Frenzywhirl by rah-rah the barbarian
Firstly Welcome all to this guide!
I wanted to make this guide now as the diablo2re is changing. To leave behind a record of my favorite barbarian PVM build.


-What is this build (and what it can do)
A Barbarian PVM Build which tries to max both ww and frenzy skills. That at cost of warcries mainly. Build that is ment to go all offensive and is a test on just how far can this class be taken without it's mandatory like warcries & going ironman on stats.
At the same time this is a build that can be run on quite low budget, but going all strength needs you to have some serious equipment.
With this build you get is insanely fast and hard hitting character, that still has all the tricks that frenzy and/or ww barb has,except the survival aspect. It is a matter of can you pull it off? Reward is in my opinion the most fun to play barbarian build.

Warcries are overrated anyway and who needs vita - a joke from 1.08

-What it cant do
Barb is still slow class when clearing p7/p8 etc. Get the best weapons you can get and see where you can farm. This build is ment to be run quick, so it works best where you can (almost) 1 shot enemies.


-How to play
You will have 3 Strong attack skills. Almost maxed out Frenzy, 20 point Double Swing and max Whirlwind.
So Frenzyto first mob and get good runspeed going. Then Whirl for AOE and single target double swing. And lastly you got berserk, you know what to do with it.


-So why full Frenzy?
There has been builds that use 1 point in frenzy, but no serious builds maxing both skills and this is it.
To get higher movement, attack speed & dmg bonus to your (other) attacks. Strong Frenzy also makes it as viable as any of your other attacks, so small packs you just auto target them one shotting one after one.
Also you can play this build as pure ww or just hold down 1 button for that ez mode frenzy.

To push the the class to it's limits, a challenge to theorycraft. What combination works best, someone knows better than I do.
To get someting new and fun.
Lastly how rare is that for this game to come up with something new, working and yet fun.


-Who is it for
For a player that knows his way around Frenzy & Whirlwind. Now we combine both.
A player who really enjoys the game and running around crazy fast, whirling at the speed of sound.
Personally I like my game to have a fast paced flow where im just flying around, sometimes making a bit longer run to just to wipe out anything I see. I just like playing.

"To like the process as much as the result" Is what I'm getting here. But enough of pseudo philosophical nonsense, gimme that dopamine hit.

-Where to Farm
Anywhere alvl 85 and below. You might have to be careful if going Ironman in areas like Nihlathak and some other parts of a5 with strong poisons and ranged/surprice attacks.
Ubers are out for this char. Maybe with a shield/sanctuary aura and life tap it can be done, but this has not been tested so there's a challenge for someone. Uber Diablo from DWalk event on the other hand should be fairly easy, but might need those Dracul grasp gloves or other source of life tap.



How to play!
My vanilla way:
Frenzy on right mouse so you can just press the key and it auto picks targets. Holding show items also is good idea while doing this. Then have whirlwind and double strike on mouse 1 and make quick whirl hitting all the mobs that are in groups or go around the group if it's a dangerous one or you are going to run out of frenzy. For single target start with frenzy and then double strike. On original d2 your character used to just flicker on place while hitting on other peoples screens when you did that, counting you had high IAS.
Now with fastcast you can hold a key for frenzy.

-Skills:
Combat:
Max Whirlwind
1 point Berzerk
Max Frenzy
Max Double Swing

Masteries:
Max Weapon skill
1 Point Increase Speed
1 Point Natural Resist
1 Point Iron Skin / Increased stamina

Warcries:
1 Point Battle Command
1 Point Shout
x Points in Battle Orders <- more life
x Points in Taunt <- more dmg on frenzy



Gear:
Very flexible I'd say.


Budget:

Stats:
Energy: Zero
Dex: as much as gear needs.
Vit: as much as you need to survive. About 2k with bo should do it, depending on weapon quality.
Str: Rest


Helmet : Guillaume's Face = 15% DS & 35% +15 to Str and +30% Fhr. Lovely low priced item, before this you can use what you find, maybe something with leech. OFC use Arreat if you pick one early, it has great mods and much ar.
Armor: Treachery runeword. I find Fade very nice and also crazy ammount of IAS. You can read about Frenzy breakpoints, but Ias is something you need to feel, because you need to be able to make very fast hits to keep Frenzy going.
Gloves: Lavagout / Laying of hands or any of the +Undead dmg/AR gloves. So much choice here. I put Lava Gout as first as you need AR and ultimately want to be able to kill demons without needing Laying Of Hands. Still feel free to use Laying as it also gives nice fire res. But remember in CS you are better of with undead dmg gloves as the Pit Lords are about the only demon there.
Belt: Verdungo / String of Ears. String more leech, Verdungo more HP and little FHR(which shouldn't be a problem)
Boots: Aim for GoreRider, before them you can use what you like, maybe even rock IK Boots & Gloves for 30% Ias.
Amulet: Higlord, Cat's eye or maybe even atma. If no uniques use what ever you can, barb skills, resists etc.
Ring1: Raven frost
Ring2: Rare/Crafted with dual leech & AR, anything else is plus. Mana leech is the most important and ar next, but this probably leads you using String as belt.
Weapon1: Oath (Shael + Pul + Mal + Lum) in ethereal base. Mine rolled great on Balrog Blade(4sox max) and has 487max dmg with 335% ED. This sword also has always 50% Ias, Demon dmg, prevent monster heal and even Heart of wolwerine & Iron golem charges.
Weapon2. Lawbringer (Amn + Lem + Ko) Make this in fast base as it has no Ias. So we won't be whirling with max efficiency in this setup, but dont worry. Runeword has 30% chance on hit to cast lvl 15-18 decrepify, also it adds about 200 fire and cold damage & has sanctuary aura.

About Sanctuary:
"Damages and does knockback to the Undead. Ignores Physical Resistances and Immunities Of Undead Monsters. "
"Sanctuary does significant damage against undead compared to other auras, because it ignores the %50 Damage resistance which nearly all undead monsters have in Hell diffuculty.

(Level 1 Sanctuary %150. Level 20 Fanaticism 373/2=186.5) "
So, have you guys tested Sanctuary aura in CS. As CS is not full of demons, it's full of undead.


Switch weapons
Probably needs to be echoing weapons, since you can't really afford to put many points in BO.
A Harmony bow would rock with frenzy buff on. Just need to find a way to survive with lower hp.

Inventory:
Try to balance things out, reach your FHR breakpoint, up hp a bit, resist's etc. But most important is AR and max dmg. Easiest way is to get 100+ Ar 9-10 Max dmg GC's which are pretty cheap and can be found easily.
Maybe grab a cheap torch, but this is where we start to go to end game setup.

Merc:
Nightmare Offensive: Might Aura
Wep: You can use Reapers Toll for additional source of Decrepify as the radius will not change with higher lvl. Insight(Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol) runeword, helps you with mana and a little healing if you find yourself in mana troubles.
Armor: Treachery or something that makes him survive the runs like Duriels Shell.
Helmet: Life leech helmet untill he survives with Andy visage, Guillame etc.
If you can do without might you might try Act 1 with Harmony for some extra speed!




End Game

Stats:
Energy: Zero
Dex: as much as gear needs
Vit: Zero if you dare
Str: Rest


Helmet: Guillame stays, just get the best jewel.
Armor: My favorite is Tyraels might, but probably getting Fortitude is the way to go. Jewellers of whale is a possibility as is Enigma. Even when this build is not meant to use teleport Enigma with it's godly STR and MF is a fine choice. Also Chains of Honor is very effective with demon dmg and undead dmg with all kinds of other useful mods. But still Forti has +300% dmg vs all.
Gloves: Choose what you like, maybe Steelrend for the max dmg boost 60%ED + 20STR = 80ED with a 10% crushing blow. Still balance things out with gloves, like do you need the 20 Ias.
Belt: Verdungo / String of Ears.
Boots: Gorerider
Amulet: Higlord, we are trying to hit double dmg
Ring1: Raven frost probably stays as it has high AR, cold mdg, dex. Switch to blood crafted or godly rare if you use cham on helm or Tyrael's. then you could get more leech if hp/mana is a problem, even get a nice proc from there.
Ring2: Depending on your 2nd weapon this could be even 2nd raven or just a goldy rare/crafted. I can't seem to be able to keep pet's alive so Oak from Wisp is not gonna work, but you can try.
Weapon1: Godly rare axe, but for real; Grief, enough said. Indestructible bases are fun as they are fast and no annoying repairs. I usually still go with berserker axe.
weapon2: Beast Ba(for fanaticism aura), Grief, Botd, anything with ias goes. Need to hit last breakpoint on whirlwind so keep that in mind. I think Colossus Blade needs 40% Ias *(correct if im wrong, not checking that, you need to do the calculations before getting one of these weapons)

Switch weapons:
Call to Arms to save points
Echoing weapon


Inventory: 3/20/20 or 3/20/2, anything with 3 max 20 ar.


Merc:
Nightmare Offensive: Might Aura
Wep: Pride runeword for Concentration aura. Reapers Toll for decrepify, but as you are running it's bit hard to fully utilize the curse.
Armor: Fortitude

OR:
Act 1
Wep: Faith ( higher lvl fana than beast axe)
Helm: Andy Visage
Armor: Fortitude


Here are some character's I made with maxroll planner:
Swords:
https://d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/390106ni

Axe:
https://d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/u70106n0

Also my video of build in vanilla:
https://youtu.be/qUGfSgAo2VM

This build is not ready yet, I have only recently started playing this build and now I can't go back to playing pure ww or frenzy.
I would like community to look into this and come up with ways to mitigate that low bo lvl and low health in general without cutting to main idea of this. We go offensive, try to deal so much dmg so fast that threat is eliminated before it can hurt you.
Can we do it, Can barbarian as class do it or is it only the all vit variants with 1 attack skill?
I have to leave you with this somber note as I don't know what is going to happen in next patch, I think this project didn't get to live to it's full potential. Still it is the most fun I've had on barbarian PVE.


Yours
rah-rah
the barbarian