Disclaimer: Full credit of this guide goes to RobotPand4. I am merely reposting this since it was lost after the reset.
The LycanBarb: By RobotPand4
Table of Contents
1.)Barbarian Information/Druid information
2.)Why the LycanBarb?
3.)Leveling
4.)Skills
5.)Stats
6.)Equipment
7.)Pre-buff Equipment
8.)Dueling Strategies
1.)The Barbarian
The Barbarian, a member of any of several tribes on the fringes of civilization, rebuffs the influence of those he sees as soft and weak. Ceaseless clan warfare and the constant struggle to survive in the hostile wilderness are evident in the Barbarian's sturdy and powerful frame. Though perhaps lacking the sophistication of his civilized contemporaries, the Barbarian has an acute awareness of his surroundings. Because of his shamanistic belief in the animal powers with whom he identifies, the Barbarian is sometimes associated with stories of lycanthropy. In fact, he believes that he can improve his superb battle tactics by calling upon the totemic animal spirits to infuse him with supernormal strengths and abilities.
Info from battle.net: http://battle.net/diablo2exp/classes/barbarian.shtml
The Barbarian is a great class. He is very powerful when it comes to damage and can takes lots in when built correctly. Barbarians are the cousins of the Druid. The Druids were banished from their homelands of Mt. Arreat long ago for the way of life the believed in. They hid in dense regions of the forests and called themselves Druids. They vowed never to return back to the Summit of Mt. Arreat until the time of the Uileloscadh Mór. Now that the time has come to the final battle between demons of the hells, and the men of the world.
Info from battle.net http://battle.net/diablo2exp/classes/druidhistory.shtml
2.) Why the LycanBarb?
The LycanBarb is one of my favorite kinds of build out there, it is very unique, especially for someone going for an actual build, rather than just slapping on a Wolfhowl and killing things with Feral Rage. He is very gear dependent and putting in stats correctly are VERY essential to this guide, this is based on a level 82 LycanBarb, but of course you can level him further if you want, I just usually stop around level 82. The LycanBarb is a very powerful build, using Barbarian strengths and skills and combining the use of their Druid cousins’ skills, transforming into the Werewolf or even the Werebear. It will add to you extra life, and since you wont be using any Combat Skills, the extra skills will provide you with extra speed, resistances, and even defense, and possible added damage if you never use combat masteries. With this build, you can achieve a possible 6000 life or even more! You will have great resistances that the gear provides and even the masteries, and your defense will be tremendous with Iron Skin and max block is VERY easy to achieve for this build requires some dexterity. Your damage will be over 1k with added hidden damage from your grief, and your attack speed with be great with life stealing Feral Rage attack. I can guarantee if you build right you will use a health potion possibly 1-2 times when you are done with this build. With the added pre-buff equipment, torch, annihilus, and war cry grand charms you can get a battle orders/ shout that is 50 into each skill!
3.) Leveling
Leveling is very important of course to all characters, but to make sure you build your LycanBarb right I will recommend getting Glitch Rushed from someone, then going on and do Hell Chaos Sanctuary Runs until level 62-65, then going on to do Hell Baal Runs. It is one of the fastest ways to level your character and you can have him close to level 80 in around 1-2 days depending on how fast the Glitch Rush/ leveling in Chaos Sanctuary is and depending on how dedicated you are to getting your LycanBarb to a high level quickly.
4.) Skills
Skills is one of the most important part of this build, as in all builds of course, you cannot survive without skills. But the skills for the LycanBarb are not as important as the stats for him. You will need to put max points/1+ points in the following skills:
-Battle Orders- 20, maxing this skill is essential for the LycanBarb because it adds to the life of him.
-Shout- 20, maxing this skill is important as well, it raises the defense of your LycanBarb, simple as that, you will need great defense
-Sword Mastery/ Axe Mastery- 20, whichever weapon you choose to use, max the mastery for that weapon, it will add to the damage of your LycanBarb
-Howl- 1, pre-req a useless skill your LycanBarb will never use in Werewolf/Werebear form.
