I just finished making mine. He doesn't really have any problems, takes a little bit of damage from arrows and stuff, but other than that usually is fine. Lifetap usually fires pretty quick anyway cause ur hitting so fast. And there's always those little things called juvies

I find plenty of juvs with him to keep my stock full. Also works good as a goldfind barb. Took me about an hour to get 2 mill gold in game. And that was running pretty slow runs cause I wasn't used to him yet.
Since finishing him (last night) I've found some eth treks, a dragonscale shield (pally shield), and a pretty good mld pally shield (+2 skills/fhr/all res/dr/2os). I must say I'm quite happy with him. I haven't found any trouble killing anything so far, and I don't even have a merc w/faith yet (adds dmg + ar).