Hello! I go by the nickname Casperi on the Battle.net realms. I play Diablo II: Lord of Destruction on the U.S. East Realm. My account names are *racasper and *casperi for hardcore. I like to play character builds that are not often seen online, but are still viable in the game. My unusual characters are made by spending stat & skill points in non-standard ways and playing the resulting character as well as possible.
This site contains my Throwing Barb Guide, as well as several character write-ups that describe how and why I built some of my characters. The write-ups aren't full guides, but you could use them like that if you want to follow in my footsteps.
Casperi
(aka Bob Casper)
racaspercom@yahoo.com
The Throwing Barbarian Guide
by CasperiThe original Throwing Barb Guide, updated for version 1.09 of Diablo II: LoD. Although I am certainly not the first to make this type of character, and Sirian may have been the first to write articles about a successful throwing barb and post them online - my web page here was the first "guide" written for players that seek advice on making their own Throwing Barb (approx. March 2001).
Throwing Barb Guide
by RichieDaggersCrimeA guide by RichieDaggersCrime of the Diabloii.net Strategy Forums, written independently of my guide. The content is similar of course, because the subject is the same. You may appreciate reading about throwers from another point of view.
Hardcore Throw Barb Guide
by Swiss_MercenaryA nice PvM thrower guide written with hardcore mode in mind. Good tactics section.
PvP Jav Barb Guide
by JEB90A dueling barbarian that uses javelins for Throwing, Berserk, and Whirlwind.
PvP Throw Barb Guide
by PhreekI play the game to fight the monsters, not other players. If you want advice on Player vs. Player combat, check out this guide by Phreek of the Diabloii.net Strategy Forums.
PVP Hybrid Barb Guide
by PhiSigAnother dueling guide from the Diabloii.net forums. This one advocates putting throwing spears on one weapons tab and a sword/shield on the other, so that you can handle more character types. Skill points are stretched thin on this build, especially if you max Battle Orders. Any hybrid I make would use spear or axe mastery (not sword), but that's me.
Non-Barbarian Throwers
by CasperiMy thoughts on building a character that uses throwing weapons in a class other than barbarian.
I wanted to make a new character that would be challenging to play, and used some combination of skills I haven't tried before. My typical starting sorceress uses firebolt from her staff, chills with a point in frost nova, uses 1 point in Static Field on bosses, and hits with the staff when mana runs out. Skill points are saved for the better spells and only 1 goes in prerequisite skills. I decided to expand on this "starter sorc" idea somehow and play it through the whole game. One option was to make a melee sorc that uses a staff as her weapon, with high levels of Frost Nova and Static. But I already have a melee sorc (Melan) and want to try something unique.
The sorceress is one of the most powerful classes because they are not as dependent on equipment as others, and the global physical resistance in hell mode doesn't bother them. So I wondered how I could make a non-melee sorceress that IS dependent on items. Then this idea hit me that was so crazy I had to at least try it once. A sorceress that puts all of her skill points in the passive skills: Warmth, Fire Mastery, Lightning Mastery, and Cold Mastery.
Any spells that I use will have to come from a staff or orb. To continue the theme, I will put no stat points in energy - a higher mana pool will require items that add to mana. I think this could work because there are lots of ways to get plus skills in the xpac, and some spells can be effective without being maxed. Her name comes from "gen" for mana regeneration (maxed warmth) and "verse" because she will be versatile and not committed to one set of spells. Any future patches that change the skills can't hurt me - switching skills is as simple as picking up a new staff. When running back to my corpse after dying, I'll be as useless as a barbarian without his sword and armor. And you thought one-tree sorcs were crazy - how about no-tree! Woo hoo!!!
At level 32, this is proving to be challenging and fun to play. I was using the unique Salamander staff (fireball / firewall). My damage jumped up when I hit level 30 and Fire Mastery became available. Someone gave me a nice orb with Frozen Orb and Lightning Storm on it, so I finished normal mode as a FO/TS sorc. On the weapon switch is a staff with +3 Static and +1 Lightning skills, giving me a level 4 Static Field. There are some bugs related to skill levels from skills you get only from items, without any natural skill points. Sometimes the +1 from my Lore helm applies, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the masteries don't apply. I am finding that when I use the W key to switch weapons and then switch back, it fixes this temporarily - so I do a quick weapon flip before each battle. Also, it helps to have lots of gold on hand so that you can buy a good staff when it is available at a town vendor.
