The budget GF barb guide v0.1

[zerth]

The budget GF barb guide v0.1

I noticed that diabloii.net lacks a comprehensive Gold Find barb guide, so I have compiled information from various threads around here to describe what I call the "budget GF barb". So, here goes...

The Budget Goldfind Barb v0.1​

0. Introduction

Rare rings, amulets and helms (of the circlet/coronet/diadem/tiara genre) are highly sought after in order to provide mods that complement the widely used runewords and uniques. There are two ways to get these, to gamble and to craft. Crafting is harder (have to gather, stash and cube ingredients), but offers some fixed mods. Gambling, on the other hand is much simpler (only gold is required) and can be as rewarding given enough patience (and luck). In this guide, I describe a (ridiculously cheap, hence budget on the title) barb build that can gather massive amounts of gold in no time (easily ~1mln / 4 mins). The idea is that the barb wears GF oriented gear and his merc does the killing. The place to run is Hell Travincal Council. The overall cost of the basic (yet very effective) build is not more than 1-1.5 Ist.

1. Barbarian

Inventory1: Barb Torch (10-20 attributes, 10-20 resists, 3 skills)
Inventory2: Gheed’s (80-160 GF, 20-40 MF)
Weapon1: 2 x Ali Baba’s ‘LemLem’ (5*clvl+300 GF, 2*clvl MF, 10-30 dex, 30 mana)
Weapon2: 2 x echoing spears (6 warcries)
Rings: 2 x Dwarf Star (80 life, 200 GF, 30% fire absorb)
Helmet: Immortal King helm ‘LemLem’ (137 GF, 25-40 MF, 2 warcries)
Gloves: Chance Guards (25-40 MF, 200 GF)
Armor: Wealth mage plate ‘LemKoTir’ (300 GF, 100 MF, 10 dex)
Boots: Infernostride (20 FRW, 30 fire resist, 10 max fire resist, 40-70 GF)
Belt: Goldwrap (30 MF, 50-80 GF)
Amulet: echoing amulet (3 warcries)

Anya: 30 resists
Golden Bird: 60 life
Lam Esen: 45 stat points
Den, Radament, Izual: 12 skill points
Level up: 5*(clvl-1) stat points, clvl-1 skill points

Totals (assuming the easily attainable clvl of 85): 3 skills, 11 warcries (using weapon2), 10-20 str, 30-60 dex, 10-20 nrg, 10-20 vit, 30 mana, 140 life, 40-50 resists, 30 fire resist, 10 max fire resist, 30% fire absorb, 20 FRW, 1692-1802 GF, 370-420 MF, 96 skill points, 465 stat points.

Skill point allocation (96):
Howl, Taunt, Find Potion, Battle Cry, War Cry and Battle Command: 1
Battle Orders, Shout: 20
Find Item: 20 (exactly 55 find item with +skills after BC)
Iron Skin: 7 <-- rest go here
Natural Resistance: 20 (exactly 70 resist all with +skills after BC)
Increased Stamina: 1
Increased Speed: 2 (exactly 30 FRW with +skills after BC)

Stat point allocation (465):
Str (70 req): 20-30 depending on torch
Dex (42 req): 0-2 depending on torch
Nrg: base
Vit: 433-445 <-- rest go here

Resists will be 10-20 cold/light/poison and 40-50 fire. Throw in 3-4 fire resist scs to reach 85 fire resist and be virtually immune to council hydras (taking into account absorb from dwarf stars). Reasonable defense (you won’t need it much), nice life, enough mana (after BO, Shout). The rest of the inventory can be filled with GF GCs and SCs, though some space to pickup stuff that usually sell for 35K at vendors is essential.

2. Mercenary

Act2 nightmare offensive merc (might) is the fastest. Normal/Hell defensive (defiance) works too, but is slower. He needs good damage, good attack speed, life leech and to keep bodies intact (no cold damage whatsoever in order for the barb to use Find Item on corpses). Also good resists (maxed fire is a must).

Helm: Crown of Thieves (9-12 life leech, fire resist +33, 50 life, 80-100 GF). Hands down the best option taking into account we are on a budget (else 2soc CoA with rare jewels is better ). Fire resist (enough to max it), good life leech, GF.
Other options: Tal’s, Andariels ‘Ral’

Armor: Stone in eth glitched armor. These can reach 4K defense easily, which makes the merc very difficult to hit after Shout. Also 60 FHR (reaches 8 frame breakpoint) and 15 all resists. Finally +16 str, essential to use most elite polearms at clvl85. Possibly the most expensive item in the guide (easily comparable to the whole barb setup); costs Um, Pul and a ~1K def eth 4 socket glitched armor, which can be traded at Pul-Um.
Other options: Eth Leviathan, eth glitched Treachery.

Weapon: Ethereal Bonehew (270-320 enhanced damage, 30 increased attack speed (IAS), 2 open sockets). It can reach the 65 IAS breakpoint (bp) with 2 Shael, or 1 Shael and Amn for 50 IAS and 7 life leech – in which case a 15 IAS jewel on helm will help reach the 65 bp. Also, quite expensive (~Um).
Other options: Ethereal Tomb Reaver (too pricey), Ethereal upped Hone Sundan.

