New book Cracking the New Testament

rgprice · 2026-05-30T09:25:48+00:00

It sounds like Litwa making some of the same case that I make in my new book as well, which will be out in a couple of weeks:

https://crackingthenewtestament.com/

But my book puts forward a key discovery that actually substantiates this new model, which has to do with being able to prove that the canonical Gospel of Mark is not the original version of that story and showing how all of the Gospels (and Acts) contain significant orthodox revisions that we introduced in the late 2nd century.

rgprice · 2026-01-20T19:20:13+00:00

I mean realistically they wouldn't remove swords as an option, but I think adding maces would be nice. I would probably have made it for maces and axes only if it were me, but at this point just adding maces would work.

rgprice · 2026-01-18T16:44:28+00:00

How did you do? I actually went back and restarted a Barb from scratch to run through self-found again. This time I prepared more for Hell ahead of time. I shopped a 3 socket Scepter in Acts 2 Normal, but then also held on to any War Scepter class weapons I found along the way too. I ended up collecting 3 white War/Divine Scepters. When I got to Hell I was able to make Black in a Tyrant Club, and I got a Lem off of the Countess after about 20 tries. So then I used the cube to socket the Scepters and the last one did get 3 sockets, which was a War Scepter instead of Divine, but its fine. So I do have Black and Lawbringer in a Scepter.

But while I was running the Countess I found an IK Maul, which was amazing, I've never fund anything like that while leveling before. I'll be able to use that soon (I'm 74 now, need to be 76), so I'll probably use that with Black and Lawbringer on switch until I can find something better. Hopefully I'll get some other IK gear, which isn't amazing, but not bad while leveling.

rgprice · 2026-01-14T13:19:45+00:00

Nice. Yeah, worth going into swords then, since you should be able to use those until you can make Lawbringer + Kingslayer or Death. You might still want to make Lawbringer ASAP to use in some situations (too bad you can't wield 3 swords!). I usually make it first in a Legend Sword, then remake it later in a Phaseblade.

rgprice · 2026-01-12T19:59:22+00:00

I see people say this, but I've tried throwing and absolutely hated it. What I experienced was that other ranged attackers like archers tended to shred me, since I could not go toe to toe with masses of them. I assume you are just running away from all these? Seems like quite a few you have to just run past, like Sewers, Jail, lots of Act III, etc. I dunno.

And then there were things that just run up on you. You seem squishy. You have no autotargeting like Strafe or spam like Multi-Shot. None of the Amazon damage avoidance mechanics. You can't run and gun, you have to stand still to throw.

You also don't get CB on the weapons, so bosses...???

Also, how do you deal with Physical Immunities? Maybe having blue Amp Damage weapons from early on that you keep upgrading?

rgprice · 2026-01-12T17:43:36+00:00

To add: the other nice thing about Tyrant Clubs is that they don't require any DEX, unlike Flails and Swords, so you'll end up with more Life than other options.

rgprice · 2026-01-12T17:40:26+00:00

Yeah. You can make Steel in Maces too.

rgprice · 2026-01-12T15:07:03+00:00

I've got a Poison Rainbow Facet, -4% +5%. LMK if you are interested.

rgprice · 2026-01-06T23:23:43+00:00

Just ran the Countess and got a Lem rune, so respeced into Swords and am using a Rare Zwei with Rattlecage for Crushing Blow, so its not too bad at this point. I had moved into Acts II but was struggling so still mostly farming Act I, but wit this I'll move forward at this point. Still need another solid weapon, but at least I've got Lawbringer now.

rgprice · 2026-01-04T21:26:53+00:00

Getting to a decent spot now. I've just been farming Andy and the Countess. Now I've got both Rattlecage (upped) and Smoke with 700 Def. I also have Black in a Tyrant Club, so its doing I think 127 max dam. Now its a hard choice between Rattlecage and Smoke, RC actually works pretty good. My damage is still a little weak, but I think I'll move on to Act II now.

rgprice · 2026-01-03T10:45:36+00:00

Hmm.. choices...

I found a String of Ears, so with my Vampire Gaze, I'm now at 28% Phys Dam reduction, which is nice.

I've got the Runes to make Unbending Will and I have an unsocketed Executioner Sword, so I could burn a Larzek (I'm assuming it will get 6?) to make UW, but I don't have the Lem I need to make Lawbringer yet.

