Pure Tiger Barb guide (PVE)

Furries - Dreamweaver

Guide to pure tiger barb

I have yet seen a decent guide to how to play a tiger barb, so I decided to make one.

The skills u will be using won't really change considering different pure tiger builds, but your stats will.

How to put stats:

As a barb your job is to be the tank, (with certain exceptions like your own FB's)

This means your going to want a lot of health, but keep that in mind this isn't Diablo II. So we arn't going to stick every point in vit.


The best weapon in the game for barbs is the new Rank 9 **Overlord Battleaxe at lvl 101
with a str req of 300 and a dex of 60 its the highest req of any barb item.

Lets start with the easy stats..
Stats
Magic: 5
Don't put any points into this, end of story.

Dexterity: 60 (max)
Dex will give you better accuracy
and every 20 dex u will get +1% crit hit chance.
and 60 is the dex needed for your rank 9 lvl 101 wep

When to add dex is a tough question, my suggestion is to aim to hit 20 as soon as possible then sink some into vit. then aim for 40 and then 60 to hit those crit breakpoints. keep in mind that extra dex from gear may allow you to hit the next crit breakpoint without adding dex at that time


Strength
Add 3 str per lvl, every lvl, until you hit 300
no more, no less

This will add damage and will allow you to equip any weapon you want that can be used with tiger skills,
any less than 3 per lvl you wont be able to equip the weapons u need at the level they are available

Vitality
This should be the rest. So unless your putting point into dex, that is 2 per lvl.

If you have already started and u need to find out what str you should have. you can solve that with the following formula:
(your level*3)-2= str you should have

Aggro:
As a barb your have the most heath so your the tank. That mean you want monsters attack you and not squishy players like wizards or clerics with low max health.
You main aggro skill is flesh ream, the more you use flesh ream the more a monster will hate you, (ie. want to attack you and not someone else). That hate is called aggro. Devour will also cause a monster to hate you more IF your are already its target. Devour will NOT steal aggro if the most isn't attacking you. Roar will aggro all monsters within a 12 meter radius and changes aggro to a set lvl based on the lvl of roar. (higher lvl is more aggro)
Note: Because roar changes a to a set lvl based on the level of the skill, if you have a monster your tanking with lots of stacked flesh ream and high aggro, roar may set his aggro to a lower lvl than it was was already at.

ok now to skills

Skills

Keeping in mind that you are pure tiger you don't want to waste points in human skill.
However since tiger isn't available till lvl 9, u can bring stomp of the beast king and Garrotte to lvl 2 if you want. (just to lvl faster, the spirit at these lvls wont make a difference.)
But past level 9 don't ever learn any human skills or level up the ones you have any further.

Maxing your skills
While this guide is based around going pure tiger and goes into great detail about what order to learn skills i have found that it truly is much better to max all your skills. Now the key issue here is spirit, if you have the coin however It is fairly easy to dump Exp in your genie and keep the spirit for your BH's to slow your leveling and vastly improve your skills. and i HIGHLY recommend that you keep all your skills maxed for level.

lvl 6
learn feral regen



Once u hit lvl 9 and and finish you cultivation, you can morph to tiger from now on you will only ever use human to buff (this will be explained later).

At lvl 9 u learn:
swimming mastery (which doesn't actually work for some reason )
True Form (tiger)
and Flesh Ream

learn all 3

Attacking with flesh ream (player lvl 9-28)

As this is the only attack you have that takes chi till 29 u wont have to worry about wasting any. As such This will be your main attack until lvl 29 when u get devour. (your second chi using move)
Flesh ream is damage over time and will stack if you use it multiple times. Becuase you dont have any other skills that use chi. you can use this as much as u want.
So spam this every time you can, Non stop. This is also your main aggro skill (see Aggro section above for more info)


lvl 13
shapeshifting intensity (SS intensity)
lvl this skill up before adding points to any skill other than BKI, axe/polearm mastry, and learning new skills

learn another feral regen at lvl 11 and 16
and another ream at lvl 14

lvl 19
now you get 3 new skills
learn them, at this lvl you still should have plenty of spirit
Beast kings inspiration (which will henceforth be known as BKI)
bestial rage
and alacrity of beast

Using: bestial rage:
the chi gain portion of this skill last 15 seconds during which every time your hit u will gain 5 chi
until lvl 29 u don't really have a shortage of chi so u will be using its second effect
the damage absorb portion of this skill last only 10 seconds
during which if you are below half health this will absorb up to 2k damage from direct magic attacks.
NOTE: this will NOT stop damage over time, (fire from pyrogoths and poison from spiders/ghouls)
NOTE: this skill only has 1 lvl so u wont need to ever lvl it up.

Alacrity of beast:
this is a great skill, but you will find it use at much later lvls when more mobs have skills.

