INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone thanks for taking a look at my frenzy barbarian guide. This ladder I decided to make a frenzy barb as I quite enjoy the play style. I frequently kill ancients for people, and almost every time I do people are always amazed at the skill speed and request to see my gear, so I decided I should write a guide!

Why does this build kill so fast? 100% crushing blow and 100% deadly strike in combination with 5 attacks per second.

This build is tons of fun to play, you can destroy trash, bosses, ubers and dclone in 8 player games. Another fun part of this build is that on other peoples screens your character appears to blink on and off (going invisible) and darting around as fast or faster than some characters teleport. Below is a .gif of me showing my barb blinking, sadly you cannot see this yourself but only other people. This is caused by hitting the 5 frame frenzy breakpoint (max attack speed with frenzy)




Please note that I will not be providing budget options for gear and substitutes. All these items are accessible and the build will not work as well with a single gear substitution. If you are looking for a day 1 ladder reset barb guide this is not it, this is something you can work towards and achieve early enough.





Table of Contents

1. ------- Skills and Stats
2. ------- Gear
3. ------- Strategy
4. ------- Closing Remarks



1.0 Skills and Stats


In this section I will cover the skills and stats required to make this frenzy barb. The skills choices will be discussed within the skill section.

1.1 Skills


WARCRIES

1 point into Howl
1 point into Shout
20 points into Battle Orders
1 point into Battle Command
20 points into Taunt
1 point into Find potion
1 point into Find Item

Howl and Shout are prerequisites so they require 1 point each. Although howl and shout are prerequisites they are both useful. Buffing yourself with shout increases armor significantly and howl can be used if you ever get surrounded by mobs and they are not letting you move forward, simply howl and continue running like the wind.

Here I made a choice to put 1 point into both Find Potion and Find Item, these are optional, if you don’t plan on using find item skip these two and put these points into Axe Mastery. I don’t find myself using Taunt as mobs die too quickly to bother using it, and it does not work on bosses. Taunt is maxed for the sole purpose of increasing frenzy damage.


COMBAT MASTERIES

1 point into Iron Skin
1 point into Natural Resistance
1 point into Increased Stamina
1 point into Increased Speed
1 point into Sword Mastery
1 point into Throwing Mastery
12 points into Axe Mastery (at lvl 99)

1 skill point was put into Iron Skin, Natural Resistance, Increased Stamina, and Increased Speed as they provide huge bonuses at the cost of only 4 skill points. The increase in damage from using these four skill points in Axe Mastery are negligible and would decrease the overall performance of the barbarian.

Now, I bet your wondering why did you not max Axe Mastery if you plan on using axes? Why the 1 point into Sword Master and Throw Mastery? These choices will become clear when the gear is reviewed, but here is why. By maxing Frenzy synergies ( Taunt, Double Swing) instead of axe mastery you get increased damage output. 1 point into axe mastery increases damage by 5% per skill point where as a point into Taunt or Double Swing increase damage of Frenzy by 10% per skill point. Since this is a PvM barb we can achieve the required attack rating without a completely maxed Axe Mastery, and the Criritcal strike bonus is useless for this build as this frenzy barb has 100% Deadly strike. Since Deadly strike always procs the critical strike calculation is always skipped since you can only proc Deadly Strike OR Critical Strike on any given hit, and not both.

What about the 1 point into Sword and Throwing Mastery? Well this is for your switch weapons. On my switch I use 2 lawbringer runewords made in phase blade bases. The reason why I choose phaseblade as the base is for the faster attack speed and indestructible mod, these are used to proc Decrepify on Ubers and Dclone. In my stash I carry 2x Lacerator flying axes if I decide I want to use Amplify damage instead of Decrepify. The 1 point into each of these masteries increases attack rating significantly in comparison to no points, letting you proc your curses faster.


COMBAT SKILLS

1 point into Bash
1 point into Stun
1 point into Concentrate
1 point into Berserk
1 point into Leap
20 points into Double Swing
1 point into Double Throw
20 points into Frenzy

Here 1 skill point was put into Bash, Stun, Concentrate and Double Throw as they are all prerequisites. 1 point into leap lets you jump over some obstacles that running around may take longer to run around (on your way to chaos sanctuary for instance) and provides a helpful stun if you ever want to help a dying party member out.

1 point into Berserk lets you easily demolish physical immunes as it is magic damage, this is a 1 point wonder. 20 points into double Swing as it is a synergy for Frenzy, and 20 points into Frenzy, our main skill. Double swing is nice to have on your right click incase you come across mana burn mobs, at a certain level Double Swing generates mana and lets you frenzy some more.



