View source for Guide:Magic Find Barbarian 1.09, by Flux Part III

This v1.09 guide describes how to build and play a [[Magic Find]]-specced [[Barbarian]] who does lots of [[Mephisto]] runs.

{{Guide top
|game= Diablo II
|patch= 1.09
|pve= Yes
|monster= [[Mephisto]]
|class= Barbarian
|spec= Magic Find Barbarian
|author= Flux
|pages= [[Guide:Magic_Find_Barbarian_1.09,_by_Flux_Part_I|One]], [[Guide:Magic_Find_Barbarian_1.09,_by_Flux_Part_II|Two]], [[Guide:Magic_Find_Barbarian_1.09,_by_Flux_Part_III|Three]], [[Guide:Magic_Find_Barbarian_1.09,_by_Flux_Part_IV|Four]]
|related= [[Magic Find]] [http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=495]
}}

{{TOCright}}

=Character Creation==

This isn't a typical character guide, where how you go about leveling up is a major portion of the play, and the fun.  With an MF Barb your goal is to be a high enough level to do hell Meph or other big item runs, and you want to get to there as quickly as possible.  Having fun along the way is strictly prohibited, and if you are spotted enjoying yourself, you'll be required to turn in your Ali Babas to someone who can play with a properly-miserable scowl plastered to their face.

The main goals are Clvl 30, when you can get Whirlwind or Berserk, Clvl 43 when you can first use a Cruel weapon (best bet is an Exe sword), and then Clvl 60 or so, when your main sword becomes possible to use.  This varies by sword type.  To get your levels as quickly as possible, you should do the Ancients at 20, 40, and 60, though you'll need help on all of those.

You'd like to get your MF Barb as high a level as possible, since you will have two or three items that add MF per Clvl, and also it's just easier with more hit points, AR, etc. However you probably will be eager to get started on the MF'ing, and you need to be 70+ for that.  Get to Clvl 25 ASAP, that's when you can start to gain good exp in a party against higher level monsters. You can save the hell Ancients until after Clvl 75 or 80 when you'll get more of a benefit, due to the exp penalties for normal kills, but if you are in a hurry, get it as soon as possible.


==Leveling Up Guide==

How you gain your levels is largely irrelevant, since this character is being designed for high level play of a specific type. A normal guide, like my Javazon one, covers leveling up since that's a major part of the game play.  With an MF Barb however, you could care about leveling, since your whole purpose doesn't begin until you are big enough to do Hell item runs successfully.

You must have the right amount of skill and stat points in the right places by Clvl 70 or 75 or whenever you begin doing your item runs, but the order you add things from Clvl 1 until then is entirely up to you.  I've built several Barbarians to Clvl 75+, so this is my technique, which I've evolved to be relatively fast and easy, using WW and decent twinks, but not getting a big turbo.

it is possible to do item running on Nightmare, but that's more if you don't have good enough gear to survive on Hell, or want some strategy practice to get yourself ready for prime time.  You can do item running as you level up, but you mostly want to level as quickly as possible to get into the real profitable Hell runs, so I don't recommend a lot of screwing around with NM/Meph, where you'll get minimal experience.

This section assumes you will be playing through the levels on your own, or with minimal help, but that you do have some decent items to twink.  If you are just starting out or single player and have no twinks, then you'll have to work harder at it, and also you'll be less successful once you do get to the runs, since you'll have much less total MF.  Good luck.  On the other hand, if you have a big char to turbo you up, and you'll just be leeching exp, you can skip to the specific area info, which covers how best to do the various popular item runs. [Top]


===Clvl 1-23===

You can level wherever you like up to here.  I generally do up to Clvl 15 or so in Act One, since there is excellent experience and good monster density there until 16 or 17, if you are in big games.  If you get to Act Two earlier try to join some Sewer Runs games until the late teens.  You'll also find good leveling in the Arcane Sanctuary or Canyon of the Magi from 17 to 24 or so.  Ideally you'll get a mini-turbo and do the Ancients at Clvl 20, which will take you up to Clvl 26.  Once you get to Clvl 25 you can level much faster anywhere, with the huge early penalty for higher level monsters reduced.

