03-21-2003, 05:47 PM
I'm not going to bother making this fancy yet since it's purely information yet. I'm just tampering around with this guide, and the only other guid I know involving this is the battlebarb guide which I feel isn't easily recognized. I'd like your feedback and such so I can turn this guide into a good work for new and old players alike, and so that I can submit it to various places so that the MOST players possible can find out just how powerful frenzy is in the hands of someone that knows how to use it.
Feel free to just reply to this post as opposed to emailing me.
The Frenzy Barbarian
By Saga_Keeper
Contents
1-forward
2-starting your barbarian
3-weapon selection
4-stat point allocation
5-skill point distribution and information
6-skill usage and ideology of a frenzy barbarian
7-suggested equipment
8-mercenaries
9-leveling up
10-variants
Forward
Howdy there, Iâm Saga_Keeper or Saga_Writer I currently play on US West Realm, message me if youâd like to game or want to see my frenzy barb in action. I play softcore, legit as possible these days, and I generally follow a lot of hardcore philosophies⦠because dieing just sucks! Now in glancing over many gaming sites I have found very few faqs/guides that really mention much about playing frenzy barbarians⦠other then they use frenzy.
So what is frenzy? Frenzy is a skill that grants you increasing attack speed and walk speed per each double swing. This basically boils down to, that you hit them a few times to start moving and swinging at turbo speed! You can get as much as 40% IAS and 170% walk speed by the time you have charged the skill to the max. So to recap⦠it lets you run around real, real fast and kill small groups/bosses very quickly, often resulting in that âLet me see your gearâ type of response to you tearing through things.
Throughout this guide I will try and help players new or old, and rich or poor build successful and lasting frenzy barbarians.
Starting your Barbarian
Now unless youâre level 90 with about 80-90 leftover skill points Iâm going to suggest you make a new barbarian to accommodate the skills you will need to use in order to be successful⦠many of them are lesser used skills then those youâll see most other barbs (whirlwind) use on a day to day basis.
Weapon Selection
When it comes to weapons you will be using swords, maces, or axes as your primary mastery, since these are the only kind you can use one handed. Now which to use depends a lot on what weapons you have, or plan to have, or are in your budget.
Swords-Swords offer good damage and speed, and very strong late game possibilities. They are also fairly common in trading (of varying cost mind you) and not hard to come by as many people actively cube or try to buy them.
Maces-Maces also offer good damage and speed if you use devil stars, or the best average damage per a 1 handed weapon in the legendary mallet, however legendary mallets tend to be very slow compared to other weapons(with the exception of Schaefferâs Hammer), even with frenzy.
Axes-Axes offer very good damage and speed⦠similar to swords. However, they are less common for trading and usually less valuable, there are also no 1-handed unique elite axes, nor any sets sporting them (well the berserker one is good until youâre in act 2 I suppose), and the unique ones available donât offer much as a whole.
Weighing weapons Iâd generally say that going with swords (they have the largest selection of extras and widest trade availability) is the best route to go unless you have a pair of Schaeferâs Hammers (Unique Legendary Mallet). You could also easily axes (especially as a newer player), and try and secure a pair of The Butcherâs Pupil (Unique Cleaver); these are terrific weapons with good speed, good damage, a low level 39 level requirement, and theyâre indestructible to boot, Iâve known them to be commonly given away or traded at low cost (for just a handful of chipped gems, which means if you want to spend some extra time in act 1 or 2 in larger games you could end up with a pair in a night).
Also to consider is the Fury rune word. Jah(31)-Gul(25)-Eth(5) which works in any 3 socketed weapon, Iâd recommend Balrog Blades/Colossus Swords, Legendary Mallets/Devil Stars, or Small Crescent/Ettin Axes/Berserker Axes. This rune word boasts awesome bonuses of ignore targets defense, 40% IAS, and HUGE bonus of 5 to your frenzy skill. The runes are quite rare and expensive aside from the eth, but a Fury weapon is one of the best weapons you can have as a frenzy barb.
Stat Point Allocation
Strength-Enough to wield your weapons, you donât need more.
Dexterity-Enough to wield your weapons, if you feel youâre lacking attack rating add in a few charms, as they will be multiplied both your mastery and your attack skills (leaving you more points for vitality)
Vitality-Everything here, you have no shield, youâre going to get hit⦠and get hit a lot you shall.
Energy-As with any Barb (other then a Bard/Singer, which is whole other style of barb) you should leave this at its initial Value.
Skill Point Distribution and Information
Things you will want to eventually have:
Combat Skills Tree:
-Frenzy: 20 (base skill damage is +95% and then 5% more a level, attack rating is 100% initially and 7% more a level attack speed goes to 33% by level 7 and has diminishing returns past that but they still add up, the walk run speed always has a minimum value of 47%, and begins to diminish after level 9 (138%) but it still adds up like the attack speed)
-Berserk: 1+ (matter of taste, more is nice but not necessary magic damage is 150% initially and 15% per level, and the attack rating is 100% initially and 15% per level, with more you can frenzy up and then berserk real, real fast)
-Leap Attack: 1
-Bash: 1 (prereq)
-Leap: 1 (prereq)
-Stun: 1 (prereq)
-Double Swing: 1 (prereq)
-Double Throw: 1 (prereq)
-Concentration: 1 (prereq)
Combat Masteries Tree:
-Weapon Mastery: 10+(well, if you want to exploit the bug and give up a chunk of extra attack rating, you can get away with 1 point here, but I Imagine that 1.10 will come out some day, and that when that happens you wonât feel like redoing your char, and itâs just that much more damage and even more attack rating to help with your lower dexterity anyways)
-Increased Walk/Run Speed: 1+ (maybe put extra points in later after everything else, skill items buff it up a bit anyways, and past level 7 the returns really start to be worthless for the skill points put in, so maybe just boost it with skill items instead)
-Natural Resistance: 1-5+ (I personally have 6 currently, and more into this skill later never hurts, level 9 gives 52% which is where the diminishing becomes highly noticeable after)
-Increased Stamina: 1 (prereq)
-Iron Skin: 1 (prereq)
Warcries Tree:
-Battle Orders: 20 (duration 30 sec initially +6 sec/level, 35%life/stamina/mana initially +3%/level 5, mana)
-War Cry: 1-11 (less depending on skill items, level 11 gives you 3 second stun duration in hell which I feel to be enough with even moderate leech to recast as needed, mana cost is 10+1 per level to 21 at level 11)
-Battle Command: 1 (itâs like a free level onto battle orders, and when you get a nice set of equipment (skills and maybe a pair of echoing weapons which both add 3 to warcries) it actually can have enough duration to pump the occasional sorc/necro/druid thatâs in your party)
-Grim Ward: 1+ (40 seconds duration, radius of 2 yards initially +.67yards/level 4 mana)
-Find Item: 1+ (always nice to be able to go magic finding in down time, or get 2 shots from Pindleskin etc.)
-Find Potion: 1
-Battle Cry: 1+(duration 12 initial +2.4 sec/level, target damage -25% initially -1%/level, target defense -50% initially -2%/level 5 mana)
-Howl: 1 (prereq)
-Taunt: 1 (prereq)
-Shout: 1 (prereq)
Skill Usage and Ideology of a Frenzy Barbarian
This skill set provides a decent amount of attack rating, despite having low dexterity. It also gives you a good hp buffer, 3 defensive mechanisms (War Cry, Battle Cry, and Grim Ward) and with plus skills equipment (such as echoing weapons/charms/other items) you can even magic find with find item in your spare time. The idea behind a frenzy barb, at the heart of it, is to inflict a lot of hurt onto one or two monsters at a time, as fast as possible, whereas a whirlwind barb inflicts a decent amount of hurt onto many monsters at a time; for this reason I advocate maxing out your mastery for whatever more damage you can muster. And never, ever, forget that crushing blow is any melee characterâs friend (well⦠maybe not a 1 hit chargeadin).
As for using your skillsâ¦I advocate using q-t and a-g as skill keys my layout is like this: a-g skills 1-5, q-t 6-10, z is weapon switch, x is quests, c is character, and v is your skill tree. My layout is the following.
