MF barb questions

[Mr Pato]

MF barb questions

Hey, my brother wants to make an MF barb. I don't know why myself, but anyway... He wants to run Meph. What is the best skill/gear set to do this? Does anyone even run Meph with a barb?

He wanted to use dual Ali Babas (as it says in some MF barb guide) or one Baba and a shield, but i think ebotd cb and a Baba would be much faster. I'm thinking those and nigma and guils for cb atm.

The guide he's looking at uses ww, berserk, and/or frenzy. I'm thinking that a barb cannot tele very far on its mana, so maybe just frenzy and run through the durance or wherever. Is this a good plan? Would he want to use nigma for frw (and MF) or fort for ed?

Edit: Read up a bit. Should he actually use another decent sword instead of Ali Baba, so like Ebotd and Azurewrath or Lightsabre? Also should I just tell him to run things like pits, trav, maybe pindle instead of Mephy?

 

[GotFriana]

I m no expert but I think both ww or frenzy can work well, depends on your play stile, you could also use IK set to mf in areas, meph is an option with tele from enigma but another good one may be travincal and the council. What you should do is use any good dmg weapon to hit the monsters and then for the killing blow switch to double ali babas or other mf weapon, or switch n let the merc get the kill. And for mf barb dont forget the find item skill, 1 point, and after you ve ran an area just keep a heartcarver in one hand and ali on the other, it doesn t work on bosses though but the double drop option is allways very neat.

 

[batuchka]

Well i am not actively playing atm but i had an WW mf barb (sword/shield) who used a grief zweihander and stormshield He had really cheap gear and the grief was a hand me down from my mate ^^ For example he had :

P-top Shako
P-top skullders
highlords (load up on deadly strike with grief + sword mastery)
chancies
war travelers boots
2 x dual leech rare rings
lots of 7%mfscs ^^
gheeds GC
heart carvers/alis on switch

Usually i mf solo and memp is cool but the map is huge and teleing helps! For survivability nat res skill helps heaps and for hell travincaal with meteors and hydras, a simple dwaftstar ring (fire absorb, +40life, goldfind) makes my barb immortal against these hehe. Actually his best results were running places like pits, shenk, eldritch and pindle. Never underestimate the value of horking a.k.a 'find item' and this allowed me to get goldly second drops! He could also double up as a goldfinder. This helps if u gamble a lot hehe Cheers and hoped i helped ^^

 

[Croup]

The best MF Barb build is Frenzy, in my humble opinion. Good killing speed, sets up easily, doesn't need incredibly high end gear (although it does help) and allows you to use dual Ali Babas. Here's a basic rundown:

Helm: Stealskull /w PTopaz (this is open to Shako too, but I'm a Stealskull fan)
Amulet: Rare/Crafted w/ High LL/+Skills/MF/Resists (can also use this to fix weak points)
Armor: Enigma
Weapon 1: eBotD Colossus Blade
Weapon 2: eDeath Colossus Blade
Switch Weapon 1: Ali Baba w/ Dual Ists
Switch Weapon 2: Ali Baba w/ Dual Ists
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Belt: String of Ears (another open slot that you can fill on preference)
Boots: War Travs
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Rare/Crafted w/ High LL/Resists/MF/Stats

And of course, Gheeds, Anni and BTorch.

Max Frenzy, Battle Orders and Sword Mastery. Enough points to get Find Item up to 50%, 1 point in the 1-point wonders (Berserk, Increased Speed, Natural Resists, etc.) and then put the rest of the points in Frenzy synergies (Taunt and Double Swing).

This gives you great killing speed and a ton of MF. When running Meph (or any boss), use the good swords until he has just a sliver of life left. Then switch to the Ali Babas for extra MF. This still works without the eDeath CB too, just put in another eBotD CB.

Any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Qotsa]

Also, use the cube recipe to upgrade the Ali's to elite, gives a better base weapon speed + more muscle.

 

[Croup]

Now that I have more time, I can be a little more specific with my description.

You definitely want to up your Ali Babas for the extra damage. You'll also want to up Stealskull (if you choose it), String of Ears (if you choose it) and perhaps the War Travellers if you can fulfill the new requirements. Enigma is best put into a high defense light armor, so Great Hauberk or Archon Plate are good choices since you can meet the strength requiement without sacrificing anything.

As far as weapons go, I really would advise using swords with a Magic Find Frenzy Barb because then you can use Ali Babas on the switch. If you weren't going for MF, then use berzerker axes because they are statistically better. Ethereal Breath of the Dying Colossus Blades are reasonably priced for low-average stats, so wielding two of those would be very effective. However, if you're perfecting the character, you should have an Ethereal Death Colossus Blade in your off-hand. Low cost options before you have the funds to afford eBotD CBs are Azurewrath, Doombringer and Lightsabre. With those and nearly complete other gear, you can run the Countess, The Pit, the Council in Travincal and even Mephisto if you know what you're doing.

Once you're in full gear, this Barb can run any MF area on the map, although you'd do best staying away from areas like the Arcane Sanctuary and the Ancient Tunnels. They're still doable, but carry more of a risk since you can't leech off skeletons and wraiths and there's no reason to choose them over, say, The Pit, the Countess, Glacial Trail, Ancients Way and other good Act 5 areas. You can run both Meph and Baal, but to be honest, your most consistent hauls will probably be from the Council in Travincal. If you get Find Item over 50% (which I advise you do), you'll be getting a ton of drops in that area due to horking the corpses, not to mention tons of gold. It's probably your best bet when starting, at the very least.

I hope that does help out. Any more questions, feel free to ask.

 

[batuchka]

Ok slightly O/T but i recalled joining hell cow games and load up on %goldfind +2 ali babas and horking huge amounts of gold from dead cows via find item and it was an easy way to make bling for gambling! Doesn't matter if cow game is done - just cow bodies will do hehe. Ok i am a compulsive gambler

 

[Yanksta]

everyone probably think s this is wack but i use a full ik mf barb with dual ali babs 2x isted on switch...my merc uses a p topazed shako and talsd arm with eth repaers toll...im a WW barb and my dmg is about 4k atm..not that much but its effective to mf, key, nd rusha lil...my total mf when merc gets kill is about 800 and iom not finished with the build yet..still lvlin and gettin mf scs...but i find this to be the best MF barb build ever

 

[Mr Pato]

Thanks for all the input guys.

I think I'm gonna go with Croup's set-up mostly.
Not sure on the helm, there are many choices. I might use IK instead of stealskull.
Also thinking about CoH in place of nigma.
And I'm gonna give him highlord and nagel since I don't have any appropriate rares for those spots atm.
I don't have an eDeath yet, so I'm just gonna have him use lightsabre in that spot, and maybe Guillaume to make up for the loss of cb vs. bosses.

Thanks Qotsa for reminding me to up the ali babas, I will have to do that.

On skills, would frenzy + synergies be better than max frenzy for bosses and max ww for areas like pits? Can frenzy kill small monsters in these areas as quickly as ww?

 

[Croup]

Frenzy will do fine with large groups of small monsters, provided that you have some Faster Hit Recovery and a GOOD amount of leech. That's actually why I use Stealskull (asides, obviously, from the high Magic Find), and that's why I suggest the high LL rares for both ring and ammy. You're best off maxing Frenzy and pumping the synergies where you have your free points.

Chains of Honor is a better all around armor than Enigma, so if that's your choice, that works just fine. I would warn against using a Nagel because there are just so many other options to go in that slot with just a minimal amount of MF lost. If that's what you're using for now, that's fine. I just wouldn't use it in end game.

Best of luck with the character.