Stats: You generally want to add strength galore early on, to enable you to put on your better equipment. Go all strength until Clvl 10 or so, depending on how much you are building to.  Usually 70 is the heaviest thing you'll be using until Clvl 25 or higher, so get to that and then add some Dex and some Vitality.  It's pretty easy to add hit points with equipment and Charms, and Barbarians have a lot of natural hit points, so you can skimp there a lot.  Just don't get too greedy and die like an idiot.  Better you go slower than start all over again, if you are Hardcore.

Skills: You have a lot of pre-reqs to satisfy with a Barbarian, so you might as well do these early on, when you aren't stacking any skills very much.  You want to save a number of points up, since at Clvl 24 you'll be adding to Battle Orders every level, and then you need to hop on WW at Clvl 30 and add at least 6 or 8 points there in a row also.

Warcries
* Howl: Clvl 1, pre-req, 1 point.
* Shout: Clvl 6, pre-req, 1 point.

That's it.

If you are going to use WarCry eventually you'll want a point in Taunt and BattleCry as pre-reqs, but you can wait until you are going to begin using WarCry, which wouldn't be until Hell Meph runs, probably.  If you do add them early BattleCry is very helpful in your leveling to 30 time, so put a point there and hotkey it at Clvl 18. 

You want a point in Find Potion, and multiple points in Find Item eventually, as mentioned above.  However there's no real hurry, since you don't need any points in those skills until Clvl 50 or 60, or even 70, when you'll want to start using Find Item, or at least start building it up so it'll be at a useful level by Clvl 70 or 75.

Starting at Clvl Clvl 24 you want to put a point into Battle Orders every level, getting it to Clvl 10+ ASAP and maxing it eventually.

Combat Skills
* Bash: Clvl 1, 1 point.  It's a pre-req, but you'll also keep it hot-keyed for occasional use forever.
* Stun: Clvl 6, pre-req, 1 point.
* Concentrate: Clvl 18, pre-req, 1 point.
* Leap: Clvl 1, pre-req, 1 point.
* Leap Attack: Clvl 18, 1 point.  You'll use it forever, but 1 point is all that's needed.  It's a pre-req for WW in any event.

Double Swing and Double Throw are needed pre-reqs if you are going to use Frenzy, though I don't recommend it for this build.

Combat Masteries
* Sword Mastery: (or whichever you are using). About 10 points. (Max it eventually, add points now as needed to keep your AR 90% or so.
* Increased Stamina: Clvl 12, 1 point, pre-req.
* Iron Skin: Clvl 18, 1 point.  Useful bonus, and pre-req skill.

How many to add to your weapon mastery varies.  You want it at 20 eventually, but you don't really need that many points in it yet, since you'll have sufficient AR and damage, and you will really be tight for skill points around Clvl 30-40, so saving them up now helps then.

Equipment: There are lots of useful early level items. Most any Uniques will beat anything magical or rare, and they have Clvl reqs in D2X, but will still be lower than the Clvl req on comparable Rare or Magical items.

Bloodfist has always been a great starter glove, but its even better in v1.09 with the added 10% IAS.  Put these on at Clvl 7 and be happy.  Other items that add to your damage such as Duskdeep and Hotspurs are helpful early on, as are charms for AR, damage and elemental damage.

Khalim's Will is a great melee weapon to start off with, and use up through Act Three.  Very fast attack and elemental damage.  (You need to mule it before you enter the Durance of Hate or someone completes the Compelling Orb quest, or it will vanish.) Gleamscythe is nice, as is Shadowfang or the Skewer of Krintiz, if you have some Uniques handy.

