Can be your opinion, just looking for gear progression for ladder start. I always go caster at ladder reset. Please list some items a barb must have, really looking for beginner runewords and set/unique items that’ll put me in the right direction. This will be hardcore btw

Thank you!!

unbending will > oath > grief

your life will suck until grief

What a real chad. Ive tried this barb without grief and it gave me grief.

(I am not 100% sure on this) normal mode flails with eths for poison and source of open wounds then singer barb dual spirit spec to berserk if can afford grief

Blizzard sorc until grief

I’m going barb as well to start ladder though on SC not HC. As said above double swing with poison and a source of open wounds/crushing blow/etc is a must. Then respec to singer with dual spirit around lvl 30 and go from there. Any IAS, MD, Res, MF charms and items may be worth holding on to as you lvl so you can have options based on what items you find for when you eventually respec to zerk. I “tested” a barb the last week or so but on SC not HC and found success with a budget gear zerk to start horking trav and farming D key as early as lvl 70-75. Though I died a lot so not ideal for HC. I will be with a group so I plan on just buffing everyone and chilling in the back as long as possible to save respecs. With HC I would recommend joining a group to help lvl at first then singing until you can make grief and have good gear to help with survival. Singing stuns enemies so it can help a lot. Howl will be a good skill to help with dangerous crowds, then just use leap to get to the enemies after they run and sing or double swing. I am no expert in barb at all just did some trial and error before the new ladder. Grief makes the biggest difference in the world though that’s when then build really comes online

This post was edited by DirtyKurt92 on May 19 2026 06:25am

1000% the way to go if you’re doing solo. I have a buddy who is sorc so I’ll be following to hork everything to help our MF. Then once I can farm d keys and trav he will do the other two keys and we’ll sell key sets here to buy gear. Idk if it’ll be a good strategy for early ladder but we shall see

Absolutely do not start as zerk, the defense drops will RIP you so fast during the gearing/leveling process.

Leveling a barb at ladder start is not a fun process. I would do a SSF test run now, especially if this is HC.

100% start with baba, best way to play game.

Do all the suggestions above, then when you really poor and starting out and in hell totally stuck. Join chaos games and hork all the bodies and hork a JAH.

Horking chaos may be the move honestly. Help gear myself and get the levels while at it

I wouldnt start as a barb unless you are willing to invest in a Lo rune for grief, you want to get to trav asap
You can follow chaos runs until you can afford one/the price drops (usually get mine at ~2k on sc)

Rest of the gear is cheap and easy

Mandatory - laying of hands, dwarf stars, rhyme shield
Good options - hustle, ik helm/arreats, goldwrap/dungo, infernostrides, nokozan, spirit swords on swap
Upgrades - shako, highlords

Get max block and make sure your fire res is capped, run nothing but trav