Magic Find/Find Item Barbarian Guide

Find Item Barbarian/Magic Find Barbarian Guide

Introduction

Find Item Barbarians have great survival, high magic find, and can pop corpses for double drops while magic finding Eldritch, Pindleskin, Travincal, The Pit, and/or Chaos Sanctuary. Barbarians also do not require Call to Arms for Battle Orders which can sometimes be difficult to obtain at the beginning of a new season. The Item Find/Magic Find Barbarian is also highly recommended as the best character to start out with when playing Hardcore difficulty.

Whirlwind Barbarian Skills

The top spot for a Magic Find Barbarian goes to the Whirlwind Barbarian which is excellent at both survival and damage.

Recommendation: Whirlwind Barbarian

Stats: Enough Strength for gear, about 200 dexterity (136 dexterity in Hardcore), all remaining points in Vitality, and 0 Energy.

Skill Points:

20 Whirlwind

20 Battle Orders

20 Sword Mastery

20 Shout

7 Increased Speed

1 Battle Command

1 Increased Stamina

1 Berserk

Enough in Natural Resistance for 75 resist all

Enough in Find Item to reach about 50% success rate with plus skills

All remaining points in Increased Speed for faster magic find runs in Softcore or Iron Skin for a higher defense in Hardcore.

Whirlwind Barbarian Gear

Whirlwind Main Weapons

Grief Phase Blade (Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral) for high attack speed, indestructible so it doesn't need repairs, and high damage combined with an Ethereal Breath of the Dying Colossus Blade (Vex Hel El Eld Zod Eth) which gives high life leech and mana leech (frees up a ring slot that would need to be dual leech), high damage, indestructible, range 3, and +30 to all stats. Dual wielding is preferred to using an ethereal Breath of the Dying Great Poleaxe because range 5 gives a much less focused attack.

Budget Weapon

Ethereal Oath Balrog Blade (Shael Pul Mal Lum) - The budget option deals very high damage for its low rune cost. An ethereal Balrog Blade is the preferred base because it's guaranteed 4 open sockets with the socket quest making it very affordable.

Weapon Switch

Call To Arms (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) - One CTA can give +1 to all skills and +3 to Battle Orders but you can only gain this bonus from one CTA and you should also use a +3 to Warcries weapon (or optionally a Heart of the Oak flail which gives +3 to all skills).

Helmet

Harlequin Crest (aka Shako) - Gives +2 to all skills, 10% reduced physical damage taken, high life and mana, and 50% magic find.

Budget Helmet

Immortal King's Helmet - Gives +2 to Warcries, up to 40% magic find, 37% gold find, and 2 sockets for more magic find.

Body

Tal Rasha's Guardianship - Gives 40 cold resist, 40 fire resist, 40 lightning resist, and 88% magic find and can be socketed with an Ist rune or a Perfect Topaz for even more magic find. Tal Rasha's three set has much higher resistances and magic find than Enigma.

Gloves

Chance Guards - Gives 40% increased magic find and 200% extra gold.

Belt (Softcore)

Tal Rasha's Belt - Gives 15% magic find, 20 dexterity, and 37% damage taken goes to mana and completes Tal Rasha's three set which gives a high amount of magic find.

Belt (Hardcore)

String of Ears - Use this in Hardcore for up to 15% reduced physical damage taken, 8% life steal, and reduced magic damage taken.

Feet

War Travelers - Gives 25% faster run walk, 50% magic find, 10 strength, 10 vitality, and 15-25 base weapon damage.

Budget Feet

Immortal King's Boots - Gives 110 attack rating, 44 life, and gives 25% magic find when paired with Immortal King's Helmet.

Amulet

Tal Rasha's Amulet - Gives 65% magic find from the Tal Rasha's set bonus. In Hardcore you should use a +2 Barbarian skills amulet (optionally a crafted Blood Amulet) with magic find and other useful stats like life leech and all resistances.

Rings

Carrion Wind - Gives 9% life leech and 55% poison resistance (important because Tal Rasha's Armor lacks poison resistance) and a Raven Frost for 20 dexterity, 250 attack rating, 20% cold absorb, and cannot be frozen.

Charms

Hellfire Torch for +3 Barbarian skills, Annihilus for +1 to all skills, Gheed's Fortune for up to 40% magic find, Max Damage/Attack Rating/Life Charms, and 7% Magic Find Small Charms.

Mercenary Type

Act 2 Might Mercenary

Mercenary Weapon

Ethereal Reaper's Toll - 33% chance to cast level one Decrepify on striking and 15% life stolen per hit.

Mercenary Armor

Ethereal Fortitude (El Sol Dol Lo) - Gives 300% enhanced damage, all resistances +30%, high life per level, 5% to maximum lightning resistance, and a 20% chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck.

Mercenary Helm

Ethereal Andariel's Visage (Ral'd) - Gives +2 to all skills, 10% life leech, -30% fire resistance, and 30 strength. Ral gives 30% fire resistance but you can also use a 30% fire resistance jewel with other great modifiers.

