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General Strategies
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Barbarian Strategies |
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well, hi all, now to tell you i really like d2 and specialy barbs....OK, to make *THE* ultimate barb u need these: about 190+ str 120+dex 250+vit N~O ene serious...with leechs no probs. u need that str cuz more str = more dmg but not that much (ne wayz with storm shield gives 30 str its gonna go coo) now skillz.... MAX- ww // MAX- masterie(preferably swords) // MAX- bo // 15- nat res // 10-15 stone skin // reste split in running and other war cry's OK now the ITEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there 2 sets 1 is for poor ppl other for rich bastards poor one helm*arreat* // armor *shaft* // shield*storm* // belt*string* // sword* ccb/doom/fury // gloves*venom* // boots*gore riders / war traves // OK rich set....helm*ber'd perf vamp // armor*0.8 valor // sword*ith cb) // reste same as poor one o and rings and ammy's sry.... LL rings (8+)and cresent mooon :) OK FOKX that all good luck dueling and good luck with all 91 barb, 99sorc, 79 zon, 99 zon (bow) |
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Hello to all my barb friends. Look the real way to a barb for all you beginers is to max out your weapon of choice mastery almost right away. Get it out of the way for god sake. Now you want to start putting points in the following... (iron skin- mid teens) (natural resistanc-15) believe me very good once you get to hell right now just being in normal i am imune to all resistances cause of it. And of course max out ww please.... All you do is get a good weapon with a type of leach per hit and you never even need mana. Then when all thats done and you should have it done by mid lvl 70's play with war cries.. They are useful no matter who disagrees. LVL 71 barb right now with current |
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Okay, this strat is for a Sword Barbarian only. The stats are as follows... for a level 70: Strength: 210, Dex: 150, Vitality: All EXTRA Points After level 70, you should split your points as 1 strength, 1 dex, and 2 vitality. Your skills are as follows... for a level 70: Whirlwind: 20, Beserk: 1, Battle Orders: 20, Battle Commands: 20, Natural Resists: 7, Iron Skin: 5-10 Make sure that you do all the quests that give you stuff... You get a lot of extra skills and stats first. AABAAACAAAAD --- Level 76 Barb |
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Okay, this is my Barb Strat. Lancer Barbs are the best for classic, so to have a good Lancer barb, here are the skills you should save up until you get to level 70, unless you are impatient, BUT don't waste points on useless junk like bash, frenzy, and those things. The Skills are for a level 70...20 Spear Mastery, 20 Whirlwind, 1 Berserk, 5 Shout, 15 Battle Orders, 5 Battle Commands, 10-20 Iron Skin When you get to a higher level, put...10 in Natural Resistances, 5 in Faster Running When you are done, put the last points in Battle Order and Battle Commands. For your skills at level 70, you will need...250 Str, 150 Dex, And the rest in Vit REMEMBER! NO ENERGY! Your leech will give it all back. When you get to a higher level, divide your stats into Str and Vit. You should have around 2000 life with your Battle Orders. Make sure before you go into battle that you put your leech items on, what can you do without them? ABAACAAAD -- Barbarian level 76, Maciamopoo[ta] -- Sorceress level 76, MancerNecr -- Necromancer level 46, ABC-Ez -- Barbarian level 35, Maciam -- Sorceress level 15 |
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Don't pay ne attention to my writing if u want a good barb you absoulty have to have these skills. Warcries:Battle Command-2to3 skills,Battle orders-10to12 and that basically all. Combat Mast:max out whirlwind,10 to berserk,max out frenzy and that's all only put 1 to the skill to get these. Masteries:on my opinion I went with sword gf and doom so 10 to it to whatever ur using. Now for at to use well in a lvl 86 barb and this is wat u should use: Helm:Arreats of coarse, Boots:Gore Rider, Belts:ik belt no question or string of ears, Armour:Shaftstop or GladBane, Weapons:Gf and Doom, or u can use 2 lightsabres, Gloves:Up to u, ammy: good one, shield (if u want): Stormshield if u dont want frenzy. |
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Ok, i hate to say this, but the majority of you are wrong about Barbarians. To simply put this, whirlwind is a bunch of crap. Don't bother. Yes youcan hit lots of enemies at once but i romise if you follow this you will drop just as many enemies with far more control. First raise your sword mastery at lower levels. use whatever swords you find and hold on to 2, 3 socketed swords. then start saving gems and runes. combine some gems and runes in the cube and get yourself a high damage sword. of course put a point or two in double swing but try to raise your mastery until your able to frenzy. Armor class is a must and if at all possible get yourself some rattlecage. I say this because it has the ability to make mosters flee. So while your sitting there hacking down on some deamons with a 3000 attack rating you drop them one by one as others return from running. That should help you guys but trust me on one thing. when you get to diablo that stupid whirlwind move wont let you go toe to toe with him and hack him down with a smirk on your face. |
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crap im tierd of you guys saying this and that about barbs.my freinds got a barb that cna own anyone.first off all for stats only put only like 120-130 in str because of str mods of ss and ik gaunlets and other crap for dex only liek 100-120 cause of dex mods, as for vit to be a sreious pker you need at leats 250 points in that my frind has about 250 and with his vit mods hes got about 2.5k-3.6k life.then for your skills (if ure gonna be a sword/sheild barb) max out sword mastery,max whirl wind,maxbattle orders for life and mana and wiht the rest do what ever you want.To be a good pk barb you need to use a good sword(ith,furybb,gf),for sheild ss always,helm either arreats or gaze,for gloves ik gaunlest for str and dex,for boots imp shanks or war travs,for belt string,for rings raven spiral and frost,as for armor either 1.08 valor for life and vit or shaft stop for 30% dmg reduce,and as for a ammy i reccomend a good rare ammy liek shadow necklace or corruption collar. PLS NOTE ALSO THAT TO BE AS GOOD AS MY FREIND WITHC USES MOST OF THIS STUFF THAT YOU NEED SOJS A LOT. |
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I'm going to take care of an item problem, first off GOOD BARBARIANS ARE NOT FOR NEWBS! I have nothing against them (hey I even help them out occasionally) but to have a good character the most, and I mean most vital part is the items. You could be perfect in setting your skills and stat points but without good items your done. I composed a list of great items that just about every barb (over level 67) should be wearing: 1) Stormshield, must I say any more about this one? 2) CCB's or Fury (that is a rune word people) Balrog Blade, this should set your damage up nicely. 3) Shaftstop Shaftstop Shaftsop! A must have, the damage reduce and vitality adds greatly to Barbs. And whatever you do, DO NOT use courpsemourn, that is the most pathetic armor I have seen on a Barb. 4) The gloves are your choice, some nice IAS rare gloves, I personally use Venom Grip unique gloves. 5) War Travelers (they are not impossible to get) or Water Walks. 5) For amulets and rings, try on an SOJ and a good duel leech ring, and a good + skill + vitality ammy. 6) For a helm, Wormskull or Arreats Face (my choice) are a must. 7) Also keep run/walk charms, poison charms, and Barb skill charms in your inventory. Now the items are out of the way so lets move on to stat points... Strength is your most important stat, your a Barbarian, why wouldnt it be? So try to get your strength 200+. Dexterity, another important stat, which is how often you will land a hit. I'd say keep it 150+ and you should be ok. Vitality, dont listen to other idiots put any other stat points you have into this. Energy, dont bother looking at this one. Ok off to the fun stuff, skill distributation - MAX WW MAX SWORD MASTERY AND MAX BATTLE ORDERS the three most important skills to a barb. Put 2-4 in Increase speed. 10 in Iron skin. 10 in Shout. And the rest in the skills to build up to those techniques and Natural Resistance with the others. |
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Hey i just got to say one thing barbs dont just rock up close and personal they rock at range too. All you have to do is make out throwing mastery,15 in double throw,and max out frenzey andput 8 in max stamina and 2 in increased speed. this makes your barb a long distance killing machine in lod and the best thing is u got a couple extra skill points to do whatever u want.these guys rule in normal and when they get better spears can go to nightmare and hell cows simple. they can even tag that annoying zon running away in pvsp.just remember one thing u can put a shield on when things get dicy and u can put points in ww just in case.so dont think that axes and clubs or swords are the best way to go . |
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You are all noobs. ALL OF YOU. let me break this down simple skills: Max WW, Max Sword M, Max Bo, 5~ in increase speed and natural resist Stats: strengh 180(260 w/items), Dex- enough to wear balrog balde, Vita-Rest, Energy-Bah Items: Weapon- Cruel balrog blade of Quickness w/ two 40/15 jewels, Shield- Stormshield, Armor- shaft, rings- Rare/crafted life leech rings w/plus to mana, ammy- cats eye, boots- war travs, gloves- 20 ias rare gloves, belt- good crafted belt, Arreats face this is the dueler of these days, need i say more |
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ok i agree with maven if ur a barb with a bow or spear etc. be an amazon.JES!!Well thats not much of a stratagy but i just had to say that i agree with u maven.man barbs with bows and spears.WHAT NEXT BALLARINA TOO_TOOS AND BALLARINA SHOES MAN!!!!!!! Doombringer lvl95 |
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QUICK Barbarian guide to success! Right, Barbarians can be really tough characters to play, even if you DO know what you are doing. They are not the best PK characters, so don't expect to go slaughtering amazons, assassins, and Sorcs without great difficulty. Here is a timeline of what you should do to make a good barbarian.In normal: Find a good shield and sword. By level 30, try to have some points in Swords Mastery, those are the best weapons. Try to have as many as 10-20 points is sword mastery by level 30. With your remaining points, add about 5 to Iron Skin, and use the others a perquisites. MAKE SURE you put just 1 point into the skill: Concentration. AS for stats points, out of the 150 points you get (not including quest points) you should add 100 to strength, 30 to dex and 20 to vitality In Nightmare: Here you should reach lvl 60 about...By now, you will see the need for some elemental resistances, so put 3 points in Natural resistances, and let item boosts take care of the rest. By now, you should have a good shield and a good sword. Now, it's time for some combat skills. I like to alternate between putting two points in Concentration and then 1 in iron skin until Conc. Is maxed out, and then once it is maxed out you should also max out Iron Skin. As for stat points, your strength should be good, so out of 150, put 50 in strength, 80 in dex, and maybe 20 in vitality. Hell Mode: Okay, this is where things get tricky. most people put lots of points into Berserk, but actually, for a max effect, you only need 1 POINT! So, just put 1 point and let the skill boosting items do the rest. Now, however, you will see that there are a lot more monsters to kill, so put your points into Whirlwind. Max it out by lvl 80, and then you will have a barbarian who can deal with single potent enemies (Concentration) or weak groups (Whirlwind). As for stat point, make sure that by lvl 80 you have at least 210 points in strength (item boosted or not) and 150 in dex. You should be fine. As for equipment, get a Colossus blade, six socets, and pu DOL-ELD-HEL-IST-TIR-VEX runes to create silence, and use it with both your hands. with a charm or two, you should do about 1500-2800 dmg PER CONCENTRATION HIT. It is essential that you have a good life leech item, like the String of Ears belt. Try to get Skullder's Ire or Arkaines Valor for an armor, a Bul-KKathos' Wedding Band for a ring, a Highlords wrath for an amulet, Venom Grip or Lava Gout for gloves, any boots will do, but GET ARREAT's FACE as a helm. If you don't know its a unique slayer guard. There, my barb is lvl 72 and he has all these items, and he ROCKS!! Follow this guide and you will rue DIABLO 2! Patriarch lvl 72 Barb |
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I am a level 74 sword-barb and this is my strat that i used. For your first 20 skill points, max out sword mastery, trust me, it is the best. next, just add one point for all that lead up to WW. put any remaining into Iron Skin until u reach 30. once at 30, max out WW. u should have about 10 in iron skin and 15 in natural resistance. after that, put about 10 more into leap attack(it helps A LOT in hell mode). for stat points, put enough into strength and dex so u can use the most elite swords in expansion, then go all out vitality.finally, use two swords, instead of a shield. Jake_Basher level 74 swordbarb |
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hey, if you dont want to get near the enemies then dont.. use double throw and throwing mastery then put some points on increase speed for escaping, then put some points on berserk for physically immune monsters. just get mana stealing rings, amulets or items. resistance is also important but defense is not that imp if your thrower barb. |
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Hi I have a lvl 32 barb and he killed baal in ten hits. My strategy on how to use the barb is max out sword mast put ten in frenzy and your set. I dont have that good stuff but i kill even unique chrushers in nightmare in one hit. It doesnt matter what stuff you have (although you should of course use the best stuff you can get). Just remember all you need is max sword mast and ten frenzy. |
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ok im not sayin that these other stratagies suk but this is how u make a real duel barb. put 15 into ur mastery choice. max wirlwind and 1 to berserk. about 13 int battle orders and 11 into nat resist and ncreased speed. for the rest of ur points put into either increased speed or sword mastery. for stats hav enough strent u need about 130 dex and res vitality. no mana is required if u just get some mana steal. |
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hey i got a lvl 99 barb get these items or else ur gonna die Perf Shaft Arrets dual Ls or Single gf plus SS in stats max iron skin, ww, beserk, sword mastery, Battle Orders, Shout, Some into natural resistance and thats it get at least 250 into strength alot of dex needed and alot of Vit you should have at least 8k defense- 10 k defense at the end MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS HAVE MORE THAN 2K HEALTH no mana wat so ever and then you will own make sure to also look for some pdsc and resist charms you have those you will own all chars. Thanks for reading have fun with your barb |
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now i know there are many ways to build a good barb. dont get me wrong mine may not be the best for all, so ill give a little bit about what i know. 1.) axe barbs- as you all should know, max out axe mastery asap. many people only put a few pts. into their mastery and max ww or some other junk like that. i used a six socketed giant axe with five perfect emeralds and a perfect amethyst. i know it was kinda weak but i did the job. after i hit 42 or so i used boneslayer blade on one of my weapon slots and in my other weapon slot i used a guardian naga with a high def. sheild. now the one handed axe with a sheild is a BAD idea. not too many axes out there have high enough dam. if their one handed. after you hit 66 get a hellslayer. nevermind take that back. get one around lvl 50 or so so you know youll have one. hell slayer has the third highest dam. in the game. 2.) sword barbs- once again max mastery. most people say swords are the best. im not going to argue that point right now. sword barbs are the most versitile of all the characters. they can use a 1 handed sword and a sheild, 2 1 handed swords, a two handed sword, or hell even 2 two-handed swords. now the GRANDFATHER(the big daddy of d2 weapons) is the most dam weapon in the game. i went out with my barb and was gonna duel another. he killed me with 3-4 ww's(which for me is unheard of). he was using 2 grandfathers both equipped with 40/15's(40% enhanced dam./ 15%increased attack speed). i kinda like my lightsabre (w/ a 40/15) and a storm sheild(ill get into those later). 3.) mace barbs- undoubtably one of my favorites. pretty much the same shit as before but the weapon class. now for fast attack with two hands, by far the best is baranar's star. great physical and mad elemental damage. many people out there like big @$$ two-handed mauls. yes. their good but slow(except for ik pretty much). now, for sheilds. im not a big sheild fan. i use a 40/15'd storm sheild(the only godly sheild). i really like it high def. and blocking %. and most of all it has 35% dam. reduction. armor- i use shaft for the 30% dam reduction. i do, however, like courpsemourn. really good def. and irom maiden every 20 hits you take(on average). gloves- ik i also use the boots for the attack rating bonus. i also use chancies if im low on gold or if im mf'ing. belt- string of ears once again an item i use for damage reduction. helm-i use rockstopper 10% damage reduction but im getting a perfect vampire gaze(8% life and mana steal/20% damage reduction) now naturally most people like to mf, or magic find i offer some advice: barbs have this greaat disposition to find better items and i dont know why. 1.)skullders= great , 2.)perfect chancies= well...perfection , 3.)(2) perfect nagles=awesome , 4.) goldwrap=im running out of words 5.)50% war travelers= hard as hell to get unless your rollin' in the sojs , 6.)stealskull, nice helm to have whispering 101reaper, sir_sage, or darkrider[90] |
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fellow players, i have read a lot of strategies and most of them are dedicated about using whirlwind (WW), i am here to give you a more viable option. WW has it's use, but it is more for show than actual game play. the real winner is concentrate (level 18, combat skills). the increased damage is vast superior to anything you get from WW., other pluses of concentrate are the increase to defense, and the static 2 mana cost. WW gives you no bonus to defense, and the increase to damage (once you do get an increase) at no time matches concentrate's bonus. WW also has a high mana cost. the one and only use that WW has, is that you hit multiple targets. in player versus player, a competent player can get out of the way of WW, so it has no use there. in single player it looks good, but as stated before, you get vastly more increase in damage with concentrate. choose any other skills that you desire, my preference is as follows: sword mastery: 20 (main weapons); mace mastery: 10 (immortal king's stone crusher); increased stamina: 9; increased speed: 9; iron skin: 20; natural resistance: 20; bash: 1 (prereq); stun: 1(prereq); concentrate: 10; berserk: 10 (for immune to physical monsters in hell). attribute point allocation: strength: 240; dexterity: 220; vitality: 120; energy: 10 (add zero points). i have armor and jewelry to add skills and resistance. i have charms to add resistance and magic find. good luck. vengeance: level 72 barbarian; he-man: level 99 barbarian; numerous failed trials |
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OK ,listen up guys my barb is lvl 98 and can beat those zon and sorc ,o and I read a lot of those strategies and, um well u see all those who say "o use this and u have 98% dmg reduce ARE NEWBIES IT STOP AT 75% newbs EVEN IF U HAVE 3000% DAMAGE REDUCE ITS LIKE IF U HAD 75% ,ok that done now for the skills: max out whirl wind, max out ur weapon class masterie (I really baldy prefere swords) and put about 15-max into natural resistance put 5-10 in battle order and 1 into all the other skills. If u still have skills left put them in or shout and battle command or in natural res or bearsek and a few in run faster. Ok now for the stats:put enough str for u to use all ur weapons & armor (usully about 180-200) for dex same about 170-180 and all th rest into life NO ENERGY NO ENERGY Noooo ENERGY don't worry about having no mana with mana leech every thing will be ok. Now for the items: I have 2 choice 1st one is (arreat, shaft, stormshield, venom grip ,sting of ears, inferno stride, c grip, and a manald the sword I like is ccb) the 2nd one is :(a perf vamp, ber'ed barb valor, storm shield, perf string of ears and the rest like the 1st one) both should have 75% dmg reduce the 1st one is the one I prefere because the 2nd COST A LOT the 1st one should o around 45-50 sojs the 2nd one around 60-75 sojs but the 2nd one is better WELL...... that's all now u have all u need to go kill some zony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Now I know that people may not agree with me but anyways I have played this game for about 3 months now that may not be along time, but I have learned a lot. I haven’t played D2 expansion so this is only about D2. Barbarians are very good characters, but they are not good with elemental attacks so that’s bad with the immune to physical attack monsters out there lucky for you that can wait till nightmare. Warcries are of course a waste of skill points. I’ve tried a point in all and only use four of them that is find potion which comes in handy when you run out of pots in battle and makes it easy to find full regeneration pots J especially cow runs they can be a pain in Nightmare and Hell. Shout comes in handy to increase my defense for about 10 seconds which helps when going up against a lot of monsters at once. Find Item is kind of useful due to which if you have high magic find you can get some items off those unique monsters I have even picked up a set item with this skill at level one. The last one would be Battlecry because it weakens the enemy, which is useful, because it weakens their defense and also reduces their damage J very useful. Now in Combat Masteries I would suggest maxing out sword mastery because all the other weapons suck sorry fellas it’s the truth and pole arms are very slow speed is the key. Increased Stamina is about a point. Anyways I would suggest about 10-20 to iron skin now I have 8 and that’s a lot due to 100+ % to defense. Increased Speed about a point. Natural Resistances max that out because there comes negative to your resistances in Nightmare and Hell. Now as it goes for Combat Bash is good but it gets out dated. Leap don’t even bother you’ll see why. Doubleswing very good if you’re doing a two sword barb but that’s not my stile J . Stun is ok but don’t worry about it. Double throw I’ve heard of people maxing that out and I have scolded them for it. Leap attack put a skill in it, it’s only good for getting out of a tight situation, and at the first level it causes you to jump ten times farther than leap J . Concentrate for a two handed-sword barb or a one-two handed sword shield barb (since they can use a 2-handed sword like a one-handed with a consequence is cool) is great and should be maxed out. Frenzy I’ve tried it, it’s cool but it says increased attack speed what increased attack speed I think double swing is faster but anyways this is my opinion. . I would max out Whirlwind because at first you’re your damage goes down my WW is about 8 damage is up about 10% if I remember correctly and is great for any barb. Berserk put a point in that because not everyone has some kind of elemental damage to there name barbs I mean, and no skill puts anything into that so this would give you this effect if needed which will be cause of the immune to physical attack monsters. The down side is it makes your character more open for attack but if you want I would max that out after everything else but put a point in it till at least you get a sword that adds elemental damage to it. Ok now as stats come to play I would say two strength, two dexterity and one to vitality. Now when I started I made a mistake I put a lot into strength and put about twenty into energy I know I’m going to get e-mails back saying what the hell were you thinking. I know, but I tell you what with my mana leech and high mana anyways I hardly ever run out J even with WW. I now have about one hundred and eighty to strength and like sixty to dexterity I’m putting all my points now into that because I need a better sword and they require a lot of dexterity, I have about fifty to vitality and thirty to energy. Now as it comes to equipment I would say sigon very good set only use the helm belt gloves and boots that’s it. Armor would be ordinate mines about eight hundred to defense. Sword two-handed one with high attack maybe even sockted. Shield I use The Ward good with defense and resistances, and plus ten to strength. You take your choice these are not the best items you will find better. Rings and Amulets would be with mana or life leech and plus to skills and stats and also Magic Find. Now this is a little insider to what you can do if you have any suggestions to me or anything at all e-mail me but don’t harass me about the twenty to energy thing alright. Nasty Slasher Level 38 Barbarian. |
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Barbarians are very good duelers, so listen up for the BEST STRATEGY GUIDE EVER. I have played for 4 years, made several barbarians, and have every item I could wish for. This is mainly focused on PvP not player vs. monster. If you want a good barbarian, read these quick tips: Strength keep at 150 or less. You can get swords that are strong enough to impale anybody in one hit pretty much, especially if you use whirlwind. If you get the grandfather and find you can’t wield it, get charms that increase your strength, they are massively cheap. Dexterity keep at about 150, you will can later find swords that ignore target defense and/or add greatly to your dexterity. You will need to save your points for a much more valuable stat point: vitality. I would strive to have about 250 vitality, because barbarians get 4 health points per vitality, you will have about 1300 health at level 99. When you use the skill “battle orders,” you will have about 2600 health. This will take you a long way, but only if you have the following items: shaftstop mesh armor, string of ears belt, vampire gaze grim helm, and stormshield monarch shield. For skills, max whirlwind, max battle orders, a lot of increased speed, max iron skin, max the mastery you want to be good in, get 1 leap attack and the rest is up to you. For more information about barbarians or if you want to trade with me at any time, email me at ladiesman02421@hotmail.com. I have a US East realm account, my account name is dv_007. Feel free to add me to your friends list. Good Luck! |
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1.) Collect all the magic find you can. Once you have about 200 magic find start doind hell baal runs. If you are not high enough level get rushed and sit in hell cows until level 65. Personally I think mauls are the best for barbarions so max out mace mastry. Try to spread out skills dont put to much in one area. A balanced barb should have 20 in mace mastry, 8 in whirlwhind, 20 in leap attack 11 in shout, 6 in battle orders, 7 in natural resistance, 4 in increased speed, 8 in iron skin, and left over skills in areas of your choice. Try to get around 225 strength, 135 in dex, 120 in dex, and whatever left in energy. Try to get a manald heal ring for the mana steal. Hell-Whind |
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OK,hi all some ppl say u need arreat face but...i dont really like it cuz....if u get a vamp..... and u have ss/shaft/string if ur string give 15%dmg red (like mine) shaft 30%dmg. red. vamp with 20%dmg. red. ss with 35%dmg. red. what will happen......WELL ULL GET 100%DMG REDUCE! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 15+30+20+35 =100 well i acculy dont have (still mfing for ss and vamp) but.....ya know......... for the rest max out ww/natural res/and the mastery of ur choice(i prefer swords) get 5-10 on iron skin/and rest.....dunno for ur helm:vampire gaze(try and get it 20%dmg reduce) armor:shaftstop weapon:lotta choice lightsaber/gf/doombringer/ccb/fury/ith. shield:stormshield boot:ik boot gloves:bah venomgrip......not TOO important belt:string of ears rings:dual leech ammy:+barb skill put enought in str and dex to use armor/weap...ect (ussuly like... 200str 140dex... rest into life dont worry about mana with the leech...ull get it WELL THATS ALL now go and kick some howdy buttsbutts also have 84zon/81mf sorc/76 duel sorc/81barb/79barb/67pally and a bunch of lvl 60and -v |
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hi, barb lovers, here's my strategy for a perfect PVM and MF barb. to build him, you'll need to do a lot of trading and be very patient, but it's worth it. 1)here's how you need to distribute your stat points: str - put only as much as you need to use silence collosus blades, no more, dex - same as str, vit - put everything else here, eng - put nothing here 2)here's how you need to distribute your skill points: bash - put only 1 point, double swing - put only 1 point, it'll help you a lot in the beginning, double throw - you only need 1 point to get to frenzy, frenzy - max this out, it'll be your primary attack with this barb, leap - i recommend you max this out, it'll help you a lot, sword mastery - max this out, increased speed - put one point here, when you get good gear, it'll be around lvl 10, which is more than enough, iron skin - same as above, natural resistance - you *can* put one point here, but if you manage to obtain the same gear as me, you wont need it, howl - put one point, it'll save your ass in the beginning of the game, shout - put one point here to get to battle orders, battle orders - max it out to get over 3000 health! assuming you distribute your skill points like i recommended and finish all the quests that give you extra skill points, you'll be accumulating extra skill points after lvl 77, and you can distribute these wherever you want. 3)here's the gear you need: dual silence colossus blades - these are not easy to obtain, but you'll find them VERY useful, because they have good damage, great attack speed (not that it really matters with frenzy), mana steal, and, most importantly, 150% bonus to resistances! by the time you finish malah's quest, you'll have all resistances maxed out without needing charms, resistance amulets or rings or anything vampire gaze - you need it because of dual leech and because of damage reduction. socket it later and put IST rune into it skullder's ire - you need it for MF. socket it with IST. you can use shaftstop in pvp. another nice armor is guardian angel. don't laugh! it'll increase your max resistances, and if you put on mara's kaleidoscope, you'll have 90% resist all!!! defense doesn't matter for this barb. i don't recommend arky's cuz it's expensive and not ALL that good. hellmouth - it'll prevent you from getting frozen and that metheor is good for confusing unexperienced duellers :P dual bul katho's - it'll give you +2 all skills and life leech is very welcome as well amulet - use whichever you want. if you use guardian angel, put on mara's kaleidoscope, otherwise it's your call string of ears - extra damage reduction is always useful wartravs - you need them for magic find dual colossus blades socketed with 5-6 IST runes each - make them your secondary weapon combo. when boss is almost that, switch to them. you'll lose your damage and 150% res, but that's no problem at all, cuz you'll have life leech and round 3000 health! 4)strategy for this barb is pretty simple: kill your enemies with frenzy. leap into large groups of enemies to knock them back and kill them. dont worry about dying. you can stand right next to a lightning enchanted multishot stygian doll and his minions and survive for quite a long time, thx to a) max res b) damage reduction c) lots of health. i use this barb and i NEVER die. heck, i never get below 75% health. physically immune enemies are no problem. just get an ice merc in act 3 and you're set. 5) mfing is very easy. with the gear i recommended you, you can get about 556% mf with no mf charms!!! you can do baal hell in only a few minutes without even taking a scratch. just leap your way to throne of darkness. let your merc kill the stygian furies. kill all baal's minions, let your merc kill physically immune ones - you keep them distracted. then attack baal and damage him until he only has very little health left. before that happens, let your merc get killed - you dont want him finishing off baal for you. when baal is almost dead, just swith to ist-ed colossus blades and finish him off. you'll get tons of good stuff. meph run is even easier. dont kill anyone, just run over to that "peninsula" with portal next to it, and leap to the other side. council members won't be able to follow you. kill meph as you would kill baal. you can do meph hell run in less than 2 minutes if you're fast. 6) i don't recommend this barb for pvp, because colossus blades dont do enough damage, unfortunately. however, with some recombinating, you can turn this barb into a real powerful pvp barb as well. |
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Hey fellow diablo lovers, this is for all of you classic players (if there still are any after all the xpac fans lol). I have a 77 barb, AssBarbPK he is a sword barb, second best to lance barbs , with shadow mar and all. anyway my barb uses Soul Scratch, of course, the best sword in the game by far, and he use sigons helm and sigons sheild, the shield for the 69% block rate and the 900 ar bonus by the helm. i use silks 514, perfect because of the 5% mana leech and 1 to all skills ain't bad at all. he uses some rare gloves, i forget wut kind but they have 46 resist all 18 to str and 11 to dex and 3 % life and mana leech, he use corruption grip ring cuz of its 6 life leech and 7 mana leech and its good resist, and my other ring is a hard to find viper whorl. he uses hsarus' boots and gloves, which are highly looked over. boots have an awesome 1100 to ar and belt an awesome 314 defense at my level (similar to sigons belt, but much much better) he uses a perfect eye fo its 7 leech cold damage and 1 to all skills. for skills, max ur mastery , max ww, max iron skin, about 15 in nat resist , and rest into skills on the tree to get these skills on ur left click have normal attack in case u run outta mana from ww if ur leech doesn't kick in and whack away and leech it back always do meph runs, i average about 10 a day always do cows till level 75, after that do chaos runz never duel zons above 65, cuz u will ALWAYS lose always figh pally's cuz they suck stats -- none in energy of course, 250 max in str 150 in dex, rest into vit (trust me) 77 barb 89 javazon 96 bowazon 78 pally and 81 necro |
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AHHHHHHH, What is with all you people who say use Whirl-Wind ! ! ! ! ! so it hit more then 1 person, it's damage is obsoleate compared to what I'm about to tell you. . . Now I've tested this many MANY times, and I wanted to keep this little secret all to my gready little self, but you people just can't figure it out, so here comes good ole me to bail ya out . . . . (ick people, i think the radiation is geting to them) okay. . . now here's the layout, 1 wep in each hand is great . . . then you reach night-mare, you get a little cheased off, but you find that you can still live, and without taking the hint you decide to go to hell, whitch turns out to more of a hell then it's name implys, and you people still haven't taken the hint . . . Use a damn shield ! ! ! ! Sure you're big scary Whirl wind won't be as good now but I got more to tell ya . . . the answer is simple, and you probally saw it at level 18 . . . It's name consentrate . . . . do you people even look at the difference in damage that's posted on this site HELLO ! ! ! ! ! Do the F(&%ING MATH ! ! ! ! gezz. Okay now for some real strategy . . . Their are 2 ways to go in my opinion 1) maces; or 2) swords If you're going mace max out the mastery and get Schaefer's Hammer, If you're going sword max out that mastury, and get yourself a light sabre, or you could get a silence rune-word (if you want a nice treat). In any case for skilld, max out the mastury you're gonna go with, max concentrate,get a point in leap attack, and 1 or more in baserk (err. . I know my spelling and grammer sucks, just bare with me okay) now try to get Alot of natural resistance and iron skin, these will help a butt-load, increasd speed and stanima are good too, but don't over do it. . . War crys are great . . . if you know what you're doing . . . if you got enough points left over i recoomend placeing them in 1, 2, or all 3, of thease warcrys - Battle command, shout, and most important - Battle orders- You'll know why once you get about 400 extra life, and 100, extra mana in a matter of seconds, last but not least points . . I feel that you should try for abou 100 - 150 dex, because i love attack rating, and when you got about 2000+ damage in 1 hit, It's really sad that you hit only 5% of the time, you'll still have enough for some good vit. and enough so that you'll get a deacent amount of damage from a not-so-deacent wepon . . . anyhow, if you read any of thease other strategys, you'll know what armor to look for, but with the HUGE defence bonus you get from consentrate . . I really don't think you have to worry too much . . . okay i gave you people my secret strategy, PLEASE don't use it, It's mine, all mine, and it you want a good strategy try thinking about 1, if you need to use this to start you off, but realize there are many many ways to make a good char, and aslong as you realize W.W. is not the king, and more like a death trap, and that concet |
