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Diablo 2- Lord of Destruction
PvP Barbarian Guide
Version: Final
FAQ started: 8/12/02
Last Update: 7/01/03
Albert Cho
E-mail: kpboy777@yahoo.com
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--Table of Contents--
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1. What this guide will cover
2. Version History
3. Disclaimer
4. Sites that can use this guide
5. Stats
6. Skills
7. Recommended Equipment
8. Charms
9. Role of this Barbarian
10. Dueling Strategies
11. Credits
12. E-mail Policy
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--1. What this guide will cover--
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Barbarians are the ultimate melee characters in Diablo2. Any character
that goes hand to hand combat with barbarians will lose miserably. This
guide is basically going to show you how to duel other barbarians
effectively. Barbarian duels are fun and very addicting and is well
worth to make. This guide will cover all the equipment, charms etc you
should use to make your barbarian effective duelers.
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--2. Version History--
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Small Update (7/01/03)- I am an idiot. I updated this guide to add in
the equipment for an amulet. I forgot to put one in the earlier
version... Sorry.
Small Update (1/24/03)- Just a small update and fixed a few grammatical
errors and fixed a few equipment listings.
Version Final (9/07/02)- This is my final version. Fixed up some minor
adjustments on my equipment section. I might make some minor changes
later on, but this is the final version.
Version 1.1 (8/19/02)- Fixed up some errors. Added another section on
what sites can host my guide. Added in another strategy you can use in
a barbarian duel.
Version 1.0 (8/12/02)- Started my FAQ on how to make a PvP Barbarian.
Will finish soon.
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--3. Disclaimer--
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This FAQ is not in anyway affiliated with Blizzard. This FAQ is
copyright 2002-2003 Albert Cho and can not be used on your site unless
you have my permission. If you want to post this FAQ on your website
then send me an e-mail telling me specific information. (URL etc.) I
will probably say yes 99% of the time if asked. This FAQ shall not be
changed in anyway. If you decide to post on your site without my
permission legal action will take place.
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--4. Sites that can use this guide--
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These are the only sites that are allowed to post my guide on their
site. If this guide is on another site e-mail me their url.
www.gamefaqs.com
www.neoseekers.com
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--5. Stats--
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Barbarians in order to be effective needs their stats placed in
specific places. I really can not say what level you should place a
stat point for your barbarian, because our equipment will be different.
This is what your stat points should look like, however, by the time
you are level 73.
Strength: 300
Dexterity: 200+ (Just need enough to have 75% chance to block)
Vitality: 200+
Energy: Leave at base
In order to not waste your stat points foolishly I suggest you wait to
put all your stat points after you equip all the items you will be
using. The reason I am saying you should have 300 strength is because
it will upper overall damage greatly.
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--6. Skills--
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Your Barbarian must max certain skills and this section will cover
that. You should max these skills before you hit level 99. (If you
could ever reach that level ;p)
Warcries
Battle Order= 20 max
Prerequisites= 2 skill points
Battle Command= 1 (optional)
Shout= 1 as prerequisite or 20 max
I do not suggest putting any point to Battle Command because +1 to
skills is not going to that helpful. Your choice.
Skill points total without maxing Shout/Battle Command= 22 skill points
Skill points with maxing Shout/Battle Command= 42
Combat Masteries
Sword Mastery= 20 max
Increased Stamina= 1
Increased Speed= 1
Iron Skin= 20 max
Natural Resistance= 1
Skill point total= 43
All those skill points added will turn out to 110. Counting quests and
if your level 99 you can have a maximum of up to is 110. If you don't
plan on getting to level 99 then this is what you should do. First max
Whirlwind, Sword Mastery, Battle Order, Iron Skin and all the
prerequisites. Then with the remaining skill points you should invest
those in Shout and slowly add skill points to it. Max those skills in
the order I provided.
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--7. Recommended Equipment--
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I will have 2 sets of equipment and one is for people that have much
wealth to spare and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get the
best items, and the other set are for people that can afford basic
barbarian dueling equipment.
Regular Equipment:
Weapon: The most important item that a Barbarian can have. The most
affordable weapon that is decent in PvP is a Cruel Colossus Blade with
3 empty sockets. In the sockets you must put these runes (Shael, Shael,
Eth). Trust me now if you don't put those runes the sword will be
useless for PvP.
Armor: Shaftstop is a good PvP armor for Barbarians for the damage
reduction and the +60 to life. I suggest getting this armor because it
is affordable.
Gloves: Immortal King's Gloves are pretty good gloves to use. Venomgrip
is also another choice. I would go with IK Gloves for the +20 to
strength and +20 to dexterity.
Boots: War Travelers is the best choice, because it has pretty nice
mods. It does 15-25 added to your damage and it does 10 to strength
with 10 to vitality. Pretty good mods overall.
Rings: (1) dual leech ring with at least 5% life leech and 5% mana
leech. (1) 7-8% life leech ring with decent mods.
(Decent Mods=Resistance, + to strength and dex)
Belt: String of Ears is the best PvP belt for barbarians. It does a lot
of life leech with damage reduce. It's pretty nice and affordable.