Things to notice when checking viability of merc equipment combinations (in order of importance):

• No cold damage whatsoever!!! (Duress, Reaper’s Toll for instance)
• Maxed fire resist
• Damage output per second (weapon damage and IAS)
• Good life leech (at least 10 and the more the better)
• Good FHR(aim for at least 30 bp)
• Good defense
• Crushing blow

3. Strategy

Take Travincal WP. Switch to weapon2. Battle Command (x2), Shout, Battle Orders. Switch to weapon1. Enter Temple. Go down to Durance Lvl1. Go back to Temple. Alternatively, if there is a group of Zealots on the right side of the temple head for the upper left corner and tp to town and back. Battle Cry (lasts 24 seconds; cast it once in a while), spam War Cry (drink mana pots). When everyone is down (or only a physical immune is left toying with your merc) use Find Item on all corpses. Collect gold and nice magic / rares. TP to town, ID with Cain, sell to Ormus (keep good stuff of course). Unload gold to stash (if there is room), Save&Exit. If there is a council member with Conviction or Fanaticism better Save&Exit (Fanaticism can be done, but if you have Amplify Damage cast on your merc he will probably die).
Average gold per run should be well over 500K (more as you tweak equipment over time) in about 2 mins per run. Nightmare councils can arguably have comparable results (gold/time) as they are faster and safer, so you can put GF equipment on merc too, but you won’t want to miss the occasional good unique/rare/charm that can drop in Hell Councils. The gold should be muled to a char with clvl 90+ (eventually the barb won’t have to mule as you level him) who will gamble with a -15% vendor prices Gheeds in inventory and equipped an Edge bow (another -15% vendor prices).

 

[chien]

Very nice This is almost exactly what I am using as in our discussion in my thread!! 2 suggestions:
1. Other the fire resistance, the second important resistance will be light. In many occasions, the unique council members will be light enhanced. If any of them also spawn conviction, me and merc are deadmeat
2. Leap is another great skill other than Wcry. Leap will knock back everything on the screen at higher level (~20 total). Wcry has only 10% chance to stun champion/unique. However, this is purely personal preference. Either way works!

Nice works as I am thinking to write one but I am too lazy

Chien

 

[zerth]

Thank you. Leap is an alternative, which I am sure works well. In order to max it, you should ditch Iron Skin probably. I will add it in the next version (when I get enough feedback). Lightning comment is noted as well

 

[zerth]

In order for people to realize the potential of the 'budget GF barb', I'll refer them to this thread. Next season, if I am still playing D2, I won't start out with a sorc

 

[MalVeauX]

Looks good, but some things to add/comment...

Heya,

Well written guide, but I have a few suggestions & criticisms, largely because I love to make Goldfind barbs and I love to gamble, so my opinions are based on me doing lots and lots of Hell Council on a budget because frankly, a lot of the things you've listed above are more expensive than even what I use, and I have no issues with Hell Council unless I just get a really horrible spawn (conviction and fant with `extra fast', just save & exit even with near godly gear), which I do at level ** and merc level ** (it's a good idea to be higher level than the Council when you fight them, it has more impact on your ability to hit them and their inability to hit you than simply having huge numbers of DEF and AR).

Please note I will be stressing even more tight-fisted in terms of budget because to me, two Ists is expensive. Whereas for the same cost or less, I'd rather use lesser gear and focus on a few choice upgrades (specifically upgrading some uniques to make them better, and purchasing Ethereal items for the Merc). All of which is not neccessary for a real budget build, but are there for those who end up getting wealth through their gambles or Council finds--after all, they're not bad for magic find since you'll have a ton of that too!

So on with the points:

Barb Gear:

Torch/Gheeds - Not really budget in my opinion. A lot of people never see these, nor buy them. I would not use them as a basis in any budget build. I would consider them just `if you have 'em, use 'em' type things, but not part of the budget. You could even just lump the Anni in there too if a Torch is involved. I wouldn't though for a budget setup.

7x Lem Runes - 6 Lem runes beyond Wealth is not really budget in my opinion. Maybe for some this is budget, but for others that's hard to get unless they buy them which may or may not be easy. Lem runes give the highest gold find % added to the items, but I would suggest that any ~30% Jewels that are easily found just doing Trist runs in your early first 14 levels can also be used here. You lose some gold % total, but the cost/recieve ratio here is bar none better in terms of budget. The Wealth is essential, so one Lem is definitely needed; 10 pgems can buy one easily here on the trade forum. But 6 more is about 60 pgems worth, and we're getting high on cost unless you have easier equivs to trade away (puls). So I would just note cheaper efficient alternatives, like Jewels with gold find %.

Other Gear - The other gear, I'm in agreement with. Alibabas are simply necessary. They give huge MF and huge GF. They are not the cheapest things to get, but I would certainly recommend that if someone has to spend their resources to get things for this build to favor the Alibabas before those extra 6 Lem runes needed to stick into everything. The alis give way more per item than those additional Lems and will cost less. So if this is budget, they should be #1 on the budget next to Wealth armor and Chancies. Wealth is absolutely essential, so mark it off as #2 requirement for the build. Chanceguards are ideal here as well, and I'd call them #3. If you get the two Alis, Wealth and Chances, you're basically set. The rest can be nearly anything and you'll get plenty of gold on a budget. I would call that your core budget for a budget gold finder. The rest of the budget should go to the Merc since he has to do the real work and he needs very specific gear. After these items are secured, I'd go for the Dwarves and all that. They give the bulk and should be focused on. 500% from wealth & chanices alone. Another 500%+ from the two Alibabas without any socketing yet. Getting 1000% right away from just 4 items is budget/core.

