Why does my Barbarian only deal minimal damage?

[scott75209]

I'm at level 14 for my Barb and he is only delivering 50 hit points damage on average during an attack. Rage may kick that up 10 damage points but that is it. once in awhile I'll hit 132 points damage but that is rare.

Here are my stats:
Race: halforc/male/Neutral Good
Str - 32+11
HP 424
Dex - 16+3
Con 28+3
Int - 10
Wis - 11
Char - 12+1
Fortification - 25%
HP - 424
AC - 29+2
Fort - 20
Reflex - 10
Will - 7
BAB - 15
Damage Reduction
6/slash/pierce
1/-
5/-

Weapons:
+2 flaming sword of Rep.
bloody Cleaver
+4 Acid Great Axe of Vertigo
+3 Shock Great Axe of Tendon slice
+4 Shock Great Axe of Rapid Strike

Wearing:
Bloodstone Trinket
Necklace - Proof Against Poison +2 Necklace
Shagh's Helm
goggles of Feather Fall
Ogre Power +3 bracers of parrying
boots for +15% stride, +10 swim
Arlyn's ring of +3 Dex, +1 Protection
Belt of +4 health and light fortification

When I changed from medium armor to a breast plate I noticed my damage points increased a little but for some reason other barbarians I quest with constantly hit in the 100s for damage.

I did not list my chosen enhancements as I'm still learning the new tree. Any recommendations on choices would be great.

Thanks!!

[Loromir]

I'm at level 14 for my Barb and he is only delivering 50 hit points damage on average during an attack. Rage may kick that up 10 damage points but that is it. once in awhile I'll hit 132 points damage but that is rare.

Here are my stats:
Race: halforc/male/Neutral Good
Str - 32+11
HP 424
Dex - 16+3
Con 28+3
Int - 10
Wis - 11
Char - 12+1
Fortification - 25%
HP - 424
AC - 29+2
Fort - 20
Reflex - 10
Will - 7
BAB - 15
Damage Reduction
6/slash/pierce
1/-
5/-

Weapons:
+2 flaming sword of Rep.
bloody Cleaver
+4 Acid Great Axe of Vertigo
+3 Shock Great Axe of Tendon slice
+4 Shock Great Axe of Rapid Strike

Wearing:
Bloodstone Trinket
Necklace - Proof Against Poison +2 Necklace
Shagh's Helm
goggles of Feather Fall
Ogre Power +3 bracers of parrying
boots for +15% stride, +10 swim
Arlyn's ring of +3 Dex, +1 Protection
Belt of +4 health and light fortification

When I changed from medium armor to a breast plate I noticed my damage points increased a little but for some reason other barbarians I quest with constantly hit in the 100s for damage.

I did not list my chosen enhancements as I'm still learning the new tree. Any recommendations on choices would be great.

Thanks!!

THose other barbs are primarily spouting off their crit damages...at lvl 14 most are not getting normal hits in the 100's.

Couple of things:

-I don't think your armor is affecting your damage unless there is some specail effect on it that would account for the change.
-Do you have improved critical Slashing Feat? If not, get it.
-Do you have Power Attack feat? If not get it.
-At lvl 14, you can get a +6 str item from the AH pretty cheaply.
-Look for an item with "Deadlly" as a prefix. Get as high a deadly item as you can find (Probably +4 or +5 at your level).
-Pick up some rage potions and drink one before each fight (This stacks with your Barbarian Rage).
-I'm not too familiar with the barbarian enhancement trees, but i would suspect there are some specail attacks to be had there that you can spam.

Good Luck

[axel15810]

Also a big reason might be the other melees you've seen are TRs with much better weapons. They might be using LIT2 greensteel, heroic SoS or something similar.

[Ykt]

If you have been playing for 4 years you should have enough plat to buy decent equipment.

These are lvl 5 items.

Get +6 str, +6 con, deadly 4-5 and a decent weapon (no tendon slice).

[the_one_dwarfforged]

comparing numbers with other players is difficult to do because there are a ton and a ton and a ton of factors that go into your dps and damage per hit in any given dungeon and on any given mob which likely are not being compared evenly. some things you might think about regarding why your damage does not match someone elses:

are you talking about your first number damage (the physical damage your weapon deals based off of just its base damage dice and your strength, power attack and any effects that add to that number which will include deadly and seeker items and the deadly artificer buff, but not things like flaming burst or vicious from frenzy) or all of the numbers that pop up from a single swing added together? i believe there is an option to condense damage info so that it only shows up as one number and includes adds all bonus dice hits to the first number damage without showing that the bonus dice were actually dealing different types of damage.

gear levels, from what i saw your gear is pretty low quality. a player with overall better gear will likely have an easier time doing more damage. i saw that you had a falchion and a "sword" (great swords will do more damage per hit than long swords...), both of those weapons have x2 crit multipliers, if you are comparing yourself to someone using a greataxe who is telling you their crits you will definately be doing less per hit, and falchions have less base damage than either greatswords or great axes though that shouldnt be too noticeable in the final damage roll. on the other hand you will crit more often which will result in more dps, especially with a falchion and especially with seeker (bloodstone is a great item).