This skill will cancel any enemy channeling, however you wont find many mobs with skills for a while, so you wont need to use t that often. But if you see any pretty lights on an enemy try to cancel the skill.
This skill also has a 50% chance to freeze for 3 seconds. So u can use it to stop those running enemies.

Tip on running enemies: if you see mob behind an enemy that likes to run, run past it before you attack.
This way when u attack your will be facing the screen and the enemy will run the direction your now facing. (which should be away from those other enemies)

Beast kings inspiration (BKI)
this skill is EXTREMELY important. It will raise your max health ( any any party members near u) for 30 min by a 12% at lvl 1 at +2% every skill lvl after that, maxing this skill is high priority
This skill and only be cast in human form so if ur tiger (which you should normally be) you will need to un-morph to do that, (be sure to re-morph again you use it)

Note: other things require you to un-morph as well, such as equipping or unequipping items, and the skill strength of the titans which you will learn at lvl 49.

at around now you will start to run low on spirit, and u will be to prioritize skills to lvl, which to chose will be explained as we go on.

Lvl 26

poison fang:
this buff adds wood damage to your attack for 15 min, 12% at lvl 1 and +2% at each skill lvl past that
learning lvl 1 of this skill is a high priority but after lvl 1u will need to lvl this sparingly
this buff is used in tiger form. So u dont need to unmorph to recast

lvl 29
after cultivation u will get a spark u can fill up along with your chi bar (a spark =100 chi (1 full bar))

you also learn have access to 3 new skills along with a effectively free spark eruption learn spark first as it cost like nothing

Devour, Blood Bath, and axe/polearm mastery

axe/polearm mastry should be maxed before anything but BKI.

prioritize:
1st learn devour then axe polearm, max BKI, SS intensity, and learn true form (lvl 2)
2nd after that max ream (lvl 5)
3rd max alacrity (lvl 3)
4th feral regen lvl 5
5th bloodbath

you will need bloodbath to unlock strength of titans (which will now be known as Titans) at lvl 49
but you wont actually be using this skill.

Using Devour:
This is your second chi using skill, it will lower the targets defense for 10 seconds and does high damage on its own. Make sure u always have the targets defense lowered which u have then chi
it will also lower the targets attack level by 1 (attack damage by 1% )per skill level , however this effect is only for 4 seconds, so u wont really use it for that this skill will increase aggro towards u if u already have it but will not take aggro if you are not the target (unless you manage to actully steal aggro with damage but as a barb that's highly unlikly you will out DD enough to take aggro that way)

modifying old skill use
with devour taking up most of your chi u wont be able to flesh ream as much, use ream when u have chi to spare, but make sure u have enough to you devour when u need it, bestial rage now is useful for getting chi, and so in alacrity. Make sure you cancel channeling with alacrity too.


Note:devour used before flesh ream will also increase the damage of each bleed "tic" for every flesh ream cast while the - def debuff is active. the damage per bleed is based on the def of the monster at the time u used ream NOT what its def is currently at. so even if the 10 seconds of devour has ended every ream you did during those 10 sec will deal more damage per bleed. this also means that if use devour AFTER ream the ream damage per bleed wont increase.
the damage per tic is set when you the skill (fleash ream or sunder) is cast.

Lvl 34

now u get to learn roar

Roar:
this skill is very handy in the right situations, but those only arise in a party.
This skill will make every enemy withing a 12 meter radius stop whatever it is doing and attack you.
It is used when squishy squad members are attack and u need to get the monsters off of them. This skill will rest the aggro of every affected monster to a set lvl determined by the level of this skill. So if that means if u have been reaming another monster for the past 20 seconds his aggro with go down.


Lvl 39

surf impact
ur first aoe (area of effect) attack skill as a tiger barb
after completing your lvl 39 cultivation and getting ur second spark u will be able to learn surf impact
this handy skill will deal damage to all enemies within a 4.2 meter radius +.2 per skill lvl
and will slow the down by 50% for 4.4 seconds +.4 every skill lvl
Learning this skill lvl 1 is a high priority. Sadly past lvl 1 you wont really have the spirit you need to lvl this skill for a long while as u wil have many more important skill to level

39 skill priority
1st learn surf impact
2nd max beast kings inspiration (lvl5) then SS intensity
3rd max posion fang/flesh ream/alacrity/blood bath lvl 1 if u haven't learned it yet
4th roar

lvl 44
Frighten
like surf impact u wont be able to lvl this as much as u would like.
Learn lvl 1 as soon as u can. But past that its low priority
slows enemies by 23% +3% every skill lvl and lowers their attack by 12% of your weapon attack +2% every skill lvl. 12 meter radius
Note: this skill will cause monsters with no target to attack u if they are in the radius
if u haven't learned bloodbath yet do so b4 adding points into anything else

lvl 49

strength of titans
this skill raises attack by 12% +2% every skill lvl
affects all party member within radius
Note:this skill, like bki, is cast in human form so cast them both before morphing back to tiger
this skill is high prioity

So now u realize why we cant go both human and tiger..