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I've noticed that most, probably of these strats say Barbs dont need energy... they are absolutely wrong! Now Obviously you need some pts in Energy if you dont hey guess what, you dont have the mana to use your skills. now i recomend maybey 2 or 3 lvs ONLY into energy because it should be enough, especially if you have equip that steals mana back for you. and every one says WW is so friggin awesome, I'll admit it is usefull but I've found that Concentrate is a bit better for barbs like myself who use Axes. I have an ancient axe with 2 P.skulls and a P.emerald, this works very nice with concetrate. |
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forget all the ppl who y you want two swords or a two handed get a storm shield and a sword called the swordgaurd of osiris i have it and i kill hell diablo in one hit it is the best |
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Official Barb Strategy 1.Put most stat points in vitality,strength,and dex. 2.put skill points in masteries and combat thing so u can get bezerk and WW bezerk 4 physical immune in hell. 3.Get 900 defense armor at the least I would recommend GOOD gris,shaftstop or many of the other wonder armors. 4.As for the weapons don't use mauls enless they are Very fast(like ik)but I recommed swords like Gf or lightsabre. whisper /*KungFu-Lizard for more details |
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Okay so many of you out here are dising the low lvl barb strats, but give this one a try. I did this to my single payer barb lvl 72 and he tears up evrything in his path, and i set the char lvl at 8 so the monsters are tougher and drop better items. first, put ur first 4 lvls into sword mastery, i know some of u use azes and such, if thats the case, put it into the mastery of ur choice... JUST STICK WITH THE SAME MASTERY!! on ur 5th lvl, put 1 into bash, 6th lvl double-swing, then the rest into sword mastery, at lvl 12 put 5 into frenzy, then the rest onto sword mastery. after that put +10 to increased stamina, +10 to Iron Skin, +10 to datural resistance, +1 to increased speen (thats all u really need) +10 to whirlwind, and +1 to berserk. once u have this u should be around lvl 60-65. choose the weapons of ur choice, but as for armor, i choseDusk Deep, Silks, BladeBuckle, Treads of Cthon (or Vidalas boots) FrostBurn and ur rings and ammys shoud all be +1 to barb skills or to ur MF. If you don't think this will work, try it... see how u like it. Kongol-Lod lvl 22 Barbarian |
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-barbarian- probably the most popular character in the game. max out sword mastery, whirlwind, and that one cry that does life, stamina and mana for ur whole party. you may also want a few leaps so u can jump far to avoid obstacles. it is a good idea to use two 2-H weapons with 1 hand each then use one 2-H weapon with both ur hands. |
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Is it just me, or are most of these so called "strategies" completely useless. I cannot believe that there are players with clvl 24 barbarians trying to give out "advice"! Most of the "words of wisdom" I have seen are inane bits of advice about leeching in Hell Cows and having buddies "rush" you through the game. Give me a break! If you can't earn it legit and by yourself, you SHOULD not be playing Diablo. As for the strats about "this weapon rocks", or "I kill everyone", please. I have been playing Diablo for a long time, and everyone has been beaten, AT EVERY LEVEL. The barb is a wonderful melee character, but each build is different. Swords, inherently, are the best weapons for a barb given their generally faster attack speed, but any weapon the you choose to "master" has the potential for being a powerful tool. As for skills, Warcries are VERY VALUABLE in the latter difficulties of the game, especially Battle Orders. Trust me, the first time you face the Ancients in Hell, you will be happy for the boost in health, mana, and stamina. As for choice of armor and such, finding the Immortal King set, string of ears, Arreat's Face, and of course, the ubiquitous Stone of Jordan ring are a must for any serious player. Just remember, the fun of Diablo is actually PLAYING the game and BUILDING the character, legitimately. I hope this has been at least a little bit informative. You never know, maybe I'll see you on USEAST. Good luck fellow questers. Diameses Lvl 65 Barb, Moreg_Thul Lvl 92 Druid (Elemental if you can believe it), QuanFei Lvl 46 Assassin, Xelesh Lvl 21 Sorceress, Cemirhage Lvl 19 Necromancer (Hate this guy), Ebraxix Lvl 26 Paladin (Hate this dude too), Agrilader Lvl 77 Druid (Shape-shifter/Summoner) |
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Ive been working on a barbarian strategy for quite a while now and heres is the way i think u should go. This is a strategy for a sword/shield barb. First off max out sword mastery, the sword is the best weapon for a barbarian. Then max out whirlwind. wirlwind is one of the best skills for a barbarian since it can attack multiple enemies. Then put about 5~10 points in berserk (for those immune monsters and cuz it does lots of damage). then about 5~10 points in nat. resist. and 10 points into Battle orders. then put 1 point into iron skin, increased speed, increased stamina, and shout. Now for the stats get your strength to about 250~270 and your dexterity to 210~240 the rest of pooints put it in vitality dont put anything in energy. Now for the equipment get a +2 barb ammy with mana/life leach or with resistance. For the armor wear shaftstop or if u cant get it then wear courpsemourn, for shield get gerkes santuary or if u a rich barb wear stromshield. for the helm, u should wear either arreats face or vamp gaze (personally i prefer arreats) for the sword, u should use a nice ed ccb or ccs, i use a 314% ed ccb with 2 ed jewels and 1 shael. for the belt u should use string of ears. for the gloves use either venom grip or ik gloves and for the boots waterwalk or ik boots. Have fun and dont follow everything exactly be creative. lilbdogg, lvl 56 barb |
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Ok, I'm tired of all u people saying war cries are good. They aren't, and that's all there is to it. I wouldn't even waste any skill points in them. Maybe they are good in online games, but just to let u guys know, I can't play online games, cuz my comp is f***ed up, but my barbarian is a level 91. He kicks some serious @$$. I got him this far in single player through many, many hours of gaming. He uses maces, not swords. In my opinion, I find that they do more damage than swords do. Also, with the exception of the flail, maces do not have a dexterity requirement. This means u can put many more points into strength, and get that armor u've always wanted faster. Now, this doesn't mean u shouldn't put anything into dexterity, u want to be able to hit things. But, if u do decide to use maces, DO NOT GO FOR THE HUGE THINGS! Yeah, their damage may be massive, but their attack speed is too slow to hit any monsters without them killing u first in higher difficulty levels. Use the smaller maces. Work ur way up until u can get the Baranar's Star (altogether this puppy deals 762 damage BY ITSELF! this isn't adding the extra damage from charms, strength and/or jewelry or anything), then try to get Schaefer's Hammer. With the double-weapon configuration, u can dish out damage in the quintuple digits using maxed whirlwind (which u SHOULD max, but if u dont want to do that, then at least go to level 8 with it, so the damage isn't reduced at all) Then get an amulet or piece of jewelry that increases ur attack speed, prefferably with a little bit of added magic resistance or a life leeching ability. Another good skill to get is berzerker, but don't put anymore than three points into it. The magic damage may rise, but the duration drops with every skill point u put into it. For combat masteries, i recommend mace masteries, but if u aren't using maces, then whatever weapon type u are using. When u get there, put at least 8 points into iron skin, so u have double defense, but if u want, go to level 18 with it and no higher, but I don't recommend that. U want to save ur points for natural resistance, which u definately should max. Another skill u might want to invest 8 or 9 points into is increased speed. DO NOT GO HIGHER THAN THIS! U are just wasting ur points because it only increases by %1 every level after 9. And finally, I leave u with this. HAVE FUN! It's just a game! It's not the end of the world if u don't get everything u want or u die every now and then. Sure, it's frustraing, but that's what makes games fun. A challenge. Mike Level 91 Mace barbarian. |
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first......i wanna say hi...... k....ihav a lvl 76 barb and to be honest......i m havin trouble myself. But i still hav tips.. 4 u guys out there....... 1, STAY OUT OF TROUBLE......example.....pking....the high lvl ppl r proud so they kill ppl......so stay away....and use two handed swords...they deal great damage....and.....max out yer strength ... i wun care on wad u use yer skill points on.....juz use yer common sense.......n.......try mephisto runs.....(if u can .......do hell mephisto ... he givs many many items....) try to get more mf ( magic find) items......they will get u a whole lot of sweet items......n BARBS R CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when u fight....juz fight by doin ww(whirlwind.....)and ww and ww and ww and ww and ww and ww and more ww.................thats all.......wish u luck :-) |
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To Start off u shoud max out sword mastery it wil definitly help u do more damage.also max out iron skin and nat resistance. Also ur barb will suck so bad if u dont max out whirlwind it is VERY IMPORTANT to max it. |
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First of all ive read most of these barb strategies and the majority of them suck!! First of all pick one weapon usally sword beceause they can easily be the best.For that weapon max out the mastery! Max out ww a great skill! Also u should get a few war cries (good 4 groups n' things).As 4 stats NO MANA!!! Vitality u dont need much of, dex and strength are ur main focuses!Equiptment= get some some equipment with leach!!! wich is really helpful. lvl 72 amazon Veer_Zon, lvl 55 amazon Immortal_Rouge, lvl 51 sorc Arctic_Slayer, and finally my new barb Veero_Barb ( still low lvl) |
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im giving strategy for single player because multiplayer strategy has been covered. i have 2 barbs, a 76 sword barb that i got bored with cuz i beat baal on hell with it and didnt feel like getting a single player guy to 99 is really that important and it woulda got boring anyways, and a 45 axe barb that currently is flying thru nightmare, i wanted the challenge because axes really arent too great in DII and i thought they looked badass. honestly, sword barbs are the way to go. As cool as other tings are, youll get screwed eventually if you dont have a shield, and swords are infinitely better one hand weapons than anything else. i use a two handed sword with a shield when i was playing to get somewhere significant, and used it two handed to get exp. i used a rare highland blade that did around 150-200 damage and had life/mana leech both at 9%. i did the runeword ancients pledge (ral ort tal) in a superior pavise to get 48 to all resistances except for cold which got 43. just used some high defense armor, nothin special. razortail for a belt (awesome unique belt), infernostride for boots (awesome boots) and magnus' skin or something like that for gloves (set item). prismatic amulet of the whale, order coil, death coil for rings. skills: obviously you need need need need need to have whatever mastery you want maxxed. put 1 point in everything you need to get whirlwind and berserk. my 76 guy has a point in berserk and maxxed whirlwind. 1 point in increased stamina and iron skin. 5 pts in nat resistance and increased speedm (my boots add to speed, i consider speed to be one of the more important aspects of a barb). 1 point in howl (pre-req) 1 point in shout, and max battle orders (who doesnt want a ton of extra life and mana? even in single player?). the shield is a big part of the recipe. in hell mode, around act III, those resistances will really help, and the blocking will help quite well too, youll live a lot longer. the battle orders give you a lot of extra life and mana, so you can do whatever you want for as long as you awnt. the sword, try to get something thatll put ur damage around 700-1000 and youll be set. skill point distribution: once i got 200 str and 150 dex, i pumped vitality. didnt waste a point on energy. mercenaries: dunno why, but i like the dude from act II cuz he seems like the only one who wont run off into a pack of assholes or run and hit an lightning enchanted guy when your trying to avoid it. always use the "players 8" thing in single player, youll exp will just fly up and its fun to get your ass whooped a few times. -Spencer (76 sword/shield barb, 45 axe barb, 88 sword/shield barb online) |
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The Barbarian is unarguably the most powerful melee dueler in the game, and if made correctly can be one of the most powerful character in general. I myself think that DR (damage reducing) barbs are the best barbs around. This is because when wearing the correct equipment, they will reduce attacks normally doing 2500 into about only 500!! damage. I have had about 7 or 8 barbarians in the course of my time playing diablo and i have found out that s&s (sword and shield) and DR is the best combo because it can deal massive damage. First, lets discuss what to do with stat points. You should have about 180-210 on strength, about 90-100 on dexterity, 30 TOPS on energy, and the rest on life. This might sound a little strange but it will work perfectly. Now with skills, it gets a little tricky. The FIRST skills are to go to the mastery of your choice. For now, lets do sword. By level 21 u should have sword mastery MAXED out. This will take care of low dex and will add great damage to ur attack. Now with the cries. FORGET ALL OF THEM EXCEPT FOR BATTLE ORDERS. ALL THE OTHER CRIES SUCK. This is a dueling barb. Thats pvp NOT pvm. Battle COmmands is crap. +1 to skills WHOOPDEEDOO. like that will only add 100 damage. Whats defense for. Guided arrow NEVER misses. Assasins with traps will always hit, and Martial Assasins will hit u anyway with theyr high dex. Now if u disagree u can whisper me on bnet at *jay2011ex, or email me at NycsFinezt61189@aol.com. Now lets talk bout other chars. Necros do psn damage which cant be avoided. Sorceress are pure elemental and only resistances can help. A good pally will obviously have fantacism and then cant miss. Other Barbs have too strong attack rating from mastery so they obviously they wont miss. Now Druids; a good one will obviously have ALOT of health (ex 5000+) and will do alot of damage. BUT REMEMBER, THEY CAN ONLY HIT U IF UR SLOW AND IDIOTICALLY STAND IN 1 SPOT. A druid will generally do about 1500-3000 damage with fury but that is reduced to only about 200-700. And also druids arent exactly sharpshooters so they will only hit u bout 3-4 times before u kill em. Ok so ive gone way off track from skills so ill just type a tree for u. Remember u only get 111 skills so use them wisely. this is how it should look. SWORD MASTERY - MAXED OUT , NATURAL RESISTANCE - MAXED OUT, STONE SKIN - 10-20, WHIRLWIND - 15 , BATTLE ORDERS- 10-15 , LEAP ATTACK!!!!- 15 Now u may be saying "LEAP ATTACK???!!!!" and i say to you; OFCOURSE!!!!!!!!!!!. Leap attack is a barbarian's guided arrow. IT NEVER MISSES. I am not sure if this is some glitch, or something purpusely put in by blizz. Leap attack will not miss, even if the target is not even on the screen anymore. Stone Skin will take place of Battle Commands. If u have any skills left after this, i recommend putting them into faster running and walking. It is neccesary. Ok well that takes care of skills. Now time for what u have been waiting for: GEAR!!! HURRAY!! Ok i said a good barb has damage reduction. Well im right. For ur armor u should wear SHAFTSTOP MESH ARMOR. Ur helm should obviously be: ARREATS FACE SLAYER GAURD. Or if u want to be greedy, u could wear: HARLEQUIN (i think thats how u spell it) CREST SHAKO. I dont really reccomend it though. You obviously need to use as a shield: STORMSHIELD MONARCH. It gives a whopping 35% damage reduction. Plus great Blocking rate. Ur Sword, well now this is really up to you. It really doesnt matter what u use(as long as its not a cruel dagger) However, i DONT reccomend GF (grandfather collosus Sword) This is because it is way too expensive for what it does. If u want to go crazy with price, then u can get fury balrog blade. I am currently saving up for it. For now i use a CCB (cruel collusus Blade) it had 350 ed, but it had 2 open sockets, so i put in 2 ohm runes, and now it has 450% ed. it does an incredible 345-678 damage on its own. Your gloves really dont matter, however, i like to use venom grip. It may sound weird but it gives a good chance for crushing blow, and does poison damage. Ur boots should obviosly be IK because of their faster run/walk. Ur belt needs to be string of ears in order for u to reduce damage. Now u may be saying WHERE IS ALL THE LEECH. U need DUEL LEECH RINGS. I have 2 of em and they are both 8 health and 5 mana. Now my ammy is 2 to barb skills and duel leech 10 and 10 i believe. Now in ur inventory u should have about 20 100 small poison charms. It will take a while, but ull get them. Also, u should have about 10 5% faster run/walk speed small charms. With all this ur WW damage should be EXTREMELY HIGH. My Barbarian does 4100-7000 damage, give or take a point. My leap attack does 2700-5450. This massive damage slaughters almost all chars cept maybe some zons. Of course thats when they are being a pu$$y. Now lets add up the reduction. 30+35+15= 80!!!!!!!!!!! also if u use shako thats 80+10= 90!!!!!!!!!! Thats incredible. So picture this a HUGE BARBARIAN, WITH over 4500!!!! HEALTH, doing 6000+ damage and making u do only 10%!!! of ur damage, and running faster than any other char does. My Barb has Maxed Resistances in Hell, and 80% reduction and 4890 health when i use battle orders. So even the strongest blast from a sorc's t-storm. only lowers my health to 4600!!!!! That is incredible!!!! Well Good Luck building ur Barb, and have a good time dueling. - JAY2011EX - Jay_Doom |
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ok everyone listen up. I have read and tried out almost every different strategy listed here and i have found that none of them fit the true nature of the barbarian exactly. So i started my own strategy, based on different parts from everyone elses. First off i would just like to say that the added dmg and attack speed from using two weapons or 1 two-handed weapon is nice, but it doesn't compar to the block rate of 75% with a good shield. You start off by pouring all of your skill points into sword mastery, I chose sword mastery because a cruel collosus blade of quickness with 2 ohm runes and a jah rune is unbeatable: 400% ed, 40% ias, ignors targets defense. after you max out sword mastery start to get the prequisits for whirlwind. NEVER i reapeat NEVER put any skill points in double swing, double throw, or frenzy, without using a shield you will be taken down very fast. Then after you've maxed out whirlwind, start to put points into iron skin, natural resistance and increase speed. You should probably do 10 iron, 10 resist, and 3 speed. by this point you should be level 70 or so... I had a friend rush me to hell cows where i leeched for expirience and i got to level 70 in one day, its not hard. After you have lvl 20 whirlwind, lvl 20 sword mastery, lvl 10 iron skin, lvl 10 natural resistance, and lvl 3 increase speed, you will be set for the combat skills and masteries skill tabs. now move on to warcries. Some people say warcries are worthless, believe me they are idiots. You will believe me when your hp jumps from 800 to 1600 and ur defence goes from 3000 to 9000 for a good full minute and a half. you must get howl as a prequisit, but then put all ur remaining skill points into shout and battle orders. Max them out. If your good at math you are probably saying hey wait... thats 110 skill points, but u stop at lvl 99. where do u get that otehr 12 skill points from? you get them from the den of eveil, radamant, and izual quest for all three difficulties. Well now that you know which skills to invest in. let me show you what are good stats. to start off let me tell you that you do not need to put ANY points into energy. you will be able to get those precious mana points back using mana leech items and whirlwind. To start off i recomend doing a split till your're level 50 of 2 strength 1 dex, and 2 vitality every lvl. You might be saying: why so little dex? well if you notice you only need 110 dex to use a collosus blade and since the jah rune makes it so u hit every time you don't need to worry about more dex than that for now. once you get to lvl 70 your base stats should look like this. 10 energy, 150 vitality, 110 dex, 175 strength, again, make sure you get the lam esans book quest so you can get the 5 stat points for each difficulty. you should have 80 mana and about 750 life. As you progress through the last 29 levels you should focus mostly on strength and vitality. Don't totally blow off dex because i still does give you some defensive bonuses. by level 99 your base stats should look like this. 235 strength, 150 dex, 200 vitality, and still... 10 energy. With this spread you be be a force to reckon with. Having an extreme amount of life and damage while still having the defense to back it up. If its not already obvious to you hotkey shout and battle orders so you can recast whenever they dissapear. doing this you should have close to 2000 hp, and we're not even to items yet. All the choices of where to put the skill/stat points was easy enough, but here coms the hard part. For items you should use the following. 1 ohm/ohm/jah socketed cruel collosus blade of quickness, yes this is near impossible to get, but i did. To get this transmute a magic collosus blade with 3 chipped gems in your cube. The magic modifiers is randomated but if your lucky, like me, you will get a 3 socketed cruel collosus blade of quickness. socket it with 2 ohn runes and a jah rune. For armor use shaftstop, helmet use vampgaze. For a shield use stormshield, it gives excellent defence, resist, and damage reduction. For gloves and boots use Imortal kings, they up your stats and give you life. For belt use string of ears with high % life steal and damage reduction. Now for amulet use cresent moon for the mana and life steal. Then you round it all off with two bul-kathos wedding bands for the increased life,and life steal. With all of this in place you can go and try and find poison damage, run/walk, and +skill charms to fill your inventory with. You can customize this depending on what charms you find. With all of this is place you will be one of the best duelers and cow runners on battle.net, you will have 3000+ life, and 2000-3000+ dmg with whirlwind, and your defence will be close to 10000 making it nearly impossible for anyone to land a hit on you. And with your shield adding an extra 75% chance of protection and your items giveing you 90% damage reduction meaning those damn guided arrows won't do shit to your life even if your opponent is using windforce. You will have 25% life steal and 20% mana steal making it so you can refill your life in 4-6 hits, the mana cost for whirlwind will be no worry since with every hit you will restore about 400 mana. For your resistances you should have close to 150% resist all once you socket your armor, shield, and helm with um runes. meaning you can have nearly maxed resist in hell difficulty. This may take a long time to get these necesary items and i suggest making a Magic find charactor to find items worthy enough to trade for the ones you will need, but once you get all this stuff... lvl 99 windforce amazons will cower in your shadows. |
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OK,guys listen up my lvl 76 barb is maybe only 76 but.... i can kick lotta 80and+barb !!! first for the stats put like....200 in srtenght maybe 90 in dex 230 in vit and DO NOT TOUCH ENERGY !! I ORDER YOU DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DONOT TOUCH ENERGY!! for skill....max out wirlwind max out 1 mastery(the weapon u use) sword are bit more good but... its your choice! put 10 in iron skin ,2 in double swing (if u have 2 sword)10 in frenzy, max out natural resist good luck for your barb lvl 76 barb, 72 sorc, 70 necro, 68 zon, 60 pally, 38 druid, 34 asn |
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Yo, a barbarian definitely should have a ton of life and strength, energy won't matter because if you raise the barbarian right, he should have mana and life steal. my lvl 84 barb has 10 into energy (no extra points used in it) and never runs out of mana. Unlike some people would say, I think warcries are NOT a waste of time. Good barbs use them often. That relic guy or whatever cant raise a barb. U should max out battle orders and have a few points into shout and maybe some into batle command (at least 1). Those are the only 3 warcries that r good. In hell it is hard to stay alive in the cow lvl which is when all those warcries are extremely useful. The best idea is to have 2 swords, or whatever u want, that each have +3 to warcries so total u have +6 to warcries when u switch weapons, use the warcries, then switch back and fight. IT WORKS VERY WELL! Max out 1 and only 1 weapon mastery. I saved my points until I found a really good weapon, which is a good thing to do. I suggest maxing swords because they are easy to find and probably the strongest out there. Whirlwind is another skill to max out. It is extremely useful and without it, well, ur screwed if a bunch of cows come. Frenzy is also alright so u might wanna put 1 or 2 points into that but not too many incase u don't use 2 weapons. You need to have a inventory full of plus to life or skills charms. Usually a +20 to life small charm is good so I suggest an inventory full of those (even tho its expensive). Every lvl on my barb I put about 2 to strength, 1 to dexterity, and 2 to vitality but occasionally id put them all to vitality or even sometimes all to strength. My barbarian has about 115 to dexterity, like 175 to strength, and like I don't remember but like 180 to vitality, and 10 to energy at lvl 84 and maxed warcries with 2 swords as secondary weapons that together do +6 to warcries and with a inventory full of life charms. My barbarian wouldn't be able to b taken out if he had a better sword. |
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I've read all kinds of set up for a Barbarian and i think mine is one of the best. At first I was skeptical about using 2 swords but now its my favorite set-up. I have a level 61 Barbarian which I equipped with Life stealing and Life regeneration stuff. I use Stun then Double Swing as primary attack. When I jump into a group of minions with Leap Attack then using Stun then using Double Swing 2-3 Minions are dead before the first stun wears off then I stun again then the remaining Minions are dead. Then i take care of the Big Boss. Now i'm not really getting hurt because i'm stealing at least 40% life plus regenerating at least 2 pts per second. I don't even have top of the line equipment yet but i managed to craft items with life stealing, increased attack speed and good attack rating. You definitely need great swords with at least 7% life stealing in each to keep up in nightmare. Also i have full resistance to everything. Also you must have a great missile attack because no matter how tough you are there are enemies which are tougher. I'm an all around Barbarian. You can judge your toughness by how well you go toe to toe with a group of Champion Moon, Blood Lords in Nightmare level. If they can still hurt you bad, need to keep improving. |
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There is one thing I would like to say concerning Barbarian strategy. I think that the Frenzy skill is largely overlooked for some reason. Now this doesn’t seem to make sense. Almost everyone mentions in their “2 cents” that a weapon mastery should be maxed out. Frenzy has an almost identical effect on damage and attack rating, but not only that it makes you faster. Whirlwind may have its uses, but I believe Frenzy is a much more powerful tool in that you can use it constantly. Godwulf |
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The Barbarian, i think is one of the greatest characters in the game. It is a great dueler, and great at defeating bosses. My barb is an mf barb. This is not very popular, but i think is very useful. In order to build up a good dueling, and mf barb, you will need to build up on many things. There are several skills that are essential, in order to build a good barbarian. I have a level 99 barbarian, and i havent lost a duel to any other character, except for sorceress and amazons. In case you want to know, these are what my stats look like. Strength - 250, Dexterity - 170, Vitality - 240, Energy - 40 With these stats, I have a strong health sytem, so i can take many hits. I rarely miss with my whirlwind, and i am able to use any item i wish to use. To some people, my mana my seem a little low, but what most people overlook, is leech. Barbarians are characters that require massive amounts of leech. Because of their only form of attack(melee) they often take many blows before striking their target. Also, with only about 150 mana, and whirlwind costing near 40, mana leech is essential as well. My barbarian has about 150 mana (365 with Cries) and i can only use ww (whirlwind) a couple of times before running out of mana. But, because of my leech, i always have full mana and health. For your knowledge I have about 1800 life (3455 with cries.) In order to have a strong barbarian, you need to have your skills balanced out. That way, you will be able to do as much damage as possible. Whirlwind is one of the best skills a barbarian has. Once level 30 is reached, ww should be maxed out as quickly as possible. This is the way your skills should look, by the time you reach level 99. ( Take into account any skill items and charms you posses) Whirlwind - 20, Leap Attack - 5, Berserk - 20, Battle Orders - 18, Shout - 20, Battle Commands - 10, Natural Resistence - 12, Stone Skin or Any masteries you wish - 6 War cries are essential to a barbarian, just as shields are essential to sorceresses. They give your barbarian a very BIG BOOST, making him ready for battle. Even the mighty guided arrow wont affect for a while with a high defense. When i duel, i get powered up with a shrine, war cries, and a good sword. When i am all ready, i have about 3500 health, and 250 mana. My defense is about 17000. Hard to believe, but a little cheat is to use shout then get one of the shrines that increase your defense, and then use shout again. If done quickly enough, your barbarian should have about 15000 to 20000 defense. Resistances are also very important to a barbarians dueling abilities. Sorceress will slaughter barbs that dont have resistance. My resistances under hell are all maxed out. Therefore, sorceresses have a hard time damaging me. One last thing, try to use items that give you faster running and walking speed. They are very useful while dueling. These are the items i use and wear when i am dueling: Head - Arreats Face Slayer Gaurd, Weapon - CCB or Cruel Collosus Sword, Boots - Clean War Traveler Battle Boots, Gloves - Chance Guards , Armor - Arkaines Vallor, or Skullders Ire, Belt - Goldwrap, Rings - Both duel leech, and resist, skill level, and many other good abilities, Amulet - Duel leech and skill level, 15 to resists. Those are the items i use. I mostly use these 2 abilities; Left is Berserk, and right is Whirlwind. Berserk Damage : 1180 - 7565, Whirlwind Damage : 1055 - 7320 One final thing to say. Your inventory should be stocked FULL of poison and skill Charms. use only SMALL poison charms, and obviously, grand skill Charms (LOL can you imagine what a small +1 to all skill levels charm would be worth.) The poison charms will do a lot of extra damage. Try to use psn charms with a second mod. Most of my psn charms are 125 poison damage over 7 seconds, and 1-50 lightning damage. Those are very good because they higher the amount of damage you do drastically. If i drop the skill charms and fill my entire inventory with psn charms, i do easily over 9000 damage with whirlwind NycsFinezt61189 |
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For the first think what the hell is wrong with all the people, for the first when you start the game with a barbarian what wepon do you have an axe and do you know why becouse axes were made for barberians, for second why do you people use shields barbarians were made for holding two weapons than if you want to play with a shield pick a freakin paladin for gods sakes, for third why do i see people using spears and trowing crap the amazon was made for that not a barberian. Peoooooooople !!!!!!!!! wake up and play like a real Barberian not like a freakin rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Hi, well im a lvl 98 barb, tho my barb isnt the only guy i play, and im really good. U should try and wear wat i wear and have the same amount of skill points in each skill as i do. im wearing helm: Arreats face (unique barb helm), mf helm: Immortal Kings will (set item barb helm) armor: Immortal Kings Soulcage (set item armor), mf armor: Atmas wail (unique armor), belt: razortail (unique belt) mf belt: Goldwrap (unique belt), fun belt: immortal kings detail (set item belt), Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope (unique amulet), mf Amulet: forgot wat it was called, +34 to all resist, +53%magic find, +2 to barbarian skills (rare amulet), left ring: Bulkathos wedding band (unique ring), right hand: forgot name, +62 to all resist. (rare ring), gloves: Immortal kings forge (set item gloves), mf gloves: chanceguard (unique gloves), boots:immortal kings pillar (set item boots), weapons and shields first: lightsabre (unique sword) and Tiamat's Rebuke (unique shield), weapons and shields second: Bulkathos set. I also have a bunch of charms which add up to maxed resist even if ur in hell, and plus 12 to all barb skills. Skills, lvl 32 sword mastery, lvl 32 whirlwind, lvl 32 battle order, lvl 15 shout, lvl 22 iron skin, lvl 22 natural resistance, and lvl 13 to all other skills. Actually this is kinda hard isnt it, so i sugest u take other ppl strategies instead, i started this barb since the first copy of diablo ii came out sooo... yea. heh this is kinda useless heh, so ill just brag about my barb, MY BARBIS SO GOOOOOOOOOOD MY BARB IS SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!!!!!!! i also have a lvl 94 necro, lvl 96 paly, lvl 99 sorc, lvl 91 zon, lvl 93 assasin, lvl 34 druid, lvl 2 barb mule, and 2 accounts of lvl 1 mules. lalalla lal ala I RULE!!! heehee mysterious crazy guy |
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Guys Barbs rule.On this site I have read a lot of shit on how Necromancers have pked Barbs.Thats shit cause my level 98 Barb just kicks those skinny f_k#$^&$ Necro butts with ease with leap attack(it is considered as a ranged attack and hence IM doesnt affect you).I have a huge collection of trophies and any necro willing to take me on can mail me at shalinikurian@yahoo.com.Other characters except for amazons and to an extent Pallys are incapable of even standing to the first Brutal whirlwind.Remember Barbs rule. And play for fun and not only for perfection.Sorry for using abusive language.And guys LOD rocks-can't wait for Diablo 3. Rajiv - Majorglory(level98 Barb) - KickAss (Level 76 Pally) - Superman(Level77Barb) - And coming up Britney(LEVEL6 Assasin) |
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max out whirlwind, put 10 pts in iron skin, put 10 points in natural resistance. ignore warcries. put 4 or 5 points in increased speed. max out a mastery of your choice( recommended sword) get two swords that do lotsa damage and very fast ( recommended lightsabre phase sword) and go kick ass. |
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swords are easily the best weapons around so I suggest maxing out your sword mastery. Put about 10 pts in natural resistance and iron skin, but not more. Natural resistance gives you diminishing returns and it is not worth it to put too many points in it. Iron skin is useful but maxing it out is a waste of points. Instead, max out whirlwind and equip your barb with a sword that can leech life and mana. Then, you can whirlwind for free and taking hits is no problem since you regain life after each successful hit and i can assure you, you will be dealing lots of hits to enemies with whirlwind. Don't bother with warcries. As for berserk, just put a pt in it. It is powerful enough with just one point and it is great for dealing against physical immune creatures. Put about 3 to 5 pts in increased speed and one point in increased stamina. As for stats, don't put any points into energy. Strength and dexterity are very important so be sure to allocate plenty of points on them. |
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To start a barbarian, u must have items like ccb, V.gaze, Shaftstop, Ik boot, Ik gloves, string of ears, 2 R.spirals, corruption collar and a stormshield. Str-250, dex-200, vit-150, no energy!! For skill, Max ww, sword mastery, battle O, shout, battle C and iron skin. 10 points in increase speed and N.R. U will not have enought skill points but i have barbarian chams that can increase barbarian skills. If u want to do more damage, u can put runes into ccb, making it fury ccb.(jah+gul+eth). U will have a 2500-4800 max damage, about 10,000 defence and a 95% damage reduce. Try to get 10 grand chams that increases skills and 10 small chams with 100% or more poison damage and 5 10% mf. |
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I have a lvl 90 barb, and first off, i'd like to tell you that any dueling barb that does not use a shield will blow serious ass. Sword barbs are by far the best, and when doing cow runs, do not use a a shield, use only your sword. Stat Points: -20 in WW, -20 in Battle orders, -20 into Shout, -20 into sword mastery, -5 into faster run/walk, -5 into natural resist, -1 into berserk (for immune to physical monsters), These points will bring you up to level 90 something (remember you have to add in the prequisites) also, you get a total of 12 stat points throughout the game, by doing various quests. Every other barb besides a barb like this will suck. |
