Stats
Build
Items
Diablo Startegy
Final Tip
Secondly, there is almost 100% a better rune than Demoralize on Threatening Shout to be using if you solely want to be beating Diablo, such as Falter for the shadow clone. May even be a better skill.
So, to go through the skills.
Frenzy w/ Sidearm - great damage output and ratio for Life on Hit. Smite and Maniac aren't bad rune choices.
Revenge w/ Provocation - Just... standard, nothing much to say other than good luck healing without this.
Wrath of the Berserker w/ Insanity - Increases damage output, incoming damage avoidance with dodge bonus and increased healing through Life on Hit with the attack speed increase. Also immune to Diablo "cage" attack with it up, is a long cooldown but you can get through the in between parts with some care, kiting, potions and health globes / wells.
War Cry w/ Impunity - Again pretty standard, tons of damage reduction.
Threatening Shout w/ Demoralize - Even more massive damage reduction. I was taking Demorlize as stopping the ranged mobs from running all the time is pretty damn useful.
Furious Charge w/ Dreadnought - Pretty great utility. Kiting, dodging key attacks, closing down ranged enemies and healing with damage when Revenge just isn't coming up. The chance of Revenge not being available after being hit ten times is less than 3%, but at times it feels like it's nearly 100%, and at those times this is a godsend.
Guide continued after the page break..
Guide continued after the page break..
I'm 99% sure I picked up everything I listed here on the AH rather than finding myself, possibly a sad statement on the game but making money is the best way possible however you can do it.Check out some of the farming guides on the site.
One key point missed off is buying and selling items on AH or other places, can be a goldmine.
Every item here could be improved upon or bettered in some way, some drastically so. If you just want the quick guide to items: Res > Vit > Str. Some mixture of bonus Armor, Life on Hit, Block, Attack Speed, Physical Resistance and Damage reduction from Melee/Elites between all your items is key.
Helm (of Command) - I'd call this a pretty key item due to the massive damage reduction you gain from a block, however any other socketable helm with good All Resist and Vit/Str would do. A "perfect" barb helm would most likely be a socketable Helm of Command with great Resist All, Str, Vit and bonus +% life.
Shoulders - I'd say they're fairly crap, I don't like them, one of my weakest gear pieces. Fantastic Str but I'd prefer it if the Vit and Str were swapped, the Res All were higher, the Dexterity was Intelligence and there was some bonus Armor or Phys Res or Life %.
Gloves - I do and don't like these, brilliant defensive stats, but as Gloves are the only non Jewelry item armor piece that can hold a +Attack Speed stat without being a legendary it's a shame this hasn't got any. If I could get my hands on a brilliant pair of Sage's Grasps with the three random stats being Str, Res All and Atk Spd I'd be delighted but in my opinion this isn't an item slot that HAS to be legendary, the best gloves in the game could very well just be a rare.
Ring 1 - Justice Lantern - I don't want to keep chucking around the word "required" (especially when I'm still looking for better versions of these items myself) but this item is unfortunately one of those. Although according to battle.net a Justice Lantern can only be rolled with two additional stats this one has three, and they're all fairly crap. Give me all resist and a socket any day.
Weapon - I sold a 1050k DPS blue for this and I'm a bit unsure (I also made 1mil in the process though...). Unless you have mad Life on Hit jewelry you need a good Life on Hit weapon. This isn't really it. DPS could be higher, life on hit could be higher, could have strength, could have attack speed bonus for even more DPS, could have a socket...
Boots - I love this item. Got it dirt cheap on AH, could still be better, +Armor stat is on the lowest end of the scale for these and the randomly rolled Vit stat isn't anything to write home about. The +Arcane could have also been better, I believe I heard the random stats on legendaries can supplement the innate stats so even more bonus Res or Armor would be awesome. Also, if you've not been playing for a while with +Move Speed boots you HAVE to get some in my opinion. It may not be a measurable stat for damage reduction and what have you but it makes kiting and dodging far easier along with the nice quality of life bonus of just getting anywhere quicker, doesn't hurt when you're chasing down treasure goblins either.
Legs - Just some really good legs, yet again the could be better spiel can be applied here. Did the job for me though.
Belt - Item you must simply own #3 - String of Ears. Okay rolls on random stats but you are really only buying this item for one of it's utterly broken stats.