Priorities
if u still have learned bloodbath yet.. do it first as u cant learn titans without it

1st learn Titans
2nd max BKI
3rd max axe/polerm mastry
4th SS intenisty/ then feral regen
5th flesh ream/devour/alacrity/ check next lvl*
6th roar
7th surf impact/frighten (you wont ever have spirit for these)
8th bloodbath lvl2+(let alone this)

*if u dont have enough sprit to lvl ream, devour or alacrity, but u do have enough for roar, learn roar.


Lvl 59

you finally made it to the next step

u get another spark (along with advanced spark eruption)and...

INVOKE and SUNDER!!!!! MUAAHHAHAHAA

learn these 2

Note: to get invoke u will need SS intensity lvl 10 if for some reason I have dont this my now. Get that done.

Sunder requires (requires 2 sparks)
110% weapon damage (all at once) plus 4993.7 (why the .7???, idk) over 30 seconds PLUS gain 2100 health over 30 seconds PLUS really cool spinney tiger graphic 12 meter raduis
THATS FREAKING AWESOME

Invoke the spirit (requires 2 sparks)
for 20 seconds 90% damage reduction, speed is reduced by half for those 20 seconds
but honestly who cares unless the guy is running away 90 freaking percent damage reduction

skill priory is now:

1st Sunder/invoke
2nd BKI/ (Axe/polearm mastery)
3rd titans
4th feral regen if not already at lvl 10
5th flesh ream to lvl 10
6th alacrity
7th devour
8th roar
9th surf impact/frighten (you STILL wont ever have spirit for these)
10th bloodbath (so u can forget about this)

lvl those skills until u hit 79


I will add pretty text colors and other updates later.

Furries - Dreamweaver

Since this doesnt seem like its ganna get removed i might as well use it to add new stuff.

here i will take about common factors and debates among barbs. (specifically those relating to tiger skills)

Which skills to max?

On most barbs skills there is little debate about what lvl to leave it at endgame

In general it agreed upon that All barbs max:

Beast King Insperation (BKI)
Strength of Titans (Titans)
Poison Fang
Axe and Polearm Mastery
Beastial rage (which u really cant call maxing cause there is only 1 lvl)

Most people agree that in any barb should be able to tank: meaning the Following tiger skills are a must
Flesh Ream lvl 10
SS intensity lvl 10 (to unlock invoke)
Invoke the spirit

Starting here people start to dispute things though depending on build.
feral regen is a piece of cake to max and no one really discusses it, becuase it cost so little spirit
(was actually the first skill i maxed)

Barbs that decide to go tiger: generally agree upon maxing devour

now at this point tiger skills left are:

Roar
Surf impact
Sunder
Frighten
Ancestral rage

Roar is generally agreed upon to max and it really only a matter of how soon, personlly i don't find it that important as explained in the first post

Surf impact is one of those cool skills you want to max but never have the spirit for becuase its such a low priority. But it generally assumed that u will max this skill once u have maxed the important ones

Frighten, like surf impact, is a skill u wont bring past lvl 1 for a long while. but again in the long run u will max it.

Sunder is one of those really important skills that u need to max, but cost so much spirit/coin it might be slightly below the ideal lvl

Ancestral rage (the only tiger skill past 59) you get at lvl 100
um.. i think it sounds cool... but hey.. im not ganna find out anytime soon. so cant really comment there

but for those who are interested.. it hits a single target from range 18 meters, 200% damage, 8 sec freeze never misses. cost 1 spark and 500 mana, cooldown 5 min
cost 4 mill sprit 3 mill coin.. those who have it say they regret getting it

And now for the Skill i have been getting to all along

Alacrity of beast
while every other tiger skill you will eventually max many people say to stop this skill at lvl 7 or 8

this is becuase it make most monster's skill cooldown is the same time are your skill cooldown at 7-8 seconds
HOWEVER....
i disagree, i max this skill, and here are my reasons:

first of all, becuase the cooldown is the same as the monster's cooldown u need to use the skill right when it becomes available. which sometimes can be too slow due to lag or u having clicked another skill right beforehand

second: assuming u used the skill but was too late on the cancel u would need to skip the next cancel becuase your cooldown would overlap when u were supposed to cancel it. so in the long run u miss 2 cancels in a row

Maxing this skill shorten ur cooldown to less than the enemies and allowing for a cancel which u were too late on to be cooled down in time for u to make the next cancel.

Maxing this skill does more damage

When fighting mobs alone. sometimes u make the killing blow with or right after a skill cancel with alacrity.
maxing this skill will allow u to attack the next mob (which starts with a skill) faster (orchid petails for example) without having to wait as long for a cooldown.

Yes, maxing this skill will give you the neigh impossible task of counting so such exceedingly high numbers as 1 or 2 in your head before you use it again in order to make the next cancel. But I feel that i add this in case there are few people out their who's mental capacity is high enough to accomplish such a herculean task.

