Guide written by Guaicaipuro on the DiabloII.Net Single Player Forums.
In Diablo II, there are different types of characters. I dont mean classes, such as assassins, druids, necromancers, or sorceresses. I mean types. Snipers, mages, damage-dealing specific builds, such as titans, or berserkers. Some types are better for for dealing with single, powerful monsters, such as martial artists, while others are excellent for quick destruction of large masses of monsters, like nova sorcs or arty necros. This guide will attempt to inform the general Diablo II population about a specific build for the Barbarian : The Iron Barbarian. This build doesnt create a good tank. This build creates the DiabloII tank. A tank is a character that is extremely adept at meleeing the toughest badboys in the game. Although paladins, shapeshifters, jabazons, assassins, and most barb builds are all very good tanks, not one of these classes comes close to the raw power and resistance of an iron barb.
In this small guide I will discuss the birth, growth, and development of an iron barb. Death is out of the question. This is by no means the be-all end-all Bible to iron barbs, it is simply a document based on my experience as an HC iron barb player, so you may want to modify it as much as you want to suit your needs. This guide will specifically target the iron barb with a shield. Believe me when i tell you the only thing you want a shield for is resistances. Given your extremely high defense rating, not a whole lot will get through you, and allow for blocking This means blocklock does not exist with this character. However, i will discuss the blocking values of the shields mentioned in this guide because free blocking is a great thing. When i say free blocking is when you get good blocking without concentrating on actually getting it by increasing your dexterity. Your base dexterity + a shield with good blocking = good blocking. That is why shields with high blocking will be preferred over ones with low.
You're probably wondering why this build would be any fun. Well, have you ever fantasized about being the only reason an entire party of people survived (if you play HC), or "the guy" that courageously tanked might enchanted extra fast lister in hell mode? Well, if you have, then welcome to the world of the shielded iron barbarian. A true beast of survival, with the proper equipment and build, this type of barbarian will allow you to tank the meanest foes, "take" the most ourageous kind of physical damage, and even tank a conviction enchanted MSLE boss. No, im not kidding. As long as you wear a Guardian Angel anyway =)
Even if sorceresses and bowazons are extremely profficient killers, they dont possess the physical prowess to endure physical punishment. As an iron barbarian, you do.
Completely dependant on your chosen mastery (axe, sword or mace). I will write what i used with mine, a sword iron barbarian.
Strength A tough one. Most people will go for 189, the highest required for any sword, the Colossus Blade. Others may want more for the extra damage. Your choice.
Dexterity 110 The most you'll ever need for any sword. Some people might think of putting more for extra blocking, but trust me when i say this, it wont be necessary. If youre going to use maces or axes though, put points in dexterity accordingly.
Vitality Surprisingly, this build doesnt need that much life. Somewhere around 2000 life is usually enough. However, you may find yourself wanting more life to increase your tanking abilities. Go right ahead. So far my iron barb, who is a level 80 guardian, has 210, and close to 2,3k life. His life never goes any lower than 2000.
Energy Nothing.
Mastery There will be controversy over this one, but i advice not to put more than 10 points into this. The extra damage and attack rating are not enough of a reason to invest 10 more points into this skill. You'll want those points for other skills, ones that will enhance your tanking abilities.
Concentrate Maxed. This will be your main attacking skill, and a damn good one too. Good damage bonus, good attack rating bonus, excellent defense bonus when you swing, and uninterruptible. Uninterruptible means that even if youre surrounded by a pack of extra fast fanaticism enchanted moon lords, you will never, ever, be interrupted if you try to swing. As mentioned before, blocklock does not exist with this build.
Ironskin Maxed. This will allow your defensive rating to go through the roof. I advice to max this one before shout. Yes, shout enhances your defense a lot more than ironskin, i know that. However, shout does not enhance your base defense, something ironskin does. You may not see the connection here, but if your base defense is higher, then so will the bonus from concentrate be.
Battle Orders Maxed. You're a barb. Some people discuss this because they consider iron barbs dont need it, because since iron barbs have huge defense, they dont get hit often, if at all. Though this is true, remember defense does not negate elemental attacks. Yes, resistances help reduce it, but you will still take damage from them. If you still don't consider BO to be useful to you as a lone player, at least think of when you'll be partying. No one minds a barb with maxed shout and bo in their party...
Shout Maxed. The huge defense boost will be a blessing both to you and your party, and remember that defense is your best friend.
Natural resistances Six points at most. After this, the bonuses diminish.
Berserk One point. Remember youre an iron barb, not a berserker. Strictly to deal with PI's.
Battle Cry One point. Extremely useful skill. When you find yourself having trouble to hit (very unlikely, but still a possiblity), you'll want to have the nice -50% defense on the monsters, and the always-welcomed damage reduction.
