help me make a party friendly character

[Ter]

help me make a party friendly character

I've got 2 friends that I play with somewhat regularly who are a Meteorb Sorceress and an Elemental Bow Amazon.

Anyway last night I completed my Immortal King Set and made a new character that will eventually be wearing it. I've never taken a barbarian character into Nightmare so I'm pretty unsure about the efficacy of the skills there and in Hell.

I do have two sorceresses (one blizzard, one Meteorb)
A Javazon, and a Summoner Necromancer in hell already for the times when I want or need to play solo so I'd like to make a character that can help out in Baal Runs and general questing/killing instead of just being a useless leech as described in the thread below.

So if you were a mid 80's Meteorb sorceress and you had a friend who was an IK barbarian...how would you want his skills to look?
And what would you have him do in game?

Thanks

btw I've already read a few of the Guides on the Barbarian board but they are more about soloing so I want a perspective of someone playing with a barb...not playing the barb themself though any Barbarian experts are welcome to help me out

 

[insenothepunk]

best party skills are Battle Orders, Battle Command, and Shout. Most builds have those at pretty high levels anyones, but they really help in a party. Mostly if you are going to be partying with a sorc you might want to think about some points into howl to help get those monsters concentrated on you instead of the sorc. I've met some people that through a few points into War Cry for the stun. You can stun the monsters and let the sorc just cast away, but you can't stun all monsters. You're best bet is going to be any build that is going to be a brick wall.

 

[Variable_Angel]

i'd pump in some iron skin to and some natural resistance (1-5 is enuff)

 

[sangfagel]

Oh, You can help a lot Look:
1. as a tank (in this case your "skill" is your great hp, resists (full of course) and armour - possibly boosted of IS)
2. killing immunes
3. as an extra Annihilus (BC = + skill, BO = + vita and mana)
4. extra Gheed´s - horking bodies with 2*Gul Dagger or 2*Ali/Ist,Ist - on your weapon switch
5. Having a mercenary who gives an aura complementary to sorc´s merc (HF + Def is better than 2*HF for instance)

I would max BO, give enough points to N resists to have 75 in all, IS (max?) and concentration as a main attack (it gives extra def and coworking with your sorc-friend you dont need kill that much - just survive). Than enough points in find item, one (at least) point in BC.
Have a fun!

 

[Grandar King of Trolls]

There are a few things you can do to be helpful. Obviously, you need to max BO, Shout, and have 1 point in battle command. Don't put more than one point in iron skin. It wont' help your party as much and you can spend your extra points better. I would also max concentrate and mace mastery. Be sure to have echoers on your weapon swtich. Lvl 30+ BO isn't hard to get and it is awesome. Your sorcy friends will love you. Oh, and with the res bonuses from ik set, more than one point in nat res is worthless. Jewelry and charms can make up for any lack in res. There are a whole list of one point wonders for the barb. If you want a list, I can put them here or pm me if I don't get back to you.

Probably your best bet to help a ranged char is to tank. The best barb tank is a conc barb. Go ahead and look at Hal's guide over at the barb forum. I personally think that whirlwind is better for the ik set, but there is some debate on that in the barb world. But, all the same, conc with taunt on right click will keep the baddies off your casters and tank pretty much everything. And like you said, you are interested in supporting casters, not being a killing machine. And WW doesn't distract monsters as well as conc/taunt do. Just watch out for iron maiden casters on baal and diablo runs. I suggest pumping zerk as your final skill so you can still tank those guys.

Yes, War Cry is good for stunning enemies, but the range isn't that great. An odd variant to consider is pumping leap. As I understand, high level leap can stun an entire screen. I've never tried it, but that is what I have read.

Overall, I would look at the stat placement suggestions in the IK guides over on the barb forum and then use the skill placements of a conc barb with zerk as your backup skill. Your extra equip slots should probably be 2x echoing on swittch, a raven frost for cbf, and then either the angelic combo or highloards + bk or dwarf star.

Oh, and lastly, this is just my opinion. You may want to post something over on the barb forums asking the same question. Those guys are smart. Stress the main points you are after: IK set as support for casters.

