So how do Barbs..work?

[Khurse]

Hi all

New to the game, been trying out some of the different classes and think I'd like to give a Barb a shot, but- wha confuses me is that I keep reading they're great soloing
How is this?

My fighter (of oh such power at 3rd level) still gets swamped and hauled down by Kobolds, and that's with an 18 str and 23ish AC.
I figure a barb will have about the same str, but less AC.. so how do they solo?
Am I missing something or is it more of a " Barbarians solo at higher levels " idea?

As I said, never played a barbarian, few times I've grouped there hasn't been a barbarian present, so I'm curious as to how they work.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

[Ghoste]

People have told you barbarians are good solo classes? I suppose it's possible, but it's definitely not something for which I'd say they have an aptidtude. Maybe if they carry around a whole lot of healing pots...Most barbs I've grouped with are mana sponges that soak up more than their share of healing. They tend to make up for that imbalance by killing more though.

[Shade]

Barbarian is a horrible solo class. Can't self heal, cant use clickies, cant do much anything but kill...

Much worse then fighters even due to the no clicky/no scroll/no wand problem.

[moorewr]

I solo pretty well with mine - really the only thing you can't fix is your will save. Any quest with casters worth the name can get you danced on commanded or held.

Solo'ing - levels in wizard or sorc for charm person, or levels in bard for fascinate. Levels in Paladin for saves. My sorc/paladin started out pal-sorc-pal, and he was quite the solo character until his BAB fell too far behind the real fighters... so that's a pretty good solo combination.

Barbarian is a horrible solo class. Can't self heal, cant use clickies, cant do much anything but kill...

Much worse then fighters even due to the no clicky/no scroll/no wand problem.

[Maldini]

I solo pretty well with mine - really the only thing you can't fix is your will save. Any quest with casters worth the name can get you danced on commanded or held.

Solo'ing - levels in wizard or sorc for charm person, or levels in bard for fascinate. Levels in Paladin for saves. My sorc/paladin started out pal-sorc-pal, and he was quite the solo character until his BAB fell too far behind the real fighters... so that's a pretty good solo combination.

You can fix your will save pretty nicely, depending on your race. Dwarves get Spell Resistance. Elves get some too. WF have immuntiies. All races can get Greater Willpower Enhancements. Indomitable Will adds +4 at Level 14. You're better off than many fighters in the end in the Saves department.

[moorewr]

You can fix your will save pretty nicely, depending on your race. Dwarves get Spell Resistance. Elves get some too. WF have immuntiies. All races can get Greater Willpower Enhancements. Indomitable Will adds +4 at Level 14. You're better off than many fighters in the end in the Saves department.

Sure, sure, and WF is a very good fit for a solo-running Barb.

I was mostly thinking about low level soloing -- when that min/maxed Barb with a -1 will save hits his first witch doctor and runs around feared until he dies. Even there you can take iron will at game start to get your number up to something decent. That hurts to do, of course, unless you have the extra human feat to give you an offensive feat...

[Shade]

Um barbarian doesn't mean you start 8 wis and get -1 will save.. That just means you a bit of a crazy min maxer, you can do that on any class. I wouldn't. Barbs will save is fine even at low lvls. Low lvls you still get the +2 for being raged, and another +2 if your dwarf.

And what does paladin and sorcerer levels have to do with a barbarian soloing?
Obviously a multiclass characters is the best for soloing.. But thats kinda off topic dude.

[moorewr]

The OP is trying to figure out soloing in general, and wants to know if a barb is for him.

Agreed on crazy min maxing.

Um barbarian doesn't mean you start 8 wis and get -1 will save.. That just means you a bit of a crazy min maxer, you can do that on any class. I wouldn't. Barbs will save is fine even at low lvls. Low lvls you still get the +2 for being raged, and another +2 if your dwarf.

And what does paladin and sorcerer levels have to do with a barbarian soloing?
Obviously a multiclass characters is the best for soloing.. But thats kinda off topic dude.

[Ghoste]

Um barbarian doesn't mean you start 8 wis and get -1 will save.. That just means you a bit of a crazy min maxer, you can do that on any class. I wouldn't. Barbs will save is fine even at low lvls. Low lvls you still get the +2 for being raged, and another +2 if your dwarf.

And what does paladin and sorcerer levels have to do with a barbarian soloing?
Obviously a multiclass characters is the best for soloing.. But thats kinda off topic dude.

I could see the sorc levels being of use for self healing if he goes with a warforged.

As far as multis being best for solo, I disagree. I have yet to see anything that compares in solo aptitude to a pure wf sorc or wiz.

