GF barb help.

[stillmatic]

GF barb help.

Ok I am making a GF barb. he is currently lvl 85 and i suddenly realized something... I have a bunch of unused skills. My current skills are

Max BO
Max Item Find

1 pt in increased speed/stamina, iron skinn, natural resists, howl, shout and potion find.

Here is my gear set up so you can suggest what i do now...

2x 6lem crystal swords
tarnhelm
wealth
2x dwarf stars
66gf ammy
70gf boots
goldwrap

I was thinkin if i use wc to stun before merc kills, and have dual hotos on switch, i will get that ias to help him then i can switch to lem swords...

So as you can see. Im loaded with GF and my merc kills. This is what he will wear when he can...You think he will be able to take hell trav??

Crown of theives
Fortitude
Eth Bonehew...Currently hes lvl 84 and needs 1 more STR AHHHHH lol.

So...I was thinking shout, warcry, and warcry synergies...Good idea? If so in what order?

Also, Lems/Shaels/Ohm's for my mercs bonehew? Ty.

 

[KremBanan]

Re: GF barb help.

You setup looks ok to me. Ive run a GF Barb the last weeks and after I maxed Natural Resists, my life became alot more easier. So I suggest maxing it, also its not like you need to spare your points.
I only maxed BO and Nat Res so far(still have 30pts left), Find Item I have at 50%. The % after that seems low, so Im waiting abit with that. Also have 1pt in speed and iron skin.
For helm I suggest a 40mf IK helm. With two Lems there you get 137eg + the 40mf, also comes with +2warcryskills.
Since you will be using Find Item alot, there is also dual Ali Babas to think of. You loose 'only' 150gold, but you almost double your MF:
Sword: 2x CS 900gold vs 2x AliBaba 'LemLem' 750gold/180mf(lvl90)

 

[stillmatic]

Re: GF barb help.

Well Lems are easy so i will probably get a pair of baba's with GF too and decide what i wanna do with them. Personally, i like the 300% gold...this is supposed to be strictly gold find...any Mf is there out of coincidence. Plus...with the setup i have right now, I still have 250 MF...On a MF sorc most people say get like 300 and then go for killing speed so i think im fine with MF on the side.

The main thing im concerned with is my merc at the moment gets my warcrys to boost him and then...thats pretty much it. I dont do anything to help. Do you think i should just focus on keeping myself alive and boosting my merc or investing in something that can help? As of now, i dont really worry about my resists cuz between 4k life and counting and dual dwarf stars (since i run trav, the only ele dmg i really take is hydra dmg) and Howl when im in trouble, I dont really die at all, My merc is the one that im worried about. Ty for the suggestions

PS. I really like the IK helm idea by the way, Im gonna look into it!

 

[KremBanan]

Re: GF barb help.

this is supposed to be strictly gold find

Well, if its strictly goldfind, then its just to load up on Goldfind items. But my thought is, since you are hoarking the corpses with mf, why not try got squise some good items out of them at the same time. The last week I have found HoZ and a 20/224 Raven, so Im not complaining
But ofc, if you only want Gold, there is nothing against that thought either

The main thing im concerned with is my merc at the moment gets my warcrys to boost him and then...thats pretty much it. I dont do anything to help. Do you think i should just focus on keeping myself alive and boosting my merc or investing in something that can help? As of now, i dont really worry about my resists cuz between 4k life and counting and dual dwarf stars (since i run trav, the only ele dmg i really take is hydra dmg) and Howl when im in trouble, I dont really die at all, My merc is the one that im worried about.

The only thing you have to do is to do BC, BO and Shout at the waypoint. Run to the council(maybe kill the uniques you find in between) and while your merc starts killing, you use Warcry to stun them. Easy as pie. Regarding your res, I have 5k life after BO and still find myself low sometimes, maybe its my technique but I appriciate the maxed Nat Res. The hydras can fire quite fast, so atleast maxed fireres is good. I also stay close to my merc to take some of the hits of him, so he can concentrate on the killing. Remember that the uniques dont get stunned, so your merc might get in trouble sometimes.

 

[stillmatic]

Re: GF barb help.

So when you say warcry are you saying maxed warcry or 1 pt warcry? cuz my friend made a singer and always complained about warcry's extreme mana taxing powers. Also, regarding Natural resistances...since i am yet to do all 3 anya's and my BEST res is in the -31 area...I realize this would be a smart investment for me. Youre saying max it? arent there diminishing returns? And finally...would my merc benefit in any way from shout?

