The Chaos Barbarian
By 312
Table of Contents ~
I - Introduction
II - Gears
III - Stats
IV - Skills
V - Strategies
I. Introduction~
This guide is made for a Berserking Chaos Sanctuary Clearing Barbarian. This is the prime build for getting a barb to 99, easily being able to kill diablo nihlathak and baal every single run. I took my barb to 99 with Obv on USEast Ladder Season 4. With this barb you will be able to clear chaos (by killing the 3 main bosses only) at the time of first few waves of baal (depending on tele speed).
Why Clear Chaos? At level 96, 97, and 98 Diablo gives a HUUGE experience bonus. This bonus is almost necessary when going from 98-99. You also have the advantage of being able to kill nihlathak easily (25k xp at 98=gg)
In this guide I'll go through how I built this barbarian, although there are many variations of the build, this is the best one for High Lvl PvM.
With my build you will reach about
6.3k Life
1k mana on tele switch
Max ias on Phase Blade
64% Damage Reduce(Stacked for vs. Amp)
75% Block
80/75/75/75 Resistances (Stacked for vs. Low Res)
II. Gears~
This character can be made VERY VERY cheap! Also could be very expensive if you like that prime gear. I'll go through each item and my reasoning.
Weapon-
Grief Phase Blade - 33% + Ias to hit breakpoint w/o Ias enhancing mods etc. As far as damage, do whatever fits your price range. I used a 400 dmg / 40 ias / 15% sup Grief on Obv, but that was mostly for style points
-Do not use Berserker Axe!! Phase blade is Much faster, and also pretty blue
Armour-
Enigma - Any armor type is fine. I used Archon, then everyone was using that so i switched to dusk, and by the end i was using Full Plate Mail. Pick what u want your character to look like and use it.
-Don't need much reasoning for this.....Teleport...
Hat-
Arreats - Ber'd - Once again % is preference. I went with a 200% one. Don't bother getting high life leech because Berserk doesn't leech life.
-Skills, 40 Stats, 30 Resi, 30 fhr, 20% Ar - what more could you want. Ber Rune will stack your Damage Reduce so that when you are amped in chaos (a lot ) your not too helpless.
Shield-
Stormshield - Um'd - Stormshield is a stormshield, just buy one.
-35% Damage Reduce, 25% chance to block, 35% block rate. This makes it much easier on the dexterity to reach max block and Um rune stacks your resistances for the bitches in chaos shooting stuff and low resing you. Without stormshield's DR Seis will RAPE YOU.
Belt-
Verdungo's - Try to focus on getting high Damage reduce other than Vitality. 15% DR / 35+ Vitality would work fine. I rather use a 15% DR/30 Vita than a 40 Vita / Low DR
-15% Damage Reduce, 10% FHR, Vitality. Everything you need in a belt. Arach is not necessary, your FCR will be sufficient with the switch.
Gloves-
Laying of Hands Bramble Mitts - Stats don't vary, very common item.
-20% Ias, 350% Demon Damage, 50% Fire Resistance. Stats your fire resists, gets you the ias for breakpoint, and Demon Damage makes you absolutely rape Infector of Souls and Diablo. Do not use Drac's - Life leech doesn't work with Berserk skill, and niether does Life Tap.
Boots-
Waterwalk's - Go for highest life you can. I used 64 Life.
-15 Dex, 5% max fire Resi, Life - All you need in boots. Saves you 15 Stats that would be used to reach max block, gives you high fire res for vs. Infector, and even more life with the +life mod. Treks arent worth it because the Strength on them is not necessary, making only +15 stats and no +life. Waterwalks>treks for chaos.
Rings-
2x Ravenfrost's - Go for 20 Dex before worrying about AR. Perfect AR is not worth worrying about. I went with 238/20 and a 240/20
-Cannot be Frozen, Dex for max Block, AR, Mana - What more could you ask for? No alternative.
Amulet-
Highlords - Stats don't vary.
- Skill, 20 Ias for Breakpoint, Deadly Strike, Lit Res - Maras could be used to stack your resists very nicely, but you wouldn't get the deadly strike or hit the ias bp. If you use a ias enhancing mod, maras may be a good alternative. Based on a legit build - use highlords
Switch-
2x Spirit's - 1 sword 1 monarch. Must add up to 63% FCR to hit BP
-Why not hotos??? Well hotos may be nice for bo skill and stacked resi, but mana is a huge issue on the chaos barb. With 2 spirits you can reach 1k mana, saving you the hassle of buying mana pots every game. Also, you will have very nice FHR, making it easy to tele out of tight situations.