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All you people with lvl 20 barbs posting strats, just stop it. I have a lvl76 mace barb, and he's only lvl76 because I got bored doing cow runs. The fastest way to lvl up is to just leech in hell cows. You need friends to rush you, it's almost impossible to get free hell rushes from strangers. Once your in hell cows, you can start spending your point. Only get as much strength as you need for your weapon (plan out your weapon in advance). Then balance out (up to you) between dex and vit, NO ENERGY AT ALL. Your a barb, not a sorc, no energy is needed. Max your weapon mastery, whirlwind, BO, and put a point into battle commands. Put a few points into iron skin, natural resistances, and increased speed. Anything else is up to you. It's always helpful to get magic find. As long as you can easily do hell meph (with a build like this, you should be able to) you should get as much mf as possible without losing killing power. Even having 100%mf (super easy to get) you will be getting some decent stuff, because hell meph's drop level is so high. I have like 45%, and I get good stuff on almost every run, and a run takes only about 2 minutes. Most of this stuff has already been said, but needed to be further emphasized. Oh yeah, and if you feel like rushing me through hell, /w *Einar[RD] |
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Lol, decent stratagies u might say. N00b i am, true. but, I know how to play a hc barb better than any ive seen. a few simple steps, to make it to the top. 1) Vitality, Vitality, Vitality. Thers nothing else i can say. From level 1 - 30 (150 char pts) at least 90 should go to vitality if not WAY MORE. I know, sounds a littly bad for ur strenth and dex. But, when ur in act 2, and ur leeching on sewer runs, ull want that extra vitality. Belive me, lv 70 may sound far, but its 2 nights work, if you survive. Just make it to lv 20 with ur good vitality, get ancients, ur lv 26, get a bit of str and dex, then, u can start doing some stuff. 2) Battle Orders, Battle Orders, Battle Orders. No mistake....MAxing out battle orders is the most important thing i can tell you. Do it, do it fast. When ur normal 800 hp jumps to a 2200.... ull realize why. 3) Sword/Shield For those 2 handed barbs out there, lol, sure, ur good for normal, but, u dont see ANY in hell. They die, like no tommorow. With my shield and ccb, I can WW threw about 100 cows and all i hear is them hitting my shield. ITs hillarious. U dont get hit, and u still do lots of damage. YOUR SHIELD: get some resistances in it, GOOD blocking percentage, dont worry about Defence. You will notice in hell ull use bazerk (1 pt all needed) alot, and it strips ur def, so get good blocking percentage. Your sword: forget uniqes. Get a CCB!!!! about 270% and hope fully 3 soccets, but 2 is good enough. If u get like a 289% go all shaels, or IAS jewels. Belive me , if ur WW and dont got frenzy, but u still got a sword doing 3000 damage (like me) and ur attacting at frenzy speed, U will be glad u listened.Also, u will hit about 5 times a guy if u got decent dex and ur ww with shaels. If u dont got good Damage on ur ccb, but still 3 soccets, get a ED jewel in ther eto make it about 300+% and if u got room, some shaels. 4) MANA/LIFE LEECH GET YOURSELF A CRESENT MOON AMULET. Its all i need for all my leech. I belive mine is hacked, but it is 12% mana leech, and 6% life leech, If u got good vit , u dont need more life leech, and if u use WW, ull get all ur mana back in 2 hits. 5) RESISTANCES....MAXED by the time u get to lv 80, u should have maxed hell resistances. May sond hard....but it is not, get a good shield, maby some rings and gloves, and some nat. res. If u dont max it, at least get lightning maxed or diablo, meph, ancients, or baal will slaughter u. if i sound insane, your dumb, you wont get past nightmare, or live in hell with out good resistances. 6) THE 69 club: 6 to increased speed, 6 to nat. res, 9 to iron skin.(or more if u max out everything else) The reason: You will not gain shit worth of bonuses if you you go higher, and its a wayst. look at the chart if you do not belive me. 7) MAX OUT MASTERY: enough said. 8) WW>FRENZY!!!!!! DO IT!!! GET A CCB/SHIELD/WW/LEECh and u will live to hell. The leech will cover ur life, and shaels will make up for ur speed loss. 9) STAY AWAY FROM PKERS!!!! This is the hardest part in getting to hell. once u get to hell cows, u dont need to worry about pkers. Basicly that stretch to lv20, doing sewer runs will get u killed. HINT: get a friend to help u lv or private games. Once u get ancients, ull have some defence against them, and be able to do blood runs. 10) thats it. if you follow these, you will have need for the last step. and that is......Save your hell ancients. Belive me, oncee ur in hell, do some blood runs till ur lv 70 (not take long) then do hell cows for the rest. Or do cows right after nm ancients if ur dumb. When you get to lv 98....i aint sure or not, but i belive the step from 98-99 is about 1-90. And, 250m EXP will speed that up ALOT. besides, u only get 5 or so levels at 60, and that takes 2 blood runs, lol. SAve ur ancients, and follow the rest of myy knowlege. Guardian xXxCASTROxXx - 92 HC (Deceased Monday, May 27th, Slain by Quill Rat in Normal) |
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1: Before attempting your barb make a magic find sorc 2: Trade, steal and beg for the items you want for your barb so you know what stat points in put in. 3: Put all free stat points into health. 4: When you start of put 1 point into each of the skillz untill you reach ww, and max the weapon of your choice and then ww. (berserk is utter crap, i maxed it once and used for 5 mins b4 deleting character) 5: You should get at least an extra 4 points of items, so 1 into stamina, run will be enough. 6: Maybe a couple more into resists. 7: Put about 10 into iron skin. 8: Max shout, it offers more def than iron skin, and when maxed lasts for about a minute, it also has the advantage of helping other party members. When used shout will add to the over all defence rating including the 10 you put into iron, making it even more of a better option. 9: Max battle orders, more life and mana always nice. I think thats about lvl 85, this strategie comes from 2 years of playing,about 5 barbs, and every other char at least once. Dont be affraid of altering slightly to compensate your items, if you find youve wasted loads of points and stats it doesnt take long to get high anymore as long as you have the items to back your lvl up. |
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All of you wirlwind barbs dont know what you are doing.wirlwind is probibly the worst attk for barb.for all the beginners out there,once you get to level 24, max out frenzy.its the best.max out sword mastry,then max out frenzy.i'm a level 68 barb,and its always worked for me. Champion Blade |
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Hello, I'd like to share my strategy for a good rounded out barb. Okay, first I'll tell you what to put your stat points into each level, although many people will disagree, just trust me it'll all work out in the end. First, every level except multiples of 5 i.e. 5, 10, 15, etc. Put 3 vit points and 1 str, 1 dex. On every 5th level (5,10,15, etc.) put 2 vit and 1 into everything else. Although you may not think this is wise just trust me it'll all work out. Then if you decide to do the stat quest. Put it into what ever you feel like. If for some reason you don't think u'll have enough energy, then put 4 points into energy and 1 into whaever else you need, usually str. I usually put 3 into str and 2 into vit or 3 into energy and 1 into vit and 1 dex. For skill points, get whaever you need to get up to Battle Orders. Put however many you feel is necessary. Also get Whirl Wind, same thing goes, get whaever you feel is necessary. Then get sword mastery because they are the best kind. Now comes decision time, before you make your barb, figure out what you want to be, a 2 handed sword barb, a 2 sword barb, or a 1 sword 1 shield barb. I prefer the 1 sword 1 shield barb, with 2 sword as my 2nd weapon. If you are gonna be a 2 handed sword, get whaever you can afford, or find, usually a cruel sword is best. If your a 2 sword barb, get 2 good swords that you can afford. If your a 1 sword, 1 shield, get storm shield for good blocking if you can't get that, find a shield with high blocking percentage, and any good sword, I won't say the best sword because it all depends on your budget, i.e what you find, what you have sojs for. Then if you want to mf, get 2 ali baba's if you can for a good 2 sworded barb, you'll have less dmg, but you'll do enough to kill hell mephisto. For armor, wear anything you can that will add skills, or have good d. I like the C. Ornate unique plate, I can't remember how to spell it but it have over 1000 d and does good other adding qualities. For rings, since you won't have a lot of energy, get rings that leech to mana, and another one to add to energy. For amulets, maybe you can get anything that adds skills or energy or leech of some sort. For boots, attempt to buy yourself waterwalks, or ik boots. Then for helms, I like I.K helm and/or Vampgaze if you can. For gloves, I like to use venom grips because they have leech, try to get these. Then belts, I.K. or anything that adds skills or does something good for you. That's about it, hope you like this strategy, change it to your liking, besides that have a good time. All the barbs I've ever made were like this. I've had a level 99 and a level 93, right now I am working on a new barb, Shmi_Skywalker, he's only level 7 hehehe. The other 2 are long gone 1 was hacked, and the other expired :(. Oh well this barb i'm gonna make now is gonna be better because I have sojs. Level 99, 93, and 7 barb. |
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This is designed for a whirlwind-using D2x barbarian. Stats: The basic rule for this is to put enough points into STR and DEX to be able to use your main weapon. if youre going to use a sword barb, which i recommend, you will need to have 180 points in STR, and 110 points into DEX to use your executioner sword or colossus blade, or around 120 str to use 2 smaller 1-handed swords. Your mastery in your chosen weapon will add damage, but also attack rating, which is why you dont need to rely heavily on dexterity to hit. Strength is always good to add, but don't go too crazy. try and focus on vitality instead. Another reason you would want a sword barb is because you can always hold 2 swords OF ANY KIND, as opposed to 1 maul or 1 great axe. IAS (Increased Attack Speed) is very important for a whirlwind barb. This determines how frequently you will try to hit during each "whirl". My barbarian has 90 IAS altogether and it does very well. shoot for 60 to 80 (you can get nice 20% IAS gloves for chipped gems on any realm. Twitchthroe (studded leather) is also moderately easy to find. twitch gives you 20% IAS, and also 25% increased chance to block, if you decide to use a shield. my barb used this until mid-high level without problems). Leech is also very important, life leech taking more precedence. If you dont have this, you'll tend to lose life gradually whirling through packs of enemies since your defense is null when attacking. Warcries: 1 in Battle Command. this gives +1 to all skill levels. use this one before using the following: Shout. give this one around 10 points, Battle Orders. give this one 20 points. alternate putting points in this and whirlwind until whirl is at 5, which at that point makes it give a positive damage bonus. Combat skills: Whirlwind: maxed, of course, Berserk: 1 point in this. this is a huge help against physically immune monsters. Masteries: Your chosen weapon mastery should be near maxed early on for the attack rating, since youre not going to rely heavy on DEX. Iron skin: put 10-12 into this, Natural resistance: this should be at slvl 10 by hell difficulty., Increased stamina: only 1 point, this is a prerequisite skill, Increased Speed: 3-5 points. Mercenaries: i would recommend an act2 mercenary that uses HOLY FREEZE (a paladin aura that slows enemies). This cant be avoided if youre close to it. Your merc will not die often if you provide him enough support.,Another idea is an act2 MIGHT mercenary (aura that adds to damage) Optimal gear to use (for PvMers):head: arreat's face , armor: shaftstop (damage reduced by 30%), gloves: laying of hands (350% damage to demons, 20% ias), ammy: highlord's wrath, rings: life/mana leech rings, swords: both bul-katho set swords. these add a huge bonus to damage to undead and demons, belt: string of ears (life leech and 15% dmg reduced), boots: gore rider (deadly strike 15% (that means your attack does double damage), 15% crushing blow (half your enemy's life is gone)) screwtape-XX (91 whirlwind barb), dospac (82 frenzy barb), bigniqqa (74 polearm/ww barb) |
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Heres my strat. Everyone says sword is greatest, but my barb beats all sword barbs 10 lvls higher than me all the time. I go mace. Y? Cuz, it does more damage than swords, its one handed, and the dam to undead everyone over looks, but its great. Im using two earthshakers. Get 105 str. 70 dex. 50 en. Rest on vit. Max the following: Mace masta, Battle Orders, Iron Skin, Nat Resist put 2 on double swing, 1 on more stam, 2 on faster, and the rest on preqs. With 105 str, u can use gris's armor, and that armor aint bad. I advise you to use a sander boots, cleglaw glove (it slows down enemy, its great) mara's kolidescope, 1 soj, and one bul-kathos wedding band. Dont listen to ne barbs saying max WW if ur gonna be a dueling barb like mine, cuz its so ez to counter (get a 3 ice merc or fire (fire is good, dont listen to ne one saying it sux) Good luck DA_clowN-Foolz lvl 92 barb |
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I've a lvl 77 Barb called A_Madman On US EAST. And My strategy has been an equal distribution of stat points One level I'd put all 5 into Vitality, or Energy, or Strength, or Dex I know alot of you would be "Dude Energy is a waste!" But when you get to Hell and you notice you don't hit alot. And so those nice mana steal stuff doesn't work. I have 178 points into STR 110 in Dex 115 into Vitality and 100 into energy (by the way this is including my stat amulet and ring which together give me tons of stat points :) ) 100 energy gives you around 250 Mana, And even that runs out fast with leach rings So I've decided to boot the leach rings in favor of skills Now for my skill choices... i but 1 point into bash, in fact I've put one point in all of them except Whirlwind iron skin, Sword Mastery, Berserk, And frenzy. Now I know some people say *Bleep* warcries. But theres one warcries that gives a 150% bonus to you defense! And one that gives you an extra skill, and also one that give you More stamina health and mana. Which really helps. This about it, 150% bonus to defense. I have 6,000 defense or so. and that one little warcry cranks my defense to well over 12,000 defense! That puts most monsters(if not all)in the 5% chance to hit category. i've maxed my Sword mastery, 17 points into Iron skin 7 into N. Resist 18 into WW, and 5 into Berserk, + around 6 or 7 into frenzy. Most would say this is a waste. But listen up. You get around a 50% resist bonus, your whirlwind attack rating is cranked really high. Berserk hurts pretty bad, and I really don't use frenzy that much. But still, with the proper equipment this type of barbarian virtually owns Baal. |
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OK, you newbs who have been playing Diablo II for a week or two and think you have THE best strategy around don't know what the hell you are talking about. Now that we have that out of the way, I will explain to you my take on the Barbarian class and the most effective way to play a Barbarian. Pertaining to stat point allocation, I suggest that you put almost all your points into strength until level 40, only getting enough dexterity to be able to hit the monsters. 160 or so base strength is all you need to be able to equip the best swords available(this Barbarian build is the sword/shield type). Aim for 160 dex and the rest into strength. All the rest go to vitality. For Skills, 20 Sword Mastery, 20 BO, 10 Iron Skin, 10 Shout, 5 inc. speed, 5 Nat. Res., 20 Whirlwind an 1 Berzerk. HAVE FUN!!!!!!!! 8) |
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| Heres best way to spread 111 skills in my opinion and ill explain why... 20 Points into Wepon Mastery of your choice because this will help the attack rating and damge of the wepon you use. (I chose Sword because I like to use a shield at times). 20 Points into WhirlWind because you will just tear monsters up with it. 20 Points into Battle Orders because that 92% extra Life,Mana,Stanima will help you and your comrades alot for 144 seconds. 10 Points into Berserk because not only does it do alot of damage but it hits those pesky immune to physical attack monsters. 10 points into Resitances because your are only gaining like 1 point of resistances after you pass 10 and 54% resistances should be plenty. Then you got the 10% scrolls from mala in act 5 so that should raise your resistances along with any Resistance Plus gear you wear. 3 - 20 Points in Shout for a extra defence bonus of 120% - 290% over 20 - 54 Seconds 3 - 20 Points in Iron Skin for a extra defence bonus of 50% - 220% Note: You can split Shout and Iron Skin up equally if you choose but i think its easier just to have one at 3 and one at 20 because you will receive 340% defence bonus no matter what way you do it. Adding more points to Shout rather than Iron Skin will help You and Your Friends more than just adding 20 to Iron Skin Combat Skills 1 - Bash, 1 - Leap, 1 - Stun, 1 - Leap Attack, 1 - Concentrate, 20 - WhirlWind, 10 - Berserk 35 Points have been put into the Combat Skills Tree Combat Masteries 20 - One Wepon Mastery, 1 - Increased Stanima, 1 - Increased Speed, 3-20 - Iron Skin, 10 - Natural Resistances 35 - 52 Points have been put into the Combat Masteries Tree Warcries 1 - Howl, 3-20 - Shout, 20 - Battle Orders 24 - 41 Points have been put into the Warcries Tree Now if you have followed these steps you should be an unstoppable killing machine... Go have fun! Rattlesnake930 |
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Hey Barbarians, don't listen too all those weak@$$ barb who said to max out iron skin and all that crap, well dont believe them. You should definately max out shout instead of that weak@$$ iron skin. These are the things you should max out: 1)Battle Orders, 2)Whirlwind(ww), 3)Sword mastery, 4)Shout, 5)Optional but you really should put points into iron skin because all those barbs who trys to slash you with their doombringer and grandfather, you would have a bulletproof skin. and you should never get out ran by an amazon so try to put atleast 10 points into increase speed. Barb_Agez |
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I have a Lvl 83 barb and have found that useing the sword is the best way to go and have found a way to make a nice barb wasteing no skill points but this is only for people who already have a higher level barb and are makeing a new one i suggest you have someone rush you past the enite game and then do nothing but leach in hell cows and dont distribute skill points until your atleast lvl 60 personaly i prefer to use swords i use two 1 handed swords so i maxed out sword mastery also max out whirlwind and distribute the other points how you see fit but i suggest only put points on one weapon mastery The reason i say to only use this strat if you have another barb is so when you get to high enough level you can transfer all the stuff from old barb to new one with the help of a friend this allows you to build the barb around your stuff it is alot easyer then finding alot of differnt stuff this also saves alot of money and time in games and when you find better stuff move the old stuff to a mercenarie also if you can do it get as much magic find as posible it helps alot so you will find better items evan if they are not items i can use i can trade them for sojs and gems then i can trade the sojs and gems for better stuff and now for the best part use the socket quest in act 5 to put a socket in a unique or set item sword and put a SUR rune to blind the enemy use this as a secondary sword with the best shield you can find because sometimes like in hellcows when you get overun it helps alot |
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Ok, first off this is for a sword/shield or 2 handed sword barb. Max Sword Mastery. Max Battle Orders. Max WhirlWind. Max Shout. then put 5 pts in natural resistance. then 5 pts in faster walk/run. this will take u up to lvl 90 some. as for stats put 189 base pts so u can use everything. then only put 110 dex. all else in health. don't touch energy. such a waste. I have a lvl 90 barb who kicks serious ass. trust me this is the only way to build a barb. a good one anyway. |
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You long winded bastards dont know what your talking about. Get two one handed weapons(preferably swords). Get a mana leech and triumphant amulet/ring. Put 1 point into all skills except warcries and pile down on double swing and a weapon mastery. Get your energy to 14 and double swing forever. I repeat forever. YOU WILL NEVER RUN OUT OF MANA. You will be a virtual god. Try it and dont argue with me. Paneki, Barbarian Master. |
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All u barbs out there who think that warcries are a waste, u haven't been a high enuf lvl. When u get to lvl 80 u have nothing more to upgrade!! So i suggest that u get them warcries at lvl 60 or so. buy that tiem a 40% increase n life will be a humongous boost. and another thing, don't post up here unless u are lvl 70 or higher, becasue it gets a lot of newbs confused. Now for some diablo killing tips. If u are having killind d in normal here is what u do; wear as much lightnign and fire resisting items as u can! And when he shoots his lightnign don't run, stand right in front of him! teh lightning hurts less teh closer u are to him! |
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Ok, i have read a lot of these entries and many of them are totally wrong. Never, EVER use any othe weapon except swords. I have a sword/shield barb at lvl 83 on USWest. He uses a ccb (cruel colossus blade) It does 280-553 damage two-handed and 122-314 one-handed. For the shield he uses stormshield. Armor-shaftstop. Helm - vampire gaze. Gloves - Immortal King's Forge war gauntlets. Boots - Immortal king's Piller war boots. Belt - string of ears demonhide sash. Rings - 2 raven spirals. Amulet - corruption collar. If whoever is reading this is any good at d2x you will know what these items are and how good they are. I have 98% damage reduce. That means 98% of any physical damage inflicted on me is nullified. If you do 1000 damage you will only do 20 to me. Try to get any of these items. Barbs should have tons of defense. Mine has around 10,000. Max out the following skills as soon as you can: Sword Mastery, Whirlwind, Iron Skin, Battle Orders, Shout, Battle Command, and put about 10 points in the following: Increased Speed and Natural Resistances. There are not enough skill points to do all that but i have items and charms that to skills. For stats have around 250 strength, 200 dexterity, 150 vitality, and 10 energy (what you start with). This is the tried and true barbarian build. You can kill anything in the game with this easily, and in duels you will find yourself victorious most of the time. If you ever wanna duel me or trade or just talk myname is slayerkiller, and account name is *majique123. |
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I've read all these strategies, and they suck. No one wants to hear about your lvl 30 barb. If you want to kick ass you'll do what I tell you! The first step is to add to only one mastery. Then get double swing if you want to become a frenzy barb. Otherwise save your skill points for later. Battle orders is the best war cry, and its sweet. I would also get some iron skin or shout which ever you like. Then get nat. resistances these are very important, especially in nm and hell. Then get lots of ww or frenzy. Frenzy barbs need ww too, but not until later. I recommend 10 into berserk for tough guys and immune to phys. guys. Thats all you need to know. Boronazard lvl 72 barb, Dummbass lvl 63 barb, Lemartes lvl 42 barb, BiggyMcBigsalot lvl 35 barb, FoulEdTheMauler lvl 35 barb |
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My barbarian is now at level 72 and I am of this achievement because I am 100% LEGIT!!! In the long run, my strategy works to your benefit. However, it isn't perfect and you will encounter difficulties. **see the strategy of Slayer Bane (Single Player Character)** I am currently playing at Horagath in Hell Difficulty and have some new advice that like I quoted before "will help someone one way or another." 1) Put one skill point into "double swing" (but first you have to put one skill point on "bash" to be able to select "double swing." and purchase or find 2 weapons (so you can double weild weapons) with elemental properties. (Hopefully, the weapon matches your mastery so that you can get the bonous on your attack rating). Now, set this up and switch to this weapons configuration to take out opponents who are "immune to physical." (NOTE: needless to say, you will have to purchase or find more that one elemental type due to the "other" types of immunities you will face.) 2) Put one skill point into "shout" and set it up in with the double weided elemental weapons. (This will help increase your defense since you don't have a shield and hopefully you'll survive long enough to retreat too!). 3) Don't put too much points in "leap attack." I have a level 15 skill level in this skill and I don't really use it. However, since my character was well devloped and thought out (except for this skill and a levl 1 "taunt," a level 1 skill where the enemies run away, and a level 1 "leap." ), my character still performed and kicked ass! However, I would like to note that in the RARE ocassions that I used "leap attack," It REALLY helped against enemies that shoot out elements everytime you hit them (You know instead of standing there, I "leap attack" and retreat to heal myself in necessary. Then I repeat this that that enemy dies!) and ESCAPING DEATH FROM AMBUSHES! (The MOST common cause of death for ANY character class, especially those that have to do it "mano a mano!" Champion Bane Level 72 (Formerly "Slayer Bane") |
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These are my tips on playing a Barbarian Character. Firstly, to all of you who have characters below about level 50 posting strategies: Although you probably mean well, you simply don't have the experience in the harder levels of the game to give real advice. I have 4 Barbarians, all are in or through Hell difficulty, the highest is level 76. I'm not saying these are the only way to play a Barbarian and urge you to experiment for yourselves! SKILLS - Now... Skills are the most important area of your characters development, please experiment with as many skills as possible to find what you like. The skills I consider essential are: Iron Skin - No matter what type of babarian you make, this should be maxed. Weapon Mastery - Again max one of these. There is no use to puting points into too many masteries. Natural Resistance - I don't put more than 5 or 6 points into this as after that the bonus isn't worth the skill point. Berzerk - You only really need to put one point here, but it is an absolute MUST. Towards the end of Nightmare, and all through Hell you will find monsters immune to physical damage, Berzerk will deliver a nice, powerful blow to these nasties. After that your skills are pretty much up to you, some commonly recommended skill are: Leap Attack - The damage of this is huge, but remember it is useless at close range, so really only of use as an opener. Whirlwind - This is a great skill, however when using it don't equip two weapons. The skill only hits with one anyway, so equip a shield or something 2 Handed. Double Swing - Great skill in normal, weak later on. If you want to use two weapons I recommend Frenzy, it is much like double swing but with a damage bonus. My main Barbarian uses a maxed out Concentrate as his primary attack, the uninteruptable attack and defence bonuses are great. I also recommend getting Leap for getting out of tight squeezes. Warcries are a little pointless in the one player game, but although I don't use any, they are great in multiplayer. STATS - Your stats should reflect the type of character you create. Maul barbarians should have huge Strength, mine has a strength of 255, and only 40 dexterity! He doesn't hit as much as I'd like, but when he does he devistates. Axe and Sword Barbarians should have a good combination of the two, though I wouldn't bother puting Dexterity to more than 110. Throwing Barbarians need a high Dexterity, but don't neglect Strength, you still need good Armour. No matter what type of Barbarian you make you should have a decent Vitality and no additional Mana. This may sound odd, as many people recommend a little, but Energy is a waste of time and points. None of my Barbarians have put anything into Energy and they never run out of mana, just soccet a Perfect Skull into your main weapon. If you are a throwing Barbarian get yourself some Mana stealing Gauntlets, Amulet or Ring (I also use the no Energy tactic for Paladins, Amazons, Assasins and Fighting Druids). WEAPONS - The No.1 piece of advice I can give you is contrary to most of the people posting here: DON'T WASTE TIME LOOKING FOR UNIQUE OR SET ITEMS! Uniques and Set iems are nice, but chances are you will never find the ones they suggest, if you do, great, but don't hold your breath! To find any really good uniques or set items you have to be VERY lucky, and no legitimate player would trade one of these for anything less than the best equipment. Instead I recommend finding youself a nice magic or even rare item. My barbarians all wear suits of Shadow Plate. My main Barbo wears Godly Shadow Plate and has a total defense of over 6000. I would soccet my armour or helm with a Cham rune (can't be frozen, very handy!) For weapons I suggest looking for a Cruel weapon. Cruel is the best damage property there is. Again, my Barbo uses a Cruel Colossus Blade, and he does 1400-3000 damage! (With just Sword mastery and Concentrate). I have Socceted it with a Perfect Skull to steal Mana and Life and am looking for a damage enhancing jewel worthy enough. (Remember third generation items get more soccets from Larzuk than first or second.) TIPS - Good Characters concentrate their skills in just a few places. Over-Generalisation means weakness. Remember, Damage enhancing Jewels placed in armour enhance all weapons, not just one. Cruel weapons and Godly armour, although rare can be bought in stores, so look often. Don't waste your time with elemental damage on weapons. Elemental damage is not increased by masteries and the like. In later levels just one point of additional "real" damage translated to 7 or 8 points. Save your imbuements and personalizations for when you find really good items, these rewards are too good to squander on crap. Don't listen to people posting crap saying this or that is the ultimate style of play, Blizzard has done a great job balencing the characters out and all styles of play are valid. Experiment with your characters, find what works for you. I have given tips on how I play, try to find your own unique style! >RAMBLINGS - What the hell are people doing posting strategies about how to play at the start of the game... 'When you first start get the best...' If you can't get through first town without help, give up. DAMN IT MAN! Take pride in your appearance! NOTHING is more important than looking good. So what if that ancient armour has 2000 defence, YOU LOOSE A SHOULDER PAD! -Storm |
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For all those people who think Swords are the best, long live. The sword is the best weapon in the game. Think of this, if you pk an Amazon, you will definetely want to block whatever they shoot at you. If you have a weapon that requires two hands, you will not have a chance in hell of winning. And, you must never get out ran by anybody. Here are the things you might wanna have: Lightsaber, Arreats Face, Arkaines Valor, Immortal King Boots, Decent Gloves, Whistans Guard, Cats Eye Amulet, Raven Frost, Manald Heal, and A mana and life leeching belt. From BarbarianAncien-lvl 82 |
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hey all... everybody says that the way to be a great barb is to be big and buff...LOTS OF STRENGTH...but this IS NOT the way the way to greatness as a barb is to get DEXTERITY!!!!! if u have a shitload of strength and no dex., u wont be able to hit anybody, therefore not being able to use that shitload of strength u have to do dmg (i tryed w/ my first barb doing the big/buff thing AND IT DIDN'T WORK when u get to act 3,u need lots of dex to hit the fetishes. the way to go when u lvl up is 1(or none) into strength, 2-3-4 into dex., and 1 into vitality. screw the energy. do u see barbs casting spells much? no, and u get enough items in the game that pump up ur mana so having almost no energey is not a prob. as for skills... choose a wpn class and STICK WITH IT. swords are the best, good rounding of dmg, speed, and magicalness. GET 20 SKILL POINTS IN THAT WPN'S mastery. DOUBLE-SWING and FRENZY are the best...for two wpn barbs that is. if u use 2 wpns that can be held in 1 hand, keep a fucking good sheild in ur 2nd wpn slot, and use it against the bosses. IRON SKIN and NATRULE RESISTANCE are two hell of good skills, they will save ur life in the chaos sanctuary, the oblivion knights and whatnot have helll of good magic attacks... not much resistance will get u screwed: AKA DEAD. in nightmare and hell..... when u get swarmed my the hell of pumped up fallen and fetishes u will need defence (IRON SKIN) good playing foresterOFdeath |
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Skills: max masteries of ur chioce,((sword is best for pvp n don forget shield!!), max iron skin', max ww,max battle order, max shout (if u dont want to put any pt on battle command), one on battle command, one on berserk, one on natural resistance.(thats all pts u will have) stat(pvp barb): str 189 (with items), dex 230 (with items), via all de rest , energy 0 stat(BvB barb vs barb): str abt 250, dex abt 230, via abt 200, energy 0 (try to left abt 20 stats pts for adjustments) if u build ur barb like wat i told ya,with kick ass gears, ur barb rules! ChaoticKhorne lvl 98 PvP barb s/s(sword/ shield), lvl 80 BvB barb s/s, lvl 99 mf(magic find) barb |
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I have seen so many people write in to this page saying that the best way to defeat Diablo is to avoid him and pick off his minions until he's alone. Well, I'd just like to know, What are you people thinking when you run around and open up ALL the seals without stopping to deal with the enemies that appear? I find the best way to defeat The Chaos Sanctuary is to pick off all the enemies and THEN open the last portal, Its much easier and costs less health. Also, I've found that a spearbarb does not work nearly as well as a good sword and axe combination with double swing or frenzy, I used THAT against The Dark Lord of Terror himself and I defeated him in 10 minutes without going below the 3/4 health line. Sir Jagamund, lvl 27 Barbarian. |
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I curruntly have a level 38 Barbarion. He rocks, and those of you who think a pole arm is the way to go don't know anything. Here's what you have to do. Start of by putting points into strength, worry about mana later. and your stats should go into bash and sword masteries. as you move on put a skill point in leap so later on you can have leap attack, I think it's the best barbarian attack. You should use the best sword available to you, speed and damage is the key. Now they gave you two hands for a reason so put a sword in one and a sheild in the other, good defence and good block percentage, I prefer The Ward Gothic shield or Isenharts Pary Gothic Shield. Later on Put stats in mana an dexteriry. Then start putting stats in Whirlwind. Don't worry, put about 3 points in resistance and you'll find plenty of armor and jewewlry to fill in the gaps. You'll need the resistaces for later in the game because just about all of the monsters have Elemental proporties. Warcries aren't really all that great because some will back fire, Ex. If you use Howl they will have a chance to heal. Two handed swords are the best when your a barbarian. There so long so you don't need to get to close. I currently have Viper Scratch Flamberge which is great. There also great because there so fast and have great damage ratings. Remember even though it's two handed you can carry it in one, good idea. Defence and attack rating are a must. Without them you can't hit any thing and they can rack up damage on you. Stamina stats are useless. You'll most likely find boots that increase them greatly. Remember I've got a level 38 barbarian that could defeat any one of the others that say anything else so trust me. |
