Hello there everygeek and welcome to Poopenstein(#1427, a.k.a. The Doctor)'s Guide to a Barbarian.
The Barbarian is by far my most favourite class because of how up in everyone's business they are and still dont ever find time to care. Like all classes, anyone can set a decent one up, but there are certain things required in order to live through Hell and Inferno.{Turn elective mode as soon as possible, it helps infinetly more than not using it.}
Starting out, you can get some fairly good AoE abilities. At Level 5, you want to use Cleave as your primary attack because you will be swinging at upto half the enemies attacking you which is fantastic because for a few levels its your best AoE effect. I have used Rend and Ground Stomp in all my builds simply for the fact that stunned enemies must take my bleed damage. Ground Stomp with Wrenching Smash comboed with Rend and Lacerate make a killer duo when in areas with 'hordes' of enemies. Depending on how much life you lose later on, Revenge could be good (but I used it automatically when I unlocked it). Vengeance with the Vengeance Is Mine rune comboed with Groundstomp/Wrenching Smash is a phenomenal way to fill up your health bar because you only need to hit 12.5 (13) to fill your life and fill your Fury over half way! Its great for then spamming Rend like no tomorrow. Whirlwind was an ok ability to start with in Diablo 2, however with the damage it does based on % Weapon Damage, its great from the start. Before I refined my build I used the Wind Shear rune because in Act 3 Nightmare I would wait for a group of enemies and Infinicast (infinity+cast;use forever) my Whirlwind as to kill them quickly and fill up my Fury incase they scatter, which would be followed by Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash and Rend/Lacerate. Earthquake appears good because of the 2000% weapon damage, but if the enemies flee, the damage goes to waist. I only reccomend it with a stunning ability so people dont go anywhere.
Now onto Primary attacks. I ussed Cleave from Level 3 to 11 because it had a good AoE and you'd want that this early in the game. But at Level 11 you unlock Frenzy which is an amazing attack because you can stack it up to 5 times giving you a 75% bonus to Attack Speed. {Say your base attack speed is 1.43, with a 75% bonus that becomes 2.50 Attacks per Second} If you combo that with Life on Hit (LoH), you gain 75% more life per second. Before refining my class i used the Sidearm rune because it had a chance to hurl a random axe at all enemies in a line which is like attacking them all once.
Besides AoE and Primary attacks, the Barbarians have Shouts like they did in D2. A very excellent one for early/late game is Battle Rage. Battle Rage is a great ability because you gain an increase in Damage (which is good in both game progressions) and 3% critical hit chance (great in all phases of gameplay). War Cry is a great ability with the rune Impunity (eventhough its a Level 60 rune), but earlier you would benefit the most by using the Charge (generate 40 Fury rather than 20) or Invigorate (like the Sith Marauders ability Fury(?)) where you regenerate life per second. If you're doing speed runs, Sprint/Run Like The Wind is a good combo because you run around the enemies and they get hurt by the tornadoes you expel (pair that with Whirlwind and you're set to kill).
Passive skills are almost as important as your gear. They are invaluable tools that turns a normal Barbarian into a blood thirsty machine.
My favourite Passives are Ruthless, Nerves of Steel, Weapons Master, Bloodthirst, and Brawler.
At level 10 I recommend Pound of Flesh over Ruthless because chances are you dont have any LoH gear. At Level 20 recommend adding any of the other 3 (again depending on your set up). At level 24 I suggest utilizing Bloodthirst because of the Life Steal {Say you have 1350 Life and 150 DPS, if you use Rend with Blood Lust, per enemy you will gain 136.0 per enemy hit, which means you only need to hit 9.93 (10) enemies to fill up your health!} At Level 30 I used Nerves of Steel, Ruthless, and Bloodthirst (that was the start of my Tank). I used that set up for a few levels until I was in Act 3 Nightmare where I swapped Ruthless for Brawler because of all the enemies in the vicinity of me at all times.
After getting seggestions from my friends, my set up is as follows (I'm a Level 13 Paragon)
Left mouse: Whirlwind/Hurricane
Right mouse: Bash/Instigation
"1": Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash or Sprint/Run Like The Wind (< Inferno Power 0-1 runs)
"2": Battle Rage/Into the Fray
"3": Rend/Lacerate
"4": Wrath of the Berserker/Insanity
Passive 1: Ruthless
Passive 2: Bloodthirst
Passive 3: Weapons Master
Now you need to set up your class. Here is a good way/good guide line
Level 13: Primary Frenzy, Secondary Ground Stomp "1" Hammer of the Ancients "2" Rend/Ravage
Level 14: Put Weapon Throw in the "3" slot.
