Diablo 2

Contents

• Player v Monster Builds
  • MF PoleBarb V1.0
  • Magic Find Barbarian
  • Throwing Barbarian Handbook
  • Concentrate Barbarian
  • The Titan
  • Warcry/Frenzy
  • Ash's Comprehensive Guide to Frenzy
  • IK Guide v1.1
  • Magic Find Immortal King Barbarian Guide v3.0

• PvP Builds
  • S/S Barb Guide v2.01
  • Dueling Guide v.1.01
  • Jav Barb
  • Whirlwind Barbarian

PvM

MF PoleBarb V1.0
"This is a guide about making a Polearm Barbarian, a somewhat rarer version of the common barb you see nowadays. (So many swords...) Anyway, it is based on the experience I've had with my very own polebarb, who was my first successful D2X barb. Level 91, and still continues his MF duties to this day. Basically I picked poles not because they are the best, but because they are somewhat underestimated and not used a lot. They are also tons of fun and look very cool. Also, this isn't intended as a PvP guide, more of a successful PvM/Magic Find guide. I believe barbs are extremely well suited to the task of MF, as their "go anywhere, kill anything" attitude and general durability put them head and shoulders above the other classes. Enjoy."
Full guide via diabloii.net
Magic Find Barbarian
"This simple formula has been proven time and again by D2X players, and if you don't have a hell item runner, you probably want one.  This guide will tell you exactly how to do that, and all the best equipment and techniques to use.  There are lots of other things that are great to kill besides just Mephisto, but he's the fastest and best Item farming target.  Eventually you'll grow bored with him and want to try Baal or Pindleskin, for the potentially higher level items, stuff that Meph can't drop, and that's all covered here as well."
Full guide via diabloii.net
Throwing Barbarian Handbook
"The throwing barbarian, once a trivial build that could not progress past mid-NM in classic Diablo, has slowly but steadily been enjoying an increase in popularity in the expansion pack. And not just in one area of the game, people that have been playing throwers have found out they are excellent in the entire game, PvM and PvP. However, a warning : this is not a typical bulldozer-style WW barb/Nova Sorc/Multi-zon. If you into power gaming, then you needn't read much further as he is not your average cookie cutter power character. However, if you are tired of "whirl-til-you-hurl", and you are looking for something new, fresh and fun to play, this might be the character for you. This is the purpose of this guide; to present a complete coverage of all aspects of the throwing barb to the general D2 community."
Full guide via diabloii.net
Concentrate Barbarian
"Things have changed drastically in the world of Sanctuary over the past few months. With the coming of the 1.10 patch, virtually everything we previously knew about how to construct powerful characters has changed, and the developers have introduced us to many new challenges. As a result, there have been frequent requests in the forums for strong and stable builds that are fully capable of surviving the harsh new environment in which we play. This, in combination with some prodding by several friends and colleagues, pushed me to sit down over the past few months of beta testing and create just such a build. As a long-time fan of the barbarian class, and of high defense builds in particular, I decided to experiment with the newly improved Concentrate skill and all of its synergies."
Full guide via diabloii.net
The Titan
"A Titan is a barb whose stat investment is purely strength, if possible. The focus is on huge damage, and is usually built around a big range, big damage weapon, like the coveted Cruel War Pike of Quickness or one of the famed (and expensive) Robopikes. The basic skills employed are mostly the same as any cookie-cutter barb, but with the addition of maxed Berserk."
Full guide via diabloii.net
Warcry/Frenzy
"Somewhat obvious, but a Frenzy Barbarian will be dual-wielding weapons to take on the various monsters of the Diablo II universe. This means no shield for you. This does add an element of danger to the build, but the spell Warcry makes up for that. As I mentioned above, the Warcry-Frenzy Barb uses Warcry to stun a pack of opponents and then tear through them with Frenzy while they are stunned."
Full guide via diabloii.net
Ash's Comprehensive Guide to Frenzy
"Many have enjoyed the wonders of whirlwind throughout the days of barbarians and recently many have embraced the newly renovated concentrate barb builds, but what of our old friend Frenzy? How many times have you looked at a barb swing at his measly 9 or 10 frame pace and pondered giving his weapon to a druid or paladin? Hopefully never, but for those that have been tempted, there is an answer. For some of us speed is everything, we have become spoiled seeing that which can be reached by other classes, and we have seen those classes steal our skills, be they whirlwind sins or generic CtA weapon switchers. As barbarians we must reclaim what is ours, the dual wielding glory that is FRENZY!"
Full guide via diabloii.net
IK Guide v1.1
"There seem to be a lot of questions regarding the Immortal King (IK) Barbarian. I currently have a level 90 IK barb that uses WW as his main attack and wanted to offer some thoughts on skills, stats, sockets, charms, mercenaries, strategies. Please note this a purely PvM guide and this is my first one ever. Some people may be skeptical about using a set since for all purposes in previous versions they were useless. IK set is definitely not useless and may or may not be better than some of the best unique setups. It is certainly cheaper to get. The only expensive piece of equipment is the armor. In the new version I have included leveling strategies, some skill updates, leveling equipment ideas and various other small things. So now that we got some basics lets get started. First we will look at the IK set and what it ends up giving us."
Full guide via diabloii.net
 
