Entering hell, single pass untwinked Frenzy, any advice?

duck

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Dec 13, 2013
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Hi all,

I'm playing a single pass untwinked SC Frenzy Barb. First time in hell with untwinked melee. So far I was doing it in P8, but I might drop to P3 now that I've reached Hell. I'm looking for advice on how to proceed with Hell. Here are my current gears.

Level 74 Frenzy Barb (20 Frenzy, 19 DSwing, 20 Sword Mas, 6 Taunt, 4 BO), see pic for stats with Fade
Rare ED/IAS/Fool's Zweihander (See pic)
Honor Zweihander (See pic)
2 socket 3 Find Item 3 Leap Assualt Helmet with Topaz/Flawed Topaz
Treachery Embossed Plate (Just made it to replace my 4PTopax Armour)
String of Ears (Lucky drop, probably the only item that doesn't need changing)
Nagel
27LR 19MF magic ring
60Life 14MF magic amulet
3LL 18MF rage gloves
30CR 35FR 25MF rare boots
2 x Spirit swords on switch

Merc (Might), resists in hell is ~40
Insight Partizan
4xPtopaz armour
2xchip topaz helm

Notable items in atma
IK gloves
Spirit Shroud (Think it's my only CBF option)
Bloodfist
Angelic Amulet (no ring..)
1 Lum, 1 Ko, some Hels, some Shaels, lots of low runes
Enough gems/jewels for crafting

1. What should I be doing now to upgrade my gear? Should I be making any cheap runewords, gambling, or do some crafting?
2. What base items should I be looking out for as I proceed?
3. I'm reluctant to respec (own personal rule), but if things are super bad I may do so.
4. I realised I hadn't done NM cows. Just did it and The Vile Husk (see pic) dropped. Should I use it over my current weapons?

Thank you!
 

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One of the standard responses will be to go back and farm NM Meph. I'd be looking for IK boots and belt. the three IK items have a lot of very good additional attributes.

In Hell you are going to run into Physical Immunes and monsters immune to at least one element. Of your three weapons I'd go with the Honor and the Vile Husk swords. While the Vile Husk is slower than the Zweihanders, the ctc amp damage on a frenzy barb will be very helpful. Just make sure to put the Zweihander in the weapons slot above the gloves.

I'd also be looking for elemental damage small charms, also Fine or Iron charms.
 
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One of the standard responses will be to go back and farm NM Meph. I'd be looking for IK boots and belt. the three IK items have a lot of very good additional attributes.

In Hell you are going to run into Physical Immunes and monsters immune to at least one element. Of your three weapons I'd go with the Honor and the Vile Husk swords. While the Vile Husk is slower than the Zweihanders, the ctc amp damage on a frenzy barb will be very helpful. Just make sure to put the Zweihander in the weapons slot above the gloves.

I'd also be looking for elemental damage small charms, also Fine or Iron charms.
Unfortunately I can't go back to nm meph because this is single pass.

Right now the only thing I can think of is to craft a CB glove and pray for a lem rune for lawbringer. Maybe I shouldn't have made the treachery haha.
 
Welcome for the SPF!

Vile Husk is a great option, actually end game when up’ed, and can solve for Physical Immunes, if imperfectly. So I’d definitely go with that and prioritize runes to up it. And I think treachery is a great choice for armor and well worth that Lem.

Another great option is Elite blue swords and use 3 chipped gem recipe to hope for good + ED% and 2os. My single pass frenzier had a nice 2os elite sword and up’ed Vile Husk, and he was solid.

I’d second blood gloves, with CB handy especially with high IAS from armor.

I can’t think of any other obvious upgrades, except maybe looking for FHR and setting out into A1, which should be manageable with care. Good luck!
 
Welcome for the SPF!

Vile Husk is a great option, actually end game when up’ed, and can solve for Physical Immunes, if imperfectly. So I’d definitely go with that and prioritize runes to up it. And I think treachery is a great choice for armor and well worth that Lem.

Another great option is Elite blue swords and use 3 chipped gem recipe to hope for good + ED% and 2os. My single pass frenzier had a nice 2os elite sword and up’ed Vile Husk, and he was solid.

I’d second blood gloves, with CB handy especially with high IAS from armor.

I can’t think of any other obvious upgrades, except maybe looking for FHR and setting out into A1, which should be manageable with care. Good luck!
I've never thought of the blue swords. What do I look to socket them with?
 
Jewels with ED%, maybe Shael or IAS jewel depending on need, or AR jewel or pAmmy to help with chance to hit. For reference, here’s the Guradian write up for the Frenzier I mentioned :

Looks like I went with pAmmy and damage jewel. I think cth is very important and often overlooked, along with FHR, so I tend to value pushing those.
 
Jewels with ED%, maybe Shael or IAS jewel depending on need, or AR jewel or pAmmy to help with chance to hit. For reference, here’s the Guradian write up for the Frenzier I mentioned :

Looks like I went with pAmmy and damage jewel. I think cth is very important and often overlooked, along with FHR, so I tend to value pushing those.
Thank you! I will take a look!
 
