Strength Barbs

Helbear - Heavens Tear

So ive been thinking about making a barb but im a fan of high damage and ive seen the damage barbs can do and was wondering how a high strength, low vit barb would be?

Would it be possible to still be a decent tank for BH aswel or not?

inisj

A strength barb is not a very good idea, as barbs gain little extra damage from spending points on strength. You will end up with a weak barb with mediocre damage.

Play to the strengths of the character class, put your points into vit and build a tank.

A barb will not have great damage until 9x, when your damage dealing should massively increase due to demon/sage skills.

i.e demon barb with zerk weapon + 40%+ crit rate + 300% crit dmg = damage dealer

Lycanthar - Sanctuary

inisj wrote: »

A strength barb is not a very good idea, as barbs gain little extra damage from spending points on strength. You will end up with a weak barb with mediocre damage.

Play to the strengths of the character class, put your points into vit and build a tank.

A barb will not have great damage until 9x, when your damage dealing should massively increase due to demon/sage skills.

i.e demon barb with zerk weapon + 40%+ crit rate + 300% crit dmg = damage dealer

+40% crit, whut?
+300% dmg, whut?

Did you mean +35% crit for Demon Bestial Onslaught and +500% damage for demon spark?

MoonUsagi - Heavens Tear

I think barb can do good damage too if they build their strength like a BM, but that mean don't trying so hard to tank. b:bye
I seen quiet a lot damage barbarian these day though. b:chuckle

XylolyX - Heavens Tear

Umm...how about no. Barbs are not generally DD. Adding extra strength is NOT going to increase significantly the DPS of a barb.

Vitality and HP is the barb's friend. He's not there to do anything but get hit, keep the mobs & bosses angry and cancel magic/aoe attacks.

Try to do additional damage while you are tanking and most likely you'll play musical aggro with the real DDs who are pulling 20K, 30K and 50K non-crit attacks. Yeah that's fun since the aggro reset causes magic/aoe attack reset.

If you want to be a DPS toon, roll a BM-they can be used to tank and DD, and some of them do it extremely well.

Yulk - Heavens Tear

Ok, a barb should not sacrifice his VIT for STR because they are tanks for a reason. You want to deal damage as a barb? Then go ahead, but don't let the VIT get low. I won't stop you OP.

I advise you to go 3.5 STR, 0.5 DEX and 1 VIT per LVL if you want to deal bigger damage. You don't have to be standard VIT if you don't want to. But you cannot try to make a class what it isn't meant for.

Helbear - Heavens Tear

My main objective is to not tank, it was to try and be a pure DD barb but i asked about tanking in cases where barbs were hard to find for BH or FB.

Yes i know barbs are tanks but i wanted to see what it would be like being a barb that wasnt a tank and went for pure damage using axes, like a BM in barbs fur. I wouldnt level any tiger form skills and just pure human form.

Kephras - Heavens Tear

You want to know what it's like?
-No one will like your character.
-You're likely to lose duels or PvP
-No one will want a barb in squad who can't tank (properly)
-You'll do only slightly better damage, and burn a lot more mana pots (or eviscerate a spirit charm)

I'm not one to speak against someone trying new things for themselves - heck, my build is absurd for a "tanking" barb. If it's fun for you, go for it. Just be aware that you're taking on a great many disadvantages for very slight improvements.

Knownase - Heavens Tear

Ehhhh str-base is do-able, just need +10 vit stones to replace the vit loss.



.....but refines is a barb's best friend for higher DD power, maybe a garnet gem added to the mix as well. lol

XylolyX - Heavens Tear

Kephras - Heavens Tear wrote: »

You want to know what it's like?
-No one will like your character.
-You're likely to lose duels or PvP
-No one will want a barb in squad who can't tank (properly)
-You'll do only slightly better damage, and burn a lot more mana pots (or eviscerate a spirit charm)

What Keph said.

You may have fun playing solo, but in a squad you will be seen as fail.

Why fail? You won't hold aggro, you don't have enough DD power and your AOEs are less effective and further you have 0 possibility of stunning more than one mob.

Yulk - Heavens Tear

Kephras - Heavens Tear wrote: »

You want to know what it's like?
-No one will like your character.
-You're likely to lose duels or PvP
-No one will want a barb in squad who can't tank (properly)
-You'll do only slightly better damage, and burn a lot more mana pots (or eviscerate a spirit charm)

I'm not one to speak against someone trying new things for themselves - heck, my build is absurd for a "tanking" barb. If it's fun for you, go for it. Just be aware that you're taking on a great many disadvantages for very slight improvements.

What they said is true, but if you want to more deal damage, then thats fine. What happens if your the only barb in the squad now and in need of a tank? That means you have to use your going to need VIT, but you don't have to be pure VIT if you don't want to.

The minimum stats for a barb is 3 STR, 0.5 DEX, 1 VIT and 0.5 free each LVL.

What stats should a barb have at 99 is 299 STR , 54 DEX and 103 VIT, there is 49 free points you can add on either add the rest of those points in STR, DEX or VIT. That way you will do fine either way.

Must - Lost City

Helbear - Heavens Tear wrote: »

So ive been thinking about making a barb but im a fan of high damage and ive seen the damage barbs can do and was wondering how a high strength, low vit barb would be?

Would it be possible to still be a decent tank for BH aswel or not?

BM is ur answer,,,
:bye

VlLKASS - Sanctuary

Kephras - Heavens Tear wrote: »

You want to know what it's like?
-No one will like your character.
-You're likely to lose duels or PvP
-No one will want a barb in squad who can't tank (properly)
-You'll do only slightly better damage, and burn a lot more mana pots (or eviscerate a spirit charm)

I'm not one to speak against someone trying new things for themselves - heck, my build is absurd for a "tanking" barb. If it's fun for you, go for it. Just be aware that you're taking on a great many disadvantages for very slight improvements.