Furries - Dreamweaver

Endgame

so your approching lvl 89...

you have maxed all ur tiger from skills and you have a big choice ahead of you.

sage or demon...

to view the differences you can compare the demon and sage skills here

http://www.ecatomb.net/pwi/skillpwi.php

Myself and most pure tiger barbs choose to go demon, becuase it will give us what we have been lacking for the past 89 lvls.. DD power. well if you choose demon. congrats. you choose the one i can help you with.

Demon skills

demon skills are NOT cheap. neither is ur tt90 gear. so i highly recomand eyeing out of skillbooks and gear before you hit 89.

what skill books to choose?

as a tiger barb you will have a bunch of skillbooks to choose from but picking them out isnt alwasy the easiest.

skillbooks are seprated into 3 sections

the lvl 89 books (1 mill spirit and coin to learn)
Note: this does not include price of buying the book
True From
besital rage
Flesh ream
Alacrity of the beast
beast kings inspriation
Shapeshifting Intensity
Feral regenration

First and formost you get your True Form skillbook
for reason unknown to me this is also one the the cheapest skillbooks out there. and on average ranges from 50-250k. If you see the book in auction house for more than that. i recommend waiting fro the price to drop
this skillboks will computle elemiate your true from damage reduction. and will elt u do full damage in tiger form

Beast kings inspiration is another EXTREMELY useful skillbook. however unlike True form its is not remotely cheap. And to be honest, if you ever wish to obtain this book ur pretty much stuck paying w/e the person asks for becuase they only show up for sale once or twice a month. so if u see it.. buy it

shapeshifting intensity is another great skillbook and unless u pay close attention to the site u will miss why.
while the book only says it gives +2% crit, it will also bring youor def boost in tiger form from 60% to 80%.

Besital rage is your 3rd important lvl 89 skillbook
this will change the chi gain per hit from 5 to 8 for the 15 second duration.
it also doubles the magic damage reduction from 2k to 4k if use when under 50% health for 10 seconds
by 89 u will likely have over 10k hp and that extra 2k magc abord will be quite noticeable
but more importantly. the demon version will allow you to gain 3 spark in the amout of hits it previously took you to get 2 sparks.

Flesh ream. This one im not too sure about. the skill damage over time doubles making it roughly equal to the damage per tick of lvl 10 sunder but now able to used every 2.5 seconds. and stacking that damage espically after a devour will well be a nice damage increase. and while im sure that being able to spam ream more often on bosses will increase hate im not sure exactly how much more hate it gives than lvl 10. the main problem here is lack of chi. with sunder devour and now demon spark eating up alot of chi i have found enough to really use on ream.
Update: it seems that Demon Ream still isnt enough to hold aggro from DD's using triple Spark, and until this is changed i see no point in Getting this skill as it doesn't allow to to do more than you could with lvl 10 ream

alacrity of beast.
this cuts down cooldown by 1 second and increased damage. its nice but not that great of an improvement over lvl 10.

feral regeneration
sadly this was 1 skill sage gets all the glory for. while sage will increase ur mana regen by 10 every second. somthing extremly useful. demon just adds 10 more hp per second. at your lvl if you do end up meditation over using pots its ganna be for mana no health. while while i would was as sage this is great. but demon dont really worry about it unless u got cash with nothing to spend it on

the lvl 92 books

Devour
This skill is totally awsome as well as an huge damage increase to the skill itself,
the defense reduction is increased by 5 seconds to a total of 15. which means you need to cast it a lot less saving you a bunch of chi to keep the debuff always active.
this is MUST get.

Axe and Hammer Mastery
this will increase your physical damage by 15% more to 75% from the 60% of lvl 10
and it also gives 2% more crit. always a plus. get this when u can afford it

Posion Fang
this will increase your wood based damage from 30% to 50% a 20% increase. you will certainly notice this especially vs those bm who use alter marrow physical and earth based mobs


Note: fully buffed in true form with demon axe mastery, true form and poison fang (I'm ignoring titans for the moment as its a lvl 99 book)
a demon barb will do +125% (75+50)damage than with over a lvl 88 barb with +40% (60+30-50)

Surf Impact
this adds about 600 more base damage, and a 25% chance to freeze for 4 seconds.
using this skill myself the 25% freeze certainly isn't very reliable, but i was astonished to noticed that the damage increase is Highly noticeable, while this may not be a top priority i definitely recommend it.