A=normal attack, s=leap attack, d=berserk, f=frenzy (on the right click, because you can auto target and switch to battle cry easily in the middle without letting go of the mouse button) g=grim ward, q=battle orders, w=battle command, e=battle cry, r=war cry, t=find potion/find item(when mfing)
Now some of these skills you may not be familiar with completely. However I will address a few things you may be thinking by now. Where is the defense rating and where is the whirlwind? You donât really need either honestly, and here a few reasons why.
Whirlwind is overdone and boring in my opinion, for the most part (whirlwind with range 5 weapons can be a blast) and doesnât really get any positive feedback from using frenzy (the swings become faster but less accurate, go figure). Using a whirlwind equipment setup is counter to what I will later recommend for equipment, and usually benefits from using a big huge 2 handed weapon and or/a shield.
Defense, you donât need a lot of defense later in the game, getting hit in hell difficulty has more to do with the difference between your level and the monsters level then anything else, and while you will take some hits for the most part monsters will be stunned, or youâll be leeching a small group you can easily handle⦠and with battle orders and all the vitality youâve got by not pumping dexterity for blocking you can easily have 2000+ health.
So hereâs how it goes, you come up to a group of monsters, running in at a good speed. You can Leap Attack into them (I generally donât since Frenzy only has but a 6 second timer and since you lose time in the air you can lose Frenzy benefits) or run in and use War Cry. Once stunned you proceed to frenzy a monster to death and repeat War Cry every 2.5 or so seconds to keep them from doing anything. This becomes easier when you can hold right click for frenzy and just hit a different key to get off a war cry or two, and then hit keys back to frenzy. Generally you want to start with a monster on the edge of the pack in case you donât recast war cry quick enough. If there is a boss, or itâs particularly dangerous monster you should also throw Battle Cry on them in addition to War Cry (the effects stack), but you have move so that your are standing virtually next to an enemy to hit them with it due to it have a very limited radius. On a side note Battle cry works on everything in case you didnât know, and it makes them do less damage and easier to hit, great for Duriel, Diablo, Lister, Baal and every other boss around.
Now if the group is exceptionally big you may opt to cast a Grim Ward on the first corpse you drop, as this will cause monsters you canât keep stunned to flee (especially if it has a higher radius from a higher, level radius=2 yards at level 1, plus about 2/3(.67) yards a level) small groups are the easiest to manage as the radius on War Cry isnât huge, only about 5-7 yards Iâd say. However Grim Ward can assist you in that as long as you have one on you canât really get surrounded provided youâre within the radius of the totem.
Once the group is done, you pick up any solos or stragglers that ran from your Grim Ward using Frenzy and then quickly dash off to the next group of monsters and repeat. You will kill quickly, and safely provided you keep your War Cry up, use Battle Cry and Grim Ward when the situation needs them, and your latency stays good. Even if you get a bad spike your health should be high enough to take a few hits and be fine and they are also stunned for 3 seconds anyways, or you could try and put up a grim ward before the spike if you âfeelâ it coming as that always lasts 40 seconds. A major reason you probably wonât want to play a frenzy barb hardcore is that if you lag for a long period of time without grim ward, you almost certainly WILL eventually die to lag one day or another.
Suggested Equipment
Iâll start with the armor, as this is pretty universal no matter which weapons you chose to use. In order of preference (top being most preferred)⦠I use all of the 1.09 items for convenience and the fact that the 1.08s that are worth having are ultra utlra expensive and youâd know what they are if you could afford them anyways.
Body Armor: (Hard to substitute a Rare for, just look for resists/health/stats)
Lionheart rune word 3 socket armor Hel(15)-Lum(17)-Fal(19)- 3 fairly common runes make you one excellent piece of armor. 20% enhanced damage (more damage is always a plus) +25 strength, +15 dexterity, +20 Vitality, +10 energy, +50 health, +30 resist all, -15% requirements. This armor adds to everything you could want, and more, and in good amounts. I can save you 40 whopping points into strength and dexterity on your equipment and that means 40 more points into vitality, not to mention the 20 vitality and 50 health that the armor already adds. I recommend this as it is just awesome armor for the price, and hard to beat without using expensive runes or rare jewels in another unique or set armor. Preferably put it in a light armor (I think Iâm using mesh on mine); an archon plate would be ideal.
Durielâs Shell (Unique Cuirass)- a fairly easily obtained armor with good bonuses to your resistances, as well as a decent bonus to strength and health. It also adds the powerful and useful cannot be frozen, something you will need as you are all about going fast.
Spirit Forge (Unique Linked Mail)- has a good bonus to life, and 2 sockets for IAS jewels, not a bad deal at all! It also comes with a hefty bonus to your life, and also comes with a bonus of 15 strength. While I havenât seen this armor as much as Durielâs Shell Iâd imagine itâs fairly cheap to trade for.
Szabiâs Ghost Liberator (Set Balrog Skin)- even though it wasnât the Valor you hoped it was when it dropped, the entire Szabiâs set can be very useful in the hands of a sword frenzy barb for itâs good speed (40% walk/run without boots in the set) resists, and HUGE bonus to health. However it is a rare to come by the armor and the sword, but on a happy note, it doesnât pack a heavy trading value.
Smoke Runeword 2 socket armor Nef(4)-Lum(17)- once again, common runes turned into Runewords make awesome armor. This armor is great for resistances giving you 50% to all, and it even adds 70% to the armor rating of the armor (much less important though).
Shaftstop (Unique Mesh Armor)- hard to overlook as this, it is just plain good armor, however you donât really need it, itâs better suited for one of your characters that does, or trading it for some sojs or other items you could use (weapons cough cough). Use if you really feel that you must, but itâs by no means necessary.
Helms: (similar to armor, just find a decent rare barb hat with resists/skill bonuses/health/stats etc. that are useful, a good rare can be really good!)
Arreatâs Face (Unique Slayer Guard)- somewhat expensive but it is hands down the best helm for just about any barb, huge bonuses to skills, resistances, stats, even leech. Too bad it doesnât have magic find or damage reduction. Socket with an Um (resists) or Ber (damage reduction, not real necessary, but can be useful if youâre using shaft etc.) rune or a nice good resist all/ias jewel.
Tal Rashasâs Horadric Mask (Set Death Mask)- Huge bonus to life, mana, 10% dual leech, and 15% resist all. To top this off itâs cheap, and drops often doing magic find runs on hell Mephisto. Add a ruby for more health, or an IAS jewel as itâs not quite expensive enough to warrant an expensive rune/jewel⦠Iâve done it before, but there are just other things rare finds should go in.
Lore Runeword Barbarian Helmet Ort(9)-Sol(12)- Find one with Battle Orders/Frenzy and plop these two very common runes into the hat. Gives you one to skills, plus whatever was on it, and the other bonuses are just icing on the cake. You can get an ort as a reward from the 2nd quest in act 5. And as for Sols, they arenât too hard to come by, and are also cheap to trade for.
Szabiâs Mental Sheath- a hat with decent resists, and a bonus to skills⦠easy as pie to trade for and goes with nice with the rest Szabiâs Set.
Peasant Crown (Unique War hat)- Great hat with skills, and vitality, energy, and even run speed, not a resist to be found though.
Guillameâs Face (Set Winged Helm)- 35% chance of crushing blow, simply huge! Hit recovery and strength donât hurt either. If you added it to the belt, which is a pretty good item to use, youâd pick up a small bonus to health as well.
Vampiregaze (Unique Grim Helm)- Much like Shaftstop you just donât need the bonuses this great hat offers, use it somewhere else or trade it off (they, like Shaftstop carry good trade value, and an almost perfect one can command great trade value)
Gloves are about attack speed, and you need at least 20%
Gloves: (rares should have 20% IAS, and stats, resists, etc. etc.)
Laying of Hands (Set Bramble Mitts)- These are great gloves, fight demons and theyâre even better. Theyâre not overly expensive, but theyâre obviously not the cheapest gloves around.
âBloodâ Crafted Gloves transmute magical (blue) gloves, (Must use Heavy, Sharkskin, or Vampire Bone Gloves) a Nef(4) rune, a jewel, and a Perfect Ruby- Potentially very powerful as they could come with 3% life leech, 10% crushing blow, and 20% IAS, but youâd have to make several pairs to get one with 20% IAS, let alone one with 20% IAS and 10% crushing blow, so the odds of getting a pair like that make them very rare.
