______ _ _ | _ \ _ | | | | | | \ \ |_| | | | | | | | | _ ____ _ | |___ | | _____ | | | | | | | _ \ | | _ | | | | _ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_/ / | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | |_| | |______/ |_| |___/|_| |_____| |_| |_____| _____________ \ / \ / \ / | | | | _ | | | | |_| Barbarian | | | | _ | | | | |_| Guide | | | | / \ / \ /___________\ By DontHaveaCow Contents: -Introduction -What Stats are Important? -Stat Point Distribution -Which Skills to Use? -Choosing your Mastery -Skill Point Distribution -Mini Quest Guide -In-Depth Skill Guide -War Cries -Combat Masteries -Combat Skills -Battle Techniques -Last Minute Advice -Copyright and Trademark information V 1.0 - First Version, need to add descriptions and ratings for skills. V 1.0c - Version created for use on Games Domain / Console Domain. V 1.1 - First Update, adding descriptions and ratings for skills, added permission for various sites. Also started walkthrough and battle techniques. Added various tweaks and revisions to certain sections. ************************************************************ ************************Introduction************************ ************************************************************ Hello, and welcome to my Diablo 2 Barbarian Guide. I'll give you good advice on how to distribute your skill points, stat points, and how to fight enemies. Well, on to the guide! ************************************************************ ******************What Stats Are Important****************** ************************************************************ For the barbarian, the most important of his stats are Strength, followed close by dexterity and then vitality. You won't be using your mana very much if you choose to use your combat masteries for most of your skill points. I suggest that you follow this guide on how to distribute your Stats Points: ************************************************************ ******************Stat Point Distribution******************* ************************************************************ I reccomend that you put 3-5 levels of stats into Strength, then put 2-3 levels into Dexterity, then 2-4 levels into Vitality. Follow this path for the rest of your skill point distribution. After that, put most of your levels of points into strength, second most into vitality, and last put some into dexterity. Vitality is important to the Barbarian because you will be using melee weapons most of the game, so you will take more damage than other classes will. Don't forget to put stats into dexterity or you will end up being unable to hit your target and will get hit yourself far too much. Strength is the main stat of the barbarian, so make sure to put most of your stat points into it. ************************************************************ ********************Which Skills to Use?******************** ************************************************************ The skills that are most useful are the combat masteries. These skills add damage and give you better aim with the weapon which is being mastered. The other 2 sets of skills aren't too important or useful with a couple of exceptions. Most beginners put points into warcries and combat skills, but you'll soon find out that is the wrong way to go. If you spend most of your skill points on 1 mastery, then you will be quite a formidable barbarian when you have higher levels. Here is a chart of a pathway to use. This path will give you abilities other than combat masteries, which I personally don't use, but some do. This will also give you Battle Command, one of the best Warcries in the game. Barbarian 1 1 - Bash 2 - Howl 3 - Mastery 4 - Saved 5 - Saved 6 - Shout, Double Swing, Leap 7 - Mastery 8 - Mastery 9 - Mastery 10 - Saved 11 - Saved 12 - Increased Stamina 13 - Increased Stamina 14 - Increased Stamina 15 - Saved 16 - Saved 17 - Saved 18 - Iron Skin, Leap Attack 19 - Iron Skin, Leap Attack 20 - Iron Skin, Leap Attack 21 - Iron Skin, Leap Attack 22 - Iron Skin, Leap Attack 23 - Saved 24 - Battle Orders, Increased Speed 25 - Mastery 26 - Mastery 27 - Mastery 28 - Mastery 29 - Saved 30 - Natural Resistance, Battle Command 31 - Natural Resistance 32 - Battle Command 33 - Natural Resistance 34 - Battle Command 35 - Natural Resistance 36 - Battle Command 37 - Mastery 38 - Mastery 39 - Mastery 40 - Mastery This is another chart, which I used with my barbarian. It will give you a decent amount of masteries and a couple other of the useful skills. As you see, you will have level 14 Mastery before level 30, and at level 40, you will have level 20. After level 40, you will get good resistances, then good speed, then go from there. I went all the way to 50 with this chart because I'm only level 41 with the first barbarian.I'm level 56 with this barbarian and I perfer fighting with him, he was much more prepared for the -50 resistance default on hell difficulty. Barbarian 2 1 - Howl 2 - Mastery 3 - Mastery 4 - Mastery 5 - Mastery 6 - Shout 7 - Mastery 8 - Mastery 9 - Mastery 10 - Mastery 11 - Mastery 12 - Increased Stamina 13 - Increased Stamina 14 - Mastery 15 - Mastery 16 - Mastery 17 - Mastery 18 - Iron Skin 19 - Iron Skin 20 - Iron Skin 21 - Iron Skin 22 - Iron Skin 23 - Saved 24 - Battle Orders, Increased Speed 25 - Increased Speed 26 - Increased Speed 27 - Saved 28 - Saved 29 - Saved 30 - Natural Resistance, Battle Command 31 - Natural Resistance, Battle Command 32 - Natural Resistance, Battle Command 33 - Natural Resistance 34 - Battle Command 35 - Mastery 36 - Mastery 37 - Mastery 38 - Mastery 39 - Mastery 40 - Mastery 41 - Natural Resistance 42 - Natural Resistance 43 - Natural Resistance 44 - Natural Resistance 45 - Natural Resistance 46 - Increased Speed 47 - Increased Speed 48 - Increased Speed 49 - Increased Speed 50 - Increased Speed This barbarian is the most extreme and IMHO the most powerful one. He is quite focused in a couple areas,but he is the mightiest one of all. Using other skills is tempting, but if you stick with this, its greater than the rest. Barbarian 3 1 - Mastery 2 - Mastery 3 - Mastery 4 - Mastery 5 - Mastery 6 - Mastery 7 - Mastery 8 - Mastery 9 - Mastery 10 - Mastery 11 - Mastery 12 - Mastery 13 - Mastery 14 - Mastery 15 - Mastery 16 - Mastery 17 - Mastery 18 - Iron Skin 19 - Iron Skin 20 - Iron Skin 21 - Iron Skin 22 - Iron Skin 23 - Iron Skin 24 - Iron Skin 25 - Iron Skin 26 - Iron Skin 27 - Iron Skin 28 - Mastery 29 - Mastery 30 - Natural Resistance 31 - Natural Resistance 32 - Natural Resistance 33 - Natural Resistance 34 - Natural Resistance 35 - Natural Resistance 36 - Natural Resistance 37 - Natural Resistance 38 - Natural Resistance 39 - Natural Resistance 40 - Natural Resistance 41 - Natural Resistance 42 - Natural Resistance 43 - Natural Resistance 44 - Natural Resistance 45 - Natural Resistance 46 - Natural Resistance 47 - Natural Resistance 48 - Natural Resistance 49 - Natural Resistance 50 - Mastery This is a chart sent in to me by Mike Smith. He uses spear mastery and ironskin and whirlwind. He has a nice chart goin on, so I can reccomend using it if you are going to use spears(which I still don't use except with amazons). 1 save Act 1 quest reward: save 2 save 3 save 4 save 5 save 6 leap and spears mastery 7 spear mastery 8 spear mastery 9 spear mastery 10 spear mastery 11 spear mastery 12 spear mastery, bash, stun Act 2 quest reward: save 13 spear mastery 14 spear mastery 15 spear mastery 16 spear mastery 17 spear mastery 18 leap attack, iron skin, spear mastery 19 spear mastery, iron skin 20 spear mastery, iron skin 21 iron skin 22 iron skin 23 iron skin 24 iron skin 25 iron skin Act 4 quest reward: save, save 26 iron skin 27 iron skin 28 iron skin 29 concentrate 30 whirlwind, natural resistance 31 whirlwind, natural resistance 32 whirlwind 33 whirlwind 34 whirlwind 35 whirlwind Always Remember, these charts are not meant to be followed exactly. The person who plays as the character should adjust them to fit their own needs. Some people find items that make learning skills such as Iron Skin and Natural Resistance not as useful, but most don't and need these skills to become powerful enough to handle hell difficulty. If you would like to send a copy of a skill point distribution chart to me, send it to AmazingleeStupid@hotmail.com and you will be credited with making it and I will post it if it has any validity at all. And don't even think about sending in another person's chart, as you will be exiled by many people and sites such as GameFAQs. The owner of GameFAQs feels the same way as I do towards people who try to take credit for other people's work: They will die! Ok, so maybe they won't die, but they're not gonna be happy...so...yeah! ************************************************************ ********************Choosing your Mastery******************* ************************************************************ Choosing what weapon you master is as important as anything else in the game. Make sure that you stick with your choice of mastery, for if you change, you will be handicapped because of your poor judgement. Also, Polearms arent quite as strong, but they also have a longer range. Maces, on the other hand, are only good during certain circumstances. I've seen barbarians that are quite strong using Spears, but I think that you should just be an Amazon if you want to do Spears or Throwing. This is a table of which masteries are good choices: ________ ________ ______ ________ ______________ |Mastery |Strong? |Handed| Sets? | Good Choice? | |________|________|______|________|______________| |Sword | yes | 1/2 | Yes | Yes | |Axe | yes | 2/1 | Yes | Yes | |Polearm | yes | 2 | Yes | No | |Spear | kinda | 2 | Yes | Be Amazon | |Mace | yes | 1 | Yes | No | |Throwing| no | 1 | No | Be Amazon | -------- -------- ------ -------- -------------- Sword - Swords are among the strongest weapons in the game up until the end. Some swords are very strong, but I haven't come across any that are stronger than the other 1 handed classes by very much near the end. They are quite strong if you decide to use them 