untiwnked frenzy gear?

[muthu]

Hi, im currently building frenzy barb for ubers/key finding. My gear is quite limited, currently finding gear for it at hell meph with my sorc.
Can you suggest any budget gear for me? Anything that can drop from hell meph.
I got 2x 3socket PB, would cresent moon be good for it? Also ive found pair of gore riders. Thanks in advance.

[frenzy kujaku]

Are you on ladder or non-ladder?

If you are on ladder, it's ending soon, so wait for a restart. However, if you are still going ahead, I have listed some options. Some can be found on non ladder. They are by no means the only options you have. I cannot determine what is considered as budget gear for you. I have tried running ubers with a super cheap smiter build using nothing beyond the exceptional uniques and orginal runewords. It did not work. Uberring requires certain quality items which can be considered as budget to some, expensive to some and astronomical to others. More importantly, you have to decide whether you want to go the life tap or decrepify way if you are wielding swords. For a good breakdown of the weapons and strategy to use for a frenzy barb, please refer to the in-depth Spankeh's guide on frenzy barbs (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=540653).

Primary weapons:
1) Cresent moon sounds good. But the problem is the lack of CB. The OW will help alot though. I will not pin too much hope on the Ctc static field when upped against ubers.

2) Bul-kathos set colossus blade has CB and all resist. So it may be helpful if you are gunning for items that you can find.

3) Kingslayer (Mal Um Gul Fal) is a good option because it has CB, OW and -25% Target def and 20% AR. However, Mal and Gul may be on the slighly expensive side but it is not difficult to get. You can find these runes from hell forges.

4) LW, Death, eBOTD etc... Read Spank's guide if you can find or afford these.

Conclusion: if you are gunning for a fast one, crescent moon and Kingslayer are a possible 'cheaper' combinations. However I have not tested these weapons before as I play mostly axe frenzy. I will update this when my chars are shifted to non-ladder.

Seconday weapons (weapon switch):
1) Decrepify: If you are going the decrepify way, 3socket PB is great for Lawbringer 'Amn Lem Ko'. Dual Lawbringer PBs are a start. They are for Ctc decrepify. Check out Spank's guide.

2) Lifetap: If you cannot find draculs and cannot trade for an LW, then a Lifetap wand+ any all resist shield. You can shop for these or pick up the rare wands you find. For the shield, use moser shield.

3) Teleport: If you cannot get an Enigma for key runs, go for Naj's Puzzler staff or Spellsteel axe. They have teleport charges on them. However, they are expensive to repair after a while.

Armour:
1) For all resist: Smoke (Nef Lum) in any light elite armour is a good item to get 50 all resist.

2) For high CB: Duress (Shael Um Thul). Good against Baal and Diablo but the lack of resist may pose a problem with Meph. Fortitude sounds good too, although you need a Lo for that.

3) A really cheap option is Black Hades socketed with any IAS jewels or %ed jewels that you can find. But that will not work against Meph.

4) COH (ubers) or Enigma (for mini-uber or key runs). If you can find or afford it.

Conclusion: I will go for a Smoke for that all resist when up against Uber Meph. For all other ubers and miniuber, any decent runeword or elite armour will do fine.

Helm:
1) Arreats (against Meph)
2) Gullimare's face (against Baal and Diablo or mini-ubers)
3) Kiras (if you are really short of all resist when against Meph)
4) Veil of Steel is not a bad option either if you can find it.

Conclusion: Arreats shouldn't be difficult to find. Gullimare's face will be even easier.

Gloves:
1) Laying of Hands.
2) Draculs if you are going the lifetap way.

Conclusion: I wear LOH since I am a Beast/LW, Dual Death on switch frenzy barb. LOH should be dropping plenty.

Boots:
Gore riders since you already found it. If not, Goblin's toe works well too.

Belt:
1) For DR, Strings. Dungos is possibly more expensive.
2) For Str/IAS, Nos coil
3) For Str/Vits, Thundergods.
4) For CBF (if you can't find ravenfrost), Trang's Belt but I don't think that is cheap to get.

Conclusion: Strings is a good option and it's not hard to find. Thundergods will work well for that lightning absorb and it isn't hard to find either.

Amulet:
1) For all resist: Saracen's Chance. Mara's will be the best here.
2) For IAS: Cat's Eye. Highlords is another option.
3) For AR: Angelic amulet: Wear with angelic ring. Come together.

