What is the best way to find harpoons or other high damage javelins?
Can they be gambled?
Currently lvl 46 in nm a4 and so far only one rare harpoon dropped.
Seriously lacking in damage, using 73/53 dmg javelins. Can barely kill monsters now with 1 player games.
This is the problem with all melee chars, you need to get seriously lucky with drops but you kill so slow that its hard to even magic find them.
You can purchase cruel throwing spears from merchants (act5 hell Malah is best option) to find spears in the 250-300 dmg range. Go back and forth between way point and the merchant until you find them.
With that said. Finding high damage rare throwing spears are very rare. If you do find them, then you will realize that throwing barb also needs huge speed and attack rating bonus.
The limited unique versions are common and often charitably donated in free games. or available at quite low prices.
Overall, Throwing Barbarian needs serious improvement.
-Greater IAS
-Greater DPS
-Greater Attack rating
-Slows Target stat
-Ability to strafe throw with a shield
-Additional gear options
-Etc
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Anything sooner than act5 hell? Has to be nm a4 or maybe a5.
I mean I cant get to hell act5 unless I get more damage fast.
I am solo self found so no trading/gifts.
Keep revisiting Malah in act5 NM she should sell exceptional versions which would be better than your current. Other than that visiting vendors, drops are random. I used to get a lot of the unique throwing axes / darts from NM trav Council. You can upgrade them to elite.
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Gamble nm Jamella for throwing spears and javelins. Up great normal and exceptional rare throwing sprears in the cube. Reroll magic spears in the cube with 3 p gems. Craft good Blood Gloves, Blood Helm and Blood Belt. Craft Safety Weapons. Double up weapons on switch that have Amp Damage, when it procs Weapon Swap to higher damage weapons. If you find Atma’s Scarab use it. Play around with Rancid Gas Potions on switch. They only last 2 seconds but they are guaranteed damage. Land six then switch to weapons. I once cleared all of Chaos with just throwing potions.
Double Swing and Throw Mastery should be maxed before putting more than 1 point on Double Throw.
Use an Act 2 nm offensive merc equipped with a weapon that procs Amp Damage, including throwing spears.
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One option is get Elite Magic Javelin class weapons and craft them using Safety craft recipe.
Not sure if it’s only Spear type you want, but the same can be done with Throwing Axes and Bloodcraft.
Not a guaranteed win, but you can get a few extra tries at a rare with those and magic versions shouldn’t be that hard to come by.
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NM Gheed/Fara works, just a bit slow.
After NM you can open a cow portal right next to Gheed for faster shopping, or Shop Anya in act 5.
On my run I eventually shopped these to finish hell (ignore the other random stuff, list of the items i has when I finished Baal at 79 on a HC run.
https://i.imgur.com/0eP41nK.png
Felt I needed a few more levels before Hell so did a few NM TZ runs to 72, then grabbed like 5 more levels at Eldritch after shopping Anya in Hell. Merc had an insight in a decent base, a stealth (didn’t farm out a treachery cause hell tower sucks for throw barb), and an undead crown for some Leech.
Also to be fair other than weapons, I had some insanely good luck on rare/unique/charm drops. That’s really not a normal amount of loot to get pre 80 lol.
Certainly didn’t “need” to be 79… but frankly not really a HC player so overcompensated a bit. 
Also didn’t want to try seal popping, and draggin Baal waves because I was rather enjoying the character.
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It took me 48 levels to remember that there is a skill called double throw, I completely forgot to put more than 1 skill into it. Also I didnt notice that double swing added damage too.
I was wondering why it was so hard to kill monsters 
What is the reasoning for maxing double swing and throw mastery first?
Seems like good magic harpoons are super rare at a5 malah. When you spot one its always a crap one like +2 max damage.
So far the best shop ive made was 80 dmg 6 ll magic throwing spear
Damage…
You don’t shop Malah, you shop Anya. So you can poke in and out of the portal.