Sigonâs Gloves (Set Gauntlets)- These can be added to any other part of the set, helm (for huge attack rating), belt (for 4 rows, hps and a resist), or boots (for running and some attack rating and cold resist) for a huge 30% IAS and 10% life leech. Also the 10 added strength is nice. I would suggest not using the armor as you will probably never have a need of using the entire set as you get double swing (no need for a shield) fairly early on, and the armor will only slow you down and it doesnât pack any partial set bonuses.
Sanderâs Taboo (Set Heavy Gloves)- With 20% IAS and 40 health, hard to go wrong with these gloves.
Lavagout (Unique Battle Gauntlets)-With all the swinging you do the enchant will go off often, not to mention the other extra damage they provide too. They also bear 20% IAS, but tend to trade for more then I feel they are really worth.
Boots are a good place to pickup crushing blow, and running of course!
Boots: (any rare boots would need running speed/resists/stats etc.)
Gore Rider (Unique War Boots)- Just tremendous bonuses for characters that swing fast and often, and as a frenzy barb you will be swinging both fast and often.
Goblin Toe (Unique Light Plated Boots)- Just a step down from Gore Rider (as they donât have running bonuses), but they are better for the 25% crushing blow.
Tearhaunch (Unique Greaves)- 20% run/walk, 5 strength, 5 dexterity, 10 resist all. Just good bonuses and even some resistances⦠they meet every requirement for good boots but just canât compare to Gore Rider or Goblin Toe in overall usefulness.
Sanderâs Riprap (Set Heavy Boots)- 40% run/walk, 5 strength, 10 dexterity, 100 attack rating, very good boots.
Belts: (rare belts kinda stink, but just look for the usual resists/stats health etc.)
Nosferatuâs Coil (Unique Vampire Fang Belt)- Strength bonus, 10% IAS, and they even slow targets by 10%, it also comes with 5% life leech, yummy. They are sorta expensive, and decently rare too.
Mâavinaâs Telnet (Set Sharkskin Belt)- Mana leech, and walk/run speed⦠a very good belt. Fairly inexpensive to trade for.
Wilhelmâs Pride (Set Battle Belt)- Offers 5% dual leech, fairly cheap to trade for. Another pretty good belt to use. Fairly inexpensive, maybe even free.
String Of Ears (Unique Demonhide Sash)- Life leech and damage reductions, itâs a great belt to use, but as with the other damage reducing gear, itâs best used for other chars or traded. One with lower stats is usually fairly cheap to trade for however.
Nightsmoke (Unique Belt)- The main attractions of this belt are the 10% resist all and the 50% damage added to mana. With just this belt, you donât have much of an excuse to run out of mana.
Next weâll look at jewelry, please note that if youâre using rares having a good bit of life leech is recommended, but you can get away with just a small amount of mana leech.
Amulets: (Rares would have skills, resists, stats, leech, fast cast, damage returned as mana etc.)
Highlordâs Wrath- Simply amazing, IAS, lightning resistance (lots), a little extra damage, it just doesnât get much better, wait it comes with 1 to skills, it just got better. Can be a little expensive to trade for though.
The Catâs Eye- Lots of extra speed added here, yay! And a bunch of dexterity too, only lacks skills or a resistance. About the same price or lower as Highlordâs Wrath
âBloodâ crafted Amulet: transmute a magical amulet, an amn(11) rune, a jewel, and a perfect ruby- While the odds are mostly against you, and for the good level stats you need a good level character, which in turn often creates high level requirements on the amulets, you can get very good amulets this way. Youâd also want one with the max 10% faster walk on it, and as high leech as possible.
Atmaâs Scarab- Could be fairly nice for the amp damage, but you kill fast enough that the small radius would be mostly useless.
One of my rings would idealistically be a good crafted/rare/magical with cold resistance (since fire and lightning have big boosts from other top reccomended equipment), fast cast, and good leech, while the other would be a Ravenfrost.
Rings: (Rares would have resists, stats, leech, fast cast -damage/magic damage etc.)
Ravenfrost- dexterity, cannot be frozen, cold damage, and a big ar bonus, always a good one to have, and it even helps against cold damage with 20% cold absorb. I recommend always wearing one.
Bulkanthoâs Wedding Band- erm, leech and skills and a big chunk of life⦠itâs quite rare and expensive though.
âBloodâ crafted Ring: transmute a magical ring, a sol(12) rune, a jewel, and a perfect ruby-Youâd idealistically want either high life leech 7%+ or dual leech (which doesnât drop anymore, but you can craft) and some resistances.
Weapons: this is going to be a large section, and Iâll try to cover some lower level weapons as well as higher ones. Note that a Fury rune word weapon is generally just about as useful or more useful depending on the situation then the top recommended weapons. Also note that if you donât mind not killing cows like no tomorrow, you can go kill Baal, or the River of Flame, since you actually have resists and skills to keep you alive other then spinning aimlessly, you can use a good rare weapon. You know that one that only has 150% enhanced damage, 40 IAS, but does have something like 120% damage vs. demons or what have you, those weapons are excellent situational (i.e. not killing cows all day) weapons. Many magical weapons can have high damage outputs as well, you can even buy them from Act 5 with your old nerfed to all hell level 99 hammeradin. This will be even more important to you if you use axes, as there are a lot less set and unique options for axes.
Swords:
Doombringer (Unique Champion Sword)- With all the other added IAS gear you have on you can shael this bad boy and frenzy your heart out. While the two handed damage seems low, the one handed damage easily matches almost any other weapon youâll find, and other bonuses like the 20%bonus to your health on it make it even better. Champion Swords also have pretty low requirements for elite swords, freeing up more points for vitality. However it is pretty expensive and very rare.
CCB- Short of cruel colossus blade, you can use any of the elite swords really, just so long as you make them faster and they have good damage, the best of these are cubbed using the sword+3 chipped gems=magical sword with 3 sockets, however only Champion Swords and Colossus Swords/Blades can get cruel in this manner. These are somewhat expensive, but definitely not something to break the bank, maybe trade a pretty darn good weapon of another type for them etc.
Lightsabre (Unique Phase Sabre)- Itâs fast, and I mean itâs really really fast, just about as fast as a fury cryptic sword! Also with two of these on you can laugh at msle monsters and laugh as everyone around you dies and you eventually kill it. They sport ignore targets defense which combined with your fast swing speed guarantees many hits⦠but they just donât offer the damage available on other swords that only cost a little more to trade for, they do make for good use with crushing blow however, and are very definitely good weapon switches. Iâd definitely recommend putting amn runes in them for life leech. They are a little bit expensive, but not that hard to trade for.
Szabiâs Cobalt Redeemer (Set Cryptic Sword)- Itâs just as fast as a Lightsabre and it goes really well with the set, the set is simply awesome for a frenzy barb, and you can use a bigger sword in the other hand, even though the damage on this sword isnât the best, itâs certainly nothing to sneer at, especially considering all the neat bonuses you get using the set, and if you chose to level up doing Baal runs (a good idea with this sword) you can also use this sword and do 4x damage on them little demons, making it suddenly a LOT more damaging.
Crainte Vomir (Unique Espadon)- These swords are exceedingly fast, slow targets, and even give -10% physical damage, I have two of these on my weapon switch for those select occasions when I fight a fanaticism/extra strong/curse boss, or someone tries to pk me (hit them and run, or proceed to rip them apart if you get the chance) theyâre also great at lower levels, and add 20% run, 40% for a pair :)
Bloodletter (Unique Gladius)- Fast and fairly damaging, they add to sword mastery (which youâll have level 10 ideally at level 30) for even more damage, they also add to whirlwind which can lead to fast leveling through nightmare difficulty, I however found that with a pair of these I could frenzy my way through the lower half of the bloody hills faster then everyone else could do the top, and do it faster then trying to use whirlwind. Iâd usually make it past doc flaren and meet them somewhere past the choke in the trenches. Nice for the whirlwind I guess, but frenzy is just way more effective at low levels, especially with the monsters being spread out.
Shadowfang (Unique Two Handed Sword)- Unbelievably cool weapons to carry you through normal difficulty, you can even use them in nightmare a while.
Maces:
Schaeferâs Hammer (Unique Legendary Mallet)- it does damage, and lots of it, but itâs slow, so youâll want to shael it and use the most ias gear you can muster, exceedingly rare and quite expensive, theyâll often come with non shael runes/jewels, I suppose if it was an ias jewel that might be allowed. I would like to note that I feel this is quite possibly one of the best weapons in the game (not to mention for a frenzy barb) if you swing quickly due to itâs high damage and static field on hit.
