The Frenzy Barb

[Dardy]

The Frenzy Barbarian

The Frenzy barb, i believe is a misunderstood class, i have checked the posts on the frenzy barb here and all i have seen is either questions of how to make one or misconceptions of this build.

To begin i myself do not believe that this build can be used well in pvp, but when used for pvm it is excellent. I have tried many different methods for the frenzy barb, and i have come to the conclusion that this one is superior to the others.

This build is NOT intended for PVP.

To start off with i will guide you through how you should spread your skills.

I chose:
20 frenzy- main skill used, increases dmg, ar, ias, and most noticeably walk/run speed
20 battle orders- lots of life, what else could a barbarian want
20 weapon mastery- increases dmg and ar, gives a nice critical strike increase
20 shout- synergises bo and battle command, has a higher def increase than iron skin and is shareable with party
3 natural resistance- increases all resistance except magic and physical
1 Battle Commands- increases party skill levels
1 leap attack- makes easy travel
1 berserk- extremely helpful if fighting a physical immune
1 increased speed- extra speed, who doesn't want that
Leftovers in double swing- synergises frenzy, can be used as standard attk(left click), uses no mana
this skills list should set you up to lvl99, as long as you are using only 1 skill point into each of the prerequisites not included.

Now that the tough stuff is sorted lets move on to equipment and decide how this will affect your placement of attributes.



The frenzy barbarian is probably the most physical character in all of Diablo II. This guy should have the most swings per second and deal rapid waves of damage, to not one person but all who attack him. This means that his fights are long and tiresome, especially upon his gear.

Lets go top to bottom for equipment:

Head: Arreats Face is what i would say one of the best items available to the barbarian in the game, it has resistances, fhr, increased ar, 20str and 20dex, and +2 to barbarian skills and +2 to combat skills, not only that but it includes LL and the beauty of this helm is that you can socket it and also upgrade it to a conqueror crown. I would love to socket this with a 15ias/15all resistance jewel.

Amulet: Maras kaleidoscope, what can i say? This is one of the most used amulets in all of diablo, there is a reason to that as well, it is very good. It has resistance, bonus to attributes and a nice +2 to all skills.

Weapon 1st hand: Ethereal berserker axe 'Breath Of The Dying' (Vex-Hel-El-Eld-Zod-Eth), also known as ebotdz. This weapon is a godsend for frenzy barbarian, it is indestructible which means no repairs ever. It has huge dmg and also huge a huge ias (60%), also with LL (12-15%) and the most noticeable bonus +30 to all attributes.

Weapon 2nd hand: Well if you can get one ebotdz, surely you can get your hands on a second one.

Body: Sacred armor 'fortitude' (El-Sol-Dol-Lo), sacred armor is the highest defense armor and requires the most strength out of all, considering you are using botd's, it isn't really that hard to get 232str. Fortitude has 300 enhanced damage, 200 enhanced defense, life, resistances, and a 1/5 to cast lvl15 chilling armor when struck. The chilling armor bonus makes a hefty difference in your defense.

Gloves: Dracul's Grasp, these gloves are the perfect weapon for frenzy barbs because they can cast lifetap and they have LL as well. These gloves are practically the reason why you were born to live, these gloves make hell so much easier.

Ring 1: Ravenfrost, this ring is definitely a keeper, has a nice attack rating increase, has cold absorb, adds non-physical damage, and of course cannot be frozen. The cannot be frozen mod does not work against the holy freeze aura. Did I forget to mention the +15-20 dexterity bonus.

Ring 2: Bul Kathos', this has +1 to all skills, also includes health bonus and LL.

Belt: Verdungos, is probably a necessary item here as this is the only thing with physical damage reduction. It also has a huge vitality bonus on it, fhr and a decent defense.

Boots: Gore Rider, these can add lots of extra damage with the chance of open wounds, crushing blow and deadly strike. these boots can also be upgraded to gain a higher defense.



Now that gear has been sorted i will guide you how to use your attribute points to the fullest.

First thing you have to do is figure out whats going to cost the most points in strength.

For Strength we will need a total of 232points. This is required for the sacred armor. Instead of just placing 232points in the character, we should make note of the bonuses the armor and weapons give us.

The most noticeable bonus is from the ebotdz, they give a whopping +60str. Also the helmet adds an extra 20, the ammy adds an extra 5strength and the gloves also add 10-15str.

60
20
5
+10
95 This totals to 95strength bonus from the items.

232
-95
137 We will only need 137strength all up.

The dexterity needed for the ebotdz should not be a worry. This is because you will receive dexterity bonuses from your ravenfrost, arreats face and maras kaleidoscope, these bonuses will easily cover you for the needed dexterity. Therefore we do not to place any points in dexterity.

Because frenzy uses such a small amount of mana, we do not need to waste any points in there. This leaves vitality to receive a huge amount of points. Vitality is extremely important for a frenzy barbarian because he needs a huge amount of life due to the lack of a shield.



Mercenary:
If you feel you aren't doing enough on your own you can also get a mercenary to help you out. The most preferable mercenary for this build would be the act 2 mercenary.
Defense (Normal): Defiance
Defense (Hell): Defiance
Offense (Normal): Blessed Aim
Offense (Nightmare): Might
Offense (Hell): Blessed Aim

These are the most useful types of act2 mercenaries you can get. The type of aura depends on what you feel your barbarian is lacking, i usually prefer to use the normal offense mercenary. The blessed aim bonus is very handy considering we are using minimum dexterity.

Items i would use on the mercenary would be:
Helmet: Andariels Visage
Body: Ethereal archon plate Fortitude (El-Sol-Dol-Lo)
Weapon: Ethereal polearm weapon Pride (Cham-Sur-Io-Lo)



Using this build i can easily run all of hell, every act is easy to handle with this build. When you run into a physical immune you can constantly wear down the monster with frenzy or you can switch to berserk and take care of the problem.

I hope you learn from this and have enjoyed reading this. Please leave a comment, good or bad or even ideas for improvements.

Thanks for taking a look.