Quickie Guide MF/GF Barb

[FireMarshal]

Ok, so, long ago, I had a GF barb who did alright. Then one day Magnet had a quitting day, and I managed to get his GF barb. The way I base my MF/GF barb is off his GF design. Talked to Hege last night, and said I would post a thing about my preferred style on a GF/MF Barb.



The intent of this build is not only to do Travincal, but to hit many Superuniques as well. This creates an extremely fun character to play. Maps change, you have to hunt down the monster in some cases, and you end up killing everything in your path. Use Item Find on every possible corpse.

max Mace Mastery
max WW
max BO
12+ find item
1 Berserk
x Natural Resist (as needed)
x Increased Run/Walk (preference)
1 in pre-reqs as needed

This is unfortunately a very heavy skill point build. Personally, my MF barbs have about ~5 points in Increased Run/Walk, this speeds up run times a lot. I also add some points in Natural Resist, to get all my resists up high enough, this would be determined by your gear.

Gearwise, this build relies on a few uniques, and rest are rares. The ideal gear gives a very good balance of killing speed, survival, gold find and magic find.

Ideal Gear (it is incredibly tough to find some of these things):
Weapon: Martel +2/ll/ml/ar
Head: Tarn
Armor: Goldskin
Gloves: Chance Guards
Belt: gf/fhr/life/resists
Boots: gf/mf/frw/fhr/resists
Rings: gf/ll/ml/ar/dex/str/resists/+damage
Amulet: +2/ml/dex/str/resists/+damage

One ABSOLUTE KEY thing is Life Leech. You need at least 12% or so (5 or 6 on each ring, some on weapon). Another key thing is high AR on your items, DEX helps too. In subsequent builds, I had a really hard time finding optimal gear, and had to resort to removing my Chance Guards in favor of some Rare gloves with GF/resists/leech/etc... Also, I prefer using Maces because of the supposed extra damage bonus that Barbs get. (I am not sure how this works, explanation anyone?) This extra damage offsets the odd stat placement:

Str/Vit: place the points in a 1:1 ratio
Dex: ~100-150 (due to preference, and gear)
Ene: nothing of course

Since you don't wear Angelics or sets that give AR, so you also have to put in 100 Dex or so, for AR.

Here is my typical GF/MF run works:

Bishibosh/Rakanishu/Tristram/Treehead/Bone Ash/Fire Eye/Stormtree/LK Super Chests/Battlemaid Sarina/Travincal

Sometimes I skip Bishibosh, because he is not easily found at times. Treehead can take a bit to find at times also, but sometimes you get a crazy nice drop from him, I find it worth it. Occasionally I will feel adventurous and hit up Witch Doctor Endugu (triple drop FTW). Beetleburst in the Far Oasis can be a good one too (supposedly, I have not done this one much, the Dust things are annoying). Or if you really feel like hunting, go look for Coldcrow.

The toughest fight will be Battlemaid Sarina or The Council with Mana Burn, ouch. And occasionally the council will spawn with such mods that I cannot even WW them once or I will die.

Another thing I do to keep things fun, is to kill ALL the Boss packs and Champion monsters you come across. Again, using Item Find all along as well. This is where your 1 point in Berserk will usually come in play, on the occasional Physical Immune.

I have gotten quite a few GG items overall, and I get about 500k gold each game. It is not uncommon to get few thousand gold drops from the Council Members. I also grab all the 35k armors to sell to the shop, and check the Wands and Staffs as well, a few are are worth selling to other players, a lot are worth 35k once again. After I have amassed ~3 million gold, go and gamble it all =) Most of the best gear I have found probably came from Stormtree, don't know why.



Good Luck. A GF/MF barb is hella fun, and is where I've spent the majority of my time. Much more variety than just Meph, Meph, Meph, or CS, CS, CS.... If you have any questions, I shall do my best to answer. :thumbup:

Below is one of my favorite finds of all time, it is by no means super godly, but it is pretty sweet, ended up using it on the GF barb at the time:

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t89/Fire_Marshal/D2/DoomBlazer.jpg


ps. How do I get an image to show up in a post?

