WW Solo PVM Untwinked?

[:1]Hi all! Long time reader, first time poster :P So I'm looking to get my first character through Hell (truthfully, through Nightmare, as I've only ever completed normal... and that was several computers ago... It was actually a WW barb, too, but I didn't really get/use WW so I never think of him that way, he was just... my Barb ). Anyway, I'm hoping to get one of those shiny titles I hear so much about, but I'm having some difficulty deciding who to do it with...

The cookie-cutter WW build is the top contender so far, but I've read through the stickies [fyi: Gmoura's WW barb guide leads to a thread which leads to a broken link] and some other threads (hurray search function), and I have a few questions:

1) Can a WW barb make it through untwinked? I've read in a few threads that WW barbs are really only good when they're leveling into specific gear (such as the IK set). I play almost exclusively offline, but I do have access to Hero Editor if that's my only option :-\ I'd rather it didn't come to that though...

2) Is a 2h or Dual Wielding or 1h & Shield the way to go? I'd rather not have to mess with the dex for max block, but if it's the difference between phat lewts and corpse-running, I'll suck it up.

3) If a WW barb just can't make it through untwinked without dying so many times it's not worth it, what's a good character to level up to do some MF runs (and at what level / bosses do I need to do the MFing)? Please don't say Summonancer, they bore me to tears (though I'm not at all against necros). I love the idea of having a giant army doing my bidding, but in reality I press summon 41 times and they do their own bidding while I yawn, and that's not fun gameplay to me...

My apologies for the wall of text, and special thanks in advance to anyone with some advice to offer



P.S. If this is a discussion better suited to the SP forum, let me know and I'll gladly repost there instead, but I was hoping for the Barb community's view on things |||The untwinked part is definitely something the SPF excels at, especially throwing 15 different hell-viable builds at you. Summoners (Fishymancers) are definitely the simplest to pilot (read: most boring), but there are several good sorc builds for MFing. Meteorb is the big favorite for versatility.

The SPF will not take kindly to any mention of Hero Editors, so I wouldn't mention it there (I probably wouldn't have mentioned it here, but that's just me).

As for the barb-related questions, this is probably where you'll find the answers.

Best of luck with your inquiries.|||Hi! Good to see that you're interested in playing a barbarian untwinked. In my opinion, that's a really good way of enjoying this game.

Anyway, concerning untwinked barbarians generally, the biggest problem is of course finding good enough items. Dying is not so much the main issue, but killing speed is. Finding high damage weapons can be hard. Also, ww has a high mana cost, so you need to have enough mana leech to avoid constantly running to town for mana pots. It can be annoying (and dangerous) not being able to use your attack due to lack of mana.

To try and answer your questions:

1) Yes, they can, but as I said it can be a struggle getting good enough gear. Remember though, you can always repeat areas and do mf bossruns on your barbarian until you feel you have what you need to carry on in the game.

2) Shield is safer. You can of course go either way, but if you go two-handed your barb will be even more gear dependent to avoid dying. Although, playing two-handed will help your killing speed. It's ultimately up to you, and it really depends on the gear you'll have access to. A while ago I finished the game with an untwinked concentrate barb in hardcore, and I chose to use a shield for safety reasons, and also due to the fact that one-handed weapons tend to be faster to swing, and the loss of damage was somewhat compensated for by the faster infliction of crushing blow and other damage modifiers. Although, I will say this, if I was making an untwinked softcore ww barb, I would go two-handed and be hellbent on finding a high damage weapon/weapons and getting alot of leech for survivability.

3) Play the character you want to play. Most builds can work untwinked. I actually enjoy the challenge of finding good enough gear for my untwinked melee characters.|||@Rabisu Thanks for the tip, I'll go check out the SPF for more info. As I said in my post, I'd really rather not use it, so it's nice to hear there are other communities who frown on it. As well.

@biko I appreciate the input, maybe I'll just level through as a multi-run-hoping-to-MF barb and see how it goes |||I still have a HC ww barb that I played untwinked and without trading or mules. I wanted to see how I would fare this way And I think I did pretty well under those circumstances. I only got to act 1 in hell, and stopped as my weapon damage wasn't good enough. As long as you have some good working knowledge of cubing and low rune words, everything will be ok. I opted for duel weilded ww, weapon swapping to axe/ shield when things got tough.|||I'm still a little wary of heading into the game on a barb without any gear waiting to make my life easier in hell (lol). I think I'm gonna give a MF sorc a try for my first character as suggested over in the SPF. Thanks Barbs!