Every gold find character should have Edge in their stash. It's cheap to make and the vendor reduction means more gambling. While you mention muling to a level 90, not everyone will have a level 90 so gambling with your gold finder is more budget and lowend oriented.

Merc Gear:

Cannot Be Frozen - This mod is 100% necessary. You need it. In your listed Merc setup, nothing prevents him from being slapped cold. You will be standing in Blizzards and the Council themselves often will chill you. If your merc is chilled, he's screwed. He will not hit, not leech, not kill, and end up shattering before your eyes as you squeek back into a portal to town. The easiest places are Armor & Helm to get this mod. I would go straight to the Armor because one easy and cheap budget armor that is perfect for your merc is the Duriel's Shell. It has the resists. It has the life. It has good defense. It has bonus STR which is often needed even on high level characters for certain high end polearms. And it has `cannot be frozen.' This is the armor of choice in my opinion. In terms of budget, if you have a little extra to spend, spend your Lem/Ko to upgrade your Ethereal Duriel's Shell to an Elite version for over 2k defense base. Then socket it with whatever your merc needs, even a Lem if you're going out of budget, or a gold find % jewel if you're in a budget still.

If you can get `cannot be frozen' on your weapon or helm, then an Eth Fort is ideal, even though not budget at all. Budget armor still is the Duriel's Shell. Just over a budget would be Eth up'd Duriel's Shell. Rich folk can use Eth E-Bugged Fort and Cham their Eth Up'd Crown of Thieves and use an EbotD Great Poleaxe. If you have these though, you probably have no real reason to gamble other than holding out for that one godly circlet that you'll never, ever see.

Merc Weapon - Budget polearm #1 is Insight. Everyone who wants a cheap massive damage pole should be using Insight if on a budget. Meditation has a huge benefit to the Barb too, which I'll get into in the Skills suggestions, because the barb should be spamming Warcry and Battlecry and Taunt and other things, which will empty your pool fast, especially with mana burn, which you will meet up with every run to every other run basically. A Thresher hits nearly 500 without even being Eth with Insight and is speedy. Colossal Voulges get nearly 900 damage with insight when Eth. These would be budget options. Ethereal uniques that cost Um+ should not be a budget weapon, but more an ideal weapon. Frankly you can get a duped HR based EBotD pole/spear for nearly what an Eth Tombreaver costs, though I don't recommend it since I don't believe in using/trading for dupes.

Crown of Thieves is hands down the best Helm to take here on a budget and even not on a budget. It costs like 2~3 pgems. That's cheap and it's perfect, as it has massive +DEX (great for polearms) and life leech, and that lovely gold find. It has it all. Socketing it with an IAS jewel, or some extra resistance is a smart idea. Eth and Up if you can afford it. Otherwise, just as is, is perfect. Again, rich people can cham it and use Fort armor or IAS armor or something.

Skills:

I really do not agree with the skills here completely. I do agree in maxing Item Find, BattleOrders and Shout. But I do not agree with StoneSkin and Natural Resistances getting more than 1 and 6~8 points respectively. Those are wastes in my opinion because your barb will not get hit as often (or should not be) and will have a huge life pool on top of that and you can drink pots (budget and you will see tons of reds and joovs!), and the other reason is because so long as you have some resists to keep you out of the negative area, you'll live hyrdas easily and FE's even when Amped. The only thing to watch for will be the megathink lighting bursts if you're standing on a member when he gets poled. Even with resists that will kill you sometimes. You're better off not focusing on natural resists. Get it to 40% and stop. With Anya, you have 70% res all which brings you to -30%. Your gear may or may not give you more res, based on what you choose to use. So long as you get close to 0 res, you're completely fine here. It's your Merc who needs max res.

I max Warcry. The reason is because the stun length is increased. When you jump in the middle of the council and they swarm you, stunning all but three of them is a huge deal. You don't have to max this skill if you just spam it. But I max it just in case I meet mana burn and only cast once in a while, so longer stun length is more important to me. After making many Barbs for this, I end up always going back to this skill because it's just that useful. I can stun things for my merc to kill at his leisure. It also stops Vampires/Healers/Casters from casting. So if you run up on three vamps who want to fireball you or cast meteor, just Cry them stunned and keep them silent while your merc does his thing. Taunt is used right along with it. Taunt casters and council members to you to thin mobs. Then stun them. Let the merc kill.

So my suggestion is:

20 Find Item (some go 14, I go max, every % counts here)
20 BattleOrder (duh!)
20 Shout (duh!)
20 Warcry (as per above, stun is a big deal)
6 Natural Resists
1 in reqs/wonders (leap is one of them, knock back can be essential some runs).
This also includes that you will be using Taunt/Battlecry very often even though they're 1 pointers.

Strategy Tips

Before you get to the runs, make sure you and your merc are at least equal to or greater than the level of the Council. It has a big impact on their odds to hit you and you them. Hell Council are level **. So try to get to level ** if you can stomach getting there. Get level 89 or higher if you can manage. You can do it at level 80~85 but if you can take another day to get higher level, do it.

