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Budget Barb - Finalized
Budget Barbarian Guide [PvM]
Introduction:
This is a Whirly Barb built on a budget for the player that is pretty much strapped for cash (example: new players), or just for a bit of a challenge compared to a decked out runeworded character and also just wanted to stay away from the typical builds and the IK set for something different.
Take note, this is not a Gold Finder build (or MF) and you would have to add the appropriate charms for that, this is just a build that will allow you to play through Hell and survive within a set budget. Speaking of budgets, I built this character on USWL for under 180 PGems (1.5HR) excluding the 2x Shael, 2x Lem and 2x Ko runes needed for socketing the weapon and for upgrading the body armor. On USWL, you could probably pick up the listed runes here for less than 50PGems and you would have the possibility of running in to those easily from Countess and from your Hell Forge quests.
I have successfully solo'ed through all the main Hell bosses, important skill/stat side quests, the Minion's and Baal with this build. I had even took Laarz from USWL through his Hell Ancients quest twice for him. That is not to say that it is not without any challenges, mana burn chars do tend to make things difficult and will result in you downing several juvie pots or just making you leap past them.
Equipment and USWL Prices Paid:
Helm- Arreat's Face [25PGems]. 3-6% Life leech and skill bonuses.
Armor- Duriel's Shell [6PGems]. Good Resistances (better with jewel), good def bonus, up it for even better def, and can't be frozen.
Belt- String of Ears [13PGems]. 6-8% Life leech and 10-15% Damage Reduction
Gloves- Soul Drainers [3PGems]. 4-7% Life leech and you will need the 4-7% mana leech.
Boots- Low Gore Riders [20PGems]. 30% Faster Run/Walk, 10% Open Wounds, 15% Crushing Blow, 15% Deadly Strike.
Jewelry- Angelic Ring/Ammy [3PGems each]. 95 Life bonus, 10 Dexterity bonus, huge Attack Rating bonus.
Jewelry- Low Ravenfrost [5PGems]. Attack Rating bonus, Dexterity bonus, can't be frozen (redundant already on Duriel's).
Jewel- 12% All Resistances [7PGems]. Socket your Duriel's Shell at Larzuk and toss an All Resistances jewel in it for a boost.
Main Weapon- Immortal King Maul [4PGems]. Good Damage, 35-40% Crushing Blow, hit's the breakpoint with 2x Shael.
Weapon Switch- Warcry Stick [15PGems]. +3 to Warcries Tree means more life, mana and defense. Can be bought at Hell vendors if you have the patience.
Weapon Switch- Demonlimb [2PGems]. Adds roughly another 150 damage to the IK Maul when combined with your Warcry Stick usage, plus it gives a nice boost to your Attack Rating.
Torch- Low Barb Torch [30PGems]. You will need the resistances on this item and the Attributes and skill bonuses are convenient.
Merc Helm- Crown of Thieves [7PGems]. 9-12% Life Leech, good defense, 80-100% Gold Find and cheap.
Merc Armor- Shaftstop [10PGems]. 30% Damage Reduction, good defense when upgraded.
Merc Weapon- Reaper's Toll [10PGems]. 11-15% Life Leech, 33% Deadly Strike, 33% Chance to Cast Level 1 Decrepify on Striking, good damage.
All in all, your Barb can have 13-23% Life Leech, 4-7% Mana Leech, 50-55% Crushing Blow and some other very nice side mods to help keep him alive. Your merc will have 20-27% Life Leech, 30% Damage Reduction, Decrepify and Deadly Strike to help keep him alive. Not bad on a meager budget.
This does not mean you can't replace gear with other items that you think will work better, this is just the set up that I used.
Stats:
Strength- As per the usual, only put enough points in equip your gear, you will get an additional boost from the torch and from gear, so don't forget to take that in to account when distributing your points.
Dexterity- You shouldn't need any, it will all be covered by gear.
Mana- None, Mana Leech from the Soul Drainers and rejuvination pots will keep you going.