1.2 Stats

Strength – Enough points to wear all your gear, this depends on your torch and anni rolls

Dexterity – Make sure to have enough dexterity to wear phase blades on swap. I prefer to add an extra couple points as each point into dexterity adds 5 attack rating ( before skills) so this provides a good chunk of attack rating. I typically add enough points so I’m at about 150 dex.

Vitality – Remainder of your points

Energy – None


Note: im using a trash anni so res could be better.



2.0 Gear


Using all the gear outlined on yourself and your mercenary you achieve the following:
• 100% Crushing Blow (CB)
• 100% Deadly Strike (DS)
• 5 frame frenzy (max)



2.1 Your Gear


Helm – Guillaume’s Face Socketed with a 15ias / 15 res Jewel (15 ias jewel on a budget)

This is arguably the best PvM melee helmet in the game. The key stats on this that we need are 35% crushing blow and 15% Deadly Strike, these let us hit our target of 100% CB and DS. The 15% ias jewel is required to hit the 5 frame frenzy breakpoint. Using a 15ias/15res jewel lets your maintain high resistances.

Armor – Fortitude in Archon Plate

Fortitude is used for a number of reasons. Here we are seeking the 300% Enhanced damage, All resistance, and Life per lvl. The 5% to maximum lightning resistance is icing on the cake.

Belt – String of Ears

String of ears is our only source of damage reduction for the whole build. 15% damage reduction is comparable to a perfect verdungo roll. Now you wonder, why String of ears? String of ears provides us with 8% life stolen per hit, this will help heal us and keep us at full health during Ubers and Dclone. Since we use offensive curses and not lifetap we need to heal somehow!

Weapons – Dual Death runewords made in an Ethereal Ettin Axe ( Eth Death Ettins ).

So why death? Well, It provides 50% crushing blow, 49.5% deadly strike at lvl 99, good damage and its indestructible so your not running to Charsi for repairs non stop. I can’t stress how much of a luxury Indestructible weapons are on a frenzy barb. Now, some people may be thinking wait… if each death gives 50% cb and 49.5% ds then why do we need CB and DS on other pieces of gear? Well, its important to note that when CB and DS are on weapons they are local to that weapon only, so you cannot add the CB and DS from each weapon together, so re require a total of 50% CB and 50.5% DS from our other gear ( helm, ammy and boots).

Ettin axes have a higher average damage then berserker axes and are easier to come by with 5 sockets since Lazurk will always give an Ettin axe 5 sockets.

Amulet – Highlord’s Wrath

Highlord’s is the only choice of amulet here. The key stats here is the deadly strike and increased attack speed. The deadly strike lets you hit that 100% ds goal, and 20% ias lets you achieve the 5 frame frenzy breakpoint. The +1 to all skills is icing on the cake, this amulet would still be best in slot even if it had -1 to all skills. Must use.

Ring 1 – Raven Frost

Raven Frost is used for the cannot be frozen mod. Nothing is worse than being a frozen frenzy barb. Since we don’t have room anywhere for a cham rune, this is a must have! In addition to cannot be frozen, this ring provides up to 250 attack rating, and 20 dexterity (another 100 attack rating). The dexterity saves you some stat points which can go into vita.

Ring 2 – Rare ring with Attack rating / Life Leech / + bonuses mods like str, res etc.

This rings job is to give you a second source of life leech. The required mods on this ring are life leech and attack rating, the rest are bonuses. I personally use one with Life Leech, Ar, Str, and dual res. These rings don’t cost a fortune as they lack fcr, and life which are the more sought after modifiers on rings. If you can’t get this rare ring, throw on a second raven until you can.

Gloves – Laying on Hand’s

These gloves provide us with 20% increased attack speed we need to hit the 5 frame frenzy breakpoint. Also the 350% bonus damage to Demons is huge. Every boss, and a large percentage of trash mobs you see are demons. These gloves increase damage output dramatically. DO NOT USE DRACS, this build uses offensive curses, not defensive.

Boots – Gore Rider

Every single stat on these boots helps us. 15% crushing blow allows us to hit the 100% cb goal, 15% Deadly strike lets us hit the 100% DS goal, and 10% chance of open wounds prevents monsters from healing. The run walk speed is a bonus, as part of the fun of this build is the 235% run/walk speed it achieves.

Switch weapons – Dual Lawbringer runeword made in Phase Blade bases

Why Lawbringer? Well, it has a 20% chance to cast decrepify. Throw two of these bad boys and click frenzy, pretty much instantly proc it. This is only used on really high hp mosnters like Baal, Dclone and Ubers. Whats so good about decrepify? It decreases physical resistance by 50%, increasing your damage ouput while slowing down the enemy, preventing you from taking a lot of damage.

