View Full Version : best way to build a barb HELP
hey i played 3 yrs ago and now im getting back
how do i build a barb to be powerful?
i wanna be a maul barb as i never had one before.
where do i put my skills? and where do i put my stats?
-CanuckGAME us west
Barbs are easy to build, as long as you have all if not most of your gear before u make one. Have just enough strength to use all of your gear, and put the rest or your points into vitality. Max mace mastery, whirlwind, battle orders and shout, and divde the rest of the points into iron skin, increased speed, or natural resistance, depending on your build. There should be different build guides on somewhere in this forum if u want more in depth info on building a BvB or BvC or whatever.
Kevin William Cox
10-08-2006, 20:31
Don't forget to put 1 into Bezerk for the immune to physicals, and OB knights when they cast IM on you.
Kev
norvi11erogers
10-08-2006, 21:02
Barbs are easy to build, as long as you have all if not most of your gear before u make one. Have just enough strength to use all of your gear, and put the rest or your points into vitality. Max mace mastery, whirlwind, battle orders and shout, and divde the rest of the points into iron skin, increased speed, or natural resistance, depending on your build. There should be different build guides on somewhere in this forum if u want more in depth info on building a BvB or BvC or whatever.
I'm not big on shout - I rarely put more than one point into either it or iron skin, and I think that's typical for all barbs, pvm or pvp, with the exception of BvBs. Unless you're BvC, increased speed is generally not recommended, as run walk speed makes your whirlwinds shorter by having you execute them more quickly. If you will mf with this char, then points in item find with not be wasted.
If this is a pvm mfer, i'd recommend:
20 mace mast
20 ww
20 bo
1 in bc, beserk
1-5 in nat res
several in item find
Mace mastry is easy: Bonesnap is available and attainable quickly. One can, without too much effort, shop a martel with near 100% ed at high enough levels. Several sets give partial bonuses to ar per level. Check them out.
fledgeling
10-08-2006, 21:55
Don't forget to put 1 into Bezerk for the immune to physicals, and OB knights when they cast IM on you.
Kev
from my experience berserk is useless
with 170strenght and a 240damage maul I took off around 1/5 of the monster's hp per hit
which was too slow and generally ineffective, just cooperate with a sorc, because you will be too slow
I'm not big on shout - I rarely put more than one point into either it or iron skin, and I think that's typical for all barbs, pvm or pvp, with the exception of BvBs. Unless you're BvC, increased speed is generally not recommended, as run walk speed makes your whirlwinds shorter by having you execute them more quickly. If you will mf with this char, then points in item find with not be wasted.
If this is a pvm mfer, i'd recommend:
20 mace mast
20 ww
20 bo
1 in bc, beserk
1-5 in nat res
several in item find
Mace mastry is easy: Bonesnap is available and attainable quickly. One can, without too much effort, shop a martel with near 100% ed at high enough levels. Several sets give partial bonuses to ar per level. Check them out.
I wouldn't put the skill points in that order either. if one doesn't have weapon in hand yet, I wouldn't put more than a couple skill points into the mastery quite yet. I'm also a believer in rapid leveling by being useful during cs runs. that means a couple into leap for leaping to at least the gate if a sorc doesn't show up, and leap stunning in the event of dins being in the game with low resist. in order to do so, a few extra in natural resist doesn't hurt much.
in order to keep up with the charging dins, and/or rapid fire teleporting sorcs, the 30frw boots may not be enough speed, at least one skill in faster run/walk (combined with skill items such as bo sticks/tarn/ammy) will make keeping up no problem at all.
in order to maximize your leaching in cs runs, keeping up with the boss kills is a must, and being there to pop the corpses (item find) prior to a din redeeming them is also a must...
While I agree with Norvi on skills stats is somethign IMO should be best divided between strength and Vitality. The great thing about a MF barb is that you will be using Angelics rings, armor and ammy to obtain MF, but along with that is insane AR so no need to pump dex. On my barb I have 200ish Strength and the rest Vita and it can kill hell council well. Along with 3 Ptopaz helm and other mf items.
