Going to make a barb mostly for gf, help please?

[Humphrey]

I've read the guides so I know what gf equip I need (though all my stashes (I play SP) are on my laptop which is being repaired, I should get the harddrive back intact though). I can't make the expensive runewords because I play single player, I can make the realm-only RWs though because I have the runeword mod (and before you all go 'oh noes! banzor!' etc, it's an allowed mod on these forums, see the SP forum :P ).

I was wondering what would be a good weapon for killing things (not on switch for gf). I have the IK set minus armour on my laptop, so I was going to use that, but thinking about it I think it would be much more fun to use 2 one-handed weapons (or 2 two-handed weapons, barbs can do that right?). I have no idea which mastery to chose though. I think I would like to chose swords, are there good swords that can be used in one hand for a WW barb soloing hell?

Oh, and I'm not using a shield. They aren't fun. The iron maiden things will kill me whether I use a shield or not anyway (I have no idea what the curse looks like, and I don't know where to find out).

Edit: knew there was something I forgot to ask. As I'm not using a shield, should I leave Dex at base? I'm worried about how my AR will look.

[Humphrey]

Anyone? I haven't made a barb before so I really don't have any idea about this stuff, but these should be easy questions for anyone who has?

[eA-Zaku]

GF means The Grandfather? It's old-school, but sadly it sucks. It sucked back then, and it sucks now. It's not fast enough.

[Humphrey]

GF means The Grandfather?

No, gold find. I want to gamble many amulets.

[Freezing Rain]

Angelic rings/Amulet if you have AR problems.

For a GF barb, generally it is easy to find 2x Razor Edge Tomahawks, which have nice damage for a dual axe barbarian. You COULD just go for the IK maul along with the rest of the set, that's what i use, and it seems to work very well.

Don't bother putting any in dex, since big mauls don't require any. Just enough for your EQ will suffice.

[eA-Zaku]

Haha sorry about that.

Yes, barbs can wear two 2-handed weapons.

I would suggest you use eBotD weapons because they don't break. If you can't afford that, IK Maul is good enough for PvM.

Iron Maiden looks like curved orange lines. Once you run into Iron Maiden a few times (it's only in Chaos Sanctuary, so you could just avoid that area) then you will recognize the particular sound of Iron Maiden and you can switch to level 1 Berserk.

http://www.battle.net/images/battle/diablo2exp/images/skills/ironmaiden01.jpg Here is a link to the Arreat Summit's picture of Iron Maiden. I'm allowed to link to the official site, right?

[Humphrey]

I would suggest you use eBotD weapons because they don't break. If you can't afford that, IK Maul is good enough for PvM.

Notice how I said SP? We don't dupe runes over at the SPF, so no BotD for us!

Iron Maiden looks like curved orange lines.

Cool thanks, I think I know the one you mean.

Edit: yeah you can link there. Those little orange dots move towards the head in a curved line, right?

[Humphrey]

Don't bother putting any in dex, since big mauls don't require any. Just enough for your EQ will suffice.

Still no dex if I'm using 2 axes or 2 swords (other than the EQ reqs)?

[-Tempus-]

Still no dex if I'm using 2 axes or 2 swords (other than the EQ reqs)?

using conc, zerk or ww will all work great for a goldfind barb. they take less points to get good dmg vs other attack skills, they also let you have the points needed to max the FI skill.

using IK mual will work great, so will the uniq axe eth edge. any good magic cruel 2nd weapon will also work if its got some speed on it too. if you get lucky maybe you can find/craft a weapon with +350%ed that also had ias on it to hit the breakpoint for your main attack. as long as you dont have some killer weapon you can always use the set gloves LoH untill you find find something else. using a might merc will give you added dmg to your attacks and you can also drop some goldfind on him that will add to yours when he gets the last hit on kills.

-Tempus-

[Humphrey]

using conc, zerk or ww will all work great for a goldfind barb. they take less points to get good dmg vs other attack skills, they also let you have the points needed to max the FI skill.

I decided on frenzy for the gf barb, and 2 swords of some type. (I'm also making a WW IK set using barb, so don't want to have 2 WW barbs. Conc and zerk just don't appeal to me, can't stand all the clicking). Skill points will be very tight though, which could be a problem.

[Neurofuzzy]

Maybe I miss the point here, but when I need gold I just do a cow level and sell a lot of stuff I find there. You can fill up max gold in one or two cow runs! No special build is needed for that...

Concerning Iron Maiden, the classic solution is to use berzerk... and dont give up a shield!

[Humphrey]

Maybe I miss the point here, but when I need gold I just do a cow level and sell a lot of stuff I find there. You can fill up max gold in one or two cow runs! No special build is needed for that...

I'm in the process of pat/matting 3 characters from each class, so I'll be making the barbs anyway. I can't do cow runs, I play single player.

Edit: I am not going to use a shield. That's no fun.