Question about getting hit

[GreatCzarsGhost]

I have a level 8 Barb who is built on a max damage template I found here. I notice that I do kill things very quickly. Often even before the bugger has a chance to land a hit on me. Sometimes it seems like the mob is confused by my rapid attacks doing heavy damage. At this point my AC is at best in the mid 20's as I've concentrated on damage dealing.

What I'm wondering is can I expect this to still be the case later on?? Will I still be able to mow down bad guys like the vermin they are before they get much of a chance to land a hit on me?? Or is there a point where I start getting the **** beat out of me no mater who much I move around and how fast I attack??

And lastly what is a reasonable AC for a Barb at higher levels. Not a theoretical AC with tons of raid loot but a number that is more realistic for a player who gets bored doing the same raid over and over and over looking for a special wpn or set of boots or whatever.

RAGE ON

[Casta]

You will be around 30 ac maybe as high as 40 when you put a shield on. At lvl 14 in most quests on elite it will take me about 5 hits to kill a mob depending on crits, thats long enough that you will get hit but short enough it will die before it dose anywhere near enough damage to kill you.

This depends alot on the quest, undead and flehsmakers can be much more difficult then a quest like feast or famine.

[ShadowFox1978]

I am leveling a barb. Not sure whether I will keep her. I have become to accustomed to the power of my cleric. If I do keep him, his ac will probably never break 25. Massive hp, heavy fort, and quick killing are what keeps a barb alive. ( And heavy tipping of the cleric.) In a good group that works together, you should kill things very efficiently and not take much damage. In my experience, the best thing is let the fighter go in first and grab aggro. Once he is in, swoop in behind and finish the fight before the mob can even react to you.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Yes! Individual hits for massive damage do interrupt monsters (the wince animation). Hit them hard enough and they will stop casting, charging, attacking, etc. It is confirmed by the Devs as a feature in lieu of the massive damage save or die roll in PnP.

[Hadrian]

The damage reduction action boosts can help you if you should find yourself surrounded by too many targets to kill quickly enough.

What race is your barb? There are a few docents that provide very high temporary DR as well.

My barb is level 12 now. I was in an elite level 11 quest earlier today with a lot of trolls. Some of the group members were very surprised to learn that I had only 15 AC because of how much less damage I was taking than the fighters in the group. I explained to them that the trolls were not missing me, they just were not passing my DR.

I was fairly surprised at how well it worked myself.

[bigj1608]

a well equipped barb aimed at AC using a shield could probably get mid-upper 40's if you really wanted to do that.. but honestly, through on a fearsome breastplate and run circles around monsters and you should be fine.. if you have ever learned to utilize spring attack to its fullest potential, play your barb as if you have spring attack and you should never get hit.. if you're good at it, and you practice, you can run around completely naked and NEVER get hit by a melee attack, and if you've got stunning blow, or even just trip, your str should be high enough that you can trip or stun anything pretty regularly. barbs dont necessarily need AC, and even if they ave it.. upwards of 400 hp? often 500? throw em a heal after they get about 1/4 of the way down and they're ready to go again

[Beherit_Baphomar]

There are barbarians that use shields?!?!
Interesting...

Get yer STR up, get yerself some greataxes, get yerself some fearsome mithril, hide or brigadine and go have fun.

Dont worry about AC, yer killin stuff too fast to worry about being hit.

Pfft....who needs AC when you have an effin' great big greataxe?

[Jack_No.7]

heh, i laughed when i read the part about raid loot, because truthfully it takes a long time to get exactly what u need in raid loot to get good ac and crazy damage at the same time.
as far as ur question goes, barbarians arent meant to get high ac, yes in the end content they kill just as fast as before (especially when u take crit rage 1,2) but on higher setting(hard/elite) on end game content unless ur prepared u will go down like nothing, which is where the raid loot comes in. one other thing of note is that in high end content, most smart casters who know of the destructive power of barbarians will carry displacement, though this lasts for only 2-3 minutes, this gives a 50% chance to miss before even rolling to hit u, which in essense is better then ac , unless the mobs got true sight then ur screwed.so ur set using ur greataxe of death on high end mobs, displacement will save ur behind 50% of the time :P


but if ur interested in actually getting the raid loot and doing the tedious grind every 3 days on a raid, u can get about 49 ac standing, well thats my build, if u play on sarlona pm jaeger bomb if u wanna know the details. thats me doing 170-200 damage on a 15-20 btw