Ok everybody ... need some expert advice on this very specific unusual build .....

[maxcaty]

Ok everybody ... need some expert advice on this very specific unusual build .....

Hello all , new to Barb forums , to the class in general .

Here is the deal - I have a vision - BUT I NEED YOUR HELP - it's very very specific and needs your expert advice and opinions .

I have accumulated +2,000% extra gold from monsters gear(herefore refered to as GF gear).

This gear takes up every single space in my inventory and on my character's avatar . THEREFORE the character needs inherent / passive help in resistances , damage and walk / run / attack speed . You can see why I've ended up here , in the barb forums .

Let me tell you what I've tried so far ....

Amazon = bad bad choice . Bow strafer way too slow , GF gear suffers because there are no good GF bows , and all bows take both hands . EXTRAORDINARLY slow walk speed and killing speed . Very vulnerable to elemental attacks . Lightning Fury Zon is great for NM Council , virtually useless in Hell Council due to the council members having lightning resist . I could just stick with zapping the NM council , it is quite profitable - but I want to go EXTREME with this build , and get those huge 50k + stacks from the Hell Council .

Assasin = what a mistake . I thought the assasins Burst of Speed skill would speed things up , and it would have worked perfectly - except for the fact that the Hell Council often spawn with Fire Resistance as well as Lightning . Didn't realize this until I got my Sin up to level 80 (!!!) and tried my first hell Council . Totally wasted template , as it's all in fire skills and weak in everything else . Grrrrr frustrating lack of attention to detail on my part .

So here I am , looking at Barbarian builds in the forums . Barbs seem to have everything I'm looking for - fast run walk / attack speed in a few skills , high and fast physical damage ( Which the Hell Council never spawns with PI to my knowledge ) , and the ability to kill QUICKLY with no +skills gear on .

Please advise me - what is the best build , skill point wise , to achieve this goal . Keep in mind that the build will be ultra-specialized , and will be killing the Hell High Council ONLY , so surviveability in other parts of the game I don't care about , PvP I don't care about . Leveling up , I don't care about , I have enough godly gear to get any character up to level 80-85 easily . But once I hit that level , everything comes off and the Goldfind Suit comes on , and trust me it's got NOTHING going for it but GF , 2000% of it .
I need so-so resists , anything in the positives , even as low as +10 or whatever will be fine ( as opposed to negative resists because I have nothing resist wise on gear ) . I plan on getting all 3 scrolls from saving Anya , so that will be +30 right there .

I need good walk / run / attack speed , I need highest raw Physical damage possible . I plan on dual wielding , with two of the best 1 handed weps I can buy . I will switch to MF dual Ali-Baba's with 4 Lems when they are about to croak .

I need to know if Find Item skill will "hork" up double gold drops , or is it just double item drops ? If I can get to corpses to puke up double gold drops , I'll definitely be incorporating that skill into the build , up to 100% or diminishing returns .

I need to achieve all this with skill points only . SO here is where your priceless advice comes in . Tell me specifically , skill point wise , how to build this .

Many thanks in advance , I'll throw up any more ?'s , concerns as the thread grows , and if this build does what I hope it does , that is COMPLETELY DECIMATE the Hell High Council in a matter of a minute or less , then I will build a guide to it , it's payoffs and everything else .

Peace all
MAX

 

[prospectz]

use a fireball sorc, or a hybrid one. you will eb able to do a lot of damage and stay away from enemys

 

[maxcaty]

Council spawns with Fire / Cold / Lightning resists always , they are all mixed up . Some members have fire , some lightning , and the bosses always spawn with Fire / Cold , sometimes Lightning resists . Plus Scorc has no way to boost run/walk / cast speed without gear , so that all in all eliminates any scorc for the goal .

Thanks tho , keep it coming all

 

[Halciet]

What you're looking for just isn't possible. There's not enough room within the 110 possible skill points to pump all the attributes you want maxed without help from gear. Barbs have the benefit in that they get skills that boost all of these statistics, but the downside is that they hit steep diminishing returns; we most often go about investing 1 point in each of the beneficial skills that have bad returns (inc speed, nat resist) and let +skills items and good gear do the rest. You can't really get everything capped out otherwise, so you'll just have to get a bit and settle.

Conc or Frenzy are your best bets if you want high physical damage; conc will have higher physical damage and the benefit of safety, but frenzy has the advantage of greater attack and movement speeds. Get the core skills and one-point wonders for whichever you choose (see the guide sticky); with the leftovers, you should take Natural Resistance to 5 (we usually only suggest 1, but since you won't have +skills, you'll need all the help you can get). Find Item is nice up to around 10 or so points invested, and yes it will let you get double gold drops, so you might want some points there.