which mobs are you attacking? which mobs are your party members attacking? some mobs have fort (like undead who have 100%) and cant be crit without certain gear or feats and some mobs have damage resistance to different types of weapons and damages. so for example if you are attacking a skeleton (100% fort and dr against slashing and piercing weapons) with a falchion while someone else is attacking a gnoll with a slashing weapon you will probably be doing much less damage per hit and dps. other mobs also have dr against metal types or weapon alignment, check for these things.

by level 14 you should be able to take the tier 5 abilities in either frenzy or ravager trees if you focus. there is a frenzy enhancement which grants you +2 crit multiplier on critical rolls of 19 or 20 while raged, which you should be pretty much all the time. in the ravager tree there is an enhancement which increases your crit range while raged by 2, which with seeker and a falchion will be much better for dps against low/no fort enemies but wont increase how much damage you deal per hit. in the half orc tree you can take two +1 str core enhancements and three tiers of improved power attack and a passive ability (i forget the name) which causes you to deal 20% more damage to helpless enemies with two handed weapons (helpless enemies already take 50% extra damage, not sure if the orc enhancement would stack additively or multiplicatively (stunned or held mobs are helpless)). there is also an improved power attack enhancement which stacks with the orc version in the ravager tree, and there is a frenzy enhancement which grants you extra strength from barbarian rage. all of these things will increase your damage per hit.

some feats that can/will help you if you dont already have them are: cleave, great cleave, stunning blow, improved sunder. cleave adds +1[w] to your attack and is aoe, great cleave adds +2[w] and is a bigger aoe. those will increase your damage per hit on those swings and increase your dps. stunning blow will render a mob helpless and cause you to deal more damage to it, improved sunder on a successful check will reduce an enemies fortification by 15%, which will allow you the possibility of critting against undead. it also applies a no-save -4 fortitude debuff to enemies as long as you hit them with improved sunder which will help you land stunning blow.

deadly +6 item (nothing else) = ml 11

[Vellrad]

i believe there is an option to condense damage info so that it only shows up as one number and includes adds all bonus dice hits to the first number damage without showing that the bonus dice were actually dealing different types of damage.

I think you're the only person who knows about this option.

[ReaperAlexEU]

hmm, a sanity check list...

feats:
power attack
cleave
great cleave
two handed fighting
improved two handed fighting
greater two handed fighting
improved critical: slash

from enhancements get as many rages as you can and make them as long as you can, by now you should be able to rage from shrine to shrine.

for big numbers invest in the frenzied berserker tree (get the max rages first, and probably ear smash from occult). the 2 extra rage like buffs (death frenzy means bigger crits) and supreme cleave you get will be a great source of power. also load up on the STR bonus to rage. get focused wrath in the FB tree, that makes your crits bigger and bigger crits = bigger grin.

each play session ensure power attack is turned on (darn things switches itself off). in combat try to keep the barbarian rage and the FB rages running the whole fight. spam cleave, great cleave and supreme cleave as much as you can, well, when you're not being beaten black and blue at any rate.

buy a +6 STR item and a +6 CON item (means longer rages). grab a deadly item too.

[Phoenix-daBard]

I think you're the only person who knows about this option.

Nope, it helps reduce screen clutter when playing my arti.

[FranOhmsford]

Weapons:
+2 flaming sword of Rep.
bloody Cleaver
+4 Acid Great Axe of Vertigo
+3 Shock Great Axe of Tendon slice
+4 Shock Great Axe of Rapid Strike

Wearing:
Bloodstone Trinket
Necklace - Proof Against Poison +2 Necklace
Shagh's Helm
goggles of Feather Fall
Ogre Power +3 bracers of parrying
boots for +15% stride, +10 swim
Arlyn's ring of +3 Dex, +1 Protection
Belt of +4 health and light fortification

OK 1st thing's first I'm NOT the person to talk to about Uber Stat Layouts or Dmg per second etc.

BUT

Here's some options for Lvl 14 Equipment:

Boots of the Innocent - http://ddowiki.com/page/Boots_of_the_Innocent
Maenya's Fists - http://ddowiki.com/page/Maenya%27s_Fists
Deadly Ring
Ring of Seeking
Con 6 Belt
Dex 6 Bracers
Cloak of Ice - http://ddowiki.com/page/Cloak_of_Ice - Slot Fear Immunity and Vitality
Crimson Chain or Black Dragonscale Armour
Nightforge Gorget - Slot Deathblock
Dusk Heart - Slot Charisma for Intim, UMD, Haggle
Goggles of Accuracy
Nightforge Darkhelm - Slot Blindness Immunity

Also grab Minos Legens for Vitality Augment
Have Feather Falling and Underwater Action items ready to be swapped in when needed.

Easiest Good Two Hander to farm for = Insanity!

[Guanmagi-1]

I think you're the only person who knows about this option.

I'm guessing UI Settings>Gameplay.

[Loromir]

i believe there is an option to condense damage info so that it only shows up as one number and includes adds all bonus dice hits to the first number damage without showing that the bonus dice were actually dealing different types of damage.

Ooh..how do you do this?

[Vellrad]

Nope, it helps reduce screen clutter when playing my arti.

It would help, if it would exist.

[ReaperAlexEU]

It would help, if it would exist.

there is something in there that spits the damage out in a different format. can't remember the details but i fiddled with it then decided i prefered a screen full of damage numbers and icons. maybe all it does is remove the damage type icon, but that would still reduce clutter.

this is my lunch break so i can't check now, but if you want i'll find it for you tonight. or you can poke about the UI options and see for your self