Barnarâs Star (Unique Devil Star)- these do damage, and lots of it, just itâs mostly elemental. Theyâre fast though, and you can frenzy physical immune monsters with them, which is a plus, but berserk is good enough for that. They donât carry leech however, which can be a major drawback given that they donât have very high physical damage, Iâd recommend perfect skulls or amn runes for socket choices.
Dragoonâs Teaching (Set Reinforced Mace)- They do pretty good damage, although the range is pretty large, and they come to you pretty darn fast when you get them so you could put an ed jewel or ohm them and itâd be a lot like having a cheaper, less damaging, yet faster, version of Schaeferâs.
Earthshaker (Unique Battle Hammer)- Good damage, decent speed, youâd probably want to shael them though.
Aldurâs Rhytm (Set Jagged Star)- If I recall correctly theyâre a lot slower then they should be (I believe theyâre bugged), but theyâre still good for killing demons (and do decent damage), maybe theyâll get fixed in the next patch.
The Generalâs Tan Do Li Ga (Unique Flail)- Good early mace as it does decent damage and slows targets.
Civerbâs Cudgel (Set Grand Scepter)- Not quite the demon slaying machine they were in Diablo 1, but they function oddly as an even cheaper more common version of the dragoonâs teaching, making them perfect for poor people like me!
That Hammer from the hellforge quest (act 4 quest 2)- If you can give yourself one, cool, if you can give yourself two⦠even cooler, as they sport no level requirement and low (I believe none) stat requirements⦠other then that⦠theyâre only so-so. Theyâre also free aside from the time take to go get one, which is yet another huge bonus, and the normal quest doesnât really kick out good runes anyways.
Axes:
The Butcherâs Pupil (Unique Cleaver)- unbelievably cool, they do pretty decent damage, and open wounds. Theyâre also fast, and indestructible! And as another bonus, you can probably trade a bunch of chips or low-end items for a pair, making them quite affordable as well. Put in some Amn runes or perfect skulls, or even more IAS and youâll be a happy camper.
âBloodâ Crafted Axe transmute 1 magical axe (any), an ort(9) rune, a jewel, and a perfect Ruby- You could make a fairly potent axe with the built in enhanced damage thatâs guaranteed, and the possibility of more. Youâd definitely want as much IAS and damage possible, damage to demons and even undead could make a weapon highly viable in certain areas in addition to other damage bonuses.
The Gnasher (Unique Hand Axe)- just not much in the way of axes, but these are good early on.
Rakescare (Unique War Axe)- once again we have a good early axe. It is a good thing Butcherâs Pupilâs are cheap as axes come up short compared to other weapons in choices.
Berserkerâs Hatchet (Set Double Axe)- well if you had the whole set⦠or this and the armor, youâd probably find use of it. But without another set piece the damage is just too low, and even with another it is only 50% betterâ¦
Mercenaries
There isnât really a whole lot to consider for your mercenary. Any ranged mercenary has a good chance of being useful or dieing a lot as youâre over on one side of the screen dealing with a pack of monsters and theyâre on the other trying to pick things off until a pack of minotaurs comes up and slaughters them. Also the damage added by ranged mercenaries is fairly insignificant, and you donât need elemental companions to help you out as you have berserk for killing physical immunes. So this rules out act 1 and 3, so that leaves you with 2 and 5.
You already have a tank, yourself, and you need not one, but 2 good weapons let alone the third youâd need if you added in an act 5 mercenary (good swords are a bit expensive to trade for)⦠so I advocate and act 2 mercenary. You donât need a holy freeze mercenary as you have War Cry, which doesnât slow monsters, it STOPS monsters. Thorns- youâre not getting hit too much, Blessed Aim-your skills give you enough attack rating boosts (or you can get some charms etc.), Defiance- you have defensive skills to compensate for a lake of armor. I just suggest you use a might mercenary (act 2 nightmare offensive), they do good damage, give them a 3amn Hone Sundan (Unique Yari), preferably ethereal, and theyâre good to go. Since you wontâ use your potions that often, and you have find potion anyways, you can always drop a full rejuvenation potion on him anyways. (Use find potion in acts 4/5 to chuck full ones, any difficulty, itâs the act that matters oddly enough) Oh yeah, did I mention they use might, which ups your damage a good amount, as well as theirs, and it tends to pack a big radius so everyone around you is enjoying it too?
Oh and if you have damage reducing gear youâre not using, mercenaries are a good place to put it. The smoke runeword however, on a high defense ethereal 2 socket armor is a personal favorite of mine for mercenaries since your play style keeps them relatively safe from melee monsters, but ranged attackers (THOSE STUPID #(%*&# ACT 4 MAGES) can still get at themâ¦
So hire them early on, before you start your nightmare bloody runs (great place to level them as you probably make half the kills in the game if you start from the bottom of the run⦠meaning they get a big chunk of the exp made in any game) so that they will be similar in level to yourself. I believe mine is perhaps 2 levels behind me as I was doing cows for a little while, and itâs hard to keep a mercenary alive in cows as a barbarian⦠I finally did get it down however, but you have to follow him around and guide him about carefully instead of him following you around which can be frustrating at times.
Leveling Up
Iâm going to be vague, as even discussed with my friends and such we could never agree on the best way to distribute points and skills. The general idea is to put points into your mastery to help with attack rating and damage, perhaps get this to 5-10 early on while you cover your other prereqs.
Double swing + 2 fast weapons + leech/+mana per kill/xx%damage goes to mana=easy leveling. You may want to pull out the cathanâs rings, the manald heals, your shadowfangs⦠whatever you got! And as soon as Double Swing fades into frenzy life becomes that much easier. As soon as you hit level 24 Iâd begin maxing battle orders, or at least get the duration to more then a minute, perhaps 2. Also, battle orders and a few hp charms will allow you to wield bigger scarier stuff faster since you can skimp out on vitality early on. At level 30 you will definitely want to focus on War Cry a while, as War Cry is your lifeblood. You donât necessarily have to put all the points recommended into this skill now, but the sooner you have it to that 3 second duration, the sooner your life is (once again) that much easier. I have made two frenzy barbs, one that upped this skill earlier, and one that upped it later. Of my frenzy barbs, Iâve found raising this earlier makes fighting easier as opposed to raising it later.
Now you may be thinking âWhy all the safety skills early onâ I already touched on this a little, it lets you use higher requirement weapons which will compensate for your lack of offensive skills, and in addition to that youâll have a bunch of stupid, stunned monsters AND an hp buffer to boot. So even in your late 30âs, early 40âs youâll be playing with a style similar to the one you will use and perfect later on in your characterâs life which leads to you being very effective with your frenzy barbarian.
After you get enough strength and dexterity (or even before depending on the level requirements of your end gear) you should of course pump vitality to no end. Also you will start to max your damage skills once you are comfortable with your defensive skills. Realize the idea isnât to take no damage; itâs to only take some damage, and then stun/frenzy the monsters into oblivion.
Generally speaking though, when you hit your first bloody hills run (after getting your mercenary of choice) you will want to start from the bottom as most people start from the top, and you can get more kills this way. Mercenary exp is based off of the kills you and said mercenary make, not those of the people around you, so itâs important to do a lot of killing on your own since the suggested mercenary (might) is important to doing even more damage.
Variants
Frenzy/Throw: This offers something that frenzy barbs, and well⦠many a barb, are lacking. You could very feasibly shuffle around skills to accomidate throw mastery, or just make a throw barbarian, and add a few points of frenzy and maybe some ignore targets defense, or ethed weapons to charge your frenzy on. Frenzied throws are about as fast as it gets, and well⦠thatâs awfully nice.
Mfing: Frenzy barbs can control packs well, and as a side effect of this you can mf quite well in your down time, or when you just feel like it. Battle cry makes bosses laughable, and weapon switching to 2x ali babas and continuing to frenzy is surprisingly effective, especially if you use gloves such as laying of hands to increase your damage vs. monsters such as mephisto. If you plan to mf, Iâd suggest you make your character with sword mastery maxed out as opposed to any other mastery.