-Hal

 

[kakarot]

dont get me wrong brbs are great(the greatest to me personaly) but imo hammerdiner would do u better cause of higher dmg that is far less independent to gear(ie +skills) and NO IMMUNES (well not many atleast)

only real barbs advantage would be ability to dual wield an FI, but hammer would be faster imho, faster=more gold!

also get a hfreeze merc and dump a reapers/gaze on him(proly will do a lot better than his boss)

just my 2 cents

 

[Whitehaze]

both halciet and kakarot are right
i cant call myself expert about barbarian or any class but if you want it to be done quick and painless use a hammerdin
but if you wanna have fun, use frenzy
you will get high efficiency from both builds (except against any PIs), you can get slightly more speed with hammer, but you will feel the lust of battle with frenzy

 

[Herald of Doom]

Frenzy barb, PERIOD. "Why?" do you ask? It's easy:

1.frenzy barb is faster than conc and ww.
2. Barbs can HORK the corpses, resulting in twice as much as gold as the hammerdin/run !

HoD

 

[Frosty_The_Snowman]

Frenzy barb, PERIOD. "Why?" do you ask? It's easy:

1.frenzy barb is faster than conc and ww.
2. Barbs can HORK the corpses, resulting in twice as much as gold as the hammerdin/run !

HoD

On more detail concerning Pt. 1 : WW has a high mana consumption compared to Conc/Frenzy. You can't really plan on this Skill with a golddropper, or you'll have permanent mana problems.

:xsnow:

 

[kakarot]

Frenzy barb, PERIOD. "Why?" do you ask? It's easy:

1.frenzy barb is faster than conc and ww.
2. Barbs can HORK the corpses, resulting in twice as much as gold as the hammerdin/run !

HoD

i agree with HoD on this one: 1 run with baba=maybe close to 2 runs with paly

but the item choices get a bit narrow since babas are so item-depended

dont know how much of GF gear has to be traded for baba to be efective

 

[maxcaty]

Hey all , thanks for the input so far , I appreciate it .

Here is a tenative outline for the build , based on your feedback and some other research .

Items = for all purposes , should be considered buck naked , except for a pair of high end swords , I'm thinking Azure or L.Sabers , a pair of Ali-Baba's dual Lem's in both on switch .

Skills

Frenzy - 20
BO - 20
Find Item - 20
Sword Mastery - 20
Nat. Resist - 10 or less
MAYBE - 1 point each in I.Stamina and I.Speed ...


Think I'll be able to kill the Hell High Council quickly with this ? I will drop 4 small GF charms and replace with 4x11 Fire Resist sc's if the Hydra's are hurting me too badly . I think F.Resist is the only thing I gotta worry about in Trav , the little blizzard guys with their scrub minions will get wacked easily if they get in the way .

My hireling will be an Act II NM Holy Freeze Merc , with an ethereal Eternity Ghost Spear and Tal's Mask if he's having probs surviving , Guillem's Face if he's doing a good job keeping himself alive - he'll have Duress on the armour . Only problem is , the run might be over before his aura kicks in if all goes well .

I'm thinking I'll pump up Nat.Resist last , along with BO , I'll sit on those 40 or so points until I get rushed to the Hell Council , see how I do without them . IF I'm getting my *** kicked I'll dump the points in there , if I do fine without them I'll dump the points into something else to boost damage .

Watchall think ?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING )) by the way
Peace
Max

 

[theBlackKnight]

You dont need to have mastery for ali babas unless you really plan to kill with them, in which case, have fun. You might want to try out dual silence berserker axes, they are pretty cheep to make ( 1.5 high runes each or so ) and you would get 4 to skills, 150% resists, and decent damage as well. If you want, I could test this out for you on single player.

 

[skilledlord]

go make a gf summoner if this doesn't work out. They easy.

 

[kakarot]

imo you should pump BO atleast to 10, since you wont be needing much life, but still just to feel safe around council.
also dont do the usual baba build, i think you should have enough dex to equip, and as much str as possible without diminishing your chances to live through the run. :thumbsup:

good luck with your build

 

[Herald of Doom]

Items = for all purposes , should be considered buck naked , except for a pair of high end swords , I'm thinking Azure or L.Sabers , a pair of Ali-Baba's dual Lem's in both on switch .

If you're going for maximum gold, 6*Lem weapons (= 450%goldfind each, compared to +-400 iirc with ali baba with a lvl99) on switch. If you want mf+goldfind, then use dual Lem ali's. Also, azure is a very good idea,250-500 cold and magic dmg hurts a lot if you're frenzying. Silence is very nice, but it has the annoying "%chance for monsters to flee", so I'm not sure if you want to be chasing around council members. Anything with a nice punch will work, the highend runewords are ofcourse the best choice.

With BO and shout (even if that one is lowlvl) your merc should survive well.

HoD

 

[maxcaty]

Ok all , thanks for the input so far , here is what I've accomplished to this point ...