Shield: No competition in this category. You need a Stormshield or else
you are going to die to another barbarian that has one.
Helm: Arreats Face or Vampire Gaze are the helms you need. I would go
with Arreat's Face because it has better mods and also has life leech.
If you need dual leech really bad then get Vampire Gaze.
Amulet: +to skills barbarian amulet with decent mods.
Godly Equipment:
Sword: Fury Balrog Blade/Cruel Colossus Blade of Quickness (3 sockets)
The mods on Fury B.B. are really good, but the damage lacks. I would
get a CCBQ if you could afford it. In the empty sockets I would put (2)
40ed/15ias jewels and an eth rune. This means the sword will easily do
over 500 damage while being the fastest sword in the game.
Armor: 400+ defense armor with +100 to life and 4 sockets with
40ed/15max damage jewels. This will make it a 160 enhanced damage/60
max damage armor with +100 to life. These are godly mods and will
probably add around 700-1000 damage depending on your sword. Good luck
getting one as its really expensive ;p.
Gloves: 5-6% life leech gloves with knockback/strength/dexterity
bonuses. This glove is really hard to craft, but the mods are real nice
and knockback is useful in barbarian duels.
Boots: War Travelers will work nicely here for the
damage/strength/vitality bonus.
Rings: (1) dual leech ring with at least 6% life leech/6% mana
leech/resistance/+to strength, dex/and + to attack rating. (1) 10-11%
life leech ring with life/strength/dexterity/attack rating/resistance
bonuses.
Belt: Perfect String of Ears for the 8% life leech with 15% damage
reduce.
Helm: 1.08 Vampire Gaze (socketed with 40enhanced damage/15 max damage
jewel) This helm is needed for the damage reduce. Since you are not
going to use Shaftstop this helm will provide 8% dual leech with 25%
damage reduce.
Shield: I suggest getting a Stormshield, for the damage reduce,
resistance and the high defense. Socket the Stormshield with a 40/15
max dmg jewel for even more damage.
Amulet: Get one that has + to barbarian skills, dex and strength
bonuses, life leech and resistance. Might be a bit hard to get.
With the godly equipment your barbarian will easily do 4.0k-4.5k 1 hand
damage with whirlwind. This barbarian will have 44% life leech if you
use Fury B.B. and 38% life leech with CCBQ. This barbarian will be
extremely hard to kill and will be godly ;p.
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--8. Charms--
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You can get 2 type of charms for your barbarian. If you want more
damage then get 3 max dmg small charms/6 max dmg large charms/10 max
dmg grand charms and fill your inventory with them. They should add
about another additional 500-1000 dmg depending on your sword's base
damage.
The second option is fill it with life charms only. Your barbarian wil
easily have 4000 life if you get the right amount of charms.
Inventory Space: 4x10 40 spaces
Life Charm bonuses: 40x20= 800 bonus life. If you get these charms your
barbarian will very, very hard to kill.
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--9. Role of this Barbarian--
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This barbarian will never die on cow runs and leveling up is very easy.
The main role of the barbarian is to duel other barbarians in a PvP
battle. Dueling can be very fun and winning is very satisfactory. You
will have great fun building and using this barbarian and I suggest you
make one as soon as you can afford the equipment.
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--10. Dueling Strategies--
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This barbarian build is not designed to duel Amazons or Sorceress. Any
other character that goes up against you will die quickly. My best
advice for Amazons is to get a lot of faster run/walk charms then
outrun the Amazon. Against sorceress wait for them to teleport to you
so you can whirlwind them.
Vs. Barbarians: Dueling other barbarians can be very challenging and
there are 3 factors that will determine the winner. If you are higher
on all the 3 factors then you will win.
Your skills: 30%
Better Equipment then opponent: 60%
Luck: 10%
If your equipment is better then your opponent then you will win if you
at least have a decent amount of skill. If your evenly matched
equipment wise, but suffer skill wise then you will lose. Luck is just
a factor, because the other person can lag or you can land an extra
lucky hit.
When you're dueling, make sure you do your warcries before you start
dueling to get the bonuses beforehand. Once the duration runs out, run
a bit and redo. Wait for the barbarian to whirlwind first then back off
and after he stops counter by whirlwinding. He won't have time to
attack and you will land hits right from the start. Life leech is
important, because the more you have, then the faster your life orb
will go up if your damaged. Try to land more blows ideally in a
barbarian duel by being smart and trying to hit his back or his side.
If you do then you will hit him while he won't be able. Remember this
hitting their side or back will result in serious damage for their
health and you will have the upper hand. My barb on east does 5k 1 hand
damage with 52% life leech. It has 3k life and I haven't lost a duel in
a while. Remember life leech is very important, so try to get as much
as possible.
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--11. Credits--
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1. I credit myself for making this guide.
2. I credit Blizzard for making such a fantastic game.
3. I credit gamefaqs for hosting this guide
4. I credit neoseekers for hosting this guide
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--12. E-mail Policy--
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If you want to e-mail me and give me feedback or a tip about my site
then please free to go ahead. People that are rude while criticizing me
will have their e-mail address blocked. If you have questions about the
game then feel free to go ahead and e-mail as long as this guide
doesn't cover it.