For PvM/MF Barb, Max these in order:
20 BO
20 WW
20 Mace Mastery
12 Find Item
1 Berserk
Rest Nat Res
Bersek IS helpful, but that's only if you plan on taking out just one Phys Mune (namely, Ismail Vilehand in Hell Trav). In private one player MF runs, he usually goes down after a few hits, but it's bareable as long as you have a Health Pot or 2 to spare. In multi-player games, most people just leave him alone or lead him to some distant part of Trav, TP out, then head back through the WP to take care of the others.
For Attribute points, since this is going to be an MFer, go 250 Str, Rest Vita. It sounds like you won't survive in Hell Trav, but believe me, you will.
- Akukami
My only advice is not to Whirlwind in CS. Three years ago would mean you last played in 1.09, when Whirlwinding in CS with a lot of life leech wasn't a big deal, but now Iron Maiden is instant death with any decent damage weapon.
WarlockCC
11-08-2006, 10:12
Yes, you can get as much ll as you want, it will not be enough to compensate for IM in CS.
I never use Bezerk in CS, but I do use it frequently outside it. As Akukami mentioned, our good friend Ismael is fond of spawning PI(physical Immune).
Offcourse there are spectres who are allways Phisical Immune aswell. Though I tend to avoid them, they are PI and drain mana, not a pleasant combi for a barb.
You could wait with filling your mastery until you have 'the weapon'.
Supposing that on your travels you find a 2xx exec, then you might consider using that exec rather then a mart.
For PvM MF/GF there really is no other choice then marts though. Since 1.09 the durability has been 'fixed', so items degrade at about 1 dura per 2 or 3(mebbe a bit more, but at times it seems like this) monsters in Hell. Having tripple dura on your weapon now pays off. :)
Martel de Fer = 60 dura, 317 max damage
Battle Hammer = 55 dura, 194 max damage (1h)
Ancient Axe = 50 dura, 275 max damage
Executioner Sword = 50 dura, 260 max damage (2h)
Tabar = 40 dura, 251 max damage
Naga = 26 dura, 155 max damage (1h)
Lance dura = 25 dura, 362 max damage
Note that I have not seen any exceptional weapons with perfect max damage
The above mentioned are just a theoretical maximum.
Marts are also sweet for their +50% damage to undead and that they give more damage per point you invest in str. And they allow you to switch to 1h mode using (for instance) a battle hammer and a shield(3Diamond shield for res ?).
Noite Escura
11-08-2006, 18:00
If you plan to solo, at least one point in Warcry is needed. It's crucial to Zerk those Phys immune/mana burn in Arcane.
If you plan to solo, at least one point in Warcry is needed. It's crucial to Zerk those Phys immune/mana burn in Arcane.
I don't think he'd be crazy enough to solo the whole game with the Barb. :rolleyes:
In either case, forget Warcry. It doesn't help with your MFing, and I'm pretty sure you don't MF in Arcane....
- Akukami
WarlockCC
11-08-2006, 23:59
I think a Howl might be enough to get rid of those spectres in acrane. Which happens to be a prereq of BO, so why not use it ? :)
If you plan to solo, at least one point in Warcry is needed. It's crucial to Zerk those Phys immune/mana burn in Arcane.
Just ww past them sucking on mana potions.
Noite Escura
14-08-2006, 17:50
I don't think he'd be crazy enough to solo the whole game with the Barb. :rolleyes:
In either case, forget Warcry. It doesn't help with your MFing, and I'm pretty sure you don't MF in Arcane....
- Akukami
If you're playing solo you need to pass Arcane on your own to get to Trav. Even if you WW thru them, they sometimes hit you sucking you mana bulb completely. May take a truckload of mana potions to do it. Also some sectors of Arcane have stairs in the layout that can't be WWed across. And I found Howl to be not that much effective. My first char was a Barb and I didn't know anyone online by that time. I was only able to get past Arcane after leveling a bit more of Andariel and getting Warcry.
