The Definitive Guide to Barbarians

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Got a lot of pm's here and on youtube about Barbarians in the last little bit while I was gone.. Well i'm back now, and rather then reply individually to all of those, I'm created this all around guide to hopefully answer all of the questions.
Mostly complete now, but the game is always changing, So for now feel free to contribute any suggestion for updates or edits to improve it to help the Barbarian Community.

Intro:
This guide is aimed primarily at new or returning players interested in the Barbarian Class. It will tell you everything you need to know about playing a Barbarian, as well as some insights on building and gearing yours up. Veteran players might find some useful hints and tips here too.

For more detailed information on how to build your Barbarian, check out my build guides:
Dwarf THF
Warforged THF
Half-Orc THF
General TWF


Index:
(Press Ctrl+F and Enter numbersign (shift+3) the number you want and hit return once or twice)
#1 General Group Gameplay
-- Know your role
-- Crush it
#2. Various gameplay Tips
#3. Hints and Work-arounds for various bugs
#4. Buffs
#5. Selecting a Build
#6. Which Race is best?
#7. Alignment
#8: Multi-Classing a Barbarian
#9: Gearing Up
#10: Defense Matters
#11: Solo Play
#12: THF vs TWF
#13: Epic and beyond

#1. General Group Gameplay:

--- Know your role: ---
Due to game design - Barbarians role is rather limited. There's not like some other classes where you can build for and select a specific support role, Barbarians don't do that. Barbarians role is the same for every Barbarians, no matter what. And that is - To crush your enemies at all costs! Trying to play a Barbarian as a healer, trap finder, intimi-tank, "secondary" tank, backup tank, off-DPS, or any other non-main role simply will not work. If that was your plan, sorry, find a new class. Your role is primary DPS and tank, always. The only time you can ever be anything but the tank+DPS, is in a raid group where another Barbarian is the Tank. Then you can be pure DPS, and backup tank should he die.

So basically your role is to crush your enemies, while soaking up the damage with your good HP and DR to keep the party alive and well. As well as serve as the main tank for such bosses that require one, which generally only applies to end game in DDO, low level bosses tend to not need dedicated tanks.

---- Crush it: ----
To crush the opposition as a Barbarian.. At first it seems like a simple task, but DDO is a very complex game so nothing is as simple as it seems. Barbarians do start out as a simple to play class, so any player no matter how familiar with DnD or how skilled in RPGs in generally can play a Barbarian.

That said, they are difficult to master. So here's some tips to get you started on the right track. Note most of these tips apply to group-play. See Solo section for tips on solo play.

#2. Various gameplay tips: ---

- Use your rage early and often. A Barbarian who's not raged is just a gimped fighter (well a gimped fighter with great HP, DR and faster movement speed). So always rage. Do not make the mistakes of thinking rage is some kind of sacred boss-only short term ability. It most certainly is not. As early as level 10 you can and should be permanently raged throughout every adventure. At early levels, use your rage with wild abandon.. Yea you might be all out by the time you get to the boss, but so what - low level bosses are incredibly easy raged or not. Get to the boss faster, kill him faster, or fail faster so you can get back to him and try again faster. It all works out the same.

General Rule: If you arrive at a shrine with Rage charges remanding, and you were not raged for the entire duration of the quest - you have failed as a Barbarian. Don't be a failure, rage early and always.

- The same rule applies to your Sprint Boosts. Use them constantly.

To a lesser extent also your uncanny dodges, damage and DR boosts if you have any (though they have less effect and cannot be activated at the same time as sprint boosts, so always prioritize sprints) You might think damage boost is better? No, Sprint boost adds more DPS in any and every quest where you have to move. Don't think about it, just know it. Uncanny Dodge can be maintained continously since cooldown = duration, use it in any quest you suspect traps but don't know exactly where they are, or when fighting dangerous casters.

- Be the tank. Barbarians are - at all levels - excellent tanks. DDO is not one of those taunt and block type of MMOs. DDO is not even a game that has "tanks" in the traditional MMO sense. But in the sense that you should strive to have all the agro and kill all your enemies as fast as possible, that's your job. No it's not the fighters job, or the paladins job or the rangers job, it's your job. They are support classes, you have the most hit points and almost always the highest damage reduction and sometimes the highest saves too, so you are the tank.

- Be the leader (If none are pre-determined)
The general rule for pick up groups is that the leader is who formed the group and has the star. But this does not always apply. Some players simply want to get groups together and play, and don't care who leads the adventure.. So if you find no one is stepping up to lead - you always should volunteer, as Barbarians are best at it. (See be the scout for details why)

- Be the scout. I know it seems odd (and awesome), but Barbarians also make the best scouts in the game. Due to our incredibly hit points, excellent saves (while raged and with uncanny dodge), Even better saves vs traps thanks to trap sense, and ability to spot hidden enemies through the spot or listen skill (spot recommended) ... Barbarians actually tend to make the best scouts - yes even better then rogues and rangers. Why? Because if you ACCIDENTLY run through that trap - it's fine, you'll most likely live (for any at-level normal, hard traps - elite traps are generally designed to kill you, but if someone has to die it might as well be you, and you still have a chance at surviving them given strong equipment/buffs).

See if the rogue fails his spot check (and they do, often) and runs through the trap - he could very well die. Leading to a lengthy session of rezzing/rebuffing/waiting out death penalties for the rogue to find and disable the trap. Same for monsters, a big mob might hit the squishy rogue with a hold person spell, then he's toast.. But as Barbarian, you get a excellent will save while raged, making it very unlikely you will succumb to a hold spell, so you can press on and kill that mage before he can cause any trouble.

- Be the boss. (But be a polite boss)
Ask for support, your party will appreciate it. Barbarians are the main DPS, main tank, main everything class.. But for the tougher content, you just can't do it all on your own (or at least it's not as fast or as fun to do so). So don't just join a party and run along with them as if your a 6 man soloing team.. Play WITH your party and work together. First off - Ask for buffs*. Your the Barbarian, and thus your entitled to use up the entire mana bar of everyone in the party - it's like an unwritten rule for DDO, trust me . There are a couple minor issue with this however: First one is if your in a pug - there might be some other new players that are unfamiliar with this rule - so tell them all about it and they will be happy to oblidge. Second issue is that sometimes other players like to break this rule and get all uppity about wanting to cast all kinds of other silly spells like fireball, summon useless noob-beast X or spike growth - you just need to do your best to convince them that there mana is best spent on you!

The thing is, after you have them all use up there mana buffing you - you need to thank them the only way you know how - crush that quest and be bloody sure your name has a big number beside it at the end of the quest (you should generally aim for a higher killcount then everyone else in the party combined for most pugs). That's how other players will judge you and determine if your worth all those buffs* they cast on you. Learn which ones work best to help you kill everything and people will start to learn that they should indeed buff you a lot! Getting the right buffs can make it so you need almost no healing at all, so it's very much worth the initial wait time at the start of the quest to do so, rather then spend the extra time throughout the quest constantly healing damage that could otherwise have been prevented.

* Check out the buffs section for more info on exactly what buffs you might be asking for.

- While you should ask for buffs. Avoid asking for heals when possible. The healing classes - Cleric, Favored Soul and sometimes Bard will generally understand that they are expected to heal you.. And will do so without request. If you do request one, they often take it wrongly and think your trying to tell them there slow on the healing, that's ofcourse not what you meant.. But some players take it that way. So just be patient and get up in there face and they might get the point when you fall incapped at their knees. Also keep in mind some healers either simply don't know how or don't like to use hotkeys or click on your name to select you, so they actually need to click on your character to heal you - there's not much you can do about this other then be sure nothings blocking their view to you and try to get up close when you need a heal. You can politely inform them how to do it correctly (hotkeys or clicking names) - and hope they take the advice... But don't expect them to figure it out right away.

- As you level you'll notice the support classes get more and more mana, and thus end up with more left over after buffing you. Some of the silly ones will actually start buffing other melee characters in your group with the same buffs you asked for! The audacity of those support guys!. Kindly inform them, that the buffs you requested were for you - and you alone. You really don't need them wasting mana buffing other melee - because your the Barbarian, and play like a true Barbarian, you will have the agro and thus the others won't need buffs as much. They might need stuff for AOE magic attacks, so if your in a heavy AOE quest, let the odd resist cast on other melee's slide. If the other melee happens to be a Barbarian who also asks for buffs - that's cool. 2 Barbarians means the quest will be crushed incredibly fast!

- Be very mobile. Be fast. Your very first enhancement to take: Sprint Boost I. Running fast and out maneuvering your enemies is the Barbarians ultimate and main class feature that no other class can duplicate, while sprint boosted you will be the fastest player around. This is important. Now don't run around like crazy while attacking, that doesn't work so well. You use the boost to get ahead of your party - Yes, that's right, running ahead of your party is your job. Agro what is ahead - as little as possible but be fast about it, if you get 1 or 2 extra mobs, you should generally be able to handle it - your a freaking Barbarian.Then run back to the group and ensure you are in range of your healer, and finally hack away until everything is dead. You can move a bit while attacking, but you generally want to get some of the later attack animations in as they have higher to-hit bonuses which are important at low level.

- If you die, it's your own fault. Barbarians are so fast and tough that they always have control of he quest. Other players can try to screw around and get ahead, but you ultimately are the fastest and should take the lead and control the agro. So do so. Control the quest. Ensure the cleric knows that your the boss because your have the agro and thus your the one to be healed, and not the support members.

- Master the jump.
When you first engage a pack of monsters, your first instinct will be to swing like a madman at the nearest thing - wrong. You do need that guys agro, but far more important then that is target prioritization. And jump is key to this - Jump over the enemy melee and ranged attackers, to access there casters.
Here is the priority list:
Casters First - always
Then Ranged attackers, Since they won't move around you can get they're attention fast generally in 1 hit
Then melee last.
Depending on how dangerous the enemy casters are, you may even need to kill them before you gain the other mobs agro.
Sub-objective: Keep an eye on your healer, if anything, even the smallest weakest kobold agros him, get it off him before other targets except casters.

- Don't get stuck. While gathering lots of agro and being mobile is your job.. Sometimes this can lead to you getting cornered, and destroyed.. Avoid that by fighting in more open areas, where you always jump over the enemies should you get surrounded.

- Be Mindful of AOE attacks. Once you have gotten the attention of every caster and in the quest, keep in mind that you will be taking massive damage.. And quite possible only damage that you can sustain, and not any of your other party members. So keep in mind your positioning and try to stay away from your healer and other support members until the dangerous AOE attackers are dealt with.
Example: There's no point in running into your healer looking for a heal if you have 2 casters flame striking, or worse - comet falling your butt. Because your just going to get your healer killed doing that. You have to either endure, or find another place to run and dodge.

- Don't die. If you get in over your head, keep in mind your almost always faster then your enemies. It is perfectly acceptable and smart to maneuver around and dodge your enemies if your health gets low, giving your party members a chance to attack them. Maneuver around near your party, not away from them - smart use of position will let you use the other monsters and even your own party members to block the enemies from reaching you. Do this as long as it takes for your healers to get a chance to find you and heal you.
Always do this.

Mobility is the key to reducing the damage you take and preventing death. Never assume the healer will heal your through an assault while your just stand there like a bonehead - he won't. He will let you die. It's your job to stay alive until he's good and ready to heal you, and for allot of pug healers - that could be a while.. Learn to adapt to how fast or slow your healer is, and thus know when to pull out of combat and when to stay in. This all sounds easy. But trust me - this is the hardest part for most players and the 1 thing that separate the true pro players from the noobs.

