Frenzy Barbarian? Other questions too

[qwiksilvertrav]

Ok, well I've been playing Diablo II for a long time just on my own, never really online so this is P vs M.

I have a lev 77 Barb that I've been building and is on Act I at the black marsh on Hell.
I have seen everybody say concentrate and beserk are the best builds...

Well concentrate IMO limits your damage unless you have the best weapon in the game maybe. But I use it if I'm running short on defense or resist and have to use a shield.
If I try to use Berserk I just die within seconds.

My barb is pretty much a dual welding barb, I love the damage, so frenzy and WW is my skill of choice.

Right now I have WW at level 13, frenzy at 8 and beserk is at lev 7.
Beserk just sucks I think. Anyways, I was wondering should I take the remaining skill points I have left in the game and throw it at beserk? Will it get better later if I build it up? Right now I just die within seconds of using it.
So instead of doing that, I plan on building iron skin, ww, and frenzy the rest of the game. Resists are maxxed so I'm ok there.

Just for some more info, this is what my barb is equipped with: ANY tips, opinions, or hints are welcome!

Helm
Areat's Face
Defense: 374
+2 combat skills
+2 to Barb skills
30% faster HR
20% attack bonus
3% life stolen
+20 to Str
+20 to Dex
All Ris + 30

Armor
Spirit Forge (going to be replace with a 4 sckt ornate plate runeworded)
Defense: 435
+ 15 Str
+96 to life (base on lvl)
Replenish lif + 5%
Regen Mana + 19%
Fire resist 5%
24% chance of getting magic items

Gloves
Gylph Cluthes
Defense: 77
+2 Str
cold resist 21%
poison resist 24%
43% xtra gold from mon
15% better chance for magic items

Belt
Razortail
Defense 107
Peircing attack (what does that do exactly?)
+10 max damage
+15 dex
Attacker takes damage of 77 (based on char level)

Boots
Aldur's advance
Defense: 44
40% faster run/walk
+50 life
+ 160 max stamina
Heal stanima + 32%
fire resist 41%
10% damage goes to mana
+15 dex (set bonus)
+ 150% attack bonus (set bonus)

Weapons:
left hand
Aldur's Rythyme
OH damage: 60 - 93
30% increase attack speed
+200% damage to demons
51 - 115 lightening damage
10 -14 cold damage
+100 poison damage over 7 seconds
5% mana stolen per hit
10% life stolen per hit
50% damage to undead
+ 15 to str (set bonus)
+150% attack bonus (set bonus)

right hand
Sword Guard
OH damage 66 - 110
20% faster hit recovery
20% increase chance of blocking
+385 defense (based on char level)
+200 defense vs melee
+ 100 defense vs missle
All resistances + 19
30% damage goes to mana
-50% requirements

have a stone ring of jordon, a amulet thats + 2 to masteries and 20% chance for magic items, and then a + 50 poison damage ring

One of the weapons is going to get replace with a 6 socketed executioner sword that I have and the armor will be replaced with a 4 socket Ornate plate, that is unless I find better runeword material in the meantime.

Right now I"m just hacking away in search of runes and building levels.

ANY tips or suggestions? Thanks!

[Occhidiangela]

I have a lev 77 Barb that I've been building and is on Act I at the black marsh on Hell.  I have seen everybody say concentrate and beserk are the best builds...

My barb is pretty much a dual welding barb, I love the damage, so frenzy and WW is my skill of choice.

Right now I have WW at level 13, frenzy at 8 and beserk is at lev 7.
Beserk just sucks I think. Anyways, I was wondering should I take the remaining skill points I have left in the game and throw it at beserk?

Will it get better later if I build it up? Right now I just die within seconds of using it.
Just for some more info, this is what my barb is equipped with: ANY tips, opinions, or hints are welcome!

Helm
Areat's Face
Armor
Spirit Forge (going to be replace with a 4 sckt ornate plate runeworded)
Gloves
Gylph Cluthes
Belt
Razortail
Boots
Aldur's advance
Weapons:
left hand
Aldur's Rythyme
right hand
Sword Guard

have a stone ring of jordon, a amulet thats + 2 to masteries and 20% chance for magic items, and then a + 50 poison damage ring

Right now I"m just hacking away in search of runes and building levels.

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Maxing Berserk won't hurt, since it will give magic damage to your Frenzy attacks, which is handy against Physical Immune Monsters, though you won't generally leach from magic damage alone.

That synergy helps.

When using Berserk, crowd control is important. If you use a Merc, you might want to pay a bit of attention to how you can use him as a shield. Or, go for a Holy Freeze Merc . . .

The synergy that Taunt gives to Frenzy is worth looking into, if you don't mind rebuilding. If you max Taunt, you find that non boss monsters have a significant reduction to damage and to hit (and hence damage to you) when Taunted, and I love it as a crowd control device.

