A Warrior Destined For Hell

[MonTy]

Hail Lurkers,

In all my years of playing and reading about Diablo II I can not say I vanquished the prime evils on Hell difficulty. I mean, what kind of hero am I? Well this lack of achievement did not settle so well within me. I felt like I owed my old friend Diablo a visit again. So I started a Barbarian, and I wanted to actually finish the game on Normal difficulty before I wrote this. Before I get in detail about my experience on Normal difficulty, I suppose you should know how I play the game. So here are a few notes on my play style:

-I spend quite a bit of time planning a character out, then playing it strictly on how I planned it. If my character turns out to be “gimped”, I welcome the challenge. If he turns out to be the most damage efficient build, then so be it. I set rules on what skills they are allowed to use, and I follow it.
-I play single-player only. I clear out all areas (even all of Tal Rasha's Tombs), and I try to clear every monster in a zone. I use the 1.11b official Diablo II patch. I do not use any mods.
-I do not use hacks. I DO use the mule application, ATMA, only to store items. I won't transfer gold or items within characters, unless they finish Hell difficulty.

On to my character, Monty, the Barbarian.

I chose a Barbarian because it's actually the class I have the least amount of experience with. The only Barbarian I've played is a Frenzy Barbarian, and I only completed Normal difficulty. I wanted to play a classic slash and hack character, and the idea I had in mind was a normal sword and shield build. I wanted Monty to be a tough warrior, being able to survive massive battles from all different types of enemies. So the basic skills and strategy Monty will be using is the following:

Concentrate will be Monty's main attack. During battles I will cast War Cry to control groups of enemies if Monty gets surrounded. Against bosses or enemies with a lot of life, I will cast Battle Cry on them. Monty will try and keep Shout, Battle Orders, and Battle Command active at all times. I realize Monty's damage output might be on the low side, but I'm aiming for control and survivability. I will try to use the highest damage one-handed sword to counter his lack of damage.

Here's his skill plan: (Planned for 95 skill points, level 85)

Warcries:
(1) - Howl (Not Using)
(1) - Taunt (Will Use)
(1) - Shout (Will Use)
(1) - Battle Cry (Will Use)
(20) - Battle Orders
(17) - War Cry
(1) - Battle Command (Will Use)

Combat Masteries:
(20) - Sword Mastery
(1) - Increased Stamina
(1) - Increased Speed
(1) - Iron Skin
(5) - Natural Resistance

Combat Skills:
(1) - Bash (Not Using)
(1) - Leap (Will Use)
(1) - Stun (Not Using)
(1) - Leap Attack (Will Use)
(20) - Concentrate
(1) - Beserk (Only for Physical Immune Enemies)

Once I've completed a difficulty, I'll reply to this post with a write-up. Comments much appreciated!

-MonTy

[Grayloch]

<snip> Here's his skill plan: (Planned for 115 skill points) <snip>

A character will only receive 110 skill points assuming they reach level 99 and complete all the skill-point-bonus quests.

Since you're playing SP, reaching level 99 is going to take a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time. You might want to think about planning your core build around, say, 95 skill points or so; this would be achievable by around level 85. Anything after that would be gravy.

Not having a whole lot of experience with a Barbarian, I am unfortunately unable to provide a whole lot of constructive input on where to spend those 95 points. I do know that a Concentrate Barb without a AoE skill like WW can be a very effective tank but a correspondingly slow killer, as he has to kill enemies one at a time. Also, what's your planned Physical Immune solution? Most Barbs put one point in Berserk to help deal with PIs.

Good luck with your build! Have fun and keep us posted on how he's doing.

-G.

[MonTy]

Hail Grayloch,

Thanks for the heads-up about the skill point and level cap info. I was told that I would get 115 skill points by 90, but I just calculated it with my character and your information is correct. I'll change that, thanks a lot.

As for the Physical Immune monsters, I was planning on finding a weapon with 4-6 sockets and adding perfect rubies. Although now looking at the hell monster life total, that might take a while. Since I've never been in Hell, do PI's come up quite a bit? Would the one point in beserk be much more effective than the perfect rubies?