Future Revisions and Contact Information
I am very open minded to suggestions that you may have, please note I am likely to argue my point of view in response and it is in no way personal or an attack on your character. I would also like some data on the radius of War and Battle Cry as they are not listed anywhere I can find off hand... also some very simplistic information regarding the roll back ias nature of frenzy if you know it would also be awesome. You can contact me at zera_flyer@yahoo.com as I check this fairly frequently.
Feel free to just reply to this post as opposed to emailing me.
The Frenzy Barbarian
By Saga_Keeper
Contents
1-forward
2-starting your barbarian
3-weapon selection
4-stat point allocation
5-skill point distribution and information
6-skill usage and ideology of a frenzy barbarian
7-suggested equipment
8-mercenaries
9-leveling up
10-variants
Forward
Howdy there, Iâm Saga_Keeper or Saga_Writer I currently play on US West Realm, message me if youâd like to game or want to see my frenzy barb in action. I play softcore, legit as possible these days, and I generally follow a lot of hardcore philosophies⦠because dieing just sucks! Now in glancing over many gaming sites I have found very few faqs/guides that really mention much about playing frenzy barbarians⦠other then they use frenzy.
So what is frenzy? Frenzy is a skill that grants you increasing attack speed and walk speed per each double swing. This basically boils down to, that you hit them a few times to start moving and swinging at turbo speed! You can get as much as 40% IAS and 170% walk speed by the time you have charged the skill to the max. So to recap⦠it lets you run around real, real fast and kill small groups/bosses very quickly, often resulting in that âLet me see your gearâ type of response to you tearing through things.
Throughout this guide I will try and help players new or old, and rich or poor build successful and lasting frenzy barbarians.
Starting your Barbarian
Now unless youâre level 90 with about 80-90 leftover skill points Iâm going to suggest you make a new barbarian to accommodate the skills you will need to use in order to be successful⦠many of them are lesser used skills then those youâll see most other barbs (whirlwind) use on a day to day basis.
Weapon Selection
When it comes to weapons you will be using swords, maces, or axes as your primary mastery, since these are the only kind you can use one handed. Now which to use depends a lot on what weapons you have, or plan to have, or are in your budget.
Swords-Swords offer good damage and speed, and very strong late game possibilities. They are also fairly common in trading (of varying cost mind you) and not hard to come by as many people actively cube or try to buy them.
Maces-Maces also offer good damage and speed if you use devil stars, or the best average damage per a 1 handed weapon in the legendary mallet, however legendary mallets tend to be very slow compared to other weapons(with the exception of Schaefferâs Hammer), even with frenzy.
Axes-Axes offer very good damage and speed⦠similar to swords. However, they are less common for trading and usually less valuable, there are also no 1-handed unique elite axes, nor any sets sporting them (well the berserker one is good until youâre in act 2 I suppose), and the unique ones available donât offer much as a whole.
Weighing weapons Iâd generally say that going with swords (they have the largest selection of extras and widest trade availability) is the best route to go unless you have a pair of Schaeferâs Hammers (Unique Legendary Mallet). You could also easily axes (especially as a newer player), and try and secure a pair of The Butcherâs Pupil (Unique Cleaver); these are terrific weapons with good speed, good damage, a low level 39 level requirement, and theyâre indestructible to boot, Iâve known them to be commonly given away or traded at low cost (for just a handful of chipped gems, which means if you want to spend some extra time in act 1 or 2 in larger games you could end up with a pair in a night).
Also to consider is the Fury rune word. Jah(31)-Gul(25)-Eth(5) which works in any 3 socketed weapon, Iâd recommend Balrog Blades/Colossus Swords, Legendary Mallets/Devil Stars, or Small Crescent/Ettin Axes/Berserker Axes. This rune word boasts awesome bonuses of ignore targets defense, 40% IAS, and HUGE bonus of 5 to your frenzy skill. The runes are quite rare and expensive aside from the eth, but a Fury weapon is one of the best weapons you can have as a frenzy barb.
Stat Point Allocation
Strength-Enough to wield your weapons, you donât need more.
Dexterity-Enough to wield your weapons, if you feel youâre lacking attack rating add in a few charms, as they will be multiplied both your mastery and your attack skills (leaving you more points for vitality)
Vitality-Everything here, you have no shield, youâre going to get hit⦠and get hit a lot you shall.
Energy-As with any Barb (other then a Bard/Singer, which is whole other style of barb) you should leave this at its initial Value.
Skill Point Distribution and Information
Things you will want to eventually have:
Combat Skills Tree:
-Frenzy: 20 (base skill damage is +95% and then 5% more a level, attack rating is 100% initially and 7% more a level attack speed goes to 33% by level 7 and has diminishing returns past that but they still add up, the walk run speed always has a minimum value of 47%, and begins to diminish after level 9 (138%) but it still adds up like the attack speed)
-Berserk: 1+ (matter of taste, more is nice but not necessary magic damage is 150% initially and 15% per level, and the attack rating is 100% initially and 15% per level, with more you can frenzy up and then berserk real, real fast)
-Leap Attack: 1
-Bash: 1 (prereq)
-Leap: 1 (prereq)
-Stun: 1 (prereq)
-Double Swing: 1 (prereq)
-Double Throw: 1 (prereq)
-Concentration: 1 (prereq)
Combat Masteries Tree:
-Weapon Mastery: 10+(well, if you want to exploit the bug and give up a chunk of extra attack rating, you can get away with 1 point here, but I Imagine that 1.10 will come out some day, and that when that happens you wonât feel like redoing your char, and itâs just that much more damage and even more attack rating to help with your lower dexterity anyways)
-Increased Walk/Run Speed: 1+ (maybe put extra points in later after everything else, skill items buff it up a bit anyways, and past level 7 the returns really start to be worthless for the skill points put in, so maybe just boost it with skill items instead)
-Natural Resistance: 1-5+ (I personally have 6 currently, and more into this skill later never hurts, level 9 gives 52% which is where the diminishing becomes highly noticeable after)
-Increased Stamina: 1 (prereq)
-Iron Skin: 1 (prereq)
Warcries Tree:
-Battle Orders: 20 (duration 30 sec initially +6 sec/level, 35%life/stamina/mana initially +3%/level 5, mana)
-War Cry: 1-11 (less depending on skill items, level 11 gives you 3 second stun duration in hell which I feel to be enough with even moderate leech to recast as needed, mana cost is 10+1 per level to 21 at level 11)
-Battle Command: 1 (itâs like a free level onto battle orders, and when you get a nice set of equipment (skills and maybe a pair of echoing weapons which both add 3 to warcries) it actually can have enough duration to pump the occasional sorc/necro/druid thatâs in your party)
-Grim Ward: 1+ (40 seconds duration, radius of 2 yards initially +.67yards/level 4 mana)
-Find Item: 1+ (always nice to be able to go magic finding in down time, or get 2 shots from Pindleskin etc.)
-Find Potion: 1
-Battle Cry: 1+(duration 12 initial +2.4 sec/level, target damage -25% initially -1%/level, target defense -50% initially -2%/level 5 mana)
-Howl: 1 (prereq)
-Taunt: 1 (prereq)
-Shout: 1 (prereq)
Skill Usage and Ideology of a Frenzy Barbarian
This skill set provides a decent amount of attack rating, despite having low dexterity. It also gives you a good hp buffer, 3 defensive mechanisms (War Cry, Battle Cry, and Grim Ward) and with plus skills equipment (such as echoing weapons/charms/other items) you can even magic find with find item in your spare time. The idea behind a frenzy barb, at the heart of it, is to inflict a lot of hurt onto one or two monsters at a time, as fast as possible, whereas a whirlwind barb inflicts a decent amount of hurt onto many monsters at a time; for this reason I advocate maxing out your mastery for whatever more damage you can muster. And never, ever, forget that crushing blow is any melee characterâs friend (well⦠maybe not a 1 hit chargeadin).
As for using your skillsâ¦I advocate using q-t and a-g as skill keys my layout is like this: a-g skills 1-5, q-t 6-10, z is weapon switch, x is quests, c is character, and v is your skill tree. My layout is the following.
A=normal attack, s=leap attack, d=berserk, f=frenzy (on the right click, because you can auto target and switch to battle cry easily in the middle without letting go of the mouse button) g=grim ward, q=battle orders, w=battle command, e=battle cry, r=war cry, t=find potion/find item(when mfing)
Now some of these skills you may not be familiar with completely. However I will address a few things you may be thinking by now. Where is the defense rating and where is the whirlwind? You donât really need either honestly, and here a few reasons why.
