Barbarian Questions

Hello,
I'm thinking of starting upcoming ladder with a Barbarian, I'd never played Barbarian so I made a single player Barbarian and got him to level 100'ish for practice and to familiarize myself with the playstyle. Due to the lacking availability of skill/stat resets in single player I'm not able to test every Barbarian build, similarly, the lack of equipment is also preventing my efficiency testing. I do know I'll be playing a melee build, not throwing or summoning.

Anyway, I'd appreciate the input of more experienced Barbarian players. <3

1) Which melee single-target Barbarian skill has the best damage? What comes in second place?

2) Is there some trick I haven't figured out with stances? Is keeping them on right click the only way?! Is there a script or program that doesn't break the rules which can be used? It's horrrriible. Why can't it just be a casted buff? eg: "you can only have one stance active at a time, duration 900 seconds.". Seriously!

3) Any random pro tips for playing melee Barbarian?

Thanks for the help.

1/Stormblast, second, DeathGaze
2/I heard the dev are working on a solution to bind Stances to left mouse, let's hope it comes out soon.
Changing to buff require heavy coding and people will abuse multiple stance buffs.
3/Don't quit too soon

Number 2 is pretty much the sole reason I cbf playing barb.

JustinSymbio wrote:1) Which melee single-target Barbarian skill has the best damage? What comes in second place?

2) Is there some trick I haven't figured out with stances? Is keeping them on right click the only way?! I

3) Any random pro tips for playing melee Barbarian?

Thanks for the help.

1. it depends a lot on what you are trying to build , 1h or 2h , full str or enough str for gear , sword or axe , etc . in the early levels Earthquake is your best pick vs crowds as it travels far and wide , also dealing extra damage based on your points into strength . later on , Stormblast and Deathgaze catch up and eventualy get to be better . There is also Ancient's hand oskill that works similar to Stormblast , but converting the damage to fire . You can find it on barbarian helms (rare/magic/crafted) or on

Anak

Anak
Barbarian Swords, Barbarian One-Handed Axes
'HelEldBer'
Runeword Level: 78
30% Attack Speed
Adds (20 to 40)-(55 to 75) Damage
Adds 100-200 Lightning Damage
-15% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+(171 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
Slow Target (10 to 15)%
Lightning Resist +(66 to 75)%
+50 Life on Melee Attack
(3 to 7)% Gold Find

. if you can afford to sacrifice one of the gear slots to use this , it may be the best barbarian option , if not , it's up to what weapon you have on (deathgaze for axe / stormblast for sword)

2 . the stances will stay on right click untill we get informed that they work other wise . it's been like this for more than 12 years . people have been complaining about it ever since , but there's not much to be done . Hopefuly the Sigma engine will allow some changes to it , but i am not sure that it is among the mod makers priorities for the near future changes .

3. a dead character deals no damage (unless you build a kamikaze) . focus on getting tanky first , then see about the damage (this does not apply for hatred , when you can kill everything naked)

Thanks so much guys, this is helpful! Fully appreciate the responses.

JustinSymbio wrote:Due to the lacking availability of skill/stat resets in single player.....

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