Thanks again Grayloch, trying to plan for Hell difficulty is definitely a fun and new experience for me.

[MonTy]

My Normal Difficulty write-up:

So far the build has been very satisfying. It's going exactly as planned. I do OK damage to a single-target, and I'm able to handle massive groups of enemies. I have not yet died, although there has been a few close calls. The hardest fight would have to be Lister the Tormentor and his minions. Even with stunning when I can, I still had to swig a good amount of pots taking out the first two minions. A longer stun duration definitely would have helped, I'll have to pump up War Cry a fair bit. Group fights before I learned War Cry were a bit long and hard, but my ice mage mercenary helped with crowd control. All the Boss battles were quite easy, never going in the danger zone of hit points. For Nightmare I definitely want to up my damage a bit, and hopefully find some better gear. I have great expectations for this build, and I can't wait to see how he progresses in Nightmare.


Character Stats (Base):
Level: 40
Strength: 105
Dexterity: 85
Vitality: 85
Energy: 10

Concentrate Damage (Without Buffs): 51-143
Concentrate Damage (With Buffs): 111-206

Skills:

Warcries:
(1) - Howl
(1) - Taunt
(1) - Shout
(1) - Battle Cry
(4) - Battle Orders
(5) - War Cry
(1) - Battle Command

Combat Masteries:
(13) - Sword Mastery
(1) - Increased Stamina
(1) - Increased Speed
(1) - Iron Skin
(5) - Natural Resistance

Combat Skills:
(1) - Bash
(1) - Leap
(1) - Stun
(1) - Leap Attack
(4) - Concentrate

Current Gear:

Head:
Lizard's Jawbone Cap of Brilliance
+7 to Energy
+5 to Mana
+3 to Battle Cry
+2 to Iron Skin

Left Hand:
Bone Hew - Gladius
One Hand Sword: 12 - 33 Damage
+51% Enchanted Damage
+16 Attack Rating
Adds 1-4 Fire Damage
6% Life Stolen Per Hit
7% Mana Stolen Per Hit

Chest:
Isenhart's Case
186 Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 2

Shield:
Steelclash
58% Chance to Block
+25% Increased Chance of Blocking
Damage Reduced by 3
All Resistances +15
+3 to Light Radius
20% Faster Block

Glove:
Sander's Taboo
+40 to Life
Adds 8-10 poison damage over 3 seconds
20% Increased Attack Speed

Belt:
Ocher Plated Belt of the Mammoth
+40 to Life
Lightning Resist +14%

Boot:
Gorefoot
2% Mana Stolen Per Hit
Attacker Takes Damage of 2
20% Faster Run / Walk
+2 to Leap

Amulet:
Rainbow Amulet of the Bat
All Resistances +10
3% Mana Stolen Per Hit

Ring #1:
Corruption Hold
Lightning Resist +25%
4% Mana Stolen Per Hit
+1 Mana Stolen After Each Kill
10% Chance to Cast Level 3 Nova When Struck

Ring #2:
Wyrm's Ring of Regeneration
+46 to Mana
Replenish Life +4

The gear is just ok, and looking back at it I might have too much Mana help items. For Nightmare I'll definitely need more damage.

Normal Uniques Found (8):
Blood Fist
Gorefoot
Nightsmoke
Pluckeye
Spectral Shard
Steelclash
Stoutnail
The Diggler

Set Items Found (14)
Angelic Wings
Arcanna's Deathwand
Cathan's Visage
Civerb's Cudgel
Cleglaw's Pincers
Cleglaw's Tooth
Hsarus' Iron Heel
Infernal Cranium
Infernal Sign
Isenhart's Case (x2)
Milabrega's Diadem
Sander's Taboo (x2)

Runes:
*I upgrade a rune when I have more than three of the same kind
El Rune (x3)
Eld Rune
Tir Rune (x3)
Nef Rune
Eth Rune (x3)
Ith Rune (x3)
Tal Rune
Ral Rune (x2)
Ort Rune (x2)

Thanks for looking. I'd love to hear any comments.