-Battle Command- 1, this is an important skill even though you only need 1, it adds to the skills of your LycanBarb, anymore points put into this skill is a waste.
- Increased Stamina- 1, this is just a pre-req that goes along for increased speed, anymore points is a waste
-Increased Speed- 1, I put just one because he really just needs one, but if you want I would not go more than 5 skill points into this if you want extra speed.
-Iron Skin- with a level 82 LycanBarb only spend 9 points into this build, you can put in more later and I would recommend it.
-Natural Resistance- 9, again with the level 82 I would only spend 9 into this, you can spend more in later, and I would recommend it.
After you have used all the skills you can when your level 82 that you earned from actually leveling, you will have a total of 12 unused quest skills that you can use, I would recommend splitting them in half and putting 6 into Natural Resistances, and 6 into Iron Skin, but spend them however you want I guess.
5.) Stats
Stat points: THE most essential part of the build, either giving you great life or crappy life with lots of strength/dexterity that you won’t need. When you are level 82 and have been grushed/ leveled in Chaos Sanctuary and added the +15 unused quest stat points. If my calculations are correct you will have 425 unused stat points if you haven’t spent them yet, that is a lot of points to work with!
-Strength- A stat you will need to equip your gear, once you have equipped all your gear that you can use WITHOUT spending any stat points, look for your lowest strength required gear piece, put JUST enough for you to wear it, then see if it adds strength, then do the same for your next lowest strength required gear that you need to put on, and keep doing the same for it!
-Dexterity- Just like for Strength see if your gear has dexterity bonuses, if you use 2x 20 dexterity raven frost rings this will help you a lot! The most you will need is 136 to equip your grief phase blade if you choose to use one, this does not mean put 136 hard points into it, look for dex bonuses on your gear first!!
-Vitality- As much as you possibly can! This is the most important of your stat points, this is what will give you 6000 life plus more! Put the rest of your stat points into this after you have finished placing as much as you need into strength/ dexterity.
-Mana- None at all! If you put a single point into mana, remake your character. There are so many mana potions you can chug down NEVER put a point into this.
6.) Equipment
The next most important part of the LycanBarb build, the equipment! Please note this is be the best possible choices for each gear, meaning perfect gear, i.e. torches, anni, perfect wolfhowl, etc. They will help you the most, but I’m sure we can all understand if you can’t get the perfect for it.
Helm- Wolfhowl. The most important part of equipment for the LycanBarb. This helm will need to be a perfect one for the most possible life/life steal/ attack rating. This could be fairly hard to attain if it’s perfect as well, and by perfect I would suggest getting at least a 3 War Cries, 5-6 Feral Rage, 5-6 Lycanthropy, 5-6 Werewolf, 12-15 Vitality, 12-15 Strength, and 12-15 Dexterity. There is no other possibly choice for the LycanBarb.
Body Armor- Fortitude, this is best possible choice, 300% Enhanced Damage, 5% max light resist, resist all, the life, and chilling armor will add to your defense. If you can’t afford this, CoH, Enigma, or Stone as my last option.
Belt- Verdungos, it has damage reduce, hit recovery, and vitality, the best possibly choice. If you can’t afford, Nos belt or String of Ears.
Gloves- This one is a tough one, plenty of gloves you can choose, I would have to recommend Dracs Gloves, or Lava Gouts, if you can find a better belt to use, be my guest.
Boots- My LycanBarb will use Sandstorm Treks, but if you want you can use Gore Riders the 10% open wounds, 15% cb, and 15% deadly strike can help a lot. If you can’t afford, go with war travelers, waterwalks, or marrowwalks.
Amulet- My personal favorite, Highlord’s Wrath, the 20% ias, +1 all skills, lightning resist, and deadly strike can help a lot, or go with Metal Grid, or Maras. If you really need attack rating, go with Angelic Amulet.
