Help With Frenzy Barb, please?

[skinlayers]

Help With Frenzy Barb, please?

Hey all,

This is my first post here, though these forums have given me many good ideas in the past. I need help figuring out what to do with my Barb. He's my original and most powerful character, but I'm sure I made some mistakes along the way. He is currently stuck on the beginning of Act IV on Hell difficulty. Sorry, don't know all the D2 acronyms, so this will be fairly written out. I tired to keep the specifics to a minimum.

Name: Gunter
Class: Barb (obviously)
Level: 81
STR: 150
DEX: 155
VIT: 105
ENG: 90

Warcries:
1 in each of them

Combat Masteries:
Sword Mastery - 12
Axe Mastery - 5
Increased Stamina - 1
Iron Skin - 14
Increased Speed - 1
Natural Resistance - 5

Combat Skills:
Bash - 2
Leap - 1
Double Swing - 9
Stun - 1
Double Throw - 1
Leap Attack - 1
Concentration - 1
Frenzy - 20
Whirlwind - 1
Berserk - 7

Amulet: Chromatic Amulet of the Apprentice
All Resists +26
10% Faster Cast Rate

Helm: Delirium Runeword
Slayer Guard
Def: 362
+3 Battle Commands
+2 Taunt
+1 War Cry

Armor: Chains of Honor Runeword
Ancient Armor

Left Hand: Breath of the Dying runeword
Superior Executioner Sword

Right Hand: Famine runeword
Small Crescent

Belt: Beast Winding
Heavy Belt
Def: 11
+29 STR
+34 Life
Fire Res +6%
Poison Res +15%
Rep Life +8
Ethereal

Gloves: Magnus' Gloves (set item)
Skarkskin Gloves

Boots: Brimstone Tread
Demonhide Boots
Def: 35
Lightning Res +17%
Poison Res +12%
20% Faster Run/Walk
10% Faster Hit Recovery
14% Chance cast lvl 5 Nova when struck

Rings:
Blood Master
+4 Life
+70 Atk Rating
Poinson res +30%
5% Life Stolen
Rep Life +4
+1 Mana after kill

Rune Band
+2 DEX
+113 Att Rating
Fire Res +12%
Rep Life +4
5% Better Chance Magic Item
14% Chance Cast lvl 5 Charged Bolt when struck.

Merc:
Lvl 81 Act II Nightmare Defensive (Cold aura)

Hailstone Mask
War Hat

Enigma runeword
Templar Coat

Dimaok's Hew
Bardiche

Thanks in advance!
Skinlayers

 

[Clay bizzle]

That was difficult to read. I feel a little sick...

 

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Oh it wasn't that hard...

First of all, your skill point distribution is a little wacky. Primarily Battle Orders is maxed, along with your main skill(Frenzy in this case), and a single mastery. Your stat's are also a little strange, as it is of the general consensus to not put any points in Energy, since the return for each point is only 1 mana.

You have made it to Act IV in Hell though, so you seem to have faired rather well.

You have two choices: Remake your character and conform to the standard builds/point placements or you can tell us specifically what your problem is. How are your resistances? Are you getting killed from elemental damage? Takes to long to kill? Physical damage killing you? That's probably where I would start off: What specifically is holding you back, and I am sure someone will have a way to work around it.

Best of luck.

(My first character was a sorceress with a handfull of points in firebolt and carrying a maul by the 2nd act.... she didn't get very far.)

 

[Omikron8]

remake your barb

concentrate on axe mastery ONLY

ignore all other weapons masteries

for the rest of your skill pts

20 frenzy
20 battle orders
20 double swing
1 nat res
1 speed
1 battle command
rest in shout/find item/warcry

you have way too much dex, you can get base dex with axes using raven + arreat's

use might merc instead, act 2 nightmare offensive

you only need 1 pt in nat res

highlords as ammy

fort as armor or duress

tgods or verdungo as belt or nos coil

arreat's for helm

laying of hands for gloves

dual ravens for rings

many ar/max dmg/life/res charms

 

[boratsagdiyev]

are frenzy barbs still viable in solo pve? i had a pretty decked out one that could clear through hell cows, but i remember after 1.10 it seemed like he got seriously nerfed when playing in hell. i havent played for quite a while now, but im thinking of reinstalling and started a barb again....just wondering if frenzy would be a good choice.

 

[Terenas]

As a side note:

Breath of the Dying runeword
Superior Executioner Sword

May I suggest using an Elite sword (like colossus blade) to make BotD in it ?
Using an executioner sword is a waste, unless I am missing something.

I'd stick with Omikron suggestion though, Axe Mastery will get you going, and also, try using a berserker axe (Botd, Beast, etc...) as primary weapon [0], it is faster than small crescent.
Bye