Barbarians - The Follow Up Thread

[Severlin]

Greetings,

We wanted to create a follow up thread to see how players are doing with their barbarians. We wanted to get impressions of the tree changes now that people have had time to play with them on live for a bit. Game balance and quality is an ongoing process. We don't want players to feel that changes we make will never be revisited.

We are looking specifically for feedback on how the three barbarian trees are working for you. We are looking for your thoughts on Occult Slayer, Frenzied Berserker, and Ravager. Are they fun? Do the trees seem effective? How do you feel barbarian compares to other classes?

Sev~

[minimomo]

Greetings,

We wanted to create a follow up thread to see how players are doing with their barbarians. We wanted to get impressions of the tree changes now that people have had time to play with them on live for a bit. Game balance and quality is an ongoing process. We don't want players to feel that changes we make will never be revisited.

We are looking specifically for feedback on how the three barbarian trees are working for you. We are looking for your thoughts on Occult Slayer, Frenzied Berserker, and Ravager. Are they fun? Do the trees seem effective? How do you feel barbarian compares to other classes?

Sev~

thf sucks so barbarian sucks too.

%50 glancing blow is completely useless against champion ee bosses. completely. but how can i forget?! there is also %9 chance to trigger 1d8 acid. yeah that is completely useless too.

swf on the other hand %30 attack speed very useful against ee champion bosses.

on top of that swf has ridiculously low requirements

on top of that swf has perfect form at lv 26.

on top of that rapiers even can cleave handwraps even can cleave. magic i guess....

and now you gave barbarians some heal amp and stuff and asking if we liked it?

lol.

LOL.

[Qezuzu]

thf sucks so barbarian sucks too.

%50 glancing blow is completely useless against champion ee bosses. completely. but how can i forget?! there is also %9 chance to trigger 1d8 acid. yeah that is completely useless too.

swf on the other hand %30 attack speed very useful against ee champion bosses.

on top of that swf has ridiculously low requirements

on top of that swf has perfect form at lv 26.

on top of that rapiers even can cleave handwraps even can cleave. magic i guess....

and now you gave barbarians some heal amp and stuff and asking if we liked it?

lol.

LOL.

Twitching with THF is the highest DPS, what are you even talking about.

[minimomo]

Twitching with THF is the highest DPS, what are you even talking about.

i dont know what dream world you are living in...twitching... lol.

[depositbox]

i dont know what dream world you are living in...twitching... lol.

Twitch fighting with THF is the best melee dps.

[poltt48]

Twitch fighting with THF is the best melee dps.

You have never done a druid/ranger wolf build if you think twitch is best dps. You take all single weapon feats while getting all 2 weapon feats from ranger and they stack. So you get the increased attack speed of single weapon fighting and 1.5x stat multiplier at same time you getting doublestike from 2 handed weapon fighting. That stacks with speed boost from wolf form. Then you go up ranger enhancement tree to make all your attacks hit 5 mobs for full damage. Then to add insult to injury you take orb for shield mastery feat line witch was suppose to be fixed this update to not include orbs but all did was lower 15% double strike to 9% doublestrike while still providing 30 PRR not to mention legendary shield mastery ED feat still works for it. Ranger/druid wolf build by far does more damage then a twitch 2hf build.

[Qezuzu]

i dont know what dream world you are living in...twitching... lol.

Do you not know what twitching is? You move while fighting to use the faster attack animation. THF while twiching IS the best melee DPS.

Barbarians are good DPS, the issue only seems to be the penalties while raging.

[Annyee]

Barbs are better but they are still not that good. DPS wise you have to work very hard to outperform Bards. Lots of bugs still in the class and trees.

[silinteresting]

ive been running a 9 barb 9 bard 2 rogue s/kai and i have to admit
it has been a lot of fun.

the barb was in occult slayer, the bard was in swashbuckler and
the rogue was just for evasion.

a very nice fun build that is able to solo epic elite content nicely
and in a party.

your friend sil

[EllisDee37]

%50 glancing blow is completely useless against champion ee bosses. completely.

How is it useless? When attacking a single target, you get glancing blows against that target.

[Tesrali]

We have a unanimous player response that barb-dps is not king, and should be. We agree on a simple solution.




Using a barbarian rage grants the user +1 critical threat range, given the opportunity cost of rage. No spells has always put it in an awkward place behind other classes. This has always justified them being top dps.

They aren't and this change would see Barbarians become a kingly form of damage.

Details...

