Feedback: Barbarian 101 (Work-in-Progress)

[FordyTwo]

Howdy,

Below is an early version of the template for Barbarian 101. Written for newly-starting DDO free players, we've opted for a dwarf Two Handed Fighter (THF) template with a 28pt build. The skill, feat and enhancement selections are designed to output solid damage with reasonable survivability (for a new player).

Is there a factual mistake somewhere that we haven't shaken out? Do you have suggestions on a more ideal skill, feat or enhancement progression? Please share!

What to do: Give use constructive criticism and feedback!

What not to do: Derail Barbarian 101 feedback with off-topic posts or inflammatory comments.

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==Every New Barbarian Should Know …==

• (Got advice? Please share in a comment below!)

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==Template: Two Handed Weapon Dwarf Barbarian==

This template is a great starting point to create a melee powerhouse with lots of hit points (and even more damage output).

Note: While these templates typically avoid equipment suggestions, for the Two Handed Weapon variant it's suggested that a greataxe or greatsword is used in conjunction with the Improved Critical: Slashing feat.

===Ability Point Buy===

Dwarf will be our racial choice for the +2 Constitution (CON) and various defensive bonuses (http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Race:Dwarf).

• STR: 18
• DEX: 14
• CON: 16
• INT: 8
• WIS: 8
• CHA: 6

• Ability Point Buy: Point grants at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 all go to STR.

===Skills===

• Tumble: Invest two skill points into Tumble, a skill that comes in handy but cannot be used without 1 Rank trained.

• Balance: Barbarians are constantly on the front lines of battle, so keep Balance maxed to ensure a speedy recovery upon a knockdown.

• Jump: Having a total score of 10 in Jump (which barbarians can easily meet with their high strength) is enough to get you across chasms and traps -- especially with help from Jump-enhancing spells and potions. You can choose to invest ranks in jump if you don't want to be dependent on magical items.

• Spot: A skill useful for its ability to help you detect hidden enemies. Invest any spare skill points here as you level.

• Intimidate: Use of Intimidate can help even without any invested ranks because it increases the amount of threat generated with every attack for a short period of time.

===Feat Order===

• 1) Toughness: This feat adds survivability by increasing hit points by +3 at level one, and +1 hit point for each additional level. More importantly, Toughness opens up "Toughness Enhancements," opening the way to further hit point bonuses as you earn Enhancement points.

• 3) Power Attack: Able to be toggled on and off, Power Attack mode trades up to 5 of your attack bonus for equal extra damage on melee attacks. Using a two-handed weapon in this build makes Power Attack mode more appealing: the feat offers double bonus damage when using two-handed weapons.

• 6) Cleave: Activate this ability to attack one or more enemies within a forward-facing arc.

• 9) Improved Critical: Slashing: This feat greatly increases the likelihood of your attacks dealing critical damage by increase the "critical threat range" of any slashing weapon you use. This means axes and swords, more or less – weapons that deal bludgeoning, piercing, ranged or thrown damage will not benefit from this feat.

• 12) Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by 10%. Also grants a 3% chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows. A glancing blow is a free, additional attack that only two-handed weapons are capable of doing.

• 15) Improved Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks (See "Two Handed Fighting" feat above for more info) when wielding a two-handed weapon by an additional 10% on top of the Two Handed Fighting bonus. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%.

• 18) Greater Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by another 10% on top of the previous Two Handed Fighting feats. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%. At this point, your barbarian will have a 50% total chance to produce glancing blows (the base is 20%).Optionally, grab Stunning Blow at level 1 (but remember you'll lose the extra Toughness enhancement line):

• Stunning Blow: This potent feat allows you to stun enemies for 6 seconds and increase all the damage they take from you and your allies by 50% for the duration of the effect. Having higher strength increases the chances of a success.

==Enhancements ==

The enhancements suggested in this section have been chosen to build upon the barbarian's damage-output and damage reduction traits.

All enhancements below effectively upgrade the barbarian Rage ability, making it even more potent than vanilla Rage.

The rundown on Rage enhancements: Extend Rage increases the Rage ability's duration, Extra Rage adds additional Rage uses between rests, Hardy Rage increases Constitution (CON) while Rage is active (adding more hit points) and Power Rage increases Strength (STR) while Rage is active (adding more damage per attack). Extend/Extra Rage is usually sufficient at Tier 2, but you can take Tier 3 if you find it helps.

Simply put, the below enhancements transform a raging barbarian into stampeding death-machine.

• Barbarian Extend Rage I - II
• Barbarian Extra Rage I - II
• Barbarian Hardy Rage I - II
• Barbarian Power Rage I - IV

Attack & Damage enhancements: Power Attack I–III will bolster Power Attacks extra damage at the cost of lowered accuracy; the high Strength (STR) of barbarians, decent weapons, and good Base Attack Bonus more than negates a slight loss of accuracy. As a dwarf, it's a good idea to invest a bit into boosting accuracy and damage with greataxes, a solid weapon-of-choice for most of DDO.

• Barbarian Power Attack I - III
• Dwarven Axe Attack I
• Dwarven Axe Damage I

Defensive enhancements: Dwarven Spell Defense makes you more resistance to spells, boosting all your saves by one against spells. Willpower grants you an additional +1 Will save when raging, a useful bonus when going up against magically-inclined baddies.

• Barbarian Willpower I
• Dwarven Spell Defense I

Survivability enhancements: Barbarians rely on hit points (HP) and damage reduction (DR) to survive any attacks enemies might land before their demise. Ideally, a barbarian drops all opponents to the ground before they get a chance to attack. In the event a kobold or two slips past, it's a good idea to have the extra hit points (HP) offered by the below enhancements.

• Racial Toughness I - II
• Barbarian Constitution I
• Barbarian Toughness I – II
• Dwarven Constitution I

Damage Reduction (DR) enhancements: Damage Reduction is a great choice for barbarian enhancements, lowering the amount of overall damage received, resulting in longer survivability.

• Barbarian Improved Damage Reduction I - II

The rundown on Frenzied Berserker: An ever-important barbarian enhancement line, Frenzied Berserker adds to the damage multiplier on critical hits while raging, two-handed weapon glancing blows have a greater chance to add magical effects (such as flaming, etc), you may spend 10 hit points to use Supreme Cleave – and most importantly, you can spend 20 hit points to enter a Death Frenzy (at rank III).

Think of the frenzy (unlocked via Frenzied Berserker I) and Death Frenzy (Frenzied Berserker III) as an optional "Super Mega Ultra Rage" mode. Damage Boost is an enhancement that does two things for a barbarian using this template: activates for increased damage, and meets the requirements for Frenzied Berserker.

• Barbarian Frenzied Berserker I - III
• Barbarian Damage Boost I - IV

Barbarian capstone enhancement: A player must take 20 levels of the barbarian class to obtain the capstone enhancement, but it's worth the investment. A barbarian who takes Barbarian Might receives +2 STR, and when wielding two-handed weapons receive increased glancing blow damage and an increased chance of applying weapon special effects on glancing blows. By the capstone point in DDO magically-infused weapons are something of a regularity, and Barbarian Might – combined with other elements of this template – ensures their magical effects occur as frequently as possible.

• Capstone: Barbarian Might

In case of Stunning Blow (optional enhancement): As mentioned above, you can boost the DCs of your tactical feats like Trip and Stunning Blow as a barbarian if you actually decide to take Stunning Blow instead of toughness. Use the 6 AP you spent in toughness enhancements above (which you no longer have access to without toughness) to boost the DCs of all your tactical feats using the following enhancement.

• Dwarven Tactics II

[Bombalo]

Why wouldn't you take Improved Crit: Slashing at level 9 and improved two handed at 12? I thought for max DPS you would want to pick up Imp Crit as early as possible?

[oberon131313]

The odd point into dex and wis seems a bit off to me. I think you were trying to point out those stats as "save" stats, but leaving them as odd is useless unless you get tomes. I personally would change it to be one or the other.

[FrozenNova]

Stunning blow, not great cleave.
Great cleave is laughably obsolete given that barbarians recieve a free whirlwind attack with no cooldown at level 12.
Admittedly on a human stunning blow is not quite up there with the dwarf, horc or 'forged varients, but is nonetheless important.

[Lord_of_13]

I would drop the random point of WIS and put it into DEX. The extra two points of CON cost 4 points and could be used to raise DEX to 14 as well, but that's arguable since pure Barb AC is questionable even in the lower/middle levels. If 16 CON is really needed... and you can afford 1 less feat... go Dwarf with better stats (the CHA penalty is clearly irrelevant). And the skill point you lose comes from Listen.

As for feats, swap out Great Cleave for Stunning Blow. 'nuff said.

As for skills, dump Listen. Get UMD - even as a cross-class skill with a crappy CHA modifier, you should be able to use race-restricted and some alignment restricted items.

The enhancements are rather up to personal choice, but...
- Extra Rage I and II are plenty; no need to waste 3 AP for a 3rd rage.
- Same with Extend Rage - limit it to Extend Rage II. Already you have freed 6 AP.
- Grab Barbarian Willpower II and III. That uses up 5 AP; 1 freed AP now left.
- Get Trap Sense I. The bonus to your saves is rather nice, and you'll be very happy when you don't have a rogue in your party.

Also, minor typo: You say "Ability Point Buy: Point grants at levels 4, 8, 12 and 16 all go to STR." but it should be "Ability Point Buy: Point grants at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 all go to STR." Along comes the nitpick that in the section titled "Feat Explanation" you are really doing "Enhancement Explanation".

[edragoon148]

The odd point into dex and wis seems a bit off to me. I think you were trying to point out those stats as "save" stats, but leaving them as odd is useless unless you get tomes. I personally would change it to be one or the other.

I agree with this point, I would recommend the two extra points be kicked to intelligence for an extra skill point per level. As a side note that goes hand in hand with that recommendation, UMD is a viable and highly recommended skill for all classes. The ability for a barbarian to scroll fire shield before entering combat or use scrolls for utility purposes is great.


Additionally, this is of course my opinion and feedback would be appreciated, but many of the Barbarians I play with at endgame find no use in the Two-Handed Fighting feats. The glancing blow damage isn't worth investing 3 feats to obtain and many players often forego this feat line for Toughness feats. I agree with the aforementioned lack of use in Great Cleave as well.

EDIT: Given the responses, explanation, and raw data I've been provided with, I realize my recommendation to disregard THF feats was silly and misinformed. They are highly recommended.

[t0r012]

• Ability Point Buy: Point grants at levels 4, 8, 12 and 16 all go to STR.
And 20

Also a minor thing but I got a little confused reading the feats before I realized that the exPlination was given prior to the feat. So you may want to consider a small format change to clarify.

One last thing , that I feel s very important. I should skip using THW or THF abbreviation as you did in the begining. It is For new players who will see those letters and wonder what language your speaking.

[stainer]

I would switch out great cleave for stunning blow. I think it would be more useful to any player. You might want to mention that Dwarf, Horc and WF are nice variants for a barbarian at some point. You might also talk about respeccing your enhancements for power/hardy rage to free up AP when you end up with an uneven str/con when raged.

[Tyrantico]

I'd personally go with Listen or Spot, but not both (I prefer Spot, even at half ranks, but YMMV). UMD at half ranks is still useful enough to consider - with decent gear you can get high enough to bypass race or alignment restrictions, which is nice for a new player. If you're not going full-minmax "STR/CON and nothing else," you might as well drop your spare points into INT for skills... but really, on a non-Dwarf fleshy, the extra HP from max CON sure would be nice. Also, I'd drop Great Cleave in favor of Stunning Blow, even in the post-autocrit era; you already get Supreme Cleave from FB, so may as well add the CC wrinkle instead.

