WF Barb Armor Question

[HeroGuild]

I want to build a WF Barb. What are the pros and cons of taking the mithral vs adamantine armor?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Unless you are soloing, I wouldn't bother taking either body plating upgrade for a WF Barb. Just stick with Composite body. Barbarian DR does not stack with Adamantine DR. And, IMO, the +3 AC from Mithral body (over Composite) really isn't worth a feat.

[tihocan]

What Mad_B said!

[Hadrian]

Yes, all that taking a body will do for you is give you an armor check penalty so that you don't jump, tumble or swim as well. You will not benefit from the extra AC unless you're really focusing heavily on AC.

The exception to this is very early on. I would start off with Adamantine body and plan to respec out of it later on. With this body and a plain docent and shield of the highest enhancement that you can equip at a given level, you can get a pretty useful AC in the level 1-7 or 8 range. Shield of Faith and Barkskin potions can help even more at level 5.

Once you reach the end of that range, however, drop Adamantine Body for something else, such as Toughness, Stunning Blow or part of the THF series.

[Shade]

Yea i'd go adamantine at lvl1 - then around lvl10 swap.. Mithrals not worth the few AC (tho when u max ur dex it becomes better - just not at low lvls), but 8 AC for adamant does help.

There is a problem with that tho - body feats are ALWAYS counted as lvl1 - even if you try to swap in a higher lvl feat for one which can cause a problem..

So you have to swap it for a feat you could get at lvl1.. Generally thats power attack - but you want power attack early on, say lvl3.. So its tough to do.. Especially if your going for the greater two handed line.. Youd have to go something like this:
1 - adamantine
3- power attack
6 - stunning blow
9 - improved crit slash
10 - swap adamantine (1) to two handed, swap stunning blow (6) to improved 2handed
12 - Greater two handed
15 - Superior two handed

If you did any other order it might not work. so you must have 2 siberys shards to use at level10 also.

[Ghoste]

Fearsome and axeblock docents.

And then what's already been said.

[Shade]

Fearsome and axeblock docents.

Fearsome i find plain annoying at low lvls - it just slows down the quest as you chase the stupid mobs around.
Axeblock i find never helps as much as just going for better AC at low lvls. Tho ofcourse its better at high lvl.

[Ghoste]

Fearsome i find plain annoying at low lvls - it just slows down the quest as you chase the stupid mobs around.
Axeblock i find never helps as much as just going for better AC at low lvls. Tho ofcourse its better at high lvl.

Don't chase them. Going for every last kill slows quest down. You be surprised how seldom mobs follow you a significant distance when you manage to shift their agro.

[tihocan]

Don't chase them. Going for every last kill slows quest down. You be surprised how seldom mobs follow you a significant distance when you manage to shift their agro.

Try to explain to a low level PUG that there's no need to kill every single mob in a dungeon Everytime I run ringleader or garrison on elite there's someone who thinks going to kill optional spiders is a good idea

[xanvar]

I enjoy having adamantine on my barb, at least for now. I probably will swap it out though when I notice the ac doesn't seem to be helping, but for now its good. Yes I only have him to level 7 so I am not the best expert out there. We do get the free feat exchange by doing the dragonmark quest in the harbor so I will probably swap it out for toughness soon. I didn't pick up power attack until level 6 I found myself hitting plenty hard enough in the harbor, stk and tangleroot to not need it.

[Hadrian]

Yea i'd go adamantine at lvl1 - then around lvl10 swap.. Mithrals not worth the few AC (tho when u max ur dex it becomes better - just not at low lvls), but 8 AC for adamant does help.

There is a problem with that tho - body feats are ALWAYS counted as lvl1 - even if you try to swap in a higher lvl feat for one which can cause a problem..

So you have to swap it for a feat you could get at lvl1.. Generally thats power attack - but you want power attack early on, say lvl3.. So its tough to do.. Especially if your going for the greater two handed line.. Youd have to go something like this:
1 - adamantine
3- power attack
6 - stunning blow
9 - improved crit slash
10 - swap adamantine (1) to two handed, swap stunning blow (6) to improved 2handed
12 - Greater two handed
15 - Superior two handed

If you did any other order it might not work. so you must have 2 siberys shards to use at level10 also.

What I am about to say assumes you can get a lot of shards, but this is what I did to level up.

1 - Adamantine Body
3 - Stunning Blow
6 - Power Attack
8 - Adamantine body becomes Toughness
9 - Improved Critical: Slash
12 - Toughness
14 - Stunning Blow, Toughness 1 and Toughness 2 come out for THF, ITHF, GTHF

THF and ITHF don't help you level as much as some more HPs and Stunning Blow. The THF series only begins to pull its weight when you can add GTHF to it, so I decided to respec into them over the course of a week once I passed level 12.

I took toughness at 12 and respeced from earliest to latest feat just to keep things in the proper order because I was not sure if I might cause some kind of problem otherwise.

[Sutek]

Try to explain to a low level PUG that there's no need to kill every single mob in a dungeon Everytime I run ringleader or garrison on elite there's someone who thinks going to kill optional spiders is a good idea

LOL everytime I run waterworks and someone says "Spiders?" I want to kill myself.

[Mad_Bombardier]

LOL everytime I run waterworks and someone says "Spiders?" I want to kill myself.

But... but... there's 1 maybe 2 chests down there!

[Shade]

Don't chase them. Going for every last kill slows quest down. You be surprised how seldom mobs follow you a significant distance when you manage to shift their agro.

Or i could kill them in 1-2 hits and not use fearsome, eliminating any problems or slowdown.

Personally I always kill the spiders in STK on elite even at low lvl, even tho i've done it 91829321 times. I play the game to kill monsters, be it low xp/loot or whatever i really don't care i like to kill things.

[Anduin]

LOL everytime I run waterworks and someone says "Spiders?" I want to kill myself.

Its a game, have fun, humor the newbies and slow down for 1 minute to kill the spiders

No need to be captain buzz kill

[Ghoste]

Or i could kill them in 1-2 hits and not use fearsome, eliminating any problems or slowdown.

Personally I always kill the spiders in STK on elite even at low lvl, even tho i've done it 91829321 times. I play the game to kill monsters, be it low xp/loot or whatever i really don't care i like to kill things.

This is why I like to run with as few tanks as possible at low levels.

Running stk with a barb you gotta stop and take the time to fight and kill every single kobold and hobgoblin you meet.
Running stk with a bunch of casters, two cast charm, a third casts hypnotize, nobody stops running, just go straight for the end of the quest.

Having experienced both, the latter is WAY faster. So when I am in the mood to power level, and my guildies are running with me who know the routine, barbs who like to kill everything find themselves left far behind.

[HeroGuild]

I got a lot of useful info....thanks everyone.

one question though. What level is the Dragonmark quest and where do I get it?

[tihocan]

one question though. What level is the Dragonmark quest and where do I get it?

It's a low level quest anyone can do, you get it at the woman near the mailbox/auctioneer in the harbor.