Sev mentioned this earlier: +1 threat (as opposed to multiplier) enhances high multiplier weapons that are appropriate to them in the lore (axes, hammers, picks, etc).

What about multi-classing...
Let it apply at level 1...
Rage is not used on hybrids and this expands the game's absolutely charming character customization that is unrivaled by other MMOs (really!). The opportunity cost has always outweighed the benefits of rage. Let's change that. =)

Every raging barb should feel powerful, but not every barb does, we're really missing this.

[Tesrali]

Tes var nar lookin fer mer casteen bility. Mer fer rage death rage death kill kill kill blood blood bar bar bar bar bar bar abr bar barbie barn bark bar.

...using a barbarian rage grants the user +1 critical threat range, given the opportunity cost of rage. No spells has always put it in an awkward place behind other classes. This has always justified them being top dps.

They aren't and this change would see Barbarians become a kingly form of damage.

...

Every raging barb should feel powerful, but not every barb does, we're really missing this.

[Connman]

well they have the caster crit chance increases,
they have monk,rog sneak attack increases,
fighter has something like it in kensai.

how about just straight weapon damage, that is what is missing from all the barb trees, just straight damage, like +1W at each level. Or something like that, just raw damage, I think that is what is really needed. I would rather drink the blood of my enemies anyway, pots just don't cut it...

[MeliCat]

Tes var nar lookin fer mer casteen bility. Mer fer rage death rage death kill kill kill blood blood bar bar bar bar bar bar abr bar barbie barn bark bar.

And it's already been discussed and if you read through Sev's response that seemed to be the only point at which there is going to be a definite change.

From this response I figure you're not going to answer my question and you are somewhat dismissive that I asked at all. My apologies.

[poltt48]

Okay after playing barb for 2 weeks going from 1-28 again got to say still really disappointed. They still do not have survivability of other classes and there damage is subpar. I have tried all builds and this what found. Frenzied beserker has subpar damage for a damage tree with little to no survivability. Occult slayer great survivability almost as much as my pally or bard but has no damage to speak of at all. Think worst melee dps in the game for that survivability. Ravenger okay damage. Best dps for a barb witch not saying a lot. Medium survivability. One worst capstones in game though. Over all really think there damage is underwhelming for a class that you think should be great dps. Giving up on playing barb again they still suck and pretty much looks like what most people think cause no one playing them still.

[thakorian]

Ravager capstone needs to be fixed (can only use a few times per relog) and needs a severe boost in dc to be viable in end game. Raging currently poses so many restrictions that it feels stupid to even rage, maybe add more crit multi/range abilities to barbarian rages themselves. An esos pally in divine crusader gets 11-20/x4 crits, this is totally uncomparable to barbarians current state.

[ToastyFred]

Occult Slayer spell resistance is still borked. Need to un-equip and re-equip a CON item for it to show back up on the Character Sheet. No, this is NOT a display issue. You actually lose ALL Spell Resistance until you go through the procedure with a CON item as previously mentioned.

Please fix it.

[Grailhawk]

The Frenzied Berserker capstone, is too strong it limits your multiclass options to none, which is not really good design (hard choices and all that jazz, this one isn't a hard choice).

My barbarian is not EE ready but he was flying through the EH quests I ran this weekend before the champion nerf with very little resource usage, Blood Strength from Ravager was enough to get him through most of the quest.

[Connman]

Occult Slayer spell resistance is still borked. Need to un-equip and re-equip a CON item for it to show back up on the Character Sheet. No, this is NOT a display issue. You actually lose ALL Spell Resistance until you go through the procedure with a CON item as previously mentioned.

Please fix it.

rage -> dismiss rage works as well

/signed

[Connman]

My wife who plays a 20/8 Barbarian Occult slayer would like me to thank you guys for changing weapon bond. Having the stacks not reset on weapon change is huge. It greatly reduced the time it took her to kill the marut in von 3, being able to change to an appropriate weapon without losing the stacks. It makes having more than one weapon viable again.

The only other noticeable change was she went from 1400 hp to 1800.

She would like to suggest that "One spirit" be changed to be like Masters blitz. When you take it it would be nice if you had the choice between a toggle for "sacrifice all stacks" and a toggle for "sacrifice 20 stacks". She says as it is now it is only useful in an emergency, which means she won't remember it until she is dead. Sacrificing 20 stacks would be acceptable for an emergency in between cocoon / pot heal. as it is now it is just too big of a sacrifice to use on a regular basis. By having a choice it would allow people that like it as it is no inconvenience and make it useful to her at the same time.

Thanks and have a great day!