Technically speaking, if you're trying to make a massive life barb, the dusk shroud would be better, since you can run less str on it. However, it isn't the best looking armor, and it lacks defense, which is why I go with Enigma myself. The 20-some str I have to put in extra doesn't really matter, since I like the small bit of extra damage, and it just looks better to me. Cloth/leather armors have to be repaired a lot anyways.
Steelrends are better in general, since you get so much extra damage from the crushing/ed on them, and they have a lot of defense to capitalize on with ironskin/shout. IK are nice for all the stats you save, but I'd still do steels over IK in general.
It depends on your idea of fun. I like the berserker axe a lot better; it's statistically more powerful, and it looks cool in my opinion as well - I don't like seeing a barb run around with a massive-*** sword in one hand like that, it just looks awkward to me. Some people like that though, which is why they go for it.
The only stat that really makes the ring stand out to me is the 17 str. The leech is inconsequential, since leech doesn't work as well as it used to, and you don't really need all that much to do well (i believe my barb has around 27% ll and the 7% ml from BotD), but the 17 str would let you run with 17 less, and thus pump more vit. I still don't know whether that would be enough for me to take it over BK though, since the bk adds longer warcry durations, comparable life at higher levels (both from the life on it, and the boost to BO), more damage/ar, more resists and defense, and so on and so forth. I dunno though, you'll probably want another opinion on that.
I don't mind PMs, just always make sure you search to see if it's already been answered before you ask
-Hal