Help a Noob out

[ShaidarHaran]

Hi all. I'm working on an IK Barb right now and have zero IK gear @ level 50. I'm having a tough time with a low AR and I'm only in Nightmare mode. My gear is pretty weak and I need to get my AR and damage up. I don't play online (no net connection at home) so I'm stuck trying to find gear on my own. Any suggestions on finding good gear? My MF is only +35% right now.
Anything I can craft with the cube that'll help me out?
Thanks
Edit: Would starting a new build like an MF Werebear Druid be a good idea to get better gear?

[Jaimes]

Run Shenk/Eldritch a lot, should be pretty easy. And Baal if you can manage.

Edit: You want pgems. Pgems = gear, period. Three pgems will give a 3 pgems + grand charm = new random item roll for those skill charms (from horadric cube), which makes pgems very worthwhile (a +1 GC with +40 life goes for an absurb price). Rolling is a long-term investment though. Get pgems, pgems, pgems. And then trade them for the gear you need! Someone else can waste the pgems on rolling :P

I stockpile gems, I am a gem fanatic. On old ladder I had 130+ pgems after about 2-3 weeks of playing. I'm also a miser though, so I never bought much with it. Build a stockpile like that though, and you can get yourself some very respectable exceptional/elite gear. No high runewords/runes though such as Enigma, etc. That stuff is insanely expensive.

Use the trade forums right here on this site. The people who make the big long posts are usually pretty trustworthy because they are serious regulars to the forums. You can find some traders who will accept pgems for a trade. If you are smart with your gems you can buy nice stuff (like say Moser's + Vipermagi + Wizspike) with a cache of not that many pgems.

[Day]

Try getting some crushing blow it will massively increase your effectiveness playing at players one. There are a number of uniques with it on eg. Goblin Toe but its pot luck wether you find them.

Easy way is rune words:

Strength Amn and Tir

2 Socket Melee Weapons

35% Enhanced Damage
25% Chance Of Crushing Blow
7% Life Stolen Per Hit
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
+20 To Strength
+10 To Vitality

Both Amn and Tir are common and you'll find them soon enough especailly if you cube up runes (three the same of low level runes gives the next one up).

Black Thul + Io + Nef

3 Socket Clubs/Hammers/Maces

+120% Enhanced Damage
40% Chance Of Crushing Blow
+200 To Attack Rating
Adds 3-14 Cold Damage - Cold Duration 3 Seconds
+10 To Vitality
15% Increased Attack Speed
Knockback
Magic Damage Reduced By 2
Level 4 Corpse Explosion (12 Charges)

This is good as well but Io is harder to find.

Put either of these in a big hammer and it will make a huge difference.

You can also cube blood gloves with up to 10% crushing blow (and other nice mods).

Getting a 1k barb from scratch without trading is going to be very diffiult - I have been playing for years on and off (in fact since D2 was released) to date I have no 1k Barb bits!!!!

Hell is very hard with out some decent gear for nearly all characters. I'd suggest parking the barbarian for now and making a skelemancer - they are, in my view, the least item dependent character and you can load them up with MF gear very easily e.g. 4 perfect Topoaz in a 4 socket body armour and three in a helm.

My Skelemancer was

1 in all curses (save the line leading to lower rests) so 7 in all
20 Skeleton mastery
2o Skeleton warrior
20 Skleton Mage
some Revive enough with plus skills to get 10
1 point ito get clay golem and golm Mastery and Sumons Resistance
20 Corpse explosion

He has 200 spare sata pouints at level 87 and killed Hell Baal at around level 84.
Str 84
dex base
vit the rest
energy base

Runing Shenk, Eldritch and Pindle in Hell will quickly net you some nice items for other characters.

Also strongly suggest you get ATAMA for muling if you don't have two computers (see the single player forum stickies).

Hope this helps.

[Hrus]

Hi all. I'm working on an IK Barb right now and have zero IK gear @ level 50. I'm having a tough time with a low AR and I'm only in Nightmare mode. My gear is pretty weak and I need to get my AR and damage up. I don't play online (no net connection at home) so I'm stuck trying to find gear on my own. Any suggestions on finding good gear? My MF is only +35% right now.
Anything I can craft with the cube that'll help me out?
Thanks
Edit: Would starting a new build like an MF Werebear Druid be a good idea to get better gear?

Welcome to the forum!
If you are playing 1.10 version, melee builds are not as good to begin with as casters (especially sorcs and skelimancers). Also there is a wonderful separate Single player forum, where people will help you more. And for your information, you can trade with other single players by email. Just read ATMA stickied thread at SPF. You can also get some stuff for free at SPF giveaway thread.

[Darko]

Hi all. I'm working on an IK Barb right now and have zero IK gear @ level 50. I'm having a tough time with a low AR and I'm only in Nightmare mode. My gear is pretty weak and I need to get my AR and damage up. I don't play online (no net connection at home) so I'm stuck trying to find gear on my own. Any suggestions on finding good gear? My MF is only +35% right now.
Anything I can craft with the cube that'll help me out?
Thanks
Edit: Would starting a new build like an MF Werebear Druid be a good idea to get better gear?


Just stay in NM level and do baal runs and make sure you put enough into strenght for equiping the armor and maul. I will help you if your on USEast.... I have 5 80+ char...

[Neurofuzzy]

As far as I got it, he is not playing online at all! That means trading is not an option... The best suggestion seems to be making low lvl runewords untill he finds some good items.

[ShaidarHaran]

As far as I got it, he is not playing online at all! That means trading is not an option... The best suggestion seems to be making low lvl runewords untill he finds some good items.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, especially Jaimes and Day. Just to clear up a couple things: I am playing the 1.10 patch and not online at all. I'm not a complete noob to D2, I played it for awhile when it first came out and picked it up again early last year and played over LAN with some of my roomates. I got rid of my last computer but when I got my current rig I picked up another copy of D2 and here I am again :)
I decided to put the Barb on hold for awhile and created a new Werebear Druid using one of the guides posted in the Druid forum. This character seems like it's not as dependent on gear as my Barb is and is handling everything that's been thrown at it so far. I had a 70+ Druid character the last time around which was my first go at a Druid and had a great time with it. I think my current build has more potential than the last since though.
I'll keep collecting Pgems & runes in the hopes of crafting some decent gear.
Thanks again!