Alright, after playing a few hours with Joe, we are GOOD TO GO FOR NIGHTMARE. Made it about halfway through Act II, no sweat. As Joe put it, we're finally feeling badass again like playing on normal. Challenge is feeling just right and the LOOT IS SO GOOD NOW. Tons of elites everywhere with nonstop magic/rare drops. Also, it's just way easier to take on nightmare with 2 humans instead of 1 human + 1 follower.
After getting some solid loot and using elective mode, my barbarian is very solid.
Lvl.40
~1300 DPS
~2700 Armor
~5000 HP
1 hand is MACE
1 hand is SHIELD
1- Ground Stomp - Stun enemies
2 - Armor Cry - Armor buff for party++
3 - Ignore pain - Regen life while invinicible
4 - Earthquake - Slowdown enemies within
P - Frenzy - Regen HP on kills
S - Fighter Cry - Atk buff++
Passive Skills - 3% life leech, Armor +25%, Armor+(STR).
When I have earthquake available I can set it down, stun enemies, ATK buff, DEF buff, then ignore pain, and attack attack attack. Otherwise smart use of Ground Stomp stunning and Ignore Pain invinciibilty frame while ATK & DEF are always buffed.
Also why is the economy totally fucked at the AH? Everyone wants 20,000 for some shit equip. I threw a bunch of Magic items on there ~lvl.35 for 3k each, and good gold rares ~lvl.35 for 5k each and they sold real fast. Considering the rate you get gold/magics that you don't need or can't use on Nightmare, it seems like their worth really shouldn't be more than about 3-5k magic, 5-10k rare. But hey, if I can dump 10 items on the AH every hour for 3-5k and people are buying them, that's a lot of easy money.
I'm also at the point where I don't know what to do with my money again. I have the blacksmith and jewel guy at rank 5 and it's really expensive to train them further, so I don't know if I should bother. The loot I'm getting mid-Act II lvl.40 on nightmare is way better than anything my blacksmith can make. And the AH...well, when I searched everything was insane prices so I'm not even bothering buying. Maybe I should search by price instead of stats.