Beginner Barb - howto?

[Alash]

I'm not a beginner in the sense that I don't understand the game or its mechanics; my problem is a more materialistic one. I recently began playing hardcore and find myself with next to no gear. For what it's worth, I do have Isenhart's set equipped (the girls love it I'm told), but that's about it.

My question is, which build is survivable without twinked gear and lasting also in the later parts of the game? The ones I got on SC don't seem to work without their items (Singer, IK Whirlwinder etc).

Thanks in advance.

[Unholy_VI]

there is very good info on starting out

and building an item base in HC in the FAQ stickied in this forum. But since you asked I'll give my unholy opinion:

There are 3 classes I can recommend unreservedly for a first character in you HC stable.

1) the skellemancer (some call it a fishymancer)
2) The traps assassin (this one is a pain in the rear until level 24 at which point it turns from Pee Wee Herman into the Terminator.
3) holy frost or holy fire paladin with 1 point in zeal.

what they all have in common:

They can all be done very cheaply, have a low risk playing style, and can wear lots of MF gear without gimping themselves overmuch at least in normal and nightmare. Since you are looking to build a starting item base for your other projects this is ideal.

The skellymancer is the safest option and the one I use the most (I've started up in hardcore on pretty much every realm at least 2 times over the years). Since raise skeleton and skel mastry are level 1 abilities you can make the character, go to a cow game that's been up for a while, run into the red portal grab a bunch of random crap, sell it, rinse and repeat and have enough gold to shop for a wand with +5 or if you are lucky +6 total in raise skel/skel mastrey. Heads with + to RS and SM drop regularly in act 1 as well.

The traps assassin does ungodly amounts of lightning damage from level 24 on. it also has other nice skills and a castable minion that helps a bunch. right now I have one level 35 that I plan to start running nm countess with a in few levels for insight runeword. This character has a mana potion habit that is ridiculous.

the paladin. I did a holy fire one as a starting character on Europe and I love it. rhyme shield, gull dagger, and it just tears up everything in normal diff and act1 NM with ease. I've pulled a bunch of decent runes out of the countess and found quite a bit of unique and set items from NM andy and the bosses in normal diff. also rushing new characters to act 5 is a snap.

I've had a holy freeze paladin before as well and there is nothing not to like about that either.

[MYK]

Frenzy or Double Swing are both cool builds for a Barbarian.

It's already a little later in the ladder, so people have MFed until their eyes bled, and then MFed some more. It's not too tough to get two elite uniques for pgems. Unless you're opposed to trading, then it's a bit tougher.

[Raith]

the pally wont kill anything tbh. fishymancer is your best bet. it runs through hell easy.