My new sp horking barb

[Hew]

So ive never tried an item finding barb before. Never put a skill point in it. But i found a 2 os helm with itemfind skill on it and decided to do a bit of research on the build as a barbarian mfer item finder. Ive done conc/ww/zerk/frenzy builds, all fun. but how have i never tried this?
Current lvl 34 worldstone keep ready to kill baal now... well a few more levels of grinding to 38ish first i think before i head to NM. But wow this has been a blast so far. even though i dont have hardly any mf yet, im addicted to "horkin" corpses LOL. So i do not have decked out gear or anything and have few questions if anyone is familiar with build.
1. Do you just topaz your helm until later in game when more gear is found, or do you load up on the topaz's early and start item finding as soon as you can? My first thought was to not even care until maybe NM meph, but honestly I would be happy with a few sigon pieces lol, which i know can drop in normal. I was WW/conc and was owning pretty good but restated to doubleswing/frenzy and lvl 16 item find after i found the helm.
2.are itemfind barbs better online with others having killed more bodies, or is single player still fun for this build? I play HC only, so i guess im trying to find the balance of killing to itemfind quicker vs better stat gear for survivability. Seems with little mf that im finding almost nothing so far. I mean a yellow every now and then. But im still addicted to trying lol.
3. I do not even use runeword mod, so do you think weap/shield is better than dual wield, considering i will have only self found gear?

Thanx for any input, i perused old posts looking about mf itemfind barbs, and seems like no one has talked about much in quite some time.

(i posted in SP, sorry if its better for barb post, im always more interested in SP section :smug

 

[deepfriedpizza]

I would recommend leveling as a standard WW/Zerk/Frenzy/Conc barb and then start seriously magic finding once you get to Hell. All of that early MF would be better served as leech, resists, damage reduction, etc. which you will need as an untwinked Barb.

Fabian wrote a really great guide on a Zerker intended for clearing the Pits on /p1 and using Find Item extensively:
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?847957-Berserk-Barbarian-MF-Pit-Runner-Guide-Write-Up

It's considered to be one of the better high-end unique finders in all of single player.

 

[Espr]

Topazing gear is a common single-pass untwinked play tactic, and will certainly help you get the gear to get more gear. This guide by Jiansonz details a lot of other things you can do as well if you want to get magic finding right away. I find it definitely worth it if playing untwinked (or still starting to build up wealth). That said, with such a gear dependent class you'll certainly have a faster and easier time of things focusing on damage/leech/survivability rather than MF.

Non-grief options are wide and varied, and it honestly depends on what sort of time you want to devote to collecting the items. Some are, to be frank, rarer than the runes for grief these days. It will also depend somewhat on what targets you are looking to hit long term. A 3os high-roll Tomb Reaver comes to mind as the pinnacle of beatsticks before HR's started raining down from the skies.

However, for just questing and getting to that point, I'm a big fan of butcher's pupil. Whether on it's own or dual wielded.

 

[Hew]

thx ill check those out :coffee:

 

[Fabian]

The guide dfp linked to is geared towards people who have reached Hell, and who have some base level of wealth (Enigma is a given, for instance) and want a build that's better than the easy/standard MF alternatives (blizzsorcs and the like). It's not going to be of much use for you in your current situation.

 

[Hew]

yeah i figured that out after 30 seconds lol, my highest char SP on my computer is only lvl 51 NM LOL. Starting from scratch and i do not plan on seeing HRs for a loong time :fortune:

 

[Espr]

On the one hand, people made lots of great pindle/council barbs before enigma was even a thing in SP for more than a couple people. On the other, it's probably easier to get the HRs to get enigma/grief these days than it is the hax crafts/items, time-travelled and not.

Regardless, as Fabian said, it's expensive to make a barb more efficient than a sorc. Fun is a factor too, though. For myself, I'm enjoying my non-teleporting whirler/horker enough that I don't mind the loss of efficiency in the meantime. Enigma will show up eventually anyhow. That said, a couple of sorcs have bankrolled him in gear, and I was able to get a grief. If you aren't entirely opposed to it, I would urge you to consider using RWM, if only for grief (melee pwn) and insight (caster pwn).