Barbarian Singer Guide, by Asian_Menace

[FWI]

FWI DID NOT WRITE, EDIT, OR REVISE ANY SECTION OF THIS GUIDE. THIS GUIDE HAS NOT BEEN EDITED, AND WAS POSTED WITH WRITTEN CONSENT OF ITS AUTHOR, Asian_Menace.

I: Introduction
a) pro’s and con’s
b) Why a singer?
c) The Method behind the Madness
II: Outlining the build
a) Skills
b) Stat points
c) More stat tables…
d) Leveling
III: Items
a) but i'm poor ...
IV: PvM

V: Dueling
a) sorceresses
b) necro
c) assasins
d) paladins
e) amazons
f) barbarians
g) druids
VI: Disclamer & Special Thanks


Introduction:


The singer is one of the most unusual characters in the game; I mean for god’s sake, it’s a caster barb! Utilizing the war cry tree, it achieves insane stun length, stacked resists, insanely high life, and a really fast teleport and cast rate!
Pro’s and Con’s

Pros
Stacked resists with basic equipment
Insane stun length
Faster cast rate that rivals a sorceress
Insane amounts of life
Not the most expensive dueler in comparison to other builds
Decimates casters as well as other builds short on FHR
It’s a freaking caster barb!

Cons
Requires a lot of mana
Isn’t a 1hit kill build
Requires sometimes 20+ hits to kill (But they will be immoble for the 20 hits :P)
You will drink mana pots a lot
Item dependent
Very skill dependent
You may be disappointed by the damage
Does not fare well against melee characters (unless you’re Raz)

Why a singer?

Well, I have recently built a singer after getting horribly bored of many other characters. The singer, for me, is just a fun and exciting character to duel with! You also get worshiped in team play because of your level 45+ battle orders.

Now I have never liked melee barbs; all you do is hack and slash, not very exciting in my opinion. Also, after playing many elemental sorceresses, I have grown bored of them, and I’m sure many of you have fared the same.

The last and my personal favorite point is that you get the satisfaction of owning 20k dmg fireball and 50k damage lightning sorceresses with a CASTER BARB! And that makes me feel good every time.

The method behind the madness

So, in building a singer, we are attempting to create the perfect caster vs caster build. With this, we need a character that can stack resists, keep up with teleing, and STOP people from teleing. We also need a character that does not need to go through extreme gear switching to adapt to different elemental builds.

Much like trapper assassins, as well as raz’s bomber, this build aims to go after a much neglected part of character building, Faster Hit Recovery. A singer’s war cry doesn’t do much damage on its own; however, you can keep someone in a perpetual stun lock easily, ending the duel.

In a singer also lies versatility. You have the freedom to teleport out of any bad situation you may come across, and your utterly insane life gives you a huge safety when you make a mistake.

Also, here's a quote from raz, a good one IMO, outlining the basic singer:


Quote:
Originally Posted by RazieL
The Singer is perfectly straight forward: Vitality, War cry & Synergies, and Battle Orders. It is a pure skill build and the epitemy of "TECH".




Outlining the build:

Skills:

As with any character, a singer requires select skills to do your bidding. Of course, certain skills take priority over others. This is your priority:

1: War cry
2: Battle Orders (One may argue to max this last, but for party play, maxing 2nd or even first is a grea idea)
3: War cry Synergies
4: One point wonders

Now for you noobs out there, let me tell you a little about each skill:

1- Warcry – This is our main damage skill, which will reach extremely high levels; level 40+.
At level 20, it does a mere 177-188 without synergies. Pitiful damage really, but the 4.8 second Stun length offsets that a little. With all synergies at level 20, we do 690-736 damage, a big improvement. However, with all gear on, all + skills, and battle commands on, we will be doing 1656-1702 damage.
The above number is a level 42 warcry, and for level 42, it does not do a lot of damage, however, The singer barb is not based around damage, it is based around another bonus provided by warcry: stun. At level 42, we are stunning for 9.2 seconds, an utterly insane length.

2- Battle Orders – This is the second ingredient that makes a singer so good. Battle orders is a warcry, so naturally, it will gain levels from all your equipment and GCs. With all gear on, as well as two warcry spears, you will have a level 48 battle orders, which increases life and mana by a whopping 176%, and it will last for 8 1/2 minutes. This will push your life easily over the 6k mark. If you were to use all perfect life GCs and perfect equipment, you would have 9k life.

