WF Barbarian Help Please

[unionyes]

Hello all,

Wanted to try a WF character, and figured a barbarian was the best fit for the race (pulling a +1 Vorpal Greataxe min level 10 RR WF helped make the decision too). At level 6 right now, have 130ish hp and an ac of 20 (addy body at creation, +1 dex, and a protection item). He does a ton of damage, but takes a lot too, which makes him not that useful for soloing as I seldom pull enough loot to pay for repair pots and have to subsidize him with my higher alts. I also have one level of healer's friend, planning on taking the second level soon, so I don't get any cleric rage.

I know that barbarians don't have a ton of AC generally, and I don't ever expect to hit 50+ with this guy, but something happened the other day that got me thinking. One of my alts pulled a +1 Acid Greataxe of Backstabbing, and I wasn't overly concerned with the backstabbing part but the acid part was good, so I started to use it. I found myself fighting like I do on my rogue, being the second person into the fray and getting the sneak attack bonus.

Is it worthwhile to splash some rogue levels into this? Of course if I was going to do that, it would have been better to do it at creation for the 4X skill point bonus, and may reroll him depending on what I do decide to do. If I was a fleshling, I would consider splashing some fighter in there so I could strap on some armor, but being a WF sort of puts the damper on the whole armor thing.

What do the rest of you do? Just disregard AC for the most part and focus on damage and mitigating your own damage by playstyle? Is there any way to get my AC up to a respectable range, without using raid loot too much? Is it worth it to splash a few levels of rogue into this for evasion and sneak attack bonus (plus the ability to blow up trap boxes and pick a lock after 20 tries?)

I have to admit that I just love doing the massive DPS. My 6 Barb is doing more damage than my fighter 10, and is about on a par with my fighter 15, although I can't stand toe to toe with anything nasty for too long, unlike my fighters who can stand there forever without getting hit much.

[Seacog]

as a 14barb/2fighter warforged, i feel my opinion might help you. I already see you made the same mistake i did...ditch addy body, its a wasted feat, if you add a +6 dex item at the later levels, you'll grab three more ac from that. Barbarians as a whole get hit.. its what they do... furthermore, the barbarian dr foes higher then the warforged and they do not stack, so the 2/- is useless for ya. Better to get weapon focus/toughness or something along those lines. Getting some rogue in you might help you level up, but will condemn you at the end of the game, You'll start drawing a lot of aggro if you are going for dps, and your sneak attacks wont be as useful. If you want to splash, i recommend fighter for added feats. So in actuality you would actually be losing your dps. Traps aren't a big issue for most barbs, we can survive going through them anyway. I recommend IC slashing and pretty much just toughness for almost all your other feats. Seacog is at exactly 600hp at 16, and he is far from a twink, no shroud item, just a basic +6 con item and minos legens. No trap, even on elite, has EVER killed me, and if there are traps you NEED down, hire a rogue, IMO don't gimp yerself, it isn't worth it. Barbarians are not a solo class, they arent meant to be, don't worry about healers healing you, supply them with wands if you care that much, but every cleric out there knows barbs are a SP sink, also IMHO only need 1 rank of healers friend, thats the big one, the second rank only gonna increase the actual heal spell by 20 or so...and when ya have 600 hp, 20 is nothing...

[Pallol_One-Eye]

I have not worried that much about AC with my WF Barb to be honest. I tried to make a nice blend of STR and CON for DPS and a survivable quantity of HP. Your best bet is to get 1 of the several DR items that are available.(note I did not say easily available) The 2 items that most readily come to mind are the Docent of Defiance from the Cursed Crypt(DR 20, although I have heard it to be 30 ir 40, I can verify 20) and the Titanic Docent from the Titan Raid.

You can also find axeblock docents, take some inherent DR and make good use of Barkskin, stoneskin, shield, etc potions/wands or clickies. Ideally, you want to dish out as much damage as possible in the quickest amount of time you can.

I would not consider my build "uber" by any means, but he can stand toe to toe with most mobs in the game so far without too much issue. He has a 44 STR while 4x raged and just pushes 700 HP. I know of other builds with much higher CON or much higher STR, but again, I tried to go for a mix of both. I would also try to get your DEX as high as you can and take the WILL based saves as much as you can.

I know many Barbs now a days are dual weilders and seem to have much succes doing so. I cannot get my head around it, so I am now and will always be a THF Barb. I have no issues with any Mob in the Shroud, Hound or VoD(limited experience here).

