The TLDR 2H Barb

Good stats overall, like upgraded empyrean band, skill, damage to undead, 10% life.
And you get one for free every duncraig clear.

are sacred labrys are as heck or something? i still havent found one but i found 2 belladonas

I'm brand new - or at least it's been so long I've forgotten everything.

I'm trying to grasp the recommended items. Is that a list of stuff to try and get while leveling, or do I wait to get that stuff once I've leveled?

Can anyone link any guides to read while leveling or is that stuff all outdated by Sigma? I'm a little lost haha.

Also to the OP, thank you for writing this, I'm sure once i understand the game a bit more this will be extremely helpful. From the description it's exactly what I wanted. Rock on bro.

It in first post, you can get that gear while leveling very early.

Generally optimal progression should be like this:
1. Normal you play with what you find, you can make maybe one unique, body armor or axe, to make it even easier, but it is simply not necessary. You most likely gonna find something you can use anyway.
2. Once you get to end of normal, beat level challenge (you can see video how i do it in few minutes with really shitty random items, it is easy). then you can make more items.
You can create uniques, it is displayed before gear in 1st post, what are the recipes and how to get materials to make tier uniques. You can create entire gear every slot just by running some act boss, even normal andariel (this will be slow however, so better run higher boss like diablo/baal). You can quickly create uniques from the list, proper Tier so requirement isn't too high, so you can equip it, and then upgrade eventually to tier 4 as you progress. If you postpone this process until around level 50-60, you can make last Tier4 right away, without wasting additional crystals on upgrading them, thats ideal scenario. You obtain bases for those items either from drops (use item filter to help you notify they dropped) or from gambling them.
3. You add those few runewords listed later, because the runes are high level so when you are around level 110 you can throw in kra chest and nih boots, probably worth waiting till you craft good jewels that are part of these runewords.

Idea behind this guide was to make it quite brief and list only crucial information. It doesn't explain stuff step by step for completely new player, but at same time it isn't overwhelming wall of text that usually puts off even more people.

Thanks man! Like I said before, awesome work and thank you for taking the time. Looking forward to getting started.

Hi,

thanks for sharing your build. I rerolled for 2handed Barb after my first "freestyle" build got slow with lvl 115 content. As a beginner after following your guide i now know a lot about what i was missing in my previous build, so i think the TLDR style and the required attention i subsequently had to put into the details of it helped me getting to know the game a little.

At lvl 120 i managed to do all the unlocked content done except Kabraxis. If i can do it as a newb i assume that means the build/guide is pretty good.

Still a few issues remain for me:
I have essentially the same gear as you when you kill Kabraxis minus FHR breakpoint, but plus quite some dmg due to +300max dmg labrys craft, but i simply cant do it without getting overwhelmed by summons resulting in me not damaging him anymore; meaning fortress doesnt kill them fast enough and if i stop to kill them otherwise he just destroys me. If i habe to clear them up this regularly with him around, it would propably take me like 2-3 hours and a ton of nerves. Is that to be expected? Doesnt look like it in your video, maybe im missing something.

Also i am ever so slightly confused about the grander scheme of things since i dont know the game very well. Lvl 120 seems like a MAJOR wall in progression. I spent tons of effort killing lucion and teganze miniboss and i get literally nothing usable from it. As you already stated yourself, the build isnt made for clearing areas quickly, so farming for cycles or essences (i havnt gotten a single one yet) seems somewhat pointless. Im torn wether or not i should reroll another char to get those or go level in public games in order to progress. I guess grinding lvl115 areas or duncraig and selling stuff for premium gear would also be an option?
Yeah i know, not really a build question, but maybe any of you wouldnt mind elaborating.

Lastly a minor thing: the survivability of the merc. I basically quit using him, cause hes not only dieing on dungeon bosses but also on regular content...like every minute or two. Other than body armor for Bloodlust he basically has the same tier of gear i am wearing myself. Didnt put much effort into finding out his attack speed cap, but that cant affect survivability can it?
Just saw you mentioning something about him getting enraged, thats what reminded me of this issue. If you would kindly point me in a direction to educate myself about mercs, id appreciate it.

ikr, wall of text in TLDR guide thread :roll:

Go with merc to lets say cold plains wp, open his stats and watch him attack some random white monsters. After killing few you should see his stats go up, mainly damage, they cast invisible buff that lasts long time making them way stronger. If you go right to uber after resurrecting dead merc, then they have no chance to activate it before getting hit by high damage and die.

As for Triune, you can easily farm cycles with this build, its pretty good in there. They drop fairly often, so it takes maybe 5 clears to get enough of them.
Boss fight there is much easier than before, you just need to understand mechanics of it. Gear doesn't really help in that fight, it is about proper movement and timing of charm spell. It can be done in 10-15min pretty easily if you know what to do.

Finally kabraxis. Our weapons must be close, because my axe has min-max damage affec, so average damage is like +250~ max, its same effect, look at average damage not just maximum.
Make sure you are using everything, lion stance, lion stance helm, boost damage to maximum. It took me about 12 minutes of non-speedup footage to kill him, and could be done faster if I didnt die as much. It was my 1st attempt with this gear, so if I did it more times, would have been faster.
You just need to understand the pattern, make him teleport as few times as possible, if you maintain correct distance from boss he will just keep shotting his baelfire spell, while you can damage him via fortress. It isn't easy to do, you need proper movement and timing when to stop and attack. Don't know how to help you, you can see my stats, and how it went, killable even despite so many deaths.

Keep in mind that some bosses are more difficult than others, doesn't mean that at 125 stage everything is way harder than kabraxis, in fact lot of is is easier. It just depends on build vs specific quest, porgression isn't linear in terms of difficulty.

Thunderslam cooldown is 8 sec, fortress at lvl 20ish lasts for 9 sec(more or less..). I tied both at ahk script, as a result, my opening move is blast+ fortress, then switch to deathgaze/shower of rocks. And when fortress is over, I know - thunderslam is ready again. This opening move has saved my ass at duncraig/tran/triune, etc, countless times. I know, Aero mentioned thunderblast/fortress in his initial post, but newcomers do not pay attention to. Fortress is great at breaking the lines, at invisible assholes and fast flying bitches.

Also if monsters are stunned, they take way more damage from fortress because nothing moves, no wasted arrows.
Bunt in place like duncraig indeed, teleport into tslam, and than spam SOR, you gonna survive if there is no barrel. Ideally you wanna teleport, move after barrels were thrown, and when you moved, then tslam into sor. Switching to colosseum also can do wonders.

aerial wrote:Finally kabraxis. Our weapons must be close, because my axe has min-max damage affec, so average damage is like +250~ max, its same effect, look at average damage not just maximum.
Make sure you are using everything, lion stance, lion stance helm, boost damage to maximum. It took me about 12 minutes of non-speedup footage to kill him, and could be done faster if I didnt die as much. It was my 1st attempt with this gear, so if I did it more times, would have been faster.
You just need to understand the pattern, make him teleport as few times as possible, if you maintain correct distance from boss he will just keep shotting his baelfire spell, while you can damage him via fortress. It isn't easy to do, you need proper movement and timing when to stop and attack. Don't know how to help you, you can see my stats, and how it went, killable even despite so many deaths.

Well i just went with your sheet fortress dmg, but maybe you didnt have motw active anymore when you show character.

Allright then i guess he cant summon as much if baelfiring and perstistence and getting used to will do the trick. Thanks again!