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| Barbarian Strategies I have read enough of these so-called perfect, flawless strategies. They are all the same, they talk about how to make the perfect barbarian but they forget the most important thing: How to defeat DIABLO. Defeating Diablo is not that difficult. The most frequent mistake is to invest in heavy armor, this is WRONG. Armor will slow you down, SPEED is the most important weapon against Diablo. If you are fast enough, you can fight him for over an hour without loosing any life. The difficult part about Diablo is not his red lightning, but the fact that it is very hard to hit him. You need a lot of atack rating. Forget about whirlwind, because you will only be around level 28 when you face him. Mercenaries are also usefull for a diversion. Diablo will not heal himself if you use a portal and cold will work great against him. Oh, and save your gems, they rule!!! ABBADON_Level_95 Barbarian (Swords)
Back to Top | this is wattoxx again. I have one more thing to say. Another good choice for a good solid barbarian. Choose the mace class, and you can get a good character. Use my other starategy, except change the mastery to mace, and get a good martel. Start with a basic maul, and work your way up. My mace barb is only lvl 30, but i got bonesnap, and im pretty good. try to get either snap or steeldriver to begin with, then get a good martel. In combat with maces, if u get a good enough maul, just bash guys till 30, while using the occasional leap attack. it is simple. Keep lvling. The maul is good because of its damage(almost up with a lance) and speed. Also if u have the xpac, there are some sweet ones out there. (cranium basher, immortal kings, silence thunder maul) Nite_mauler lvl 30 mace barb
Back to Top | I am absolutely appaled to see barbariens using lances, spears or polearms-it's discraceful! If you want them, piss off to amazon land. The thing you need to have are either two swords or two one-handed axes-it's the only way. Simply then max out frenzy and double swing, and you're in business. If your beginning, try and find Azurewrath(crystal sword, appears in gold), it kicks butt! Then if you have expansion get the Smith to socket it, fill it with a decent rune, personalize it and it's amazing. Polearms and lances, whatever next! From Maven, level 98 Barb (almost 99)
Back to Top | Yeh guys you have it all wrong. Sure a ww barb is great, but they can't do jack in hell unless you have a really kick ass weapon. So heres my way of making a barb. First, rule never put any stats into mana and always try to keep you dex even with your str. This really helps with your ability to hit your target all the time. Next, put one into bash and one into double swing and the rest into mastery until your level 30 when you can get frenzy. SAVE THE EXTRA POINTS if you blow them on something such as bash ect you'll be screwed in the long run. Now what you want to do is max out frenzy and then get at least 10 into beserk. The reason being frenzy is a passive skill for 3 seconds and it allows you to hit your target so fast that they can never recover. O yeah also along the way make sure you put 1 or 2 into natural resist and then try to max out armor. THIS REALLY HELPS IN HELL. As far as items go you need two kick ass swords that have a min of fast attack speed. Some armor with at least 800 d (myn has 1208 but I used 800 up till level 80). Some mana and life leach rings and an amie that adds to skills. Gloves boots belts and helms don't matter too much but I would suggest IAS and over 100 d on all of them.
Back to Top | Hello fello DII enthusiasts... I have been playing for a short time and have a level 40 Barbarian who just entered nightmare... I know for some of you that is not exactly a great achievement, but he is magnificent... Most of the strategies I have seen here tell you where to put your skill points, so I will tell you where Curlain, my barbarian, has his... he has 20 points in sward mastery, 1 point in increase stamina, 4 points in increased speed, 7 points in iron skin, 5 points in natural resistance, 1 point in leap, 1 point in leap attack (these are both augmented 3 by a helm), 1 in howl and 1 in taunt... Yes, thats right folks no points in concentrate or in whirlwind or any of the other so called indespensible skills... Curlain is strong and smart... That is the idea of strategy to me... knowing how to fight without getting in too much trouble, not in the special skills and certainly not in what he wears (ie silks or other elaborate armors that are not available to younger characters)... so what are his strategies... 1st, he fights in doorways and narrow areas as often as possible... you may ask why, well, he can not be surrounded, nor does he have to fight more than one enemy at a time that way... it gives him a big advantage because the enemies strategy is superiority of numbers not necessarily strength... 2nd, he tries to make sure he is never surrounded even in open areas... he does not have to fight in all directions at once and has an open route to back off a bit and regroup, heal, or book through a portal... 3rd, take advantage of the rogue hireling in acts 1 and 2 of normal and then hire an Ironwolf with cold powers in act 3 and take him with you throughout all the rest of the levels... he is still useful even in nightmare because he can freeze the enemies making it a bit easier for you to find your tactical advantage and then smash 'em... As far as items, try to make sure you pick things up and especially pick up the gold that the monsters drop... most of my items have been found, including things that regenerate life and one that steals 5% life... the one thing i do buy is armor... the founds ones in normal level simply are not a good as the ones you can buy, at least not the full, gothic or ancient plate armors... My guy has died, I am not going to lie to you, but its normally at the hands of a lessor enemy because his mistess loses her concentration and lets him die... He has not died at the hands of any of the Main bosses (diablo and that lot)... I hope that the newbies find this useful and that those of you who are more experienced see that there are other ways to become a victor than fancy tricks.
Back to Top | First off, you need to max out your sword mastery and equip two swords. At the same time put all of your stat points into strength until strength is about 150. Then, put about 15 points into double swing and get your dexterity up to 100. After this is done, max out Iron Skin and get your strength up to 170. After that is done, max out Elemental Defense and put all of you points into Dexterity. I'm at level 45, and this strategy has done pretty good for me. Also, remember to equip only the best arsenal.
Back to Top | i don't have the expansion yet so this isn't very up to date but if you don't have the expansion i can tell you how to make a kick butt barbarian. First pick your weapon mastery. i like spear best because they do a lot of damage. max out that before lvl 25.also on the way get leap, leap attack, bash, stun, and concentration. at lvl 30 get ww. max that out before lvl 55. put 5 into natural resistance, five into iron skin, and don't bother with the war cries; they take way to much mana and it only lasts for a small amount of time. for equipment get a good lance, for armor get iceblink, for boots get threads of clon, for belt get gold wrap, for gloves get frostburn, get rings that have mana and life steal; you'll need it with whirl wind, for a helm get whatever you want, and get a ammie with a lot of resistances. P.S. If you need money get a lot of magic find equipment, go to travincal and magic find there until you get what you want. you also can get a lot of good gems.
Back to Top | This is my strategy that has worked for me. First like always put 20 skills on any maestry of your choice. I like polearms or swords. Then get leap attack, just put 1 skill level on it. All you need it for is to get away from monsters that surrond u. This will help u a lot expecially in acts 2 and 4. Then put 2 or 3 skills on Increased Stamina so u done have to worry about your stamina runnig out. Then put 20 skills on Iron Skin and Natural Resistance. This help a lot expecially in nightmare and hell. For stats go to around 30 for energy and the rest in the others. This has gotten me really for in my single player barb who is at lvl 56. I am also using this stratigies for my multiplayer barb too. Psy_Corps_Trooper lvl 28 Barb
Back to Top | the barb is the best character in the game if you make him correctly. He is also very easy to lvl up if u use the right weapons and skils. I have a lvl 63 lance barb, and i got there relatively easily. For skills I just stuck to the basics, and maxed spear mastery, ww, and put a bunch into the passive skills, iron skin, and nat resistance. I also put 5 or 6 into leap attack because that is all u will use upto lvl 30 and ww. It also helps u through out the game(cow lvl-jumping away from those damn bovines). After u max ww and put enough into the passives consider war cries. The only one worth it is battle orders. Put a bunch in there if u have extra skills. For stats, i just made sure to get 170 str for ornate and like 90 dex for a lance. After u get enough points for a ornate and lance pour stat points into vital. in hell u die quick.NOTHING INTO ENERGY. Equipment-Tarn, or good grim helm like 199+ def.+good mods.Also think about a mf helm(for finding sweet rares) just stick 3 topazes into a death mask. Gloves watever(mf or leech or IAS pick), weapon-Lance-i dont think it matters a whole lot on damage, just get over 250, and get sweet mods. i have a 257 with dual leech and IAS, and im ok. Boots(either dual runwalk/hit recov, or mf or both) use watever u find or trade for. Belt-goldwrap is nice(IAS, MF), or maybe a rare war belt with cold damage. Armor- I tried using iceblink but felt that it was not as good as just having some cold damage and a real high def. ornate. My ornate is 876 def. with fastest hit recov, and resistances. RESISTANCES ARE KEY! Trade for things with high resistances esp. LIGHTNING(diablo and cow king) Jewelry-sojs arent worth it for barbs except for trading. u really want leech rings. trade watever it takes to get leech rings, because they dont drop any more. Mana leech and life leech are important for ww.Get a nice ammy like eye(leech and +1 skills and cold damage) or a rare +2 or 1 skills with resistances or leeches. combat-Just ww through all acts norm and nm, and u should be about lvl 45-50 entering hell. I went at 43(oops) and lvlved in act 1. people come to nm and hell very early, and just die, and lose exp. Its best to lvl up and then u wont die easily. When u reach hell go through the acts quickly just doing important quests(like den, imbue, izual all the Qs that give u good stuff), and lvl in acts 3-4 for th best drops and exp. Then at around lvl55-60 kill diablo by yourself if u can so u get the good shit that drops. After 60 u can either lvl more in act4 repeatedly killing diablo or do the cow lvl a lot. I do the cow lvl A LOT! it has the best exp, and great items fall. I found iceblink in a hell cow lvl. Only hell and nm cow lvls are really worth it. Normal is too easy, and u get no exp. Barbs rock if u do them right. peace out wattoxx lvl 63 barb
Back to Top | With the Barbarian, regarding allocation of skill points, I've had a coupleof ideas. Number 1: Put only one point into skills you aren't going to depend on later in the game. It may be difficult to survive up till level 18 (Leap Attack), but the next strategy should help with that a bit. Number 2: When you aren't putting points into Combat Skills, put them into a mastery. This will give you a healthy amount of damage (Level 10 Barbarian -30 damage- 7 to Sword Mastery), enough, at least, to get through to about midway through Act II.
Back to Top | To get a really kick @$$ barabarin, that can easily beat up Andariel: 1. Get a really good weapon, like the Gnasher, and put a lot of points on to Axe Mastery. 2. Put a lot of the Stat's points on to vitality, I beat Andarial with 50 points on vitality, AND I didn't use a single healing potion!! 3. Jump up and down repeatedly 'cause you got yourself a beeching Barbarian. -Patrick, Lv 19 Barbarian
Back to Top | Ok, my strategy is to save your points when you are low, because you get them a lot easier. Use stats in chunks of five, just because that 60% 20% 10% crap won't work when you are looking to be able to use something with high dex. or strength. Do not spread out the masteries, stick with one! I Personally like axes or swords, lances, maces, etc. usually have a really high max, but a really low min. Do not use any battle calls at all! They are worthless unless you have 20 points to put them on. 2 seconds of more life ain't Jack. With my first barb, I put a lot on find item which really helped to get more money, but I had to put a lot more stats on energy than I should of, which was my only downfall. Do not point any on energy, it will only weaken him a lot in the long run. I suggest putting stats on strength and dex. the most, usually 5 more strength than dex. each turn, putting vitality on every 2 turns or so, but stamina and life go up every level anyways, so that helps. I suggest using two weapons in one slot and either a two-handed weapon or a one handed and a shield in slot 2 (expansion only), but shields don't do much unless you find one with enhanced defense and have a lot of dex. I would also suggest finding a really good magic one handed item the socket in act 5 (expansion only). With my one Assassin, I socketed a magic claw and got 366-388 poison over 7 seconds with it, so I could hit something let it move away, and it would die on its own. Very helpful with a big crowd and if you have monster flee. I would also suggest putting a lot on stone skin and nat. resistance. This is very helpful for when you have -25% or -50% in nightmare and hell. Trust me, neagtive resistances are not good at all. I would also suggest using battle.net. You gain a lot of experiance if you are not in a party with 6 other people making the monsters that much harded. I got up 5 levels in two hours (8-13), but some of my party memeber at points did not a thing, so that slowed me down. Thank you for taking the time to read my statedy, which will work wonders, by the way, for you. Obesasmo level 13+ barb-USEAST Sir Phantasim level 36 barb-single Bruce_Lee level 36 kick-ass Assassin-single Phantasmo level 7 barb-single
Back to Top | I have a lv 54 barbarian and I have only died about 10 times and most of those on Baal and co. on normal mode because I wasn't prepared. Well to start off I suggest getting skill points into a weapon mastery, spend your first 5 points on one of these. It doesn't matter which one though I don't recccomend throwing or spears. Swords are reasonable as they are good at the start but it is hard to find truly awsome ones later on. So axe,mace or polearm is the choice to make. I have barley ever used a shield instead opting for both hand on a weapon but if you die a lot it might be a good idea. Most of the warcries are pointless except for the health/mana boost but you have to waste skill points to get there so I should have left out that altogether. Other skills to but points into are foremost whirlwind and element resist, they are both important, when you get to lv 25 you should save points up so you can put a point into both when you go up levels. Apart from them pump up your chosen weapon and iron skin for protection. Concentrate can also be useful for a younger barbarian as it is has more power than a normal attack. For skill points avoid energy instead try to get a bonus from a charm or ring for mana. Put points into strength at the beginning so you can wear better armour and use better weapons, after that just concentrate on dexterity and vitality depending on how your character is faring. For a mercenary hire a warrior mage in act 3 with cold speciality he will make playing solo a lot easier. I prefer him even to the mercenaries in act 5. If you want to duel get your oponent away from the town and then lay into him with all you have. Try not to fight necromancers since iron maiden gives them an annoying advantage
Back to Top | i have an easy way to get a super powerful barb. simply lie cheat and steal to get corruption rift charms.think with 100%chance to get magic items and +7 skills if u can miaculously get three you will be unstoppable.I have a legit barb at lvl 45 with 75 natural resistances.so i'll see ya'll around and remember get them rift charms FrOnTsTtAbBeR~lvl 45 S&S barb 'backstabber '!~lvl 37 necro
Back to Top | I have looked at all these Barb strategies above. To me they are all the same, max mastery and whirlwind. And most bash the same thing, throwing weapons. So here is my guide to the throwing barb. Skills - max throwing mastery (of course), and max double swing. After that, it is up to you. Stats - get around 60 str (100 at the max), no points in energy, around 60 in vit and the rest in dex, to get better weapons and attack rating. Weapon - what ever you can pick up will do, but I prefer javelins, because they have the best dmg. ALWAYS carry extra stacks in your inventory. Strategy - just use common sense, use shield n` throw all time, exept against bosses and uniques u just cant kill. A Throwing Barb has potential to kick butt in normal, no doubt about it. I am currently at lvl 30, have beaten the Big Red D, and have now started nightmare. I will keep u posted and dont lose faith in throwing.