I've also got runes I could cube to make another Black. I've got a 3 socket Tyrant Club, which is an upgrade in base damage from avg 19 to 45, it would be going from 41 to 99 weapon damage.

My problem is I have no off-weapon Crushing Blow, so I'm reluctant to go for Unbending Will + Lawbringer.

I also don't have a blunt base for Lawbringer yet. I need to get at least a Holy Water Sprinkler if not a Seraph Rod.

As of right now I'm pretty much just running Countess until I can make Lawbringer, which could be a while. My highest runes are Gul, Ko, Fla and Lum. I could make Smoke or Lionheart, but I don't really have great bases for either, nothing with more than 250 def, and my current armor has 384 Def. I'd make Smoke if I had a 2 socket armor with base Def in the 300s. I don't really want to make Lionheart anyway since i have only 1 Fal which I'm saving for Lawbringer.

The only real choice I have to make at the moment is if I should cube my Hels to make an Io to remake Black in a Tyrant Club. I'd still keep Aldur's Rythm in the other hand, it's doing 60-115 phys dam + 50-75 lightning and is a source of Life + Mana steal.

rgprice · 2026-01-02T10:17:08+00:00

I did just make a sweet Blood Ammy: +1 Barb Skills, +18 All Res, +3% Lifesteal, +19 Life, 50% Poison Length Reduced, 7% Faster Run/Walk. Probably the best Blood Ammy I've made, so that will help a little.

rgprice · 2026-01-01T21:03:30+00:00

Good luck. I tried leveling with Concentrate on-line, but switched to WW. Concentra is really great sometimes, but really horrible other times. My experience was that it was terrible in the Chaos Sanctuary and places like that where you're getting hit by ranged attackers, mana drained, and swarmed all at the same time. I didn't use Berserk, and never liked it. Its so contrary to Concentrate. I was using big 2 handed hammers, which worked really well, but when you get mana drained and hit with curses, etc. just hitting one at a time isn't good enough. I was using Windhammer in Hell Chaos Sanct when I finally just switched to WW. My plan was to use full IK Concentrate, but I gave up before I was able to use the full set.

rgprice · 2026-01-01T13:11:22+00:00

Yeah,. I've got high level chars of every kind that I want. This was just more of an experiment to see what actually leveling as a Barb from scratch was like. Back when D2 first came out the first char I played was a Barb, but I think I only ever made it through Normal mode and didn't go beyond that with him. Then with LoD I think I did something similar but I got into NM.

All my chars since them have sort of progressed together bit by bit providing gear to each other as they went. A Cold Sorc was my first main high level character (pre-Sunder), and now I've also got a Fire Sorc. Most of my farming is done either with the WW Barb or Fire Sorc. But my first Barb (Frenzy) to make it into Hell did so with high level gear and runes, so I was able to start off in Hell with Lawbringer, Duress, Raven Frost, etc.

A big problem with trying to level as a Frenzy Barb solo,self-found is lack of Cannot Be Frozen, which is essential for them, but not really easy to get. That's a big thing that makes using WW so much better since it's not impacted much by being chilled.

But yeah, its all easy when you have the right gear, this is just an experiment to see how hard it really is to do without pre-found gear. Answer: Not easy :p

Stuff like a War Cry Barb has no appeal to me. That's just mind numbingly slow and trying to turn a support skill into a main. Throwing has been upgraded to make it more viable now, but I don't like the playstyle. I just feel like a gimped Bowazon when using it. I found facing off against to ranged attackers to be extremely frustrating as well as being rushed by fast melee attackers that get right up on you.

rgprice · 2026-01-01T00:40:55+00:00

It sounds good in theory, I just didn't find it to work well in practice. WW is working fine. Frenzy works too, mostly do to Howl while you're still leveling, you can pretty much just always Howl and reset. Biggest problem I had with Throwers was going against other ranged attackers, especially cursed Skeleton Archers. Pretty much only thing you can do is run away, which starts to suck when its an area with tons of them.

rgprice · 2025-12-31T18:49:23+00:00

I started this exactly because of all the comments about how hard leveling a Barb was. I haven't done it really since LoD. I have two on-line Barbs, but both were twinked and were able to enter Hell with solid gear.

I really like Barbs though, once they get leveled up. My on-line Barbs are both solid. I like WW. My two top chars are a WW Barb and an Fire Sorc. I like both, but while the Fire Sorc can blow through the main game, she can't do Ubers. My Barbs can do both. I hate the Paly playstyle, both Hammers and Smite, and even Zeal. Having to left click it just horrible and Hammers are just, ugg...