You really don't need to get it if you have a B plan, but I found it way more easy to use Berserk combined with WC.
If you're playing solo you need to pass Arcane on your own to get to Trav. Even if you WW thru them, they sometimes hit you sucking you mana bulb completely. May take a truckload of mana potions to do it. Also some sectors of Arcane have stairs in the layout that can't be WWed across. And I found Howl to be not that much effective. My first char was a Barb and I didn't know anyone online by that time. I was only able to get past Arcane after leveling a bit more of Andariel and getting Warcry.
You really don't need to get it if you have a B plan, but I found it way more easy to use Berserk combined with WC.
You have Leap/Leap Attack to get across the gaps in Arcane. Why waste points in Warcry? Easier you say? It's more of a hassle to take on all Phys Munes with WC/Berserk than it is to just run from them.
- Akukami
I don't think he'd be crazy enough to solo the whole game with the Barb. :rolleyes:
- Akukami
Who doesnt solo the whole game with a barb???
I myself just LOVE solo barb hell cs lots of tps and drop your gold in town..fun stuff
Fearlessone
15-08-2006, 05:11
If you plan to solo, at least one point in Warcry is needed. It's crucial to Zerk those Phys immune/mana burn in Arcane.
Barbs who dont get berserk and warcry are just average barbs who show weakness in those moments these 2 skills are needed. BTW, thats over 90% of barbs - weak.
WarlockCC
15-08-2006, 09:42
Though I do have Bezerk on almost all of my barbs, I never took Warcry for the stun effect. I like the idea though. "FREEEEEZE !" whilst I pummel thee with mine large blunt stick.
Only barb I think I have Warcry on is my first barbie. :)
fledgeling
15-08-2006, 12:33
Barbs who dont get berserk and warcry are just average barbs who show weakness in those moments these 2 skills are needed. BTW, thats over 90% of barbs - weak.
Id like to see you do anything with your level 1 berserk (ok maybe level 3 if you dont use angelics) vs 10ghosts
Barbs who dont get berserk and warcry are just average barbs who show weakness in those moments these 2 skills are needed. BTW, thats over 90% of barbs - weak.
I hope you're talking about PvM Barbs only. And if you also mean PvP Barbs, then that's a pretty lame statement to make. :rolleyes:
- Akukami
Noite Escura
15-08-2006, 17:27
You have Leap/Leap Attack to get across the gaps in Arcane. Why waste points in Warcry? Easier you say? It's more of a hassle to take on all Phys Munes with WC/Berserk than it is to just run from them.
- Akukami
No, I guess it's easy to use Leap, that is, if you spent at least 10 points in it. Otherwise is too short ranged to be of use. Leap Attack will take you across the whole screen, but in the end you'll bash/knockback one monster and the others will suck you dry if you happen to land in the middle of a crowd.
A Level 2 Leap is good enough to knockback any monsters in range, and multiple Leaps will give you enough space to make it through. And if you do Leap into the middle of a pack, well, that's your fault. :rolleyes: I've never had a problem with Leaping around in Hell Arcane Sanctuary to get the Summoner.
I Leap with my BvA to CS when no Sorcs are around. And I do it w/o a shield or BO stick. :flip:
A Level 2 Leap is good enough to knockback any monsters in range, and multiple Leaps will give you enough space to make it through. And if you do Leap into the middle of a pack, well, that's your fault. :rolleyes: I've never had a problem with Leaping around in Hell Arcane Sanctuary to get the Summoner.
