Planning a mid-budget PvM barb

Hello there. After a Long break from d2 I recently started playing again, and decided to take up a Barb as a second character after my get-moderately-geared-quick sorc.

I want to go a titan WW build with a BoTD Great Pleaxe, aiming at full clears of my favourite areas ( river of flame, chaos sanctuary, travincal, ancients' way) in /player 4-8 games

I got stat/skill allocation figured out, on to the gear:

Headgear: Arreat's

Ammy: Metalgrid / Highlords ? While I absolutely love deadly strike stat, will my AR be enough to comfortably roll without metalgrid ?

Weapon: Duh, Eth BOTD GPA

Armor: Enigma

Switch: 2 spirit swords with combined >= 65fcr

Gloves: Draculs untill I can get my hands on Steelrends or a decent pair of crafts.

Ring1: Ravenfrost

Ring2: Should be a bul-katho, will have to be a some random rare untill I can get it.

Belt: Verdungo

Boots: WT's for the overall utility I guess. Gores are tempting, though.

While PvMing I only have a 4x4 space left for charms, so aside from the anni/torch/gheeds, I'll be filling that with best max/ar/hp I can get my hands on.

+ a2 might merc with eth CV insight ( till I get an eth reaper's toll), eth great hauberk Duress ( again, till I can get fort ) and a vampire gaze.

Basically it's been years since I've played a barb in PvM (and never ever aimed for Chaos sanc because of iron maiden) so the question is:

Will this setup be enough to comfortably run through Chaos Sanc / Travincal in a 6/8 player games ? Or will I need to make some adjustments for AR (angelic set ? blessed aim merc ?), HP (going base 100-150vit base instead of full str till I can get good quality charms) or defense (bear in mind, most of my gear is far from perf stats) ?

Any gear suggestions / did I miss anything ?

Thanks and hopin' for some input |||mid-budget?|||Hey, to clarify - runes needed for botd and eni (zod, vex, jah, ber) will drain my resources to the point where I'll need to postpone buying an annihilus. So there's no way I can afford 2/15/15+ sc's ( and similar lc's / gc's ), perfect stat uniques, any runewords for merc that include even 1 HR etc. I'll also most likely have to run my BOTD and Enigma on non-superior base items, unless I can find the ones I want really cheap.

That's what I meant by using the term mid-budget |||Hi--

A few comments:

1--I'd ditch the spirits for +3 wc weapons. You don't need fast cast on a pvm barb. Sacrificing +2 BO for it on a titan would be a bad move.

2--Swap the bul-kathos for a 2nd raven frost. First, that will take care of your AR issues and let you use HL comfortably. Second, BK is the most overrated ring on a barb there is. If you really need the leech here (which you don't), get a decent rare. The +1 to skills is a fairly unimportant mod for a barb.

3--Unless you want the mf, use gores over travs (you can always get mf from charms, too).

4--I like string on pvm barbs. Leeching like mad adds a lot more security than the non-bo-able life from verdungos, especially on a titan barb. Think old school bvb--low life and tons of leech.

5--for charms get ar/life charms. They are much cheaper than ar/life/max.

With that set-up, you won't be able to run ubers, but outside of the rare 1-hit kill, you will be fine. Of course, playing a ww barb is pretty straightforward anyway, but getting a good combo of damage, leech, ar, and life will make your life pretty easy.

JEB90|||Thanks for the suggestions.

You are right about the bulkatho ring, I'll probably get some resources for 10-15 blood ring crafts and use the best thing that rolls. AR charms also seem like a good idea. Ill stick to verdungo ( that's why I really want life leech on the 2nd ring slot ) and spirits ( for the sole reason of travelling large distances like an occasional baalrun, since I' not minmaxing yet anyways ).|||Dump the enigma and get treachery, forti or CoH|||Quote:








Dump the enigma and get treachery, forti or CoH




uHH.. horrible advice

If anything, the items that would lead to higher performance over your current setup would be:

Arach(no fcr on main switch would be terribad), Gores, Laying of hands, Highlord, Guillaume, dual griefs. Even without dual grief these items would provide significant damage and run speed improvement over your current gear.

And yes, having fcr on switch helps a lot, the guy who said otherwise... not powergamed a lot id wager|||Quote:








And yes, having fcr on switch helps a lot, the guy who said otherwise... not powergamed a lot id wager




Clearly fast cast is critical for someone "aiming at full clears of my favourite areas ( river of flame, chaos sanctuary, travincal, ancients' way)." How else would you teleport there? Oh...wait...

On the other hand, I can see how useful dual griefs are on a poleaxe barb. Oh...wait, again...

Perhaps a little more time reading posts you reply to and a little less time telling us how wonderful a powergamer you are might be in order.

JEB90|||Thanks for the replies.

BOTD GPA and enigma are nonnegotiable - they're the core I Want to run with.

I tought about Guilliame's Face but as CB favours dual wield over 2handers, will Guilliams +2hander still make enough of an impact to overpower arreat's straightforward stats ?

JEB90 - about the spirits, I personally think you are right and your advice would be correct 99% of the time, but in this particular case, I want to keep them. For now.|||In my books, mid-budget consists of upped ribcracker ect. setup but well heh.