2-handed. This will decrease your defense a little bit, but considering how powerful your weapon will be is sometimes good enough of a trade off. Axe - Axes are definitely one of the strongest weapons in the game. The strongest axes are 2 handed, but they also have decent attack speeds. Most other 2-handed weapons don't have very good attack speeds. This is a common choice of mastery, and its my favorite class. Polearm - Polearms are pretty strong, but the strongest of these have slow attack speeds. If you choose polearms, you might want to consider using Frenzy so that you have a good attack speed. Near the end of the game, I haven't found too many strong polearms, but I've seen a couple. Unfortunately, they didn't have a very good attack speed. Spear - Personally, I don't like using spears. Their only advantage is their range, and I'd rather just choose a polearm if I want to attack with a range. I also haven't found very many strong spears myself. I tend to only use spears when I'm playing as an Amazon. Mace - This is an interesting class. At the beginning, they're only strong vs. undead. But near the end, they become very strong. Mauls are considered maces, and I have found that Mauls are very strong. Until act 4, you should consider imbuing a mace so that it will be tolerable using a morning star or the like until mauls are available. Throwing - 1 word for this choice: Sucks You can't have unique, rare, or magical throwing weapons, and there aren't very many strong throwing weapons out there. Stay away from this mastery unless you have due cause. I take it back, just stay away from it. ************************************************************ ********************Skill Point Distribution**************** ************************************************************ Choose your mastery, and put most of your points into that. Get a couple of levels of Leap Attack near the beginning of the second act and use it to escape battles if you need to. Some people like to use this skills in the other 2 sets instead of the masteries, and I have 1 thing to say to that: Whatever floats your boat! :) The skills in Combat Masteries are quite useful if you use 1 type of weapon, so I can reccomend using them for a good bit of your points. All the skills in combat masteries are passive, meaning that you don't have to pick that skill specificly to use it. They are always in effect, no matter what. Just make sure to put a good few of your skill points into your mastery of choice (Only if that "Floats your Boat"). ************************************************************ **********************Mini Quest-Guide********************** ************************************************************ Act 1 Quest 1 - Den of Evil Obtained from: Akara Objective: Kill all the monsters in the Den of Evil. Reward: 1 Skill point from Akara. Method of Completion: Find the Den in Blood Moor and kill all the monstes there. Quest 2 - Sister's Burial Grounds Obtained from: Kashya Objective: Kill Blood Raven. Reward: Ability to hire Rogues and 1 free Rogue. Method of Completion: Go to the area called Burial Grounds outside Cold Plains and kill Blood Raven. Quest 3 - The Cairn Stones Obtained from: Akara Objective: Save Deckard Cain. Reward: Free identify of items from Cain and a Ring from Akara. Method of Completion: Go through the Underground Passage to the Dark Wood and get the Scroll of Inifus from the Tree of Inifus. Take the scroll to Akara and she'll translate the runes on it. Then go to the Cairn Stones in Stony Field and use the Scroll and touch the stones in the order which is written on the scroll. Go through the Portal and rescue Deckard Cain. Then talk to Cain and Akara at Camp. Notes: Take Wirt's Leg from his body so that you can get to the Cow Level. Put Wirt's Leg and a Tome of Town Portal into the Horadoric Cube (obtained in Act 2) and transmute them to make a red portal to the "Moo Moo Farm" More commonly known as the Cow Level. You have to have beaten the game for this to work and it must be done in the Rogue Encampment. Quest 4 - The Forgotten Tower Obtained from: Moldy Tome Objective: Kill the Countess. Reward: The riches in the 5th floor(find them after you kill the countess). Method of Completion: Read from the Moldy Book. Then, when you get to the Black Marsh, there is a tower somewhere. Go to the 5th floor of the tower and kill the Countess. Quest 5 - Tools of the Trade Obtained from: Charsi Objective: Get her magic smithing hammer from the monastery. Reward: Charsi will imbue an item. (Make it rare) Method of Completion: Go into the Monastery Barracks and kill the smith and take the Horadoric Malus. Return the Malus to Charsi to get the reward. Notes: You may want to save your Imbue until you get to Act 4, and then imbue a gothic plate or something to that effect. This way, you will get a good rare armor before fighting Diablo. Quest 6 - Sisters to the Slaughter Obtained from: Cain Objective: Kill Andariel. Reward: None. Method of Completion: Go through the catacombs of the monastery and kill Andariel.