The 1.12 pvp/pvm Wolf Barb GuideThe wolf barbarian has been a very unused build ever since wolfhowl was released in Diablo II, my guide will enable you to make a build which you won’t see every 2 games
. This wolfbarb guide will be barbarian vs all so it is not a pure melee set up which could also be made.
Advantages of wolf barbarian:1. Relatively cheap
2. Huge life
3. Huge attack rating
4. Best fhr of all characters
5. Lots of skill points spare for wacries/masteries
5. Ability to do the ubers
6. Easy to reach maximum resist
7. They are fast
8. They are fun!
Stat pointsStrength – Enough to wear your gear, but no more the little damage it gives is no comparison for the life you get from vitality
Vitality – All the rest of the points go in here
Dexterity – Enough to reach max block with storm shield (75% block)
Energy – No points in this
Skill PointsWarcries treeShout : 20
Battle Order : 20
Battle command : 1
Prereq : 1
Masteries TreeMastery (depending on what weapon you are using): 20
Iron Skin : 20
Increase stamina : 1
Increase speed : 5-10
Natural resist : 10+
GearHelmCham’d Wolfhowl - for obvious reasons, each skill gives a good bonus so you will want 3/6/6/6 skills
Armor Archon plate fortitude - best defence for good strength requirement, fort gives good resistances, good life and huge damage so it’s a must for melee characters.
There are other Armors you could wear e.g. stone, but my fort is the one that is best vs every class when used on a melee character.
BeltVerdungo’s Hearty Cord - the damage reduce, vitality and fhr make this an amazing belt for a wolf barb.
Stashed belt: Thunder gods for the extra light resistance, you can use in pvm or against light characters that get on your nerves in a duel
ShieldUm’d Storm shield – for the block rate, nice resists and damage reduce.
Stashed: shael’d storm shield – this allows you to reach the next faster block rate bp (5 fbr), useful against block able attacks.
BootsGore riders – the open wound, high defence, deadly strike and crushing blow make these by far the best boots for everything on a wolfbarb.
WeaponAll the ias on your wolfbarb will come from the weapon so make sure to use phase blades for your runewords.
31+ ias Grief pb – decent ias (5 frames) with good damage and venom, this is my preferred weapon.
Botd pb – high ias with mid damage (6 frames), imho grief pb is a lot better than this
Gris caddy – fastest ias but low damage (can reach 2 frames).
Stashed: doom berserker axe – this weapon totally destroys amazons, they get stuck dodging slowly and can’t outrun you, however it can be considered bm.
Weapons on switch2 hotos - for +6 werewolf and +6 to warcrys, however 2 bo sticks (+3 warcry weapons) can also be used.
AmuletAngelic amulet – for the huge attack rating boost.
Stashed amulets: Highlords – the light resist and deadly strike is very useful in ubers.
Rings2x angelic rings – for the huge attack rating boost.
Stashed: raven frosts – useful against cold characters in duels.
Stashed: wisps – useful against light characters in duels (fc mainly as sorb is bm).
Stashed: bk ring - useful for ubers
GlovesDracul’s Grasp – these are very useful, life tap, life leach and strength combine to make it the best glove for pvm(and ubers) however it is considered bm in duels.
Stashed(for dueling): crafted crushing blow gloves – you won’t need ias, the mods you should look for are strength, dexterity and 10% crushing blow. Some people prefer iron rends over crafted gloves for a bit more damage, this is your choice
InventoryBarb torch
Annihilus small charm
4x fhr small charms (these can have max/ar/fhr or resists).
Max/ar/life charms (if you can’t afford just plain life charms will suffice).
Frw small charms (these can have resists or max/ar/frw) – chose as many as you think you will need to compete with characters that can teleport
1x fhr grand charm (this can have resists or max/ar/fhr).
Extra InformationThe equipment in this quide allows you to hit the 4 fps (42 fhr) fhr break point (4x 5 fhr sc, 12 fhr gc and 10 fhr on verdungos belt). The fhr chart is below.
FHR / Frame
0 / 7
9 / 6
20 / 5
42 / 4
86 / 3
280 / 2
With the equipment in this guide you will be able to hit the 6 fps fbr break point and when using the shael’d storm shield you will hit the 5 fps fbr break point, the fbr chart is below.
FBR / Frame
0 / 9
7 / 8
15 / 7
27 / 6
48 / 5
86 / 4
Terms I used in the guide:fps – frames per second
ias – increased attack speed
fhr – faster hit recovery
bp – break point
frw – faster wun/walk
ar – attack rating
pb – phase blade
hoto – heart of the oak (runeword)
fbr – faster block rate
bm- bad manner(s)
pvm on the wolfbarb is fun and the only thing a good wolfbarb will possibly die to is iron maiden, so be careful if you are making this on hardcore
Doing UbersFor ubers you will want to grab your stashed highlords and use raven + bk or a similar ring combination.
In tristram you will want to take out Mephisto out first, this is fairly easy on a wolfbarb. To make sure that you get Mephisto first you will need to go north up as far as you can once you go through the tristram tp, you will then want to keep to the edge and go to the bottom left corner. From there you should slowly go up in a north-east direction until you hear Mephisto and see his minions spawn, this far you will want to back up and let Mephisto come to you, then kill him.
Then you will want to separate Diablo and Baal and take them on one at a time, this is fairly easy but can take a while to kill them.
DuelingI will just give a rough guide against most common characters.
Against melee classes you will want to equip your shael’d storm shield, unfortunately chances are they will win as there character is made purely to win against other melee characters, but you still have a chance and the outcome will be decided on better gear/luck
Against bow amazons you will want to equip your shael’d storm shield and maybe doom (if they don’t mind), just run at them and try to kill them
Against javelin amazons you will want to equip tgods and doom as long as they don’t mind or use far cast
Against hammerdins you will lose if they are good, but to attack them go from the east, west, south area of the paladin for a stronger chance of not getting hit by hammers when attacking them.
Against orb sorceresses you will want to equip at least one raven and let them come to you, then charge them
The rest of the classes you just need common sense to beat and if that doesn’t work then they are probably builds that are VERY hard to beat with a wolfbarb, sorry about that
This guide was written by me - NoWhere