CC123: Well, Im 37 (I think) married with a 18 month old boarder Collie. My wife and I live in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. We have lived here for nearly three years having moved from Canberra where we met nearly 8 years ago.

I was in the Royal Australian Air Force for 8 years and served overseas in Malayisa for 2 years. I was there for both Tsunamis and earth quakes that hit the region in early 2005. After leaving the AirForce I joined Defence as a public servant where I discovered my passion for business improvement. I studied an MBA and moved on to several other Government Departments and became known as the “fix it guy.” In particular, with schemes that received a lot of negative notoriety in the Australian press, such as the “set top box scheme.”

In early 2012 my wife and I married in the Barossa as we both love wine and the region so we decided “hey, why don’t we live here.” My wife got a transfer with Defence to South Australia and I started my own Business Improvement consulting firm. At the same time I partnered with a software company and we specialize in non-financial ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning Systems) for medium sized companies. The concept is young, but the market is slowly getting their head around the plethora of compliance they must abide by and the use of systems that talk to each other which achieve this. My main customers at the moment are accounting firms who don’t know the first thing about Risk, HRM or KPI systems.

My wife and I love wine, I’ve recently discovered the wonderful world of port and aging port in barrels. I started with a 20 ltr and have progressed to a 300 ltr with my brother in law. We buy port in bulk (very cheap in the Barossa) and it’s amazing how well it ages from the oak in the barrel. The weather here is also suited to beer brewing so Ill be giving that a shot come summer.

CC123: Actually of late its cooking (I love doing roasts with fresh vegies) and a bit of wood working. My wife and I renovated our last house in Canberra, we tiled the house (floor and kitchen walls), I re-levelled and paved the back and front courtyards and build a pergola. In our new house I built a gate and have plans for a new pergola to grow a vine over.

CC123: My first Diablo game was Diablo 1. I still have fond memories of piling up all my gold in town, going down dungeons and discovering new upgrades. That had me hooked (was 1997 I think). Naturally I played a lot of D2 when it was around so I was especially excited when D3 came out. So I guess that’s 17 years Ive been playing Diablo. My gawd, that’s a while.

CC123: Generally I love anything strategy and am a huge ancient history fan. So Rome total war 2 was terrific and I still get on and bash out a campaign occasionally.

CC123: Negative, I have 3 barb characters and Ill be looking at a fourth or fifth, perhaps when a season kicks off with a barb legendary I’m keen to try out.

CC123: Yes, the clan is one I started called “AxeCops.” Its small, in fact 75% of its membership are family. They include my wife, both brother-in-laws and one of their wives. All play regularly. A couple of close mates I play with regularly have also joined. We called the clan Axecop as it’s a funny show we all enjoy. The clan isn’t the biggest and that’s not our aim, its family friendly first and is always the right size : )

CC123: I don’t have an exact monster, more a class really and it’s anything with lightning. Leap barbs or any barbs that like to get up close pretty much skip these on higher Grifts (I do over 32ish) as there is nothing we can do unless we have a lightning immunity amulet. Second to this, is fire chains. If the monsters don’t have these then they are fair game.

CC123: I probably have several of the same theme that go along the lines of………………………..”Hey, check out my new item, Im a beast”…..x1 jump, x2 jump……#$%t CC123 has died.” Wife/mate “ha ha, yeah, real beast.”

CC123: Probably my first Diablo kill on inferno. That took a few weeks of re attempts as a group and we all did it together. My wife, bro-in-law and his wife.

CC123: Well, having played Diablo since D1. I’ve always thought of the game as a sword’n’board hack and slash game. So I always go for the character that represents the best hack and slash melee class. The barb is particularly good at this and since 2.1, I now feel 2 handers represent this better, there big and look impressive.

CC123: Well, I’d have to say my favourite barb is a long distance dealer. Simply because we have issues with melee damage atm. Also, I play cold, so Seismic Slam is well suited to this purpose which is why I use Fury of the Vanished Peak. I think this weapon is our first truly mighty weapon since the two buffs to two handers and its great affixes (SS bonus and fury reduction for SS). Hopefully more are coming just like it for HOTA, WW etc.

CC123: Still have to be the MOTE. I’ve tried Raekors a lot recently, I just can’t stomach the motion of furious charge, perhaps it's my age but it's just too hard to keep a track of. IK set is well, please fix devs. MOTE + Cold is just so much fun especially as we can really use spenders now due to the E&M bug fix…fix, so thanks Blizzard for reverting that.

CC123: Well I call it Cold SSpam. I came up with a cold build in 2.0 and pretty much had a slower version of my current one the second day of 2.1 PTR. Been working on it ever since, and now that I have worked a faster sprint into it with Chilaniks chain, I’m pretty happy with it. I just need a better FOVP with vit.

CC123: Well I’ve actually given this question a lot of thought. And my answer is Idols. What do you mean by Idols I hear you say? I’ll explain.

Since D3 launched most former D2 barbs such as myself have been asking for barbs to duel wield 2 handers. Personally, I was asking as barbs don’t really have a “thing.” I.e., wizards have sources, Crusaders have 2 hander/shield, DHs have quivers, WDs have mojos, Monks have Diabos. The closest thing we have are mighty weapons but we have really only started to use one recently (FOVP). However, as we have been asking this for a couple of years now and it hasn’t happened Id say the duel wield 2 hander ship has sailed so Im happy to move on. What we do suffer from (monks may be the same) is a lack of a “thing” to both stack stats and allow the devs to come up with another spot to create legendary affixes to compliment any primary weapon/attack/build we want to use. So I propose the addition of Mt Arreat Idols.

These idols are typical small barbarian statues from MT Arreat and they were scattered throughout the world when the great mountain exploded. How they work is similar to the Templars relics. They hang of his waist but occupy the off-hand weapon spot. If we use a one hander we simply add the idol into the OH spot. If we use a 2 hander, we can occupy the OH spot if we select a passive which allows us to do so (similar to the Crusader). This in turn enables the devs to use the same method of DPS capping they did with Saders in 2.1 via the use of the passive so we only get a 10% DPS boost with a 2 hander/idol combo.

What this means is the Devs (who I think will enjoy the ability to use this stat spot more than us) can design any new affix which compliments a build/attack/weapon etc without having to shoe horn in a new shoulder, or pants. I.e., the vile wards, great idea but wouldn’t the devs prefer to put this bonus affix on an idol? Also imagine idols coming out with “SS now has a 25% chance to cast avalanche on each attack” or “WW now generates fury.” The idol also relieves the stat suffocation issue barbs have, so we can add that little bit more Crit Chance, Vitality and Cooldown reduction to name a few.

CC123: Probably have to be the butcher, just cause I like his variety and style of attacks. I can read them now but that charge of his can still hurt if you lose concentration. Plus his lines….”fresh meat.” Awesome.

CC123: “No just a hunk of salted meat”

This always makes me think of what will kill him, a Daemon or high cholesterol.

CC123: Well, I’m all for any barb that’s helpful and generally respectful on the forums. One that’s really impressed me recently is TAO. So please interview him if you’re able to. tao#1163

CC123: Tell us about yourself?

Posted by: CC12311/02/2014 09:02 PM

1. What's your first name?

Ciaran (pronounced Kieran, my mother is from Ireland so the spelling is gaelic).

Posted by: RagingKoala11/03/2014 01:10 PM

Nah, I think I posted hours after it was up. No clue why it said 5 days ago, I lurk quite often ;)

So noone was late.