Whirlwind is overdone and boring in my opinion, for the most part (whirlwind with range 5 weapons can be a blast) and doesnât really get any positive feedback from using frenzy (the swings become faster but less accurate, go figure). Using a whirlwind equipment setup is counter to what I will later recommend for equipment, and usually benefits from using a big huge 2 handed weapon and or/a shield.
Defense, you donât need a lot of defense later in the game, getting hit in hell difficulty has more to do with the difference between your level and the monsters level then anything else, and while you will take some hits for the most part monsters will be stunned, or youâll be leeching a small group you can easily handle⦠and with battle orders and all the vitality youâve got by not pumping dexterity for blocking you can easily have 2000+ health.
So hereâs how it goes, you come up to a group of monsters, running in at a good speed. You can Leap Attack into them (I generally donât since Frenzy only has but a 6 second timer and since you lose time in the air you can lose Frenzy benefits) or run in and use War Cry. Once stunned you proceed to frenzy a monster to death and repeat War Cry every 2.5 or so seconds to keep them from doing anything. This becomes easier when you can hold right click for frenzy and just hit a different key to get off a war cry or two, and then hit keys back to frenzy. Generally you want to start with a monster on the edge of the pack in case you donât recast war cry quick enough. If there is a boss, or itâs particularly dangerous monster you should also throw Battle Cry on them in addition to War Cry (the effects stack), but you have move so that your are standing virtually next to an enemy to hit them with it due to it have a very limited radius. On a side note Battle cry works on everything in case you didnât know, and it makes them do less damage and easier to hit, great for Duriel, Diablo, Lister, Baal and every other boss around.
Now if the group is exceptionally big you may opt to cast a Grim Ward on the first corpse you drop, as this will cause monsters you canât keep stunned to flee (especially if it has a higher radius from a higher, level radius=2 yards at level 1, plus about 2/3(.67) yards a level) small groups are the easiest to manage as the radius on War Cry isnât huge, only about 5-7 yards Iâd say. However Grim Ward can assist you in that as long as you have one on you canât really get surrounded provided youâre within the radius of the totem.
Once the group is done, you pick up any solos or stragglers that ran from your Grim Ward using Frenzy and then quickly dash off to the next group of monsters and repeat. You will kill quickly, and safely provided you keep your War Cry up, use Battle Cry and Grim Ward when the situation needs them, and your latency stays good. Even if you get a bad spike your health should be high enough to take a few hits and be fine and they are also stunned for 3 seconds anyways, or you could try and put up a grim ward before the spike if you âfeelâ it coming as that always lasts 40 seconds. A major reason you probably wonât want to play a frenzy barb hardcore is that if you lag for a long period of time without grim ward, you almost certainly WILL eventually die to lag one day or another.
Suggested Equipment
Iâll start with the armor, as this is pretty universal no matter which weapons you chose to use. In order of preference (top being most preferred)⦠I use all of the 1.09 items for convenience and the fact that the 1.08s that are worth having are ultra utlra expensive and youâd know what they are if you could afford them anyways.
Body Armor: (Hard to substitute a Rare for, just look for resists/health/stats)
Lionheart rune word 3 socket armor Hel(15)-Lum(17)-Fal(19)- 3 fairly common runes make you one excellent piece of armor. 20% enhanced damage (more damage is always a plus) +25 strength, +15 dexterity, +20 Vitality, +10 energy, +50 health, +30 resist all, -15% requirements. This armor adds to everything you could want, and more, and in good amounts. I can save you 40 whopping points into strength and dexterity on your equipment and that means 40 more points into vitality, not to mention the 20 vitality and 50 health that the armor already adds. I recommend this as it is just awesome armor for the price, and hard to beat without using expensive runes or rare jewels in another unique or set armor. Preferably put it in a light armor (I think Iâm using mesh on mine); an archon plate would be ideal.
Durielâs Shell (Unique Cuirass)- a fairly easily obtained armor with good bonuses to your resistances, as well as a decent bonus to strength and health. It also adds the powerful and useful cannot be frozen, something you will need as you are all about going fast.
Spirit Forge (Unique Linked Mail)- has a good bonus to life, and 2 sockets for IAS jewels, not a bad deal at all! It also comes with a hefty bonus to your life, and also comes with a bonus of 15 strength. While I havenât seen this armor as much as Durielâs Shell Iâd imagine itâs fairly cheap to trade for.
Szabiâs Ghost Liberator (Set Balrog Skin)- even though it wasnât the Valor you hoped it was when it dropped, the entire Szabiâs set can be very useful in the hands of a sword frenzy barb for itâs good speed (40% walk/run without boots in the set) resists, and HUGE bonus to health. However it is a rare to come by the armor and the sword, but on a happy note, it doesnât pack a heavy trading value.
Smoke Runeword 2 socket armor Nef(4)-Lum(17)- once again, common runes turned into Runewords make awesome armor. This armor is great for resistances giving you 50% to all, and it even adds 70% to the armor rating of the armor (much less important though).
Shaftstop (Unique Mesh Armor)- hard to overlook as this, it is just plain good armor, however you donât really need it, itâs better suited for one of your characters that does, or trading it for some sojs or other items you could use (weapons cough cough). Use if you really feel that you must, but itâs by no means necessary.
Helms: (similar to armor, just find a decent rare barb hat with resists/skill bonuses/health/stats etc. that are useful, a good rare can be really good!)
Arreatâs Face (Unique Slayer Guard)- somewhat expensive but it is hands down the best helm for just about any barb, huge bonuses to skills, resistances, stats, even leech. Too bad it doesnât have magic find or damage reduction. Socket with an Um (resists) or Ber (damage reduction, not real necessary, but can be useful if youâre using shaft etc.) rune or a nice good resist all/ias jewel.
Tal Rashasâs Horadric Mask (Set Death Mask)- Huge bonus to life, mana, 10% dual leech, and 15% resist all. To top this off itâs cheap, and drops often doing magic find runs on hell Mephisto. Add a ruby for more health, or an IAS jewel as itâs not quite expensive enough to warrant an expensive rune/jewel⦠Iâve done it before, but there are just other things rare finds should go in.
Lore Runeword Barbarian Helmet Ort(9)-Sol(12)- Find one with Battle Orders/Frenzy and plop these two very common runes into the hat. Gives you one to skills, plus whatever was on it, and the other bonuses are just icing on the cake. You can get an ort as a reward from the 2nd quest in act 5. And as for Sols, they arenât too hard to come by, and are also cheap to trade for.
Szabiâs Mental Sheath- a hat with decent resists, and a bonus to skills⦠easy as pie to trade for and goes with nice with the rest Szabiâs Set.
Peasant Crown (Unique War hat)- Great hat with skills, and vitality, energy, and even run speed, not a resist to be found though.
Guillameâs Face (Set Winged Helm)- 35% chance of crushing blow, simply huge! Hit recovery and strength donât hurt either. If you added it to the belt, which is a pretty good item to use, youâd pick up a small bonus to health as well.
Vampiregaze (Unique Grim Helm)- Much like Shaftstop you just donât need the bonuses this great hat offers, use it somewhere else or trade it off (they, like Shaftstop carry good trade value, and an almost perfect one can command great trade value)
Gloves are about attack speed, and you need at least 20%
Gloves: (rares should have 20% IAS, and stats, resists, etc. etc.)
Laying of Hands (Set Bramble Mitts)- These are great gloves, fight demons and theyâre even better. Theyâre not overly expensive, but theyâre obviously not the cheapest gloves around.
âBloodâ Crafted Gloves transmute magical (blue) gloves, (Must use Heavy, Sharkskin, or Vampire Bone Gloves) a Nef(4) rune, a jewel, and a Perfect Ruby- Potentially very powerful as they could come with 3% life leech, 10% crushing blow, and 20% IAS, but youâd have to make several pairs to get one with 20% IAS, let alone one with 20% IAS and 10% crushing blow, so the odds of getting a pair like that make them very rare.
Sigonâs Gloves (Set Gauntlets)- These can be added to any other part of the set, helm (for huge attack rating), belt (for 4 rows, hps and a resist), or boots (for running and some attack rating and cold resist) for a huge 30% IAS and 10% life leech. Also the 10 added strength is nice. I would suggest not using the armor as you will probably never have a need of using the entire set as you get double swing (no need for a shield) fairly early on, and the armor will only slow you down and it doesnât pack any partial set bonuses.