Magic Find Immortal King Barbarian Guide v3.0
"Well, I visited the 1.10 MF thread, and I saw no info about a MF Barbarian, the class which was one of the best at the job in 1.09. As my main MFer is a barbarian, I thought I could share my success with you people and write up a small MF Barbarian guide. I welcome any critiques and comments, so by all means say what's on your mind so I can improve it OK, here goes."
Full guide via diabloii.net

PvP

S/S Barb Guide v2.01
"Hi everyone, I'm Polish, my BN nick (and real name) is Darius and I play on the USWest Realm (I moved from Europe in April 2002). I've been posting for a couple of months on the diabloii.net barbarian forum and I duel with my barbs. I know that s/s barbs are extremely common now, they are heirs to the empty throne left by "old school" classic lancers. This guide and the whole barbarian build I'll elaborate on here might not be as inventive as guides written by my friends Phreek (throw barb), Nekkid (singing barb), PhiSig (hybrid) and JEB (javabarb) but I tried to make it as competent and interesting as I can. I thought about adding a hybrid/thrower build to my guide, since I also have these kinds of barbs on my account but I decided I'll postpone it until 1.10. For now, I'll focus on what I like best - pure melee."
Full guide via diabloii.net
Dueling Guide v.1.01
"BvB barbs are certainly the most powerful hitting viable PvP characters out there. They boast high damage, high leech and low life. A good point to aim for at first is 4.5k damage and 1.5k life. By no means is this the best you can have, but if you are just starting, don't be discouraged by these numbers. Bvbers are very expensive to make. In fact, if you aren't willing to spend a lot of your resources on one character, I don't suggest making a BvBer, because of the cost it takes to make them."
Full guide via diabloii.net
Jav Barb
"Hi all, I finally finished building my Jav barb to my satisfaction. He’s such fun (and a bit unusual) that I thought I’d write up one last guide. I hope you find it useful. Anyway, the Jav barb is kind of a hybrid, but not really, because he doesn’t switch weapons during a duel. What he does switch—and very effectively—is his method of attack. The Jav barb can kill with normal throwing, Double Throw, WW, and Berserk. Yes—you read that right—WW and Berserk. This last feature is what makes a Jav barb so fun to play. No one, and I mean no one, believes that a Jav barb can kill them with melee attacks. Usually they start to come around when they are picking up their corpses."
Full guide via diabloii.net
Whirlwind Barbarian
"Since the early days when Diablo II was first introduced to us all the Barbarian class has been a favorite character to many of us D2 addicts. This hand-to-hand specialist is not only extremely fun to play but looks Bad-ass too! Whirlwind (WW) barbarian was one of the most played barbarian builds in 1.09 and in earlier patches also and with the coming of 1.10 a lot of WW Barbs out there were left out in the cold and had noticed that their once "almighty, cookie-cutter barb" couldn't cut butter let alone a cookie. I decided to write up this WW barb guide because there seems to be a lot of players asking for one and as soon as I made my first 1.10 WW barb and had him be very effective in hell I thought I would be the one to write a guide up."
Full guide via diabloii.net