Guide Gold Find Barbarian Guide & Strategy

Hello, I have spent about two weeks testing out different variations and combinations of GF and Damage to maximize efficiency, I have tested quite some different builds and decided to share with you the results. Within the following build I have found the best results and fastest times, I have tried probably all of the mercenary weapons in combinations with more damage , more GF, or a mix of both for his gear, which is pretty much the only thing that varies within these builds. With this build I'm maxed out on gold within 3 or 4 runs, one run takes me approximately 50 seconds, depending on the particular spawn.

I will list a few options per item slot, wherever it is possible, the whole build is pretty cheap, with a few exceptions here and there.
The best ones are listed first

Barbarian's Item Build

Helm - Artisan's Tiara of Wealth ( 3 Lem's ) - Crown of Thieves - ( Lem )
Weapons - Two 6 socketed weapons with 6 Lem's in each
Body Armor - Wealth Runeword
Gloves - Chance Guards
Rings - Dwarfstars
Amulet - 80 GF amulet with res, skills or stats
Belt - Goldwrap 80GF - Rare belt 80 GF + some other mods
Boots - Rare boots with 80 GF - Infernostrides
Second Hand - Harmony Runeword on a Low req bow
Stash - Edge runeword for Gambling ( -15% Vendor Prices )

The item build for the Barbarian is pretty self-explanatory and, for the better part of it, is the same for every build you are going to find out there. Tiara with 100EG and 3 sockets is the best choice, best of luck gambling one of these, with 3 Lem's it yields 250 EG. The second best choice is Crown of Thieves with max EG and Lem rune yields 150EG, the third best choice, which I don't like at all, is IK Helm with two Lem's - it provides you with less extra gold no resistances and +2 to Warcries does not provide you with higher % ( 53% ) on Item Find. For Weapons, you can use whatever you find ( War Axes, Crystal Swords ) , since you will not be fighting at all, the bases don't matter, just opt for ones with lower requirements. I'm using rare boots on mine, because they can have up to 10 EG more than Inferno's. Harmony on second hand is used to move around faster.

Mercenary's build

Helm - Guillaume's Face - Socket with a jewel 15 IAS +
Armor - Eth bugged Wealth runeword
Gloves - Laying of Hands
Belt - Goldwrap
Ring - Dwarf
Amulet - Highlord's Wrath
Boots - Gore Rider
Weapon - Reaper's Toll ( Unique Thresher ) Shael'd

He needs 42 IAS for 4.16 hits per second and 75 IAS for 4.54 hits per second. If you opt for the lower frame, you can socket his weapon with a Lem or a Pul rune, and use Lem for his helmet too, but he will be better off with 75%. With this item build I found the best results in combination of EG and Killing Speed. Reaper's Toll provides him with plenty of Life leech, he rarely needs any help with potions, has a chance to cast ( and a high one too ) Decrepify, which breaks physical immunity and is quite appreciated when one of the councils is PI. Yes, I know it adds Cold damage and sometimes shatters the bodies, even after this is considered, I still think this is the best choice for him, this is quite unappreciated weapon. Basically, half of his build is aimed at gold find, the rest of it is aimed at damage. He has 50% CB and 97 DS , LoH provide him with 350% Damage to Demons ( Which they all are ) + 20 IAS , pretty much no other choice for gloves. Guillaume's is pretty much the best helm there is, damage-wise.

I have tested most of the weapons - Eth Yari, Eth Tomb Reaver ( It was little below 260ED as I remember, but I don't think it would have made any difference ), Obedience ( This has a lot of damage too, but adds cold damage and cannot deal with PI by itself, I combined this with Atma's Scarab ), Infinity, BOTD.
Most of the players consider BOTD as being the best weapon choice for this kind of build, but in my opinion RT does better. When I switched from RT to BOTD the killing speed remained almost the same , only no bodies were shattered and the price between these two is quite significant. I didn't choose RT because of it's lower price, but because of its efficiency. If you choose to use BOTD on yours, I would suggest that you combine it with Atma's Scarab ( 5% CTC Damage amplify ), because it will cost you time to deal with the PI Council over time if you are doing a lot of runs.

Stats build:

Strength - Enough for gear
Dexterity - Enough for gear
Vitality - Rest


Skill Build:

Item Find - 20
Battle Orders 20
Battle Command - 1
Leap - 10 - 13

This is it, the rest of the points you can spend however you like. On mine I have spend some on Shout, Natural Resistances and Increased Speed. You don't need anything else. I have put a few points in Leap to keep the Councils off me, you don't need to Stun them, because merk will have no trouble surviving. You don't need any weapon masteries, as you will not be doing the fighting. I think in terms of efficiency 20 points on Increased Speed will be best, but as I said, you can spend them however you like.