[t0r012]

Much clearer on the feats now , thanks

[FordyTwo]

Thanks for all the feedback so far! :)

Changes made:


Moved point buys out of DEX and WIS, into INT.
Switched Listen for UMD.
Improved Critical Slashing is now at 9; Improved Two Handed Fighting is now at 12.
Replaced Great Cleave with Stunning Blow
Clairified "THF" with usage of "Two Handed Fighting (THF)".
Added mention of level "20" point buy into STR.
Bolded Feats, Skills and Enhancements to reflect final version.

[Ralmeth]

Overall it looks good. I just have a few comments / suggestions:

Stat distribution
This looks good (i.e. maxing strength and 16 con), however I would start intelligence at 10 and drop dex and wisdom to 8 for 1 extra skill point per level.

Race
As this is a 101 guide I recommend keeping it simple and going with one race such as human. I wouldn't include 1/2 orc or warforged as these both need to be purchased or earned with favor and opens the question of how a new person should build these.

Level Up Points
This is minor, but you also gain a level up point at 20th level and this should also go to strength.

[t0r012]

Some advice for new barbs that is good for any meleebut even better for barbs with a run speed bonus ;

Get to and kill the casters first!

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You are using a big two handed weapon when things start to get dangerous you can use your reach to your advantage. Use your reach and back away from your target
I got in trouble with a solo run of haberdasher elite the other day with a shiny new barb and I just kited the scorps around, backpedeling and swinging. Made sure only one was in reach of me at a time and made the situation much more manageable.

[Maatogaeoth]

Am I the only one that finds the formatting in the enhancement area to be weird?


Power Attack I – III will add additional damage at the cost of accuracy, although accuracy is not typically an issue facing barbarians due to their high strength, decent weapons, and good Base Attack Bonus.

• Barbarian Power Attack I - III

Gain an additional +1 Will save when raging, a useful bonus when going up against magically-inclined baddies.

• Barbarian Willpower I

A once-famous but now-unknown barbarian said, "More strength GOOD!" It's a wise saying that lives to this day among barbarian players in DDO.

• Human Adaptability Strength I

You have comments about the enhancement before the enhancements in question. I had to read the area a couple times for it to start making sense. Maybe they've all been done this way and I didn't read them through well enough...

[RandomKeypress]

Not sure if there's room in the enhancements list, but human healing amp makes keeping the barbarian up easier on the healer. As they are often the 'tank', this is a good thing.

Things Barbarians should know.
Rage is the barbarian signature ability - use it often. When rage ends, the barbarian is exhausted. While they may seem dauntingly expensive to begin with, potions of lesser restoration will remove that exhausted effect and are well worth carrying.

Barbarians can struggle to solo dungeons, but having a cleric or favoured soul hireling can help immensely. Almost all will happily cast lesser restoration on you when your rage ends, saving money on restoration pots.

Weapon choices:
Barbarians generally specialise in two-handed weapons (TWF). Try to ensure you have a falchion, greataxe or greatsword for most enemies, a maul or a greatclub for some undead and a throw-away weapon for tackling oozes.
Barbarians do not generally have high dexterity, making their chance to hit with a bow or crossbow fairly low. When ranged attacks are needed, throwing axes or daggers are often a barbarian's best choice.

Intimidate is a useful skill for barbarians. They often need to pull the attention of an enemy to prevent damage to less tough friends and intimidate is excellent for doing this.

That's all I've got atm.

[Arel]

I don't know what the enhancements add up to right now, but I would definitely suggest at least mentioning Human Healing Amp as a good enhancement to think about, especially at early levels. Barbs tend to bock most damage with their face, which make them mana sponges for healers. And earlier on, when said clerics/FvSs don't have a ton to work with...

[Luckness]

Point of preference: For a human build, 5 skill points per level seems like overkill for a barbarian. I'd be happy to max out Intimidate, Balance, and UMD, put 1 into Tumble and the rest into Spot. And the Spot is a luxury. Between naturally high strength and the Jump spell from either clicky or a caster, ranks in jump are not worth giving up the benefits of 2 Charisma (Intim/UMD) or 2 Wisdom (Will save) or 2 Dexterity (Reflex save). If you can't live without Jump, though, and have no tomes, the points in Int make sense.

Speaking of intimidation, it is a great waste not to skill intimidation on your barbarian. Without even considering the fact that in many parties the barbarian makes the natural "tank" (damage soaker) and that some Intimidation skill could help with that, the Intimidation skill is the way the barbarian provides one of its only party buffs / debuffs. The barbarian is the only class that applies the "shaken" effect when intimidating. "A Shaken creature takes a -2 penalty on Attack rolls, Saving throws, Skill checks, and Ability checks." This effectively gives all your casters 2 better on their DC and gives the melee 2 better on their AC. It increases the odds of landing a Stunning Blow also.

Gameplay notes:
- Something about always being raged (early and often)
- Something about getting to the casters first, fast
- Something about using your speed to take less damage by being in front of fewer enemies (because your armor quickly becomes insufficient to block blows)

The barbarian is a dedicated melee class, without the ability to contribute much else such as buffs or spells. However, that does not excuse the barbarian from coming to the adventure prepared. When they become affordable, a barbarian should have a supply of consumables such as Cure Serious Wounds potions (for self heals), Lesser Restoration potions (for dealing with the fatigue of raging), blindness cure potions (a blind barbarian does no damage), and even haste and rage potions (when maximum damage is needed). Even though you will not be able to get high UMD to use scrolls easily on a pure barbarian, you can use any spell that comes on gear (a "clicky") and should look out for any you might loot or find cheaply.

Use Magic Device (UMD): A barbarian gets more skill points per level than a fighter and has no excuse not to get some UMD skill. Even at 11 ranks in UMD, it is one of the most valuable skills in the game. Through gear and buffs that increase your charisma and skills, it is not hard to reach around 20 UMD skill, the threshhold for equipping alignment and race-restricted items. For example, using a +6 Charisma item (+2), a heroism potion (+2), first rank human versatility (+2), and an item to increase UMD such as the golden cartouche (+3) will get you there. That allows you to use True Law and True Chaos weapons or Pure Good weapons without meeting the requirements or equipping armor that is usually restricted to another race, which includes some of the best randomly generated items in the game.

Stunning Blow: A barbarian contributes to crowd control the way he knows best, with his fists. This feat allows the barbarian to make an attempt to stun a nearby opponent for a few seconds, making it safe for that monster to be beat on without retaliation. The difficulty check (DC) for landing stunning blow successfully is based on strength. Because a barbarian with rage is one of the highest strength characters in the game, this is a very good way for the barbarian to contribute to the efficient dispatch of enemies.

[karl_k0ch]

The barbarian is a dedicated melee class, without the ability to contribute much else such as buffs or spells. However, that does not excuse the barbarian from coming to the adventure prepared. When they become affordable, a barbarian should have a supply of consumables such as Cure Serious Wounds potions (for self heals), Lesser Restoration potions (for dealing with the fatigue of raging), blindness cure potions (a blind barbarian does no damage), and even haste and rage potions (when maximum damage is needed).

Lots of useful stuff, +1 for that, Luckness.

A minor note: The only potions which can be used while raging are the potions sold by the guild vendor in House K.

[Arkadios]

Suggestion: Feats; I think you have all the right ones, however a better order IMO (and what i've used) would be

1) Toughness
1) Stunning Blow
3) Power attack
6) Cleave
9) Imp. Critical (Slashing, etc.)
12)THF
15)iTHF
18)gTHF

[DragonMageT]

A helpful suggestion to new players would be a listing of your ideal gear selection by slot and where to get those items (crafted, raid gear, greensteal, and even epic items if you wish).

Give the new players a general road map of what they need at endgame and where to find them.

Half Orc THF would also be nice to see since it has the highest DPS by race and requires a little more
work in the enhancement points :)

Nice work!

[Battlehawke]

Looks good so far, lots of good changes. I would probably change the wording of "light" armor with lots of HP's to something like "has so many HP that AC doesn't matter, or similar wording, just so it doesn't scare people away from the build. New players coming from other MMO's think Armor is extremely important.

[DrNuegebauer]

Maybe take the 2 build points out of INT and put them into wis instead?

Also it might be worth suggesting Intimidate as a skill worth investing in.

[KyrzaBladedancer]

Will probably get some flak for this but I would do my feats like this,

1. Cleave
1. Power Attack (Human Bonus)
3.Toughness
6. Great Cleave (Switch for THF just before 12 with free feat exchange)
9. Improve Critical: Slash
12. ITHF
15. GTHF
18. Stunning blow

Reason being, they fixed the one problem Cleave and Great Cleave had, the super slow recovery. Taking an extra second and gathering a group of mobs into a ball then Cleave and Great Cleave. This will net you, once you get used to it, between 10-20 kills an about 5 seconds. Rinse and Repeat. Since Cleave and Great Cleave also use your 4th animation to hit bonus you can do this at a +10 to hit compared to your first swing, allowing you to have PA on from level 1, and never taking it off except in the rarest of cases. Do this with a Bodyfeeder Greatsword or Falchion and you will be practically self sufficient up until 15 and 16 when you hit Vale.

And this is not a theory, this is how I leveled up my gimpy HO Barb and I used less pots from 1-15 than my TRed (WF) caster did. I also rarely used Frenzy leveling and didn't even take FB till 14 (18barb/2ftr) because the gains are so minimal, and you take a lot more damage.

Otherwise It looks good. UMD is great even at half ranks with an 8 cha because with a little work you can wear any RR item and a little more work get 70% (or more) heal scrolls with a little swapping.

[fredericko]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the healing amplification enhancement line for a human barbarian - that's one of the strong points of human barbs. I would personally move hardy rage points into the human improved recovery enhancement line. Hardy rage 2-3 means 20hp at endgame -maybe 40 depending on odd/even base stat points-, which for a raged barbarian (bound to be well over 700 hp already without hardy rage) isn't as helpful as a 20% healing amplification bonus (the full line can be hard to fit).
As a side note, I made my first toon based on a template for new players from the old Aranticus thread and have been doing great with that toon - he is still my main DDO character. I am sure these new guides will be a valuable asset to new members of the community, much more so if the guides are referenced from within the game client (say, at client startup for instance).

Edit: It seems the lvl 15 feat (greater THF) is missing the bold text code.

[Asmodeus451]

every Barb should know: Lesser Restoration Potions will clear the Fatigue effect of your Rage ending; take a second to chug one between Rages to improve your effectiveness

[Niarda]

spot is definitly something i would love to have known about in the begining. then again so where many
others like Balance and Umd

I like the premise for 101 but a dwarf is a good alternative to those that dont have warforged unlocked
for Fighter/Barbarian Class.

[voodoogroves]

I wouldn't mention UMD; we skipped it on the FVS - and that's a class that is likely to use it more.

I would also move Toughness back - it doesn't become a limiting factor until later, so I wouldn't take it right off the bat.