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These strategies are for those brave souls who decide to make a Hardcore barbarian. When playing ANY Hardcore player, the main thing to remember is take it slow. Don't rush to complete the quests. Start new games and go through the first few areas a couple times to build your levels. Like any barbarian, focus on one level group and put your skill points into that weapon. Don't change your playing style because of any of these strategies that you read, no matter what. If you like playing a certain way, than play that way. What works for me is using double swords, with emphasis on the following skills: Sword Mastery, Frenzy, Leap Attack, Whirlwind, Berserk, Iron Skin, and Natural Resistance. My first point went into Bash to open up the tree; the rest went into Sword Mastery until I levelled enough to get Double Swing and Leap. I put one point into these and proceeded to put the rest into Sword Mastery until Level 12. I put one point into Increased Stamina, Stun, and Double Throw and the rest into Sword Mastery. At 18 and 24, I put points into Increased Speed, Leap Attack, Iron Skin, Frenzy and Concentrate. I built up Iron Skin and Leap Attack, which are two very important skills in my opinion. Frenzy got more points, though. It is simply deadly when used as your main attack. You move faster, hit more, and hit harder. I use it as my only attack 90% of the time. Increased Speed doesn't need too much more than a few points. At 30, you get the best skills: Whirlwind, Berserk, and Natural Resistance. I wouldn't recommend using Berserk too much in Hardcore; it lowers your defense, which is VERY bad when you can only die once. I went the defensive route, building up Iron Skin and Natural Resistance to ridiculous levels right away. It helped enormously in Hell with all of the Undead Fighter Mages running around. From here, I put points into Frenzy and Whirlwind, using Frenzy as my main attack and Whirlwind as my right-click in most cases. If I fought a boss with stone skin, I used Berserk once in a while, but not too much. I mainly just built a huge defense and used Frenzy and Whirlwind. I didn't put any points into Warcries and it didn't seem to matter too much, although I didn't play with others all that often. Again, just modify this to fit your playing style. As far as stat points go, I went with 2 Strength, 2 Dexterity, and 2 Vitality at level up unless I wanted to get to use some item I picked up that I didn't meet the requirements of. After a while, I went 1 Strength, 1 Dexterity and 3 Vitality. Life is very important at the higher levels and especially in Hardcore. I highly recommend trading, especially when you first start out. In Hardcore, players are typically more generous about giving away or trading stuff cheap. Try to trade chips for set pieces and trade those set pieces for other ones you can use. I had Berserker's Arsenal and Death's Disguise sets both at the same time, which helped immensely. You get so many bonuses from set items that it is really worth investing some time and energy into trading for complete sets. After a while, I traded Berserker's Hatchet for another Death's Touch, having two life stealing swords. As you go up in level, look not only for items that add defense, but also resistances. Life steal is always good, and items that add mana after kills or steal mana are good if you use Frenzy or Whirlwind a lot, like I did. |
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Barbarian strategies? You've come to the right place. I have had my Barbarian for a year now, but to tell you the truth, he is only on level 30. I might not have him on a high level, but I sure as heck have a great strategy. here are the skills I use in order of importance. COMBAT SKILLS 1. Frenzy-Put about 15 skill points into it. 2. Concentrate-Put about 2 skill points into it. (put only one skill point into the rest) NOTES: BERSERK IS TOTALLY OVERRATED. DON'T WASTE SKILL POINTS ON IT. IT IS STUPID TO USE SKILLS LEARNED ON LEVELS OVER 12 ON THOSE WEAK EVERYDAY MONSTERS. COMBAT MASTRIES 1. Iron Skin-Only needs 3 skill points. 2. One of the 6 "MASTRIES". Whichever you use most.-2 or more Skill points. NOTES:THESE ARE ALL PASSIVE SO DON'T WORRY ABOUT MANA. FOR ALL OF YOU ASSASIN USERS, THE 6 "MASTRIES" ARE NOT REMOTELY LIKE CLAW MASTRY. WAR CRIES 1. Howl-This is one of the most important skills. Put in as many points as possible. 2. War Cry-This is the only attack outside of the Combat Skills that directly damages the opponent. put in about 20 points. NOTES: FIND POTION AND FIND ITEM ARE JUST ABOUT AS USEFUL AS A SCREEN DOOR IN A SUBMARINE. THEY JUST GET YOU WALKING AROUND FROM CORPSE TO CORPSE WITH A CHANCE TO FIND SOME THING WHILE YOU GET KILLED BY MONSTERS. THESE ARE NOT PASSIVE SKILLS SO THEY MUST BE EQUIPPED. THAT MEANS THAT AS ALL THESE MONSTERS ARE ATTACKING YOU, YOU ARE TRYING TO SWITCH YOU SKILL BUT YOU CAN'T BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL OVER YOU AND LAG IS MAKING THE POINTER USELESS SO YOU CAN'T EVEN REACH YOUR SKILLS. THIS IS A WASTE OF MANA AND EITHER WAY DOES NOT GIVE A PRIZE WORTH THE TROUBLE. "EAGLE" SABA |
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hey. im a level 35 barb, and i have to tell u some things. if ur a barb, i suggest u use axes. i kick ass with a bloodletter gladius which does 33-100 damage. i dont really like swords but that is kick ass. forget about mana it sucks, just up your strength, dexterity and vitality. u should up your masteries and combat skills. double swing is crazy so USE IT! screw sheilds once u get to a higher level. it's better for whirlwind. once u first get to nightmare or hell, up ur resistances alot.ull need it. when facing baal, up concen trate, then (if ur playing battlenet with other people) go behind baal (he'll ignore u) and keep bashing him with double swing. watch out for festering apparendas. up ur dexterity to help u hit him better. ive got a 94% chance of hitting diablo and a 90% chance of hitting baal.(normal) also for other guys, once u kill the cow king, u cant make a cow game until u kill diablo/baal again. johnthebomb US EAST |
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Here are the items my lvl 62 Barbarian is wearing:Helm: Duskdeep (unique), Armor: Ornate Plate (rare - 720 def) imbued, Left Hand: Ancient Sword (rare - 31-77, 5% mana leech) imbued, Right Hand: Ancient Sword (rare - 33-70, 7% mana leech) imbued, Belt: Sigons Wrap (set item - 2 per character lvl to defense), Gloves: Sigons Gauntlets (set item - 30% increased attack speed !!), Boots: Sigons Sabot (set item), Rings: 2 rare rings with a total of 9% life leech per hit and resistances against fire, lightning, poison and ice., Amulet: a rare amulet (str + 14, min damage +5, resistance against fire, lightning and ice) With every hit my barb leeches 19% life!! (10% - sigons set, 9% rings). I always use double swing and as alternate attack i have lvl 8 whirlwind. Because of the 30% increased attack speed my barbarian hits really fast. I had no problems killing Duriel (hell). I just stand in front of him and keep hitting him. When i get hit by Duriel my life refilles just as quick as using an potion (I hit often because of my high attack rating). I have max fire, ice and lightning resistance in hell. Magical damage is reduced by 2, and physical damage is reduced by 9. Min damage +7, max damage +8. Strenght is by far the most important attribute for the barbarian you should always pump at least 2 points in it per lvl-up. You should get your strenght to at least 170 so you can wear an ornate plate armor (find a normal one and imbue it - that is if you plan to go on after you finished the game on normal difficulty). You should also put some points in vitality. Life is very important especially on hell difficulty (you should at least have 600+ life). I have 560 life and an aura enchanted (increases strenght) cow on hell (secret cow level) kills me with one hit. Per lvl-up i devided my points almost alway 2 in strenght, 1 to 2 in dex (i have 68% theoretical chance to hit diablo on hell, though when i actually try to hit him it seems more like 20% [he probably has some passive dodge ability], in this situation the fast double swing really comes in handy) and 1 to 2 in vitality. Never put any points into energy. Here are my stats: str 192 162-363, 161-332 dex 128 2438, 2332, 3384 (defense) vit 102 299 (stamina), 565 (life) en 11 72 (mana) fire 75 ice 75 lightning 75 poison 52 I think the passive skills (combat mastery skills) are the best. I've got 20 points in sword mastery (the best weapons for the barb), 1 in increased stamina (this is really more then enough to alway be able to run), 3 in increased speed. 20 in iron skin, this is also a very usefull skill (per point your defense increases 10%, when you are wearing high defense armor this number can be quite large: for me with every skill point invested in iron skin my defense increases with 54) Natural Resistance 8 points (for me just enough to get max fire, lightning and ice restance). Furthermore i have no skillpoints invested in the warcries section, and just a few in the combat skills (6 in double swing, 8 in whirlwind), why 5 more in doubleswing? well, because its my main attack and the 5% increased AR is better then investing my skill points in some skill I never use (for example leap attack or concentrate). I also got one in berserk (you need this skill to kill the physical resistance enemies on hell). A last word: the imbue quest at chapter 1 is the best way to get great rare items. You should keep the ability to imbue untill you find some normal exeptional items YOU want to have in a rare form. I chose to imbue 2 ancient swords and 1 ornate plate. Because of these items my barb is near undefeatable. When you start to imbue; exit the game and backup your save game; re-enter the game and imbue your item; if it is what you want keep it otherwise exit the game put your old save game back and imbue again, repeat the proces untill you got the item which is best for you. Scimitair, level 62 Barbarian. |
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I was reading this page and i saw heaps of people say that Duriel is THE hardest boss in all of d2. well....with a barbarian, double swing is fine until u get to about the middle of act 2 when u need some badass damage , and the one handed weapons just dont cut it. so what u do is find urself one BIG axe or someting, and put ur right click skill on stun, preferably with 4-5 skill points on it. then just waltz up to Duriel and bash the living crap out of him. he canrt attack back, and by the time he recoveres from the stun, u have already bashed him again, so hes still stunned. this way he does NO damage to you, and his ridiculous amount of hit points just fade away....im not telling you my level cos im not"over 60"..... Khastarax |
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and for those barbs who dont know what to put skill points into, i have 1 in polearm mastery, 4 in sword, and about 13 in whirlwind and 5 in berserk. this way i can use the huge damage polearms, and kill normal monsters quickly with the two swords. and eventually you will HAVE to put some points into berserk, its the only way to kill physical immunes in hell and stone skin bosses in 4/5 nightmare. i hope this works for you. |
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Ive been using a barb and heres my stratagy 1. MAX OUT SWORD MASTERY 2. Max out ww 3. Max out battle oder 4. like 10 into natrual resistances 5. a couple points ointo iron skin 6. 5 into increase speed 7. 1 into berserk for the imune to phisical 8. put any weopon as secondary and set it as leapattack so if ur stuc you can leap right out Thats about it for he stats. I recoment a sword and shield barb because in nightmare and hell, it really helps. |
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*WEAPON *Axe - they rock hard, but they're slow(not my choice) *Sword - not much damage but swings faster.(recommended) *Mace - a little bit of sword and axe, and the 150% to damage to undead is good. *Polearms,Spears - good range, good for Whirlwind barbs. *Throwing weapons - forget this one SKILLS *Weapon Mastery (20 points), *Battle Orders (14-20 points), *Battle Command(1 point is enough), *Find Item(8+ points, optional) , *Concentration(10+ points)- for two handed weapon wielder., *Frenzy(10+ points)- for double weapon weilder, *Double Swing(1 point) - for double weapon wielder , *Berserk(5 points)- only used for physically immune monsters, *WhirlWind(10+ Points), *Iron Skin(6-10 Points), *Natural Resistance(10+ Points), *Increased Speed, Stamina(1 points) *STATS STR - 2, DEX - 2, VIT - 1, ENR - 0 if your playing solo or hardcore, try to set a STR goal to reach, after reaching it only put 1 point in STR and add the other points to VIT. *THE DEFENSE This build is based on my lvl 87 hardcore, single player game Sword Barb, so it survived hardcore hell, sofcore hell would be just easy. my key to this barbarian is life, 2 points on VIT after reaching my goal STR, a maxed battle orders(you could have 1500-2000+ life) with iron skin, natural resistance to make you a little bit hard, and you'll be the next to to invulnerable. *THE DAMAGE I used concentrate on killing boss it gives you a little less damage compared to berserk but it gives you a hell lot of defense, whirlwind is also the key to my success wiping out monsters in a blink of an eye, kills boss monsters much better too! if u know how to control them, Leap attack get's rids of the monsters that ressurect their minions(fallen shamans,unraveller), and berserk is used to get rid of physically immune monsters, since it adds magical damage. Frenzy and Double swing is the alternative of Concentration. but i suggest you should use a two handed weapon. *THE EQUIPMENT with this kind of barbarian build you can wear a lot of magic find and forget about the defense and resistance, if you want to wear magic find then, try putting points in find item since it helps, i have a lot of good items because of it, and find a lot of mana/life stealing item, so you'll survive much longer, since it fuels you and your whirlwind and other combat skills; it is also required for every weapon using character in D2X. Patriarch Rhazul, LVL 87 Sword Barb. |
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I have had about 6 barbs on my acount throught the time i created it and it took 3 barbs just to get a good equation which is barbs are about raw power and unless you have the items to back it up you are never going to be as good as those guys out there with everything under the sun on mules i aint a rich player but i have 3 barbs currently on my account that if i could outfit them with all the stuff they would be unbeatable ne ways to make a good barb you gotta plan ahead pick out which mastery he is going to be and only points in that wep mastery not a single one in any others than work on all your skills by 1 point each to get up to battle orders (which you need cause even with 350 vit i can still top you in life and i only have 160-170) whirl wind and nat resis now sare your points with iron skin and nat once you get up to the high level skills make sure to max out whirlwind and your mastery than get a moderate amount of points in both nat resistance and iron skin and an easy way to get a lot of life this is generally saved for the higher up barbs once you get max whirlwind and mastery than you can get a good 15-max out on your battleorders and mabye a few in shout so before battle it will give youa boost now char points you should always have a lot of strength on a barb so at least on a sword barb at leasta 200 strength 110+ dex 150+ vit and leave energy alone now on mace and axe at least 225 strength now the secret to a good barb is leeching if you have mana and life leech crap find a way to put it on your barb so that he get the max effect without affecting his dmg or def now if you have good equipment and you equip your barb right he wil be incredibly powerful with this strategy and that is coming for level 77 OneHand_Stupid (mace class uses IK Maul) level 53 TwoHands_Stupid (sword class uses Honour Colossus Sword) and level 49 ThreeHandStupid (axe class uses Boneslayer) oh and if you read this PLZ GIMME A HELLSLAYER THEY ARE OF THE HOOK |
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I have had a few barbarian characters here so I have done a little bit of trial and error to learn what has worked best for me, currently I am using a barbarian which is at level 44, and I did get there the legit way as well. OK as for the stats, most of you should have already figured out that energy is not the most important stat to go with but there is a little bit of importance to it for when you want to use skills like frenzy or bash a lot, unless you want to hold onto a lot of mana potions, you will find more use of them when you get into the higher levels unlike when you firstly start the character. I usually put 1 point to vitality every level, and the others go to dexterity and strength, I personally like the dexterity a little bit more, because no matter how hard your barbarian may hit, if he has low dexterity which pretty much mean, he is clumsy and has bad aim, your dead, that is all there is to it. Bash is good if you want to use a two handed weapon but I personally prefer to use two separate weapons, it increases your attack speed by very much, twice and much damage in the same amount of time as a weapon and shield. Often monsters will not even have time to attack before they are smacked up twice and laying on the ground dead, not much to complain about there, but don't get two excited right off, the two handed attack is useless, only put 1 skill point into that, save it up for frenzy, you will understand why later, and also i have found the passive skills to be of much importance as well, especially natural resistance, for when you get to the nightmare and hell worlds where they drop your resistance big time, you will be thankful to have it then instead trying to attack a lightning enchanted monster and getting killed by 2 or 3 lightning charges for example, and in the end, lose gold and experience, i have learned this the hard way......(trial and error) As for weapon proficiency, i prefer the axe, they are usually the hardest fastest hitting weapons i have found, and you will usually find plenty of them for upgrading often, but do not concentrate on them completely because you never know when you may come across an excellent maul or sword that will put your axe to shame, so about 5 or 6 in axe, sword and mace classes, should do you good until you get to the much higher levels of the game, them add more as you see fit. Iron skin is also of importance, the stamina, i put 3 into as well as the extra speed which i plan to put more into as i feel i am strong enough, so i can move around and avoid or attack monsters that much quicker. "no running away because i will out run you" As for your mercenary, go with the rogue, i have found that to work the best for me, keep the very first one you come across, she is some awesome back-up for you, because if you hook her up with a good bow like the one i have (21-47 damage, 50 poison over 5 seconds, fast attack speed) and a few other things to it as well, you can sometimes just stand there and watch a nice group of monsters just fall and die all around you, whirlwind, only one use for that that i can see, large groups of monsters, other then that i do not even touch it, rely on frenzy if you have a two weapons, or bash if you choose to go with the two handed weapon. well thankyou for taking the time to ready my opinions, you can take my advice or do whatever you want to, but overall just have fun with that game, that is what it is all about. |
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Hi! I'm playing the expansion in normal mode. I'm a level 36 elemental druid druid on act 5. My best weapons are volcano, hurrician and armmagedon. I use a griz as a meat shield and have the original merc I hired from act 1. The merc shoots freeze arrows. She's deadly!! The merc gets the best bows, armor and helm I can get. I also use a couple of ravens and cyclonic armor. The two ravens are scouts. I watch them flying around and if they take off, I trouble is near. Get the cyclonic armor up to at least six and keep renewing it. I put 5 pts. into spirit wolf, 6 into dire and so far 2 into griz. The griz needs about 3 more skill pts. but it rocks now. I layer volcano, arrmmageddon and hurrician one after the other. Bam! bam! bam! If you like artic blast you'll love hurrician! It's like a super freeze in a circle around you. I use it freeze enemies and then my griz and merc take them out. I took diablo out with volcanoes and my griz. Hit and run. Make the griz in front of diablo. while old red skin kills the griz put a volcano underneath him. It took about ten volcanos (level 4). The merc died in the first round. Mephisto I took out with two ravens and a level two volcano. I did not follow the conventional wisdom of putting up to 40 max pts. into mana. I've got about 60 pts. in energy. and I have several items which regenerate life and mana. I don't need a solar or carrion vine. I can toss heavy weather spells one after the other and keep going. Spirit of the barbs, vs. wolverine vs oak spirit. The oak spirit is weak and stupid. It always wanders into the middle of a fire fight and gets toasted. What about the wolverine spirit? My merc and griz 'kick ass' already, don't need it. I like the spirit of barbs. It is tough. I don't have a keep making another one like I did with the oak spirit. Also do the math! At level one the barb spirit has a life of 105. At level one the oak spirit has a life of 30. If your fighters don't take as much damage, they live longer! And if they live longer, they can do more damage. Put one point into fire, boulder, fizzures only. Beef up volcano, hurrican and armmaggedon. Fizzures is not very reliable. If you need to target your fire power, don't use fizzures. It's random. Put a volcano under some monster! Barbacue time! Twister and tornado are too random to be effective. One point only. Wait until hurricain, then lay down a few points. Don't put more than one point into each vine. The poison vine is weak and don't waste points on it. One point only. Gandalf, Stormcloud |
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I see where a few geniuses point out that "having a good sword rocks!" Well, no kidding, Einstein. Let's consider strategies that are independent of having great equipment. After all, you can always "borrow" great equipment from your other characters. Swords are the best weapons for barbarians. I recommend a healthy dose of sword mastery and concentrate. Use one handed swords because shields are key. If you can find a 3 socketed tower shield, grab it and stick three of the best diamonds you can find in it. It will provide you with good blocking and high resistances. Then you don't need to waste skill slots on resistances later on. Concentrate also has the advantage of making your barb immune to being stunned (as concentration permits an "uninterruptible" attack). War cries are useless. Shout is the only one worth having simply because it can clear nasties away from a portal so others can get through. Find potion is great because you can accumulate enough of the various types of potions so you can make rejuvenation potions. They are invaluable. Barbarians are best if you design them to just wade in and smack stuff around. Missile barbs stink. Grow a pair already. Put your ability points in strength, vitality and dexterity. Mana doesn't help a barb much, especially if you use concentrate a lot (it is cheap). If you can manage to find equipment that increases speed and provides life steal, grab it. If concentrate and sword mastery are high enough, your barb will rarely miss and will do a good deal of damage. If you are also stealing life as you beat on your opponent, you can stand there all day until your enemy goes down (especially if you have rejuvenation potions ready). Strategies that drive opponents away are a waste of time (bash and shout). How can you kill something if it runs from you. Stun isn't bad depending on what you are fighting. |
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Carry two balanced axes and spread most of your skill points between axe mastery, throwing mastery, double hit, and double throw. Put double hit on the left mouse and double throw on the right. You can chop through the basic fodder with double hit and take out bosses or ranged attackers who are hanging back with double throw. Double throw is pretty powerful - the damage is comparable to my melee attacks. There are two main drawbacks- one is lower defense which you can compensate for by having life stealing items, the other is you have to go back to town to fill up your axes- although by the time you've thrown 130 axes you usually have something worth selling. Beltaine level 37 barb. |
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I have a lvl 60 barb .It is a good charector you should pick him to start off with. online when you need to level up go to act 5 bloody hills. and start at bottom off hill and kill all the evil that walks the ground untill you reach the frig way point.( secound way point) When done with that you should have leveled up at least 1 or twice. To get money you should pick up all iteams you find and sell them to the person in what every act you are in who repairs iteams.Its important to have tonw portals on you at all times so you can do that. You will find that in doing this you will make money very fast> its important to have money because you will need it when you start to buy armor with 500 defence, and weapons with high attack damage. All i can say is it is not easy to get to lv.60 it takes time and skill . |
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Ok first of all i have been playing this game for a while and started soo many chars. For the one who said ppl who think sword/shield barbs are "idiots", well ure wrong i have started a barb who uses hellslayer...but i have experienced that even with 200 dex u cant hit $hit in duels and have about a 75% chance of hittin cows...sword/shield barbs rule in duels b/c u can block soo many hits from any weapon...wiht a 1 handed weapon like polearm, axe, etc cant block so they will die in like 3-4 shots of an arrow....(well my zon has eaglehorn soo it will knock u out for sure). So if u use polearm dont think u will rule in duels ..i;d say 1 handed weapons for barbs are most likely to be used in pvm....and sword/shield can be used in pvp or pvm....u dont need to have vit the most if u have battle orders b/c when u max it out u have double ure regular lfe. soo plan on putin most of ure points in dex and strenght. for energy put nothin in it...each level u get gives u mana. I think my chars have been built perfect for me... Anyways thanks for u who have read and tookin my advice l8ts. My hightest char right now is Arch_AngelPkzon - level 89, and the rest of my chars are i the 80-86's |
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For my barbarian i maxed out the combat mastery of my choosing. I put the skills that i got from quests into bash, concentrate, whirlwind and all those. I then max out iron skin and then max out resistances. These really help in dueling or in nightmare and hell. I then level up whirlwind and beserk for bosses and hell mode. For stats, in the beginning i put alot into strength and vitality... with every 5th lvl into dexterity. i put none into energy until lvl 20...... there is no point if you get an item that helps you renerate mana or one that adds to mana until that lvl. For the swords you may have to add more to dexterity more often..... say every 3rd lvl. Charms that add to defense may be useful with iron skin at a high lvl..... they might look like they suck but one that gives +15 to def, may actually give you +100 or so with iron skin. This has worked well with my lvl 54 barbarian. Psycotron |
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OMG… Don’t listen to people lower than lvl 70 cause they got no exp. The ultimate barb is a sword barb and will use da one handed perfect Grandfather Colossus Sword, Stormshield, Vampire Gaze (helmet), Shaftstop (armor), IK glove, IK boot, and IK belt. Strength is most important, then vita, then dex. PUT NO PTS IN MANA!!!! Get a mana leech ring. Max out whirlwind, max out sword mastery, max out natural resistance, TRY maxing iron skin, 5pts into leap, 5pt in warcry that gives u life, and 5 in increased speed. If you follow dis u have a kick @$$ barb and will not be beaten even by the toughest sorcs. Patriarch LMNTLstrong-gy LVL 72 Sword Barb |
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ok, ive read every single strategy, and ive taken all of their peices of advice (including some of my own) and put them together in one thing.---------to start out, chose one type of weapon and max out the masteries. swords kick major *** so use them or die. ----do not use warcries ----whirlwind is ok, but use it wisely. ----Dont use berserk, it brings your defense all the way down to 0!!!!!!!! ----use iron skin, but dont max it out. get it to about level 7 or 8 ----use natural resistances instead of relying on items to boost your resistance (save it for mana) ----when boosting stats, NEVER, let me say that again for those who didnt hear me the first time NEVER put any points into energy, even if you dont need to put it into anything else. at first, put 2 in strength, 2 in dexterity, and 1 into vitality until about level 20, then you can do whatever you want, just DONT PUT ANY INTO ENERGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----when using swords, always use a sword and sheild. when i faced Diablo, I couldnt beat him because i didnt have any sheilds and i spent so much on town portals and my companion that i couldnt buy one, and i couldnt find one either. ----keep your companion all thru the game! for the first 2 acts, use the one you got from Kayasha in act 1. when you get to act 3, find one that does cold damage!!!! i cannot express how much you need cold damage. any normal charachter is frozen solid, and the special ones can hardly move. i dont even have to do anything anymore, because my compainon just freezes everyone. ----in regards to the town portals, always have 20 with you at all times! you may think that you only need one, but what if you forget. and whenever youre about to fight a major boss (i.e. andariel, Duriel, Mephisto, Diablo, Baal) so if you die, you can always come back to the same spot. ----when looking for items, try to get ones that have life/mana steal and extra mana. also, get items that up your dex. when it comes to fighting diablo, every hit counts. if you miss, you will die. ----STAMINA, STAMINA, STAMINA, STAMINA. When it comes to fighting people, you want to run. if not, you will die. ----you will not beleive how many times ive tried to beat diablo and failed so i had to start all over again. |
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I see alot of people saying beserk is usless. Put at least 1 into it because you most of the time cannot destroy enemies that are immune to physical without it (especially in Hell difficulty). Beserk adds 160% magic damage at lvl 1. Unles you already have a huge magical weapon make sure you have this before Lut Golein in Hell mode. |
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Here are the Skills to a Perfect Dueling Sorc: 10 to Static, Max out ThunderStorm, Max out Lightning Mastery, Max out Frozen Orb (very important), 10 to Cold Mastry, Max out Warmth, 1 to Teleport, 1 to Energy Shield, 1 to Shiver Armor (I perfer more cuz of more Defense Bonus) Just find a good staff to start off with most preferably a +1 skill staff. Just wait til you kan get the Static Skill. Just keep using Static until u reach Lvl 30 (Let everyone do the work for YoU!!...hehe) Be sure to have as Many +Plus Skill Points as possible cuz the more the Merrier!! And have a High Resistence to Cold and Lightning...(those are killer) Just follow my advice and you'll be DoPe!! TrUsT mE...!! PangitGuyA - LvL67 SoRc |
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Hey all the Barbarians out there, when you first started training a barbarian, you must of put a lot on strength. Im not saying that this isnt good, but you the things you really need to focus on are STR, VITALITY and DEX. Never, I mean never put any pts into ENERGY. this might sound crazy, but Barbarians dont need energy. I know, your wondering, if i dont have MANA how am i going to use my spells. Well, all you need is mana and life steeling equipment. For example, if you find a ring that regenerates your mana by 8% after every kill, put it on. Also, i have a great strategy to kill bosses. One, dont try and fight the bosses until you are atleast 6 lvls higher than them.(Andariel:lvl 12, Duriel: lvl 18, Mephisto:lvl 26, Diablo: lvl 40, Baal: Lvl 42) If you are too low, they will just breathe on you and you will fall right to the floor. Here is what i would suggest for a barbarian. when you fight bosses with minions, hit one minion so that you get its attention, then run. You now have to kill them one by one. After that, you can now focus on the boss. Use leap attack to get to it then give it everything you have.(When you have half your life left, heal) Your best strategy is HIT AND RUN. When you fight bosses like Mephisto Baal and Diablo, use Leap Attack then Whirlwind. Here are the things i think would make a great Barbarian: Whirlwind: max it out Battle Command: Max it out Natural Resistance: Max it out And here is a great way to spread out your Attribute points. When you reach lvl 50: Strength:35% , Dex:30% , Vitality:35% , Energy:0% |
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ive read a bunch of the other strategies and, while some have some good ideas, others are just junk. first of all, before you even start, you have to know where youre going in the future. i suggest going the sword barb route. i have a level 36 barbarian, which isnt that high, but he is close to invulnerable. heres the thing i used, DONT use a two handed sword or use two swords at once, its probably one of the dumbest things you can do. im ruling in nightmare with a tulwar(falchion) that does 21 to 48 damage, and with masteries and other items, does about 100-225 per hit which isnt that high. i have 16 in sword mastery, 8 in iron skin, 1 in stamina (with a helm that increases it by 1), 5 in natural resistance, 3 in leap attack (1 in the prerequisites), 1 in whirlwind, and 1 in beserk. i use concentrate and leap attack the most. heres the key to my success. i use a shield, and am fast. i use a tower shield that gives 11 to all resistances and somehow have a 70% block. another very useful item is sanders boots (i dont remember the actual name but its in the SANDER set). they give 100 to attack rating, 10 to dexterity, 5 to strength, and give a 40% boost to my speed. speed is essential because it allows you to move around and attack various enemies and then get back. i mean, what good is doing huge amounts of damage if you get your ass kicked in the process because youre slow and vulnerable? but...the shield is the key, when facing diablo, i didnt die because i would block his attacks. i could run in, do some concentrate, then run back, and block the magic crap. same with baal, i got him in a corner, used my concentrate until i had no mana, then bashed the crap out of him and whenever he attacked, i would block it most of the time. an idea for points. dont waste time with energy and get your vitality to around 40 then just put in 3 to strengh and 2 to dexterity, and then alternate every time you go up a level. i dont miss very often, i had a 79% chance to hit diablo and 74% to hit baal, and did huge amounts of damage, and my defense was quite high. |
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Now for all of yuu IDIOTS who think the barb is the easiest character to play with then you're dead wrong. If anything he is the hardest. Also if you think that sword barb is the way to go because he can block you're as wrong. A barb is most powerful when hes using a pole arm and has 15 or 20 in polearm mastery. As for skills, put ur first 5 into your chosen mastery (polearm if you're smart) then split the next 25 points between bash, different warcries, and everything you need in order to learn whirlwind. As soon as you reach level 30 put all your skill points into whirlwind but dont start using it until it reaches level 5. Put most of your points into strength and vitaliy. Now if you want to make a dueling barbarian put a ton of points into vitality so that by the time you reach the higher levels you would have about 350 vitality, 150 strength, 100, dexterity, and about 80 vitality (just try to get some fastest boots and a charm of inertia). |
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I currently have a level 25 barbarian, and have strictly adhered to a few rules. First and foremost, barbarians are all about damage, dishing out and recieving. I have dropped all the auxiliaries, such as warcries, energy and the like, instead, gearing solely at passives, vitality, dexterity, and strength. It's my suggestion that you raise all three evenly. At first it may not seem as if it makes much sense, but the fact is. it doesn't amtter how hard your barbarian can hit, if he can't land a blow. The same applies with vitality. No matter how strong he is, if he can't take the punishment, get out. So, keep those even, and max out axe mastery. So far as I've seen, the hardest hitting weapons in the game are axes. While you're maxing that out, find items that replenish your life. Finding a few skull gems and a socketed helm can help, as can a number of rings and amulets. It may be tempting to go for items that protect from certain attacks, such as fire or poison... but DON'T DO IT. reason being, eventually you're going to have god aweful resistance to that anyway, but added to the fact that even at low levels, your barbarian will start getting upwards to 1 or 2 hp a second. This means you'll save on hp potions. Speaking of potions, ALWAYS keep rejuvination poitons in the first column. Those are undeniable life savers. They heal you two or three times as fast as a regular heal poiton, and that can help in a pinch. As for armours, I suggest going for the highest armour class you can get, except with boots. if you find yourself some boots of pacing, hang onto them. So, now that you have this guy, how do you play him? Well, you play him riding the ctrl button. Run... run EVERYWHERE...especially during battle. Ranged attacks can't hit you if you're not there. And your barbarian will be able to peg most enemies in one hit. Also, you'll rarely run out of stamina simply because your vitality is so high. |
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Hi i am currently using the barb. I have read all the above stratergies and find some are utter lies. If u want a strong barb then go with swords or polearms as swords are pretty strong and have good attack speeds but pole arms are unmatched in strength and can attack from a short distance away.( but pole arms have slow attack speeds usually).my barb uses a sword and a shield but i have a secondary weapon arsenel of two swords.Now to tell you about the skill points , it is best to save as much as you can at the start for you will need them later but add ONE to double swing ONLY ONE. Also add one to leap so you can get leap attack.Once you reach level 18 add one to leap attack.( leap attack rocks it does average damage but is REALY useful for getting out of large crowds).meanwhile add points to sword or pole mastery which ever you choose BUT CHOOSE ONLY ONE! You should also be adding points onto iron skin, natural resistance and the to stamina recovery and speed increase skills. Add one to stamina recovery but max out the rest.Now once you reach level 30 MAX OUT WW! IT ROCKS LIKE HELL!Thats all you need dont add stuff to frenzy, concentrate or berserk only once you have finished the above.Oh wait also dont add stuff to any of the war cries they suck and waist to much mana.Now onto stat points keep adding points to strenght and dex make sure they are about even because whats the point of being strong when you cant hit them thats why strenght and dex are a must. keep adding points on to them until they reach 100-200(depending on your level). you can add alittle onto vitality but you dont need to much because you would have already added stuff onto stamina recovery and speed increase. (stop adding onto stamina when you reach 50-70).Once you have done that keep adding stuff onto strenght and dex( rememer to keep them around even ).That is my advice and it has worked fine for my level 96 barb in fact my barb is ultamate so follow my advice and you will be an invinceable ass kick'n barb " I HAVE TOUGHT YOU WELL SO NOW GO OUT AND SMASH SOME SERIOUS BUTT" THANKS FOR READING MY INFO AND IT WILL HELP YOU FARE WELL. ALAN - CHCH, LEVEL 96 BARB US EAST |
