this guide sucks..
you get higher gold piles in hell trav for my GF barb 50-90k per council
also your math is poor how do you get 950% goldfind per sword? no.
swap out wealth for enigma.. and throw and ebotd warpike on merc.. hell trav also gives nice rare / blue items .

Use Fort and a Botd greatpolaxe/warpike on your merc and you can do hell trav. The key is using leap to keep the council constantly stunned.

nice guide for pure eg with the following few remarks:

- find item is capped at somewhere below 60% chance to find something, so your find item session brings less than 60% of the gold got from killing (just to clear it up)
- don't max natural res, find item and increased speed, but check where the breakpoints are, at high skill levels you can spend 2-3 points with ZERO effect
- you can spare the skill into battle command if you use hoto + cta as bo switch (cta grants you the 1 point in bc)
- why use CoT if your merc kills? you don't need any of the stats from it except the eg (ll, dex, def life nn, fire res icon_pointr.gif from charms/ belt/boots/ammy whatever you find for yourself). for pure gf use 2 barb/7x eg or 3 wc/7x eg tiara (17x% eg) or 3 sox 7x eg tiara (22x% eg)
- merc should get everything in ethereal (but I guess it's clear for everybody)
- you may consider casting battle cry and constant leaping (more important in hell, with this strategy you can beat them in no time even without any gear basically coz they have -90% def (also -50% damage) and they are constantly stunned)

otherwise I don't like the idea of pure gf coz you are very fast but you miss LOTS of godly drops as someone mentioned before...

also I don't like to do nm runs, with the right gear you can do hell travi in 1-1,5 minutes and get double gold and good item drops (double drop over double time = same effect)

here is the setup I use on my barb (merc kills):

gf: 2360
mf: 488
avg gold/run: 600-700k

items:
2 x ali lemed (hoto + cta switch)
ik helm 40 mf lemed
amu 2 barb 28 str 58 eg 21 mf I like the mf a lot
wealth
goldwrap
scarabshell boots 30 frw 40 lr 19 pr 75 eg 25 mf I still like the mf
chanceguards
2 x dwarves
gheed 159/40/15
anni 20/17/7
torch 20/19
wc skillers 3 x 40 eg 3 x 39 eg 1 x 35 eg
lc 22 eg (gimme one with res ^^)
scs 4 x 5@ 10 eg, 2 x 10 eg 11 fr 1 x 10 eg 11 cr

stats:
level 92
6042 life (full vita)
75 all res
6548 def
find item: 56% chance

merc items:
eth botd wp 392/13 (bidding on a 15 ed eth wp )
eth forti ap 1.5/30 3273 def
eth andy 30/10/141 559 def jool 30 fire res 27 eg 8 mf 9 max dmg

merc stats:
lvl 91 ^^
2748-12698 dmg
5374 life
31340 def
75/75/80/85 res




/edit: adding more info since I still get PM's about this post lol

Stat points

* str: enough for gear (do not upgrade armory to get more def if it makes the str requirement higher than what you already have, you won't need any defense with this build).
* vita: rest.
* dex: 0 (you don't use a shield (block), nor physical attack (ar).
* ene: 0 (the only skill you use a lot is a leap = 2 mana).

Skills

* find item: 20, or 17-19 depending on skill break points (take care not to put a point in it when it does not add a single % to your chacne to find item).
* battle orders: 20
* shout: 20
* natural resistance: 10-20, as you prefer
* rest into increased speed and leap, as you like (I prefer lvl 17-18 leap with the +skills on me)
* battle cry: 0 (cta grants it)
* battle command: 0 (cta grants it)

Equipment

you will need: extra gold, life, resist, and if you want, mf. as the (act 2) mercenary is the one who kills, his equipment is maybe even more important: life, resist, damage, attack speed and life leech. Since your barb's gf is added to the merc's gf when he kills, the merc doesnot need much gf (only give him gf items if it does not slow his killing down too much)

Weapon: 2 weapons 6 lem each. for Mf/gf build- 2 x ali baba lemed. swithL any hoto + cta 3/3/3. edge bow in the stash for gambling

helm: 2 barb/70+ eg/2 sock circlet or 3 warcries/70+ eg/2 sock circlet or 3 sock 70+ eg circlet (lemed). for Mf/gf build: ik helm (2 warcries 40 mf 137 eg). Crown of thieves is not good for this build, it is good for a melee gf barb only

armor: wealth runeword: 300 eg, 100 mf (dusk/wyrm, or scarab, ap, wire, hauberk if you have enough strength).

belt: 20+ str 50+ life 70+ eg, resists rare belt. Fhr not needed. for Mf/gf build goldwrap (30 mf 80 eg).

gloves: chance guards: 200 eg, 25-40 mf, no question

boots: 30 frw 30+ fire/light/cold resist 70+ eg rare boots. Fhr-re and dex-re not needed. for Mf/gf build good to have mf on them.