Back to Top | I'm a level 66 Barb...I know how to play them. First act, get two swords...double swing, and go sword mastery as much as u can, puting 1-3 points into double swing (prefereably 1)...walk up to andirel.....double swing her to death....easy win. Act II, go two unique swords...sword mastery...iron skin if u get high enough....walk up to Duriel...double swing him to death. Easy win. Act III, still using two swords...sword mastery maxed out with iron skin....double swing him to death. Act IV ...walk up to Diablo , two unique swords...double swing him to death.....thats all you need to do. Barbarians are an easy race...pick a weapon, master it, kill. Have fun!
Back to Top | i have always played the warrior in the original diablo. when diablo 2 came out i thought the paladin would be the best melee char. i made it through the first 3 acts just to find out that i was wrong. i now have a barb that fights like a paladin. sword and shield. the only way to do this is rely on armor and iron skin for defense and dump you stat points into Strength and Dexterity. put your skill points into passive skills and always keep your health up. dont bother with warcries at all unless you think they work better for your mercs. i dont fight with mercs. they annoy me. have a magic/rare/gemmed bow for ranged combat. but dont fight like a barb. fight like a paladin. strike and fade. Talus, last of the Titans
Back to Top | Hrm..yes the best strat for an overall char that can kill stuff and duel is a WW barb however lame...for LOD there are more reasons not to follow this such as a big variety on itemz and certain runes...the only problem is your first char is always hard and cant be perfect real easy...to get items you just need an ok char fast that wont be godly...then you work from there...an all vit max BO best itemz barb can have 4k life in classic at 80 somethin and in LOD its even possible to get to 10k althought the best duelin char is this, an smart assassin, and sorcs o course...my barb can just break 2k life currently and still use raven but finding a -40 nice dmg rare exec aint easy so gettin 170:110 aint too bad...also reason for a sword is u can use a shield and switch, if it were a choice or lance or 1h sword shield then i'd choose lance since it's a lot easier to level (solo)...so overall my barb ownz for his level and kill most chars cept stupid cleglaws zons (i'm startin one =P) and smart zons that dun follow (also startin a MF sorc and duelin sorc =P) so thas all free feel to email me since i know how long this is and i still havent started CloudCA, USWest
Back to Top | I was a level 15 Barbarian on act 2 about to face Duriel. After reading some of these i realized level 15 was not enough. I thought maybe i could just buy some really good armor and weapons, but i had only 570 in gold. I then picked up an easy way to make money/gold and gain experience. In the Canyon of Magi there are 7 tombs , 6 of them are false, these 6, however, contain gold chests which contain lots of gold and magical items, all of this you probably already know, but if u go to each of the 6 false tombs kill all of the monsters (gain exp.) then get gold and magical items from the chest, sell the magical items and get more gold then deposit it into your stash, then save and exit and then repeat you be be rich and advacing to new levels in no time!! i upped to level 23 in 2 days, i also have 100,000 gold!! Kyle-level 28 Barbarian Back to Top | Okay, here's my strategy for a Barbarian, the mighty undisputed overlord of Diablo II classes: ~Skills: Choose a Weapon Mastery skill and max it out by level 30. Put at least one rank on Leap, as many as you see fit on Leap Attack, and eventually max out Whirlwind. Iron Skin and Natural Resistance are important as well. Don't bother with Double Swing unless you plan to use two swords for the entire game (i strongly disreccommend this) and other than a point or two on Find Potion, don't bother with Warcries. My personal favorite weapon class is the Mace. In my opinion, the weapons are, from strongest to weakest, Mace, Lance, Spear, Axe, Sword, Throwing. ~Equipment: Find the biggest and best example of your chosen weapon class you can and use it. High-defense armor is important. The new Barb-only helms from the expansion are useful if you can find a good Rare. Try to find an amulet of + barb skill levels, and whatever rings you want. Gauntlets to match your playing style. Vidala's Fetlocks are my favorite boots (nigh-infinite stamina). Stick a Perfect Sapphire or Skull in any socketed weapon you use: cold damage rules. ~Combat: Take out ranged attackers and ressurector units first, then melee grunts, then the unique if one is present. Leap Attack tough individual bad guys or those damned teleporting Imps, and Whirlwind through hordes. ~Stats: I reccommend 40% strength, 25% dex, 25% vitality, and 10% energy. Energy shouldnt have to go much higher than 40. ~Dueling: Watch out for Necromancers- Iron Maiden is your worst enemy. If you do get cursed, run around until it wears off then go in for the kill. Barbarian vs. Barbarian duels often come down to who lands the first blow. Don't let a Bowazon get out of arm's reach. Hammerdins can be a problem too. Ive never dueled an assassin or druid with a barb so i can't help there. Sorceresses aren't a problem unless they freeze you. Other than that, a few leap attacks should win just about any duel. Balrog- lvl40 Maul Barb SuperBob- lvl12 Necro-in-training Azarael- lvl30 Assassin Back to Top | First of, 90% of all the other strategy's suck. Now i'm not saying mine is exactly perfect, but i'm a perfectionist and would not be telling you this if I didn't know it was extremely effective... So here goes. STATS: DO NOT INVETS EVEN 1 POINT INTO ENERGY. Barbarians get a hanous 1 mana for 1 skill point! I cannot impress how worthless it is to train this. Strength should be the minimum for whatever armor/weapon you want to use, dex should be the same. All your other points should go into vitality. (1.) Mastery must be maxed. No discussion. (2.) When you reach level 30, train WW to level 20. This is the boon of the barbarian. You will live by this skill after level 30. (3.) Despite what anyone says, leap attack should only be trained once, it's only good for leaping in and out of crowds. (4.) Natural resistances and increased speed are good skills, but there is a point (around slvl 6-8) Where there is too little a bonus for the skill point your spending (At about 6 you start getting only 3-4% and this is similar with IS) (5.) Almost all the warcries aren't worth spending points in, one exception is Battle Orders(+life/+mana). I would highly recommend training this at least a couple times. (6.) Iron Skin is iffy. I know some people who love it and some who dont. I prefer Battle Orders, it's great to have extra life. (7.) When there's nothing let to train, You can put points into some other helpful skills. If your a treasure hunter, I hear Find Item skill is actually worth it now, so you can invest in that. If not, then you can always put points into Battle Orders, iron skin, or nat. resistances(I wouldn't recommend it though) With the implementation of D2X and monsters with physical immunity, berserk should also be a must skill although I dont know how heavily you will want to invest in it. WEAPONS: Choosing a weapon is key for barbarians. Axes, Polearms and maces are all OK choices. Throwing is worthless. Swords are good with shields for a more defensive barbarian, or you can go all out as the killing machine that is the Lance Barbarian(Most Damage and most range). ARMOR: Whatever tickles your pickle, I like iceblink. RINGS/Amules: + to skill is helpful, but mana and life leech are the most important things, also resistances are helpful. (Note: You cannot WW effectively without a decent amount of mana/life leech) DoGgUy Back to Top | I think one of the most underrated spells in the game for the Barb. is taunt. I don't know how I would finish the game without it. Even with one level into it, you just "insult" the monster and hear he comes right to you! It saves me a lot of time and the mana cost is minimal. Back to Top | Okay, here's how to make an Ultimate barbarian. First, max throwing mastery as soon as you can. Since these weapons have the best damage and attack speed in the entire game. Then, you should probably max out increased stamina, because having to walk isn't very much fun. As far as Whirlwind goes, don't put a SINGLE point into it. This is skill is extremely weak and is very unuseful. For stats, put a every stat point into energy so you can use warcries a lot. No stat points should be put into anything but energy. I hoped you liked my barbarian strategy! And have fun! WeakBarb- Lv50 Wand Barb Back to Top | ok here is my recommendation for creating an ultimate dueler, hopefully you have another char that can get them some weapons to start. ok i recommend putting straight off your first 15 skill points into sword mastery. then put 3 in iron skin. 5 in increase speed, 5 in nat res.) then put 10 points or so in spear mastery, and 20 in whirlwind. be a sword barb for up to level 30, then switch to lance barb to level REAL fast. then after about a week you will be level 70(provided you have a good lance). then just max out sword mastery, give up on lances. I have found the following items to work great for a sword dueling barb(get at least 100 damage one hand weapon, sigons shield, iceblink, some fastest boots, and deaths sash. with those items you cant be frozen and you block 2/3 of an amazons, and sorcs cant use blizzard on u. making you a dueling champ. Finally only put as many points into str as your items req, no more than that. put none in energy, and after you meet the str req. divy points into about 40% dex 60% vitals. and you will be unstoppable, plus put a few skills into battle commands so your health will be around 1300 when u yell. -darkinterpreter Back to Top | If you're using the Barbarian and don't know what to do, I hope my personal tactics will help someone in one way or another. 1) Completely ignore the "ENERGY" attribute. As a matter of fact, as a Barbarian, it doesn't even exist! 2) You must ALWAYS use the best equipment that you can get your hands on can currently purchase! (I can't emphasize this enough). 3) Pick only one weapons mastery and follow the distribution for your skill points. A) Use all of your skill points on your "weapon mastery" until you get to level 18. B) Now, use all of your skill points on "Iron Body" (the one that increases your defense) until you get to level 30. C) Finally, use all of your skill points on "Natural resistance" until you get to level 45. D) From this point on, you decide where you want to go Skill Tree wise. I am currently at level 48 and have a level 20 axe mastery, level 17 iron body and level 15 natural resistance. I have died a total of 12 times and 7of these deaths were from insufficient elemental resistances (early on in the game) and the rest were all ambuhes with magic users. Slayer Bane (Single Player Character) Back to Top | ok, heres my barb strat, im only 22 so it might suck, but i doubt it... first find a 3 scoted axe. doesnt matter what type, it needs to be 1 handed though. then, once your 18, get online and beg/trade for 3 perfect emeralds. put em in your axe, and youll see why initial dmg doesnt matter. +268 poison damage over 3 seconds kicks all ass. i got like 25 in axe mastery (with items) and im workin on leap attack. as of now leap does about 350+ damage. my axe is a normal attack speed. i dont use any war crys and i havent had a problem yet. you should master iron skin as the defense it offers is excellent.as for stats, i went straight for str. i dunno if that was good but it works for me. for equip, get some really high def armor, sigons shield, some soj's or leech rings, i got some set gloves that do -25% speed and knockback, and some decent boots and a helm. for fighting i leap the shamans or tough enemies (1 hit kills so far) then i beat the &%*& outta the minions, again, hit em once, then move to another one. before they have time to recover, the poison worked and theyre dead.act 1 took me forever (like a week) cuz i was just messing around and learning how to play. act 2 took me about 4 hours of hard playing using this strat. im running into a bit of a problem in act 3 (all barbs do) and i dunno bout act 4. i know this strat might suck, but from seeing lvl 50+ people be happy with a slow attacking mace that does 200 dmg i thought it was good. RoundMan1944 Back to Top | THE BEST Barbarian Strategy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1. Max out sword mastery and get an awesome two-handed sword(preferably great or executioner). 2. Your choice, max battle orders or iron skin. 3. Get a shield(Sigon's Guard,rare pavise....)an max whirlwind. 4.HAVE FUN KICKIN MAJOR @$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Back to Top | I've been playing for awhile now and I noticed one thing. If you a newbie make friends!!!!! I got good starting stuff just for being nice to people. Anyways back to barbs. I think lance is the best. Its the easiest to level and you do great damage!! I started a lance barb and in two weeks with about 7hours a week he was a lvl 60! Of course put all your skills into spear mast and put skills into the prereq for WW. Make sure you have enough skill points for WW when you reach lvl 30. Also try to get mf stuff. I have 150% mf and on average I find 3 rares every 30 mins. Also iceblink is sweet cus every thing gets frozen and all the guys that can resurrect stay dead. If your trying to lvl in hell I think the best place is Flayer Jungle if you a low lvl. With Iceblink you'll fly through the little guys and theres so many of them you'll up your chances to find good rare stuff. Remember to get str to atleast 170 and pump up vit so you can survive long enough to do some damage. I think war cries are not all that. I never use them but that's just my opinion. Well have fun and remember that barbs rule B_Net!!!!! Back to Top | Diablo was no problem for me. If u have a barbarian, at least put ONE skill on leap attack. This enables you to jump on Diablo (doing lot's of damage) and leap away again allowing you to not get hit by his lightning or fire attack.you also need to have a good bit of mana stolen per hit (i had 15%) and the good thing is you don't have to waste points into energy because, with this much mana stolen per hit it fills up again after one hit! Oh yeah i used a big pike to kill him(28-110 damage plus 10-15 fire damage). John Back to Top |