[HegemonKhan]

thanks fire marshal, good write up

Also, I prefer using Maces because of the supposed extra damage bonus that Barbs get. (I am not sure how this works, explanation anyone?) This extra damage offsets the odd stat placement: -firemarshal

as far as i know the damage for marts (any mace type weapons actually) is:

mace type weapons:

1. 50% vs undead
2. highest base damage (which means highest possible damage too) for 1 handed weapons (bh=battle hammer)
3. 2nd highest base weapon damage in game (which means highest possible damage too) for 2 handed weapons (mart=martel de fer). (the spear type weapon, LANCE, has the highest for 2 handed weapons)
4. bh and mart require NO dex. this means all stat req pts for it go to str which gives u damage bonus. no wasted stat pts on dex.
5. 1.1 str bonus. NO other weapon type receives more of a damage bonus from stats. yes, 0.1 doesn't seem like a big deal of an advantage, but if u have high str, it can cause it to probably equal the greater damage of a lance even though the lance has highest base damage.
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the weapon stat damage bonuses and how they work:

weapon types (item types) and damage stat bonuses:

most melee weapons (axes, swords, spears, polearms, staves/staff/wands): 1.0 str damage bonus. (100 str = 100% EDmg. stacks with EDmg from skills.)

bow/xbow weapons: 1.0 dex damage bonus. (100 dex = 100% EDmg. stacks with EDmg from skills.)

javelins/throwing/daggers: 0.5 str/0.5 dex damage bonus. (100 str OR 100 dex OR 50 str and 50 dex = 50% EDmg. stacks with EDmg from skills

mace weapons: 1.1 str damage bonus. (100 str = 110% EDmg. stacks with EDmg from skills.)

mace/staff weapons: 50% EDmg against undead ONLY.
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what monsters give the most gold?

i know the council members (trav and doh3) give most gold (at least that seems to be the agreed info)

i presume that champions and uniques gives even more gold. correct or no ?

what about super uniques and also including act bosses ?

i presume more drops (by # of players in game and party size within 2 screens AND find item "pops") means more possible gold too. correct or no ?

[deichsela]

I wish I had the gear for such a barb, FireMarshal. Why a Martel over a One-Hand/Shield?


And since you've opened a thread, I'll post my gold find barb!

My gold find barb is currently level 65 and has +770% gold. He's only up to nm Meph so he can glitch Meph, plus I run Trav, glitch Andy, and pop cow games for more gold. Trav gives ~100-120k gold per run and nm cow games can net 300k. It's not as profitable as Hell games, but far easier since I don't have the gear for a hell gold find barb.

Important Skills:
1 Whirlwind

1 Sword Mastery
1 Iron Skin
12 Natural Resistance

20 BO
1 BC
17 Find Item


Gear:
Angelic Wings Amulet
Angelic Halo Ring
Manald Heal Ring

Tarnhelm
Patriarch
Goldskin
Patriarch
Chance Guards
Goldwrap or 75+ gold belt.

Goblin Toe when not popping
75+ gold, 30 frw boots when popping

Use a vendor bought +20 str belt to equip The Patriarchs and switch back to the gold belt.


Stats:
Str: 80
Dex: 50
Vit :Everything else
Energy: none


I've been running him for over a year and Feb9 last month, nm Trav dropped two SoJs within three hours! I feel like I've finally beaten Diablo II.

[HegemonKhan]

wow nice post deich!

my gf barb is similiar to yours, except i added str...titan in fact....since i'm using dual (2) patriarchs, hoping that with str bonus they can kill hell council members....however, i also have no life...so my barb probably wont work...but nm council members are indeed (duh) much easier.

2 sojs from nm trav in 3 hrs....sweet...think, i'm a do some nm trav runs now!

[fledgeling]

IMO you should use chanceguards, as they give much more gold (and magic find) than standard gloves. As for boots I always used hotspurrs, I preferred the +15% than occasional death.

NM travi is much harder than hell IMO, as you can die due to the the fire enchant bug.

IMO dex is not needed.

[FireMarshal]

To answer some questions:

I do use Chance Guards, unless you are talking to someone else?

DEX is needed on this build due to the lack of AR, and you WANT to hit as much as you can with all your Life Leech.

Yes, The Council clearly gives the largest gold drops, followed by champions, then bosses. Remember though, ANY monster can drop a 35k armor/weapon/etc... =) And those add up!

I've also been able to do Hell Meph too. But, the efficiency is far better on a Sorc. Whenever I run Meph on my barb, I make sure I have an item with Teleport charges to run to the 3rd level.

At times I try to CS, it IS possible, but takes a long time. Clearly the best choice for this would be a Hammerdin or a Javazon.

Just remember, Item Find cannot be used on Act Bosses, so you are better left off doing the runs I mentioned in the first post. Running around Horking everything you kill along the way.