- Be nice to your healer. Unless your rich and can afford to chug potions like crazy, be nice to your healer and do everything you can to avoid making his job too difficult. If he runs out of mana healing you - buy him some healing wands or scrolls. Wands are more then 10 times less expensive then potions - and even more efficient if your healer has scroll/wand mastery. Always carry a cure serious wand for emergencies. And when you find a good healer - give it to him just because. Then go buy him 5 more and give him those too, good healers are hard to find in DDO. Once your higher level and got some extra coin - buy stacks of 100 heal scrolls and carry them instead of wands. Your HP tends to get too high for wands to handle at that point, so be prepared. Since Scrolls can be expensive, be selective about who you give them to though, and don't be afraid to ask for them back after the quest if you feel they never used many and aren't a very good healer. If they were a good healer however - they may not have used any, but let them keep them any ways, they will remember it.

- Be mindful of how fast your taking damage and how fast your healer is burning through mana. If you see there burning through it very fast, and you know the quest is long and you might need a rebuff.. Request that they not heal you or anyone else and save some mana for buffs. Buffs trump heals every time - let them know that. So just give them a wand so they slow down on the mana and you be sure you'll have your buffs for the end fight.

- Eventually some newbie will tell you some nonsense about "armor class". DO NOT TRUST THEM. For some unknown reason, the game has a lot of players that simply do not understand that DDO is NOT DnD. In DnD "armor class" is a important factor. It's simply not a factor in this game what so ever. So when that noob fighter/monk/paladin/etc tells you that he should be getting the agro instead because he has "armor class".. Ignore him and show him how it's done the true Barbarian way. You may need to go heavy on the sprint boosts and get super reckless to make sure you beat his killcount by like 10 to 1, but do what it takes to show him that he's wrong and that Barbarians are the true tanks. This usually helps them understand.

- Keep in mind that some of the weaker melee classes that pretend there "ac builds" tend to have some support abilities though, so they're not always entirely useless. The Paladin ones for example may have the prayer spell - a very useful buff. And monks sometimes have various silly little buffs and even some minor healing ability too. Paladins and Rangers have the all important resist energy spell and it's very cheap for them to cast it, so you can save some of your healers mana by asking them to cast it on you. At first they will absolutely deny that they can cast spells on other players - or simply not know how to do so.. But keep on them, and they will buff you.



#3. Hints and Work-arounds for various bugs:

- You cannot move while activating Barbarian rage, and if it is interrupted in any way, you are screwed and lose the use. To prevent this: Learn to jump-rage. Do this by hot keying rage to a easy to access key (I use F, with WASD layout for movement) then jump forward and rage. Do NOT let go of your forward (W) key while doing this. You will land and not move for a moment, then you will move.. Only when you start to move has the rage animation completed. Do not try to move diagonally while doing this - it will often fail. You can do it while jumping backwards or horizontally though, just hold that movement key the same way until it completes.

- While you cannot drink many potions while raged such as remove curse, disease, etc.. You can indeed drink the guild potion varieties of these.. So join a guild and stock up!

- Non-Warforged races will be fatigued after rage for 1 minute (until you hit level17) .. But there is a easy fix for fatigue - drink a lesser restore potion to remove it. Note you can even drink non-guild versions of these while raged, and even use the non-guild version of them on other party members unlike most clicky-potions.

- Twitch attack aka Stepping attack. This is a technique where by you make small movements in between attack animations to speed up your attack rate with two handed fighting. It is possible to apply this to TWF also, but too difficult and the gains are too small to bother, so it's pretty much used exclusively for two handed weapons. In general this will result in a 25-30% increase in attack rate. How much of a DPS gain this will apply depends on how much glancing blow damage you lose by doing it, for a maxxed out Barbarian it's generally not worth using at all unfortunately due to our very high glancing blow potential. But this does not apply when fighting an auto-crit target - in which case you should always be twitching, as your main hand damage is greatly amplified but glancing blows are not, as they cannot crit.
Check out my video here demonstrating it: Click.



#4. Buffs:

Here's a set of buffs you should be requesting for each and every quest. Keep in mind unless your grouping with very skilled veteran players you will ALWAYS have to ask your party members before hand to load these spells, they will appreciate the advice on what spells help you perform your best.
Very low level (1-4)
Generally you don't even need groups at this level, but if you get one and want to get through the quests fast and efficient, ask for these:
Bulls Strength, Bear Endurance. Clerics and Wizards can memorize their for you. Make sure they buy the proper components too, as bulls strength requires a special component.
Resist Energy. Most players should know to have this, but many will not, so be sure someone brings it along, most any support class should have it.

Low levels (5-10):
Level 5 is when the wizards get an extremely important buff for you - haste. Every wizard you group with should spend their entire mana bar hasting you and the party, if they are not, they are doing it wrong (exception: some uber wizards can keep a party hasted while performing other functions too, but not many) This is especially awesome if you can find a wizard with the extend feat. Sorcerers get the haste spell at level6.. But keep in mind a lot of sorcerers mess up and select the wrong spells, so it's often worth checking before hand if they have it. Deny them from your group if they don't.
Displacement - This is a critical buff in any situations where your really taking a beating and the healers are having a hard time keeping up or running low on SP. Ask for this situationally when your low on HP or about to engage a tough enemy. I find it's actually a good way to give your cleric a hint that your in need a heal without actually asking for one (as that makes them mad!). So ask for a displacement, even if you already have a displacement when your about to die, and the healer might notice your really badly injured. Maybe.

Other important but not 100% critical like haste and displacement:
Heroism - Again wizards should have this. They get 2 level 3 spell slots at level5 so they should be haste and heroism.
Rage - Again wizards get this at level5. They only get 2 slots so it's sometimes hard to get them to load it as heroism is better, but don't let those tricky wizards trick you - if their level 6 they get 3 slots and can fit it in, request that they do so.. They will try to complain and mutter something about fireball, but tell them that YOU are their fireball. Luckily potions are available and last a decent amount of time, so that's an option for now. Very cool sorcerers and bards will also have this at around leve8-10.
Speaking of bards - always group with bards, especially warchanters if you can. They make a huge difference in your damage output, and can generally heal you a bit too.

Mid levels (11-15)
This is when buffs start to get real nice long durations, so you should expect to be perma buffed and perma raged all the time.
You'll be getting about the same list of buffs, but you'll want to start getting full sets of resist energy as several quests have many types of damage at this level. And buffs are always better then heals your need later if you don't get them, so ask for them.

High Levels (16-20)
You'll want to add some high level buffs to your normal request list by now:
Protection From Evil (Ignore the spells description ingame it's wrong. Grants +2 to all saves and makes you immune to dominate, command and greater command. Very useful) Note: The ship buff version of this does NOT work - you have to have your party members cast it.
Constant Displacement for any difficult quests (elite/epic)
Freedom of Movement
Deathward
Prayer
Aside from Displacement and Protection from evil which is handled by arcanes, these mostly come from Clerics and Favored souls, be sure to get them to load them and keep you buffed with them at all times.
Other good divine buffs that aren't always critical:
Stalwart Pact - this one is like a small auto heal and boost to your saves, fairly nice but not critical.
Recitation - +2 to saves.. Except for the +1 more to saves, this basically a worse version of Prayer that allot of divines seem to think is better because they don't read the description. It can't hurt, but most don't have the SP to maintain constant prayer + recitation, so kindly ask them to use Prayer instead if you find your only getting 1 from them.
Arcanes:
Greater Heroism - This one usually comes from wizards and bards, it's hard for Sorcerers to fit it (though they should have scrolls for emergencies).. But keep in mind this is also something you could cast yourself if you find a planar gird, or Draconic necklace, so try to get one to save your party members SP for other buffs for you.

And by now most bards have incredibly potent songs.. So try to group with Bards as often as possible because they rock.

Ultimate Buff:
Divine Intervention AKA Godmode. This buff make it so you can't die, period. But only uber level 20 clerics can cast it, and only once every 5 minutes. If your doing an endgame raid and aren't 100% confident in your healers ability to keep your butt alive, demand this buff. But keep in mind once this buff triggers and prevents your death - it is lost, along with all the agro you might of built up on the boss, so the boss will run off and proceed to start killing everyone else. Hopefully you have a backup tank with some agro built up.


#5. Selecting a build.
First you'll need to pick a race, then a fighting style (THF or TWF). DDO has 4 races for the Barbarian class: Dwarf, Warforged, Half-Orc and Human. Players interested in multi-classing with Rogue may also wish to select the halfling race. There are also the weak squishy elf-races in this game, but asking one to become a Barbarian is madness, they are just too squishy and weak.

Once you selected a race.. I have more specific guides for Builds for each race:
THF Dwarf
TWF Dwarf
THF WF
THF Half-Orc.
For TWF for other races just check out my TWF Dwarf and adapt it to your race. I'll update it to keep it fairly generic to make it easy to do.

#6. Which race is best?

Dwarf, Warforged and Half-Orc are pretty much tied for first place. They all make excellent Barbarians, and each have their own pro's and cons. Humans and Half-Elf are tied for a close 2nd place, they make great Barbarians if you can find a good way to make use of their extra feat or Half-Elf's Delitant Feat. Halfling's can make good choices if your planning on a more advanced multiclass build that incorporates 2 rogues levels along with good skills and sneak attack damage (see the multiclass section). If not, stick to the main 4 races.
Half-Elf: New race.. While they have no major defining abilities like the other races, they are the easiest race to get a very high healing amp score on, and as such make fairly decent tanks.
Elf/Drow: -2 con = Squishy caster races, don't have what it takes to be a wild barbarian. Avoid them when making a barbarian unless your just are 100% set on being an pointy eared rager, in which case you certainly can as race really doesn't have too huge an impact in DDO. Really all races are perfectly viable when built and played correctly.

Pros and Cons.

Warforged:
Pros:
* +2 con free, and more from enhancements, means more hit points. Always good.
* +3 Power attack enhancement: This means more DPS - if you can handle the to-hit penalty. DPS is king in DDO so this is important.
* Can be healed by both divine and arcane classes. This lets you find groups much more easily, especially useful if your new to the game and don't know many players yet.
* Tactics enhancements. Your stuns and trips will land more often, you want this.
* Built in free immunities. While for the most part other races can attain most of what matters here, this still frees up inventory slots for better gear. See below for full list and clarification:
* Full list of Immunities (Thanks Alavatar) :

- Immunity to Poison (can be duplicated by either Proof Against Poison item or a Neutralize Poison spell/potion)
- Immunity to Disease (can be duplicated by a Disease Immunity item)
- Immunity to Paralysis including Hold Person, Hold Monster (can be duplicated by Freedom of Movement spell or the Kundarak Delving Boots)
- Immunity to Flesh to Stone (cannot be duplicated)(Note Flesh to Stone is different from the Stone Prison effect)
- Immunity to Energy Drain effects (can be duplicated by a Deathward spell)
- Half damage from Negative Energy damage (cannot be duplicated)
- Immunity to Fatigue from Rage. This means you will never be fatigued after a rage runs out, quite handy for leveling 1-16. (Note all races gain this feature at level17)

Cons:
* Your a glorified toaster. You have no real bloodlust for killing, you simply do as a toaster does.
* Pay to play race. Unlike Dwarf and Human, you must purchase this race from the DDO store if you want to play it. (or sign up for VIP)
* -50% healing penalty. This only applies to divine healing, so clerics, favored souls and some bards may have trouble healing you, which can make you unpopular among certain players. This is somewhat counter balanced by the fact you can and should acquire healing amp gear, and group with wizards or sorcerers willing to reconstruct you however.
Minor Cons:
* -2 Wisdom. Will save is still important to Barbarians, and since Warforged get absolutely no bonuses to saves, this can become a problem for select quests. If you do play one, put some consideration into keeping your will save up through putting points in wisdom and/or items that boost saves.
* -Cannot wear armor of any kind. Instead your wear Docents, which are generally just as good, but in a couple very rare end game cases this means less DPS (Epic Marilith chain for example) For most players this won't have any real impact.
* -2 Charisma. Doesn't really matter.


