Hello,

My name is Klaas, I am playing Diablo II Europe Classic Softcore nonladder for ~6 years now. After I made a hammerdin at Classic, I decided to start with a Barbarian, Xhul@jsp had such char (aswell fully legit leveld (till 93!)), I was wondering about his strategy and build. He told it to me before he made a guide here on jsp. It became one of my favorite pvm characters.
Since I only will get trollers etc. in the Classic subforum, I thought about posting it here, aswell with the reason trying to convince people making a Classic barbarian, because barbs are fun in Classic Pvm, or atleast in my opinion.

This char is a allround char (especially since the iron maiden curse is patched from cs), can clear the whole game, pretty easy too!
I recommend this char as 'first' classic char (after maybe chanter/rusher sorc), because imho it is very fun to play with!

The Original topic: http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=68940559
I've done a few changes. Added some more possibilities for equipment (especially armors).

Some information before getting started:
In Classic whirlwind always hit at max fps (so Ias isn't needed on weapon, unlike in lod)
In Classic we don't have runewords, ethereal weapons and just 'normal uniques', items can't be upped, and we don't have charms.
In Classic there isn't any 'indestructible' weapons

So let's begin.

Introduction
I find such barbarian really cool to play, I have played this character much, I have used several armors to test what 'fits' the best, and Ive concluded that there are a few who works really nice!
This build is designed for those who actually enjoy killing mobs, without necessarily doing MF/GF.

Vocubulary:
PVM > Player versus Monster
BVM > Barb versus Monster
FHR > Faster Hit Recovery
IAS > Increased Attack Speed
ED > Enhanced Damage (for weapons) / Enhanced Defence (for armors)
Str > Strenght
Dex > Dexterity
Vit/Vita > Vitality
AR > Attack Rating
FRW > Faster Run/Walk
CS > Chaos Sanctuary Runs (Aka Diabloruns)

What do we want to reach?
A character who can do easily solo csruns, aswell helping other people.
We are going for the 27 fhr breakpoint, ias you don't really need, but it is a nice thing to have (for berserk)
Decent damage
Decent leech (life and mana)
1.2k-2k life with bo, 2k-2.5k if hardcore

Stats:
Str: Rest of our points
Dex: None (except you will use an exec sword, lance or a Polearm (but Martel is a LOT better)
Vita: 100-150 (Where you feel comfortable with) (more vita recommend if playing hardcore)
Energy: None

Skills:

Combat Skills :
bash: 1
leap: 1
stun: 1
leap attack: 1 > movement optimization
concentrate: 1
whirlwind: 20 > main attack
berserk: 1 > physical immunes

Warcries:
Howl: 1
Shout: Rest of our points
Battle Orders: 20
Battle Commands: 1

You can also put 1 point in Battle Cry (ofcourse you'll need 1 point in Taunt aswell), in my opinion this isn't much needed. But it is deffiniatly nice to have!

Why is Battle Cry nice to have?
Battle Cry reduces monsters defence, so it will be easier to hit them (very nice for vs Diablo and vs physical immunes (It DON'T remove the immunity though, it just makes it easier to hit!)

If you often play with a Necromancer, Battle Cry is not needed ofcourse, since Amplify Damage is a lot better (and break the phyiscal immunity aswell!)

Mastery:
Weapon Mastery: 20
increased stamina: 1
iron skin: 1
increased speed: 6
natural resistances: 12

Note about Natural Resistance and Increased Speed:
Level 7 (6 base + 1 because Battle Commands) Increased speed gives you +30 faster run/walk, very nice to 'speed' up the runs a bit.
Level 13 (12+1) Natural Resistancs gives you +60 all resist, nice to have! (see 'Resistance' below)

Gear:

Weapon:
A exceptional rare weapon martel de fer/lance/exec/Grim Scythe or Partizan, Martel is recommend, gives you the best damage and the highest durability

Must have:
High ed
Triple dura (otherwise you need to repair your weapon every run, and that's VERY annoying!)
Base (life) leech
Ar

Nice adds:
Ias (for Berserk)
Skills (extra damage, more life etc)
+min/max damage (Extra damage, obvious!)
Mana Leech (If the weapon have dual leech (both life and mana leech), then you can sock it with Perfect Amethyst)
Resist
Strenght

Socket: Perf Skull (if not Dual leech), Perf Amethyst (if Dual leech)

Cheap option would be: Bonesnap maul. It has low damage compared to a rare one, misses ar and leech, but has crushing blow and good resistances.