Update: This was an interesting idea, but I became very frustrated with the skill level bugs involved when you have no natural points in a skill. Weapons switching helped, but the level of skills that I should have had based on my items rarely stayed with me. They were constantly being lowered, just by using a spell or even using a waypoint. The constant micromanagement to make sure I had that extra 1-2 points in a skill was tiresome, and I ended up deleting this char at level 37. A solution might have been to put one natural skill point in every skill and then add to masteries after level 30, but that defeats the purpose of being dependent on staff/orb for spells.
My "namesake" character. I've been saving this name on US East for a while, using the char as a mule, because I wasn't sure what to do with it. Now I'm thinking about making a hybrid throwing barb that uses Berserk to kill physical immunes (the thrower's nemesis). Berserk is powerful enough alone that it can work without a mastery, so I'll use it with whatever throwing weapon I have on hand. This will be my next project, maybe for the 1.10 ladder.
My new singing barb! "Singing Barb" is a term coined by Scott Seese, and means a barbarian that uses War Cry as his main attack skill. I actually had a singer at level 38, but decided to delete him and start over because his stat points were way too low to use any of the items he needed, and a few skill points were wasted on combat skills he'd never use. Singing barbs are very dependent on equipment for high levels of mana and fast cast. My new singer is going to start out being warcries-only, but I might end up putting points in Leap.
Scott's guide recommends Leap Attack for the range, so you can jump into a crowd of monsters and stun them all when you land. I tried this with my last singer and found that (because LA is an attack skill) I landed and then tried to hit one of the monsters with the wand I was holding before starting the Warcry - a small delay that gave them a chance to attack me and interrupt my first yell. So I think Leap would be better because there's no attack animation when you land and it stuns the monsters for a split second, giving me enough time to begin the Warcry.
Currently level 31, thanks to someone helping me with the ancients quest and then doing blood runs with a Rixots Keen short sword and a Rogue with a nice bow. Felt kinda odd to be leveled by my mercenary, but it worked. He won't be able to use "bahamut" +mana items until level 37, and won't approach full power until level 50. I have this char on the back burner now. Leveling him up in public games is very tedious.
Update: My singer is level 49 now, and can use many of his "endgame" items. Still have all skill points in Warcries tree. Battle Orders and Warcry are maxed, so I'm not sure what to do with my saved points.
This is my most successful throwing barb on realms, a pure thrower who never fights in melee combat. He is level 78 and can handle himself solo in most areas of Act 5 hell mode - except for areas with lots of physical immunes. All of his main skills are maxed now, and he now has a point in Grim Ward (although I don't use it much because I use crafted knockback gloves for crowd control). He had minimal vitality for most of his career, only adding to it with the Act 3 tome quest rewards. However, he has enough strength to use all equipment and enough dexterity to hit reliably, so the last few level's stat points have gone to vitality to give him a little more durability. This character is mostly retired, since he's done all the quests in all difficulties. I still use him for magic finding.
Damage 250-1360 per axe
Stats and skills, with his "combat gear" on (not MF gear):
ST - 146
DX - 368
VT - 80
EN - 20
Attack Rating approx 10,000Leap - 11
Double Throw - 22
Throwing Mastery - 21
Natural Resist - 11
Battle Orders - 22
1 point in prerequisites
A mageazon is an Amazon that ignores physical damage and kills with elemental types of damage only, using a bow or javelin to deliver the damage to target. She only needs enough strength and dexterity to use items, raises vitality to about 100, with the rest of stat points (200+) going into energy. Mana regeneration items and potions are used instead of mana leech. The to-hit percentage is not an issue because magic arrows/javelins always hit.