Jewels with ED%, maybe Shael or IAS jewel depending on need, or AR jewel or pAmmy to help with chance to hit. For reference, here’s the Guradian write up for the Frenzier I mentioned :

Looks like I went with pAmmy and damage jewel. I think cth is very important and often overlooked, along with FHR, so I tend to value pushing those.
Cth is probably the only thing I don’t have to worry about with my current frenzy barb. Everything else is…

But that’s by design. You can’t expect things to be easy if you use the Angelic set
 
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Make sure you have a point in War Cry, as it is great to get out of sticky situations and very useful against Lister and company. I am a firm believer in Battle Cry when playing untwinked, makes survivability much greater.
 
Make sure you have a point in War Cry, as it is great to get out of sticky situations and very useful against Lister and company. I am a firm believer in Battle Cry when playing untwinked, makes survivability much greater.
This and CB is the only reason why I think I have even a slim chance to get through hell with my frenzy dude…
 
I just lucked another lem. Should I make a treachery for my merc or lawbringer? Since there's no ED component, would it be OK if I just throw it into a 3 soc zwei that I have?

I can alternate my treachery with merc armour to proc fade
 
I love Lawbringer, I used mine with my wolfbarb till I was able to equip Wolfhowl and I was using double swing as my attack. Hoowever, the knockback to the undead and the twinkling lights all over the screen can take some getting used to. It is very powerful in Act 2 and other areas with the undead are common. The decrepify does happen less often than Reaper's, but with a Frenzy barb that shouldn't be a problem.

If you aren't having problems killing stuff now you might want to hold off for a while and see if a three socket legend sword or highland sword drops.
 
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I would prioritize Lawbringer over a second Treachery probably. I think LouB's advice is good to hold off if you're not having issues with physical immune monsters; I found it helpful on the merc for A2 Hell, but it also caused some challenges with the knockback knocking monsters, um, back into Folcwald and risk of him getting swarmed by non-undead mixed in. I was able to manage around that once I was paying close attention to the merc's position relative to monsters, so definitely an issue to be aware of.
 
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The knockback effect is centered on the weapon. So, when the merc carries Lawbringer it can result in some undead being knocked into your character. However, when you carry the Lawbringer the undead are always knocked away from you in all directions. Also, remember that the 600% damage to the undead only applies to whoever is carrying Lawbringer.

While I would opt for Lawbringer another option for that Lem is Delirium. It's great for crowd control. Of course it also requires an Ist, which you probably don't have being untwinked single pass.
 
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Since you already have treachery, I say Lawbringer is the way to go. Knockback is mainly a matter of positioning well, so I never found it a major hindrance for frenzier.
 
Small update. Crafted a simple blood glove with MF. Will be using it till I can find an upgrade (praying for LoH)

I've also found a Legend Sword and rolled 3 soc with it. Immediately put the runes for Lawbringer!

Still at Act 1 Black Marsh P8. Couldn't kill Gris unfortunately even at P1. Long way to go. But I'm happy with the progress. Thanks guys!

[edit]

Hell countess dropped an ETH!! 😡
 
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I thought I'll just keep updating this thread on my progress to Hell Baal single pass untwinked.

Past 2 days were pretty sweet. I started from Tamoe Highlands and just killed Andy. Still at P8.

My 2 primary weapons are still the same. Honor Zwei and Vile Husk. The only difference is that now I have 2 Legend Swords on standby - Lawbringer and Strength. This is my boss killing setup.

I've got 3 fantastic drops to upgrade my gear. First an IK Helm which I added 2 PTopaz (figured if I'm using it over another future better helm like Vamp, it'd just for the MF). Then an Um rune dropped. Lastly, Andy dropped LoH! I'm stoked. I also picked up another Lem which I am in no rush to make a Treachery for merc (currently swapping it regularly to proc fade). Maybe I could use the Lem for something else.

The question now I suppose is what to do with the Um. Maybe a Crescent Moon? What base would be ideal? I feel my killing speed is still fine though especially in A2 where I will be using Lawbringer more, so there seem to be no rush. Maybe another Um would drop and I could cube it to Mal for an Oath BB. Any thoughts?

Onward to A2 though :D

PS. looks like I need 5dex from somewhere to equip the Legend Swords since I'm replacing my Blood Gloves which had those mods. Bummer

1663951059090.png
 
The question now I suppose is what to do with the Um. Maybe a Crescent Moon? What base would be ideal? I feel my killing speed is still fine though especially in A2 where I will be using Lawbringer more, so there seem to be no rush. Maybe another Um would drop and I could cube it to Mal for an Oath BB. Any thoughts?

I might be in the minority here, but how about giving your merc your Treachery, and making a Duress for yourself? I find that Treachery helps the survivability of the merc immensely, and Duress will give you some excellent FHR, some resistances and CB, and some cold damage to help with physical immunes.
 
LoH and IK Helm?! That's quite nice fortune you're having as a single-pass character!

Duress does provide some nice stuff for an Um! And if you find you or your merc jonesing for resists, Smoke (Nef+Lum) with +50 res all / Weaken Charges / 20% FHR is a pretty cheap option to have on standby.
 
A couple of thoughts. On the Lem I see two choices Delirium and Voice of Reason. You should have all the runes that you need for VoR, while you need an Ist for Delirium. VoR also gives you can't be frozen. I tried VoR on my Frenzier, and I think its better than Crescent moon. However, Oath is better, but you may never find the runes.

I also vote for Duress over treachery. For me Fade never seemed to get cast when I really needed it. Plus the added cold damage works with VoR. Of course you are going to have to do more with your lightning immunity than just the +15 you get from Duress.
 
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