Barbarians: Fixes that are needed

After my initial feedback I gave, I felt like I could have added more to my feedback on Barbarians. Barbarians are one of those classes that are slow paced and weaker during early game (which we tested), start gaining momentum midgame and are powerful late game. For this reason, I won’t be making suggestions that impact mid and late game.

Arsenal System and Weapons: I love the Arsenal System but there is one glaring issue I have with it. You are forced to use a 2H Mace. I would very much like to use a 2H Sword and 2H Axe in my build. There is no apparent reason why this slot is locked to only a 2H Mace for options. As far as weapons go, the Swords roll weaker damage compared to Axes and Maces (both the 1H and 2H weapons). I can probably see thematically that Maces are stronger than Swords but Axes and Swords should roll the same damage output honestly. There is no reason to gimp swords damage whatsoever.

Whirlwind and Fury Degeneration: I love Whirlwind but it feels like a really bad skill below level 20 due to constantly being Fury starved. Also when you exit combat and Fury starts to go away, the speed at which it goes away is neck breakingly fast. The 2 fixes I would recommend implementing are to half the speed at which Fury degenerates out of combat and the Enhanced Whirlwind trait (Gain 1 Fury each time Whirlwind deals direct damage to an enemy, or 3 Fury against Elite enemies) should give 2 Fury/4 Fury for Elites baseline. This would help keep Whirlwind going a little longer on trash mobs and bosses. It is not a crazy amount but would definitely help the early gameplay of the Whirlwind Barbarian.

Legendary Powers: Whirlwind Barbarians require a lot of legendary support to make it a fun and satisfying experience. The problem is that it is very costly to keep those legendary powers on your character to keep it viable compared to other classes where most of their power is baked into their Skill Tree. I would like to see two of the Whirlwind powers merge into 1 power as to alleviate this issue slightly. Those powers being Whirlwind periodically pulls enemies toward you and Whirlwind increases Crit. The Crit buff to Whirlwind is a decent damage boost but isn’t very transformative to the build. Whirlwind periodically pulling enemies toward you is a transformative power but having that by itself feels lackluster in damage output. Combining these two powers into 1 power would open up a power slot for build diversity in the Whirlwind build for a defensive or resource generating option. This would also reduce the cost to keep the build viable by having 1 less power you have to worry about.

Edit: Link to the Whirlwind Bleed Barbarian I played during the beta:
Barbarian: Whirlwind Bleed Build - PC General Discussion - Diablo IV Forums (blizzard.com)

2 Likes

My main issue with barb was that there is just too much crowd control. Not talking about freeze but the random displacements (looking at you spider boss), enemies standing in damage areas that lasts forever. At the end I was almost able to ignore those but it doesn’t seem a viable endgame strategy.

2 Likes

This is where Unstoppable shines. Abilities like Rallying Cry upgrades give unstoppable which lets you pass through the CC unhindered.

There are also legendary powers if I remember correctly that give you unstoppable.

Yeah too much anti-melee mechanics.
Melee rogues suffer the same problem.
Doing one of the event where you need to stand on the four circular markings for a time sucks when you get ranged enemy as an melee.
Just go ranged and ignore majority mechanics.

2 Likes

I felt the same as you guys with my barb I found to maintain WW enjoyment it really mattered on the legendary weapons.

I do agree that there are a lot of anti-melee mechanics which the Sorcerer and Ranged Rogue can solve a lot easier. That being said, there are abilities and powers that either pull enemies toward you or close the gap. If you are having issues with this, I would suggest adding one of those abilities into the mix in order to help with this issue. Abilities like Leap, Upheaval, Steel Grasp, and Call of the Ancients are awesome at either attacking at ranged, closing the gap, or pulling enemies toward you.

I think barbs will be fine barbs have a slow start, they have since d3. I think the big issue with ww is I’ve seen no option to change its damage to elemental, however i do feel ww is the route to go over rend, i just have a strong feeling rend will fall off mid game to late game since bleed damage can’t crit

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honestly i have to disagree. the damage of the whirlwind will drop off but not the bleed damage. being able to get a legendary or skill to finish bleeds is extremely powerful. I played purely WW initially but when i added bleeds and powers to augment that aspect, i found my damage go through the roof. Bleeds and bleed builds are definitely endgame material.

I actually want a buff to our movement speed. Or at least the node that increase movement speed should be higher. Like at least double or triple the current movement speed.

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That would make it more of an interesting passive to take. As of right now, I have to agree it is a bit lackluster to spend a precious skill point into it.

Using something that pulls mobs closer to you means one less hotbar you can choose from and rogues don’t get that. Sorc don’t need it and can kill faster and tank better from range than the barbs and melee rogues.
There’s literally no benefit going barbs or melee rogues atm other than more fun for those who don’t like ranged play style in this heavily anti-melee game.

Lol all these walls of text for something youve just scratched the surface on…

You havent even began to play the potential these classes have, yet you know what needs fixed.

Lol.

So dumb.

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CC often doesn’t work on bosses(I must admit I did not try in D4 beside stun). Most issues in the beta was a boss deciding he lived in the AOE or being randomly pushed across the map by some random attack.

The legendary power that pulls enemies to you has a small pull range however the use of it isn’t insignificant as it interrupts spell caster mobs and helps slightly with mobs that try and run away. The legendary power is ok but it really feels like a half legendary power unlike the Whirlwind summoning Dust Devils or Ancient powers.

I think I have played this class enough to know that it is fury starved at the early game, the arsenal system is busted with always requiring a 2H mace, swords rolling noticibly lower damage compared to axes and maces, and 2 legendary powers focused on whirlwind being lackluster and half powers.

Yeah but the Whirlwind pulling enemies toward you power isn’t really meant for the boss but it does work on boss minions. The spider boss was one of those annoying bosses for Barbs. The trick to that boss was mechanics like gap closers or unstoppable buff. There were spiders that were ranged web spitters that could be affected by pulling them to you.

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You have no clue what you are talking about. I won’t waste my time arguing my point when you are clearly trolling and won’t listen anyway.

Oh son, i do. I hit 100 with every class in cb.

YOU dont know what youre talking about, you clearly enjoy the false feeling of self importance, and seeing your name pop up on the screen.

You havent even began to play the damn game, take your wall of useless wants elsewhere.

“I think I know”. You dont. Shut up.

The ego and self importance with you is astounding and is the stuff of legend. Not only that but you have to lie about reaching 100 on every class. This is sad.

yup.

Lies.

Keep your whine wishlist going, its useless, ill informed, and based on less than the first 10% of a class, but you know eeeeeverything.

Lol. Typical child who is going to cry thinking it will get them what they want.

you cant make ANY conclusion after reaching only to level 25 with no fully unlocked game … you lack so much information and probably items you dont have mana

You know. Every post I see you in, you contribute nothing of worth and think your opinion matters above all others. You just need to stop posting all together.