The Definitive Guide to Barbarians

[aristarchus1000]

Any thoughts to updating this to account for the recently changed cleave animation?

[Wraith_Sarevok]

I am just throwing these out there, because I seem to be much better at gearing than selecting feats / enhancements, and the list could use an update whenever you get around to it.

I used Barrage to choose these and I currently wield all of them on my barb. The goal here is to provide for absolute max DPS, while combining functions to reduce item space.


+5 Vicious Adamantine Greataxe of Everbright

Everybody forgets about this. You need an anti-ooze and anti-rust monster weapon on you at nearly all levels, because those things pop up often. This one is available as early as lvl 15, but you can keep using it through rainbow and epic deneith / phiarlan as needed. Yes, a similar lootgen with festival icy burst can offer slightly more dps, but some oozes are immune to cold. Vicious is 2d12 and irresistible, so no thought needed there.


+5 Anarchic Burst Adamantine Greataxe of Greater Construct Bane

This weapon has been deprecated to only one function: Epic Marut killer. Granted it isn't worth much else for going through so much effort to craft, but it DOES cut through chaotic, which is very important for anyone who runs evon3 often. 10 DR is actually enough to pull the Epic Sword of Shadow below this greataxe. People who want to have max DPS against the Epic Marut or any other Inevitable in the game will appreciate this weapon more. But if you can get your hands on an ESoS + chaotic augment, use that instead!


Alchemical Greataxe (Triple Water)

For elementals, obviously. There are plenty of epic elementals I could name and even more bosses. Because fire is considered to be the most common and dangerous elemental, and because it's the only one that has a weakness, I chose triple water for extreme bonus damage. This is also ideal DPS for mudmen, air, water, and earth. You could go with an earthgrabber, but those produce rather unreliable and short-lived debuffs. It's also useless against bosses, such as Hellfire in epic Devil Assault.

[grayham]

A few thoughts on new/recent barb gear, hopefully to build on Shade's work and offer alternatives.

-Flesh shapers brigandine. Easily acquired and comparable to all but the most ideal DT armour options. I keep 2 each with a different proc.-Displacement proc. Excellent for soloing, particularly Amrath -Obsession proc +100% hate. Ideal for hate tanking. You will not lose aggro.
Fabricators set (gauntlets/bracers) Again, easy to get and an excellent placeholder while you try and get epic gear for the slots. +2 damage/to hit as a set bonus and individual properties of the items are very useful (10% melee alacrity, +15 balance, cannith combat infusion)
Epic Antique Greataxe. In terms of epic quests, this is very easy to acquire. The snitch (seal) can even be shortmanned with hirelings thanks to the predictable nature of mob encounters. All you need is a lucky few runs on the big top (shard)-harder now admittedly-and you're most of the way there. The axe itself is brutal, offering huge crits, often in the 1100-1200 range in the right situations, and I noticed a big leap in DPS from the lit2 I was using previously. (Note my comments on this are purely anecdotal and have not been backed up by spreadsheets or the barrage tool.)

[stille_nacht]

i has some questions : o.

for a first life, 32 pt human, weapons are either lit II/ epic antique GA vs. Lit II/ +4 HB silver of GLOB

is TWF or THF better dps vs. single target? (thf is better vs. multitarget for sure)
if i go TWF, should i rogue splash or ftr splash? rog seems to add nice trapping skills along with evasion while ftr's two feats dont seem too important... but everyone seems to take 2 ftr which gives me pause.

for THF, Gaxe or Falchion?

[Wraith_Sarevok]

I am updating a previous post I made here earlier: Post #302 on this page. To replace weapons that are now obsolete because of the changes introduced in U12.

I will likely be updating them again as Turbine continues to introduce changes into the game.

Also adding that every melee should carry a Blasting Chime (trinket) to reduce construct fort by -20%. It causes the ESoS to pull ahead of any smiting weapon in the game. I prefer the Tier 3 lvl 16 version because I can craft 33% electrical absorption onto it.

[sephiroth1084]

Not positive, but I'm pretty sure that a +5 Vicious Icy Burst Great-whatever of Greater Elemental Bane is better DPS vs. elementals than the triple cold alchemical. Obviously subject to loot-gen, but a straight-up Icy Burst or Vicious crafted one is probably also better.

Fairly certain that a Lit II falchion is way ahead of the Epic Antique against anything that doesn't require the Metalline portion of the EAG.

Let's assume base damage of 75 (pretty low) -- EAG would actually be 78 w/ +6 and Righteousness. Assuming Seeker +6; glances as (avg base damage of weapon + base damage)*0.5*0.75 for GTHF.

EAG
Barrage - 114.9; glancing blows: 35.4; total = 150.3

Lit II
Barrage - 125.8; glancing blows: 30.8; total = 156.6

Lit II is still ahead at 25% Fort, but the two are about even, probably beyond that--Lit II's base stays ahead all the way to 100% Fort, but the glancing blows edge that the EAG has brings it just slightly ahead.

Against anything without DR (or just DR/Good) the Lit II is the superior choice...as a Falchion. A Greataxe version ends up a little behind on base damage and a little ahead on glancing blows individually, and is close to even at 75 base damage, but as your damage goes up, the Falchion pulls further and further ahead. It's entirely likely that a geared-out barbarian will be at around 85 base damage.

[Wraith_Sarevok]

Not positive, but I'm pretty sure that a +5 Vicious Icy Burst Great-whatever of Greater Elemental Bane is better DPS vs. elementals than the triple cold alchemical. Obviously subject to loot-gen, but a straight-up Icy Burst or Vicious crafted one is probably also better.

