Magic Find/Find Item Barbarian Guide

Find Item Barbarian/Magic Find Barbarian Guide

Introduction

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

Whirlwind Barbarian Skills

The top spot for a magic find Barbarian goes to the Whirlwind Magic Find 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 should be spent in Increased Speed for faster magic find runs or Iron Skin for more defense in Hardcore.

Whirlwind Barbarian Gear

Whirlwind Main Weapons

Grief Phase Blade (Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral) - Gives high attack speed, indestructible, and very high damage. It should be combined with an Ethereal Breath of the Dying Colossus Blade (Vex Hel El Eld Zod Eth) for high life leech and mana leech (which frees up a ring slot that would need to be a dual leech ring), high damage, indestructible, and +30 to all attributes. Dual wielding is preferred to an ethereal Breath of the Dying Great Poleaxe for higher damage with less range because range 5 weapons give a less focused attack.

Budget Weapon

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

Weapon Switch

Call To Arms (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) - One Call to Arms gives +1 to all skills and +3 to Battle Orders but you can only gain this bonus from one CtA so you should also use a +3 to Warcries weapon (or optionally a Heart of the Oak flail which gives +3 to 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 cold resistance +40%, fire resistance +40%, lightning resistance +40%, and 88% magic find and it can be socketed with a Perfect Topaz or Ist rune for magic find. Tal Rasha's set gives better resistances and magic find than Enigma and Enigma isn't necessary for Barbarian magic finding in most of the important farm spots.

Gloves

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

Belt (Softcore)

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

Belt (Hardcore)

String of Ears - Gives up to 15% reduced physical damage taken, 8% life steal, and 15 reduced magic damage taken.

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 - Gives 110 attack rating, 44 life, and 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 instead use a +2 Barbarian Skills amulet (optionally a crafted Blood Amulet) with magic find and other useful stats like life leech, life, and increased all resistances.

Rings

Carrion Wind - Use Carrion Wind for 9% life leech and 55% poison resistance (important because Tal Rasha's body armor lacks poison resistance) and a Raven Frost for up to 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 and high gold find, max damage/attack rating/life charms, and optionally 7% magic find small charms with resistances.

Mercenary Type

Act 2 Might Mercenary

Mercenary Weapon

Ethereal Reaper's Toll - Gives a 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, up to 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 which is the budget option but you can also use a 30% fire resistance jewel with 15% increased attack speed.

Budget Mercenary Weapon

Reaper's Toll - Gives a 33% chance to cast the level 1 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

Ondal's Almighty (Um'd) - Gives a chance to cast level 3 Weaken, 24% faster hit recovery, 10 strength, and 15 dexterity. The Weaken curse has a larger area of effect than Decrepify which can be used as a budget option to improve your defenses in Hardcore.

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 speed up your magic find runs. They do, however, require excellent equipment to survive well in Hardcore.

Recommendation: Frenzy Barbarian

Stats: Enough Strength for gear, 136 Dexterity (to use 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) & Ethereal Breath of the Dying Colossus Blade (Vex Hel El Eld Zod Eth) - Phase Blade is recommended for Grief because it's indestructible and it won't need repairs and eBotD weapons are also indestructible.

Budget Weapons

Two Ethereal Oaths Balrog Blades (Shael Pul Mal Lum) - These two budget weapons deal high damage for a low rune cost.

Weapon Switch

Call To Arms (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) - One Call To Arms gives +1 all skills and +3 to Battle Orders but, a second Call To Arms won't give this full bonus. You should use a +3 to Warcries weapon in your offhand instead (or a Heart of the Oak flail 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 cold resistance +40%, fire resistance +40%, lightning resistance +40%, and 88% magic find. It can also be socketed with a Perfect Topaz or an Ist rune for more magic find. Teleport from the Enigma runeword body armor isn't necessary on Barbarians for most of the important farming spots.

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, 37% damage taken goes to mana, and the Tal Rasha's 3 set gives magic find.

Belt (Hardcore)

String of Ears - Gives up to 15% reduced physical damage taken, 8% life leech, and 15 reduced magic damage taken.

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 budget option gives 110 attack rating, 44 life, and 25% magic find from Immortal King's two set bonus.

Amulet

Tal Rasha's Amulet - For 65% more magic find from the Tal Rashas' 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, a chance to cast Twister which stuns, and 55% poison resistance which is important because Tal Rasha's body armor lacks poison resistance. The Raven Frost ring should also be used for 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 high increased gold find, and an inventory full of max damage/attack rating/life charms.

Mercenary Type

Act 2 Might Mercenary

Mercenary Weapon

Ethereal Reaper's Toll - Gives a 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) - Gives +2 all skills, 9% life leech, -30% fire resistance, and 30 strength. You can socket this helmet with a Ral rune for 30% fire resistance as a budget option or use a 30% fire resistance jewel with 15% increased attack speed.

Budget Mercenary Weapon

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

Budget Mercenary Armor

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

Budget Mercenary Helm

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

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

Magic Find Barbarian Leveling Items

You can start using Hsarus' belt and gloves once you're at least level 3 and have 30 strength for added Defense and Attack Rating per level from the set bonus. Bane's Garments set can be switched to at level 8 for +1 to all skills, high damage, Attack Rating, and strong set modifiers. You can also add Angelic 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

The Pit

The Pit is completely safe to magic find on a Barbarian on Hardcore once you have a great set of gear. Eldritch and Pindleskin are also options on Hardcore to level up and magic find. The Pit is great for magic finding because it can drop every item and rune in the game. Eldritch, Pindleskin, Travincal, and The Pit are all also great places to pop corpses when magic finding on a Barbarian.

The Forgotten Tower

With a Frenzy Barbarian you can use your very fast run speed to get through the Forgotten Tower but Teleporting 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.

Travincal

Travincal is the best gold finding location and drops a high number of charm, gems, and jewels. It's not safe to magic find in Hardcore, however, because Travincal bosses can have dangerous modifiers that can eventually kill your Barbarian.

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 magic find 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 in the sample were done with about 340 magic find with no magic find on weapon switch. High value items from the above sample include: Stone of Jordan, Ber Rune, Gul Rune, 2 Mal runes, 2 Um Runes, Skin of the Vipermagi, Tal Rasha's Armor, 7% Magic Find Small Charm with 12 Attack Rating, Andariel's Visage, Immortal King's Armor, Ethereal 4os Thresher, Small Charm w/ 20 Life and 12 Attack Rating, Charm with Maximum Damage/Attack Rating/12% Faster Hit Recovery, Charm with Maximum Damage/Attack Rating/Strength, Oculus, Highlord's Wrath, Raven Frost x2, 7% Magic Find Small Charm, and an Elemental Skiller with 25 Life.

And that's all for the Item Find Barbarian Guide. You can check out more guides in the menu at the top of this page. Good luck!