Overall:
Very strong and very popular choice. Except for half-orcs they tend to have the highest end-game DPS. The ability to be healed by arcanes also makes you an ideal end-game tank for certain raids which feature healing curses. If you plan to make your Barbarian a good endgame raid tank with strong DPS, definitely consider Warforged. Recommended for new players and veterans alike.

Dwarf:
Pros:
* Your a blood-thirsty Dwarf! Dwarves are awesome at going into crazy berserker rages and murdering millions of monsters with giant axes!
* Tactics enhancements. Same as Warforged.
* Dwarves are masters of Axes! Axes are the usually the best weapons for Barbarians so this is a very nice bonus. Up to +2 to hit and +2 damage with Axes via enhancement. Especially powerful at low level, and remains useful at endgame. Pre-End game when you can afford big to-hit penalties (really weeks/months past endgame considering the gear-grind required), this gives Dwarves superior DPS to Warforged.
* +2 con free, more from enhancements. Same as Warforged
* +2 bonus to saves vs spells. and up to +5 via enhancements. This is a major defensive boost against certain foes, don't under estimate it.
* The toughest, sturdiest overall race. Has various other small defensive bonuses which help out such as +4 balance, +2 saves vs poison, +4ac vs Giants.
* No healing penalty like Warforged get makes the Dwarf the overall best end-game tank for any boss that doesn't impose divine-healing curses.
* F2P race.
Cons:
* Unlike the Warforged, arcanes cannot heal you. If your friends are arcane and all the CLR/FVS/BRD are busy your pretty much out of luck.
Minor Cons:
* -2 Charisma. No big deal.

Overall:
The original ultimate Barbarian Race. Before Warforged got some major boosts (free immunities), Dwarf was the only logical choice. Nowadays you got options.. But Dwarf remains very strong. If you want to be the ultimate tank for the deadliest of endgame bosses, Dwarf is the best choice. Sure a couple bosses impose an annoying healing penalty - but mostly just horned devils, which tend not to be the major threats. The major threats in the current important endgame raids are Abishai, Pit Fiends, Mariliths and Lichs - all of which love to spam spells in your face.. So your dwarven spell resist really pays off there.
And being a dwarf is just plain cool. You get the biggest axe you can find and just go to town, Dwarves are very sturdy and thus very easy to play. Highly recommended for new players first character as well as veterans seeking to build a strong raid tank.

Half-Orc:
Pros:
* Your a freaking monster! Your the biggest, tallest, ugliest and most importantly - the highest DPS mofo around.
* +2 strength free. +2 more strength from enhancements always. +2 EVEN MORE strength while raged via enhancement.. Half-Orcs are insanely strong.
* +4 damage with two handed weapons via enhancement. And even more with power attack enhancements. Another reason they are the DPS MASTERS.
* Only 3 pros? Meh. DPS > Everything, in DDO. So they really don't need any more.
Cons:
* No con bonus. Barbarians, especially Frenzy Berserker (which you have to be no matter what) are extremely dangerous to everyone - including themselves.. So you need to have a lot of hit points to stay alive and keep the pressure on the enemy. After all, your DPS is zero when your dead. That said, Half-Orcs can certainly attain a great hit point score, it's just a longer and harder road to get there.
* No saves bonuses. Again, not quite as sturdy as the mighty Dwarves.
* No heals from arcane.. Like the Warforged, Orcs cannot be healed by those useless no-UMD wizards.
* -2 Int. This ones unique to Orcs.. They're really really stupid. Can't read, can't write.. Well then again no Barbarians can so this doesn't matter right? Wrong. This is a bit of a con for 2 reasons: 1. Skill points, 1 less per level. 2. Silver flame potions - These are the ultimate endgame Barbarians best friend, they can heal you for over 350! points of damage (Video of that in action here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfTcPcFTtro&hd=1 - Skip to end to see the potions awesomeness) However, to effectively use them - you need all of your stats to be at least 11. 6 Base in 2 stats makes that a very difficult task
However to keep this in perspective - I'd guess that less then 10% of level20 Barbarians even have access to these potions, let alone effectively use them. They're not critical to being effective in groups. But they do make a difference.
Minor cons:
*-2 Charisma. Same as Dwarf and Warforged.
* P2P Race like the Warforged.

Overall:
Half-Orcs are the latest addition to the Barbarian master races. They still have to prove themselves as true Barbarians.. But you can't argue with there stats. They are the ultimate DPS, and sometimes that's all that matters.
Other times - there's more to consider.. Such as defense, their lack of extra con bonuses, or bonuses to saves makes that somewhat non-ideal as tanks. They can certainly make very adequate endgame tanks, it's just harder to do so and when Dwarfs, Warforged or even Humans are in the raid party as they probably will be, they will be considered first. Also keep in mind a part of there DPS bonus only applies to Two handed weapons, so if your set on a Two-Weapon Fighting Barbarian, they're DPS advantage is much smaller.
Thus, Highly recommended for veteran THF players seeking the ultimate in DPS no matter the cost.
Not recommended as tank-Barbarians or for new players still learning the ropes.
Best considered for either TR builds or regular players who plan to run often with more sturdy tank characters.

Human
Pros:
* You can pretend your character is yourself?
* BONUS FEAT!!!! - Barbarians are a feat starved class due to Turbine sticking it to us forcing us to take cleave (which sucks).. This can make quite the difference. But you have to actually spend it on something worth-while. Very build dependant.
* Human Adaptability. This is basically +1 to any 2 stats at the cost of 6 action points. So you can get 1 Str and 1 con, and be kind of like a Orc, but weaker, and kind of like a dwarf, but weaker.
* Human Improved Recovery. 10%/20%/30% healing amp for 2/4/6 AP. Expensive but the first/2nd tiers can definitely be worth it. Healing amp is a primary stat for Barbarians, especially if you plan on tanking with broke healers and not breaking the bank on heal scroll costs.
* Bonus skill point. 1 per level. Yawn.
* Your stats are all even. No bonuses, no penalties.
Averages:
* Your stats are all even. No bonuses, no penalties.
* Human Versatility. Someday these might be a worthwhile enhancement, if we get a cheaper PrE and can fit it. But for most solid builds these days, you simply cannot fit this enhancements into a good human build (at least not above rank 1, which is boring), making it really not a factor after all. At least not if you plan on getting the above bonuses (improved recovery, adaptability) There simply is not enough action points to spread around.
Cons:
* You are an average race. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
* Your stats are all even! No bonuses, no penalties.
Overall:
Humans are boring. Your not the best DPS and not the best tank. Your decent at both - a jack of all trades, master of none. Not very Barbarian-like. However.. If you are planning to TR your old melee into a new Barbarian, that extra feat can be quite nice. Thus:
Somewhat recommended as a veteran TR Build.
Not recommended for new players unless you have a specific reason to want to the extra feat and desire to be average.

Half-Elf
Pros:
* You can pretend your character is yourself? (If you happen to be really ugly and have strange ears)
*Dilettante feat at level 1... This means you can pretend to be a Monk Barbarian, even tho thats like illegal in 74 countries. So break the law like a true chaotic neutral Barbarian that you are! Be sure to pick Monk for this one, as thats the best one.
* Your kinda human.. You gain most of the human enhancements, but not the bonus feat.
* Human Adaptability. This is basically +1 to any 2 stats at the cost of 6 action points. So you can get 1 Str and 1 con, and be kind of like a Orc, but weaker, and kind of like a dwarf, but weaker.
* Human Improved Recovery. 10%/20%, you don't get the 30% one like humans but you do get:
* Monk Improved Recovery 1 and 2 (2/4ap) which add an ADDITIONAL 10%/20%.. Since these are all multiplicative, your total healing amp percentage can get pretty freaking crazy high - allowing for very easy and cheap healing while soloing and while tanking in raids. Extremely useful if you plan on tanking with broke healers and not breaking the bank on heal scroll costs.
* Your stats are all even. No bonuses, no penalties.
Averages:
* Your stats are all even. No bonuses, no penalties.
* Human Versatility. Someday these might be a worthwhile enhancement, if we get a cheaper PrE and can fit it. But for most solid builds these days, you simply cannot fit this enhancements into a good human build (at least not above rank 1, which is boring), making it really not a factor after all. At least not if you plan on getting the above bonuses (improved recovery, adaptability) There simply is not enough action points to spread around.
Cons:
* You are an average race. You are not special. You just spent freaking 1000+ Turbine points on an average race. What were you thinking? You must be an Elf-Lover (or at least your mom was!)
* Your stats are all even! No bonuses, no penalties.

Overall:
Half-Elves are really really good at one specific thing: Lots of healing amp. That is a very important stat for a Barbarian.. But keep in mind Gear can trump racial features, so any race - even Warforged can eventually get a nice healing amp score.. So how much this is a benefit to you really depends on your goals as a player.

And given your average stats, like humans.. You simply aren't that great DPS. You aren't the best tank - Dwarf is still better because of his huge saves bonuses despite your really good healing amp..
Your just well.. A half breed. Half way between everything. Not as bad as a full on bloody Elf, but not nearly as good as Dwarf, Half orc or Warforged. About as good as a human.
Not recommended for new players unless you have a specific reason to want to be a Half-Elf.



So there you go. Pick what suits you. But keep in mind race isn't a huge factor in DDO as it might seem, so if you simply like the look of Half-Orcs over Dwarf, feel free to select it for that reason alone.
In DDO ranking what has the biggest factors on success or failure are:
- Player Skill/Knowledge. Knowing what to do and how to do is the biggest factor in this game. A very skilled and knowledgeable player can make even the weakest races and builds beat the toughest content in the game.
- Build. A bad build can cause major problems, though hard to mess up a Barbarians, it's entirely possible.
- Gear. Gear especially in the endgame very much trumps any bonuses you'll get from your race, and can more then make up for any cons the race you select may have.

#7. Which Alignment to Select:
Barbarians only have 2 correct choices: True Neutral or Chaotic Neutral.
If you already selected yours and you picked the wrong one, fortunately you can change it via the DDO store, do so as soon as possible.

Minor advantages to each,
Chaotic neutral being slightly better for weapon selection (can use weapons of true chaos, which add an extra 1d6 damage against any non-character monster and are fairly common at low level), or
True neutral for the option to use stability items (they provide minor bonuses to saves, which generally do not matters but in some rare cases may help)
So it's mostly just a flavor choice for now. However to future-proof your character overall I recommend true neutral. As the devs have already created greater and even epic stability effects into the game, which provide very high bonuses to saves, right now they are not present on any item a Barbarian would bother using, but they may be someday.

Either way be absolutely sure to go neutral and NOT good as this will make you immune to unholy damage some monsters deal, and also let you use some of the most powerful endgame equipment without getting a negative level a good aligned character would get. Such as the litany of the dead which provides a nice boost to all stats, attack and damage or the Marilith chain which is one of the only armors in the game that can up your DPS - by granting you a seeker bonus (Though keep in mind Warforged cannot wear armor, so just the litany for them.)
The downside to neutral is that you won't be able to use weapon of pure good, which are common at lower levels. However Barbarians deal enough damage that an extra d6 means almost nothing, and by endgame pure good weapons are not at all useful, so I highly recommend Neutral.