I Leap with my BvA to CS when no Sorcs are around. And I do it w/o a shield or BO stick. :flip:
:werd: I do the same, and even WW through a hoard, using leaching to stay alive, and with the bo stick not doing enough damage to worry if I get IMed if the crowd happens to be too big to leap over, or if I accidently land in a crowd due to carelessness
I used a lvl 62 or so bonesnap/angies build baba to self rush my din to hell act 3. sure he died a couple of times, but I just WW'ed right through the phys immunes in maggot/arcane/tal rasha's to get to the bosses.
quick call for help on council (the bsnap wasn't enough to kill entire council, and one of the bastidges was phys immune) and then I used that same baba to run thru durance to mephy...
I hope you're talking about PvM Barbs only. And if you also mean PvP Barbs, then that's a pretty lame statement to make. :rolleyes:
- Akukami
even pvm, there's never a need for warcry.
as for phys immunes, I just fire up the laptop, and grab the chanter, and toss a lvl 30+synergized chant on... altho never in cs run, as then, even when using the bo sticks, IM would kill me during an illplaced WW.
I have historically tossed one or two into berserk or whatever that "magic stunning hit" skill is (it should be obvious by now that I don't pay super close attention to the skill trees, especially for ones not often used) if for only at the end point of trying to get the last hit in on D, and being able to get drops at same time.
nothing like having your last hit be a WW, and watching others jack the drops as you sail by...
Fearlessone
07-09-2006, 13:35
Id like to see you do anything with your level 1 berserk (ok maybe level 3 if you dont use angelics) vs 10ghosts
I didnt read this response to my comment until today. I assume you mean angelics ring and ammy for the attack rating. I just took a new barb thru act2 hell and into the hell cs today. He is lvl 70, uses a 40%ias high dmg exec sword. His ww is barely acceptable at this point. He did indeed beserk those flying things in act2 arcane and tombs and ghosts in Plains. His beserk with bc is now, with a +2 ammy, about lvl 4. It was a slow killing, and an foh'er was helping. The warcry was essential to avoid mana burn. I also used bcry to make it easier to hit them. Warcry-bcry-berserk. He had about a 50% chance to-hit in act2, since i have no special ar gear, and he was about 10 lvls below the monsters. Battlecry makes up for some of that.
With alot of monsters such as "10" you could split them up, using howl or just running around, divide and conquer. Berserk in the cs is absolutely essential for a melee barb to actually make some kills of the monsters and not die every 30 seconds. My warcry barb has no berserk and doesnt need it. Berserk-warcry is a big plus, although watch out for mana burn, cuz then you will make a regular attack hit and might die.
Fearlessone
07-09-2006, 13:36
double post
Berserk in the cs is absolutely essential for a melee barb to actually make some kills of the monsters and not die every 30 seconds. My warcry barb has no berserk and doesnt need it. Berserk-warcry is a big plus, although watch out for mana burn, cuz then you will make a regular attack hit and might die.
perhaps a different mode of playing style is in order? I confess to only recently feeling comfortable MFing in CS with my bsnap baba (not quite solo, I bring my laptop for another character to up the monster level/content just a bit, and provide help if I do die, and my body gets mobbed)
I found that with howl (the prereq for bo?) and/or leap/stun I could knock the oblivion's out of the group, and generally kill an oblivion with one WW, even just using the bsnap.
gradually picking my way through, I could get rid of all of the pesky oblivions, then pop the seals, and WW to my heart's content on vizier, and infector and their respective crews.
I died probably every 3rd cs run I tried this way, at level 82, it kept me roughly steady with my xp, since I was able to recover my body each time. the whole point however, isn't to level in cs, but rather for MF. flayering/travincal is far more rewarding for levelling, and with angies, mf boots/gloves (leachy/resisty as well) and a tri topazed hat while doing so, yeilds some decent finds as well.
if you're talking about making kills in a full/partied cs run, and "dying every 30 seconds" then the folks you cs with take too long :p
CSing is all about knowing your role, and for a baba, it's generally not to WW through mobs of monsters. BO, leap/stun, and pop seals if there's not a sorc available, and pop bosses before the din's redeem them. but to each their own if one chooses to do so.