The Angelic Set is helpful, nice bonuses on everything, including MF% and Hps/Mana, and the weapon (with the full set on) isn't much behind Khalim's on speed or damage. Full Sigon's Set is a very nice melee fighter outfit.  You can wear that well into Nightmare if need be, and just the gloves/boots/shield are great early on; any 2 sigons give you 10% life leech, and the gloves with any other item are 30% IAS. 

Strategy: Attack and Bash are your skills to start off with, and you'll want to go to Concentrate for most things once you reach it. Bash is more damage and AR than Attack, (though you'll generally be 95% to/hit for quite a while if you have any decent twinks), but the knockback can be annoying, if you aren't killing things with one hit.  You'll do a bit more damage than you do with Attack, but if you have to take a step after every hit to try another hit, that's slower than just hitting them twice in the same spot.

If you are patient you can use Shout regularly to keep your Defense a bit higher, but you have to recast it very often at Slvl 1.  And you can't add points to it, that would be a waste, though you might have some +skills gear on, like Sigon's Shield.

There really isn't much to say about strategy for a young Barbarian. Run up and hit things, don't get totally surrounded, you'll be fine.  The Barb is quite powerful early on, and can get all the way through normal without spending any skill points at all, if he's patient with the normal attack. [Top]

===Clvl 24-29===

Clvl 24 is different since you get Battle Orders then, and hopefully you'll be in at least Act Five normal by Clvl 25.  The Ancients will take you right up to Clvl 26 or so, if you do them around Clvl 20 (the minimum allowed level to do the quest). You'll be slow from 26-30, until you get Whirlwind, since all you have now is Bash.  Suffer and level as fast as possible, once you get to 30 things speed up quite a bit.

Stats: You should be adding mostly Str or Vit in here, depending on your need.  Some Dex perhaps, if you don't need the hit points and don't have that many in your weapon mastery.

Skills: You want to put a point into Battle Orders every level, and save the rest for WW at Clvl 30. 

* Warcries
** Battle Orders: Clvl 24, add a point a level until 10, at least.

You will max BO eventually, but how much to add now is up to you.  The skill doesn't do a whole lot until you've got some points in it, and it's very annoying to use at low levels since it wears off so quickly.  I always add to this every level until it's at least Slvl 8.  At Slvl 10 it lasts 84 seconds, so you can just refresh after every little battle and you shouldn't have too many resets.  This is the first skill I max out, both for the survival bonuses and since adding duration to it makes it so much more convenient to use.

* Combat Skills
** None at Clvl 24.

Frenzy is Clvl 24, but it's not recommended for this build.

* Combat Masteries
** Increased Speed: Clvl 24, 1 point.  More here long term might be a good idea, but you don't need more than one for now.

One point in each for now, and you might add a few more to your Weapon Mastery, as needed. It should be around 10-15 by now.

Equipment: You should move up to some better gear, especially your weapon in here.  If you have any of the higher quality normal unique weapons, slap one on.  I don't generally dual wield, the damage increase isn't that big and you might as well enjoy a shield (such as Sigon's) while your low level lets you have a very high blocking %.  You don't really need the added damage you get going two-handed at this point either.

It becomes useful here to have some weapon switch items that add to your Warcries.  Echoing is +3 to all, and very desirable, but there is a Clvl 45 req on it.  Resonant is +2 to all Warcries, and has a Clvl 30 requirement, so use those if you have them, once you've got Battle Orders going.  Switch weapons to cast BO and your other Warcries, then switch back to your normal weapon.

Strategy: More of the same, Bash and Attack. You'll probably be doing Bloody Runs or other areas in Act Five, where you can get a single target and whack on them.  Try to party to level faster, your whole goal is to get to Clvl 30 as quickly as possible, and you are not a very fast character until then. [Top]


===Clvl 30-42===

At last, WW and fast killing.  Rejoice, and try to find a friend to give you a turbo to the Nightmare Ancients at Clvl 40.  You want to get exp as quickly as possible, so leech or get a turbo if you can, and don't mind being an evil power-gamer. If you are going with Berserk then it's more of the same "hit monsters one at a time" tactic, which I get really bored with, but if you can stand it, or are exp leeching, then go for it.