Sword Mastery - 20
Frenzy - 20
Bo - 20
Nat.Resist up to 10


He seems to be doing pretty well , I've just started Hell . Damage could be higher , but I think the dual Azure's will take care of that . USing a pair of L.Sabers now , like em .

I've decided against Find Item , the return is 50% at level 20 I believe , and I think using that 20 in double swing to boost damage will be a better investment . Either way , heading into the home stretch now with about 20 skill points left .

Looking good so far I'll keep ya all posted .

Peace
Max

 

[Halciet]

As I mentioned earlier, don't take Natural Resistance past 5, since around there the diminishing returns get horrible. Get a point of battle command, that will make your nat resist 6, and then put your spare points somewhere more useful.

If you're really rich you might consider a might or defiance merc with a Doom polearm for the Holy Freeze. Of course, holy freeze will kind've hurt you, since it will destroy corpses so you can't hork them (you should at least get a point of find item, since it will at least give you a chance for extra gold/gear).

-Hal

 

[maxcaty]

Ya Hal , I got Nat. Resist at 6 or so , and I have one point in find item , that's where I'm stopping on those two .

Good tip about Doom runeword , that holy freeze will help as the hireling's natural aura is so unpredictable . The run will probably be over before it kicks in , most of the time .

Do you think dumping the last 20 points of this build into Double Swing is worthwhile ? From what I understand , at 8% damage per level synergy with Frenzy , it will add 160% damage to my frenzy . Is my math correct ? In other words my Frenzy max damage goes from 2200 to around 5700 .

If my math is correct , that's the route I'm going with these last 20 points if it's going to more than double my physical damage . Seems a bit low right now and I want those Council Members killed quick .

Just not sure if I'm reading the skill stats corrrectly ....
Peace
Max

 

[Halciet]

Yes, it will add 160% damage, but you're totals are a little off. All skill/stat damage adds at the same time, and multiplies only your base weapon damage and any +damage items you might have, like charms. So you'll get 160% more of whatever the damage on your weapon is, not whatever damage you do total.

example:

You have a sword that does 100 damage. You have 500% ed from skills, so you do 600 damage.

You put points into a synergy that adds 100% damage, so you now do 700 damage, since it's based off your weapon damage, not your overall damage (thus it wouldn't be 1200 damage).

-Hal

 

[maxcaty]

Thanks Hal , that's exactly the kind of info I needed . I've always played casters and shooters , this is my first Melee build . Funny after playing this game on and off for years and I didn't know that .

SO , on to my next question lol . Scored an AzureWrath just now . I'm going to run it through the socket quest , and I'm really stumped as far as what I should socket into it . Shael seems kind of ovbious but the Frenzy speed is already so fast , I don't know if that would be a waste .

I'm thinking it's not a very high damage weapon , physical damage wise , so I'm thinking a 35-40 ed jewel might be wasteful as well ....

Think Ber ( 20% crushing blow ) or Jah ( ITD ) would serve this weapon well ? I'm a little hesitant to put those high end runes into it , as the wep is a good one but far from perfect .

My merc will already be loaded up with Crushing Blow on his gear , from Guillem's Face on the Helm , Duress on the Armour and Eternity on the wep ....

Which leaves me with Jah , not sure how useful ITD is for melee , being my first Melee char and all .

Sounds silly , but I was also thinking of Amn for 7%LL , to help keep me alive seeing as I'll be naked pretty much , all the GF gear I have is totally geared towards that . Tough decision , your advice is welcomed all

Thanks again
Max

 

[Dogbert]

Thanks Hal , that's exactly the kind of info I needed . I've always played casters and shooters , this is my first Melee build . Funny after playing this game on and off for years and I didn't know that .

SO , on to my next question lol . Scored an AzureWrath just now . I'm going to run it through the socket quest , and I'm really stumped as far as what I should socket into it . Shael seems kind of ovbious but the Frenzy speed is already so fast , I don't know if that would be a waste .

I'm thinking it's not a very high damage weapon , physical damage wise , so I'm thinking a 35-40 ed jewel might be wasteful as well ....

Think Ber ( 20% crushing blow ) or Jah ( ITD ) would serve this weapon well ? I'm a little hesitant to put those high end runes into it , as the wep is a good one but far from perfect .

My merc will already be loaded up with Crushing Blow on his gear , from Guillem's Face on the Helm , Duress on the Armour and Eternity on the wep ....

Which leaves me with Jah , not sure how useful ITD is for melee , being my first Melee char and all .

Sounds silly , but I was also thinking of Amn for 7%LL , to help keep me alive seeing as I'll be naked pretty much , all the GF gear I have is totally geared towards that . Tough decision , your advice is welcomed all

Thanks again
Max

Place a perfect diamond there. That way you don't need any mana leech anymore.
Or Amn rune.
Or Ed jewel.
Or Eth rune if you have low ar.

Check weapon speed calc for more insight.
http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english