I'm a sad... sad... n00b, so shoot me... Best PvM Hell Barb build? o

[Shin00bi]

I'm a sad... sad... n00b, so shoot me... Best PvM Hell Barb build?

I've been reading for the past couple days about barbs.

Here is my situation.

Frenzy... Something I've considered, because of the great guide on it here. However, the guide leaves me with too many choices. I'm an undecisive newbie, so I've read other guides too.

Wolfbarb... Great guide on it here. But gosh! I wish the guides were more organized, I read through about 75% of the guide before I even knew it's a PvP guide.

Whirlwind... Awesome! Time to make a whirlwind barb.

Conc... Awesome! Time to make a concentration barb.

Whoops, can't do both really.

FRENZY!!... Awesome!! Time to make 3-4 Frenzy barbs and see which one I like best!!! Doh!

I have searched. The search format here is less than desireable. I can't search boards for threads that contain BOTH Effective, and "Hell" in them. But I did read through a bunch that came up with "Effective" and I can't draw my own conclusions.

Does anyone have any recommendations. I've never made a barb before. I'm not in the mood to creat a level 80 barb or few and go "oops" and start all over again.

I've done my best to research before posting. Now it comes to me inevitably begging for your opinions on what I should do.

All I care about is End-game really. I want to be able to do well w/out the best gear, but eventually I plan to have the best gear anyway.

I want to know what formula you follow, and what works best. If you got that formula from a good Barbarian guide, please tell me which guide it is. This will credit the author, and prevent you from repeating too much information.

I hope my posts in no insulted any FAQ authors or anything. I've read nothing but good stuff here. Great work gentleman. Now please assist a shameless newbie in pointing me in the right direction. I just want to make the Best Player Vs Non-Player-Character Barbarian possible.

 

[xpumafangx]

It really sounds like you like frenzy go with it..


The best addvice when picking your first build is just that what would you like the most.

Then it is all about what items you have.

 

[xpumafangx]

After that go with the guild what items do you have to work with?

 

[Shin00bi]

Yes, you've got a point.

Well after coming home from work today, I discovered the fine art of Single-Player Character Editing.

I probably won't be able to obtain certain items, but nonetheless, I'll try those builds out!

How do certain people try out the new runewords offline btw? Or maybe I should not ask here.

 

[Higgens]

Just use a clean item and add the runeword stats as magical stats to test them out in single player.

 

[Killerama]

Wolfbarb... Great guide on it here. But gosh! I wish the guides were more organized, I read through about 75% of the guide before I even knew it's a PvP guide.

Whirlwind... Awesome! Time to make a whirlwind barb.

When I got back from my long free-diablo break I made 3 barbs. My first one was a frenzy. I had somehow lost interest in him (maily because I screwed his stats and skills :xeek: ).
Then I got wolfhowl! So off I went making a barb with no combat skills to lvl 79 (lots of leeching involved) but it paid off. My wolfbarb was mainly PvM but I do use him in duels sometimes. I loved my new wolfbarb and I still do today, however, wolfbarbs are mainly speed based since they use a lvl 3-6 feral rage as their main attack.
Then I got IK set so I made a WW barb with 1 point in concentrate (a funny thing is that my low lvl concentrate does more dammage then my maxed WW since one of concentrate's synergies is BO). My IK barb was loads of fun and can solo hell with 1 point in berserk as a backup.
So if you like plowing through monsters then WW is for you.
If you like attacking at a extreme speed then wolfbarb is for you.

 

[Bartel]

any decent skilled and equiped barb can solo hell, as long as u put 1 point in bezerk for when there are iron maiden casters

Killerama: its true that a maxed ww has a lower dmg then a 1 point conc, but ww hits multiple times in 1 attack and also does more dmg per second.

 

[Shin00bi]

After some testing last night, here's my semi-conclusion...

Ashes Iron Frenzy barb. Does great, very good. Absolutely no problems with mana regen or anything. Pretty much invincible, but when you come across the wrong guy, like certain Doom Knights in Hell, while going after Diablo... Man, you get killed in 1 or 2 hits. I could walk around everywhere, no pots in belt, and be fine. But suddenly I would come across the wrong guy (Doom Knight) and BOOM I'm dead.

Any suggestions? Perhaps it's just my strategy?

WW Barb Also great, but I have a major problem with Mana regen, perhaps it's simply because of gear, but I don't think that's the case.WW eats up a lot of mana and you have to refill a lot. The guide on this barb (non pvp) is good, but might need tweaking. Also, instant death to certain monsters like certain Doom Knights as well.

Any thoughts?

IK Barb

Is a joke compared to the above 2.

Edit: I like the Frenzy barb the most I think. It is a lot fun to play. I just need more strategy.

 

[riseofdeath456]

Your problem isn't with the Doom Knights, it's the Oblivion Knights and their Iron Maiden curse. That curse does damage back when you use physical attacks, and with a strong attack you would die often. Just use Berserk on them(it does magical damage) and you'll be fine.

 

[plasmo]

Yeah, WW is horrible for mana. I usually have a manald heal (and angelic ammy + ring) for my WW barb.

BTW, if WW IK is horrible, what weapons do you use for WW?

BTW 2, I love IK barbs if only because you can abuse the strength bug and make it look like you're WWing with your fists and no armor.

 

[The_Bastard]

in my 1.09 days i always used a cruel colossus blade with 'eth', and i had a robopike barb... those were very good for pvm

now people will most likely used Breath Of The Dying runeword since it's got über stats!

 

[cotton]

WW Barb Also great, but I have a major problem with Mana regen, perhaps it's simply because of gear, but I don't think that's the case.WW eats up a lot of mana and you have to refill a lot. Any thoughts?

The goal shouldn't be regeneration with WW barb, it should be leach. You will never regenerate enough blue to keep up with WW, so look for leach. Manald, as mentioned earlier, is a cheap place to get it. Also look for it in rare rings, weapon, ammy, hat, and gloves, and keep adding until you aren't worried about mana any more. Damage and speed are also important, as both increase the amount of mana you'll leach back.

 

[earthrug]

For an all around "adventure" barb you cant go wrong with making an IK/WW barb. Check out the "guide" for a good build base. Mines lv90 right now with over 4k life and over 4k damage. He goes anywhere in hell without a problem. "keys" to the build (imo) are to keep DEX at base and fill the Maul up with ias for the ww break (I used shaels). I filled the helm and armor up with topaz and with the set MF bonus get a nice 137%MF. Not a crazy amount of mf but its good for adventuring. I also threw one skill point into find item skill which with a switch to the +3 warcry spears knocks up "Horking" mf to 182 (45% hork +137%MF). I already horked out a Tals armor. Try it out!