-MonTy

[Grayloch]

No prob.:)

As for the Physical Immune monsters, I was planning on finding a weapon with 4-6 sockets and adding perfect rubies. Although now looking at the hell monster life total, that might take a while. Since I've never been in Hell, do PI's come up quite a bit? Would the one point in beserk be much more effective than the perfect rubies?

Before I answer, I will again say that I'm probably not the best person to be giving Barb advice since ( a ) I've also never played a Barb in Hell (I prefer ranged and caster characters), and ( b ) I traded in vanilla 1.10 for Nobbie's Mod a long time ago, and said goodbye to monster immunities.

However, for what it's worth, I do seem to recall that PI monsters are less common than elemental-immune monsters; the only ones I can think of offhand are the Wraith-type creatures (Ghosts in the Countess's Tower and Specters in the Arcane Sanctuary). PI bosses are reasonably common. A 6-PRuby weapon provides moderate elemental damage output (90-120 fire damage), which is enough to whittle down PI's. But bosses are frequently dual-immune; running into PI FI bosses is not uncommon, and then you'd need to have another weapon in your arsenal to deal with those.

Berserk, OTOH, converts all of your physical damage to magical damage (note that this is not elemental damage, but the same type of damage inflicted by a Necro's Bone Spear or Bone Spirit, or the Paladin's Blessed Hammer). If you have decent physical damage output, then even a level 1 Berserk will do considerably more damage than the 6-PRuby weapon. IIRC, there are only two types of monsters which can be Immune to Magic: Greater Mummies in Act II and Wailing Beasts in the Act III temples. The odds of running into a PI MI boss are pretty slim, so with Berserk you can handle pretty much any monster the game will throw at you. The disadvantage of Berserk, of course, is that your defense drops to zero while using it, leaving you open to taking hits unless you have a means of pacifying the monsters while you hack at them--War Cry does nicely for this.

One other piece of advice I would give is, if you haven't done so already, to check out The Amazon Basin. Their Barbarian Forum has lots of useful guides and information to help with exactly the sorts of questions you're asking (far better than I'm able to).

Hope this helps some.

-G.

[Ashock]

I don't want to dissapoint you, but a solo untwinked Barb can *not* get through Hell difficulty, plain and simple. You will at best get throgh act 2. Nitemare is np though.



-A

[Yogi_Baar]

I don't want to dissapoint you, but a solo untwinked Barb can *not* get through Hell difficulty, plain and simple. You will at best get throgh act 2.

This is complete and utter rubbish.

As long as you're patient and skilled enough, you can finish the game solo and untwinked.

EDIT: Where's this new editor's balloons and candy and stuff?

[Occhidiangela]

I don't want to dissapoint you, but a solo untwinked Barb can *not* get through Hell difficulty, plain and simple. You will at best get throgh act 2. Nitemare is np though.
-A

You may assert that, with the proviso "before Tedium sets in" and be close to correct. My frenzy Barb was putting me to sleep with boredom (HC) in the middle of Act III Hell. Judicious use of Grim Ward, Howl, and Taunt are little used crowd control skills that can do a lot to clear Physical Immunes away from constricted paths in Hell Arcane Sanctuary and Tombs.

Our friend probably need to keep the Merc with Elemental attacks, and a wand with charges of Lower Resist on weapon switch, to accompany this Barb through Hell.

My dos centavos

Occhi

[librarian]

Heiho,

someone with the patience to play a Concentrating Barb also has the patience to bring that Barb through Hell.

