vangpride wrote:...
Hi man! I'm actually playing Stormblast/Iron Spiral Barbarian and did most Ubers.
Answering your questions:
Stances - Bear Stance I use on Uber Areas in general regardless of level. The Physical Damage Reduction and the buff on Defense are needed to mitigate/avoid damage. With that in mind you can safely use Wolf Stance most of the time and change to Bear Stance for dangerous areas/enemies.
About the right gear - For Tiered Uniques (T1-6) you have two ways to get.
First and early on method is to farm Griswold's Gift on Hatred Tristam (Stony Field). You can actually farm it fast. Cube the Gift with Oil of Craft and you will get 3 Tiered Uniques (mostly T1-2). Thunderdome, Invictus and most others can be got. After you got the item, you will need to use the Cube's recipe to upgrade the tier of it [Tiered Unique + Arcane Crystal + any rune]. Remember, crystals are made "cubing" 5 arcane shards (you can get them fast early on by killing Andariel -> save and quit / repeat).
Second method you will need to get the right base item and cube it with 2 Arcane Crystals + Oil of Enhancement. It will upgrade to it's base Tiered Unique form. So, for Invictus Shield you will need a Gilded Shield to upgrade it to Invictus. About Sacred items they only drop on Destruction Difficulty and have more chance to drop on Tran Athulua and Duncraig Uber Areas (they also can't be crafted).
Gameplay Levels - This is subjective and may vary from player to player. For me, midgame is on Destruction Difficulty after some Easy and Moderate Ubers and Endgame I consider the hard, very hard and impossible Uber areas.
MO - Mystical Orbs. The traders that sells special Oils also sells MO. MO are a nice way to "complete your character and achieve breaking points needed for the build to run" (like FHR).
A thing you have to pay attention is on the Challenges. 3 of them have a level cap.
https://docs.median-xl.com/doc/quests/levelchallenge1Take Median XL slow. Learn the steps slowly and consider Runes and Stones on gear to maximize damage / resistances / stats. On early game they really make difference. Also an well equipped hired Barbarian (act 5 Hatred) can destroy almost all content with easy (including some Uber Areas).