Stash gear – Treachery, 2x lacerators.

Treachery is used to prebuff fade, this is only done before ubers as Uber Mephisto uses conviction aura.

Lacerators can be used in place of the lawbringers if you are just doing Baal runs, not Dclone or Ubers. Use them with Frenzy or Double throw to proc Amplify Damage.



2.2 Mercenary Gear


This build requires an Act 1 Rouge merc using a Faith bow, we require the Fanaticism aura to increase our attack speed, allowing us to hit the 5 frame Frenzy breakpoint.

Helm – Andarial’s Visage socketed with a 15ias jewel.

We use Andarials Visage for the attack speed and Life leech. Socketed with an ias jewel and the Fanaticism aura from faith your merc hits the maximum attack speed breakpoint, allowing her to stay alive. The fast attack speed in combination with life leech lets her be practically invincible, only dying if you do.

Armor– Ethereal Fortitude

This is a luxury item for this build, it increases your mercs damage a bit, gives her res, life, and defense.

Weapon – Faith runeword in a Great Bow or Blade Bow base

Luckily, the roll on the faith does not matter. Lvl 12 and lvl 15 Fanaticism aura let us hit the 5 frame frenzy breakpoint, so the only difference between a good and bad roll is a little bit of damage output. The reason why I say Great Bow or Blade bow is because these have the fastest attack speeds available for you mercenary [10], and let you hit that final ias breakpoint on your merc when coupled with the jeweled Andarial’s Visage.



2.3 Inventory


1x Barbarian Torch
1x Anni
1x Tomb of TP
1x Tomb of ID
4x Attack rating / life gc
5x Attack rating / life sc

Now this is a pvm build, so I like to keep a lot of open space for loot. If you can’t afford attack rating lifer gcs just get plain attack rating grand charms. Don’t waste time on max dmg /ar/life grand charms as they provide a lot less attack rating, and that is what we are truly after.



3.0 Strategy


Since this a PvM build the strategy involved is quite simple.

Keep frenzy bound on your right click, this lets you hold frenzy down nonstop and you will attack whatever monsters you run into, this is the best tip you can get as a frenzy barb.

Keep Berserk and Double swing bound to left click. Use Berserk on Physical Immunes and Double Swing only when your mana gets burned to zero by some mana burn mob.

For Ubers prebuff with treachery first, then throw fort back on. Kill Mephisto first alone, and make sure to proc Decrepify on them before switching back to your deaths and then mow them down in record time.



4.0 Closing Remarks


This is a very fun, strong, and enjoyable build that is still reasonably affordable. The rolls on your gear do not need to be perfect, all the stats you need from the gear to not vary depending on the rolls.

The deadly strike varies based on character level on both Death and Highlords, but you do not need to hit lvl 99 for you to achieve 100% deadly strike, making this a build that is functional before you hit lvl 99, while leveling to 99 you keep increasing damage slightly giving you something to work towards.

Thank you for reading this far and I hope you enjoyed my take on what I believe is the best PvM frenzy barb setup there is.

This post was edited by Euxinus on Jul 11 2018 03:54pm

Reserved Post for any required updates.

Isn't there already a sticky for this?
Good build but it's the same build everyone already uses

edit: yuck, both frenzy stickies are horrible builds that literally nobody would ever play

This post was edited by Worrywart on Jul 11 2018 03:44pm

Saw this in-game.. outstanding build.
Melts through all basic monsters and quickly destroys big hp bosses with ease, I’ve never seen Blinkie die and would definitely want to make this.
Btw this build makes you run faster than teleport. 😂

This post was edited by dylan24666 on Jul 11 2018 03:57pm

I love it. I love frenzy barbs, I love this build Maybe I will try it one day. But I am more into the frenzy-throwbarb hybrid.

I have a similar Build on a Zealot Paladin. Good stuff here. Loves those overpower melee Build

Will definitly try it.

Another +1 for Blinkie here. I play with Eux sometimes, we run into each other a lot in runs. He has put a lot of thought into this build, and in game it's pretty flawless. It's really something else to see a naked barb with no weapons running fast as hell obliterating everything in his path. (He's got Str. glitch) Then you throw in the fact that he starts to blink when he comes up against an opponent and you've got a super memorable build. :)

The sticky is a good idea, me thinks. As stated by WorryWort above the current guides for this build are pretty abysmal. This one is well documented, I especially like the gif he took the time to get together.

I'm gonna try this shit out, Eux. You gotta give me some tips next time we run into each other.

95% chance to hit fallen. Nice.

This video is going in the right direction but they failed on the merc. They didn't hit the 5 frame frenzy breakpoint, literally putting out half the damage they could be with a fatih merc.