Newbie questions on barb leveling and gear progress

[metalworker]

Hi I'm fairly new to DDO (less than a month) and my barb is currently level 11 (rank 53).

I've been asking questions in the game regarding what items should a level 6, 9, 12, 15 barb have etc just to check my progress and I'm always puzzled how do people get good items.

For reference, here's my gear at the moment:

DEX +4 boots
Linen's Wrap
Docent + 4 Ice Guard Lesser Lightning Resist
+4 Frost Great Axe of Backstabbing
Shadow Cloak
etc

I know the gear is fairly weak but since I'm new to the game, I'm not sure how people claim that their barb has 50 AC at level 12 because my current AC is only 24 lol. I know that I could get cloak of protection but regarding AC and deflection bonus etc, I don't know how to get my AC up because I'm relatively unfamiliar with DND rules. I'm also not sure how stat bonuses stack but I did notice that I can't add up stat bonuses so the only way to up my STR/CON would be to get an item with higher +STR/CON. Please correct me on this if I am wrong.

With rage, boost, frenzy, I can get my damage up to 60-70 with my greataxe, but I'm wondering how does Shade's build get even more damage.

The point of this post is mainly for me to get advice on how and where to get good items, and to be able to tell what item is better.

For example: I picked a Docent +4 Lightning resist and frost guard over a Docent +5 simply because I felt the additional 1 AC wasn't worth the other benefit conferred from the Docent +4. Since I'm new to this, I'm not sure in which situations would an item receiving +1 more bonus would be better than its counterpart with more abilities.

Where do I get good weapons? From auction house/stores? I always feel myself spending pp on items and ending up with a low amount of pp to buy the higher items and since I don't know which items are good, I'm sure I'm losing money.

If you can, provide gear advise for your respective barb levels. Thanks so much!

[pappo]

I am in the same situation. My barb is only level 7 now but I still wonder what gear to look for.
My stats are maxed in Strength, Constitution & Dex and I currently have a +3 CON necklace, +7 Jump ring, +5 Balance, Poison Protection + Light Fort belt, +3 Ogre Power Bracers, +7 Goggles of Eagle, Trinket of Silver Flame, 10% Striding boots.

[BattleCircle]

As a barb you should be looking for anything that will increase your damage output, or raise your saves.

Guard items are great. Just make sure you have the proper guard for the situation. Using fire guard when fighting fire ele's and mephits will cause people to look sideways at you :D.

resist items, such as cloak of resistance +x, are good too as they will raise all of your saves.

Then there are various clicky items that you will want to keep an eye out for (haste, restore, GH, etc.)

Also you need a fort item. I suggest that as soon as you are able (lvl 10) you head to the orchard and start running for tapestries. You can turn these in for Minos Legen. A heavy fort helm.

Other than that its pretty basic, str , con, dex items. wis item if you can fit it.

Edit; Duh, sometimes I get ahead of myself when typing /sigh.

the minos help also has toughness on it. and hitpoints are what will keep you alive, so keep an eye out for greater false life items also

have fun and when you get to the vale you can start crafting what you really want :)