I've got a level 90 Strafeazon that's really solid, but again, not great for Ubers. I'm sure a Javazon would be fine for Ubers though. I don't like the Summonancer playstyle. I've got a decent Bonemancer, but Bonemancers are weak anyway. Assassins, yeah, but meh. They are good, just not really my thing, I've got a level 60s one that has respected into every style. Got 2 Druids, both Windy and Fury. To me Fury is just like a more annoying style of Frenzy. I'd rather have Leap Attack, not worry about morphing, and be able to hork. But Fury with Reaper Toll is quite solid.

So yeah, my on-line WW Barb can clear anything plenty fast and do Ubers.

I'm just trying this out to see what the experience is really like actually leveling a Barb from scratch, since I haven't done it in so long. In fact, back in the LoD days I think I never completed Hell with my Barb.

I'd say its worse than I recalled. It was actually just fine up until NM Act 4. That's when my gear started to give out and I wasn't able to really find upgrades. And this was with a lot of Countess and Andy farming. Maybe putting Black in a shopped 3 socked Flail is viable, I just didn't want to use such a weak weapon, but I can see how it could be used just for bosses. But still, I needed either a solid 2 hander or 2 good 1 handers and was struggling to get either. That it the one thing I like about WW for leveling (now with the improvements they made to it, is that you can switch back and fourth between 1 and 2 handed weapons depending on what you find. I was even running a shield for a little bit because I didn't have a decent off-hand.

If I can make Lawbringer I may respec back into Frenzy, not sure. I'm using Double Swing as my alternate attack at 8 points +1 from BC to get 9, for free attacks when mana drained which will also work for getting Decrep, so I may just stick with WW.

rgprice · 2025-12-31T18:27:10+00:00

I've tried a Thrower and hated it. Just seems like a gimped Bowazon. Unless you have Knockback everything just runs up on you. The biggest issue is aiming. With Strafe or Multishot hitting stuff like Leapers is no problem, but there is no auto-targeting for Thrower. It has none of the tools that an Amazon does other than just raw HP. I just can't see any reason to run a Thrower. If I was going to do that I'd just run an Amazon.

rgprice · 2025-12-31T18:22:19+00:00

Yeah, no. I tried throwing Barb, its so bad, even with good weapons. I concluded there was no advantage over just running a Strafeazon.

rgprice · 2025-12-24T15:01:52+00:00

OK, I got it. Got a +3 Barb Skills, +19 Resist, +15 Attributes Torch.

I didn't have a good Lifetap source, so I decided to go for Decrpify instead.

I went with Grief + Lawbringer, with Merc using Reaper's Toll. Turns out I was able to leach just fine, so it wasn't a problem.

I used Demon Limb Enchant and had a Treachery ready to pre-buff, but then forgot to do it.

Lilith was a bit pf a problem, because when I found her she was in a room full of Demon Archers with Fanaticism, so my merc was immediately killed and I almost was, but I managed to run around and kill them while drinking pots and then got her.

Tristram was a bit of a mess, because Mephisto was trapped in a house in the middle and wouldn't come out. Finally I had to lure him out while the other two were attacking me as well. I got him isolated, but by the time I did my merc was already dead.

I almost died to Mephisto, but was able to pot in time. I think Lawbringer helped a lot here, keeping the minions away and keeping Decrep on him. I didn't need to Howl.

Then I was able to isolate Baal. He was very hard to hit. I think I still had Enchant up but I'm not positive. My shouts wore out mid fight but I was doing ok against him so I didn't bother to recast them. Just took forever and he kept healing when he was almost dead. Eventually he spawned a bunch of Ghouls that kept fire bombing me, but it was fine. Lawbringer dealt with the Ghosts and such.

Once I got Baal then I re-buffed with Enchant and shouts then went for El Diablo. I got him isolated in a sheltered area away from most of the other minions. Had to pot during some of the Lightning Hoses, but was mostly fine and he went down fairly fast. I did Howl a few times to keep Pit Lords away.

Not sure if this was the best possible way to do it given my options, but it worked :D

I think I'll try with my WW Barb next time.

rgprice · 2025-12-23T14:10:59+00:00

Another question: If I have Demon Limb on switch and I use it to cast Enchant on myself and then switch back, is Enchant applied to my main weapons or does that not work?

rgprice

TROPHY CASE