| in the end {lv.100} have these things to be the best- bonesnap{mace},ornate armor{armor},war boots{boots},goldwrap{belt},grand crown{helm} witha perfect diamond sapphire and ruby in the sockets, frostburn{gloves},2 stone rings of jordan{jewels}, these skill areas- 20 points in leap attack, 10 in concentrate,20 mace mastery, 20 stoneskin,10 increased speed, and 20 natural resistance these percentages of build- 40%strength,30%vitality and 30% derexity this is the best strategy for a barbarian -cannibalattack lv 50 barbarian Back to Top | okay here is all you need to know about barbarians: - pick one skill like every says and max it - use leap attack, it makes things much easier - use concentrate, it's uninteruptable - after level 30 all you need is whirlwind - put about 10 points into iron skin - any combo will work untill you get to hell, then you will die faster than you can swing, so get the fastet attacking weapon to can find with mana steal and cold damage, and you should be okay Blood_Fist level 50 Barbarian Back to Top | I've been reading a lot of the strategies on this page, and with a few exceptions most of them are terrible. I've been playing Diablo 2 since it's release, and currently I've seen 3 different barbs (2 now retired) though to Hell Difficulty. I've found that Lance Barbs are the easiest to play with, and so I'll share my strategy with you guys. The best strategy with lance barbs is as follows: 1) As far as stat points go, you want to ignore Vit. and Energy for a while. Concentrate on getting your str. up to around 70 (so you can wear armor) and then pump your dex to 88. The reason for this is that lances have a req. of 88 dex and 110 str. +Str items are MUCH easier to come by than +dex itmes, therefore you want to have your dex up to par by lvl 25 so you can use that bitchin' lance that's waiting in your stash. Try to get +str items (belts, boots, gloves) to get your str. up to 110. Now that you can use your lance, you'll be doing hella damage, and with mastery you won't need much more dex to hit the monsters. I would recommend pumping up your stregnth to get ready for an ornate (170 str.) so you can have some defense, too. Try putting 4 str. 1 vit. from then until you have 170 str. After you have 170 BASE STR., use your stat points like this: 2 str, 1 dex, 2 vit on even lvls and 2 str. 3 vit. on odd lvls. 2) Skill Points: The most important advice early on is put as many spare points possible into spear mastery. Only put 1 point in all the prerequisites for whirlwind. It might be tempting to put more in, but once you get ww you'll probably never use those skills again. It's best to wait for ww. Make sure you tuck away a few points to get some of the passive skills, as Natural Resists, Iron Skin, and Increased Speed all rock. As far as the much debated war cries goes, I've found them to be quite helpful in my solo lvling. They help with mana consumption from whirlwind and also allieveate your vitality defeciency from pumping str. The only war cries that I would recommend using with regularity, however, are Battle Orders (+life/mana) and Shout (+def.). Battle Command is okay, but it costs too much for too little time. 3) Equipment: That's easy... Helm: Decent def. helm that has at least 2 resists over 20%, +life, and fastest hr Armor: High def. ornate (800+) that has +life and good resists. Fast hr also helps. (You might wanna try Iceblink. I've always been turned off by the low def., but who knows) Amulet: Spend big and get a good one. Mine is 30% MF, +14 str, 2 resists, and +1 barb. You might opt for leech over magic find, however. Rings: One that has life leech and magic find and one that has mana leech and magic find, both with resists. Belt: You need one that has fastest hit recov. and +str along with resists. Boots: Try and get a Fast run/walk and Fastest hr with magic find and resists, or better. Gloves: For starting off, try Frostburns. They have decent defense, the +%mana really helps out for ww, and cold damage rocks. After you graduate them, try and get War Gauntlets with +str, resists, and magic find. Lance: My recommendation is to get a HIGH damage lance with +2 skills and +ar. The +ar helps out with hitting %, and the +2 skills REALLY helps out with your War Cries and Passive skills. If you're having a problem with mana/life, however, opt for one with leech over skills. Well, thanks for your time, I hope this comes in handy. Feel free to message me on battle.net. I'm on USEast realm. UberLANCER lvl. 50 Lance Barb UberSHOT lvl. 46 Bowazon UberMERDE lvl 34 Necromancer UberSORC lvl 27 Cold Sorc UberHAMMER lvl 24 Hammerdin and coming soon... UberJABRONI lvl 1 Jabazon Back to Top | I am a level 50 barbarian and I have found this to be my most useful strat. This is my 2nd barb and I really stuffed it up with my first one because I was a newbie and didn't really know much about the skill tree. Anyways, this barb is maxed on Mace Mastery. I used 2 swords in my previous barb and the damage was just not enough. So now I am using a martel which does a sh** load of damage (350). The point of this though is not to talk about weapons or armour or any of the items.... but rather the skill tree. I found out with my first barb that warcries are all but useless, only because they their time limits were too short. Secondly, I could have used those skill points on whirlwind, leap attack, iron skin, or Nat Resistances. So I dont suggest putting any skills on the warcry skill tree. Otherwise, it is a definite MUST to choose one weapon type and ONE only and max out on its mastery. Either the sword or the mace would be good. Axes have a slower attack speed.... and so do spears. Besides, you would definitely need a sheild for blocking purposes. Alright, so weve got masteries covered. Bash is actually not bad for lower levels and can be useful at higher levels.... but I personally prefer Concentrate because of the uninterrupted attack plus the boost to attack. 4 to 5 points to that are good. Leap Attack is ABSOLUTELY necessar because of the sheer amount of damage it does. At lvl 13 its at something like 700% damage.... thats psycho.... and another thing is, that you never miss. Believe me... :) Whirlwind is good too, provided you have leech capable items, which you probably will have by level 30. Mana steal is a MUST anyway... and life steal is a great bonus. The rest of the points should be allocated to iron skin and natural resistances. Very very very important... these two.... especailly in Nightmare and Hell levels. You will find yourself dying very quickly if your armour is not high enough, and worse, if you are in the negatives in resistances. Of course, by then, you should have items which boost resistances anyway. And last, but not least, life, or rather vitality is very important, especially at higher levels. Dont be fooled into pumping into str and dex and ignoring vit. A barb is a melee fighter, which means that he will also have to face melee attacks... and super unique bosses like Hephasto and Duriel.... will punish anyone who lacks life. By the way, I completely ignore points to energy because its simply not worth the points. Between levels 1 and 25, I allocate points to str, dex and vit, at 2, 1, 2 respectively. After that, its 2, 2, 1 till maybe level 45. Around then, you should have around 170 str.... enough for ornate.. and then a 1, 2, 2 allocation might be preferred. Well I've written a novel here so I wont say anymore for now. If you have any questions or just wanna chat barbs then email me at [email protected] Happy playing. Back to Top | i only have a level 20 barbarian, but i thought that it is best to go double sworded if you use swords, because double swing is good and i personally think that the whole sword and shield thing is more for the holy paladian. if you use like lances though you really dont have any other choice but to go two handed. Thank you for listening to my stratagy. Antonio Back to Top | yo ppls...it's me joe i got a strat on pallys if you've read it after playin a pally and some zons i played a barb and realized why they are so freakin popular...they are easy to use, do lots of damage, and skill-point wise you cant screw them up too bad i got a few tips that are essential to the well-being of your barb. 1. MAX OUT only ONE weapon mastery...forget throwing mastery until the expansion comes out 2. USE WHIRLWIND...you don't HAVE TO max it but you can it wont hurt you 3. MAX OUT Iron Skin...this is worth it in PvP and PvM...just do it 4. Put 5-6 in Natural Resist...its pretty helpful in nightmare and hell difficulties 5. Only put 2-4 in the war cries you need 6. Pump Leap Attack...its a very good skill to have in conjunction with whirlwind ----WEAPON CHOICE weapon choice is not really a big deal but there are differences between them LANCES- Probably the best barb weapon because they do the best damage by far...but slow attack speeds can hamper their performance before level 30 when you get whirlwind...when u do get whirlwind it is majorly worth using lances because they have a very far range when you're whirlwinding MAULS- Mauls are decent cuz you can get a 300+ damage Martel...but they have a relatively short range so Whirlwind can be frustrating sometimes...they have slow attack speed naturally but GIAS martels CAN be found...150% to undead is good for Act 2 also =P POLEARMS- Actually not bad...not as high damage as lances or mauls but have the range of lances and look cooler too. But for pure effectiveness use lances cuz they have the range AND the damage...these only beat lances in the speed department AXES- Ack!!! Not great damage and the shortest range of the weapon choices...not recommended SWORDS- Another decent choice...you can have two of them...High quality Executioner Swords can have 170 damage and have the range of a maul, but you can have a nice shield or have another executioner, or just use one executioner for higher per hit damage...a good choice Well...remember these things (max iron skin, max mastery, pump whirlwind and leap attack) and you'll do fine. don't forget natural resist. Good luck -THE_CLAW(_) on USWest Back to Top | This is only opinion, but this is the best advice i can offer. Channel skill points into one combat mastery. My best peice of advice is USE WEAPONS WITH COLD DAMAGE. If possible use the best gems in a socketed weapon. There are countless advantages to cold damage to a weapon. It slows the enemy down, making them a lot easier to hit, and the little crappers that get revived, stay dead. Another advantage is that if you are in a swarm, it helps because the enemy is hit and you split second more to either finish them off, or go to another enemy. Those are the advantages i have found using cold attacks. What the good does fire do, besides the xtra damage? not much. Poisen is okay but who wants to wait around for the baddy to die when its faster to hack away at them. Lightning is the same as Poisen, but you get faster results. Cold attributes has helped me a lot, use it if you feel comfortable with it. -nalong Back to Top | BEST BARBARIAN STRATEGY!!!!!!!! Step 1- Max out sword mastery and get a kick@$$ two-handed sword. Step 2- Put a few points into shout, battle orders,and leap attack,but not more then 5 or 6 each..... Step 3- When the time eventually comes......MAX OUT WHIRLWIND AND GET AN AWESOME SHIELD[preferably ward or sigons shield...or even a grim shield(high defense)] Step 4- with a few level's and the right equipment, you'll soon find yourself to be an unstoppable force of destruction that will rival Baal himself (Lord of Destruction). Back to Top | u wanna make a good barb, first rule is max out the mastery u choose to use. that way u can get a nice damage bonus. dont waste points in double swing!!! i see ppl sayin to put skills points into it but its completely useless. dont waste points into leap either. only 1 point into it is necessary. natural resistances and iron skin are good, but they dont really need to be maxed out. put lots of points into wirlwind, but dont forget that to be most effective with ww u need a decent amount of mana and life leech. without mana leech u will run out of mana real quick and die. for a lance barb the best armor is iceblink because it will freeze all the enemies and the lance has a good range, but for the other types of barbs i would use a good ornate. remember to pump lots of points into strength and vitality, and maybe dext if needed for the weapon. dont waste points into mana. if u need mana, use an item that adds mana. well good luck and enjoy the game. -Crackhead_barb-lvl 51 lance barb -PainInYourAzz-lvl 36 maul barb -EviL_SwOrDz-lvl 28 sword barb Back to Top | his is my second barbarian and I guess he's going to become real good. I'm currently in act 4 in the normal level, finished the first two quests of it with ease. The only thing I had to do in act 4 yet was to use lots of potions, rejuv potions especially. I chose sword as my weapon because it is fast and efficient, and I gave sword mastery 20 skills. I had to give bash, and leap 1 points each to get to leap attack. LEAP ATTACK IS ESSENTIAL. It is the easiest way to get out of menacing crowds, also to hit long ranged mages. 