Double Throw Barbarian Guide

Double Throw* is your Damage Skill. It rapidly tosses Throwing Weapons in a straight line, dealing Physical Damage (for the most part) to enemies in their path. You cannot move while using this Skill.

* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)

Throwing Mastery* passively increases Damage, Attack Rating, and Critical Strike (chance to deal double damage) while using Throwing Weapons. It also adds Chance to Pierce, chance to not consume Quantity, and Replenishes Quantity on Critical Strike. These stats greatly boost the effectiveness of Double Throw, each improving with this Skill's Level.

Find Item* gives you a second chance at receiving loot when used on a monster's corpse. The % chance is based on its Level and the number of Skill Points you allocate into Find Potion. Your Barbarian's Magic Find stat is taken into account when using this ability.

Frenzy* increases your Faster Run/Walk and Attack Speed with each successful attack. This effect stacks up to 9 times, increasing the Attack Speed of Double Throw while active. Its boost to Faster Run/Walk and Attack Speed are based on its Level, while its effect duration increases with Skill Points into Increased Stamina.

Double Swing* attacks rapidly with 2x 1-Handed Weapons. This Skill can be used to pre-buff Burst of Speed with 2x Hustle Phase Blades on Weapon-Swap.

Howl* causes all non-Elite/non-Boss monsters within its Area of Effect (AoE) to scatter away from you in fear. This Skill's AoE, effect duration, and degree of scatter are all based on its Level.

Battle Orders* is a temporary buff that grants a significant percentage boost to the Maximum Life, Mana, and Stamina of all partied Characters, Mercenaries, and minions within its cast radius.

Battle Command* is a temporary buff that grants +1 to All Skills to all partied Characters, Mercenaries, and minions within its cast radius.

Shout* is a temporary buff that grants a significant percentage Defense boost to all partied Characters, Mercenaries, and minions within its cast radius.

Grim Ward* is used on a monster corpse (cannot be used on certain Undead monster corpses). It applies a Fear Effect which Slows and reduces enemies' Physical Resistance within its Area of Effect (AoE). It's Slow effect and radius both increase with its Level, but its -x% to Enemy Physical Resistance increases with Skill Points into Find Potion. This Skill is capable of breaking Physical Immunity.

Natural Resistance* passively increases All Resistances based on its Level.

Iron Skin* passively grants a percentage boost to Defense based on its Level.

Increased Speed* passively grants Faster Run/Walk based on its Level.

* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)
* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Skills that do NOT utilize either FCR or IAS

While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.

Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.

Important: Having a source(s) of Cold Damage on your gear, inventory, or Mercenary significantly lowers your Magic Finding efficiency. Even 1 Cold Damage can shatter Elite Monsters, leaving behind no corpse to use Find Item on.

The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to Immunities or bad layouts.

Anything that has a ✔ in the "Starter" column can be farmed with the Starter Build Variant.

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Your Mercenary serves an incredibly important role to the overall success of your build. They can be a front line tank, provide a pivotal Aura, and/or deal Physical Damage to kill enemies with Immunity to your Skill set.

Act 1 Rogue Mercenary

Faith, Exploding Arrow

Equip the Rogue with Faith to benefit from Fanaticism (Level 12-15). This Aura grants Increased Attack Speed and Enhanced Damage depending on its Level. A Fire Act 1 Mercenary is used to avoid Cold Damage, which can shatter corpses needed for Find Item.

You can also use an Act 2 Might Mercenary with Pride for higher raw damage, but slightly lower DPS due to less Attack Speed. However, this option can interfere with Find Item due to the Freezes target +x stat on Pride; it can also interfere with Amplify Damage procs due to its Blind stat.

Mercenary Gear Options

Your Mercenary needs maximum Resistances, Life Leech, a high damage Weapon, and high Defense and/or Damage Reduction to stay alive reliably. Cannot Be Frozen is also a great stat for maintaining Mercenary DPS and leech. Ethereal gear is preferred since it doesn't lose durability. Mercenary Types and Gear Options at each Gear Level perform equally well in different situations; choose based on Farming Spots and/or personal preference.

The Mercenary is hard to keep alive until you have the minimum gear recommended in this guide. Remember you can drag Healing Potions onto the portrait, or shift + 1/2/3/4 to directly feed them a Healing Potion from your Belt. The Mercenary also gains bonus Resistances from Thawing Potions and Antidote Potions.

If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can revive them from any of the Mercenary NPCs in each Act. This does come with an increasing cost, capping at 50,000 Gold. Keep that in mind and decide if the Mercenary is currently worth the cost.

