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Mar 21 2010 08:37pm
The PvM Berserker Barbarian
Created by Ashcroft@JSP


Guide Overview:
I. Intro
II. Breakpoints
III. Skills
IV. Statistics
V. Equipment
VI. Mercenaries
VII. Tips
VIII. In Action


I. Intro:
This barb may also be referred to as a CS Barb (Chaos Sanctuary Barb) or simply a Chaos Barb. (I'll refer to it as a cs barb) I made this character for climbing the Ladder on USWest in season 5. This barbarian is great for getting alot of exp in a short period of time, not too mention you get Diablo & Nihlatheks drops all to yourself. My CS Barb "Set" was among the fastest if not the fastest diablo setter on uswest on season 5. How could a barbarian possibly clear Chaos Sanctuary faster than a 13k 125fcr hdin? You'll soon find out!

II. The BP's (Breakpoints):
105 FCR
48 FHR
42% IAS = 9 Frames Per Attack & 2.7 Attacks Per Second (Highest available with PB on barbarian for the skill berserk)

III. Skills:
1 Point - Increased Stamina
1 Point - Increased Speed
1 Point - Iron Skin
1 Point - Natural Resistance
1 Point - Leap
1 Point - Battle Command
1(+2) Point - War Cry (+2 = Prerequisites) - This is optional but I highly recommend it. (See "Tips:" near the bottom of post)
20(+3) Points into Berserk (+3 = Prerequisites)
20 Points - Howl
20 Points - Battle Orders
20 Points - Sword Mastery
Remainder Points - Shout (I chose shout as my last skill to max because when you berserk your defense drops to zero)

IV. Statistics:
Strength - None
Dexterity - Enough for maxblock with stormshield equipped and all gear/charms on
Vitality - Everything else after you have 75% block
Energy - None

V. Equipment:

Weapon: Grief phase blade with high damage (Highest weaponspeed/damage ratio)

Shield: Stormshield socketed with 7 FHR / 15 all res

Gloves: Laying of Hands - 350% Damage to demons (Infector + Diablo + Baal) 50 Fire res and 20 IAS... Enough said, no other option

Boots: Gore Riders or Waterwalks - I chose gore riders because of the very nice mods. You will not need mass fire res like on hammerdin because when you howl everyone runs away except Infector so its 1v1;) If you for some reason need the extra life on waterwalks use those but I only died 2 times chaosing from 1-99 and both were becasue I was cursed with iron maiden (no biggie normally seeing as how you deal MAGIC damage) but once you get mana burned after that you will melee and kill urself in 2-3 quick hits so don't zone out lol.

Armor: Enigma - I used ancient armor for sex appeal (My favourite look on barb)

Helm: Arreats(Ber'd) - You won't need res or IAS and you will still have this 8DR on switch where you wouldn't if you had ber'd the SS and jeweled Arreat.

Belt: Spider - No other options for 105 FCR

Ammy: Highlords - The IAS is necessary and Deadly strike is a very nice bonus.

Rings: 20 Dex / High AR Ravenfrost + Soj (You can use 2 x Ravens but trust me, you will want the 25% boost to your mana seeing as how u will have no insight/meditation aura while teleing.)

Switch: Use a wizardspike + 35 FCR spirit (the higher mana the better) This is your "Tele Switch" You will tele as fast as a 105fcr sorc = One breakpoint ahead of palidans 125fcr breakpoint = With practice you will be able to clear it faster than any hammerdin. This barb clears chaos faster than a hammerdin using TMC as well, Tested this on OSOK & Penance (Osok was 1st 99 on Uswest Ladder 2 seasons in a row and Penance was the second hammerdin to 99 on season 5.) Do not use 2 x Wizardspikes for 2 reasons. If you your internet drops for some reason you will have at least some Block% and the extra 55FHR makes you hit the 86FHR Breakpoint while on "Tele Switch."

Inventory: 20 / xx Barb torch, 20 / xx / 10 anni and I used 3 x 3 Max dmg / xx / 5FHR scs (needed for 48 FHR BP) with some random 3/xx/decent life scs with warcry lifers.


VI. Mercenaries:

There are a few options here and I'll explain them:

Act 1 Cold Rogue - **Diablo will not attack her unless a dream helm is equipped**
Weapon: Ice Diamond Bow - Diamond bow for best cold arrow IAS and Holy freeze aura = 53% slow on monster frozen by the aura
Helm: Kiras
Armor: Treachery - Has IAS for your merc and as fade (I got alot of complements on the sexiness of my faded bowa merc)

Note: you could use expensive gear like a 2os / 15dr / 30 coa with a Ber and -15Req / 15 All res jewel and a CoH but my merc rarely died using the cheaper version and I had this very early last season so it would be a big waste of fg for those items on the merc imo.
Note #2: Some players have alot of difficulty finding Seis/Infector after they have turned blue, this may not be for you. (This is my #1 choice however)


Act 3 Cold Iron Wolf - **Diablo will attack this merc and kill it just about every chaos run**
Weapon: Lawbringer Crystal Sword / Azurewrath (smaller knockback radius)
Shield: Stormsheild Vex'd
Helm: 1-2 socket 15 DR COA (BerBer if you want stacked DR for when you are amped or VexVex to increase Max Fire resistance.
Armor: CoH (20 str to help with CoA + mass res)


Act 5 Barbarian - **Diablo will attack this merc and kill it like the Iron Wolf**
Weapon: Lawbringer Crystal Sword - Why this sword? It has the highest IAS and low reqs/dmg so your merc has a better chance of casting decrepify on striking and shouldn't kill himself with Iron maiden (Soon to be outdated on 1.13)
Helm: CoA (Same as above)
Armor: CoH (Same as above)

Note: The problem with the sanctuary aura from Azure/Lawbringer is that it can and will knockback Vizier above the lava if you are not careful where you place your merc. If this happens I suggest leaping him back above the ground if possible.