1 point to leap attack is all you want. I gave one point to double swing but i'm not sure if it was a good choice yet. Other than that, I'm currently concentrating on iron skin, and will max up natural resistance. Up to now, I was able to kill every boss without using any strategy, just by face to face brutal force and with rejuv potions. I frequently had to do some running to eliminate crowds of creatures. To sum up, a tough barbarian needs only strength, dexterity, vitality, weapon mastery(lvl 20), iron skin(lvl 20), natural resistance(lvl 20), leap attack (lvl 1). CaNNiBaLPeR Level 27 Barbarian Back to Top | I have reached "perfection" in the weapons and armors that I use, although I thjink my character really bites, I can barely kill the smith in nightmare although I do a minimum of 100 dammage on each and every hit whilst using Frenzy. you should put 60% of all your points in Strength, 10% Dexterity, 25% Vitality, and only 5% Energy. For weapons I say STICK WITH ONE! Mace is possibly the best with over 200 max dammage with a Martel compared to my 80+ War Sword and 50+ Long Sword both Rare. ! atleast 10 skill points into Leap Attack, 20 into your weapon of choice, 5 intoStone Skin, and the rest in requesites and extras or if you chose Polearm or spear as a weapon then 2 into whirlwind ALL OF THIS BY LVL 40, the beggining would be hard BUT it is worth it, once you reach about lvl 40 you will be a KICK-ASS BARBARIAN! Sir_Grimm, a lvl 30 barbarian Back to Top | Well I read most of the reviews on how to pump up a Barb. Well I play in single player because I have this firewall which prevents me from playing. But anyway in single player I have realized that Warcries are terrible in single. Vitality strength and Dex are the most important. I put +2 to strength, +1 to Dex, and +2 to Vitality. Although you need Dex so you can hit more. But don't forget your masteries help you with that. My first barb I put 2 str 2 dex 1 vitality. When I reached Hell I died continously. So put lots into vitality IMPORTANT. Skills- Well first of all Don't use warcries as mentioned. Combat skills depend on what weapons you are using. One handed weapons you will want double swing, just one, frenzy, just one, Whirlwind, Max it out, And LEAP ATTACK, just one. I jove leap attack it is great cuz in act III you can jump the rivers. And also jump annoying enemies. In masteries wait until you find the item of your dreams then put them in. Yet you may not find one for a while, which has happened to me, just be patient and your time will come. If you can't find one hang back in earlier acts and don't advance until you have found it. Killing Duriel a couple of times may help but the items get worse and worse so, start roaming and look for uniques. ALWAYS AND I MEAN ALWAYS CHECK CHESTS AND SKELETONS I FIND THE BEST WEAPONS IN THEM. Also gamble on skull caps until you find the tarnhelm that way you have a better chance of finding items then when you find the item look for a better helm cuz with a barb you really don't need the +1 to all Barbarian lev 37 (excellent) Necromancer lev 37 (not so good) Sorceress 27 (one of my best) Paladin 25 (horrible) Amazon 28 awsome cuz I have a LAN connection and someone gave me an AWSOME bow Back to Top | When I began building a barbarian for a single player game I did some research by reading this page and others as well as some of the strategy guides available. The first thing I found useful is to max out a particular weapon mastery (as stated already many times on this page). I chose sword mastery and with two rare ancient swords I deal some serious damage. For combat skills I stick with double swing but only have one point in it (plus 2 more points from a berserker prefix on an ancient sword). I tried frenzy but the speed bonus makes it excedingly difficult to control my character in the frey and whirlwind is a mana soaker. I have maxed out sword mastery, iron skin and natural resistance at a character level of 57 bringing my resistances (with a prismatic amulet and unique greaves), attack rating (both weapons have a huge attack rating bonus) and defense (rare ornate armour imbued by the blacksmith in act I) up very high. I plan to build up the speed skill or put more into double swing to increase my attack rating. I also gambled for the gloves of brock that give +3 to life and mana steal per hit with a 10% poison resist bonus. The glove defense is low but the steal feature is essential to keep mana and life high using minimal potions. I also use a ring that adds +6 to life steal and 100 or so to my attack rating. My strength is 170 + 5 from my boots and my dexterity is 110 +5 also from the boots. This allows me to wear any armour and weild any sword, exceptional or otherwise. The rest I am putting into vitality for now (you would do well to not waste points on mana). The best places to build experience and get excellent items are in the arcane sanctuary in act II and all of act IV. I basically build up at these places and then rush through the rest of the scenes. I am still building levels in act IV right now, always making sure that the creatures I fight are no more than five levels above or below me. This is all I am going to say here (so as not to take up too much space), If you have any questions about building a barbarian or paladin e-mail me at [email protected] and I will get back to you right away. -- Lord Cohen the Barbarian Back to Top | Right now i have a barbarian level 42 and i am in the chaos sanctary on nightmare. When i started the game i boosted alot on strength and vitality but later i discover you should put your vitality up to about 60 and every level put 3 ont strength and 2 on dexterity until you have enough strength to use an ornate plate then put 1 on strength 2 on dex 1 ont vitality and 1 on energy for a coupke of levels. For skills you should stack up on swrd mastery and stone skin at the start and put a couple on double swing find a mana steal ring and put double swing as your regular attack then when you get to level 30 boost war cry and natural resistances. I know that everyone says warcrys are pointless on single player games but they are wrong. Once you get war cry to about level 10 you will do about 65-70 dmg ang stun for 3 seconds. so all i do is walk up to bad guys use war cry once and double swing everyone to death and since you steal mana you will regain all your mana used for warcry so it will be ready to use again. Now you should boost natural resistances to about level 10 so even on hell difficulty your resistances will be around 0 with no items on. You should definatly stick with 2 swords. I put up 1 level on whirlwind and i find if you use 2 swords it isn't very good but if you use polearms it's a difeerent story. Back to Top | the best way to make a good barb is frist make it up to lvl. 10 when you get there you should still be a t the second quest in act 1. you should have bash at lvl 1 sword mastery at 5 then get stun to 2 and in creas stamina to 3 then you can get the big one leap attack to 3 thats all that has to be. then Iron skin to 8. that should leave you at 30 when you can get whirlwind to 20. then berzerk to 20 the rest is up to you if you don't like my method then fight me Wayne-o in the eatern rhelm good be Wayne Back to Top | Sigh....the over-played barbarian...well,it's kinda normal since he's so easy to lvl and play,but,at the end,All barb are the same except for the weapon they use....but still...here's some tips to make your barb different ->First of,just to be sure you know...you put most of your skills in one mastery(best choice being Swords,Mace or lances)and you MAX it out ->second thing,Warcries are only good for....well....I can't even find a situation where warcries are useful...I used them once on my first barb. and they aren't of any necessary use...but if you insist in havin some because you absolutly need to waste your skill points,I recommend you the +to def. one and the +to life and mana one(sorry I forgot the names since I never ever use em again)finding potions is nice to have to lvl 3 or so though... ->Now,the fighting skills,Sword barbs first:you see the skill tree?...well..your row is the far right one...okay?...only that one...don't lose your time with Whirlwind...you won't deal enough dmg to make it useful...but if you use frenzy,you'll be a speedy killin machine...ok..for all other barbs,you have to puf 1...and ONLY 1 in each of the skill(except the far rights one)and MAX whirlwind...your only hope of survivin in nm and hell ->Ok...you maxed your weapon mastery...but you still see the other Iron skin skill and faster run....well...now there are 2 possibilities...if you choose Iron skin...max it!....and get some good high def equipment to make it useful...I,most of the time...use the fater run tho...and then with fastest run/walk boots and Blinkbat...you just never get hit... oh...put 3 or 4 points in +resist tho I guess this conclude the Barbarian...thx for reading and E-mail me to give your opinion [email protected] War-Mace and Other barbs Back to Top | Mana/Life steal weapons or jewlery are a major plus.I personally placed leap attack on left click, and whirlwind on left. It can get a little bit hairy fighting mana burn enemies though. Whirlwind is great for eliminating the minions and lowering unique's hit points, but leap attack momentarily stun's your opponent . With quick hit dodge and attack again tacktics many monsters get few hits at you. I personly mostly play solo mode and this works well for me.Definitly wait as long as possible to imbue, so that you can find the best possible weapon or armour. I have a grim shield I imbued that is increadible. I have personally found that I need to interchange between shield and no shield.With many monsters i get hit less with whirlwind with my shield. I then run and take it off for the unique's. From a lvl 52 barbarian lord slaughter. Back to Top | i noticed someone give the stratagy of direct attack with leap attack (click on target) . yes it does always hit but the damage is greatly reduced if creature moves away. better to attack ground so you always attack nearest creature even better predicting the target creatures future position is must in mastering this attack .when things get hectic leap attack is the attack i always use. geoffdeath level 33 Back to Top | From the very start, you must know exactly what you intend to do with your barbarian. I suggest one of two paths. The first (and easier of the two) is to specialize in a high damage weapon like a spear or a polearm. Since these are two handed weapons, you can completely ignore the skill tree path starting at double swing. Instead, pump leap, spear or polearm and leap attack. You will deal out large amounts of damage as you hack and slash but your specialty will be assassinating shaman types without having to hack through their minions. On this path, you pump strength and vitality depending on armor and ironskin for defense plus your weapon skill for attack rating. The second path involves using smaller weapons (particularly swords and axes) that have faster attack speeds. Instead of pumping leap and leap attack, you need to emphasize double swing and that path. You also need a higher dexterity to wield the swords and the thrown weapons you may decide to use. Honestly, I feel that the first path gets you a more powerful character but the second is fun. There's just something about swords that can be so much fun. The worst thing you can do is spread out your skill points among the weapon types. BobA (axes) BobM (maces) BobS (swords) BobP (polearms) BobSpear (self explanatory) Back to Top | Reading through these strategies I've decided to write a small guide myself. I feel barbarians are the best character in Diablo II, mainly because tht's all I've used. My first time through I squandered my skill points on battle cries just out of curiosity, also I thought I was going to use first an axe, then a sword, then a poleaxe and finally I settled on an axe. Well long story short, battlecries suck for a single character, and you should pick one weapon type and stick with it. The effects of the weapon skills will be much better if you do this. I've found that axes, maces and swords work best because you can use shields with the one-handed versions. What's so good about shields? Well, the shield I use, Sigon's Ward, has a 69% chance to block, that means only 3 in 10 enemy hits will land plus it increases your skills 1 level. So far it's the highest percentage I've found, and I doubt it gets much higher. The only shield that obtains this high of a percentage is a tower shield. I found this odd because the gothic shield has better defense normally. So far with my latest character I'm in normal Hell and have only died once using this strategy. Back to skills. . . Varrious opioions have been thrown back and forth about different skills and whether they're crap or they're great or what have you. Through my experience I have found bash and leap attack to be very effective, however I only go to skill level 1 or 2 with these. The rest of my skill points go to weapon mastery, one point to each skill below whirlwind, and I also build up first iron skin, then when it comes available whirlwind. Whirlwind is very effective, especially with high damage weapons, but even low level wweapons which you have mastery in become lethal with this attack. I've also decided to make a system for distributing my stats points. Because the barbarian wields massive weapons and delivers crushing blows, the most effective stat to increase. Because of this, I found that unless you need to increase a certain stat rapidly to use something, allocating 2 points to strength, and one point each to dexterity, vitality and energy produces a well-rounded character capable of withstanding heavy attacks and dealing out even more deadly ones. To quote Dennis Miller though, "that's just my opinion, I may be wrong." Rich Back to Top | the best barbarian stratigies goes as follows: first, max out skill points in one mastery only. when u get to lvl 18 put 1 on leap attack. DO NOT PUT ANY MORE THAN ONE on leapattack or anyother attack like bash or frenzy cuse they suk. put like 10 on iron skin ONLY if you have a very high ornate plate like 897 def like mine. when you get to lvl 30, max out whirlwind. it is the best attack in the game. without it a barb wont survive. also put 10 on natural resistance. Now for stats, put about 170 on str, 110 on dex and 250 on vitality. those are my stats. my lvl 89 barb Can do 1800 damager per hit with whirlwind. i have a 300 lance. another good armor for barb is iceblink. it freezes targets so they only get to hit u once at most before they get frozen and u kill them. my life is 2500 and with the warcries, my life goes up to 3000 i can survive 3 whrilwinds from another barb. well thats wut i thinks is best AZIAN_CRUSADER lvl 89 Back to Top | Alright folks... I have played all 5 different classes of barbs (throwing isn't a class) and I would like to share my opinion on an often shunned skill, CONCENTRATE. I for one really like this skill.. I only put one point in it to get to whirlwind but I use it as my attack when and if my mana for it runs out. First of all, it's uninterupted, so you will not get whipped around and die from those vicious undead scavengers. Second, it's defense bonus helps prevent your gettting hit in the first place, so those vicious undead scavengers won't hurt you. Although many like the push back of bash, or the bonus of leap attack, it's at least worth trying on your way to WW. Back to Top | Hi,This is a stragity if you wan't a realy cool barb. TRICK FOR KILLIN' DIABLO-If you want to kill Diablo fast and easy MASTER"LEEP ATTACK".This attack will destroy diablo quick and easy and you will not get a scratch. Keep on running and doing "leep attack".Try to master out FireRessistance and LightningResistance(lightningFlameAttack)Believe me this works well on him. :). Skills-MUST MASTERIES-Wirlwind -Natural Resistance -Iron Skin -Weopon mastery(What weopon you use) Attributes-PER LEVEL-2str -2dex -1vit -0mana With 170 str,120 dex, and the rest vitality your preaty much unstopable PLAY ME IN A GAME SOME TIME:BatterinRam in the eastRealm. If you have a complaint e-mail me at [email protected] See you