3 – Warcry synergies – Duh, max them for more damage. You wont use these skills to often, but the effects of battle cry can have some good effects on opponents, by completely decimating their defense and damage.

4 – One point wonders – Ahh, there are a few we will be focusing on: Shout can triple your defense, increasing your survival rate against melee attackers, Iron skin even further increases your defense, and natural resists, increases your resistances, giving you stacked resists.

Stat points:

Some basic tables on the barbarian:

Starting Attributes Strength: 30
Dexterity: 20
Vitality: 25
Energy: 10

Hit Points: 55
Stamina: 92
Mana: 10
Each Character Level Life +2
Stamina +1
Mana +1

Attribute Point Effect 1 Vitality point gives 4 Life
1 Vitality point gives 1 Stamina
1 Energy point gives 1 Mana


Now according to the above, we can come to the following conclusion about life/mana on a barbarian:

Vitality = INSANE
Energy = NOOB

A common mistake in building singers is that people put over 200 into energy. This is totally unacceptable, as 200 into energy is only 200 mere mana, which is the equivilant to 3-4 warcry casts :/. So why in the world are you going to waste 200 into energy when you can turn that into a whopping 800 life?!?!?

So naturally, stats will play out as below:

Strength – Base (If you are using enigma)
Dexterity – Enough to use gear (enough to use your wizzies)
Vitality – ALL!!!! (You should have about 470 BASE when you are done)
Energy – none (With two wizzies, you’ll live…)

More stat tables…

Barb FHR table

9 frames = 0
8 Frames = 7
7 Frames = 15
6 Frames = 27
5 Frames = 48
4 Frames = 86
3 Frames = 200

This build will be trying to hit the 86 breakpoint, which is acceptable, and easily achieved.

Barb FCR table

13 Frames = 0
12 Frames = 9
11 Frames = 20
10 Frames = 37
9 Frames = 63
8 Frames = 105
7 Frames = 200
NOTE: Barb table is the exact same as a sorceress!!!

We will be going for the 8 Frame breakpoint, which is easily achieved without any equipment sacrifices whatsoever. One may opt to hit the 7 Frame breakpoint, which creates insane speed at the sacrifice of damage and other gear.

Leveling the character:

You will remain quite unactive in the early portions of the game. You will have no main attack other than a sub-par basic melee hit. You will find yourself frequently casting battle orders and shout for your party and sitting out the rest of the game.
When leveling, work on synergies for warcry and put one point in shout until you reach level 24. Once you hit level 24, max battle orders and put one point into warcry. NOTE: warcry will be too weak at this point to serve a purpose. It will be mainly used for stunning enemies so your party can finish them off.
Keep working on synergies and battle orders until you can equip your wizzies. Now, you will not have any giant mana problems, and you can proceed to max warcry. At this time, you may put one point into Iron skin and natural resists.
In terms of gear to use, equip anything that gives + skills until you hit some of the final gear choices.


Items


The singer is very item dependent, as warcry is very weak without + skills. I will list gear choices from best to worst. I will not list cheaper options, as this build is dependent on items to function well.

Weapons:

Dual Wizardspikes (Hel’d) – These will net you stacked resists, insane mana, and an inane 100% FCR. I hel’d mine, however, the superior choice is socketing each with a 15 resist/-15% requirements jewel, however, you may find them to be extremely expensive.

Dual Hotos – The +3 skills and resists are good, however, the lack of a substantial mana bonus is painful.

Helm:

Arreat’s Face – It took Raziel to knock some sense into me to use this. +2 skills, resists, strength/dex bonus, and the all important, 30% Faster Hit Recovery. Any barb without this is a sitting duck for mindblast and other spells. Socket it with an UM rune or shael rune for better effect.

Shako – Lacks FHR, which hurts a lot. Other than that, the +2 skills, damage reduction, and insane mana/life bonuses are gravy.

Belt:

Arachnid Mesh – There is no substitute, the +1 skills is amazing, and the 20% FCR puts you at the 8 fps casting breakpoint.

Verdungo’s Hearty Chord – Good for the life and DR. Subpar to Arachs however…

Gloom’s Trap – Just for the mana. Use this as a last resourt.

Gloves:

Bloodfist – This is mainly for the FHR, however, the +40 life makes this good deal even better.

