Pit Running Barb

[DoWatThouWilt]

I'm toying with the idea of a pit running Barb. I was thinking of using Find Item, since the area has nice drops as it is. From what I've heard, there are very few elemental monsters here, so max resists are not necessary. The build would probablly look something like this:

20 Berserk
20 Howl
20 Battle Orders
20 War Cry
1 Battle Command
1 Iron Skin
1 Natural Resist
3 Find Item (2 Heart Carvers on switch = 11)
1 Shout
and prereqs


And my poor mans gear:
Tarnhelm w/ P Topaz: plus 1 to skills, mf
Lionheart: big boost to all stats, resists, life, enhanced damage
2 Heart Carvers on Switch: +8 to Find Item
Black Runeword on a Mace: crushing blow, enhanced damage, cold damage, knockback, ias, ar, and vitality
The rest: all cheap, purchasable/findable MF gear (and Goldwrap)

Get some cheap life/resist/mf charms.

The Pits are crowded with monster packs. Run in and War Cry to stun, then proceed to Berserk and kill quickly. Switch to Carvers and loot corpses twice. For boss packs, use Howl and kill the boss one on one. The crushing blow/cold damage/knockback will do great here.


I don't know much about the game mechanics, so let me know if I'm mistaken as to how any of these skills/eqiupment work. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[helvete]

Skill setup would work (I would have put a little less in WC and a little more in shout, to reduce mana cost on WC and to increase defense on you and your merc, and since it's a synergy to berzerk, it adds nicely to damage) but I would work on getting some basic gear elsewhere before going into hell pit.

Try running hell andariel for a IK helm, shako or some good rare circlet with resists/sockets/skills or other goodies. Hell Andariel doesn't drop many elite uniques, but she DOES drop all exceptional and normal uniques and sets. And she has very high chances for unique/set drops.

Also, you do need resists in the pit for cold enchanted lightning enchanted monsters and the likes. They are extremely dangerous to melee characters with lacking resists.

You will need a big weapon, though you won't "need" ebotdz, griefz or such, just a bigger weapon than "black" flail.

[MCpl Slackbag]

i love the idea for the build, and always wanted 2 build a barb like yours. i do think tho, as helvete said, that you need less in w.c. and more in shout. IMHO, although your gear might work, if it did, it would b fairly slowly. I do think you need a beefier weapon, and if it was just the crushing blow you were after, you might consider last wish(expensive), fury(pretty expensive), kingslayer,. short of that, at least make your black in a bigger thing. anyways, kudos for comign up witht this, i like it alot :D

-slackbag

[DoWatThouWilt]

Thanks a lot for the input.

The thing is, I haven't played in quite a while, and all my old accounts are probably no longer existing. I'm going to build a fishymancer to mf for the first week or two, but this barb will be my second character. So I guess his gear will depend on what I find/trade...

What I CAN do, however, is make a list of goals I want to achieve with my gear. How much CB, how high should my resists be, How much MF, +1 Skills, etc. Then maybe compile a list of easily accessible/tradeable items that fulfull those requirements.

And of course, if you know the names of any good set/unique items for this build, let me know.

Is the Obedience runeword expensive? I don't think it has any high runes, but is a 50s Polearm hard to find?

I see what you're saying about less points in Warcry. As long as the stun length remains decent in Hell, I'm willing to take points out of it for Shout.

[helvete]

5os poles are fairly easy to find. Any Cryptic Axe will get 5s from larzuk, unless they were low quality and fixed with the cube. (that will give 3s). Also, Treshers will get 5s from larzuk.

Obedience is not expensive (highest rune is a Fal) but you're giving up on a shield.

As for some goals to aim for with gear:
Weapon: Something big. Oath is a popular choice, but has a Mal in it. Make it in a eth Balrog Blade, eth scourge or something else. Can't beat 300+ ED, 50% IAS and indestructable.

Armor: Use skullders or tal armor. Eth skulders upped can get very nice defense, while tal armor has good resists and ugly looks. Tal armor can be used with the tal belt and the tal mask to get 104% more MF (if the mask is ptopazed). The stats of the helm are pretty sweet for pvm.

Rings: At least one Raven Frost. You NEED cannot be frozen mod, since the archers in the pit deal cold damage with every arrow. Cold absorb is also very nifty, it allows you to skip on some cold resistance. The other ring should be the best rare you can find. Max MF on a ring alone is 40% with no other stats, so you'd rather look for MF elsewhere.

Amulet: You'd probably want to go with highlords or metalgrid here, and look for MF elsewhere. If you DO come across something like +3masteries/35mf though, you could go with it.

Belt: Rare belts can't have MF, and only one set and one unique has it without adding other set items. If you don't go for the 3piece tal combo, then either use goldwrap (lousy 30mf) or your favorite craft/rare/unique belt.

Shield: Stormshield would probably save you a lot of trouble, but there are some runeword options too. If you choose to go 2handed, it's no issue. War Cry and Battle Cry becomes much more essential if you have no shield

Gloves: Chance Guards have up to 40 mf, with the only other useful mod being gf. Rares can have up to 25 mf and have 5 other mods. If you come across some godly rares with 20 ias 15str 25mf and 3 high resists, go ahead. More likely, you'll want to look at crafted blood gloves for CB, or LoH for 350%ED to demons and 20%IAS or IK gloves/boots/helm/belt - again you're not REALLY looking for MF, since gloves can have so many other useful stats and max 40 mf.

Boots: High mf war travelers, good rares, IK boots, or Gores. Maybe treks for str. or waterwalks for life boost and dex (but only if you go with shield).

Weapon swithc: Keep 2x Echoing weapons in stash, and use 2x ali baba or 2x gull when you hork. Heart Carver has no MF but adds a nice +4 to hork, so that may be an option if you are hard pressed on skill points and don't want to invest the 2 points it takes to get find item without HC. However, you're loosing out on at least 100 MF, maybe 150 if you're lvl 90 with 2ist ali baba by using HC. 2x 2ist alibaba on switch is 300 extra MF for a lvl 90, so shouldn't be underestimated. Your best source of MF by far.

Charms: Pack on all the resists you are lacking in, gheeds, and MF charms. Resists and MF are possible on the same charm (small charms) so keep your eye open for these. If you have no other item with poison damage, make sure to use one poison charm to prevent monster regen (poison completely stops monster regen).

Stuff you don't want: Cold damage (shatters corpses, no horking them - sadly, there's cold damage on "obedience") nor anything else that destroys corpses. You don't want auras like redemption or holy freeze since those also destroy corpses.