later :) BATTERINRAM Back to Top | When fighting bosses or uniques, or just a mob of enemies as a barbarian, just use howl. The uniques and champions do not run, leaving you in one on one combat with the toughies. Click and hold on enemies for a continuous attack. This can be useful when fighting especially hard dudes. You can pay attention to your health more, and you have a better chance of surviving. Nick Back to Top | Hi, Im level 50 right now and one of my main strategies is to first go slow in the game and build up your charictor, I see alot of guys in nightmare with low level charictors that just taged along with someone better to finish a level. A great way to build your charictor is to join a game with five or more people then dont join in a party and go solo. You will get all the experiance from killing the monsters without shairing them with other players. What I do is go back a few acts where monsters dont do much damage but have high hit points because of the number of players in the game, so you can set there bash away and not get hurt alot. You will gain a ton of exp. this way. Then once you have built you charictor up its easy to complete the quest and move to higher areas of the game. This is how the hardcore players do it without dieing. They go to act 2 normal and play untill there charictor is around level 30 before moving on, after that its hard to die when your play a charictor thats 20 levels above what the game calls for in a level. Another tip to keep your cash flow healty and to find better items is to join a game with a level charictor in it thats about 15 above your own and you will find alot better items because the monster are putting out items to suit a higher charictor player. Its a great way to find better armor and weapons than you normally would. Also use at least one item that has magic find to it, the best is a helm socketed with 2 perfect topazes this gives you around 48% magic find without losing to much on defense and you will find alot better items to sell or use. My last tip is to keep on hand 1 set of rings and amulet that boost dexterity and one set that boost str. There is nothing worse than finding a good item and not being able to use it, because you dont have enough dex or str on your charictor. Other than that I like leech rings and amulets they work great on high level monsters that have a ton of life and can keep you alive long enough to kill them. These tips work well for any charictor class. Because of the fact i dont want to write a book here you can email me at [email protected] for more direct tips for barbs or paladins. Last big tip when you read the tips on this web site pay attention to ones coming from level 50 or higher players they have been there done that. not players around 30 who havent made it to the harder levels to know what you will need in the long run as far as skills and choices for stat points. So long its time for eightballchamp to go kill something. Back to Top | There seems to be alot of trouble involving Duriel. I found him very easy - Lv.23 Barbarian double-handed-two sword attacker. Simply load up with health/rejuv potions and make sure that one of your swords is a 9% Mana steal. As my dex is strong and double attack is strong I simply melee attacked him and wore him down only going through 3 full healths. The mana steal sword keeps your mana on full the entire attack. Easy !! Psion Lv.28 Barbarian Back to Top | swords, axes, maces, and lances. Where to start. I seem to think that the axe is best in dmg, sword is best n speed. and maces excell in both of them. I m not here to tell you what to do or anything but berserk sucks. Thats my main stgy, dont use berserk Michael Back to Top | Here's my strategy for the coolest character in Diablo 2, Barbarians. Unless your playing mutiplayer, don't bother with warcries for they are completely useless in single player games. Also, don't be fooled about putting all of the barb's stat points into strenght, for dexerity and vitality are also part of the recipes of a powerful barbarian. Try not to waste your stat points on mana, leave that to the necromancers, and sorceress's. The only kind of combat skills you need to place points on are double swing, and leap. Double swing would help you defeat bosses easier if you wield two weapons. Leap seems to be a pretty useless skill, however it is very useful in leaping over hordes of hells minions, and escaping while you are surrounded. Try to get armor not only for its defence but also look for armor with some sort of natural resistance (especially lightning resistance). For most of your skill points, place then into the combat masteries tab. All the skills in that section are passive, so you don't have to select it to use the skill, and are automatically added on. Since I've beaten the game I can give you tips for the act bosses. Andariel: Kill all her minions in the room before her chamber. Once your ready, open the double doors that lead to her room. Go in the room a little, and once you can see Andariel and a few minions coming out of the room, start running back to the enterance to the catacombs level 3. kill off her minions, then fight her with double swing near the enterance of the catacombs level 3. If you find yourself unable to heal, quickly run for the exit (the catacombs). and once you healed, go and finish her off. Duriel: Not to difficult. Make sure you have some cold resistance, because he is a master in cold attacks. Make sure you don't use a weapon with cold attacks, for he is 100% resistant to cold attacks. Other then that, use double swing and hack away. Make sure you have alot of healing potions. Mephisto: He isn't that hard, however his minions are just hell. Once you defeat the lord of hatereds minions, he would have three uniques guarding him. Make sure you take out every one before you take Mephisto. Don't stay far from him or else he would continueously attack you with lightning attacks. Go close and hack away with many healing potions would be my best advise. Diablo: all I got to say is have fun dieing many times against him, dieing against his unique guards (the Grand Vizier of chaos: extra strong, fire enchanted) Lord de Seis: (extra strong, aura, thief) Infector of Souls: (Extra fast, spectral hit)). And they are surrounded by minions of their type. Good Luck!!! Sir Seth da Slayer Back to Top | Ok I read over most of these strats and I can see the vast majority of the ppl writing in are fairly new, probably lay with really good items to begin with or something but I can tell you strategies of PRO barbarians; as a barbarian you have 2,make that 3coices that are SUPER;whirlwinding with a 300 lance with mana steal and an ice blink so they never get away, 1 giant axe with a ton of damage and a really pumped leap attak so speed wont matter and finally 2 pretty nice rare executioner swords with a nice pumped up frenzy. All 3 own at level 80 (I got those three types to this level). For the first one(lance) what ya do is max spear mastery ASAP with maxed whirlwind about level 15 iron skin and 5 natural resists a good supply of 1-3 in all the other masteries(faster running) depending on how many +1 coz they good early on a good supply of afew points in battle orders+about 50 mana and a 6-7% life steal so u can continually whirlwind and an iceblink on top to make sure u never miss and always KIK ASS. This guy's my favourite with his sweet lance :) Next is the BIG axe and leap man. About the same masteries here as the other except change spear with axe and also u have less prereqs to pump a nice little leap attak(almost 700% extra damage at like level 10 or so) so with the extra points left in this guy considering putting a point in either; more masteries,frenzy as a back up attak or battle orders to help ya out a bit.I got frenzycoz it's a change from leaping all the time he'sfun andpaksa POWERFUL blow with his nice hefty axe!(u will need more health with him--he gets ht more) Now for by far the most popular barb for some uncanny reason ;) the 2 executioner sword frenzier with really fast moderate daamge.Once again change axe mastery with sword and leap attak with frenzy. With the one or two extra points left in this buggar I put some in battle orders. Later on I plan to get about 5 in whirlwind as a bakup attak.This dude is a really slow leveler but after playing the other two slow swingers looking at his arm movement's speed is incredible! Well there ya have it 3 beautiful barbs straight from the pros..Just remeber don't be tempted to put more than one point in a crappy prereq just coz it works then...and also finding good wepons takes time and powerful friends so I recommend beg for a semi descent one to last u to act 3 nightmare wen everything's availabe and remeber have fun!!!! David Back to Top | barbs kick a*s!!! Its a good idea to focus your single player quests in upgrading your combat mastery tab. A barb is ment for melee and power, so don't bother in wasting your stat points on that mana crap. Since a barbrian is a strong character on his own, it is not neccessary to hire mercinaries in act 1, and 2. However if you feel the need for a companion, it is a good idea to hire a mercinary in act 3. Try to either to buy a lightning or cold attack solider. Don't even bother to by a troop that is less then level 24, and make sure they have the fast cast skill. Put 1 or 2 skill points into increased stamina and try to max out in natural resistance and iron skin.Try to focus yourself into one type of weaponary ( sword,axe,mace) so you can focus on one type of weapon mastery.For mana skills its a good idea to place 1 point on double swing, one on leap attack and 1 on whirlwind. Lightning is the most powerful element, so try to get armour that is lightning resistant, or jewelry. Tips for boses: Andariel: kill all her minions on the first side of the door. THen open the double door lowering her and a few minions out. Slay all her minions that comes out with her and run to the exit to catacombs level 3. fight her near their so you can escape if you are indanger. Duriel: not much stradegy except, get some cold resistant items, make sure you have many healing potions Mephisto: pretty easy General tip: don't wast skill points on warcries unless in multiplayer, get the best kind of belts you can find so you can hold more potions, always carry a tome to town portal. henrietta Back to Top | Ok i hv read all these posts several times and u know what? MOST OF THEM HAVE CRAPPY INFO. now we hv to look at the bright sde of being a barb. being able t hold 2 wepons dont mean u should use 2 wepons it means u should use a 2 handed wepon+a shield. i hv a lvl 50 swordbarb and i can tell u that vit and having a godly sword is the most important thing in ur career. first find a good sword, hopefully it will hv dam higher then 120 and maybe leech. second get a good armor. get all stats req to use these and then PUMP VIT!! if u dont hv enough vitality and hp ur not a good barb and will not survive in a4 hell, all that has to happen is the ww stoping in the middle of a crowd and puff there goes another 10% of ur xp. so pump vit and NEVER put ne point into energy. btw i only happened to invest a point into find potion in my late 40s and i noticed that it helped alot, i would make a battle command (+skills) and start cutting people open looking for full rejuvs. it helps so try not to overlook it. ww is ur main weapon, after lvl 4 it starts giving positive dam, pump it until lvl 13, after that its a waste after all those patches and all that bullsh/tt the dam has to go down so dont pump it past 13. by the time u get ww ur sword mastery should alredy be maxed out and try not to waste ne points into the double swing row er berserker since they wont make u lvl as fast as ww will. thanx for ur time DemonSwordBarb- swordbarb lvl 60 Back to Top | when fighting Duriel use bash if you have about level 4 or 5 in it and he is knocked out concious too much for him to do his massage damage back to you KingsRook9 Back to Top | Here are a few tips for Barbarians who do not want to bother themselves with warcries. First, follow the advice everyone is giving here -- concentrate on one type of weapon and put a lot of skill points to this weapon's mastery. Second, try to combine the following abilities in your melee combat -- life and mana steal (life is a priority), fast attack speed (the faster the better), cold damage (even 1 or 2 is fine) and knockback. All these combined enable you to kill those persistent uniques easily. Even Diablo can hardly make a move under such attack and you can forget about running around looking for your portal. As for skills, I use bash (lvl 3) for left action and leap attack (lvl 3) for the right. Leap attack is mainly useful for getting away from trouble and attacking bosses surrounded by those pesky minions. All my other skill points have gone to sword mastery (lvl 16) and iron skin (lvl 6). I am only at lvl 28 now, so natural resistances are out of my reach at the moment. As for the gear, generally I recommend using either one or two decent swords, shields are more or less useless. However, if you happen to find The Ward, a unique gothic shield, you might want to try it out. I found that I can do as much damage with my rare flamberge in one hand holding The Ward in the other as previously with the same weapon in two hands. The Ward boosts your strenght +10 and why not to use the extra defence from a shield when you can still do your usual damage. My principle of distributing stat points has always been 2 to strength, 2 to dexterity and 1 to vitality. With these tactics, I took care of Diablo in normal play and now I am off to nightmare. Sir Baboon, lvl 28 Barbarian Back to Top | For all you newby barbs out there reading this, here's a few tips on Mastering the game of diablo: 1st- pick only one mastery (lances, spear Mastery, are the strongest weapons in the game, however they are really hard To get, so i suggest axe or sword mastery), 2nd- under warcries, shout and Battle orders are key, so max out on those, and 3rd- concentrate on getting Whirlwind exactly on lvl 30, because whirlwind is the barbs most useful skill (what i mean by gettin whirlwind on exactly lvl 30 is by getting all the Pre-req skills first like bash, stun, leap, concentrate, and so on) so good Luck newbies! Conrad Back to Top | Well, im a newbie and ive learned a lot. i am a level 21 barbarian and i have a good view on what to do. when you start, you start out as a barb, you get a hand axe and a buckler. When you gain a level, you should put on is bash. After that, you should keep putting on potion find skill or howl until you get to level six. change from the axe