Frostburns – Just for the mana, however, it lacks important FHR.
Magefist/trang gloves – Mainly for the FCR, however, with Wizzies and Arachs, you will already have broken the all important 8 fps cast breakpoint, making the FCR worthless. However, if you are going for a 200 FCR singer (7 FPS breakpoing o_O), you have to use one of these.

Boots:

Waterwalks – The + strength and dex make this boot reign king, however, the +65 life kicks all other boots of the cliff.

Sandstorm Treck – The + strength and dex mods are good, but instead of the +65 life waterwalks gives, these boots give FHR and nice poison resists. Better keep a pair of these in the stash.

Rings:

Stone of Jordan – Irriplacable for the +1 skill and the insane mana bonus

FCR/+ mana rings – If you are going for the 200FCR breakpoint, get one of these. If not, sojs are completely superior.

Bul-Kathos Wedding Band – You need mana provided by sojs more than the life provided by these. Use these as a last resourt.

Amulet:
Maras – Great for the +2 skills, +5 stats, and resists. Keep in stash against cold sorceresses who have that nasty Cold Mastery.

+3 Warcry ammy – I like to use this against everything but cold sorceresses. It makes for a good prebuff ammy as well. If it has +dex, mana, or FCR, all the better!

20% FCR ammy – Mandatory for the 200FCR build. If it has + skills on it, it makes it so much better!

Other +skill amulets work as well if they have decent mods.

Inventory:

Warcry Grand charms – Use a few FHR ones, preferably 3-4, and the rest can be lifers. If you aren’t that rich (like myself), use all plain

Anni – Duh… Stats, resists, and skills ^_^

Small charms – Small charms depend on preference. The best choice (although horribly expensive) is 9x 70/15’s. 20 life, 17 mana, or 5 resist Scs work fine as well.

But I’m poor

Well, for those unfortunate, there is another option, the 200% FCR option.

Have you ever seen a 200% FCR sorceress? Flying around the screen so fast that you can’t react? Well a singer can do this too, AT THE SAME SPEED!

Gear as follows:

Dual Wizzies (100% FCR)
Enigma OR Vipermagi OR Enigma (0-30% FCR)
Arachnids (20% FCR)
Trangs or Magefists (20% FCR)
FCR ammy (20% FCR)
FCR rings (20% FCR)
shako or FCR circlet (0-20% FCR)
Waterwalks (0% FCR)

Try to get as many GCs as you can get a hold of.

All this adds up to 230% FCR, so we can eliminate one item. If you are richer, use enigma instead of vipermagi for an insanely fast teleport. If you are poor, you may consider dropping Arachs or the FCR circlet.

With this build, you will be casting really fast, however, your damage will lack. Mana is needed to compensate for the lack of effectiveness of your spells


PvM


Once you are finished with the build, this character can stand in the middle of baal’s minions or the chaos sanctuary and never die. You will have over 6-7k life, and your warcry will stun monsters for 8-11 seconds.

However, because of the low damage, you won’t get too far on your own. You will be able to kill efficiently in normal and nightmare, however in the later acts of hell, your 2k warcry won’t get you very far without casting it an insane amount of times. In reality, you are more of a “party person”, because all of your skills save your allies from getting their asses kicked.

Your battle orders will increase life by 170%+, and hammerdins will jump with joy. Your warcry will let other melee characters hack and slash without worrying about getting chopped into bits. You are a tank for backfield casters, who are prone to attacks. People will love you!

However, don’t let the low damage discourage you, you own in the realm of PvP, especially against gay casters!

[FWI]

V: Dueling:


This is mainly a build geared to destroy casters, however, I will be posting strategies against melee characters. Keep in mind that you will not have much success against melee characters with good gear.

Keep the following in your stash: (suggestions assuming you are playing 1x absorb item limit: rule common in many private dueling leagues)

Maras
1x Whisp protector
1x Raven Frost
1x Hotspur boots
Resist ScS (Prismatic or with cold or lightning resist)
FHR scs
Um’d and Shael’d arreats


Vs. casters, anyone can stack absorb and win, however, because of my personal ethics, and the fact that dueling leagues don’t accept insane absorb, I will keep gear switching to a minimum. Heck, you will rarely need it!

Sorceress:

Fireball:

For the most part, you will be able to tank fireballs. This matchup is fairly good for
you, however, equipping hotspur boots makes it GG.

Lets say a fireball sorceress does 20k damage. Due to the PvP penalty, it does 3,400 damage. Now, with hotspurs on, you will have 90% Fire resists stacked. 3,400 becomes a mere 340 damage, which you can tank easily with over 6k life.