Continued in Post 2.

[Shade]

Index:
#8: Multi-classing a Barbarian
#9: Gearing up
#10: Defense Matters
#11: Solo Play
#12: THF vs TWF
#13: Epic and beyond

#8: Multi-Classing a Barbarian

(Note this only covers builds with a majority of Barbarian levels, E.G.:10 or more. Non-Barb builds that splash some barb levels are beyond the scope of the guide.)

First off - If you do decide to multi class, keep in mind it is a complex process and you really need to know what your doing, or following a build guide to make sure it's done correctly. Be sure to heavily research both classes, plan out your feats and plan out your enhancements.
Check out this great enhancement planner by Imitating to make sure your chosen multi class can actually fit the enhancements from the other class into your build:
http://ddo.motd.ru/planner

Overall for new players I don't recommend multi-classing. But if your willing to learn what it takes and accept the risks of possibly creating a gimpy character, go for it.

There are really only 3 very good/highly recommended Barbarian multi-classes - Fighter, Rogue and Ranger. And in most cases you will only take 2 non-Barbarian levels. I'll go over those 3 first, then explain why the other classes are either impossible or just not worth it.

Why you should only splash 2 levels of non-Barbarian:
Barbarians are first and foremost all about DPS. Frenzy Berserker III is granted at level18 Barbarian, and it is by far the most major upgrade to our DPS available in the game. Not getting it is a massive drop in DPS. Stats on it:
+2 Critical multiplier on 19-20s. (1 while raged, and another one while death frenzied) - MASSIVE DAMAGE CRITICALS FTW.
+4 strength and +4d6 damage while frenzied, Awesome.
It's pretty much a must have.

Now there are more complex builds that just use just 12 for Frenzy 2 while getting Kensai or Tempest etc.. They are not necessarily bad builds, but they are beyond the scope of this guide.

Most popular builds:
18/2 Barbarian/Fighter (Will be covered in my upcoming Half-Orc build)

Notes:
The 2 fighter levels gain you a lot. Mostly important 2 free feats, which can make a huge difference especially if your creating a TR build and want the past life feat. Overall I most recommend it to Veteran players that want both stunning blow and toughness on a 32-point Dwarf/Warforged/Half Orc, or players doing a TR that want to get their past life feat. But it's up to you to decide if it's worth it for you so I'll lay out most of the pros and cons and let you decide.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:
+2 free feats. Massive benefit.
Fighter Haste boost I Enhancement. Minor Benefit. Compared to Barbarian Damage Boost IV - this provides a very small amount of a higher increase to DPS for the 20 seconds while it's active. And unfortunately you cannot activate both at the exact same time - there's enough of a delay that it's just annoying and mostly not worth it. So you pick one of the other. Damage boost for times your doing helpless damage for bigger crits, or haste boost for general DPS. It's also just plain more fun to attack faster in DDO. And you can of course start using these after your damage boosts have expired in very long quests.
Fighter Str 1 - You actually take a net loss in strength by doing this multi class, a total loss of 3 strength with this 1 action point spent.
Fighter Stunning blow 1 - +1 DC to stuns, really not a +1 total increase for Dwarf/WF being that taking all 4 stun increase is very expensive in AP and generally not worth it, so think of it more as a way to save a few AP (It's 1 AP, while Dwarf/WF Tactics 3 is 6 AP) if you select one of those races.
Fighter Trip and Sunder also available, but generally not recommended except for builds specifically built towards maximum combat feat DCs

Cons:
-24 hit points at endgame (-4 from class, -20 from -2 con of mighty rage)
-No capstone. Capstone is: "Might", Grants +2 strength and now correctly grants +10% glancing blow weapon damage and 5% chance to produce special weapon effects in addition to its +2 Strength bonus. (A Half-Orc or Warforged barbarian with all three THF feats, Great Weapon Aptitude, and Might will have deal 60% weapon damage with their glancing blows, with a 20% chance to produce special weapon effects). This is a significant loss for THF characters.
-No Mighty Rage. This means -2 strength and -2 con. (Overall loss of stats if you took Fighter Str 1 is -3 strength -2 con)
-Lower Rage duration. Since mighty rages +2 con applies to your rage duration, you lose a short amount.
-1 less Rage per rest.
-1 less point of damage reduction.
-1 less saves versus traps.
-1 less use of improved uncanny dodge (provides +6 to your reflex saves for 30 seconds)
-4 skill points total. (2 less per level)

Overall: Do it if your gaining the barbarian past life feat as it rocks.
If your doing it to gain toughness and/or stunning blow - decent plan - your call.
If your doing it to gain any other feat.. Be careful, it's not recommended.

18/2 Barbarian/Rogue

Notes:
The 2 Rogue levels most importantly unlock allot of class skills. In DDO once you unlock a skill as a Class-skill, it allows you to put full ranks into it, instead of only half ranks. As such you can have up to 23 ranks in many more skills, rather then only 11.5 ranks. Keep in mind tho, once "unlocked" skills that are considered cross-class for Barbarian, such as Disable Device will cost you 2 points to increase by 1 rank whenever you level up as a Barbarian.
The Rogue splash is very popular in DDO because even with only 2 rogue levels - properly built and equipped you can pick every lock in the game, and disable every trap in the game.
You also gain Evasion, which is great, but IMO it is a very overrated ability - the primary bonus to this build is better skills.
Namely:
Search, Disable Device, Open Lock and Use Magic Device. All of which are cross-class for a Barbarian, but class skills for a Rogue.

As a Barbarian/Rogue your play style would have to differ somewhat vs a pure Barbarian too.. Because if you have the skills, you really should be making use of them, otherwise your gimping your character by virtue of your play style alone. So things like flying thru traps like a madman and ignoring optionals that requiring lock picking will be generally frowned upon for such a build. You would be somewhat expected to handle traps and locks - at least on normal difficulties.

Quick notes on how to build it since I won't be doing an exhaustive guide on this build:
You'll need about 12-14 intelligence to be able to keep your Rogue skills up to snuff (5-6 skill points per level = Max DD, Search, Open Lock, +2 Int tome at 7 will net you some UMD/balance/jump/spot skill.

. As such starting with a lower strength or con then most builds may be a necessary evil for 28/32 point builds. 34/36 TR builds should be able to max strength any ways.
Recommended stats (28points, THF Build):
Str 17 (13 points) (Level up points here)
Dex 12 (4 points)
Con 14 (6 points)
Int 13 (5 Points)
Wis 8 (0)
Cha 8 (0)
32 Points: Add +1 to strength (3 build points) and take 1 off con
Highly Recommend having access to 32pnt build so you can max strength.
34 points: Add 1 to Int, 1 to Dex
36 points: Add 1 to con

For a TWF build, you'd have to further drop con and strength to increase Dex. Ouch. Possible and still viable build but your on you own here.

Dex might seem low.. But keep in mind you get a nice +2/3 bonus to reflex from your Rogue levels. And you also get huge save bonuses from your Barbarian level, so they mesh well in that regard. Far as high DC spells go - you have improved uncanny dodge + evasion, make use of it. It will work fine if you put a bit of work into your saves through gear even with a low Dex.

Leveling Progression:
Always start as a Rogue. Because skill points = times four at level1. Barb gets 16, Rogue gets a massive 32 points. If you add the Rogue level later, you will not be retro-actively given these points.. So this has to be planned for in advance. Then level 2 and onwards = Barbarian.

2nd Rogue level: Depends. Generally at 20 would be best so you can be sure everything is maxxed correctly.. But you might need to earlier if your struggling with traps at some level and need the boost to skill points. Best to wait as long as possible on it.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:
- Your an extremely useful party member covering many roles: Tank, DPS, Scout, Locksmith and Trapper!
- You can much more easily solo quests that have nasty traps in them thanks to your evasion and trap skills.
- UMD class skill can allow you to heal yourself a bit.. Tho it's a very difficult balance since you cannot use any magic items while raged.
- +1d6 sneak attack damage. Somewhat small considering Barbarians massive DPS potential, but every bit counts.
- Access to Rogue enhancements: Haste Boost I (see fighter for notes), Sneak attack Training (+3 damage while sneak attacking) and various ones that boost your Rogue abilities.
- Evasion. This means you'd take no damage on Reflex saving spells and traps where'd your otherwise only take half damage. This is a great ability in DDO, but not a critical one for Barbarians as we can generally soak up the half-damage with our good HP any ways.
+3 Reflex save

Cons:
- Rogues are sneaky evil back stabbing thieves! No one will trust you despite the fact that you can't actually steal anything in DDO!
- Very complex to build and gear up.
- You cannot disable traps while raged. So you would you have to dismiss your rage when you come upon one, and that means less time raged overall. (Opening locks is still possible while raged)
-32 hit points at endgame (-12 from class, -20 from -2 con of mighty rage)
- No capstone. Capstone is: "Might", Grants +2 strength and now correctly grants +10% glancing blow weapon damage and 5% chance to produce special weapon effects in addition to its +2 Strength bonus. (A half-Orc or Warforged barbarian with all three THF feats, Great Weapon Aptitude, and Might will have deal 60% weapon damage with their glancing blows, with a 20% chance to produce special weapon effects). This is a significant loss for THF characters.
-No Mighty Rage. This means -2 strength and -2 con.
-Lower Rage duration. Since mighty rages +2 con applies to your rage duration, you lose a short amount.
-1 less Rage per rest. (And some rages lost due to needing to be not raged at certain traps/locks)
-1 less point of damage reduction.
-1 less use of improved uncanny dodge (provides +6 to your reflex saves for 30 seconds)
-1 fort save

18/2 Barbarian/Ranger AKA "Bowbarian"

This is the one of the best builds for an extremely high DPS ranged character. Note that in general - ranged combat is far inferior DPS to melee in DDO and not recommended as real Barbarians fight their enemies face to face and bathe in their blood with every swing of their mighty axe.. But I digress.

If you just love the idea of a raging Barbarian wielding a longbow - this is the multi class splash for you. Note however - You can make a very powerful ranged character without doing this, as you can pick Bow Strength as a regular feat now due to a recent update. Also consider the 18/2 Fighter splash to do this. Ranger is just a nice mix because you get the feat for free along with some other free feats that work well for this build.

Notes:
Altho this would be primary a ranged based build, you really should still be using melee in many many cases just due to how DDO is designed. Ranged can really **** off players in pugs sometimes especially if your run around like crazy kiting every mob in the quest making it hard for you party members to hit anything, so don't do that, so please -please- learn to melee when appropriate. In general even as a full spec'd ranged character, your melee will also do better DPS then your ranged, barring times when you have Many shot activated.