you have to a spear. when you are at level six, you should put one skill level on leap (trust me). level 7, you should now start using your spear masteries, keep doing that till level 18, then put a skill level on leap attack, next level do the same thing.then return to leving up your spear masteries. when you are at level 25 - level 30, put your skills on leap attack. at level 30, start to use whirlwind. it is an extreely good attack. now for the rest of the game, only put your skill levels on: Whirlwind, leap attack, and spear masteries. by level 5o you will be quite the invinsible barb. You Should Crank up your vitality for the first ten levels. then for the next five, strenghen yourself up, then crank up energy for another five levels, reapeat that process for the rest of the game. Thanks for reading Daevin The Barbarian (a.k.a Shayne) [email protected] Back to Top | as a barbarian, and after playing other classes, i recommend putting at least one skill point into ALL passive skills, the reason for is that the first skill point always hass the greatest jump, like stone skin for the barbarian the first level takes you up 30 percent then everyone after it just 10 percent, also read the game book and look at your characters skills, check and see what numbers you put in are most beneficial since many skill benefits change with how many points are in Dimetapper Back to Top | Here's what I do. I maxed out Spear mastery and am currently working on polearm mastery. I can do over 100 dmg with my leap attack. My Whirlwind is level 6, and it can hack thorugh a group of Hell Bovines (from the Secret Cow Level *wink) easily. Try to focus on one mastery at a time. I have all warcries to lvl 7 becuase of my +2 skill level lance and my +2 skills prismatic ammy. Once you get a decent leech, you dont need potions. Just whirlwind and you got your instant potions. And put a lot of points into iron skin and stuff like that. I can outrun an amazon because of my level 8 upgrade speed Weapon: Lance, 20% Mana Leech, 20% Life Leech, 256 dmg, +2 to all barb skills, +487 to attack rating, Fire resist 43% Armor: Ornate Armor, 888 defense, 25%ish resist to all cept lightning, Adds Cold Dmg (very good when enemy is too fast) I also have war______________( Gauntlets, Belt, Boots, all around 80 defense) SupaMofo Back to Top | Ok, now I notice Barbarians spend time either shouting out warcries, or full up on mastery, both are good, but do both. You only want one warcry, Battle Orders, this will save your life, and your party (if you play multi) then max out your weapon mastery. It dont matter which weapon you pick, even throwing weapons maxed out is pretty cool. Then mas out iron skin and put 6-7 in natural resistances, im telling ya, invinsible. Good luck, if ya mess up early on, dont be afriad to start over, :), thats what i did. Back to Top | Here's a strategy for all barbs out there, use leap attack! It looks like crap, but at level 14, it does almost 700% your normal damage! It's beastly! I used it to beat all the bosses in nightmare and Hell easily. (especially Mephisto) My one and only barb is Diamhea level 50 with a rare 872 ornate, a rare executioner, with 12%life steal. and other good items. Tom Back to Top | barbs are the coolest!!!!!!!!!! I am a lvl 24 and in the third act. i have found that assigning the double swing (1 skill point" to the left mouse click and the leap attack to the right is very useful. i myself have an awesome onehanded war axe and an awesome one handed crand sceptor which i use both at one. max out the extra armor skill and the speed skill. it will really help. life and mana attacks are very helpful also. So far all of the bosses have been easy for me. Also, if u can, find as much lightning restist equipment as u can. when lighting enchated characters are attacked, they are very very very powerful. GOOD LUCK!!! ~ADAM~ Back to Top | A good early stratagy for barbs is to put as many points into ONLY ONE skill mastery, it adds so much to your damage and attack rating, put one point into double swing and use it as your main attack, get two weapons with desent damage and life/mana steal, bash or leap attack for secondary skill. with double swing It's like having zeal for paladans only you can stop before you die if you hit lightning enchanted monsters. I killed durial at level 17 in 5 seconds and only used one healing potion. Calin Back to Top | Here's a good wat to kill the Summoner with a Barbarian; use a Leap Attack on him, and you'll dodge all of his magic. He is pretty weak so when you land you can kill him with your first strike, especially when you have a high Sword/Axe Mastery. Ragnarok Back to Top | Some advice from a Danish Barbarian. Here is a list of stratgies that work for me. 1: Choose one "skill" weapon from the start, and put several points into it. Only sword, axe and mace masteries take full advantage of the Barbarian. 2: Don't use two weapons at once though you can. You had better use a shield. 3: Don't use a weapon that is slower than "fast". 4: Spend no skill points on "Find Item", "Grim Ward", "Stun", "Concentrate", "Berserk", "Double Swing", "Double Throw" and "Frenzy". "Bash" and "Whirlwind" are the only special blows you need. 5: Take "Find Potion" to level 4, and you'll never find your self running low on potions. Add several points to "Whirlwind", "Iron Skin" and "Natural Resistance". 6: Facing a big crowd of enemies, use warcries in the following order: "Battle Command", "Battle Orders" and "Shout" (works great in multiplayer games). Then jump into the crowd and "Battle Cry" or "War Cry" and chop 'em down! 7: Choosing protective items, don't be too focused on defense points but on the item's special features. In contrast to weapons; special features are good, but damage and speed is everything. Jeppe Back to Top | The Barbarian has the potential for being the most powerful character in the game. With his weapon specialities, Natural Resistance, Iron Skin, several of his warcries, Bash, and Leap Attack, he can do serious damage! I beat Diablo with a Barbarian in Sword Mastery on the Normal difficulty at level 26, but then I restarted as a Barbarian that used Spears. At first, Spears may seem to do less damage than other two handed weapons, but take a look at the damage rates of Lances and Pikes. There is no other weapon type that does that much damage, and many that can't do that type of damage even if they are King's **** of Slaughter! A Barbarian with an enchanted Lance, level 20 Spear Mastery, attacking with a Bash or a Leap Attack will do INSANE damage. In fact, with level 20 Spear Mastery, level 20 Leap Attack, high enough Strength, and using a Combat Shrine, the Barbarian could do over 1000 points of damage! Not bad! Leap Attack is an incredibly useful skill. Put at least 2 points in it as soon as possible. Among the tactics you can use with it are to jump out of a group of nasties that have surrounded you and are bashing the crap out of you, jumping over a group of resurrectable creatures to attack the creature resurrecting them first, and jumping over gaps. And, finally, the greatest aspect of Leap Attack, if you click it directly on an enemy creature, from a far enough distance away that you do a leap, IT NEVER MISSES, EVEN IF THE TARGET CREATURE MOVES CLEAR OFF THE SCREEN BEFORE YOU LAND!!! I don't know if this was an intentional glitch or not, but Barbarians, use this to your advantage! Kil'jaeden Back to Top | Focus tons on life leech and a bit on mana leech. I have a barb taht steals 32% life per hit he hardly ever dies... Max out on Iron skin and whatever weapon you chose stick to it and max out it's mastery. Whoever says warcries are useless are idiots. Using shout and battle orders combined with leeching life keeps you alive. War cry is good as well if your surrounded just click once and all the enemies around you get stunned forget trying to kill them with it you just stun them and bash them up... Battle cry helps heaps since they do less damage and you can hit enemies easier... try to get your strength to 170 and then focus on Vitality. Dext isn't really needed unless your use swords or polearms. For armour I use silks of the Victor, for helmet I use Wormskull (since it steals 5% life), swords both steal life and +1 to skills, boots I use Goblin Toe (Crushing blow), gloves I use frostburn... (enhanced damage, 1-5 cold, +25% mana), belt I was lucky enough to get a good unique exceptional heavy belt. other than taht I got no more advice dawei Back to Top | I am a level 23 barb and here is my strategy on how I beat Duriel. I got killed over and over and I spent a fortune looking for some better weapon than my two faves..a sword and a flail. Finally, I decided to just get in there and hack away. I had a merry time clearing out the tomb of all the monsters all the way to Duriel's chamber. Then I walked back to the Resist Cold Shrine, made sure my belt had health, mana and thaw potions. I run all the way back to the chamber which was a breeze cos there were no monsters to stop me, I charged into the chamber stood in front of Duriel and hacked away using my double weapons skill with my finger pressed down on the mouse button the whole time and watching my health. I used 3 health only by the time I killed him and the Cold Resist lasted all through the fight.....What a breeze! Hope it works for some of you. :o) Pili Back to Top | when fighting with a barb I recommend using lance or sword. Now with every character class you must decide, do you want it to be a PVP char or a monster kill. Lances are the best in monster kill will sword barbs are better in dueling. lance barb-first, max out in spear mastery, Then save your skills points. MAX OUT ON WHIRL WIND it's important and it's the best attack for a barb. put about 10 points in natural resistance and 5 in run and walk. Also try to get battle orders maxed out. When maxed it lasts for a long time and it really helps life, mana and stamina. only put about 136 stregnth and 88 dex. then go all out on vitality, trust me, it's smart! I'm doing it and I rarely die now, even with the skips that occur to all of us in the game. You can still get hit while whirl winding that is why it's important to have high life and it helps in dueling. Absoulutly have mana and life leech, 5-10% is a good round number for Hell mode. Also when, whirlwinding hold down the right click so that you don't have to look for a place to start whirlwinding. Then you get to diablo and everyone around you is dying, that's why you have high life, you'll have around 1000 base life in hell mode when you fight diablo and with maxed out battle orders that's over 2000! life. That means diablo needs 20 hits on you to kill you.Also when dueling amazons, have fastest fastest hit recovery, death's guard and battle orders. with 2500 life, it'll be very hard for them to kill you. It won't even be necessary to dodge the guided arrows. SO MAIN THING WITH BARBS IS HAVE HIGH VITALITY!!!!! Lee Back to Top | A Barbarian Strategy- What NOT to do If you've ever played regular Diablo and fantasized about using two weapons at once, DON'T do it with a barb. Well, maybe but any point in double swing is a wasted skill point after you find a kickass 2 handed weapon. I only have a lvl 30 barb, but every other good high level barb that I've seen uses a 2 handed sword or lance(maybe a mace?). Also: use swords or lances. Axes just aren't good enough because the best ones dont deal as much as good 2 handed swords, let alone lances, and they swing slower than swords. I know it's not very comprehensive, but it'll help you not make a mistake I once made(three hard earned skill points wasted in double swing Matt Back to Top | I play on UsEast realm and things can get real shitty cuz of lag especially in NM and HELL.So i came up with a very good strategy and it works for me considering im lev 83 with no worries and still climbing to the top.For those of u that say battle cries suck eat your heart out..this trick works in mass melee situations usually in nm and hell act 4..kill a monster or group of monsters in each corner of your screen..i use a 14 inch monitor so if u have more room itll help u a lot, in each corner kill a group of monsters then all u have to do is find a massive group of monster and even uniquers if theyre their and bring them inside the center of your death trap..now use the call that brings forth a frightening totem in each four corners and the monsters will start blindly running from each corner to the other and cuz of the radius of the totem even if they take the center route they will be scared As you will notice the monsters will run around like idiots and because the run AWAY from the totem they always run to another one and keep getting re-cursed every time it wears off,because of this the monsters dont attack u and u can wipe them out quite easily..i know it sounds like a lot of work but sometimes killing some big monsters in hell diff is a lot of work and this tactic will absolulutely eliminate any chance of u suddenly visiting broke city and exp loss village which is a big pain in the @$$ in nm and even hell difficulty which gives u a massive penalty if u die.Another good thing is the totem doesnt last too long and if u killed a big group of enemies u can re use your death trap again and again everytime u come across a massive group of monsters. Back to Top | Ok, This is from a person who has a lvl 80 barb, listen closely....if you are to use any weopon i suggest swords or lances! even though sword have low dmg with high requirements deosnt mean they suck! Lances may be slow but later on your attack speed wont matter, they dish out the damage and have alot of range! Now, for the beginner i suggest to max out your mastery as soon as possible, only 1 point into every combat skill needed to get ww, that means double swing isnt an option. i suggest getting iron skin, increase staniman/speed, and nat resist, get nat resist around lvl 10 and iron skin maxxed out, the other 2 is up to you. about the war cries? i suggest only working for battle orders, so get all cries up to battle orders. Some ppl may say it useless but what do they know? it brings up your life/mana/stanima up by alot giving you the abilitie to live alot longer!! MAX OUT WHIRLWIND! anyone who says ww is useless they dont know anything! you cannot survive in hell mode without it! ive tryed it before and they kick my butt! Now, for your attributes, get str up to 170, dex around 130, vit 130+, and do not touch energy, so, try putting 2 str 2 des 1 vit every lvl, or dont lvl up life until you get 170 str and start lvling dex and vit, your choice. As for equipment, simple, get mana and life leech items