Barbarians and scale hunting

[smodge13]

hi all,
recently i finnally got my WF barbarian preraid ready and took him on his first scale run,
went down with only 1 wipe (dam blue smoked the cleric in 5 seconds)
however i have encountered a problem, during scale runs what is the barbarians role? my barb is max dps - 0 ac type of build (i still try to boost it with shield clickies, prot 5 item ect, and can get an AC in mid 30's but was asked to "tank" the giant, trying this didnt helped a small amount the only thing that saved us was my huge amount of hp, so im curious what is the key role of a barb in combat against these dragons and giants, is it as a "tanker" stand still intimidate and keep the monsters in the FW, or to beat on it (thankfully with this run we realised my SoS was outdamaging the FW and so kept agro inside it).

[Maldini]

Scale runs are fun and easy with a DPS barb. Most of the time I'll have my barb take on one of the monsters - either the Giant or Dragon and have the rest of the team take on the other. We actually kill the things pretty close to each other. It's sick.

Get a good two-hander - Anarchic Burst of Pure Good and go to town. Or Greater Bane, or Holy Burst of Pure Good, etc.

[smodge13]

Get a good two-hander - Anarchic Burst of Pure Good and go to town. Or Greater Bane, or Holy Burst of Pure Good, etc.

Got the whirlwind and a SoS, hopefully soon a cloudburst, will these do the trick?.

[nbhs275]

Got the whirlwind and a SoS, hopefully soon a cloudburst, will these do the trick?.

cloudburst is junk, and is only worth using against things you cant get actual crits against. Thats the only time it is better then the SoS. Same with whirlwind. It takes some high end greataxes to outdo the SOS.

[Maldini]

Got the whirlwind and a SoS, hopefully soon a cloudburst, will these do the trick?.

Holy Burst of Pure Good is bets against the dragons since they're Chaotic Neutral (2 of them are). Or Axiomatic Burst of Pure Good.

[LastNameRage]

If you have dr boost make sure you use that and imp uncanny dodge, I make sure I keep them up when fighting any boss types. If you don't have the dr boost and can fit it by taking out a few not so necassary things...I'd do it, it's a huge help. My wf barb does not have it and my dwarf does, it's a huge difference.

As for weapon, the SoS works very nicely against any of those boss's. Especailly nice at taking down the white dragon's giant. Otherwise mix it up, if you have a nice elemental/alignment of greater bane they dish out some serious dps aswell, if not stick to the SoS. Cloudburst isn't junk, it just doesn't eqaul an SoS or a good greater bane in dps.

I've tanked the dragons/giants repeatedly on my barbs and have not had trouble yet, they go down very quickly and efficiently...as long as you have a good cleric you should have no problems.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Holy Burst of Pure Good is bets against the dragons since they're Chaotic Neutral (2 of them are). Or Axiomatic Burst of Pure Good.

mistype? Why would you want to use Holy Burst on a Neutral target?

IIRC, Blue Dragon is LE, Black and White are CE (same as Velah). Green Dragons are also LE, if we ever get one of those.

[Maldini]

mistype? Why would you want to use Holy Burst on a Neutral target?

IIRC, Blue Dragon is LE, Black and White are CE (same as Velah). Green Dragons are also LE, if we ever get one of those.

Yes I meant to say Chaotic Evil.

[Citymorg]

I have been using Bereavement (+5 Keen Seeker [+10] Battleaxe) from the Titan raid a lot during th Gianthold Tor. I have been doing triple digit damage (~125/swing on crits with crit range of 18-20). In addition, since it's a one-handed weapon, I can use a shield and keep my AC close to 40.

[Shade]

Your role is to tank and keep up a solid DPS, hopefully even with the rest of the group attacking the other one.

Generally its best for the strongest barbarian to take the dragon while a sorcerer does the giant.. Tho oposite that is often better in the white one.

Just pump out as much DPS you can as fast as possible. The only strategy you can use to help reduce damage is on the white ones giant, whne he puts his hands up - dodge his cometfalls.

Otherwise your defense won't be enough to matter, all that matters is HP, saves and DR - keep pounding the DR boost and uncanny dodge. 40AC will be hit every single time, even 50AC with be hit 80% of the time on normal. So there is no point using a shield, big waste of your DPS.

Pretty much nothing outdamages the sword of shadows if you got that. Only way to come close is a really strong greater bane greataxe with dwarven axe dmg/attack on the higher difficulties where you need a really high +hit to land on them. There AC isn't bad on normal tho so a standard +5 whatever can hit them ok with power attack.

[Hanam]

Scale runs are fun and easy with a DPS barb. Most of the time I'll have my barb take on one of the monsters - either the Giant or Dragon and have the rest of the team take on the other. We actually kill the things pretty close to each other. It's sick.

Get a good two-hander - Anarchic Burst of Pure Good and go to town. Or Greater Bane, or Holy Burst of Pure Good, etc.

This is exactly what I do. Generally if the group Hasn't seen a good DPS barbarian, they will send the fighter to "tank" one of them, and the barbarian and everyone else on the other. I Tell my PUGs that I will Take the dragon myself or the giant ( I prefer the dragon. I hate dispel D: ) and everyone else on the other. Sometimes they disagree but I assure them and sometimes BET them It will go smooth as butter. Of course once I take down the Dragon in the same amount of time as the others take the giant as Maldini said, they don't argue anymore.

-Hanam

[smodge13]

thanks for advice guys, i've been sticking with my SoS seeing as i dont have any good holy axes (i refuse to buy anything under +5), lately i've been using a +1 strength sapping greatsword to begin the fight and it seems to give me that extra edge when it comes to the time i have to "tank", my barb seems to damage whatever he is fighting too fast and usually ends up sitting there for a minute or 2 with the giant/dragon attempting to beat on him, which is hard work if i exhaust them first.