I was getting a bit bored with my wizard so I decided to try something new. After starting a new barbarian, all I can say is WOW!. I feel like I'm in Archon mode permanently. Blizzard did a great job with the brutality of the barbarian's attacks. The hammer strike that shoots a cone of destruction in front of you is just awesome. Levels mobs effortlessly.
Ok, so it's probably just because its normal mode but whatever...
seriously, I feel a lot more powerful with this class. I can frequently get 12-20 kills in a single blow (with whirlwind or that hammer slam that explodes out in front, or with earthquake), something thats basically impossible with a wizard (makes me wonder about class balance, but that's another topic).
Anyway some questions:
1) Not sure whether to go 2 weapons, 1 2H weapon, or weapon and shield. Having a shield seems to add survivability. Couldn't tell if using 2 weapons increased my damage. Is is whatever I want or do all the serious barbarians use a certain recipe.
2) How to handle ranged enemies? I like Leap, but it has a cooldown, and I dont have a free slot for the charge skill (battle cry to increase damage, whatever the one is that reduces damage by 65%, and revenge)
3) How to escape in the rare instances its necessary? If leap is available I do that, but its not always available.
4) It seems like the standard tactic with barb is leap in for initial fury, couple swings to generate more fury, then the hammer slam/whirlwind to decimate everything, using revenge if necessary (with shouts/buffs as necessary). Doesn't appear much can stand up to that. What other tactics are there?
5) How to handle bosses, where going toe to toe is more difficult? Eventually you need to disengage till your health regens (I haven't found any good health regen gear yet...).
In normal / NM any build works... later on its completely gear and skill dependent.
I Pugged with a dual wielding barb in A2 inferno yesterday... I had to slap him on the wrist and make him rebuild his entire spec when he kept dieing and only contributed 10k dps.
I gave him a decent S&B tank spec and he still had the same dps... but 5x the survivability.
It worked extremely well you could just go in, ground stomp, rend, cleave, leap if you need to run away for a little bit or to jump into the middle, and earthquake when you feel like it, especially on elites. Just pull everything in close and aoe like mad.
Sorry I couldn't help more only made it to 36, but this thread brought back memories of playing him. Which I might go do again now.
It worked extremely well you could just go in, ground stomp, rend, cleave, leap if you need to run away for a little bit or to jump into the middle, and earthquake when you feel like it, especially on elites. Just pull everything in close and aoe like mad.
Sorry I couldn't help more only made it to 36, but this thread brought back memories of playing him. Which I might go do again now.
Interesting build. Does rend stack? It does an insane amount of damage over time, but will multiple rends one after the other combine? Rend seems like a good choice for bosses since it returns health.
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Ok, so it's probably just because its normal mode but whatever...
seriously, I feel a lot more powerful with this class. I can frequently get 12-20 kills in a single blow (with whirlwind or that hammer slam that explodes out in front, or with earthquake), something thats basically impossible with a wizard (makes me wonder about class balance, but that's another topic).
Anyway some questions:
1) Not sure whether to go 2 weapons, 1 2H weapon, or weapon and shield. Having a shield seems to add survivability. Couldn't tell if using 2 weapons increased my damage. Is is whatever I want or do all the serious barbarians use a certain recipe.
2) How to handle ranged enemies? I like Leap, but it has a cooldown, and I dont have a free slot for the charge skill (battle cry to increase damage, whatever the one is that reduces damage by 65%, and revenge)
3) How to escape in the rare instances its necessary? If leap is available I do that, but its not always available.
4) It seems like the standard tactic with barb is leap in for initial fury, couple swings to generate more fury, then the hammer slam/whirlwind to decimate everything, using revenge if necessary (with shouts/buffs as necessary). Doesn't appear much can stand up to that. What other tactics are there?
5) How to handle bosses, where going toe to toe is more difficult? Eventually you need to disengage till your health regens (I haven't found any good health regen gear yet...).
I Pugged with a dual wielding barb in A2 inferno yesterday... I had to slap him on the wrist and make him rebuild his entire spec when he kept dieing and only contributed 10k dps.
I gave him a decent S&B tank spec and he still had the same dps... but 5x the survivability.
It worked extremely well you could just go in, ground stomp, rend, cleave, leap if you need to run away for a little bit or to jump into the middle, and earthquake when you feel like it, especially on elites. Just pull everything in close and aoe like mad.
Sorry I couldn't help more only made it to 36, but this thread brought back memories of playing him. Which I might go do again now.
Interesting build. Does rend stack? It does an insane amount of damage over time, but will multiple rends one after the other combine? Rend seems like a good choice for bosses since it returns health.