Barbarian Combat Masteries Skills rework by Zax

[Zax-11538]

As I was posting my rework of Barbarian Combat skills I would like to continue with Masteries and Warcries will follow next time.

Sword Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

NOTE: I wanted masteries to be stronger so players dont have to invest too many points in it and they can for example use multiple masteries at once and combine their effects. Barbarians often also struggle with attack ratting without good equip so I also buffed AR on masteries quite significantly. This comment is for all other weapon masteries.

Axe Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

NOTE: Same as Sword mastery.

Mace Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

NOTE: Same as Sword mastery.

Polearm Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

NOTE: Same as Sword mastery.

Throwing Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

NOTE: Same as Sword mastery.

Spear Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

NOTE: Same as Sword mastery.

Weapon Spcialization

• Replacement for “Increased Stamina” skill
• Skill has 0-15% Crushing blow (12% at level 20), Attack Speed and Open wounds starting with 2% at level 1
• Synergy from Mace Mastery increasing Crushing blow 1% per skill level
• Synergy from Polearm Mastery increasing Attack Speed 2% per skill level
• Synergy from Spear Mastery increasing Deadly strike 2% per skill level
• Synergy from Axe Mastery increasing Open Wounds 1% per skill level

NOTE: Increase Stamina was always pretty much useless skill so I decided to completely replace it with something else. New skill is not that amazing for leveling as it has rather low effects but main power come from weapons masteries adding various bonuses which can be combined and used on different weapons.

Iron skin

• New synergy to Shout adding +1 Damage reduction per invested point.

NOTE: There is no change to Iron skin skill directly, but there is new synergy from it to “Shout” skill, adding +1 damage reduction for every invested point in Iron Skin so leveling it up have more benefits.

Increase Speed

• New +30% stamina bonus at level 1 and +15% every skill level

NOTE: Stamina bonus was previously on Increased Stamina skill which no longer exist so bonus from it was moved to Increase Speed. Also synergy for Frenzy from Increase Stamina was switch here to Increase Speed.

Natural Resistance

• All resistance bonus at level is set to 25%
• Every level increase all resistances by +2%
• Synergy to Battle Orders +1,5 magic damage reduction per invested point

NOTE: Natural resistance is usualy one point wonder skill but it has diminishing returns so it doesnt make sense to level it up after certain point with all skills bonus. I decided to change that and skill now increases resistances by same % every level. Also there is additional reward for actualy investing points in it as every point in Natural resistance has synergy to Battle Orders adding +1,5 magic damage reduction.

[minneM-1797]

@Zax-11538

Weapon Spcialization

• Replacement for “Increased Stamina” skill
• Skill has 0-15% Crushing blow (12% at level 20), Attack Speed and Open wounds starting with 2% at level 1
• Synergy from Mace Mastery increasing Crushing blow 1% per skill level
• Synergy from Polearm Mastery increasing Attack Speed 2% per skill level
• Synergy from Spear Mastery increasing Deadly strike 2% per skill level
• Synergy from Axe Mastery increasing Open Wounds 1% per skill level

As much as I liked the idea of replacing Increased Stamina for another skill, I was thinking of something different. Why don’t we replace it with a skill called Focus? Focus is a skill that gives a little bit of everything a barb can ask for. Let me describe what I have in mind:

Focus
Increases damage, ias, ar, and block.

1- 1% edmg, 1% ias, 15 ar, 1% block
2- 2% edmg, 3% ias, 30 ar, 2% block
3- 3% edmg, 4% ias, 45 ar, 2% block
4- 4% edmg, 5% ias, 60 ar, 2% block
5- 5% edmg, 7% ias, 75 ar, 3% block
6- 6% edmg, 8% ias, 90 ar, 3% block
7- 7% edmg, 10% ias, 105 ar, 4% block
8- 8% edmg, 11% ias, 120 ar, 4% block
9- 9% edmg, 12% ias, 135 ar, 4% block
10- 10% edmg, 14% ias, 150 ar, 5% block
and repeating this pattern

@Zax-11538

Sword Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

• Starts at 30% edmg and 50% ar

• 8% edmg and 7% ar per level

• Chance of Open Wounds per level: 20%/21%/22%/22%/23%/24%/24%/25%/26%/so on

@Zax-11538

Axe Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

• Starts at 30% edmg and 50% ar

• 8% edmg and 7% ar per level

• Offers Deadly Strike instead of Critical Strike: probably the same numbers Critical Strike used

@Zax-11538

Mace Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

• Starts at 30% edmg and 50% ar

• 8% edmg and 7% ar per level

• Chance of Crushing blow per level: 20%/21%/22%/22%/23%/24%/24%/25%/26%/so on

@Zax-11538

Polearm Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

• Starts at 30% edmg and 50% ar

• 8% edmg and 7% ar per level

• Increases wias: 3%/4%/4%/5%/5%/6%/6%/7%/7%/8%/8%/9%/9%/so on

@Zax-11538

Throwing Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

• Starts at 30% edmg and 50% ar

• 8% edmg and 7% ar per level

• Keep Blizz changes intact otherwise

@Zax-11538

Spear Mastery

• Enhanced damage bonus starts at 30% and increases by 15% every level
• Attack ratting bonus starts at 45% and increases by 20% every level

• Starts at 30% edmg and 50% ar

• 8% edmg and 15% ar per level

• Maybe add a knockback mod?