#1 is to take care of those annoying blizzard casters and vampires who cast meteor/fireball. They must be taken out. They will chill you and/or your merc unless you are wise and have cannot be frozen gear (your barb will not have this likely, but your merc 100% should). It's also just more damage you don't need to take while tanking the council. Taunt to shut them up, they come to you, then Warcry to stun. Merc will take them out in one stab or two. If you can, take out those damn snakes that spit poison, they're a serious pain. If you want, just take an antidote each run and raise resistances higher with it temporarily for very little and no gear requirement. Alternatively, if non-casters are mobbed, Howl them away and keep going.

#2 Assessing whether this run is good or whether it's time to Save & Exit. If you see Conviction, just leave. Seriously. You may get experienced enough and have the gear to do it, but overall, it's going to slow you down and cost you gold when your Merc drops, or worse, when you drop. Fant is ok and so is might and AMP and all that. You'll get it often. If you see those with conviction, just leave. If you see HolyFreeze, look around at others. If they're not Fant/Might and have HolyFreeze then maybe do it. I usually pass on HolyFreeze as well since it goes right through cannot be frozen gear and slows you. It will end up being your death unless you can somehow get your merc to only stab that one council guy with Freeze on. It's not easy. It'll slow you down on the run. Pass Conviction and Holyfreeze. The rest is game. If you see Physical immunes, don't fret. Kill the others and hork them. Move on. If he won't stop stabbing a PI member, just use `Leap' over and over. It will shove the member away the merc will start to attack a closer one. This is extremely handy and only 1 point in Leap is needed.

#3 Crowd Control. Howl, Taunt, BattleCry, Warcry and Leap. Use them often. They're the difference between `EZ' and "Slain" or "Ressurect." Taunt the casters and running members. Howl the mobs of normal monsters away. BattleCry & Warcry stack--so use both! High battlecry lowers their damage output and makes their DEF squat, so you hit every time. Use it to save your life. It's free damage reduction without using gear. It works on all the Council too. Warcry will stun the unnamed members, use it! It's how you live through fant/might/extra fast while being hammered by hydras. They don't do anything while stunned and it's free to leech them and start horking. That way you only tank the 3 named guys who rarely attack all at once unless you just get a really bad spawn where they are all outside together. Leap is a huge deal. Use it to break up the mob! If they're jammed together and have extra fast and all that, they will clobber you and hydra you. Leap will mess them up, and break your merc out of tight situations so that you can get in there and Warcry, or get him to step off a PI's grill and attack something else. Leap to break mobs.

Don't fill your Inv with grand charms. I do it sometimes, and really, the extra % is not worth it. You're going to get a lot of gold regardless. You will have a ton of MF and GF already. Pick up the wands/armors/staves and sell them for the extra gold. It will be more than the % would have added to the piles generally. Also, you want room to pick up the crap ton of charms/jewels/jewelry that will drop, they always give you things to pick up, always!

Finally of course, remember future gold finders that faster runs and no death during the runs is more desirable than having the maximum/most % gold find possible. Just like in magic find, you want to find that good median between survival and killing speed and then get as much gold find % on top of that, not the other way around. I'd rather do 5 easy runs on the Council and walk away without a death or having to buy my merc back, rather than 3 very difficult and slow runs. Also, remember that the Council isn't guaranteed to give you gold. Sometimes you'll do a hard fight and get a bunch of TP scrolls and bolt packs and the entire Sigon's collection. So focus on speed not maximum gold! That's how you get more gold. And I can't stress enough how important it is for you to not try and kill each Council every game--you will save & exit some games. Only do the ones you know are easy. Don't walk into that conviction trap thinking your super gear will do the job or that you have skills--your merc is AI based, you will likely fail or at least he will if you're great at swallowing reds and purples. Just suck it up and go to the next run.

-- Again, good compilation and guide, please take the above as positive criticism and suggestions!

Cheers, :grin: :laugh:

 

[chien]

Here I am with my 0.2 cents again ? Here are few more suggestions and reply to MalVeauX comments (in positive ways, hopefully):

1. Barb torch and Gheed are not expensive as far as I know for now. I get mine with pGems ? All you need is low torch and low gheed for the beginning. Once you get better items (by gambling or self-found goodies), you can upgrade to better ones. Low barb torch costs me like 15 pgems, as well as a low gheed (low gf, low mf but -15% vendor ).

2. CBF is good but NOT really necessary. I have asking this question to Smackin (have a nice GF barb thread earlier). He suggested that CBF is not really critical in Hell Council runs. I switch my duriel shell to treachery. I don’t really feel the need for CBF. However, I do agree that it is better to get rid of these priests if they do spawn. The blizzard from them is for sure very annoying. Otherwise, since both you and your merc have good fire resistance/absorption, vampire’s meteor won’t really hurt much anyway.

3. I agree that maxed iron skin is not necessary. Since you stun/knock back everything anyway, you don’t get hit that often IMHO. However, again, since this GF/MF build only need very limited skill points (no combat skill), you are free to dump points to any skill you like (I have 19 points unused after maxing shout, BO and some in FI (lvl2x after +skills) and some in Leap (lvl20 after +skills). I might as well dump everything to natural resistance despite the diminishing return ? I simply have too many skill points to use!! LOL.