My first mageazon was tri-elemental - using Freezing Arrow, Immolation Arrow, and Lightning Fury so that I would be able to damage any monster in the game, even ones with double immunities. I got to level 74 or so using the unique cedar bow (Kuko Shakaku) in my primary weapons setup because of the + skills on it, and on the weapon switch some +2 skills maiden javelins and a Rhyme shield. Although Lightning Fury is an awesome skill, I don't think I used it more than once in the life of the character. I also had a very weak Valkyrie and only 1 skill point in each defensive skill. My regret was spending those 20 points in LF instead of Dodge/Avoid/Evade and Valkyrie.
My second bowazon reached level 68, and used maxed Strafe as her primary attack. She had a speedazon rig, consisting of a Goldstrike Arch bow and a total of 150% IAS, resulting in a 8/2 attack speed. I loved the automatic targeting and the speed. She compensated for having low life/mana by having high levels of leech (16% mana, over 20% life). Refilling both spheres just meant firing out the first few strafes or guided arrows. The problem was physical immunes and undead in hell mode - because you can't leech mana from them, her mana pool was gone in an instant and she couldn't attack. This made me think I was on to something with the no-leech mageazon build. This strafeazon had a strong valkyrie, and I appreciated having it survive many hits while I distracted the crowds with my Decoy, instead of constantly recasting the valk.
So after "going to school" on the last two builds, I made my level new mageazon (now level 78), with maxed Freezing Arrow (primary attack) and maxed Immolation Arrow (backup attack for cold immunes and supplemental damage for bosses). To damage monsters that are immune to both cold and fire, I have a +3 skills Stag Bow with 5 Ort runes on my other weapon tab to do lightning damage with Guided Arrow (1 point plus skill adders). Dodge/Avoid/Evade are all above 40% levels, and Valkyrie is around 16 (now adding points here). I have my original Rogue mercenary from act 1 normal mode, who is now level 75 and has a "lightning hose" equipment setup. I actually played through the entire game with this character, collecting all the waypoints, building the horadric staff and kalim's will, and doing all of the quests (except Nithalak in hell mode).
This idea came from the old Lurker Lounge forums, where a couple of people tried maxing out this low level skill to see what it could do, and were surprised at how powerful it was. It does damage per second and is relatively mana-efficient. My level 78 inferno sorc has maxed Inferno and Fire Mastery. I had to develop a back-up spell in another element for fire immunes, so I chose Chain Lightning. I picked this because I never really used it before and was having fun trying it with a staff. It's great with tightly clustered groups of monsters, and reminds me of the old Lightning Fury. My Chain Lightning and Lightning Mastery are now maxed.
With my fire gear on (including Leaf staff, magefist, +3 fire amulet) my inferno range is 20.6 yards and does 1258-1298 damage per second. Not as much as Firewall, but still impressive. With my lightning gear on, Chain Lightning does 4-1803 per bolt, maximum of 10 bolts per cast. Warmth varies between 9-17 depending on items worn. I have 45 strength for equipment, base dex, 260 vitality, 150 energy. I try to keep my mana high enough to maintain a 20 second burn rate. Vitality is high because both my spells require me to stand still to cast them, and with no cold skills I tend to get hit a lot. Future skill points may go into Frost Nova to slow the monsters a bit.
Inferno - 36
Fire Mastery - 30Chain Lightning - 26
Lightning Mastery - 29
This is my Pure Summoner - a Druid who can only spend skill points in the summoning tree. No shape-shifting skills at all. No elemental skills at all. Now a patriarch at level 68, I have found this character to be very effective, especially in multi-player high-lag situations. I've even found a way to deal with those pesky physical immunes!
Read the Pure Summoner Druid Guide
Melan's name is a combination of "melee" and "Mulan". Started as a melee sorceress, and later restarted as a ranged attacker. As improbable as the melee sorc is, I have taken it a step further and given her a bow. Not a powerful character by any means, but I have been surprised by how quickly she can cut through crowds of monsters with her enchanted exploding arrows!
Update: Melan is level 49 now, and uses the unique Demon Machine crossbow, a gift from a fellow guild member. It fires much faster than I thought it would, and only needs 10% IAS to reach maximum speed. Still keeping the Kuko, but this is interesting.