Roar
the last 92 skill i will be covering i am not 100% sure about.
Demon roar gives u a 10 second Bramble that returns 100% of physical damage taken during that time.
that in and of itself is awesome but this skill WILL override a veno's bramble.
now having obtained this skill i can say a great deal more about its use. While this skill can get cumbersome with a veno in the sqaud having to recast bramble after each use of roar. its benifits far outweigh this inconvenience. The 100% reflect while it dot not work in PK mode will is extremly useful in Duel, Dragon temple, TW and other pk instances. I cannot keep track of the number of times i have been attck by a APS sin and was able to survive and kill them becuase of this skill. i have also noticed that the reflect damage is dependant on thier defense. while while it works wonders on sins, Blademasters are much more difficult. Still this skill is a much get.




and the lvl 99 books
Sunder
this skill is reason enough excluding all other skill to go demon. as well have changing the heal over time to a 4k instant heal
Demon Sunder makes Ever attack critical for 5 seconds, (including the Sunder itself)
those 5 seconds are enough time to pull off a surf impact or an Armageddon,
this skill also allows u to keep aggro much better when aoeing during times such as FC or Delta
You likely wont find a seller for this skill So plan on either buying pages of fate or doing cube for a long time, 30 pages of fate for 1/4 a chance to get this skill


Strength of Titains
Another very important skill book, this will increase ur damage buff from 30 to 40% as well as give a 5% increase to the squad crit ratio for 1 min.
although as a pure tiger you wont be spamming this skill for the crit buff and likely wont notice it much anyways. The extra 10% damage is Certainly noticeable even with the large range of damage that axes have
this book costs about 9-12 mill

Frighten
the demon version of this skill add a 20% chance to stun the targets for 3 seconds
While this is very nice addition, 25% is hardly reliable and the slow effect and p attack debuff are not increased in duration or percent. I definitely recommend getting this skill. but Sunder and titans are a higher priority. However this skill is also much cheaper than the previous two, costing around only 3 mill

Armageddon:
Truth be told. i haven't even learned lvl 1 Armageddon. so i really have no authority to make any comment on the matter

Baalbak - Dreamweaver

sigh, I seem to be getting mixed signals here as far as endgame stats are concerned. I'll start with the dex req. bit.. you say 52 is the max you need - others say 60 is needed for endgame gear. Neither of those matches the TT 99 weapons requirements of 54 (armor being same dex requirement). If there's another set of gear out there that actually wants 60 dex and is better than the TT final set, one which I am as of yet unaware of, I'd surely like to know about it. What, where, and how is it obtained?

as for build progression - i plugged my own build formulas into an excel spread sheet. The numbers are right on the money for TT endgame (99) gear, and once at that stage - stats can easily be adjusted for equipping TT 100 gear either right at 100 or within a couple levels - definitely before capping - all without restatting once.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/oo279/stryderjones/pwi/TT/buildchart.jpg

Furries - Dreamweaver

Baalbak - Dreamweaver wrote: »

sigh, I seem to be getting mixed signals here as far as endgame stats are concerned. I'll start with the dex req. bit.. you say 52 is the max you need - others say 60 is needed for endgame gear. Neither of those matches the TT 99 weapons requirements of 54 (armor being same dex requirement). If there's another set of gear out there that actually wants 60 dex and is better than the TT final set, one which I am as of yet unaware of, I'd surely like to know about it. What, where, and how is it obtained?

as for build progression - i plugged my own build formulas into an excel spread sheet. The numbers are right on the money for TT endgame (99) gear, and once at that stage - stats can easily be adjusted for equipping TT 100 gear either right at 100 or within a couple levels - definitely before capping - all without restatting once.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/oo279/stryderjones/pwi/TT/buildchart.jpg

Im not sure if i stated it in this version of the guide, but in 1 of my edits i wrote i stats can vary a lot at high lvls due to gear so i only took into account the weapon...

PartyAnimal - Harshlands

Honestly you need to use both forms to be any good b:nosebleed

Furries - Dreamweaver

PartyAnimal - Harshlands wrote: »

Honestly you can't use both forms if u want to be any good b:nosebleed

your sentence had a few errors.. i fixed it for u...

Baalbak - Dreamweaver

before this gets to be a flame war, I just want to say that style branching combos (Mortal Kombat FTW) can be pretty useful. By that I mean you can do a lot of stuff well by utilizing both tiger and human form. I'm strictly a tank stat build myself and of course I have the essential tanking skills and party buffs maxed for my level. But I dabble in picking up a human form skill or two when I've got the SP to spare. Reason being is that even though spamming humanoid skills can present a quicker mana drain and thus higher MP charm/pot cost in the long run, it makes things go faster since we hit for 35% less damage in tiger form. Granted when one goes demon and gets demon true form, you've got the best of both worlds - higher HP and higher pdef from being a tiger, and no more attack strength reduction from being in tiger form. But until that time, if one wants to do some damage once in a while rather than tanking all the time - I don't think it necessarily a bad thing to pick up a few levels of the "essentials" from the humanoid tree as well.

I like Mighty Swing, Swell, Slam, Penetrate armor, Garrote, and Armageddon (yes, the tank build generally gets the best damage out of this skill due to higher HP). I hear bestial onslaught is a good one as well, but I've not gotten it yet since I get by fine right now without it. Another thing I like about grinding humanoid when I've got the coin is that its quicker chi building for those double spark skills like Armageddon, sunder, and invoke since there's more chi building skills on the human tree than there are on the tiger tree.

Jibreel - Harshlands

so thats tanking huh ....
i personally dont like grinding with the tiger form. but if im in FB or anything like that, i go tiger form. so my question is, if im tanking, is it okay if i have flesh realm only at lvl 1? that will attract the mobs right?
so im thinking of getting my humanoid good skills to max. then the other tiger form skills at lvl 1 besides the SS intensity. is this a good idea? this way i can tank right and plus grind fast.

Baalbak - Dreamweaver

I'll put it this way... I was 4x doing a BH on qingzi - had a 7x cleric healing and DDing. I did basically nothing but spam the level of FR I had at the time. Each time she used tempest - I lost agro.

Now I'm 68 and have FR maxed. I don't loose agro that easy against a higher level DD unless someone uses an aggro skill (veno pets with bash or roar generally, or another barb using his FR). Everyone still outdamages me across the board, but I can't honestly say whether FR 1 is as good at holding aggro as FR 10. Sure it can take aggro away from someone right away, even a barb with FR 10. Holding it is a whole different story though. there was a thread about this very issue not too very long ago. only way to know is to get similar build barbs to tank the same boss using the same skill cycle, partied with the same higher level DDs that are doing what they are supposed to do (deal damage). All the above elements are your "control" - the only difference (variable) between the barbs would be their level of FR.

can the guy with level 1 FR hold agro just as easily as the guy with level 10 FR? I'm not so sure he can.

Alyosha - Lost City

I would shoot myself if I couldn't use Humanoid form when solo. Though I think I may spend more time in Tiger once I have sunder.

Also I hit 60 dex some time in my mid 40s and I will simply just add to str and vit from here on out. Actually being able to hit mobs, and deal damage from 1-60 = win.

Barbariankev - Heavens Tear

this guide is somewhat decent but well the OP misses alot off experience
first off all later on you will have loads off spirit so you can use both forms
atleast if you have the money for it
for the rest i dunno but something doesnt seem right

fiznik

As for the question of using lvl 1 flesh ream vs. lvl 10. Hands down lvl. 10 FR will hold more aggro than lvl. 1. As you group with higher levels it will become harder to hold aggro. It kills me to meet lvl 5x barbs asking if they should lvl FR. This is without a doubt THE most important skill a barb can train. Even if you choose to pursue human form skills, I strongly recommend that you max FR ASAP in case you need to regain aggro quickly. At lvl 62 with FR 10 I seldom find myself loosing aggro with that skill alone, even with wiz/BM/archer etc. going crazy off the start. Even if I lose aggro after using FR, the other skills allow me to quickly regain control in most any situation, but w/o FR maxed I've seen barbs have a very hard time holding aggro against wiz/BM/archers even while spamming skills. Remember, as barbs, our job above all, is to make sure all mobs hate us and ignore others. Let others handle the DD, just make sure you keep everyone but your group mates pissed off at you b:laugh

Jibreel - Harshlands

thanks fiznik, i ll lvl FR ASAP while keeping all other tiger skills in lvl 1 right? if i have some more i might lvl roar or devour. but shapeshifting intensity and tiger form i ll max.
humanoid skills, so far i have kept swell at lvl 5, garrote lvl 1, beast king stomp lvl1, penetrate armour and mighty swing the higest i can get. if your wondering abt the swell, its good dmg at low lvls and its kinda an AOE attack.
and abt FR... why not max a kinda AOE tiger attack that will make the monsters aggro at you? FR is only at one enemy right....? or am i wrong? (havent used FR much.. been mostly humanoid and soloing. watching 80+ do my FBs :P)

Alyosha - Lost City

In Tiger you are definitely going to want to level flesh ream, Alacrity of the Beast, and Shapeshifting Intensity, and probably roar aswell. Everythign else is optional till Sunder imo.

For human I'd go with Penetrate, Mighty Swing, Beast Kings inspiration, and Strenght of the Titans maxed, and maybe bloodbath. Everything else lvl 1, till armaggedon

Iseria - Harshlands

Furries - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Note: because roar changes a to a set lvl if u have a moster your attacking at with lots of flesh ream and devour his aggro will most likely go down. Be wary of that

just noticed this. i think you meant:

if u have a monster your attacking at with lots of flesh realm and ROAR his aggro will most likely go down

probably just a mistake you didnt notice, so far the rest of the guide seems good.

Alyosha - Lost City

Iseria - Harshlands wrote: »

just noticed this. i think you meant:


probably just a mistake you didnt notice, so far the rest of the guide seems good.

Actually he just worded it poorly, so you misunderstood him.