Stats: You should be adding much to your Str and Dex in here, with an eye on your sword requirements.  If you are going to an Executioner sword, you need 170 Str and 110 Dex, which is a lot.  A Cruel Exe is Clvl 43 requirement, and it's a good idea (check the sword comparison on Page Two) to wear +stats equipment to make that requirement for now, so your hit points don't get dangerously low.

Skills: Most of your best skills come in at Clvl 30, with the most immediate benefit from Whirlwind, which you'll want to add to at least 6 or 8 straight levels, to up the damage and AR.  Berserk and Natural Resistance are mandatory for long term use, but you don't really need either of them immediately.

* Warcries
** Battle Command: Clvl 30, 1 point.  Useful forever, and 1 point is sufficient.
** WarCry: Clvl 30.  I don't recommend it since it's not really needed for Item Runs, but it's a very useful Warcry if you want to spare a few points here, and two for its pre-reqs.

Battle Command you should hotkey at once, and put it where you'll use it first, every time you power up your Warcries.  It adds +1 to all of your skills, so is never bad to have active, but the duration on it isn't long enough to keep it on all the time, unless you recast it perpetually.  You want the +1 Battle Orders when you cast that though, always.  It's good to cast before using Find Item also, to get another point and raise your % a bit.

* Combat Skills
** Whirlwind: Clvl 30, 10+ points.  Most players max our WW as a matter of course, but you probably won't need that many points in it to be successful.  If you are going to do Find Item to a high level, you'll want to get WW to about 15, if your AR can take it. I've got 13 on my current MF Barb at Clvl 80, but that's with a Doombringer adding a bunch of AR.  If you are going Berserk just do one WW, and resign yourself to slow leveling.
**  Berserk: Clvl 30, 1+ point.  6-8 if it'll be your main skill. A really great skill, more for leveling than MF runs, though it helps on those as well, and is the best thing to use for the final hit, with your dual Ali Babas.  This one enables the Barb to go through Physical Immune monsters and bosses like nothing. One point is enough forever, though having 4 or 5 will help your AR quite a bit.  The added damage isn't a big factor, since you'll be using it with Ali Baba, which doesn't do that much damage in any event.


Combat Masteries

Natural Resistance: Clvl 30, 10+ points. This is probably the best skill for the MF'ing Barb, in comparison to the other classes.  This is the one that enables you to have almost total equipment freedom, and not worry about resistances on your gear, while still having enough resistance to survive.  Clvl 7 is 47% Clvl 13 is 60%, Clvl 16 is 64%.  I like to get to 60%, though you can get by with less.  Full stats here.

You don't really need to add to this until Nightmare at the soonest, so you can put 1-4 points here right away, if you feel you need the resistance boost (depends on your equipment), or wait until Clvl 40 or 50 to add to it.  You want it to 10 or more by the time you go to Hell, so keep that in mind and don't put it off too long.

 
Equipment: The best piece of equipment at this stage is a sword, the Unique Gladius Bloodletter.  It has a Clvl 30 requirement, so with this and a skill point you immediately have Clvl 4 Whirlwind, and a nice bonus to Sword Mastery as well, in addition to much higher damage than you've been doing.

Bloodletter
* +140% Enhanced Damage
* Adds 12-45 damage
* +90 to Attack Rating
* 20% Increased Attack Speed
* 8% Life stolen per hit
* +10% Slower Stamina Drain
* +30 Increased Durability
* +2 to Sword Mastery
* +3 to Whirlwind

There is just a range of 1 on it, so you have to go right over the targets to hit them with WW, but the added damage and AR and skill points make it very fast.  I usually use this until Clvl 43, when I can go to a Cruel Executioner sword.

This is very viable even if you're going all Berserk.  Just put your one point into WW as the pre-req, and equip this with some other +skill stuff and you can easily have Slvl 6 or 8 WW, which with a Bloodletter will let you dominate normal and much of nightmare.

You can also equip sounding swords now, with +2 to Warcries, so if you have a couple of those, put them on your weapon switch, and get +4 to Battle Orders when you cast it.

Other than your weapon, you start to have a lot of equipment options now, as you are high enough level to equip useful stuff.  At Clvl 30 everything changes due to Whirlwind.  You want to have on as much +skill stuff as possible then, since WW is much more effective with 6 or 8 points in it.

I tend to just go with whatever is the best equipment to add to my stats, resistances, leech, etc, and not pay any mind to MF at this point.  There'll be plenty of time for MF'ing later on, just level up now.

Another issue you'll get with WW immediately is needing more mana leech, and more mana.  I find it very helpful to add some mana charms, there are good amounts obtainable with relatively low Clvl reqs, and having another 100 mana (including your BO bonus) makes it much nicer to do WW at this point, since you won't be running dry every time you do 2 in a row that don't hit, due to lag or moving monsters or low AR or whatever.  As for mana leech, there are a lot of items with it, but most are higher Clvl than this.  Manald Heal ring, or leech on an amulet and/or circlet is helpful.  You can get 3% on gloves, or even the 2% on Gorerider boots is useful.

Strategy: Level in Act 5/Normal, that's your fastest gain area. You can probably gain faster in Nightmare or Hell, in a big game party, but there you'll be just a leech, and there's no way to get there yourself, you'll need turbo help.  You wouldn't have any reason to go to Nightmare yet, except for the Nightmare Ancients, which you want to do as soon after Clvl 40 as possible.  Again, a turbo will be needed to get there right at 40 (unless you have good gear and work at moving through Nightmare very diligently) and to kill them, but if you can get one it's very helpful and speedy.  You'll be Clvl 46 or so then, and able to score huge exp in A5/NM.  You'll at the same time need less life leech than in the past, since you'll get hit less doing WW than going toe to toe, and you'll be hitting for far higher damage. [Top]


===Clvl 43-69===

Ideally you got the Ancients at 40, or right afterwards, in which case you'll immediately be Clvl 46 or so, and able to get very good experience in A5/NM.  You can begin to do some MF'ing pretty soon, running NM bosses, especially Baal, which is a huge exp run, much more valuable than NM Bloody Runs, but you need very good equipment to make it so.

Stats: You are probably going to get your Str to 150+, and your Dex to 100 or so around here.  All other points should go into Vitality, and generally it's all vit from Clvl 60 on, once you meet the requirements for your Elite weapon.  You might have to add more than you need for your current equipment, in anticipation of removing some of your +stats gear for MF gear.  It's a good idea to keep a running tally of your stats naked, ideally knowing what you'll be wearing at Clvl 65 or 70, and how much that will add, and how much you need for your top equipment.

I often have 10 or 15 points saved up here, if I'm not sure when I'll be switching various items around, and want to keep myself flexible.

Skills: You should get Battle Orders and Sword Mastery maxed out in this range, and get your WW to 8 or 10.  Natural Resistance begins to be important in NM, and you want it to 10 or more for Hell, especially if you have to work your way through Acts 1-5, rather than having a turbo from a friend.  Sacrifice some offense (WW, Berserk, Weapon Mastery) for more resistance and hit points, if need be.  Not dying is more important than killing slightly faster, especially HC.

Equipment:: After using Bloodletter from Clvl 30 on (ideally) you will hopefully have a Cruel sword to switch to at 43, the Cruel Clvl req.  If you have a nice Cruel Exe or Zweihander, you'll find nightmare to be a total breeze, and can chop through anything with WW in just one or two passes, even in big games.

You can use a shield with the Bloodletter just fine, since it's a one-handed weapon, but you really want to go two-handed on the Cruel sword, if it's a big 2H type, like an Exe.  Your damage and killing speed will increase a ton, and you shouldn't need the shield in NM.  The bigger damage generally gives you enough leech to more than offset the additional damage you take by not blocking.