Rings- 2x 20 dexterity Raven Frost, the best choice, will add to your dexterity so you won’t have to put points, plus some other goodies in. If you need attack rating, go with the Angelic ammy/ 1 ring with 1 20 dexterity Raven Frost.
Shield- Stormshield, the only shield I recommend. It adds great defense, great cold/ lightning resist, and nice damage reduce, it is also indestructible so don’t worry about pooling out gold for it.
Weapon- There are so many possible choices for the LycanBarb, the best I would have to say is Grief phase blade/ berserker axe. Phase blade as top choice because it is indestructible, and adds to your ias a lot more than berserker axe will. If you can’t afford grief, then I will list weapon choices from the best possible for LycanBarb to the lowest possible: Beastz, Deathz, Faminez, Oath, Last Wish phase blade, Doomz, and Botdz.
7.) Pre-buff Gear
Now that we are done in the main gear, we will move on to the LycanBarb’s pre-buff gear. This will also consist of the equipment that is in his inventory.
+3 to war cries amulet- this will help your war cries, giving you more life/ defense
2 +3 to war cries sticks- These are just such as harpoons, they each give you +3 to war cries, with one in each hand for a total of +6 to war cries. These are buyable from Malah in Hell Act 5, and they don’t have to be harpoons, they can be anything from daggers to throwing axes.
Myth Runeword- this is the standard 1.11 runeword for Barbarians, you will really just need this for the +2 Barbarian Skill Levels.
Arach- if you can afford this it will help you with your boing.
2 SoJs/ 2 BK Rings- if you can afford these, these will help you with your boing.
Inventory:
-9 warcry gcs
-Barbarian torch, try to go with 20 stats/ 20 resist
-Anni, try and go for perfect one if you can
8.) Dueling Strategies
Ok I really suck at dueling, so this will not be a very good section, sorry!
Necros- if he’s your standard caster, after you pre-buff, just run around the field, when he gets near you attack him; you should get through bone armor pretty easy, after that they are cupcakes…..if he uses iron maiden though constantly, just save and exit…
Barbarians- ahh dueling your brother, mainly any barb can be easy, just remember, if they start whirl winding away from you DO NOT CHASE THEM! Their whirlwind will cut through you like butter if you chase at them, let them come to you, hold shift and attack with your Feral Rage, might be a long duel though.
Sorceress- Easy as pie, well most of them at least, basically for any caster you want them to chase you. Then when they come in close you make the kill, your resist should be pretty high when you’re ready to duel. Not to mention your high life will tank through most of the damage.
Druids- windy druids will be a challenge my friend, there is no resist to tornado, just try your hardest on this one, remember he is just a caster like everyone else, standard run and kill. If he is a melee druid all I can say is may the best man win, I think you might though depending on how much damage reduce he has and life.
Amazons- Pft, if they are a cs zon you should tank them easy as pie, bowazons may be a bit of a challenge, just run from the arrows while getting in close and then attack.
Assassins- again if they are lightning, your resist should be pretty high, and if they bm, when you get your body back slap on a t-gods belt and own em. If they are a ww assassin, it will be the same like the ww barb, don’t chase them, they will also have less life!
Paladins- one of the most characters you will probably see out there in the dueling world. If he is a hammerdin, he is another caster, you run when he gets in close, make the kill. If he is a smiter, all I can say is best of luck to ya, and if you have any other gear with damage reduce that wont affect your LycanBarbs transforming ability then be my guest to use it, you might even win.
Well this is my build, comment however you like, I hope if you make one you will own in the dueling and pvm world. Hoped ya like my build and guide, and I’m kind of hopin to get some positive feedback on this one, this is a very entertaining build to me, hope you all think the same, thanks. And also I’d like to thank TheDOMINATOR for thinking up the name for this build, Thanks Dom! Sorry if you felt like this was a long guide..but thanks for reading it.
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