Building a barbarian

[TheKingofKewl]

thank you both :)

So I guess since I'm looking for a two handed axe I'm looking for a Giant Axe or Great Axe socketable maybe with speed runes and lightening bonues and such. Maybe I could imbue a giant axe or something and see what unique it becomes. hmmm.

My guy is level 46 now, if you keep at it I've noticed you level pretty fast.
:-)

As to the the best axe types and swords available, check The Arreat Summit for the elite versions of the base types of weapon.

http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/

You can socket any weapon, except throwing weapons and ones that already have a socket in them.  Larzuk will give white items a varying number of sockets, depending on the quality level of that item.    Item level is, IIRC, a function of what level of monster dropped it.  Rare items (yellow), unique items (gold) and set items (green) will get one socket.  Blue items (magic) will get one or two sockets as a random roll.

It can be very hard to figure out how many sockets a white item will get.  Try using adeyke's calculator for this.

http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/resourc...apons.html

Your desired outcome should dictate what you use the socket quest for.  Some use them for making the base item for a rune word.  Some will put damage runes into a weapon; others will choose runes for speed or life leech.  Occasionally gems will be useful too, depending on what you need.

As to when to socket, I tend to wait as long as possible, as the challenges of Hell sometimes give my characters surprises as to what they think they need, as well as providing the items to do it with.
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