4. You don’t have to Lem’ed your gears in the beginning. I’ve used non-socketed dual ali baba for a long time. They still work well. Again, you can put more lems here and there once you get richer by GF/MFing ?

5. I also have IK helm for my barb for now (2 open sockets). It boosts Wcries skills and some GF/MF built-in. You can put pT or Lem in later if you prefer more MF or GF. Also, it looks COOL on the barb ?

6. I think it would be great to have your merc reach 65% IAS bp (6 frames attack). Once you combine with good damage weapon (eth/non-eth bonehew, eth/non-eth upped hone sudan/ eth/non-eth insight……), you will kill much faster. My personal experience is that eth upped sundan (socket one shael)+treachery+CoT is a really nice combo. You will be amazed how fast the councils dropped with fast CB from Hone Sundan ?

7. I agree that Save/exit is sometimes that best strategy ? especially when you see conviction+light enchancted going together ? Even when the fade is trigger, my merc still dies sometimes. Also, I’ll agree that if you see physical immune, just skip him. It really not worth the time to kill him. My merc can kill him with the trigger venom. But, it takes a while

8. The reason for me to use Leap instead of WarCry is that the radius of Leap is huge compared to WarCry (even worse for BattleCry). I simply leaping around about half-screen away those light enchanted/holy freeze/…. baddies. However, good light resistance is definitely good when you are hit by those deadly charged bolts.

Go go go, GF barb ?

Chien

 

[zerth]

Very constructive criricism from MalVeauX! I agree this guide is biased to what I had available (I didn't make the barb on ladder start now, did I?). I have to refactor it to reflect REALLY budget options as first and you gave me some very good pointers. Will do (once I get some time). Now, onto some comments (chien has pointed some of these, but I'll second him anyway)

1. Of course, budget is something relative, and I do not mean relative to existing wealth. Nowadays a low-med barb torch and Gheed's is dirt cheap. I got mine 12/18 barbT free (and didn't even ask for it...). On ladder start it was significantly more expensive.

2. CBF is not necessary in my experience. Maybe the 65 IAS bp and 60 FHR has something to do with it, though. Of course, Duriel's still gets the budget armor spot

3. I have 32 spare points on my GF barb. I just noted that maxed NR gives EXACTLY 70, as well as maxed FI gives exactly 55% (taking into account +skills from other gear and BC). They seem like a reasonable choice. Given that in practice you need Leap either War Cry, and you don't need Iron Skin, you can just put IS points to either one of them.

 

[chien]

In fact, the most expensive item is probably the "wealth" armor since you will need Lem (~20 pgems value in east ladder) for it. Another cheap option is goldskin armor. I use it for a while and pass to my merc for a while before the upgrade for both of us It has 100%GF , good def for low char, nice +35 All resist and CHEAP

Chien

 

[Uncle_Mike]

A few remarks:

1. crafted belts are quite often better than goldwrap unless one insists to use it for additional mf - they quite often spawn with decent goldfind along with strenght, life, resistances etc. I'd advise mesh blood belts (tal, pruby, jewel, meshbelt transmuted in cube)

2. barb torches are among the cheapest torches out there, get one for added 3 to warcries, natural resistance, bo, shout etc. IMO a random barb torch is a totally affordable item.

3. random gheed's fortune is damn cheap, they drop all the time, you don't have to trade for it, you will most likely find one in travincal if you worry about cost.

4. rare boots are quite often better than infernostrides - goldfind spawns along with mf, max res is only good if you have 75% fire res to begin with, and with dual dwarfs you are rather safe from fire anyway. I'd prefer cold/light res for situations where council members are lightning enchanted or there is a group of those dudes (can't remember their name atm lol) who cast blizzard at you (hierophants?)

5. desired level of the barb - you do not need a high level character for gambling unless you want to gamble for craftingamulets (lvl 93 is a must then IMO). Circlets and rings are perfectly fine gambled in the eighties etc. level **-90 is a rather reasonable aim easily achieved with a bit of baalrunning. My barb is lvl 90, levelled from 85 in hell travincal only.

6. random stats blades of alibaba are damn cheap, how is that not a budget choice of weapon? Unless you want them with 15 dex and perfecd ed% they should be available for pgems. I actually prefer alibabas to 6 lem weapons because I don't mind having decent mf on the barb.

7. lem runes - I would say that they are required, if you use gf% jewels you will have to use hels to unsocket ali babas later. I'd use plain ali-babas and socket them with lems even if that means having a 1lem ali baba for a while.

8. Duriel's shell is not a budget choice for an armor merc - it's most likely THE CHOICE OF ARMOR (eth for end game). I personally use eth fortitude (blasphemy! - despite the cold armor and cold damage on my mercs gear corpses don't shatter often, perhaps I am lucky).

9. budget helms - if you use andariel's visage and are on a budget ral it - fire res is important in travincal, it's the cookie cutter choice of socket for andariels visage anyway for budget characters

10. Colossus Voulge isn't that good of a choice for its' massive str req of 210 for non eth version. Even 200 for the eth version is quite steep and requires a high level merc or sacrifices in gear to reach the strenght requirement

11. I'd never max find item - diminishing returns are there. Can't remember if I invested more than 1 point in it, but I'd definitely not max it.

12. What about physical immune council bosses? Unless you have berserk as backup (my barb has 5-lem runemaster on switch - far from good btw) do you just leave games? I zerk physical immune bosses to help my merc.