Inventory:
x16 Grand charms with Extra Gold ( Max is 40 )
Gheed's Fortune
Cube
Torch
Anix
Book of Town Portal

In terms of EG , Grand charms bring most EG. The best choice is Warcries with 40EG, but those aren't easy to find. I prefer 40EG charm to a 30EG Warcries skiller.
You need Cube to stash things, I usually very rarely loot ( Eth Titans, Eth SS's etc ) runes and rare circlets. If you loot a lot of things ( Amulets , rings or most of the crap that the councils drop ) it will cost you a lot of time in the long run. The book is 100% required, read Strategy. In perfect conditions ( excluding Artisan's Tiara of Wealth ) your mercenary will have about 500EG and your Barbarian will have about 2800EG

Strategy - Go to the Councils, wait for mercenary to kill them, use Item Find on their bodies, collect gold.
Your runs should look like this - Start from Act 4 -> Switch to Harmony -> Travincal -> BC , Shout, BO -> Move to Councils -> Switch Back Weapons -> Wait for Mercenary to kill them -> Collect all of the gold -> Return back to Town -> Move gold to stash -> Go to Act 4 -> Exit

When you are using harmony you will be a lot faster compared to when not using it. Starting from Act 4 will save you a few seconds every run.
There are a few different spawns ( All of them inside the Chamber, half of them are inside, the other half is outside, all of them outside, all of them in the middle, some of them in the middle and some of them inside ) and such. There are a few techniques you can use to get the fastest killing times. Most of the time you want to gather all of them in the same spot. With a few runs behind your back, when you see the Councils on your minimap and notice of the way they are spawned, it will take you 1 to 2 seconds to figure out the plan for the run. If they are all outside I go near them, use teleport to get back into town and return to Travincal immediately , which causes your mercenary to "Teleport" on the right spot, you can use this multiple times per run, but I use it twice in the worst case scenario, if some of them are wandering around. The most common spawn will be half of them outside, half of them inside. To gather them up on the same spot , when you approach them go straight to Durance of Hate and then back to Travincal, move a bit to the right, so your mercenary fights them near the door, then walk to the councils that are outside, wait for them to notice you and walk back to your mercenary, it takes them some seconds but they will follow you in 90% of the time. If some of the Councils don't follow, go near him and use TP to get your merk to kill him. If one of the Councils spawns outside and all of the rest spawn inside, you can use the same technique to draw him in or you can wait for your merk to kill the ones inside the Chamber, then jump over the wall and teleport your merk there. If they spawn outside near the door, just use teleport on the first stairs, don't go to DoH and the rest of them will be drawn outside in short period of time.

That's it.

If you have a different build than mine, for your mercenary, you can share it here and I'll give it a shot and post the results. Feedback and criticism will be appreciated.

 

Nice guide. Goin to add pics of my barb setup bit later.

 

I think this should go in the "Guides" forum section. Last year NoCopyRight posted a GF barb build there which is pretty similar, but tbh there is not much to play around with on such a build.

Anyway this here is more detailed, explained and presented better, so good job and thanks for sharing.

P.S. The only difference on my GF barb is that I use two BO sticks on switch and my merc is more GF oriented gear-wise. It's still making fast runs tho.

 

As far as I know, threads are moved to the Guide's section, not posted there directly, but whatever. I have already pointed out that 90% of the builds are the same, because theres not much difference in gear you can carry on your hero, but your mercenary makes all the difference. I decided to post it, because I tried a lot of combinations and found this one to work best by my own standards. Most of the people only try one build and stick with it, not knowing if it is effective or not, but refuse to test other things. Basically there three ways to go about it
Less damage, more gold find - Slower runs, I think overall this way of farming will yield less gold , at least thats what I found when I tried it. What I don't like is that runs take 1;30~ and it sometimes happens that they don't drop a lot of gold, then you are at a significant disadvantage, because of the time it takes you to kill them all.
Less gold find , most damage ( Mercenary is all about damage, no gold find on him ) - Killing times are almost, with minor changes, identical to the build I have posted in OP , but yields less gold - I rarely got enough to fill my inventory ( Mercenary had about 180EG )
And a balance of these two - which I think works best ( at least to me, those are all my opinions , not facts )

There is a lot of playing around with your mercenary's build, not your own. I'm soon going to try it with Act 1 Mercenary too, I don't think its gonna be faster, but I have to try it.
Anyway, none of the builds I tried yielded max gold in less than 5 minutes, if I get lucky with the drops it only takes me 3 runs in about a minute each ( Of course, that doesn't happen every single time , but it happens frequently enough ) and sometimes 4. What I have found out actually is that a CE Necromancer usually does better than the rest of the barbarian builds I tried. If you have a CE necro, since they are popular at the moment, and don't want to create a new hero just for gold finding, throw him the same gear , except for Enigma and Lemmed Monarch , use the same mercenary build you used for PvM. Usually runs take about 20 to 30 seconds and yield about 300k in bad runs. You will be astounded how well it does
With CE Necro I used AutoTP to get from WP to DoH, because it teleports faster, then just come back to Trav , let your mercenary kill the first one and its over. Also tried with more GF on Merk ( Yari 3x Lems, Wealth ) , because he does plentiful damage ( Damage amplify ) and waited for him to kill them. Runs were a bit slower ( like 35-40 seconds ) but more gold was found.