Some Musings:
- try to get Life Leech. Try it hard. Gamble Rings. Kick chests and barrels. Whatever. Try. Your weapon ist just good enough for now, but fair too whimsy for the long run. Cube a blood sword with four health pots, a ruby, and a magical sword (exc 2H swords should show up at the vendors in act5 at least)
- I'd suggest going 2H. No sense in attacking slowly _and_ doing little damage. If your resists seem too low, change belt to Nightsmoke. The damage to mana attribute will help you a lot without the needing of all that mana leeching gear.
- Barbs have bad shield block. Use shield only in areas where you need additional resists. Go 2H otherwise.
- (if you ever get your hands on the third Cleglaw item, use complete Set with slot2, since you'll wear a 2H sword in slot1!)
- also check weapon speed, IAS aside Bloodfist are far superior to Sander's, especially in damage
- build a TalEth armor. Not teh best0 armor for fighters, but superior to Isenhart, and it will do for now. Isenhart makes only sense with additional Set pieces.

- did I mention I'd heavily suggest to go 2H?

[Ashock]

This is complete and utter rubbish.

As long as you're patient and skilled enough, you can finish the game solo and untwinked.

EDIT: Where's this new editor's balloons and candy and stuff?

Well, let me rephrase that then (and also considering Occy's post). If you do not mind taking forever going from one WP to another, if you don't mind having to retreat and drink pots after every fight of more than 2 mo's and dying a lot, if you do not mind running away like a screeming schoolgirl upon seeing a boss pack, and if you do not mind forever shopping for a cruel sword of crap (and in act 3 it would take forever) then it is doable. Oh and also if you get lucky and find a unique elite in act1-2, but that can't be counted on.

Out of curiosity, have you done it? Also, out of curiosity, what is your experience with Barbs? I'll give you mine: I had either 5 or 6 lvl 90+ Barbs including 2 99s. I had 2 high 80's pre-D2X when it was very difficult to lvl after 85. More importantly, I have played with some of the best players out there. Please educate me.

Maybe you quit playing before 1.10 and the final Barb nerfs came out? That would certainly explain it.


-A

[Occhidiangela]

Well, let me rephrase that then (and also considering Occy's post). If you do not mind taking forever going from one WP to another, if you don't mind having to retreat and drink pots after every fight of more than 2 mo's and dying a lot, if you do not mind running away like a screeming schoolgirl upon seeing a boss pack, and if you do not mind forever shopping for a cruel sword of crap (and in act 3 it would take forever) then it is doable. Oh and also if you get lucky and find a unique elite in act1-2, but that can't be counted on.

Out of curiosity, have you done it? Also, out of curiosity, what is your experience with Barbs? I'll give you mine: I had either 5 or 6 lvl 90+ Barbs including 2 99s. I had 2 high 80's pre-D2X when it was very difficult to lvl after 85. More importantly, I have played with some of the best players out there. Please educate me.

Maybe you quit playing before 1.10 and the final Barb nerfs came out? That would certainly explain it.
-A

I found boss packs to be sucseptible to Taunt, Howl, and Grim Ward at one point + Plus Skills, typicaly in 1.10 from 2-5 in warcries/barb in combination. ( I tend to pick up lots of stuff to sell for gold since I like to gamble circlets, boots, and belts.) That only started to become an issue in act III, when too many mundane monsters weren't Howlable, but between Taunt and Grim Ward, I could isolate bosses from their packs on most occasions, Temples and Tight Corridors being the nuisance exception.

I also used a Holy Freeze Merc to slow them all down. Frenzy Taurs are a special case, and areas with them require some careful scouting so you can pick them off one at time.

Occhi

[Munkay]

Weighing in on this issue, I have to side with Ashock. Although I've never brought a barb over 90, I brought 4 to high 80's in 1.10 in a very sad attempt to make a "good" barb. With many different set ups, and with absolute top end elite items, each Barb was a joke.

Although it's technically possible, its tedium at it's finest. And something about having to pick and chose every fight, running away from any large group, rubbed me the wrong way. It's a barbarian. With his pure brute strength and power there shouldn't be any melee equivalent. But somehow Blizzard decided to make them an absolute joke in 1.10.