Yes, this is a rather item specific build, but it works really really well. Hopefully some of you are able to give this build a shot, or at very least try the Superunique runs I do =)

[HegemonKhan]

Whenever I run Meph on my barb, I make sure I have an item with Teleport charges to run to the 3rd level. -fire marshal

i presume u ment either on your sorc, or for LOD, but this is classic forum and classic has no item skill charge items :D
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ty, fledgling, i forgot about the bugged nm geleb and the resulting FED (fire explosion death).

does anyone know the FED's range (it would work if u used frenzy instead. but if using ww...it can be hard to stay out of range) so one could use a long enough weapon(s) to avoid FED ?
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also, for making a precise gf/mf hell council member build:

how much damage do u need to do for "killing them with reasonable speed" with ww ? what damage does ww need to do to kill hell council members respectfully quick ?

same question, but in regards, to your AR and your clvl ??

[FireMarshal]

i presume u ment either on your sorc, or for LOD, but this is classic forum and classic has no item skill charge items :D

also, for making a precise gf/mf hell council member build:

how much damage do u need to do for "killing them with reasonable speed" with ww ? what damage does ww need to do to kill hell council members respectfully quick ?

same question, but in regards, to your AR and your clvl ??


Yes, you are correct, those charges were on my LoD GF barb. :crazyeyes:

Damagewise, and AR wise, I honestly cannot remember the stats, its been over a year since I saw them. And my current barb is only level 22 :jig: I did start Travving at about level 60 or so though, and leveled up that way. :thumbup:

[HegemonKhan]

i ment what ww damage, AR, clvl, life, and resists is needed to kill hel council members fast and without dying ?

this is so that i or others can appropriate stat points and gear accordingly !!!

for example for the damage:

if i use a "x sword" and it does let's say 100 damage and i have slvl 20 ww for about 100% EDmg and slvl 20 sword mastery for about 100% EDmg and let's say i need to do 400 ww damage to kill hell council members reasonably fast, than i'd only need 100 str for 100% EDmg to get 400 damage ww and the rest of my stats can go into vit. so that i don't waste more stats than i need to into str

same such example for chance to hit (AR and clvl)

same such example for how much life and resistances do i need to never die
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hopefully this makes sense and is clearer in what i ment to mean

[FireMarshal]

No, I understand.

The answer is as I said, I cannot remember. I can remember what skills and such to use, but not the numbers that you are asking for. It's been too long since I've played.

=)

[HegemonKhan]

err, my bad. my mis-understanding.

i wasn't directly asking u though, just threw this out there, in hopes some one would know or find out for me :D

[Fists of War]

i ment what ww damage, AR, clvl, life, and resists is needed to kill hel council members fast and without dying ?

this is so that i or others can appropriate stat points and gear accordingly !!!

for example for the damage:

if i use a "x sword" and it does let's say 100 damage and i have slvl 20 ww for about 100% EDmg and slvl 20 sword mastery for about 100% EDmg and let's say i need to do 400 ww damage to kill hell council members reasonably fast, than i'd only need 100 str for 100% EDmg to get 400 damage ww and the rest of my stats can go into vit. so that i don't waste more stats than i need to into str

same such example for chance to hit (AR and clvl)

same such example for how much life and resistances do i need to never die
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hopefully this makes sense and is clearer in what i ment to mean
Trav is one of the hardest areas in the game, and as such it's pretty hard to be "invincible" even at level 80+ with high damage (a good mart) and high leech/resists.

To have relatively stress free runs, as high a level as possible (80+), maxed resists, 10-15% leech, decent damage (~170 str with a 150%+ ed martel and max ww/mace mastery) are all good.

Not sure I'd add strength for damage, unless you have godly defence and resist gear.

[HegemonKhan]

Trav is one of the hardest areas in the game, and as such it's pretty hard to be "invincible" even at level 80+ with high damage (a good mart) and high leech/resists.

To have relatively stress free runs, as high a level as possible (80+), maxed resists, 10-15% leech, decent damage (~170 str with a 150%+ ed martel and max ww/mace mastery) are all good.

Not sure I'd add strength for damage, unless you have godly defence and resist gear.

and do this with good amounts of GF/MF......i seek how to do the impossible :D can anyone help ?

[TraderScope]

I have had zero luck with Stormtree so far. My build is similar to yours btw :)

[Fists of War]

and do this with good amounts of GF/MF......i seek how to do the impossible :D can anyone help ?
You just have to be wary of the council, not run in foolhardedly, and make sure you have juvs ready. You can build up to hell trav with the other superuniques mentioned, which will get you some gear and experience.

