Strategies for clearing Hell CS with MF Barb?

[Deeds of Valor]

So yeah, I've made an MF barb and I've heard a lot of people say that they solo CS with barbs in hell and I was just wondering what you guys do so that you don't die to IM etc.

Gear is:

Angelic armor, 2x Angelic Rings, Angelic Ammy
3 Topaz Grand Crown
285ed Bonesnap
Hand of Broc
Goldwrap
Rare boots with MF/FRW/Res

Skills are:
20 BO
20 Mace Mastery
20 WW
16 Find Item
1 Berserk
Natural Res (putting rest of points here)


Any recommendations on Gear, CS, or MF strategies would be appreciated.

[bg1256]

I was just wondering what you guys do so that you don't die to IM etc.


The skill berserk will keep you from dying to IM... but it is a tad slow.

[Rawly]

The skill berserk will keep you from dying to IM... but it is a tad slow.

Hmm. when face with those pesky oblivions, if you can run upto them so they all cast there curses, if you are left without iron maiden kill them as quick as possible, as they will take a short period of time before they cast another curse. (a neat trick to get to them in a thick mob is to run the mob away from them as they tend to stand still casting bone spirits at you then jump over the mobs and ww them when they are on their own).

[Akukami]

BSnap is a terrible mart to use in Hell CS solo runs due to it's low damage. Find a rare high damage (225+ is fine) Mart with LL, ML, or both, and switch out Hand of Broc for some dual leech FR/LR MF gloves. (Or you can do ML/LL Mart and LL/ML Gloves, your choice. If you do happen to find a high damage dual leech Mart, switch to Chancies.)

Also, you could've left your Item Find at 12 and use 2 Gulls for popping since it works well. You have your Skill points in the right places, and keep adding to Nat Res for obvious reasons.

For your Attribute points, I hope you have at least 170 into Str and rest to Vita. If you have less than that, you might want to consider remaking your MFer with 250 Str instead of your current build. Yes, 250 sounds like a whole lot, but it's very effective. Killing speed is what you're after, and if you can wipe those mages in CS in one shot, you can deal with the rest of the pack without a hitch.

Speaking of those mages, it's best to clear them from the surrounding area first before proceeding with the rest of the pack. Like Rawly said, head over to a pack and lead them away from the mages so you can Leap over them and kill those mages easily. Also, I think you know this already, but always open a TP in case you do die to IM. Lastly, in order of which seal to attack first, in normal CS runs, it's Fect, Seis, Viz, but I usually like to do it in reverse order simply becase Viz is easier to kill first.

Have fun!

- Akukami

[Deeds of Valor]

Thanks for the tips. That was exactly what I was looking for. He is just barely at lvl 60 now, and I haven't put more than a couple into Find Item yet, as the skill placement was just what I thought sounded good. I'll just get it up to 12 and then pump NR.

I think I have about 105 into Str at the moment, so I'll just start pumping Str now that I can do hell Flayer runs/CS and should be able to lvl up to 85+ without too much trouble. That should leave me with about 230 or so str.

I've still got a few imbues left on other chars so I'll start looking for white martels to imbue.

Thanks again

[Akukami]

Thanks for the tips. That was exactly what I was looking for. He is just barely at lvl 60 now, and I haven't put more than a couple into Find Item yet, as the skill placement was just what I thought sounded good. I'll just get it up to 12 and then pump NR.

I think I have about 105 into Str at the moment, so I'll just start pumping Str now that I can do hell Flayer runs/CS and should be able to lvl up to 85+ without too much trouble. That should leave me with about 230 or so str.

I've still got a few imbues left on other chars so I'll start looking for white martels to imbue.

Thanks again

Don't forget to hold off on the imbues until Level 80+. Also, you can probably start doing a few Hell Trav runs with BSnap to level and MF. Once you're 75ish, you can attempt to solo Hell CS, but for now, stick with Hell Trav and popping bosses in CS runs.

- Akukami

[goomba]

Don't forget to hold off on the imbues until Level 80+. Also, you can probably start doing a few Hell Trav runs with BSnap to level and MF. Once you're 75ish, you can attempt to solo Hell CS, but for now, stick with Hell Trav and popping bosses in CS runs.

- Akukami

I rarely even bother with hell trav, what with the mana burners, and the occasional phys immune, I find it more rewarding to do the flayering deep into the 80s for levelling.

I also just this weekend tried the hell CS/MFing with my laptop holding a spot in the game as well. I was switching out between the 198 steel driver, and the 171 bonesnap, and did ok. I died a couple of times, but no full deaths due to an irrecoverable/mobbed body.

I can generally kill an oblivion with one WW, and with some very carefully placed WW's take them out before worrying about endless WW's through the mobs of other bad guys in the cs.

my gear is not too much different from the original posters, except I'm using a dual leach ring with resist, and AR (if I recall the mods correctly) and some near godly boots (FRW, FHR, MF, and very high dual resists) and dual leach, resist/MF gloves (low resist on those) I gave up on the gwrap, as I have a much better rare belt, the full list of mods I don't currently recall.

prebuff with two bo sticks, and a tarn for BO/Shout.

I also may have had it somewhat easier, as I used the laptop to teleport in, and sometimes confess to clearing out quite a few of the non cold immunes with the blizzer before popping seals and switching back to the baba.

I also started smaller, by doing a ****ton of repeated NM CS runs to mf as practice with him, but leapt in, and also using a 138 bh in one hand, and gull in the other for kills.

one final thought/strategy. I'm not the best "leaper", but have found that whichever war cry (Taunt?) that is a pre-req for bo, that will send monsters fleeing away works pretty well when IM'ed, at keeping the bad guys off until you get recursed, or IM wears off.

*shrug* As Zod mentioned though, one can't really expect to "level" by doing solo Hell CS runs, they're best done if you are already at base xp for the level you are at.