hey guys. I just steamrolled thru normal on my barb. but the transition into nm is terrifying. my ar is something like 50-55%. with me missing so much i cant leech any life or mana or anything. I die so easily its not even funny. I only do single player, and never go on bnet. here's an outline of my stats and gear:
level 42
str 105
dex 94
vit 86
eng 10
skill points:
bash 20
double swing 3
whirlwind 12
stun 1
conc 1
increased stamina 1
iron skin 1
resistance 2
1 point into warcrys that lead to battle orders
other stats: dmg on ds (84-308 222-407)
ww dmg (80-216 167-306)
defense: 648
resistances all above 50
merc: act 2 defensive
I know my build is stupid, putting so much in bash and using basically nothing but double swing and ww. how do i go about fixing this?? I just cant seem to find a solid 2 handed axe or sword or poleaxe etc. i have a hard time finding stuff in normal that even compares to my gear, so finding something that would better fit me is a hard time. I have unlocked the stat re-do in nightmare, but I wanted to hear some recommendations first. what kind of barb should i be building? ww, conc, etc. I've played d2 since I was 15 but never went beyond normal. Id like a type of barb that can just sit in the middle of a mob and smash his way thru. just real tanky and really dangerous. i love double swing but i now realize that its not going to cut it at all in nightmare. my stash is full of runes (mostly low levels thru thul) and a bunch of other gems etc. i wear ancient armor, have 2 rings that give me life steal, my circlet gives 50 poision dmg as well as a ton of resistances as do my gloves and boots.
hi and welcome to this forum
what does your gear really look like?
if youŽre playing in patch 1.13 you can use the respec-quest-reward from completing the den of evil quest in act 1 to change your stat and skill placement. whirlwind is the most powerful barb-skill once you have a solid weapon, until then consider making a berserker-barb. if you like double swing you could also try a frenzier. double swing doesnŽt require any mana once you reach skill level 9 btw.
the guide is pretty much still up to date, except for the increased rune drop rate of the last patch.
your best bet is to farm norm baal for weapons. once you have something like butchers pupil or steeldriver your set for the rest of the game. however your damage looks decent enough and shouldnŽt be too bad for early nightmare.
for stats you should go for str/dex enough for gear rest into vit. once you reach something like 3 k life, put the rest into str for more damage.
skills depend on the build, but max battle order for sure and put one point into the weapon mastery of your weapon. max that once you know that this will be your weapon for a longer period of time.
if you have spare craft runes and gems, you should consider crafting rings and blood boots and belts. on the rings look for ar. another option to solve your ar-problem is partial set bonuses which grant ar/lvl. angelic ring and amu, hsarus boots and belt, sigons helmet with any other part of the set - belt would be the best imo (that also gives 10%ll)
if you can handle it go back to normal baal and use the /players8 command to increase the xp gained, at your level your xp should fly up to level 50 in an hourish on players8 baal runs.
I recommend respeccing to frenzy, with just a little mana steal and chugging the odd blue beer your mana bulb should be ok during frenzy, get double swing up to level 9 for free swings and use that to leech mana back.
hey guys, thanks for the replies. heres a pic of my gear (sorry for not having photoshop skills)
looking at krupa's post, following his instruction, when i respec/etc and go into nightmare, should i just not worry about having a low ar? and just outlive anyone bc i have a ton of hp?
I guess i'll add whats the best/easiest build to use to finish the entire solo player game (nightmare, then hell) I know some builds are more along the lines of PvP but im only doing PvM because I lost my cd key for LOD and am using one that wont let me sign on to bnet. should I just pay the $10 and have blizzard send me another cd key so i can get on?
one more quick question. what kind of set up should I be using on a zerker barb, ie sword/sheild, 2handed sword, giant 2 handed weapon etc. should I look for fast attack speed, slow etc??
tldr what kind of weapons should each type of barb be looking for?? (ww, zerk, frenzy)
the barbs basic strategy is to have more hp than could be taken away from him, specially since he leeches a lot. so yes you should simply outlive anything cause you have a ton of hp
but seriously having decent chance to hit is a necessity. two ways of achieving it: being over-leveled when entering nm or having good equipment. both can be achieved by running normal baal. as i posted above look for the partial set bonuses i mentioned or gamble/craft/reroll rings, which are the best source for ar. eth runes in the weapons or flat out -% enemy defense on them works wonders too.
but there is also a skill that lowers the defense of monsters by 50+ %, so you could rely on that skill (the effect will not show up in the char screen, which will still calculate your chance to hit with the normal defense of the monster). the skill is called battle cry and should be used frequently.
iŽm not sure how alive battle.net is, but the single player forum is quite active here. you might want to check that out.
weapons:
frenzy: possible to wield with one hand with high damage. speed is important too, but damage > speed here imo
ww: 1 or 2 hander with good speed and damage. speed is more important than damage up to a certain degree, as only weapon ias matters
berserk: damage and only damage really matters. so an as big as possible weapon
there are numerous guides out there, so for more information about the build browse those and just ask if anything is unclear
i would change that armor btw. defense is not really important for a frenzy barb. youŽd do better with a topaz'd armor or one with rubies.
for long term you should aim for smoke, lionheart, duress or duriels shell imo
Seems you'd be better with respecing for more points in higher level skills, and if that's not enough some new weapons with AR mod. Otherwise looks ok for NM.
thanks a ton guys. ive lvl'd up a bit, and have thrown like 3 points into frenzy, and the dmg is already almost on par with the ds with 20 into bash. so i'll grind a few more out, then go to nm and respec to frenzy i think. i just like the idea of attacking fast and shredding people. but seriously thanks everyone. i actually have 1 more question, but ill make a new post for it, bc its not barb specific.
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