Chest - Loads of lovely resistance and a tiny bit of Strength. Could be better and oh christ I'm bored of saying it now...
Amulet - I paid 2.3mil for this and would happily pay it again. Mad life on hit stat and one short of a perfect res all stat. Great bonus defence stuff and a socket. The reason for the ruby gem is I was replacing an amulet with over 100 Str with this one. Jewelry is, in my opinion, the HARDEST armor pieces to get perfect rolls on due to the wild range of bonuses you can get on it. A better amulet than this could have bonus damage, bonus attack speed, bonus armor, bonus % Life, bonus strength... Just try to (between your three jewelry items) get a good mix of all those lovely things as getting them all on one item seems pretty much impossible.
Bracers - Bought these a while back also for their brilliant defensive stats. Could be bette - boom
Ring 2 - This bad boy I picked up a while back off the AH for not that much, great bonuses to key stats AND THAT ATTACK SPEED! If I were to remove one item of armor then removing this ring results in the biggest decrease to my damage output, more so than the 200+ Str shoulders.
Shield - THE STORMSHIELD - The final "must have" item. I picked this up off the AH and could probably sell it for 5x what I paid. Yes you can get stormshields with over 30% block chance and yes you can get ones that don't have Dexterity and have something more useful instead but this really is such a good item and I can't see myself replacing it for a long, long time.
Note: This is ONE (albeit it fairly popular) way of managing to be a barb in the very end game sections, however it is not the only way, nor is it the "right" way, I'm sure many many others builds work with different items that work better with that build, as I said here, not one item I own is perfect and I managed to down Diablo so if you don't want to follow the cookie cutter approach then by all means keep going with your build
If you've managed to get to Diablo without running from every elite pack on the way you can probably take him down. In order of difficulty (hardest to easiest) Phase 2 > Phase 3 > Phase 1.
Phase 1. You can't really screw this up too much, dodge the attacks, don't stand in the fire, use the wells to heal the curses if needed. Your life on hit and healing abilites should be more than enough to stand toe to toe, a KEY POINT to make sure of here is that you don't enter Phase 2 on low health. Finish a well before knocking him under the health limit.
Phase 2. At this stage you really cannot afford to mess up. With no wells if you get caught by multiple attacks in quick succession you'll probably die, if you do make a mistake your only real hope is kiting until you can pot up and charge back in with Wrath. Speaking of your "ultimate" you want to make sure it's available whenever through this stage. Remember the increased attack speed will give you bonus healing so try not to use it instantly, wait until you're around 50% hp and then go wild.
Phase 3 This really isn't any harder than Phase 1. Although Diablo seems to hit a bit harder and fire is a bit more... everywhere when compared to Phase 1 you still have the easily dodgable claw cage attack that allows you to relatively safely keep DPSing while the animations occur. In Phase 3 though you also have the Arcane Laser beam and although this CAN hit pretty hard it's also pretty dodgeable, if you're up close then a well executed Charge as it activates means the cast continues and Diablo sweeps through another 90 degrees or so with his breath but gets no where near you, again adding to the free DPS roll. Don't get careless when Diablo's life gets low, eating one full attack if you're already slightly damage could spell the end for you. Instead stay focused, keep dodging, and make sure you're in range of the healing well should something go wrong.
One FINAL tip. You can buy good to great AH gear cheap, you really can. Most of the "stupidly expensive" top end Str/Vit/Res All gear... it has less than 1d 11h left on the auction timer, there's a reason why, loads of people just are not buying it. If anything was 1d 10h or less left on their AH auction then think to yourself, is this really worth it, why has it not already been bought by someone else?
Instead if you QUICKLY check all the items with the stats you know are good while the auction still has 1d 11h left on the timer then you may just find an absolute bargain of an item. Having said that make sure you really know what you're looking for when you search.
I've lost a few 1d11h items I've been umming and ahhing over because when I finally decided I was worth it, someone else had already bought it out. The auction house is the Blizzard PvP system for Diablo, and you have to be ruthless to win at it.
Instead if you QUICKLY check all the items with the stats you know are good while the auction still has 1d 11h left on the timer then you may just find an absolute bargain of an item. Having said that make sure you really know what you're looking for when you search.
I've lost a few 1d11h items I've been umming and ahhing over because when I finally decided I was worth it, someone else had already bought it out. The auction house is the Blizzard PvP system for Diablo, and you have to be ruthless to win at it.
