Frenzy Barbarian Build Guide - D2R 2.6 - Beginner Friendly

Build Introduction

The Frenzy Barb is a very popular and super fun melee build. It moves with lightning fast speed, has a very unique clickfest playstyle, and cuts through enemy monsters in a portion of a second. The build’s main strength is the huge single target damage combined with plenty of blows every second. With some Crushing Blow % on your gear you will be able to farm any Boss, including Uber Tristram. Frenzy can boost your movement speed by up to 200%, so it’s safe to say this build is the best sprinter. There are several effective gearing options, the build is a doable ladder starter, and every party loves a barbarian with a high level Battle Orders. On Hardcore Baalruns you will most likely be the one to run to Throne of Destruction and open a town portal for the other party members. In addition you can also put a point on Find Item and pick corpses for their extra loot.

Related Guides

Mercenary Guide | Magic Find Guide | Charms Guide | Quest Rewards Guide | Hardcore Guide | Levelling Guide | Secret Cow Level Guide | Restating and Skilling Guide | Item Upgrade Guide | Cube Recipe Guide |

Gameplay

Attacking skills: Frenzy is the build’s primary attacking skill. Playing with this barb is very action packed, you will have to click a lot. If you face physical immune monsters, you can use Berserk as your attacking skill to deal magic damage instead. Frenzy allows for very fast attacks and insanely fast run speed, so despite only being able to attack one monster at a time, you can clear areas fairly quickly.

Movement: Optimally you should wear an Enigma and use both teleport and Frenzy’s incredibly fast running ability. Combined with some extra faster run and walk on your gear, and a skill point on Increased speed you will barely be able to keep up with the action. If you want to be faster than Usain Bolt, you could even try to use an Act1 Mercenary with a Harmony bow that provides you Vigor Aura to further boost your movement speed.

Optionally if you cannot afford an enigma you could put a point on Leap and jump over obstacles, or have a point on Whirlwind and spin through them.

Survivability: Barbarians have great survivability, and the Frenzy barb is no exception. Frenzy requires dual wielding, so you won’t be able to block attacks. If you want to make your build defensive, wear a Crown of Ages and a String of Ears belt to increase your physical damage resistance, and use Fortitude Sacred Armor to achieve high defense and reduce enemy melee damage. Have 75% all resistances on hell, and if needed, wear jewelry with elemental damage absorption. Although none of these options are budget friendly, you could also try utilizing defensive weapons, like Phoenix with it’s Redemption aura, Fortitude for the extra defense, Doom for the Holy Freeze aura that slows enemy monsters, Last Wish for it’s Fade and Life Tap cast chance

Party and Solo play: Party and Solo play is basically the same, just make sure to help your party members by casting Battle Orders, Shout and Battle Command on them. You will be able to cut through any monster even in a 8 player game with decent enough gear. 

Magic Find: If you want to use the build for Magic Find, it can be quite strong at the early days of a new ladder season. You will have great survivability, will run to bosses with lightning fast speed, and obliterate them within seconds. Magic Find gearing options are limited, but you can always rely on 7% MF small charms and a Gheed Fortune to help that.

Stats

Strength: Put just enough points on it to be able to wear your items.

Dexterity: Put just enough points on it to be able to wear your items..

Vitality: Put all the rest of your available points on it.

Energy: Don’t put any points on it

Skills

• 20 points on Frenzy +1 point on prerequisite skills

• 20 points on Double Swing

• 20 points on Taunt

• 1 point on Berserk + 1 point on prerequisite skills

• 1 point on Leap (Optional)

• 20 points on your preferred Weapon Mastery

• 1 point on Increased Stamina, Increased Speed, Iron Skin and Natural Resistances (if you play Hardcore you should max out Iron Skin and put less points on Frenzy synergies)

• 1 point on Shout (if you play Hardcore you should max it out and put less points on Frenzy synergies)

• 1 point on Battle Command + 1 point on prerequisite skills

• Optionally you can put a point on Find Potion and Find Item

Breakpoints - Check out our Barbarian Breakpoints guide.

Items, Gearing

The listed items are organized by slots. 

• The usefulness rating of an item is based on how good it is for farming. 

• The price rating reflects the cost of the item (cheaper ones are available after ladder starts as budget options) higher price ratings reflect exponentially higher cost for an item.

• Magic Find ratings are added to items that are good options for MFing.

Adding sockets and improving your items

• If you complete the act5 quest Siege on Harrogath, Larzuk will grant extra socket/sockets to your items. Use the quest to add sockets to your gear and put useful jewels, runes or gems in your item sockets.

• You can also upgrade your unique items from normal to exceptional quality and from exceptional to elite by using Horadric Cube recipes. After upgrading, your armor pieces will have more defense, and your weapon pieces will have more damage. The downside of upgrading is the increased strength/dexterity requirements.

