Hi, I played Diablo 2 a bit back in the day, but not quite enough to remember what I’m doing lol! It’s been ages. Please bare with me in this 
Anyways, I’ve just hit level 30 on my Barbarian and unlocked Whirlwind, which is the build I’m trying to go for. I’ve looked up a few build guides online, and each one told me to use Frenzy to level to 30, and then respec into Whirlwind.
They show me what abilities I should put points into and max out, but not what attributes like str, dex, etc. I should put points into. I really don’t want to mess up this character and ruin my respec, so I’m trying to do this right and be safe about it.
If anyone could tell me what I should be doing for a Whirlwind build, or even link me to a simple build guide to follow (If links are allowed here?) that would be awesome. As I said, the websites I’ve found with builds seem to only tell me what abilities to put points into, I can’t seem to find one that also tells me what attributes I’m meant to put points in and that’s where I’m lost. As far as gear and items, I’m not too worried about that at the moment as I’m really just trying to learn the game and get my stats done for now. Once I level up and get my bearings, I’ll start learning about gear.
Really sorry if I didn’t explain very well, I’m basically a noob as I last played this over 15 years ago. Also, I’m more of a text/pictures person when it comes to builds in games, I find videos to be a bit overwhelming and confusing. I’d much rather have the build laid out in front of me telling me what skills/attributes to have.
Thank you so much anyone that helps <3 I’m loving the game so far, I mean it’s been amazing to play through and I’ve been having much more fun than I did in Diablo 3. It actually feels rewarding to level in Diablo 2, to get better gear and progress. In Diablo 3 I kind of just felt like I was mindlessly going through the game and gaining levels.
Whirlwind without gear is absolutely dreadful. you have respecs so focus skills on items you have and just respec.
Am I able to respec more than once?
Stats for ww barb. Str. enough for gear, usually around 150. Dex enough for gear. Vitality everything else
3 times from game by doing den of evil quest. After that can respect with a token by combining essences from hell boss kills
In general the philosophy is that you only invest enough points into strength and dexterity as needed to equip your gear. All the rest of it goes into Vitality. Points are not recommended to be invested into energy because guzzling mana pots is the simplest and least risky thing to do (plus later there are items that help regen such as insight polearm on your merc etc).
That said, you will have to expect to respec later anyway if say you find a great item you don’t have the str to equip. People will usually check what gear they are aiming for and work backwards from that in terms of assigning their stats. Many points in vitality will make your life less painful earlier on and it will take time to find the amazing late game gear anyway, by which time you will have levelled much further and will have more stat points to assign to str/dex for equipping gear.
Also if it helps, as a barb, I wouldn’t put more than 70 into str and 45 into dex before mid to late nightmare, all the rest into vitality. Nothing into energy.
You’re going to get a LOT of opinions here.
I played since 1998.
WW barb, with concentrate 2ndary.
Top teir gear requires a lot of STR and Dex. Max block needs high Dex. Hover your cursor above your defense stats to see what your block rate is. Add dex to make sure the block rate you see there matches the block rate on the shield you hold. You do NEED a shield. Double wield seems better till you get to hell. You can dual weild some cases, but need shield for others.
Max WW, Max a weapon mastery with it. Because ww has no senergies, you need that mastery. Sword or ax, there are good weapons for each. Thats all you need for the WW part. Choose Berzerk or concentrait for 2ndary skill. Max that and as many of it’s senergies as you can, put 1 point in speed, resists, iron skin, and 1 in all the shout, battle orders, ect.
By the end you should have 200 str, 200 dex, and 200 vita. Lots of people will give those stats differently. But this is well balanced for a noob. You won’t have the kind of gear they do to have 400 vita or something.
In hell you won’t be killing things in baal runs, you’ll be there to leach and give BO’s to tele sorc. Look for Doom bringer and light saber, they will do well in NM and solo Hell decent enough. Shaft stop good starter armor with DR. Need lots of mana and life leach. Get a storm shield any way you can. All barbs must have.
Don’t worry if you mess up the first barb. You can reset stats when you get the better gear and place accordingly.
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If you need some good mid level weapons I have some Cruel weapons work great in NM, and even solo in hell. PM me here and we can meet up in game.
You will find gear that has high str requirements sooner then you think. A Vita barb is extremely limited in what he can equip. Let me hook you up with a few things and you’ll have the STR and Dex goals in your hand. Instead of guessing at when you might need it and resetting every time you get a new weapon or armor.
I soloed Hell with my barb and 100% noob gear. Just have to know how to shop the merchants.