Barbarian Build Guide Diablo 2 Resurrected | Frenzy Barbarian

Barbarian Build Guide Diablo 2 Resurrected Frenzy Barb. This is a Beginner Barbarian Leveling Build that will comfortably get you through Normal, which is the first difficulty of Diablo 2 Resurrected. If you are looking for a Beginner Barbarian Build, and aren’t sure where to begin, then this Diablo 2 Guide is for you. Check out our Diablo 2 Best Builds for more builds for all classes.

Frenzy Barbarian Leveling Build

Class: Barbarian
Skill Line Focus: Combat Skills
Build Focus: DPS
Main Attribute: Vitality
Difficulty Level: Normal
Level: 1-40

Diablo 2 Resurrected Barbarian Build | Frenzy Barb

The Frenzy Barb uses two Maces at the same time to perform quick, powerful attacks to effectively get rid of individual targets. You’ll be using Double Swing and Frenzy as your main skills, and Mace Mastery to further increase your damage and attack rating.

The Barbarian is widely considered to be one of the most difficult classes to start Diablo 2 Resurrected with. This is due to its limited AoE options during early game, its lack of ranged attacks and the item dependency to remain effective during endgame. While this is true to a certain extent, you can still play the Barbarian effectively on your fist Diablo 2 Resurrected run as long as you know where to focus your efforts.

It’s important to note that this Build will only remain viable through the first difficulty (Normal) and up to around Lvl 40. You can still run through Nightmare difficulty if you insist, but I wouldn’t recommend it as you’ll find much better options at that point in the game.

If you are a new player I strongly recommend you save the respec that you get from completing the first quest Den of Evil. If you do, you’ll be able to talk to Akara and respect your character into a different build once you reach Nightmare difficulty.

Barbarian Build Guide Stats | Frenzy Barb

Most Builds in Diablo 2 Resurrected have a Stat distribution that focuses on assigning enough points into Strength to meet equipment requirements, enough Dexterity to reach max Block Chance, and then assigning everything else into Vitality to gain as much Life as possible. And while this is true for most Builds, it can be confusing to decide when you should assign these Attribute Points.

LEVEL 40 BARBARIAN STATS
STRENGTH	60
DEXTERITY	35
VITALITY	175
ENERGY	15

Strength: Strength is a requirement for most equipment pieces of the game. During your first play through, you’ll want to have enough points to slot the best equipment for each act.

Act I: 35 Strength
Act II: 45 Strength
Act III – V: 60 Strength

From here you should only assign points into Strength if you find an Item that is worth the investment. If not, just assign the points into Vitality.

Dexterity: For most Builds Dexterity is important to increase Block Chance when using a Shield, but since you won’t be using one this shouldn’t be a thing to consider.

Dexterity is also important for melee builds as it affects Attack Rating, which is essentially your chance to hit enemies. You should spend 15 points here to reach 35 Dexterity. This will be enough for Attack Rating, as well as to be able to equip the Flail, which will be our main Weapon.

Vitality: All remaining points should be spent here. Increasing Vitality will greatly increase your health pool, which is essential to stay alive against large groups of enemies. Vitality also increases your Stamina, allowing you to run much further without needing to rest.

Energy: This build uses very little mana so you won’t need to assign any points here.

Barbarian Build Guide Skills | Frenzy Barb

As a Frenzy Barb you’ll be focusing on the Combat Skills and Combat Masteries. You’ll use the following Skills when playing this Diablo 2 Resurrected Barbarian Build:

Bash

This skill is a pre-requisite for Double Swing, which will be one of our main skills. You can use it to defeat the more challenging enemies up to level 6 when you unlock Double Swing.

Double Swing

The Barbarian is the only class that can wield two weapons at the same time (one on each hand) with the exception of Assassins using Katars. Being able to use two weapons at the same time not only increases damage, but also allows you to combine powerful weapon and runeword effects that other classes can’t, so Double Swing is a must.

The Double Swing skill allows you to take full advantage of this by performing two quick consecutive attacks (one with each weapon), with increased Attack Rating.

This skill costs 2 mana, which isn’t much but adds up very quickly as you’ll be constantly spamming to defeat enemies. Leveling up the skill will reduce its mana cost and at level 9 the mana cost will be reduced to 0, allowing you to freely spam it without having to worry. You should map this as your default attack as soon as you unlock it.

Leap

This skill allows you to jump to the desired location, dealing knockback damage to all enemies upon landing. While not very useful for combat, this skill is great to navigate the map, allowing you to jump over Jail Bars, Rivers, Doors and even enemies.

You can use Leap to jump away from enemies when surrounded or to reach ranged enemies that are hiding behind melee ones.

Leap is also a great tool to retrieve your body. You’ll usually die surrounded by enemies making it difficult to grab your body back. Just use leap directly on top of your body and enemies will get pushed away when you land, allowing you to safely retrieve your corpse.

Frenzy

Similar to Double Swing, Frenzy takes advantage of dual wielding to perform a powerful quick attack with both weapons.