Level 15: Put the Smash rune on Hammer of the Ancients
Level 18: Put the Wrenching Smash rune on Ground Stomp
Level 19: Put Revenge in "4" with the rune Vengeance is Mine
Level 22: Swap out Battle Rage for Weapon Throw
Level 30: Primary: Frenzy/Side arm
Secondary: Whirlwind/Hurricane
"1": Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash
"2": Battle Rage/Marauder's Rage
"3": Rend/Blood Lust {when your Fury is full and you're surrounded by enemies, spam this}
"4": Wrath of the Berserker
Level 33: Put the run Lacerate on Rend
Level 40: Put the rune Insanity on Wrath of the Berserker
Level 44 [OPTIONAL]: Put the rune Wind Shear on Whirlwind.
Level 46: Put the rune Into The Fray on Battle Rage
One last thing, you also have Passive skill slots which are invaluable to you because of all the extra goodies your Barbarian can obtain. The Passive skills you use is dependent on how your class is set up. I originally wanted to set up my Barb like the Druid Tank in Diablo 2 (Lots of strength and vitality), so I am currently using Weapon Master (with a Skorn), Bloodthirst (as per the Life Steal) and either Ruthless (for the Crit Chance) or Nerves of Steel. But like I said, the Passives you chose is dependent on you and how you set it up.
Something else you need to consider is gear. My original design for my Barbarian (CapnKrunch) was a Tank which is massive points into Vitality and Strength. Early on this worked well, but as it went on, it faltered because of other things i was concerned with. That being said, gear is just as important as your skill set-up.
What a generally good idea to have on your gear always is Increased pickup radius because you're one of two melee classes and usually cant afford to stop attacking and run to that health globe 4 yards away. Early on, you can buy some decent rings from the merchant in New Tristram called Radric the Fence I believe, he usually has rings that give +2-4 Damage and a 2-4% attack speed bonus. If you cannot obtain rings with high (between 20 and 40) of your class stat, you can always go to him. If early on you can get gear with equal amounts of Strength and Vitality, you should be well off for quite awhile. Attack Speed bonuses can be very beneficial on as many items as possible because the more attacks per second you make, the more damage you inflict.Dual Wielding weapons can be beneficial sometimes, but others you want a Two-Handed weapon or a Weapon and (yes, I know, one of the worst items in the game currently) a Shield. Early on if you cant find a good weapon to dual, find a shield with +50 Strength as a minimum and a socket so you can put a gem in there to add more to Strength. There is a Legendary Level 34 shield called Denial that is amazing for its level. { http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/denial } If you look at that page you can see what it can do. If you can't, let me spell it out here.
429–509
Armor
+10.0-20.0% Chance to Block 180–(280-305) Block Amount
+109-126 Armor
Reduces duration of control impairing effects by 5-6%
Reduces damage from melee attacks by 2-4%.
One of 2 Magic Properties (varies)
+3-4% Life +5-7% Life
+2 Random Magic Properties
I'd say thats pretty good for a Level 34 Shield. What you could also use is Level Reduced gear. My friend is a Level 49 Demon Hunter with Level 60 required gear. If you do not know the benefit of Level Reduction, you're missing out. It basically allows people to wear awesome gear at a lower level. My Barbarian had about 1200 DPS until level 47. Thats when i found a level 60 Sworn reduced by 12 levels. My DPS was multiplied by 5 (7200 DPS) with just 1 Reduced Level item!! Imagine if I had decked out every slot possible with Reduced Level Gear.{Go for Reduced Level Gear. Yes you will most likely find better, but now you will need it because if you're not geared for Hell, you will die.}
Lastly are 6 little things under the Details button of your inventory. I am talking about Elemental Resistances. In Inferno, they are as important as having 5000 Armor, and the higher they are, the more you'll be saved from those annoying elite affixes. My highest resistance is 850 Fire (but thats because I have an Andriels Visage with 16% more taken), but thats beside the point. The point is unless you want to die from an Arcane Sentry touching you with 1 pixle, you need resistances.
A good piece of armor early on is a level 36 Chest piece called Changmail { http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/chaingmail }. Not only can it give you All Resist, but it can give individual Resistances which is icing on the Cake of Immunity. Another tip is to look for one with 2 sockets so you can put gems in it and one with Strength. If when your Level 60 you can get All Resist on every piece of armor, you can be well off for awhile until you find a Set with Resistances (Immortal King's)
I tried to get Critical Hit Chance on as many pieces of gear as possible. My Critical Chance unbuffed is 53.5%. I recommend having atleas 50% unbuffed so that you have a Critical Hit more often than not.
Thanks for reading and feel free to look me up on BattleNet as Poopenstein#1427 or shoot me an email at thedoctorisinnow@gmail.com with suggestions as to what I can add to this and possibly do reviews of on my upcoming YouTube channel.