(She is on the 4th floor) **Under Construction** ************************************************************ ********************In-Depth Skill Guide******************** ************************************************************ The most useful Barbarian skills (IMHO) are the skills on the Combat Masteries tab. Other skills are useful, but I perfer having the passive skills so I don't have to use them manually and I can use more than 1 at a time. Here are descriptions of the skills. I am adding ratings on a scale of 1-10 for each skill and a paragraph telling if I found the skill useful or not and some various tricks that you can do using them. ************************************************************ **************************War Cries************************* ************************************************************ Howl Description: Makes enemies run away Level: 1 Previous Skill: None Rating: 3 Not very useful unless you're being killed by a large group of enemies and the skill is at a level high enough to make them run very far. Find Potion Description: Find potions on dead bodies Level: 1 Previous Skill: None Rating: 6 Free potions, but only some of the time. Not very useful as potions aren't very expensive. Taunt Description: Makes enemies attack Level: 6 Previous Skill: Howl Rating: 2 This is useful for getting the Fetishes and Fallen type enemies to stop running, but I find that they're not too hard to chase down. Shout Description: Improves you and your party's defense Level: 6 Previous Skill: Howl Rating: 6 A nice skill to have, it doesn't last long enough to be effective enough for me. adds 290% damage at level 20, so thats pretty good. Find Item Description: Find items on dead bodies Level: 12 Previous Skill: Find Potion Rating: 7 Free items is a definite money-maker, so I used this skill a little. Battle Cry Description: Decreases enemy defense and damage Level: 18 Previous Skill: Taunt Rating: 5 Pretty nice to have, combined with taunt, you can take some enemies out very quickly. Battle Orders Description: Add to max mana, life and stamina of party Level: 24 Previous Skill: Shout Rating 6 Doesn't add as much as it could have, but its useful nonetheless. Grim Ward Description: Make a totem that scares away enemies Level: 24 Previous Skill: Find Item Rating: 3 What happened to howl? Just use howl if you want to scare them away. War Cry Description: Hurt and stun enemies Level: 30 Previous Skill: Battle Cry, Battle Orders Rating: 6 Nice skill, but not economical on mana. Doesn't stun for long enough either, so thats no fun. Battle Command Description: Adds to party's skill levels Level: 30 Previous Skill: Battle Orders I really like this skill, giving stat points out is nice, even if its temporary. ************************************************************ **********************Combat Masteries********************** ************************************************************ Masteries Rating: 9 Adds damage and accuracy, 2x damage and 3x accuracy at level 20. One of the best skills in the game I think. Its nice that you can use this skill set and use other skills simulatiously. ie- you could use sword mastery and use bash to have extra damage from both bash and the mastery. Sword Mastery Description: Improves sword damage and accuracy Level: 1 Axe Mastery Description: Improves axe damage and accuracy Level: 1 Mace Mastery Description: Improves mace damage and accuracy Level: 1 Pole Arm Mastery Description: Improves polearm damage and accuracy Level: 6 Throwing Mastery Description: Improves throwing weapon damage and accuracy Level: 6 Spear Mastery Description: Improves spear damage and accuracy Level: 6 Increased Stamina Description: Increases stamina Level: 12 Rating: 6 Not very useful, as you'll need to add to your vitality anyways. But for the people who get the heavy armor quickly and run out of stamina fast, this is nice to have. Iron Skin Description: Improves defense Level: 18 Rating: 8 Defense is a major stat in the game, so this skill is a major skill to me. Increased Speed Description: Increases walk\run speed Level: 24 Previous Skill: Increased Stamina Rating: 7 Being faster is always a plus, especially if you've got really heavy armor and need to speed up. Natural Resistances Description: Increases resistances Level: 30 Previous Skill: Iron Skin Rating: 8 Best way to prepare to fight in Hell difficulty that i know of. Adds 60 something to all resistances at level 20, so your default resistances will be higher than 0. And if you can manage to get this in nightmare, then you will be very resistant to elements. ************************************************************ ***********************Combat Skills************************ ************************************************************ Bash Description: Hits harder, knockback Level: 1 Rating: 5 Useful at the start, but requires that you put points into energy, which I don't like doing with barbarians. Leap Description: Jump in or out of battle Level: 6 Rating: 5 Very good skill to