OH 1 more question... I ran a lot of trav today and am loving it by the way, but i am concerned with my mercs killing efficiency. Will the Warcrys i supply make it more efficient? Also, is it normal for the trav runs to be shall i say...not the fastest most efficient runs in the world? it just seems slow...

Again my merc is wearing

Crown of theives (Nothing in it yet)
Fortitude
Eth Bonehew (Nothing in either socket)

By the looks of it his attack speed and FHR are terrible, should i double shael the bonehew? is there a better weapon out there that i should consider?

Thanks again.

 

[KremBanan]

Re: GF barb help.

Atm, I have 1pt Warcy. Some say max it, some say 1pt. Im undecided in this matter for now, 1pt works for me atm. I have spare points, so I will see later what I will do about it. If you have charms like gold/mana, then I belive you can get away with maxing it.

If you have -res atm, I strongly suggest maxing Nat Res. There is alot of elemetal damage taken in Travi. There are diminishing return, but imo its worth it.

You merc will most definitely benefit from Shout. My merc use atm an eth CoT(not upped) and eth Forti AP and after I have shouted, his defense is 16,9k.

The speed of each run depends on the auras the monsters have, your mercs killing ability and surviveability(if you need to babysit him alot, it will slow down the speed). For efficent run..well, I score between 250k and 800k each run, so if its gold your after, then Travi is the most effective.

For weapon an eth Bonehew should do it. It has 30IAS build-in and reaches 7frames alone, if you double Shael it, you are up at 6frames. If you feel that your merc has enough surviveability(LL from CoT + defense) and kills fast enough, then you can also consider double Lem it for more gold and a Lem in his CoT is also good. IAS bps for your merc using Bonehew:
0ias - 8frames
9 - 7.5
20 - 7 (he is already here)
37 - 6.5
65 - 6
105 - 5.5
200 - 5


For my mercs FHR, I havent payed it any attention. Because in my (short)experience, it hasnt been needed. But if you want, here are his FHR bps:
| FHR | Frames |
| 0% | 15 |
| 5% | 14 |
| 9% | 13 |
| 14% | 12 |
| 20% | 11 |
| 30% | 10 |
| 42% | 9 |
| 60% | 8 |
| 86% | 7 |
| 142% | 6 |

 

[stillmatic]

Re: GF barb help.

Well i probably have just enough skills to max natural resist, shout, and put 1 pt in warcry... I had one more thought though that i was considering...

I have an Eth Oath balrog blade i believe and it is a good roll, pretty nice ed, just sitting there rusting in a stash on a mule of mine...looking at the little dmg boost might gives me and assuming barb mercs are slightly better tanks... what if i gave him the oath, fort, and either CoT or maybe even a IK helm since i believe barb mercs can wear them? he will prolly have as much if not more dmg, better life and def i would think and just might be an over all better choice? I may be wrong but I want to check.

 

[KremBanan]

Re: GF barb help.

Ive tried A5 mercs before and it was a killingmachine. I had eFortitude, eArreats and eBOTD CB for him and he was brutal and very aggresive. I havent tried them with Oath, but I think he would do alright. Just give it a go and see.

 

[cookie_monster]

Re: GF barb help.

if u go for WC use Insight..

my merc setup

eforti
eCot upped
Insight CA

the reason of Insight is the aura+the huge AR-boost he gets(+2xx%) he duelled another GF barbs merc with same gear except he used Ebotd wp (1300dmg on weapon) and he had no chance

 

[Anthraquinone]

Re: GF barb help.

Try Leap if you want to do something while your merc does the dirty job.

About the merc: I love some crushing blow on him. So I would AmnAmn the Bonehew, give him a Guillaume's (maybe IAS jewel?). Fort is a nice armor...


-AnQ

 

[goldenfrog]

Re: GF barb help.

I use a barb merc with my GF barb.
Stealskull Ptopaz
eSTONE
eLAST WISH Col blade

Th Last Wish gives him hugh CB and life tap, plus the chance for fade. I think I'll try out the Gullimans for a 99% CB I wont miss the MF from Stealskull.

 

[zerth]

Re: GF barb help.

I havent tried it yet, but Kiras + Guardian Angel (= 90 res all, CBF) + AmnShael Bonehew should be an interesting combination as well (a 15 ias jewel on Kiras or GA can hit the 65ias bp too).