@Zax-11538

As I was posting my rework of Barbarian Combat skills I would like to continue with Masteries and Warcries will follow next time.

Before you criticize my ideas I plan on posting on your bcomb post when I find time to add some damage buffs for the skills. I feel that the damage boost can be achieved through other places asides of 1 skill.

Look at the other characters for example. Fury has nice damage boost per level but that’s because HoW gives only a small amount of damage and the oak has to live to gain the mods. Zeal has a whooping 12% edmg boost through hard points into sacrifice but Paladin’s have a nice balance of damage between the skills, synergy’s, and fanat aura.

Keep a lookout for my post on your other post. I will be making some corrections on the combat skills and improvements to keep the character balanced while showing excellent viability. It’s coming soon

[rod-1442]

So you want a Cannon and a Tank? Game is balanced fine as is.

[Zax-11538]

@rod-1442

Game is balanced fine as is.

You cant seriously believe that

[Ashka-2397]

I personally always thought weapon masteries should be deleted and replaced by one hander and two hander.

Something like this imo, might be a bit Op maybe capped at 0.5 per level 0.75 with synergy so you can get 20% without , 30% with synergy at 40 points.

One hander -------------------- Two hander
----------------- Open wounds -------------------
Deadly strike ------------------ Crushing blow

One hander or two hander synergies with Open wounds then it can synergies with ether Deadly strike or Crushing blow but not both.

Would be nice if Barb got some love.

[Zax-11538]

@minneM-1797

Why don’t we replace it with a skill called Focus? Focus is a skill that gives a little bit of everything a barb can ask for. Let me describe what I have in mind:

Focus
Increases damage, ias, ar, and block.

1- 1% edmg, 1% ias, 15 ar, 1% block
2- 2% edmg, 3% ias, 30 ar, 2% block
3- 3% edmg, 4% ias, 45 ar, 2% block
4- 4% edmg, 5% ias, 60 ar, 2% block
5- 5% edmg, 7% ias, 75 ar, 3% block
6- 6% edmg, 8% ias, 90 ar, 3% block
7- 7% edmg, 10% ias, 105 ar, 4% block
8- 8% edmg, 11% ias, 120 ar, 4% block
9- 9% edmg, 12% ias, 135 ar, 4% block
10- 10% edmg, 14% ias, 150 ar, 5% block
and repeating this pattern

Well but masteries already do the attack ratting and enhanced damage, just like combat skills do so having third source is not needed that much. Idk about block, it doesnt seem right to have skill on barb to increase block, shield is not exactly iconic item for barb item from lore perspective. I also generaly speaking dont want to increase ias for all weapons as then it makes breakpoints less important.

@minneM-1797

• Starts at 30% edmg and 50% ar
• 8% edmg and 7% ar per level
• Chance of Open Wounds per level: 20%/21%/22%/22%/23%/24%/24%/25%/26%/so on

Issue with this is that i actualy wanted to be like this with two handed versions having more % but it didnt work. Idk if it was mistake on my part, or it just wasnt possible like this unless I would be creating completely new game stat doing the same as normal crushing blow and than having it om certain weapond.

When i tried to add some passive thing (ow,CB…) to masteries, it was then working for all weapon types instead of one in masteries. Thats why i went with synergy type bonus to weapon specialization from masteries so it could work.

@minneM-1797

Maybe add a knockback mod?

I feel like logicaly deadly strike for spears makes more sense snd knockback is unwanted on most melee builds. It would limit various builds using spear.

@minneM-1797

Before you criticize my ideas I plan on posting on your bcomb post when I find time to add some damage buffs for the skills. I feel that the damage boost can be achieved through other places asides of 1 skill.

Sure i will check those and comment also. Just keep in mind that even when i dont agree with suggestions i highlyappreatiate any feedback or idea as i used plenty of them from others in past in various aspects of game

@minneM-1797

Fury has nice damage boost per level but that’s because HoW gives only a small amount of damage and the oak has to live to gain the mods.

I am giving damage resistence possible to reach immunity to oak and other two spirits.