Pros:
- Free Ranger Feats: Bow Strength and Rapid shot. Critical feats for any ranged character.
- Other free feats: Two-Weapon Fighting (great if that was your plan any ways) and Favored Enemy (+2 damage to an enemy of your choice)
- +3 Reflex Saves (Versus non-traps)
- Ability to use all wands that cast spells from the Rangers spell list. This includes cure serious wounds wands - which are a great way to heal yourself at low level as they cost a lot less then potions do.
- Ranged has no distance limits in DDO. You can kill your enemies from clear across the map, and thus do so without taking any damage.
- Ranged weaponry does not allow vicious damage. So by using Frenzy and Death Frenzy - you gain the benefits of +6 strength bonus to damage, but take none of the penalties! (no self damage, but also no vicious damage)
- Enhancement - Favored Enemy damage I - another +1 damage against your favored enemy

Cons:
- Killing your enemies at ranged just isn't the Barbarian way. True savages tear their enemies apart close enough to bathe in their blood as they do it!
- More expensive to gear up. You'd need to carry good melee weapons and good Bows to be useful in all situations.
-28 hit points at endgame (-8 from class, -20 from -2 con of mighty rage)
- No capstone. Capstone is: "Might", Grants +2 strength and now correctly grants +10% glancing blow weapon damage and 5% chance to produce special weapon effects in addition to its +2 Strength bonus. (A half-Orc or Warforged barbarian with all three THF feats, Great Weapon Aptitude, and Might will have deal 60% weapon damage with their glancing blows, with a 20% chance to produce special weapon effects). This is a significant loss for THF characters.
-No Mighty Rage. This means -2 strength and -2 con.
-Lower Rage duration. Since mighty rages +2 con applies to your rage duration, you lose a short amount.
-1 less Rage per rest.
-1 less point of damage reduction.
-1 less saves versus traps. (well non-reflex traps which are uncommon)
-1 less use of improved uncanny dodge (provides +6 to your reflex saves for 30 seconds)

Other classes - and why you shouldn't multi class with them:

Wizard:
You cannot cast spells while raged. And their bonus feat only applies to spell casting feats.
Sorcerer:
Again no spells while raged.
Cleric:
No spells while raged. You can heal yourself? Not at endgame you can't because you just have too much hit points to rely on your very small SP pool and wands, and that's all this provides. Heal scrolls cannot be used.
Favored Soul:
Same as cleric. No casting while raged. Not enough healing to matter.
Bard:
No spell casting while raged. You do get a little baby song and a fascinate.. But it's not worth the loss of hit point and DPS.
Note that Bard/Barbarian (Bardbarian) multi classes are actually quite good, I'm talking about having mostly Barbarian levels. A good Bardbarian build generally has more Bard levels, at least 12 for Warchanter II. Check out the Bard forums for info.
Paladin:
Impossible. Alignment conflict: Paladin must be Lawful. Barbarian cannot be lawful.
Monk:
Impossible. Alignment conflict: Monk must be Lawful. Barbarian cannot be lawful.

#9. Gearing Up

This section will cover some of the gear you should strive towards for each level range. The gear listed is not all absolutely required, just recommended items to try to get for each level range. If you get them all - awesome. If not, no big deal, just keep an eye out.

Levels 2 to 3 (Level 1 you just use your starter gear)

Armor/Docent - Anything, higher + the better, tho be sure your proficient in it (Medium or less)
If your a Warforged veteran and can get access to the blood docent, get it. But it's a rare drop and fairly expensive purchase. Min level:2

Weapons:
THF: See if you can find a +1 or +2 Greataxe and also a Maul or Greataxe. The blunt weapon is to be used on Skeletons, while Greataxe on everything else.
TWF: See if you can find a +1 or +2 Greataxe - Yes even tho you will spec for TWF, you really should not use it until around level 5 or 6 when you can actually handle the to-hit penalties it imposes. Please use a two handed weapon until then. For levels 6+ when I reference a lootgen Greataxe - assume I mean your weapon of choice instead as it's easier then me typing that in every single time (Best TWF lootgen weapons are Khopesh, Dwarven Axe and Heavy Pick - pick the one your proficient in)

Levels 4 to 10
Weapons:
Carnifex from Deleras tomb, If your lucky enough to get this, it will be your main weapon as it deals insane damage and CRITICALS often. Min level: 4. Even TWF characters should be using this for a long time until they get very strong TWF weapons.
Greataxe (+4/5 ideally early as possible, you deal such insane damage and have such massive to hit that later on you won't even have much need for a +5 weapon and still be using Carnifex, but if your missing your targets you want an axe with a higher plus)

Maul or Greatclub - For skeletons, being Deleras is an excellent spot to level, filled with skeletons, you will want a nice blunt weapon for them. Ideally get one that is flame touched iron or holy to get thru the ghostly DR also, but that's not necessary.

Armor:
armor - Blademarks Docent/Deneith_Heavy_Chain. This is a great lvl5 armor and a very common drop. Get it from the quest "Turning the Tide" part of the "Sentinels" Adventure pack. (Lifeshield Proc is great + minor DR which wont stack with your innate, but will surpass it at lvl5 (DR2-3 vs 5 - but only the Docent has the DR, not the Chain)

Light/Moderate/Heavy fort item - You may pick up a belt from "The Kobolds new ringleader" or may find even find a mod fort ring if your quite lucky in a random chest.
Heavy Fort can be gotten at 9, but it's easier at 11 via the Minos Legens.

Better Greataxes - Try to get a +5 at lvl8 or 10, so you can keep power attack enabled versus high AC enemies. Continue to use Carnifex vs low AC enemies.

Levels 11 to 16

Heavy Fortification Item - TOP PRIORITY. (Do Orchard, Collect your Tapestries and get a Minos Legens. Alternatively: Do black anvil mines, collect some ore, get your necklace is fastest and doable at lvl9.. However the Minos Legens helm is a far better item - to get that go to the Orchard in Necropolis and get 20 tapestries, it's also min lvl11)

Alternatively - as a Warforged, a moderate fort item will grant 100% fort as it stacks with your base. So you may obtain a lootgen ring or belt, as early as level 7.
Reaver Ring (fear immunity, very important on a moderate will save char)


Immunity items you should work towards:
Fragment of the silver flame (dominate immunity - doesn't matter much, you could just ask for the protection from evil buff instead)

Blindness Ward item (Any old set will do, ones with +spot are really nice tho)

Bursting Greataxes (these rule at mid level especially if you use them on monsters with vulnerabilities to those elements or monsters that are held or stunned for more auto crit DPS, you'll want to find at least +3 versions)
Greater Bane Greataxes (these are among the best DPS for mid level)


Level16+
Shroud Weapon. Try your best to get at least a basic tier1 ASAP, preferably before you hit level20. They add allot of DPS. Alto the ultimate all rounder is a mineral II..

For your first weapon I recommend a simple tier2 holy + good burst Maul (Warhammer for TWF).. This will provide excellent all around DPS, and give you the very important ability to raise dead! So many players forget this, don't be one, make it a high priority. And of course be fairly easy to craft, as small and mediums are easy to come by (try to trade for some to get it quick)

Bloodstone: Rare and expensive item, but a nice large boost to DPS. Try your luck in the Desert, or save up the coin to buy one ASAP.

As soon as you can afford it:
Set of potions always: 100 rage, 100 lesser restore, 100 remove curse (Guild potion variety recommended), 100 haste, couple remove fear, couple protection vs energy. Have these in a quick to access hot key as you'll want to extend your rage by drinking a rage potion before you rage (the +2 con means +6 to 12 seconds or rage)

Lesser restore is less important to a Warforged Immune to fatigue.. However always carry them any ways to restore things like ray of enfeeblement, and fleshy party members with stat damage. Being they are one of the very few potions you can use while raged - they are great to have!
Remove Curse cannot be used while raged as Turbine refuses to fix this years long bug.. So dismiss it first if necessary, or call upon your party members to help, or join a guild with access to guild curse potions which can be used while raged.

Haste potions can be expensive for new players.. Tho I recommend carrying some any ways - for emergencies.. But try to get the casters to keep you hasted as it costs them like 2 copper, vs 900+ gold for you.


At the end game levels.... Raid loot to work towards:

Dragon stuff - Sword of Shadow is your main goal. Some of the other gear is ok when Epic 'd.. But that will be covered in another section.

Reaver stuffs pretty easy to get currently - so run as many reavers as you can and try to get the Madstone boots and the shield.

Titan is almost never ran, but if your a Warforged and can run it do so, its nice XP and.. You can get the titanic docent - semi nice situational item.

DQ has a few nice items: Pouch of Jerky for some HP regeneration. A stoneskin clicky ring, and the semi interesting demon bracers.

Hound is an important one to run - Try to get the Leviks Bracers, the healing amp is very important to a Barbarian. The shields are also extremely nice.

VoD - Not much of interest, but the goggles are fairly nice in some situations.

Shroud - Run this all the time obviously, need to make those Greensteel weapons and accessories.

Reaver Refuge - Not a raid, but offers raid-level customizable armors. Ultimate armor to strive for: +5 resistance, Crushing wave guard, Destruction. Getting that destruction rune is very tough, but helps a ton as your to hit penalty can reach up to -11 with max power attack enhancement.

Tower of Despair - Ideal ring setup: Ravager set with +2 Str (+11 Str total) and Shintao set with +2 con. Alternatively the Berserker set is very nice for more hit points (+50 over the ravager set) and nearly the same DPS. Ideally get both and swap as the situation demands. (more hp for tanking, more DPS for when your hp is fine)

Epic Gear will be covered later in the "Epic and Beyond" Section.


#10: Defense Matters too
The most important defense is a good offense certainly applies to this Class. First and foremost using tactics like killing your enemies really fast, using smart movement, positioning, and abilities like trip and stunning blow are the number one way to reduce the damage you take. But there are other considerations too to keep in mind:

Armor Class:
Don't worry about it. At high levels - the lower the better!
I have to stress this is really not a relevant stat for a Barbarian. This is an unfortunately but true fact about DDO - armor class just does not matter because if it did - it would make the game too easy, because it's an all or nothing system which just does not work in this style of fast paced game.

The game is well balanced around hit points and physically dodging your attacks with your own abilities (WASD skills), so you really don't need some extra 2nd roll to see if the enemy missed you, when he clearly didn't. And Turbine agree's with this pretty much. So to keep the game challenging they pretty much make armor class relegated to the more casual difficulty levels to make the game easy for casual players who really don't care for a challenge. And make it useless at high levels or high difficulties.

Now that said it can reduce the damage you take at low levels a bit. I.E.:
Levels 1-4. Since there's no offensive armor in the game or armor with alternative defensive abilities such as Lifeshield, you might as well wear the highest + armor you can find. It won't do much, but you might evade the odd attack in normal quest. Also keep in mind your uncanny dodge will add +4 AC, which at very low levels is a big boost and will let you actually dodge some attacks. In level9 normal quests, or lower level hard and elite quests, it really doesn't matter regardless, so wear other items.

But there are other ways to improve your defenses:

Hit points:
Should be a pretty obvious one. More hit points are better. Wear every +con.. But keep in mind con bonuses only work at even numbers. So if you have a 16 (+3) con, and find a +1 con belt. It won't help you immediately, you need to get to 18 (+4 mod) to improve your HP. So consider adding the Barbarian Con I enhancement if you find such an item to keep your stats balanced.
As well as any +hp item you find, such as false life items.
Later on the game you'll need to make your Greensteel accessory, and your first one should be one that increases hit points.

Check out my build guilds for more comprehensive information on end game hit point scores and enhancements to get for each race.

Lifeshield:
This one make a huge difference at the low levels, and you can get it at low as level 5. See the gear section above about the Blademarks Docent/Deneith Heavy chain.

Damage Reduction:
As a Barbarian you have several ways to increase your damage reduction, which works versus everything in the game except for magical attacks and non-physical traps.
1. Level up. Free DR for barb levels.
2. Enhancements. There are 2 available. +1 at level3 for 2 AP and +2 at level7 for an additional 4 AP. Well worth it for most builds. Note that Warforged also have similar enhancements - But DO NOT select them, as they will not stack with your innate DR and as such are worthless. If your character sheet shows multiple types of DR, such as DR4/- and DR2/Adamantine, only the highest number applies, they do not add or stack. Also note as a Warforged you should NOT select a body feat, as mentioned above armor class does not matter and the DR gained will not stack*

[b]3. Temporary Enhancement: Damage Reduction Boost.[\b] This is an AWESOME enhancement for low levels that can make you pretty much invulnerable to melee/ranged attacks as it grants 6/9/12/15 DR per rank, for levels 1,4,7,10. Highly recommend it. One problem with this is you generally cannot afford this and damage boost at the same time, and damage boost is required to get Frenzy Berserker enhancements, so you really would need to respec eventually and drop it. If you go this route I recommend a respec at level12 to get FBII, as FBI isn't a big deal.