[t0r012]

Will probably get some flak for this but I would do my feats like this,

1. Cleave
1. Power Attack (Human Bonus)
3.Toughness
6. Great Cleave (Switch for THF just before 12 with free feat exchange)
9. Improve Critical: Slash
12. ITHF
15. GTHF
18. Stunning blow

Reason being, they fixed the one problem Cleave and Great Cleave had, the super slow recovery. Taking an extra second and gathering a group of mobs into a ball then Cleave and Great Cleave. This will net you, once you get used to it, between 10-20 kills an about 5 seconds. Rinse and Repeat. Since Cleave and Great Cleave also use your 4th animation to hit bonus you can do this at a +10 to hit compared to your first swing, allowing you to have PA on from level 1, and never taking it off except in the rarest of cases. Do this with a Bodyfeeder Greatsword or Falchion and you will be practically self sufficient up until 15 and 16 when you hit Vale.

And this is not a theory, this is how I leveled up my gimpy HO Barb and I used less pots from 1-15 than my TRed (WF) caster did. I also rarely used Frenzy leveling and didn't even take FB till 14 (18barb/2ftr) because the gains are so minimal, and you take a lot more damage.

Otherwise It looks good. UMD is great even at half ranks with an 8 cha because with a little work you can wear any RR item and a little more work get 70% (or more) heal scrolls with a little swapping.

I think that may be a bit too complicated for the intended audience of new players, for minimal if any gain.

[t0r012]

...
I like the premise for 101 but a dwarf is a good alternative to those that dont have warforged unlocked
for Fighter/Barbarian Class.

I whole heatedly agree here, Dwarves make excellent 28 point F2P THF barbarians.

[Shade]

Looks mostly good, Some things that need updates:

Dex is NOT a dump stat. Dex is very important for reflex save - something barbarian can have a very good score in thanks to uncanny dodge and trap sense. Also balance score.

Its FAR more important the int. Especially on this setup (human) as you get 4 skill points a level anyways, and thats plenty.

Proper stat distribution as i've been recommending to players for years and has always worked very well:
Max str always
Dex at a minimum 11, 12+ prefered.
1 int perhaps on a halforc to allow more skill points once you get a +1 int tome (trivial to acquire)
Rest into con unless your doing an advanced build where you need some cha/wis/int for SF pots in your endgame gear plan.

Proper Human 28point would be:
Str 18 - Cost: 16 points (All Level up points go here)
Dex 12 - Cost: 4 points
Con 15 - Cost: 8 points
Int 8 - None
Wis 8 - None
Cha 8 - None

Skills:
UMD - No. Never on a pure bbn, you cant get enough points any real use out out it, plus your rage prevents you from using it nearly all the time anyways.
It can let you use heal scrolls on a bbn with a rogue splash yea, but thats a far more advanced build then what your recommending.

rest of skills are good.

Feats:
Toughness - Not at level1. Yes its a good feat.. But not a good feat for the highest HP in game the class at lvl1, when it only gives 3 hp.. Just has no real major impact. Bbns get enough HP without it, adding more may allow for sloppier play, but a new player should be encouraged to play better, not rely on gobs of HP.
Recommend moving it to 18 (Swap in stunning blow - A MASSIVELY more helpful feat at low lvl, especially useful for newer players learning the active combat style of ddo)

Recommended feat progression:
1. THF
1. Stunning blow (Human Bonus)
3. Power Attack
6. Cleave
9. Improve Critical: Slash
12. ITHF
15. GTHF
18. Toughness

Anyways I've typed this all a million times. Guess this will mark the first time i have to educate a turbine employee on it tho heh.

Full and proper Barbarian 101, 201, 301 and everything else you need to know about barbs is in my sig - Definitive guide (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=296816). You may wish to link it in your upcoming article. Enjoy.

[Mister_Peace]

Taking Toughness early allows you to spend AP on toughness enhancements early.

[voodoogroves]

Taking Toughness early allows you to spend AP on toughness enhancements early.

While I probably wouldn't wait until 18 like Shade did, he did so for good reason. Earlier is fine, but it doesn't need to be 1st level. A new barbarian should be figuring out how to use cleave / stunning blow / etc. ASAP, so it makes sense to front-load those.

[Postumus]

Use Magic Device (UMD): A barbarian gets more skill points per level than a fighter and has no excuse not to get some UMD skill. Even at 11 ranks in UMD, it is one of the most valuable skills in the game. Through gear and buffs that increase your charisma and skills, it is not hard to reach around 20 UMD skill, the threshhold for equipping alignment and race-restricted items. For example, using a +6 Charisma item (+2), a heroism potion (+2), first rank human versatility (+2), and an item to increase UMD such as the golden cartouche (+3) will get you there. That allows you to use True Law and True Chaos weapons or Pure Good weapons without meeting the requirements or equipping armor that is usually restricted to another race, which includes some of the best randomly generated items in the game.



I think a pure barbarian putting points into UMD is a waste of skill points. Shade does a good job explaining why.

I'd rather put them into intimidate, spot, balance, or jump. Heck I'd put them into swim before I put them into UMD.

[Postumus]

While I probably wouldn't wait until 18 like Shade did, he did so for good reason. Earlier is fine, but it doesn't need to be 1st level. A new barbarian should be figuring out how to use cleave / stunning blow / etc. ASAP, so it makes sense to front-load those.

Barbarians have so many more HPs at low level than the other classes, you can definitely wait on taking toughness until at least 9th level.

[binnsr]

...

What Shade said, although I've always put points into Listen before Spot as it's a class skill -- especially on an intelligence-challenged race.

[sirgog]

I agree with this point, I would recommend the two extra points be kicked to intelligence for an extra skill point per level. As a side note that goes hand in hand with that recommendation, UMD is a viable and highly recommended skill for all classes. The ability for a barbarian to scroll fire shield before entering combat or use scrolls for utility purposes is great.



Getting enough UMD to have a decent Fire Shield scroll chance is beyond a 101 guide. Even getting enough UMD to put race-required items to use or to use Pure Good weapons on a non-good Barbarian requires quite a bit of gear.

I don't recommend UMD be included as a baseline skill in the 101 guide. Maybe mention it as an advanced option.


As for race selection, I'd post a comparison of the pros and cons of the four best races:

Half-Orc - Highest damage potential using any two-handed weapon, best race for Stunning Blow, comparatively low hit points.
Warforged - Second highest damage potential. High hit points. Difficult to heal, but can be healed by Wizards and Sorcerers as well as Clerics and Favored Souls. WF make good Barbarians, but aren't recommended for new players as they are very hard to heal through the lower levels.
Dwarf - Good all-around Barbarians, with the same high hitpoints as Warforged, extraordinarily high saves (due to Dwarven Spell Defense), good damage potential with a greataxe.
Human - An extra feat (allows you to take Toughness as well as Stunning Blow, all other races can take only one of these powerful feats). But the main benefit of choosing Human is increased healing amplification - friendly healing spells heal you for more than they heal other players. With Barbarians taking a lot of damage, and having a lot of hitpoints, this is powerful indeed.

Half-Elves work in a similar way to Humans, but require 13 Wisdom to hit their maximum Healing Amplification potential - viable on 34/36 point builds, but not really on a 28 pointer. IMO the other races bring nothing to the table as Barbarians at all.


Barbarians have so many more HPs at low level than the other classes, you can definitely wait on taking toughness until at least 9th level.

You can also skip Toughness altogether if you aren't human.

It's Toughness or it is Stunning Blow. I prefer the latter at endgame, except on a Barbarian that wants to tank raid bosses.

When you are fighting three monsters, Stunning one of them will help you stay alive more than having an extra 62-102 hitpoints.

[The_Mud_Man]

Why not dwarf instead of human? Dwarves receive enhancements to up to-hit and damage with axes. I understand it's a 101 guide, but dwarf is also good for novices imo.

[karl_k0ch]

Why not dwarf instead of human? Dwarves receive enhancements to up to-hit and damage with axes. I understand it's a 101 guide, but dwarf is also good for novices imo.

I think the main reason is that the Fighter 101 is already featuring a Dwarf.

[pjstechie]

something every barbarian should know: guild pots. many pots cannot be used while raging but their guild versions can. The big one being curse pots since many curses block incoming healing (though this does tend to be more of an issue at higher levels and in raids).

[nibel]

+1 to remove UMD from the list. It only became kind of effective at cap or almost cap, and by that time you can get aligned gear that don't require specific alignment (like holy/anarchic/axiomatic instead of pure good/true chaos/true law). The second benefit (self buffing and heal scrolls) requires some gear grind and gear swap, plus the limits on what you can and can't use while raging, and I think UMD isn't 101 material to barbarians.

==Every New Barbarian Should Know …==

-Greatsword and Greataxe are more or less equivalent. Except if you are a dwarf, choosing one or another is basically aesthetic. Falchion have a better crit profile and are usually superior to both. Maul is slightly inferior, but deals blunt damage, which deal more damage to skeletons, and can have enchantments that boosts your Stunning Blow. Only use Greatclub as a last resort.

-Carry lesser restoration potions. And except if you have the time to let the fatigue expire by itself, always drink it before engaging into the next combat. Fatigued barbarians have -2 strength and -2 dexterity. This translates into -1 to hit, -1 damage, -1 AC, and -1 Reflex.

-Potions of Fear Removal, Lesser Restoration, Paralysis Removal, Blindness Removal, Curse Removal, Disease Removal and Poison Neutralization can't be used while raging. The Bound to Character versions of those potions buoyed from the guild potion vendor don't have this limitation.

-We all know your rage may expire in the next minute. That is no excuse to rush to the next fight before healing.

[KyrzaBladedancer]

I think that may be a bit too complicated for the intended audience of new players, for minimal if any gain.

/sarcasm on
which is more complicated, running in circles or hitting 3 and 4 on your keyboard in rapid succession? Or is it doing both at once?http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/aktion/action-smiley-060.gif

/sarcasm off

Seriously though, it takes all of 2 minutes to get used to doing and almost nothing up until level 10 (and further in some cases) can survive a double cleave, and when it does, it will die the next hit. With only a 6 second cooldown on Cleave and Great Cleave you can do it nearly nonstop, since it generally takes more than 4 seconds to run to another group of monsters. I used the Starter Greatsword on my Barb until I got a Bloody Cleaver at level 12, so you don't even need a decent weapon for this strategy. The gain is also much more than minimal, especially at lower level.

And UMD on a barb, even a Pure, is a good idea (some numbers below). At 4 a level for human you have balance, spot, jump and UMD, taking 2 out of jump for tumble. Intim IMO, in its current long animation, easily interruptible state, is nearly worthless. Even with the old animation, If you need Intim to pull agro off someone that shouldn't have it in the first place, reroll, upgrade gear or tell them to slow down.

some UMD numbers:
Since it is hard to get any UMD boosters before level 7 or 8 and taking more damage starts to happen about level 9 lets start there.
6 Ranks
1 Cha (8 base +4 item)
3 Item (Persuasion, Cartouche, Bunny Hat)
2 Heroism
1 Luck (Voice, Stone of Good Luck)
That is a sustained 13. Add another 1 if you have Phiarlan Carnival and can get Big Top. Human Versatility III for another 4. That gives you an easy short term boost to 18, which is a 70% chance on Cure Mod wands and lets you equip ML 11 RR items. Now lets stretch it a little, 2 for GH (got lucky in XC) 1 more for Charisma (+2 tome) and 3 for UMD Focus, that's a no fail Cure Mod Wand for 20 seconds.

Now Level 20 with a few easy to get epic pieces (P Epics), a junk ToD ring, A tier II Shroud Cha Skills and a DT with Cha skills 3 Exceptional Cha 1 (roughly 2 weeks of play 2 hours a day not including trophies).