FYI vendor shopping for actually GOOD javs can take a long while depending on luck. I spent like 8 hours or something shopping those two. Milage may vary lol.
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So in legacy game, and up until patch 2.4 in D2R, Double Throw only increased AR, not damage at all. So maxing the synergy, Double Swing, that gives it 8% dmg per level, and mastery, that gives it 5% dmg/level and crit chance first made a lot of sense to get as much damage as soon as possible.
Patch 2.4 added 8% dmg/level to Double Throw itself, and also buffed throwing mastery by adding a chance to not consume quantity, pierce, and critical strikes replenish quantity. Since Double Throw is constant mana cost of 2, and has the same bonus as Double Swing now, but also gives AR, maxing that first may actually make sense in D2R. Mastery damage is lower than DS synergy or skill bonus itself, but since it gives quanity QoL, AR, Crit, and pierce now, it probably makes sense to max that before Double Throw itself still.
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Okay, I just spotted a 294 ed 20 max javelin at Anya but it was a glaive 
Also a 222 ed 5% chance to cast amp but it was the wrong type.
What’s wrong with either of those? qty issues or range or something? I haven’t used throw weapons much in years.
I went throw barb with dual ethereal warshrikes last ladder.
I still needed more damage. I found a throw barb lacking higher end dps but still found him fun.
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For SSF singleplayer run with throwbarb:
Normal is easy.
For Nightmare and Hell difficulty:
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Level up on easy targets like Eldritch to have high enough level to get a chance for upto 300% enhanced dmg Magic Javelins from shopkeepers like Anya. I am saying level up because I think shopping depends on your character level. What type of mods on Magic weapons can spawn.
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In Nightmare farm Countess for ShaelThulAmn - Peace runeword primary used for Amazons but gives you +Critical strike, which is boosted with your Battle command by +1 and possibly Lore helm +1 and gives you around 25-30% critical chance bonus to your Throwing mastery already. It also spawns you Valkyrie where you hit which is like Omega-good. For example spawning Valkyrie at Throneroom against Baal Minions of destructions keeps them at bay while you throw from safe distance.
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Can craft blood gloves for some crushing blow to help with boss fights possibly. But 20% ias gloves are good enough.
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If not hardcore pump points like this: Max Throwmastery → Max Doublethrow → Max Doubleswing. Have like 150+ Dexterity. It adds another dmg and a lot of Attack rating.
Thats all. I have done multiple playthroughs ssf throwbarbs without too much excess farming one place. Most helping is the Peace rw, after that you just beat the game.
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I started a throw barb on D2R ladder last night. With 1 point on DS and DT, I began maxing Throw Mastery. After maxing I would have went straight to Double Swing as per my meta. I’m grateful I caught your comment, as I would have likely never noticed the damage addition to Double Throw! Thanks for correcting me.
When I make my barbarians I always know what weapon mastery I’m going to use, because of the DS I always max it out first, which is always before reaching clvl 30. Doing this provides me the best damage for low level, under geared barbarians. A lot of players complain the barbarian is gear dependent, which he is, but maxing weapon mastery right out of the gate for the 29% DS helps to mitigate that problem.
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Low damage is the problem.
I used maybe 2 hours of Anya shopping at nm a5 and all the big ED javelins were glaives for some reason.
That 294ed 20 max dmg with a harpoon would be beautiful.
I tried killing monsters in hell A1 with my 80 dmg weapons and it was useless.
I do have a question about Axe Masteries.
Throwing masters is for throwing & affects the throwing damage.
Axe masteries isnt throwing skill, but does it affect the throwing damage, if I got throwing axes?
Oh right. I use them so infrequently I forgot the normal - > exceptional - > elite base hiarchy for jav class weapons.
I believe it only affects throwing axes if you use them for melee attacks, such as double swing, frenzy, etc.
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Axe mastery only affects throwing axes when they are used for melee.
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