Planning on a Frenzybarb: any advice on gear?

[madrettorrR]

Hi!

I'm planning to make a new Frenzybarb. The last one I made was -kind of- a failure so I want to be sure this one is going to be good. It's going to be a swordFrenzier. So I have a few questions about my gearselection. It doesn't have to be the perfect Frenzier (I don't feel like a 2 Grief PB or Grief/Last Wish combo), but it should be easily viable in Hell. I've underlined the items I have doubts about.

Gear
Weapon 1: eBotD CB
Weapon 2: eDeath CS
Helmet: Arreats socketed with a Ber or Guilhaumes socketed with a Ber?
Armor: What to use? Chains of Honor? Duress? Fortitude?
Belt: Verdungo's or String of Ears
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Angelic ring or Raven Frost?
Amulet: Angelic Amulet or Highlords?
Gloves: Dracul's (need Lifetap, OW).
Boots: Gore Riders or upped Goblintoe?
Switch: Bo weapons or Lacerators?

Stash: Anni, Torch, Treachery, Demon Limb

[vic]

Helm: arreats (with 15IAS - see belt - 15all resist if you going to ubbers, 40ED if not)
Amor: Duress ou Forti (pre buff treachery if you going to ubbers)
Ring: dual raven or raven and rare/craf life/mana leech and resist, str, dex ring
amulet: Highlords ou metalgrid (metalgrid to ubbers)
------ of course use angelic combo if u aren't happy with your AR, but I like AR charms ----
boots: gore rider of course!!!
switch: boo weapons. If you use dual lacerators for amplify damage, draculs will override amp with lifetap, so draculs or lacerators)
belt: nosferatu's to get 5.5fpa (with 15IAS on arreats)... with no IAS on gear you'll hit 6fpa. I prefer nosferatu's...

[madrettorrR]

Hey Vic!

Thanks for answering!

I'm wondering, do I really need the Nos'coil to get to 5.5 fpa?
There is already 60% IAS on the eBotD and 20% IAS on the Highlords. So I need a lvl 27 Frenzy to give me a 5.5 fpa. So I need 7 points from my gear with the skill maxed. These extra 7 points shouldn't be a problem (+1 Battle Command, +3 from torch, +1 from anni, +1 from Highlords, +4 from Arreats, etc). I don't even have to get the 15% IAS from the jewel in the Arreats. Or is my calculation wrong?

Gear
Weapon 1: eBotD CB
Weapon 2: eDeath CS
Helmet: Arreats socketed with a Ber or an Um?
Armor: I'll get to this one later.
Belt: Verdungo's
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Raven Frost
Amulet: Highlords
Gloves: Dracul's
Boots: Gore Riders
Switch: Bo weapons

Stash: Anni, Torch, Treachery, Demon Limb

This should give me 65 Crushing Blow, approx. 85 Deadly Strike, 35 Open Wounds and 40 Faster Hit Recovery.

So lets see what benefit the different types of armor will give:
Duress will give me: 80 Crushing Blow, approx. 85 Deadly Strike, 68 Open Wounds and 80 Faster Hit Recovery
Fortitude will give me nice resistances and a huge damagebonus.
Chains of Honor will give me a lot of resistances, some damage reduction and +2 skills.

At the moment I'm doubting between Duress and CoH. Anyone got advice on this one?

[donshi]

Depends on what you plan to do with your barb really. Duress if more offensive, COH more defensive. You'd probably want COH for ubers. But imo, for general pvm-ing an enigma would be best.

Oh and as someone pointed out to me earlier, using lacerators and dracul's would cancel curses out, so you need to change either 1.

If you can find the res you need elsewhere, BER > UM for your helm obviously. Save that decision for last after you've collected everything.

[madrettorrR]

@donshi: Thanks for the advice (eventhough I already heard about the lacerator curse thingie from vic ;) ).

But about the Enigma. I'm wondering, why prefer an Enigma over a Chains of Honor? Both have +2 skills, 8% DR. The big difference is Enigma's 45FRW and strength vs CoH gigantic resistance bonus. Is the choice for Enigma totally based on the ability to teleport?

btw, if I would choose Enigma, would it be better to change my belt for an arachnids and swap the Bo sticks for a pair of dual Wizardspikes?

[jhtvman]

Most of the reason why Enigma is a good choice is the teleport, but damage to mana is useful for ensuring that you've always got a good supply, and it's got pretty high magic find as well. But yeah, the convenience of teleport can't be overstated. I didn't really think Enigma was all that great before I got one, but now that I have one, I don't even touch my COH or my Fort unless I'm ubering.

As for your belt, Verdungo's is definitely the best option for a frenzier. Huge vita boost, nice damage reduction and a little bit of fhr puts it above the rest.

[vic]

You're right! With frenzy lvl 27 and ebotdCB, you need 20IAS on gear to hit 5.5fpa..
For ubbers bre buff treachery and duress (75all - cold 105 - and 15% Damage Reduced) is better than COH (65all and 8% DR).......... and very more cheap.

[neno]

I'd never use verdungo's over string... verdungo's ~90 life is not worth ~7% LL.

[donshi]

@donshi: Thanks for the advice (eventhough I already heard about the lacerator curse thingie from vic ;) ).

But about the Enigma. I'm wondering, why prefer an Enigma over a Chains of Honor? Both have +2 skills, 8% DR. The big difference is Enigma's 45FRW and strength vs CoH gigantic resistance bonus. Is the choice for Enigma totally based on the ability to teleport?

btw, if I would choose Enigma, would it be better to change my belt for an arachnids and swap the Bo sticks for a pair of dual Wizardspikes?

CoH definitely provides a better defense than Enigma. Enigma simply has the teleport (although teleport can definitely be used for defensive purposes). It depends on what you plan to do with your frenzybarb really. If you're going to be doing easy tasks, like 1 player key running or pits running, you don't really need the defense provided by CoH AND you can reduce some killing speed and get an arachnids mesh + 2 wizardspikes. If you were doing ubers, this would be a different case.

My suggestion is to carry these items on switch, if you plan to use your barb for multiple purposes.

[shuy]

Theoretically best weapons would be Botd + LW. For Uber runs I like either Azure + LW, what really helps vs Vampires and ghosts, althought decrease dmg vs bosses.

Anyway 3 auras (might, sanctuary, Meph conviction) + meteors from Vampires, inferno from lords and another fireworks can collapse your game quite often. "Connection interrupted" is very annoying and happens more often then you expect.

I think your first choice was the best.