Budget Mercenary Weapon

Reaper's Toll - 33% chance to cast the level one Decrepify curse on striking and 15% life stolen per hit.

Budget Mercenary Armor

Duriel's Shell - Gives all resistances +20%, 50% cold resistances, life per level, 15 strength, and cannot be frozen.

Budget Mercenary Helmet

Tal Rasha's Helmet - Gives 10% life stolen per hit, all resistances +15%, and 60 life.

Note: You can always keep a +3 Warcries Amulet in your inventory for better warcries which is especially helpful in Hardcore.

Frenzy Barbarian Skills

The second place spot for a Magic Find Barbarian goes to the Frenzy Barbarian. Frenzy Barbarians have an extremely fast run speed which can definitely speed up your magic find runs. They do, however, need solid gear to survive well in hardcore.

Recommendation: Frenzy Barbarian

Stats: Enough Strength for gear, 136 Dexterity for a Grief Phase Blade, all remaining points in Vitality, no Energy

Build:

20 Frenzy

20 Double Swing

20 Battle Orders

20 Sword Mastery

1 Battle Command

1 Increased Stamina

1 Increased Speed

1 Berserk

Enough in Natural Resistance for capped resistances.

Enough in Find Item to reach about 44% success rate with plus skills.

All remaining points in Taunt which is a synergy for Frenzy.

Frenzy Barbarian Gear

Frenzy Main Weapons

Grief Phase Blade (Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral) and Ethereal Breath of the Dying Colossus Blade (Vex Hel El Eld Zod Eth) - Phase Blade is recommended for Grief because it's indestructible and won't need repairs and the eBotD runeword has indestructible.

Budget Weapons

Two Ethereal Oath Balrog Blades (Shael Pul Mal Lum) - These two weapons deal high damage for how much they cost.

Weapon Switch

Call To Arms (one can give +1 all skills and +3 to Battle Orders but you can only benefit from one) and a +3 to Warcries weapon (or optionally a Heart of the Oak for +3 to all skills).

Helmet

Harlequin Crest (aka Shako) - Gives +2 to all skills, 10% reduced physical damage taken, high life and mana, and 50% magic find.

Budget Helmet

Immortal King's Helmet - This option has +2 to Warcries, up to 40% magic find, 37% gold find, and 2 sockets for more magic find.

Body

Tal Rasha's Guardianship - Gives 40 cold resist, 40 fire resist, 40 lightning resist, and 88% magic find.

Gloves

Chance Guards - Gives up to 40% magic find and 200% extra gold.

Belt (Softcore)

Tal Rasha's Belt - Gives 15% magic find, 20 dexterity, and 37% damage taken goes to mana.

Belt (Hardcore)

String of Ears - Gives 15% physical damage taken reduction, reduced magic damage taken, and 8% life leech for Hardcore.

Feet

War Travelers - Gives 25% faster run walk, up to 50% magic find, 10 Strength, 10 Vitality, and 15-25 base weapon damage.

Budget Feet

Immortal King's Boots - This option gives 110 attack rating, 44 life, and 25% magic find when paired with Immortal King's Helmet.

Amulet

Tal Rasha's Amulet - For 65% more magic find from the set bonus. If you play Hardcore you should use a +2 Barbarian Skills amulet instead (optionally a crafted Blood Amulet) with magic find and other useful stats like life leech and all resistances.

Rings

Carrion Wind/Raven Frost - Carrion Wind gives 9% life leech, chance to cast Twister which stuns, and 55% poison resist (used because Tal Rasha's armor lacks poison resistance) and Raven Frost gives up to 20 dexterity, 250 to attack rating, 20% cold absorb, and cannot be frozen.

Charms

Hellfire Torch for +3 Barbarian skills, Annihilus for +1 to skills, Gheed's Fortune for up to 40% magic find, and Max Damage/Attack Rating/Life charms.

Mercenary Type

Act 2 Might Mercenary

Mercenary Weapon

Ethereal Reaper's Toll - 33% chance to cast the level one Decrepify curse on striking and 15% life stolen per hit.

Mercenary Armor

Mercenary Helm

Ethereal Andariel's Visage (Ral'd) - +2 Skills, 9% life leech, -30% fire resistance, and 30 strength. You can socket this helmet with a Ral rune for 30% fire resistance or you can use a 30% fire resistance jewel with other great modifiers.

Budget Mercenary Weapon

Reaper's Toll - 33% chance to cast the level one Decrepify curse on striking and 15% life stolen per hit.

Budget Mercenary Armor

Duriel's Shell - Provides high all resistances, strength, life, and cannot be frozen.

Budget Mercenary Helm

Tal Rasha's Mask - Gives 10% life leech, 60 life, and 15 to all resistances.

Note: You can always keep a +3 Warcries Amulet in your inventory for better warcries which is especially helpful in Hardcore.

Magic Find Barbarian Leveling Items

You can start using Hsarus' Belt and Gloves once you are at least level 3 and have 30 strength for added Defense and Attack Rating per level from the set bonus. Civerb's Cudgel is a great starter weapon that increases in damage as you level and can be used as early as level 9. You can also add Angelics Amulet and Ring once you are level 12 for more Life and Attack Rating. Smoke only requires level 37 and is a great starter runeword armor that can be made with a Nef rune and a Lum rune for All Resistances +50.