I've probably forgotten a lot here, might add more later. Also, I don't think that budget build should equal total welfare. Each class needs at least some investment in order to become effective.

 

[chien]

My humble experiences:

I’d agree 1-7. Few comments on others:

8. Again, from my experience, CBF is good to have but not necessary. Nevertheless, Duriel’s is definitely a good merc armor (eth or non-eth) for it s good resistance, CBF, strength and life boost. Fort is definitely a good armor for merc.

9. Don’t think andy’s helm will be budget helm ? It cost at least a PUL or more if I am correct about the price.

10. Agree. Eth threasher is a better choice. However, it is expensive if it is 4OS since it can be used in other higher end RWs.

11. Again, for this build (my char, too), we don’t attack at all ? There are too many skill points left. Max FI (or near max) and NR are good for left-over points despite the diminishing return.

12. From my limited experience, I’ve encountered physical immune probably 1 or less in 10 runs. I will just skip him after killing/horking others. I found I saw conviction/light enchanted more often ?

Chien

 

[CableDayspring]

Just to add to the mix I found the following to work well on the merc:

Guardian Angel

I chose the Guardian angel because it allowed me to get him to 90 all resist in NM. I found that this greatly improved his survivability.

Now, getting away from "budget" a bit though I put an Um rune in the guardian angel and plan to put an Um in the Crown of Thieves and a 15% all resist jewel in the Hone Sundan with a couple of Amns.

This will get him to 90 all resists in Hell.

 

[chien]

I think you might not really need 90 all resists. The most important resist in hell councils is Fire. Then, Light occasionally. From my experience, he survived without any problem even the fade is not triggered if there is no conviction/light enchant guys around. If the fade is triggered, no problem at all. The only problem is that he kills physical immune very slow (only rely on the venom). I'll just skip it.

Chien

 

[Gimmershred]

if you have trouble keeping your merc alive, since he's so budget, then use
1x bo-weapon +1x wand with lifetap charges on your switch. They can be shopped or traded for a few pgems. This is with i use , the loss of +3 bo/shout doesn't matter much. I also like a high lvl battlecry better then high lvl shout, although you can't use battlecry+lifetap at the same time.
Also if you have trouble then don't run to durance lvl 1 to pop back up, but lure the council members out in pairs. They might walk back and forward very fast but try to catch em with warcry on the edge of that. I always do that when 1 of them has conviction aura..

Also guillaume helm on your merc combined with a duriels shell is pretty nice. Eth Insight is also nice because it can have up to +6 critical strike wich means a 46% chance of doing double damage.

It's ashame obedience has cold damage on it, it's such a killer merc polearm for the price of a ko and a fal.

If you really can't live with the physical immunes staying alive, i suggest you make a lawbringer (amn lem ko) and hit the physical immune until decrepify casts. Then switch back to your goldfindweapons and let your merc kill.
Another option is gavel of pain amp charges, but the str req is too high.
Or a Reapers toll for your merc, but it has cold damage.

 

[zerth]

Uming a guardian angel is overkill (and way off budget). The council dropped a Duriel's Shell the other day and I put it on the emrc a bit, frankly he didn't miss the eth 3.3K def Fortitude a bit. And I am talking Hell councils here. (Rest of equipment is eth ShaelAmn Bonehew and CoT with 15IAS jewel).
An update will come, I am just too busy with work atm. Have to test survivability of Duriel's Shell, crap (non eth CV) Insight and CoT. 15 IAS jewels on CoT and Duriel's. I think this is the most budget it can get and if it is doable will be a hell of a good ladder starting char. Even if it's not, starting with NM councils before upgrading to a better weapon is ok.

 

[zerth]

finally an update

The Budget Goldfind Barb v0.2


0. Introduction

Rare rings, amulets and helms (of the circlet/coronet/diadem/tiara genre) are highly sought after in order to provide mods that complement the widely used runewords and uniques. There are two ways to get these, to gamble and to craft. Crafting is harder (have to gather, stash and cube ingredients), but offers some fixed mods. Gambling, on the other hand is much simpler (only gold is required) and can be as rewarding given enough patience (and luck). In this guide, I describe a (ridiculously cheap, hence budget on the title) barb build that can gather massive amounts of gold in no time (easily ~1mln / 4 mins). The idea is that the barb wears GF oriented gear and his merc does the killing. The place to run is Hell Travincal Council.

1. Barbarian

Inventory1: Barb Torch (10-20 attributes, 10-20 resists, 3 skills)
Inventory2: Gheed's (80-160 GF, 20-40 MF)
Weapon1: 2 x Ali Baba's 'LemLem' (5*clvl+300 GF, 2*clvl MF, 10-30 dex, 30 mana)
Weapon2: 2 x echoing spears (6 warcries)
Rings: 2 x Dwarf Star (80 life, 200 GF, 30% fire absorb)
Helmet: Immortal King helm 'LemLem' (137 GF, 25-40 MF, 2 warcries)
Gloves: Chance Guards (25-40 MF, 200 GF)
Armor: Wealth mage plate 'LemKoTir' (300 GF, 100 MF, 10 dex)
Boots: Infernostride (20 FRW, 30 fire resist, 10 max fire resist, 40-70 GF)
Belt: Goldwrap (30 MF, 50-80 GF)
Amulet: echoing amulet (3 warcries) mana or gf are nice as 2nd mod

Anya: 30 resists
Golden Bird: 60 life
Lam Esen: 45 stat points
Den, Radament, Izual: 12 skill points
Level up: 5*(clvl-1) stat points, clvl-1 skill points

Totals (assuming the easily attainable clvl of 85): 3 skills, 11 warcries (using weapon2), 10-20 str, 30-60 dex, 10-20 nrg, 10-20 vit, 30 mana, 140 life, 40-50 resists, 30 fire resist, 10 max fire resist, 30% fire absorb, 20 FRW, 1692-1802 GF, 370-420 MF, 96 skill points, 465 stat points.