Because of the lack of damage they do against you, you will be on the offensive. Simply try to predict where they tele and let loose a warcry. If you hit them once with warcry, you have plenty of time to follow up before they recover. Then, game over.

Against 200% FCR fire sorcs, predict their tele and cast warcry in advance. If the tele in the warcry circle, you got em! They are fast, watch out. However, they do much less damage than normal fire sorceresses, so you can tank them without a problem


Lightning:

Good ones will do 50k damage, which is hard to tank. You may choose to equip a Whisp protector instead of an soj for added affect

50k damage may seem like a lot, however, lightning has a pitifully low minimum damage. Don’t let numbers scare you

50k damage becomes 8,500 damage with the penalty, and goes down to a mere 2,125 after 75 resists. If you were to get 90 resists or some absorb, the damage would be next to nothing. Keep in mind that the numbers listed are the MAX DAMAGE numbers.

You will be able to tank for the most part, but don’t get too comfortable; a couple of lucky high damage shots can send you ailing.
Again, just try to get them with one warcry. Once you do, GG

Cold:

The one matchup that you may require more resists and absorb, for cold mastery sends your resists plummeting. Don’t let the resist display fool you, the actual number could be -200% lower.

Stack up on your resist charms, put on maras, and you may choose to equip a raven or two. (Two is illegal in fair dueling leagues) Natural resists will help you stack even more.

If the sorceress is a blizzard sorc, they can kill you fast. It may take 2-4 hits for them to finish you off.

If against an orb sorc, you are at ease. Teleing away from the orb will let you escape relatively unharmed.

Like the other sorceresses, try to get a warcry on them.

Necromancers:

Poison:

Laugh in their faces, their poison nova does absolutely nothing. If they cast lower resist on you, you still have 75+ stacked resists in hell. Put on sandstorm trecks for the GG.

Tank em, and warcry em. Very simple, and effective. It is good to catch them while they are recasting their golem.

Beware of bone armor, if they are using the marrow bug (which is illegal in most dueling leagues), their bone armor will absorb your warcry. Warcry should wear it down fast, unless they keep recasting it *cough*BM*cough*.

Still, bone armor won’t be very strong.

Bone:

Very, very annoying, especially if they are utilizing the marrow bug. They will use bone armor, and they will use it to annoy the living heck out of you.

If you are playing in a league (Which means no marrows and no bone armor recasting), wear down their bone armor slowly. You should have enough life to tank 7-8 spirits, so don’t be stupid.

Once you hit the soft, juicy center with warcry, GG.

Summoners:

This is your best matcup, and a fun one too. You can do so much to them, that they will break down sobbing at the keyboard.

You have a faster tele, utilize this fully

Howl makes their skellies run away for 40 seconds+. You will have a lot of fun with this…

Warcry completely immobilizes their army, as well as them

Again, beware of the marrow bug + bone armor, however, it will be much weaker than the bone necro’s.

Assasins:

Lightning Trappers:

Interesting duel. Their lightning traps won’t do too much damage (about ~400 max damage each, less if you are using absorb) however, their mindblast can hurt.

Against a trapper who is camping within his own trap field, I recommend teleing in and out of the trap field to waste some of the trap charges. Teleport very randomly, you do not want to get hit by mindblast. It is a good idea to catch him while he is recasting his traps and warcry on him. This will immobilize him, and you can tank his 1-2 traps that are out at the moment while you lock him down.

A trapper who is chasing after you is much easier to fight. They will not be in their trap field often. Lure them into chasing you, then turn back and warcry him. GG

NOTE: It is a very good Idea to get 200% FHR when fighting trappers. Get some FHR GCs and small charms, and switch to your shael'd arreats

Fire trappers:

Again, their fire traps will do next to nothing to you (wake of fire does less than 50 damage a shot without absorb. Less with hotspurs) However, they can put you into mindblast lock easy and fast. Once in the lock, it will be very hard to get out, and they will make it worse by tossing in 6-7k fire bombs, which will still deal ~300 damage.

Use the same tactics as a lightning trapper, except be alert. Once you get mindblasted, you have a poor chance of winning.

No good fire trapper will ever be offensive. If you have one chasing after you however, turn back and tank him, he will be a noob.

200% FHR here is also a good idea.

Again, it takes one warcry to have him in a lock of pain.