around 5-10%(in nm and hell they have alot of life/mana to steal). If you use shields use a tower shield or pavise. For boots i suggest using the tearhaunches, belt try and get the bladebuckle, armor will be goldskins, helmet, make it good, gloves, bloodfists and of course the ammy deosnt need to eb a +1 skill, just make it good(something prismatic is nice). Anyways i guess thats all i have to say. if you have any question e-mail mr at [email protected] or look for me on dII under 'nmutua, or `nmutua PokeUrEyeOut, lvl 63 barb (lance) KiZaNmIso, lvl 80 barb (lance) RuinedBarb, lvl 34 barb (sword) Savit, lvl 34 barb (mace) CrunchBarb, lvl 22 barb (mace) Back to Top | For the beginning Barbarian out there, I'd like to discuss two non-mentioned skills out there that for a mere 2-3 skill points can make the early adventuring much much simpler. Find Potion and Taunt. These simple tools can be your best friends, even lifesavers. Now, one at a time. Find Potion. I did fine at skill level 1 with this, but cranked it up to a whopping second level because I could. This skill is great. While I haven't seen it stop creatures from being resurrected as mentioned by some folks, once you rip apart a squad of critters and you know you're safe for a few minutes, you'll find that sitting around and raising potions (since you're not using that mana for a heck of a lot else at this level), and then using the mana potions you find for even MORE potions, can make you about 1000 gold (not bad at Level 4, 'eh?) each time you head into town. With 4 to 5 sorties, and a backpack full of potions (Cracked Cap, 4 slots, 5 gold. Light Heal potions, 4 slots, 18x4=72) I could pay for all those town portals, got myself a few tomes, and upped my equipment fast enough that I wasn't playing hide and seek for long with critters. Later in the game, when you're 2 levels deep and being lazy, instead of heading to town for a quick refill, sit around and raise 3-4 mana potions off those dead things lying at your feet. Between the cash and the ability to keep going (Again, I'm LAZY), for two skill points, I found this to be amazingly handy. Second, Taunt. A single skill point is all you need. Tired of hacking your way through the summoners, especially in the fields where there's four or five (Or later, say, Hall of the Dead with the Greater Mummys), speed becomes a problem, because eventually, you mob down. Or there's a squad of Bone mages that just refuse to be caught, Taunt 'em. Got a unique with a huge amount of fireball tossin' nasties as minions? Get JUST in range to see 'em, taunt twice, and run. Guess what, you can peel off two or three at a time, kill 'em at leisure, and then head back in. Skeletons all around the room? No problem, toss off 8 taunts, and kill 'em one by one as they stroll up to the axe! Don't use this skill for the damage it does to the enemy's ability, use it for the pretty little side effect. This also makes leapers and Vultures much easier. On a side note, again, cause I'm lazy, I can, and have, ran out of mana somewhat regularly before I picked up a few items 'of the bat'. I've boosted my mana up by 10 and found that the increase (due to the %'s) was amazing, I can sit in a mob and double wield my axes all day long, just hacking them to pieces, without a single potion. That's all for now, back to attempting to learn high-level tricks like the rest of the guys on this page. :) -DeathSlayer, the Barbarian Back to Top | I am a dutch barb, level 56 now. I tell you a story how to defeat diablo realy easy now! (Even Diablo in hell) Take a sword with most important: manaleech, and take another sword with lifeleech. The % has to be higher than 4. (u can have leech allso on other atributes) Damage is not very important, but is has to be higher than 30 max dmg per sword. Put everything on attack-rating, by getting attributes with good (100-150) ar. Use frenzy on diablo, you will stand, allmost die and get healed again before he will strike you again! (Note: put some on resist fire as well, cause one fire-spit can drain a lot of life)It may take a time, depending on your damage given, but he will die eventually. Ko-Conq Back to Top | I have a Lvl 35 Barbarian using sword mastery, bash, double swing, and the rest poked into iron skin and natural resistance. Use two swords (I use Loath Edge and Bramble Scythe which boost all Barb by 2 lvls each!!!) on primary attack(left click) and bash on secondary(right click) there is not a whole lot that can stand up to a concentrated pounding like that! Totaly ignore warcries. They may be good for lower levels in multi-play, but you are wasting your time in single. Sir Bytor Back to Top | Alright, here is my strategy to get the ultimate Barbarian. First pick a weapon and stay with it. I've tried both swords and axes and find that you can not only find better swords (magicwise) but their increased attack speed over axes lets you get the first hit most of the time. Next I suggest putting your first 20 pts. into the mastery of your choice. This will greatly increase your attack rating and your damage, giving you awesome offense. Next I suggest putting 1 in jump and then 2 in jump attack. Jump is useless-- it takes way too much time to build it up so that it is usefull, but by the time jump attack is two or three you should be able to pretty much leap the whole screen and have an awesomely powerful attack. Then put 1 in bash and set it two your left mouse and leap attack to your right mouse button. After that pump iron skin and resistance when you get it. You will then have an awesome defense to help you through the nightmere and hell levels. As for strat pts I always put 3 pts into strength right off the bat. The other two are usually split between dexterity and vitality (many other people say that they pump dexterity alot, but I don't think that is necessary till later on because your masteries skill increase your attack rating). Once you get to the leap attack immediately put five in mana, and put one into it every time after till you can do leap attack about 5 or 6 times in a row. After this focus on dexterity and vitality and throw only about 1 into strength every time (about level 30). I personally don't think that whirlwind is very useful, especially with one sword (which is what i prefer--more damage)-especially because jump attack at level two and bash at level on kick ass! First, go hunting for regenerators by leap attacking towards them and taking them out. When they are gone you can just bash the hell out of the regular baddies, which will usually die in one hit-- atleast on normal. If you do get swarmed just leap attack out and heal-up/run/go to town. Another good technique for large groups is to constantly lead attack around the outskirts, taking out 5 or six at the start. Well that is my stategy, hope it helps. Krimma Sir Boromir Strider Spook(Necro) Back to Top | The only nugget of advice that I can offer is to put a point into the leap attack as soon as you can. Unlike the regular leap, which takes years and tons of skill points to do anything with, one point given to leap attack gives your barbarian hops like Vince Carter. Its great for getting out of trouble spots, or just to keep groups of enemies off balance by jumping behind them. jddoyle Back to Top | Ok guys this is what you do use your hand axe till you are level 9 or so or get some sword or something ok. Then try to get bonesnap it does A TOn of dmg 93-123 mace class and spear class are the BEST classes for barbs. They do a ton of dmg. Lnaces can do up to 375 dmg and martels up to 350. Once you turn level 18 get leap atack at level 1 it adds 100% dmg. you might want to put at most 2 or 3 skills in war cries but they arent to important. Masteries are important. NO matter what you do put masteries into one class and One class ONLY!! i have a level 41 martel barb he has level 22 mace mastery and nothing else. I have a level 38 lance barb he has 21 in spear mastery. You must get High level whirlwind. When you have a powerful whirlwind you ARE unstoppable. Swords are very weak and they arent good with whirlwind. When you ! have whirlwind with a martel/lance trust me you kick butt you can take out tons of enemies at a time. Barbs you should also get your faster run/walk to a min skill level of 7 for dueling. What I would do is from like level 22 or 25 start saving skills for whirlwind and other skills. When you sue whirlwind you are harder to hit. Make sure you have mana leech other whirlwind go away in like 3 tries! And if you sue a martel/lance and whirlwind and have life and mana leech both WILL fill up! Well thanks for your ears! Sk_Immortal-Level 32 amazon Sk-Voltage-level 41 mace barb Enabled-level 30 paladin Sk_Regent- level 38 spear barb Back to Top | The Barbarian should be a first timers choice. His brute strength and awesome fighting abilaties make him the best character in the game. The most important weapon to focus on when using the Barbarian is the axe (that includes polearms). He was almost made for it. Do not use any of your skill points on the other weapon tecniques, it is better to focus on one weapon. Another important skill to learn in the first stages is Jump. This can help you get out of sticky situations (an ass beating from a circle of demons), and\or get you around obstacles. Taunt is another kick-ass barbarian skill. Use it on shamans, they'll normally freez, allowing you to kill it without having to fight through a horde of resurrected fallens. Energy isn't relly that important of a place to focus your points on. If you can build your strength up enough, it really doesn't matter how much energy you have. The easiest way to get your Barbarian off to a good start is to beat blood raven a couple times. She'll give you some nice weapons and armor, getting you set up to whoop some demon ass. The rest is up to you. stretch_nuts Back to Top | This is my straegy guide for the Barbarian. That means it's a guide to MY strategy, so all you people out there with other ways of doing it - cool, be original. My first Barbarian character had levels in a lot of skills - some sword, some axe, a few levels in most combat skills and passives. This was cool, I got to see a lot of the different skills in action. Then, he arrived in the Arcane Sanctuary on Nightmare, at about level 31. And every single time, if the first wave of beasties didn't whoop his butt, then the second sure did. At this point, I realized the fatal flaw I had developed into the character - over-generalisation, and started again. The new Barbarian was built to meet two exacting specifiations - the abilities to mete out and to withstand large amounts of damage. He is now level 27, and a far superior fighting machine to my first effort. The skills look something like this: sword mastery is at 16, iron skin at 8, frenzy at 4. These are the main skills to meet the requirements. Additionally, he uses jump-attack (very good in the River of Flame, the Sanctuary and the Jungles, you can make massive jumps over gaps or rivers), potion search (for topping up on rejuves) and bash, whilst frenzied, on really tough bad guys. All these, and other required skills are at level 1. Getting hold of good swords is a long, arduous process. So, in the reasonable sword category, there are only two and a half things that count - Attack Rating, Damage and Attack Spped (this is the half). After all, other abilities can be very funky, but if you haven't got the basics down really well, you will not survive! Armour wise, there are three things to be considered: Defense, Fastest Hit Recovery and extra Life - these constitute the basis of withstanding large amounts of damage. Sure, resistances would be cool, but there's nothing out there in the game that can resist a Knight's Giant Sword of Carnage (told you getting decent swords was tricky). And as for jewelry - anything that adds to attack (I like meteoric rings) or dex should do the job. OK, so far the character development - this guy does the very basic job, and he does it very, very well. Strategy wise there are various useful ploys I will now reveal. Left button is set up for normal attack, sometimes switched to bash. Right is usually Frenzy, sometimes Jump attack. Mages/Raisers - these guys need to be taken out quickly - Jump Attack them, then follow up with frenzy if they're tighly packed Special Monsters in the open - stand bye the potions, bash/frenzy combo the main evil dude - he probably won't get much of a chance to fight back. Then mop up his homies. Specials in a dungeon - split up the group (always a good tactic in dungeons) by running back a couple of corners. Try to isolate some minions, and take them out first. Then, when Mr Unique is left on his own, dispose of him. Lightning enchanted dudes are nasty. Split them up, then use Jump Attack - if you get the timing right, you can dodge the lightning unleashed when you hit them. Remember those pre-emptive potions - when you wade into a tough group, drink a health as you engage them, you'll be losing life as you regain it, so the potion won't really be wasted. This is the Back to Basic guide to Barbarism. Go forth and wreak havoc! Stig Olaf Back to Top | Barbarian strategies. Though you might not expect it, taunt is a very very valuable skill. Especially in act 3 when used against blow dart shooting fetish's. When used on a fetish shaman, he simply stands still and won't ressurect other fetish's or use inferno. Another important thing to remember is that one handed swords are almost always better then using a 2 handed sword in one hand. Another benefit that only a barbarian has is the ability to use 2 sets at the same time. (unconfirmed though) you can equip all of Deaths Disguise and all of either Berserkers Arsenal, Angelic Raiment, or Tancred's Battlegear. Only because a Barbarian can equip two weapons at the same time. I haven't actually done this yet, but i know it's pssible to equip all 2 sets at the same time. Anyone out there care to try this? I don't know if this is a glitch or not, but if a barbarian uses shout to raise his defense, the touches an armor shrine, the shrine will double not his base defense rating, but the rating he has when he uses shout. One time i found 2 adjacent armor shrines and used shout. my regular defense rating was about 220, but after shout it went up to 440. then i touched the first armor shrine and it went up to 880. after shout wore off it went down again to 660. i used shout again and my defense soared to 1320 and i touched the other armor shrine and i jumped up to a defense rating of 2640. When shout wore off this time my defense was a mere 1540, until the shrine wore off. -Mathias BlackWolf (who's never actually had a character