Stunning blow or Trip

[ratpacker]

Hi all

I recently started a dwarven 2hf barbarian. I am currently level 5 and my kills have been high in groups. However, I am starting to feel the hurt whenever aggro is on me and i have to start kiting the enemy.

I want to improve my efficiency in a group. I understand that as a barbarian with low ac, the best way to kill the enemy is to incapacitate them without them hitting back. Thus, I need to make a choice between Stunning blow and Trip (or should i take both?). Which is the preferred method? I have zero experience on tactics - how they work and effectiveness.

BTW, does my dwarven tactics enhancement helps with the above choice?

Thanks in advance.

[Samadhi]

You get trip automatically; in most circumstances, though, stunning blow is better since it puts them into autocrit mode.

Edit: and yes tactics helps both.

[DrWorm0]

you get trip for free at lvl 1 so theres no need to get it, but if you're deciding to get stunning blow, then i'd say yes get that as well because if an enemy gets stunned, every hit against them for 6 seconds is a critical, and with a 2hander, i'd imagine it'll be quite some damage.

[Auran82]

You get trip automatically, but in order to take improved trip (which raises the DC by 4 I think and lowers the cooldown to 10 seconds) you need to take Combat Expertise.

Stunning blow also makes them autocrit which is nice for a barb.

[Ardkor]

Improved Trip requires Combat Expertise feat as a pre-requisite (and INT 13+ is the pre-req for CE).

Improved Trip increases the base DC to 14 (from 10, for a regular Trip), reloads faster (10 secs) and the enemy stays down longer. It's a great feat, but the pre-requisites often put it out of reach for low INT builds.

Note that some monsters are very hard to trip (basically lots of legs, or really big, they are hard to trip).
Some monsters are completely immune to Stunning Blow, as well, and SB only lasts about 6 seconds...but for 6 seconds they are very...very...sad. Especially if you have a high crit/big damage weapon in hand...

Either one would help you control aggro/incoming damage a little!