Fearlessone
10-09-2006, 05:02
perhaps a different mode of playing style is in order? ....I found that with howl (the prereq for bo?) and/or leap/stun I could knock the oblivion's out of the group...could get rid of all of the pesky oblivions, then pop the seals... at level 82, it kept me roughly steady with my xp... the whole point however, isn't to level in cs, but rather for Mf ...flayering/travincal is far more rewarding for levelling, and with... mf , yeilds ...some decent finds
if you're talking about making kills in a full/partied cs run, and "dying every 30 seconds" then the folks you cs with take too long :p
CSing is all about knowing your role, and for a baba, it's generally not to WW through mobs of monsters. BO, leap/stun, and pop seals if there's not a sorc available, and pop bosses before the din's redeem them. to each his own if one chooses ...
I've found that by using warcry/ww in the cs, with plenty of berserk, along with some use of howl and taunt, leap attack to move around using only bo sticks(for bo'ing the group when they come down the tp and so u dont die from IM with a powerful weapon) that I and other rare barbs have been able to add 10 levels to your lvl 82 barb. You could only get a few more levels beyond those 10 anyways, maybe lvl 95, 96, and u certainly would want to give up ww somewhere between lvl 92 and 95 (except for some of the seals and diablo where u could ww away).
Ww in cs through a mob with a warcried mage or two in it is AOK.
Could you do this with a flayer/trav barb? Even in a full game doing flayer alone, can u get past lvl 90? Yeah, I know your barb is a mf barb specialized for just that. This game is not primarily pvp and Blizzard has been doing plenty to get people to party up and play together. But I understand that some ppl, esp ww barbs get tired of missing the drops and want to do something extra like popping corpses to make up for it.
What I'm describing is very similar to the oldschool barb pre 1.10, in fact this is identical to some barbs setups from that era, minus their heavy life leech gear, which doesnt work well nowadays with the big leech cut in hell. I remember my barb would warcry a mob just to help before ww, and even if he were IM'd, he still survived - with the big 30-40% lifeleech. Barbs in those days were wary of the fan/conc auras and amp curse from a necro. They could level up to mid-90's ez by just being careful - no long ww's if mage near(or possible hiding offscreen), considering a slightly lesser dmging weapon, demanding that fan zealots turn off fan if mages could be near, asking necros to use life tap near mages, waiting for other players to get near the mages so all spells wouldnt be directed to them, and not ww'ing an amp'd mob.
@Akakumi: yeah, i'm talking about only pvm barbs. And really this applies to party barbs who arent specialized for flayer or travincal. I said that barbs without warcry and berserk were weak.
Like you imply goomba, barbs are fairly powerful and have alot of responsibilities in a party. There are skills to solve most problems that the game presents. My contention is that most barbs are ignorant of what some of their lvl 30 skills can do and have fallen back to standing around, maybe just popping corpses, which I've noticed seems to WEAKen the party: the party takes alot longer to get thru the game.
Also: on my realm, about half the cs games are walks, not fast sora seal pop games. We like to clean up the vast majority of monsters. This does take time but exp is good - u get zero exp from some dang din or sorc more than 2 screens away smashing the Vizier alone. Often these groups do NOT include any dins, and perhaps no sorc either. With the right skills such a party can avoid "no din...waugghh :cry: ".
Also: on my realm, about half the cs games are walks, not fast sora seal pop games. We like to clean up the vast majority of monsters. This does take time but exp is good - u get zero exp from some dang din or sorc more than 2 screens away smashing the Vizier alone. Often these groups do NOT include any dins, and perhaps no sorc either. With the right skills such a party can avoid "no din...waugghh :cry: ".
update to my 'style'. again, I wasn't in the cs to lvl, more so to do some mfing, and lvl up a new chanter.
I found, that in a 4 person game, with some careful playing, I was able to avoid dying to IM for 1, or 2 games before a hidden mage would get me.
here's how. with leapstun, or howl, I'd separate the mages from the rest of the flock. then, WW through them with a 138 bh + swordback. normally, one ww, and he's dead.
