Diablo II: The Barbarian
- April 29, 2003 13:33 PM PST
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It's time for the second installment of our Diablo II character strategy guide. This time around, we focus on that mightiest of brutes, the Barbarian. So grab your battleaxe and get ready to be schooled.
No character is better at dishing out massive amounts of up-close-and-personal damage than the Barbarian. Without the missile weapons of the Amazon or the personal army of the Necromancer, as the Barbarian you'll be doing the body-blow ballet with legions of nasties. This guide aims to help you achieve what is good in life - "to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."The Best Defense is a Good Offense
As the Barbarian, you're going to get hit. Fortunately, few creatures can trade blows with you for any length of time, so focusing your skill and ability points to enhance your potential damage is vital.
With that in mind, spend ability points on strength and vitality (in that order). Don't neglect Dexterity, though - having the ability to do astounding amounts of damage will do you no good if you can't hit the broad side of a blood hawk. Mana should be a distant last for ability points. Hanging on to a couple ability points can be a good idea - few things are more frustrating than getting that powerful unique armor and being unable to wear it.
Unless you're playing in Hardcore mode, be conservative in spending your Skill Points. Unlike the other characters, Barbarians can get away with storing Skill Points for later spending on higher-level skills. Whatever you do, postpone choosing a Combat Mastery for as long as possible (more on that later).
I Sound My Barbaric YAWP Over the Rooftops of the World
One of the primary considerations when spending Skill Points is to take the long view. Diablo II is a big game. Focusing too much on low-level skills can put you at a critical disadvantage later on. Barbarians can be more conservative with Skill Points than pretty much any other class, since they don't need fancy spells or abilities to smash heads. As a general rule, don't put more than a point into any of the early skills except Combat Mastery.
If you're planning on doing a lot of solo adventuring, don't go down the Shout branch of the Battlecry tree. The bonuses from Shout may come in handy when playing as part of a party, but unlike the Paladin's Aura abilities, not worth the expense for a solo adventurer. As a Barbarian, focus on maximizing your damage potential and survivability will take care of itself. Howl is a great low-level skill to prevent getting swarmed, but not worth more than a point. Taunt is also worth a point and is great for nailing those nasty Fetishes in Act III. Find Potion and Find Item are worth a point each, but primarily just to get to Grim Ward, which is like Howl on Steroids. Grim Ward turns a corpse into a 40-second fear factory, causing any monsters within range to flee in terror. Strategically placed, it can divide a roomful of enemies into manageable chunks.
The Combat Skills tree offers a bounty of worthwhile skills. Double Swing is a must. It's broadly useful and a prerequisite for Frenzy. A successful hit with Frenzy increases a Barbarian's movement and attack speed for a limited time--just the thing for tearing through clusters of enemies and no Barbarian should be without Leap Attack. It's perfect for getting at that named unique or getting out of danger and doing damage on the way out.
Who's the Master?
One of the most devastating ability sets in the Barbarian's skill tree is Weapon Mastery. It gives huge attack & damage bonuses to classes of weapons (mace, axe, sword, polearm, spear, or throwing weapons). Unfortunately, once you start to spend points in Mace Mastery it always seems like the only decent weapon you can find is an Axe. You can prevent this by storing Skill Points and putting them into Weapon Mastery after you find a weapon you like.
Another factor to consider when choosing a Weapon Mastery is weapon speed. The Polearm class may seem particularly attractive at first, since they do enormous damage with each hit, but the best balance between damage and speed is generally found in the sword, mace, or axe weapon classes. Although it's probably more in character to use an axe, the versatility of the sword class gets the nod here. Once you take into account the 6th level ability Double Swing, the choice is clear: even the mightiest Polearm is no match for a good pair of dual wielded weapons. A Barbarian with a very fast weapon in each hand turns into a human Cuisinart. Also in the Combat Mastery tree are the Iron Skin and Natural Resistances skills-two great choices for boosting your defense rating and elemental resistance at no mana cost.
Loot Worth Having
You're gonna get beaten on, so it's nice to get some of the damage you're doing back as health. Items with the suffix 'of the Leech' or 'of the Locust' will help accomplish this task. Cold weapons are also vital, as they can slow down an opponent or keep them still long enough to become lunchmeat. Since maneuverability should be a priority, items that increase resistance to cold or lower freeze duration should be on your shopping list. Other important item suffixes are 'of Stability' and 'of Quickness'. Stability improves your hit recovery, minimizing the time you're incapacitated after being struck, while Quickness improves a weapon's attack speed, making that hefty Great Maul as easy to wield as a Nerf hammer. Anything with 'of Regeneration' or 'of Regrowth' will allow your health to replenish over time (just like mana), reducing your dependency on potions. Items that induce fear ('of Howling') or have knockback ('of the Bear') are not as useful for Barbarians, since you want to keep your enemies as close as possible so you can keep banging on them, not waste time chasing them down.
A World of Hurt
Whether playing as part of a team, going solo, or hunting down other players in PvP, the Barbarian's strategy is pretty much the same: get in there and lay the smack down. No foe can withstand the onslaught of a well-played Barbarian.
