Disclaimer
- This guide outlines a character that is not easy to make or afford. It is difficult to have this character work properly and do as it is supposed to do unless you follow this guide closely. The build is highly *Twinked (Reliant on specific items to work) and not using just one item can really throw it off.
However, if you do make this character and it works for you as well as it works for me you will be pleasantly surprised. And, the character you will have made will have lasting value.
Warning!
- Please do not reply to this thread unless you have something constructive to say. A previous version of this Guide was *flamed until it was locked! However there was a marked improvement in the feedback for the second iteration of the guide. Lets keep moving forward; with your help I can streamline this build and improve upon it further. That said, this is not a thread for personal attacks and I myself will make none.
Remember it takes a lot of time and effort to put together a guide; dudes like me love positive feedback!
{PLEASE BE CONSTRUCTIVE!}
0.
{A brief overview of the build.} -
The Barbarian: A fast teleporting barbarian that is a very sturdy tank capable of buffing it's mercenary companion to great heights. A very rich character with lot's of magic find. The Mercenary: A boss killer with huge crushing blow and great survivability; is capable of taking on just about anything except iron maiden of course.
Harmodios and Aristogeiton were their names.
Two ancient Greek heroes. They helped to usher in a new era free from tyranny.
They killed a tyrant in the Athenian empire named Hipparchus. I hope to usher in a new era for magic finding, with this guide.
2.
Why magic find? -
If you play Diablo 2 LOD online either in ladder or non-ladder then you have probably felt the rush of seeing a unique or set item fall to the ground; and then you rush to pick it up! Primarily, a magic find character lets you indulge yourself in that sensation over and over. This is achieved by inflating your chances to find good items and by achieving a fast speed and killing power with your character.
If you are new at magic finding and want to make a character exclusively for the purposes of magic finding, I highly recommend a Sorceress. Here is small guide with a few detailed builds but it is focused largely on items http://www.jpitems.com/diablo2mfguide.html. Here is Flux's guide to MF to really get you started http://www.purediablo.com/strategy/x-guides/magic-find.shtml This guide is very comprehensive and teaches you alot, including all the basics. However, I think that some of the opinions expressed in this guide are about to be disproven. Specifically, that the Sorceress is the best Magic-Finding character.
Magic finding is for those looking to try out a lot of different builds. I believe this applies to many of the people who are members of forums like this one.
But this isn't just a magic finding guide! Why should I try to make this build? A very good question, and one that I hope this guide answers. This build is for those who are Rich and Bored! This build strives to be just as fast and efficient as a Sorceress at magic finding but also to utilize massive magic find bonuses without having to switch items a lot or sacrifice killing power.:thumbsup:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
But why a Barbarian? -
If one were to make a "Perfect" magic find character with the maximum percentage chance added to magic find you would have to make a barbarian! Here is a resource on a discontinued attempt to do just this: http://www.planetdiablo.com/diablo2/characters/barbarian/strategy/mfind/ The Arreat Summit itself points out that to achieve maximum magic find% you must use a barbarian: http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/magic/magicfind.shtml These two sources offered considerable inspiration for my build.
A barbarian also has the Find Item ability which proves invaluable when killing many regular, champion, unique, and even Superunique monsters , because it allows you to get their drops twice, if you're lucky.
A barbarian is also ideal because it can achieve high life and defense totals for itself and its mercenary.
Finally, a barbarian can have more magic find *on switch (on the alternate weapon set) than any other character. At maximum the barbarian can wield dual swords each socketed with six 'ist' runes!
The Build.
________________________________________________________________
Stats.
[*]---STRENGTH--- This build does not utilize the combat skills of the barbarian:shocked: so putting points into strength should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately you must put some points into strength in order to equip some of the items I list in the equipment section. -Decision- Put JUST ENOUGH! into strength in order to wear Enigma OR enough to wear Skullder's Ire.
[*]---DEXTERITY--- This build does not utilize a shield in any way {I hope when there's another patch they'll let you dual wield shields!}. So, putting points into dexterity for max-block would be pointless. Do not put any points into dexterity because Annihilus and Helltorch should give you all you need. -Decision- NO POINTS!
[*]---VITALITY--- This is the most important stat for most builds. Vitality is ESPECIALLY important to this build because you will max the skill Battle Orders which gives a percentile bonus to life. This means you will see bigger bonuses than other characters for all the points you put into Vitality. -Decision- (everything you have to spare) MAX THIS!
[*]---ENERGY--- If you stick to the equipment selections I lay out in my guide these stats. are superfluous. Your items should give you all the mana you need. Take into account the fact that you should not be using any moves that require mana very often, and when you do it is Teleport you will be using and at that time you will have dual HOTOs equipped and two huge mana rings. Your mana will come from your equipment and charms. -Decision- NO POINTS!
________________________________________________________________
Skill Points
[*]-
The Combat Skills-
There are a lot of useful skills here but this build would only be weakened by putting even a few points in here. If your source of damage is your mercenary then don't pretend to be doing all the work! Your damage even with +skills will not be considerable when you combine one of these moves with the items in the equipment section. This barbarian was not meant to kill he is meant to bring new world order! Don't put points into any combat skills. A new era of peace and Magic Finding is at hand!!!
[*]
-Increase Stamina- 1 Point as a Pre-req.
[*]-
Increased Speed- Exactly 8 Points If you're not teleporting then you want to be able to walk fast. These eight points really are the icing on the cake and should be put in last. However, these points are useful for when you want to use one of the two switch armors I list later. Wealth and Skullders Ire both have their uses. If you are just running around checking corpses then you will be thankful for these points.
These 8 points will come in useful when you want a change in pace freom Mephisto runs and decide to tag along in a chaos game to raid all the bodies!
