I know its an old game and bla bla bla, but much about the depressing state of the Barbarian it’s due to being a fundamentally bad designed class. Barbs have the least amount of possible builds while having the most amount of janky skills. I blame this mostly due to the fact that it was probably the first class to be designed in D2, everything about the barb is primitive, I mean why do they have 2 trees dedicated to passive buffs? I won’t even count the offensive cries cuz they are terrible. In the combat tree nothing really works together it’s just a bunch of random visually unappealing skills that realistically only give you 2 build choices.
Anyway I don’t even know if it’s possible but if there’s one class that could use a real overhaul this class is the barbarian, I think they desperately need some new skills to make the class more interesting.
While I get where you’re coming from I kinda disagree, you say Barb has the least amount of builds but I’m pretty sure it’s the opposite? I will agree tho that skills such as Stun that never get used, could be removed completely and replaced with something more interesting (a simple Cleave skill, perhaps, or like a “stationary whirlwind” maybe). And of course I would love for throwing mastery to be changed to include Bows/Xbows as well, or just add a “bow mastery” if that’s easier, maybe combine spear/polearm mastery in it’s place.
Hey now I love pure leap attack build, for single target it’s pretty strong, and that’s before the patch/buffs, I expect it to be a legitimate and real build next patch (it already is, it’s just more of a meme tho)
There is ww frenzy zerker/conc barb all very viable in hell. Warcry barbs need a buff with decreased mana per cry and increased dmg to make them faster but still viable.
We don’t need a complete overhaul, just some buffs.
Please educate yourself before making so bold statements
For the purposes of the below points, i am operating from the perspective of the frenzy variety:
Frenzy barb synergies have to be doubled - as it stands you cannot get max frenzy damage without sacrificing BO. Increase stamina is cool and all that, but noone has the points spare to put into that.
Attack is an issue only melee suffer with. Dexterity should add more to your attack rating.
Damage is everything. Str damage bonus needs upping.
-Blunt weapons are pants, because they dont have the runewords to go with them. Make scourges 6 slotters, and open up other runewords to fit blunt. Perhaps blunt weapons should get more crushing blow, and break physical immunes in some cases outside of just undead.
-IAS is a constant problem unless you are dual phaseblading. Please make second weapon IAS count toward frenzy calc.
-Make old school uniques great again! Give me an eth grandfather with 3 sockets (at least).
-A massive 2 hand thunder maul should outdamage a little blue shortsword. Fix it.
-Make defence worth having.
Most importantly of all. A BiS frenzy barb should kill a 1-2-1 target faster than anyone else all of that time. That is the niche, that is why we dont get any of the other fancy stuff, as we are supposed to be specialists. Let us be special at that.
You could argue that Paladin is just as bad if not worse when it comes to viable skills.
He has 2 skill tabs that has been completely gutted by handing out Auras everywhere.
The only true melee attack skill he has is Zeal.
Sacrifice:
Damage to self (dmg is taken before life leech)
Can’t use Crit or Deadly Strike
Poor attack speed
Damage vs Demon/Undead doesn’t work
Vengeance:
High mana cost
Bad leech potential
Can’t use Crit or Deadly Strike
Poor attack speed
Off weapon damage% doesn’t work (auras, gear ed, demon/undead ed)
Damage+ doesn’t work (Grief)
Conversion:
Completely trash skill design, end of story
Smite:
Poor attack speed
Poor time to kill w/o Grief or damage+ stats
Isn’t really a traditional weapon swinging attack.
Can’t Crit or Deadly Strike
Damage vs Demon/Undead doesn’t work
Elemental and Magic damage from weapon/gear doesn’t work.
Can’t leech unless Life tap is used.
Charge:
More movement than attack skill
Single target only
Not really spam-able for pvm, thus not viable
As for Auras, if you want to be a true physical attacker, you’re limited to Fanaticism because attack speed is so important for damage and being able to leech quickly and avoid being overwhelmed by monsters. Fanaticism also gives ED% and AR%. Other auras can’t really compete and you can only use 1 at the time.
Because Paladin has no 2 handed weapon support skills and Holy Shield is so strong it’s dumb not to use it…
Without an ability that does aoe over the current character size, barb would have to do 10x damage or just be a tank. Whirlwind broke and I haven’t used leap attack to see if it works, but broke is broke. Not to mention you must have 3 pally auras just to keep up.
You have to remember how old this game is. And that it’s a sequel. If you play through diablo 1 as a warrior and then jump into diablo 2 v1.00 as a barbarian you’re like wow this is awesome he has all these skills.
Flashy skills often ruin the overall atmosphere and tone of the game. Look at the laser light show of d3 or Poe. You’re playing a barbarian. Not some over the top fantasy war god.
Buff Whirlwind, buff Whirlwind by a greater degree and buff frenzy by a lesser degree, as a barb main, in my experience, you only become rock hard when you have really good equipment, and at end game, it really becomes about how much damage you can do to mobs instead of single targets, this is the problem martial arts assassins have too.
Buff that whirlwind and make it so that the whirlwind cannot be target locked.
These simple changes would result in a barbarian revival.
I agree, I only used a barb for support; “buffing other players.” But I have seen some pretty strong spear Barbarians, in hell mode “Who were having fun with the build”
But are they as good as a paladin, assassin, amazon, necro or speed of the sorcerer; Not really?
The Whirlwind has always been broken, as far as I can remember