Lol... I have a lot of points in str.. much more than I need... You don't need uber high hp 30k to tank stuff... However after +89 (went sage) I had real bad issues with holding agro. Started pumping points into str instead of vit as before... In my opinion helped a lot.

To the OP: if u want a DD , this isnt the class for you, in most cases u'll be expected to tank not do dmg.

Fuzzy_Wuzzy - Raging Tide

Yulk - Heavens Tear wrote: »

The minimum stats for a barb is 3 STR, 0.5 DEX, 1 VIT and 0.5 free each LVL.

What stats should a barb have at 99 is 299 STR , 54 DEX and 103 VIT, there is 49 free points

Honestly, me sick of people throwing out numbers like this. There is no hard and fast rule that you MUST have this and MUST have that... there is a need to look ahed 5-10 levels when assigning your stats, but the idea that there is some "rule" that if you ignore you = fail.... this only leads to self-doubt among the lower barbs and they are scared to spend a single point in case they "mess up their build" ....all total b.s. Just use some logic and spend a few min thinking about what you want and build accordingly.

VlLKASS - Sanctuary wrote: »

You don't need uber high hp 30k to tank stuff...

Vilkass hit the nail on the head... the idea that you need an unreal amount of hp to tank doesn't seem to hold true to me. You obviously can't forsake it, you are the punching bag of the squad, but there is nothing wrong with sacrificing some hp for more str and a bit of dex. Refine and shard to make up any gaps, you good to go.

Helbear - Heavens Tear

Right having read what all of you have said ive changed my mind abit.

I still want a high strength barb but with maybe a base vit of 40 or 50 then that way I have some HP to tank BH and FB (Personally I hate TT so I try to avoid the runs if I can b:laugh) and I dont PVP at all so I dont personally see a need for uber high HP.

Do you think that is better? Higher damage but also abit more HP for tanking if needed.

Cirax - Dreamweaver

I've seen fist barbs that can do massive dps, but only in endgame (i've seen few before level 89 and it's not worth it imo). I honestly think going DEX is more advantageous then STR because each addition str adds very little to attack, whereas dex improves crit/accuracy and opens the use of fists which have a much better dps than regular barb weapons on a STR build.

Even with less fist damage than BM's, you'd still have lots of hp in comparison. I've seen fist barbs maul others in PvP (even BMs). In PvE, 89+ fist barbs can generally tank BH, but before that I think going STR or DEX isn't a good idea. BM is a better choice for a dps/tank mix.

Lycanthar - Sanctuary

I have 297 str (gear minimum for 97 hammers) and interval wrists (TT90 gold).

As a demon, using spark and debuff I have no problem keeping boss aggro on pure DPS alone, and yes against very potent end-game DD's. I wouldn't recommend breaking your barb's build for extra damage, as illustrated above there are other ways to go about it.

Just do yourself a favour and go demon if you want to focus on a high DPS build.

I alternate between +7 GX and +5 lvl 97 legendary hammers, and for me it feels like the additional -0.10 interval on the hammers makes up for the lack of refine and zerk compared to the GX. They both seem to hold the same amount of aggro when concentrating on sparking constantly and building chi.

The only time I really have a problem is when a crazy DD goes out of his/her way to challenge me for aggro, but thankfully that doesn't happen too often. ^^

Kephras - Heavens Tear

Cirax - Dreamweaver wrote: »

I honestly think going DEX is more advantageous then STR because each addition str adds very little to attack, whereas dex improves crit/accuracy and opens the use of fists which have a much better dps than regular barb weapons on a STR build.

Quoted for (partial) truth.
-Barbs get some of the best accuracy & evasion bonuses, per DEX, in the game
(same accuracy as archer, better evasion [for what little that's worth])
Admittedly, BM has the best in both categories, but it's worth noting.
-Until endgame gears and -interval become a serious option, DEX with the idea of massive fist/claw DPS isn't worth it, IMO. Unless you're willing to refine your fist/claw to ridiculous levels, it just won't make enough difference against true DD classes.
However, that's not to say fist/claw doesn't have a use in tanking - I've found that using Invoke, swapping to human, and pounding away with fists for a couple seconds fills the chi bar back up very nicely. (Added bonus: Annihilator of Souls is lovely for restoring MP too ^_^)
-I can't speak for everyone, but when I see 10k, 12k, 15k, and 13k crits pop up one after another, it makes me feel all warm & fuzzy. Fuzzy-er, I mean. Not having to buy a Misty or sacrifice HP with Bloodbath to actually hit something is also a pretty good feeling.

Of course, take that all with a grain of salt, since it's mostly based on my own personal experiences. I have lower HP and far more DEX than a "proper" tank my level ought to, but if you were to ask any squad I've joined, they'd all be able to tell you I perform more than adequately Bottom line, don't be discouraged to try something different.

(For the curious: Current Build)

Dagnatic - Sanctuary

Bad idea... i tired on my main up untill lvl 40 to be a DD barb but serisously its a pain... every one expects you to tank just cos your a barb which in turn being a DD barb gets them all killed cos the BM will steal your agro. up untill lvl 25 it will work fine but after that you will find your self strugling to beat mobs every one els your lvl can do without any touble then you spend from 25 to around 40 trying to coerct your build.

I seriously havnt added any dex to may barb scince lvl 30 and I still wont have the coerect amount of dex till lvl 70 my vit is way to low and and my str is only just high enough to equip wepons.. so if you are planing to make a barb dont make it DD no one will give you any slack and no one will want to squad with you.

Every one calls a barb that dies faild even though they have the right to be w/e build they want, every one willl expect you to be the tank, which you wont be, and you will end up with the blame for the whole squad dieing.

cheers