My young barbarian has grown.....

[Psychic_sumo_ninja]

:D Hey all!

I had posted a topic a few months ago regarding a barb I had problems with.

Well he's lvl 59 now. (I'm a slow player) and is getting his Butt kicked in hell. :(

Heres skill point distribution:
Axe mastery: 20pts
Iron skin: 20pts
Natural resistance: 10pts
Whirlwind: 8pts(Will max)
Increased speed: 1pt
Increased stamina: 1pt
Beserk: 1pt
Concentrate: 1pt
find potion: 1 pt
Shout: 2 pts

Some others I forgot

Heres my stats:
Strength: 180
Dexterity: 125
Vitality: 100
Energy: 10

Heres my items list:
Malice naga + Ancients pledge tower shield. Steeldriver Great maul on weapon switch.
Saintly Chaos Armour socketed with PTopaz.
Winged helm socketed with Ral and Ort runes.
Frostburns Or Venom grip(Cant decide which so kept both with me)
Nightsmoke belt
Battle greaves of luck(Or sommin like that)
Angelic halo ammy.
Angelic ring(forgot name)
Manald heal.


I badly need a merc to help. My original choice was an act 2 merc.Not sure which but he kept running into clumps of monsters and dying. So i hired an act 1 hell merc. Horribly inadequate :ph34r: . Resistances minus 15....

I died 3 times killing the smith. My resistances are quite low. Anyway I can up them a bit?(Fire 58, cold 58, Lightning 50, Poison 80)

Are pit runs in hell good? I've heard they are but my first few runs have yeilded very little.I'm in act1 hell Quest 6.

Anything I'm doing wrong? Ive probably lost an entire lvl by dying.

Any way my defense is 3004. My Attack is around 300-500 with concentrate as right click and whirlwind as left. Life is around 650.

Ty for all the help in advance.
Peace. :ph34r:

[Zzabur]

There are several "wrong" things you've done.
First, let me explain: The character is messed up. That means that though it may be playable, it will be harder than an "optimized" build; If you are no-twink (or have little to no "powerful" items) its practically impossible -can be done, but it's more frustrating than fun- to beat hell.

What you have is a whirlwind barbarian. As of 1.10, leech has been nerfed, so "base vit and rest on STR for greater leech" wich worked so good on 1.9 is not as effective as before -actually, titan barbs are more of a variant-.

To be alive, you need LIFE. Of course, life leech is still a must, as is mana leech. Whirlwind barbarians are usually taking on more enemies than other types of barbs, so high life is more important to them. Battle orders is a MUST for them, not only for the extra life, but for the extra mana wich is really helpful.

The basic whirlwinder is built as follows:

- Enough STR and DEX to equip your weapon. If you plan on using a shield, keep pumping dex for 75% block. It's REALLY helpful to have the weapon beforehand, but even if you dont, you *have* to decide if you want a shield (safer) or not (more damage). The rest of points go into vit. None at energy.

The basic skill planning is as follows:
On the early levels, put 1 on every whirlwind requisite, on every warcry (decide if you're using grim ward or not, and if you're maxing warcry or not; all the others deserve at least 1 point), and on every passive save the masteries. You should choose your mastery of choice and dump "some" points there (do not max yet).

Max battle orders as soon as possible. Meanwhile get at least 5 points (40%) on natural resists. I wouldnt put more than 13 points on natural resists, including equipment bonuses.

After you have 5 natural resists, dump the rest of the points on your mastery (remember, BO always takes priority). Then finish maxing mastery.

When you have both bo and mastery maxed, (5 points into natural resistances is nice, but not a need) start maxing whirlwind. THEN you can either choose to max shout -wich works much better than iron skin when maxing- or war cry -wich is extra nice for stunning monsters, but more suited for other barb styles-

This is, IMHO, the "safest" way to build a barbarian; Remember to put at least 1 point into vit each level; you can do without vit on the early levels, but by levels 30+ you'll start to drop like a fly.

On a last note, less than level 60 is suicide on hell, unles you have * very * good equipment (wich, by the way, you will not be able to use untill later). Most people on battle.net dont step on hell before levels 70-75.

[Wyrm]

If you've got Iron Skin Maxed, you should max Shout to go with it and get yourself a Defiance merc (A2, normal/hell, defensive).

Also, you really shouldn't be in Hell at level 59, it can be done, but most monsters in hell are over level 80. You might want to go back and do NM Baal runs until at least 70-75. Not only will you get levels, but you'll also get great items in the process (well, depends on your luck, but usually after 10 or so Baal runs you'll have at least 1 piece of equipment worth keeping).

I wouldn't max Whirlwind, just get it to the point where the damage isn't negative anymore and move on to other, more useful, skills like Battle Orders or Berserk (which you're going to need in Hell for phys immunes unless you find some serious elemental damage elsewhere).

For your weapon, try making an "Honor" out of your axe of choice. Would be best suited in an elite, but if you aren't finding any Berserker Axes with 5 sockets (2 handers can work as well if you find one) The damage on Honor is a lot better than on Malice (seriously, the ed% on Malice is pitiful for Hell even though some of the other mods are great). That or a Crescent Moon would probably be best (as far as actually feasable runewords go) as your main weapon.

[Nantuko_Primus]

I'm no expert with barbs, but I'm guessing in adition to what all these other great, helpful loungers have told you, you may want to lvl up a bit more before you go into hell. I Usually don't go to hell(insert immature joke here)but I usually end up waiting a few more lvls before going into hell. You have VERY low life for a melee charachter in hell. My Trap-assasain had more than that and she was ranged. You need to have crap-loads of health before venturing to hell.

+ $0.02, Nantuko