VII. Tips:
- On my "Tele Switch" I have my left click set to leap so I don't accidentally start berserking using a wizzy, I will leap and it's quite obvious I don't have my killing setup out.
- When howling inside chaos if you are farther away from the monster when you howl they will run away from you terrified, If you howl from right beside them they may still attack you. Be sure to get good at howling the monster away sometimes it will bunch up and get a little bit dirty :P
- Some people may ask why would you want a terrible damage warcry? It is for stunning monsters. My warcry stuns them for 4.6 seconds with only one point into it. This is nice in baals you can hold the waves from scattering and keep them in the spam zone = faster baals. Also there is the occaisonal time in chaos sanctuary where you will come across some champion knights next to Lord De Seis where your howl will be next to useless so I just switch to warcry, stun the champions, kill Seis and get out of there.

VIII. In Action:
Note: When recording on Hypercam 2 my fps drops from above 200 to about 60-70 so the video doesn't do justice to the true capability of this CS Barb.

This is NOT my 99 CS Barb "Set" this is after my 99 got banned for using Loader. :lol: ( I didn't get HyperCam 2 until several months after the ban)
This is a remade version of him using plain warcry gcs and some plain 5fhr scs (The barb in the video [Rips] had about 4200 life and 1000 mana on his "Tele Switch" I beleive, Set had 6000 life and 1100 mana on his "Tele Switch")
While baaling Set my baalruns would look like this except for one thing. My now 99 zon friend Valentine (HellHathNoFuryAtAll@JSP) would find myself and himself an expericance shrine in Cold Plains - Stoney Field just about every single game. While doing this I would get exp shrine Top 2 Diablo, Solo exp shrine Nihlathek & Top 2 or 4 exp shrine Baal for a total of nearly 200K exp per run at level 98. That is about 2.5 times what you would get sitting in throne. Not too mention while I focused mainly on exp I did find lots of very nice items off of solo iLvl 95 drops (Nihlathak) and solo iLvl94 drops (Diablo) Ehoz, Griffon, CoA, Perf NightWing + much more good rares/uniques


This post was edited by _Mork_ on Mar 23 2010 06:39am
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Mar 21 2010 08:38pm
T[B];DR
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Mar 21 2010 08:40pm
:love: Dan lol@ us stealing tops over that bot :) vouch this build 100% He's one of the fastest setters, I've ever had the pleasure of running with.
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Mar 21 2010 08:45pm
Personal preference given here

Ever since my post: Demonbash Berserker Barb... there have been many builds using the same skills, strategies etc... this is a good thing.
CS barb bought about with FCR and changes of items... thus making them only versatile in CS? Not really... they can be useful in the entire game
Berserker barbs using 2 handed weapons and annihilating the monsters with ease is another build... and possibly faster... but also debatable.

5/10

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Mar 21 2010 08:46pm
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Mar 21 2010 08:46pm
Vouch dan and his barbs ^_^

Quote (Lady36 @ 22 Mar 2010 14:40)
:love:  Dan  lol@ us stealing tops over that bot :)  vouch this build 100% He's one of the fastest setters, I've ever had the pleasure of running with.


hi
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Mar 21 2010 08:59pm
A few improvements to the build would be:

-guillaumes face
-10fcr/ar/life/mana/res ring + 10fcr belt/mods (this will actaully get you more mana than soj i believe)
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Mar 21 2010 09:18pm
The font size makes it a pain to read.
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Mar 21 2010 09:22pm
Quote (Tails chao @ Mar 22 2010 03:18pm)
The font size makes it a pain to read.


I think he edited it for some reason...
and I would have to concur that shouting it out on the page is a pain to read.
Basically... not worth the eye strain.
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Mar 21 2010 09:32pm
Quote (izParagonzi @ Mar 21 2010 08:22pm)
I think he edited it for some reason...
and I would have to concur that shouting it out on the page is a pain to read.
Basically... not worth the eye strain.


Yes i did and I made change mid paragraph nowhere near any of the "[]" and my whole post got messed up, i've pm'd a med to see if they can fix.
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Mar 22 2010 03:02am
wel the start is almost the same as my old cs-barb guide, but I use hoto+spirit shield on switch, and 1 fcr ring.

and there is NO better merc for cs-barb then a1 faith merc, gives ar bonus and you can keep the ias high enough even while being decrept by seis (and that happen like every time? :p)

and if you built your a3 merc properly he will never die.... (use eth ga and kira's = 90 @, i used it on faith merc aswell, never died.)

here's my guide if you would like to compare
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=25954719&f=87

btw edit that big font part out MY EYES ARE HURTING :P

Quote (hue_two @ Mar 22 2010 04:59am)
A few improvements to the build would be:

-guillaumes face

-10fcr/ar/life/mana/res ring + 10fcr belt/mods (this will actaully get you more mana than soj i believe)


tried that arreats is better...


This post was edited by uberubie on Mar 22 2010 03:11am
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