Hello, i have been a long time player of D2 and the WW barbarian but usually in D2 because the game has been around for so long we all just did end game gear or close to it, so i have some knowledge of that but i am not sure of budge WW weapons. I have the ik set but i dont wanna use the maul, i was looking for dual Swords. Because of the new, and amazing, traderie, a lot of options are on the table. I was thinking about dual wielding lightsabre, which i can get for around a pul and a fal on traderie. For around that price is there anything better? Any uniques or cheap runewords around that price that can go well with WW? It can be dual axes too.
I am not well versed in the price of things so I can’t really answer your question directly. Lightsabre would seem to still be pretty sweet as a progression item (since it sounds like you aren’t asking about pure end game.
IK set is pretty solid but if you’re not using the full set then it loses a fair amount of the nice bonuses. Again as a progression set the other 5 pieces with the partial set bonuses are still pretty nice, but probably don’t compete with the high end RW and uniques. Since the armor is pretty rare, needs lvl 76 and a boat load of strength, I’m not sure it makes a ton of sense to use as “progression” with just 5 pieces of IK without the maul, but if you already have it and don’t have better pieces then like I said even 5 pieces partial bonuses are pretty nice. You may regret the str investment of you end up going to one of the end game rw armors in a mage plate or something though depending on your other bonuses and how you feel about respecs.
Let us know how it all goes!
1 Like
Not to high jack the thread but I am in a similar boat. I’m 50 now and respec’s into WW as Frenzy was boring. I’m in NM though and not quite to hell.
One problem I am having is I went sword spec. I thought my spirit swords would work but its painfully slow. Any suggestions on weapons or runewords while going through NM?
Spirit swords are for casters. The only reason a barb would use them would be for a warcry build, or in weapon switch.
Look for runewords that actually boost the damage of the base item, like Honor, Black, or King’s Grace should do for nightmare okay until you get the really high end stuff.
You want modifiers like %enhanced damage, +min/max damage, crushing blow, deadly strike, open wounds, increased attack speed and life leech.
1 Like
I wanted to use the Bk sword set, you know? Its not good but its kinda of cool. It was hard to find for trade because no one keeps it, and then i ended up finding it doing cows. My barb is still level 30 but i might use them just for style points. Once i level him i think i will save up for Grief, i am not getting super high end runewords as they are too expensive but grief is somewhat affordable and super powerful. What do you run?
Grief is definitely awesome and pretty affordable. I think I’m going to make a sword barb that uses Grief at some point.
So I’m in the situation where I played D2 a ton back in the 2000 - 2010 range so I have a decent amount of knowledge, but now that D2R is out I have a family and don’t have much time to play, so I’m not very far in D2R compared to most people. I also ended up letting all my legacy D2 accounts lapse probably around 2010 or 2011 and just started over on legacy around Nov 2020. I ended up remaking a full IK WW barb that I was pretty happy with the performance of in all the Hell zones, but never tried to do anything like Ubers or Dclone. I was starting a sword/sword Frenzy barb as well, but didn’t get very far before D2:R came out and I switched gears. Back in the day I had sword barbs, axe barbs, War pike barbs, and an IK barb as well.
IK is fun progression if you can get Full Sigs (minus shield) with a Bonesnap, then upgrade the Bonesnap around NM and then swap out Sigs pieces for IK pieces as you gain the levels and str to do so.
For D2R I used Double Swing/Frenzy to level up through Normal and just got by with whatever I could find. I ended up using a “Steel” War Axe and “Malice” Bastard Sword. Normal Baal dropped a rare cudgel that I replaced the Malice with but had sort of hit an item wall. I saw some posts about a Polearm barb progression that sounded interesting, and I had never really done a Polearm barb in the past, so decided to work towards that. I farmed for a white Partizan and then used the socket quest to get 4 OS and made an Insight, and respec’d to WW. Partizan is too slow to hit very many WW BP, but still does pretty decent damage for NM and the Meditation aura (when it’s working…D2R bugs!) helps with WW mana cost. He’s currently lvl 68 and leveling up in NM Baal runs, but the lobby is so broken that it’s frustrating to try to find group games for that. I’m trying to hit up NM Andy for a Manald Heal since I need ML bad (maybe if they fix the aura given by items cycling on and off bug it won’t be so bad) and planning on farming NM and early Hell to make an Obedience in a Thresher or Giant Thresher (lower average damage than Great Poleaxe or Cryptic Axe, but hits more WW BPs so has higher average DPS), then give the Insight to my merc until I find something better for him and get enough mana leach to reliably sustain WW. After that the end goal would be BotD Great Poleaxe but I’m not sure I’ll ever get that far. I’m a barb guy so “doing it the hard way” and using Barb as a starter and not using a sorc to MF him items first has been fun, even if not the most efficient path. For certain runs I wear a 4x Ptopez chest armor and have 202% MF, so hopefully I’ll be able to gear up okay eventually in NM Meph/Andy runs.
