Barbarian - What would you change in skills?

General Discussion
1

Hey, I dont want to wait for Blizzard to improve diablo 2 Resurrected so i decided to do it myself atleast for offline play with some modding. I am thinking about various ideas, but I would like to hear from others too so thats why i make this topic.

I would like to hear from you what is wrong with Barbarian. Is something too strong? Is something too weak? should some skills be changed? Maybe some skills does cost too much mana or should do more, maybe new synergies between skills to make new builds? Please share any idea how you think Paladin skills could be improved or changed and try to explain why if you can.

LIST OF BARBARIN SKILLS CHANGES: (I will be updating this)

2

BARBARIAN HELMS

  • Review / add new prefix / suffixes on magic and rare quality.
    (Get rid of “artisan” prefix spawning alone)
  • Let attack skills spawn on them. As rare as whirlwind was.
  • Make them craftable
3 Likes
3

With blood craft for example? Same recipe as for Helm?

4

Well barb could benefit from a multitude of buff that wouldn’t be targeted to barb especially but rather attack/melee builds

overarching change to all attack skills from all class

attack skills now gain flat damage per skill level based on the nature of the skill

this for the barb makes skills on primal helm, combat gc, rare weapon affix and overall investing in skills more interesting

it also opens up weapon itemization diversity with stuff like Silence becoming interesting from its +2 skill

Knockback now generates an aoe cone

this makes bash always splash damage

stamina

pure physical attack skills now cost stamina Instead of mana

attack skills that have other damage types also cost mana as well as stamina

now add a damage modifier based on your remaining stamina([stamina remaining/100]*[[100-clvl]/2]= dmg inc %

buff disabled when stamina potion is active

this change particularly buff increase stamina skill

MASTERIES

I think a better solution would just be weapon masteries that aren’t tied to any weapon type or play style

But rather just be a huge passive stat+ Small drawback

For example:

  • crushing mastery: + to crushing blow - to attack speed
  • precision mastery: + to deadly strike , - weapon range
  • range mastery: +pierce, - to attack rating
  • slashing mastery: + chance of open wound, + open wound damage, - hit damage%

This kind of system works for every weapon type and playstyle

Same goes for iron skin and natural resistance but half current value half new. Natural resist still gives resistance and iron skin still gives defence but to a lesser value

Natural resist aims resistance values on gear

Iron skin aims defensive values

So if you have 30pts in iron skin and natural resist and use a coa, it’ll boost its defensive stats by 30% and resist stats by 30% as well. Making it go from 30resist to 39 and 15dr to 18*

increase speed

this skill now also affect attack speed

grim ward

doesn’t require corpse anymore

costs a % of your life to cast

flee is swapped with taunt

now works on bosses for a lesser value

war cry

damage from synergies is concentrated in 2 skills. Howl and taunt are now 10%

battle cry now increases the radius of war cry by 2 per skill point

leap attack

  • flat damage per str attribute

the stronger you are the more muscle mass the more weigth you have on landing

3 Likes
5

A special craft recipe for class items.
Fal + Pskull + Ist + item
( Same ilvl - clvl reaction )
Making :

  • 1-2 to class skill
  • 5 to 10% chance to cast [random funny skill] when struck.
  • 10 fast run walk
  • -5% enemy resistance to random : light, cold, fire, poison, magic or physical damage

Funny skills for this craft ideas :
Blaze lvl5, psy hammer lvl15, corpse explosion lvl1, poison explosion lvl10 , inner sight lvl10, storm lvl1, foh lvl 1, holy bolt lvl5, teeth lvl5, wyne lvl 5, what else. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
6

Hah that was quick.
Barb specific skills:

  1. Grimward Fear removed. Just Slow + Amp dmg.
    a) alternative - make it work on all corpses.
    b) alternative - make it work without corpse.
    c) alternative - make it work on bosses.

  2. Leap Attack having X% AoE dmg from gear:
    a) alt - maybe 25-50% weapon damage with all %ed bonuses
    b) alt - maybe upto 1000% AoE damage from boots dmg like Assassin has.

  3. Concentrate having very high %AR bonus per level. Like 20-25% per level. Not always hit mechanic, but so high it hits very often.

  4. Frenzy - To even more fulfill fantasy of super fast hitting madman. Frenzy starts kinda much slower at first compared to Double Swing. So at least make it super rewarding when you stack it up fully.
    a) remove Increased stamina and Taunt synergy, give Double swing synergy a 12% dmg per level.
    b) new synergy Increased speed does 0,4 increased duration + 1% increased attack speed at max stacks.
    c) make new synergy upto 20% chance to block while Frenzy attacking from Iron skin.

