New Barbarian, Just Starting Out

[FionordeQuester]

So, I want to be a Barbarian, and I'd like to PvP someday, so I'm just wondering, what should I be focusing on as I go through the game? I've read like every single guide I could find on the Whirlwind Barb, but absolutely none of them give any help on what you should do as your going through the game (besides when to put points in skills).

I don't have any other characters, this barbarian is truely my only character, so I'm not going to be able to use any of the "twinking" equipment like Sigs or anything like that (unless someone were to give it to me). I've got nothing. So, any help or advice (especially on equipment, using maces by the way), would be greatly appreciated!

[Barloc]

Soloing D2 for the first time with a Barb is a courageous task. Unfortunately, most guides are geared toward folks with already established accounts, and "rush" their characters through the game.

As a matter of fact, I've seen many people say that a character like a Sorc is a good choice for a first character, since they have damages based on skills which are less item dependant. Plus they have teleport, which makes magic-find runs alot easier.

If you chose to solo, all the more power to you though. Try not to be ultra focused on to many issues because ultimately, you may want to remake another more powerful character later on. What I mean is, Things like torch/anni that can add up to 80 stat points, or even enigma which adds Huge str. will not be available to you. So if you build yourself up without good stat-point gear, you'll find yourself adding these points in manually as you lvl up, which will take away from your vitality bonuses.

Anyway, as you begin, I would focus on your Mastery and 1 pt wonder skills until you can get Battle Orders, which I would max. Mace is a good PvM skill, not much for PvP (axes probably #1 for PvP, swords #2 imo). You should also try some of the low runewords that are available. You can farm low runes by killing the countess.

Also, watch out for your resist. Higher res armor is much better then defensive armor when its PvM especially. You could find some interesting low set/uniques, but alot of them are garbage - Better to have low elemental runes for resist (ort,ral,thul,tal) in plain ol' socketed armour then most of em. Also- save life+resist charms.

If your going to go shielded, you'll protect your life more but at the expense of lower damage. Also, you'll have to spend alot of Dex to do that- taking from life and possible str for damage. If you're going to go shielded, don't pump your dex beyond the sheilds ability to block. So if your sheild is only 45% to block, don't add dex to make it over 45%. Eld runes are a good cheap way to add block%, Perf diamonds are a great way to add resist in shields.

Now with WW, you'll need leech (life/mana steal). If you don't find good leech items, save gold/gamble for rings. Sometimes you can even buy gloves from vendors that have a lil leach on them. Another cool thing are crafted items, you can roll crafts for leach and even some axes if you have no luck with getting good weapons.

As far as items go,eventually, you will find useful items to keep you alive. You will also find items that are good, that you have no use for at all = TRADE. IK pieces, duriels shell, whitstans guard, gimmershred axe are examples of real cheap items that you could even kill Hell Baal with (I used these solo in patch 1.10 with a Conc barb). Those are good examples of good stat/res items that should be easy to get.

One final note about WW. When you use this skill, IAS (increased attack speed) only matters when the bonuses are on the item itself. So IAS on gloves,armor,jewelry,etc will do nothing for your ability to hit faster. Of course with switch skills like conc/berzerk, you do get the added bonuses.

Good luck

[IVfluids]

There are a ton of useful items for barbs that don't require you to spend a ton of money either. You just have to accept the fact that they are not top end items and they won't be as efficient at killing as a high demand unique or runeword.

If you are on USWest, I will help you get some gear that is useful though as I may have some stuff laying around that could help you out.

If your looking at trading for a few items on the cheap end just to kill monsters, most of these items in this thread will cost you mainly pgems: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=708143

I might update my cheapo barb build guide that I made quite some time ago as there seems to be more new players trying to get by in the game. I got ripped on a bit for it as it wasn't the perfect guide (was my first and only one) but I can swear to you that I managed in hell with it just fine and did it on the cheap end of things.

I'll definitely take all the opinions people gave me in that thread and the other one so that it opens up a bit more options for those just trying to get by.

[Khagan]

My first serious b.net character was a blizz sorc, she mf'ed and found items useful for my characters or useful to trade for items useful to me.

With a barb, it will be very hard, but might be possible. The most funny barb build I know of is Gold Finder barb, but I don't thnik it's makable if you want to do the entire game by yourself, alone.