It's not actually, but for a couple of very good reasons:

- Crushing Wave and Corrosive Salt both add a surprising amount of total damage, on the level of Lightning Strike procs. CW is 10.5 average DPS and CS is 5.6 as opposed to LS at 9.15 going by the wiki. This greataxe is just as powerful as a similar Lightning Strike weapon except maybe that it can't do as much burst damage.

- Freezing Ice is basically earthgrab for elementals. I read somewhere a long time ago that it insta kills fire creatures, but I never bothered to test it on trash. If true: vorpal effect on epic fire elementals is worth gold! Even if it's not true, you still hold them helpless for 9 seconds when they fail the save and that gives you plenty of time to take 150% damage pot shots.

- Fire elementals, as mentioned before, take 150-200% damage from cold attacks (varies depending on difficulty / quest). This is way more total damage than any Lightning Strike weapon can do.

- 10% chance to proc Fire Shield (Cold) automatically cuts fire elemental damage in half for ~1.5 minutes.

Granted all of that, this is still an incredibly hard weapon to craft due to having to run eLoB/eMA several times to get the right spirit and the shards. But then again, this is an endgame-level weapon. It's meant for taking on epic mobs and bosses.

[sephiroth1084]

It's not actually, but for a couple of very good reasons:

- Crushing Wave and Corrosive Salt both add a surprising amount of total damage, on the level of Lightning Strike procs. CW is 10.5 average DPS and CS is 5.6 as opposed to LS at 9.15 going by the wiki. This greataxe is just as powerful as a similar Lightning Strike weapon except maybe that it can't do as much burst damage.

- Freezing Ice is basically earthgrab for elementals. I read somewhere a long time ago that it insta kills fire creatures, but I never bothered to test it on trash. If true: vorpal effect on epic fire elementals is worth gold! Even if it's not true, you still hold them helpless for 9 seconds when they fail the save and that gives you plenty of time to take 150% damage pot shots.

- Fire elementals, as mentioned before, take 150-200% damage from cold attacks (varies depending on difficulty / quest). This is way more total damage than any Lightning Strike weapon can do.

- 10% chance to proc Fire Shield (Cold) automatically cuts fire elemental damage in half for ~1.5 minutes.

Granted all of that, this is still an incredibly hard weapon to craft due to having to run eLoB/eMA several times to get the right spirit and the shards. But then again, this is an endgame-level weapon. It's meant for taking on epic mobs and bosses.

At tier II, that would be Icy Burst, Corrosive Salt and Crushing Wave. We can eliminate the Icy Burst as my suggestion is to either Icy Burst a Vicious Greater Bane or craft an Icy Burst Greater Bane (slightly less damage than Vicious against non-fire elementals and slightly more against fire eles), which leaves Greater Bane vs. Corrosive Salt and Crushing Wave. The bane is doing 14.5 damage on average every hit, while the current figures for the two procs puts them at 16.1, or +2 damage. If you're lucky enough to go the Risia route, the Vicious damage then puts the Greater Bane ahead by 5.

If Freezing Ice works consistently, I'd say it's worthwhile, but I wouldn't craft one of these just for elementals, particularly since there are so few really dangerous ones. It is useful for other things, and if that's your intent, then I'd say go for it, but it's an awful lot of work for an elemental beater.

[sephiroth1084]

i has some questions : o.

for a first life, 32 pt human, weapons are either lit II/ epic antique GA vs. Lit II/ +4 HB silver of GLOB

is TWF or THF better dps vs. single target? (thf is better vs. multitarget for sure)
if i go TWF, should i rogue splash or ftr splash? rog seems to add nice trapping skills along with evasion while ftr's two feats dont seem too important... but everyone seems to take 2 ftr which gives me pause.

for THF, Gaxe or Falchion?

The Cannith crafted weapon is ahead of both the Lit II and EAG, as a falchion.

Some people seem to prefer their axes, but I don't know what that's about vs. non-Heavy Fort.

[xSeverinax]

The Cannith crafted weapon is ahead of both the Lit II and EAG, as a falchion.

Some people seem to prefer their axes, but I don't know what that's about vs. non-Heavy Fort.

I agree with that. The falchion base damage is lower than that of an axe, but most axes crit on a 20, 19 with improved crit, whilst I crit on a 17 with my falchion, (a 15 on my keen falchion), so overall with the extra number of crits I can do more damage from burst effect and bold trinket effect proccing morebecause of the greater crit range. Personally I interchange my weapons depending on the mobs I fight, the antique great axe is really good for most things, but my bloody cleaver with life shield and human bane comes in handy in a fair few quests as well. As a Barb, you will get proficiency in both weapons so just carry a few and play with them to see what works better against different mobs.

It also depends on your level range and access to the gear, (multiple toons, adventure packs owned etc). I had my antique GA from lvl 4, as it was sitting in my shared bank. You might not have that luxory. Carnifax is a pretty decent min level 4 axe, and the hellstroke axe isn't bad either.

[BeccaBop]

At first, I thought, "Wow, this is ridiculous."

But I get it now.

Shade, this is, hands down, THE best troll-post I have ever seen.

[witchdoctor90]

Shade -

Love your stuff. I had high hopes of reading your Dwarf pages as I remember doing long ago -- but I was sadly mistaken!

Are you aware that your links are busted?

Regards,

Cormek

[djl]

Shade -

Love your stuff. I had high hopes of reading your Dwarf pages as I remember doing long ago -- but I was sadly mistaken!

Are you aware that your links are busted?

Regards,

Cormek

You realize you necroed a thread that had been dead since 2012, and that the info in this thread is largely outdated?

[Nerbat]

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) :

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.

Nice post Shade, but you only live in the shadow of the greatest barb evah and he lives on Argo. :P

[gemineye]

This thread is at least 7 YEARS old...Shade doesn't even play here anymore...


PS Read the last comment, before you cast your animate dead ass post spell!