In my build guides you'll find enhancements setups for endgame, so this is not included.. And also not having DR boost to rely on will make the game harder - but will also make you a better player as it forces you to learn when to back out of combat, rather then go all nuts. Thus another reason I don't include it in the build guides. But if you do want to have an easier time and save some healing resources, pick it up.


* Since WF can't wear armor, if you REALLY want some AC at low levels where it can make a small difference, taking the adamantine body and later swapping it before level8 can be fine. But really not recommended as feat swaps can become very expensive and you can only get 1 for free. Best saved incase you make a mistake, or Turbine changes the game later and its best to change feats.

4. Invulnerability: This is DR5/Magic, which eventually is less then your innate DR, so drop it once your innate hits 5/- (they do no stack remember). But at very low level, it's more so you can use it. Warforged get it easy on the Blademarks Docent. Other races may want to find a robe, leather or breastplate with it. Yep robes are fine for Barbarians to wear, there not just for sissy wizards! - they are good because they do not lower you jump, swim or balance skills like wearing armor does, and again AC does not matter. I personally prefer to wear armor tho, just for the looks. The armor check penalties to skills don't matter much at high levels. So really just wear what you think looks the coolest if you find multiple invulnerability items!

Saves:
Saves are how you reduce the damage you take from magic spells, traps, or avoid deadly CC effects like getting held/stoned/webbed/etc. So you definitely do not want to ignore saves. Luckily saves are easy enough to reach high levels on a Barbarian, as we get many great ways to boost our saves:
Rage - Adds extra con, thus fortitude save, so Fort saves are rarely an issue for us thanks to our very high con and high base fort save.
Rage also adds to our will saves, so stay raged to avoid getting hit by spells like hold person, fear or command.
Uncanny Dodge - This adds +4 to reflex saves for 30 seconds, and has a 30 second comedown, so you can keep this active nonstop for quite a while depending on how many charges you have. This later improves to +6 reflex save at level 5 and you continue to gain more charges as you level up. Be sure to put this on your hot bar and use it often! So many Barbarians forget to use this and think it's like a passive ability - it isn't* Use it often!

And finally items: Primarily your after a Resistance item, as this adds to all 3 saves. Get the highest resistance + you can find and wear it always.

* Well.. It partially is. This also makes us immune to being flanked or getting sneak attacked from Rogues that are of lower level then us, and that part of the ability is always active.

Healing Amplification:
This is primary stat for all Barbarians. Tho especially important for Warforged as they start out at a -50% penalty.
Ways to raise it:
Check out this fairly comprehensive list at our player wiki:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Healing_Amplification

You want most everything on that list, work towards it. Only thing you should skip is putting healing amp on a Greensteel weapon - you should put damage effects on your weapons and use accessories for healing amplification.


#11: Solo Play

Playing a Barbarian solo at the low level is quite easy - just run like mad and swing, everything should die in 1 or 2 hits and never get a chance to hit you back so you won't have to heal yourself much, if at all.. But it can start to get extremely tough at the mid to high levels, so here's some tips to keep you going after the easy stuff.

The only real pitfall you may run into will come on hard and elite difficulties: Generally hold person and fear spells. Luckily there is a great way to prevent these while solo - if you have the coin for it any ways: Scarab of Protection. This is a no min level trinket that provides spell resistance 20. It is extremely effective at preventing enemy CC spells at low levels. Note tho, this item can get destroyed if it is hit by too many negative energy spells - so be careful. Do not wear it when facing an arcane skeleton, or other undead casters that like to use inflict wound spells, as it will be depleted and destroyed fast.
You will not find this item on your own at low level tho, so either farm for it on high level altos, or buy one from the auction house - they are almost always there.

Low to high level healing:
If you can't afford potions, and most solo players won't be able too.. Use hirelings. They are quite a bit cheaper then potions and get the job done. I like the Dwarf cleric ones, they tend to be sturdy enough to keep themselves alive along with you.

Ultimate Endgame Elite/Epic Healing:
Silver flame potions - they are the only choice. Get them. Get your stats all to 11+ (You might even build for this if your a hardcore player planning to get these). Get your healing amp up. Enjoy 350+ point potions and kick some axe!
Exact potion stats:
Heals 250 (more with healing amp) Reduces all stats (except constitution) by 10 for 30 seconds, and run speed by 50%. If your stats go to zero - you are helpless and cannot do anything but run away. So be careful.
Lesser Silver flame potions are good too.. They provide:
Heals 100. Reduces all stats (except constitution) by 10 for 30 seconds.
So the difference is they do not slow your run speed. This is particularly important in some cases where you need to retreat from a deadly foe.
Note be careful about carrying both tho: If you drink both, the effects stack! So you will be at -20 to stats and most likely be helpless. Be very careful about where you place them and hot key them if you do carry both.


Video of one of the most insane things you can do while capped out by getting these potions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l388L9FMomg&hd=1

You can also see the various clickies and buffs I cast on myself to aid with soloing in this video. (GH, Jerky pouch healing, Yugoloth potions, Good hope cookie, Various 20 point resist from the House P vendor, and finally night shield clicky from the abbot raid...

As you can see soloing hard content at level20 on a pure Barbarian requires quite a huge assortment of hard to get gear.. So be prepared for quite a lot of loot farming if this is ultimately your goal.

Solo tactics:
Similar to group tactics, but keep in mind everything is always agro'd on you, so you can really control and effect the AI more reliably. But the disadvantage is, the buffs you have access to are much more limited, and your healing is not always going to be as reliable (hirelings are buggy).. Tho sometimes hirelings are more reliable then some players hehe, so your mileage will vary.

Beholders are a very good example.. In a group they can be quite tough to handle, but on your own if you understand the games AI, you can fully predict their movements and thus avoid their anti magic cone from dispelling your buffs, and very quickly take them down.

How to:
Basically it requires some imagination and sprint boost. Just imagine the Beholder's anti magic cone is in fact a fireball spell that he cast the very instant he notices you, and casts it again every 3 seconds.. It can be dodged. It's just invisible.
Do so by very quickly sprinting and jumping to the side of him, until you can get behind him. They can only fire the cone out of there main eye, and thus only in front of them. While behind them you are perfectly safe from it.

If the beholder is just too close or there is multiples, you can still avoid the dispel.. Use the cloak from Threnal - Mantle of the World shaper. It absorbs anti magic cones, up to 5 times.. So you can take one, and run fast enough to avoid further hits.

Some enemies are very slow, such as giants.. You can overcome them by constantly running in circles while attacking, they turn so slowly that they will miss at least half of their attacks.

Other enemies have special melee attacks, that they only perform if your at a certain range - such as Ogres. Ogres most deadly attack is their triple-hit special. But they cannot use it if you are right next to them, so stay as close as possible to an ogre for the best chance of success. I know the conventional Barbarian tactic is to stay mobile - but versus an ogre, it's actually better not to (usually)

Some enemies have a very high armor class, but a low strength score - such as paragon Kobolds. A good tactic to use on them is to trip them, then run around to their back side and enjoy a +2 flanking bonus to hit.

Knowing your enemy is the most important factor to solo play. If you fully understand the monsters abilities and his AI, you can overcome him no matter how powerful.

So learn every enemies strengths and weakness and attack pasterns, take them out quickly and avoid their special attacks and you should be able to solo nearly all content in the game on a Barbarian. It won't be easy, and won't be cheap in resource cost, but it's definitely possible.

#12. THF vs TWF
This is always a hotly debated topic for Barbarians. Ultimately it is a play style choice and most players will just pick the one that think is the most fun, and really since overall in terms of DPS they are so close - you should pick what you like best. But for those who are not yet decided on that - read this section. I will go over the pros and cons of THF vs TWF, so you can make a informed decision yourself:

Two Handed Fighting:
Pros:
-Supreme cleave is far more effective with two handed fighting due to glancing blows and overall speed, giving THF a huge edge in AOE dps
-You attack in a wide arc so you can hit multiple targets and gather agro more quickly and more efficiently.
-Your glancing blows deal damage to all nearby targets, allowing for massive AOE DPS vs multiple targets.
-You can tank and and hold agro on multiple bosses at once, at least thru light DPS such as a wall of fire.
-You have a slightly longer attack reach, allowing you to move while attacking and hit certain enemies without them getting a chance to attack back.
- Glancing blows can Proc special effects at a low chance, allowing cool combos like multiple stuns/trips/vorpals, on a rare occasion.
- You only need to buy/trade for/craft a single weapon of each type you need.
- 150% strength bonus means more damage
- Double power attack bonus for huge hits and crits
- Can twitch to increase overall auto crit DPS by a good amount (most useful versus helpless single targets)
Cons:
- Slightly less overall hits per minute then TWF (similar base, +75% glancing blows, vs TWF at even un hasted speed, but very slightly faster hasted speed +80% off hand proc)


Two Weapons Fighting:
Pros:
- Slightly more hits per minute, and unlike THF all hits get special effects. So when using special effect weapons like Vorpals, or Stunning weapons - you will get more overall procs then a THF.
- Access to x4 critical weapons (Heavy Picks) Less of a benefit since the auto crit nerf..
- No need to twitch allows for easier play. And since positioning for glancing blows is irrelevant.. You pretty much just run up to a mob and just hold right click and wait tell the mobs dead.
Cons:
- Lower overall benefit from very high strength: 100% main hand and 50% off hand vs 150% for THF, which may seem equal.. But actually THF glancing blows also scale based on strength, so overall THF bonus from strength remains higher.
- Heavy Dex requirement: 17 for Improved TWF, which is pretty much a must have. And only your base + tomes count for this, so it will generally cost you some build points, which can mean lower hp, or lower saves, depending on what stat you sacrifice to hit this.
- Twice as expensive to equip. You need twice the weapons to perform well, meaning it will take you twice as many Shroud runs to get your Greensteel, twice as many loot runs to get money to buy nice weapons on the AH.. Twice as much raiding to get 2 of your say chaosblades.. Twice as much epic farming to build 2 epics instead of one.. A Very large con IMO, because Barbarians are the masters of MANY weapons and should not just focus on a single one, having access to a large variety of weapons is ideal - and it's just so much harder for TWF.
- No access to AOE damage.. So your only tanking 1 boss at a time, and your going to take longer to gather up agro on multiple small foes. As well as take longer to kill multiple small foes.


#13. Epic and Beyond
So I'm level20, I should start doing epic now?
Not necessarily. Epic isn't simply the endgame. Epic was always intended to be a difficulty level beyond elite... Something for the "best of the best". That said, most epics quests don't quite demand that anymore.. I'd say it certainly applies to some of the original epics, like the Desert area ones.. But for the most part, any decently geared barb can contribute on epic.

Tho IMO it still require some level of gear and knowledge of the game to contribute well there, so I really don't recommend you jump straight into epic the moment you hit level20, here is a recommended set of gear to t get first before you attempt it. You could certainly contribute some with less, but this is what recommend to provide a good contribution, to be worth all the healing you'll need in there.