You should be adding enough +stats equipment to equip the bigger sword sooner, though you can do it with straight stat points, though your hit points will be very low if you do.   There are a lot of Unique and Set items that add a lot of stats, too many to list here.  Lionheart (+15 Dex, +25 Str) is great for armor, the IK belt and gloves add a bunch, and you can get bonuses to Str and Dex on Rare everything, Circlets, rings, amulets, boots, gloves, belts, etc.

If you have a good champion sword, or a Cruel Colossus Sword/Blade with a Hel in it, the requirements for that will actually be lower than the Cruel Exe you are using until Clvl 60ish.  So add to your stats with equipment, rather than wasting Str and Dex points that could be adding to your Vit/hps.

Strategy: Generally you'll be in Act Five Nightmare until Clvl 65 or so (good exp can be gotten in A5/NM up to Clvl 75, if you do the harder areas) and this is an exp-fest.  You can gain multiple levels a game in big MP games, either playing alone or in a party.  It's much more fun to go off on your own, if you have a good weapon and some resistance you can slaughter anything you'll encounter, and you get the pick of the items and gold solo.  There are usually Bloody Run games, and you'll do better in these until Clvl 50 or 55, but after that you should have sufficient power to level faster playing solo.  You'll have to do Bloody or Cow runs once you get to hell to level quickly, so save that boredom for then, and have fun soloing now.

If possible get a friend to turbo you up to Hell at around Clvl 60, so you can do the Hell Ancients then.  They are very dangerous though, and it's quite possible to die trying.  You want a Druid in the party also, for the big Oak Sage bonus HPs, and it helps a lot if you have a variety of characters for several attack types; Guided Arrow, Hydras, Static, etc.  You'll be in the low 60's after that, and if you want to kill things, go back to doing Nightmare, you can gain very good exp there still. If you stay in hell, you'll be basically a leech, partying in Cow or Bloody runs for a while.  Boring, but you do level up quickly doing it.  It's not really necessary, since you can level so fast in the 60-70 range in Nightmare games, but the fastest way would be Ancients at 60, then party leech exp in Hell.

If you have some MF stuff on and are in Nightmare, you can do very well doing Baal runs. The key to those is doing the minions and Baal himself when there are still multiple players in the game, since that's where the really big experience is.  If you get in on a Bloody Run series, you want to join when the game starts and race down through Worldstone 2 and 3, to get the minions and Baal while the game is still full.

If you finish Baal and the others in the game are still gnawing on the Bloody Hills, you can always go back to WS2 and clear it out for more exp.  The monsters in the Ancient's Way are worth tons of exp as well, more than you'd get leeching in the Bloody.

The problem with Baal runs is that once you kill him, you can't see NM games to join anymore.  You should have another character on your account who is in NM and get on, spot a game, click it, copy the name, (pick an easy-to-spell game name for a back up) then get off and back on with your MF Baba, and join one of the games you saw.  Paste in the name you copied, if it's something hard to spell/remember.  "BlodHillzz04" or something like that, for example.

These are the best types, since when it ends you know what the next one will be and can just type in the name; you don't need to see it to join.  It's worth this inconvenience for the faster leveling and the chance to find good items.  NM Baal can drop every exceptional unique/set item in the game, and some of the lower Elite Uniques/Sets as well.  You can find tons of good stuff while you are leveling up very quickly as well.

This time doesn't last long, if you have good equipment you can level from 43-65 in an afternoon. [Top]


===Clvl 70+===

When you begin the final stage depends on your equipment.  You can begin it at 60 or 63 or 69, or 75.  It also varies a lot on if you go up to Hell sooner or later.  If you didn't get a turbo to Hell, (and possibly the Ancients at 60) you'll have to work your way through Acts 1 and 2 at some point to get to Act Three, since Hell Meph is your main run.  A Barbarian with good equipment past Clvl 65 or 70 shouldn't have any problem doing any area in Hell, with only the Chaos Sanctuary and Diablo really dangerous.  It's not a good idea to try to solo there, join a party for that and let a Sorc kill Diablo, his Firestorm can do just about infinite fire damage if you are point blank range.