have, but is quickly topped by Leap Attack. Double Swing Description: Attacks 2 targets at once, if not 2, 1 twice Level: 6 Previous Skill: Bash Rating: 8 Some people get Mana Draining items and use this and don't lose any mana, which essentially doubles their attack power. This is another one of the best skills out there. Stun Description: Stuns target Level: 6 Previous Skill: Bash Rating: 5 Stunning enemies would be better done if combined with bash. Double Throw Description: Throw 2 things at once Level: 12 Previous Skill: Double Swing Rating: 3 Barbarians aren't meant to use ranged attacks as their main attack, so this isn't too useful. Leap Attack Description: Leap and attack in 1 motion Level: 18 Previous Skill: Leap Rating: 8 Getting in and out of battles quickly and having an attack right away is a great move to have. Concentrate Description: Not interuptable and improves defense Level: 18 Previous Skill: Stun Rating: 6 Only good if your attack rating is terrible. Adding to defense is nice, but I haven't found this skill too useful. Frenzy Description: The more hits you make, the faster you get. Level: 24 Previous Skill: Double Throw Rating: 7 This skill is very helpful in defeating Diablo if you get it leveled up high enough. Also useful for battling Izual and other strong baddies. Whirlwind Description: Spin with your weapons Level: 30 Previous Skill: Leap Attack, Concentrate Rating: 8 If you get this skill to about level 5 or 6, you start doing extra damage instead of half damage and you really are a whirlwind of death and destruction. I didn't use Whirlwind very much, but some people love it. Also, it has been dumbed down a little bit since version 1.03. Berserk Description: More damage and accuracy, but less defense Level: 30 Previous Skill: Concentrate Rating: 4 I don't like the trade-off with damage and defense, so I didn't use this. ************************************************************ ***********************Battle Techniques******************** ************************************************************ This is a collection of Battle Techniques from many sources, you know who you are, and thank you for your support. 1) Just use whirlwind to take out your enemies. A good way to do this is if you have a sorcoress with you, get her to freeze the enemies with frost nova or blizzard. 2) Get a socketed weapon and put a perfect Saphire and a Skull on it. Then, Bash, Double Swing(make 2 weapons for double swing), or something like that to kick their butts with ease. If you are more powerful than all the enemies and kill them in 1 hit, then don't use the saphire. The saphire will slow the enemies down with ice, and the Skull will drain their mana and health. If you don't need the saphire, its nice to add a second skull and use Whirlwind or another powerful attack. 3) Do the trick above with a spear or polearm of some sort and have long range and still drain their hp and mana. This is nice because of the range and most socketed polearms and spears have 3 or 4 slots instead of just 2 or 3 on swords and axes. You can really get some drain going with this. 4) Pump a few points into frenzy, and a put a couple into stun. Put frenzy on the right click, and stun on the left click. When fighting bosses, start up frenzy, then switch to stun. Between having fast attack speed from frenzy, and you stunning them, they won't be able to attack. Easy kill. ************************************************************ *******************Last Minute Statements******************* ************************************************************ Always remember, money can buy anything in this world other than love, happiness, and experience points. Peace! ************************************************************ ***************Copyright and Trademark Information********** ************************************************************ Diablo, Diablo 2, the barbarian class, and any other information directly pertaining to Diablo 2 is copyrighted by Blizzard. This FAQ is intended to be used as a help to get through the game and is not meant to harm anybody in anyway. I am not affiliated with Blizzard in any way, nor am I bound by any contracts other than the end-user license agreement with them. This FAQ is copyrighted by the Author, referred to as GPS. All rights reserved. You may not place this FAQ on yoursite without the permission of the author. People who have donated information: Nicholas Vu Mike Smith Jonathan Soule Nathan Hebert Sites allowed to post this FAQ: GameFaqs - http://www.gamefaqs.com Games Domain / Console Domain - http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk Game Advice - http://www.gameadvice.com www.neoseeker.com www.webcheats.de vgstrategies.about.com ************************************************************ ********************Contacting the Author******************* ************************************************************ The Author can be messaged on battle.net under the username DontHaveaCow. Or I can be E-Mailed at AmazingleeStupid@hotmail.com