  5. Double Throw throwing missiles in “V” shape. One missile to slightly right, second to slightly left side, to make it better AoE. Since current line-piercing AoE is only good for Maggot lair.

  6. Iron skin gives 0,5% or 1% DR per hard point.

  7. Battle command gives 5% AR per level to group also.

  8. Taunt reducing also % physical resistance. Note: maybe Unbending will + Frenzy merc would be usefull by Taunting monsters - a.k.a. budget Reaper toll decrep.

Now I dont know what to do with these skills, but they are pretty much unusable IMO: Bash, Stun, Increased stamina. All other skills have some reason to use and put points into. I think these 3 should be totally revamped to offer a new unique build to emerge.

Also…
Non-Barb things to improve Barb + other weapon hitting classes:

  • increased exceptional weapon base dmges by 15%, then elite bases by 30% and test it out how it feels on playthrough and in endgame comparison.
  • reduce the % block chance of monsters/bosses. For example 50% block chance to 30% at least. From 30% to 15% and so on. And see how it feels.
  • change crafting recipes a lot to offer reasonable bonuses.
    Like Caster weapon to have maybe FCR, +1-2 random skills tree or similar idea.
    Safety + Blood weapon have higher 25-150% ED bonus.
  • Ethereal magic/rare weapons doesnt change Ethereal status after being rerolled by 6x skulls or 3x gems or being Crafted.
2 Likes
7

Didnt read the rest yet but this catched my eye. Since there is cap on %dmg reduction, would not be better to add Damage reduced by X instead?

8

I hope you will later. Since I especially thing Grimward, Frenzy, Leap attack, Throw barb suggestions are good until someone proves me otherwise :slight_smile:

Sure. Or combine: Iron skin increases %DR cap by 1% (not %dr) AND gives 1-1,5 dmg reduce by lvl? something along it.

9

Oh i will dont worry :slight_smile: i said “yet” :smiley:

10

“Make the game easy because I don’t know how to play.”

11

Remove the Frenzy damage synergy from Taunt and move it to increased stamina.

1 Like
12

easier for melee who struggle vs casters in comparison you mean?

13

Wrong. Entirely wrong. I beat the game with barb selffound many times. Its simply boring to smack Baal 20 minutes. I dont think game should be boring. Do you?

Plus casters always hit.

Easy - whole D2 is super easy. It just takes time to farm up and beat the game. There is no special tactics, thinking, very smart reaction moves involved to beat the game.
And online group play is ridiculous easy.

1 Like
14

That’s so right… :slightly_smiling_face::slightly_smiling_face::slightly_smiling_face::slightly_smiling_face:

15

I would like to see concentration get 30% magic damage from beserk instead of the current 20% personally

This might be too strong though I’m not sure

16

This is the kind of Dim witted changes I dislikes on 2.4

Making a skill a synergy doesn’t improve that skill lol

17

They really gotta do something with Stun. I don’t think I’ve ever invested anything into Stun, or ever even used it, outside of putting 1 in as prerequisite. While I understand not all skills need to be used, or usable, and some are just stepping stones, or best as synergies for other/later skills, what the hell is Stun even doing, what is it even there for, what is even the purpose of it?

Now, idk what exactly they can do with it to make it appealing, like at all. It’s almost like it would be better off it it was a different skill entirely. Honestly, imo, Stun should be changed to Cleave, which is a 180 degree swing that is essentially the “splash” damage some people want. It also gives Barbarians some sort of “aoe” that isn’t just whirlwind. It also fits entirely with the lore/theme of the character, and etc. Would maybe even give a reason to use something like a 2h Axe (I think it would be awesome to have a range 3 axe cleaving enemies like some sort of berserker), maybe it could even give a “bonus” or “balancing” if using a 2h weapon while using Cleave (aside from the generally greater range those weapons get)

2 Likes
18

Other than the need for Blizzard to fix what they broke with whirlwind, what little changes they’ve made are great, no need to change anything else.

Anyone who thinks more changes to the barbarian are needed are just bad at building and playing the character and likely only know how to build and play the character based on 20 year old metas that never evolved.

It’s like the 4 minute mile syndrome and 99s goal scoring record will never be beat, yet it’s about to be destroyed by a player that hasn’t had half the quality of players on his line as 99 did.

19

Remove Double Swings synergy and directly add it into Double Swing. Let’s the skill take advantage of plus skills, and gives more freedom to skill points like to use leap attack as an opener.

For WW, either directly scale 2% ias per level, or have a synergy with Increased Speed for 3% ias per level.

20

Why do you always have to attack the integrity and the abilities of people who you don’t know and don’t share the same opinion as you lol