Warcry Variant

[Zyr]

Pure vitality build. 
Enigma Breastplate, dual HOTO battle hammers, Harlequin crest, 2 sojs, maras, silkweave, Arachnid mesh, frostburn.

I don't believe you can put HotO into Battle Hammers. The Arreat Summit Rune Word page states (in a footnote to HotO):

"-Maces: Maces doesn't mean all Mace class weapons. As the top of the page says: Maces = Mace, Morning Star, Flail, and Exceptional/Elite versions."

Four-socket Flails would seem more consistent with a pure vitality build than getting 100 Strength for Battlehammers. ;)

I've begun a Singer Barb under the influence of Candlelight's BarelyManilow, who achieved Guardian status playing (visually) n00d (no armor or shield; gloves, boots, belt, circlet and jewelry allowed); his adventures are detailed in the Amazon Basin Hardcore Resting Room board. Also, I've found a lot of useful information in Wim-sama's Singer Barb thread in the AB Barb forum. Unfortunately the AB forums are down for me right now, so I can't provide direct links.

My hopes are that my Singer can do some MFing, with a PTopazed-out merc delivering most (all?) of the killing blows. Gear will include (at least temporarily, because I have all of these items now):

Tarnhelm
Angelic armor, ammy, and two rings
Sigon's belt, boots, and shield
Frostburns
Two Spectral Shards

Attribute points: Str 75 (for Sigon's shield), Dex 51 (for Shards), rest into Vit

Skill points: Still undecided. In a reply in the Wim-sama thread I can't currently access, Booyakasha made a strong case for maxing Berserk, and I may go that way rather than the purely vocal approach you've outlined.

EDIT: The Basin is back. :)
BarelyManilow
Wim-sama

EDIT AGAIN SOME MORE: I misremembered the location of Boooyakasha's post (and misspelled his name as well :ph34r:)-- it's in this MF Barb thread.