ya ive been toying around with an a5 merq atm just for funz and giggles and really fullly buffed + demon limb enchant etc i hit what 21-23k ar but its just tedious doing the enchant every game for a few bosses i farm XD either way thnx for all the help so far ! just trying to understand and gear up the best i can on my trusted baba i love playin

thats not too bad tbh with the demonlimb

i have an act3 merc on my pvp barb for fun, if you give it an enchant ormus, hexfire 5-5 facet, flickering flame and an eth spirit monarch it will reach lvl 48 enchant

gives you quite a lof of ar, but its not a very strong merc other than that

Added Damage ... basically the same as you using Grief right, for the Added damage, so that is how I perceive War Travs and the 10 Strength is roughly 10% enhanced damage. You are most likely need to test it for personal preference.

Read up on the pro's / con's of the Berserk skill. 0 Defense and a high chance of Block LOCK, which means you are stuck blocking and not attacking. HOWEVER, this may have been fixed in D2R, hence why I leave it to you to check up on.

As for WW, not a fan of it, thus not aware if you get block during WW'ing, which I assume it doesn't.

You have been given some decent advice already by Stef. During my climbs I found Angelics (Armor / Ammy & 2x Rings) to be phenomenal to use... attack rating, leech and 100% MF...



You need to research Berserk pro's & con's as well, that is why most berserk barbs use a second weapon and not use shields, or two(2) handed weapons because of Block Lock. What does Guided Arrow have to do with a Berserk Barb and PvM?

Now if he uses 1 base point Conc vs Magic Immunes, it would be ideal to use, however he wants to use WW.

wait a3 merqs can enchant now >? wtf did i miss

dont have to get snarky at each other guys , my woman does that enough for every1 already XD

i was trying out ww but didnt like it so i went back to full zerk with 1 point in conc ya tho the leech ring was purely for when in ww
the whole block lock is a new thing to me and havent heard about it. i looked up block with ww and it works as it only refers to u not being able to block while running but since ww is a skill animation it works appearently
still its not like im out there thinking im missing a ton of ar or am doing something wrong. was jut wondering in the widest of sense if i was missing something or if this was a common issue still greatfull for this whole convo . im learing things every day !

Sorry, didn't think my comment was snarky at all.

Nice to know that block works with WW. Oh, the 1 Base Conc skill also increases your Defense if you didn't already know.

Have you tried a second weapon? I normally use Phoenix Shield for more damage and don't need to worry too much about Leech.

Not sure if a second weapon with like 20% Bonus To Attack Rating applies to main hand, so you could use some strange weapons:

Common is Beast & EBOTD
... Passion has 50-80% Bonus To Attack Rating (varies) & other weird ones
... Crescent Moon for the Static / Chain Lightning & 25% Open Wounds just for giggles.

Kingslayer
4 Socket Swords/Axes
Mal + Um + Gul + Fal

+30% Increased Attack Speed
+230-270% Enhanced Damage (varies)
-25% Target Defense
20% Bonus To Attack Rating
33% Chance of Crushing Blow
50% Chance of Open Wounds
+1 To Vengeance
Prevent Monster Heal
+10 To Strength
40% Extra Gold From Monsters

Sorry going off on a tangent, hope you get what you want for your build.

oh it wasnt you . felt like people were getting snarky at each other for things that work/dont work etc XD all good aslong as its friendly banter

i get ur point , never really thought about a second weapon and indeed i dont know if offhand stats like ar % + would add to your main hand / both hands etc
pretty sure some1 can give us a headsup on how that works hehehe
i dont have to worry about leech thing is i play hc/hcl only so i preffer some form of def over more dmg
in general adds / elites etc die fast anyway and i can hold my own ez in p8 , just felt like in p8 doing bosses while others are tz running etc i was missing too much hits so ya hence why i asked here

Well we know that CbF from Cham works in a Helm or Shield, this also applies with weapons like Runemaster, I would think (never assume) that the +XX % Bonus to Attack rating works the same since Rings & Amulets also have that Modifier, it is a % Bonus to AR all round.

This goes with other things like Deadly Strike, open wounds etc, so, I would think (not assume) CtC items like Chain Lightning or Static also applies with your main weapon instead of your off hand weapon... I could be wrong, but would be helpful to clarify.

Find Item Skill has diminishing returns starting @ Slvl 14 = 47% Chance, however it is 48% with 1 base point with Find Potion for D2R correct?

Now, if you have 3 items with +2 All Skills (or Warcries), you would have 51% Find Item chance (52% with 1 base point Find Potion) ... so my question is, how do you get 70%? Aren't Synergies based on Hard Points? Are there diminishing returns with Find Potion and the 1% to Find Item skill?

I don't see how you can get 70% Find Item without having a minimum of 14 hard points to Find Item Skill and 20 to Find Potion.


EDIT: let me put it this way, with synergies, you only get this with Hard Points, any +X Skill items do NOT apply, so to get 20% from Find Potion you have to put in 20 hard skill points, whereas you are better off with adding to the Main Skill that DOES increase with +skill items.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Jan 18 2026 07:52pm

i mean i dont know but i will have to test it out while getting more weapons to test it with. the find item i know a little about. i know 20 hard points in the find item skill itself doesnt give u 20% cuz of diminished returns after x lvls , the find potion skill however does give u +1% per lvl non the less per every hard point. as far as ive tried myself if i get 20 hard points in find potion + get find item up to 17+ by having x plus skills/warcries etc u should hit up 70%

All good.

14 Hard Points to "Find Item" = 47%
20 Hard Points to "Find Potion" = 20%
... Total 67%
Add +6 All Skills from items will ensure "Find Item" reaches 51% and 20% from "Find Potion"

14 (47) 15 (47) 16 (49) 17 (49) 18 (50) 19 (50) 20 (51)

Above is "Find Item" Slvl from 14 to 20, in brackets are the % Chance to find based on LoD, not sure about D2R changes if any.

https://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/barbarian-warcries.shtml#finditem