Stat Distrubtion Question (newbie help please!)

[RetsejSays]

Stat Distrubtion Question (newbie help please!)

Hi. Gonna keep this brief.

I'm 100% new to D2 and I'm wondering about stat distribution. I'm using that berserker guide in the sticky to work on my first character, and I don't know how to distribute stats, the guide is not very specific.

What I'm doing per level is..

1 str
2 dex
2 vit

Can anyone correct me or help me, while considering the guide for berserker, as to how I should be distributing points per level? Thanks guys.

 

[RetsejSays]

Re: Stat Distrubtion Question (newbie help please!)

Well, after an hour of searching and googling (and getting sidetracked by youtube several times), I've come across the answer to my question. I'll go ahead and post my findings in case there is another new player or two wondering the same question I am.

To summarize...as far as stats go, I was curious as to how to distribute them. I'm entirely new to this game, so I've no idea if I need to put points in energy as a barbarian, or load up on strength, or anything, especially for a specific build I was following.

Here's what I found!

Taking this information from the guide here...

Stats points distribution

Strengh: enough to wear your equipment.

Dexterity: enough to have 75% chance to block if using a shield, or enough to wear the weapon if going with two handed weapons.

Vitality: the rest of the remaining points. With zero defense while hitting with Berserk, you need high amount of life more than any other build. For every point allocated in vitality, the barbarian receives 4 points of life.

Energy: none, not a single point allocated. You deal the need of mana by leeching it.

And cross referencing it with a quote from Hal's Concentrate barb Guide...

Strength:

Enough to use your biggest item, counting all of the stats you receive from your gear. Optimal stat placement is always dictated by what gear you either know you will have or plan to have at the end of your barb's career. Thus, if you know you'll have powerful +str items like Enigma, Arreat's, Annihilus, or BotD, try and keep your str low with investments calculated to match the requirements of your largest item. Well-tweaked barbs can usually get away with somewhere between base and 83 strength.

On the other hand, untwinked barbs don't have the advantage of stat forcasting. If you're taking this approach, you might need to go a bit overboard to insure that you can hold whatever gear you might come across; in such a case, 156 is a good, safe number to aim for. Just enough to equip important items like Stormshield (which will give you even more strength for equipping any heavier items you might come across), while not so much that it will be extremely detrimental to your life score.

Dexterity:

If you’re going with shields, you’ll need a hefty amount of dex to maintain max blocking. Stormshield, for example, requires 222 dex at level 99 to achieve max block. Whether you make that you base amount or get there with items is up to you, just so long as you have enough to maintain max block. The benefits of dex in and of itself are rather pitiful, so it's usually prudent to keep it as low as your can, using +dex from gear to meet your total.

On the other hand, if you’re NOT planning to use a shield, then you need only get enough dex to use your weapon. You can leave it at base for big mauls, since there are plenty of ar boosting skills and items in the game, and one of our “tools†— battle cry — knocks off 50% of an enemy’s defense, making him MUCH easier to hit.

Dex does have two small benefits to your character. Aside from assisting in determining your block rate in the formula, every 4 points into dex gives you 1 extra defense, which is useful to the build. Likewise, dex gives you ar at an exchange of 4 points per 1 stat, which is at least some small compensation for the investment.

Vitality:

Everything you have left. While in the past, Ironbarb variants didn’t really require a lot of life, things have changed in 1.10. There are several types of creatures who ignore defense, and with damage from enemies increased across the board, you’ll want a hefty amount of HP to soak up magic and elemental damage in the later parts of Hell. Getting to 3,000 or so with BO is a good amount for PvM. PvP totals need to be as high as possible.

Energy:

None. All of your skills use at or around 2-4 mana, so this is not an issue, even vs. mana burn uniques.

I noticed that the two had very similar requirements. After googling online, I found an (older) more extensive version of Hal's guide, which had an FAQ which stated:

Q. How should I distribute my stats/skills as I level?

A. I personally feel that it is the purpose of a guide to give an outline of where one should go with a character, rather than how to get there; it seems to take a lot of fun and personalization out of playing a character if you follow a strictly dictated path of creation. However, since I get a lot of questions about this, I’ll give a rough outline of creation.

In the early levels, you should focus mainly on getting your pre-reqs and saving skill points for when you hit higher levels. If you already know exactly what weapon you want to use, you can go ahead and start pumping a mastery; else, you may just want to save those points until later (make sure you save at least 3, so you can pick up Berserk, Battle Command, and Natural Resist as soon as you hit 30). Put a point in all of your general skills as they come available. At 18, pick up Concentrate, and drop a point in it each level through 23. Once you reach 24, you can start heavily pumping BO; this should be the first skill you max, as it will greatly boost your life, and provides more damage per level than Concentrate does alone. After that, I would work on Concentrate until it was finished, and then Shout. Your mastery and bash should come last, as the other skills are much more important to your survival.

As for your statistics: strength will be the most important stat early in the game, so for the first two levels, I would go 2 strength/3dex and 3srr/2 dexterity respectively. This will allow you to wear Studded Leather right off the bat. After that, for balanced play, you can drop into the 2-2-1-shift rhythm, where you put 2 points in strength, 2 points in dexterity, and 1 in vitality for a level, then the next level, all the number shift one position to the right (becoming 1 strength, 2 dexterity, 2 vitality, and then 2 strength, 1 dexterity, 2 vitality, and so on and so forth). Do not be afraid to drop full levels into strength or dexterity if needed to use equipment or obtain max block, of course. After awhile, you’ll have enough strength to suit you, and by the end of your character’s career you will have fallen into a 2dex/3vit routine that will keep your life up and blocking maxed.

So yeah, that's the answer. Early on pool some strength, then switch to a 2-2-1 rotating method, and finally when you have enough strength (~156+) you can simply fall back to a 2dex/3vit routine.

Hope this helps someone! I coulda used it, thats for sure. =P