Amulet: 3 war cries 70+ eg magic amu, or even better 2 barb 70+ eg resists str life (maybe frw crafted) rare amu, for mf/gf build good to have mf on it. Fcr not needed

rings: 2 x dwarf star: 100 eg, life, fire abs, mdr, no question.

Charms: gheed 15/xx/150+ eg, anni, torch, 40 eg wc skillers, 5@ 10 eg and 11 res 10 eg scs depending on which resists you have from your equipment

merc's helm: eth andy helm or eth upped crown of thieves, Andy raled or 30 fire res rare jeweled, CoT lemed.

merc's armor: eth bugged forti: 300 ed, life, resist. the more def the better

merc's weapon: eth botd wp: damage, ias, ll. (eth reaper's toll is good as a cheap replacement only problem is it shatteres some bodies)

Strategy

Travincal waypoint, switch to cta + hoto and cast battle command, battle command, battle orders, shout. Run to the council and cast battle cry onas many council members as possible (this brings their defense down effectively which makes the merc hit much more often). then down to durance of hate and back, this make sthe merc teleport on you. Switch to main weapons, and start to leap continuously, stunning the members into freezeing, the merc has an easy job. when all dead, cast find item on the bodies

Further tips:

* Ismail Vilehand is often immune to physical, ignore him and kill the rest or make a new game
* try to avoid the merc being hit since he may cast a sorc shield from the forti when hit which will fire ice shards at the members making them shatter when killed
* try to leap in a way that the members are knocked back against a wall, this way they wont scatter and you won't have to hunt them down one by one
* if you want to gamble with your barb, level him to 93 gamble is optimal then, always change to edge bow before gambling

This post was edited by Lajo on Apr 26 2010 03:29pm

Your setup works nicely too.
Q) how do you handle Immune Physical?
Q) Mana burn must annoy you while casting War Cry?

This Guide works for him, also this might be very good for people playing HC

It looks as if we all have a different way of setting up gfbarbs, as with my build, i do the killing.
Yes less gf, but faster runs, also i do not just do travincal, I do meph, pindle, eldritch, shenk.
Pit, Andy, Ancient Tunnels, Mausoleum (spelling) and on occassions i do Diablo.
This is my Goldfind Barb build, he survives all these in Hell Difficulty.
Yes some areas are slower, like Ancient Tunnels because they are immune magic, but then
I use Concentration to deal with them, and with 2x synergies, i take them out fast.

Anyway, nice comments on some of the points. Especially the change of helms when using merc for kills.

what I say is that it's PRACTICALLY capped coz for example level 33 to 36 all gives you 56% chance hence no reason to point every possible points into find item. with my setup I put 17 in it having the same effect (56%) as if I had put 20.



A) I don't, I skip Ismael if he's PI (I kill the rest of the council)



A) they don't hit me at all since they are in a constant stun by leap


I think leap build fits well HC too, since you are not hit at all

True that is a good point (considering you have +4 all skills anni/torch, +2warcries ik helm, & 7 warcries from skiller gc's = 13 and 17 hard makes 30 find item skill), but how do you with your items and build come up with this example of lvl 33 to 36 gives your 56%?

From your calculation you do not even reach the 56%, or do you get it at lvl30 instead of lvl33?

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Feb 27 2007 06:37am

well it goes 17 hard + 7 skillers + 3 torch + 1 anni + 2 ik helm + 1 battle command + 2 amu = 33

The guide is OK. I like all the other suggestions to improve. I actually use a Barb Merc wearing fortitude and he does all the killing for me... and in Hell Difficulty. My personal best to date in a single drop 115 k in gold (thats from 1 council member). Best in one run total = 1.2 million gold (I actually had to make more than one trip to pick it all up and this is not selling items... just gobs of GOLD).

good guide you should get stickied, but i agree with the leap idea

Nice (damn did not notice the ammy, and bloody forgot about BC. LOL the fool i am when intoxicated.)

Basically i use to have a barb in .09 & .10 with 61% Find Item Skill.