The IK set is really solid and contains basically everything you need for general play, clearing everything in hell (except ubers and dclone can be tricky without some advanced jewelry and socketing itemization).
Really nothing beats the full IK set, for the price. If you want to use the set without the maul, you’re losing so many of the big set bonuses that really make the set (+150 life, +50 all resists, +3 All skills, big magic damage on the weapon, +200 AR, etc.) So at that point i’d recommend starting from scratch, items-wise. You can do better by equipping many individual items.
A fully decked out grief + arreats + arkaine’s valor/fortitude/enigma + gore riders, etc. type of barb setup is going to be better, but also much more expensive and harder to do. You could work towards this slowly while wearing some IK, or other cheaper items as follows:
I wouldn’t recommend lightsabre but it’s not the worst thing. Anything with crushing blow is going to serve you best with WW because it functions kind of like a sorc’s static. Deadly strike is also extremely good. The Black runeword is kind of the entry level item there. The Death Cleaver Berserker Axe is a really nice option too. There are tons of options, but ultimately grief is king. Still if you’re already wearing 5/6 IK, nothing outside of possibly dual grief or ebotd or crazy expensive RW’s like that, are going to come close to beating using the IK Maul with its huge CB% and and all the crazy set bonuses. If you are open to unequipping IK and trying something else out:
- For armor, the Duress runeword is extremely good and has the right kind of stats you want. Smoke runeword is good for resists, as is Duriel’s Shell. IK armor with the 5 piece resists bonus is great, but Duress has CB/OW though so it can be better for certain things.
- For boots, if you can get goblin toe (those are usually cheap and extremely good), or if you need resists, there are other good options like Aldur’s, Nat’s, etc.
- For helm, there are a ton of options until you can get Arreats. Any good barb helm with the right +skills, resists can work. Or if you want to stack CB/DS, then Guillame’s face is top tier. Vamp gaze, tal’s mask, rockstopper, Crown of Thieves, etc. are great and affordable options. You can also use the IK helm. By itself it’s underwhelming, but utilizing the sockets well and the set bonuses can make it worthwhile.
- The IK gloves and belt are both really good for barb, especially with the set bonuses. TGod’s or high DR% String of Ears and Laying of hands are also really top tier, relatively cheap. Many people will use these for their endgame belt and glove options.
- For rings and amulets, just use angelics + Raven Frost for a while. I also like to keep a Dwarf Star in the bank to switch with the Raven, if I’m going up against a lot of fire damage, etc. Also if you are hurting for mana leech and don’t have it anywhere, you can sneak in a 7% manald temporarily.
3 Likes
I agree with everything you said, but slight clarification, the belt gives +20% damage reduction as it’s 5 piece bonus, so you’d still get it by using everything but the maul. Totally agree with your point and recommendation though.
Oh good point, hard to keep track of all the insane stats from IK set haha. I fixed it.
1 Like
That was very helpful,thank you both!
I alredy have the full set minus the armor, duress, and the BK swords. I think i am going to use them until i get a grief, which is somewhat affordable. Arreats face is pretty easy to get as well
1 Like
Just read a bit of your post.
Another cool thing you can do is get the Steeldriver Great Maul (insane stats) at 29, and then up it at level 34. It will carry you all the way to 76 no problem for when you can finally equip the IK maul.
1 Like
I’ve been running Oath and kingslayer combo on one of my WW Barb’s, those are also decent end game starter RW’s if you want to go DW.
And I agree with everything Bloodshot said, he covered most of it. Been an IK player since the early days, full set is amazing anything less and there’s better and easier to find stuff. Belt/gloves are great, boots are a bit fast on the run speed but also have good stats if that’s all you got.
1 Like
Dual bloodletters, then oath, then griefs eventually when you can afford. Duress until fortitude/enigma. And shop venders for some +2-3 warcry weapon swaps. Gl 
1 Like
Smoke is also a solid and easy substitute until you can build Duress. Better on the resists, less so on offensive stats, but very cheap runes to make it.