Barbarian Builds and Tips

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**Barbarians** (also known as Werebeasts in other versions)

**Gender:** Male

**Attack Type/Range:** Physical/Close Range

**Specializes in:** Axes and Hammers

**Parties need you for:** Tanking. DO NOT play this class if you're looking for a melee damage dealer but don't like tanking, be a Blademaster instead.

## Pros and Cons

The pros and cons really depend on your build/gear, but here are the overall assumptions.

*Pros:*

* High HP
* High HP Recovery Rate
* Good Physical Defense
* Skills to help keep aggro/hate of monsters
* Best Tank / Wanted in Parties
* Catapult Pullers = Essential in Territory Wars
* Great damage at endgame

*Cons:*

* Low accuracy (due to low DEX in most builds. Can be solved at later levels with the skill Blood Bath, as well as +50% accuracy rings (like the level 77 ☆Misty Forest Ring))
* Low damage in the beginning/mid levels
* Low Magic Defense
* High repair cost
* High potion/charm cost
* Requires patience. Many give up before reaching level 89+ due to high costs & other classes excelling more in terms of damage. (Barbarians rock at endgame though.)

## Attributes

### How each stat affects your other attributes

Strength (+4 Str adds +1 DEF; +6 Str adds +4 DEF)

* increases attack power for melee weapon
* increases physical defense
* Armor stat requirement: Usually 0.5 STR every level for magic robes, 1 STR for light armors, and 2.5 STR for heavy armors.

Dexterity (+1 Dex = Accuracy +8 and Evasion +8)

* increases attack power for range weapon
* increases evasion
* increases accuracy
* increases critical hit rate (Every 20 DEX gives 1% more critical hit rate)
* Armor stat requirement: Usually 1 DEX every level for light armors, 0.5 DEX for heavy armors, and of course 0 for magic robes.

Vitality (+1 Vit = Max HP +17)

* increases physical defense
* increases magic defense
* increases HP
* increases HP regeneration rate (NOTE: HP regen is reduced by 75% when in combat mode)

Magic (+1 Mag = Max MP +7)

* increases magic attack power
* increases magic defense
* increases MP
* increases MP regeneration rate (NOTE: MP regen is reduced by 75% when in combat mode)

MP/HP Bonus Per Level

* Max HP +34
* Max MP +14

### How much Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, and Magic does a Barbarian need?

* The amount of Strength in any build is simply the latest axe/hammer requirement for your level, nothing more & nothing less. There's no point adding more Str than necessary because the Str requirement of axes/hammers are already so high, that you'll barely have enough points to put in other stats.
* I recommend adding at least 1 Dexterity every 2 levels until you get 60 Dex no matter what build (if you have great accuracy/Dex gear though, just stop at around 50 Dex). And remember, try to keep Dex in terms of 20s (+20 Dex = +1% critical hit rate). Most Barbarians try to have only 62, 80, or 104 Dex endgame; depending on your gears. 62 Dex is the heavy armor requirement for Lv 105; 104 Dex is the last light armor requirement. 80 Dex is the max you should have unless you're going for a pure PK build, then maybe around 104 Dex. Anymore than that is a waste.
* Add as much points in Vitality as you can (after all, more Vit = a better tank, which is the whole purpose of a Barbarian. Also, more HP = higher Armageddon damage -> more dead people).
* Barbarian builds do not add any Magic. Why? Because Barbarians don't have any magic attacks and the magic defense you get from Mag is too little; you might as well add those points to Vit instead. Don't raise your Magic for MP either. MP can easily be recovered with MP potions and charms.

## Main Stat Builds of the Barbarian

NOTE: All builds focus first on fulfilling weapon/armor requirements, then differentiate, based on how you spend the remaining status points.

* Choose the build best suited for your play style; and there's no need to follow one build the whole way through.
* You can try a hybrid build first (to level quickly), then move toward a tank build at higher levels (to survive in dungeons/TW/PVP), and lastly add a little more Dex before you reach max level (for PKing).

### Str-Based Damage Dealer

Armor: Heavy
VIT = 1 each level
STR = 3 each level
DEX = 1 each level

**Comments:** Levels quickly at low levels, but the low HP will kill you later. If you're looking for high damage, you might as well be a Blademaster instead.

### Hybrid

Armor: Light for magic opponents, Heavy for physical opponents
VIT = 1 each level
STR = 2.5 each level
DEX = 1.5 each level
(or 2 Vit / 5 Str / 3 Dex every two levels)

**Comments:** same comments as the Str-Based Damage Dealer build, except that you will have a decent base accuracy and critical hit rate. Works well in PVP if you go with the Demon path at lv 89. Also, being able to switch from heavy to light armors will allow you to tank magic damage better than Build A. Still not as useful as a tanker build though.

