thx for reply, yea that last thing u said ko real fast can be a real thing. i just finished the necro build today and havent died yet, bit my res is only 40 fire res 19 light res
and both -23 in cold and psn. thing is tho, i run 2x d stars, so the fire absorb is real

So you play hc? Be careful ^^ Especially around the hell council members. I've done travi runs goldfind barb many times in hc, you get real careful around them first time round, just lure 1 or 2 of them out and deal with them at a time... any big monster packs around and it's restart.. but after 10-20-30 runs, you start getting better gear and big gold, so it's gambling time, and it usually becomes easier slowly. Just don't let geleb flamefinger hit you, lol, even with the dwarf stars, i've experienced going from 1200 hit points to 13 from getting hit by him, idk how it happened but it happened... big wakeup moment.

naa i dont play hc just sc

Take the plunge my boy. You won't regret it. Big thrill. And i know geminis like thrills lol.

im a taurus

Nice to see guide is still active. I finally caught up on posts I did not read prior to my first post around the 100+ pages and whatever updates that happened.

So ... this is a Goldfind merc built around the Mercs ability in kill speed and using Gavel of Pain just for the 3 charges of Amp to reduce Physical Defense or Physical Immune Council Members in D2:R ... does that sum it up? Oh and barb using Magic Find skill for extra drops (more gold based on Gold % on Barb).

So you don't do other monsters that are close to the Waypoint like Pindleskin, Shenk + Unique north of the same way point right?

You like Magic Find % items like Alibaba being worn on your barb, thus making you a hybrid MF / GF barb where merc kills right?

Your build, comments, replies, posts and testing is great, you even include budget gear, have you ever thought of like an Eth Skulders Ire if you can not obtain the other armors for your merc or your Barb? (since you don't mind Magic Find % on items).

How do you build your GF Barb from level 1 to 30? What skills and items would you use? Angelics is a great start... Armor, Amulet and 2x Rings. How would you build your Rogue in Act1 and what items? What Skills would you pick starting out your Barb from 1 to 30, where would you put your stat points during that time. At what level would you Respec.

So your guide is basically End Game and not New Ladder. You also want to help out your group... so getting Battle Orders would be your first goal right... maybe 2x Spirit Crystal Swords at level 24? ... dang, maybe a Tarnhelm for MF ... Hotspurs for boots.

You have a nice guide that can use Gavel of Pain, however it is redundant if you want to kill faster and gain more benefits of Gold if you can kill yourself and not rely on merc... this way you can Horck all the bodies, not panic and run below before horcking all the bodies or using a TP Scroll because it is too tough.

I guess I should say this, if you have time to Warcry, you have time to attack, tele or leap right. What is faster here... if you can attack, your run speed would be faster, either have 1 base point into Berserk for Immune Phys and attack after casting Warcry, or waste time switching to Gavel of Pain to cast Amp for your Merc to kill it eventually.... 1 action difference or is it two... how much % gold is lost over time in runs when you switch to Gavel and the Merc kills a council member and you lost GF / MF% ... hey... you talk about it in your guide about items that have Chill Effect or Shattering monsters and what... Revive used on a Council Corpse... so it also means you are limiting your GF% switching to Gavel of Pain right... to cast Amp? Same goes with using Life Tap Wand right.

Different scenarios can have the same conclusion for a debate, however, the goal is to obtain the most gold in the shortest time ... thus, your barb should actually be killing and not your merc.

1 base point to Berserk... you will be amazed how more effective it is... if not, build a Berserk barb using a 2 handed weapon and kill.

Do some time runs... use your teleport and fcr breakpoints. It does make a difference... hey I like your build, concept, it has been done before, even before your post... however not on D2:R ... big difference is what... Merc? Not really.

Now this is some interesting stuff. Are you suggesting berzerk with something like twice upped bonesnap, will be more effective than waiting n letting merc kill, i.e. with 2 x 6 lem'd crystal swords? And then switch n hork with the swords instead? It may do more damage. Twice uppde bonesnap deals some pretty cool damage, i've used it twice in a barb season, even just with concentrate is good EVEN in hell mode!! But i can imagene with zerk, will do crazy damage. But no leech though. But as we all know, footsies, like a boxer, sneak in, swing the hammer, sneak out, is the best option here. Step - BANG - step.

Some interesting stuff there.

Well you can make Grief in a two handed Sword and the Berserk skill multiplies the Added Damage significantly, and for Leeching, you can also use the 1 base Concentration skill that the Barbarian will have since it is on the same path as Berserk skill right? Also, the 1 Base Concentration skill can be used vs Immune Magical monsters as well, like when you are in the Throne room. Of Course when killing off the Seal bosses in Act 4 would be a breeze, Howl off the lesser minions, kill the seal boss with Berserk, horck the remains and pop Diablo fast and kill him off ... of course you can not horck his remains. As for council it is just tele in, Howl, kill, tele in howl kill and then horck because they are dead... go to Act5 tele to pindle howl Kill Pindle and horck, walk/run out, howl the lesser if you haven't go to Shenk wp, tele north, howl, kill unique, hork remains, tele down to Shenk, howl, kill Shenk and hork any remains that are there.

You can use Bonesnap if you want, just use Conc for leech.

It is just a matter of how you navigate your run to how fast it is, using the merc as kill speed for a GF barb is past by due date... the original Leap was built when Synergies, Respec and 1.10 runewords never existed, it was great, also the old Frenzy GF barb was created then and of course the Original Berserk barb build by Bigsipo ... with Respec, 1.10 runewords and synergies, the Barb is way more versatile as support, tank and killing, has the same FCR bps as sorc, great IAS bps, and Berserk dealing magical damage equivalent to a hammerdin, however, no AOE ability in killing.

Sorry, off on a tangent, I love the Barb because of versatility in build with better chances of MF & GF with Find Item skill.

Take a look at the Barb skills and synergies ... Berserk & Battle Orders and synergies, they basically compliment each other, and of course 1 base Concentration gains from Berserk... But you know all of this.

Finally. A post of passion. This is what i like to see. I'm super fired up for the new leader season now. I've landed on going with a zon, but after reading this, i may actually throw in a barb too, follow ama's path, just tag along after monsters killed, take wp's, switch a game, get quest drops too. And do the howl+hork thing. Pretty cool. Horck is like a double drop. Stuff for free. Who doesn't like that? And you're probably right too, merc killing'em is probably a bit stupid ... i mean he dies hard on them.. doing some killing oneself, speeding up runs by 30-40%, probably the better deal.

Yeah I mean that's why we need a new guide. My profile has the Zerker setup.