Frenzy?

[onomastikon]

Does anyone actually use frenzy? Although I did see and read a frenzy guide in the sticky thread, I see almost everyone use WW and post about this or zerk or even conc, but no one seems to use frenzy. Since I'm still a low level newbie who hasnt hit lvl 30 yet, I dont know which to go for, WW or frenzy, but I am liking doubleswing a lot, it is so much faster than conc, and I only die to those lightning bugs if I get careless (must ... find ... resists). So this is my stupid frenzy question:
does frenzy attack two targets at once like double-swing does, or is it a one-on-one show like conc? Then I think I really will go for WW for crowd control....
ok thanks much

[RibGriller]

I think Frenzy is probably more popular than Conc cause conc is a rather slooow-playing endeavor. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Double swing is fast, but IIRC it doesn't have enough dmg synergies. Go Frenzy! Your points in Double swing are not wasted cause it's a synergy to frenzy.

WW or frenzy? Do both! They're both fun to play.

If you're really a newbie, then I'd suggest doing some mfing with a blizzsorc to get some good end-game weapons first. GL!

[Senshiki]

Well the trouble with Frenzy is the same thing for assassin kickers, smiters, and maul bear Druids: they only attack one target at a time without doing very much damage.

See, whirlwind, zeal, fury, and the like are popular because they attack many monsters at once. Sine over 90% of your battles in Diablo 2 will be against multiple enemies at once, this is quite useful.

Builds that only attack one target are typically useful for killing bosses. Zeal is good too, but if minions are present around the boss, then Zeal will hit the boss, minion, minion, boss, and so on, rather than a single attack hitting boss, boss, boss and so on.

Life Tap, a skill that can be cast while striking enemies when wearing Dracul's Grasp gloves, Last Wish runeword weapon, or an Exile paladin shield are almost ALWAYS implemented with these single target builds. Typically, (we'll use smite in our example) a smiter paladin will run up to a boss, and after a few hits, life tap will cast. If he attacks quick enough with enough damage, the life leech from tap will heal him faster than the boss can hurt him, basically meaning all you have to do is keep swinging till the boss dies.

This is why smiters are such popular builds to use in Uber Tristram, a place where the three Prime Evils have high damaging attacks and Life Tap is almost a necessity to survive.

So, in your case, it all depends on what you will do. Since you're a noob, you probably lack the experience, knowledge, and gear to undergo a task like uber tristram (where a Frenzy barb would be a choice build), so for simple experience purposes, it is best you invest in Whirlwind. It is a strong character with lots of survivability, and does great without great gear, and especially great with great gear.

Read a few of the build posts, and maybe even the uber tristram guide to give you a better idea of which builds work where and why. The rest is just learning the game and collecting better items to put on each character you make.

Good luck!

[onomastikon]

Hey thanks very much.
The Über Tristram guide is actually one I havent read yet, since I figured that I wont be going anywhere near there for the next few months.
Thanks for the tips, I guess I'll simply try both out and see.
(Reached lvl 27 in the meantime and got frenzy -- not terribly happy with it, since I get confused trying to switch between frenzy and another attack in between, and I find it hard to control; also, not being able to use a shield is getting harder and harder for me as the monsters get tougher. Hm...)
ok thanks much

[Cubbie]

I second WW for a general PvM build for starting out with barbs. I´m a total barb newb and was surprised how easy my IK barb went through the whole game. (OK, haven´t visited Nihlatak with him ; )).
As always I think choose what you enjoy most atm.

[SirBeetle]

Frenzy is the best move for PVM's, but it's terrible for PVP. It's a lot easier to kill ubers with Frenzy than it is to kill them with WW, you just need to have some really good items. Honestly, I had no faster killer in general pvm than my frenzy barb.

[Cubbie]

Good to know, beetle : ) I´m still looking for my next char.

Cheers

[TheRealSpiderman]

I love my frenzy barb. I find that its not necessary to fight hordes of minions. If I get swarmed just warcry to stun em all and cut a hole to escape. This makes for efficient mfing bosses. Running really fast is always fun too.

CB with this build is sweet. I use a Ber'd Stormlash and Eth BOTD cs, dracs, gores, CoH, Arreat, string, maras. Now my gear is expensive because of building wealth from mfing, but he was successful with some rare axe i found and something else.

68 CB with the stormlash
35 OW

When I do ubers I switch to Guillames and Dual ber'd stormlashs.