It's nice to have Baal runs and A5SU runs as well, and you'll want to kill the Hell Ancients when you can, for the 40m bonus they give.  If you didn't do it in the low 60's, it's best to wait until 75 or 80+, when you hit the experience penalties and your leveling will slow down a lot.  You have much better odds of surviving it as well, which matters if you are Hardcore.

Stats: Once you reach your minimum requirements for Str and Dex for your weapon, you should put every point into Vitality.  Every level you get +2 hps, and 5 stat points.  If you put them all into Vit you'll get 20 hps for that, and you should have around 98% BO (Slvl 22), so that's roughly 44 hps per level.

You might go a bit over the Dex requirement to help your blocking and AR, but that depends on your equipment. I like to have 2500 AR or more, but you can get by with less. There are very steep diminishing returns on AR; you'll do around 75% to/hit at 2000, and doubling it to 4000 only gets you another 5% or so to/hit, so don't sweat this stat too much.  You shouldn't even have your WW maxed, which you would if you were after AR.

Skills: By now you should be in shape for Meph runs.  See the long term goals on page one.

At Clvl 70 you'll have 81 total points (69 points +12, 4 from the skill quests on each diff level, assuming you've done Hell Izzy already).  Here are where your skills should be at that point.  I generally do WW, Berserk is also an option for your main skill.  If you do Berserk you need fewer points in it, so you can add 8 or 10 more to other skills.

* Battle Orders: 20
** Howl and Shout are pre-reqs.
* Sword Mastery: 20
* Whirlwind: 10+ (if this is your main skill)
** Bash, Stun, Concentrate, Leap, and Leap Attack are pre-reqs.
* Berserk: 1+ (requires Whirlwind, 6-8 if this is your main skill)
* Frenzy: 0, or 15+, if this is your main skill
* Natural Resistance: 10+
** Iron Skin is a pre-req.
* Faster Run: 1+
** Increased Stamina is a pre-req.
* Find Item: 8+ (optional)
** Find Potion is a pre-req.

You also might have some +skills stuff, though it's rare with MF on it.  See the equipment page, but the best way to get +skills is with a good rare amulet, +1 or +2.  If you could cover your mana leech on the amulet, you could go with a Harlequin Crest for +2 from your helm and the most MF.  A top rare circlet is also possible, you could get one with +2 to all Barb, dual leech, resistance, and MF, which would be glorious.

Equipment: This is the end game, where you'll want to put on your best MF gear possible.  See page two for extensive coverage of all your best equipment options.

Strategy: If you want to level up at this point, you'll probably have to leech in parties, or go very slowly on your own.  Once you get your equipment optimized for MF, you'll tend to be much lower damage than you would be otherwise, and dependent on a shield for resistance, and not going 2H ruins your WW damage.

If you want to keep some spare equipment around, just switching your armor and helm can make a huge difference.  This is also useful if you are going to do Baal runs, described later.  Changing from Skullder's/Stealskull to Lionheart/Arreat's would add 60% to your resistances, tons to your hit points and stats, and even with still your MF jewelry, gloves, belt, etc on, you'll be able to go 2H on your sword and solo areas you could barely do at all in full MF gear. [Top]


Page Four covers the actual strategies and item finding locations you'll be using (and finding) all of this uber l33txorZ!! it4mz in.


==Navigation==
This very long guide is spread over 3 pages.
* [[Guide:Magic_Find_Barbarian_1.09,_by_Flux_Part_I|Page One]].
* [[Guide:Magic_Find_Barbarian_1.09,_by_Flux_Part_II|Page Two]].
* [[Guide:Magic_Find_Barbarian_1.09,_by_Flux_Part_III|Page Three]].
* [[Guide:Magic_Find_Barbarian_1.09,_by_Flux_Part_IV|Page Four]].