### Tanker (Recommended Build)

Armor: Heavy
VIT = all points left over
STR = follow equipment requirements
DEX = follow equipment requirements

**Comments:** Parties and Territory War factions love this type. Great for tanking bosses/mobs and as a catapult puller in TW, but don't expect to kill things as quickly as other classes until you're at a very high level. Once you get Armageddon lv 10 and very high HP, you'll pwn in PvP, but that's if you don't miss. Using Blood Bath helps.

## Equipment

### Accuracy Rings and Soul Gems

* All builds will benefit greatly with the Blood Bath skill lv. 10 (Reduces maximum HP and current HP by 16% to increase accuracy by 200% for 10 minutes) and +50% accuracy rings. Blood Bath easily solves the low accuracy problem. The +50% accuracy rings (the ☆Misty Forest Ring can be used at level 77) are not a necessity, but it helps a lot in PVP at high levels, when you start to miss Archers and Blademasters most of the time. A note on the +50% accuracy rings (aka LingYun rings): LingYuns are almost worthless if the base accuracy of a Barbarian isn't at least moderately high. LingYuns don't benefit from Blood Bath at all, which is their biggest downside. However, they become irreplaceable once your Barbarian's base accuracy is high. Also, you won't be able to get these rings until around level 77; and even then, they are quite expensive and rare.
* Also, if you get to level 90, you can replace LingYun rings with HH 90 gold rings, ☆Ring of Mastadon's Strength (each +30% accuracy and +2 % crit), for more damage. Works best with the Demon path because this path adds more critical hit rate to some skills and +100% more accuracy for Blood Bath.
* It's best to slot accuracy gems on your weapons and HP gems for your armors. +Vit and +Dex bonuses are nice too. Some may choose to use Physical/Magic defense gems, but HP gems will make you much more well-rounded, and Armageddon and Beast King's Inspiration are better with higher HP.
* M.def jewelry to balance out the defenses when using heavy armor is also recommended. Hell, a top Werebeast/Barbarian player in PW-MY, has stated, in his view, that “heavy armor WB with magic defense jewelry is the best most balanced way to equip one's WB.”

## Skills

### Which Skills to Learn

In the beginning levels, there will be more than enough skill points to train all skills, but after that, it becomes so overwhelming that you cannot keep up. That is why it is best to focus on maximizing certain skills first before others. Try to learn all of the skills though. You will be able to max them all at Lv. 89+.
It's all a matter of preference and whether or not you do more PVPing or tanking.

Tiger mode is best for tanking due to the increased HP/physical defense, as well as many useful PVE/aggro skills.

* True Form - Personal choice whether to max or not. At max skill lv, you gain 30% movement speed & 20% max HP more, but lose 30% more attack than if you had not trained the skill. Note that if you took the Demon Path at lv 89, True Form's damage penalty will be taken out once you get the skill book.
* Flesh Ream and Roar (aka Talk is cheap) should be maxed ASAP. Those are your 2 most useful skills in PVE parties. The higher it is, the easier it is to maintain aggro.
* Alacrity of the Beast is very useful to cancel the mob's skills. Train this whenever you have extra Spirit to spend. More damage from this skill will help maintain aggro, and the shorter cooldown = more times to spam it. Lv.7 is a good time to stop because it's cooldown time can help tell you when to cancel a mob's casting.
* ShapeShifting Intensify - try to max this as well. More defense = better tank
* After focusing on the skills above, work on Frighten and Sunder next. The rest, you can leave at lv 1 until you have more Spirit to spare.

The Humanoid skills are mainly PVP-based, with a few stun and AoE skills as well as buffs.

* Your 1st priority is to max Beast King's Inspiration, Strength of the Titans, Axe & Hammer Mastery, and Blood Bath first. Then focus on the attack skills.
* Beastial Onslaught, Mighty Swing and Penetrate Armor are your 3 best single-target attack skills.
* Save the rest of your Spirit points to max Slam if you plan on AoE training, or Armageddon for PVPing. The others aren't as useful in terms of damage.