WWsins

Very, very annoying, but not impossible. You cannot be stunned in WW animation, and they will use it to piss you off.

The worst thing is their claw block, which can block your warcry 60% of the time at high levels. Stunlocking them is hard, really hard.

If they are just Wwing at you and doing nothing else, you have a tough match of attrition ahead of you. Simply wear down their life one warcry at a time. Never stay put, cause their WW hurts!

Against a more defensive Wwsin, who is seeking to stunlock you, teleport in and out of the traps fast. If you catch him while he’s casting, you will be able to hit him a few times.

If they DF you, RUN! If you warcry them, they will block it, and WW right in to you. The ones with good reflexes won’t even give you a chance to warcry before they are tearing you apart.

You have a lot of life, but it can go away fast! You may be able to tank quite a few whirlwinds. Use your survivability to your advantage.

Martial Artists

They have claw block, watch out! You will be able to tank them for the most part, so just keep warcrying!

Ghost sins:

Like a Wwsin, but 10 times worse for you…

They have the advantage of mobility, and they can catch up to you fast.

The best strategy is to predict it’s teleport, as you can get a few cheap shots in if you catch them off guard.

Paladins:

Hammerdin:

Sneak in to the hammer holes and warcry. This will seal the deal most of the time.

Good hammerdins do around 12k damage, which becomes 2k after the PvP penalty. This way, you will be able to take 3-4 hammers before you kick the bucket. Don’t be stupid!

FoH:

With their convition, you will need to stack some resist. Go ahead and get your maras, resist SCs, and Um’d Arreats out. This should provide a lot of relief. If you choose to equip a whisp protector, it will help you a lot.

Convition will do -150 resists at most. Counteract this accordingly.

Their FOH will do 4-6k. After PvP penalty, that’s about 1k damage. 1k becomes 250 if you have good resists. Remember, get high resists!

Try to predict their tele and go in for the kill with warcry.

Hybrids (V/t, mage, ect.)

Beware, they hurt!

They are all about unpredictability, so don’t go looking for patterns.

The only advice I can give you is to play very conservatively…

Chargers:

Beware, you have no blocking!

They will hurt, a lot. If you want to equip a shield, do so.

Tele out of their namelock range, then come in very randomly and warcry. If you get them in stunlock, it will help a lot.

Zealers:

Very hard duel. Period.

I have not found a good consistent way to beat them yet.

Amazons:

Bowazon:

Their arrows hurt, but behind that is a meaty juicy center. Warcry it for the win.
You will dodge arrows rather easily with teleport. Just head right to them.

Teleporting in a semicircle approach to them is the best way to kill them.

CS Zons

Haven’t found one yet!

However, basically, you want to wear down their life slowly

If you get them in stunlock, Have fun!

Barbarians:

WWbarbs

Definetely your worst matchup. WW cannot be interrupted, and worst of all, by switching to 2 wizzies, they can catch up to you very easily.

Pray, and wear down their life one warcry at a time…

Concentrate barbs:

I haven’t faced one yet, and I am not familiar with their capabilities in dueling

I cannot help you here

Singers

The mirror match is always fun.

Stack on FHR, and may the best reflexes win!

Druids

Wind Druids:

Tele right next to them and lock them down.

After a while, cast howl on their spirit, to get rid of it.

Keep spamming warcry for the win

Their tornado can do up to 1k damage to you, beware!

Don’t tele in their hurricane, or you can be locked down

Fire Druids:

Very annoying, a stray armageddon meteor from above can ruin your day.

Beware of volcano, it can kill.

Approach these like a windy druid, except tele a little away from them to hit them with the middle part of warcry.

Rabies druid:

Their rabies will bring you down to 1 health. Beware!

Locking them down with warcry however solves all problems.

Fury druid

Get rid of their oak sage and lock them down.

This is a very uneventful duel.

Locking them down can be harder than I make it seem. Don’t take this match like a cakewalk


VI: Disclamers and Special thanks


This guide is the work of myself, and do not duplicate it without consulting me.

Works Consulted:

http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread...8155#post448155 - For FCR tables

http://www.forumplasma.com/viewtopi...4d535e0413c5af8 - for inspiration and an outline

http://www.battle.net/forums/board....mName=d2-skills - For learning how to construct a guide effectively


Special thanks to Raziel and pwnage1354

[chocofilez]

wow. cool. well, yet another build of yours i want to try. though im gonna hold it as i already hae like 3 dueling characters to build and all are super expensive!