02-23-2003, 06:43 AM
But you forgot to mention that Barbarians roll d12 instead of d10, and mention their Enrage ability and inability to wear Heavy armor and... Er, wrong game. Seriously, though, a very good read. Makes Paladins like myself (currently AD&D Paladin - I haven't played D2 in about three months) learn a bit more about Barbarians. Yes, they're unbalanced. But yes, they are a helluva lot of fun. Berserkers are my favorite diversion from Paladins. Zerk is a great skill :)
A couple of nits and/or comments:
*
* From a strictly statistical standpoint, one-handed axes are superior to one-handed swords in most cases. Axes do more damage, have lower requirements, and are generally faster or are the same speed. The Zerker Axe does more damage than the Mythical Sword, yet has lower requirements and the same base attack speed. Of course, one-handed axes look like crap, but Mythical Swords don't look much better (everyone knows Cryptic Swords look the best, though they belong on the Paladin and not Ugg). I never used two-handed swords in the one-handed fashion (all two-handers were distributed to my two-handed Zealot and two-handed Avenger), so I don't know how they factor in.
* Spears are about even with Pole Arms. Pole Arms are generally faster, and look MUCH better than a giant grey toothpick (especially scythes; scythes look great), but have lower damage. I think Blizzard intended Pole Arms to have very high minimum damage, while very low maximum (such as 50-60 or something), while spears were supposed to have high maximum and low minimum (10-50, perhaps). That's just my speculation, though. In practical use, a spear would be a pole arm, though if you find yourself a Stormspire, why not make a Pole Arm user?
* You didn't mention those godawful desynch errors associated with high Run/Walk Barbarians (or really anyone who can get really fast movement - Assassins and even us Paladins are bad about this, too.) I recall that breaking the 200% point causes some nasty desynchronization errors. I've never seen one, but I've heard about them. Supposedly like the Charge bug amplified twentyfold.
* Ever notice that the base range for Leap at slvl 1 is 4.6 YARDS? That's one helluva big hop. Just thought I'd add that in.
* I concur with your analysis of Concentrate. It's an effective skill. I prefer Zerkers to Iron Barbarians, but it's fun to have upwards of 40,000 Defense for a split second :)
* This is out of order (I'm making these nits and comments as I read the guide, if you haven't picked up on that yet), but I recall you referring to the Paladin aura Concentration as "Concentrate". A simple and common mistake, but it could lead to confusion. Just an observation.
* I didn't check into the WW-strategy link you sent, but a tactic I used with my Zerker for a quick escape would be to gather some enemies near a corner, let them close in, and then zip through them with WW. This would injure them somewhat (slvl 1 WW, since I was a Zerker), and would allow me to use a War Cry or two to keep them against the corner. Follow up with your favorite melee attack (Bash works well.) Also a fun thing to do if you're a Smiter, or if you've got a Smiter with you. I had to teach my friends this trick so I could exploit it with my Smiter :)
* I'm not sure about this, but WW MAY be similar to Charge in the Defense/Blocking department. With Charge, you'll maintain your Defense and Blocking values as if you were walking so long as autorun isn't enabled (I never use Autorun, anyway, so this was a nonissue for me). Use Autorun, however, and it's exactly as if you're running. Whether a feature or a bug, I have no idea. Might want to check that for WW.
* The "Crying Frenzier" sounds like the Battle Barbarian build, but without the Battle Cry. The basic usage of the Battle Barbarian would be to lure things in close, use War Cry to stun them, use Battle Cry to disable them, use another War Cry to keep them stunned (this eats a lot of MP in the process, so some MP-adders would be useful here), and then slice 'em up with Frenzy. A lot of work for a single group of monsters, but it's very viable and eats up Frenzytaurs like nobody's business.
*
All in all, a very thorough and superb guide. You said English wasn't your native language, but I thought your English was superb. Better than most of the general Battle.net populous speaks it, anyway. Very well done.