== Recommended Gear Setup ==
Weapons:
- Tier 2 Greensteel: Double positive (Generally holy +goodburst blunt, for undead beater and raise dead clicky). IMO absolutely required of EVERYONE who ever steps foot into epic. Making tier2 Greensteel is NOT difficult at all.. So you really should have the ability to raise dead. Please - please at least have this before starting an epic. If you end up in a dungeon with several melee, your healers dies and none of you can raise dead, that's just really not very epic is it. You really only need to grind out the blank any ways, the tier1/2 ingredients are so commonplace these days that you can usually get them free from a veteran player, or just very cheaply from the auction house.

-Tier 3 Greensteel. (Generally mineral2, tho can be others depending on the quest) Yea this is by far the biggest grind and often Barbarians want to start epic before this point. And while you could, it's just not the barbarian way to join a quest under geared and end up piking your way through to some degree. If your going to forego this and start epics, at least have appropriate greater banes for what quest you doing, epic monsters have very high AC, so a +5 greater bane can be very helpful.

-Alternatively you could play a more CC role: Get a weapon with stunning +10, and focus on landing stunning blow on the most dangerous targets - this is often a great idea if you have other high DPS/well geared melee in your party (and if your new to epic, you really may need them)
Sure your a DPS class, but if others are better geared or more knowledgeable about the quest your in, offer them some support and focus on stunning blow.

Armor:
No really minimums here.. But a set of Dragontouched with some decent runes is recommended. Most useful runes are:
Eldritch:
Healing amp 10% (no other source of this in the game)
Resistance +5 (Could use a cloak instead)
Tempest:
Healing amp 20% (other slots for this, but if you don't have them, get this)
Corrosive Salt Guard (if you don't need the healing amp here, its a decent guard)
Sovereign:
Air Guard (Very nice in certain cases, like tanking Horoth)
Smiting (can be good if your running a quick von5 normal to do von6epic)
Destruction (-4 AC can help hit high AC targets, especially epic)

Accessories:
-At least a tier2 hit point item. Generally the best of these for a barb is goggles. Earth/Earth/Earth for HP, and earth grab guard, which is very effective, even in epic. Goggles conflict with the least epic gear you'll want, so make those.
-Madstone boost. Not required but work on getting these, the extra Str/con/stun DCs can help a ton in epic.
Spectral gloves. Really going to need the +2 to hit bonus from these if theres no bard in the group and you don't have other epic gear to boost your attack rating. They're unbound so save up some coin and buy a set.
ToD belts - Knost belt. Great belt, Pretty easy to get, run lots of genesis points.
ToD Rings - Work on them, but you can start epic without these. Best for a barb are: Berserker, Ravager and Shintao.
GH clicky - Draconic necklace ideally. Really going to want GH in epics, and you really should be able to cast your own. Girds work too, but note when you get the berserker set, using girds takes your rages due to a bug.. So dump those after u get a Draconic.

Potions to bring always:
SF - Highly recommended to have silver flame potions for emergencies.. But you can go without if your confident in your healer.
CSW - if you don't have SF..
Haste - always at least 100
Rage - stack of these for sure.
Lesser restore - guild vendor variety. Sure your immune to barb fatigue now, but not de buffs enemies cast, have these to clear that and other stat damage.
Curse - guild vendor variety. Tons of mobs throw our curses in epic, clear it fast.

== Ideal party setup: (if your leading your own and can pick... ==)
Bard - ALWAYS work hard to get a bard. Epics mobs have massive armor class, and if you want to keep power attack enabled, having a good bard along can make all the difference.
Healer - A good one! Pure clerics tend to be the best healers, but favored souls generally have more damage output or ways to boost yours with angel of vengeance.
CC - Several classes can handle this. Depending on the quest even just a monk or 2 along with some good stunning abilities can handle it. But generally wizards are the most reliable, and very well geared sorcerers and bards can sub in for the wizards in most quests.
DPS - That's you. With the right support classes, a single barbarian is enough for any epic quest, but taking more can certainly speed them up.

== Ultimate Endgame Epic gear to work towards: ==
This is the fun part, working out what's the best possible setup for your character. Since DDO is all about customization and gear makes a big difference, what works best for you may slightly differ.. But this is generally what most barbs will want.

If you want to check the exact stats on these items, the best source of images/stats is here: http://itemwiki.cubicleninja.com/Items/ThreadView.aspx

Weapons:
THF:
Epic Sword of Shadow. Number one priority. Covers most enemies.
Epic Xuum: Rarer then the ESoS, but great DPS.
Epic Antique Greataxe: Soon will out damage a mineral2 (getting an upgrade soon)
Epic Ratkiller: Currently unavailable, but get one if the crystal cove event comes back.
Greensteel (Still ideal for many epics):
Triple Pos selection: For undead types, these are the #1 DPS weapons now. For two handers you want both a maul and a Greataxe.
Triple Fire/Ice: Ideal for enemies with high vulnerabilities to these elements.
Lit2: Ultimate DPS weapon aside form ESoS/Xuum. And has superior base damage then a ESoS (but less critical damage), so use this for enemies that have 100% fort, but otherwise aren't undead or resistant to lightning.. Generally this is just elementals, so its a low priority wep if you already have ESoS.
TWF:
Epic Chaosblades (With good augment for most any devil/lawful enemy)
Lit2 Khopesh is nearly tied with epic chaosblades for when lightning works
Otherwise Greensteel per above. (Ideal being Khopesh, tho Dwarven axe/Battleaxe isn't too far behind)
Epic Unkors Cleaver is nice for the clicky and limb chopper effect on some tough enemies.
Epic Sirocco is nice for the knockdowns.

Armor:
DPS: Epic Marilith Chain (Extremely hard to get, but the ultimate goal)
Alternate DPS: Epic Red scale Armor. If you manage 20 scales but no epic chain, get this. Add some good DPS. Not as much crit damage as Marilith chain, but works vs 100% fort enemies, so use it for those.
Utility: Heavy Deneith Chain (Soon to be vertigo +15, trip those epic mobs!)
Blue slots: Good luck +2. 2nd slot: Whatever stat you may be missing.
Tank Set: Fleshshapers Brigandine upgraded with +10 reflex.

Docents:
DPS: Red Docent.. No mari chain for toasters, so this will have to do.
Utility: Epic Blademarks (Soon to be vertigo +15, trip those epic mobs!)
Raid tanking boss immune to fire: Blood Docent (or a crafted equivalent)
Blue slots: Good luck +2. 2nd slot: Whatever stat you may be missing.
Altnernate tanking docents:
Defiance for hard hitting melee boss
Fleshshapers Docent with +10 reflex for hard hitting caster boss

Accessories:
Goggles: Triple earth hit point GS.
Swap able: Thanes. Can be useful sometimes for the sneak attack/TS.. tho generally keep on your hp, you need them.

Gloves: Epic Gloves of the Claw. (No real alternative here, these are the best in all cases)

Bracers: Epic bracers of the claw. (You'll want that +4 damage set bonus, however you can swap bracers if you also get a epic gem of many facets)
Alternates: Glacial Bracers (Fire shield Proc is ultra useful in some situations)
Leviks (If you haven't got a tod ring with 20% amp yet)
Bracers of the Hunter (Fairly ideal slot for +5 sneak attack)

Trinkets:
Litany of the Dead (Ultimate for DPS)
Greater Bold Trinket (Unavailable currently, from the crystal cove event, similar DPS boost to the litany, but Litany is slightly better overall due to stats boost)
Epic Gem of Many Facets (see above, this can replace your bracers of the claw, if you want To wear an alternate set)
Pale Lavender Ion stone
Epic Bloodstone (If you lack Marilith chain, or are Warforged)

Necklace:
Shintao Cord (Best DPS when combined with ring)
Silver Flame Talisman (For when you need death block and expect dispels)
Finger: For when tanking devastating raid bosses to save some heals (Horoth elite generally)
Haggle +15 (Coins and a good slot to swap out of)

Helm:
Epic Helm of the Red dragon (Slot: Cha/Wis to keep above 11 for SF pots)
or
Epic Helm of Frost (Slot: Wis to keep above 11 for SF pots)

Cloak:
Epic Envenomed Cloak (Slot: Heavy fort so you can swap your bracers safely)
Additional cloaks:
45 resist GS cloaks for very dangerous elemental damage encounters. Would rarely use, as you'd also need to swap in an alternate resistance item.

Boots:
Epic Boots of Corrosion (Slot: Dex +6/Exceptional con +1)
Kundarak Boots (For when FoM is critical)
Madstone boots (Just for clicky, or swap in for Proc vs tough bosses)

Ring1: Berserker ToD. Upgrade: +2 Str
(Ravager can be a decent alternate, tho I prefer berserker)
Ring2: Shintao. Upgrade: 20% healing amp

Ideal Setup using above items for general questing, say a Half-Orc THF barb in epic into the deeps:
Weapon: ESoS
Armor: Epic Mari Chain
Goggle: Tripe Earth HP +45
Glove: Epic Gloves of the Claw
Bracer: Epic Bracers of the Claw
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Necklace: Shintao Cord
Helm: Epic Helm of Frost
Cloak: Epic Envenomed Cloak
Boots: Epic Boots of Corrosion
Ring1: Berserker
Ring2: Shintao

Wouldn't need much swaps here. Tho you might put on red scale for the scrags section, if no other party members had fire/acid damage - to disable the trolls regeneration.

Beyond Epic:
So you have all the epic gear, how to get better?
The TR grind.. Each past life doesn't add much, but they add up.. Top 3 ones to get:
Fighter: +1 DCs and +1 to hit per life
Monk: +1 damage per life
Paladin: +5% healing amp per life

[NaturalHazard]

is there any advantages to being a half elf barberian?

[Shade]

is there any advantages to being a half elf barberian?

Not as a pure Barbarian.

However they may be a good choice for 18/2 barb/rogue multiclass build due to their sneak attack bonuses for selecting dilletant Rogue. I will have to research this and update the guide acordingly.

For now I think Halflngs will make the best 18/2 barb/rogue multiclass.. That will be part of the multiclass section later when it's done.

[NaturalHazard]

Not as a pure Barbarian.

However they may be a good choice for 18/2 barb/rogue multiclass build due to their sneak attack bonuses for selecting dilletant Rogue. I will have to research this and update the guide acordingly.

For now I think Halflngs will make the best 18/2 barb/rogue multiclass.. That will be part of the multiclass section later when it's done.

Cheers thanks. this is way out of left feild but ive seen a few drow barbs running around on my server mainly pure, is this prob the worst race choice ever for barberian? im sure they are just flavour toons and not max min, but are there any advatages to drow barbs? i cant think of any.

[FoxCourier]

However they may be a good choice for 18/2 barb/rogue multiclass build due to their sneak attack bonuses for selecting dilletant Rogue. I will have to research this and update the guide acordingly.

Couldn't resist chiming in here - picking up actual rogue levels functionally reduces the total benefit to the Rogue Dilettante feat/enhancements for a Helf, mostly because the Sneak Attack bonus dice from the feat (and enhancements - 6ap for a total of 3d6SA) don't stack. Now, if you're doing it for other reasons (skill access, evasion, haste boost enhancement) it's probably still fine. It may even still be 'alright' at just two levels (for SA training enhancements, maybe), but I'd have to do a longer cost-benefit analysis of the situation then I presently have time for. :U

Just throwin' that out there, carry on.

[Grecan]

aren't WF also a nice choice cause they don't get exhausted? (after raging..)

[Shade]

Couldn't resist chiming in here - picking up actual rogue levels functionally reduces the total benefit to the Rogue Dilettante feat/enhancements for a Helf, mostly because the Sneak Attack bonus dice from the feat (and enhancements - 6ap for a total of 3d6SA) don't stack. Now, if you're doing it for other reasons (skill access, evasion, haste boost enhancement) it's probably still fine. It may even still be 'alright' at just two levels (for SA training enhancements, maybe), but I'd have to do a longer cost-benefit analysis of the situation then I presently have time for. :U

Just throwin' that out there, carry on.