0
The Barbarian is by far my most favourite class because of how up in everyone's business they are and still dont ever find time to care. Like all classes, anyone can set a decent one up, but there are certain things required in order to live through Hell and Inferno.{Turn elective mode as soon as possible, it helps infinetly more than not using it.}
Starting out, you can get some fairly good AoE abilities. At Level 5, you want to use Cleave as your primary attack because you will be swinging at upto half the enemies attacking you which is fantastic because for a few levels its your best AoE effect. I have used Rend and Ground Stomp in all my builds simply for the fact that stunned enemies must take my bleed damage. Ground Stomp with Wrenching Smash comboed with Rend and Lacerate make a killer duo when in areas with 'hordes' of enemies. Depending on how much life you lose later on, Revenge could be good (but I used it automatically when I unlocked it). Vengeance with the Vengeance Is Mine rune comboed with Groundstomp/Wrenching Smash is a phenomenal way to fill up your health bar because you only need to hit 12.5 (13) to fill your life and fill your Fury over half way! Its great for then spamming Rend like no tomorrow. Whirlwind was an ok ability to start with in Diablo 2, however with the damage it does based on % Weapon Damage, its great from the start. Before I refined my build I used the Wind Shear rune because in Act 3 Nightmare I would wait for a group of enemies and Infinicast (infinity+cast;use forever) my Whirlwind as to kill them quickly and fill up my Fury incase they scatter, which would be followed by Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash and Rend/Lacerate. Earthquake appears good because of the 2000% weapon damage, but if the enemies flee, the damage goes to waist. I only reccomend it with a stunning ability so people dont go anywhere.
Now onto Primary attacks. I ussed Cleave from Level 3 to 11 because it had a good AoE and you'd want that this early in the game. But at Level 11 you unlock Frenzy which is an amazing attack because you can stack it up to 5 times giving you a 75% bonus to Attack Speed. {Say your base attack speed is 1.43, with a 75% bonus that becomes 2.50 Attacks per Second} If you combo that with Life on Hit (LoH), you gain 75% more life per second. Before refining my class i used the Sidearm rune because it had a chance to hurl a random axe at all enemies in a line which is like attacking them all once.
Besides AoE and Primary attacks, the Barbarians have Shouts like they did in D2. A very excellent one for early/late game is Battle Rage. Battle Rage is a great ability because you gain an increase in Damage (which is good in both game progressions) and 3% critical hit chance (great in all phases of gameplay). War Cry is a great ability with the rune Impunity (eventhough its a Level 60 rune), but earlier you would benefit the most by using the Charge (generate 40 Fury rather than 20) or Invigorate (like the Sith Marauders ability Fury(?)) where you regenerate life per second. If you're doing speed runs, Sprint/Run Like The Wind is a good combo because you run around the enemies and they get hurt by the tornadoes you expel (pair that with Whirlwind and you're set to kill).
Passive skills are almost as important as your gear. They are invaluable tools that turns a normal Barbarian into a blood thirsty machine.
My favourite Passives are Ruthless, Nerves of Steel, Weapons Master, Bloodthirst, and Brawler.
At level 10 I recommend Pound of Flesh over Ruthless because chances are you dont have any LoH gear. At Level 20 recommend adding any of the other 3 (again depending on your set up). At level 24 I suggest utilizing Bloodthirst because of the Life Steal {Say you have 1350 Life and 150 DPS, if you use Rend with Blood Lust, per enemy you will gain 136.0 per enemy hit, which means you only need to hit 9.93 (10) enemies to fill up your health!} At Level 30 I used Nerves of Steel, Ruthless, and Bloodthirst (that was the start of my Tank). I used that set up for a few levels until I was in Act 3 Nightmare where I swapped Ruthless for Brawler because of all the enemies in the vicinity of me at all times.
After getting seggestions from my friends, my set up is as follows (I'm a Level 13 Paragon)
Left mouse: Whirlwind/Hurricane
Right mouse: Bash/Instigation
"1": Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash or Sprint/Run Like The Wind (< Inferno Power 0-1 runs)
"2": Battle Rage/Into the Fray
"3": Rend/Lacerate
"4": Wrath of the Berserker/Insanity
Passive 1: Ruthless
Passive 2: Bloodthirst
Passive 3: Weapons Master
Now you need to set up your class. Here is a good way/good guide line
Level 13: Primary Frenzy, Secondary Ground Stomp "1" Hammer of the Ancients "2" Rend/Ravage
Level 14: Put Weapon Throw in the "3" slot.
Level 15: Put the Smash rune on Hammer of the Ancients
Level 18: Put the Wrenching Smash rune on Ground Stomp
Level 19: Put Revenge in "4" with the rune Vengeance is Mine
Level 22: Swap out Battle Rage for Weapon Throw
Level 30: Primary: Frenzy/Side arm
Secondary: Whirlwind/Hurricane
"1": Ground Stomp/Wrenching Smash
"2": Battle Rage/Marauder's Rage
"3": Rend/Blood Lust {when your Fury is full and you're surrounded by enemies, spam this}
"4": Wrath of the Berserker
Level 33: Put the run Lacerate on Rend
Level 40: Put the rune Insanity on Wrath of the Berserker
Level 44 [OPTIONAL]: Put the rune Wind Shear on Whirlwind.
Level 46: Put the rune Into The Fray on Battle Rage
One last thing, you also have Passive skill slots which are invaluable to you because of all the extra goodies your Barbarian can obtain. The Passive skills you use is dependent on how your class is set up. I originally wanted to set up my Barb like the Druid Tank in Diablo 2 (Lots of strength and vitality), so I am currently using Weapon Master (with a Skorn), Bloodthirst (as per the Life Steal) and either Ruthless (for the Crit Chance) or Nerves of Steel. But like I said, the Passives you chose is dependent on you and how you set it up.
Something else you need to consider is gear. My original design for my Barbarian (CapnKrunch) was a Tank which is massive points into Vitality and Strength. Early on this worked well, but as it went on, it faltered because of other things i was concerned with. That being said, gear is just as important as your skill set-up.
What a generally good idea to have on your gear always is Increased pickup radius because you're one of two melee classes and usually cant afford to stop attacking and run to that health globe 4 yards away. Early on, you can buy some decent rings from the merchant in New Tristram called Radric the Fence I believe, he usually has rings that give +2-4 Damage and a 2-4% attack speed bonus. If you cannot obtain rings with high (between 20 and 40) of your class stat, you can always go to him. If early on you can get gear with equal amounts of Strength and Vitality, you should be well off for quite awhile. Attack Speed bonuses can be very beneficial on as many items as possible because the more attacks per second you make, the more damage you inflict.Dual Wielding weapons can be beneficial sometimes, but others you want a Two-Handed weapon or a Weapon and (yes, I know, one of the worst items in the game currently) a Shield. Early on if you cant find a good weapon to dual, find a shield with +50 Strength as a minimum and a socket so you can put a gem in there to add more to Strength. There is a Legendary Level 34 shield called Denial that is amazing for its level. { http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/denial } If you look at that page you can see what it can do. If you can't, let me spell it out here.
+10.0-20.0% Chance to Block
180–(280-305) Block Amount
+109-126 Armor
- One of 2 Magic Properties (varies)
Reduces duration of control impairing effects by 5-6%
Reduces damage from melee attacks by 2-4%.
+3-4% Life
+2 Random Magic Properties+5-7% Life
I'd say thats pretty good for a Level 34 Shield. What you could also use is Level Reduced gear. My friend is a Level 49 Demon Hunter with Level 60 required gear. If you do not know the benefit of Level Reduction, you're missing out. It basically allows people to wear awesome gear at a lower level. My Barbarian had about 1200 DPS until level 47. Thats when i found a level 60 Sworn reduced by 12 levels. My DPS was multiplied by 5 (7200 DPS) with just 1 Reduced Level item!! Imagine if I had decked out every slot possible with Reduced Level Gear.{Go for Reduced Level Gear. Yes you will most likely find better, but now you will need it because if you're not geared for Hell, you will die.}
Lastly are 6 little things under the Details button of your inventory. I am talking about Elemental Resistances. In Inferno, they are as important as having 5000 Armor, and the higher they are, the more you'll be saved from those annoying elite affixes. My highest resistance is 850 Fire (but thats because I have an Andriels Visage with 16% more taken), but thats beside the point. The point is unless you want to die from an Arcane Sentry touching you with 1 pixle, you need resistances.
A good piece of armor early on is a level 36 Chest piece called Changmail { http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/chaingmail }. Not only can it give you All Resist, but it can give individual Resistances which is icing on the Cake of Immunity. Another tip is to look for one with 2 sockets so you can put gems in it and one with Strength. If when your Level 60 you can get All Resist on every piece of armor, you can be well off for awhile until you find a Set with Resistances (Immortal King's)
I tried to get Critical Hit Chance on as many pieces of gear as possible. My Critical Chance unbuffed is 53.5%. I recommend having atleas 50% unbuffed so that you have a Critical Hit more often than not.
Thanks for reading and feel free to look me up on BattleNet as Poopenstein#1427 or shoot me an email at thedoctorisinnow@gmail.com with suggestions as to what I can add to this and possibly do reviews of on my upcoming YouTube channel.
Thanks, and have a fun gaming experience.
-Dr. P