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If you are a barb who loves to duel over the internet( and who dosent) there are 3 main attack skills that you should Lvl up. First is Leap attack(i love it) when i was justa young barb and fought against people who had it thats what would kill me because they would go so high i would lose them and they would come down on me and kill me. Next is Wirlwind it is great when its time to get on the ground with them it will totally kick but they will run at you and you will start the attack and by the time time they figure out what is happeming they are already dead. The final is beserk it is the ultimate attack against internet fruits. use it and they will die. |
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When Facing Diablo there are 4 main skills to help with lower the chance of getting hit or the effect of his attack of the barb that you should Lvl up on before you face him. 1st is increased speed this is very important because you could have very good armor but it will slow you down and leave you open for Diablo( Plus he use a lot of elemnetal attacks so good armor will be useless). Next is inceased stamina, Lvl it up a bit beacuse if you can run fast but dont have the stamina to hold that run your in trouble. Next is natural resitance, Put a good amount of points into this because not only will it help you out with diablo but with the act5 and the other difficulties. The next is Iron skin you should put some skill points into it( but don't over load it) this is just incase you get to close for comfort and Diablo starts swinging at you |
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If u want to have a the best pvp barb read what i have to say.the first thing u need in vampire gaze has 20% reduced dmg then get shaftstop has 30% reduced dmg then get string of ears has about 10-18% reduced dmg then get tiamats rebuke or gerks sancturary ok after ur done with that find a kick ass sword my sword is doombringer expac 3 ohm runes in it also expac the sword do 500dmg 2 hand and 343dmg in 1hand and doombringer is a champion sword ok for boot get some with 40% faster run i use IK boots there ok but not the best but if u dont beleave whisper burning_blades and get ur ass pked my char name |
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I just want to point out that people need to realize that there is more to making an effective barb then choosing a mastery and using WW. Everyone can do that. A less-taken, but just as effective idea is to use Frenzy. A dual-sword wielding barb using frenzy and berserk for physical immunes can handle any act in the game. I always used to think that WW was the best skill in the game. But I once played in a game with three others barbs, all of who were using maxed Frenzy, and I used max WW. I had the least amount of kills. You just can not keep up with them. Speed (because of using frenzy) will keep you alive, even in the Hell Chaos Sanctuary. WWs great and all, but Frenzy deals more damage, and you won't die as often in the middle of it. Keep that in mind Most newbies neglect warcries. In general, this is not a bad idea, but a necessary skill is Battle Orders. Get it as high up as possible, especially in hardcore. The other warcries aren't as useful, despite what you think. I see a lot of barbs using Battle Command, and its effects really aren't as useful as you think. Sasmodeus, lvl 79 Barbarian |
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The barb is the last caracter i made and so ive heard alot about them and so here is what i decided to take. Stats: STR: I always took to 100 str as soon as possible, i did that so i could equip huge D armor at the start DEX: i took alot of dex next so i could use good spears,pike,lances etc, and barb needs alot of this to actually hit the enemy VIT: Get lots of vitality once you have enough str and dex, i mean what good is doing tons of damage if you just die while attacking anyway EN: take no energy, EVER! i just use a few items that add 30-40 mana instead Skills: Masteries: lvl 20 in weapon mstrey for the weapon you use, i would recommend spear, sword, or mace mastery. Take 1 lvl in stamina mastery, any more than 1 are a pathetic waste Get speed mastery up to 5-7, after that i wont go up by as much, but if your like me and love speed, then i say hell go for it and get it to 15 to have an extra edge in duels You definitely need iron skin to at least lvl 5, i recommend getting this to lvl 1--15 later on. The most important mastery for nm and hell is natural resist in my opinion, on average get about 5-6 in this, for resist addicts you should take more, even though it may seem like a waste at higher lvls then look at it figurestively, say a sorc has does 600 damage on average with ts, even if your Nresist skill only adds 3% more resist, 3% of 600 is 60 less damage, and thats alot. Combat Skills: Get ww maxed, and get lvl 1-5 beserk, thats the only ones you should get past lvl 1. just set left action ion to beserk and other to ww and otehr skills Warcries: ......some ppl are just so dam stupid it makes me mad, it takes 3 skill points to get Shout and Battle orders, JUST 3!!!! and ppl say thats its a waste, how!?!?! lvl 1 shout doubles your d, even if its only for 12-14 seconds, DOUBLE DEFENSE, all you need to do is use it and run into some enemies, its a must for dueling, AND if you still arent convinnced to take it then listne to this, my reg defense with iron skin and my armor is about 1300, once i use shout its about 2000, i get hit about 12% of the time average by most enemies in hell. 1 more skill and you get Battle orders at lvl 24, at lvl 1 it im pretty sure it increases life by 40%, not to take this skill would be foolish, im lvl 49, i have about 680 life without battle orders, with lvl 8 battle orders my life goes up to 1020 and lasts a little over a minute. Im lucky, i got duel leech with +40 mana, so i use that and im up to 240 mana, if your going to be a ww barb then i cant advise you not to take this skill. And, although you can think what you want, i think battle commands is an excellent skill to invest 1 point into and heres why, right before you duel a sorc or elemntal minions, using BC increases natural resist, before dueling barbs and meleepallys using it will improve defense, damage, and AR, and if you use use BC then Battle orders and shout then both of those will be up a lvl as well. That one is up to you thoough, i just think that ppl are way to ignorant to think that using 1 skill for something like that is a waste. Aeowulf- lvl49 LanceBarb, Demisa- lvl61 Sorceress, Khinison- lvl35 chargadin, Diahz- lvl32 Necromancer, Solslayer- lvl40 Bowzon |
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Look swords are the best damn weapons on the whole game (for the barbarian) well anyways jack up sword mastery, iron skin, and natural resist, you'll need to get frenzy and whirl wind also, don't even mess with berserk 'cause it drops your defense to ZERO . get energy to 30 and try to keep your dexterity up with your strength and vitality is important too if you want to stay alive on hell. But whatever you do, dont waste your skill points on warcries they suck horribly. Killer-lvl68-barbarian |
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Very useful barbarian strategy!: It's simple - just put BASH (skill, needs level 1) instead of your normal attack (left button). I'm a level 36 barbarian and have a level 1 bash - and it works wonders. The damage done is far greater as normal although a little bit slower. It has also knockback. Mana cost is a mere 2 points. Well, I have enough mana to use Bash all the time… My rare pike (35-140 dmg, +227 att.rating) is slicing the enemies to small pieces. ESPECIALLY with Bash. I also tried another character for which I made bash level 10. Well, you must try it to see it… |
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Until now i'm in level 44, i only havee died once in act 4 because de skeleton mages, i think i of most helpful skill is find potion, because starting from the act 4 you can get full rejuvenation potions, and those help you a lot, in less than 10 minutes you can get your full belt of full rejuvenation, the best atack is concentrate it help you a lot with defense, another skill very helpful is the weapon you use, y recomend use only 1 wepon for use a shield too, in my case is the sword, bastard or giant, barbarian can use them with 1 hand, the barbarian is a little slow, so put a couple in stamina and speed, for defense specialy if you use doble swing and don't like shields iron skin and natural resistence, for last the war cries, my favorite is war cry, with this you can kill a lot of enemys very fast and the last skill i recomend, battle command, to increases your skills,to the barbarians it's very helpful the items that increase your skills, because it uses a lot of pasives, so i recomend 1 item, find a (2) socketed helmet only barbarian, with a skill that helps you and insert the runes ort + sol, and this will increase your skills +1, theres a lot of those helmets around, so just open your eyes and keep pressed ALT. Thanos Barbarian Level 44 |
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i know the best way to get the ultermet barb lissen to some one who knows what he is on about i have a lev 99 barb called farget-ffs the trick is to go up on sword mastery (or weapon you want to use) don't forget to go up 1 lev on bash then when you get to lev 6 go up on double swing with barbs use 2 weapons trust me big clubs suck zoom up on that untill you can get wirl wind in the end get max on the weapon mastery of your choice double swing and wirl wind oh and go up on increase speed then you can run in fast cut up the enemy and wirl wind out when you find out your about to die hehe ;-) if you are max on them you can go up on what you want if you would like to change a coupple of things i wont stop you this just works for me i hope it works for you have fun cutting them evil mothers up :-) baddesley |
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In act five, the monsters that run up to you and explode are annoying and dangerous. Ive found a brilliant way of getting round them. Learn the battle cry "War cry" hotkey it to F1. Get leap for F2. When you see one, let him get to stand right next to you, quickly hit F1 and use it, immediately hit F2 and leap away. They wont explode for as long as they're stunned! |
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I believe strongly in specialization. My Barbarian is a level 41, and specialization has proven very useful, provided you have friends to cover the skills you lack. My favorite tactic: Double Swing. Use it exclusively. Use axes, swords, whatever, but use the double swing. Make sure your chance to hit is high, but don't worry about lots of damage. Double swinging is all about speed, and making sure you hit. Add in cold damage if at all possible. Your rapid speed, in conjunction with frozen enemies, will grant you almost certian victories against regular monsters, and is very effective against uniques and bosses as well. It will probably be required to have some mana steal, to balance the small amount of mana used by the double swing. Do not get surrounded. Speed is great, but useless when being hacked at from all sides. Make good use of the leap attack to make a devastating blow at the beginning of battle, and to flee when, or if you get surrounded. I would not reccomend this strategy to a single player, but in a party of at least two, your melee ability would be unmatched. I have though, used this strategy alone, and it works quite well. I have not expirimented greatly with other barbarian strategies, so I certianly cannot say this is the best one. Sphinx, level 41 and rising |
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Hi, I have a lv 71 lance barb in X-pack. He has killed baal in hell already. I noticed some1 here called maven said spear and polearm barbs suk and they should play amazon. I would like to say that first of all no decent zon uses spears anymore or polearms. Also, barbs with lances arent as bad as u think. My barb kicks azz with a 3 socketed cruel war pike(752 dmg) with a ohm, 40% ed jewel, and p skull. One more thing. 2 axes or 2 swords suk dick. better off using a good 2h sword like the grandfather or doombringer or cruel claussus or somethin unless ur gonna be a frenzy barb. And also, azurewrath??? wonder how u got to hell with taht piece of shit. How much dmg u do with it?? 500?? pathetic. o ya and theres no way u r lv 98 with that thing unless ur a leecher or some nerd who got to lv 98 in act1. LOL. Socketing it is such a waste. Now for some real stuff. The eq on my barb are pretty good. I have a areats face, just about the best barb helm there is. a dual leech ring 6/7 and a raven frost. a rare ammy pluz 2 all baba skillz. imk gloves, 20str, 20 dex. nat's boots, 40% fast run/walk, rare dusk shroud, over 900 def and got arkaines valor waiting for me like about 1500 def with pluz 2 all skillz and insane life, mavin'as belt, 20% faster run/walk, 5% mana steal. I also have a gull dagger(100% mf) for magic finding. i killed baal in normal at lv 31 nm at 50 and hell at 64 with a couple of friends. right now i usaully do mef runs or lv up in bloody/cow runs. I use whirlwind right now. It rocks. I killed nightmare diablo with it in like 12 whirlwinds at lv 45 that time. For me the hardest boss would be duriel. Some of u may think its easy but in hell he has a hella lotta life and i killed him with my sorc friend who static fielded him 6 times like 10 novas and 1 of my ww. and his stupid aura keeps chilling me. his charge does 1 heck a lotta dmg. killed my friend in 1 hit and brought me down to 345/1021 in i hit. In normal however he was quite easy. i just bashed him to death with some other ppl. TIPS FOR KILLING BOSSES: andy: in normal u should try to get as much fast run/walk and poison resist as possible as her poison is quite annoy and can bring u down to 1 life if u dont have enough resists. In nm and hell u shouldnt have as much trouble cause u can ww her and have more resists. duriel: for duriel i usally kill him with some friends. in normal i tried bashing him to death and it seemed to work pretty well. in nm, i leaped attack him while my allies distracted him. in hell i just let my friend lower his life and i ww. mephisto: the easiest boss in the game...IMO. what i do is i just find the entrance to lv 3, leap attack across the portal to meph, skipping the guys guarding the sides. This works for norm/nm/hell. It also works with sorc teleport. Diablo: In normal, try to party with a lv 30 din that has salvation. That way u dont have to worry about resists. ww worked fine for me but for those of u under lv 30 (highly unrecommended hehe...) leap attack him and start bashing. If he is about to use his lighting whatever leapattack away. In nm and hell u just ww him till he dies. u wont have to worry about resists cause u probably have enough already. Baal: (for those with D2X-pack) i suggest doing this in a party unless over lv 35 or has very good items from transfers. for the big azz packs of summons that baal has, let a sorc take care of it and ww whats left over. when u get into the chamber, tell ur sorc ally to static field baal while leap attack onto him and stun him or soemthin. in nm and hell it wont work cause baals got to much life to be killed by stun so just leap attack him and start ww. |
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One strategy that everyone dowplays is using warcries. I have a level 22 Bard with lvl 7 shout and I can whoop most people between lvl 22 and 29. I have 7 sword mastery, 1 howl, 1 taunt, 1 bash, 1 stun, 1 concentrate and 1 battle cry. Battle cry is awesome in dueling. I almost beat a level 38 lance barb with it! Shout is another valuable skill. Once I cast it, I have 1049 defense at level 22! and it lasts for 26 seconds. IMO get Cleglaw's Pincers. They rock at dueling. I have the full cleglaw's set and cathans seal which gives me 6% life/mana steal and a ring and an amulet which give me combined +15 replenish life. Just get life/mana steal and replenish life. They will keep you alive in duels. EvilTyrant lvl 22 Bard |
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to all you LOD and classic fans out there who want a real kick-ass barb who can take out amazons: READ! 1. try playing the different character classes. this may seem a long start but it makes you know every strength and weakness of other characters as you play the game yourself. 2. start your barbarian with focus on swords and shields. i recommend swords because you can equip yaself with a shield. you may say that its awful and weakly but i can assure you that it saves you alot of full rejuvs and mouse-clicks.(especially in multiplayers). try reaching level lvl 28-29 when you face diablo himself. EQUIP a tower shield with focus on def and resist all. i luckily found a rare tower shield with high def when i defeated mephisto. and oops, i almost forgot as you move your way up to lvl 30, try the 2-2-1 strategy on stats. NILANJAN had a good point on this. have at least 1 for leap, 15 for sword mastery and spend(optional) at least 6 skill points distributed evenly on the warcries(SHOUT, BATTLECMD, & BATLLEORDERS). save other skill points on WWind and Berserk. but i only leveled the berserk out to 3 i focused 4-5 skill points on concentrate. wanna know why? it's damn uninterruptible!!! and get leap attack also. try find items with skill bonus on leap attack and the warcries or best find items with bonus to all skill levels.(at least 2). 3. try to max out sword mastery as much as possible... and open a new mastery when you reach lvl 45 give it at least 2-3 usually mace mastery or axe mastery. i admit that spears, polearms and throws have good ranges but it lowers def for barbs... and the solution for that is a good colossal or any long sword available for sword barbs. when it comes to ranges. and you may ask on how to hit 'em? fire your dexterity as much as possible to 190!!! and find rings leeching mana n life! plus if lucky amulet with bonus on attack rating and let it be prismatic(all resist). 4. try reaching strength to 220-221 when in lvl 70-???. and find the unique storm shield aegis. have larzuk socket it hopefully 2 or 3 and save ber runes for it. for the head try finding vampiregaze... same strategy as for the shield... and when you reach lvl 80 plus or luckily lvl 99.. get arkaine's balrog skin. NOTE: don't yah worry on how to find such items, when you reach lvl 80-???. it is now possible that the game permits YOU to have the TREASURES when you kill monsters and keep playing....i may say... 5. it's a real work-out ain't it? and take note that don't depend heavily on your barb with swords and shields: IT's a Matter of Timing and Real Strategy!!! OTHER notes: have on the look-out for iron maidens. it might kill yah so be CAREFUL... timing and tactics can you defeat a heavy junctioned amazon, it might deter you a little... have equip with high fast hit RECOVERY and defense vs. missiles. so goodluck folks and keep those sword and shields bashing. you may not accept to choose frenzy or handling two weapons at once. if you do then master the axes... and do you know RUNEWORDS? lvl 87 Messiah |
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Ok first of most of these people dont have a clue on what they are talking about, first only put points in the the skills that you will not use till you get to frenzy, max it. Then before frenzy get one into leap attack, countinue to save point for the masterys because you will never find a good weapon in nightmare inless you beg someone for one. So countinue to save point for mastery and iron skill and natual resitace, so once you hit lvl 18 start upin iron skin then once you hit lvl 24 add iron skin natuaral resistance and frenzy every new lvl. This will give you an awsome skill cuz it gives you faster hit rate you run like a banche and it helps with damage and attack rate that is better then all except ww. Ok once you have maxed frenzy and iron skin and natural resistance be sure to have put the few occation points in to ww so that it will be maxed, have two one handed weapons mases, axes or swords as you frenzy attack then once you have ww maxes have a sick high damage lance as your second set of weapons so while in battle just hit w to change your attack damage and ww everything to death. Once you get a weapon that you plan to use for the remander of your char or a class that you plan to stick with max out that mastery. So all in all you will have 20 points in to irons skill 20 in to natural resistance 20 into frenzy and 20 into ww, all in all tha tis 80 points so the rest all go onto your mastery, and you can have a second mastery with all of those extra points you get from each act, remember the best time to kill the anchients is lvl 20 you will get 4 lvls, at lvl 40 you will get 7 lvl and at lvl 60 you will get 5 lvl. Then you stat points you would in the begining put them all into strength so that you can use a good armor eary in the game then use 2str 2dex 1vit, once you hit about 100 strenght go 1 str 1 dex then 3 vit. Good hunting, and good luck dont listin to any of these strats of peopel less then lvl 30 cuz they have no clue what they are talking about. |
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Of all the tips I have read on this page, only a handful mention the relative merits of using a mace-class weapon. I am a die-hard mace wielding barbarian (level 51, incidentally) and would like to explain why. 1.) The heavier maces, such as mauls, great mauls, war clubs and martels, do about 10-20% more damage than their spear-class counterparts. The notion that spears do the most damage is simply not true. Maces do the most damage. (at least at the higher levels, which is what everyone is interested in anyway) 2.) The heavy maces have the same range as spears. Don't believe it? Try and see. 3.) All maces have that 150% damage bonus when fighting undead opponents. Considering the number of undead monsters encountered during the course of the game, this represents a singularly unique advantage. 4.) The total number of unique maces in the game is 11. Total number of unique spears? Only 5. Statistically, the chances of finding a unique mace are more than double the chances of finding a unique spear. 5.) Unlike spears and swords, maces do not have a dexterity requirement (with the exception of the flail). This means that you can put many more attribute points into strength if you are a mace-wielder. That ornate armor you would love to wear but can't because you have to put half of your points into dexterity instead of strength? If you carry a mace, this type of problem will never arise. 6.) Let's face it: The spear look is out. Were you to meet a barbarian on the street, what are the chances that he would be carrying a spear? A nice, big, mean-looking battle hammer would be much more fitting to his personal decor. 7.) Not to offend anyone's delicate sensibilities, but the spear is clearly a phallic symbol. What are you really saying by walking around with it in your hands? It seems to me that any barbarian wielding a spear-class weapon is more bent on establishing their manhood as a function of size than on doing any serious battle. |
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well..if been on Bnet awhile and iv made a great duel barbaian. focus ur skills on battle orders...whirlwind...ironskin....sword mastery...and some into increased speed. i prefer using a cruel collosus and ading a socket from larzuc. for ur armor get a shaftstop..the dmg reduce ads to the dueling style. headgear...i prefer arreats face but if u definitly cant find 1..get a high dmg reduce vampire gaze. shield u most definitly need a stormshield for its dmg reduce and mods.now rings and ammys. get 2 raven frost they rly help in situations. ammy u get this 1 ammy (i forget the name) byt it adds 1 to ur skills and 12 to all ur stats. ur belt must be a high % dmg reduce string of ears and ur boots try finding a real fast walk i prefer snaders riprats b/c of their 5dex and 5str adding. ur stats focus on all except mana. get a ton into vitality and dex. getn high str but let arreatsd face add that quick stats that u can put into dex or vitality instead. im lvl 82 with 2.5k life killing jiust about any1 with 1 hit. bowazons dont stand a chance against me. well thank u and try it out it works From lvl 82 Barbarian |
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my barb is 76 lvl now and playing in hell right now. and hes really fun to play with. first of all, ill talk about barbs skills...that is how i planned my barbs skills there are 3 main skills that i went for: 1. WW (max) 2. Any MASTRY (max) 3. Battle Orders (max) and there is one more mastry of ur choice that u can max. natural resistance no more than lvl 13.....b/c after it u only increast it by 1 so no use putting any point in that. i suggest to go for barserk....b/c in act5 hell it will help u alot to kill those immune to physical monsters. rest of the skills are just 1 for prerequsite. HINT: use very fast attack rate weapons b/c it affect ur WW speed and how many times u hit in one round.... so get a VERY HIGH SPEED weapon. HINT: my barb leach 20% life and 19% mana...so i do not have to worry about any life potions and mana especially.....sice i get full in sec with WW ur not gonna believe that ...in act4 nm i did not use any mana and life potion till i get to diablo!!!!! so get some equipments with mana and life leach that is MUST for the barb. now to get to the states points. that is how i organized my points. NORMAL: ( i stayed in normal till lvl 50 ) and str: 150 dex:100 vit: 75 eng:10 (did not put any points in energy) NM: ( i stayed in nm till lvl 75 ) and str: 200 dex: 150 vit: 105 eng: 10 (did not put any points in energy) HELL: till the end....=) str: 200 dex: 150 no more than that no put ur concentratoin on life and mana(little on mana)..(every lvl up: put 4 points in life and 1 point in mana) this is my division of states points and now i have life:around 600 and mana:around 200 with soj so my barb is very success fun till now.....he is an ax master and really really good. some of the strategies here are really really good but some are just madness. SUGGESTION: to see how to make ur character good --> VISIT pk games and check it out how barbs do there...and chat with them. =) *RAVANANT |
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I have the best startegy for Barbs, without a doubt. What you have to do is Max out the Axe, Sword or Mace Mastery (don't use anything else) and then start adding to Iron Skin until level 30, when you max out Natural Resistance. It increases your defense and Attack by about 200%!!! After this finish maxing out Iron Skin. Your defense will increase by 220%, Resists +67% ALL, Attack Rating 180% and Dmg 123%!!! This way in Hell difficulty you won't miss or get hit nearly as much, and if it's magic, it won't hurt half as much. After this you need to start working on Attack Skills so max out Double Swing. That's an additional +110% to attack rating, so you probably won't miss 95% of the time. After this put your last skill points into either Whirlwind or another Mastery (your choice - you can either kill with different weapons or kill with two of the same weapons - spinning) To start off for stats, put +2 to strength, +2 to Dexterity and +1 to Vitality until your done maxing out Iron Skin, Mastery of Choice and Natural Resistance (around level 60) then start adding +3 to strength, +3 to dexterity, +2 to Vitality and +2 to Energy for every 10 stat points. (Each level: +1 to Strength, +1 to Dexterity, +1 to Vitality and +1 to energy - Alternate the X-tra point between Strenth and Dexterity) Do this the rest of the game - you should end up with enough Mana and everything to last you a long time. If you need extra Strength to use that super armor, then take away from dexterity - but if you can try to even it out again in the end. This strategy has worked for me all the way through Hell difficulty Diablo; without dying or having to use potions on Hell Diablo. I am maxed out. Thanks for listening to my strategy - it has worked for me twice and it will work for you!!!! Level 99 Sword Whirlwind Barbarian >-> DarqueMist Level 90 Sword/Axe Barbarian >-> BlaqueMist |
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I have the best strategy for a barb. max out ww. max out a mastery ( i use a lance so i maxed spear) Then achieve only the minium amount of strength and dex u need ( i only need 170 strength and 89 dex for lance and to wear an ornate plate) Put all the other skill points into vitality because you will die really fast in hell if u r a ww barb, like most barbs, and u dont have alot of hp. At least get a min. of 500 hp by lvl 60. For equipment i would get Helm- undead crown (life leech) Armor- rare ornate plate Boots- something with mana leech like gorefoot (2%mana leeech) and dont forget \faster run and walk. gloves- i would really get frostburns but if u cant, get some mana leech gloves. rings- get a good mana leech rings like manald and a good life leech ring. ammy- mana leech weapon- really high damage (optional) some life or mana leech remember to save your imbues cause that where u will get the best weapons from. Lance-raser lvl 89 sword-raser lvl 83 maul-raser lvl 68 |
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Hi,I'm curently playing a lvl 79 sword/shield barb and in hell dificulty vs baal i dont lose 1 health point.Here are some tips i suggest. 1)GOOD LEECH-if you have problems because of low health,just get a leech weopon so that you stay alive (at level 18 I killed duriel with 150 health with 15% life leech and good dmg). 2)GOOD DMG-The most worst thing for a barb is to have low dmg-especialy if you a dueler.So dont be dumb and pick dmg over statistics (sword that does 10-50 dmg with +10 all res, OR a sword that does 30-70 dmg with no atrubutes.DONT BE AN IDIOT TAKE A LOOK AT THE DMG PICK THE ONE WITH MORE DMG!!!! 3)SKILLS-What i suggest in skills is from clvl 1-20 you sould have the weopon of choice mastered so you can pack on the damage and get easy levels.From clvl 20-30 either get battle orders high lvl(very useful) OR save up points for WW or Natural Res, OR all into iron skill till ww.30+ Try to get ww,ironskin,weopon of choice and a warcry (if your a WC barb) mastered. BARB CLVL(S/S) 79 SORC CLVL 81 ZON CLVL 92 BARB (LANCE) CLVL 99 |
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I have read enough of these so-called perfect, flawless strategies. They are all the same, they talk about how to make the perfect barbarian but they forget the most important thing: How to defeat DIABLO. Defeating Diablo is not that difficult. The most frequent mistake is to invest in heavy armor, this is WRONG. Armor will slow you down, SPEED is the most important weapon against Diablo. If you are fast enough, you can fight him for over an hour without loosing any life. The difficult part about Diablo is not his red lightning, but the fact that it is very hard to hit him. You need a lot of atack rating. Forget about whirlwind, because you will only be around level 28 when you face him. Mercenaries are also usefull for a diversion. Diablo will not heal himself if you use a portal and cold will work great against him. Oh, and save your gems, they rule!!! ABBADON_Level_95 Barbarian (Swords) |
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this is wattoxx again. I have one more thing to say. Another good choice for a good solid barbarian. Choose the mace class, and you can get a good character. Use my other starategy, except change the mastery to mace, and get a good martel. Start with a basic maul, and work your way up. My mace barb is only lvl 30, but i got bonesnap, and im pretty good. try to get either snap or steeldriver to begin with, then get a good martel. In combat with maces, if u get a good enough maul, just bash guys till 30, while using the occasional leap attack. it is simple. Keep lvling. The maul is good because of its damage(almost up with a lance) and speed. Also if u have the xpac, there are some sweet ones out there. (cranium basher, immortal kings, silence thunder maul) Nite_mauler lvl 30 mace barb |
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I am absolutely appaled to see barbariens using lances, spears or polearms-it's discraceful! If you want them, piss off to amazon land. The thing you need to have are either two swords or two one-handed axes-it's the only way. Simply then max out frenzy and double swing, and you're in business. If your beginning, try and find Azurewrath(crystal sword, appears in gold), it kicks butt! Then if you have expansion get the Smith to socket it, fill it with a decent rune, personalize it and it's amazing. Polearms and lances, whatever next! From Maven, level 98 Barb (almost 99) |
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Yeh guys you have it all wrong. Sure a ww barb is great, but they can't do jack in hell unless you have a really kick ass weapon. So heres my way of making a barb. First, rule never put any stats into mana and always try to keep you dex even with your str. This really helps with your ability to hit your target all the time. Next, put one into bash and one into double swing and the rest into mastery until your level 30 when you can get frenzy. SAVE THE EXTRA POINTS if you blow them on something such as bash ect you'll be screwed in the long run. Now what you want to do is max out frenzy and then get at least 10 into beserk. The reason being frenzy is a passive skill for 3 seconds and it allows you to hit your target so fast that they can never recover. O yeah also along the way make sure you put 1 or 2 into natural resist and then try to max out armor. THIS REALLY HELPS IN HELL. As far as items go you need two kick ass swords that have a min of fast attack speed. Some armor with at least 800 d (myn has 1208 but I used 800 up till level 80). Some mana and life leach rings and an amie that adds to skills. Gloves boots belts and helms don't matter too much but I would suggest IAS and over 100 d on all of them. |
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Hello fello DII enthusiasts... I have been playing for a short time and have a level 40 Barbarian who just entered nightmare... I know for some of you that is not exactly a great achievement, but he is magnificent... Most of the strategies I have seen here tell you where to put your skill points, so I will tell you where Curlain, my barbarian, has his... he has 20 points in sward mastery, 1 point in increase stamina, 4 points in increased speed, 7 points in iron skin, 5 points in natural resistance, 1 point in leap, 1 point in leap attack (these are both augmented 3 by a helm), 1 in howl and 1 in taunt... Yes, thats right folks no points in concentrate or in whirlwind or any of the other so called indespensible skills... Curlain is strong and smart... That is the idea of strategy to me... knowing how to fight without getting in too much trouble, not in the special skills and certainly not in what he wears (ie silks or other elaborate armors that are not available to younger characters)... so what are his strategies... 1st, he fights in doorways and narrow areas as often as possible... you may ask why, well, he can not be surrounded, nor does he have to fight more than one enemy at a time that way... it gives him a big advantage because the enemies strategy is superiority of numbers not necessarily strength... 2nd, he tries to make sure he is never surrounded even in open areas... he does not have to fight in all directions at once and has an open route to back off a bit and regroup, heal, or book through a portal... 3rd, take advantage of the rogue hireling in acts 1 and 2 of normal and then hire an Ironwolf with cold powers in act 3 and take him with you throughout all the rest of the levels... he is still useful even in nightmare because he can freeze the enemies making it a bit easier for you to find your tactical advantage and then smash 'em... As far as items, try to make sure you pick things up and especially pick up the gold that the monsters drop... most of my items have been found, including things that regenerate life and one that steals 5% life... the one thing i do buy is armor... the founds ones in normal level simply are not a good as the ones you can buy, at least not the full, gothic or ancient plate armors... My guy has died, I am not going to lie to you, but its normally at the hands of a lessor enemy because his mistess loses her concentration and lets him die... He has not died at the hands of any of the Main bosses (diablo and that lot)... I hope that the newbies find this useful and that those of you who are more experienced see that there are other ways to become a victor than fancy tricks. |
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First off, you need to max out your sword mastery and equip two swords. At the same time put all of your stat points into strength until strength is about 150. Then, put about 15 points into double swing and get your dexterity up to 100. After this is done, max out Iron Skin and get your strength up to 170. After that is done, max out Elemental Defense and put all of you points into Dexterity. I'm at level 45, and this strategy has done pretty good for me. Also, remember to equip only the best arsenal. |
