Why are barbs so squishy?

Barbarian
1

I am currently Playing a Bleed Barb.
With 2h Axe/2h Sword Technique/Expertise, with

Flay - With Damage Reduction/Thorns (because I thought it’ll help me survive)

Rend - With increased Vulnerable Damage (Synergize with Axe Technique/Expertise)

Rallying Cry - With Fortify Generation as a Defensive Layer

Charge - With Vulnerable so I can guarantee a vulnerable proc on enemies to utilize with Rend

Rupture - Burst Damage after Applying Bleed, with the increased Attack Speed Node so I can stack Flay faster after encounters

Wrath of the Berserker - Because it still fits better than the other Ultimate Options (Ancestors dont apply Bleed and I dont Switch Weapons)

Now… why am I Squishy edited by moderation
Even with the 6% Fortify Bonus from the Weapon Mastery Node passives, even with 12% Damage Reduction from Flay, it feels like I am more squishy than any of my other characters.

And I dont know which skills to replace. The thing I think can go most may be Rallying cry, but that would diminish my ability to generate fortify, I could go for Deathblow but that has no defensive value apart from “Dead Enemies cant hit you”

I could try to get the damage reduction while berserking but that’ll only be active while I use my Ultimate, I could get the Node with Distant Enemy Damage reduction, but that’s somehow situational, when I keep dying to Trash Mob Hordes.

Maybe Bleed is just too slow to be viable? I really dont get it.

I also was slain by myself last night. It literally said
“charactername has been slain by charactername”
How the heck does that happen?

I really dont know what to do.

2 Likes
2

That’s good tough question. For you to survive, you need to do good damage to not tank the mob damage for too long. Given how resource starved the class is, you need to invest heavilly into resource generation to do good damage. You also need damage reductions and on higher difficulty you absolutely need a lot of Unstoppable, because they put mad amounts of CC into the game. So your problems are 1) fury generation, 2) CC, 3) DR and you have 3 shouts that solve these 3 problems. So I wonder who exactly is surprised, that the meta is to run all 3 shouts and try to get 100% uptime on them :D. What you are trying to do looks like sensible build, which SHOULD work and would probably be more fun. But they designed the class in a way, that only one thing REALLY works. Run all 3 shouts, that’s all there is to it.

1 Like
3

I’m running a similar build and having the same issue. What Tux said is sadly true, and I have been lamenting this since day 1; the talent system gives an illusion of a free choice that isn’t there, D4 actually runs on D2 logic where each class has 1 “real” spec. I’ve had the same experience with 2 other classes, play meta or don’t bother. Good to see Diablo is still basically stuck in the 90’s…

4

Guess I’ll die
¯_(ツ)_/¯

I’m not gonna play Meta builds, just because Blizz refuses to acknowledge the lack of build variety.

6 Likes
5

Good take. If everyone keeps running that one build that works, then people will keep claiming how great the class is and that it maybe even needs more nerfs :smiley: . It really isn’t though. It has the worst build variety in the game imho, because you are locked to many of the same buttons way too hard. Meanwhile the top builds got nerfed anyway, so barb just really doesn’t excel at anything and many of the builds that look like they should work and do make sense, just don’t perform at all.

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I actually think Items could help, but during leveling, even at World Tier 2, the droprate for legendaries only starts to really kick in, by the time you already suffered for multiple ingame hours slogging around.

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Items absolutely help, but the class needs to be able to get you there. Barb is far too fragile until you fully gear the character, but yes it does get better afterwards. It’s not just the lego effects, what makes a difference is watching out for defensive gear mods, because barb is oneshot without them. You need to get DR against close/ranged/while injured/while fortified (if applicable, barb has harder time to fortify than druid on some builds) on all items that can roll them. If you stack it madly, you start feeling almost as durable as you should have been feeling on level 10 :smiley: . You will still feel more squishy than most other classes though, because they have better defenses as part of their kit AND they can get the same gear mods. The only way I know about, how to feel as tanky as you SHOULD (because melee, you don’t get to kite) is to run the Unstoppable and DR shouts with 100% uptime, which is borderline unachievable after the nerfs and it just sucks to be locked into those two buttons this hard.

1 Like
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Long story short, for as long as barb is not BY FAR the most tanky class in the game, barb will be undertuned. It’s not somehow OP for barb to be tanky, it is REQUIRED for it’s playstyle. The likes of sorc or druid can’t have the same amount of survivability and they ABSOLUTELY can’t have even better survivability (spoiler alert, they do), given big part of their survivability are the many options they have, to do damage from range.

2 Likes
9

Any1 tested Aspect of Might?
Basic skills grant xx% [Damage Reduction] for x seconds
I used dropped item with that effect,not crafted.
I’m tested it, so when effect up, damage to me is increased, but it should be decreased.
Am I wrong?

10

I have dropped it on other classes, but not on my barb, but I didnt notice it working the wrong way around.

11

How much armor do you have. With 70% resistance from armour I feel ok .

12

With the nerfs to shout, the barb have become a lot squishier than it used to be. You have to really watch for the shouts not to fall off. If challenging shout falls of, and you get stunned while your shouts are on CD, you’re dead in half a second.

Some of the CD nerfs to shouts needs to be rolled back!!! Even at lvl 83 with nearly perfect rolls to CDR on my gear, I can’t keep up my shouts. Not sure how much better it will be if I reach lvl100, and I’m not sure I care to find out at this point. Considering to just uninstall the game and go back to play D2R. At least there, the gaming experience isn’t wrecked by these constant nerfs. The time I spent building my barb so far, feels thrown away at this point and all enjoyment I had early on, is gone.

13

massive lack in build variety for barb its WW or nothing. the only way i can survive is with 100% disobediance. no dmg and squishy comon blizz…

14

Because Blizzards idea of the game is instant kill and instant death.

15

Actually Barbs were not squishy pre shouts nerf. It was working fine in well designed way ,mabye they should have just lower some values. They instead nerfed shouts cooldown values and removed some shouts affixes from gear. That pretty much destroyed barbs survivability. If you want to be as tanky as druids example, then you have to give up most damage and spec into thorns build. Imo barb class is broken and in season 1 we loose 3 gems 750 armor value more. I dont have high hopes they can fix with next major patch 18th. That is only possible if they revert back shouts nerfs some way.

1 Like
16

Thats exactly my point. The nerf of the shouts pretty much killed the class. There’s no way of keeping them up, until you reach lvl100 and get a perfectly decked out char with all the CDR you can get.

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Get 50% DR to Close and Distant and you will tank anything. Maybe not uber Lilith, but I havent tried it.

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These comments make me laugh. Are you in endgame? You really think most of us dont have those stats already and only hope for shouts DR? I got news for you it wont help. Any class can run low level NMD or farm helltides with good gear but i can tank a LOT harder and higher level stuff on my crap gear druid.

1 Like
19

Try it out for yourself.

Also, im pretty sure by now that most people playing Druid know that is bugged and will likely be fixed in Season 1. Several streamers have also confirmed this.

But, don’t take my word for it, im only 100 on HC solo, what would I know.

20

It will be fun if they nerf other classes also. Then all can feel same pain as barbs have long time. I dont need to try i have lvl 100 barb before they changed xp gains. I’m playing other classes until they release pre season 1 patch notes.
Alkaiser just did Barb unique items tier list video. All uniques besides uber rare are tier D not worth ever using except Rage of Harrogath that is C tier some uses if they fix that also.

1 Like