Berserker Offhand

snickersnack

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Dec 23, 2007
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I've never made a berserker before, and I wanted to try something a little different for mfing, so I started one recently (a week ago?). Currently, he's level 70 and just saved Anya in NM. I have a Grief PB in the main hand a Gull dagger with an mf jewel in the offhand. I'm also currently using Silkweave for mana regen. I don't have Enigma in D2R yet; I'll try using Wealth once I start pit running. It occurred to me today that I could socket my other Gull with a MPK jewel and swap to some other boots.

I know that a 6ist sword is the way to maximize mf on the main switch, but making one would severely deplete my mid runes, so I don't want to do that just yet. Maybe later.

Has anyone tried using something with +3 MPK on the offhand? Along with the +2 MPK from Grief, that'd be +5 MPK, which should be enough if you're 1/2-shotting things. If Wealth is used, that's +7 MPK.

A side note: The only jewel I have with mf and MPK only has +1, so that's out. The best one I have with +3 MPK is this:

Aureolic Jewel of Hope
Jewel

Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x3c9f82c0
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+19 to Life
+3 to Mana after each Kill


Also, I do have a 1.07 MPK ring, but that's staying in 1.07. If I ever get another one...
 
The offhand weapon isn't just about the MF - The WSM is also important. When dual wielding, although you don't hit with the offhand, the WSM is averaged. That is why 6 Ist Phase Blade is used, as opposed to a Crystal Sword.

Have a play with the weapon speed calculator.
 
The offhand weapon isn't just about the MF - The WSM is also important. When dual wielding, although you don't hit with the offhand, the WSM is averaged. That is why 6 Ist Phase Blade is used, as opposed to a Crystal Sword.

Have a play with the weapon speed calculator.
Yeah, I noticed from the ws calc that there was something going on there, it just wasn't clear to me that it was averaging. Hmmm. I'm using LoH and Highlord's, so I'm already hitting 9 fpa with gull on the offhand.

Once I get Enigma, I'm going to really consider forwarding my 2/15 barb amulet, but that would weaken my trav barb in 1.14d. 😬 If I do that (or try to craft another one...), then I'll lose the ias from highlord's and maybe need to spend the ists. My Grief has the worst possible roll for a berserker (31, just 1 point short of a bp), so I'll probably need to roll another one of those too.

I'm enjoying the build so far, but the best part has been gearing a new build, which is something that I haven't done in a while.
 
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Related question: what's the best way to get high mf rings? Gambling? Crafting?

I have a 38mf blue ring in 1.14d, but that's staying there. I have three 30mf Nagel's in that patch though, so I could certainly forward one of them. I have around 80 million gold to play with between 1.14d and d2r, and it's not hard to get more, so I'm leaning toward gambling, but it'll take a long, long time, I'd guess, to get anything good.
 
75 ar on nagels is arguably more useful than a few mf if you have some that are less than perfect. In the long haul, you want your enemies to die in one swing, and the effective mf breakpoints mean that in the area of 600+ mf you often need more than 6 more mf to reach the next +1% to uniques
 
That is a great point, but since Grief has ITD defense, does AR even matter for uniques and champions?

With some room left in the inventory, he's at 444mf on the kill switch. I could get that higher, but I haven't tried yet. I think I might top out around 500mf with my currently available gear.

Edit: welllll, I could probably get to 600+mf if I burn 6 ists. I'm still mulling that over.
 
Ehhh... ITD only works on normal monsters, minions, and pets... so AR still very much matters for uniques, champs, and bosses... Amazon Basin ITD page

WoRG
I did not know that. Before responding to @ziambe I did a quick google search, and the wiki I found didn't mention that.

Thanks to both of you. :)

Edit: some steel charms brought my base AR from 810 to 1125. I might try out angelics fi that isn't enough. Also, it's pretty based that there's still stuff to learn about this game after playing it for ~20 years. 😆
 
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So, how’s this guy going? Any tips from a new zerker to an even newer one?
 
It was a long time ago but I don't remember having any mana problems with my Frenzy barb. So I dug up his old Pat report and apparently he ran with zero mana leach of any kind, not sure what I had in terms of mana charms. Though he did get +10 to energy from Oath.

That said I doubt that +3MPK is going to help you even with the Silkweaves. I'm running a Wolfbarb with Grief and Ferral Rage uses 3 mana per hit versus 5 mana for Frenzy and the mana bulb drops very quickly. I dual wield, but only Grief actually gets used and I tried a couple of weapons but finally ended up finding a ring that gave 4% mana leach. This solved my issue completely.

You didn't say what gloves you were using. If your not using Chance guards for the magic find you could look at Ghoulhide which offers mana leach a bonus to AR, +20 life and damage to the undead. I'd also dump the Silkweaves for War Travelers.
 
So, how’s this guy going? Any tips from a new zerker to an even newer one?
I actually put him on the back burner for a while, but now that I have a barb torch, I've dusted him off.

At the moment, I don't have a good Pit map, so I've been doing trav a bit. I'm also going to try out the other level 85 areas before I start rolling maps. The newly level 85 areas in the second half of act 3 are pretty good, but I'll have to remember which locations have the Wailing Beasts. They're not hard to deal with using Concentrate, but it's less efficient.

Sooooo, not much to report.:whistle:
It was a long time ago but I don't remember having any mana problems with my Frenzy barb. So I dug up his old Pat report and apparently he ran with zero mana leach of any kind, not sure what I had in terms of mana charms. Though he did get +10 to energy from Oath.

That said I doubt that +3MPK is going to help you even with the Silkweaves. I'm running a Wolfbarb with Grief and Ferral Rage uses 3 mana per hit versus 5 mana for Frenzy and the mana bulb drops very quickly. I dual wield, but only Grief actually gets used and I tried a couple of weapons but finally ended up finding a ring that gave 4% mana leach. This solved my issue completely.

You didn't say what gloves you were using. If your not using Chance guards for the magic find you could look at Ghoulhide which offers mana leach a bonus to AR, +20 life and damage to the undead. I'd also dump the Silkweaves for War Travelers.
I went with Insight on the merc. That seems to work well, overall. Since the merc isn't geared for trav, he almost always dies there, even at /p1. Still, trav isn't hard for my zerker, mana isn't much of a problem since the council goes down so fast.

I am using Chancies right now, but I might try out Ghoulhide as well.
 
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