Advice on Party-friendly Barb

[Ajax]

Hi all,

My brother (Brasslock on the Lounge BTW) and I are pretty avid D2 players, and we'd like to get our father interested in gaming with us. We have a LAN network and a stockpile of nice gear from playing single player games, so we were thinking that we could start a party of 3 characters, which we'd only play as a party.

Problem is, our father is the stereotype of not very "cutting edge." He's made a frenzy barb in the past, but the build wasn't expecially strong and he consistently dies in NM/ActIV. So my first question is this: What simple barbarian builds are out there which be strong enough to endure Hell/Act V???

My next question is, what supplementary players would work well with this barbarian? The conviction paly seems very party friendly, making enemies easier to hit for melee types as well as making the elemental damagers extremely potent. Is this wise with a barb? And the third player probably should be a support character (like an Amazon or Sorc) to take advantage of the paly/barb tanks, as well as the conviction elemental damage bonus.

Any thoughts???? Thanks.

[Munkay]

Just a few ideas off the top of my head,

After experimenting with barbs in single player tonight, I've come to the conclusion that they are big meat heads incapable of equal killing speeds in hell. Big surprise there. Though I must say they are amazing tanks and with the right equipment can give good support. High Vit/High Defense keeps them from being eaten alive while they slowly eat away at a monsters health. Though I must say 4 Frame WW with high Crushing Blow is a very fun build.

Elemental Druids are strong in 1.10, and if you go wind/cold you have hurricane which helps with slowing down monsters. But the biggest contribution to the party/barb would be Oak Sage. The life boost is unreal when combined with Battle Orders. Hurricane lets mercs stay alive too, and if you picked up a definace act 2 merc, combined with even level 1 shout would create a nice defense boost for the party.

Frostadins are also very good party helpers (can you tell I love freeze?). Granted a simple zealot with fanat would probably help even more, though I like to have a bit of fun too.

Almost every class has some really good party skills though. Necros can use 1 skill point required Attract (amazing for crowd control), and then amp/lower resist on top of that. Decoy for amazons is an amazing tank at level 20, and costs 1 mana to cast. The AR boost on Enchant is stellar.

No matter what you chose try to keep some act2 mercs around and alive. With three chars this can translate into some killer bonuses from defiance, might, holy freeze and/or blessed aim.

Cheers

Munk