None-the-less, I wish you the best of luck MonTy. You'll need it;)

Cheers,

Munk

[Yogi_Baar]

If you do not mind taking forever going from one WP to another, if you don't mind having to retreat and drink pots after every fight of more than 2 mo's and dying a lot, if you do not mind running away like a screeming schoolgirl upon seeing a boss pack, and if you do not mind forever shopping for a cruel sword of crap (and in act 3 it would take forever) then it is doable. Oh and also if you get lucky and find a unique elite in act1-2, but that can't be counted on.

High Warcry for stun duration (twin Spirits or somesuch on switch) coupled with Taunt and you're pretty much safe. I have a barb in Act V Hell now and there isn't much that can hurt him. Dual ranged boss packs with Amp and something else made him drink, but other monsters are pretty much ignorable.

He's no mass killer, but he is one of the safest (and, granted, most boring) characters I've had.

As for high damage weapons, with Warcry you can afford to go 2-handed with an autocruel™ Insight polearm. High damage + good Critical Strike chance. Not sure about the speed though, might be dreadfully slow. But like librarian said, if you play a Concentrate Barbarian, you must have lots of patience to begin with.

[Ashock]

High Warcry for stun duration (twin Spirits or somesuch on switch) coupled with Taunt and you're pretty much safe. I have a barb in Act V Hell now and there isn't much that can hurt him. Dual ranged boss packs with Amp and something else made him drink, but other monsters are pretty much ignorable.

He's no mass killer, but he is one of the safest (and, granted, most boring) characters I've had.

As for high damage weapons, with Warcry you can afford to go 2-handed with an autocruel™ Insight polearm. High damage + good Critical Strike chance. Not sure about the speed though, might be dreadfully slow. But like librarian said, if you play a Concentrate Barbarian, you must have lots of patience to begin with.

Ok, this is for you and Occy.


I thought the post was about Barbarians not Borebarians.


Edit: Actually there is a way, solo and not twinked... in fact I did it, I just forgot. It requires trading. After taking about 6-8 months off, when .11 came out I started a ladder Barb. Through trading (I got lucky and got Um in Hellforge on Nite and that started it rolling), I eventually got him 2 BOTDs, and he was fine. Not powerful, but ok. At lvl 85 or so, I got bored and quit D2 for good this time, I think. So, technically, he was untwinked and solo, heh.



-A

[Hammerskjold]

>As for high damage weapons, with Warcry you can afford to go 2-handed with an autocruel™ Insight polearm. High damage + good Critical Strike chance.

Yeah, Insight, Spirit, Edge, Harmony, and Lawbringer are very useful runewords that is actually affordable for most players. Unfortunately they're not enabled in SP play, I think it's an incredibly idiotic move for Bliz to have them for online ladder\realm only.

So unless I misread what Monty wrote,

>-I play single-player only. I clear out all areas (even all of Tal Rasha's Tombs), and I try to clear every monster in a zone. I use the 1.11b official Diablo II patch. I do not use any mods.

He won't be able to use them. Or maybe I did misread his post and he simply meant solo.

[MonTy]

Hail Librarian,

Yes, I have quite a bit of patience. I have a busy life schedual and Diablo 2 is the only game I am playing, so taking down mobs in Diablo 2 is more of a relaxing thing for me -- even if that means killing slowly with a one handed sword.

- try to get Life Leech. Try it hard. Gamble Rings. Kick chests and barrels. Whatever. Try. Your weapon ist just good enough for now, but fair too whimsy for the long run. Cube a blood sword with four health pots, a ruby, and a magical sword (exc 2H swords should show up at the vendors in act5 at least)

I have been realizing Life leech is pretty big, that is why I have stuck with my low damage, but good modifier sword. I've never made a blood sword before, so I'll have to check that out. Like you suggested, I am going to hope and pray for some good rings from gambling.

- I'd suggest going 2H. No sense in attacking slowly _and_ doing little damage. If your resists seem too low, change belt to Nightsmoke. The damage to mana attribute will help you a lot without the needing of all that mana leeching gear.
- Barbs have bad shield block. Use shield only in areas where you need additional resists. Go 2H otherwise.