11 Ranks
6 Cha skills (Shroud 1&2, DT 3)
5 Cha (8 base 2 tome 7 item [Shimmering Pendant] 3 exceptional [2 ToD, 1 DT/colorless slot])
4 GH
3 Item
3 Enchantment (Epic Big Top)
1 or 2 Good Luck (Crafted/HoGF/Green slot)

Gives you a 33 or 34 depending on what your Luck is. A +2 shrine gives you 35, UMD focus or HV II if you somehow find room is 38, eek out another 1 (10 base Cha, +3 tome + Litany, +4 tomehttp://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/lachen/laughing-smiley-002.gif, HVIII ) and you have No Fail on Heal Scrolls. Yeah this set up requires either a large cut into DPS gear or a lot of swapping, it is still pretty easy to do and once you get better gear you will need less swaps to do it. My fighter will be able to No Fail Heal Scrolls with 2 item swaps (Shroud Cha Skills for X Boots and Epic Spyglass w/+2 Good Luck for Epic Gem of Many Facets), leaving 95% of my DPS intact. If you want how I can give it to you.

[Kmnh]

tips:

Move around! if there are 5 kobolds poking you with spears at the same time, you are doing something wrong. Put all that movement speed to good use.

Jump is not a dump skill. Jump potions will save a lot of time and resources. Use them often.

Movement speed adds more to your DPS than most of the early game weapons. A lv3 barb with multiple "anger's step" clickies and an Ember Great Axe will have a higher kill count than the one with a Maelstrom and 0% striding. I tested this personally.

One haste potion is cheaper than 5 cure serious wounds ones. Drink that stuff often, the guild vendor sells them for an affordable price.

Buy consumables, not weapons. You will outgrow that minimum level 4 holy greataxe of righteousness before your 100-stack of haste potions runs out. Use the best weapon that you find in a chest.

[Viren1]

And UMD on a barb, even a Pure, is a good idea (some numbers below). At 4 a level for human you have balance, spot, jump and UMD, taking 2 out of jump for tumble. Intim IMO, in its current long animation, easily interruptible state, is nearly worthless. Even with the old animation, If you need Intim to pull agro off someone that shouldn't have it in the first place, reroll, upgrade gear or tell them to slow down.


If you are raging you cannot cast. If you are not raging you are not a barbarian, just a less good fighter.

Also, the descriptions for the last 3 enhancements are all in the wrong spot.

[nibel]

And UMD on a barb, even a Pure, is a good idea


If you are raging you cannot cast. If you are not raging you are not a barbarian, just a less good fighter.

That. The only reason a barb should have UMD is to use RR items. And it's not worth the hassle to grind for cha and UMD gear for it. Fighters can made good use of UMD. Barbs can't.

Also, good luck trying to fit Skill Focus on your barbarian. What you'll give up? Toughness or Stunning Blow?

[Bart_D]

Stats and feats look solid. Human allows both Toughness and Stunning Blow without giving up anything essential, good choice. As for skills, I'd recommend Intimidate (barbs even get a special enhancement for it) rather than a weak UMD (11 ranks and base charisma) which is very un-barbarian and can't even be used while raging.

Little bit of play advice:
- Move in combat. While you have awesome offense, you can get torn up pretty quickly if you let multiple stand and swing at you.
- Try to quickly kill those hurting your party the most. That might be the melees in front but it's likely to be the casters behind them. So use your speed and Jump skill and deal with the biggest threat first.
- With all that movement, it's easy to outrun your party and get into more trouble than you can handle.

[Moltier]

Feat order for newbies should be this:
1: Toughness (new players need the early extra hp)
1: Power attack (this one isnt good yet, but...)
3: Cleave (...this one is awesome, barbs like a walking fireball with this)
6: Stunning blow
9: IC
12, 15, 18: THF

Also dex is important for a barb, it should be at least 10.
Front line melees will take the first spells, so its good to mitigate them.

[Crann]

Looks good. Make it a Dwarf and lose the UMD and it would look great :)

(UMD belongs in the 201, or 301 curriculum)

[KyrzaBladedancer]

That. The only reason a barb should have UMD is to use RR items. And it's not worth the hassle to grind for cha and UMD gear for it. Fighters can made good use of UMD. Barbs can't. Grind? you mean the grind that happens when you are Grinding out Antique Greataxe but can't pull the seal because it never goes up for roll? you mean the grind that happens trying to get your Heal Amp DT your Guard DT and an Incite DT, or heck even just using RR to level? The grind that happens trying to get that Crusty but no luck after run number 40? Every melee should have a Shroud Haste Clicky and guess what Ethereal Dominion for Air is? Charisma Skills! HoGF? I see 4 of these for every set of Madstones. /end rant
Without trying I can think of 5 reasons how and when a Barb can make good use of UMD, I'll list them if you can't think of what they are. Some can also be covered by clickies, but you still run into the same problem you have with UMD, can't use them while raged.


Also, good luck trying to fit Skill Focus on your barbarian. What you'll give up? Toughness or Stunning Blow?

Hmmm...
UMD focus or HV II if you somehow find room

[nibel]

Grind? you mean the grind that happens when you are Grinding out Antique Greataxe but can't pull the seal because it never goes up for roll? you mean the grind that happens trying to get your Heal Amp DT your Guard DT and an Incite DT, or heck even just using RR to level? The grind that happens trying to get that Crusty but no luck after run number 40? Every melee should have a Shroud Haste Clicky and guess what Ethereal Dominion for Air is? Charisma Skills! HoGF? I see 4 of these for every set of Madstones. /end rant

None of that is 101 material. Everything you cited are high level quests or epic. For a new player first time barbarian, a cha skill GS is not a top priority (Lit2 weapon and Min2/guards acessory are over it).

A 101 guide isn't where you talk about how they should do the build to be a top top barbarian. You should tell the basics. Using something that may be useful after you grind out your 3rd-4th GS piece (which means, at least 20 shrouds under your belt for a cleanser) is good enough for 201 or 301.

[Luckness]

Personally I am of the philosophy that putting UMD on the list of skills for a class that gets 4+ skills per level is just a good idea, because it's just a good skill. Even if the player doesn't understand completely how it works at level one, it may save them a headache later on when they find they really would have wanted it. Saving players headaches (instead of just confirming false assumptions, like not taking cross-class skills such as UMD...) is kinda why these guides get written.

I don't like the philosophy of telling players to roll Good characters because they'd be too stupid to figure out, after seeing an explanation, how to roll Neutral and use UMD to wear a Pure Good weapon or other alignment/race restricted gear. If we can't explain this to a new player, the best thing to do is to work harder on the explanation, not to substitute a solution that we feel is less effective but easier to explain. (Unless we feel UMD is just a bad choice, of course!)

UMD also has synergy with the human race, between human versatility and the extra skill points per level (and higher base CHA than dwarf/horc/wf). However, here is an idea... perhaps make the race used as the example for the barbarian the dwarf (regardless of whether the fighter uses it also) and then make another heading for making a human barbarian and suggesting to use the extra skill point per level on UMD. This removes the explanation of the "more advanced" topic from the main flow of the text, while still presenting it as it is good to know.

Dwarf presentation: 18STR/18CON/10 INT. Skills: 1 rank of Tumble, 11 Balance, 11 Spot, 23 Intimidation, 23 Jump (or drop Jump and bump up DEX instead). Mention the Tactics line of enhancements and the Spell Defense line of enhancements as well as the Axe enhancements and Constitution enhancements, all very good reasons for rolling a dwarf barbarian. Suggest that the naturally high HP of a dwarf barbarian makes it one of the few classes on which to drop the Toughness feat safely.

Human presentation: 18STR/16 CON/10 INT. Skills: 1 rank of Tumble, 1 free point, 11 UMD, 11 Balance, 11 Spot, 23 Intimidation, 23 Jump (or drop Jump and bump up DEX instead - also, possibly take 1 point out of CON in order to increase DEX as Shade mentions). Mention the Adaptability Strength/Con enhancements, the human improved recovery enhancements, the extra feat that allows similar HP with lower CON, and that the extra skill points, higher base CHA, and human versatility allow a barbarian to get some use of the UMD cross-class skill.

The human presentation could be made a footnote while the dwarf barbarian could be the first example.

[zebidos]

So far so good, just for a guide to someone brand new I probably would not mention UMD, to use UMD on a barb as it takes a bit of a work and plat to buy heal/rez scrolls etc and work around to dismiss rage, restoration, use scroll then re-rage.

The stats seems ok though, would recommened you advise new players about how lesser restoration pots cure rage fatigue and the benefits of healing amplification, and most importantly explain the stacking effects of rage.

May want to mention that at the barbarian progresses that hit points become one of your main defences

[karl_k0ch]

So far so good, just for a guide to someone brand new I probably would not mention UMD, to use UMD on a barb as it takes a bit of a work and plat to buy heal/rez scrolls etc and work around to dismiss rage, restoration, use scroll then re-rage.

The stats seems ok though, would recommened you advise new players about how lesser restoration pots cure rage fatigue and the benefits of healing amplification, and most importantly explain the stacking effects of rage.

May want to mention that at the barbarian progresses that hit points become one of your main defences

UMD is not for scrolls, UMD is for equip on such a toon.

[TheDjinnFor]

Below is an early version of the template for Barbarian 101. Written for newly-starting DDO free players, we've opted for a human Two Handed Fighter (THF) template with a 28pt build. The skill, feat and enhancement selections are designed to output solid damage with reasonable survivability (for a new player).

Why not a dwarven barbarian? I like human for certain kinds of barbarians (something not fit for a 101 guide); what dwarves get, and what many people underestimate, is survivability.

If you can hit around a 28-34 reflex save on a barbarian, you can save against most if not all raid boss nuke spells on a 2. This is very important, and dwarves get a lot going for them: they can pump 6 points into dex for +3 reflex saves while still maxing strength and keeping 16 con, they get +2 to saves versus all spells (with enhancements to boost that even more), they have Con enhancements and full toughness lines, and so on. They also have boosts to attack and damage of greataxes, and for doubters who think they're being smart by saying Falchions are better than Gaxes, send me a PM for why you're wrong.

Generally, you can either choose to make a stunning blow, tactics-based barbarian or a toughness, tank-based barbarian. In fact it may be ideal to state this in the OP; humans are capable of doing both reasonably well thanks to having access to both feats, but most barbarians have to make a decision between the two and a 101 guide should probably outline this even if it decides to go human and bypass the whole decision.


==Every New Barbarian Should Know …==

• Your first role in any situation is to deal damage. Barbarians are unfortunately fairly pigeonholed into that role by the fact that they have no other support-based class abilities, like the bards song or the rangers spells.
• Your second role in any situation is to take damage. When your enemies attacks are too accurate for the armor of your allies to protect them, or the spells too damaging that your allies can't take the heat, you are an ideal candidate to take the brunt of the force because of your innately high HP total. A combination of high HP and healing amp means very little of your allies healing is wasted; you can usually take twice as much punishment before you need aid, and that one heal will bring you back up to full again.
• Your final role in a situation, if your damage is too little and you can't tank, is to use your innately high Strength score to boost the DCs of your Trip and/or Stunning Blow feats and incapacitate enemies that way.
• You do not have innate self-healing or spellcasting abilities like many other classes, but you can make up for that somewhat by boosting your DR, gathering magic gear that can imitate important spell effects, and pumping up your saves to minimize the effects of incoming attacks.


===Ability Point Buy===

For a dwarven tank-based 28-pt barbarian I like going with the following stats:

• STR: 18
• DEX: 14
• CON: 16
• INT: 8
• WIS: 8
• CHA: 6

• Ability Point Buy: Point grants at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 all go to STR.