I'd then move on, and clear all the mages, before popping seals. that bh I mentioned, has 6% life leach, and my gloves are 3% dual leach. one ring is leachy as well. with the above gear, I can happily wail away WWing through infector, and vizier after the mages are all dead.
it seemed that most of the IM-deaths were actually due to de seis being on meth mode, amping me, and his pack of rabid rat terriers manaburning then whacking on me, then after I finally managed to leap+stun them off me, I got IMed, as I started WWing for some leached life/mana back. (I even managed to survive IM a couple of times by only WWing through one monster - I have over 3.2k life with lvl 27 BO and over 11k AR with that gear on)
even with the couple of deaths, I found some decent stuff. lvl 13, tri resist (deep into the 20s) boots with 25 mf. sadly, no frw, or fhr, or dex/str, but I'll be keeping 'em for sure.
anyway, back to the phys immune discussion. a couple of times, I had a partied baba with beserk do the killing, the others, when he wasn't there, I just chanted myself with the laptop. 800 extra dmg from fire (she's still a work in progress, only lvl 47, and still doesn't have magefist, as I misplaced a spare pair) will take out a phys immune vizier with a quickness :thumbsup: )
I have to confess, that with the laptop, and multiple accounts, I do have some flexability that many may not.
And here I thought I were finally getting beyond the "n00b" level as to playing barbs and then I realize that when I howl right next to monsters nothing happens :undecided: Maybe I'm doing something wrong but still it's quite depressing to know that I can't get a lvl 1 skill to work... :cry:
Do you guys find it better to go through the entire place ridding of mages then mopping up? Or taking the packs one at a time?
Do you guys find it better to go through the entire place ridding of mages then mopping up? Or taking the packs one at a time?
I normally do them "one area" at a time. I don't need packs of non mages chasing me down, or crowding around the mages while I'm trying to isolate them for a kill.
my normal rotation is to do infector's area first, then pop his seal, and take everyone out on that side.
then, I clear out de seis's side, but don't always pop his seal, then vizier's area, then pop seal.
I'm probably 50/50 as wo whether I kill de seis before vizier, or after, but it probably has something to do with literally my comfort level based on the previous run, and if de seis spawns with him, and his minions on hypersonic crack/meth mode.
Quick question: Where do BvAs/Speeders get their ar when theyre dueling sorcs? Is the sig helm + sig glove combo enough without angelics?
norvi11erogers
17-09-2006, 19:50
And here I thought I were finally getting beyond the "n00b" level as to playing barbs and then I realize that when I howl right next to monsters nothing happens :undecided: Maybe I'm doing something wrong but still it's quite depressing to know that I can't get a lvl 1 skill to work... :cry:
Howl works only when your char lvl + the howl lvl + some constant (maybe like 3 or 5, might be zero) is higher than the monster lvl.
Quick question: Where do BvAs/Speeders get their ar when theyre dueling sorcs? Is the sig helm + sig glove combo enough without angelics?
why wouldn't/couldn't they use angellic ammy and one ring? with that set up + my bh (2xx AR) I have like 11k AR, certainly enough to hit characters with low def, even if they have lots of blocking - this of course is predicated on if I had enough skill to actually hit them *sheepish grin*
a couple of points in natural resist. one resisty ring, tri rez boots (ok, my boots are pretty good) and a dual resist, leachy set of gloves, plus resist on belt, and most of the time you'll find me just wearing a tarn, angellic armor, ammy + ring.
while I don't have ginormously stacked CR, FR is NOT a problem, even when faced with conviction. In a hell game, I do show 75 CR was well, but it goes negative when facing conviction/Lower resist curse.
if I were of the duelling sort, I'd probably throw on darkglow, and a tri socket shield to massively stack the resists. *shrug* and/or sash to prevent being frozen.
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