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i don't have the expansion yet so this isn't very up to date but if you don't have the expansion i can tell you how to make a kick butt barbarian. First pick your weapon mastery. i like spear best because they do a lot of damage. max out that before lvl 25.also on the way get leap, leap attack, bash, stun, and concentration. at lvl 30 get ww. max that out before lvl 55. put 5 into natural resistance, five into iron skin, and don't bother with the war cries; they take way to much mana and it only lasts for a small amount of time. for equipment get a good lance, for armor get iceblink, for boots get threads of clon, for belt get gold wrap, for gloves get frostburn, get rings that have mana and life steal; you'll need it with whirl wind, for a helm get whatever you want, and get a ammie with a lot of resistances. P.S. If you need money get a lot of magic find equipment, go to travincal and magic find there until you get what you want. you also can get a lot of good gems. |
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This is my strategy that has worked for me. First like always put 20 skills on any maestry of your choice. I like polearms or swords. Then get leap attack, just put 1 skill level on it. All you need it for is to get away from monsters that surrond u. This will help u a lot expecially in acts 2 and 4. Then put 2 or 3 skills on Increased Stamina so u done have to worry about your stamina runnig out. Then put 20 skills on Iron Skin and Natural Resistance. This help a lot expecially in nightmare and hell. For stats go to around 30 for energy and the rest in the others. This has gotten me really for in my single player barb who is at lvl 56. I am also using this stratigies for my multiplayer barb too. Psy_Corps_Trooper lvl 28 Barb |
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the barb is the best character in the game if you make him correctly. He is also very easy to lvl up if u use the right weapons and skils. I have a lvl 63 lance barb, and i got there relatively easily. For skills I just stuck to the basics, and maxed spear mastery, ww, and put a bunch into the passive skills, iron skin, and nat resistance. I also put 5 or 6 into leap attack because that is all u will use upto lvl 30 and ww. It also helps u through out the game(cow lvl-jumping away from those damn bovines). After u max ww and put enough into the passives consider war cries. The only one worth it is battle orders. Put a bunch in there if u have extra skills. For stats, i just made sure to get 170 str for ornate and like 90 dex for a lance. After u get enough points for a ornate and lance pour stat points into vital. in hell u die quick.NOTHING INTO ENERGY. Equipment-Tarn, or good grim helm like 199+ def.+good mods.Also think about a mf helm(for finding sweet rares) just stick 3 topazes into a death mask. Gloves watever(mf or leech or IAS pick), weapon-Lance-i dont think it matters a whole lot on damage, just get over 250, and get sweet mods. i have a 257 with dual leech and IAS, and im ok. Boots(either dual runwalk/hit recov, or mf or both) use watever u find or trade for. Belt-goldwrap is nice(IAS, MF), or maybe a rare war belt with cold damage. Armor- I tried using iceblink but felt that it was not as good as just having some cold damage and a real high def. ornate. My ornate is 876 def. with fastest hit recov, and resistances. RESISTANCES ARE KEY! Trade for things with high resistances esp. LIGHTNING(diablo and cow king) Jewelry-sojs arent worth it for barbs except for trading. u really want leech rings. trade watever it takes to get leech rings, because they dont drop any more. Mana leech and life leech are important for ww.Get a nice ammy like eye(leech and +1 skills and cold damage) or a rare +2 or 1 skills with resistances or leeches. combat-Just ww through all acts norm and nm, and u should be about lvl 45-50 entering hell. I went at 43(oops) and lvlved in act 1. people come to nm and hell very early, and just die, and lose exp. Its best to lvl up and then u wont die easily. When u reach hell go through the acts quickly just doing important quests(like den, imbue, izual all the Qs that give u good stuff), and lvl in acts 3-4 for th best drops and exp. Then at around lvl55-60 kill diablo by yourself if u can so u get the good shit that drops. After 60 u can either lvl more in act4 repeatedly killing diablo or do the cow lvl a lot. I do the cow lvl A LOT! it has the best exp, and great items fall. I found iceblink in a hell cow lvl. Only hell and nm cow lvls are really worth it. Normal is too easy, and u get no exp. Barbs rock if u do them right. peace out wattoxx lvl 63 barb |
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With the Barbarian, regarding allocation of skill points, I've had a coupleof ideas. Number 1: Put only one point into skills you aren't going to depend on later in the game. It may be difficult to survive up till level 18 (Leap Attack), but the next strategy should help with that a bit. Number 2: When you aren't putting points into Combat Skills, put them into a mastery. This will give you a healthy amount of damage (Level 10 Barbarian -30 damage- 7 to Sword Mastery), enough, at least, to get through to about midway through Act II. |
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To get a really kick @$$ barabarin, that can easily beat up Andariel: 1. Get a really good weapon, like the Gnasher, and put a lot of points on to Axe Mastery. 2. Put a lot of the Stat's points on to vitality, I beat Andarial with 50 points on vitality, AND I didn't use a single healing potion!! 3. Jump up and down repeatedly 'cause you got yourself a beeching Barbarian. -Patrick, Lv 19 Barbarian |
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Ok, my strategy is to save your points when you are low, because you get them a lot easier. Use stats in chunks of five, just because that 60% 20% 10% crap won't work when you are looking to be able to use something with high dex. or strength. Do not spread out the masteries, stick with one! I Personally like axes or swords, lances, maces, etc. usually have a really high max, but a really low min. Do not use any battle calls at all! They are worthless unless you have 20 points to put them on. 2 seconds of more life ain't Jack. With my first barb, I put a lot on find item which really helped to get more money, but I had to put a lot more stats on energy than I should of, which was my only downfall. Do not point any on energy, it will only weaken him a lot in the long run. I suggest putting stats on strength and dex. the most, usually 5 more strength than dex. each turn, putting vitality on every 2 turns or so, but stamina and life go up every level anyways, so that helps. I suggest using two weapons in one slot and either a two-handed weapon or a one handed and a shield in slot 2 (expansion only), but shields don't do much unless you find one with enhanced defense and have a lot of dex. I would also suggest finding a really good magic one handed item the socket in act 5 (expansion only). With my one Assassin, I socketed a magic claw and got 366-388 poison over 7 seconds with it, so I could hit something let it move away, and it would die on its own. Very helpful with a big crowd and if you have monster flee. I would also suggest putting a lot on stone skin and nat. resistance. This is very helpful for when you have -25% or -50% in nightmare and hell. Trust me, neagtive resistances are not good at all. I would also suggest using battle.net. You gain a lot of experiance if you are not in a party with 6 other people making the monsters that much harded. I got up 5 levels in two hours (8-13), but some of my party memeber at points did not a thing, so that slowed me down. Thank you for taking the time to read my statedy, which will work wonders, by the way, for you. Obesasmo level 13+ barb-USEAST Sir Phantasim level 36 barb-single Bruce_Lee level 36 kick-ass Assassin-single Phantasmo level 7 barb-single |
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I have a lv 54 barbarian and I have only died about 10 times and most of those on Baal and co. on normal mode because I wasn't prepared. Well to start off I suggest getting skill points into a weapon mastery, spend your first 5 points on one of these. It doesn't matter which one though I don't recccomend throwing or spears. Swords are reasonable as they are good at the start but it is hard to find truly awsome ones later on. So axe,mace or polearm is the choice to make. I have barley ever used a shield instead opting for both hand on a weapon but if you die a lot it might be a good idea. Most of the warcries are pointless except for the health/mana boost but you have to waste skill points to get there so I should have left out that altogether. Other skills to but points into are foremost whirlwind and element resist, they are both important, when you get to lv 25 you should save points up so you can put a point into both when you go up levels. Apart from them pump up your chosen weapon and iron skin for protection. Concentrate can also be useful for a younger barbarian as it is has more power than a normal attack. For skill points avoid energy instead try to get a bonus from a charm or ring for mana. Put points into strength at the beginning so you can wear better armour and use better weapons, after that just concentrate on dexterity and vitality depending on how your character is faring. For a mercenary hire a warrior mage in act 3 with cold speciality he will make playing solo a lot easier. I prefer him even to the mercenaries in act 5. If you want to duel get your oponent away from the town and then lay into him with all you have. Try not to fight necromancers since iron maiden gives them an annoying advantage |
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i have an easy way to get a super powerful barb. simply lie cheat and steal to get corruption rift charms.think with 100%chance to get magic items and +7 skills if u can miaculously get three you will be unstoppable.I have a legit barb at lvl 45 with 75 natural resistances.so i'll see ya'll around and remember get them rift charms FrOnTsTtAbBeR~lvl 45 S&S barb 'backstabber '!~lvl 37 necro |
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I have looked at all these Barb strategies above. To me they are all the same, max mastery and whirlwind. And most bash the same thing, throwing weapons. So here is my guide to the throwing barb. Skills - max throwing mastery (of course), and max double swing. After that, it is up to you. Stats - get around 60 str (100 at the max), no points in energy, around 60 in vit and the rest in dex, to get better weapons and attack rating. Weapon - what ever you can pick up will do, but I prefer javelins, because they have the best dmg. ALWAYS carry extra stacks in your inventory. Strategy - just use common sense, use shield n` throw all time, exept against bosses and uniques u just cant kill. A Throwing Barb has potential to kick butt in normal, no doubt about it. I am currently at lvl 30, have beaten the Big Red D, and have now started nightmare. I will keep u posted and dont lose faith in throwing. |
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I'm a level 66 Barb...I know how to play them. First act, get two swords...double swing, and go sword mastery as much as u can, puting 1-3 points into double swing (prefereably 1)...walk up to andirel.....double swing her to death....easy win. Act II, go two unique swords...sword mastery...iron skin if u get high enough....walk up to Duriel...double swing him to death. Easy win. Act III, still using two swords...sword mastery maxed out with iron skin....double swing him to death. Act IV ...walk up to Diablo , two unique swords...double swing him to death.....thats all you need to do. Barbarians are an easy race...pick a weapon, master it, kill. Have fun! |
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i have always played the warrior in the original diablo. when diablo 2 came out i thought the paladin would be the best melee char. i made it through the first 3 acts just to find out that i was wrong. i now have a barb that fights like a paladin. sword and shield. the only way to do this is rely on armor and iron skin for defense and dump you stat points into Strength and Dexterity. put your skill points into passive skills and always keep your health up. dont bother with warcries at all unless you think they work better for your mercs. i dont fight with mercs. they annoy me. have a magic/rare/gemmed bow for ranged combat. but dont fight like a barb. fight like a paladin. strike and fade. Talus, last of the Titans |
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Hrm..yes the best strat for an overall char that can kill stuff and duel is a WW barb however lame...for LOD there are more reasons not to follow this such as a big variety on itemz and certain runes...the only problem is your first char is always hard and cant be perfect real easy...to get items you just need an ok char fast that wont be godly...then you work from there...an all vit max BO best itemz barb can have 4k life in classic at 80 somethin and in LOD its even possible to get to 10k althought the best duelin char is this, an smart assassin, and sorcs o course...my barb can just break 2k life currently and still use raven but finding a -40 nice dmg rare exec aint easy so gettin 170:110 aint too bad...also reason for a sword is u can use a shield and switch, if it were a choice or lance or 1h sword shield then i'd choose lance since it's a lot easier to level (solo)...so overall my barb ownz for his level and kill most chars cept stupid cleglaws zons (i'm startin one =P) and smart zons that dun follow (also startin a MF sorc and duelin sorc =P) so thas all free feel to email me since i know how long this is and i still havent started CloudCA, USWest |
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I was a level 15 Barbarian on act 2 about to face Duriel. After reading some of these i realized level 15 was not enough. I thought maybe i could just buy some really good armor and weapons, but i had only 570 in gold. I then picked up an easy way to make money/gold and gain experience. In the Canyon of Magi there are 7 tombs , 6 of them are false, these 6, however, contain gold chests which contain lots of gold and magical items, all of this you probably already know, but if u go to each of the 6 false tombs kill all of the monsters (gain exp.) then get gold and magical items from the chest, sell the magical items and get more gold then deposit it into your stash, then save and exit and then repeat you be be rich and advacing to new levels in no time!! i upped to level 23 in 2 days, i also have 100,000 gold!! Kyle-level 28 Barbarian |
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Okay, here's my strategy for a Barbarian, the mighty undisputed overlord of Diablo II classes: ~Skills: Choose a Weapon Mastery skill and max it out by level 30. Put at least one rank on Leap, as many as you see fit on Leap Attack, and eventually max out Whirlwind. Iron Skin and Natural Resistance are important as well. Don't bother with Double Swing unless you plan to use two swords for the entire game (i strongly disreccommend this) and other than a point or two on Find Potion, don't bother with Warcries. My personal favorite weapon class is the Mace. In my opinion, the weapons are, from strongest to weakest, Mace, Lance, Spear, Axe, Sword, Throwing. ~Equipment: Find the biggest and best example of your chosen weapon class you can and use it. High-defense armor is important. The new Barb-only helms from the expansion are useful if you can find a good Rare. Try to find an amulet of + barb skill levels, and whatever rings you want. Gauntlets to match your playing style. Vidala's Fetlocks are my favorite boots (nigh-infinite stamina). Stick a Perfect Sapphire or Skull in any socketed weapon you use: cold damage rules. ~Combat: Take out ranged attackers and ressurector units first, then melee grunts, then the unique if one is present. Leap Attack tough individual bad guys or those damned teleporting Imps, and Whirlwind through hordes. ~Stats: I reccommend 40% strength, 25% dex, 25% vitality, and 10% energy. Energy shouldnt have to go much higher than 40. ~Dueling: Watch out for Necromancers- Iron Maiden is your worst enemy. If you do get cursed, run around until it wears off then go in for the kill. Barbarian vs. Barbarian duels often come down to who lands the first blow. Don't let a Bowazon get out of arm's reach. Hammerdins can be a problem too. Ive never dueled an assassin or druid with a barb so i can't help there. Sorceresses aren't a problem unless they freeze you. Other than that, a few leap attacks should win just about any duel. Balrog- lvl40 Maul Barb SuperBob- lvl12 Necro-in-training Azarael- lvl30 Assassin |
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First of, 90% of all the other strategy's suck. Now i'm not saying mine is exactly perfect, but i'm a perfectionist and would not be telling you this if I didn't know it was extremely effective... So here goes. STATS: DO NOT INVETS EVEN 1 POINT INTO ENERGY. Barbarians get a hanous 1 mana for 1 skill point! I cannot impress how worthless it is to train this. Strength should be the minimum for whatever armor/weapon you want to use, dex should be the same. All your other points should go into vitality. (1.) Mastery must be maxed. No discussion. (2.) When you reach level 30, train WW to level 20. This is the boon of the barbarian. You will live by this skill after level 30. (3.) Despite what anyone says, leap attack should only be trained once, it's only good for leaping in and out of crowds. (4.) Natural resistances and increased speed are good skills, but there is a point (around slvl 6-8) Where there is too little a bonus for the skill point your spending (At about 6 you start getting only 3-4% and this is similar with IS) (5.) Almost all the warcries aren't worth spending points in, one exception is Battle Orders(+life/+mana). I would highly recommend training this at least a couple times. (6.) Iron Skin is iffy. I know some people who love it and some who dont. I prefer Battle Orders, it's great to have extra life. (7.) When there's nothing let to train, You can put points into some other helpful skills. If your a treasure hunter, I hear Find Item skill is actually worth it now, so you can invest in that. If not, then you can always put points into Battle Orders, iron skin, or nat. resistances(I wouldn't recommend it though) With the implementation of D2X and monsters with physical immunity, berserk should also be a must skill although I dont know how heavily you will want to invest in it. WEAPONS: Choosing a weapon is key for barbarians. Axes, Polearms and maces are all OK choices. Throwing is worthless. Swords are good with shields for a more defensive barbarian, or you can go all out as the killing machine that is the Lance Barbarian(Most Damage and most range). ARMOR: Whatever tickles your pickle, I like iceblink. RINGS/Amules: + to skill is helpful, but mana and life leech are the most important things, also resistances are helpful. (Note: You cannot WW effectively without a decent amount of mana/life leech) DoGgUy |
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I think one of the most underrated spells in the game for the Barb. is taunt. I don't know how I would finish the game without it. Even with one level into it, you just "insult" the monster and hear he comes right to you! It saves me a lot of time and the mana cost is minimal. |
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Okay, here's how to make an Ultimate barbarian. First, max throwing mastery as soon as you can. Since these weapons have the best damage and attack speed in the entire game. Then, you should probably max out increased stamina, because having to walk isn't very much fun. As far as Whirlwind goes, don't put a SINGLE point into it. This is skill is extremely weak and is very unuseful. For stats, put a every stat point into energy so you can use warcries a lot. No stat points should be put into anything but energy. I hoped you liked my barbarian strategy! And have fun! WeakBarb- Lv50 Wand Barb |
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ok here is my recommendation for creating an ultimate dueler, hopefully you have another char that can get them some weapons to start. ok i recommend putting straight off your first 15 skill points into sword mastery. then put 3 in iron skin. 5 in increase speed, 5 in nat res.) then put 10 points or so in spear mastery, and 20 in whirlwind. be a sword barb for up to level 30, then switch to lance barb to level REAL fast. then after about a week you will be level 70(provided you have a good lance). then just max out sword mastery, give up on lances. I have found the following items to work great for a sword dueling barb(get at least 100 damage one hand weapon, sigons shield, iceblink, some fastest boots, and deaths sash. with those items you cant be frozen and you block 2/3 of an amazons, and sorcs cant use blizzard on u. making you a dueling champ. Finally only put as many points into str as your items req, no more than that. put none in energy, and after you meet the str req. divy points into about 40% dex 60% vitals. and you will be unstoppable, plus put a few skills into battle commands so your health will be around 1300 when u yell. -darkinterpreter |
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If you're using the Barbarian and don't know what to do, I hope my personal tactics will help someone in one way or another. 1) Completely ignore the "ENERGY" attribute. As a matter of fact, as a Barbarian, it doesn't even exist! 2) You must ALWAYS use the best equipment that you can get your hands on can currently purchase! (I can't emphasize this enough). 3) Pick only one weapons mastery and follow the distribution for your skill points. A) Use all of your skill points on your "weapon mastery" until you get to level 18. B) Now, use all of your skill points on "Iron Body" (the one that increases your defense) until you get to level 30. C) Finally, use all of your skill points on "Natural resistance" until you get to level 45. D) From this point on, you decide where you want to go Skill Tree wise. I am currently at level 48 and have a level 20 axe mastery, level 17 iron body and level 15 natural resistance. I have died a total of 12 times and 7of these deaths were from insufficient elemental resistances (early on in the game) and the rest were all ambuhes with magic users. Slayer Bane (Single Player Character) |
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ok, heres my barb strat, im only 22 so it might suck, but i doubt it... first find a 3 scoted axe. doesnt matter what type, it needs to be 1 handed though. then, once your 18, get online and beg/trade for 3 perfect emeralds. put em in your axe, and youll see why initial dmg doesnt matter. +268 poison damage over 3 seconds kicks all ass. i got like 25 in axe mastery (with items) and im workin on leap attack. as of now leap does about 350+ damage. my axe is a normal attack speed. i dont use any war crys and i havent had a problem yet. you should master iron skin as the defense it offers is excellent.as for stats, i went straight for str. i dunno if that was good but it works for me. for equip, get some really high def armor, sigons shield, some soj's or leech rings, i got some set gloves that do -25% speed and knockback, and some decent boots and a helm. for fighting i leap the shamans or tough enemies (1 hit kills so far) then i beat the &%*& outta the minions, again, hit em once, then move to another one. before they have time to recover, the poison worked and theyre dead.act 1 took me forever (like a week) cuz i was just messing around and learning how to play. act 2 took me about 4 hours of hard playing using this strat. im running into a bit of a problem in act 3 (all barbs do) and i dunno bout act 4. i know this strat might suck, but from seeing lvl 50+ people be happy with a slow attacking mace that does 200 dmg i thought it was good. RoundMan1944 |
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THE BEST Barbarian Strategy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1. Max out sword mastery and get an awesome two-handed sword(preferably great or executioner). 2. Your choice, max battle orders or iron skin. 3. Get a shield(Sigon's Guard,rare pavise....)an max whirlwind. 4.HAVE FUN KICKIN MAJOR @$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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I've been playing for awhile now and I noticed one thing. If you a newbie make friends!!!!! I got good starting stuff just for being nice to people. Anyways back to barbs. I think lance is the best. Its the easiest to level and you do great damage!! I started a lance barb and in two weeks with about 7hours a week he was a lvl 60! Of course put all your skills into spear mast and put skills into the prereq for WW. Make sure you have enough skill points for WW when you reach lvl 30. Also try to get mf stuff. I have 150% mf and on average I find 3 rares every 30 mins. Also iceblink is sweet cus every thing gets frozen and all the guys that can resurrect stay dead. If your trying to lvl in hell I think the best place is Flayer Jungle if you a low lvl. With Iceblink you'll fly through the little guys and theres so many of them you'll up your chances to find good rare stuff. Remember to get str to atleast 170 and pump up vit so you can survive long enough to do some damage. I think war cries are not all that. I never use them but that's just my opinion. Well have fun and remember that barbs rule B_Net!!!!! |
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Diablo was no problem for me. If u have a barbarian, at least put ONE skill on leap attack. This enables you to jump on Diablo (doing lot's of damage) and leap away again allowing you to not get hit by his lightning or fire attack.you also need to have a good bit of mana stolen per hit (i had 15%) and the good thing is you don't have to waste points into energy because, with this much mana stolen per hit it fills up again after one hit! Oh yeah i used a big pike to kill him(28-110 damage plus 10-15 fire damage). John |
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in the end {lv.100} have these things to be the best- bonesnap{mace},ornate armor{armor},war boots{boots},goldwrap{belt},grand crown{helm} witha perfect diamond sapphire and ruby in the sockets, frostburn{gloves},2 stone rings of jordan{jewels}, these skill areas- 20 points in leap attack, 10 in concentrate,20 mace mastery, 20 stoneskin,10 increased speed, and 20 natural resistance these percentages of build- 40%strength,30%vitality and 30% derexity this is the best strategy for a barbarian -cannibalattack lv 50 barbarian |
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okay here is all you need to know about barbarians: - pick one skill like every says and max it - use leap attack, it makes things much easier - use concentrate, it's uninteruptable - after level 30 all you need is whirlwind - put about 10 points into iron skin - any combo will work untill you get to hell, then you will die faster than you can swing, so get the fastet attacking weapon to can find with mana steal and cold damage, and you should be okay Blood_Fist level 50 Barbarian |
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I've been reading a lot of the strategies on this page, and with a few exceptions most of them are terrible. I've been playing Diablo 2 since it's release, and currently I've seen 3 different barbs (2 now retired) though to Hell Difficulty. I've found that Lance Barbs are the easiest to play with, and so I'll share my strategy with you guys. The best strategy with lance barbs is as follows: 1) As far as stat points go, you want to ignore Vit. and Energy for a while. Concentrate on getting your str. up to around 70 (so you can wear armor) and then pump your dex to 88. The reason for this is that lances have a req. of 88 dex and 110 str. +Str items are MUCH easier to come by than +dex itmes, therefore you want to have your dex up to par by lvl 25 so you can use that bitchin' lance that's waiting in your stash. Try to get +str items (belts, boots, gloves) to get your str. up to 110. Now that you can use your lance, you'll be doing hella damage, and with mastery you won't need much more dex to hit the monsters. I would recommend pumping up your stregnth to get ready for an ornate (170 str.) so you can have some defense, too. Try putting 4 str. 1 vit. from then until you have 170 str. After you have 170 BASE STR., use your stat points like this: 2 str, 1 dex, 2 vit on even lvls and 2 str. 3 vit. on odd lvls. 2) Skill Points: The most important advice early on is put as many spare points possible into spear mastery. Only put 1 point in all the prerequisites for whirlwind. It might be tempting to put more in, but once you get ww you'll probably never use those skills again. It's best to wait for ww. Make sure you tuck away a few points to get some of the passive skills, as Natural Resists, Iron Skin, and Increased Speed all rock. As far as the much debated war cries goes, I've found them to be quite helpful in my solo lvling. They help with mana consumption from whirlwind and also allieveate your vitality defeciency from pumping str. The only war cries that I would recommend using with regularity, however, are Battle Orders (+life/mana) and Shout (+def.). Battle Command is okay, but it costs too much for too little time. 3) Equipment: That's easy... Helm: Decent def. helm that has at least 2 resists over 20%, +life, and fastest hr Armor: High def. ornate (800+) that has +life and good resists. Fast hr also helps. (You might wanna try Iceblink. I've always been turned off by the low def., but who knows) Amulet: Spend big and get a good one. Mine is 30% MF, +14 str, 2 resists, and +1 barb. You might opt for leech over magic find, however. Rings: One that has life leech and magic find and one that has mana leech and magic find, both with resists. Belt: You need one that has fastest hit recov. and +str along with resists. Boots: Try and get a Fast run/walk and Fastest hr with magic find and resists, or better. Gloves: For starting off, try Frostburns. They have decent defense, the +%mana really helps out for ww, and cold damage rocks. After you graduate them, try and get War Gauntlets with +str, resists, and magic find. Lance: My recommendation is to get a HIGH damage lance with +2 skills and +ar. The +ar helps out with hitting %, and the +2 skills REALLY helps out with your War Cries and Passive skills. If you're having a problem with mana/life, however, opt for one with leech over skills. Well, thanks for your time, I hope this comes in handy. Feel free to message me on battle.net. I'm on USEast realm. UberLANCER lvl. 50 Lance Barb UberSHOT lvl. 46 Bowazon UberMERDE lvl 34 Necromancer UberSORC lvl 27 Cold Sorc UberHAMMER lvl 24 Hammerdin and coming soon... UberJABRONI lvl 1 Jabazon |
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I am a level 50 barbarian and I have found this to be my most useful strat. This is my 2nd barb and I really stuffed it up with my first one because I was a newbie and didn't really know much about the skill tree. Anyways, this barb is maxed on Mace Mastery. I used 2 swords in my previous barb and the damage was just not enough. So now I am using a martel which does a sh** load of damage (350). The point of this though is not to talk about weapons or armour or any of the items.... but rather the skill tree. I found out with my first barb that warcries are all but useless, only because they their time limits were too short. Secondly, I could have used those skill points on whirlwind, leap attack, iron skin, or Nat Resistances. So I dont suggest putting any skills on the warcry skill tree. Otherwise, it is a definite MUST to choose one weapon type and ONE only and max out on its mastery. Either the sword or the mace would be good. Axes have a slower attack speed.... and so do spears. Besides, you would definitely need a sheild for blocking purposes. Alright, so weve got masteries covered. Bash is actually not bad for lower levels and can be useful at higher levels.... but I personally prefer Concentrate because of the uninterrupted attack plus the boost to attack. 4 to 5 points to that are good. Leap Attack is ABSOLUTELY necessar because of the sheer amount of damage it does. At lvl 13 its at something like 700% damage.... thats psycho.... and another thing is, that you never miss. Believe me... :) Whirlwind is good too, provided you have leech capable items, which you probably will have by level 30. Mana steal is a MUST anyway... and life steal is a great bonus. The rest of the points should be allocated to iron skin and natural resistances. Very very very important... these two.... especailly in Nightmare and Hell levels. You will find yourself dying very quickly if your armour is not high enough, and worse, if you are in the negatives in resistances. Of course, by then, you should have items which boost resistances anyway. And last, but not least, life, or rather vitality is very important, especially at higher levels. Dont be fooled into pumping into str and dex and ignoring vit. A barb is a melee fighter, which means that he will also have to face melee attacks... and super unique bosses like Hephasto and Duriel.... will punish anyone who lacks life. By the way, I completely ignore points to energy because its simply not worth the points. Between levels 1 and 25, I allocate points to str, dex and vit, at 2, 1, 2 respectively. After that, its 2, 2, 1 till maybe level 45. Around then, you should have around 170 str.... enough for ornate.. and then a 1, 2, 2 allocation might be preferred. Well I've written a novel here so I wont say anymore for now. If you have any questions or just wanna chat barbs then email me at cowboy253@lycos.com Happy playing. |
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i only have a level 20 barbarian, but i thought that it is best to go double sworded if you use swords, because double swing is good and i personally think that the whole sword and shield thing is more for the holy paladian. if you use like lances though you really dont have any other choice but to go two handed. Thank you for listening to my stratagy. Antonio |
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yo ppls...it's me joe i got a strat on pallys if you've read it after playin a pally and some zons i played a barb and realized why they are so freakin popular...they are easy to use, do lots of damage, and skill-point wise you cant screw them up too bad i got a few tips that are essential to the well-being of your barb. 1. MAX OUT only ONE weapon mastery...forget throwing mastery until the expansion comes out 2. USE WHIRLWIND...you don't HAVE TO max it but you can it wont hurt you 3. MAX OUT Iron Skin...this is worth it in PvP and PvM...just do it 4. Put 5-6 in Natural Resist...its pretty helpful in nightmare and hell difficulties 5. Only put 2-4 in the war cries you need 6. Pump Leap Attack...its a very good skill to have in conjunction with whirlwind ----WEAPON CHOICE weapon choice is not really a big deal but there are differences between them LANCES- Probably the best barb weapon because they do the best damage by far...but slow attack speeds can hamper their performance before level 30 when you get whirlwind...when u do get whirlwind it is majorly worth using lances because they have a very far range when you're whirlwinding MAULS- Mauls are decent cuz you can get a 300+ damage Martel...but they have a relatively short range so Whirlwind can be frustrating sometimes...they have slow attack speed naturally but GIAS martels CAN be found...150% to undead is good for Act 2 also =P POLEARMS- Actually not bad...not as high damage as lances or mauls but have the range of lances and look cooler too. But for pure effectiveness use lances cuz they have the range AND the damage...these only beat lances in the speed department AXES- Ack!!! Not great damage and the shortest range of the weapon choices...not recommended SWORDS- Another decent choice...you can have two of them...High quality Executioner Swords can have 170 damage and have the range of a maul, but you can have a nice shield or have another executioner, or just use one executioner for higher per hit damage...a good choice Well...remember these things (max iron skin, max mastery, pump whirlwind and leap attack) and you'll do fine. don't forget natural resist. Good luck -THE_CLAW(_) on USWest |
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This is only opinion, but this is the best advice i can offer. Channel skill points into one combat mastery. My best peice of advice is USE WEAPONS WITH COLD DAMAGE. If possible use the best gems in a socketed weapon. There are countless advantages to cold damage to a weapon. It slows the enemy down, making them a lot easier to hit, and the little crappers that get revived, stay dead. Another advantage is that if you are in a swarm, it helps because the enemy is hit and you split second more to either finish them off, or go to another enemy. Those are the advantages i have found using cold attacks. What the good does fire do, besides the xtra damage? not much. Poisen is okay but who wants to wait around for the baddy to die when its faster to hack away at them. Lightning is the same as Poisen, but you get faster results. Cold attributes has helped me a lot, use it if you feel comfortable with it. -nalong |
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BEST BARBARIAN STRATEGY!!!!!!!! Step 1- Max out sword mastery and get a kick@$$ two-handed sword. Step 2- Put a few points into shout, battle orders,and leap attack,but not more then 5 or 6 each..... Step 3- When the time eventually comes......MAX OUT WHIRLWIND AND GET AN AWESOME SHIELD[preferably ward or sigons shield...or even a grim shield(high defense)] Step 4- with a few level's and the right equipment, you'll soon find yourself to be an unstoppable force of destruction that will rival Baal himself (Lord of Destruction). |
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u wanna make a good barb, first rule is max out the mastery u choose to use. that way u can get a nice damage bonus. dont waste points in double swing!!! i see ppl sayin to put skills points into it but its completely useless. dont waste points into leap either. only 1 point into it is necessary. natural resistances and iron skin are good, but they dont really need to be maxed out. put lots of points into wirlwind, but dont forget that to be most effective with ww u need a decent amount of mana and life leech. without mana leech u will run out of mana real quick and die. for a lance barb the best armor is iceblink because it will freeze all the enemies and the lance has a good range, but for the other types of barbs i would use a good ornate. remember to pump lots of points into strength and vitality, and maybe dext if needed for the weapon. dont waste points into mana. if u need mana, use an item that adds mana. well good luck and enjoy the game. -Crackhead_barb-lvl 51 lance barb -PainInYourAzz-lvl 36 maul barb -EviL_SwOrDz-lvl 28 sword barb |