Leap Attack One point, if things get a little out of hand. I never had to use it, but im sure that if i had needed it, it wouldve definitely saved my barbarian bum.
Taunt One point. Good skill to call those annoying jungle hunter-type monsters who run away when they're about to die.
I will try to adapt this to the other two masteries as well.
Arreat's Face. Accept no substitute. Excellent defense rating, leech, +20 strength and dexterity, +2 to barbarian skills, +4 to combat skills, hit recovery, attack rating bonus, and huge resistance boost. You'll want an Um in it.
Veil of Steel Rare and expensive, but the amazing bonuses are well worth it. If you can get a Veil of Steel though, you can also get an Arreat's. Get the Arreat's.
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest excellent bonuses for a melee character, but low defense, and its ugly. 'Nuff said.
Another helm you should consider if you cant get an Arreat's is Vampiregaze. Yes, Tal's is better than gaze for this build. With so much defense youll barely ever get hit, so the PDR on gaze will not be very useful to you. The life steal can be achieved with Arreat's, and the mana steal is just gravy. This build doesnt need mana steal.
My Barbarian is currently using a Guardian Angel, for the blocking and +15 max resists boni, very good armour. If I was very rich and I could have any item I wanted though, I'd use an Arkaine's Valor. Delicious defense, +skills, and vitality.
Griswold's Heart If you're a very rich man, put 2 40/15 jewels and an um in this.
Black Hades Same as above.
Duriel's Shell very good bonuses for this build, good defense, +life, +str, + all resists, and cannot be frozen. It's too bad its so ugly.
The Gladiator very good defense, but not enough bonuses for this build.
Shaftstop same deal as Vampiregaze. Still, a very good armour.
Naj's Plate a very good option too. The +1 skills, nice defense, +life and resistances will help you greatly.
There are, however, many more options : Smoked elite armor, Godly elite armor of X... I've listed what i consider the best mantles an iron barb could wish for, though they're too many to list here.
The ideal sword for this build would be a triple-Ohm'ed CCSoQ. Most people dont have this though (including me), so ill suggest more realistic items.
A Doombringer is a very, very good option. Pretty much anything with high damage and speed is very nice for an iron barb. And to any barb.
Bul-Kathos' swords are a nice option too, especially the colossus blade, for the crushing blow bonus.
Bloodletter, Headstriker, Plague Bearer, Swordguard... all exceptional unique swords are good for a leveling iron barb.
Shael'ed Schaeffer's Hammer. Putting a shael in a Schaeffer's may seem like blasphemy, but you want as much speed as you can get. I dont really have to explain why Schaeffer's though, do I?
A Fury Scourge is a good option too. So is a Black Scourge.
Aldur's Rhythm, Earthshaker, Baezil's Vortex...
You want a Cruel Berserker Axe of Quickness. You must have a cruel berserker axe of quickness. A cruel berserker axe of quickness is all you'll ever want or need.
A Fury runeworded one handed elite axe will do nicely too.
My barbarian used and is still using a PDiamond'ed Gerke's Sanctuary shield. Excellent blocking, very nice defense, and a good resistance bonus.
The ideal shield, however, and you've probably guessed it already, is a Stormshield. Very nice defense, blocking, resistance boni, +30 strength, and the 35% PDR. Not very useful to us, but still a nice thing to have.
Taebaek's Glory ward. Why? Because. Go see it.
Dual-Um'ed or most likely PDiamond'ed Moser's. Good blocking, nice defense, and huge resistance bonus.
Gore Riders. All you want with this build is to wear Gore Riders. Trust me. The crushing blow will be extremely helpful to you, and will allow you to kill things much faster. They also have good speed, and very nice defense.
Another very good option is War Travelers, for the huge damage bonus (though its not as good as good 'ol crushing blow), strength and vitality, and magic find, apart from the good defense and speed boni.
My barbarian is currently using Godly Crusader Gauntlets of Alacrity. Try to get gloves like these, with good enhanced defense and IAS.
Laying of Hands are another very good option for hand equipment.
So are Lava Gout gloves. Other options worth mentioning are crafted blood and safety gloves. The "Chance of Casting" mod does not work in 1.09d, i mean, the skill itself is cast but it deals no damage at all.
Safety Gloves are a good option if you play single player and have the option of playing 1.09b, because of their chance of casting frost nova. I believe the recipe also comes with an enhanced defense mod.
Thundergod's Vigor. You want it, you need it.
Trang-Oul's Girth is another very, very good option(quite possibly even better than thundergod's) with boni as good as these : +66 to life, cannot be frozen, good defense, replenish life, and plus mana. And the defense is as good as it gets.
My barbarian is currently using an 8/15 String of Ears, the life steal is a must for any melee build, even if theyre as good tanks as iron barbs.
