Do it! the DIY Armor and helmet deserve a place in the guide, and with the FI buff the barb deserves all the attention

Kinda want to add a section for DPS Barbs, but I feel like that would require an entire guide on its own.

I think the FI buff more heavily impacts the skill allocation decision of the zerk barb. In a way it kind of nerfs the berserk build relative to other dps or merc dps builds cuz you can no longer max out zerk synergies without making heavy compromises elsewhere.

So I've tooled around with what's possible on a budget goldfind barb, the kind of char you could assemble early on in a ladder without wasting FG on overpriced items like high runes, top eth elite uniques, etc. Maybe an eth ariocs or bonehew or eth obedience even if the base is marginally expensive, but no torch/anni/skillers. I find its really hard to get a decent merc dps output with low cost stuff. Nothing that can clear it fast at least. You can build it to be immune to hydras or leech back enough to slog through trav, but its slow even with amp.

Good whirlwind builds seem mostly out of consideration. You can't get 2x grief early on. I mean I guess you could get 2x oath but that's a huge ask for eth bases. However, if you're already wielding a gavel of pain... you can upgrade it to a tmaul, put a shael in it and whirlwind/zerk with it. An example would be crown of thieves, wealth, highlords, laying of hand, 2x dwarf, hsarus belt (upgraded) + boots. And 2x ali baba on swap. Its pretty trashy, but it hits around 5k whirlwind with a might merc aura. ~300 base damage, 350% vs demons, 278% from 253 str, maybe ~200% mastery, ~200% might aura and ~45-50% cs/ds combined. At a sad 10 fpa, and horribly losing out due to the ww bug missing the first 2 hitchecks that would be free for slow 2h weapons otherwise. But compared to what a merc can do, its actually pretty reasonable damage output early ladder

And you'd have to weigh those options vs. just plowing through NM Trav in early ladder where the drops there can still pretty valuable early in season

nm trav can give you decent gold but you totally forfeit rune finding, which is the real valueable part of trav

You can use the broken offhand bug for WW. So yes, 1x Lo for a Grief PB might be expensive, but maybe still easier to get than an alternative setup that requires Gavel, eth polearm, fortitude, eth balrog, etc. It's also hard to get a teleport device early ladder to help reposition the merc properly. So I think early ladder really favors a self dps build.

Just use Oath in Eth Balrog it's 100% fine for WW, right? Just need 1 with broken offhand. Maybe it's too optimistic idk.

This post was edited by Exokek on Apr 27 2022 01:01pm

iirc with eth oath bb, you're looking at like 90-120s runs lol. grief literally doubles your dps output compared to even a high roll eth oath.

btw i wouldnt make an gf barb as first char for ladder start...better begin with sorc and after some lucky drops build barb with that grief power (zerker)

This post was edited by Spartacus160 on Apr 27 2022 02:38pm