The old feature where Taunt did NOT over write Battle Cry has apparently be fixed as of 1.10 going live. In the 1.10 "beta" it stacked with Battle Cry and significantly reduced damage done.

For what it's worth.

Occhi

[Baajikiil]

ANY tips, opinions, or hints are welcome!

Okay, a little more information would help us: What are your skill and stat point allocations. Hardcore or soft(well, it has to be soft)? Single player or Realms? Ladder or non-ladder?

Beserk just sucks I think

Unless your build is designed for berserk, it's best reserved for fighting phys immunes. A dedicated zerker will usually use a 2 handed weapon and often uses a high level warcry to stun monsters as he 'zerks them. Another approach is to use a sheild and a strong 1 hander. Berzerk is practically never used with a duel weilding setup because it will only use one of your weapons. The secondary weapon will have no effect whatsoever on your beserk damage(barring any +skills I guess). A dedicated berzerk barb can do massive single target damage that is the most unresisted attack type in the game. They are limited by the fact that berzerk does not leach, and is poor vs crowds.

Well concentrate IMO limits your damage unless you have the best weapon in the game maybe.

Concentrate is in the same boat as berzerk: use a big 2hander for best effect. Concentrate actually has a pretty high ED when synergised with a max BO, and all barbs should max BO anyway. Again, it's another of the 1 point, or maxxed skills. A dedicated Concentrate barb can do massive single target damage coupled with very high defense. They are limited by lack of crowd control.

Right now I have WW at level 13

WW is a tricky skill. The number of attacks that WW provides is based solely on the speed of your weapons. Improved attack speed on your gloves or other gear does not help it at all. A WW barb will usually try to reach the highest # of attacks possible by using very fast weapons. Also, WW usually gets maxed or stuck with 1 point as with most barb skills. Weapon range affects WW, and a higher range weapon will often allow more hits. 2handed weapons are popular for WW barbs. Duel weilding will provide 50% more attacks than a 2 hander of the same speed, but 2handers offer more reach and usually around double the damage of 1handers. WW barbs have moderate damage, but can apply is frequently to a mid sized group of monsters, and quickly to a single target. They are limited by relatively low % damage and the high dispersal rate of their damage vs groups.

frenzy at 8

Frenzy is a fun skill. It does decent damage at decent speed, and speeds your running by a huge margin. Again, to get the most bang for your skill points it's usually best to max frenzy as well as a synergy. Frenzy barbs often look for crushing blow equipment to whittle down the hp of high hit point monsters with their quick attacks. You must learn to be careful while using fenzy; it's very easy to bite off more than you can chew by running into a dense monster pack at top speed. Frenzy barbs pack quickly applied moderate single target damage at breakneck movement speed, and are limited by poor ability to deal with crowds.

Just for some more info, this is what my barb is equipped with

Your gear is a mixed bag. Arreats is one of the best helms a barb can hope for, but aldurs mace is clearly not hell sufficient. Your weapons are from 2 different classes, while mastery will only give one of them a boost(without splitting your points). SoJ is a great caster ring, but a barb would benefit much more from a manald heal or ravenfrost. Your belt is an end game belt for a Zon, but is lackluster on a barb(BTW, piercing attack means that your arrows/bolts/throws will have a chance to continue on after striking a monster).

Your gear needs tweaking for hell. Look over the Arreat summit's runeword pages for some inexpensive runewords that may add something to your build(especially weapons). Gamble or craft belts and gloves with useful resists and other mods. Running NM Baal can become tedious once you're already level 77, but you can find many of the high end exceptional uniques that will help round out your gear. Run the hell(or NM) countess to collect mid range runes for your runewords. If you can handle the hell countess runs, you can also level to around 83 or so comfortably there.

The main thing is to decide a build type for your barb and focus on it. I don't want to say your barb is broken, but mixing your skill points between many skills leads to a hard time for a melee character in 1.11. Learn to use warcrys effectively; both taunt and battlecry are invaulable is used well, even at only 1 point. Choosing a single weapon type and putting a few points into its mastery can really pay off as well. The critical strike chance will double your damage whenever it triggers.

After you decide which type of barb you prefer to play, read faqs specific to that type of barb. There are some good ones buried in here and at the AB. Getting the most out of your stats, skills, Attack speed, and special mods like crushing blow is integral to a successful melee character.

