Goldfind Barb Introduction

The goldfind barbarian is built for one purpose – finding in game gold!  In game gold itself is generally not a good form of currency for trading items, however it does allow you to gamble items from vendors.  They will predominantly be Magic and Rare items; however it is also possible to gamble Unique items and it feels great when you do!

The playstyle is different to any other character or build, with the goldfind barbarian you act as a support for your mercenary who is built to do all the damage.  The barbarian’s skillset is excellent as a support build, with the combination of Shout, Battle Orders and Battle Command we provide huge boosts to Defense, Life and Mana and also +1 to All Skills.  Supplementing this with the War Cry skill which has excellent crowd control and stuns all the surrounding monsters, we have the perfect support character. 

The target farming location is Travincal, and the beauty of this build is it can be built on very budget gear to farm Nightmare and achieve similar results in terms of finding gold as you do in Hell.  The added benefit of being able to farm Hell is the possibility of dropping high value Unique Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder Items and Runes.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Cheap to set up and run
  • Incredibly high % gold find
  • Can be adapted for combined gold and magic find
  • Provides consistent income through gambled items or selling gold

Cons:

  • Repetitive gameplay
  • Only feasible to farm 1 location
  • Runs can be frustrating when additional monsters are present

Skill Tree

Warcries

  • Howl (1)
  • Taunt (1)
  • Shout (20)
  • Battle Cry (1)
  • War Cry (20)
  • Battle Orders (20)
  • Battle Command (1)
  • Find Potion (1+)
  • Find Item (20)

Combat Masteries

  • Increased Stamina (1)
  • Increased Speed (1)
  • Iron Skin (1)
  • Natural Resistance (5-10)

Combat Skills:

  • None

Levelling

The goldfind build is only feasible once you reach a high level and have obtained all the necessary gear to begin farming Travincal.  For the levelling process I would recommend following a conventional barbarian build, e.g. Whirlwind or Singer barbarian.

Items

The items for the barbarian himself are all centred around maximising our +% Gold Find, we also target some for the mercenary also.  When your mercenary achieves a kill his / her % Gold Find combines with your own, so where possible we also want to look for options to increase our Gold Find on the mercenary two.  The principal gear for the barbarian is fairly standard whether you are intending to farm Nightmare or Hell, however there are budget and end game mercenary options available depending on the target difficulty / efficiency of runs you are looking to achieve.  My personal preference is to sacrifice Gold Find on my mercenary’s gear to increase run efficiency as I like to do quick runs in Hell.

Helm:               Immortal King’s Will socketed with 2x Lem Runes (

Amulet:             80% Gold Find + Resistances / Stats / Skills

Weapon #1:      Crystal Sword socketed with 6x Lem Runes

Weapon #2:      Crystal Sword socketed with 6x Lem Runes

Weapon Switch: 2x Throwing Spears / Knives with +3 Warcries

Armor:              “Wealth” Runeword (Lem Ko Tir)

Gloves:             Chance Guards

Belt:                 Gold Wrap

Rings:               2x Dwarf Star

Boots:               Infernostride / Rare boots with 80% Gold Find and Resistances

Inventory:         1x Annihilus Small Charm

                        1x Barbarian Hellfore Torch Large Charm

                        1x Gheed’s Fortune Grand Charm with 160% Gold Find

                        7x Grand Charms with 40% Gold Find and Resistances

                        9x Small Charms with 10% Gold Find and Resistances

The build achieves a huge 2497% Extra Gold Find from your gear alone, with the potential for extra from the mercenary and also up to 250% Magic Find which is always a bonus!

I have outlined two options for the mercenary below depending on your budget.  I prefer to spend more on his items to maximise efficiency and comfortable hell farming for the chance to drop high D2R Runewords.  Both options use the Act 2 Desert Mercenary with Might aura.  You do not want to Holy Freeze aura here as this causes monsters to shatter when killed and we cannot use Find Item on their corpse.

Budget Mercenary

Helm:               Ethereal Crown of Thieves socketed with Lem Rune

Armor:              Ethereal “Wealth” Runeword (Lem Ko Tir)

Weapon:           Ethereal Bonehew socketed with 2x Lem Runes

This setup allows you to comfortable farm Nightmare Travincal for gold, it is also possible to farm Hell however can occasionally be troublesome.  This also provides us with an additional 600% Gold Find, so if your sole purpose is to find gold this may be the correct option for you.

 

End Game Mercenary

Helm:               Ethereal Vampire Gaze socketed with Cham rune

Armor:              “Fortitude” Runeword (El Sol Dol Lo) in ethereal Armor

Weapon:           Ethereal Reaper’s Toll with Ed / Ias Jewel

 

This setup allows you to farm Hell Travincal with great efficiency.  The damage from the mercenary weapon and “Fortitude” is huge, and socketed with helmet with a Cham rune provides the “Cannot be Frozen” modification meaning your mercenary will always attack as fast as possible – this is not only important for damage but for him to life leech and stay alive.

Stats

Strength:    Enough to wear your gear

Dexterity:   Enough to wear your gear

Vitality:       The remainder of your points should be put here

Energy:      None

Playstyle

The goldfind barbarian is built for the sole purpose of farming Travincal for in game gold.  It is possible to farm other areas of the game however they are far less efficient, and I would not recommend it.  The playstyle described below can be used for both Nightmare and Hell difficulties.

As you enter Travincal the first thing to do is pre-buff your warcries, weapon swap to your warcry sticks and cast Battle Command, Battle Orders and Shout making sure both you and your mercenary receive the buffs.  Run to the entrance to the Durance of Hate next to the Council Members and try to drag as many as possible close to the entrance before going in.  Once you are in, go straight back out to Travincal – this makes sure your mercenary is right next to you as you fight the Council Members.  Make sure you are using your warcry sticks and cast Battle Cry to lower the Defense and Damage of the monsters.  Switch back to your Crystal Swords then spam War Cry as much as possible to keep them stunned and allow your mercenary to do as much damage as possible.  You may need to reposition yourself slightly to make sure you are stunning as many of the Council Members as you can.

In Hell difficulty the elite Council Members can sometimes be Immune to Physical damage.  With your mercenary using Reaper’s Toll he will cast the Decrepify Curse periodically which should remove this immunity, they will still take a little longer to die but it will happen eventually.

Once all the Council Members are dead use Find Item on their corpses to maximise the amount of gold and item potential.  From each run in Hell difficulty, you should receive between 500k to 1million gold, Nightmare difficulty will yield less gold but is more efficient if you are working with budget gear.

What you do with the gold at this point is up to you.  You can either sell it in batches of 10 million for runes or alternative forum currency, or gamble with it.  I prefer using the gold to gamble items, please refer to our separate gambling guide for suggestions on what to look for. If you'd rather skip farming you can quickly Buy D2R Ladder Items from our RPGStash D2R Store.

Article From: D2R Goldfind Barbarian Build Guide