Barbarians simply do not need to be a human with 10 starting int; that's 5 skill points per level with nothing really that useful to put it in. Instead, invest in Dexterity. Barbarians usually hover around the 20-30 range in reflex saves, meaning that every point invested is added survivability. Barbarians also get trap sense as a class feature, meaning that the 40-50 reflex save required to save against the tougher traps can still be accomplished.

For doubters, check this breakdown out:

6 Base
+5 to 8 Dex (14 base +6-7 item +0-3 tome +0-2 ship)
+5 Resistance (staple item at high levels)
+0 to 2 Luck (+1 or +2 luck item/spell)
+0 to 4 Morale (+2 heroism potion or +4 greater heroism spell)
+2 to 5 Racial (2 inherent plus up to 3 more through enhancements)
+0 to 4 Alignment (Protection from Evil or Holy Aura spell)
= 18 to 34

Plus add in uncanny dodge when you need it for an extra +6. End-game raid bosses have around 30-34 DC, meaning this build has the potential to save-for half on a 2 without uncanny dodge; that, with the barbarians already high HP total, makes it even better in a tanking situation.


===Skills===

Note the changes below:

• Tumble: Invest two skill points into Tumble, a skill that comes in handy but cannot be used without 1 Rank trained.

• Balance: A barbarian is constantly on the front lines of battle, so keep Balance maxed out at every level to ensure a speedy recovery upon a knockdown.

• Jump: Having a total score of 10 in Jump (which barbarians should have with their high strength) is enough to get you across chasms and traps, especially with the help of Jump-enhancing spells and potions. You can choose to invest ranks in jump if you don't want to be dependent on magical items.

• Spot: A skill that's useful for its ability to help you detect hidden enemies. Invest any spare skill points here as you level.

• Intimidate: Use of this feat can help you, even if you don't have any ranks invested in it, because it enhances the amount of threat you generate every swing for a short period of time. If you're planning on investing in increasing your skills via gear and some items or potions (for UMD, for example) you might benefit by investing in Intimidate as well, since succeeding on your intimidate check puts you immediately at the top of the enemies priority list in addition to the threat-enhancing effect above.

• Use Magic Device (UMD): Given enough time and investment, ranks in UMD can pay off in the long run as they may allow you access to basic healing or utility spells. The requirements are high for the potent wands and scrolls, however, yet even if you can't meet them you can still benefit from investments in UMD since some equipment is restricted to certain races unless you can pass the UMD requirements.


===Feat Order===

This dwarven barbarian is going to focus on being a tank and absorbing damage by taking toughness and focusing on HP, although you can certainly build a dwarven barbarian with Stunning Blow and investments in increasing the DCs of your tactics feats.

• 1) Toughness: Increases hit points by +3 at first level, and 1 additional hit point for each additional level. Also opens up Toughness enhancements, adding further hit point bonuses as you level up.

• 3) Power Attack: Able to be toggled on and off, Power Attack mode trades up to 5 of your attack bonus for equal extra damage on melee attacks. Using a two-handed weapon in this build makes Power Attack mode more appealing: the feat offers double the bonus to damage when using two-handed weapons.

• 6) Cleave: Activate this ability to attack one or more enemies within a forward-facing arc.

• 9) Improved Critical: Slashing: This feat greatly increases the likelihood of your attacks dealing critical damage by increase the "critical threat range" of any slashing weapon you use. This means axes and swords, more or less – weapons that deal bludgeoning, piercing, ranged or thrown damage will not benefit from this feat.

• 12) Two Handed Fighting (human bonus feat): Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by 10%. Also grants a 3% chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows. A glancing blow is a free, additional attack that only two-handed weapons are capable of doing.

• 15) Improved Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks (See "Two Handed Fighting" feat above for more info) when wielding a two-handed weapon by an additional 10% on top of the Two Handed Fighting bonus. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%.

• 18) Greater Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by another 10% on top of the previous Two Handed Fighting feats. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%. At this point, your barbarian will have a 50% total chance to produce glancing blows (the base is 20%).

Optionally, take Stunning Blow at level 1:

• 1) Stunning Blow: This potent feat allows you to stun enemies for 6 seconds and increase all the damage they take from you and your allies by 50% for the duration of the effect. Having higher strength increases the chances of a success.


==Enhancements==

Note the changes below.

All the enhancements below effectively upgrade the barbarian Rage ability, making it even more potent than the vanilla Rage. It's a long list: Extend Rage increases the Rage ability's duration, Extra Rage adds additional Rage uses between rests, Hardy Rage increases CON while Rage is active (adding more hit points) and Power Rage increases STR while Rage is active (adding more damage per attack). Extend/Extra Rage is usually sufficient at Tier 2, but you can take Tier 3 if you find it helps.

Simply put, these below enhancements transform a raging barbarian into stampeding death-machine.

• Barbarian Extend Rage I - II
• Barbarian Extra Rage I - II
• Barbarian Hardy Rage I - II
• Barbarian Power Rage I - IV

Power Attack I – III will add additional damage at the cost of accuracy, although accuracy is not typically an issue facing barbarians due to their high strength, decent weapons, and good Base Attack Bonus. As a dwarf you'll want to invest at least a little bit into boosting your accuracy and damage with greataxes, which should be your weapon of choice for most of the game; you can go even higher than what is listed if you want.

• Barbarian Power Attack I - III
• Dwarven Axe Attack I
• Dwarven Axe Damage I

Dwarven Spell Defense makes you more resistance to spells, boosting all your saves by one against spells. Willpower grants you an additional +1 Will save when raging, a useful bonus when going up against magically-inclined baddies.

• Barbarian Willpower I
• Dwarven Spell Defense I

Barbarians rely on hit points and damage reduction to survive what few attacks their enemies land – ideally, a barbarian drops all opponents to the ground before they get a chance to attack. However, in the event a kobold or two slips past, it's a good idea to have extra hit points from these below enhancements. Take more ranks of each enhancement if you have the spare points.

• Racial Toughness I - II
• Barbarian Constitution I
• Barbarian Toughness I – II
• Dwarven Constitution I

Damage Reduction is a good idea for barbarians picking enhancements, because it will lower the amount of damage taken, and keep them alive longer!

• Barbarian Improved Damage Reduction I - II

Last but far from least, Frenzied Berserker adds to the damage multiplier on some critical hits while raging, two-handed weapon glancing blows have a greater chance to add magical effects (such as flaming, etc), you may spend 10 hit points to use Supreme Cleave – and most importantly, you can spend 20 hit points to enter a Death Frenzy (at rank III). Think of the frenzy (unlocked with Frenzied Berserker I) and Death Frenzy (Frenzied Berserker III) as an optional "Super Mega Ultra Rage" mode. Damage Boost is an enhancement that does two things for a barbarian using this template: activate for increased damage, and meet the requirements for Frenzied Berserker.

• Barbarian Frenzied Berserker I - III
• Barbarian Damage Boost I - IV

This is a capstone enhancement, meaning a player must take 20 levels of barbarian to obtain it – but it's worth the investment. A barbarian who takes Barbarian Might receives +2 STR, and when wielding two-handed weapons receive increased glancing blow damage and an increased chance of applying weapon special effects on glancing blows. By the capstone point in DDO magically-infused weapons are something of a regularity, and Barbarian Might – combined with other elements of this template – ensures their magical effects occur as frequently as possible.

• Capstone: Barbarian Might

As mentioned above, you can boost the DCs of your tactical feats like Trip and Stunning Blow as a barbarian if you actually decide to take Stunning Blow instead of toughness. Use the 6 AP you spent in toughness enhancements above (which you no longer have access to without toughness) to boost the DCs of all your tactical feats using the following enhancement.

• Dwarven Tactics II

Note the reording: Frenzied Berserker should really be it's own section.

[Blank_Zero]

I like the look of it so far.

I'd explain how umd is important to new players though. A lot of them don't realize how powerful it really is to be able to use scrolls as a barbarian, as well as race required/alignment weapons and armors.

Human is a good starter, but your ap spread lacks the all powerful human heal amp boosts! Blasphemy! :)

Human Versatility is cool also, as it allows you to have 2 action boosts active. I like having haste AND damage/attack boosts going at the same time. It really helps add into that dps, which is a barbarians main role.

[sirgog]

UMD is not for scrolls, UMD is for equip on such a toon.

That doesn't work all that well.

Pure Good (UMD 20) is about all you can equip at endgame on a Barbarian. Note that if you use short term boosts to push your UMD up to a point that you can equip something, changing weapons causes the UMD dependant item to fall off.

Back when the easiest DR breakers to acquire were Metalline of Pure Good, UMD 20 had some merit. Now Cannith crafting has removed that need. Even if you don't participate in Cannith Crafting yourself, there's more +5 Holy Silver weapons on the Auction House than previously, as vets no longer snap them up.

If a new Barbarian comes across a nice piece of race-required gear they'd otherwise use (let's say they luck out and pull a +6 Con ring, ML 11, RR WF but they are a Dwarf), that's fine - they can trade their ring for a no-RR ML 13 version and likely get quite a bit more too.


Conclusion - UMD is a 201 or 301 skill for Barbarians. For newbies, they will not get a return from it until well after they hit level 20.

[sirgog]

For a dwarven tank-based 28-pt barbarian I like going with the following stats:

• STR: 18
• DEX: 14
• CON: 16
• INT: 8
• WIS: 8
• CHA: 6

• Ability Point Buy: Point grants at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 all go to STR.

Barbarians simply do not need to be a human with 10 starting int; that's 5 skill points per level with nothing really that useful to put it in. Instead, invest in Dexterity. Barbarians usually hover around the 20-30 range in reflex saves, meaning that every point invested is added survivability. Barbarians also get trap sense as a class feature, meaning that the 40-50 reflex save required to save against the tougher traps can still be accomplished.

For doubters, check this breakdown out:

6 Base
+5 to 8 Dex (14 base +6-7 item +0-3 tome +0-2 ship)
+5 Resistance (staple item at high levels)
+0 to 2 Luck (+1 or +2 luck item/spell)
+0 to 4 Morale (+2 heroism potion or +4 greater heroism spell)
+2 to 5 Racial (2 inherent plus up to 3 more through enhancements)
+0 to 4 Alignment (Protection from Evil or Holy Aura spell)
= 18 to 34

Plus add in uncanny dodge when you need it for an extra +6. End-game raid bosses have around 30-34 DC, meaning this build has the potential to save-for half on a 2 without uncanny dodge; that, with the barbarians already high HP total, makes it even better in a tanking situation.



Agreed, although it's worth noting that most endgame bosses have DCs in the high 30s.

Horoth - 30/32/34 on DBF, 32/34/36 on Meteor Swarm
Cojoined Abashai Devastator - 38 on everything (spell or breath attacks)
Velah - 38/58 on breath (getting hit twice by one breath #is# meant to kill you)
Most Epic quest bosses - 36 to 40
Red Abashai Sky Raider - 40 (probably the most important Reflex save in the game as they spam AoE spells and you often face more than one)

[nibel]

for doubters who think they're being smart by saying Falchions are better than Gaxes, send me a PM for why you're wrong.

No need to send a PM. For dwarves, greataxe is the weapon of choice, hands down. For everyone else, non-named Falchions are better than non-named gaxes or gswords (carnifex and sos being the poster boys of "exceptions") only because they crit more often.