Sanderâs Taboo (Set Heavy Gloves)- With 20% IAS and 40 health, hard to go wrong with these gloves.
Lavagout (Unique Battle Gauntlets)-With all the swinging you do the enchant will go off often, not to mention the other extra damage they provide too. They also bear 20% IAS, but tend to trade for more then I feel they are really worth.
Boots are a good place to pickup crushing blow, and running of course!
Boots: (any rare boots would need running speed/resists/stats etc.)
Gore Rider (Unique War Boots)- Just tremendous bonuses for characters that swing fast and often, and as a frenzy barb you will be swinging both fast and often.
Goblin Toe (Unique Light Plated Boots)- Just a step down from Gore Rider (as they donât have running bonuses), but they are better for the 25% crushing blow.
Tearhaunch (Unique Greaves)- 20% run/walk, 5 strength, 5 dexterity, 10 resist all. Just good bonuses and even some resistances⦠they meet every requirement for good boots but just canât compare to Gore Rider or Goblin Toe in overall usefulness.
Sanderâs Riprap (Set Heavy Boots)- 40% run/walk, 5 strength, 10 dexterity, 100 attack rating, very good boots.
Belts: (rare belts kinda stink, but just look for the usual resists/stats health etc.)
Nosferatuâs Coil (Unique Vampire Fang Belt)- Strength bonus, 10% IAS, and they even slow targets by 10%, it also comes with 5% life leech, yummy. They are sorta expensive, and decently rare too.
Mâavinaâs Telnet (Set Sharkskin Belt)- Mana leech, and walk/run speed⦠a very good belt. Fairly inexpensive to trade for.
Wilhelmâs Pride (Set Battle Belt)- Offers 5% dual leech, fairly cheap to trade for. Another pretty good belt to use. Fairly inexpensive, maybe even free.
String Of Ears (Unique Demonhide Sash)- Life leech and damage reductions, itâs a great belt to use, but as with the other damage reducing gear, itâs best used for other chars or traded. One with lower stats is usually fairly cheap to trade for however.
Nightsmoke (Unique Belt)- The main attractions of this belt are the 10% resist all and the 50% damage added to mana. With just this belt, you donât have much of an excuse to run out of mana.
Next weâll look at jewelry, please note that if youâre using rares having a good bit of life leech is recommended, but you can get away with just a small amount of mana leech.
Amulets: (Rares would have skills, resists, stats, leech, fast cast, damage returned as mana etc.)
Highlordâs Wrath- Simply amazing, IAS, lightning resistance (lots), a little extra damage, it just doesnât get much better, wait it comes with 1 to skills, it just got better. Can be a little expensive to trade for though.
The Catâs Eye- Lots of extra speed added here, yay! And a bunch of dexterity too, only lacks skills or a resistance. About the same price or lower as Highlordâs Wrath
âBloodâ crafted Amulet: transmute a magical amulet, an amn(11) rune, a jewel, and a perfect ruby- While the odds are mostly against you, and for the good level stats you need a good level character, which in turn often creates high level requirements on the amulets, you can get very good amulets this way. Youâd also want one with the max 10% faster walk on it, and as high leech as possible.
Atmaâs Scarab- Could be fairly nice for the amp damage, but you kill fast enough that the small radius would be mostly useless.
One of my rings would idealistically be a good crafted/rare/magical with cold resistance (since fire and lightning have big boosts from other top reccomended equipment), fast cast, and good leech, while the other would be a Ravenfrost.
Rings: (Rares would have resists, stats, leech, fast cast -damage/magic damage etc.)
Ravenfrost- dexterity, cannot be frozen, cold damage, and a big ar bonus, always a good one to have, and it even helps against cold damage with 20% cold absorb. I recommend always wearing one.
Bulkanthoâs Wedding Band- erm, leech and skills and a big chunk of life⦠itâs quite rare and expensive though.
âBloodâ crafted Ring: transmute a magical ring, a sol(12) rune, a jewel, and a perfect ruby-Youâd idealistically want either high life leech 7%+ or dual leech (which doesnât drop anymore, but you can craft) and some resistances.
Weapons: this is going to be a large section, and Iâll try to cover some lower level weapons as well as higher ones. Note that a Fury rune word weapon is generally just about as useful or more useful depending on the situation then the top recommended weapons. Also note that if you donât mind not killing cows like no tomorrow, you can go kill Baal, or the River of Flame, since you actually have resists and skills to keep you alive other then spinning aimlessly, you can use a good rare weapon. You know that one that only has 150% enhanced damage, 40 IAS, but does have something like 120% damage vs. demons or what have you, those weapons are excellent situational (i.e. not killing cows all day) weapons. Many magical weapons can have high damage outputs as well, you can even buy them from Act 5 with your old nerfed to all hell level 99 hammeradin. This will be even more important to you if you use axes, as there are a lot less set and unique options for axes.
Swords:
Doombringer (Unique Champion Sword)- With all the other added IAS gear you have on you can shael this bad boy and frenzy your heart out. While the two handed damage seems low, the one handed damage easily matches almost any other weapon youâll find, and other bonuses like the 20%bonus to your health on it make it even better. Champion Swords also have pretty low requirements for elite swords, freeing up more points for vitality. However it is pretty expensive and very rare.
CCB- Short of cruel colossus blade, you can use any of the elite swords really, just so long as you make them faster and they have good damage, the best of these are cubbed using the sword+3 chipped gems=magical sword with 3 sockets, however only Champion Swords and Colossus Swords/Blades can get cruel in this manner. These are somewhat expensive, but definitely not something to break the bank, maybe trade a pretty darn good weapon of another type for them etc.
Lightsabre (Unique Phase Sabre)- Itâs fast, and I mean itâs really really fast, just about as fast as a fury cryptic sword! Also with two of these on you can laugh at msle monsters and laugh as everyone around you dies and you eventually kill it. They sport ignore targets defense which combined with your fast swing speed guarantees many hits⦠but they just donât offer the damage available on other swords that only cost a little more to trade for, they do make for good use with crushing blow however, and are very definitely good weapon switches. Iâd definitely recommend putting amn runes in them for life leech. They are a little bit expensive, but not that hard to trade for.
Szabiâs Cobalt Redeemer (Set Cryptic Sword)- Itâs just as fast as a Lightsabre and it goes really well with the set, the set is simply awesome for a frenzy barb, and you can use a bigger sword in the other hand, even though the damage on this sword isnât the best, itâs certainly nothing to sneer at, especially considering all the neat bonuses you get using the set, and if you chose to level up doing Baal runs (a good idea with this sword) you can also use this sword and do 4x damage on them little demons, making it suddenly a LOT more damaging.
Crainte Vomir (Unique Espadon)- These swords are exceedingly fast, slow targets, and even give -10% physical damage, I have two of these on my weapon switch for those select occasions when I fight a fanaticism/extra strong/curse boss, or someone tries to pk me (hit them and run, or proceed to rip them apart if you get the chance) theyâre also great at lower levels, and add 20% run, 40% for a pair :)
Bloodletter (Unique Gladius)- Fast and fairly damaging, they add to sword mastery (which youâll have level 10 ideally at level 30) for even more damage, they also add to whirlwind which can lead to fast leveling through nightmare difficulty, I however found that with a pair of these I could frenzy my way through the lower half of the bloody hills faster then everyone else could do the top, and do it faster then trying to use whirlwind. Iâd usually make it past doc flaren and meet them somewhere past the choke in the trenches. Nice for the whirlwind I guess, but frenzy is just way more effective at low levels, especially with the monsters being spread out.
Shadowfang (Unique Two Handed Sword)- Unbelievably cool weapons to carry you through normal difficulty, you can even use them in nightmare a while.
Maces:
Schaeferâs Hammer (Unique Legendary Mallet)- it does damage, and lots of it, but itâs slow, so youâll want to shael it and use the most ias gear you can muster, exceedingly rare and quite expensive, theyâll often come with non shael runes/jewels, I suppose if it was an ias jewel that might be allowed. I would like to note that I feel this is quite possibly one of the best weapons in the game (not to mention for a frenzy barb) if you swing quickly due to itâs high damage and static field on hit.
