Diablo 3 Immortal King Set + Blade of the Warlord: The Frenzy Bash Immortal King

Source: http://coolvibe.com/2014/video-game-art-barbarian/

We have Wizards, Witch Doctors, Demon Hunters, Monks, and the addition of Crusaders in the expansion pack but still, we turn back to the Barbarians when we are seeking a more primitive way to end Diablo's realm. With so many new builds such as Raekor the Immortal build by Rhykker and WW build with Wrath of the Waste by Bluddshed, its no wonder that we are forgetting the most primal way of playing the Barbarian - bashing your way through every damn mob.

I have been focusing so much on these other builds until when I witnessed Sindro's Convention Barb which made me remembered what a "hack and slash" RPG was supposed to be. Pummel and bash through every skulls you find, destroy and wreck those squish...what better way to do that than this Frenzy Bash Immortal King.

Alright, this build might not be enough to hit up the leaderboards as compared to IK/Raekor which has been topping the charts for seasons - or might it?? - but I am sure all of us would want to try the old-school Barbarian for a bit and relive your bashing Barbarian during the Skeleton King's days *with a slight boost*.

Let us start with a short and unprofessional video I made to get you enticed to read on further:

Ok, I died halfway while fighting the boss...BUT LOOK AT HOW AWESOME IT IS. Should have totally added in my own sound effects to the video and it would be like "BAM BAM BAM". A machine gun that fires Bash. That's what this build is all about. 

This is what my current build looks like:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/nicomatata-6452/hero/78270816

The set that we will be utilising in this build would be Immortal King set, just because I have always love the Berserker mode for Barbarians. I mean, who can refuse the increased Critical Hit Chance (CHC), movement speed (MS), and attack speed (AS) coupled with an insanely violent looking character.

Head: Immortal King's Triumph; +Str; +Crit Chance; +Socket; +Vit

Torso: Immortal King's Eternal Reign; +Str; +All Resist; +Sockets; +Vit

Waist: Immortal King's Tribal Binding; some of you might ask why I don't want to go for The Undisputed Champion instead since its a Frenzy Bash build. Well, you could but I figured you'd need to sacrifice another item, which in my case its my hands, to get my set effect going. Also, the main play of this build is to just use Frenzy to get as much attack speed as possible in order to Bash like a machine gun so I didn't really see the point of having every rune effect; +Str, +All Resist, +Vit, +% life

Legs: Immortal King's Stature; this again can be replaced with Depth Diggers if you do not need that much of a fury generation. In this case, my effect of Depth Diggers is already cubed. Should you want to use Depth Diggers instead of IK's Stature, you can then try to cube Death Watch Mantle and get awesome explosions while bashing; +Str, +All Resist, +% Bash, +Socket

Feet: Immortal King's Stride; +Str, +All Resist, +Vit, +% Bash

Shoulders: Fury of the Ancients; why say no to more fury generation, with this you will have more fury to burn for your Bash to hit max damage all the time and also guaranteed a permanent Berserker; +Str, +All Resist, +Vit, +% life

Hands: Tasker and Theo; this has always been the debatable when I discuss this build, why would I want my pet to attack faster over having all the runes for Frenzy?! Simple, having all the runes for Frenzy isn't going to change the gameplay much because well, we are talking about Bash being the main skill here. Having your ancients attack 40-50% faster = more fury = more painful strikes; +Str, +Crit Dmg, +Crit Chance, +Attack Speed

Neck: Quite flexible for this, but I generally recommend amulets that can prevent one entire type of damage which in my case Countess Julia's Cameo prevents arcane damage and heals me accordingly. Alternatively, you can consider using Hellfire Amulet which gives a passive such as Superstition or Tough as Nails. Either way, you will want to reduce as much damage as possible without depressing your damage; +Str / Elemental Dmg, +Crit Dmg, +Crit Chance, +Socket

Wrist: Vambraces of Sescheron; this is a must for this build, having a % of your missing life regenerated when you cast those darn quick primary skills you have, HELL YEAH. It is my main source of survivability; +Str, +Crit Chance, +All Resist, +% Bash / Vit

Ring (1): Focus; +Str, +Crit Dmg, +Crit Chance, +Socket

Ring (2): Restraint; think this should be quite self-explanatory since I am playing on softcore, you get a permanent 100% boost to your damage since you will be just Frenzily Bashing away! Alternatively, for more toughness, you can consider going Unity instead. The other ring can either be Convention of Elements so you get the additional fire damage boost when it rolls over, or just hold a Ring of Royal Grandeur and cube an amulet that prevents another elemental damage instead, such as Mara's Kaleidoscope or The Star of Azkaranth; +Str, +Crit Dmg, +Crit Chance, +Socket

Weapon (1): Blade of the Warlord; of course, the main weapon for your insane Bash damage, this was what made me want to try this build in the first place; +Str, +% dmg, +Socket, +life per hit/life per fury/Vit

Weapon (2): Oathkeeper; the next must have in this build, the increase in attack damage is decent but the attack speed is what we are really looking for, this will make your bashing even more beastly than ever; +Str, +% dmg, +Socket, +life per hit/life per fury/Vit

Kanai's Cube:

Weapon: Bastion's Revered; up from 5 stacks to 10 stacks! More stacks = more boost to attack speed = MORE BASHES!!

Armour: Depth Diggers; well, 100% boost to your primary skills...sure you need to think about that?

Jewellery: Ring of Royal Grandeur; 1 set item down for increased flexibility in your build!