Life- After your strength is set, put every last point in to here.
Skills (at Character Level 85):
20 pts Whirlwind
20 pts Shout
20 pts Battle Orders
20 pts Mace Mastery
1 pt Battle Command
1 pt Increased Speed
1 pt Increased Stamina
1 pt Iron Skin
1 pt Natural Resistances
6 pts prerequisites
Whirlwind is your main attack and you can supplement your 1pt Berserk also (left over points can be put here) for an alternate attack. Leap will help you get away from hairy situations and those physical immunes.
Final Notes:
You can add a few pts to Natural Resistances later on with left over points because depending on what All Resistances jewel you put in your armor and what torch you have, you will be a bit shy on resistances. You can also supplement your resistances with single resist small charms you find along the way. You should still have one free socket to play with on your Barb's helm also.
Your Barb, at character level 85 should be well over 2700 points in life, 11000+ Attack Rating, 11000 to your Defense and 2299 damage after using your weapon switch skills (Battle Command, Battle Orders, Shout and Enchant).
Your merc will be a bit shy on resistances (75/49/49/49), so socket him up when you get the chance. He will have a high survivability without it due to his high Life Leech, but more res won't hurt him either. Don't forget, you can socket all of his equipment for other bonuses also.
As stated before, you can still improve on a lot of things (especially your merc) with the left over open sockets and just trying to get the best bang for your buck in items with variables. I am sure there will be a lot of opinions about my gear selection, and I believe there is always room for improvements and ideas for alternate choices, this just happened to be the selection that I used and it worked out pretty good for me.
Thanks to Dabeas and Stephan for the their input on gear selection, my Barb mite not have turned out as well if it wasn't for their intervention.
Any other pointers that could improve this guide and build would be greatly appreciated.
PS: If you ever see ChoboWhirl on USWL, that would be this very character that would be this very Budget Barb that I built. I am being a knuckle head and contemplating an attempt at the Barb Ladder with him.
Budget Barbarian Guide [PvM]
Introduction:
This is a Whirly Barb built on a budget for the player that is pretty much strapped for cash (example: new players), or just for a bit of a challenge compared to a decked out runeworded character and also just wanted to stay away from the typical builds and the IK set for something different.
Take note, this is not a Gold Finder build (or MF) and you would have to add the appropriate charms for that, this is just a build that will allow you to play through Hell and survive within a set budget. Speaking of budgets, I built this character on USWL for under 180 PGems (1.5HR) excluding the 2x Shael, 2x Lem and 2x Ko runes needed for socketing the weapon and for upgrading the body armor. On USWL, you could probably pick up the listed runes here for less than 50PGems and you would have the possibility of running in to those easily from Countess and from your Hell Forge quests.
I have successfully solo'ed through all the main Hell bosses, important skill/stat side quests, the Minion's and Baal with this build. I had even took Laarz from USWL through his Hell Ancients quest twice for him. That is not to say that it is not without any challenges, mana burn chars do tend to make things difficult and will result in you downing several juvie pots or just making you leap past them.
Equipment and USWL Prices Paid:
Helm- Arreat's Face [25PGems]. 3-6% Life leech and skill bonuses.
Armor- Duriel's Shell [6PGems]. Good Resistances (better with jewel), good def bonus, up it for even better def, and can't be frozen.
Belt- String of Ears [13PGems]. 6-8% Life leech and 10-15% Damage Reduction
Gloves- Soul Drainers [3PGems]. 4-7% Life leech and you will need the 4-7% mana leech.
Boots- Low Gore Riders [20PGems]. 30% Faster Run/Walk, 10% Open Wounds, 15% Crushing Blow, 15% Deadly Strike.
Jewelry- Angelic Ring/Ammy [3PGems each]. 95 Life bonus, 10 Dexterity bonus, huge Attack Rating bonus.
