What stats do you need to succeed as a Barbarian in Inferno past Act 1?

Question

I have just entered Act 2 Inferno, and I'm having a lot of trouble progressing. Everything I do ends up with me dying, and leads me to believe I may be under-geared.

What stats should I be focusing on, and how much of each do I need? I'm looking specifically in regards to soloing, but if there are differences when teaming, please note that as well.

Also, if later acts are different and should be focusing on different stats, or require more of the same stats, please specify the differences and how much is needed for those, too.

Answer 1

I am able to do Zoltan Kulle/Belial runs. While I am able to do these runs, it is not easy. When I meet difficult champion packs, I usually die several times.

My stats are (without/with warcry):

• 31.8k hp
• 18.2k dps
• 20.3% dodge
• 7.4k/8.6k armor
• 414/621 lowest resist

Skill build:

• Ignore pain(Iron hide)
• Revenge(Provocation)
• Leap attack(Iron impact)
• Warcry(Impunity)
• Frenzy(Sidearm)
• Wrath of the berserker(Insanity)

It might be more effcient against bosses to replace revenge with some other skill, but doing so reduces the speed at which you're able to kill normal monsters significantly. I previously did not use leap attack, but I feel like leap attack is basically necessary to kill Belial, because Belial basically one-shots me and I need leap strike to dodge his smashes. On Belial I use the strategy:

• When he does his two single arm smashes followed by a double arm smash combo, move aside if possible, leap away if necessary. If you leap away from the first smash, you will get some nice time two freely attack him when he makes the second and the third smash. Your goal should be to never get hit by these smashes.
• Try to anticipate when he will do his single fist smash, and leap/move away. This is more dangerous because the delay after the green circle before the hit comes is shorter. Your goal should be to never get hit by these.
• When he breathes gas, dont bother dodging, use the time to attack
• Have as a goal to only use ignore pain when he does his multiple green explosions ulti. When he ulties, don't even bother attacking. Just focus on avoiding the explosions, and use ignore pain only when you realize that you are about to get hit by an explosion.
• If you are performing optimally, you should only be getting hit by his gas breath, which is not that dangerous.

For champion/elite packs:

• Leap in & Wrath (basically simultaneously) -> Pop ignore pain as soon as you need it (delay it a few seconds if you are surviving) -> Leap once more for extra armor
• If it's a difficult pack, you might need to run around for 2 mins waiting for Wrath cooldown before engaging again
• Focus down minions first, when possible
• If there are any doors/very narrow passages, try to position yourself so that only one enemy can hit you, if possible
• If it's an insane pack (e.g. Extra health, Invulnerable minions and arcane enchanted combo on a difficult monster type), you might be better of ignoring them and running away from them

Answer 2

7-800 resists seems to be doable to make it through most of Act II currently. I would say that there are just going to be some champ/elite packs that you will not be able to clear unless you vastly outgear act2 (1000 resists, 15k dmg, 9000 armor, etc)... That's the randomness aspect.

As is mentioned in the comments, in 1.03 a big overhaul is coming to the difficulty scaling in inferno and most likely you will be able to push through Act II with your current gear. Just keep doing what you can in Act I buying good resist gear with armor and vitality, try and get at least an 800 dps one hander and a good shield. From then on just keep searching the auction house for great pieces of gear you can find in your price range. That's what this game is about at the high end.

Answer 3

you need more block, about 40% is easily doable with:

• Helm of Command
• Justice Lantern

Answer 4

As a Barbarian, I'm finding that you can have roughly 8000-9000 armour with resistances above 1000-1200 and about 14k DPS on your gear.

Look for items that have over 65-80 resistance to all plus other stats, keep your health points at around 40k. Use superstition for the additional 20% physical damage reduction.

Other skills I toggle in and out are tough as nails and the other skills adds 25 percent armor and the other 100 percent armory to your vitality base...

I'll at times switch this out with brawler and mastery for 30% plus 15% damage increase to make up for the 1.0.3 patch increased attack speed change - this gives you 45% damage increase at the cost of a small armour hit.

Stuff is going down pretty easily in solo but in a 4 player game I can't do much damage. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

I found that the easiest way to take care of act 2 was higher damage. That is up until Belial, at which point you really need around 600 in each resist and 20k DPS. Before Belial, I had around 200 in each resist and 35k BASE damage.

For elite groups I used Ignore Pain with Ignorance is Bliss. This allows you to gain a lot of health and basically withstand any amount of damage, for 5 seconds. With this, I used frenzy with maniac, Wrath of the Berserker (with damage), Leap with stun, ground stomp with stun, and finally Earthquake. Basically, you jump on any group with all of this, and they will die. There are a FEW exceptions, but, I found that the "zerg" method got me through almost anything. SOMETIMES I did have to take a few deaths to finish groups, mostly with shielding mobs.

Though, if you want to do it the other way. Please note that resists are not EVERYTHING. You need a good balance of DPS, and I highly suggest aiming for no lower than 15,000. This is WHILE still holding around 600 resist all and 30k HP.