good hardcore untwinked build?

[Distorted Humor]

What is a good build for a hardcore untwinked Barb? :fortuneteller:

[nepeta]

You might want to take a look at this (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=126634), it's quite nice I think. Otherwise, barbarians are relatively well suited to untwinked play due to natural resistance and good combat skills. The only thing you might want is a good weapon in hell :)

[MalVeauX]

What is a good build for a hardcore untwinked Barb? :fortuneteller:

Untwinked barb in HC in my opinion is pretty rough. It's easy to make him a walking tank, simply by having huge life pool amounts, but it's hard to make him a good enough damage dealer and to manage to leech enough early on, while you still wait for a few key items or runes to start building upon. And this largely pools because you don't have items in mind already untwinked, and it also effects how you build (masteries for example).

That said, you have two nice choices in my opinion for untwinked, Conc and Zerk. The reason being, both skills are fantastic and don't require the best items or a planned route to make work, at least not through nightmare. In hell, all builds need a little planning, but I digress.

Conc - If you focus on Conc/Shout/BO/SynergyforConc, you can build a decent damage dealer and have great DEF/Life no matter the weapon you use. I would go for 50% block, not quite maxblock, if you use a shield. Max block is nice, but it's largely dependent on the shield you have. If you go for 50% block, it's less of a hassle and drain on your life pool to get the dex. You can also skip the shield, but in HC, I always preferred the shield (diamonds go there, *hint*). I skipped mastery here, simply because you're untwinked. Just use the synergies for Conc instead to increase damage unless you know you're going to use a specific item type. Just shopping blue items in nightmare can honestly plug you through. Only once you're in hell will you need better stuff.

Zerk - You'll have crap items for a long time untwinked, so your DEF will be really low anyways. Besides, you'll be using Howl all the time. You basically just keep everything scared, while you zerk away on their heads. I would certainly try to get block on this fellow, but it's not ultimately necessary for most of the game if you have a good clvl and howl running. In that case, just use a shield to get massive res's (so you can beat on those light enchant, cold enchant, etc, bosses).

Good luck.

Cheers, :smiley: