Disclaimer: I realize this blog post will probably sound like a bunch of whining and moaning, but don't get me wrong: I fucking love Diablo III. I realize it's a game about grinding, loot, and banging your head at the Inferno difficulty. However, since my head is getting fucking sore from all the banging I'd like to get some feedback on where things are going wrong for me.

Right now I can pretty much faceroll all the way through Act 1 on Inferno. Hell, earlier today I was chasing a Treasure Goblin halfway through the dungeon just before the Butcher, and after killing the Goblin I had zero issues with the 200+ mobs that had followed me including two elite groups. I then continue to kill the Butcher in under 30 seconds. Clearly I'm heavily outgearing the place, which is also obvious by the loot I'm getting. Hell, most of the loot is for levels 51-57. It's just not getting me anywhere, except money, at this point.

So naturally I'm thinking the next step should be Act 2. I've heard the horror stories, I've peeked inside a few times in there earlier, but this is seriously mindblowing. I've managed to take down two elite groups while rushing from checkpoint to checkpoint, and that was after dying 10+ times and blowing everything I had on them. One important note about my gear however is that I have no one-handed weapon with +Life on Hit, and many are saying that's more or less a must for melee classes on Inferno.

I'll provide three screenshots of my stats in the following order: Unbuffed, Self-Buffed (not using long cooldowns, just shouts), and Self-Buffed + the Enchantress buffs which is my follower when playing solo.

In short, when I play alone I'm buffed with the third picture's stats constantly. This is not including cooldown buffs and "oh shit"-talents. Here's my full spec. A few notes on this spec:

• The two main offenders are clearly Battle Rage and Ruthless. However, I feel those are more or less needed to boost my DPS enough.
• The two lacking skills are clearly Threatening Shout (with Falter) and Superstition. See above reason to not having those.

What, if anything, would you personally change with my spec? Should I just sacrifice my DPS for increased survive-ability? As I see it I have the following options:

1. Grind Butcher runs for money to use on the AH, basically confirming that I need Act 3 gear to be able to do Act 2.
2. Just get a +Life on Hit weapon, it really makes a huge difference.
3. Respec in some way that will magically let me do Act 2.
4. Keep bashing my head against Act 2, I've just been unlucky with elite group traits.

I have two friends that I've been playing together with, and trying to bring them with me only makes matters worse. The mobs are a force of GODS that eventually hits enrage timers on us. So even worse is that I can't play through the Act 2 solo; I can't even play with my friends anymore.

Feedback is very appreciated, and sorry again if I come off as whiny.

Disclaimer: I realize this blog post will probably sound like a bunch of whining and moaning, but don't get me wrong: I fucking love Diablo III. I realize it's a game about grinding, loot, and banging your head at the Inferno difficulty. However, since my head is getting fucking sore from all the banging I'd like to get some feedback on where things are going wrong for me.

Right now I can pretty much faceroll all the way through Act 1 on Inferno. Hell, earlier today I was chasing a Treasure Goblin halfway through the dungeon just before the Butcher, and after killing the Goblin I had zero issues with the 200+ mobs that had followed me including two elite groups. I then continue to kill the Butcher in under 30 seconds. Clearly I'm heavily outgearing the place, which is also obvious by the loot I'm getting. Hell, most of the loot is for levels 51-57. It's just not getting me anywhere, except money, at this point.

So naturally I'm thinking the next step should be Act 2. I've heard the horror stories, I've peeked inside a few times in there earlier, but this is seriously mindblowing. I've managed to take down two elite groups while rushing from checkpoint to checkpoint, and that was after dying 10+ times and blowing everything I had on them. One important note about my gear however is that I have no one-handed weapon with +Life on Hit, and many are saying that's more or less a must for melee classes on Inferno.

I'll provide three screenshots of my stats in the following order: Unbuffed, Self-Buffed (not using long cooldowns, just shouts), and Self-Buffed + the Enchantress buffs which is my follower when playing solo.

In short, when I play alone I'm buffed with the third picture's stats constantly. This is not including cooldown buffs and "oh shit"-talents. Here's my full spec. A few notes on this spec:

• The two main offenders are clearly Battle Rage and Ruthless. However, I feel those are more or less needed to boost my DPS enough.
• The two lacking skills are clearly Threatening Shout (with Falter) and Superstition. See above reason to not having those.

What, if anything, would you personally change with my spec? Should I just sacrifice my DPS for increased survive-ability? As I see it I have the following options:

1. Grind Butcher runs for money to use on the AH, basically confirming that I need Act 3 gear to be able to do Act 2.
2. Just get a +Life on Hit weapon, it really makes a huge difference.
3. Respec in some way that will magically let me do Act 2.
4. Keep bashing my head against Act 2, I've just been unlucky with elite group traits.

I have two friends that I've been playing together with, and trying to bring them with me only makes matters worse. The mobs are a force of GODS that eventually hits enrage timers on us. So even worse is that I can't play through the Act 2 solo; I can't even play with my friends anymore.

Feedback is very appreciated, and sorry again if I come off as whiny.

I just recently broke Act 2 myself as barb, and it was getting good life on hit that really changed the game. We have somewhat similar stats, although I have quite a bit more HP than you. As for your spec I'd say changing battle rage for threatening shout is really worth it (if not mandatory). Also if you're gonna get a damage passive, why not Berserker Rage ?

Atm it really just seems that to break act 2 you need life on hit (after getting decent stats) and to break act 3 you need stormshield+justice lantern for high viable block.

My Barb's currently 5stack farming Kulle+Belial. Your biggest problem I see is that you need way more resists than you have (probably another 200-250 buffed). I didn't have nearly as much armor as you when I cleared it (and I still don't even). Had way less DPS, too. I think you should definitely drop Ruthless for Superstition. I only had somewhere between 10 and 11k DPS when I cleared it. The problem wasn't DPS, just surviving. Also, I'd argue that Leap with Iron Impact is almost mandatory and to drop Battle Rage for it. The damage mitigation from the 300% armor is significantly more than from Ignore Pain, and with it you can chain Leap -> Ignore Pain -> Leap to have about 15 seconds of HUGE damage mitigation. One more change is that you need to switch Maniac to Sidearm. Sidearm both does AOE to help clear out packs and does more damage to bosses (because the axe is guaranteed to hit them). There's really no reason to use Maniac over it. 
 
I will say that I bought a pretty good Life on Hit weapon a little over a week ago before the price inflated like crazy on them. It certainly makes a huge difference. I'll edit this post with some pictures of my gear in a bit.

• 680 DPS
• 1.46 APS
• 110 Strength
• 420 Life on Hit

@ajamafalous: This pretty much proves it's all about life on hit. Eventhough you have quite a bit more res than me you have lower overall survivability than I had when I was still having problems getting through the end of act 2 (before I bought a life on hit weapon).

I beat Act 2 with lower resists than what you have right now (highest was 600 buffed iirc), and your DPS certainly looks high enough to get through most stuff without hitting rage timer. Switch out Battle Rage for Leap + Iron Impact and Ruthless for Berzerker Rage and see if that works any better.

Here are my current stats:

I'm also in that weird space where Act 2 and Belial are pretty trivial, but Act 3 is still a goddamn wall. From the people that have cleared Act 3 and 4 with a barb, it seems like you need to spec really hard in one direction or the other. Either boost you DPS to astronomical levels and burn things down fast with WotB + EQ, or keep stacking resists, block, vit, and get a decent amount of LoH. Either way, it costs quite a bit.

@ajamafalous: This pretty much proves it's all about life on hit. Eventhough you have quite a bit more res than me you have lower overall survivability than I had when I was still having problems getting through the end of act 2 (before I bought a life on hit weapon).

@ajamafalous: @ichthy: @Ares42: Thank you all for your feedback! I'll most definitely invest in a good Life on Hit weapon, and I've already switched around my talents like you advised. For now I'm still grinding cash in Act 1 though to afford a good weapon, hopefully things will go a bit better once I have one.

@ajamafalous: 19% block with +8% modifier.

I've been playing through act 2 today on my barb and struggled a lot but have managed to kill about 50% of the elites/champs I've run into, whilst avoiding the others.

Here are my buffed stats (minus berserker rage so add 25% damage)

I use the same skills as ajamafalous (different passives though) which works great.

Your gear looks fine for act 2 except the no life on hit like others mentioned, mines kinda low but it still makes a noticeable difference. Just a shame LoH weapons are hella expensive!