During the D2: Lord of Destruction beta testing period, Sirian played a javelin-using Amazon named Lytra that specialized in Charged Strike (one of those lighting spear skills that nobody uses). He made an interesting discovery about how the skill works in practice that makes it a viable alternative to other melee skills. I decided to try it for myself, and started Casperi_Lyte, an Amazon that would be a lightweight tankazon with Charged Strike as my melee skill and Plague Javelin as my area of effect skill. I'm not using Lightning Fury on this character because I already have a lightning skill and want to develop another skill that damages lightning immunes.
My goals are: Charged Strike 20, Plague Javelin 20, Critical Strike 8, Dodge 12, and a fair amount in Penetrate. No points in Pierce because my only ranged attack is Plague, and it doesn't really need to pierce to be effective. A few points in Valkyrie later on. Strength, dexterity, and vitality raised 2-2-1 per level until she's strong enough, then 2-3 to dexterity and vitality. Put act 3 tome stat points in energy.
Well, I ended up deleting this character at around level 52. I had maxed Charged Strike and found it to be less effective than I hoped. Sirian's discovery was - when you attack with Charged Strike and a normal attack would have hit the target, it looks like all three of the charged bolts hit the one target. At level 20 each bolt does about 240 lightning damage, so "hitting" should do the weapon's physical damage plus 720 lightning. It was taking several hits to kill each monster in the nightmare bloody hills. I suspect that this skill is bugged like Lightning Strike and is simply not doing the damage that is listed in the description. Or maybe only one bolt hits and the other two vanish when you score a physical hit. In any event, I decided to give up because it was very tedious trying to play this char and moved on to other more interesting builds.
My first serious Paladin character, doing a fairly standard build. Named after a brand of Italian silk ties. He is mainly a smite-adin, with some points going into Blessed Hammer to give me a way to do magic damage and deal with crowds. Skills points are going to: Smite, Holy Shield, Concentration, and Blessed Hammer. At some point I want to get a point or two in Meditation. Smite speed is based on weapon speed, so I put a Shael in the unique scimitar Blood Crescent, which adds 35% IAS to a Very Fast weapon (and bonus of +15% resist all). I also have Goldwrap belt to add speed, and Iceblink armor to freeze everything I hit. Later on I plan to use the chipped gem recipe on elite scimitars until I get one with sockets and IAS, so I can add 2 Shael runes and get 50% IAS on my weapon. My current shield is an exceptional paladin-only shield that I found, with good resists and 2 sockets. I made the Rhyme runeword in it.
Alfani is level 51, with maxed concentration, and about 10 points each in Smite, Holy Shield, and Hammer. I think he would have been more effective if I had specialized in smite or hammers instead of both. He uses smite almost all the time, mostly to stun the monsters (but stun time is low because the skill isn't maxed). I haven't played this guy very much lately, because I find that the "run up and hit them" type of character to be kinda boring to play. Not sure at this point if I'm going to continue with him.
This is my traps assassin, named after a real trappist monastery in Kentucky. My only restriction is no points in the martial arts tree. I plan to have a high level Shadow Master, maxed Blady Fury (like a physical inferno skill), maxed Wake of Inferno, and at least one point in Death Sentry (for exploding corpses). Maybe increase Lightning Sentry if I get to hell mode, to work on fire immunes.
Currently at level 39, adjusted stats are S 59, D 49, V 110, E 135. Blady Fury is level 20 (102 damage per blade), Wake of Inferno is level 14 (121-134 per shot, 10 shots per trap), and Lightning/Death Sentries at level 1. One point in all the shadow disciplines except the auras. I like having a default left-click attack mode, so it's nice to have Blade Fury. However, it is already showing it's age in late nightmare mode. I suspect it'll be worthless in hell mode unless I get items that add crushing blow to my physical attacks (note - just found out CB won't work with Blade Fury). This character is fun, and does require lots of hotkey switching. I like being able to set traps before opening urns or summoning the Ancients.
Duggan, the No Magic Item Barbarian was a single-player hardcore character I played before the expansion pack was released (version 1.05 or 1.06). This write-up was made as part of an entry for Ember's Hall of Heroes. To qualify for the HoH, I would have had to finish Act 4 in normal mode without dying at all, doing full clears of all areas, while playing with some self-imposed restriction to make the game more challenging. Of course I didn't qualify because he died in Act 2, but I did learn more about the game and how to depend on skills instead of items.