Skill point allocation (96):
Howl, Taunt, Find Potion, Battle Cry, War Cry and Battle Command: 1
Battle Orders, Shout: 20
Find Item: 20 (exactly 55 find item with +skills after BC)
Iron Skin: 6 <-- rest go here
Natural Resistance: 20 (exactly 70 resist all with +skills after BC)
Increased Stamina: 1
Increased Speed: 2 (exactly 30 FRW with +skills after BC)
Leap: 1

Stat point allocation (465):
Str (70 req): 20-30 depending on torch
Dex (42 req): 0-2 depending on torch
Nrg: base
Vit: 433-445 <-- rest go here

Resists will be 10-20 cold/light/poison and 40-50 fire. Throw in 3-4 fire resist scs to reach 85 fire resist and be virtually immune to council hydras (taking into account absorb from dwarf stars). Reasonable defense (you won't need it much), nice life, enough mana (after BO, Shout). The rest of the inventory can be filled with GF GCs and SCs, though it is probably more profitable (and definitely more fun) to leave the space empty to gather loot and possibly sell it to city vendors after Cain ids. Lastly, the Lems can be socketed as you gain more wealth, they are not required for the build to work.

2. Mercenary

Act2 nightmare offensive merc (might aura). He needs good damage, good attack speed, life leech (ll) and to keep bodies intact (no cold damage whatsoever in order for the barb to use Find Item on corpses). Also good resists (maxed fire is a must). Such a merc at lvl 85 has 49 base resists in hell, 186 str, 150 dex and 1767 life.

Helm: Crown of Thieves (9-12 life leech, fire resist +33, 50 life, 80-100 GF). Hands down the best option taking into account we are on a budget. Fire resist (enough to max it), good ll, GF.
Armor: Duriel's Shell (20 prismatic, 30 cold resist, +15str, life, cannot be frozen). You can socket it with a perfect ruby for +38 life or a 15 ias jewel (see below).
Weapon: This is the most crucial item of the build and will make a difference wether you are ready to do Hell Councils effectively or should stich to Nightmare Councils for the moment. I list the most viable options below:

• Insight 'RalTirTalSol' in an elite polearm. The budget choice is a Colossus Voulge, which requires 210 str, while the merc has 201. Socket a Perfect Amethyst in Merc's CoT. Decent damage, +%attack rating, meditation aura, which will allow your barb to spam War Cry. Socket a 15 ias jewel on Duriel's shell to reach 8 frames per attack (fpa). Not absolutely hell viable.
• Bonehew (unique Ogre Axe). Nice damage, 30 ias, 2 open sockets. Socket it with an Amn and a Shael. Also socket a 15 ias jewel on CoT. This nets you 65 IAS (6 fpa) and 16-19 ll. Not absolutely hell viable.
• Eth Hone Sundan (unique Yari). 45% crushing blow, 3 open sockets. Socket it with 2xShael for 6.5 fpa and an Amn for 16-19 total ll. CoT can be socketed with a perfect ruby for +38 life. Needs upgrade with cube recipe which costs a Pul. Hell viable.
• Eth Bonehew. costs ~2xPul. Very good damage, 30 ias, 2 open sockets. Socket it with an Amn and a Shael. Also socket a 15 ias jewel on CoT. This nets you 65 IAS (6 fpa) and 16-19 ll. Hell viable and the best option from the ones listed in my opinion.
• Eth Insight 'RalTirTalSol' in an elite polearm. A 4 socket eth colossus voulge costs ~Um and requires 200 str. Good damage, +%attack rating, meditation aura, which will allow your barb to spam War Cry. Socket a 15 ias jewel on CoT to reach 8 frames per attack (fpa). Hell viable.

Obviously there are more combinations that can work, I have just tried to list the more 'budget' options. I list below things to notice when checking viability of merc equipment combinations:

• No cold damage whatsoever!!! (Duress, Reaper's Toll for instance)
• Maxed fire resist
• Damage output per second (weapon damage and IAS)
• Good life leech (at least 10 and the more the better)
• Maxed lightning/cold/poison resists
• Crushing blow
• Defense
• Faster hit recovery (FHR)

