 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "He is unequaled in close-quarter combat and mastery of weopons." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| STARTING ATTRIBUTES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strength: 30 Dexterity: 20 Vitality: 25 Energy: 10 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hit Points: 55 Stamina: 92 Mana: 10 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AUTO-ATTRIBUTES AT EACH LEVEL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Life +2 Stamina +1 Mana +1.5 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ATTRIBUTE EFFECTS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 Vitality point gives 4 Life 1 Vitality point gives 1 Stamina 1 Energy point gives 1 Mana |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Barbarian is the classic hack and chop at the enimies. Although Blizzard said the Amazon is the best starter I believe it's the Barb. He is the easiest because you don't need to worry about ammo and he doesn't die easily at the beginning. His skills aren't vital so beginning players won't have big problems from choosing wrong. But I'm not saying he's for beginning players only. Not at all. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Combat Masteries | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You ever wonder why Barbarians are so dang strong in almost all categories? Combat Masteries. These include Weapon Masteries, Increased Stamina, Iron Skin, Increased Speed, and Natural Resistance. The Weapon Masteries have 6 types: Sword, Axe, Mace, Pole Arm, Throwing, and Spear. Because putting points into all of them would be alot less effective than using 1 or 2, you definitely should not use all. If you want to use a weapon and sheild put points into one weapon, or if you want to use 2 of some weapon put points only into that weapon mastery. Not that this is to hard to figure out. But some people like to use 2 weapons of different classes. Like a sword and an axe. This is less efficent because you must put points into both masteries and this means less benefits. For if you put points all into Axe Mastery and use 2 axes they both get, lets just say +100% damage, while useing sword and axe putting only half as much into each mastery they both only get +50%. Get it? Yes, yes. You got it before I went into this long explanation. Now on to Increased Stamina. This is great, like all others, for dueling. If running to heal, to a new target, catch up with your target, or, I hope not, but to run away, this is the skill you want. Iron Skin is a very powerful skill. With, I think, 8 skill points invested it will doubled your defense. Nice! Increased Speed adds to your walk/run speed. Since this hidden attribute doesn't naturaly go up many people get boots that boost this. Since you can get walk/run speed without these boots you don't need them. But better yet get them anyway and be God in running shoes! Now the next skill is very important: Natural Resistance. In normal difficulty people don't think about resistance much. And if they do they are practically immune to the elements. But in nightmare dif people are lucky to have resistance. And in hell dif resistance is low. Extremely. So with a Barb with a decent lvl of this skill you won't have nearly as tough of a time as others. Best of all, if you didn't notice, all these skills are passive so you can use some of the skills in the Combat Skills tree and Warcries tree. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Combat Skills | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| These are the fancy hacks (not hacking into the game) and chops. My personal favorite is Whirlwind. First I think it's awsome to see my Barb spinning like Taz. But mostly is just awesomly powerful (if awesomly is even a word). It seems bad because the first 2 lvls in this skill DECREASES the damage, but don't cry because lvl 3 and up it adds to damage and attack rating. It's speed is effected by weapon speed so get at least a medium speed weapon. It can clear a path in enimies so just click behind a group of em and boom: all dead. Some other good skills here are Leap Attack (we've got a Taz, now we move on to Bugs!), Double Swing, and Frenzy. Really Double Swing and Frenzy are just skills to use while waiting for lvl 30 whirlwind. They both require 2 weapons and whirlwind is best with 2 so these are all for 2 weapon chars. Most of the other skills when they attack use the right handed weapon so if you are planning to use them alot, a shield will be alot more useful than an unused weapon. Leap attack is great because it can jump the entire screen. Don't put more than 1 point into Leap because all it's good for is giving access to Leap Attack. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Warcries | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| My Barb doen't even use Warcries so I'm not the expert. Well, he uses Find Item. Find Item is a skill that digs though a corpse of a monster and randomly pulls out an item. Each lvl the chance is larger but i'm not sure if the chanse of getting a magic item goes up. I'm not even really sure if your magic find helps. As I said: I'm defiantly not the expert. I thought this was a cool skill because you get, knd of, a second chanse with each kill to find an item or another item. But I think it's completely ramdom so if I used it on, say, Baal I wouldn't get a Baal class weapon. So maybe skill is a waste. The other Warcries give bonuses to various places. These should only be used in multiplayer. I think the best is Battle Command, witch makes each skill used one lvl higher! Just think with lots of players: more Skeletons, better Aura, better Sorc spells..... And the best part is with a few points adding, like, 30 seconds each you will be able to easly switch skills and enjoy haveing your Combat Skills pumped up. Ok, I admit it. I lied. The best part is if each skill is pumped up by one, all you and your party's PASSIVE skills are boosted too! Now that's a lot of bonuses! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attribute Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Many people pump like every point in to STG, but I like a more rounded Barb. STG is still the the attribute you should pump into most, but not by alot. Dex is very important for hitting enimies. Not having enough DEX is like the Druid's Werebear: does loads of damage but hits only half the time. Vitality is needed very bad, too. STG is like damage and gets boosted with Weapon Masteries, Dex with them, too (attack rating), but life is, I think, the only major stat that's not boosted with Masteries. Other than mana. ERG is needed alot more then thought. If you plan on Whirlwinding alot you need ERG. It's a fact. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Equipment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weapon: I like using 2 swords. Barbs can have 2 2-handed swords (not only 2 weapons!), so this is the best idea. Armor: Really just nice armor, defensive wise. With Iron Skill you will be loaded. Barbs have a helmet as their unique item. Defiantly use one, for they give quit nice defense, and give skills. Get Passive, Whirlwind, or Find Item. All three is you can! Rings & Ammy: Nothing fancy, just the normal: magic find or skill points. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Custon Character Design | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GrinDark is my Barb. He is made the same way I wrote above. He uses Whirlwind. But his main power is in Passive. Since he uses swords he has Sword Mastery with greatly pumps up his attack rating and damage. I got more points in Increased Stamina than I normaly use, but this is fine with me. I hate to run out of stamina and in duels this will be great. For both running and chasing. And it's not imposible to run out when monsters aren't about to slow you down. And Increased Speed is very nice. In duels Zons with speed boots like to shoot and run, and shoot and run some more. I'm not dissing this because it's a very good tactic, but it's what will kill a Barb. So with Increased Speed catch up the them! Iron Skin is amazing all the time, but really shines with higher characters. Pumping up defence by 100% with 500 or more defense armor? Oh, yea! Natural Resistance is great for duels and normal play. In normal play those pesky mages in A4 won't be nearly as fatal, and in duels people with weopons and charms with high elemental damage just got screwed. See, if you didn't get it before I hope you got it now. Passive is the key to a Barb. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to Diablo II page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||