Switch at level 98
Spirit sword, Stormshield - If you're ever level 98.
-I chose to change my switch at level 98 because on your tele switch, you have low dr and low block. If your internet were to drop with 2 spirits on you are pretty much done, but on 2 occasions at 98 my internet dropped and i tanked it with my SS / spirit tele switch. (High DR and Max Block)
What about your FCR? Won't it be ruined? -- Yes, I used TMC and it was back to normal. If you do not like using mods, go with the dual spirits, but if you wanna be much stronger on your switch, use the SS/Spirit/TMC combo.
MERC - Act 3 Cold - Your merc will pretty much never die, except versus Diablo. Diablo will fry your merc in 1 hellfire. So what do you do? You gotta tele away as soon as diablo uses his hellfire or that red stream thingy on you. Teleing around to kill diablo will take longer yes, but save you 50k gold.
Mercenary Armour
Eth Smoke - Any armor really works.
-20 FHR, High defense, 50 all res. Coh would also work, Shaft could work, the armor on your merc doesnt really matter all that much.
Mercenary Helm
CoA - Ber'd(1 or 2)
-DR, FHR, Resi, and more. Coa is ideal and will make your merc very strong. If you dont feel like wasting all that fg on a merc helm, go with andy's ral'd.
Mercenary Shield
Stormshield - Ber'd if you dont have CoA, but Vex'd if you do.
-DR, Str, Resi etc. Stormshield is a must. Ber it, but if you're using a CoA on your merc you won't need the extra DR from Ber Rune so go with a Vex for max fire Resi.
Mercenary Weapon
Lawbringer - It's a 3 socketed sword runeword socketed with Amn Lem Ko.
-Sanctuary, Slain monsters R.I.P., 75 Goldfind and more. This is the key item to your merc. Lawbringer will knockback all of Seis and his minions making him much simpler, and Sanctuary will also knockback every undead monster in chaos. You will love sanctuary.
Inventory
7x Warcry GC's with Life Mod
7x 20 Life Small Charms
Any Anni
Any Barb Torch
-On your inventory, you're gonna wanna spend as much on this as strong you want your char to be. The main goal of the inventory is to jack up your Life. Since you are going for 99, you wanna have as much life as possible. When i was 98 i changed my inventory to 4x High life Warcry GC's and the rest of my inventory full of 20 Life SC's. I suggest leaving 8x spaces available for finding items, but that's a preference call.
More warcry lifers = higher bo/shout, and higher shout/howl(synergies to berserk.)
More 20 life Small Charms = MORE LIFE!!
You decide how many you want of each.
III. Stats~
Stats for this are relatively straightforward...
Strength - NOTHING
Dexterity - Enough for Max Block. ***You will need more dexterity to reach max block with every level you gain***
Vitality - EVERYTHING ELSE.
Energy - NOTHING
IV. Skills~
20 Berserk - Main Skill
20 Howl - Synergy to Berserk and very important skill in Chaos (Makes the monsters run away)
20 Shout - Synergy to Berserk and more defense
20 Bo - Life/Mana
1 Leap - Useful skill in Chaos to knock back and break up groups.
1 Increased Speed - Run fasta.
1 Natural Resist - More Resists
Rest in Sword Mastery (Maxes at Level 99) - Damages/Critical Strike
(1 in all skills leading to these of course)
V. Strategies~
My Level 99 Barb chaosing in a 1 person game (gets much harder in 8 person)
Clips are edited together in the video because i only have the 30 second recording trial version of fraps and it wont take a continuous video.
Quick Little Written Version ~ Join game, go to River of Flame, BC, Bo, Shout, Tele to chaos, go to left seals (might have to cast howl to make the monsters move from the seal so u can click it), hit both seals, howl vizier and kill him, Tele across chaos (drop a tp at the star if your doing top2 d) and repeat steps at Infector. You can usually stand back and infector will run at you while you cast howl to back his minions off. Watch out for IM if infector has mana burn. If your mana gets burnt while you are cursed with iron maiden you will start doing your normal physical attack(not immune to IM) and pwn yourself hard. Lastly tele up to seis, hit seal, go down, and howl him (have patience because seis can hit HARD) With sanctuary he should be no problem though. Wup his ass and party with your team, call in your diablo topper, kill diablo, run back along to throne of destruction (or nihl if your 97-98) and get even more exp tongue.gif