Is there a use for Barbs other than tank?

I'm not quite sure how you can like Barbarian, but not like tanking. Barbarians are designed for tanking. If you use them for another purpose, you're effectively being a Blademaster. If Blademaster bores you, you might want to try another class.

fuzzles wrote: »

They're basically BMs, except with tanking abilities, slightly less damage and a lot more awesomeness.

If a barb is a BM, but different, doesn't that basicly means that a BM isn't a barb, and consequently that a barb isn't a BM b:shocked

yup,

WB are meant to tank. sure they have a lower DMG output than BMs... but thats cause they are given skills to actually hold aggro. (i think BMs might have one or two... but they are nothing compaired to a WB's) not to mention their survivability.

And TBH it's all about how you build your character. The WB's Humanoid skills are excellent for PvP as well as PvE... if you want your WB to be a decent DD, dont lvl tiger or any of its skills. Just stick to the humanoid form, its that simple!

fuzzles wrote: »

Well, that'd be your problemo. Take off your stripey suit and wave around your axes in human form. Or level your poison fang some more.. or axe mastery, or strength of titans. Something like that.

Dont have No problemo with it. It was thanks to my lvl3 tigerform (and some uber clerics from guild b:dirty) that I was able to tank FB69 bosses for them at lvl65. b:cool

But yeah the skills you mention are my No1 priority now that all my "tanker" buffs and skills are maxed. I'm never going humanoid. Cant cancel mob's casting and all my humanoid skills are at lvl1.....b:chuckle

Brannin - Sanctuary wrote: »

As someone who has a lvl65 Blademaster as well as this WB, I'd figure I'd chime in on this conversation. Blademasters can tank quite well. Between Stream Strike and the damage they produce, they can hold aggro well. Also with their Aura and Alter Marrow skills, both their physical and magical defences will far surpass that of a WB.

With cleric and self buffs, my BM can hit 4.5k hp and either 10k physical defence or 4k magical defence, depending which Alter Marrow I use. This WB with cleric and self buffs hits 6.6k hp, 7.5k physical defence and about 2.5k magic defence. Put a BM and WB in same squad and thier hp and physical def would be very close to each others.

Then there's the difference maker for tanking: Flesh Ream. I can pull aggro from a BM in about 10secs flat using it. As the only 2 classes capable of taking physical hits, you can see why people prefer a WB for tanking. Aggro control.

On the damage side, even with all humanoid skills maxed, a WB will never touch the type of damage or soloing ease a BM can produce. Period. Even with Perdition.

In closing, WB are kings of the tanking mountain. If you want a damage dealer that can take some hits, make a BM.

edit - nevermind

Obviously fuzzles, you didn't read my post. I'm not pulling facts out of the air. I'm speaking from the experience of one who has both a blademaster and a barb in the lvl 65 range. So let's give you some fun facts.

1) Stream Strike does work in the intended way, though obviously not as well as Flesh Ream. It's obvious to anyone that's used it for tanking that the damage from it isn't enough to hold aggro off anybody.

2)A barb DOESN'T have way, way more pdef than a blademaster. This is fact, since I use the exact same gear on both of mine. A bm with lvl 10 Aura will have the exact same pdef as a barb in tiger form with lvl 10 shapeshifting if the armor is identical. A barb will have alot more hit points, but not pdef.

3) A blademaster can use Alter Marrow against bosses. A bm has more than enough hit points to survive a single magic attack thrown in while the physical buff is active plus the bonus of Sutra so the cleric doesn't need to do any extra healing to fix it.

4) Every boss I have tanked with barb has been done on my bm at 5 levels higher or less. This isn't the huge level gap, you'd like to believe. 5 levels, not 10 or 15, but 5.

In closing, I'm not debating that a barb is the superior tank. The higher hit points and better aggro managing alone make that so. However, you have obviously not played both a barb AND a bm and are just spouting the same class biased nonsense I see all over these boards and in game. Someone made a comparison earlier in the thread and I figured I'd offer some knowledge based on EXPERIENCE.

And I still stand by my statement that a barb, regardless of build, will never be as good a damage dealer as one of the damage dealing classes. Barbs were meant to be tanks. Period.

Sure bms can tank lower level bosses, but not fb 69 at lvl 70, or higher level bosses. Why? At that level wbs have 2x to 3x more hp than bms, and they need to cancel the boss's shatter, or whole party is dead. Some higher level bosses bms can tank, but if the boss has shatter, good luck b:surrender