Speedy Barb

Hey guys, I found out recently about the joys of Hustle and the Harmony bow for my physical bowazon and Schnorki suggested that I try out a Frenzy barb with all this. And I intend to do just that! However, I have not played a barb since maybe 2004 and I would like some help.

• What are some of the best ways you guys have found to level a barb? Skills and weapons/armor to look/trade for to make leveling better/funner/faster.

• I remember the barb always having trouble with quick 1 shot mobs, especially act 3, does the barb have anything that is AOE at all? Or just WW

Keep in mind, the goal is to have Hustle as my armor and at least 1 weapon, with probably aldurs Boots. My goal here is to attack and run suuuuper fast, killing fast is a nice bonus too

Thanks in advance for any help!

Shout barbs use War Cry which is an aoe dmg Shout that also stuns things it hits.

You still gotta play the first like 31 levels as melee but after that you can use the free respec to become a singer barb.
If you are trying to deck him out then get all the +skill gear that you can. Lore Cap, Skin of the Vipermagi, dual Spirit swords, 2 Stone of jordan, The Eye of Etlich or Telling of Beads. Insight merc is a must also.

After a bit of playing you are prob going to want to mute your game. lol

Probably your best bet is a hybrid throw/ Frenzy barb.

I personally find throw barbs to be the most fun to level and play with, and there’s a natural synergy between throwing and Frenzy. (Not an in-game skill synergy, but when you’re frenzied you throw and move much faster, making it easier to maintain the Frenzy).

Lvls 1-15, for that gear just farm some stuff: take your highest level character, stack as much mf as possible, go to an easy normal boss like Andariel or griswald, countess, or that Skeleton in the Inner Cloister until they drop some low level unique/sets. Could probably get a whole Sigon’s set for like a Lem.

Keep to Tristram runs until lvl 15, then play through the game, should stay in normal Baal runs until lvl 42, then transition to nightmare, play through the game and do nightmare Baal runs to 75(ish), then play through hell. But if you can get rushed for free, you know, do that.

Key barb gear will be an Insight for an act 2 merc at level 27 (I think), then you can just spam skills. Just get one of your high level chars to gamble throwing weapons (dual leach, increased attack speed, elemental damage is great for normal/early nightmare). Manald’s will help in normal, otherwise what you find should be fine.

Remember to look at all barb helms from act 1 normal to act 2 nightmare! They are the only ones that can spawn the +3 Throwing Mastery mod! I’ve only ever found 1 and when I rolled the sockets it came out with 2… goodbye Wisdom

Later in nightmare you’ll want to start getting things like arreat’s face, unique throwing weapons, or rare throwing weapons with ias, 250+ ed.

If you wanted to try to grab some weapons from the vendors with the +3 warcries mod - great for swap and Battle Orders, but don’t stress on that - I found gambling a faster way to find them, but still time intensive.

Into hell the weapons you want to shoot for are gimmershreds, lacerators, and/or warshieks, or crazy rares. Maybe get a hell’s mouth gloves for Enchant, and whatever makes sense for the rest of your gear.

I’d save 2 respecs for your “fun build”- leave your first respect for just re working your character after you get good gear mid-game, your second respec for when your ready to transition to your final build, then save your last respec for after your second respec and your like “awww, damn I shoulda done this…” - it happens to us all!

Good luck

davme_mcreg wrote: 3 years ago

Hey guys, I found out recently about the joys of Hustle and the Harmony bow for my physical bowazon and Schnorki suggested that I try out a Frenzy barb with all this. And I intend to do just that! However, I have not played a barb since maybe 2004 and I would like some help.

• What are some of the best ways you guys have found to level a barb? Skills and weapons/armor to look/trade for to make leveling better/funner/faster.

• I remember the barb always having trouble with quick 1 shot mobs, especially act 3, does the barb have anything that is AOE at all? Or just WW

Keep in mind, the goal is to have Hustle as my armor and at least 1 weapon, with probably aldurs Boots. My goal here is to attack and run suuuuper fast, killing fast is a nice bonus too

Thanks in advance for any help!

I would like to point out cat's eye and mavian's Belt which both have frw. Of course get a bazillion 3 frw charms. Probably should use Grief/Hustle weapons, and because you'd probably use LoH with major fire res, I'd swap the aldur's for nat's Boots(cold/light res)- same 40 frw. Ring would have to be Raven and a big fat res duel leech... until you get it you can ditch the mav Belt and put on(relative to what ring you have)- string/ik Belt/ Credendum.
Or... use mav Belt- has 5% mana leech, just get a life leech+res ring, way easier to come by.
Get a +3 Increased Speed base and make Delirium lol

for Double Swing and Frenzy attack speed is determined by the primary weapon, speed of secondary weapon does not matter.
so ~lvl 5/6 gamble scimitars [primary fast] and falchions [slow but high damage]
look 4 mana leech/mana after kill
1 pt in Double Swing, then max mastery
dbl swing will take u thru norm, only lister's mob is dangerous...

I'm casually playing a level 89 Gold find bard which came from a Frenzy barb, I just Double Swing/ Frenzy way through it, maybe he was heavily twinked, now he mainly funds the gambles also with plenty mf, he farms trav and lk exclusively all on himself without a merc (can't afford a decent merc at the moment), a bit slow but does the job.