One Raven Frost, and a Bul-Kathos. Cannot be frozen, huge +dex, cold damage, cold absorb, + 1 to skills, + life, + mana, life steal, and huge + ar.
Other good options are Blood Rings.
There is no ideal amulet for this build. Almost any of the popular amulets will do this barbarian much good, although i really like the idea of a Cat's Eye, because of the IAS bonus, the run/walk bonus, and the big +25 dexterity.
A crafted Blood Amulet may also be an excellent idea : Life steal, +life, it may come out prismatic, have + skills, and also mana steal. Yum.
Highlord's Wrath is also a good option, because of the IAS, the +skills, the lightning resistance and the deadly strike. Yes, deadly strike is indeed bugged on barbarians, making each strike a deadly one. This will change in 1.10.
Not very good mercenaries for this build. Though the high damage, fast sniping may be very nice to some other builds, it is not necessary to our big guy.
These are the guys you want. A might-enchanted one, more specifically. You will want, and you will need the extra punch provided by these guys. A defiant mercenary does indeed increase defense marvelously, but it wouldn't be that useful. Not much gets through you once you reach the 15k mark, so pushing it over that would not be that rewarding. Although an HF merc would normally be good to a melee build, our barbarians do not need the slowing effect of their auras. Even at their fastest, monsters will not be hitting you more than once every 10 swings. What you want is a might mercenary, especially since you'll be using a shield, and will thus be dealing less damage than a 2 hander would.
The only useful one i could think of would be the cold mercenary, and as with the HF ac2 mercenary, his freezing skills would not be of important use to your barb.
Ahh, a fellow barbarian. How beautiful, two young barbarians adventuring in the diabloII world, taking on the armies of evil. Not. The only reason people hire Act5 barbarians is because theyre very good tanks and can deal a very decent amount of physical damage. You are your own act5 barbarian.
As with any melee build, the iron barbarian has a very easy start. Develop your dex and str early enough, grab a sword, and decapitate things. The iron barb is identical to his peers when it comes to gameplay until he hits 18. At that level, decisions are made. Instead of just putting one point into concentrate and using it until you hit your higher level combat skill, you will stick to it, and already, you will have a tanking advantage over your fellow melee characters. You'll be swinging for good damage, good attack rating, and achieving very superior defensive rating. Act1 and 2 were a breeze, time to move on to the much-hated (except for me and that other guy) act3 jungles. What seems like hundreds upon hundreds of little midgets will swarm toward you, and try to stab you. It won't be happening. The only concern you will have in this act is the shamans' inferno, and the priests' blizzard.
The only melee monster you will ever have to truly fear with this build will be the infectious undead stygian doll. Explosion upon death. Whee. Do not, under any circumstance, try to take a unique doll, especially if you play HC. A regular doll wont do much damage, even in hell mode ( i would say about 300-500) but its better to just avoid them all together. Act4, the only place you should fear in this act is the chaos sanctuary, because of IM. Resistances are always an issue there, but with a shield, they should be high enough. The strategy with Diablo is simple : rush the bastard, yell battle cry, and swing away. Thats all there is to it. Act5 is a walk in the park for most builds, and the iron barb is indeed included in the lot. Frenzytaurs will not be a problem to this man.
The ancients shouldnt be too much of a problem either, even in hell mode (my barbarian was level 78 when he took them on, not specially nasty mods, but they just couldnt hit him). Baal is a joke. Nihlathak, on the other hand, is not. If you're planning to take revenge on the old man (in nightmare and hell, his damage is almost non-existant in normal mode) i would suggest you wear as much PDR as possible and be sure your fire resistance is maxed out.
As said before, this build is intended to create the most successful tanking build in the game. As such, the following is how i planned my skills out accordingly. Remember this is the way I did it, and that if you believe that you need to make your barbarian more offensive early on, please go ahead and do so. First, put the 10 points in your chosen mastery, while getting your pre-requisites at the same time. After that, you'll be able to put on concentrate, ironskin, and battle cry. As soon as you get level 1 BO, put in it until you reach 29. When you reach 30, put in natural resistances and the one point in berserk. Put on natural resistances until its level reaches 6. After that, put on battle orders until maxed. This should be done before entering nightmare. Your killing power will indeed be lower than that of a barbarian with maxed concentrate, but your life will be far higher. If you do this, your life should easily reach or even surpass the 1k mark before you enter nightmare mode. After bo is done, max concentrate, then ironskin, then shout last.
I have now supplied you with the basic knowledge obtained from my experience as a HC iron barb player. This is by no means a boring build. I have enjoyed this barbarian as much as ive enjoyed other builds, perhaps even more. Good luck with your barbarian, and may the ancients smile upon his destiny.
Happy tanking!!
Please email me your thoughts on the guide and the build. I'd also be more than happy to know if you followed it, and if you're currently enjoying your barbarian :) Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks!