A New Take on the Barbarian: Tank Potential without any Reincarnation

[Agr33n3]

This build is derived from the common 11 Barbarian 8 Druid 1 Favored Soul, and plays almost identically when specced for DPS. The build I am making is the following:

12 Barbarian 8 Druid, True Neutral Dwarf

The goal of this build is to be quite sturdy and have reasonable amounts of DPS at any point, with the option to swap enhancements and gear to become incredibly durable. Also in the words of Strimtom, TAKE THE GOOD STUFF AND NOT THE BAD STUFF!

This will not be a complete build guide, though I may be adding one later as I level and refine this build.


Edit: I think this build does great on elite and low-reapers, and with proper gearing mid-reapers should be possible to tank. In high-reapers, this build definitely lacks compared to true tanks such as paladins or fighters or pure barbarian even. You have several abilities that serve you benefits (like debuffs on them and buffs on you) when a monster is swinging at you, and more if

So, you are probably wondering "what do we gain with that extra level of Barbarian?" Well, we get access to the 4th Cores of both Occult Slayer and Ravager when we swap to be a Tank. I know there are numerous builds on the forums, so I will only detail the enhancements for the Tank build. The 4th Cores of Ravager and Occult Slayer alone give us 120 HP, 5 MRR, 40 HAmp, Slippery Mind, 1% Barb damage reduction.


With 80 AP, we will put 34 AP into natures Protector, 24 AP into Occult Slayer and 21 AP in Ravager with one leftover. If you have Racial AP you can use this point for either extra HP or to access the T4 in Dwarf for a total of 25% more strikethrough and +4 to Hit/damage with your Dwarven War-axes when tanking with a shield.

In Nature's Protector, we will grab as many defensive abilities as we can, including a Defensive Stance and Cores 1-3, Threat, PRR and MRR, Saves, and AC. We will take the Tier 5 enhancments, with 3 Ranks in Force of Nature and Beast Unleashed. This will also let us use Metal Armor for more options for Gear Sets.

In Ravager, we will pick up Cores 1-4, HP and HAmp, passive Debuffs for enemies, one source of temporary HP, and CON while raging.

In Occult Slayer, we will pick up Cores 1-4, a second source of source of Temporary HP, CC against casters, CON and HAmp. In Tier 4 we pick up Driving Force for 20 MRR with an 83% uptime. If you have trouble with short-term buffs, swap this for the 9 MRR from Ursa's Will.

There is at least one downside to this split: you miss out on Magic Missile immunity from Nightshield, and relies on either clickies or using wands out of Animal form. For any build without innate Magic Missile Immunity, both the heroic and epic Sapphire Studded Buckles is an awesome item for both shield clickies and damage in the early levels, and the Epic version casts at CL 20, meaning you have a full hour of Shield.

As a tank you will want to get as much Intimidate as possible like any other tank, but your increased hate and reasonable damage allows you to keep agro on some constructs, some undead, and vermin through the hate mechanic (which cannot be intimidated).

One last thing I will say: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE slot Treachery for reduced threat if you are raiding on a DPS toon. You do NOT want any defensive stances that will add threat: someone like Suulomades will turn and 2-shot almost everyone in the raid.

I am open to any suggestions! The one requirement is being able to swap from DPS-focused to Tank-focused with only swapping enhancements and gear.

Edit: This build does great, and with proper gearing low reapers and even some mid-reapers (with a group maybe) feel real smooth. However, in high reapers, this build falls behind other true tanks for two reasons, and the difference is substancial. Several abilities you take from the Barbarian trees cause debuffs to enemies and buffs to yourself, as well as the Druid spell Rising Fury. This makes it beneficial to be exchanging blows with mobs rather than kiting or simply avoiding the incoming attacks, though if you have enough Intimidate this is still possible. Though if the reader is playing in high reapers, I assume you have the experience to know this and either avoid this build or gear/build around these issues.

[Agr33n3]

After putting in some thought, I have come up with some skills, feats, and enhancements. The feats and skills do not change, though the enhancements do when prioritizing DPS. I dropped Core 4 from ravager and instead put those AP in Shifter.

Additionally, I have chosen to go with Beasthide Shifter for the 5% Quality life over Halforc or Dwarf.

Without further ado: (with 80 AP and 2 Racial AP)


Skills: Intimidate, Heal, Concentration or UMD (depends if you have clickies, I do)


Feats:
1. Tower Shield Proficiency or Toughness*
3. Natural Fighting (1st)
6. Natural Fighting (2nd)
9. Shield Deflection
12. Toughness
15. Natural Fighting (3rd)
18. Imp. Crit. Slashing
21. Epic Toughness
22. Perfect Natural Fighting
24. Toughness of Quicken (??)
25. Elusive Target
27. Epic D.R.
28. Deific Warding
30. Toughness or Epic Fortitude
30. Scion of Celestia

*I chose Toughness because I have the Devils Defense (a gnarly large shield)

Enhancements

Total: 34 Natures Protector, 21 Occult Slayer, 16 Shifter, 6 Ravager

In Nature's Protector:T5 and pick up 3 ranks in Force of Nature and Beast Unleashed

In Occult Slayer: Cores 1-4 for all the HP and Healing Amp, PRR/MRR, Extended Rage, Elemental Resists OR Antimagic Boost

In Shifter: PRR, CON and CON while raging, and T4 for 5% Quality HP

In Ravager: CON while raging, Hate (only 1 rank), and Cores 1/2 for Hamp and hit/damage when rolling 1's.

[Hobgoblin]

i dont see epic toughness in there

[Agr33n3]

i dont see epic toughness in there

Read through the feats one more time

21. Epic Toughness

I fit in Epic Toughness, and between 2-4 regular toughnesses. I am unsure whether to swap one or two of those Toughness' out for Quicken or an Epic save feat.

[Agr33n3]

I am running heroics with this build currently and it levels like a dream. I have 400 HP outside of reaper mode at level 8, and with Cure Serious I have great self-sustain.

I do not have experience with tanks, and less experience with epics in general. Given that I have 12 levels of barbarian, here is my predicament:

Should I take a 3rd Toughness in Epics or Epic Barbarian Damage Reduction?

From toughness I will get 33 HP that scales with % HP bonuses, while EBDR gives me 1% Damage Reduction (from 9% to 10%) and 5 PRR/MRR.

Also, if someone could provide a way to calculate which would give me more effective HP, it would be much appreciated.

Edit: At Rank 40, fully self-buffed with Rage and Rising Fury, I am at 622 HP, 74 PRR, 72 MRR, 52 CON and Blood tribute (Which i easily use 10-20 times per dungeon). This is bananas IME.

[Agr33n3]

Updated: 4/12/2022. (I pulled a Prince's Gauntlet!!)

Yes, This is a lot of posts. Yes, I am a noobie when it comes to gearing builds, so please bear with me.

I decided to go with 3-piece Sharn set and 6-piece Feywild set, as all 6 Feywild pieces have good stats for a tank. I also threw in 2 pieces of Summer for the Artifact MRR, and the Cloak of Summer has hit/damage I desperately need.

Helm: Leg. Standard Issue Faceplate (Sharn set)
Goggles: Leg. Feargaze
Necklace: Leg. Standard Issue Sigil (Sharn set)
Trinket: Leg. Bottle of Shadows
Armor: Leg. Watch Captain's Platemail (Sharn set)
Cloak: Leg. Cloak of Summer (Summer set)
Wrists: Leg. Cold Iron Bracers (Winter set)
Belt: Leg. Direbear Belt (Winter set)
Gloves: The Prince's Gauntlet (Winter/Summer set)
Ring 1: Leg. Nocturne Ring (Winter set)
Ring 2: Leg. Celestial Ruby Ring
Boots: Leg. Deepsnow Boots (Winter set)

Mainhand: Leg. Vulkoor's Edge
Offhand: Leg. Bulwark of Snow (Winter set)

For filigrees, I have 2 gems, one with 5 slots and another with 4. In the 4-slotted one, I will put City's Beacon sets. In the 5 slot, I will use either Unbreakable or Bloodfeats, though I am leaning towards Unbreakable for more innate defenses over temporary HP.

Augments: Qual. Fort, Quality Intim, Ins./Qual. Accuracy, Ins./Qual. Stunning, Quality PRR/MRR, Devotion

I have NO IDEA what I should put in my mainhand, gloves, trinket, or goggles. The items listed above are the best I could think of. I shoved one of the Artifacts I have stored, and it happens to have regular CON and 63 Spell Resistance, though once I get ahold of the Icon of Bitterwind I will likely swap these out. Anything that could help with my stunning DC's for Roar (my DC will be 18 + STR + Stunning).

[dadnate1]

I just came across this post, and I feel like I might be able to contribute some. Granted my character has 16 RAP, so I have a little more flexibility. I went with the same level split for the reasons you already outlined. I opted for shifter over dwarf, because the ~15% AC boost from the shield enhancement in dwarf tree is basically 5 AC for 9AP, and shifter gets 6 AC from their tree for 3 AP, they also get brutal fighting for extra threat, 5 con, 30 heal amp, 24 prr, 10 mrr, and 5% quality HP while raging, so no falconry needed. Shifter has regenerating rages, which with blood feasts 1000 temp hp buff on rage is important. You can have up to 2000 temp hp from just blood feast and affirmation, and if you spec into primal avatar, which I really recommend, you can get another 25% of your max hp every 8 seconds when you use shard storm, which doubles as a good ability to keep aggro on intimidate immune mobs. On my build I can easily get and maintain ~3800 temp hp with one weapon swap.

For gear I use the Guardian of the gates set, icon of the bitterwind (trinket), nocturne ring, duskbone ring, winter boots, princes gauntlet, cold iron bracers, direbear belt, and mirrorplate tower shield. Honestly, any weapon with an AOE effect will work (helps hold aggro on groups) so I use Whelm with grandfathers shield 3 piece set, nystuls 4 piece set, and 2 piece beasts mantle (2 con and 10 AC), and if you have the +2 con filigrees thats what does in the leftover filigree slots. I use a weapon swap for blood feast.

End Stats (in Reaper)
Str: 64
Con: 144
Dex: 42
Wis: 40
Cha: 46
Intim: 123

HP: 6545 (25% EDF, 20% insightful US, 5% Quality Shifter, 10% Winter Set)
AC: 437
PRR: 386
MRR: 330
Dodge: 8%

[dadnate1]

You can swap to DPS by swapping winter set items for summer set items, with Cape of the Roc and Unkors cleaver from Sands (15% doublestrike and Melee Power, plus con to damage).
Im getting ~85% doublestrike, and ~950 damage per swing in R6, with crits in the 2100 range. Not great, but better than most tanks. Plus the passive shard storm damage and you dont even have to change your enhancements or destiny. Obviously swapping destiny for Fury and Adrenaline would be more dps, but I like to be able to hop in when the party tank dies and stay alive until he gets rezzed and can take over again, if I am not the main tank. This option allows you to swap between tank and DPS mid quest too, which comes in handy. Any way, thats my two cents, at the end of the day, do what you enjoy and have fun!

[Hobgoblin51]

You can swap to DPS by swapping winter set items for summer set items, with Cape of the Roc and Unkors cleaver from Sands (15% doublestrike and Melee Power, plus con to damage).
Im getting ~85% doublestrike, and ~950 damage per swing in R6, with crits in the 2100 range. Not great, but better than most tanks. Plus the passive shard storm damage and you dont even have to change your enhancements or destiny. Obviously swapping destiny for Fury and Adrenaline would be more dps, but I like to be able to hop in when the party tank dies and stay alive until he gets rezzed and can take over again, if I am not the main tank. This option allows you to swap between tank and DPS mid quest too, which comes in handy. Any way, thats my two cents, at the end of the day, do what you enjoy and have fun!

cleaver leg and epic is str only sadly or at least thats what i was told

[Nahual]

cleaver leg and epic is str only sadly or at least thats what i was told

Wiki agrees with you https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Legend...or%27s_Cleaver

[BlueLiger]

I just came across this post, and I feel like I might be able to contribute some. Granted my character has 16 RAP, so I have a little more flexibility. I went with the same level split for the reasons you already outlined. I opted for shifter over dwarf, because the ~15% AC boost from the shield enhancement in dwarf tree is basically 5 AC for 9AP, and shifter gets 6 AC from their tree for 3 AP, they also get brutal fighting for extra threat, 5 con, 30 heal amp, 24 prr, 10 mrr, and 5% quality HP while raging, so no falconry needed. Shifter has regenerating rages, which with blood feasts 1000 temp hp buff on rage is important. You can have up to 2000 temp hp from just blood feast and affirmation, and if you spec into primal avatar, which I really recommend, you can get another 25% of your max hp every 8 seconds when you use shard storm, which doubles as a good ability to keep aggro on intimidate immune mobs. On my build I can easily get and maintain ~3800 temp hp with one weapon swap.

For gear I use the Guardian of the gates set, icon of the bitterwind (trinket), nocturne ring, duskbone ring, winter boots, princes gauntlet, cold iron bracers, direbear belt, and mirrorplate tower shield. Honestly, any weapon with an AOE effect will work (helps hold aggro on groups) so I use Whelm with grandfathers shield 3 piece set, nystuls 4 piece set, and 2 piece beasts mantle (2 con and 10 AC), and if you have the +2 con filigrees thats what does in the leftover filigree slots. I use a weapon swap for blood feast.

End Stats (in Reaper)
Str: 64
Con: 144
Dex: 42
Wis: 40
Cha: 46
Intim: 123

HP: 6545 (25% EDF, 20% insightful US, 5% Quality Shifter, 10% Winter Set)
AC: 437
PRR: 386
MRR: 330
Dodge: 8%

do you have a build plan for tis would love to see it or know what levels to take what class?