Barb build

[Columbine Kid]

Barb build

My GF is playing Diablo 2 and chose the Barb. I have never used the barb and have always used druids and pallys. Her build shes planing is 20 in sword mastery, 20 in iron skin and 20 in natural resistance. Is this a viable build to beat the game in a normal single player game?

 

[vic]

Re: Barb build

You forget the attack skill. If you plan only normal games, use concentrate, frenzy or double swing. Put 1-3 points in natural resist, 1 battle command, ~4 battle orders, ~5 shout (to get a good duration).

Concentrate is the easy way. This skill can do the job in normal games very well (nightmare and hell games too, but you need a lot of patience because you need to kill one monster by time)
Double swing is good but lacks on damage if you dont put points into bash
Frenzy is awesome, but you need one good speed weapon (increased attack speed on the main frenzy weapon) and some IAS gear like gloves from orphan's call set.

 

[buckies]

Re: Barb build

Hey,

First off, I don't think you'll be level 60+ just to clock normal difficulty.

If you mean to clock it through hell, then you may as well do a standard cookie cutter build:

20 Mastery (I would hold off doing this till you've found some end game weapons that will determine what you want). In retrospect I did my points up front on my untwinked barb and would have swapped given the end game items I found.

20 Battle Orders: no brainer here for much more mana and life

20 Shout: Duration syncs with battle orders and is generally preferred to Iron Skin

20 Whirwind: Better than frenzy IMO for cookie cutters. Frenzy tends to be more gear dependent.

1-5 Natural Resists: subject to how much grief you get in hell with your resistances.

1 Berserk: Deal with Physical Immunes in Hell

1 Iron Skin: Nice boost for 1 point with shout

1 Battle Command: +1 skill bonus for 1 point allocation

1 Taunt: handy skill

+ any prerequisites.

So yeah, if you're doing it right through Hell then WW I reckon. However, if just Normal diff then perhaps concentrate (although too slow and boring I reckon). Frenzy can be fun, but is quite gear dependent, especially on the main weapon as mentioned.

 

[Columbine Kid]

Re: Barb build

she does "cheat" and adds "players"...players on 8 player mode in single player

 

[vic]

Re: Barb build

Hey,


20 Whirwind: Better than frenzy IMO for cookie cutters. Frenzy tends to be more gear dependent.


So yeah, if you're doing it right through Hell then WW I reckon. However, if just Normal diff then perhaps concentrate (although too slow and boring I reckon). Frenzy can be fun, but is quite gear dependent, especially on the main weapon as mentioned.

LOL

Frenzy is more gear dependent than ww... are you kidding??!!
Only few runewords can be used with ww (botd, grief, beast, oath) and only in zerk, 3 ranged swords and three or four polearms and spears. There are some uniques, but the damage will sucks on hell.

The situation is more critical in normal, because you don't have access to end game gear, and it's impossible use ww without life and mana leech (not count IAS on weapon to hit ww break points).

And frenzy is less gear dependent because:
1) if you don't have IAS on weapon, you can get IAS on gear (ww is a dependent "IAS weapon", you got no choice here).
2) 3 mana cost. You don't need mana leech.
3) Frenzy has much more damage and attack rating than ww, so even with a low damage weapon you can kill well.

 

[buckies]

Re: Barb build

WW has better crowd control and applicability across more areas of PvM.

IMO, assuming both builds are wearing the same gear, WW would be easier to use.

Leech is an issue in normal, I'll give you that. Life leech is pretty nerfed so that doesn't really matter, but until you can deal out some decent damage mana leech can be problematic.

She'll have a real hard time with hell players 8 if she doesn't have some elite gear.

 

[Barloc]

Re: Barb build

My GF is playing Diablo 2 and chose the Barb. I have never used the barb and have always used druids and pallys. Her build shes planing is 20 in sword mastery, 20 in iron skin and 20 in natural resistance. Is this a viable build to beat the game in a normal single player game?

The attack type you use by the end of normal wont matter, since you wont have the points to stack em. Best to go max mastery/BO first off, with 1 pt in natty res and increase speed.

Your attack skills will probably not have any more then 1 pt in em, but mastery will back them ALL up and makes them ALL useful with the least amount of mana cost to boot.

 

[vic]

Re: Barb build

Yeah, ww is a multi hit skill. But again, you need a weapon wich hit last break point to do a decent damage (over time) and life/mana leech. Without leech, no matter how much good you are, you'll need pot mana every ~5 ww.

And I can't imagine how ww is more easy compared with frenzy. You just need put frenzy in right click and let the barb hit all monsters wich get close to you. But I think that is all about to practice and see what you like more. Particularly I like Frenzy and whirlwind :thumbsup: . Both are great skills.