Each time you successfully hit an enemy, the Barbarian will get into a Frenzied state which will cause him to move and attack much faster than usual. This buff is applied to the character, allowing you to use it on other skills such as Double Swing or Leap.

In general terms, Frenzy is superior to Double Swing and should be used as your main attack move, but its flat 3 mana cost (which remains the same no matter the level) will be a limitation at such early stages of the game.

For this reason, you can perform one or two attacks with Frenzy and then continue attacking with Double Swing which has a 0 mana cost. When Frenzy’s effect runs out, use it again to restore the buff and repeat

Mace Mastery

This Skill passively increases your Mace’s Damage and Attack Rating, which as I previously mentioned is your chance to hit enemies. In addition, it provides you a chance to deal a Critical Strike, which doubles your damage.

The reason why you want to use maces, is because they have a lot of variations and overall better stats during the beginning of the game, especially the Flail.

In Diablo 2 Resurrected all the following Weapon types are considered Maces, so if you happen to find a Set or Unique item of the following categories, then you can use it for this build.

Increased Stamina

This Skill passively increases your Stamina by 30%, which is great during the early stages of the game.

Iron Skin

Assigning 1 point here will passively increase your Defense rating by a massive 30%. Since you’ll be fighting up close, this will greatly increase your overall survivability.

Increased Speed

This skill passively increases your Walk/Run speed, which stacks with Frenzy’s buff and any other equipment you might have, greatly increasing your overall speed.

Natural Resistance

Elemental Resistances are one of the most important stats in the game, and Natural Resistance passively increases all of them making it one of the best Barbarian Skills. Since a good part of your Resistances will come from your equipment I’ll be only assigning 1 point, but if you are lacking Resistances, don’t hesitate to spend points here to compensate for that.

Skill Distribution

For the Skill distribution you’ll want to first focus on the Double Swing Combat Skill and then unlock and starting using Frenzy as soon as you hit lvl 24. For Combat Masteries, you’ll want to spend some points on Mace Mastery and assign 1 point into each other passive as soon as available. Here is a comprehensive guide on how to assign your Skill Points early on:

LEVEL 40 BARBARIAN SKILLS
Level	Points Spent	Skill
2	1	Bash
3-5 and Den of Evil Point	4	Mace Mastery
6	1	Double Swing
7	1	Leap
8-14 and Radament’s Lair Point	8	Double Swing
15	1	Increased Stamina
16-17	2	Mace Mastery
18	1	Iron Skin
19-22	4	Mace Mastery
23	1	Frenzy
24	1	Double Throw (Pre-Requisite)
25	1	Frenzy
26-29	4	Increased Speed
30	1	Natural Resistance
31-40 and The Fallen Angel 2 points	12	Frenzy

Barbarian Build Guide Runewords | Frenzy Barb

Runes are a special type of socketed item that will not only provide unique properties, but that can also be combined with other Runes to create what’s called a Runeword. Runewords can be formed by inserting Runes in a specific order inside certain types of equipment. The Item must be Normal Rarity, able to support the Runeword, and it needs to have the same amount of sockets as Runes are required. Note that some magical items have sockets on them, but even if you put the Runes in the right order the Runeword will not be created and you’ll essentially lose your Runes, so be sure to use Normal Rarity items only.

While Runewords are often referred to as End Game equipment, some of them can be crafted very early into Diablo 2 Resurrected, and should not be so hard to come by. If you are lacking a base, you can check with the merchants as they often sell socketed items, but make sure that they are Normal in rarity.

Runewords are the most reliable way to gear up your character while you advance through the game, so I strongly suggest that you take a look at the complete list on our Wiki and periodically check the runes that you have and the Runewords that you can craft.

Runes can be farmed by doing Countess Runs. The Countess is a Super Unique Monster that can be found inside the Forgotten Tower in Act I. Each time you kill her she will always drop between 1 and 3 Runes and their level will depend on the difficulty setting.

What Equipment To Use

Elemental Resistances are key when trying to survive in Diablo 2 Resurrected. Most enemies deal elemental damage and having high resistances will mitigate a great percentage of this damage. For this reason, I strongly recommend that you focus on equipment pieces that provide +Resistances during the Normal difficulty of the game.

You can check your current resistances by opening the Stat menu and looking at the bottom of the menu. Resistances cap at +75%, and ideally you’ll want to max all of them when you are reaching the end of Normal difficulty. Make sure to periodically check your equipment to balance them out and get them as high as possible.

Since loot is random, you won’t have control over the equipment that you get during early and even mid-stage gameplay other than creating Runewords. Having said that, there are some general guidelines on the Stats that you should be looking for on your items to make sure that your character scales up with the increasing difficulty.

Helmets

Nadir (Runeword): Nef–Tir Runes – Lvl 13. This Helmet provides a good amount of defense as well as +5 Strength, allowing us to save some Stats during early stages. The +2 Mana per kill is also a great way to keep up our Mana reserves between fights.