[*]-
Iron Skin- MAX This move! Combined with Shout this will give you a huge passive bonus to your defense!
This is necessary because you don't wear a sheild and you are far more vulnerable than your mercenary. (Except of course in Chaos Sanctuary and Worldstone Keep) This skill really is a must-have for this build.
[*]-
Find Potion- 1 Point as Pre-req. Some people think this skill is useful. I've even seen several builds around this skill!
But, in my experience, Find Item ends-up finding you ALOT of potions anyway. I suppose in a pinch one might use this but I've never used it and I have it hotkeyed. (because this build has very few activated abilities {MTG term!} )
[*]-
Find Item- Exactly 12 (a dozen) Points! With your items on switch equipped a dozen points will give you a 55% Find Item.
That's better than a half/half chance! However, after 12 points it is many points before you will go up even one more percentile at this skill. 12 Points is optimal.
[*]-
Battle Cry- 1 Point Wonder! You would think it would be a good Idea to MAX this but it isn't. After you get to around level 20 in this skill you have reached the optimal level for it because you can't lower an enemy's defenses more than 95%. Put one point in this skill and single-cast on every boss and pack of monsters your merc fights because it significantly quickens the battle. Why not put more points in? Well, you can only lower defense by at most 95% so plus skills will give you all the battle cry you need! Use it on a boss BEFORE you switch from HOTOs to 6-'Ist'ed swords etc... because the +skills bring it to its most effective level.
[*]-
War Cry- 1 Point Wonder! Use this skill often to give your merc a chance to level the playing field. I find that it is almost never necessary to cast this spell but it is useful to have.
This skill could help alot if you wanted to solo Chaos Sanctuary with this build. More points into this skill are inadvisable because the damage of this skill doesn't go up much even if it is fully synergised, which it isn't! The stun from this skill is more than adequate with +skills. And most importantly! this skill has a very nice low mana cost when you don't put more than one point in. This skills mana cost gets VERY high if you choose to max it. Just look here at the mana cost of just a level 20 warcry!
http://www.battlenet.co.kr/diablo2exp/skills/barbarian-warcries.shtml#warcry Maxing it would would be inefficient; just put one point in.
[*]-
Shout- MAX This skill! This skill goes very well with Iron Skin which you've already maxed.
Also, this skill is invaluable at buffing your mercenary. This is one of the core skills of this build.
[*]-
Battle Command- 1 Point wonder! This skill doesn't get any better after one point (other than increased duration). This skill will serve to buff you and your mercenary.
[*]
Secondary Weapons-
2 six-'Ist'ed Crystal Swords each giving +ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY % MF!- These swords are your very hard to put together. Please don't use phase blades by mistake! Remember, no points into dexterity! Switch to these swords when you are searching bodies or about to kill a boss.
[*]
Gloves- You shouldn't need any more mana so wear Chance Guards If you do need more mana go with frostburns until you get better charms.
[*]
Your Inventory!-
You inventory should look like this- You should have your cube all the way in the top right with 2x nagelrings, goldwrap and a second armor in it; if you want even more MF. You should have 8 spaces of free space giving you enough space to pick up any item in the game! You should have room for 1 tome of town portal and 1 tome of identify. This makes things easy on you! Other builds might have you not carry tomes at all or have no space to pick up items.
I think the "Perfect" magic find build should be easy to use.
[/LEFT][/LIST]
[*]
Weapon-
Ethereal Hone Sundan Yari socketed with, a Ber rune, an Amn rune, and a 15%ias/40%ed jewel OR another Amn rune. The Amn rune(s) will be your primary source of Life Leech. Your mercenary MUST be godly in this build because he does all the killing.
I recommend an ethereal Hone Sundan Yari because of the crushing blow, this recommendation has changed since the last time I wrote this guide. I find that the quickest way to make your mercenary a boss-killer is give him lots of crushing blow. A very nice alternative is the Thresher Infinity - this will greatly weaken bosses and monster. Infinity also has some nice crushing blow etc... Other alternatives are... EBOTD, Arioc's needle and Kelpie Snare; these are all interesting but not nearly as effective.
[*]
Helm-
Guillame's Face- Socket this with a 15%IAS/40%ED jewel and you will have 100% Crushing Blow and plenty of damage as well as a nice amount of FHR. Look here for IAS and FHR information on the Act2 Merc
http://realmgaming.net/index.php?act=content&CODE=post&id=216214 Another option is Andariels Visage; it gives very useful poison resistance. It give +2 all skills which does help the mercenary and some great modifiers along with high defense.
This specific helm does have the annoying quality of messing up fire resistance but if you chose to socket and um, or a more specific to fire res rune in it, that would solve the problem. I recommend trying to find a +15%ias/+40%ed jewel to put in it. Another alternative is a Giant's skull socketed with 2 ias/ed jewels which gives 10% crushing blow.
[/LEFT][/LIST]
[*]When using Find Item click around like crazy!
Don't try to be precise; you will raid the bodies faster and still get them all.
[*]
GOLDEN RULE! : KNOW WHICH ITEMS ARE GOOD!
Study up on the item lists and all the items possible uses and you will increase your mf%, well sort-of. You will get more out of Magic Finding, Guaranteed![/LEFT]
[/LIST]
________________________________________________________________
Gameplay Tips and Tricks
________________________________________________________________
Explanation and Conclusion
I'm still trying to increase the speed at which my merc kills Baal's minions (Irarely have to worry about my mercenary dying) but he is fast enough especially with help from a friend. Baal is tough and I'm still experimenting on ways to kill his minions faster. Baal himself goes down pretty fast with this build as do most of the minions so long as you use you battle cry and war cry.
[/U][/I][/B][/SIZE][/FONT]
Google