Questions from a raging neophite

[sephiroth1084]

I've a few questions for the folks who are more experienced at playing barbarians than I. I've poked around a bit on the forums, buts haven't found many answers to the questions I've faced while leveling one human barbarian to 9 and with my new WF barbarian (lvl 4), both 2HF.

-How early in your career do you take the improved Power Attack line(s)? I can't be bothered to keep a tab on how often I'm missing and whether my DPS will go up or down significantly if I get rid of them, but even at lvl 9 with pretty decent gear, I find myself missing a fair amount of the time. So, at what point does the extra damage vs. the further penalty to hit balance out, or do most folks just go for the damage as soon as it is available?

-I'm used to playing my tanks, who can wade into battle heedlessly, and who can perform fairly well in most situations without a/the cleric (whether because I'm soloing, or because the cleric went down, is out of SP or fell behind), but I haven't found this to be true on the barbarians. I know that they are generally regarded as mana-sinks, but I was wondering what methods people use to mitigate this at the early levels, where groups are often likely without a cleric.
Sub-questions: Do you take any Dex on your barbs?
How can a WF get meaningful AC early in the game?

-How good is the DR boost? I tend to use it a lot, but get knocked around a bit in spite of this.

-Which would be more useful early in the game (lvl 3-8ish): THF (and ITHF), Toughness (and its associated enhancements), or Stunning Blow?

-I know that a greataxe swings somewhat faster than a greatsword, but is the difference enough to shun greatswords for everything but on-crit effects like Smiting?

-What sort of gear do you go after for lvls:
1-5?
6-12?
12-cap?
I'm asking about armor, weapons, and non-stat boosting accessories. Do you hunt for Lesser Restore clickies (for the non-robotic barbs)? Rage clickies? Protection items? Resist?

[Hanza]

My 16 dwarf Barbarian has no problem hitting enraged with his improved power attack on. A good rule is if you are hitting with it not enraged then put it on while you are raging. Your Str increase will make up for your attack penalty.


Have lots of your own potions and take improved DR enhancements when available.

Mithral full plate can help at early levels for ac
.
Heavy Fort is necessary. Dr enhancements also help. Figure if you get hit 20 times that is 40 less hp (140 less all together) from enhancement increases. Which helps
ITHF is awesome for pulling aggro from everywhere. But stunning blow is awesome for singling out an enemy. You and trip will learn to become good friends.

"-I know that a greataxe swings somewhat faster than a greatsword, but is the difference enough to shun greatswords for everything but on-crit effects like Smiting?"

Use both.


Rage clickies and lesser restore will save you money on pots, but always have a large stack of both. You can still use rage pots while raging but not clickies.

Unfortunately unless you have a bunch of other really good ac gear, Your ac is garbage and not worth worrying about, because everything is hitting you every time whether you wear that +5 protect Item or don't.

[BlackSteel]

DR boost is great for preventing damage, and works wonders until you get other means (DoD, different shroud gaurds, etc)

as for the Power Attack enhancements, my normal progression for both my barbs was to take an additional rank whenever I got another means to offset it. I would strongly recommend not taking the 5th n 6th rank until you get ur last bit of str via lvls (mighty rage), madstone boots, +3 tome, tumbleweed, etc.

The biggest way to prevent damage is to kill the spell casters first, and fight melee mobs at the peak of ur range. Most monsters in the game have about half the reach of a greataxe, and by back treading you can essentially kill anything w/o being touched. (huge mobs like giants do have a longer reach) My no AC, no UMD, 16 WF barbarian could solo rainbow in the dark (back when you didnt have to have the scepter equiped) even with a rust monster instance.

I'm a big fan of the DQ bracers as well, still the best bracers for most encounters in my opinion, atleast for a no AC melee. Combined with decent DR those things are amazing, and will cut your potion use to 1/10th to 1/20th of what it was before.

[sephiroth1084]

Thanks for the info Black.

Is it worth taking the innate +DR enhancements for either the barbarian or WF (I assume they do not stack, and that the Barb gets better DR)? If you had to go with one or the other, would it be the DR boost, or the innate DR bonus?

How often do the DQ bracers proc? And how often does the negative portion of that take effect? Have you tried Tier III Existential Stalemate II on an accessory? Would that be equivalent?

Hanza, I was asking about low levels. I'm aware that you probably hit on a 2 at lvl 16. Seems like everyone does. My intimitank does most of the time as well, and his Str is probably 10-20 lower than a multi-raged barbarian (30). My questions are on how to deal with the lower levels, where I feel like tissue paper holding a canon.

[BlackSteel]

i use radiance gaurd with a sneak item (tharnes) along with ooze gaurd to help my too hit. High AC monsters like orthons are hard to hit otherwise with full PA + moving (for -15 to hit). And it can even be difficult to hit the pit fiend all the time with out bard songs.

DR boost over innate DR enhancements, and barb DR over WF DR. And DoD over all of them.

DQ bracers proc 25-33% of the time, with a 1-2% proc on the neg lvl. Whereas the Pos/Neg shroud item is 1-2% for the health bonus. If I had to reroll my barbarian, I doubt I would farm the DQ again, too much trouble, and theres a number of other good bracers. Hound bracers help with the healing penalty, and VoD bracers are nice for fire heavy foes. I find the DQ bracers better for trash mobs that dont hit that hard, but are alot of them, as they'll constantly be only hitting your temp hps. But for heavy hitting raid bosses, the Hound bracers or VoD are probably the safer bet.


For lower lvls your best bet is to use ur added range of the greataxe in conjuction with a liberal use of the DR boost. Allowing others to jump in the fray first also helps. Try playing your barbarian as you would a rogue.

[query]

the enhancements taken and "required' may change a bit.

Trust me, Pallies have it MUCH worse for spending AP's however.

And they have anger management now (or how to PROPERLY murdeously kill everybody) for that raging Neophite ya know

[sephiroth1084]

i use radiance gaurd with a sneak item (tharnes) along with ooze gaurd to help my too hit. High AC monsters like orthons are hard to hit otherwise with full PA + moving (for -15 to hit). And it can even be difficult to hit the pit fiend all the time with out bard songs.

I'd have thought raging (and double/triple/quadruple raging) would make up for the PA penalties. I mean, my S&B tank has a 30 Str, +3 most of the time from DF, and has either PA or CE on permanently, and rarely misses anything. A barb would likely have 10 to 20 more points of Str wouldn't he?

DR boost over innate DR enhancements, and barb DR over WF DR. And DoD over all of them.

So, do you bother taking the barbarian DR enhancements? And do you ditch everything if/when you get the DoD? Also, what's the proc rate on the DoD?