[Maldini]

I could see the sorc levels being of use for self healing if he goes with a warforged.

As far as multis being best for solo, I disagree. I have yet to see anything that compares in solo aptitude to a pure wf sorc or wiz.

Well can't cast or use wands while raged, so he needs to just hope he can survive fights so that he can heal himself afterwards. But then he'd need a rage per fight.

Looks like he's better off as a pure barb, drinking potions like the rest of us.

If only they gave us an item that increase the effectiveness of potion healing!

[Quartzite]

Well can't cast or use wands while raged, so he needs to just hope he can survive fights so that he can heal himself afterwards. But then he'd need a rage per fight.

Looks like he's better off as a pure barb, drinking potions like the rest of us.

If only they gave us an item that increase the effectiveness of potion healing!

Of course, next patch we'll be able to end our rages prematurely which is a great benefit for multi-class characters who NEED to cast when poo hits the fan.

[Maldini]

Of course, next patch we'll be able to end our rages prematurely which is a great benefit for multi-class characters who NEED to cast when poo hits the fan.

True, but those builds will find that they'll run out of rages very quickly.

[Beherit_Baphomar]

I solo'd my barb all the way to about level sixish, level seven...with a few SC party runs thrown into the mix.

I solo mine still now.

The thing that makes a barbarian a good solo'ist is the very high hit points and the very high damage output. If you can kill things fast then yer a good solo class, imo. Above and beyond healing. If my paladin gets held while soloing Im toast. If my barbarian gets held while soloing its gonna take a while before the mobs can beat-down his 450+hit points.

When yer in a mob of mobs you arent, no matter what class, going to be able to stop, whip out the wnad and heal. Clerics can throw a heal spell, thats very handy, but they are limited to their spellpoints and the damage output, melee wise, is nowhere near us barbs. Paladins are a good solo class, but they only get two LoH's and after they are gone yer down to cure mod spell/wands....worthless to cast these while fighting. By the time you heal for 50 points you've lost sixty and done no damage.

Kill the mobs fast, chug a bunch of pots and yer good to go.

Definetly not the cheapest class to solo, but the most fun. Barbs are very survivable and very soloable.

[FoxOne]

Barbarian is a horrible solo class. Can't self heal, cant use clickies, cant do much anything but kill...

Much worse then fighters even due to the no clicky/no scroll/no wand problem.

wrong wrong wrong.You can solo very easily at lower levels with a barb.You CAN use clickies,just be smart & click them before you rage.I use inproved uncanny dodge for tough fights,have divine favor clickie,300 csw pots,lesser restore & every pot available.

You might wanna change this to :New players can't solo on a barb since it's so expensive - 100 csw pots goes for rougly 9k plat.270000 gold just in healing pots,no blindness removal,curse,fear,disease or lesser restore pots.

I have a 4th level barb named Everlast,doubters invite me & i'll show you a thing or 2.

[Casta]

My fighter (of oh such power at 3rd level) still gets swamped and hauled down by Kobolds, and that's with an 18 str and 23ish AC.
I figure a barb will have about the same str, but less AC.. so how do they solo?

Your barb would have 2 more str at the start, then with no items at lvl 14 can have up to 7 more str then the fighter would have because of rage.

Any class can solo if its built right, has enough stuff and is played right, at higher lvls casters are the best for it.

[Shade]

uhh duh any class, even the poorest built gimp guy with all 10s in his stats can solo...
Given 300! CSW potions.

Personally I don't understand the fun in soloing if it costs you far more then you could ever make back in a reasonable timeframe.

Would be like, ok let me grind some lootruns for a few hours in a group, after that I can solo for half an hour and use up the platinum i made..

And again, any class can solo at low lvl, the game is designed for that, and pretty boring imo.

Only semi fun soloing is the higher level stuff where its a real challenge to stay alive. Thats where even the highest HP barb dies fairly fast.

Don't get me wrong, buff my barbarian up and he can go do 90% of a quest without a heal, then when he needs one he even has his own heal clicky and both of the raid regen items to keep alive..

But I know for a fact hes still a complete noob when it comes to soloing versus my sorcerer who can do pretty much any quest with very reasonable use of resources, no 300+ potions for him, most hed use is 1 csw wand and the odd heal scroll.

ex:
My barb can run out to check all the undead area chests, for bloodstone/etc.. But by the time hes done his hitpoints are exhausted, ive used a fair bit of haste potions and clickies are gone, so I recall.
or
My sorcerer can clear all the undead chests, with ease and often faster with 0 resources used, and lots of mana left.. So I think go to clear the firebrand gnoll chests too which is also done with minimal difficulty.