Thanks for the feedback

I noticed his guide just now, after you reminded me, must have missed it when I was looking for one there. Yeah, its kinda close to this one, and is very well put together. Meh, we'll see, might delete this one, thank you for noticing.

 

Just for the record - you can post directly in the "Guides" section. Everything else I kinda agree with.

 

I am thinking of making it the other way around - gold find barb with a lot of cast rate, switch armor to enigma and a lot of warcries damage - will speed up things grately, plus it will add some action to the run itself. You will lose like 500 EG, however it spending two or so minutes less per run can give you a very solid return in my eyes.

 

Well, it will definitely add some action up to the picture, but I couldn't help but wonder how exactly you intended to reduce the run time with two minutes or so, when one run takes less than a minute in most cases. This type of GF-er I haven't tested out, but I'm quite sure that you will not be able to kill them that much faster, if faster at all. You will need to invest some points in energy and getting close to the councils sometimes gets very painful ( + the manaburn which will lead to having to shop more often for potions ) .. yeah, I take these little things under consideration

 

A friend of mine just tested it and it was taking a bit more time for one and one reason only - its the merc going around for no reason, not following you correctly. (fix for that obviously is teleport on top of target) - this is why I came up with the idea and the suggestion.

 

As I have pointed out in the guide, you will need to do some runs and have some experience in order to manipulate his movements, I think this is a big part of the Gold Finding itself. You can use Town Portal's to manipulate him, if you are having trouble, but when you get the basics on, he will not wander at all. If you just want to walk around and expect the merk to follow you, that's not going to happen. I have described in the "Strategy" part of the guide a few ways he can be manipulated. And most of the times you don't even want him to move, you bring the Councils to him, because that takes less time.
When I started in the beginning my mercenary did more damage than he does now, yet runs were slower than they are now, because I didn't know how to handle situations, that all comes with experience. When you do a few hundred runs ( With my current hero I started at 83 level or something, he has more than 50% on 91 level just from Trav ) you, or your friend in that particular situation, will have the experience and techniques required to manipulate the situations easier. I assure you, that when he gets more experienced on this, the only time Enigma is going to save him will be because of the traveling time from wp to the councils
Thank you for the feedback though, I think these situations will be best explained with a video, which I might consider doing in the following days, because it is kind of harder to put into words.

 

i would suggest using 2x5socketd rune master`s

 

Well , it's a nice guide
And the most important thing : It's original

 

Hey!

Useful guide but I wont spend so much points on Leap.It is always better to put them on the War Cry and Battle Cry since you use them most of the time.Also Natural Resist, Stamina, Increase Speed are always better.Suggesting the Enigma and losing 300GF isn't that much lost when you have 2000+.

 

I couldn't help but notice that some of the feedback you are posting is already discussed in the guide itself. I have pointed out why I chose not to use WC/BC , most of the players that use them is because their mercenary cannot survive on his own, the one in this guide has no problems surviving with almost no assistance from you. If you have done a lot of runs, you probably would have noticed that in terms of assisting your merk, Leap does far better job than your Cry skills, you can keep them stun-locked , it works 100% of the time, and you are not going through potions like a mad man and you will be getting hit less, which is a problem when you have no survivability gear on you.If you are using a strictly GF based build, you might have the necessity to use WC/BC to keep him alive, but even when I was testing out such builds Leap, in my opinion, is far superior than the other skills. I chose to put as much points in Leap, because I'm using it to get them to walk in the right direction sometimes, and the wider range it has, the less I have to move in order to do so. I found out that putting more points in it would be counter-productive, because if half of the councils spawn outside and you are constantly leaping with more points in it, they would not be able to enter the chamber. Also, I have already debated that Enigma is not needed to manipulate his movements as much as people think, and 300EG actually is quite significant, no matter how much EG you have. When I'm using Fortitude on my merk instead of Wealth, I'm having trouble collecting anything above 900k in most cases, so it makes quite a significant difference in my opinion.

As I said, all feedback will be appreciated, but please, before you do, at least take the courtesy to test some of the things out, before you give your opinion. I'm expecting people to just make comments, disregarding some of my statements, but I can only hope that it is done less often. I have put in the time it takes to get maxed out on gold not because I wanted to showoff to other people, but to actually tell them that it can get done faster. So that if somebody else is using another build and he farms the same amount of gold , but in twice the time, he might wonder "Hey, why don't I try some of these things, see how he does it faster than me". I'm getting emotional on the subject, because, as I have stated in the guide, I don't like it when people just try one thing and make claims that "It works best like this", before giving some other idea a try. If you are farming gold faster than I do, ( again, this is not a showoff ) you can post a quick version of your build and if it is something that I haven't tried I will be sure to give it a shot. But, if by any chance, it takes you 5-6 minutes or above ( Yes, minutes matter to me, otherwise I would have probably stuck with my CE Necro ), please give it a shot and come here to post your opinion about it, once again.

@rarti I can imagine myself using one of those for the CBF effect, but why would I use two? Even with the CBF effect, in my opinion, it's not worth to sacrifice 150EG ( from both weapons ) or 75 from a single one.

 

well 150eg is not that much and you will clear a bit faster when you start to attack