Barnarâs Star (Unique Devil Star)- these do damage, and lots of it, just itâs mostly elemental. Theyâre fast though, and you can frenzy physical immune monsters with them, which is a plus, but berserk is good enough for that. They donât carry leech however, which can be a major drawback given that they donât have very high physical damage, Iâd recommend perfect skulls or amn runes for socket choices.
Dragoonâs Teaching (Set Reinforced Mace)- They do pretty good damage, although the range is pretty large, and they come to you pretty darn fast when you get them so you could put an ed jewel or ohm them and itâd be a lot like having a cheaper, less damaging, yet faster, version of Schaeferâs.
Earthshaker (Unique Battle Hammer)- Good damage, decent speed, youâd probably want to shael them though.
Aldurâs Rhytm (Set Jagged Star)- If I recall correctly theyâre a lot slower then they should be (I believe theyâre bugged), but theyâre still good for killing demons (and do decent damage), maybe theyâll get fixed in the next patch.
The Generalâs Tan Do Li Ga (Unique Flail)- Good early mace as it does decent damage and slows targets.
Civerbâs Cudgel (Set Grand Scepter)- Not quite the demon slaying machine they were in Diablo 1, but they function oddly as an even cheaper more common version of the dragoonâs teaching, making them perfect for poor people like me!
That Hammer from the hellforge quest (act 4 quest 2)- If you can give yourself one, cool, if you can give yourself two⦠even cooler, as they sport no level requirement and low (I believe none) stat requirements⦠other then that⦠theyâre only so-so. Theyâre also free aside from the time take to go get one, which is yet another huge bonus, and the normal quest doesnât really kick out good runes anyways.
Axes:
The Butcherâs Pupil (Unique Cleaver)- unbelievably cool, they do pretty decent damage, and open wounds. Theyâre also fast, and indestructible! And as another bonus, you can probably trade a bunch of chips or low-end items for a pair, making them quite affordable as well. Put in some Amn runes or perfect skulls, or even more IAS and youâll be a happy camper.
âBloodâ Crafted Axe transmute 1 magical axe (any), an ort(9) rune, a jewel, and a perfect Ruby- You could make a fairly potent axe with the built in enhanced damage thatâs guaranteed, and the possibility of more. Youâd definitely want as much IAS and damage possible, damage to demons and even undead could make a weapon highly viable in certain areas in addition to other damage bonuses.
The Gnasher (Unique Hand Axe)- just not much in the way of axes, but these are good early on.
Rakescare (Unique War Axe)- once again we have a good early axe. It is a good thing Butcherâs Pupilâs are cheap as axes come up short compared to other weapons in choices.
Berserkerâs Hatchet (Set Double Axe)- well if you had the whole set⦠or this and the armor, youâd probably find use of it. But without another set piece the damage is just too low, and even with another it is only 50% betterâ¦
Mercenaries
There isnât really a whole lot to consider for your mercenary. Any ranged mercenary has a good chance of being useful or dieing a lot as youâre over on one side of the screen dealing with a pack of monsters and theyâre on the other trying to pick things off until a pack of minotaurs comes up and slaughters them. Also the damage added by ranged mercenaries is fairly insignificant, and you donât need elemental companions to help you out as you have berserk for killing physical immunes. So this rules out act 1 and 3, so that leaves you with 2 and 5.
You already have a tank, yourself, and you need not one, but 2 good weapons let alone the third youâd need if you added in an act 5 mercenary (good swords are a bit expensive to trade for)⦠so I advocate and act 2 mercenary. You donât need a holy freeze mercenary as you have War Cry, which doesnât slow monsters, it STOPS monsters. Thorns- youâre not getting hit too much, Blessed Aim-your skills give you enough attack rating boosts (or you can get some charms etc.), Defiance- you have defensive skills to compensate for a lake of armor. I just suggest you use a might mercenary (act 2 nightmare offensive), they do good damage, give them a 3amn Hone Sundan (Unique Yari), preferably ethereal, and theyâre good to go. Since you wontâ use your potions that often, and you have find potion anyways, you can always drop a full rejuvenation potion on him anyways. (Use find potion in acts 4/5 to chuck full ones, any difficulty, itâs the act that matters oddly enough) Oh yeah, did I mention they use might, which ups your damage a good amount, as well as theirs, and it tends to pack a big radius so everyone around you is enjoying it too?
Oh and if you have damage reducing gear youâre not using, mercenaries are a good place to put it. The smoke runeword however, on a high defense ethereal 2 socket armor is a personal favorite of mine for mercenaries since your play style keeps them relatively safe from melee monsters, but ranged attackers (THOSE STUPID #(%*&# ACT 4 MAGES) can still get at themâ¦
So hire them early on, before you start your nightmare bloody runs (great place to level them as you probably make half the kills in the game if you start from the bottom of the run⦠meaning they get a big chunk of the exp made in any game) so that they will be similar in level to yourself. I believe mine is perhaps 2 levels behind me as I was doing cows for a little while, and itâs hard to keep a mercenary alive in cows as a barbarian⦠I finally did get it down however, but you have to follow him around and guide him about carefully instead of him following you around which can be frustrating at times.
Leveling Up
Iâm going to be vague, as even discussed with my friends and such we could never agree on the best way to distribute points and skills. The general idea is to put points into your mastery to help with attack rating and damage, perhaps get this to 5-10 early on while you cover your other prereqs.
Double swing + 2 fast weapons + leech/+mana per kill/xx%damage goes to mana=easy leveling. You may want to pull out the cathanâs rings, the manald heals, your shadowfangs⦠whatever you got! And as soon as Double Swing fades into frenzy life becomes that much easier. As soon as you hit level 24 Iâd begin maxing battle orders, or at least get the duration to more then a minute, perhaps 2. Also, battle orders and a few hp charms will allow you to wield bigger scarier stuff faster since you can skimp out on vitality early on. At level 30 you will definitely want to focus on War Cry a while, as War Cry is your lifeblood. You donât necessarily have to put all the points recommended into this skill now, but the sooner you have it to that 3 second duration, the sooner your life is (once again) that much easier. I have made two frenzy barbs, one that upped this skill earlier, and one that upped it later. Of my frenzy barbs, Iâve found raising this earlier makes fighting easier as opposed to raising it later.
Now you may be thinking âWhy all the safety skills early onâ I already touched on this a little, it lets you use higher requirement weapons which will compensate for your lack of offensive skills, and in addition to that youâll have a bunch of stupid, stunned monsters AND an hp buffer to boot. So even in your late 30âs, early 40âs youâll be playing with a style similar to the one you will use and perfect later on in your characterâs life which leads to you being very effective with your frenzy barbarian.
After you get enough strength and dexterity (or even before depending on the level requirements of your end gear) you should of course pump vitality to no end. Also you will start to max your damage skills once you are comfortable with your defensive skills. Realize the idea isnât to take no damage; itâs to only take some damage, and then stun/frenzy the monsters into oblivion.
Generally speaking though, when you hit your first bloody hills run (after getting your mercenary of choice) you will want to start from the bottom as most people start from the top, and you can get more kills this way. Mercenary exp is based off of the kills you and said mercenary make, not those of the people around you, so itâs important to do a lot of killing on your own since the suggested mercenary (might) is important to doing even more damage.
Variants
Frenzy/Throw: This offers something that frenzy barbs, and well⦠many a barb, are lacking. You could very feasibly shuffle around skills to accomidate throw mastery, or just make a throw barbarian, and add a few points of frenzy and maybe some ignore targets defense, or ethed weapons to charge your frenzy on. Frenzied throws are about as fast as it gets, and well⦠thatâs awfully nice.
Mfing: Frenzy barbs can control packs well, and as a side effect of this you can mf quite well in your down time, or when you just feel like it. Battle cry makes bosses laughable, and weapon switching to 2x ali babas and continuing to frenzy is surprisingly effective, especially if you use gloves such as laying of hands to increase your damage vs. monsters such as mephisto. If you plan to mf, Iâd suggest you make your character with sword mastery maxed out as opposed to any other mastery.
Future Revisions and Contact Information
I am very open minded to suggestions that you may have, please note I am likely to argue my point of view in response and it is in no way personal or an attack on your character. I would also like some data on the radius of War and Battle Cry as they are not listed anywhere I can find off hand... also some very simplistic information regarding the roll back ias nature of frenzy if you know it would also be awesome. You can contact me at zera_flyer@yahoo.com as I check this fairly frequently.