don't come complaining that you don't get to actually play enough.

First Post!

Welcome to Less Than Legendary, a blog by a casual player for casual players, where I'll post my various musings, rants, tips, and ideas for all aspects of Diablo 3.