General

• Keep back-up Throwing Weapons in your inventory or Horadric Cube if you regularly deplete their Quantity.
• If you equip Harmony on Weapon-Swap, use its Vigor Aura to quickly travel through town and towards your Farming Spot. You can also use 2x Hustles on Weapon-Swap to pre-buff Burst of Speed with Double Swing. If you are using an item with Teleport Charges, use Teleport for short-distance traveling when farming Super Uniques such as Pindleskin. Repair to replenish these Charges.
• At the beginning of each run, swap to your + to Skills equipment and cast Battle Command 2 times, then Battle Orders and Shout once each. Refresh these buffs as soon as they expire (approx. every 3-5 minutes).
• Periodically use Frenzy on nearby monsters to increase your Faster Run/Walk and Double Throw's Attack Speed. The more Frenzy stacks, the bigger the bonuses.
• Target and kill Elite Packs from a distance using Double Throw. In Solo gameplay, target only the Elite Monsters themselves.
• Use Howl to isolate Elites and prevent becoming surrounded.
• Use Grim Ward on corpses to lower the Physical Resistance of nearby mobs, increasing your damage. Grim Ward is not as effective as Amplify Damage from Lacerator unless Find Potion is maxed.
• Once the Elites in an immediate area have been killed, Weapon-Swap to your Faster Cast Rate or Magic Find-granting equipment and use Find Item on each Elite corpse. "Horking" corpses gives a chance of loot dropping a second time!

Immunities

• Bone Break sets all Immune to Physical monsters to 95% Physical Resistance, allowing any sources of -x% to Enemy Physical Resistance (including Amplify Damage and Grim Ward) to take full effect.
• The Amplify Damage proc from Lacerator or Atma's Scarab breaks the Physical Immunity of most monsters by itself.
• Use Grim Ward to break Physical Immunities if you don't have Bone Break, Lacerator, or Atma's Scarab equipped. Grim Ward does not work on Elites.
• Skip Unique mobs that are still Physical Immune after applying Amplify Damage or using Grim Ward (unless you are using Gimmershred).

Late-Game

• While on your Faster Cast Rate-granting Weapon-Swap, use Teleport from Enigma to travel to your Farming Spot or between Elite Packs.

Optimal Loot/Experience Farming Strategies

• The Pit - The Double Throw Barbarian quickly shreds the low Life monsters in this Max Level Area with any number of Players in the game. Even a Starter Build has little trouble farming this area (see Build Variants).
• Travincal Solo - Council Members are the best source of Runes, Charms, Jewels, Jewelry, and Gems for this build. Find Item is particularly strong here. Bone Break along with Amplify Damage from Lacerator makes short work of any Physical Resistant/Immune Council Members.
• Uber Keys - Targeting and killing the Key Bosses is a cinch for any fully-geared Throw Barbarian using Enigma.
• Chaos Sanctuary Preparation in a Full Game - The Double Throw Barbarian quickly targets and destroys the Seal Bosses in Chaos Sanctuary. Even in a full game, this build can spawn Diablo incredibly fast by focusing on popping Seals and assassinating the Seal Boss Super Uniques. This build is also great at Seal Popping monsters for loot.

Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.

Faster Cast Rate (FCR)

Faster Cast Rate speeds up your casting animation for spells. Aim for the 105% FCR Breakpoint on Weapon-Swap for Enigma Teleport cast speed on the Standard Build. Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Increased Attack Speed (IAS)

Increased Attack Speed speeds up your attack animations. Weapon Bases have different IAS Breakpoints. Values for recommended weapon combinations are provided below. Frenzy stacks temporarily increase your IAS, and thus can help you reach higher Breakpoints. Consult the d2planner for other bases.

Lacerator + Warshrike

The Scalper (Upgraded) + Deathbit (Upgraded)

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery is not required for survivability on this build. The Standard Build achieves the 27% FHR Breakpoint.

For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary focus is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.

The Double Throw Barbarian can become Hardcore viable with key changes to Gear, Stat Point allocation, and Skills. Review the changes below before building this character in Hardcore, as some of these changes differ significantly from the Standard Build.

Gear Changes

• Damage Reduction: Equip either Crown of Ages or Harlequin Crest in the Helmet slot to achieve a decent amount of % Damage Reduction on your main weapon loadout. Either Verdungo's Hearty Cord or String of Ears in the Belt slot can also provide solid % Damage Reduction, but at the expense of Chance to Pierce. You can also use a Stormshield socketed with a Shael Rune on Weapon-Swap to reach the 50% Damage Reduction cap, maximum Chance to Block (75%), and the 42% Faster Block Rate Breakpoint while Teleporting, but at the expense of Teleport cast speed.
• Stacking Resistances: Stack your Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistances beyond the default maximum values of 75 each (175 total in Hell). Stacking 85 additional Resistances in Hell completely negates the Conviction Aura of any Elite Boss or the Oblivion Knight's Lower Resist Curse. Beware of encountering both at the same time! Consider the primary damage type(s) of the monsters in the area you want to farm. Crown of Ages is the best Helmet option for stacking Resistances; it also allows you to hit the 27% Faster Hit Recovery Breakpoint. Wizardspike is the best option for stacking Resistances on Weapon-Swap. Charms, Jewelry, and Gloves are ideal sources of Resistances for your main weapon loadout.
• Lightning Absorb: Equip Thundergod's Vigor when farming or Teleporting through an area where Burning Souls are able to spawn such as Worldstone Keep/Throne of Destruction.

Stat Point Changes

• Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to wear your gear.
• Only allocate 150-200 Stat Points into Dexterity for increased Double Throw damage and maximum Chance to Block (75%) on Weapon-Swap using Stormshield.
• Put all remaining Stat Points into Vitality.

Skill Point Changes

• Prioritize maxing Battle Orders before allocating additional Skill Points into Find Item and Find Potion.
  
  See the "Hardcore" Build Variant below for additional suggestions and visuals.