My barbarian simply cannot do that so quickly and effeciently. With 300 CSW potions? Yea.. But the point of it is some quick loot for fun while not many ppl are online, that defeats the purpose.

[Mhykke]

I think I've played a fairly broad spectrum of classes in the game, and by far, my barbarian has been the hardest to solo.

Now, it may just be the way I'm playing him, and I'm doing it incorrectly, but all of my classes have been easier to solo than the barb. I suppose I could've gone for less damage w/ him and more defense, but what's the point of that? That's what my ftr's for. I wanted the dps barb, and boy, he's tough to solo with.

[PurdueDave]

Through level 1-5 I'd consider a barb "medium" to solo. Harder than paladin or cleric. Easier than rogue. Around level 5 he became cash neutral. Started him with 1000pp (for buying pots) and decent +2 gear.

IMX, barbs can be expensive on CL pots but not excessively. I probably used 2 stacks or so going from level 3-5. High hps allow strictly OOC pot usage so you can get by with cheap ones. What I did notice with the barb is a good capability of soloing STK and Tangleroot at level 4 which is kind of nice.

Some tips from my exp...
...shield clickies (3 or 6 uses...usually 3 is enough)
...speed boost enhancement is very nice because you can usually get in an extra fight while raged with it
...with uncanny dodge it seemed to pay off better to take on a bunch of mobs at once (rage, round em up, uncanny dodge, and bash away)
...get to know your shrines and don't be shy with rage if you have enough

This is just my 2 cents from recent experience levelling up a barb to 5 solo. Also, easy or not, he's definitely the most fun.

[Tavok]

This is where he has read that barbarians are good for soloing.

Roll up a barbarian. And before you advance to the next page after choosing your class (barbarian) read through the description. Turbine tells you that Barbarians are good for soloing. I think they got the wrong class lol. Or look here.

Keep in mind everyone, the game was made so that you could solo through the first few levels. One of the reasons a barbarian is good is because its pretty much 1-hit Kill in most Harbor stuff when raged, but after that it because much harder to solo with any class, and I can't see a Barbarian doing solo stuff into the desert or the gianthold without a massive amount of potions. And refering to the OP, he doesn't seem to be swimming in cash like most of us, so the potion cost will be tremedous for him. If you want a solo class, I would recommend a battle cleric, paladin or ranger, these seem to be the best for newbies like yourself (not in a mean way lol). But if you do make a battlecleric, be expecting some sh*t when you get into parties lol.

As an answer to your question OP:

Barbarians are not very good soloers, and can not self heal via wands nor mana (they don't even get mana). Unless you are multiclassed that is, which I think a lot of people on these forums would argue not to multiclass as the top tier of the Barbarian Abilities are really great and can't be made up for by multiclassing. A very common barbarian, and a very effective one is a Dwarf 14 Barbarian, with Maxxed str, and some dex, and some con (wisdom if you are concerned about will save). So for a Dwarf 28 point build, I would recommend some starting stats like this. 18/10/17/8/10/6 Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha. You will want to put points into str at each level. Or you can take an alternate route, which I wouldn't recommend unless you are experienced at playing a barbarian and are prepared to not have an AC at all (not that it matters in end game, but having the AC on the way to end game is great IMO). This alternative route would be 18/8/19/8/9/6. This would give you some more HP but not very much in the way of AC at all.

If you would like more ideas for barbarians, just PM me and I can give ya some good ideas, and hook ya up with some good equipment and level up with ya if you are on my server (Argo).

Peace

[sigtrent]

It depends a bit on the quest in question. Barbarians are good at just pumping out the hurt, so they do well in quests with squishie sorts of monsters that do melee damage. So they can clean up in most of the harbor quests on normal. Go to hard and you have to start avoiding kobold shamans due to their damage spells, same for elite untill you can do enough damage to one or two shot them.

Barbarians are super easy to get to level 3 with because you can cherry pick easy quests and zip through them super quickly. After that it starts getting harder and in mid levels they suffer terribly from elemental damage etc.. and just get torn up a lot requiring lots of potions to get through a quest.

I found the easiest character to solo was a high STR high CHA bard. You can kill fast and CC just about anything in the harbor, self heal, UMD various wands, have a decent AC, etc... With some patience you can handle about any low level quest.

At the very high levels, nothing solo's like a sorcerer, but at low levels a classic sorcerer is hard to solo.