Noted.. Half-Elves are like any elf.. Weak and squishy and not even good dps in multiclassed, don't pick one!

aren't WF also a nice choice cause they don't get exhausted? (after raging..)

True. I will add this to the pro's section of WF.
However keep in mind this benefit is no longer valid after level17, as all races get this at that point, and overall I think it's best to select your race for features that'll youll make use of in the endgame. But it is certainly a great feature while leveling.

[Shuleagh]

Human
Pros:
* You can pretend your character is yourself?
* BONUS FEAT!!!! - Barbarians are a feat starved class due to Turbine sticking it to us forcing us to take cleave (which sucks).. This can make quite the difference. But you have to actually spend it on something worth-while. Very build dependant.
* Human Adaptability. This is basically +1 to any 2 stats at the cost of 6 action points. So you can get 1 Str and 1 con, and be kind of like a Orc, but weaker, and kind of like a dwarf, but weaker.
* Human Improved Recovery. 10%/20%/30% healing amp for 2/4/6 AP. Expensive but the first/2nd tiers can definitely be worth it. Healing amp is a primary stat for Barbarians, especially if you plan on tanking with broke healers and not breaking the bank on heal scroll costs.
* Bonus skill point. 1 per level. Yawn.
* Your stats are all even. No bonuses, no penalties.
Averages:
* Your stats are all even. No bonuses, no penalties.
* Human Versatility. Someday these might be a worthwhile enhancement, if we get a cheaper PrE and can fit it. But for most solid builds these days, you simply cannot fit this enhancements into a good human build (at least not above rank 1, which is boring), making it really not a factor after all. At least not if you plan on getting the above bonuses (improved recovery, adaptability) There simply is not enough action points to spread around.
Cons:
* You are an average race. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
* Your stats are all even! No bonuses, no penalties.
Overall:
Humans are boring. Your not the best DPS and not the best tank. Your decent at both - a jack of all trades, master of none. Not very Barbarian-like. However.. If you are planning to TR your old melee into a new Barbarian, that extra feat can be quite nice. Thus:
Somewhat recommended as a veteran TR Build.
Not recommended for new players unless you have a specific reason to want to the extra feat and desire to be average.

As a lvl 20 human barb the entire human pro/con list made me laugh, thanks. Best part of the guide imo. Its good to see you came back to the game. I pretty much copied your build when I started playing a couple of months ago and did great from lvl 1 to lvl 20.

[FoxCourier]

Noted.. Half-Elves are like any elf.. Weak and squishy and not even good dps in multiclassed, don't pick one!

Whoa, there - I never said anything like that. I was merely pointing out that going Rogue would probably not be the ideal multi-class if you were going to be a Half-Elf barbarian.

Stat-wise, you're not getting anything that you wouldn't have gotten if you went Human instead. You also don't technically get a bonus feat, but you do get an extra feat that gives you additional benefits (going Rogue Dilettante requires you to have at least 13 Dexterity - not sure why you'd want that otherwise on a Barbarian but an additional 3d6 Sneak Attack for the cost of 6AP doesn't sound too terribly bad).

Or, if you dump the points you would have thrown into Dex to qualify for that into something else (5 build points either way) you can qualify for any of the following and get the respective benefits:

1) Wisdom - Cleric (wand and scroll access - wand is automatic, scroll can be given up to Cleric level 10 via enhancements which gives you a 95% chance of success on Heal scrolls), Monk (Healing Amplification up to +20% that WILL stack with Half-Elf Improved Recovery; Also centered bonuses, but let's face it - you're smacking things in the face with something the size of a small wagon. That ain't centered)
2) Intelligence - Wizard (the same deal as with Cleric - wand and scroll access. Including a lot of the buffs you really, really want as a Barbarian. Not limited to Blur, Haste, Displacement... Seriously, if you can find it as a Wand or a scroll that requires Wiz 10, you can technically use it!)
3) Charisma - Bard (Bard wands/scrolls - namely, a mixed bag of the Wizard and Cleric benefits), Favored Soul (kind of like Cleric, but 85% chance of success on Heal), Paladin (+Charisma to Saves, and Paladin wand/scroll access), Sorcerer (same deal with Favored Soul, only for wizards)

Nominally, these benefits are hand-in-hand with the other things that you normally get for having a higher score in those attributes (more skills for Intelligence, better Will saves for Wisdom, and better UMD for Charisma - you have UMD, right?).

As part of your premium Half-Elf Barbarian Package, you also probably already have a huge amount of Strength (Fighter Dilettante gives you.. +1 strength! WOO! And some Strategy feats for Stunning Blow, Trip, and Sunder). But you can push that to the LIMIT with Half-Elf Adaptability (just like Human Adaptability) to get a +1 Strength and maybe +1 Constitution. Then there's Healing Amplification (30% max), Racial Toughness (3 levels), and Human Versatility (if action boosts are your thing, might as well get'em all cheap as sin).

Not entirely unattractive goods here, though some of the face/hair combinations are... but then again, look at half-orcs. And dwarves. Being a barbarian isn't a beauty contest, princess. If looks are your thing, put the tiara back on and get back in the homecoming float, because you certainly ain't gonna find it here.

Just sayin' - going Helf Barb is about as good on occasion as going Human Barb. Probably inferior to Dwarf, Warforged, or Horc, but definately better then some of the other options available.

Lookin' at you, elves.

[timetorun177]

I loled so hard IRL.

[PopeJual]

Welcome back, sir. Nice to have you in the game again.

[maha0201]

+1 mate
Very good guide, you explain main differences in few lines, tink this wil cause new Barbarian boom in ddo ^^

and would like to see end gear for WF and non wf barb since i rolled one wf month ago

[Gulnar13]

I agree on everything but the fact that WF have no "true" bloodlust. We enjoy bathing in blood too.

[Arkadios]

Ummm... Half elves start with 8 in all stats, like humans, no penaltys, no bonuses.

As posted a couple of posts above me Half-elves can make pretty good barbarians if you build them right, they are on the same level as humans in this.

[jwdaniels]

The +2 con that dwarf and wf have over half-orc amounts to 20 HP at level 20, which is hardly as big a deal as you seem to think. Also, I'm pretty sure monks run faster than barbarians at higher levels.

As far as healing a wf barb, I don't know how your experiences have been but most arcanes don't usually carry repair/reconstruct (at least not that I've seen) and most wf barbs don't bother with healer's friend (again my experience) so the wf barbs I've grouped with always end up using a ton of pots. Personally, when I'm running divine casters the wf barb is generally the last person I heal - it's just not worth it until high levels when you're casting heal and even then it can be a toss-up.

[ddobard1]

Welcome, ty for the enlightening thread and hanging on for the final sections namely the Solo Play.

First of all DDO is rather balanced making each Class as useful as the Barbarian Class, said that my favorite Class is Barbarian thanks to the Class's features.

I am a follower of the Hero's roles (Controller, Defender, Leader, & Striker.) set in DnD 4th edition for their simplicity and expressivity so I will apply them henceforward.

Few sentences about pure Barbarians:

Your role is primary DPS and tank, always... and sometimes the highest saves too, so you are the tank.

Fighters & Paladins are better Defenders, and agree Paladins possess higher saves.

but Barbarians also make the best scouts in the game

Rogues are superior Scouts.

See if the rogue fails his spot check (and they do, often)

Rogues shouldn't fail Spot checks.

Your the Barbarian, and thus your entitled to use up the entire mana bar on everyone in the party

Disagree.

- Eventually some newbie will tell you some nonsense about "armor class". DO NOT TRUST THEM.

A 100 AC Figter or Paladin in endgame takes less melee damage than a Barbarian.

DDO has 4 races for the Barbarian class: Dwarf, Warforged, Half-Orc and Human.

Half-Elves are also versatiles.

Humans are boring.

Disagree heavily, e.g. manage Boosts, etc.

Barbarians conceal play mastery!

[Shade]

Re: Notes on Half-Elfs being like Humans .. mostly. I dunno, maybe. I'll look into it and maybe add a section on them later. Maybe. If your lucky, you elf lovers you. =)

The +2 con that dwarf and wf have over half-orc amounts to 20 HP at level 20, which is hardly as big a deal as you seem to think. Also, I'm pretty sure monks run faster than barbarians at higher levels.

As far as healing a wf barb, I don't know how your experiences have been but most arcanes don't usually carry repair/reconstruct (at least not that I've seen) and most wf barbs don't bother with healer's friend (again my experience) so the wf barbs I've grouped with always end up using a ton of pots. Personally, when I'm running divine casters the wf barb is generally the last person I heal - it's just not worth it until high levels when you're casting heal and even then it can be a toss-up.

It's more then +2 con. It's up to +4. +2 free. +2 from enhancements.

And yea 20-40ish hp isn't a big deal you are correct..
Thus my note at the bottom that racial selection isn't one of the biggest factors in DDO. So you are ofcourse free to select your favourite race and won't suffer much for it.

My experience with my WF Barb (I have one capped and played him at endgame for well over 200 raids)
Leveling I found it very easy to find arcanes to heal me. Perhaps I was just lucky or perhaps it was just my reputation on the server that made it so.. Or perhaps Khyber is just a very Warforged friendly server?

Sure some arcanes are meanies and won't repair/reco ya...
But thats one of the things about DDO's community, you gota take the good with the bad and find those good players who will work with you and will be your buddie and learn to weed out those jerks who just don't care.

Healers Friend = Every WF that followed my WF build guide has healers friend, and hopefully wears some other healing amplifcation items. This is very important and makes a huge difference.

Well played Warforged Barbarians are well worth any arcanes or divines spells points to heal and then some.
Poorly played ones aren't worth a single spell point.

Whenever my WF Barbarian joins a group or raid, every healer around is happy to see me and are very willing to spend there entire SP bar on healing me. The same can be said for at least a dozen other Warforged Barbarians on Khyber. Sure there's the odd bad one that you might let die, but overall I find Warforged are very popular, as are Arcanes with spells to heal them - even Sorcerers.

Thus my guide. To teach the bad Warforged how to be good warforged =), and gain the respect they rightfully deserve.

Also, I'm pretty sure monks run faster than barbarians at higher levels.

Incorrect. Base speed ? Sure, theyre abit quicker. But when the Barbarian is sprinting ? Nope, he's faster. And did you read my tip on making heavy use of sprint boost? Ya get it, learn to love it.

[Shade]

Welcome, ty for the enlightening thread and hanging on for the final sections namely the Solo Play.

Thanks for reading and your welcome.

I am a follower of the Hero's roles (Controller, Defender, Leader, & Striker.) set in DnD 4th edition for their simplicity and expressivity so I will apply them henceforward.

I'm not familiar with 4th edition.. And DDO does not use 4th edition rules, it's vaguely based on 3.5.. But it's very very different from DnD in many respects.

Rogues are superior Scouts.

Hey now.. I wrote the guide. Follow it =)
Or if you don't agree.. Please be more verbose and offer a good arguement why.. Because just disagree'ing without providing feedback isn't useful im afraid.

Rogues shouldn't fail Spot checks.

Oh in a perfect world... We wouldn't even need this guide would we.

A 100 AC Figter or Paladin in endgame takes less melee damage than a Barbarian.

Sure they do, since they only exist in spreadsheets and screenshots. In the actual game, Barbarians are the tanks.

[timetorun177]

hOrcs are the master race. Get a grip.