that was a good read.
seems super simple for blizzard to implement 90% of the stuff on that list.
i particularly like the medium/heavy armor suggestion of buffing them with extra damage reduction since the stamina drain / movement speed penalties that comes with these armor types immediately rule them out as good options for runewords.
it is true that mage and archon plates are basically the only viable options in the game, which sucks tbh.
if the movement/stamina penalties were compensated for by 5% damage reduction (in case of medium) and 10% damage reduction (in case of heavy) that alone would put these armor types in the realm of viability, even sought after, by melee specs.
drip is 90% of the game, and being ‘forced’ to use archon plate or leather as a “heavy melee” class is just downright depressing.
getting rid of the defense nullification while running also has to happen, because ironically, casters benefit more from defense than melee classes does under the current system, since guess what; in order to melee you continuously need to move, whereas in order to cast… well… the opposite is the case… hell with an enigma (or as Sorc) you never have to move manually, and thus you will never drop your defense as a caster.
some barb skills i would nominate for deletion/replacements/change would be:
Combat Skills Tree
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Leap; delete this, put Leap Attack in its place at level 6.
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Leap Attack; since this is being moved to the lvl 6 spot, put new ability; “Cleave” as the level 18 skill as replacement.
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New Skill Cleave; does exactly what it sounds like. simply cleaves everything in a cone in front of the character with each swing, ignores enemy block chance (but not their defense rating). add bonus dmg%/AR% as needed. make it synergize with Whirlwind.
(Each 2 points in Whirlwind would increase cone width/length by 0.1 yards per point for a total of 1.0 yards at 20 points invested).
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Whirlwind; remove curse/slow vulnerability on the barb while spinning, increase rate at which mobs are hit while spinning, increase the damage output of the skill flat out, increase the baseline radius of effect (double that improved radius for 2 handers), make it ignore enemy block chance (but not defense rating) and make it synergize with Cleave.
(Each point in Cleave would further increase Whirlwind’s AOE radius by 0.1 yards per point for a total of 2.0 yards at 20 points invested)
There, now we got a viable barb “AOE” melee spec with proper damage, radius and synergies that’s somewhat on the level of caster AOE.
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Bash; a joke of a skill that sees no use after lvl 6. delete it. replace it. literally the only reason to invest any points into this, is to improve damage of Double Swing in the early game which is a very optional thing to do anyways.
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Stun; a joke of a skill. delete it. replace it.
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Berserk; remove defense negation from this skill, it doesn’t need to come with a downside that happens to be severely detrimental to your core role as a melee class. make life/mana stolen and procs (like curses on striking) work for this skill.
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Double Throw; Bruh like why is this a thing?.. delete it, replace it with nothing, just get rid of it lmao. deleting it completely would actually be a net buff as you no longer need to invest a point in it to get to Frenzy. what an absolute meme… i’ll make a suggestion for a replacement further down below, in the next section.
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Frenzy; replace synergy with Taunt for Concentrate or Berserk, keep the effect the same.
In the case of Bash, Stun and Double Throw i’d replace those skills with the following:
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Rend (replaces Bash); Rend target for [x]% damage on hit and causing it to bleed for [x]% of monster’s total health in damage over [x] seconds - stacks with Poison and Chance Of Open Wound effects.
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Crush (replaces Stun); Sunder target’s defense completely and inflicting [x] damage on hit, and causes it to take 100% increased physical damage for [x] seconds (so basically a poor mans amplify damage but still much more useful than “Stun” for single target dps, essentially a 1-point wonder, as it should be).
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Brutality (replaces Double Throw and Moved to “Combat Masteries” tree at the lvl 30 tier); adds crushing blow, deadly strike and chance to open wounds by 1% per point invested, 20 points = 20% to all. after 20 points, adds 1% every 2nd soft point. (so 21% at 22 points, 22% at 24 points etc.).
Synergizes with all weapon masteries.
(i.e Sword Mastery; damage increased by 2% per point in Brutality, Attack Rating increased by 2% per point in Brutality, 1% Crit Chance per 2 points in Brutality, hardcapped at 20 points, for a total of 40% damage, 40% increased attack rating, and 10% crit chance.)
in return, all weapon masteries likewise synergize with Brutality, offering 1% increased attack speed per point in a given weapon mastery, hardcapped at 20 points per mastery.
(i.e 20 points in Sword Mastery = 20% attack speed bonus on Brutality, and another 20 points in Axe Mastery = another 20% attack speed bonus on Brutality for a total of 40%)
There, now people have an incentive to pick more than a single weapon mastery since all of them synergize with another very good passive skill.
this bonus (atk speed from weapon masteries) would ONLY be achievable through hard points investments though, as otherwise people could cheese the design by investing 1 point in each mastery and gain up to 50% IAS (assuming throwing master is removed, otherwise it would be 60%) if the barb has, say +9 to all skills through his gear. this limiting factor is vital for balance in a world where something like this would be implemented, otherwise it would be way too strong.
Combat Masteries Tree
Aside from the suggestion above to remove double throw and throwing mastery and replace them with “Brutality” at the level 30 skill tier in Combat Masteries tree, there’s some minor buffs i’d provide to this tree on top of that.
- Increased Stamina/Speed; simply combine these into a single skill at the lvl 18 tier. keep bonuses the same.
- Iron Skin/Natural Resistance; same treatment, simply combine these and put it at the lvl 24 tier. keep bonuses the same.
now the tree would look like this:
[sword][axe][mace]
-.[polearm][spear].-
[Increased Speed/Stam]
[Iron Skin/Resistance]
-.-.-.-.[Brutality].-.-.-.-
in a nice straight centered line in the middle of the skill tree panel.
Warcries Tree
Imo, this tree is mostly fine, save for a few skills that are quite worthless except for their synergies with other skills.
some examples being “Howl”, “Find Potion” and “Grim Ward”.
- Find Potion; Combine this with Find Item. 40 points investment just to (properly) hork is atrocious and is way too expensive. combine synergy between Find Item and Find Potion and make that synergy bonus baseline for the skill. move it to lvl 12 tier.
- Grim Ward; tweak this ability a bit by simply removing the “causes monsters to flee” effect, keep its synergy with Find Potion/Item and leave it as is.
- Howl; now slows mobs movement speed by [x]% for [x] seconds instead of applying a “fear” effect (does not work on bosses, elites and super-uniques).
now barb has a proper useful kiting tool that might actually see some use with certain builds, because god knows you and i haven’t seen a barb use “Howl” even once this season or the previous one and the one before that.
And that’s really the long and short of it.
the majority of barb abilities have been buffed to a level that can somewhat compete with casters, he has an AOE spec, his combat masteries are cheaper pointwise since some of them are now combined, and hork spec won’t prevent you from playing the game, as you now have 20 extra points to invest elsewhere since you no longer need to invest 20 points in “find potion” just to make “find item” viable.
these 20 “bonus” points you’ll have left over could then be invested elsewhere, such as in another combat skill (such as Berserk if you are whirlwind spec, or vice versa if you are Berserk spec and want some AOE) or another Weapon Mastery for further increased IAS bonuses to Brutality.
Barb has finally been fixed.