over level 30. Just has about 30 characters between levels 10 and 28) Back to Top | I've noticed many barbarians use two swords, and then use whirl wind. I can tell you now, it's worthless! You may have 2 hands but only one weapon hits, the hits even when maxed in sword mastery can be around 500 or so with whirl wind. I have a maul that allows me to hit 800-1200 at level 55 (only 3 in maul cause i used 9 in axe earlier in the game). That's just a tip, as for strategies, I'd say Iron Skin and Natural Resistance works well. What's so good about hitting something and getting hit back harder? My defense is 2300 with 10 in iron skin and if I get an armor shrine, BOOM goes to about 7000 and when you use Shout (suggested you put a few skill points in it, even though nobody mentions it) it goes to about 12000, now aint that good for melee fighting? specially for uniques. As for sorc, combo's are good, such as blizzard and glacial spike, freeze em and then they pop under the blizzard, luvly aint it. Fire spells and Lightning are just a waste of skill except for warmth which is HIGHLY recommended dikdiputs - Barbarian Level 59 Back to Top | I am a 30 level barbarian and want to give some help for al my other brothers and sisters in the battle against evil If you are a barbarian and you've got lots of enemy's around you then I suggest that you will do the following: search for a door you've already had and go stand in it. This will prevent the enemies from standing around you and hitting you everywhere the can. If they do this you will not live long, even if you've got a shout that scare's them away it will sometimes not be enough. If there are no doors in the neighborhood search for other small passageways. When you are a barbarian you will spend a fortune on live potions, because you're always standing close to your enemies. The skill, find potions can be very helpful with this problem. You have to buy less potions and don't have to return so often to the encampment. Good luck Buffyna Back to Top | I personally use the Barbarian, and I haven't had a problem yet. I'm at level 34, on my way to Diablo himself. Don't waste skill points on Warcries and stuff in a single player game. Put points into Sword Mastery, and a few in Double Swing only. Swords will be your best weapons, trust me. Once you can get Iron Skin (level 18) dedicate all your points to that until Level 30, then do Natural Resistance. My guy has a defense of 1142 and MAX in Fire and Ice Resistances, as well as 67 in LIghtning, and 53 in Poison. I also have an amulet on that ups my resistances as well, that's why they're so good so soon. Also, save imbuing an item with Charsi for a regule Flamberge. I got an excellent magic item, so did my roommate. With Iron Skin and Natural Resistance up, tougher enemies don't seem so tough now do they? -Harbinger the Barbarian Back to Top | When being the Barb, try to get rid of your starting weapon for a magical weapon asap. Try to get one that boosts your attack rating, as the barb's accuracy is kinda low. When distributing "level points" (not skill) put 2 in either str or dex, then one in each of the remaining. Try to stay away from puting any skill points into weapon mastery until you have tried all the different weapons and have found an extremly good one. Don't waste your skills on a mastery you will never use. Socketed items are crap most of the time. Socketed items aren't worth it, you'll find better enchanted items. Luke Back to Top | Right now, I have three running characters, a Necromancer, a Sorceress, and a Barbarian. The barbarian is good for running up quickly and either double-swinging or simply swinging with two really big swords. Get strong and dextrous first of all, then work on life. Mana is really not that big of an issue, since the more important blue stuff is Woad. Also work on passives, since they don't need to be used actively. Once again, if in multiplayer, also work on the War Cries, though not as heavilly as the Necromancer on his Curses. Hire quickly when you are a sorceress. Also get a big magical stick, and when it comes time to imbue, imbue the staff first, and sell it for cold hard cash if you don't find it usefull. Akara is your best friend in town, after that Deckerd, since you'll get lots of stuff that you need to ID, and you don't want to be stuck with something strange. Since the elemental attacks work on enemies only, you can do everything in multiplayer as well as single player. Get a tome of Town Portal quick, along with a tome of ID. Keep the town portal tome for the rest of the game, but sell the ID tome after you get Deckerd; you don't need it anymore, especially if you can just boom back into town for health and ID and magic and hires too. Don't hesitate to come back into town as often as you can, since health is free, and you can ID anything instantly from Tristram onward. People who try to go as long as possible without going back to town are stupid, or they have something to prove. I have an idea for Diablo III... Please, Blizard, let there be some cross-class skill training, like if you were a necromancer you could learn some of the basic elemental magicks, but only a quarter as well. Or the paladin could learn some war cries at a third of the ability of a barbarian, or a sorceress could do some simple golems; she would not, however, be able to do war cries or poisonous curses. It would be quite complex, but you could make it so that every 5 skill levels, you could choose from a wider selection when allocating skills. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it, Necropolitan the Necromancer Bub the Barbarian Volante the Sorceress Back to Top | I have a cl55 frenzied sword Barbarian and a cl31 mace Barbarian. I made these characters over time with a lot of planning. I want to share some ideas with the guys who are starting fresh or planning to start over as a Barbarian. The biggest skill of a Barbarian is its weapon mastery. Then at high level the most offensive skill that I have found is Whirlwind dance of death. Spending skill points is the tricky part. You won't have to follow what I suggest here. This is just to give u some idea. The lifecycle of any character is divided in 3 parts broadly. 1. Low level (clvl 1 - clvl 29) 2. Mid level (clvl 30- clvl 50) 3. High level(clvl 51- clvl ??)--> ?? - Till u have tenacity to reach clvl99 All that being said let me first start discussing about skills and then I will talk about Character points or stats. If u are planning to become a sword barbarian, then get level 20 sword mastery by clvl 25. U can put 1 point in bash and the rest to climb the skill tree to reach Whirlwind by clvl30. Make sure you get leap attack at level 18. This is a must to save yourself in Arcane Sanctuary or Canyon of Magi or in any crowded place. This skill is the most important skill for a low level barbarian. If you have a tarnhelm, then it will help u to elevate your skill level till level 30 or so. I never used Tarnhelm because I never had one. My barbarian is a poor man's barbarian. Frankly, Sword Barbs are the most stylist barbarians but they have pretty less damage than Mace barbarians. A frenzied Barbarian with slvl7 frenzy skill just looks awesome. I believe Blizzard will do something about frenzy an double swing and will improve the sword weapons like the maces/martels.Once you reach 30, you must get whirlwind. Save your last two skill point bonus from ACT4 after killing Izual. You will need them in clvl 30. Put 1 each in Whirlwind, Natural resistance and Iron Skin/War Cry. I am a very offensive player and so I do not use War Cries. It all depends on your game-playing style. War Cry is a classic defense stance to rejuvenate your health before you start bashing again. If you strictly follow this, as I did, then you will never worry after clvl30. So, the bottomline is get mastery first. After clvl30 till clvl50 you want to put at least 18 points in Whirlwind and 2 in Natural resistance. When u want to put points in natural resistance depends on when u plan to hit the nightmare level games. I started nightmare at clvl35. Why not at clvl32? I will come to that later when I discuss the character attributes or stats. Now, you are all set with a classic battle machine that you have just made. Its now time for beautification. If you have missed a point or two in mastery or whirlwind by now do not worry. Its alright. Everybody does that. Never ever worry about if you had chosen this before, then it would have been better or things like that. You can't do anything once you click a button. So, never worry! If something is wrong, take a step back and correct it quickly before its too late. I like frenzy, and so, I put 1 point in every 3 points in frenzy. Rest two points I alternate between Iron Skin and Natural resistance. A lot of time I think my swords are weak, should have had better. But, hey, its okay. Stick to the mastery. If you think you would have done better as a mace barbarian, then make a new character with mace mastery. I also did that but for a different reason. Now, lets talk about distributing stat points. Every level you get 5 points to distribute in 4 places - Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Energy. Don't worry about Energy for a Barb. At clvl55 I have 10 still. Don't put a single point in that. For a Sword Barb the biggest drawback is dexterity as most of the good swords have 110 dex requirement. Barbarians will go toe to toe with the all the fearsome enemies in Diablo II including Mr. Diablo himself. So, you will have to have good vitality. Distributing 2-2-1 points in Strength, Dexterity and Vitality from the beginning is, I believe, ideal. If u find an armor or a sword that needs a little high requirement in one then, you might like to boost it up. But, don't do that for long. Stick to 2-2-1 strategy till clvl 30. Then, you will see that you are having items that bring balance in your character. And you will use them for sometime. So, sticking to 2-2-1 strategy actually opens up a lot of opportunity for you particularly when you are using swords. By the time you reach clvl 45, you definitely have 170 strength or a little less than that. Don't pump in more than 1 point in strength after 170 with add-ons. Then use a strategy of 1-2-2 in strength, dexterity and vitality respectively. After reaching 110 in dexterity, start using 1-1-3 strategy or 0-1-4. You are better of having more life because you will not like it when you die on a hell game. Choosing Swords or armor is not a real big deal. I don't prefer a lot of uniques dependency. The reason was when I started, I never had a single unique item till clvl30. Bottomline, you want a sword with mana/life leech with high damage. Mana leech is a must if not life. The biggest drawback of whirlwind is the requirement of lot of mana. So, you want at least 10% leeching capacity in your character. I have 27%. Next is life-leech. The more the better. If you are lucky then you might get a dual leech ring that sucks in a percentage of mana and life. If not, don't worry, a 5%-10% life leech is more than okay to survive the most difficult areas in Diablo II. I have 5% life leech. You also want a lot of elemental resistances. prefer to get the max resist possible. Right now I am maxed out in all of them in nightmare mode. Try to hold on to any stuff that gives you fastest hit recovery as it will help u a lot in whirlwind. Again, anything need not be unique. U will eventually get useful uniques on your way. Biggest whirlwind tip that I can give you is that, don't point your mouse at an enemy but to the ground beyond the enemy. During whirlwind you will always prefer a low damage executioner sword over a high damage one handed sword(if u find any at all). This is because of the attack range. If you get stuck during whirlwind as it may often be a case, leap out. My policy of whirlwind is to put the enemies in line and then the Rock says...layeth the smacketh down on them. Whirlwind does not require you to have high defense. But, you can't dance all the way through, so you must try to wear armor with highest defense. This is a must again. I will not give you any suggestion on how to use mouse buttons..that's too personal. But a combination of Shout, Whirlwind and Leap Attack(if required) is your best asset during an assault. I have slvl4 shout, slvl23 whirlwind and slvl7 leap attack. Trust me I seldom die in a game except for duels. I have +3 skill in my sword and amulet. So, you can do an easy calculation. So that was all about my sword barbarian...my mace barbarian is young and can definitely wreak havoc with 149 strength. I won't suggest anything about it as it is really pretty early to say. But, I followed strength first rule on this character. I put all 5 character stat points in strength till its strength reach 100. Then I started pouring in dexterity. Again all five points. This was just a variation and I was able to do that because my sword barb got him a lot of aiding armor and stuff. He now has 100 dexterity. Hope I made sense in what I was babbling about. If you think there is something wrong in what I said, please let me know. That will be a great help. And if you think you have liked my suggestions then drop me a line or two at [email protected]. You can always message me. My account is DIRESTRAITS on battle.net. Take care and happy fighting..... Nilanjan Back to Top | I play a barbarian and i did a little research. I found out that number 1, save the skill points for IRON SKIN and for NATURAL RESISTENCE I havent put one point on any warcries and I dont plan to until later. I also found out that most skillas are good only after level 9 except Natural Res. and Leap so once you put points on skills, put a bunch on it. I love LEAP. It gets you out of situations when your trap plus, it made me kill the summoner by jumping over the other mages and getting on his platform where i just took him out with my axes. Leap is a great defensive tool and the way i play with Iron Skin and Nat. Res. is def. I try to put a lot of skill points on only 2 weapon masteries (Sword and axe or mace). Reason being i use the DOUBLE SWING which is great and swords and maces are great and our one-handed. You dont really need polearm or spear. Also you either have to pick Double Swing or the bash/stun/whirlwind because these 3 dont work with 2 weapons you only hit with one. Personally i use DOUBLE SWING and LEAP great fast attacks and always have that escape plan. Leap doesnt waste stamina and if its high enough you can go FAR. ANYWAYS have fun fellow Barbarians and dont get be patient on those skill points. -NUGZ Back to Top | |
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