What it really comes down to is this, build your character they way that best fits your playstyle. Worst case scenario, if you get to lvl 10 and don't like it, strip him, delete and reroll the way you want to. Trial and error has always been a helpful experience in my book

I hope I have been a little helpful here. I hope you enjoy your DPS machine as much as I enjoy mine!

[Seacog]

I agree with everything he wrote though i think i am a bit beefier then him, tho, cause self raged alone i am 680 hp, have yet to get my hands on madstone, and clickies are useless since i am always raged <3 mins each for 7 rages> although i disagree with the axeblock docents part, that just gives you 5/slash your own inhernet barbarian dr beats that. But again, AC does not really matter for a barbarian, by the time you are 16, every mob in the game will hit you with no trouble anyway. Get a white dragon docent when yer big enough if yer concerned, +5/ 4 prot on it is a nice way to free up some spots, plus 30 Cold resist is nice too, and 3 clickies of shield, if yer into that kinda thing. I have tanked everything except vision, or the fire ele in shroud, cause thats just dumb as a barbarian, but due to my sheer amount of HP, the casters, even clerics, have no trouble keepin me alive <considering a good cleric does 200-500 per heal, and a sorc does 240 non crit repair> I recommend maxing con and STR on build, anything left into dex, again ac not a big deal, but some is better then none, plus reflex save is barbs weakness. Cha, who cares, for intimate? 2-3 points isn't gonna make or break ya..wis? will save? get real, your raged, you get a bonus anyway, int, you're a barb, you dont need skills, cept maybe jump or intimidate. 2handed fighting all the way imo, i put level up stats into str for a better to hit, WF+barb con enhancements are more then enough to keep ya breaking 600 raged

[BlackSteel]

as your using two handers you already have one form of damage avoidance available. You have twice the reach of a 1 hander, so with a good deal of monsters you can stay out of their reach while damaging them, thus taking no damage at all. Larger monsters will have a larger reach, thus this only really works on some content. (normally giants, additionally latency issues can make this harder)

Take the Barb DR boost, for the levels it comes available it is very useful for a noAC character. 6 DR in the harbor? You're not taking physical damage on norm/hard. 15 DR in high end content is also a notable difference, you'll take no damage from archers or small trash like bats, and will cut the damage of the heavy hitters in half. The docent of defiance also serves to meet this purpose at 20 DR, but is a very rare pull, dropped the DR boost once I got mine.

Soloing on a noAC barb can be expensive, atleast until you get a few items to take the place of your repair pots. You can get a few brass beavers from threnal, they give 3 repair charges every shrine. The DQ bracers you cannot put a price on, outside of fighting the pit fiend, they can easily give you a 1000 hp a quest, coupled with the defiance docent in alot of content you just wont take physical damage (the bracers have a very good chance to proc and give you 30 hp, with 20 DR, you're taking 0-10 damage most of the time you're attacked) Went from using a 100 repair pots a day on my barb, to about a 100 repair pots every two weeks after getting both items.

The largest amount of damage you'll take later will be from spells, evasion will help immensely and nigating this; BUT only if you have a good reflex save. Those rogue levels are only going to give you a measly amount of sneak attack if you dont have the dex and reflex save to back it up. A halfling or dwarf barb would have an easier time acquiring a good reflex save to go with the splash class. I'm not saying its impossible, far from it, but you just have to put more into it. The combination would be better suited on a TWF, as their dex will be up to 9 points higher; and they would gain more out of the SA bonus.

Keep in mind that while you may feel like a tank with all those big muscles, a hulking noAC WF barbarian is NOT a tank while leveling up. You should play him just like your rogue unless you're the only melee in group. Your parties will have a much easier time on expenses and questing in general if you're not the first one in a room. Sure you probably wont die, but the cleric wont appreciate having to wand whip you 5 times when you run back to him dragging whatever is left. If you pick up the DR boost, consider yourself a tank for those five instances between shrines, or equip a shield and dont use your rage. All of that is moot once you get into your teens tho. Clerics get heal and a useful AC is out of a raging barbarians range.

[Seacog]

/completly agree with blacksteel...now if only i could get the bracers and docent <_<

[unionyes]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I have hit level 6 (about 600xp short of 7, wife aggro shut me down yesterday) and I figure I can keep this guy going with a few changes....