Conclusion: Against Meph I will wear Saracen if I don't have Maras. Or any high all resist amulet. Skills are not important here. Against all others, I will wear Cat's eye, although highlords work as well if you can find it. For starters or if low AR, wear angelic amulet.

Ring:
1) Any rare rings that has a combination of all resist, +AR, life, maxdam, +str, +dex, +life leech or +mana leech. You can gamble for these.
2) Ravenfrost if it's considered cheap.
3) Angelic ring: Pair with amulet.

Conclusion: Ravenfrost and a rare ring are good. For starters or if low AR, wear angelic rings (x2 is fine).

Prebuff equipment:

1) 2x +3Warcry sticks, +3 warcry helm, +3 warcry amulet. These can be shopped from vendors or pick up ALL magical sticks, barb helms or amulet that you find.
2) DemonLimb. Shouldn't be hard to find.
3) Treachery (Shael Thul Lem) Breastplate. Low defense in this armor helps to get your Ctc fade faster.

Inventory:

As usual, anni and btorch but more importantly, wear charms with the following attributes:

1) +Ar
2) +life
3) +max damage
4) +all resist
5) +dex
6) +str
7) +fhr
8) +skills

There you have it. A list of possible but not limiting items. There are other item combinations possible and different players have their personal opinions on this. You will have to do your own testings to customise your found items to your requirements. Please also read Spankeh's guide first before deciding on how to develop your frenzy barb.

All the best for your frenzy barb.

Cheers

Frenzy Kujaku

[muthu]

Thanks alot
Very decent post :)

[jhtvman]

Amulet:
1) For all resist: Saracen's Chance. Mara's will be the best here.
Bad idea. Saracen's Iron Maiden will most definitely interfere with other curses you're trying to use. Don't use it unless you want to die repeatedly.

[frenzy kujaku]

1) IM on Saracen's Chance. That is a good point there, Jhtv. I am using this amulet for my half-built smiter. I did not notice the IM overriding the Lifetap on the ubers because as you know, smiters are autohitting machines. So my lifetap always triggers back and my smiter doesn't die. However, for a frenzy barb, this amulet may not be a good idea since frenziers are not autohitting. You are right in this aspect.

Muthu, any all resist amulet will be good for you against meph. Also if you are wearing 2x 15 all resist gc, or equivalent, that will replace the need of maras and you can wear cat's eye, highlords or angelic set.

A barb has tonnes of life compared to other builds. You will possibly get a minimum of 3.3k after BO even if you don't have any prebuff gears. That is sufficient to beat down the ubers. I know because 1) I can beat them down with just slightly over 3.5k (although I usually prebuff to 4-4.5k), 2) my kicksin+friend's zealer took them down without BO. Ultimately, for a frenzy barb, regardless of curses type or weapon type you decide to go with, only four attributes need to be considered, max or stacked if possible, to really beat down the ubers. I have placed them from the highest (1) to lowest piority (4).

1) Attack Rating: You need to hit them first to kill them. If you can't hit them, you can't kill them. Neither can you leech back life from life leech or life tap if you can't touch them. Give priority to +AR in your inventory. A good percentage of chance to hit ubers is >70. Anything more is considered good.

2) Crushing blow: 100% is great if you can hit that. More is good because every hit that you connect will have the crushing blow animation. For example, Beast/LW+Gullimare+gore (>100% CB on LW) that I wear, makes Baal and D look like wussies.

3) All resistances: Having stack resistance to +300 is only necessary against Meph, which always poses as a problem with gear setup. As a frenzy barb, you will not be facing physical damage from minions as you can HOWL that away. The two types of damage you will receive are from the 1) Vampire Lords fireball/meteor, Skelly elemental+arrows attack, 2) Ubers attack. Hence, stacked all resistances will take care of your survival against most damages.

4) Opening wounds: Even a small % of OW is great because Ubers have high speed regeneration, and OW takes care of that for you. You need not max this but you should have this in your items. Without OW, you may find it hard to land the finishing blow on the ubers. Gore is one good item with CB and OW.

Of course there are alot of other attributes you need to balance out, i.e. IAS, %ed, DR, fhr, etc... But the abovementioned attributes takes precedence over the rest in terms of fire power and survivability.

Cheers
Frenzy Kujaku