[Lorg]

and do this with good amounts of GF/MF......i seek how to do the impossible :D can anyone help ?

Its not possible to do it and survive all the time. This is the reason why in HC there are not very many gfers around -> hence dropping the trade value of martels to 1/5 of soft value (ofcourse less dueling affects the prices also).

[TraderScope]

I'm running Travi and end up dying (on average) once every 20 runs. I always try to look for the fire + lightning enchanted councils and try not to hit them with WW but to kill them last with berserk ( I got one point in it). Sometimes this is very hard if there's much crowding :/

I have soon to be lvl 84 (Mainly travi and flayer runs), max lit, poison and fire resists, 1024-1689 WW dmg (with a 264 martel, 245 AR. +1-15 lit dmg.) and 2486 Life.
My other gear is:

- Chancies, goldskin, Tarnhelm, Goldwrap
- 5ll, 12 str, lr 28, fr 25
- 1max, 5% AR, 4ml, 39 mana, fr 24, 5 lit radius
- 30frw, LR 21, 53% Extra Gold, 19 MF
- 2 barb, 6 ml, lr 19, pr 39, psn lenght 75

That ring with ml should be replaced with one having ll in the near future..I have to see if I have some ll ring with LR + ar somewhere on my mules :)

[HegemonKhan]

stat points (str, dex, vit, nrg) amount/placements ?

i can kinda tell generally (with the amount of life u mentioned) but i'd like the actual amounts (non-gear enhanced. hard points into them).

[Fists of War]

and do this with good amounts of GF/MF......i seek how to do the impossible :D can anyone help ?
The easiest way is to sacrifice mf/gf for "survival" mods and then make it up either with 2x Gull or 2x Patriarch when you pop.

Had another idea for this build this morning, you could use a tri-dura lance instead, full reqs would be fine. Then you'd have the dex for AR, range 5 and comparable damage, not to mention something different. I've also heard of people using exes which gives them the dex for patriarchs.

[FireMarshal]

Had another idea for this build this morning, you could use a tri-dura lance instead, full reqs would be fine. Then you'd have the dex for AR, range 5 and comparable damage, not to mention something different. I've also heard of people using exes which gives them the dex for patriarchs.

This pretty much was the case 5+ years ago, everyone was using Lances. :crazyeyes:

Not a bad idea though. I still like Martels though. The smaller min-max damage difference makes me feel more consistent.

Now, a Grim Scythe would be nifty, requires 140dex, so that's a huge chunk of AR there. Plus, the min-max damage difference isn't too bad. Not to mention the Style points you get. :cloud9:

[WarlockCC]

When going for exact reqs, you need the same amount of statpoints for a grim scythe as for a exec.
grim scythe = 140 (str) + 140 (dex) = 280 statpoints.
exec = 170 (str) + 110 (str) = 280 statpoints.

Grim scythe has range 5, but less damage then a exec.
Exec has range 3, same as a mart.

[HegemonKhan]

this has always annoyed me.

mace (mart/bh): 169/100 stat points (169/100 str). 1.1 str damage bonus. 2nd highest damage/1st highest damage. range 3/1. mart and bh are slow.

axe (AA/naga): 125/121 stat points (125/121 str). weak damage (and these are A-X-E-S...GRRRR). range 4/3. AA is slow. naga is normal? speed

spear (lance): 198 stat points (110 str and 88 dex). highest damage. range 5. but slow

polearm (grim/boc de corbin): 280/? stat points !!!! (140 str and 140 dex/?). weak damage/slightly less weak damage (and these are "axes" on poles/sticks...GRR). range 5/4 (thanks for correction lorg on bec de corbin range). but grim is very fast. boc de corbin is slow though.

sword (2h exe/1h exe/Ancient/Rune): 280 stat points !!!! (170 str and 110 dex/170 str and 110 dex/?/?). about the same weak damage as axes. range 3/3/?/?. fast speed.

the weapons specs are very badly done, IMO.
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based on the weapons specs:

ww: mace or spear and in only some situations axe (mainly some bvb type builds may use/prefer axes)

for non-ww (where weapon speed is needed/matters): sword or grim polearm.

for 1 handed weapon skills (like frenzy or bvb-shield-ww): axe (naga) or mace (bh) or MAYBE sword (not sure on the stat reqs and range for ancient and rune swords)

[Fists of War]

When going for exact reqs, you need the same amount of statpoints for a grim scythe as for a exec.
grim scythe = 140 (str) + 140 (dex) = 280 statpoints.
exec = 170 (str) + 110 (str) = 280 statpoints.

