So I've been experimenting with a concept of a hybrid style build for magic and gold finding.
With most magic or goldfind Barbs, you're typically either a singer or a pitzerker. Both builds function well enough but I personally feel like each one is lacking in certain areas.
I present to you....the 'Forti-Cry Barbarian'
....or the 'War-titude Barbarian' if you like 🙂
I played a singer and I really enjoyed the CC aspect of it but I hated being so reliant on my merc to kill monsters. I also couldn't take down phys immunes. On the flip side, while Berserk destroys most elites, being at zero defense while only having the ability to attack single target makes you vulnerable to mobs and forces you to howl away packs instead of killing them. When horking...elites obviously yield better results, so of course they are the focus. However, I've found enough good runes and items from horking trash mobs. So why limit yourself?
Another thing I disliked about playing Zerk is things like leech do not work with the skill. Most Zerk Barbs I see rock Grief PB and 6 ist/lem sword and then dual wiz for teleport. I prefer dual ali babas on my hork tab for horking Council.
My build attempts to bring it all together by using war cry to stun packs of enemies for up to 8 seconds, battle cry to debuff them, and then pick everything off using frenzy to gain attack/movement speed in combination with beserk. Meanwhile, my A5 Merc is putting in work too and is a powerhouse. I can farm any area in the game rather quickly in solo games and I do pretty well in full games as well. The merc alone should be capable of taking down Uber solo.
With this setup I can achieve having the ability to melee as a singer barb, taking down phys immunes with zerk, leeching back mana and life while increasing attack and movement speed with Frenzy, aoe stunlocking of trash mobs for 8 seconds, having 105 FCR breakpoint casting on my melee tab, being able to swap my armor, belts, rings and gloves situationally (ie Wealth, TGods, Trangs, LOH, GoldWrap, Chancies, Dwafs, BK/SoJs, etc), dedicated hork tab with 2 x dual lem Ali Babas.
My favorite thing about it of all is that it centers around a Runeword that 99% of you would view as completely worthless. I've had plenty of people trash me for and I've had people raise several valid concerns which I can address.
1.) The Monster to Flee on weapon really won't matter because anything you hit that will flee (trash mobs) won't be able to flee because they are stunned from warcry. Furthermore, if you have to Howl as an oh shit button jn somewhere like Trav, you can then warcry them to stun them in place before they run off in all different directions. Besides, the merc runs them down like a K9.
2.) The Chilling Armor on Fort and freezing. It really doesn't freeze enemies so much as it chills/slows them and honestly it lasts but a few second and I typically just switch to a different monster if I'm beating on one that got chilled so I rarely ever have any corpses shatter, maybe once in a blue moon.
3.) Low AR. I am able to pull off 80% ar with Beserk and 75% with frenzy. With the quick attacks, the speed will compensate for the misses.
Gear:
Tab 1 - Grief PB / Fort PB
Tab 2 - 2 x Dual Lem Ali Babas
2/20 fcr circlet w leech, gf/mf, res, str/Dex, mana/life
Enigma
2/20 fcr crafted ammy w leech, mana, gf, mf, res, str/dex
Arachs
2 x FCR rings w leech, mana, gf, mf, res
Rare Boots w tri res, mf & gf
Crafted Gloves w ias, leech, cb, str, res, gf, mf
Skill Allocation based on level 93.
Howl - 10
Taunt - 10
Battle Cry - 5 (rest of points til 99 here)
War Cry - 20
Shout - 1
Battle Orders - 20
Battle Command - 1
Find Potion - 20
Find Item - 1
5 Sword Mastery
1 Natural Res,
1 Increased Speed
1 Increased Stamina
1 Iron Skin
1 Berserk
1 Frenzy.
1 in each of prerequisites.
There are many ways to crack an egg here and to be honest if you wanted you could just use a 20 fcr circ, Fort pb and 20 fcr ammy go hit the 63 fcr breakpoint and then wear dwarfs, goldwrap, chancies, etc. This build has a lot of things that can be played with but ultimately it plays best when you remember that you're primarily a singer and to utilize your merc/crowd control.
Its probably the most fun I've ever had building a character and I'm pretty proud of him. He's not perfect yet and I still need to find a 2 20 ammy I'm happy with but things are going very well.
Also, the character is also very fun and an mvp in Baal games., BO, tele speed and being able to stunlock the waves will make you crowd favorite.. In Baal games I'll replace my Ali Babas with Dual Hotos for max BO for the group. I try to hork what I can before Redemption takes the corpses and sometimes you can find some good stuff if you're quick enough
Now I will say this build was a bit pricey to make when it came down to finding some decent rares to make up for things like mana, gf and mf; and to also acquire some leech and fcr. But honestly, if someone is in a position to be able to drop a Lo in a Fort PB they can probably swing it.
Photos of gear and game play videos are in this link to a D2R group on FB I posted this guide in.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/180919059804602/permalink/750808889482280/
D2:R