[xAlistairx]

Are half-ranks in Spot really better than full-ranks in Listen? Honest question here, I always thought that full Listen would be vastly superior to half spot.

[nibel]

Are half-ranks in Spot really better than full-ranks in Listen? Honest question here, I always thought that full Listen would be vastly superior to half spot.

Myself, I prefer listen over spot simply because I can see the red bubble easier than the transparent mobs. But skill per skill, spot is superior. With few exceptions, half ranks plus a +15 item is enough to see the hidden mobs, and the additional benefit of seeing secret doors and some traps. Listen can give you some exclusive DM descriptions and prepare you to the "whats behind door #2" on new quests.

both dont require full ranks to be useful to "see" hidden mobs, and the side benefit of spot is better. So, Spot is better than listen, most of the time.

[Xiadais]

Race
As this is a 101 guide I recommend keeping it simple and going with one race such as human. I wouldn't include 1/2 orc or warforged as these both need to be purchased or earned with favor and opens the question of how a new person should build these.


If I were an mmo company looking to make money, I sure would include pay-to-play things in my newbie guides! I think it would be a great idea for Turbine to include horc and warforged in this, because then Turbine gets more money which results in Turbine being able to possibly hire more workers to satisfy players. :D

[Emili]

The odd point into dex and wis seems a bit off to me. I think you were trying to point out those stats as "save" stats, but leaving them as odd is useless unless you get tomes. I personally would change it to be one or the other.

Int makes a lot of sense yet, odd points can actually be helpful in a high level barb if you can pump them to a point above 10. When you have silver flame pot access and layered a number of +2 tomes (far easier than +3s) because you're most likely not wearing six different stat items. An 11 in a stat will prevent you from a helpless state by drinking such a potion. May be the only benefit but is one.


It all comes down to when the player crosses the line into 32 point build or tr's into another race as for longevity of playing.

[dingal]

Howdy,

Below is an early version of the template for Barbarian 101. Written for newly-starting DDO free players, we've opted for a human Two Handed Fighter (THF) template with a 28pt build. The skill, feat and enhancement selections are designed to output solid damage with reasonable survivability (for a new player).

Is there a factual mistake somewhere that we haven't shaken out? Do you have suggestions on a more ideal skill, feat or enhancement progression? Please share!

Notes of Interest:


Although human is what we're using for this template, we're currently discussing where to put other racial options like half-orc and warforged. It could be its own section or a bullet-point in the "Everything a Barbarian Should Know" section, or somewhere else entirely.


What to do: Give use constructive criticism and feedback!

What not to do: Derail Barbarian 101 feedback with off-topic posts or inflammatory comments.

-------------------

==Every New Barbarian Should Know …==

• (Got advice? Please share in a comment below!)

-------------------


==Template: Two Handed Human Barbarian==

If you're looking to create a melee powerhouse with little armor but lots of health (and even more damage output), this template is a great starting point!

===Ability Point Buy===

Human will be our base race for the extra feat and skills, and because humans make a solid base for practically any class in DDO.

• STR: 18
• DEX: 8
• CON: 16
• INT: 10
• WIS: 8
• CHA: 8

• Ability Point Buy: Point grants at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 all go to STR.

===Skills===

• Tumble: Invest two skill points into Tumble, a skill that comes in handy but cannot be used without 1 Rank trained.

• Balance: A barbarian is constantly on the frontlines of battle, so keep Balance maxed out at every level to ensure a speedy recovery upon a knockdown.

• Jump: Having 10 ranks in Jump is enough to get you across chasms and traps, especially with the help of Jump-enhancing spells and potions.

• Spot: A skill that's useful for its ability to help you detect hidden enemies. Invest any spare skill points here as you level.

• Use Magic Device (UMD): (Explanation Text Here.)

===Feat Order===

• 1) Toughness: Increases hit points by +3 at first level, and 1 additional hit point for each additional level. Also opens up Toughness enhancements, adding further hit point bonuses as you level up.

• 1) Two Handed Fighting (human bonus feat): Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by 10%. Also grants a 3% chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows. A glancing blow is a free, additional attack that only two-handed weapons are capable of doing.

• 3) Power Attack: Able to be toggled on and off, Power Attack mode trades up to 5 of your attack bonus for equal extra damage on melee attacks. Using a two-handed weapon in this build makes Power Attack mode more appealing: the feat offers double the bonus to damage when using two-handed weapons.

• 6) Cleave: Activate this ability to attack one or more enemies within a forward-facing arc.

• 9) Improved Critical: Slashing: This feat greatly increases the likelihood of your attacks dealing critical damage by increase the "critical threat range" of any slashing weapon you use. This means axes and swords, more or less – weapons that deal bludgeoning, piercing, ranged or thrown damage will not benefit from this feat.

• 12) Improved Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks (See "Two Handed Fighting" feat above for more info) when wielding a two-handed weapon by an additional 10% on top of the Two Handed Fighting bonus. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%.

• 15) Greater Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by another 10% on top of the previous Two Handed Fighting feats. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%. At this point, your barbarian will have a 50% total chance to produce glancing blows (the base is 20%).

• 18) Stunning Blow: (Explanation Text Here.)

==Enhancements==

The enhancements suggested in this section have been chosen to build upon the barbarian's damage-output and damage reduction traits.

All the enhancements below effectively upgrade the barbarian Rage ability, making it even more potent than the vanilla Rage. It's a long list: Extend Rage increases the Rage ability's duration, Extra Rage adds additional Rage uses between rests, Hardy Rage increases CON while Rage is active (adding more hit points) and Power Rage increases STR while Rage is active (adding more damage per attack).

Last but far from least, Frenzied Berserker adds to the damage multiplier on critical hits while raging, two-handed weapon glancing blows have a greater chance to add magical effects (such as flaming, etc), you may spend 10 hit points to use Supreme Cleave – and most importantly, you can spend 20 hit points to enter a Death Frenzy (at rank III). Think of the frenzy (unlocked with Frenzied Berserker I) and Death Frenzy (Frenzied Berserker III) as an optional "Super Mega Ultra Rage" mode.

Simply put, these below enhancements transform a raging barbarian into stampeding death-machine.

• Barbarian Extend Rage I - III
• Barbarian Extra Rage I - III
• Barbarian Hardy Rage I - III
• Barbarian Power Rage I - IV
• Barbarian Frenzied Berserker I - III

Power Attack I – III will add additional damage at the cost of accuracy, although accuracy is not typically an issue facing barbarians due to their high strength, decent weapons, and good Base Attack Bonus.

• Barbarian Power Attack I - III

Gain an additional +1 Will save when raging, a useful bonus when going up against magically-inclined baddies.

• Barbarian Willpower I

A once-famous but now-unknown barbarian said, "More strength GOOD!" It's a wise saying that lives to this day among barbarian players in DDO.

• Human Adaptability Strength I

Barbarians rely on hit points and damage reduction to survive what few attacks their enemies land – ideally, a barbarian drops all opponents to the ground before they get a chance to attack. However, in the event a kobold or two slips past, it's a good idea to have extra hit points from these below enhancements.

• Racial Toughness I - II
• Barbarian Constitution I - II
• Barbarian Toughness I – III

Damage Reduction is a good idea for barbarians picking enhancements, because it will lower the amount of damage taken, and keep them alive longer!

• Barbarian Improved Damage Reduction I - II

Damage Boost is an enhancement that does two things for a barbarian using this template: activate for increased damage, and meet the requirements for Frenzied Berserker. See the beginning portion of this section to learn more about Frenzied Berserker and why any barbarian worth their salt wants to be one.

• Barbarian Damage Boost I - IV

This is a capstone enhancement, meaning a player must take 20 levels of barbarian to obtain it – but it's worth the investment. A barbarian who takes Barbarian Might receives +2 STR, and when wielding two-handed weapons receive increased glancing blow damage and an increased chance of applying weapon special effects on glancing blows. By the capstone point in DDO magically-infused weapons are something of a regularity, and Barbarian Might – combined with other elements of this template – ensures their magical effects occur as frequently as possible.

• Capstone: Barbarian Might

Imo investing any points into UMD on a barb is worthless. Anything you need to UMD is usually available as a clicky and in addition to that intimidate is a much more valuable contribution to a group.

Maybe that's more advanced play but I'm sticking to my comment on UMD.

Also, stunning blow without quickdraw is pretty awful now. WIth helplessness changes and the need for even very high str barbarians to use a weighted weapon it's simply not worth it even with quickdraw. Without you're very likely losing DPS trying to switch weapons or using an inferior weapons.

I'd use the extra feat for an additional toughness or charisma skills to boost intimidate.

Barbarian Improved Intimidate is where the magic happens. -2 debuff to intimidated enemies. Teach players to benefit the group earlier in these 101 guides and they will be better players later on.

[oradafu]

As others have pointed out, some information about the inability to use many potions (unless it's a Guild potion) and most clickies when raged is pretty important.

Also, every Barbarian, except WF, needs to carry Lesser Restoration potions to prevent fatigue when their rage needs.

There should be something about CON being tied to the length of time that Rage lasts.

Perhaps a small section about Healing Amp being useful for Barbarians.

[Noelemahc]

Additionally, this is of course my opinion and feedback would be appreciated, but many of the Barbarians I play with at endgame find no use in the Two-Handed Fighting feats. The glancing blow damage isn't worth investing 3 feats to obtain and many players often forego this feat line for Toughness feats. I agree with the aforementioned lack of use in Great Cleave as well.

Those are the less successful and more inexperienced barbs. Glancing blows are a huge portion of your damage. Granted, the 3rd feat is less important if you're always twitching (not many people can do it right at all, and definitely wouldn't expect beginners to be able to or even know what it is), 30% extra damage on glancing blows is nothing to scoff at. Saying the two-handed feats aren't worth it is exactly like saying the two-weapon feats aren't worth it.

When you are swinging for 110+ damage a swing, that's an extra 33 damage on glancing blows 3/4 swings (glancing blows are normally 20% damage and only proc 2/4 swings). So that's an average increase of 24.75 damage/swing. Granted, it will be a little lower when first starting out and not epic geared out yet, but still in the ballpark of an average of 20 damage/swing. That's a lot of damage that adds up fast. Especially when people kill themselves over gear sets that just add 2 damage, epic marilith chain that only adds another +4 seeker, or epic abishai set that only has a net gain of 1 str over a "normal" epic geared barb (which is a totally different discussion... I think abishai set is stupid on a melee for such a small and otherwise unnoticeable gain), it's kind of silly to say that such a large increase in damage isn't worth it.

I have 1 toughness feat and don't have any of the toughness enhancements, and still hit 800 hp on a non-tr. That's more than well enough to tank even elite ToD. I'm also missing about 100 hp in gear too. Honestly taking more toughness feats not only isn't needed, but definitely not worth losing that extra dps from not taking the two handed feats. Glancing blows are a very underrated form of damage, and is definitely the difference between an average barb, and a great one (even twitchers get glancing blows still).

[supp3nhuhn]

In skills you really need intimidate for barbs, barbarian intimidation is a nice effect and shouldn't be ignored in a 101.

I'd rather see listen than spot on that list because it is weird to take the off class skill if you have another very similar one that is a class skill. Unless you have search there is no benefit to spot over listen.

You probably should loose umd, it has only very limited use on a pure barb, if you want to keep it at least mention human versatility in the enhancement section because it does have a skill boost among other boosts.

If you take human as race you should get human healing amp, with the lack of usefulness stunning blow has as of late it is pretty much the only thing going for that race on a pure barb.

