Diablo 2: Resurrected
Hardcore
Find Item Barbarian/Magic Find Barbarian Guide
Introduction
Find Item Barbarians have great survival, high magic find, and can pop corpses for double drops when magic finding areas like Eldritch, Pindleskin, Travincal, and The Pit. Barbarians also do not require Call to Arms for Battle Orders or Heart of the Oak or Nature's Peace for Oak Sage like a Sorceress which can sometimes be difficult to obtain at the beginning of a new season. The magic find Barbarian is most likely the best character to start out as in Hardcore at the beginning of a new season.
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 that each can take less than one minute to complete. 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 gambles are amulets at level 93+) and The Pit can drop every item 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 so far.
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 somewhat efficiently do Countess runs once they have Enigma 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 wish to magic find Chaos Sanctuary in hardcore with a Find Item Barbarian you should have fully optimized gear or work with a team for safer and faster runs.
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, 136 Dexterity for Grief Phase Blade, all remaining points in Vitality, no Energy
Build:
20 Whirlwind
20 Battle Orders
20 Axe or Sword Mastery
20 Shout
1 Increased Stamina
1 Increased Speed
1 Berserk
Enough in Natural Resistance for 75 resist all
Enough in Find Item to reach about 49% success rate with plus skills
All remaining points in Increased Speed for faster magic find runs or Iron Skin in hardcore difficulty for a defense increase.
Whirlwind Barbarian Gear
Whirlwind Main Weapons: Two Grief Phase Blades (Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral)
Whirlwind Hardcore Weapons: One Grief + Eth Breath of the Dying Colossus Blade (Vex Hel El Eld Zod Eth) for life/mana leech and stats.
Budget Weapons: Two Ethereal Oaths (Shael Pul Mal Lum).
Weapon Switch: Two +3 Warcry Weapons or two dual Ist'd Blades of Ali Baba for magic find.
Helm: Harlequin Crest (Shako) - +2 to all skills, high life and mana, and 50% magic find.
Body: Enigma (Jah Ith Ber) - +2 Skills, Teleport, 5% life increase, 8% damage reduction, high strength, and magic find equal to your level.
Budget Body: Tal Rasha's Guardianship - 40 cold resist, 40 fire resist, 40 lightning resist, and 88% magic find.
Gloves: Chance Guards - 40% magic find and 200% gold find.
Belt: String of Ears - 15% damage reduction and 8% life leech or Goldwrap - 30% magic find and 80% gold find.
Amulet: Metalgrid - high attack rating, 35% all resistance, and high defense.
Rings: Carrion Wind - 9% life leech and poison resist (if using Tals Armor) and a crafted or rare life leech and mana leech ring.
Feet: War Travelers - 25% faster run walk, 50% magic find, 10 Strength, 10 Vitality, and 15-25 base weapon damage.
Charms: Max/Attack Rating/Life Charms or 7% Magic Find Small Charms with Attack Rating.
Mercenary Weapon: Ethereal Reaper's Toll - 33% chance to cast Decrepify and 15% life leech.
Mercenary Helm: Andariel's Visage - +2 Skills, 10% life leech, and 30 Strength.
Mercenary Armor: Ethereal Fortitude (El Sol Dol Lo) - 300% Increased Damage.
Hardcore Insight Mercenary: Ethereal Insight (Ral Tir Tal Sol) - Level 17 Meditation Aura, Ondal's Almighty (Um'd) - 10 Str and 10% chance to cast Weaken, Chains of Honor (Dol Um Ber Ist) +2 skills and 8% life leech or the budget Ethereal Skin of the Flayed One (Um'd) - 7% life leech.
Note: You can always keep a +3 Warcry Amulet in your inventory for better shouts 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 in hardcore difficulty.
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 Increased Stamina
1 Increased Speed
1 Berserk
Enough in Natural Resistance for 75 resist all
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: Two Grief Phase Blades (Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral).
Budget Weapons: Two Ethereal Oaths (Shael Pul Mal Lum).
Weapon Switch: Two +3 Warcry Weapons or two dual Ist'd Blades of Ali Baba for magic find.
Helm: Harlequin Crest (Shako) - +2 to all skills, high life and mana, and 50% magic find.
Body: Tal Rasha's Guardianship - 40 cold resist, 40 fire resist, 40 lightning resist, and 88% magic find.
Gloves: Chance Guards - 40% magic find and 200% gold find.
Belt: String of Ears - 15% damage reduction and 8% life leech or Goldwrap - 30% magic find and 80% gold find.
Amulet: Metalgrid - high attack rating, 35% all resistance, and high defense.
Rings: Carrion Wind - stun/poison resist/life leech, a dual leech ring, or Raven Frost - 20 dexterity, cannot be frozen, and 250 attack rating.
Feet: War Travelers - 25% faster run walk, 50% magic find, 10 Strength, 10 Vitality, and 15-25 base weapon damage.
Charms: Max/Attack Rating/Life Charms or 7% Magic Find Small Charms with Attack Rating.
Mercenary Weapon: Ethereal Reaper's Toll - 33% chance to cast Decrepify curse and 15% life leech.
Mercenary Helm: Andariel's Visage - +2 Skills, 9% life leech, and 30 Strength or Tal Rasha's Mask - 10% life leech and 15 to all resistances.
Mercenary Armor: Ethereal Fortitude (El Sol Dol Lo) - 300% enhanced damage or Ethereal Treachery (Shael Thul Lem) - 45% IAS.
Note: You can always keep a +3 Warcry Amulet in your inventory for better shouts which is especially helpful in hardcore.
Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Eldritch - Time to Complete: Less than One Minute
Eth 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
Warcry Grand Charm
Lem Rune
Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Travincal - Time to Complete: Less than One Minute
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)
2x Sandstorm Trek
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 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 Um runes, 2 Mal Runes, Andariel's Visage, Immortal King's Armor, Eth 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 Warcry Skill Grand Charm.