Berserk provides much better buffs for party members (I love synergy), has more interesting mechanics, and is theoretically more robust against immune enemies. It's also very gear dependent. I'm afraid that I'll find myself in hell with a junk weapon barely scratching enemies or be paper thin on survival.
Fire claws has better guaranteed damage (especially as your endgame weapon is a white phase blade + socket + 6 shael runes) and survivability, but fire immune enemies could prove to be frustrating. In his awesome guide ( http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=633745 ), come back zinc mentions crushing blow and your mercenary as the tools to use on fire immunes, but CB is tough to come by on this setup. 10% blood gloves is the only guaranteed piece, the rest relies on an UM rune or one of two unique boots. Mercenaries are a slow way of dealing with enemies. I took a FC bear to about 35 and had fun, but will hell be painful with FIs?|||Quote:
This season I've decided to scratch my melee itch on a barb or druid, utilizing either berserk or fire claws.
Berserk provides much better buffs for party members (I love synergy), has more interesting mechanics, and is theoretically more robust against immune enemies. It's also very gear dependent. I'm afraid that I'll find myself in hell with a junk weapon barely scratching enemies or be paper thin on survival.
Fire claws has better guaranteed damage (especially as your endgame weapon is a white phase blade + socket + 6 shael runes) and survivability, but fire immune enemies could prove to be frustrating. In his awesome guide ( http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=633745 ), come back zinc mentions crushing blow and your mercenary as the tools to use on fire immunes, but CB is tough to come by on this setup. 10% blood gloves is the only guaranteed piece, the rest relies on an UM rune or one of two unique boots. Mercenaries are a slow way of dealing with enemies. I took a FC bear to about 35 and had fun, but will hell be painful with FIs?
I've got 2 Fireclaws Druids under my belt and so far I don't like their options in dealing with FI monsters.
Bear #1: I went with a really similar setup to that in CBZ's guide and it just didn't fit me quite right. I don't really like running away from monsters and I couldn't ever find a mercenary that was tanking and doing enough damage to handle the FIs like I wanted. Also, I didn't get a bear summon.
Though, last ladder I found a super solid and cheap mercenary setup that might have helped my mercenary be more of a killer while tanking just about anything: Tal's Mask(Sol or Shael), Griswold's Heart(SolSolSol) and either Insight or Obedience.
Bear #2: I went with a mild Fireclaws investment (40 points: Fireclaws+Firestorm), the rest went to getting a 20 point Oak, 1 pt Grizzly and the rest split among Werewolf and Fury.
This build starts out like a normal Fireclaws character, but as you reach Hell you gain access to some powerful Wolf skills.
This one was pretty cool, but I got lazy playing in groups and never bothered gearing up a decent Might mercenary, which would have given him some much needed firepower against non-FI monsters and in Werewolf form.
Oh yeah, and he used an Obedience Thresher and kicked some butt, despite it being a slow-arse weapon.
So, solve the FI problem and you're golden. Do it without using dupeword and you'll be my hero.
All of that said, if you can bear the early levels, the Berserker is a wonderful choice. He comes with a great built-in MI killer (Concentrate) and Howl is all the crowd control you'll ever need.
Any good weapon is a good weapon for a Berserker. I've used all of the elite axes, Insight staves(Elder Staff, Shillelagh are easy) or polearms (I'd stick with a Thresher, but on the cheap a CV works), Obedience Threshers are common and strong and really easy to make, Mauls (IK Maul, Windhammer, etc). It's really hard to not find a good endgame Berserker weapon.
Oh yeah, and they make awesome single-target killers. Run through some areas, Howl away the trivial units and knock down the bosses, Hork, keep running. Excellent on Countess runs, once you memorize the level layouts.
Oh yeah #2, they're ridiculously fun melee characters. Despite having the same swing animation for almost all of their skills, Blizzard made an awesome melee character when they made the Barbarian.|||Berserk it is! Trying to decide between standard build (shield, bers/shout/mastery/BO with 1-pters) and Nightfish's method (2H, BO/warcry/bers/howl with 1-pters.|||Personally, I've always found the fire claw bear to be more exciting than a zerk barbarian.
I do not know what your play style is, but I'm betting you would have more fun with the bear.|||There's time to try both! I think I'll give the WC-based berserker a shot.
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