Legendary Gems:

1. Simplicity's Strength; higher Bash damage, and 4% health regeneration with each hit of primary skill, come on, I don't have to say too much to convince you.


2. Bane of the Stricken; definitely a huge boost to your damage output, but I'd suggest using Bane of the Powerful for earlier runs just to enjoy the free 20% damage from the abundance of elites.


3. Either Gogok of Swiftness for increase attack speed and dodge or Esoteric Alteration for more toughness. I'd say go for Eso in later game and Gogok to farm in earlier rifts.

Skills:

The skills I set for this beast is really quite simple, you really only just have two attacking skills but we all know Bash is the ultimate damage disher. The rest of the skills are mainly to boost your attacks and stay alive:

Active Skills:

1. Frenzy with Maniac rune is selected, this grants you 2.5% increase in your overall damage with each stack and since you have 10 stacks all the time, that makes it a free 25% increase in damage always. Add this with the primary effect of Frenzy where you gain 15% attack speed for each stack (150% for 10)...starting to see how scary you can be?


2. Bash with Pulverize rune; some might want to consider Punish rune for even greater damage but I personally prefer Pulverize not just because of how cool it looks having fire blasting out of your fist but also because it changes it to an area damage. Share the pain, I'd say!


3. Call of the Ancients with Together as One rune; of course we need these buddies for IK's damage bonus and having that rune would already reduce our damage received by a whopping 50%! 


4. Battle Rage with Maruder's Rage rune; this slot is actually quite flexible depending on how damage greedy you are. I am super greedy so I wanted this since it increases my damage by 15% with this rune, and additional 3% critical chance. Alternatively, you can go for Ignore Pain for more combat survivability or Sprint or Furious Charge for better escape and crowd control.


5. War Cry with Impunity rune; this is another good damage reduction in my opinion giving you 20% additional armour and all resist with the rune. Then again, it is extremely flexible depending on the difficulty you are aiming for.


6. Wrath of the Berserker with Insanity rune; another core for IK's set but with the rune we are talking about a 50% increase in damage here!!!!

Passive Skills:

1. Ruthless; the more you hit the enemy, the more painful it becomes...sounds good!


2. Rampage; another free 25% damage considering the amount of mobs we will be beating up.


3. Brawler; other than GR's guardian moments and uber bosses, its almost impossible to not have this free 20% damage boost.


4. Animosity; more fury generation = more fury quicker = more painful bashes! However, this is a flexible slot so you can consider Superstition or Tough as Nails or Bloodthirst for more survivability!

Paragon Points:

Core: +Movement Speed → +Str; always make sure your movement speed is maxed at 25%, suggest to purely use paragon points to add movement speed so you are able to use an additional slot to increase your toughness with your Immortal King's Stature.

Offense: +Crit Dmg → +Crit Chance → +Attack Spd → +Cooldown Reduction; you don't really need any form of reduction in cool down for this build so that will be the last. I chose Critical Damage over chance because I love a gamble while playing. Again, it is quite flexible here depending on your preferences.

Defense: +All Resist → +Life → +Armor → +Life Regen; the first is probably quite self intuitive, as for Life or Armor, that again is up to the individual. I personally prefer having more life first since that will allow me to have more meat for soaking up damage. However, some will argue that having armor does the same. Either way, since they are all in the form of '%', it would be wise to see your current stats before deciding. E.g., if your build currently has more Vitality, then adding paragon to 'Life' will grant you a greater increase in toughness and vice versa.

Utility: +Life on hit → +Area Damage; well since you'd be attacking at such an ultra-speed, you might as well make use of it to steal more life along the way so you'd be beefier. Follow this up by increasing your area damage to get occasional cleave damage and you should be good! As for resource cost reduction, I'd say its as pointless as Gold Find for this build since you'd want to burn as much fury as possible.

Gameplay: 

Now that we have all the basics up, lets talk about how you should play this build, and trust me, it looks brief but its really just that simple!

1. Activate Call of the Ancients and War Cry the minute you start a rift, this will give you enough fury to immediately activate Battle Rage. The minute you see the first crowd of mobs, activate Wrath of the Berserker. ALWAYS keep your Call of the Ancients and Wrath of the Berserker on no matter what happens. Your Ancients are your sponge for damage and I can't stress how important it is to have them up all the time! Berserker mode grants you increased movement speed to move to crowds of mobs quicker, and also provides some dodge chance along the way. Most importantly, this activates your IK's set damage bonus!


2. Stack your Frenzy to 10 stacks and by this time, your fury should be full with your Ancients busy hitting away at the same time. Bash till you are out of fury, Frenzy a little again and continue bashing away. ALWAYS keep your Frenzy at 10 stacks when you're fighting, just tap Frenzy once each time when you see the timing for the stacks disappearing and the timer will reset again. Keep hitting and hitting regardless what happens, your lifesteals from the Vambraces of Sescheron and  Simplicity's Strength should be more than enough to keep you alive if you keep hitting!!!!


3. Well, just make sure you keep repeating step 2 while keeping your Call of the Ancients and Wrath of the Berserker up throughout the entire rift and you should be good to go!

Well, that's all for my very first attempt at a Diablo 3 build write-up! Thanks for reading and please do not hesitate to drop me an email or comment should you have a better idea for this build, sharing is caring! 😎

Looking forward to the new patch, with the legendary gem Red Soul Shard after completing the pixelated Diablo I as well as the boost to the various set *looking at Wrath of the Waste*. Feel like trying a Soul Harvest Witch Doctor next though... Can't wait!