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his is my second barbarian and I guess he's going to become real good. I'm currently in act 4 in the normal level, finished the first two quests of it with ease. The only thing I had to do in act 4 yet was to use lots of potions, rejuv potions especially. I chose sword as my weapon because it is fast and efficient, and I gave sword mastery 20 skills. I had to give bash, and leap 1 points each to get to leap attack. LEAP ATTACK IS ESSENTIAL. It is the easiest way to get out of menacing crowds, also to hit long ranged mages. 1 point to leap attack is all you want. I gave one point to double swing but i'm not sure if it was a good choice yet. Other than that, I'm currently concentrating on iron skin, and will max up natural resistance. Up to now, I was able to kill every boss without using any strategy, just by face to face brutal force and with rejuv potions. I frequently had to do some running to eliminate crowds of creatures. To sum up, a tough barbarian needs only strength, dexterity, vitality, weapon mastery(lvl 20), iron skin(lvl 20), natural resistance(lvl 20), leap attack (lvl 1). CaNNiBaLPeR Level 27 Barbarian |
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I have reached "perfection" in the weapons and armors that I use, although I thjink my character really bites, I can barely kill the smith in nightmare although I do a minimum of 100 dammage on each and every hit whilst using Frenzy. you should put 60% of all your points in Strength, 10% Dexterity, 25% Vitality, and only 5% Energy. For weapons I say STICK WITH ONE! Mace is possibly the best with over 200 max dammage with a Martel compared to my 80+ War Sword and 50+ Long Sword both Rare. ! atleast 10 skill points into Leap Attack, 20 into your weapon of choice, 5 intoStone Skin, and the rest in requesites and extras or if you chose Polearm or spear as a weapon then 2 into whirlwind ALL OF THIS BY LVL 40, the beggining would be hard BUT it is worth it, once you reach about lvl 40 you will be a KICK-ASS BARBARIAN! Sir_Grimm, a lvl 30 barbarian |
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Well I read most of the reviews on how to pump up a Barb. Well I play in single player because I have this firewall which prevents me from playing. But anyway in single player I have realized that Warcries are terrible in single. Vitality strength and Dex are the most important. I put +2 to strength, +1 to Dex, and +2 to Vitality. Although you need Dex so you can hit more. But don't forget your masteries help you with that. My first barb I put 2 str 2 dex 1 vitality. When I reached Hell I died continously. So put lots into vitality IMPORTANT. Skills- Well first of all Don't use warcries as mentioned. Combat skills depend on what weapons you are using. One handed weapons you will want double swing, just one, frenzy, just one, Whirlwind, Max it out, And LEAP ATTACK, just one. I jove leap attack it is great cuz in act III you can jump the rivers. And also jump annoying enemies. In masteries wait until you find the item of your dreams then put them in. Yet you may not find one for a while, which has happened to me, just be patient and your time will come. If you can't find one hang back in earlier acts and don't advance until you have found it. Killing Duriel a couple of times may help but the items get worse and worse so, start roaming and look for uniques. ALWAYS AND I MEAN ALWAYS CHECK CHESTS AND SKELETONS I FIND THE BEST WEAPONS IN THEM. Also gamble on skull caps until you find the tarnhelm that way you have a better chance of finding items then when you find the item look for a better helm cuz with a barb you really don't need the +1 to all Barbarian lev 37 (excellent) Necromancer lev 37 (not so good) Sorceress 27 (one of my best) Paladin 25 (horrible) Amazon 28 awsome cuz I have a LAN connection and someone gave me an AWSOME bow |
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When I began building a barbarian for a single player game I did some research by reading this page and others as well as some of the strategy guides available. The first thing I found useful is to max out a particular weapon mastery (as stated already many times on this page). I chose sword mastery and with two rare ancient swords I deal some serious damage. For combat skills I stick with double swing but only have one point in it (plus 2 more points from a berserker prefix on an ancient sword). I tried frenzy but the speed bonus makes it excedingly difficult to control my character in the frey and whirlwind is a mana soaker. I have maxed out sword mastery, iron skin and natural resistance at a character level of 57 bringing my resistances (with a prismatic amulet and unique greaves), attack rating (both weapons have a huge attack rating bonus) and defense (rare ornate armour imbued by the blacksmith in act I) up very high. I plan to build up the speed skill or put more into double swing to increase my attack rating. I also gambled for the gloves of brock that give +3 to life and mana steal per hit with a 10% poison resist bonus. The glove defense is low but the steal feature is essential to keep mana and life high using minimal potions. I also use a ring that adds +6 to life steal and 100 or so to my attack rating. My strength is 170 + 5 from my boots and my dexterity is 110 +5 also from the boots. This allows me to wear any armour and weild any sword, exceptional or otherwise. The rest I am putting into vitality for now (you would do well to not waste points on mana). The best places to build experience and get excellent items are in the arcane sanctuary in act II and all of act IV. I basically build up at these places and then rush through the rest of the scenes. I am still building levels in act IV right now, always making sure that the creatures I fight are no more than five levels above or below me. This is all I am going to say here (so as not to take up too much space), If you have any questions about building a barbarian or paladin e-mail me at bartle47@msu.edu and I will get back to you right away. -- Lord Cohen the Barbarian |
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Right now i have a barbarian level 42 and i am in the chaos sanctary on nightmare. When i started the game i boosted alot on strength and vitality but later i discover you should put your vitality up to about 60 and every level put 3 ont strength and 2 on dexterity until you have enough strength to use an ornate plate then put 1 on strength 2 on dex 1 ont vitality and 1 on energy for a coupke of levels. For skills you should stack up on swrd mastery and stone skin at the start and put a couple on double swing find a mana steal ring and put double swing as your regular attack then when you get to level 30 boost war cry and natural resistances. I know that everyone says warcrys are pointless on single player games but they are wrong. Once you get war cry to about level 10 you will do about 65-70 dmg ang stun for 3 seconds. so all i do is walk up to bad guys use war cry once and double swing everyone to death and since you steal mana you will regain all your mana used for warcry so it will be ready to use again. Now you should boost natural resistances to about level 10 so even on hell difficulty your resistances will be around 0 with no items on. You should definatly stick with 2 swords. I put up 1 level on whirlwind and i find if you use 2 swords it isn't very good but if you use polearms it's a difeerent story. |
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the best way to make a good barb is frist make it up to lvl. 10 when you get there you should still be a t the second quest in act 1. you should have bash at lvl 1 sword mastery at 5 then get stun to 2 and in creas stamina to 3 then you can get the big one leap attack to 3 thats all that has to be. then Iron skin to 8. that should leave you at 30 when you can get whirlwind to 20. then berzerk to 20 the rest is up to you if you don't like my method then fight me Wayne-o in the eatern rhelm good be Wayne |
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Sigh....the over-played barbarian...well,it's kinda normal since he's so easy to lvl and play,but,at the end,All barb are the same except for the weapon they use....but still...here's some tips to make your barb different ->First of,just to be sure you know...you put most of your skills in one mastery(best choice being Swords,Mace or lances)and you MAX it out ->second thing,Warcries are only good for....well....I can't even find a situation where warcries are useful...I used them once on my first barb. and they aren't of any necessary use...but if you insist in havin some because you absolutly need to waste your skill points,I recommend you the +to def. one and the +to life and mana one(sorry I forgot the names since I never ever use em again)finding potions is nice to have to lvl 3 or so though... ->Now,the fighting skills,Sword barbs first:you see the skill tree?...well..your row is the far right one...okay?...only that one...don't lose your time with Whirlwind...you won't deal enough dmg to make it useful...but if you use frenzy,you'll be a speedy killin machine...ok..for all other barbs,you have to puf 1...and ONLY 1 in each of the skill(except the far rights one)and MAX whirlwind...your only hope of survivin in nm and hell ->Ok...you maxed your weapon mastery...but you still see the other Iron skin skill and faster run....well...now there are 2 possibilities...if you choose Iron skin...max it!....and get some good high def equipment to make it useful...I,most of the time...use the fater run tho...and then with fastest run/walk boots and Blinkbat...you just never get hit... oh...put 3 or 4 points in +resist tho I guess this conclude the Barbarian...thx for reading and E-mail me to give your opinion Ysatis@sympatico.ca War-Mace and Other barbs |
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Mana/Life steal weapons or jewlery are a major plus.I personally placed leap attack on left click, and whirlwind on left. It can get a little bit hairy fighting mana burn enemies though. Whirlwind is great for eliminating the minions and lowering unique's hit points, but leap attack momentarily stun's your opponent . With quick hit dodge and attack again tacktics many monsters get few hits at you. I personly mostly play solo mode and this works well for me.Definitly wait as long as possible to imbue, so that you can find the best possible weapon or armour. I have a grim shield I imbued that is increadible. I have personally found that I need to interchange between shield and no shield.With many monsters i get hit less with whirlwind with my shield. I then run and take it off for the unique's. From a lvl 52 barbarian lord slaughter. |
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i noticed someone give the stratagy of direct attack with leap attack (click on target) . yes it does always hit but the damage is greatly reduced if creature moves away. better to attack ground so you always attack nearest creature even better predicting the target creatures future position is must in mastering this attack .when things get hectic leap attack is the attack i always use. geoffdeath level 33 |
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From the very start, you must know exactly what you intend to do with your barbarian. I suggest one of two paths. The first (and easier of the two) is to specialize in a high damage weapon like a spear or a polearm. Since these are two handed weapons, you can completely ignore the skill tree path starting at double swing. Instead, pump leap, spear or polearm and leap attack. You will deal out large amounts of damage as you hack and slash but your specialty will be assassinating shaman types without having to hack through their minions. On this path, you pump strength and vitality depending on armor and ironskin for defense plus your weapon skill for attack rating. The second path involves using smaller weapons (particularly swords and axes) that have faster attack speeds. Instead of pumping leap and leap attack, you need to emphasize double swing and that path. You also need a higher dexterity to wield the swords and the thrown weapons you may decide to use. Honestly, I feel that the first path gets you a more powerful character but the second is fun. There's just something about swords that can be so much fun. The worst thing you can do is spread out your skill points among the weapon types. BobA (axes) BobM (maces) BobS (swords) BobP (polearms) BobSpear (self explanatory) |
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Reading through these strategies I've decided to write a small guide myself. I feel barbarians are the best character in Diablo II, mainly because tht's all I've used. My first time through I squandered my skill points on battle cries just out of curiosity, also I thought I was going to use first an axe, then a sword, then a poleaxe and finally I settled on an axe. Well long story short, battlecries suck for a single character, and you should pick one weapon type and stick with it. The effects of the weapon skills will be much better if you do this. I've found that axes, maces and swords work best because you can use shields with the one-handed versions. What's so good about shields? Well, the shield I use, Sigon's Ward, has a 69% chance to block, that means only 3 in 10 enemy hits will land plus it increases your skills 1 level. So far it's the highest percentage I've found, and I doubt it gets much higher. The only shield that obtains this high of a percentage is a tower shield. I found this odd because the gothic shield has better defense normally. So far with my latest character I'm in normal Hell and have only died once using this strategy. Back to skills. . . Varrious opioions have been thrown back and forth about different skills and whether they're crap or they're great or what have you. Through my experience I have found bash and leap attack to be very effective, however I only go to skill level 1 or 2 with these. The rest of my skill points go to weapon mastery, one point to each skill below whirlwind, and I also build up first iron skin, then when it comes available whirlwind. Whirlwind is very effective, especially with high damage weapons, but even low level wweapons which you have mastery in become lethal with this attack. I've also decided to make a system for distributing my stats points. Because the barbarian wields massive weapons and delivers crushing blows, the most effective stat to increase. Because of this, I found that unless you need to increase a certain stat rapidly to use something, allocating 2 points to strength, and one point each to dexterity, vitality and energy produces a well-rounded character capable of withstanding heavy attacks and dealing out even more deadly ones. To quote Dennis Miller though, "that's just my opinion, I may be wrong." Rich |
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the best barbarian stratigies goes as follows: first, max out skill points in one mastery only. when u get to lvl 18 put 1 on leap attack. DO NOT PUT ANY MORE THAN ONE on leapattack or anyother attack like bash or frenzy cuse they suk. put like 10 on iron skin ONLY if you have a very high ornate plate like 897 def like mine. when you get to lvl 30, max out whirlwind. it is the best attack in the game. without it a barb wont survive. also put 10 on natural resistance. Now for stats, put about 170 on str, 110 on dex and 250 on vitality. those are my stats. my lvl 89 barb Can do 1800 damager per hit with whirlwind. i have a 300 lance. another good armor for barb is iceblink. it freezes targets so they only get to hit u once at most before they get frozen and u kill them. my life is 2500 and with the warcries, my life goes up to 3000 i can survive 3 whrilwinds from another barb. well thats wut i thinks is best AZIAN_CRUSADER lvl 89 |
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Alright folks... I have played all 5 different classes of barbs (throwing isn't a class) and I would like to share my opinion on an often shunned skill, CONCENTRATE. I for one really like this skill.. I only put one point in it to get to whirlwind but I use it as my attack when and if my mana for it runs out. First of all, it's uninterupted, so you will not get whipped around and die from those vicious undead scavengers. Second, it's defense bonus helps prevent your gettting hit in the first place, so those vicious undead scavengers won't hurt you. Although many like the push back of bash, or the bonus of leap attack, it's at least worth trying on your way to WW. |
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Hi,This is a stragity if you wan't a realy cool barb. TRICK FOR KILLIN' DIABLO-If you want to kill Diablo fast and easy MASTER"LEEP ATTACK".This attack will destroy diablo quick and easy and you will not get a scratch. Keep on running and doing "leep attack".Try to master out FireRessistance and LightningResistance(lightningFlameAttack)Believe me this works well on him. :). Skills-MUST MASTERIES-Wirlwind -Natural Resistance -Iron Skin -Weopon mastery(What weopon you use) Attributes-PER LEVEL-2str -2dex -1vit -0mana With 170 str,120 dex, and the rest vitality your preaty much unstopable PLAY ME IN A GAME SOME TIME:BatterinRam in the eastRealm. If you have a complaint e-mail me at worma@hotmail.com See you later :) BATTERINRAM |
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When fighting bosses or uniques, or just a mob of enemies as a barbarian, just use howl. The uniques and champions do not run, leaving you in one on one combat with the toughies. Click and hold on enemies for a continuous attack. This can be useful when fighting especially hard dudes. You can pay attention to your health more, and you have a better chance of surviving. Nick |
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Hi, Im level 50 right now and one of my main strategies is to first go slow in the game and build up your charictor, I see alot of guys in nightmare with low level charictors that just taged along with someone better to finish a level. A great way to build your charictor is to join a game with five or more people then dont join in a party and go solo. You will get all the experiance from killing the monsters without shairing them with other players. What I do is go back a few acts where monsters dont do much damage but have high hit points because of the number of players in the game, so you can set there bash away and not get hurt alot. You will gain a ton of exp. this way. Then once you have built you charictor up its easy to complete the quest and move to higher areas of the game. This is how the hardcore players do it without dieing. They go to act 2 normal and play untill there charictor is around level 30 before moving on, after that its hard to die when your play a charictor thats 20 levels above what the game calls for in a level. Another tip to keep your cash flow healty and to find better items is to join a game with a level charictor in it thats about 15 above your own and you will find alot better items because the monster are putting out items to suit a higher charictor player. Its a great way to find better armor and weapons than you normally would. Also use at least one item that has magic find to it, the best is a helm socketed with 2 perfect topazes this gives you around 48% magic find without losing to much on defense and you will find alot better items to sell or use. My last tip is to keep on hand 1 set of rings and amulet that boost dexterity and one set that boost str. There is nothing worse than finding a good item and not being able to use it, because you dont have enough dex or str on your charictor. Other than that I like leech rings and amulets they work great on high level monsters that have a ton of life and can keep you alive long enough to kill them. These tips work well for any charictor class. Because of the fact i dont want to write a book here you can email me at yenyang@cfl.rr.com for more direct tips for barbs or paladins. Last big tip when you read the tips on this web site pay attention to ones coming from level 50 or higher players they have been there done that. not players around 30 who havent made it to the harder levels to know what you will need in the long run as far as skills and choices for stat points. So long its time for eightballchamp to go kill something. |
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There seems to be alot of trouble involving Duriel. I found him very easy - Lv.23 Barbarian double-handed-two sword attacker. Simply load up with health/rejuv potions and make sure that one of your swords is a 9% Mana steal. As my dex is strong and double attack is strong I simply melee attacked him and wore him down only going through 3 full healths. The mana steal sword keeps your mana on full the entire attack. Easy !! Psion Lv.28 Barbarian |
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swords, axes, maces, and lances. Where to start. I seem to think that the axe is best in dmg, sword is best n speed. and maces excell in both of them. I m not here to tell you what to do or anything but berserk sucks. Thats my main stgy, dont use berserk Michael |
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Here's my strategy for the coolest character in Diablo 2, Barbarians. Unless your playing mutiplayer, don't bother with warcries for they are completely useless in single player games. Also, don't be fooled about putting all of the barb's stat points into strenght, for dexerity and vitality are also part of the recipes of a powerful barbarian. Try not to waste your stat points on mana, leave that to the necromancers, and sorceress's. The only kind of combat skills you need to place points on are double swing, and leap. Double swing would help you defeat bosses easier if you wield two weapons. Leap seems to be a pretty useless skill, however it is very useful in leaping over hordes of hells minions, and escaping while you are surrounded. Try to get armor not only for its defence but also look for armor with some sort of natural resistance (especially lightning resistance). For most of your skill points, place then into the combat masteries tab. All the skills in that section are passive, so you don't have to select it to use the skill, and are automatically added on. Since I've beaten the game I can give you tips for the act bosses. Andariel: Kill all her minions in the room before her chamber. Once your ready, open the double doors that lead to her room. Go in the room a little, and once you can see Andariel and a few minions coming out of the room, start running back to the enterance to the catacombs level 3. kill off her minions, then fight her with double swing near the enterance of the catacombs level 3. If you find yourself unable to heal, quickly run for the exit (the catacombs). and once you healed, go and finish her off. Duriel: Not to difficult. Make sure you have some cold resistance, because he is a master in cold attacks. Make sure you don't use a weapon with cold attacks, for he is 100% resistant to cold attacks. Other then that, use double swing and hack away. Make sure you have alot of healing potions. Mephisto: He isn't that hard, however his minions are just hell. Once you defeat the lord of hatereds minions, he would have three uniques guarding him. Make sure you take out every one before you take Mephisto. Don't stay far from him or else he would continueously attack you with lightning attacks. Go close and hack away with many healing potions would be my best advise. Diablo: all I got to say is have fun dieing many times against him, dieing against his unique guards (the Grand Vizier of chaos: extra strong, fire enchanted) Lord de Seis: (extra strong, aura, thief) Infector of Souls: (Extra fast, spectral hit)). And they are surrounded by minions of their type. Good Luck!!! Sir Seth da Slayer |
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Ok I read over most of these strats and I can see the vast majority of the ppl writing in are fairly new, probably lay with really good items to begin with or something but I can tell you strategies of PRO barbarians; as a barbarian you have 2,make that 3coices that are SUPER;whirlwinding with a 300 lance with mana steal and an ice blink so they never get away, 1 giant axe with a ton of damage and a really pumped leap attak so speed wont matter and finally 2 pretty nice rare executioner swords with a nice pumped up frenzy. All 3 own at level 80 (I got those three types to this level). For the first one(lance) what ya do is max spear mastery ASAP with maxed whirlwind about level 15 iron skin and 5 natural resists a good supply of 1-3 in all the other masteries(faster running) depending on how many +1 coz they good early on a good supply of afew points in battle orders+about 50 mana and a 6-7% life steal so u can continually whirlwind and an iceblink on top to make sure u never miss and always KIK ASS. This guy's my favourite with his sweet lance :) Next is the BIG axe and leap man. About the same masteries here as the other except change spear with axe and also u have less prereqs to pump a nice little leap attak(almost 700% extra damage at like level 10 or so) so with the extra points left in this guy considering putting a point in either; more masteries,frenzy as a back up attak or battle orders to help ya out a bit.I got frenzycoz it's a change from leaping all the time he'sfun andpaksa POWERFUL blow with his nice hefty axe!(u will need more health with him--he gets ht more) Now for by far the most popular barb for some uncanny reason ;) the 2 executioner sword frenzier with really fast moderate daamge.Once again change axe mastery with sword and leap attak with frenzy. With the one or two extra points left in this buggar I put some in battle orders. Later on I plan to get about 5 in whirlwind as a bakup attak.This dude is a really slow leveler but after playing the other two slow swingers looking at his arm movement's speed is incredible! Well there ya have it 3 beautiful barbs straight from the pros..Just remeber don't be tempted to put more than one point in a crappy prereq just coz it works then...and also finding good wepons takes time and powerful friends so I recommend beg for a semi descent one to last u to act 3 nightmare wen everything's availabe and remeber have fun!!!! David |
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barbs kick a*s!!! Its a good idea to focus your single player quests in upgrading your combat mastery tab. A barb is ment for melee and power, so don't bother in wasting your stat points on that mana crap. Since a barbrian is a strong character on his own, it is not neccessary to hire mercinaries in act 1, and 2. However if you feel the need for a companion, it is a good idea to hire a mercinary in act 3. Try to either to buy a lightning or cold attack solider. Don't even bother to by a troop that is less then level 24, and make sure they have the fast cast skill. Put 1 or 2 skill points into increased stamina and try to max out in natural resistance and iron skin.Try to focus yourself into one type of weaponary ( sword,axe,mace) so you can focus on one type of weapon mastery.For mana skills its a good idea to place 1 point on double swing, one on leap attack and 1 on whirlwind. Lightning is the most powerful element, so try to get armour that is lightning resistant, or jewelry. Tips for boses: Andariel: kill all her minions on the first side of the door. THen open the double door lowering her and a few minions out. Slay all her minions that comes out with her and run to the exit to catacombs level 3. fight her near their so you can escape if you are indanger. Duriel: not much stradegy except, get some cold resistant items, make sure you have many healing potions Mephisto: pretty easy General tip: don't wast skill points on warcries unless in multiplayer, get the best kind of belts you can find so you can hold more potions, always carry a tome to town portal. henrietta |
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Ok i hv read all these posts several times and u know what? MOST OF THEM HAVE CRAPPY INFO. now we hv to look at the bright sde of being a barb. being able t hold 2 wepons dont mean u should use 2 wepons it means u should use a 2 handed wepon+a shield. i hv a lvl 50 swordbarb and i can tell u that vit and having a godly sword is the most important thing in ur career. first find a good sword, hopefully it will hv dam higher then 120 and maybe leech. second get a good armor. get all stats req to use these and then PUMP VIT!! if u dont hv enough vitality and hp ur not a good barb and will not survive in a4 hell, all that has to happen is the ww stoping in the middle of a crowd and puff there goes another 10% of ur xp. so pump vit and NEVER put ne point into energy. btw i only happened to invest a point into find potion in my late 40s and i noticed that it helped alot, i would make a battle command (+skills) and start cutting people open looking for full rejuvs. it helps so try not to overlook it. ww is ur main weapon, after lvl 4 it starts giving positive dam, pump it until lvl 13, after that its a waste after all those patches and all that bullsh/tt the dam has to go down so dont pump it past 13. by the time u get ww ur sword mastery should alredy be maxed out and try not to waste ne points into the double swing row er berserker since they wont make u lvl as fast as ww will. thanx for ur time DemonSwordBarb- swordbarb lvl 60 |
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when fighting Duriel use bash if you have about level 4 or 5 in it and he is knocked out concious too much for him to do his massage damage back to you KingsRook9 |
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Here are a few tips for Barbarians who do not want to bother themselves with warcries. First, follow the advice everyone is giving here -- concentrate on one type of weapon and put a lot of skill points to this weapon's mastery. Second, try to combine the following abilities in your melee combat -- life and mana steal (life is a priority), fast attack speed (the faster the better), cold damage (even 1 or 2 is fine) and knockback. All these combined enable you to kill those persistent uniques easily. Even Diablo can hardly make a move under such attack and you can forget about running around looking for your portal. As for skills, I use bash (lvl 3) for left action and leap attack (lvl 3) for the right. Leap attack is mainly useful for getting away from trouble and attacking bosses surrounded by those pesky minions. All my other skill points have gone to sword mastery (lvl 16) and iron skin (lvl 6). I am only at lvl 28 now, so natural resistances are out of my reach at the moment. As for the gear, generally I recommend using either one or two decent swords, shields are more or less useless. However, if you happen to find The Ward, a unique gothic shield, you might want to try it out. I found that I can do as much damage with my rare flamberge in one hand holding The Ward in the other as previously with the same weapon in two hands. The Ward boosts your strenght +10 and why not to use the extra defence from a shield when you can still do your usual damage. My principle of distributing stat points has always been 2 to strength, 2 to dexterity and 1 to vitality. With these tactics, I took care of Diablo in normal play and now I am off to nightmare. Sir Baboon, lvl 28 Barbarian |
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For all you newby barbs out there reading this, here's a few tips on Mastering the game of diablo: 1st- pick only one mastery (lances, spear Mastery, are the strongest weapons in the game, however they are really hard To get, so i suggest axe or sword mastery), 2nd- under warcries, shout and Battle orders are key, so max out on those, and 3rd- concentrate on getting Whirlwind exactly on lvl 30, because whirlwind is the barbs most useful skill (what i mean by gettin whirlwind on exactly lvl 30 is by getting all the Pre-req skills first like bash, stun, leap, concentrate, and so on) so good Luck newbies! Conrad |
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Well, im a newbie and ive learned a lot. i am a level 21 barbarian and i have a good view on what to do. when you start, you start out as a barb, you get a hand axe and a buckler. When you gain a level, you should put on is bash. After that, you should keep putting on potion find skill or howl until you get to level six. change from the axe you have to a spear. when you are at level six, you should put one skill level on leap (trust me). level 7, you should now start using your spear masteries, keep doing that till level 18, then put a skill level on leap attack, next level do the same thing.then return to leving up your spear masteries. when you are at level 25 - level 30, put your skills on leap attack. at level 30, start to use whirlwind. it is an extreely good attack. now for the rest of the game, only put your skill levels on: Whirlwind, leap attack, and spear masteries. by level 5o you will be quite the invinsible barb. You Should Crank up your vitality for the first ten levels. then for the next five, strenghen yourself up, then crank up energy for another five levels, reapeat that process for the rest of the game. Thanks for reading Daevin The Barbarian (a.k.a Shayne) Greatforestelf@hotmail.com |
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as a barbarian, and after playing other classes, i recommend putting at least one skill point into ALL passive skills, the reason for is that the first skill point always hass the greatest jump, like stone skin for the barbarian the first level takes you up 30 percent then everyone after it just 10 percent, also read the game book and look at your characters skills, check and see what numbers you put in are most beneficial since many skill benefits change with how many points are in Dimetapper |
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Here's what I do. I maxed out Spear mastery and am currently working on polearm mastery. I can do over 100 dmg with my leap attack. My Whirlwind is level 6, and it can hack thorugh a group of Hell Bovines (from the Secret Cow Level *wink) easily. Try to focus on one mastery at a time. I have all warcries to lvl 7 becuase of my +2 skill level lance and my +2 skills prismatic ammy. Once you get a decent leech, you dont need potions. Just whirlwind and you got your instant potions. And put a lot of points into iron skin and stuff like that. I can outrun an amazon because of my level 8 upgrade speed Weapon: Lance, 20% Mana Leech, 20% Life Leech, 256 dmg, +2 to all barb skills, +487 to attack rating, Fire resist 43% Armor: Ornate Armor, 888 defense, 25%ish resist to all cept lightning, Adds Cold Dmg (very good when enemy is too fast) I also have war______________( Gauntlets, Belt, Boots, all around 80 defense) SupaMofo |
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Ok, now I notice Barbarians spend time either shouting out warcries, or full up on mastery, both are good, but do both. You only want one warcry, Battle Orders, this will save your life, and your party (if you play multi) then max out your weapon mastery. It dont matter which weapon you pick, even throwing weapons maxed out is pretty cool. Then mas out iron skin and put 6-7 in natural resistances, im telling ya, invinsible. Good luck, if ya mess up early on, dont be afriad to start over, :), thats what i did. |
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Here's a strategy for all barbs out there, use leap attack! It looks like crap, but at level 14, it does almost 700% your normal damage! It's beastly! I used it to beat all the bosses in nightmare and Hell easily. (especially Mephisto) My one and only barb is Diamhea level 50 with a rare 872 ornate, a rare executioner, with 12%life steal. and other good items. Tom |
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barbs are the coolest!!!!!!!!!! I am a lvl 24 and in the third act. i have found that assigning the double swing (1 skill point" to the left mouse click and the leap attack to the right is very useful. i myself have an awesome onehanded war axe and an awesome one handed crand sceptor which i use both at one. max out the extra armor skill and the speed skill. it will really help. life and mana attacks are very helpful also. So far all of the bosses have been easy for me. Also, if u can, find as much lightning restist equipment as u can. when lighting enchated characters are attacked, they are very very very powerful. GOOD LUCK!!! ~ADAM~ |
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A good early stratagy for barbs is to put as many points into ONLY ONE skill mastery, it adds so much to your damage and attack rating, put one point into double swing and use it as your main attack, get two weapons with desent damage and life/mana steal, bash or leap attack for secondary skill. with double swing It's like having zeal for paladans only you can stop before you die if you hit lightning enchanted monsters. I killed durial at level 17 in 5 seconds and only used one healing potion. Calin |
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Here's a good wat to kill the Summoner with a Barbarian; use a Leap Attack on him, and you'll dodge all of his magic. He is pretty weak so when you land you can kill him with your first strike, especially when you have a high Sword/Axe Mastery. Ragnarok |
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Some advice from a Danish Barbarian. Here is a list of stratgies that work for me. 1: Choose one "skill" weapon from the start, and put several points into it. Only sword, axe and mace masteries take full advantage of the Barbarian. 2: Don't use two weapons at once though you can. You had better use a shield. 3: Don't use a weapon that is slower than "fast". 4: Spend no skill points on "Find Item", "Grim Ward", "Stun", "Concentrate", "Berserk", "Double Swing", "Double Throw" and "Frenzy". "Bash" and "Whirlwind" are the only special blows you need. 5: Take "Find Potion" to level 4, and you'll never find your self running low on potions. Add several points to "Whirlwind", "Iron Skin" and "Natural Resistance". 6: Facing a big crowd of enemies, use warcries in the following order: "Battle Command", "Battle Orders" and "Shout" (works great in multiplayer games). Then jump into the crowd and "Battle Cry" or "War Cry" and chop 'em down! 7: Choosing protective items, don't be too focused on defense points but on the item's special features. In contrast to weapons; special features are good, but damage and speed is everything. Jeppe |