Lore (Runeword): Ort–Sol Runes – Lvl 27. If you happen to come across a Sol rune then you can use it to craft this helmet which provides +1 to all Skills as well as +30% lightning resistance.

Weapon

As previously mentioned, the Barbarian is the only class that can wield two weapons at the same time. For this reason, you won’t be using a Shield but instead equip 1 mace in each hand. The best early on mace that you can find is the Flail, and you should try to make your Runewords on one of these. You can shop them at Farah in Lut Golein (Act II).

Maces: Since this build is made around the Mace Mastery, you can use any Rare, Set or Unique mace that you might find. Remember that Clubs, Maces, Hammers, Staves, Scepters and Wands are all consider Maces in Diablo 2 Resurrected.

Steel (Runeword): Tir–El Runes – Lvl 13. This is the easiest Runeword Weapon you can craft early on as the runes are very easy to come by. Steel greatly increase our Attack Damage, Attack Rating and Attack Speed making it perfect for our build. It also provides +2 to mana after each kill allowing us to keep spamming Double Swing until we remove the mana cost.

Malice (Runeword): Ith–El–Eth Runes – Lvl 15. This Runeword greatly increases your damage and attack rating, as well as having a 100% chance to apply Open Wounds, which applies a damage over time debuff on enemies.

The downside to this weapon is that you’ll lose 5 hit points each time you attack. This can be managed by either drinking healing potions, or by equipping something with Life Leech.

Armor

Stealth (Runeword): Tal–Eth Runes – Lvl 17. This is by far the best armor that you can get early on. It provides poison resistance and Faster Hit Recovery (FHR), which allows you to recover control of your character sooner after each hit. The FHR is very important, as it usually helps you avoid stun locks when surrounded by enemies.

Gloves

When it comes to gloves you’ll want to focus on defensive stats such as Life and Resistances. Attack rating and increased attack speed are also great mods.

Belt

Make sure to swap your belt as soon as you reach Act 2 for the maximum amount of potions. Regarding stats, you’ll want to focus on Life and Resistances. Some merchants might offer magical belts with a lot of life on them, which are a great option.

Boots

You’ll want to search for Faster Run/Walk speed on your boots as well as Resistances and Life. Run/Walk speed is important to quickly navigate through the map so make sure to get it.

Rings

You’ll want to search for rings that provide life and resistances as well as Attack Rating.

Amulet

Similar to rings, you’ll want to find an amulet that provides Life, resistances or attack rating. An amulet that provides +Combat Skils or +Combat Masteries can also be great for this build.

Charms

You’ll find many Charms as you advance through the game. While having these in your inventory is great, they can easily occupy a lot of space limiting the amount of loot you pick up. Try to focus on +Life, +Resistances and +Magic Find as these are the more important ones for your build.

What Mercenary to Select & Gear to Use

Act 2 Mercenaries are the best choice for all Builds due to their Paladin Auras and the ability to equip Polearm Weapons. Being able to use Polearms is very important, because many powerful Runewords can be created on them providing various buffs or debuffing enemies. You can recruit this Mercenary from Greiz in Lut Gholein.

When it comes to selecting an Aura, you’ll want to select the Prayer Mercenary found on Normal difficulty. The Prayer Aura provides heal regeneration allowing you to survive longer without using Potions. Once you reach Nightmare difficulty, you can hire a Holy Freeze Aura Mercenary, which slows enemies around you providing great crowd control.

You won’t have a lot of spare equipment during the beginning of Diablo 2 Resurrected, but you can equip him with any extra equipment you have or buy him a Polearm from a merchant. If you happen to spare some Runes, make sure to craft an Insight (Runeword) on a Polearm, as this Weapon will greatly increase your Mercenaries’ combat capabilities.

Final Tips

Doing a couple of Countess Runs will give you a lot of Runes that will not only be useful for this Build, but for any other character that you might make. Make sure to save all Runes that you find inside your Stash.

If you are having trouble finding a base for your Runewords, make sure to periodically check on merchants as they usually have good bases.

You can assign your Double Swing or Frenzy attacks to the normal attack slot, allowing you to only swap between your complementary Skills. You can attack from your current position by holding shift on PC. If you’re using controller, this will not be an issue for you, however.

The Leap skill allows you to navigate through many obstacles like cell bars, rivers and even the tunnels of the Maggot Lair on act II, saving you a lot of time.

Barbarian performance heavily relies on its equipment, so don’t hesitate to swap to a different Mace and re-craft your Runewords if you feel you are lacking damage.

If you happen to find a good Unique or Set item that you like don’t hesitate to swap it with your current gear. I excluded all unique and Set items from this guide because there’s no reliable way of acquiring them early on.

This build uses very little mana, so I personally like to run my belt with 3x Healing Potions columns and 1x Mana Potion columns, but you can also add Antidote Potions or Thawing Potions. Using these potions will not only cure their respective status effect, but also provide a +50 resistance to their corresponding elemental resistance.

Stay tuned for more Diablo 2 Build Guides, and be sure to check out our Diablo 2 Resurrected Wiki for more information about the game!