My personal preference is barb. starts with 10 more strength and vitality. However especially for a first climb, powerstrike is a significantly better ability which works better on fighter, still think barbs stats are more useful
Ability builds:Barb: level 1-25: powerstrike, 30-55: retribution 60-70: knockdown/more points into either powerstrike/retribution
Fighter: level 1-30: powerstrike, 35-45: retribution 50-70: Doublestrike (this ability is red, but still decent) or more points into powerstrike/retribution. If you're thinking of going bottoms up, i highly recommend the barb and using knockdown instead.
Both should stat exactly the same, do strength until level 20-25 then as much vitality as you feel you need, the more vitality you have the more life you get and the more life you get from shrining stuff. I generally recommend anywhere between 90-110 by the time you reach lvl 71.
Weapons: It depends on what your goal of the game is:Swords: The easiest to move onto samurai with, as you will be able to use the exact same gear for the first 3 classes. Reasonably expensive
Clubs: By far the cheapest as an example this set:
https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=85071635&f=273 if it was swords it would cost around 40k, if it was axes more like 60k+. a 150 ee level 55 sword will cost ~4-5k, 150ee axe ~5-6k, 150ee club ~1.5k. Damagewise i would suggest they're actually also the highest due to gaining more damage per strength point than the other 2 options.
Axes: Highest cost, the main benefits are that 1 specific class (which you are generally unlikely to reach) can only use this weapon type (excluding heavy weps) and can use dex gear instead of strength gear.
However you should basically buy whatevers for sale, avoid the market until you understand prices or shoot me a pm asking if a particular weapon on the market is a good price. I would recommend having a topic with a barb/fighter iso
Once you have gear which can take you to 1-71, then you can refine your sets to all be the same weapon type which especially for swords is useful for when you begin unlocking classes.
Note that if you went clubs/axes, you should be buying daggers for samurai, which are a similar cost to axes.
Armors: EE
Charms: Strength
Should be looking to spend 80% of your budget on the MQ items as this is what defines how quickly you will reach MQ, as these items need to take you from level 55 to 71+ Which are by far the hardest mobs.
Should also generally spend more on weapons than the armors/charms
You will probably need only 2-4 strength charms for the entire climb.
With a 2k budget i'd be looking for:t3 club: 50-60 ee ~1-3 fg
level 5 club: 55-70ee ~1-5 fg
level 10 club: 65-80ee ~1-10 fg
level 15 club: 75-90ee ~10-20 fg
level 20 club: 80-100ee ~20-60 fg
level 25 club: 90-110ee ~40-150 fg
level 35 club: 90-110ee ~60-200 fg
level 45 club: 90-110ee ~60-250 fg
level 55 club: 130-150ee ~500-1400 fg
Armors: Type: Leather/Scale/Chain/Plate - avoid robe/padded robe as they do not block enough physical damage. Chain/plate will usually be cheaper and give better damage resistance than leather/scale.
t3: 50-60 ee ~1-3 fg
level 5 : 55-70ee ~1-5 fg
level 10 : 65-80ee ~1-10 fg
level 15 : 75-90ee ~10-20 fg
level 20 : 80-100ee ~20-60 fg
level 25 : 90-110ee ~40-150 fg
level 35 : 90-110ee ~60-200 fg
level 45 : 90-110ee ~60-250 fg
level 55 : 120-140ee ~400-600 fg (probably will only find chain/plate at that sort of price)
Charms: Strength, type will not matter.tier 3: 10-15 str ~1-3 fg
level 15-20: 25+ strength ~20 fg
level 40-55~ 40+ strength ~200 fg
Good luck!
Here is the general guide which also has good information and most should coincide: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=82660445&f=272This post was edited by Bigheaded on May 29 2021 09:18am