3. Strategy

Take Travincal WP. Switch to weapon2. Battle Command (x2), Shout, Battle Orders. Switch to weapon1. Enter Temple. If the entrance is blocked use Leap. Go down to Durance Lvl1. Go back to Temple. Alternatively, if there is a group of Zealots on the right side of the temple head for the upper left corner and tp to town and back. Battle Cry (lasts 24 seconds; cast it once in a while), spam War Cry (drink mana pots). When everyone is down (or only a physical immune is left toying with your merc) use Find Item on all corpses. Collect gold and nice magic / rares. TP to town, ID with Cain, sell to Ormus (keep good stuff of course). Unload gold to stash (if there is room), Save&Exit. If there is a council member with Conviction or Fanaticism better Save&Exit (Fanaticism can be done, but if you have Amplify Damage cast on your merc things are difficult).
Average gold per run should be well over 500K (more as you tweak equipment over time) in about 2 mins per run. Nightmare councils can arguably have comparable results (gold/time) as they are faster and safer, so you can put GF equipment on merc too, but you won't want to miss the occasional good unique/rare/charm that can drop in Hell Councils. The gold should be muled to a char with clvl 90+ (eventually the barb won't have to mule as you level him) who will gamble with a -15% vendor prices Gheeds in inventory and equipped an Edge bow (another -15% vendor prices).

 

[Hilperi]

So, I made a GF baba and I'm having some trouble killing the hell counsils, I dont mean that I'm dying or anything, its just sooo slow.

I didnt go quite the same build as this guide is and maxed leap, it realy made all the difference for surviving the counsils, before I got leap I had to tp to town way too often, got manaburned while warcrying etc, after maxing leap the only thing I cant kill is phys immunes, and I mean even conv LE counsils go down after some placement issues, I still have some extra skillpoints that I'm not sure where to put with 10base natural resists and find item.

The problem is killing speed, I have noneth bonehew 313%, duriels shell and CoT, he just takes way too much time to kill even a normal counsil, I was thinking about maby making a treachery for the ias boost and using hone sundan for crushing blow (3x shael + ias jewel on CoT should get the last breakpoint?) the only problem is that I only have 179% normal hone sundan, and I'm not realy sure if it would be enough even when upped?

All of these would come with some cost too, as my build has so far been pretty much from self found stuff and few cheap bought items, I wouldnt realy like to spend my only few "high" runes to buy eth hone sundan, not that I know what they are worth, but I got the feeling that highend ed% eth is not that cheap.

I also hate it when I have to leap around the phys immune mob and lure my merc to the other mobs at the same time, so some kind of phys immune counter would be nice too, maby the lawbringer runeword to swap for merc? I dont think I would hit them too well to use it myself?

 

[zerth]

As I point out on the guide non eth Bonehew/Duriel's/CoT is not absolutely hell viable, meaning that even if you're skilled you will over time have inferior results in hell councils than doing nightmare councils. Leap is a good option, but what I hate most is the fact that the knockback gets the monsters out of merc range, while warcry leaves them standind (possible autohit bonus too? - not sure) infront of him. The occasional mana burn will show up, but you can just leap/run to another spot, preferably one that puts your merc between you and the mana burn monster.

These days I use eth Bonehew 315 ed ShaelAmn, CoT 15 IAS jewel and Fortitude and the council goes down really fast. I had pretty good results before switching to Fortitude though, with Duriel's/Stone.

Problems (that possibly cannot be solved by items):
Conviction: can be done, but you need to be lucky (either your merc targets the aura chap fast, or he stays in the outer temple and you clean up inside first, or you do not get lightning enchanted or physical immunes so the merc leeches and makes up for the increased fire damage). Overally Save & Exit is a time saver though.
Physical Immunes. You cannot kill them in reasonable time, also create the hussle of merc repositioning if he targets them. Not dangerous if you're paying some attention, but a hussle.
Fanaticism + Amplify Damage: Can be done, but needs very high ll and damage/sec.

I wouldn't switch any of the weapon slots to other stuff on this build (you can't hit anything tbh). Most interesting option is a LT wand to replace one BO stick on switch, but it's just not something I would do.

 

[Hilperi]

The leap knockback is not realy an issue for me, as the walls stop the knockback eventually and after that none of them move or cast anything ever again, the great thing about leap is that it nullifies fana/conv aura, you can leap outside the range of conv so that even if they would get some hydras out, they still wouldnt hurt you. Merc will have 30+ fireresist with conv and enough LL to keep alive anyways, only problem is LE's with conv, but few pullbacks usually gets them to a position that the lightning doesnt hit the merc and they will die with ease.

My killspeed seems to be better after I leveled from ** to 90 today as the merc seems to hit the mobs better, I'm not sure if its just a glitch but did a few runs in 2mins today as my previous fastest was around 3mins (counting only the time to kill the counsils, not looting or running etc).

I supose I could try to get an eth bonehew, but fortitude is a bit out of my bankroll, I dont realy have even a single high rune yet. How much more dmg the eth brings to the weapon? I know its +50% base or so, but how much is that in the end, my bonehew is 115-598dmg with 313% ed.

 

[zerth]

Yes, it's +50% base which gets multiplied by weapon's ED. The 315% ed eth Bonehew my merc's carrying shows 174-900 damage. My lvl 89 merc has 175-196 base damage, 1200-4960 with might on and Bonehew equiped and 1901-7861 with Fortitude.

IIRC Hell Council members are mlvl 91 so if you are significantly lower level you get a penalty on chance to hit. Your method with Leap sounds interesting btw.

 

[Jaquiezz]

I've wanted to make a GF barb for my first major MF char of this ladder season, but the main deterrent is getting to hell without actually having any skills and relying on my merc to kill. It isn't very budget to pay for a rush, and most people aren't willing to doll out free ones. Any ideas?