Armor
Here are several choices, I'm gonna list a few of them:

1. Iceblink, it freezes enemies (and frozen enemies can't hit you) Its purpose is both defensive (frozen mobs cant attack you at all) & offensive (better crowd control for faster kill).
Also, all party members will take benefit from it. (except hdins (redemption) and ce necro's (corpse explosion), but they will kill lots anyway aswell, so not a real problem anyway)
The freeze duration is based on your character level, and starts to be comfortable at level 90.
You can never freeze champions & uniques, but it works against minions.
A few mobs in the game are naturally immune to it (ghosts for example).
In the chaos sanctuary, only oblivion knights cannot be frozen by iceblink.
One of the best choices here.

2. Rockfleeche, it looks really cool, and it's the ONLY Classic item wich have damage reduction%, aswell little def and some strenght.

3. Rare exceptional Armor (Ornate recommend), with high ed, dual resist, strenght and life. (See Resistance section below!)

4. Angelic's armor, together with the angelic amulet and 1 angelic ring, it gives some mf (not bad tho), and 1 all skills. but it has very low defence compard to the others.
5. Goldskin, 35 all resist, some goldfind, and good defense (compared with other unique/set armors)!

There are more armors you potentionally CAN use, like Silks and Darkglow but these 5 are better !

Socketed advice: Perfect Amethyst (Don't count on it too much for 1, 2,4 and 5 though!)

Helm:
Must have:
Def (Grim helm is definiatly the best choice!)
Life
Resistance (see Resistance Section below)
Resistance (see Resistance Section below)
FHR

Nice adds:
Ar

Belt:
Must have:
17+ fhr
Life
Resistance (see Resistance Section below)
Resistance (see Resistance Section below)

Nice adds:
Ar
Strenght
Defense

Gloves:
Must have:
life leech
mana leech
resistance (see Resistance Section below)
resistance (see Resistance Section below)

Nice adds:
Strenght
ias (for berserk)
third resistance
Ar

Boots:
Must have:
30 frw
Resistance (see Resistance Section below)
Resistance (see Resistance Section below)
Resistance (see Resistance Section below)

Nice adds:
Defense (War Boots are definiatly better then like Chain Boots)
Ar
Dex (extra dex = extra ar)

Amulet:
Angelic Wings, ar bonus combined with the ring.

Ring 1:
Angelic Halo, Ar bonus combined with the amulet

Ring 2:
Must have:
life leech
mana leech
resistance (see Resistance Section below)
resistance (see Resistance Section below)

Nice adds:
Ar
Resistance
Strenght
Life
min/max damage

Resistances:
With level 13 Natural Resistances (12+1) you'll have +60 all resist.
In the worst malus you can have in Classic is -125: -50 from hell difficulty and -75 from Conviction Aura.

The most important Resistance is: Fire.
Why?
1. Because in cs there are much monsters who deal Fire damage (Venom Lords and some Oblivion Knights)
2. Because fire+lightning enchanted mobs cast an invisible corpse explosion each time charged bolts are released.
Since the amount of damage (phy+fire) is a percentage of his life, that can hurt, especially if he also has conviction.

Recommend minimum Fire Resistance from gear: 140 (60+140-50-75=75% in the worst case)

Lightning is important too, but a lot less then fire.

Recommend Lightning Resist from gear: 115 (60+115-50-75=50% in the worst case)
If you plan to run the Plains of Despair, I recommended 140 Lightning Resist (60+140-50-75=75% in the worst case)

Cold Resist isn't that important, since not much monsters deals cold damage.
However.. Cold+lightning enhanced bosses cast invisible frost nova's each time charged bolts are released.

Recommend Cold Resistances from gear: 85% (85+60-50-75=20% in the worst case)
See Belt usage section below!

Poison Resistances: This is absolutely NOT important. You'll leech faster than the poison will hurt you.

Belt Usage:
4 super healing potions
4 super mana potions
4 full rejuvenation potions (just in case)
4 thawing potions*

*Why Thawing potions?
1. After you got hit by Frost Nova (Cold enhanced), because it has a long duration, and you don't wanna miss xp in cs runs.
2. Before you face a boss who have conviction aura, incase it's a cold/lightning enhanced boss.

Here my character, level 93: (with all the armors I listed out here)




I wanna say thanks to:
- http://forums.d2jsp.org/user.php?i=404186 - Karaxx for 'approving' this guide.
- http://forums.d2jsp.org/user.php?i=951234 - Xhul for the Original guide
- You, for reading this (and hopefully enjoying and helpfull)

Hopefully you like it!

This post was edited by Klaasje123 on Dec 4 2015 03:51am

Up

Lmk guys what you think about this

Thanks

Hey mate, this bvm is really good for classic, I'll recommand it for every new barbarian.
just a thing, you can varie alot the rest of stuff (helm, boots, belt, ring1, armor), with sets or simply uniques, so if someone doesn't have your great rare items, he can also play without problems

Thanks mate!

And true ofcourse

Upup

Up

good help!

Np^^

n1 m8!
rarely see any classic in-depth builds these days