 

[Ter]

Thank you for the replies...and Grandar...I was somewhat avoiding posting on the barbarian board because they seem pretty sick of describing the "best IK barb" and I didn't want to seem like a troll even though I'm asking for another perspective. I guess I will give it a try and hope they answer what I'm asking and don't just assume I'm asking the same question they've answered a million times.

 

[royalesse]

I concur with Grandar... WW will probably suit you better. The Crushing Blow and the speed of WW work well together with all the extra elemental damage. Usually Conc kills marginally faster because of all the extra damage. WW hits faster and will cut the health of a group down faster than conc will. Other than that be sure to get a natures peace for PMH.

As a sorc... I'd much prefer a WW accompaniment over a Conc since it will wound a greater number faster so I can finish them off. Also, if one of your friends has an enchantress that's a great way to run difficulties and run for experience.

Confidentially that Booyaka barb looked hillarious to me as well but probably isn't the best for the IK set.

 

[Grandar King of Trolls]

As a sorc... I'd much prefer a WW accompaniment over a Conc since it will wound a greater number faster so I can finish them off.

Maybe I'm just lazy. But as a sorc, I like all the monsters distracted while I spam. You keep them busy, I'll get them dead. Of course, my sorc is pretty young still.

And don't forget how friendly taunt can be. I love pulling enemies off of casters in a party with that. And taunt lends better to conc.

 

[Ter]

this is tempting me to post it in the Sorceress forum instead since I want to know what they would like...but since I can ask my friend what he prefers...and still get expert advice from the people playing the character I think my next post will be in the barb board. Thanks again

If I get a second barbarian going for fun.I might do that Booyaka

 

[royalesse]

Maybe I'm just lazy. But as a sorc, I like all the monsters distracted while I spam. You keep them busy, I'll get them dead. Of course, my sorc is pretty young still.

Tru dat... generally the sorce doesn't need help killin.

edit/ignore (your post just popped up before mine :lol: ): Hey you may want to ask your question in the sorc forum instead of the Barb forum. The barbs will want you to be a killing machine instead of extra equipment for the Sorc. The sorces might give you more of what you're looking for.

Here's probably a dumb idea:

20 Battle Orders
20 Grim Ward
20 Taunt
20 Whirlwind
1 in Beserk
1 in Pre-reqs
1 in Iron Skin, Natural Resist, Increased Stamina and Increased Speed
Rest in Mace Mastery

General theory is get a kill in pop up a grim ward that more than covers the screen. Taunt the monsters back to you. Since the baddies are too busy running away or towards you they never attack the casters (ergo, no shout needed). Even if they do they only have about 1/2 the attack rating and the damage. If you have a merc with Reapers' Toll then they'll never hit any thing or do significan't damage.

Of course it could just be very annoying instead... on the brightside you'll have find item which is pretty entertaining in and of itself.

FYI other barb builds that are party friendly and not the IK set are the wolf barb, and the singer... the nice thing about the Booyaka is that the knockback works on most uniques but not some super-uniques (like big D).

 

[joeku]

meteor or blizzard sorcs like when monsters stays still instead of moving around. so from that perspective, grim ward would be useless cuz it scatters the monsters all over the place, while taunt would be nicer because monsters tend to move to form a nice circle around you.

 

[royalesse]

meteor or blizzard sorcs like when monsters stays still instead of moving around. so from that perspective, grim ward would be useless cuz it scatters the monsters all over the place, while taunt would be nicer because monsters tend to move to form a nice circle around you.

The grim ward is just to set up so that strays run instead of attacking the casters. I suppose tanking the hits would be better than scattering them and then bringing them back together but that just doesn't sound like much fun.

Incidentally if you really want to get the attention of the baddies you may want an ammy or a ring to get you to the +5 light radius. Apparently the extra light draws in the monster faster than your normal light radius. It's probably an anomaly that has to deal with Dim Vision and Cloak of Shadows but nonetheless it's there.

The IK helm has +4 to light radius so all you'll need is another +1 to top out at the +5 light radius.

A damaging Aura usually works well at getting attenton but I don't see how that's possible with the IK set.

 

[Rekk_Dalton]

warcry pwns cause monsters sit still in blizzard/meteor