Magic Find Runs

Eldritch, Pindleskin, Travincal, and The Pit

These magic find spots are all completely safe to magic find on a Barbarian even on hardcore once you have a decent set of gear. Eldritch, Pindleskin, and Travincal are all very quick runs. Travincal runs also have the added benefit of dropping a large amount of gold which can be used to gamble +2 skill amulets once you are at a high enough level (the best gamble is for amulets at level 93+) and The Pit can drop every item and rune in the game. Eldritch, Pindleskin, Travincal, and The Pit are all great places to pop corpses for magic finding on a Barbarian. And yes the super chests in high level areas are worth opening. I've personally found a Shako and 2 Um runes from the super chest in The Pit to date.

The Forgotten Tower

With a Frenzy Barbarian you can use your very fast run speed to get through the Forgotten Tower but Teleport is much quicker. Whirlwind Barbarians can also efficiently do Countess runs once they have an Enigma runeword armor for Teleport. The Countess will on the average drop two runes between Ist and Pul every one hundred runs. The Countess drops up to Ist on her rune table drops but, she also has a very low chance of dropping up to Lo rune from her normal monster drops.

Chaos Sanctuary

Chaos Sanctuary can drop the highest level items and runes from magic finding runs using a Find Item Barbarian but keep in mind that this area is dangerous in hardcore difficulty. If you want to magic find Chaos Sanctuary in hardcore with a Find Item Barbarian you should have fully optimized gear and/or work with a team for faster and safer runs.

Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Eldritch - Time to Complete: Less than One Minute

Ethereal Colossus Voulge

Stone of Jordan (current value: Ohm)

Small Charm w/ 12 Life and 15 Attack Rating

Trang-Oul's Gloves

Rare Boots w/ 37 Cold Resist, 40 Lightning Resist, and 23 Magic Find

Small Charm with 7% Magic Find and 12 Attack Rating (current value: Um)

Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Pindleskin - Time to Complete: Less than One Minute

Eth Shako

Guardian Angel

Mal Rune

Elemental Skill Grand Charm w/ 25 Life

Warcries Grand Charm

Lem Rune

Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Travincal - Time to Complete: Less than Two Minutes

You will receive about one charm every two Travincal runs.

Mal Rune

Ber Rune

Immortal King's Boots

Immortal Kings Gloves

Immortal King's Maul

Grand Charm w/ 8 Maximum Damage, 73 Attack Rating, and 12% Faster Hit Recovery

Razor's Edge

Ring w/ 10% Faster Cast Rate, 20 Fire Resist, and 11 Cold Resist

Tal Rasha's Weapon

Wizard Spike x2

Guardian Angel

Raven Frost x2

Dwarf Star x2

Titan's Revenge (current value: Um)

Headstriker

Grand Charm w/ 8 Maximum Damage, 76 Attack Rating, and 6 Strength

Highlord's Wrath (current value: Ist)

Sample Drops From 300 Runs of The Pit - Time to Complete: Less than Five Minutes

Gul Rune

Tal Rasha's Armor (current value: Vex)

Um Rune x2

Oculus (current value: Um)

Sandstorm Trek x2

Homunculus (current value: Um)

Soul Drainers

Nord's Tenderizer

Tal Rasha's Mask

Tal Rasha's Belt x2

Skin of the Vipermagi (current value: Um)

String of Ears

Bartuc's Claw

Dwarf Star

Small Charm w/ 20 Life and 12 Attack Rating

Marrowwalk w/ +2 Skeleton Mastery

Small Charm w/ 7% Magic Find (current value: Pul)

Trang's Belt

Immortal Kings Armor (current value: Gul)

Immortal Kings Maul

Lycander's Bow

Lem Rune

Andariel's Visage (current value: Ist)

Guardian Angel x2

Eaglehorn

Eth Thresher w/ 4 Open Sockets (current value: Gul)

Note

All runs were done with about 340 magic find with no magic find on weapon switch. High Value Items from the sample include: Stone of Jordan, Ber Rune, Gul Rune, Skin of the Vipermagi, Tal Rasha's Armor, 7% Magic Find Small Charm with 12 Attack Rating, 2 Mal runes, 2 Um Runes, Andariel's Visage, Immortal King's Armor, Ethereal 4os Thresher, Small Charm w/ 20 Life and 12 Attack Rating, Grand Charm with Maximum Damage/Attack Rating and 12% Faster Hit Recovery, Grand Charm with Maximum Damage/Attack Rating and 6 Strength, Titan's Revenge, Homunculus, Oculus, Highlord's Wrath, Trang-Oul's Belt, Raven Frost x2, Dwarf Star x3, 7% Magic Find Small Charm, Elemental Skill Grand Charm with 25 Life, and a Warcries Skill Grand Charm.

And that's all for the Item Find Barbarian Guide. You can also check out the Gold Find Barbarian Guide here Gold Find Barbarian.