Comparing THF Barbarians and Fighters

[eulogy098]

I've been playing my Warforged Barbarian and am currently level 14. I recently got to thinking about going vip, getting to 20 and than True Reincarnation (i really enjoy questing). Than i got to thinking about weather ide prefer to go Barbarian again or Fighter. Either way im going THF, so i started to compare the two and really cant decide which i will enjoy more.

Assuming the same gear it seems like they both do about the same damage per hit. Toying with the character creation tool i came up with a fighter getting +24 damage per hit (5PA, 2 weapon spec, 2 greater weapon spec, 1 kensi great axe mastery, 1 weapon master great axe, 1 kensi greater axe mastery(2),1 great axe specialization(2), 3 WF PA enhance, and 8 from raw STR.

barb seems to get damage from- 5 PA, 3 barb pa enhance, 3 wf PA enhance, 6 rage and 7 from strength.


Maybe my numbers are totally off but- it "seems" that they both do almost the exact same damage per swing but the barb gets one more crit and fighter gets 10% attack speed capstone. Thus by the looks of it the Barb only pulls ahead with the situational use of Frenzy, which i guess could be compared to Haste Boost.

Is there anything im not understanding because i really like the idea of a Power-hitting two hand warrior which i thought was by definition Barbarian but sense they both do the same damage the fighter seems to have the advantage with so many extra feats for things like the TR Feat (Berserker fury) and Mithiril armor, Save Feats, stunning blow and even toughness.

I think people generally like the Barb built-in DR but to be honest at 14 i dont see it having done much of anything for me and i expect it gets even less impressive at 20 when mobs really clobber you. I hope it doesnt sound like im bashing barbarians, ive enjoyed mine a lot- it just "seems" that Fighters get every advantage excepet for maybe ?9%? more chance to proc weapon special effects.

Ultimatelly i guess it comes down to Fighter Haste boost vs 3d6done 2d3 taken, barb having more skill points, fighters having superior hit chance, barb getting one more crit increase (frenzy 2-3 vs kensi 3) barb having to totally waste a feat on Cleave (that bugs me so, so very much).

Can anyone shed some light im not seeing?



(((the numbers i came up with were only with quick usage of chargen tool, and i didnt add in any tomes and weapons sense i had to assume they either both had them or either did)))

[Jasimine]

I've been playing my Warforged Barbarian and am currently level 14. I recently got to thinking about going vip, getting to 20 and than True Reincarnation (i really enjoy questing). Than i got to thinking about weather ide prefer to go Barbarian again or Fighter. Either way im going THF, so i started to compare the two and really cant decide which i will enjoy more.

Assuming the same gear it seems like they both do about the same damage per hit. Toying with the character creation tool i came up with a fighter getting +24 damage per hit (5PA, 2 weapon spec, 2 greater weapon spec, 1 kensi great axe mastery, 1 weapon master great axe, 1 kensi greater axe mastery(2),1 great axe specialization(2), 3 WF PA enhance, and 8 from raw STR.

barb seems to get damage from- 5 PA, 3 barb pa enhance, 3 wf PA enhance, 6 rage and 7 from strength.


Maybe my numbers are totally off but- it "seems" that they both do almost the exact same damage per swing but the barb gets one more crit and fighter gets 10% attack speed capstone. Thus by the looks of it the Barb only pulls ahead with the situational use of Frenzy, which i guess could be compared to Haste Boost.

Is there anything im not understanding because i really like the idea of a Power-hitting two hand warrior which i thought was by definition Barbarian but sense they both do the same damage the fighter seems to have the advantage with so many extra feats for things like the TR Feat (Berserker fury) and Mithiril armor, Save Feats, stunning blow and even toughness.

I think people generally like the Barb built-in DR but to be honest at 14 i dont see it having done much of anything for me and i expect it gets even less impressive at 20 when mobs really clobber you. I hope it doesnt sound like im bashing barbarians, ive enjoyed mine a lot- it just "seems" that Fighters get every advantage excepet for maybe ?9%? more chance to proc weapon special effects.

Ultimatelly i guess it comes down to Fighter Haste boost vs 3d6done 2d3 taken, barb having more skill points, fighters having superior hit chance, barb getting one more crit increase (frenzy 2-3 vs kensi 3) barb having to totally waste a feat on Cleave (that bugs me so, so very much).

Can anyone shed some light im not seeing?



(((the numbers i came up with were only with quick usage of chargen tool, and i didnt add in any tomes and weapons sense i had to assume they either both had them or either did)))

When it comes to the math I think in the end they are both similar in damage. However I could be wrong. When you add in the innate vicious property that Barbarians can activate their damage per swing rises. Then add in the fact that they proc their magical effects on glancing blows more often than a fighter will and you end up with a higher damage character over all I would think.

However, I like fighters. So many feats, so many choices, so much versatility. What can I say, I always liked a smart tactician to brute strength combat myself.

[tihocan]

A while ago I did some maths and found they were doing about the same damage. However I think I forgot to add an extra +1 to the crit multiplier of barbarians on a 19-20 roll, so I suspect the conclusion would be:
- a barbarian will do slightly more damage than a fighter on creatures that can be critically hit
- a fighter will have a higher to-hit (potentially useful on Epic setting) and will do the same (or maybe even slightly more) damage on stuff that cannot be critically hit

One thing with a fighter is you are not restricted by the rage drawbacks. However most of the time you want madstone rage, so you actually end up with similar restrictions ;)

Also, here barbarian = FBIII, and fighter = Kensai III