Baalbak - Dreamweaver

I personally think leveling roar can be put on the back burner as even at higher levels a DD can still snatch aggro from a mob just by sneezing at it. I only use it if the proverbial fit hits the shan, so I can get a quick aggro reset on the loose mobs giving me a chance to go FR on them. If you want a non damage AoE skill to use as a starter for getting a group of mobs attention without risking heal aggro, use frighten. It has a physical attack debuff that affects all mobs in range so you're doing youreself a favor by increasing your survivability in those situations. Frighten however does not get aggro off of another player. I'd recommend leveling tiger form skills (not including passives) in the following order of importance:

Flesh Ream (max asap)
Alacrity of the Beast (I find that level 8 is perfect, others find that 7 is perfect)
Devour
Surf Impact
Frighten
Roar
Poison Fang

get sunder when its available and level when you have coin/spirit to afford it. Even level 1 of its bleed damage is stronger than Flesh Ream 10. you should also get invoke the spirit as soon as it is available (which means maxing shape shifting intensity).

Iseria - Harshlands

well alacrity's level depends on your internet connection. i leveled it to 7 and worked fine, but when i played at a friends house there was a 0.5 seconds reaction delay that made me cancel one but miss the next one. after that i leveled it to 10, easier to manually cancel than getting a good internet provider.

Hazardus - Heavens Tear

Iseria - Harshlands wrote: »

well alacrity's level depends on your internet connection. i leveled it to 7 and worked fine, but when i played at a friends house there was a 0.5 seconds reaction delay that made me cancel one but miss the next one. after that i leveled it to 10, easier to manually cancel than getting a good internet provider.

^^QFT

Alclarity's cancel is really dependent on your laggyness.....if thats even a word b:chuckle.

The situation is greatly helped if you fleshream and then staright away use alclarity. Takes a bit of practice but works wonders.

Baalbak - Dreamweaver

Hazardus - Heavens Tear wrote: »

The situation is greatly helped if you fleshream and then staright away use alclarity. Takes a bit of practice but works wonders.

Indeed. Again as you said it takes practice and getting used to, but it works for me. Another thing that can help is using bestial rage or side stepping just before alacrity cools down to stop yourself from auto attacking - reason being is that (in case you haven't noticed yet) your skills don't immediately start channeling as soon as you hit the skill icon/button. Your skills' channeling will time with the next attack, so at .83 attacks per second (base attack speed with axes) you have an attack interval of ~1.2 seconds. Therefore you have a potential 1.2 second wait until alacrity will channel, taking another .5 seconds - for a potential total of 1.7 seconds until the cast stage. If not auto attacking, you can hit alacrity and immediately channel, getting your cancel off in only .5 seconds. Mind you it is possible to que up your skills by hitting FR and while it is channeling, hit alacrity so that it executes immediately after FR casts without a delay.

HolyRavage - Lost City

I tried thinking about that, but if you cap Dex at 52, you're gonna miss out on HH 99 gold which makes you hit faster ( especially with a Love: Up and Down ) So why not cap at 54 ?

And the problem about capping stuff for warsoul weaps ... Is that you end up with low hp ..

Wouldnt it be better just to stay with calamities forever and have around 20-25 k HP in HH 90 armour ? IJS

Peace

SteelStar - Heavens Tear

Nice overall guide, but instead of capping your str at 287 you need to cap it at 299 for TT99. Then again that is only if you plan to use the TT99. Just some advice.

BeastKingAkl - Sanctuary

Why don't you try out 3 Str, 2 vit per lvl. And on every second lvl try 3 str 1 vit and 1 dex. This way you can reach the requirements for Warsoul weapons and get up to date with armour. (you could stop once your dex reaches 60 - 52 if u have good armour or a TOME)b:thanks

You should max Flesh ream for tiger skills, Roar. (Aclarity of beast when u have spare spirit -can stop at lvl) Try to max Shapeshifting intensity too. Then focus on Frighten and Sunder.

For non tiger/Humaiod you should max your buffs: Beast king Inpiration, Str of titans and Blood bath - Though some people leave blood bath out.
Next work on mighty swing.penetrate armour and beastial onslaught. These will be usefull for many lvl on dmg too.

XylolyX - Heavens Tear

One thing that needs to be mentioned: accuracy.

If you're not using +accuracy equips (Misties and shards) then no matter how high your HP is, you'll still miss quite a bit with your alacrity. Sure, bloodbath will counter that...but also take 25% of your HP with it. Not worth it, IMO. High Vit build is a good build, but the build should take into account actual game play...Will you hit what you swing at?

My Dex is 62, and accuracy over 1300-(2 misties and a bunch of +accuracy equips) and I still miss alacrity every now and again. The ONLY 100% accuracy skill in tiger is FR, and that's not going to change.

Just something to think about. Every build is viable, just depends upon your gaming style.