### Sage or Demon Path at level 89?

Both are equally good.. Sage is best for defense, Demon is best for damage dealing. Choose which one you'll do more of.
However, it's also good to choose the one that will balance your build (offset your weaknesses)

In general:
Humanoid (more offensive) + Sage (more defensive) = balanced
Tiger (more defensive) + Demon (more offensive) = balanced

Some major benefits of each path:

* Sage version of Armageddon reduces HP and MP cost to 35% of your current total.
* Demon version of Armageddon does 10% extra damage
* Sage version of Blood Bath reduces HP sacrificed to 10%
* Demon version of Blood Bath increases accuracy by 300%
* Sage version of True Form always increases maximum HP by 40%
* Demon version of True Form lets tiger mode attacks do full damage
* Sage version of ShapeShifting Intensify always increases physical defense gain to 120%
* Demon version of ShapeShifting Intensify gives a critical hit rate increase of 2%
* Sage version of Beast King's Inspiration increases duration to 1 hour
* Demon version of Beast King's Inspiration lets affected party members gain 50% more Chi

Go to Ecatomb's skill page for more info about how these paths effect each skill. Many Barbarian players do recommend Sage path though, since it allows better survivability and tanking. Staying alive in Territory Wars and Dungeon parties is much more important for a Barbarian than dealing more damage.

### Tips on Using Skills

Make sure you're always buffed with Beast King's Inspiration, Strength of the Titans, and Blood Bath (if you miss a lot) no matter what you're doing. Also have Beastial Rage activated if you need Chi for skills.

#### Tanking - Always Use Tiger Mode

Your main focuses are to Stay Alive, Constantly Build Up Chi, and Keep the Mobs Aggroed.

* SPAM Flesh Ream to make the mobs attack you and not your fragile party members. Flesh Ream does stack bleeding damage, which is what helps maintain aggro over time. Try adding a couple attacks/skills that don't consume Chi in between Flesh Reams to prevent your Chi bar from being empty.
* You could use Roar if there are multiple monsters you have to tank. However, it sets the aggro to a set level, usually much lower than if you were spamming Flesh Ream. Plus, Roar has a long cooldown time (60 seconds), so use it only when you get mobbed.
* Use Devour only when you have aggroed the mob previously (Devour only creates greater hate if you are the one it is attacking). It's also great for reducing the enemy's physical defense, but use it sparingly because it costs quite a bit of Chi, which can run out quickly when used in combination with Flesh Ream.
* Use Sunder to recover lost HP.
* Use Surf Impact once in awhile to reduce the mobs' speed, in case they choose to run away from you and attack your party members. That way, you'll have more time to lure the mobs back to you.
* Also use Frighten if the mobs are tough/dealing a lot of damage to your party. It's a great way to gain Chi as well.
* Whenever an enemy is casting a skill (especially magic), quickly use Alacrity of the Beast to cancel them.
* Constantly have Beastial Rage activated to build up Chi for skills.
* Invoke the Spirit, which reduces damage by 90%, helps a lot when tanking tough bosses.

#### Training

**A. Soloing**
If you're poor, use Tiger Mode.

* 1st use Alacrity of the Beast to cancel monster skills, then use normal attacks.
* Cast Sunder whenever you're running out of HP.

If you're rich with lots of potions/charms and decent gears, use Humanoid Mode to kill mobs faster.

Here's a nice combo for melee mobs:

* 1st use Mighty Swing to stun, then Slam to knockback
* Next, use Beastial Onslaught to reduce evasion while the mob is coming back to you, then Penetrate Armor to reduce defense
* And finally, 3 normal attacks
* Repeat

**B. AoE partying (lv 60+)**
A "zhen" party or a "perfect" AoE party consists of 3-6 squad members using continuous damage and healing arrays, and 2-3 "lurers" who pull high lv mobs into the array at an extremely high rate. This results in a high exp/sp gain at the cost of the players' HP/MP charms.

The Barbarian's role is to be the lurer and also to give the HP buff (Beast King's Inspiration) to the party whenever it runs out.

Luring for AoE squads as a barbarian does take a bit of practice. Your job is to round up many mobs just by running near them, using attack skills occasionally to keep the mobs following you, while leading them back to where the wizards/archers/clerics have their AoE set up. This can be done in humanoid or tiger mode. Humanoid is easier because you'll have more AoE skills to use, but tiger mode is faster due to higher movement speed.

As you know, the mobs will usually follow you when you get close to them. However, the mobs will stop following you after they travel a certain distance. What you gotta find out is how much distance the mobs travel before they stop following you (usually 5-8 seconds of running). Once you find that out, all you have to do is use an attack AoE (Roar, Sunder, Surf Impact, Slam, Swell, or Firestorm) on them before that time, while luring them to the Damage Dealers.

You can also lure using a land mount as long as the mobs keep following you. Just note that if you travel too far without using skills on the mobs, they will stop following you.

Try to lure in a circle if possible, or lure from the farthest point inward.

#### PVPing

Humanoid Mode:

* Use Blood Bath and Beastial Onslaught when dealing with high evasion players.
* Use Mighty Swing as much as possible to stun; Penetrate Armor to reduce their physical defense
* Use Armageddon wisely. Treat it more like a final attack rather than a starting one. You'll either be half-dead or have hiero cooldown after using it.