I do realize that the weapon I currently have is not going to make it much longer, and I still havn't found a better replacement (praying for some exceptional swords with nice damage modifiers). In act 4 of normal difficulty I had an extremely powerful two-handed sword, so I tried it on. I immediately thought "wow, this is quite nice, I'm taking guys down in two hits!", but then I reminded myself that this character isin't about doing damage. With that, I reverted back to one-handed swords and I pledged to only use them.

- also check weapon speed, IAS aside Bloodfist are far superior to Sander's, especially in damage

I've been switching back and forth between the two. Isn't the IAS 10% more on the Sander's? And the 30% hit recovery doesn't matter with my concentration, correct? Although the +5 minimum damage might be better when applied with my +damage skills. Let me know what you think.

- build a TalEth armor. Not teh best0 armor for fighters, but superior to Isenhart, and it will do for now. Isenhart makes only sense with additional Set pieces.

I was waiting for a nice two socketed armor piece, which just dropped a few minutes ago for me. I'll be doing that very soon. I agree that it isn't the best runeword for a Barbarian, but it's better then Isenhart. Thanks for the tip.

- did I mention I'd heavily suggest to go 2H?

Hehe, yep. And I'm sure in terms of efficiency you're a 100 % right in your suggestions. But it's more of a roleplay thing, with setting restrictions and guidelines for my characters. Thanks for all the tips and advice, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. There are so many things I forgot in all my years of reading about the game, and I feel like I'm learning it all over again (which is good and bad). I'll let you know how Monty weathers nightmare.

[MonTy]

Hail Hammerskjold,

You are correct in assuming that I play offline. I use the mule application, ATMA, which can only be used offline. I also am a bit annoyed at the fact that Blizzard didn't enable all the runewords in Singleplayer, since they are probably the ones that need the most help with gear ;-) So I have not even looked at the realm only runewords, as I'll probably be jelous that I can never have them.

Take care,
-MonTy

[MonTy]

Hail Ashock,

Well I certainly don't want to be a "screaming schoolgirl upon seeing a boss pack", and from your stated experience I do not doubt your advice. It just seems like a matter of patience and how you approach the fight.

So far, in act one nightmare I've been able to handle 3+ boss mobs at one time. I jump right in the middle of everyone, and I stun, battle cry, stun, kill bosses, stun, etc... To me this is not quite the "screaming schoolgirl" technique that you stated. I am jumping right in the middle of 12+ mobs, me tough guy, not schoolgirl.

I also understand you said I would get through act 1 and 2 without problems, so I am taking that into consideration. I'll let you know how the later acts pan out. I am hoping for a bit of luck with my item drops. If I don't find those few must have items, it'll be a lot tougher. Either way, I will get through this game. Thanks for the advice and elaborating more.

-MonTy

[MonTy]

Hail Munkay,

None-the-less, I wish you the best of luck MonTy. You'll need it ;)

Yes, thanks, I sure will need luck. My topic title "A Warrior Destined For Hell" might have gained a new meaning.

Cheers,
MonTy

[Hammerskjold]

> I also am a bit annoyed at the fact that Blizzard didn't enable all the runewords in Singleplayer, since they are probably the ones that need the most help with gear ;-)

That pretty much summed up my feelings on it as well. One of the main reasons why I pretty much quit vanilla D2\LoD, and now only play mostly mods like Nobbies, or just using the runes.txt files to have the runewords activated, but play offline. It might not have been intentional, but I don't like the way bliz treated SP mode in 1.10, or for that matter players who enjoys soloing.

But enough of my bile. Good luck on your Concentrator, you definitely have more tenacity than I do. My last Concentrator was retired at clvl 34. But reading your plans did get me firing up my Double Swing barb again.

Speaking of weapons, in case someone hasn't mentioned it already. "Crescent Moon", for axes, swords, and polearms, Shael + Um + Tir, might be of interest to you later on. The Um is a bit pricy, but if you got the patience to build a high level Concentrator, then cubing up an Um rune is probably not out of the question either.