A couple of nits and/or comments:
*
Quote:If you got both Battle Cry and War Cry, use the latter first. Its better to give them -100% damage than 25-44. Do Not Use when around necros.-100% Damage is attributed to Battle Cry, which would mean that you are talking about the former, and not the latter. But personally, I prefer using War Cry first. It's easier to "curse" the baddies when they're standing there like little EXP pillars than when they're beating on you ;)
* From a strictly statistical standpoint, one-handed axes are superior to one-handed swords in most cases. Axes do more damage, have lower requirements, and are generally faster or are the same speed. The Zerker Axe does more damage than the Mythical Sword, yet has lower requirements and the same base attack speed. Of course, one-handed axes look like crap, but Mythical Swords don't look much better (everyone knows Cryptic Swords look the best, though they belong on the Paladin and not Ugg). I never used two-handed swords in the one-handed fashion (all two-handers were distributed to my two-handed Zealot and two-handed Avenger), so I don't know how they factor in.
* Spears are about even with Pole Arms. Pole Arms are generally faster, and look MUCH better than a giant grey toothpick (especially scythes; scythes look great), but have lower damage. I think Blizzard intended Pole Arms to have very high minimum damage, while very low maximum (such as 50-60 or something), while spears were supposed to have high maximum and low minimum (10-50, perhaps). That's just my speculation, though. In practical use, a spear would be a pole arm, though if you find yourself a Stormspire, why not make a Pole Arm user?
* You didn't mention those godawful desynch errors associated with high Run/Walk Barbarians (or really anyone who can get really fast movement - Assassins and even us Paladins are bad about this, too.) I recall that breaking the 200% point causes some nasty desynchronization errors. I've never seen one, but I've heard about them. Supposedly like the Charge bug amplified twentyfold.
* Ever notice that the base range for Leap at slvl 1 is 4.6 YARDS? That's one helluva big hop. Just thought I'd add that in.
* I concur with your analysis of Concentrate. It's an effective skill. I prefer Zerkers to Iron Barbarians, but it's fun to have upwards of 40,000 Defense for a split second :)
* This is out of order (I'm making these nits and comments as I read the guide, if you haven't picked up on that yet), but I recall you referring to the Paladin aura Concentration as "Concentrate". A simple and common mistake, but it could lead to confusion. Just an observation.
* I didn't check into the WW-strategy link you sent, but a tactic I used with my Zerker for a quick escape would be to gather some enemies near a corner, let them close in, and then zip through them with WW. This would injure them somewhat (slvl 1 WW, since I was a Zerker), and would allow me to use a War Cry or two to keep them against the corner. Follow up with your favorite melee attack (Bash works well.) Also a fun thing to do if you're a Smiter, or if you've got a Smiter with you. I had to teach my friends this trick so I could exploit it with my Smiter :)
* I'm not sure about this, but WW MAY be similar to Charge in the Defense/Blocking department. With Charge, you'll maintain your Defense and Blocking values as if you were walking so long as autorun isn't enabled (I never use Autorun, anyway, so this was a nonissue for me). Use Autorun, however, and it's exactly as if you're running. Whether a feature or a bug, I have no idea. Might want to check that for WW.
* The "Crying Frenzier" sounds like the Battle Barbarian build, but without the Battle Cry. The basic usage of the Battle Barbarian would be to lure things in close, use War Cry to stun them, use Battle Cry to disable them, use another War Cry to keep them stunned (this eats a lot of MP in the process, so some MP-adders would be useful here), and then slice 'em up with Frenzy. A lot of work for a single group of monsters, but it's very viable and eats up Frenzytaurs like nobody's business.
*
Quote:Det är slut nu. Hej da macken, vi synns immôrn.Looks Germanic, but I'm not sure what specific language. Dutch or Swiss, perhaps?
All in all, a very thorough and superb guide. You said English wasn't your native language, but I thought your English was superb. Better than most of the general Battle.net populous speaks it, anyway. Very well done.
ArrayPaladins were not meant to sit in the back of the raid staring at health bars all day, spamming heals and listening to eight different classes whine about buffs.[/quote]
The original Heavy Metal Cowâ¢. USDA inspected, FDA approved.
The original Heavy Metal Cowâ¢. USDA inspected, FDA approved.