Barb Skills

Amrynn - Archosaur

I heard the barbarian skill 'Stomp of the Beast King' is pretty much useless and isn't worth leveling, is this true? and if yes, do I just leave at level 1 or do I go higher then stop?

Is the barbarian skill 'swell' worth leveling? I've left it at level 1 for now...

btw my barb is level 24

Thanks in advance,
Amrynn

CornHilario - Heavens Tear

Here's my take on this....

You should leave Stomp of the Beast King and Garrote at level 1, until you can upgrade it to level 11. Mostly because the damage in Stomp sucks and because Garrote cools down too slow to deal worthwhile bleed damage at all.

I keep both at 1 simply for the lower MP cost. At level 1, their mana costs are virtually 0 and you can use them to replace your slow normal attacks from dual axes/hammers. Stomp is easy to spam too with the 3 second cooldown.

Amrynn - Archosaur

okay, thankyou

OMarvelous - Sanctuary

I put Stomp to level 3 before I realized it wasnt that great, garrotte I use in an attack macro I have so...I cant remember what level it is but its not very high. *shrugs*

Eventually though you replace stomp with mighty swing (which rocks). At least I did.

Baalbak - Dreamweaver

I have garrote at 10 myself and stomp is at like 6. Even still with stomp, the mana cost is pretty damn low compared to your other skills. I don't use it while fighting mobs at all but I use it in PvP and on the occasion when I'm a "DDb:laugh" since it helps build sparks a bit faster and is pretty spammable. as for the using of it "to replace your slow attacks" I say that is total bull...

Stomp of the Beast King Level 10
Range Melee
Mana 47
Channel 0.2 seconds
Cast 0.7 seconds
Cooldown 3.0 seconds
Weapon Axe, Poleaxe, Hammer or Polehammer

Requisite Cultivation Spiritual Initiate
Execute a concussive bash. The enemy suffers base physical damage
plus 727.2.

First off I'll say that with axes we have a base attack speed of .83 attacks per second, or in otherwords 1/.83 = 1.2 second interval between attacks.

Second.. with the wide range of damage potential with axes, the 727.2 will generally result in you doing your max normal attack damage anyhow.

Third... after a skill completes you still have to wait on the attack interval before another normal attack is made. Likewise after a normal attack you have to wait on the next interval before a skill begins. Taking this all into account:

Normal -> 1.2 Seconds interval -> .2 seconds channel -> Stomp -> .7 seconds cast -> 1.2 seconds interval -> normal

Thats three attacks of roughly equivalent strength and 3.3 seconds of doing nothing.

OTOH:

Normal -> 1.2 second interval -> normal -> 1.2 second interval -> normal

Three attacks of roughly equivalent strength and only 2.4 seconds of doing nothing. you be the judge of which is more efficient damage wise.

Reason I have my garrote maxed at 10 is due to the facts that (1) I use it when AoE griding to help build chi (2) using it in place of penetrate armor on single mobs has nearly the same end effect of resulting in less normal hits needed after Bestial Onslaught -> Mighty Swing. And again, it builds chi rather than taking it away. Therefore sparks build faster for sunder/invoke/sparking/armageddon etc..