Barb TR...

[TheKeg]

So, I'm thinking about making the push and getting my barb to 20th so I can TR him. I have a few questions though:

1) What should I have before I TR him? I'm guessing it would be nice to grind out some Shroud stuff before TRing, but after acquiring a nice G'Axe, is there anything that's a must have?

2) What items should I have to make him Epic ready? I'd like to be able to exercise the option of using Epic tokens to get my heart of wood.

3)Anything I'm missing at this point? I've got a nice cache of low ML weapons to get him going, will have to work on clickies and such.

[protokon]

to answer your questions:

1) a greensteel weapon and hp item would be beneficial, but not absolutely necessary. they just make the grind easier, especially if you end up soloing with a hireling cleric (which is a common thing to do to minimize down time while looking for groups) common shroud items include:
-mineral 2 weapon (greataxe)
-lightning strike 2 weapon (greataxe again)
-triple earth weapon (cheap and effective)
-triple positive maul (for undead)
-HP cloak / triple earth - gives you earth ele clicky and earthgrab guard (my personal favorite)

Personally, I would build the mineral 2 greataxe, triple positive maul, and triple earth cloak - makes for great combination. If you really don't want to put the effort into crafting greensteel, you can get pretty far with a decent bodyfeeder weapon.

some other nice items to have:
-silver flame potions (if you want to bother grinding the favor)
-mantle of the worldshaper (extremely useful situationally)
-chronoscope gear
-haste clicky's
-invis clicky's
-claw set
-phiarlan time pendant

2) Epic as a melee is kind of straightforward, especially as a barbarian. Most epic content consists of a caster mass holding everything while you beat it down. The mineral 2 greataxe or the triple earth greataxe will both work well. there is also a variety of epic weapons you can craft that are not too hard to put together, although the only weapon that really beats out a mineral 2 is going to be an epic SOS, but even that is so close it doesn't really matter.

3) if it's your first time TRing, I have a few pieces of advice from personal experience and from various veterans:
-once you reach greensteel level (12), hold your levels. hold them until you are FORCED to take your level, it is much easier to grind (especially lvls 18-20) if you don't exhaust too much content, drain lower level content first. from 1-12 there is no real need to hold levels.

-don't do content above your character level. It may seem at first that there is plenty of exp, but the real grind is from 17-20 when you need nearly an extra 1 million exp to cap.

-powergamers will typically do content 1 level below there current level to maximize efficiency - for example, at lvl 12 doing offering of blood, and the dead shall rise, enemy within, ect...lvl 11 quests. With a good group, you can even do content 2-3 levels below and farm it on a higher difficulty for example, most TR's will farm shadow crypt at lvl 12 (since it is lvl 11 on elite) to help give a boost at that level range.

-farming typically consists of doing a quest 11 times on one difficulty, then doing the other difficulties one time for the bonus exp. not everything has to be farmed 11 times, generally your goal is 1k exp per min - if your not getting close to this, it's probably not worth farming.

-if you can make it to level 15 (level 14 and holding your exp for level 15) before hitting gianthold you are in very good shape.

that's about all there really is to it. a first time TR is fairly easy, even with the steep exp penalty. leveling a TR is only fun if you let it be fun. enjoy not having to grind for equipment, slaughtering enemies with your awesome geared toon, and don't think too much about how trying to get to 20 as fast as possible - time will go faster if you focus on enjoying the game rather than trying to hurry to 20.

[TheKeg]

to answer your questions:

1) a greensteel weapon and hp item would be beneficial, but not absolutely necessary. they just make the grind easier, especially if you end up soloing with a hireling cleric (which is a common thing to do to minimize down time while looking for groups) common shroud items include:
-mineral 2 weapon (greataxe)
-lightning strike 2 weapon (greataxe again)
-triple earth weapon (cheap and effective)
-triple positive maul (for undead)
-HP cloak / triple earth - gives you earth ele clicky and earthgrab guard (my personal favorite)

Yeah, I've only done shroud on my monk and it feels like it'll take an eternity to get the ingredients for all the items I'd like. I'll have to make it a point to run them as much as possible. I've read a little bit about all the GS stuff but have yet to make any real attempt at crafting.

Personally, I would build the mineral 2 greataxe, triple positive maul, and triple earth cloak - makes for great combination. If you really don't want to put the effort into crafting greensteel, you can get pretty far with a decent bodyfeeder weapon.

Well, I figured I'd craft something along those lines at minimum. I'd like to have at least one primary GS weapon and a GS item. If I go the HP route, would that give me the blindness immunity and such as well?

some other nice items to have:
-silver flame potions (if you want to bother grinding the favor)
-mantle of the worldshaper (extremely useful situationally)
-chronoscope gear
-haste clicky's
-invis clicky's
-claw set
-phiarlan time pendant

Man, I forgot about the WS cloak. I need to go run Threnal on this guy. I hate to PUG that quest chain.

2) Epic as a melee is kind of straightforward, especially as a barbarian. Most epic content consists of a caster mass holding everything while you beat it down. The mineral 2 greataxe or the triple earth greataxe will both work well. there is also a variety of epic weapons you can craft that are not too hard to put together, although the only weapon that really beats out a mineral 2 is going to be an epic SOS, but even that is so close it doesn't really matter.

Glad to hear it. Just pile the STR and HP on my guy and go to town

3) if it's your first time TRing, I have a few pieces of advice from personal experience and from various veterans: <snip>
-if you can make it to level 15 (level 14 and holding your exp for level 15) before hitting gianthold you are in very good shape.

that's about all there really is to it. a first time TR is fairly easy, even with the steep exp penalty. leveling a TR is only fun if you let it be fun. enjoy not having to grind for equipment, slaughtering enemies with your awesome geared toon, and don't think too much about how trying to get to 20 as fast as possible - time will go faster if you focus on enjoying the game rather than trying to hurry to 20.

It will be my first time to TR. I got a whole slew of questions I'll save for a little closer to the time when I decide to TR. I typically am very close to the 14/15 as it is now when I finally head over to GH. I do skip a lot of material (Necro 1-3) because I don't find it fun to play (though FW makes 2's Shadow Crypt a breeze). I guess I'll have to do more of those if I decide to TR. I do need to play some of the other quests out there that are great, but just a pain (crucible/the pit). Maybe the XP will be my incentive.