[dingal]

Those are the less successful and more inexperienced barbs. Glancing blows are a huge portion of your damage. Granted, the 3rd feat is less important if you're always twitching (not many people can do it right at all, and definitely wouldn't expect beginners to be able to or even know what it is), 30% extra damage on glancing blows is nothing to scoff at. Saying the two-handed feats aren't worth it is exactly like saying the two-weapon feats aren't worth it.

When you are swinging for 110+ damage a swing, that's an extra 33 damage on glancing blows 3/4 swings (glancing blows are normally 20% damage and only proc 2/4 swings). So that's an average increase of 24.75 damage/swing. Granted, it will be a little lower when first starting out and not epic geared out yet, but still in the ballpark of an average of 20 damage/swing. That's a lot of damage that adds up fast. Especially when people kill themselves over gear sets that just add 2 damage, epic marilith chain that only adds another +4 seeker, or epic abishai set that only has a net gain of 1 str over a "normal" epic geared barb (which is a totally different discussion... I think abishai set is stupid on a melee for such a small and otherwise unnoticeable gain), it's kind of silly to say that such a large increase in damage isn't worth it.

I have 1 toughness feat and don't have any of the toughness enhancements, and still hit 800 hp on a non-tr. That's more than well enough to tank even elite ToD. I'm also missing about 100 hp in gear too. Honestly taking more toughness feats not only isn't needed, but definitely not worth losing that extra dps from not taking the two handed feats. Glancing blows are a very underrated form of damage, and is definitely the difference between an average barb, and a great one (even twitchers get glancing blows still).

Absolutely 100% correct. Glancing blows are huge. A capped barb is better off with the full line + capstone + spacebar twitching than attack chain twitching and now with supreme cleave being useful the dps output of glancing blows is insane.

Not to be ignored.

Toughness is also unnecessary for a geared barb. An undergeared barb should definitely have it. Once you get geared up 780-800hp and good healing amp will get you through any content.

[FordyTwo]

Howdy all,

A big thanks to you all for the great feedback! Looking over the discussion, I agree that dwarf makes a very strong argument for a free player opting for the barbarian class. Additionally, with the contention on UMD for the purposes of a 101 guide, I'll be reevaluating it as I go through and make other changes based on the feat, skill and enhancement feedback.

The mention of premium races and their usefulness for the barbarian class was something that Tolero and I discussed when beginning this guide- and we agreed that it's a good idea. This will be in a section before the actual template, but I'll make sure there's a mention (or call-back) to it for any new players skimming through the guide.

Again, thanks for the continued feedback! :)

[SisAmethyst]

...

I'd rather see listen than spot on that list because it is weird to take the off class skill if you have another very similar one that is a class skill. Unless you have search there is no benefit to spot over listen.

You probably should loose umd, it has only very limited use on a pure barb, if you want to keep it at least mention human versatility in the enhancement section because it does have a skill boost among other boosts.

If you take human as race you should get human healing amp, with the lack of usefulness stunning blow has as of late it is pretty much the only thing going for that race on a pure barb.

While it may sound wired to take an off-class skill I guess that is exactly the reason for a 101 guide to show the non obvious. Only because it was written in the core books that listen is a class skill doesn't mean other skills may not perform better.

I agree with other posters that UMD is much to difficult for a first timer to bump to 20. We shouldn't forget that a first time player even not get the +1 Firetouch Veteran weapon. Heck they even may give away by mistake or because they want to be polite something like a Carniflex as they just don't know this item.

Maybe because of I loved to play my human paladin I really like healing amplification. But even from a logical standpoint I see a huge advantage for it as a Barb is a massive pile of HP and like WF should take healers friend it makes the healers life much easier to top this HP back up.

[Monkey_Archer]

Feats:
Toughness - Not at level1. Yes its a good feat.. But not a good feat for the highest HP in game the class at lvl1, when it only gives 3 hp.. Just has no real major impact. Bbns get enough HP without it, adding more may allow for sloppier play, but a new player should be encouraged to play better, not rely on gobs of HP.
Recommend moving it to 18 (Swap in stunning blow - A MASSIVELY more helpful feat at low lvl, especially useful for newer players learning the active combat style of ddo)

Recommended feat progression:
1. THF
1. Stunning blow (Human Bonus)
3. Power Attack
6. Cleave
9. Improve Critical: Slash
12. ITHF
15. GTHF
18. Toughness


I strongly agree with encouraging newer players to learn active combat as early as possible. However, cleave is infinitely more useful then stunning blow at level 3 since you will be killing mobs with one shot more often then not on lower difficulties.

For a newer player, I'd reccommend toughness before THF. The damage added from THF is just way too minor compared to the added survivability of an 20,30,40+ hp at low levels. The real benefit of the THF chain is gained at tier 3, and even then its just a bit of extra damage, and will be barely noticeable for a newer player (compared to the extra damage from cleave or stunning blow). Overall, stunning, cleaving and staying alive is just more entertaining then an extra couple of damage on glancing blows :)

I'd do the following:
1) Toughness
1) Power attack
3) Cleave
6) Stunning blow
9) Improved critical
12) THF
15) ITHF
18) GTHF

[dingal]

I strongly agree with encouraging newer players to learn active combat as early as possible. However, cleave is infinitely more useful then stunning blow at level 3 since you will be killing mobs with one shot more often then not on lower difficulties.

For a newer player, I'd reccommend toughness before THF. The damage added from THF is just way too minor compared to the added survivability of an 20,30,40+ hp at low levels. The real benefit of the THF chain is gained at tier 3, and even then its just a bit of extra damage, and will be barely noticeable for a newer player (compared to the extra damage from cleave or stunning blow). Overall, stunning, cleaving and staying alive is just more entertaining then an extra couple of damage on glancing blows :)

I'd do the following:
1) Toughness
1) Power attack
3) Cleave
6) Stunning blow
9) Improved critical
12) THF
15) ITHF
18) GTHF

I tend to agree with Shade, that toughness is not critical at lower levels however it does unlock enhancements which do add a more significant number of HP.

I could go either way on this one.

[TheDjinnFor]

Toughness - Not at level1. Yes its a good feat.. But not a good feat for the highest HP in game the class at lvl1, when it only gives 3 hp.. Just has no real major impact. Bbns get enough HP without it, adding more may allow for sloppier play, but a new player should be encouraged to play better, not rely on gobs of HP.

Toughness gets you 13 hp at level 1, 25 hp at level 3, 36 hp at level 4, 48 hp at level 6, etc. due to racial and class-based toughness enhancements. Contrast this with the benefits of getting GTHF at level 15 instead of 18.

[dingal]

Toughness gets you 13 hp at level 1, 25 hp at level 3, 36 hp at level 4, 48 hp at level 6, etc. due to racial and class-based toughness enhancements. Contrast this with the benefits of getting GTHF at level 15 instead of 18.

I'm putting on my "New player Goggles" so I can get a better view of what life is like when you don't know the game as well and you're right, those HP are invaluable.

[dingal]

Howdy all,

A big thanks to you all for the great feedback! Looking over the discussion, I agree that dwarf makes a very strong argument for a free player opting for the barbarian class. Additionally, with the contention on UMD for the purposes of a 101 guide, I'll be reevaluating it as I go through and make other changes based on the feat, skill and enhancement feedback.

The mention of premium races and their usefulness for the barbarian class was something that Tolero and I discussed when beginning this guide- and we agreed that it's a good idea. This will be in a section before the actual template, but I'll make sure there's a mention (or call-back) to it for any new players skimming through the guide.

Again, thanks for the continued feedback! :)

It might also be worth mentioning some of the gear a barbarian might seek out. This can be both named and non-named items. Weapon choice for me has change somewhat due to helplessness changes. I would no longer select a Greataxe as my primary weapon for instance.

What weapons should every barbarian carry?

1. A Maul that breaks /good DR - This is very important for newer players as they are likely to be running into undead mobs at lower levels
2. A Falchion or Greataxe, preferably a pure good or holy or even keen for general purposes

Armor Selection:
For newer players AC is your friend! Just because everyone likes to say AC is meaningless that doesn't make it true. AC is very relevant at lower levels even for barbarians. With a combination of a decent medium or light armor and a barkskin spell or potion it is very easy for a barb to maintain a mid to high 20's AC even while raged.

This will mitigate a TON of damage up until around levels 10-12ish when they start venturing into some of the more challenging content.

I cannot stress enough how helpful AC can be for newer players and it does not need to be at the cost of DPS or versatility in any way. When I TR or run lower level characters I always try to maintain a 25-30 AC at least until GH and for many of the early quests that makes you nearly unhittable.

That said - Newer characters should seek out medium to light armor that enables them to maximize the total value of their dexterity bonus and whenever possible seek out Mithral Chain, Mithral Breastplate, Mithral Fullplate etc. All good selections, readily available and typically pretty inexpensive.

[TheHolyDarkness]

As of your current draft, there appears to be a oversight concerning the intimidate skill.

Encourage the new player to max it out (along with balance) for the sake of protecting the party. Barbarians get 4 skill points per level, and this template gets an additional +1 for being human. It can afford it. But if I'm new, I may need an explanation as to why its important.

Personally, since the nooby is getting 4 skill points even if he dumps int, I'd drop int and put it into dex for the reflex save.

~~

Speaking of reflex, please make sure that the neophyte reading this guide does not underestimate the value of Uncanny Dodge.

For all their HP, poor reflex saves can instantly kill a barbarian in scenarios where a monk would walk free. Passing your save via Uncanny Dodge for half damage can make or break you in that moment.

Easy anecdote: poor reflex seems the number one cause of death among neophyte barbarians in the Shroud, occurring when Harry casts Meteor Swarm and they fail all 4 saves in a row, dying instantly.

My barbarian on the other hand would keep on chugging since I only got hit for half, having achieved a reasonable +28 Reflex with a +6 dex item, GH, and Uncanny Dodge. With my dumped dexterity, much of what makes my reflex functional is owed to the Dodge.

I recommend giving it a special mention. Explain the importance of reflex saves, how barbarians are passively weak in this area, and how the Uncanny Dodge feat is the intended solution for this handicap.

~TheHolyDarkness Out~

[FordyTwo]

Just a quick reminder, everyone: Historically, we've kept gear out of the 101 guides to avoid inundating new players with too much information. Once a 101 guide is live, we do encourage anyone interested in adding suggestions or advice (on gear or otherwise) in the comments section.

[dingal]

Just a quick reminder, everyone: Historically, we've kept gear out of the 101 guides to avoid inundating new players with too much information. Once a 101 guide is live, we do encourage anyone interested in adding suggestions or advice (on gear or otherwise) in the comments section.

Fair enough :)

[FordyTwo]

I've updated the original post with the new dwarf THF template. Please feel free to continue feedback, as this is still a work-in-progress.

[TheDjinnFor]

Dwarf will be our racial choice for the +2 Constitution (CON) and various defensive bonuses (http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Race:Dwarf).

• STR: 18
• DEX: 14
• CON: 16
• INT: 8
• WIS: 8
• CHA: 8

Cha is actually 6, not 8, since you're a dwarf (dwarves get +2 starting con, -2 starting cha).

I see my recommendations have been popular for many of the 101 guides :cool::D.

[FordyTwo]

Cha is actually 6, not 8, since you're a dwarf (dwarves get +2 starting con, -2 starting cha).

Fixed the typo!