Helm

• Guillaume’s face set helm  - usefulness 10/10, price 4/10

Amulet

• Any amulet with +1-2 to barbarian skills - usefulness 4/10, price 1/10

• Angelic Wings set amulet - usefulness 7/10, price 2/10

• Highlord's Wrath unique amulet - usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

Weapon

• Oath runeword - usefulness 6/10, price 5/10

• Azurewrath unique weapon - usefulness 5/10, price 5/10

• Grief Phase Blade - usefulness 10/10, price 7/10

• Death Berserker Axe - usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

• Last Wish runeword in phase blade - usefulness 10/10, price 10/10

2nd Weapon

• Headstriker unique weapon - usefulness 4/10, price 2/10

• Lawbringer runeword - usefulness 6/10, price 5/10

• Crescent Moon Phase Blade - usefulness 6/10, price 5/10

• Grief Phase Blade - usefulness 10/10, price 7/10

• Last Wish runeword in phase blade - usefulness 10/10, price 10/10

Switch Weapon

• Spirit Crystal Sword - Usefulness 7/10, price 4/10

• Heart of the Oak Flail - Usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

2nd Switch Weapon

• Lacerator unique weapon - Usefulness 10/10, price 3/10

Body Armor

• Myth runeword - usefulness 4/10, price 3/10

• Treachery Archon Plate - usefulness 7/10, price 4/10

• Duress Archon Plate -usefulness 8/10, price 5/10 

• Fortitude Archon Plate - usefulness 10/10, price 7/10

• Enigma Archon Plate - usefulness 10/10, price 8/10

Belt

• String of Ears unique belt - usefulness 10/10, price 4/10

• Verdungo's Hearty Cord unique belt - usefulness 10/10, price 5/10

Rings

• Angelic Halo set ring -usefulness 7/10, price 2/10

• Raven Frost unique ring - usefulness 9/10, price 4/10

• Dual leech Rare or Crafted ring - usefulness 10/10, price varies

Gloves

• Venom Grip unique gloves - usefulness 5/10, price 2/10

• Laying of Hands set gloves - usefulness 8/10, price 3/10

• Dracul's Grasp unique gloves - usefulness 10/10, price 5/10

Boots

• Rare boots with 30% faster run and walk and resistances - usefulness 4/10, price 3/10

• Waterwalk unique boots - usefulness 5/10, price 4/10

• Gore Rider unique oots - usefulness 10/10, price 5/10

Charms

• Any charm with +skill, life, faster hit recovery or faster run and walk - usefulness 4/10, price 1/10

• Annihilus unique small charm - usefulness 10/10, price 8/10

• Hellfire Torch unique large charm - usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

• Magic grand charms with max damage and attack rating - usefulness 7/10, price 5/10

• Magic grand charms with max damage, attack rating and +life, +faster hit recovery or +faster run and walk - usefulness 8 to 10/10, price 6 to 10/10

• Magic small charms with resistances and life - usefulness 8 to 10/10, price 6 to 9/10

• 7% to magic find magic small charms - magic find 10/10, price 3/10

• Gheed’s fortune unique grand charm - magic find 10/10, price 4/10

Mercenary

Have a Nightmare Act2 Offensive Mercenary to provide you with Might aura. 

Ethereal items don’t lose durability if your mercenary wears them, so having ethereal item bases for each gear slot is preferred due to their increased defense on armor items and increased damage on weapons. In many instances ethereal items that are great for mercenaries will be much more expensive than non-ethereal ones.

Mercenary gear:
Helm - 

• Any 3 socketed helm with 3 perfect diamond to increase mercenary resistances and survivability - usefulness 5/10, price 1/10

• Tal Rasha’s set helm - usefulness 6/10, price 3/10

• Vampire Gaze unique helm - usefulness 7/10, price 4/10

• Guillaume’s face set helm - usefulness 8/10, price 4/10

• Andariel’s Visage unique helm - usefulness 10/10, price 5/10

Weapon - 

• Insight Ethereal Cryptic Axe - usefulness 6/10, price 3/10

• Ethereal The Reaper’s Toll unique weapon - usefulness 9/10, price 6/10

• Pride runeword in elite base -  usefulness 10/10, price 8/10

Body Armor-

• Treachery Archon Plate - usefulness 9/10, price 4/10

• Fortitude Ethereal Archon Plate - usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

Alternate Mercenary

You can also hire an Act1 Rogue with a Faith runeword bow to provide you Fanaticism aura. Wear an Andariel’s Visage and an ethereal Treachery or Fortitude armor.

Rpgstash.com will have D2R items in its Ladder selection already on day 1. We will be doing our best to let you buy 2.4 ladder items right at the beginning of the season including the new runewords, so you can climb the ladder rankings as fast as possible!

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