which shards to weapon?

id say accuracy all the way but its more prefference
though you can make up for p.atack with refining

if you are a minimum dex for equips barb go for accuracy
if you are a hybird with somewhat more dex its up to you

Both above posters are wrong. You need Perfect Turquoise Shards.

How about sharding my FC poleaxe with a citrine gem? Or is amber still better for tanking weapons?

Guys would like to continue this discussion a bit.
Since my level the Dex is only 27 (for General Summer Hammers) so my Accuracy is around 220. That is low enough to miss very very much - I have 69% chances to hit on physical mobs my level.
Normally I would say that a weapon goes better with garnets as even for a tank build, any damage increase is nice. But if I would use 2 average accuracy shards that would be +100 accuracy - thus almost 30% increase from where I am standing now. 30% is more than noticeable, i think everybody will agree.

Last few days I saw a barb that wanted to avoid the accuracy hassle and did his/grind quests using Blood Bath buff constantly. At first I though that sacrificing a good deal of HP was not such a good idea, but after I have tried it for about 30 minutes I think is a viable grinding/questing option for barbs under lev 77.

So here is my dillema - What could offer a better advantage :
- Having Garnet Shards and use the Blood Bath in most cases except boss tanking when you need every little HP you can get.
- Or having Accuracy Shards that offer less Chances to Hit than the Blood Bath buff, less damage, but keep you HP intact.

Lunk_Warleg - Sanctuary wrote: »

Guys would like to continue this discussion a bit.
Since my level the Dex is only 27 (for General Summer Hammers) so my Accuracy is around 220. That is low enough to miss very very much - I have 69% chances to hit on physical mobs my level.
Normally I would say that a weapon goes better with garnets as even for a tank build, any damage increase is nice. But if I would use 2 average accuracy shards that would be +100 accuracy - thus almost 30% increase from where I am standing now. 30% is more than noticeable, i think everybody will agree.

Last few days I saw a barb that wanted to avoid the accuracy hassle and did his/grind quests using Blood Bath buff constantly. At first I though that sacrificing a good deal of HP was not such a good idea, but after I have tried it for about 30 minutes I think is a viable grinding/questing option for barbs under lev 77.

So here is my dillema - What could offer a better advantage :
- Having Garnet Shards and use the Blood Bath in most cases except boss tanking when you need every little HP you can get.
- Or having Accuracy Shards that offer less Chances to Hit than the Blood Bath buff, less damage, but keep you HP intact.

That's an interesting point.

It's my personal preference to NOT use bloodbath. The reduction in HP may or may not be worth it, I just find it useless to to an HP buff and then use BB which effectively cancels the buff to begin with.

At your level, 220 accuracy sounds very, very low. At this point you should be at around 30-35 dex, at least that's the way I built my barb. Dex is important, just not paramount until you start running TT's and tanking magic bosses...where Alacrity is used to cancel AOE castings. I think it's more effective to gradually add dex as you level, as opposed to realizing it too late and dumping a bunch of points into it later.

Accuracy shards FTW! b:victory

Lunk_Warleg - Sanctuary wrote: »

Well I followed each level requirement of weapon as far as Dex goes. I don't have any equipment that offers +Dex atm. So if 220 accuracy is very very low for my level (good to know btw) is because that is all the Dex weapons for my level required : 27 is the requirement for Gen. Summer Dual Hammers.
To make it clear - should I pump a bit of Dex ahead and leave it that way then for 10 levels or so ?

It really depends upon your goals endgame. I know it sounds lame, but you need to decide. Will you be a high vit/high hp barb that uses bloodbath in TT's/Instances (because cancelling is important) or will you sacrifice some HP for dex and not use bloodbath?

I built my toon based upon my play style: a great deal of solo grinding or grinding with a cleric. I like to do damage every time I hit a mob and I like to hit the mobs I swing at.

I would like to hear from some of the High HP/Low Dex barbs out there on this issue.

I think Garnets. Honestly, I don't really miss that often.

You could always do 1 Garnet 1 Amber, but I think it's better to just do the 2 Garnets. I don't know.

I just think Weapon = Damage, so more damage is better. You always have your Bloodbath and accuracy modifier rings if you need more.

Accuracy!!! Who cares about more damage? Ur a tank, ur job is to keep agro, not do damage, leave that to DDs. Accuracy helps u hit every hit that needs to pass to keep efficient agro.

_DarkSeph_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Accuracy with misties, not until you get them. Accuracy shards make the most of a misty ring.

If I have 2 immaculate amber shards (100 accuracy each) and add two misty rings, the bonus from each shard is being doubled (400 total)

Same with bloodbath. Multiplying rubbish accuracy by a set % is never going to be as good as multiplying decent accuracy.

Could make same argument for Garnets and Strength of Titan.

Since first posting and having some questions in this thread I have undergone some testing.I won't go into numbers or anything and it is not about numbers too much anyway.

I am used to play as archer so for me garnets and all damage dealing bonuses are most important. That is why at first I thought that garnets go well on barbs too, even it is just a small attack bonus.

Well for what is worth, now I came to the conclusion that for low - mid level barbs ( I can't talk for high lev for now) amber shards are far more important.
From PvE point of view garnets have no real purpose as barbs are not there to deal damage (we keep the discussion simple in the classic tone), they are there to tank. Tank means that besides Fleash Ream, there are some other important skills that you need be sure you won't miss (or miss less at least). Missing on once an Alacrity of the Beast is one thing, but, if it happens twice and 3rd time you just don't get to synchronize, then you have a problem at any AoE boss and some squad members will have their HP chopped off.
On the other hand the attribute that enhances barb's physical attack is STR. But you won't have great deal of STR, since you need your VIT up to par also. An archer has full support of his attribute when increasing his physical damage, because he can use 4 DEX for each level (DEX is archer's ph. attack enhancer) where a barb will add only 3 STR each level.

From PvP point of view (TW not included for now), again accuracy prevails because you simply won't have a shot at any DEX based class. So you have archers, blademasters and assassins that will evade a great deal of your hits even with Bloodbath buff.

Jibreel - Harshlands wrote: »

phy dmg or HP
accuracy? dont need it if your tanking coz you got FR. if you PVP, just do bloodbath if your accuracy is that bad

yeah go read this thread and you will read about other important tanking skils seeing your lvl and your previous post you obviously have 0 experience in tanking TTs as barb
get some real experience in mid/high lvl tanking and post again after that please

b:cry

Uh god NUUUU! Solution to barbs acuracy problem is EASY.

Get your Dex to cap EARLY in the game.
At low lvls you DONT have to tank bosses etc so getting your Dex to cap fast is NOT a problem. You can focus on Vitality after that, and it will make your life A LOT easier!

STILL, if you go by full vitality build, always shard your weapon with accuracy shards unless you like abusing bloodbath.
(b:quiet no barb likes to see his HP pool 15% lower)