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The Barbarian has the potential for being the most powerful character in the game. With his weapon specialities, Natural Resistance, Iron Skin, several of his warcries, Bash, and Leap Attack, he can do serious damage! I beat Diablo with a Barbarian in Sword Mastery on the Normal difficulty at level 26, but then I restarted as a Barbarian that used Spears. At first, Spears may seem to do less damage than other two handed weapons, but take a look at the damage rates of Lances and Pikes. There is no other weapon type that does that much damage, and many that can't do that type of damage even if they are King's **** of Slaughter! A Barbarian with an enchanted Lance, level 20 Spear Mastery, attacking with a Bash or a Leap Attack will do INSANE damage. In fact, with level 20 Spear Mastery, level 20 Leap Attack, high enough Strength, and using a Combat Shrine, the Barbarian could do over 1000 points of damage! Not bad! Leap Attack is an incredibly useful skill. Put at least 2 points in it as soon as possible. Among the tactics you can use with it are to jump out of a group of nasties that have surrounded you and are bashing the crap out of you, jumping over a group of resurrectable creatures to attack the creature resurrecting them first, and jumping over gaps. And, finally, the greatest aspect of Leap Attack, if you click it directly on an enemy creature, from a far enough distance away that you do a leap, IT NEVER MISSES, EVEN IF THE TARGET CREATURE MOVES CLEAR OFF THE SCREEN BEFORE YOU LAND!!! I don't know if this was an intentional glitch or not, but Barbarians, use this to your advantage! Kil'jaeden |
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Focus tons on life leech and a bit on mana leech. I have a barb taht steals 32% life per hit he hardly ever dies... Max out on Iron skin and whatever weapon you chose stick to it and max out it's mastery. Whoever says warcries are useless are idiots. Using shout and battle orders combined with leeching life keeps you alive. War cry is good as well if your surrounded just click once and all the enemies around you get stunned forget trying to kill them with it you just stun them and bash them up... Battle cry helps heaps since they do less damage and you can hit enemies easier... try to get your strength to 170 and then focus on Vitality. Dext isn't really needed unless your use swords or polearms. For armour I use silks of the Victor, for helmet I use Wormskull (since it steals 5% life), swords both steal life and +1 to skills, boots I use Goblin Toe (Crushing blow), gloves I use frostburn... (enhanced damage, 1-5 cold, +25% mana), belt I was lucky enough to get a good unique exceptional heavy belt. other than taht I got no more advice dawei |
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I am a level 23 barb and here is my strategy on how I beat Duriel. I got killed over and over and I spent a fortune looking for some better weapon than my two faves..a sword and a flail. Finally, I decided to just get in there and hack away. I had a merry time clearing out the tomb of all the monsters all the way to Duriel's chamber. Then I walked back to the Resist Cold Shrine, made sure my belt had health, mana and thaw potions. I run all the way back to the chamber which was a breeze cos there were no monsters to stop me, I charged into the chamber stood in front of Duriel and hacked away using my double weapons skill with my finger pressed down on the mouse button the whole time and watching my health. I used 3 health only by the time I killed him and the Cold Resist lasted all through the fight.....What a breeze! Hope it works for some of you. :o) Pili |
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when fighting with a barb I recommend using lance or sword. Now with every character class you must decide, do you want it to be a PVP char or a monster kill. Lances are the best in monster kill will sword barbs are better in dueling. lance barb-first, max out in spear mastery, Then save your skills points. MAX OUT ON WHIRL WIND it's important and it's the best attack for a barb. put about 10 points in natural resistance and 5 in run and walk. Also try to get battle orders maxed out. When maxed it lasts for a long time and it really helps life, mana and stamina. only put about 136 stregnth and 88 dex. then go all out on vitality, trust me, it's smart! I'm doing it and I rarely die now, even with the skips that occur to all of us in the game. You can still get hit while whirl winding that is why it's important to have high life and it helps in dueling. Absoulutly have mana and life leech, 5-10% is a good round number for Hell mode. Also when, whirlwinding hold down the right click so that you don't have to look for a place to start whirlwinding. Then you get to diablo and everyone around you is dying, that's why you have high life, you'll have around 1000 base life in hell mode when you fight diablo and with maxed out battle orders that's over 2000! life. That means diablo needs 20 hits on you to kill you.Also when dueling amazons, have fastest fastest hit recovery, death's guard and battle orders. with 2500 life, it'll be very hard for them to kill you. It won't even be necessary to dodge the guided arrows. SO MAIN THING WITH BARBS IS HAVE HIGH VITALITY!!!!! Lee |
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A Barbarian Strategy- What NOT to do If you've ever played regular Diablo and fantasized about using two weapons at once, DON'T do it with a barb. Well, maybe but any point in double swing is a wasted skill point after you find a kickass 2 handed weapon. I only have a lvl 30 barb, but every other good high level barb that I've seen uses a 2 handed sword or lance(maybe a mace?). Also: use swords or lances. Axes just aren't good enough because the best ones dont deal as much as good 2 handed swords, let alone lances, and they swing slower than swords. I know it's not very comprehensive, but it'll help you not make a mistake I once made(three hard earned skill points wasted in double swing Matt |
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I play on UsEast realm and things can get real shitty cuz of lag especially in NM and HELL.So i came up with a very good strategy and it works for me considering im lev 83 with no worries and still climbing to the top.For those of u that say battle cries suck eat your heart out..this trick works in mass melee situations usually in nm and hell act 4..kill a monster or group of monsters in each corner of your screen..i use a 14 inch monitor so if u have more room itll help u a lot, in each corner kill a group of monsters then all u have to do is find a massive group of monster and even uniquers if theyre their and bring them inside the center of your death trap..now use the call that brings forth a frightening totem in each four corners and the monsters will start blindly running from each corner to the other and cuz of the radius of the totem even if they take the center route they will be scared As you will notice the monsters will run around like idiots and because the run AWAY from the totem they always run to another one and keep getting re-cursed every time it wears off,because of this the monsters dont attack u and u can wipe them out quite easily..i know it sounds like a lot of work but sometimes killing some big monsters in hell diff is a lot of work and this tactic will absolulutely eliminate any chance of u suddenly visiting broke city and exp loss village which is a big pain in the @$$ in nm and even hell difficulty which gives u a massive penalty if u die.Another good thing is the totem doesnt last too long and if u killed a big group of enemies u can re use your death trap again and again everytime u come across a massive group of monsters. |
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Ok, This is from a person who has a lvl 80 barb, listen closely....if you are to use any weopon i suggest swords or lances! even though sword have low dmg with high requirements deosnt mean they suck! Lances may be slow but later on your attack speed wont matter, they dish out the damage and have alot of range! Now, for the beginner i suggest to max out your mastery as soon as possible, only 1 point into every combat skill needed to get ww, that means double swing isnt an option. i suggest getting iron skin, increase staniman/speed, and nat resist, get nat resist around lvl 10 and iron skin maxxed out, the other 2 is up to you. about the war cries? i suggest only working for battle orders, so get all cries up to battle orders. Some ppl may say it useless but what do they know? it brings up your life/mana/stanima up by alot giving you the abilitie to live alot longer!! MAX OUT WHIRLWIND! anyone who says ww is useless they dont know anything! you cannot survive in hell mode without it! ive tryed it before and they kick my butt! Now, for your attributes, get str up to 170, dex around 130, vit 130+, and do not touch energy, so, try putting 2 str 2 des 1 vit every lvl, or dont lvl up life until you get 170 str and start lvling dex and vit, your choice. As for equipment, simple, get mana and life leech items around 5-10%(in nm and hell they have alot of life/mana to steal). If you use shields use a tower shield or pavise. For boots i suggest using the tearhaunches, belt try and get the bladebuckle, armor will be goldskins, helmet, make it good, gloves, bloodfists and of course the ammy deosnt need to eb a +1 skill, just make it good(something prismatic is nice). Anyways i guess thats all i have to say. if you have any question e-mail mr at abc_20@hotmail.com or look for me on dII under 'nmutua, or `nmutua PokeUrEyeOut, lvl 63 barb (lance) KiZaNmIso, lvl 80 barb (lance) RuinedBarb, lvl 34 barb (sword) Savit, lvl 34 barb (mace) CrunchBarb, lvl 22 barb (mace) |
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For the beginning Barbarian out there, I'd like to discuss two non-mentioned skills out there that for a mere 2-3 skill points can make the early adventuring much much simpler. Find Potion and Taunt. These simple tools can be your best friends, even lifesavers. Now, one at a time. Find Potion. I did fine at skill level 1 with this, but cranked it up to a whopping second level because I could. This skill is great. While I haven't seen it stop creatures from being resurrected as mentioned by some folks, once you rip apart a squad of critters and you know you're safe for a few minutes, you'll find that sitting around and raising potions (since you're not using that mana for a heck of a lot else at this level), and then using the mana potions you find for even MORE potions, can make you about 1000 gold (not bad at Level 4, 'eh?) each time you head into town. With 4 to 5 sorties, and a backpack full of potions (Cracked Cap, 4 slots, 5 gold. Light Heal potions, 4 slots, 18x4=72) I could pay for all those town portals, got myself a few tomes, and upped my equipment fast enough that I wasn't playing hide and seek for long with critters. Later in the game, when you're 2 levels deep and being lazy, instead of heading to town for a quick refill, sit around and raise 3-4 mana potions off those dead things lying at your feet. Between the cash and the ability to keep going (Again, I'm LAZY), for two skill points, I found this to be amazingly handy. Second, Taunt. A single skill point is all you need. Tired of hacking your way through the summoners, especially in the fields where there's four or five (Or later, say, Hall of the Dead with the Greater Mummys), speed becomes a problem, because eventually, you mob down. Or there's a squad of Bone mages that just refuse to be caught, Taunt 'em. Got a unique with a huge amount of fireball tossin' nasties as minions? Get JUST in range to see 'em, taunt twice, and run. Guess what, you can peel off two or three at a time, kill 'em at leisure, and then head back in. Skeletons all around the room? No problem, toss off 8 taunts, and kill 'em one by one as they stroll up to the axe! Don't use this skill for the damage it does to the enemy's ability, use it for the pretty little side effect. This also makes leapers and Vultures much easier. On a side note, again, cause I'm lazy, I can, and have, ran out of mana somewhat regularly before I picked up a few items 'of the bat'. I've boosted my mana up by 10 and found that the increase (due to the %'s) was amazing, I can sit in a mob and double wield my axes all day long, just hacking them to pieces, without a single potion. That's all for now, back to attempting to learn high-level tricks like the rest of the guys on this page. :) -DeathSlayer, the Barbarian |
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I am a dutch barb, level 56 now. I tell you a story how to defeat diablo realy easy now! (Even Diablo in hell) Take a sword with most important: manaleech, and take another sword with lifeleech. The % has to be higher than 4. (u can have leech allso on other atributes) Damage is not very important, but is has to be higher than 30 max dmg per sword. Put everything on attack-rating, by getting attributes with good (100-150) ar. Use frenzy on diablo, you will stand, allmost die and get healed again before he will strike you again! (Note: put some on resist fire as well, cause one fire-spit can drain a lot of life)It may take a time, depending on your damage given, but he will die eventually. Ko-Conq |
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I have a Lvl 35 Barbarian using sword mastery, bash, double swing, and the rest poked into iron skin and natural resistance. Use two swords (I use Loath Edge and Bramble Scythe which boost all Barb by 2 lvls each!!!) on primary attack(left click) and bash on secondary(right click) there is not a whole lot that can stand up to a concentrated pounding like that! Totaly ignore warcries. They may be good for lower levels in multi-play, but you are wasting your time in single. Sir Bytor |
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Alright, here is my strategy to get the ultimate Barbarian. First pick a weapon and stay with it. I've tried both swords and axes and find that you can not only find better swords (magicwise) but their increased attack speed over axes lets you get the first hit most of the time. Next I suggest putting your first 20 pts. into the mastery of your choice. This will greatly increase your attack rating and your damage, giving you awesome offense. Next I suggest putting 1 in jump and then 2 in jump attack. Jump is useless-- it takes way too much time to build it up so that it is usefull, but by the time jump attack is two or three you should be able to pretty much leap the whole screen and have an awesomely powerful attack. Then put 1 in bash and set it two your left mouse and leap attack to your right mouse button. After that pump iron skin and resistance when you get it. You will then have an awesome defense to help you through the nightmere and hell levels. As for strat pts I always put 3 pts into strength right off the bat. The other two are usually split between dexterity and vitality (many other people say that they pump dexterity alot, but I don't think that is necessary till later on because your masteries skill increase your attack rating). Once you get to the leap attack immediately put five in mana, and put one into it every time after till you can do leap attack about 5 or 6 times in a row. After this focus on dexterity and vitality and throw only about 1 into strength every time (about level 30). I personally don't think that whirlwind is very useful, especially with one sword (which is what i prefer--more damage)-especially because jump attack at level two and bash at level on kick ass! First, go hunting for regenerators by leap attacking towards them and taking them out. When they are gone you can just bash the hell out of the regular baddies, which will usually die in one hit-- atleast on normal. If you do get swarmed just leap attack out and heal-up/run/go to town. Another good technique for large groups is to constantly lead attack around the outskirts, taking out 5 or six at the start. Well that is my stategy, hope it helps. Krimma Sir Boromir Strider Spook(Necro) |
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The only nugget of advice that I can offer is to put a point into the leap attack as soon as you can. Unlike the regular leap, which takes years and tons of skill points to do anything with, one point given to leap attack gives your barbarian hops like Vince Carter. Its great for getting out of trouble spots, or just to keep groups of enemies off balance by jumping behind them. jddoyle |
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Ok guys this is what you do use your hand axe till you are level 9 or so or get some sword or something ok. Then try to get bonesnap it does A TOn of dmg 93-123 mace class and spear class are the BEST classes for barbs. They do a ton of dmg. Lnaces can do up to 375 dmg and martels up to 350. Once you turn level 18 get leap atack at level 1 it adds 100% dmg. you might want to put at most 2 or 3 skills in war cries but they arent to important. Masteries are important. NO matter what you do put masteries into one class and One class ONLY!! i have a level 41 martel barb he has level 22 mace mastery and nothing else. I have a level 38 lance barb he has 21 in spear mastery. You must get High level whirlwind. When you have a powerful whirlwind you ARE unstoppable. Swords are very weak and they arent good with whirlwind. When you ! have whirlwind with a martel/lance trust me you kick butt you can take out tons of enemies at a time. Barbs you should also get your faster run/walk to a min skill level of 7 for dueling. What I would do is from like level 22 or 25 start saving skills for whirlwind and other skills. When you sue whirlwind you are harder to hit. Make sure you have mana leech other whirlwind go away in like 3 tries! And if you sue a martel/lance and whirlwind and have life and mana leech both WILL fill up! Well thanks for your ears! Sk_Immortal-Level 32 amazon Sk-Voltage-level 41 mace barb Enabled-level 30 paladin Sk_Regent- level 38 spear barb |
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The Barbarian should be a first timers choice. His brute strength and awesome fighting abilaties make him the best character in the game. The most important weapon to focus on when using the Barbarian is the axe (that includes polearms). He was almost made for it. Do not use any of your skill points on the other weapon tecniques, it is better to focus on one weapon. Another important skill to learn in the first stages is Jump. This can help you get out of sticky situations (an ass beating from a circle of demons), and\or get you around obstacles. Taunt is another kick-ass barbarian skill. Use it on shamans, they'll normally freez, allowing you to kill it without having to fight through a horde of resurrected fallens. Energy isn't relly that important of a place to focus your points on. If you can build your strength up enough, it really doesn't matter how much energy you have. The easiest way to get your Barbarian off to a good start is to beat blood raven a couple times. She'll give you some nice weapons and armor, getting you set up to whoop some demon ass. The rest is up to you. stretch_nuts |
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This is my straegy guide for the Barbarian. That means it's a guide to MY strategy, so all you people out there with other ways of doing it - cool, be original. My first Barbarian character had levels in a lot of skills - some sword, some axe, a few levels in most combat skills and passives. This was cool, I got to see a lot of the different skills in action. Then, he arrived in the Arcane Sanctuary on Nightmare, at about level 31. And every single time, if the first wave of beasties didn't whoop his butt, then the second sure did. At this point, I realized the fatal flaw I had developed into the character - over-generalisation, and started again. The new Barbarian was built to meet two exacting specifiations - the abilities to mete out and to withstand large amounts of damage. He is now level 27, and a far superior fighting machine to my first effort. The skills look something like this: sword mastery is at 16, iron skin at 8, frenzy at 4. These are the main skills to meet the requirements. Additionally, he uses jump-attack (very good in the River of Flame, the Sanctuary and the Jungles, you can make massive jumps over gaps or rivers), potion search (for topping up on rejuves) and bash, whilst frenzied, on really tough bad guys. All these, and other required skills are at level 1. Getting hold of good swords is a long, arduous process. So, in the reasonable sword category, there are only two and a half things that count - Attack Rating, Damage and Attack Spped (this is the half). After all, other abilities can be very funky, but if you haven't got the basics down really well, you will not survive! Armour wise, there are three things to be considered: Defense, Fastest Hit Recovery and extra Life - these constitute the basis of withstanding large amounts of damage. Sure, resistances would be cool, but there's nothing out there in the game that can resist a Knight's Giant Sword of Carnage (told you getting decent swords was tricky). And as for jewelry - anything that adds to attack (I like meteoric rings) or dex should do the job. OK, so far the character development - this guy does the very basic job, and he does it very, very well. Strategy wise there are various useful ploys I will now reveal. Left button is set up for normal attack, sometimes switched to bash. Right is usually Frenzy, sometimes Jump attack. Mages/Raisers - these guys need to be taken out quickly - Jump Attack them, then follow up with frenzy if they're tighly packed Special Monsters in the open - stand bye the potions, bash/frenzy combo the main evil dude - he probably won't get much of a chance to fight back. Then mop up his homies. Specials in a dungeon - split up the group (always a good tactic in dungeons) by running back a couple of corners. Try to isolate some minions, and take them out first. Then, when Mr Unique is left on his own, dispose of him. Lightning enchanted dudes are nasty. Split them up, then use Jump Attack - if you get the timing right, you can dodge the lightning unleashed when you hit them. Remember those pre-emptive potions - when you wade into a tough group, drink a health as you engage them, you'll be losing life as you regain it, so the potion won't really be wasted. This is the Back to Basic guide to Barbarism. Go forth and wreak havoc! Stig Olaf |
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Barbarian strategies. Though you might not expect it, taunt is a very very valuable skill. Especially in act 3 when used against blow dart shooting fetish's. When used on a fetish shaman, he simply stands still and won't ressurect other fetish's or use inferno. Another important thing to remember is that one handed swords are almost always better then using a 2 handed sword in one hand. Another benefit that only a barbarian has is the ability to use 2 sets at the same time. (unconfirmed though) you can equip all of Deaths Disguise and all of either Berserkers Arsenal, Angelic Raiment, or Tancred's Battlegear. Only because a Barbarian can equip two weapons at the same time. I haven't actually done this yet, but i know it's pssible to equip all 2 sets at the same time. Anyone out there care to try this? I don't know if this is a glitch or not, but if a barbarian uses shout to raise his defense, the touches an armor shrine, the shrine will double not his base defense rating, but the rating he has when he uses shout. One time i found 2 adjacent armor shrines and used shout. my regular defense rating was about 220, but after shout it went up to 440. then i touched the first armor shrine and it went up to 880. after shout wore off it went down again to 660. i used shout again and my defense soared to 1320 and i touched the other armor shrine and i jumped up to a defense rating of 2640. When shout wore off this time my defense was a mere 1540, until the shrine wore off. -Mathias BlackWolf (who's never actually had a character over level 30. Just has about 30 characters between levels 10 and 28) |
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I've noticed many barbarians use two swords, and then use whirl wind. I can tell you now, it's worthless! You may have 2 hands but only one weapon hits, the hits even when maxed in sword mastery can be around 500 or so with whirl wind. I have a maul that allows me to hit 800-1200 at level 55 (only 3 in maul cause i used 9 in axe earlier in the game). That's just a tip, as for strategies, I'd say Iron Skin and Natural Resistance works well. What's so good about hitting something and getting hit back harder? My defense is 2300 with 10 in iron skin and if I get an armor shrine, BOOM goes to about 7000 and when you use Shout (suggested you put a few skill points in it, even though nobody mentions it) it goes to about 12000, now aint that good for melee fighting? specially for uniques. As for sorc, combo's are good, such as blizzard and glacial spike, freeze em and then they pop under the blizzard, luvly aint it. Fire spells and Lightning are just a waste of skill except for warmth which is HIGHLY recommended dikdiputs - Barbarian Level 59 |
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I am a 30 level barbarian and want to give some help for al my other brothers and sisters in the battle against evil If you are a barbarian and you've got lots of enemy's around you then I suggest that you will do the following: search for a door you've already had and go stand in it. This will prevent the enemies from standing around you and hitting you everywhere the can. If they do this you will not live long, even if you've got a shout that scare's them away it will sometimes not be enough. If there are no doors in the neighborhood search for other small passageways. When you are a barbarian you will spend a fortune on live potions, because you're always standing close to your enemies. The skill, find potions can be very helpful with this problem. You have to buy less potions and don't have to return so often to the encampment. Good luck Buffyna |
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I personally use the Barbarian, and I haven't had a problem yet. I'm at level 34, on my way to Diablo himself. Don't waste skill points on Warcries and stuff in a single player game. Put points into Sword Mastery, and a few in Double Swing only. Swords will be your best weapons, trust me. Once you can get Iron Skin (level 18) dedicate all your points to that until Level 30, then do Natural Resistance. My guy has a defense of 1142 and MAX in Fire and Ice Resistances, as well as 67 in LIghtning, and 53 in Poison. I also have an amulet on that ups my resistances as well, that's why they're so good so soon. Also, save imbuing an item with Charsi for a regule Flamberge. I got an excellent magic item, so did my roommate. With Iron Skin and Natural Resistance up, tougher enemies don't seem so tough now do they? -Harbinger the Barbarian |
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When being the Barb, try to get rid of your starting weapon for a magical weapon asap. Try to get one that boosts your attack rating, as the barb's accuracy is kinda low. When distributing "level points" (not skill) put 2 in either str or dex, then one in each of the remaining. Try to stay away from puting any skill points into weapon mastery until you have tried all the different weapons and have found an extremly good one. Don't waste your skills on a mastery you will never use. Socketed items are crap most of the time. Socketed items aren't worth it, you'll find better enchanted items. Luke |
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Right now, I have three running characters, a Necromancer, a Sorceress, and a Barbarian. The barbarian is good for running up quickly and either double-swinging or simply swinging with two really big swords. Get strong and dextrous first of all, then work on life. Mana is really not that big of an issue, since the more important blue stuff is Woad. Also work on passives, since they don't need to be used actively. Once again, if in multiplayer, also work on the War Cries, though not as heavilly as the Necromancer on his Curses. Hire quickly when you are a sorceress. Also get a big magical stick, and when it comes time to imbue, imbue the staff first, and sell it for cold hard cash if you don't find it usefull. Akara is your best friend in town, after that Deckerd, since you'll get lots of stuff that you need to ID, and you don't want to be stuck with something strange. Since the elemental attacks work on enemies only, you can do everything in multiplayer as well as single player. Get a tome of Town Portal quick, along with a tome of ID. Keep the town portal tome for the rest of the game, but sell the ID tome after you get Deckerd; you don't need it anymore, especially if you can just boom back into town for health and ID and magic and hires too. Don't hesitate to come back into town as often as you can, since health is free, and you can ID anything instantly from Tristram onward. People who try to go as long as possible without going back to town are stupid, or they have something to prove. I have an idea for Diablo III... Please, Blizard, let there be some cross-class skill training, like if you were a necromancer you could learn some of the basic elemental magicks, but only a quarter as well. Or the paladin could learn some war cries at a third of the ability of a barbarian, or a sorceress could do some simple golems; she would not, however, be able to do war cries or poisonous curses. It would be quite complex, but you could make it so that every 5 skill levels, you could choose from a wider selection when allocating skills. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it, Necropolitan the Necromancer Bub the Barbarian Volante the Sorceress |
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I have a cl55 frenzied sword Barbarian and a cl31 mace Barbarian. I made these characters over time with a lot of planning. I want to share some ideas with the guys who are starting fresh or planning to start over as a Barbarian. The biggest skill of a Barbarian is its weapon mastery. Then at high level the most offensive skill that I have found is Whirlwind dance of death. Spending skill points is the tricky part. You won't have to follow what I suggest here. This is just to give u some idea. The lifecycle of any character is divided in 3 parts broadly. 1. Low level (clvl 1 - clvl 29) 2. Mid level (clvl 30- clvl 50) 3. High level(clvl 51- clvl ??)--> ?? - Till u have tenacity to reach clvl99 All that being said let me first start discussing about skills and then I will talk about Character points or stats. If u are planning to become a sword barbarian, then get level 20 sword mastery by clvl 25. U can put 1 point in bash and the rest to climb the skill tree to reach Whirlwind by clvl30. Make sure you get leap attack at level 18. This is a must to save yourself in Arcane Sanctuary or Canyon of Magi or in any crowded place. This skill is the most important skill for a low level barbarian. If you have a tarnhelm, then it will help u to elevate your skill level till level 30 or so. I never used Tarnhelm because I never had one. My barbarian is a poor man's barbarian. Frankly, Sword Barbs are the most stylist barbarians but they have pretty less damage than Mace barbarians. A frenzied Barbarian with slvl7 frenzy skill just looks awesome. I believe Blizzard will do something about frenzy an double swing and will improve the sword weapons like the maces/martels.Once you reach 30, you must get whirlwind. Save your last two skill point bonus from ACT4 after killing Izual. You will need them in clvl 30. Put 1 each in Whirlwind, Natural resistance and Iron Skin/War Cry. I am a very offensive player and so I do not use War Cries. It all depends on your game-playing style. War Cry is a classic defense stance to rejuvenate your health before you start bashing again. If you strictly follow this, as I did, then you will never worry after clvl30. So, the bottomline is get mastery first. After clvl30 till clvl50 you want to put at least 18 points in Whirlwind and 2 in Natural resistance. When u want to put points in natural resistance depends on when u plan to hit the nightmare level games. I started nightmare at clvl35. Why not at clvl32? I will come to that later when I discuss the character attributes or stats. Now, you are all set with a classic battle machine that you have just made. Its now time for beautification. If you have missed a point or two in mastery or whirlwind by now do not worry. Its alright. Everybody does that. Never ever worry about if you had chosen this before, then it would have been better or things like that. You can't do anything once you click a button. So, never worry! If something is wrong, take a step back and correct it quickly before its too late. I like frenzy, and so, I put 1 point in every 3 points in frenzy. Rest two points I alternate between Iron Skin and Natural resistance. A lot of time I think my swords are weak, should have had better. But, hey, its okay. Stick to the mastery. If you think you would have done better as a mace barbarian, then make a new character with mace mastery. I also did that but for a different reason. Now, lets talk about distributing stat points. Every level you get 5 points to distribute in 4 places - Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Energy. Don't worry about Energy for a Barb. At clvl55 I have 10 still. Don't put a single point in that. For a Sword Barb the biggest drawback is dexterity as most of the good swords have 110 dex requirement. Barbarians will go toe to toe with the all the fearsome enemies in Diablo II including Mr. Diablo himself. So, you will have to have good vitality. Distributing 2-2-1 points in Strength, Dexterity and Vitality from the beginning is, I believe, ideal. If u find an armor or a sword that needs a little high requirement in one then, you might like to boost it up. But, don't do that for long. Stick to 2-2-1 strategy till clvl 30. Then, you will see that you are having items that bring balance in your character. And you will use them for sometime. So, sticking to 2-2-1 strategy actually opens up a lot of opportunity for you particularly when you are using swords. By the time you reach clvl 45, you definitely have 170 strength or a little less than that. Don't pump in more than 1 point in strength after 170 with add-ons. Then use a strategy of 1-2-2 in strength, dexterity and vitality respectively. After reaching 110 in dexterity, start using 1-1-3 strategy or 0-1-4. You are better of having more life because you will not like it when you die on a hell game. Choosing Swords or armor is not a real big deal. I don't prefer a lot of uniques dependency. The reason was when I started, I never had a single unique item till clvl30. Bottomline, you want a sword with mana/life leech with high damage. Mana leech is a must if not life. The biggest drawback of whirlwind is the requirement of lot of mana. So, you want at least 10% leeching capacity in your character. I have 27%. Next is life-leech. The more the better. If you are lucky then you might get a dual leech ring that sucks in a percentage of mana and life. If not, don't worry, a 5%-10% life leech is more than okay to survive the most difficult areas in Diablo II. I have 5% life leech. You also want a lot of elemental resistances. prefer to get the max resist possible. Right now I am maxed out in all of them in nightmare mode. Try to hold on to any stuff that gives you fastest hit recovery as it will help u a lot in whirlwind. Again, anything need not be unique. U will eventually get useful uniques on your way. Biggest whirlwind tip that I can give you is that, don't point your mouse at an enemy but to the ground beyond the enemy. During whirlwind you will always prefer a low damage executioner sword over a high damage one handed sword(if u find any at all). This is because of the attack range. If you get stuck during whirlwind as it may often be a case, leap out. My policy of whirlwind is to put the enemies in line and then the Rock says...layeth the smacketh down on them. Whirlwind does not require you to have high defense. But, you can't dance all the way through, so you must try to wear armor with highest defense. This is a must again. I will not give you any suggestion on how to use mouse buttons..that's too personal. But a combination of Shout, Whirlwind and Leap Attack(if required) is your best asset during an assault. I have slvl4 shout, slvl23 whirlwind and slvl7 leap attack. Trust me I seldom die in a game except for duels. I have +3 skill in my sword and amulet. So, you can do an easy calculation. So that was all about my sword barbarian...my mace barbarian is young and can definitely wreak havoc with 149 strength. I won't suggest anything about it as it is really pretty early to say. But, I followed strength first rule on this character. I put all 5 character stat points in strength till its strength reach 100. Then I started pouring in dexterity. Again all five points. This was just a variation and I was able to do that because my sword barb got him a lot of aiding armor and stuff. He now has 100 dexterity. Hope I made sense in what I was babbling about. If you think there is something wrong in what I said, please let me know. That will be a great help. And if you think you have liked my suggestions then drop me a line or two at nilanjan@yours.com. You can always message me. My account is DIRESTRAITS on battle.net. Take care and happy fighting..... Nilanjan |
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I play a barbarian and i did a little research. I found out that number 1, save the skill points for IRON SKIN and for NATURAL RESISTENCE I havent put one point on any warcries and I dont plan to until later. I also found out that most skillas are good only after level 9 except Natural Res. and Leap so once you put points on skills, put a bunch on it. I love LEAP. It gets you out of situations when your trap plus, it made me kill the summoner by jumping over the other mages and getting on his platform where i just took him out with my axes. Leap is a great defensive tool and the way i play with Iron Skin and Nat. Res. is def. I try to put a lot of skill points on only 2 weapon masteries (Sword and axe or mace). Reason being i use the DOUBLE SWING which is great and swords and maces are great and our one-handed. You dont really need polearm or spear. Also you either have to pick Double Swing or the bash/stun/whirlwind because these 3 dont work with 2 weapons you only hit with one. Personally i use DOUBLE SWING and LEAP great fast attacks and always have that escape plan. Leap doesnt waste stamina and if its high enough you can go FAR. ANYWAYS have fun fellow Barbarians and dont get be patient on those skill points. -NUGZ |
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