Beastial Onslaught and Slam can be chained with Armageddon when dealing with multiple enemies.
Beware when fighting those with the Venomancer's buff, Bramble Guard, which reflects 60%+ of your damage and can easily kill you before you know what hit you.

Tiger Mode:

* Best used when chasing people because True Form adds movement speed.
* You can cast Surf Impact, catch up to them, then return to humanoid mode to attack.
* Alacrity of the Beast is highly useful to cancel their skills.
* Using Sunder to recover your HP while fighting is also very handy.
* If you're able to use MP pots/charms, then switching back to humanoid mode after using Invoke the Spirit or Sunder can turn the match completely to your favor.

And the rest will come with in-game experience ;)

## Additional Tips - Read if you dare!

### In-depth guide to Tanking - A Barbarian's #1 Role in PvE Parties

The tips above are a little too brief, so I'll go more into detail here.

Spamming Flesh Ream definitely is the #1 rule for tanking. Just remember that your Chi will run out if you keep spamming Flesh Ream continuously without also adding in extra attacks/skills (Frighten, Alacrity of the Beast, and Surf Impact for example) that do not consume Chi. This becomes more important later on (level 60+), when you need to build up your Chi to use highly useful skills such as Invoke the Spirit and Sunder (requires 2 Spark each). Keep Beastial Rage activated while tanking to help build up Chi.

And whenever you need to aggro multiple mobs quickly, use Roar (aka Talk is cheap), then spam Flesh Ream on each. You will lose aggro more easily if you do not spam Flesh Ream after every few attacks. Max Flesh Ream and Roar to make your job easier.

I hardly ever use Devour because it requires a lot of Chi (nearly twice as much as Flesh Ream), and Flesh Ream is better at keeping aggro. Plus, the physical defense reduction from Devour only lasts 10 seconds on regular mobs and even less on bosses. If you really like using Devour, just use it once in awhile - whenever the mob's physical defense needs to be reduced. If there are no physical attack dealers in your party, then there's no point using Devour.

The main focuses while tanking are: Gaining Chi, Maintaining Aggro, and Staying Alive. Let your party members handle the damage dealing/killing. If there's no need for a tank, change back to humanoid form and join in on the mass destruction.

### Tanking Magic Bosses - Use Alacrity of the Beast to Cancel Their Ultimate Attack

Using Alacrity of the Beast is an important part of tanking. If you are able to cancel the boss's skills, especially the AoEs, then you can save your party from certain death :).

Timing Alacrity of the Beast to cancel the boss's skills does take a bit of practice. The general idea is to use it immediately when you see that the boss stops attacking and a casting aura appears underneath the boss. Some bosses, such as the Myriadial Wyvern in FB 51, do not have a casting aura, yet you can cancel the skill. All bosses have a set attack pattern they follow every time. A boss's casting time varies, so you may have to time Alacrity of the Beast before you notice the boss casting.

Figure that out, as well as how the boss moves before/during/after it's casting skill, to time your attacks. And remember, using Alacrity of the Beast too early or too late will not cancel the boss's skill. You've only got a couple seconds or even 1 second to cancel it successfully. A common mistake is when you're in the middle of another skill animation when the boss starts casting. You'll be too late to cancel with Alacrity of the Beast. So you need to be prepared to use Alacrity of the Beast before the boss begins casting, while also making sure that you don't use it too soon.

Anyways, here's an example:

The 3rd boss of FB51, Myriadial Wyvern - it attacks 5 times before it uses it's AoE/cursing skill. So use Alacrity of the Beast after it does 5 normal attacks. The normal attacks look like headbutts and slaps, while the AoE/cursing skill looks like a stomp. So your goal is to prevent the boss from stomping :P .

Usually, the boss uses its casting spell after the cooldown time of Alacrity of the Beast. So this makes it possible to cancel every casting skill that the boss uses. There are some exceptions though, like the bosses that cast continuously (such as that Hercule Trioc boss in FB39) or re-casts very quickly (like the TT 1-1 squad drum boss when it's at 5-10% HP). Those are either impossible or very difficult to cancel.

Also, mobs like to use their casting spell continuously if you have some distance between you and the mob. So a nice way to set up your timing for Alacrity of the Beast is to stop a few meters away from the mob, then see if it begins casting. If it does, immediately run up to it and cast Alacrity of the Beast. Now you'll know that the mob will cast again when the cooldown time of Alacrity of the Beast is over, so get ready for the next cancel when the cooldown is almost up!