*hands TheDjinnFor a critical-cookie* :)

[TheDjinnFor]

I remember I had changes to offer to your original feat list but I forgot to include them. Here they are:


• 1) Toughness: This feat adds survivability by increasing hit points by +3 at level one, and +1 hit point for each additional level. More importantly, Toughness opens up "Toughness Enhancements," opening the way to further hit point bonuses as you earn Enhancement points.

• 3) Power Attack: Able to be toggled on and off, Power Attack mode trades up to 5 of your attack bonus for equal extra damage on melee attacks. Using a two-handed weapon in this build makes Power Attack mode more appealing: the feat offers double bonus damage when using two-handed weapons.

• 6) Cleave: Activate this ability to attack one or more enemies within a forward-facing arc. Cleave is required to unlock the Frenzied Berserker prestige enhancement (see Enhancements, below).

• 9) Improved Critical: Slashing: This feat doubles the likelihood of your attacks dealing critical damage by increasing the "critical threat range" of any slashing weapon you use. This means axes and swords, more or less – ranged weapons that are thrown or shot, and weapons that deal bludgeoning or piercing damage, will not benefit from this feat.

• 12) Two Handed Fighting (human bonus feat): Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by 10%. Also grants a 3% chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows. A glancing blow is a free, additional attack that only two-handed weapons are capable of doing that applies to two out of every four attacks you make while standing still.

• 15) Improved Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks (See "Two Handed Fighting" feat above for more info) when wielding a two-handed weapon by an additional 10% on top of the Two Handed Fighting bonus. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%.

• 18) Greater Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by another 10% on top of the previous Two Handed Fighting feats, and applies these glancing blows on more of your regular attacks. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%. At this point, your barbarian's glancing blows will do 50% of the base damage of your regular attacks (the regular amount is 20%), with a 9% chance of triggering special weapon effects, and will apply on three out of every four attacks.

Optionally, grab Stunning Blow at level 1 (but remember you'll lose the extra Toughness enhancement line):

• Stunning Blow: This potent feat allows you to stun enemies for 6 seconds and increase all the damage they take from you and your allies by 50% for the duration of the effect. Having higher strength increases the chances of a success.

My recommended changes in green. Note also the space between Greater Two Handed Fighting and the prelude to Stunning Blow, the lack of which confused me at first when I saw it.

[PNellesen]

Dwarf will be our racial choice for the +2 Constitution (CON) and various defensive bonuses (http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Race:Dwarf).

• 12) Two Handed Fighting (human bonus feat): Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by 10%. Also grants a 3% chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows. A glancing blow is a free, additional attack that only two-handed weapons are capable of doing.

If someone already pointed out the discrepancy there (No human bonus feat if Dwarf?), or if it's just a typo from copying, my apologies.

[xMalix]

A good dwarven barb starting out if you asked me would have 18 str and 18 con. The extra hp helps out alot. Of course this is with a 28 point build. Since hp is the only real defence of a barb. I only see dex being useful to a barb. If it had evasion. Other wise you might as well pump those points into wisdom. Since a barb gains wisdom when they rage. Increasing the will saves. Con out ways the wisdom as well. Because con increases the time a barb is raged. As well as the hit points of a barb.

I would not tell a dwarven barb to use a great sword I will tell them to go after an axe first. Then get a blunt 2 handed weapon. A good low level weapon is a adamant great axe with true chaos of pure good. Great dr breaker, and it deals out 1d12+str+1d6chaos+1d6good crits on a 20 with x3 crit. At level 4 I belive thats around 100 damage per crit. Also thats doing one hit kills on kobolds in waterworks. Wile being useful as well when fighting golems.

Aliment wise I would go with chaotic good first and for most. Nuetral good is a nice move as well. Also chaotic nuetral is a wise choose. Aliments I would stay away from are true nuetral.

Skill wise a barb should use jump to help them jump over traps, lake, and anything else in the way. Balance is a great skill and I wonder why it is not a prime skill for a barb?

I do not feel that umd is a good move for a barb. Most of the time a barb is raged and they can only drink potions. I tend to use 4 differnt types of potions. These are cure serious wounds potions, rage potions, and remove curse potions. All but the remove curse potions can be drank wile being barbarian raged. Guild store bought remove curse potions how ever can be dranked wile being raged.

[sirgog]

A good dwarven barb starting out if you asked me would have 18 str and 18 con. The extra hp helps out alot. Of course this is with a 28 point build. Since hp is the only real defence of a barb. I only see dex being useful to a barb. If it had evasion. Other wise you might as well pump those points into wisdom. Since a barb gains wisdom when they rage. Increasing the will saves. Con out ways the wisdom as well. Because con increases the time a barb is raged. As well as the hit points of a barb.


Wisdom is irrelevant - you can become immune via buffs to almost every Will save endgame. The only really nasty Will saves at or near end game are the Shroud Gnoll (who dispels you) and the various Mind Flayers in the newer chains, especially Yalthoon. Not important fights.

The difference between a 14 Dex and an 8 Dex is 3 to Reflex saves. On an endgame barbarian, this is often the difference between failing important saves on a 2 or 3, and failing them on a 5 or 6. (Remember Dwarves have pretty solid saves from Spell Defense).

If you fail on a 6, suffering two DBFs from Abashai in eChrono will do over 400 damage to you a fair percentage of the time (~5%). Taking 400 damage basically out of nowhere can often kill you.

If you fail on a 3, it's closer to a 2% chance that you'll drop from 400 to 0 before a healer can react in that situation.


For that reason, at present endgame I think +6 Dex is superior to +2 Con. This might or might not change in future - in the Update 1 endgame, for instance, I'd have recommended the extra Con instead.

[sweez]

I do not feel that umd is a good move for a barb. Most of the time a barb is raged and they can only drink potions. I tend to use 4 differnt types of potions.

UMD on a barb is mostly not for scrolls, but for beating the UMD reqs for various weapons (see: Chaosblade). There really isn't much else you should spend skill points on, your jump will be naturally high because of your high str, maybe balance and intimi now that it gives additional hate... I'd still take UMD over those two.

[xMalix]

Your not going to see very many dwarven barbs using chaos blades, sweez. Also youll need 17 dex to use 2 of them. But you could see someone using 1 chaos blade but then again you will see that rarely. When a barb is forced to tank a raid boss. Even still theyre going to use hate from damage with an greataxe. So again I do not see the value of umd on a barb.

Your intim will be only good for pulling mobs off of casters, and archers. Since your cha will be very low. Six as a matter of a fact.

Ok wisdom is pointless, sirgog. Your talking about a save that the barb will only take half damage on. Thats still a good 200 odd damage. Why not just tell them to have 2 rogue for the evasion. Thats what I did for the past 3 lives. Im sitting on a save of 21 reflex. It works. You loose a little dps and that turns off alot of people.

Even still how often are you going to see a new player get to epic diff? I hope you see how rare bolth of your arguements are.

[TheHolyDarkness]

UMD on a barb is mostly not for scrolls, but for beating the UMD reqs for various weapons (see: Chaosblade).

Here's a crazy idea.

Instead of investing in UMD, just align yourself as chaotic. Problem solved.

Or what? Were you planning on wielding your Chaosblade along with an Enduring Conviction or something? :P

Enough pushing UMD. Its just not worth it.*

On topic, let us continue the discussion on reflex saves. I still say that specific mention of Uncanny Dodge is called for within the 101 Guide.

~TheHolyDarkness Out~
*You want it, fine. Don't expect to convince the rest of us though.

[dingal]

UMD on a barb is mostly not for scrolls, but for beating the UMD reqs for various weapons (see: Chaosblade). There really isn't much else you should spend skill points on, your jump will be naturally high because of your high str, maybe balance and intimi now that it gives additional hate... I'd still take UMD over those two.

Not worth the investment in points. Better spent on intim.

[Talias006]

I've updated the original post with the new dwarf THF template. Please feel free to continue feedback, as this is still a work-in-progress.

So, since you're changing the template to Dwarf, can you drop the human tag in the initial paragraph?
It's still saying 'human' just before it delves into the crafting of a 'Dwarf' THF Barb. :o :D

[TheDjinnFor]

Has this not been posted by FordyTwo yet? Still waiting for some more feedback/discussion?

[FordyTwo]

Has this not been posted by FordyTwo yet? Still waiting for some more feedback/discussion?

After feedback and edit passes we have to localize the guides, so there's a delay between now and publish dates. :)

[sirgog]

" • 18) Greater Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by another 10% on top of the previous Two Handed Fighting feats. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%. At this point, your barbarian will have a 50% total chance to produce glancing blows (the base is 20%).Optionally, grab Stunning Blow at level 1 (but remember you'll lose the extra Toughness enhancement line):"

- GTWF doesn't quite do exactly that.

Glancing blows occur on 50% of attacks when you are not moving, and they do 20% of your base damage. So if you swing an axe for 80 damage plus 12 fire damage, half the time you get a bonus 16 damage. This 'bonus' damage hits whatever you were swinging at, and also other monsters that might be in the way, and cannot critical hit.

Combined, the three THF feats upgrade this to hit for 50% of base damage, on 75% of attacks while you aren't moving. In other words, if you swing for 80 + 12 fire damage, three-quarters of your attacks will do 40 extra damage to the monster you are swinging at and also everything else that's next to it. (Some will also do fire damage too).


Edited after Shade's post - it's not probabalistic, it's based on specific attacks in your attack chain.

[Shade]

" • 18) Greater Two Handed Fighting: Increases the damage of glancing blow attacks when wielding a two-handed weapon by another 10% on top of the previous Two Handed Fighting feats. Also increases the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by an additional 3%. At this point, your barbarian will have a 50% total chance to produce glancing blows (the base is 20%).Optionally, grab Stunning Blow at level 1 (but remember you'll lose the extra Toughness enhancement line):"

- GTWF doesn't quite do exactly that.

Base chance to have a glancing blow occur is (IIRC) 50%, and they do 20% of your base damage. So if you swing an axe for 80 damage plus 12 fire damage, you have a 50% chance to get a bonus 16 damage. This 'bonus' damage hits whatever you were swinging at, and also other monsters that might be in the way.

These 'bonus' glancing blows can't be critical hits.

Combined, the three TWF feats upgrade this to a 75% chance to hit for 50% of base damage. A 75% chance, in other words, to do 40 damage to the monster you are swinging at and also everything else that's next to it.

um yea his description is wrong. The official description is wrong.. And yours is VERY wrong heh.

I have kept the official player wiki up to date on this feat as it seems like the best place for it, since its somewhat complex how it works:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Greater_Two_Handed_Fighting

[TheDjinnFor]

And yours is VERY wrong heh.

The only thing wrong with what he said is that the attacks where glancing blows proc are predetermined rather than random, but otherwise the exact percentages are identical; either way, glancing blows occur on 75% of your swings while standing.

FordyTwo, be sure to note my updated definition of GTHF, above.


I remember I had changes to offer to your original feat list but I forgot to include them. Here they are:

[karl_k0ch]

After feedback and edit passes we have to localize the guides, so there's a delay between now and publish dates. :)

Didn't read it fully yet, but here are some initial remarks on the German localization:

Why is the enumeration 1-15, and not as in the english version 1-8 with 5.1-5.4? It looks bad, this way.
You might want to recheck the Feat list. Humans dont get a bonus feat at level 12.
Why is the active/passive/toggle part always translated in a different way? It's silly that every 101 has the very same paragraph, and it's called differently every time.

[brzytki]

Ummm, am I too late with my "grab an axe and rush to mobs" advice? :P

EDIT: I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist that one.