Melee gear - looking for advice

[mikarddo]

After playing casters and ranged of many kinds for umpteen lives I have decided to play a melee again not having done so in maybe 5 years.

I am going to play a barbarian, either pure or 18/1/1, THF cleaving all the way. I figure that my lack of positioning ability will be less of a burden with this build :)

For end game gear I can look at the excellent posts on the forum already and I have quite a few raid runes so that I shall figure out. But - for level 1-28 I am looking for advice.

I have farmed a stack of ML5 Feywild items for a core set to start out with.
I already have a 5 pcs Slavers melee set not that I am sure I will be using it.
I have a Carniflex and a SoS, but sadly no ESoS. I will grab the ML 10 freebie from Ravenloft.
I have spell absorp items.
I am not sure if I will bother farming a Ravenloft set.
I am farming the Family set from Sharn.
I have some of the stuff from Borderlands with no clear idea what to use or not.
I can Cannith Craft as needed.

Anything you find I really should farm or craft in order to enjoy possibly several barbarian lives 1-30?
In particular - what weapons should I use from 20 to 29 seeing I lack an ESoS?

Any advice is most welcome :)

[droid327]

If you're Rav, there's Drow Greataxe...if you're Zerk, then a Keep falc should do.

[mikarddo]

If you're Rav, there's Drow Greataxe...if you're Zerk, then a Keep falc should do.

Thank you for the advice.

Pardon my ignorance though, but why does it matter if I am in Ravager or in Berzerker? I assume it has something to do with the crit bonusses.

[FuzzyDuck81]

Thank you for the advice.

Pardon my ignorance though, but why does it matter if I am in Ravager or in Berzerker? I assume it has something to do with the crit bonusses.

To balance the trade-off between critical threat & multiplier :) Ravager gives +2 threat so you can go with a higher multiplier & still have a good crit rate, berserker gives multiplier so you'll want something that has the better threat rate in the first place. If you've gone occult slayer then it comes with a bit of both so its more personal preference.

[Lonnbeimnech]

for low levels i would recommend having the book of spirits from housekeeping, for ghost touch, and memories of kindness from memory lapse for true seeing (unless you can cannith craft true seeing on a pair of goggles).

for epic weapons, epic antique great axe is good because its metalline and holy and 2[1d20] base damage, but the welfare epic weapons from borderlands is good enough for going through r1s through lvl 29

notable mention goes to riftmaker and epic riftmaker from devil's details, 4x crit multiplier is pretty nice, esp when running in fury

[mikarddo]

for low levels i would recommend having the book of spirits from housekeeping, for ghost touch, and memories of kindness from memory lapse for true seeing (unless you can cannith craft true seeing on a pair of goggles).

for epic weapons, epic antique great axe is good because its metalline and holy and 2[1d20] base damage, but the welfare epic weapons from borderlands is good enough for going through r1s through lvl 29

notable mention goes to riftmaker and epic riftmaker from devil's details, 4x crit multiplier is pretty nice, esp when running in fury

Thanks. I do have TS from level 1 on a pair of goggles already and ethereal from level 5 on Fey gear but having it from level 3 would indeed be nice.

I will look into those weapons as well. I have a feeling I have the Riftmaking with +4 stashed away so that might be good to bring out if so.

[Lonnbeimnech]

I do have TS from level 1 on a pair of goggles already

in that case I'd recommend the bottle of smoke from home of memory, for 20% concealment

[mikarddo]

in that case I'd recommend the bottle of smoke from home of memory, for 20% concealment

Thanks. I already have the Bracer of Wind with Blur at level 3 though but its nice to have more options.

[Ausdoerrt]

Thanks. I already have the Bracer of Wind with Blur at level 3 though but its nice to have more options.

I'd say farm a Greater Nimble Trinket from Cove, as the trinket slot is usually pretty open on melee in heroics.