So, should I be doing something else with my time now?

[Bladededge123]

Way back just after Mod 7 released I finally unlocked 32 pb (horray!) after doing so I decided that since I had a capped caster, I would go for something different and make a melee sort. Being a casual player, and thus not the sort to be able to make a build requiring a boat-load of raid loot (ala high-ac builds or characters needing WoP which I will never acquire, let alone 2..) I decided to go for what seemed at the time to be the best option for the straight damage-dealer to me, the twf dwarf barbarian. I got said character all the way too..2nd level before r/l intruded and I had to quit the game for some months until just coming back into things about 2 weeks ago.

After getting him to 5th level I sneak back on the boards and such to read up on whats changed in game, and learn a few things. First, it seems one of the big reasons to be a dwarf, the toughness bonuses, are now offered to everyone. Still dwarfs seem like a fine enough race..

Then I read that the whole barbarian crit-rage 2 is getting taken out of the game with the next mod. If I had had it to start with, so i'd be able to keep it. That would be fine but I'll never get to the level I need to take the ability before the new content comes out I am sure.

So I am left to wonder, is the build I am pursuing still worth my time and effort? I had wanted to make a melee character that I could reasonable expect to be able to make top-tier inside of 2 years, and while there were 'a lot' of the same class out there already back when i was going to make him initially, they never seemed to be out of demand either.

The new content isn't here yet obviously so no ones to say some of this won't change. At the moment though I am left with the chance that I will spend a month or ect on the character, only to find that only those characters of my sort who do not have crit-rage 2 or ect are not welcome in the high-end content at least not as openly as those who do.

I had made the character initially as I said so i could -have- a first tier character but now I'm not sure I will have when I finally get him to cap. So I thought I'd ask everyone on here. Do you think I should keep working on him, or scrap him and do something else. And if so, what? What other build is there out there, that is useful, that a casual player can hope to get setup for the end-game without taking an unreasonable amount of time, amd that isn't a caster. Is there even any such thing left?

I will note I am well aware that all sorts of characters are fun to play, and first tier or what have you are not at all required to enjoy the end game content or even the game in general. The point of this specific character/time investment though was to create such a character so I am looking for advice with that in mind. (That said mostly to avoid the 'dude if your having fun with it don't worry about it type response I might get)

Also, this is -not- a rant on what turbine is doing to the barbarian or why the build I was/am making is broken and deserves to be fixed or what have you. Things are how they are and I am simply looking for some practical advice from everyone, please don't let this devolve into a complaint thread :P

[Frodo_Lives]

To be honest right now a Ranger with a splash of monk (1) and rogue (1) is the cats ass right now. High end DPS, ability to reach high AC, evasion, UMD, good selection of skills and spells to help out. Human is my personal choice for this build but halfling or dwarf also make decent choices.

However, nerfs come and go and there may be changes to certain things such as monk ac bonuses and how they work.

Right now I'd make a ranger, either Str based or Dex based, splash on level of rogue at the start for skills, and hold off on monk until higher levels.

This is a solid build with few weaknesses and if they are going to change how monks AC works then you still will have plenty of time before you have to take that monk level to see how it all pans out.

You will get a ton of different responses, and the only solid advice I can give is check out the class forums to see lots of different examples of what is available and what people have done. Ignore those builds that require a ton of resouces such as multiple +2 and +3 tomes and a ton of raid loot. Yes those things are nice to enhance a build, but the builds that require them are pretty thin and weak for a casual player.

[Pyromaniac]

Here's my opinion assuming you want the optimal melee.

I'd forget the barbarian build given the upcoming changes. If you like the look of Frenzied Berzerker, then you could make it work. But it will not be as good as barbarians used to be, so you'll probably be disappointed.

You don't have too much invested in it being level 5 and ranger/monks are where its at now. With the paladin capstone, pure pallies that are TWF look pretty good as well. Rogues haven't gotten enough love vs other melees and I won't even start talking about how badly fighters are looking right now.

I suspect we won't see the ranger/monk splash get nerfed too heavily. The tempest chain announcements were pretty generous so this looks like a relatively safe build to work on. Don't focus on stat damage, assume that will no longer be optimal in the future.

If you're playing for the long haul, barbarians will probably get helped out again in about twelve months or so. That's what happened to pallies. They got hit hard with nerfs, then it took almost 2 years to fix the damage. What goes around will come around.

[tihocan]

I'd suggest you stick with your TWF dwarven barbarian. He might not be the most optimal build around, but he'll still be a solid melee who will be welcome in group. I don't see the point in you trying to follow the build-of-the-month flavor, that's going to be moving too fast for you anyway ;)
So, enjoy your character, he'll be fun to play and you won't feel useless with him, don't worry about that!

[Thrudh]

Heh, people crack me up...

This guy is obviously a casual player, yet all they can offer is "Build this exact build which rocks right now!!"

A TWF barbarian will still be very good even without the crit rage enhancements... How do I know??

I have a THF barbarian (old character, made back before TWF was cool) who doesn't have the crit rage enhancements...

And you know what?? He still does pretty good, is lots of fun, and is a solid addition to any group.

[sephiroth1084]

I'd suggest you stick with your TWF dwarven barbarian. He might not be the most optimal build around, but he'll still be a solid melee who will be welcome in group. I don't see the point in you trying to follow the build-of-the-month flavor, that's going to be moving too fast for you anyway ;)
So, enjoy your character, he'll be fun to play and you won't feel useless with him, don't worry about that!

Totally agree.

If you were the sort to spend a lot of time playing DDO and would be leveling to 16 in just a few weeks, then perhaps scrapping this guy and going with one of the ranger builds would make sense, but there really isn't any reason to do that for someone who doesn't play DDO like a second (or first) job. Heck, there is hardly any reason to do so even for those sorts; barbarians are getting taken down a notch, but they are still very good and output a lot of damage (and are very light on gear dependency).

[maddmatt70]

DDO needs a full respec. That is obvious at this point. They have only gone halfway with the feats, spells, and enhancement respec, but they also need levels and skills. I am a powergamer who is frustrated by this right now. For a casual gamer who only has 1-2 characters the frustration is magnified.

[Impaqt]

Regardless of what changed may or may not be coming down the pipe there is ONE question to ask yourself about this character....

Is he fun to play for you?

If not, then do somthing else.. l5 is usually a pretty good indication on whether or not the character is fun.

If your casual, dont ask for advice around here.... You get the standard "THe FotM Build is the Ubers!!" with very little regard for your personal playstyle or tastes.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

I built a TWF barbarian when everyone insisted you were gimp if you weren't a THF barbarian.

Just before the changes were announced I started building a THF barbarian, because everyone else went TWF.

And yup, the new ranger build sound cool... until the next better thing comes up.

Guess what, both of my barbarians are fun to play... If you have fun, its a good build, don't worry about the min maxers getting a couple points more dps on you.

[Frodo_Lives]

I will note I am well aware that all sorts of characters are fun to play, and first tier or what have you are not at all required to enjoy the end game content or even the game in general. The point of this specific character/time investment though was to create such a character so I am looking for advice with that in mind. (That said mostly to avoid the 'dude if your having fun with it don't worry about it type response I might get)

I don't think there is anything wrong with a TWF barbarian, or that they can't be fun and effective.

However I answered him with what is a first tier build right now without resorting to the (That said mostly to avoid the 'dude if your having fun with it don't worry about it type response I might get) response that he was specifically trying to aviod.

Nothing wrong with what he has, but he specifically asked what is a good build right now and I let him know. I did also mention that the best place to look for build advice was on the class forums on a wide variety of builds.