[qwiksilvertrav]

Okay, a little more information would help us: What are your skill and stat point allocations.  Hardcore or soft(well, it has to be soft)?  Single player or Realms? Ladder or non-ladder?
Unless your build is designed for berserk, it's best reserved for fighting phys immunes.  A dedicated zerker will usually use a 2 handed weapon and often uses a high level warcry to stun monsters as he 'zerks them.  Another approach is to use a sheild and a strong 1 hander.  Berzerk is practically never used with a duel weilding setup because it will only use one of your weapons.  The secondary weapon will have no effect whatsoever on your beserk damage(barring any +skills I guess).  A dedicated berzerk barb can do massive single target damage that is the most unresisted attack type in the game.  They are limited by the fact that berzerk does not leach, and is poor vs crowds.
Concentrate is in the same boat as berzerk:  use a big 2hander for best effect.  Concentrate actually has a pretty high ED when synergised with a max BO, and all barbs should max BO anyway.  Again, it's another of the 1 point, or maxxed skills.  A dedicated Concentrate barb can do massive single target damage coupled with very high defense.  They are limited by lack of crowd control.
WW is a tricky skill.  The number of attacks that WW provides is based solely on the speed of your weapons.  Improved attack speed on your gloves or other gear does not help it at all.  A WW barb will usually try to reach the highest # of attacks possible by using very fast weapons.  Also, WW usually gets maxed or stuck with 1 point as with most barb skills.  Weapon range affects WW, and a higher range weapon will often allow more hits.  2handed weapons are popular for WW barbs.  Duel weilding will provide 50% more attacks than a 2 hander of the same speed, but 2handers offer more reach and usually around double the damage of 1handers.  WW barbs have moderate damage, but can apply is frequently to a mid sized group of monsters, and quickly to a single target.  They are limited by relatively low % damage and the high dispersal rate of their damage vs groups.
Frenzy is a fun skill.  It does decent damage at decent speed, and speeds your running by a huge margin.  Again, to get the most bang for your skill points it's usually best to max frenzy as well as a synergy.  Frenzy barbs often look for crushing blow equipment to whittle down the hp of high hit point monsters with their quick attacks.  You must learn to be careful while using fenzy; it's very easy to bite off more than you can chew by running into a dense monster pack at top speed.  Frenzy barbs pack quickly applied moderate single target damage at breakneck movement speed, and are limited by poor ability to deal with crowds.
Your gear is a mixed bag.  Arreats is one of the best helms a barb can hope for, but aldurs mace is clearly not hell sufficient.  Your weapons are from 2 different classes, while mastery will only give one of them a boost(without splitting your points).  SoJ is a great caster ring, but a barb would benefit much more from a manald heal or ravenfrost.  Your belt is an end game belt for a Zon, but is lackluster on a barb(BTW, piercing attack means that your arrows/bolts/throws will have a chance to continue on after striking a monster).

Your gear needs tweaking for hell.  Look over the Arreat summit's runeword pages for some inexpensive runewords that may add something to your build(especially weapons).  Gamble or craft belts and gloves with useful resists and other mods.  Running NM Baal can become tedious once you're already level 77, but you can find many of the high end exceptional uniques that will help round out your gear.  Run the hell(or NM) countess to collect mid range runes for your runewords.  If you can handle the hell countess runs, you can also level to around 83 or so comfortably there.

The main thing is to decide a build type for your barb and focus on it.  I don't want to say your barb is broken, but mixing your skill points between many skills leads to a hard time for a melee character in 1.11.  Learn to use warcrys effectively; both taunt and battlecry are invaulable is used well, even at only 1 point.  Choosing a single weapon type and putting a few points into its mastery can really pay off as well.  The critical strike chance will double your damage whenever it triggers.

After you decide which type of barb you prefer to play, read faqs specific to that type of barb.  There are some good ones buried in here and at the AB.  Getting the most out of your stats, skills, Attack speed, and special mods like crushing blow is integral to a successful melee character.
[right][snapback]91364[/snapback][/right]

Wow thanks for the detailed advice!

But yeah, I've decided to scratch my single player barb and to start a mulit player barb from scratch.
My plan to build this one is maxxed Concentrate with synergies, maxxed BO, moderate WW, moderate frenzy, and once I get a good weapon to stick with, I'll build that mastery.
Anyother suggestions?

[Ashock]

Wow thanks for the detailed advice!

But yeah, I've decided to scratch my single player barb and to start a mulit player barb from scratch.
My plan to build this one is maxxed Concentrate with synergies, maxxed BO, moderate WW, moderate frenzy, and once I get a good weapon to stick with, I'll build that mastery.
Anyother suggestions?
[right][snapback]91592[/snapback][/right]

Suggestions? Sure. You like melee? Start a Zealot. He is not easy, but playable with average gear. A Barb needs top of the line weapons to be even somewhat viable and if your 1st character is a Barb, you won't be able to do item runs in Hell. Hell, you won't even be able to play past Act3 with a pure character, possibly not even beyond Act1.

Not much constructive advice here, but I just saved you a lot of time and aggravation.



-A