Title says it all… I love the barb, have since i was a teen playing the original D1 (the war, basically a barb) and D2. However i have reservations on which type of barb to play, as i remember them being extremely gear dependent, especially if you get your talents wrong. What are the thoughts of other barb lovers?
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The 2nd char I got guardian with on hardcore was an untwinked self found frenzy barb. Pretty fun build in my opinion and people would love ya with those BO’s.
Barb is the best magic finding class in the game. Pitzerker.
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Hes totally viable. Honestly play what you want don’t worry about being viable. Every class can do p8 difficulty some faster than others that doesn’t make any class not viable. Berserk barb starting is very strong howl is op cc.
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D2R: Auto gold pickup + improved gambling
I’m definitely making a goldfind barb but not my first character.
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You say play however you want.
Well I want to play “double throw” barbarian. Come on suggest me a build.
I tried, but I can find up to 130 quantitiy javelin, I need to open a portal to a village every minute to repair my hurling weapons.
Barbarian is the most fun class in my opinion. I’ve tried a lot of things both online and offline since 2000, some of the barbarian’s skills are never, ever viable in the end game.
If you don’t 20 the battle orders and shout, it’s meaningless. A maximum of 59 skills remain.
Frenzy, for example, the synergies are ridiculous, it has synergies with taunt.
Nonsense.
For example, if some warcries could be filled with 5 skill points instead of 20 skill points. Howl, why would anyone want to increase the area of this? A certain distance is enough.
Find potion: It’s like we’re going to find quil leah ashes. 20 points in potions? Are we going to be bartenders and make cocktails?
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Barb was, and has always been viable.
Most popular builds are Whirlwind and frenzy.
There’s also a very fun support build called the flying booyaka. Kill things with your leap and buff your party.
Throwing Barb is a tougher one to do, wouldn’t recommend it other then a fun build or party build.
I played a WW barb in every ladder for years, never had any issues.
Im really torn between making a frenzy barb or WW barb.
I’m gonna play occasionally, goal is to get to an enigma and BotD. And maybe try Ubers, that’s it.
Battle cry is a critically underrated as a team helper. Big damage reduction, cuts armor down.
Whirlwind is my favorite. If you ever get a Steeldriver it’s worth making a WW barb just to experience how ridiculously over powered it is through nightmare. One shot everything from level 30-70. Insight is a cheap good option. Slow, so you have to do small little whirlwinds to hit things, but decent enough. Beserk takes care of physical immunes.
Doesn’t have the life and summon tanks of the druid, or the resists and defense of the paladin, but the mobility of whirlwind keeps mobs off you pretty well and I’d argue battle cry + BO + BC + shout makes the barb potentially the best support class, more so if you run war cry and leap spam, but war cry is pretty bad solo.
WW barb is my all time favourite. Here’s a tip, if you can get a hold of The Gavel of Pain for its amplify damage charges, weapon switch to it and cast to break physical immunities.
The other option is Spellsteel unique axe that has decrep charges that can also break physical immunities and has more charges but amp damage is the secret sauce.
I also use it to amp Diablo so I can skin him faster.
Another tip is to get a reaper’s toll on your merc which has decrep chance to cast, but it doesn’t last long at level 1. As a secondary option to the one above this is good though
Taunt is amazingly good, it stops ranged monsters from using thier ranged abilities, it completely neutralizes gloams.
Taunt can be a nice skill. My objection is that there is a frenzy synergy. Actually, as you said, since frenzy is a single target, taunt can also be used to neutralize distant enemies.
The key point here is this: For example, after I die as a sorc, I can be born in the town, enter through the portal I opened, and kill other enemies while I have nothing on me. So only the skills are enough to clear the nihlatak temple in hell mode without the need for equipment.
But this is not the case with the barbarian. It’s not possible even if I unlocked all of Frenzy’s synergies. The barbarian is nothing without equipment, and skills don’t help us at all.
I think it would be nice if we didn’t have to put so much pressure on “utility” skills like warcry tree. For example, 1 point in taunt is enough for me. I would like to be able to give natural res, iron skin or something else instead, without sacrificing the damage.
although I generally enjoy playing with the barbarian. I think barbarian is hell mode from the start, while a sorc is easy. Doesn’t that create a kind of inequality situation?
Not to mention the Paladin. The most beloved child of the nepotist fistfucqer God.