Jewelry- Low Ravenfrost [5PGems]. Attack Rating bonus, Dexterity bonus, can't be frozen (redundant already on Duriel's).
Jewel- 12% All Resistances [7PGems]. Socket your Duriel's Shell at Larzuk and toss an All Resistances jewel in it for a boost.
Main Weapon- Immortal King Maul [4PGems]. Good Damage, 35-40% Crushing Blow, hit's the breakpoint with 2x Shael.
Weapon Switch- Warcry Stick [15PGems]. +3 to Warcries Tree means more life, mana and defense. Can be bought at Hell vendors if you have the patience.
Weapon Switch- Demonlimb [2PGems]. Adds roughly another 150 damage to the IK Maul when combined with your Warcry Stick usage, plus it gives a nice boost to your Attack Rating.
Torch- Low Barb Torch [30PGems]. You will need the resistances on this item and the Attributes and skill bonuses are convenient.
Merc Helm- Crown of Thieves [7PGems]. 9-12% Life Leech, good defense, 80-100% Gold Find and cheap.
Merc Armor- Shaftstop [10PGems]. 30% Damage Reduction, good defense when upgraded.
Merc Weapon- Reaper's Toll [10PGems]. 11-15% Life Leech, 33% Deadly Strike, 33% Chance to Cast Level 1 Decrepify on Striking, good damage.
All in all, your Barb can have 13-23% Life Leech, 4-7% Mana Leech, 50-55% Crushing Blow and some other very nice side mods to help keep him alive. Your merc will have 20-27% Life Leech, 30% Damage Reduction, Decrepify and Deadly Strike to help keep him alive. Not bad on a meager budget.
This does not mean you can't replace gear with other items that you think will work better, this is just the set up that I used.
Stats:
Strength- As per the usual, only put enough points in equip your gear, you will get an additional boost from the torch and from gear, so don't forget to take that in to account when distributing your points.
Dexterity- You shouldn't need any, it will all be covered by gear.
Mana- None, Mana Leech from the Soul Drainers and rejuvination pots will keep you going.
Life- After your strength is set, put every last point in to here.
Skills (at Character Level 85):
20 pts Whirlwind
20 pts Shout
20 pts Battle Orders
20 pts Mace Mastery
1 pt Battle Command
1 pt Increased Speed
1 pt Increased Stamina
1 pt Iron Skin
1 pt Natural Resistances
6 pts prerequisites
Whirlwind is your main attack and you can supplement your 1pt Berserk also (left over points can be put here) for an alternate attack. Leap will help you get away from hairy situations and those physical immunes.
Final Notes:
You can add a few pts to Natural Resistances later on with left over points because depending on what All Resistances jewel you put in your armor and what torch you have, you will be a bit shy on resistances. You can also supplement your resistances with single resist small charms you find along the way. You should still have one free socket to play with on your Barb's helm also.
Your Barb, at character level 85 should be well over 2700 points in life, 11000+ Attack Rating, 11000 to your Defense and 2299 damage after using your weapon switch skills (Battle Command, Battle Orders, Shout and Enchant).
Your merc will be a bit shy on resistances (75/49/49/49), so socket him up when you get the chance. He will have a high survivability without it due to his high Life Leech, but more res won't hurt him either. Don't forget, you can socket all of his equipment for other bonuses also.
As stated before, you can still improve on a lot of things (especially your merc) with the left over open sockets and just trying to get the best bang for your buck in items with variables. I am sure there will be a lot of opinions about my gear selection, and I believe there is always room for improvements and ideas for alternate choices, this just happened to be the selection that I used and it worked out pretty good for me.
Thanks to Dabeas and Stephan for the their input on gear selection, my Barb mite not have turned out as well if it wasn't for their intervention.
Any other pointers that could improve this guide and build would be greatly appreciated.
PS: If you ever see ChoboWhirl on USWL, that would be this very character that would be this very Budget Barb that I built. I am being a knuckle head and contemplating an attempt at the Barb Ladder with him.