Ruli - Heavens Tear

Barbs need skills like every other class.
Ruli here has everything at level apart form the new skills im still farming spirit for. Give me a couple of days ill have that farmed too.
I played on HT for 18 months now, my main is a wizzie lvl 93. Her grinding partner/hubby is a lvl 93 barbarian. Damn good one too.
Ok so technicly im only a part time barbarian but im a full time player if you catch my drift.
Ruli's grinding partner/wifey is a level 80 cleric. Again a complete package, all her skills are maxed for her level apart from the new ones we still grinding spirit for.
About March last year we was grinding mobs on our mains around Immolation camp. Both level 82 but our skills where a mess. Them Crystaline wardens where challenging enough we could kill em fast enough but I had too be carful an we needed too keep an eye on each other.

We took our alts up too same pcace the other day at lvl 79 before we levelled yesterday.
It was no contest, the mobs just die. We went back towards Sirry wine camp an started to aoe grind the cougerats.
It was no contest. We was running out of mobs.
On our mains it wasnt untill we was both 84th level before we felt comfortable aoe grinding these mobs. Both of us where struggling for coin. Our skills at the time where a mess.

So whats changed? Its not that hard too figure it out really.
We both have our skills levelled. Great gear, Actually Ruli's armour is a hand me down ledgendry set. Im running around with 11.2k hp's with TT 80 axes.

This wasnt always the case though, we got these two too 66th level before the genies where introduced. Ruli had only his essential catform skills at level.
FooFoo had her buffs an heals levelled best she could but her attack skills where way behind.

How did we fix it?
We grinded alot for spirit. Dumped xp onto genies and stuck with our skill levelling. Went through alot of genies too. It took us 6 weeks, An yes we both fully appreciate we could have these two knocking on towards level 90 by now. But we also realise that our skills are more important than another level, an that skills trainers skill tree getting out of control.
Back when we was fixing our skills we was killing minions of Allucard above the swamps. At the beggining i needed too be in catform an just killing one was abit of a struggle. By the time we'd finished i could just fly upto one an smack it too death. We hadnt levelled up, our skills had.
Yes it took us an age too sort them out but we both very glad we have.
Now that we have them all at level, life is easy.
We level up, go see the trainer an figure out how much spirit an coin we'll need. Then go grind it, crazy stone world quest it till we got it. Then we do our quests an actually start too level after we fixed our skills.
Other bonus is that we now actually can level up almost as fast as we could on the 'big ones'. But life is so much easier for these two than it was last year in March.
I cannot stress how important flesh ream is it makes me wanna scream when im asked 'should I level flesh ream'?
No dont just level your flesh ream get em all you need em. Just like my Wizzie who now has all her skills needs too be a complete package so does my barb.
Sorry too drone on i just feel its a moot point. We have the ability too do these things but people are so busy chasing another number an forgetting about skills. Slow down the pace an enjoy it. You'll reap the benifits later i promise an this applies too all classes. I will always make new toons in this way from here on in. Why? Because it works.

Geddon - Raging Tide

Thanks for this guide b:laugh
I'm a pure tiger build so this helped me alot, personally i think tiger form is more worth it in the lower lvls, especially in PvE servers since you dont have to pvp:P.
Saves alot of pots and dont really have to worry about your skills (just get ur FR and buffs updated).
If you dont like using real money in a game you should play as a tiger so you wont be the poorest all the time, you can pvp later:D

Traz - Dreamweaver

XylolyX - Heavens Tear wrote: »

One thing that needs to be mentioned: accuracy.

If you're not using +accuracy equips (Misties and shards) then no matter how high your HP is, you'll still miss quite a bit with your alacrity. Sure, bloodbath will counter that...but also take 25% of your HP with it. Not worth it, IMO. High Vit build is a good build, but the build should take into account actual game play...Will you hit what you swing at?

My Dex is 62, and accuracy over 1300-(2 misties and a bunch of +accuracy equips) and I still miss alacrity every now and again. The ONLY 100% accuracy skill in tiger is FR, and that's not going to change.

Just something to think about. Every build is viable, just depends upon your gaming style.

That's why I have 2 immaculate amber shards in my calamity axes. Those things help A LOT when you combine it with misty forest rings.

Yulk - Heavens Tear

I disgree DEX, especially 99, endgame is 54 DEX minimum. I think a lot go with 60 DEX at endgame. DEX is a tad low.

During the levels

3 STR, 0.5 DEX, 1.5 VIT every LVL (6 STR, 1 DEX, 3 VIT every 2 LVLs)

Barb_nico - Harshlands

nice guideb:victory

Jakob - Harshlands

Furries - Dreamweaver wrote: »

your sentence had a few errors.. i fixed it for u...

You really think that you can't be a good barb if you use human form? How obnoxious can you get.. I mean yea you CAN use tiger for grinding and such, and it's basically a must for instances, but is it the only option? Hell no. Have fun when you're 9x and have all of your human skills at 1. You won't be able to pk for sht and how long until you get bored of purely tanking?

IJS
Peace. b:bye