It works. I've done travi barb only (HC), done normal only, then nightmare, then hell. I mean i don't trade on jsp either. I was lucky quite a few seasons to find bonesnap maul early on, and that helped me tremendously. Also getting pul rune from nm forge, it can be upgraded. I also then traded the next rune and upgraded it to elite. It does shit ton of damage. Talking 2500-4000 or so. That's with mediocre gear as well.
So you would not have to trade much in order to make a viable barb like that. It's perhaps one of the best starting characters. Though for hardcore, you have to learn to play defensively a bit, without super proper gear, you can take big hits, especially from geleb flamefinger - both his normal attacks and his death fire explosion. Lol you wouldn't believe it ... but i remember vividly, one season, some 4-5 years ago, i was on hell, hc, with about 1500 hit points. I took some hits, down to about 1200 .. and his explosion hit me, i had 3 hit points left ^^ Man you get adrenaline going when that happens. Took me 1 second to react. I actually don't remember if i had rejuvs or save and exit.... but i did manage to survive. You feel so vulnerable when you suddenly have so little hit points ^^ Just 1 single hit = KO .. but when you manage to beat that kind of situation - it's the sweetest feeling in the world.
Item find barb doing travi only is a very safe and decent way to start off a ladder. As written, last seasons now, i done the strategy of only doing travincal, first normal, from level 21 (i think) to about 30, then going to nightmare, doing ONLY travi runs... you get decent exp as well you see!! You do hundreds of runs. And you do find some ok gear! You get tons of gems, jewels, which can be traded in packs. Do nm to about, i don't quite remember, 55 or so .. then see what your gear status is like.
You got to play by ear a little bit. And if you're unlucky with gear drops, i do not blame for trading a little bit on jsp. The game is about fun. If it gets un-fun ... trading for a few pieces here and there don't bother me. What DOES bother me is buying it, and botting.
Yeah, what is great about Travi is that you always get gems gold and some runes, so that you always progres. That said, I would like to jump to hell as fast as possible. It seems that NM Travi doesnt have interesting drop tables. But maybe someone has good experience with it?
D2:R