Frenzy barb - single player

Hi guys. Firstly I would like to note that I am not an advanced player.
Now - I am playing Diablo 2 Resurrected in single-player mode. Currently, I stay in act 5 (nightmare). I made

Frenzy Barb just hit the 52'nd lvl. The issue is twofold. Firstly, my damage is very low (147-308 and 132-292). Secondly, the attack rating that I have is ridiculously low (753 and 1292). The character table shows that the average chance to hit enslaved equals 46 per cent. I don't particularly suffer a lot while going through the map yet it takes a lot of time and effort to slay even normal mobs. Would you have any recommendations or tips to improve that? Is it only due to the crappy items that I wear (Spirit in

Crystal Sword; Lore in

Assault Helmet; Smoke in a

Gothic Plate; King's Grace in a

Broad Sword in the off-hand) or perhaps lack of stat points being put in dexterity?
Cheers

Firstly, regarding the hit chance, do note that it isn't solely about AR. Your hit chance is calculated by a combination of your level and your AR vs. your target's level and defense (adding in effects like def reduction and whatnot). A5 nightmare ranges from lvl 58 all the way up to 66. With you only being 52, the mobs you encounter all effectively outlvl you, making your hit chance go down regardless of AR vs. defense. Lvl 52 is matched in around middle of act 3 on nightmare.

As for your gear, what immediately stands out is the Spirit. That's a caster sword. For a

Frenzy barb, that's bound to be pretty bad not only because a

Crystal Sword is a super low dmg base but also because Spirit in a weapon has zero actual enhanced damage on it. The King's Grace is a far better choice already but that, too is apparently in a fairly bad normal base. As you move up in lvls and difficulty, so should your gear. Keep an eye out for better (exceptional/elite) bases for possibly by now better runewords or even some magics/rares that drop along the way as even those aren't unlikely to outperform the weapons you currently have at this point.

single player melee is tough. I'd suggest that you are probably quite a low level to be taking on that area, as the monsters will be maybe 10 levels higher than you, this level difference affects your chance to hit.
https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Area_Level
I'd suggest going back to an area that you found easy, even normal

Baal. set the game to /players8 and run that area until the experience gets slow.

When I played single player i'd always run it on players8, you level up much faster so you don't notice the extra difficulty so much. And when I'd get to a hard boss or area, I just switched it back to P1 and it was super easy!

Farming Nightmare countess could also prove useful, to get some xp and runes.

Frenzy barb can be quite frustrating without the right gear but the good news is that it can be effective without anything too expensive, you do not need Grief and Fortitude to happily smash through Hell.

Some things to look out for if you haven't got them:

Angelic Halo ring and

Angelic Wings amulet together will give you a pretty good boost to attack rating, that pair is viable into endgame.

Oath is a great runeword that isn't too expensive, you just need a

Mal and

Pul. This will dramatically increase your damage if you can find a decent

Eth base.

Lawbringer is an excellent offhand option for the cost of a

Lem. The

Sanctuary Aura adds a lot of survivability, decrep deals with physical immunes. This is arguably BiS.

When levelling I found

Lightsabre to be a huge improvement because of the Ignore's Target Defense mod. I managed to find two of those and that saw me through all of Hell.

Laying of Hands isn't too hard to find and will massively boost your damage, arguably BiS.

There are several cheap armour runewords that will really help. Treachery for the

Fade proc and IAS, Duress for the Crushing Blow and resistances, Lionheart for the enhanced damage.

You'll need a source of crushing blow to effectively deal with bosses. Some options to consider are Duress,

Guillaume's Face,

Goblin Toe and

Gore Rider

Boots.

Other than that, get some +skills stuff on swap for your battle cries. You can shop +3 warcry spears in A5 hell but before that dual spirits would be completely fine.

Wow, these are some rapid and very helpful replies. Thanks a lot!

If I were you, I would level a bit in Nightmare where you feel comfortable, try to build your gear up a bit if possible, then take on Act 5. Once done, I would then spend a good chunk of time doing Countess runs in Hell, this should get you all the runes you need for the runewords I mentioned to take you the rest of the way.

Also, don't forget charms for AR! AR charms are useful for a lot of melee build, try to collect a few of those.