Grim scythe has range 5, but less damage then a exec.
Exec has range 3, same as a mart.
Also, going 1-handed has many benefits...a shield for huge survivability or a gull for 100% mf when you're actually killing. I reckon both look pretty cool as well.

[HegemonKhan]

can anyone help, if it is possible anyways, with making a barb that can do hell council members with full gf gear (dual-2 patriarchs and their low damage, chancegaurd, goldskin, goldwrap, tarn, rare/magical gf rings, rare/magical gf amulet, rare/magical gf boots) meaning that u can kill hell council members reasonably fast being able to delivery good damage and have a high to hit chance AND not dying ??

my challenge to anyone who wants to help me and take on this challenge ?

what stats and skills, do u use, if it is even possible to achieve this ?

how much str do u need for your dual-2 patriarchs to be able to kill hell council members reasonably fast ?

how much dex do u need for a good to hit chance, without the AR help from angelics ?

how much vit do u need to stay alive and not die ?

will not enough resists be the ultimate barrier to such a build or u can get enough resists, ONLY with godly rares of the few spaces u have for rares with using full gf gear ?

as for the skills, there's only two rules/requirements: the skills allow u to kill hel council members reasonbly fast and without dying AND u have 20 into find item skill. u CAN use frenzy or ww, i don't care jsut long as it works, if possible anyways.

[TraderScope]

mace (mart/bh): 169/100 stat points (169/100 str). 1.1 str damage bonus. 2nd highest damage/1st highest damage. range 3/1. mart and bh are slow.

axe (AA/naga): 125/121 stat points (125/121 str). weak damage (and these are A-X-E-S...GRRRR). range 4/3. AA is slow. naga is normal? speed

spear (lance): 198 stat points (110 str and 88 dex). highest damage. range 5. but slow

I always thought that marts are range 2, Execs range 2, AA's range 3, Bec-De Corbins range 4 (polearm) and lances range 4?

how much dex do u need for a good to hit chance, without the AR help from angelics ?

Base dex. If you want AR/dex you can get some from gear. Aim some 200 stats points to str and rest to vita.

as for the skills, there's only two rules/requirements: the skills allow u to kill hel council members reasonbly fast and without dying...

Are you thinking of doing this build for HC? I think it's vital to get 12ll and lots of +life gear in order to survive the occasional enchanted fire+lit councils. I don't mind the rare deaths in softcore though as the barb is not meant to level up but to gold find and MF. HE still gains reasonable good exp (soon lvl 84) altough dying once in a while. I would say I make about 300k per run (from selling the dropped rares and looting the coins), which is without GF rings..

[Lorg]

I always thought that marts are range 2, Execs range 2, AA's range 3, Bec-De Corbins range 4 (polearm) and lances range 4?

Base dex. If you want AR/dex you can get some from gear. Aim some 200 stats points to str and rest to vita.

Are you thinking of doing this build for HC? I think it's vital to get 12ll and lots of +life gear in order to survive the occasional enchanted fire+lit councils. I don't mind the rare deaths in softcore though as the barb is not meant to level up but to gold find and MF. HE still gains reasonable good exp (soon lvl 84) altough dying once in a while. I would say I make about 300k per run (from selling the dropped rares and looting the coins), which is without GF rings..

Well previous posts were right. Exec is 3, AA 4, Becs are 4 like u said but grim scythes have 5 eventhought they are polearms and lance has 5...

Hege.. For marts 2k ar seems to be ok but for lower avg dmg weapons i would defenetly go over 3k... So dex amount is highly dependant of your gear... Aim for 3.5k- 4k Althought my old exe gfer had 4k IIRC and with 110 dex (full req) and it was pretty good.

Furthermore, i can't even think about dual patriarch wielding hell trav runner. Must be horrible :)
going 1 h is not that bad choice in hc. But in soft 2h is the way to go...

[HegemonKhan]

well traderscope could be right as well in terms of range. jsut depends how u look at it:

lance as a total range of 5. 1 (character size) + 4 (lance length) = 5 range

when i say range, i do so for total range (i include the character size of 1). traderscope could be saying his range just for the weapon's length beyond or excluding your character size.

here's the post/thread, that has the link for weapon range and range/spacing of d2:

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=704461&highlight=range

ach it seems they lost the info about range on the site..sorry.