Barbarian Class Guide

The barbarian is one of the most dangerous and feared sights on the battlefield. Their combat style focuses on strength, aggression, and relentless assault.

Whether wielding two-handed weapons that sweep through enemy lines or fighting with a weapon in each hand, when the opportunity to deliver that devastating killing blow Comes, they are ready.

Wounding barbarians enrages them, making them stronger and more deadly in battle and their varied array of powerful attacks can knock an enemy senseless, immobilize them, or make the very ground shake around them. Like other rogues, they excel at sneaking and the arts of ambushing.

Archetype: Rogue
Permitted Races: Cimmerian, Aquilonian
Weapons: One-handed edged, one-handed blunts, twohanded
edged, two-handed blunts, bows, thrown weapons, and
dual wielding.
Armor: Cloth armor and light armor

Feat Guide:

Great Weapons master build:

Butcher build:

Cheat the Reaper build:

Leveling/Straight DPS build:

I didn't take any of the aggro reducing talents, add them if you want a more group oriented build.

Now I am going to explain my reasoning for picking the feats that I did, and explain why I skipped some things.

Berserker Tree.
Blood rage: Grants the barbarian the Blood Rage Stance which increased damage inflicted and enemy attacks have a chance of increasing the barbarian's rate of Health regeneration and evasion chance. The ealth effect can be applied three times.

Required to advance.
Atrocity: Increases the damage done by barbarians Butcher combos.

Great Weapons Master: Increased the damage done by two-handed edged and two-handed blunt weapons.

Atrocity vs Great Weapons Master: For leveling, get Great Weapons Master until you get Butcher IV. Butcher IV is when the butcher line really starts to shine, and becomes a strong, cheap combo. Great eapons Master is supposed to scale with levels, but unless Butcher isn't that great at level 80 I am going to lean towards picking Atrocity.

Shock and Awe: Reduces the reuse time for Stunning Punch and Clobber combos.

Bread and butter PvP talent. Stuns and knockbacks are our only form of CC and this lowers the recast time on them. At max level it lowers Stunning punch by 13 seconds and clobber by 11 with 3 feat points invested. Staggering punch: Improves the Stunning Punch combos by adding an effect that also reduces the victims movement speed.

I've included this talent in both builds but that is subject to change based on the how well the talent actually works. Ive tried testing this feat out a few times and right now it currently doesn't seem to be snaring the target after the stun wears off. Theres a possibilty I didnt test it thoroughly enough, but as far as I can tell right now this feat isn't working properly. I imagine it will be fixed soon, which is why I left it in the builds. IF FIXED, this will be an amazing talent depending on the snare duration.

Reverse swing: Augments the Staggering Blow combo by increasing the damage the barbarian inflicts.

After spending some time using this feats after getting Staggering blow II my mind has been completely changed. This is another one of those feats that start to shine the higher you go up in level. After getting Staggering Blow II at level 34 the damage of Staggering Blow goes up a LOT.

Something every barbarian will learn is that when fighting elite mobs you will run out of stamina VERY quickly. At level 38 with 1500 stamina all my stuns/knockbacks are above 200 stamina with stunning punch costing a whopping 271 at the moment. The nice thing about Butcher and Staggering blow is they are both relativelycheap on stamina and they both do great damage after their level 30 upgrades. I highly recommend picking up this talent after receiving Staggering blow II as its damage is amazing. I've had a couple 1200 HITS with staggering blow on nonshielded sides, which is really high. Another thing to note about this feat is that its pretty much a 1 point or 5 point feat. I'm not sure it's bugged but at one point its 5% three points it was 6% four was 7% and 5 was 10%. If you use Staggering blow every time it's up you can basically keep the 10% damage buff up almost 50% of the time. It lasts 6 seconds and the cooldown on Staggering blow is 15 Seconds. I'm not sure if the cooldown will increase with higher ranks, so keep that in mind. I may make room for this in my level 80 pvp build depending on if Staggering blow is still a strong combo at 80.

Paralysis: Adds a brief root effect, preventing the target from moving, to the barbarian's Clobber combo.

Awesome one point talent. Adds a root to Clobber, which can be used as a CC. potentially even more awesome with Finishing blow thrown in the mix. Clobbering a group of enemies and than finishing blowing one enemy while the others are knocked down and rooted after the knockdown.

Eyes of madness: Grants the barbarian an ability that makes all foes in the vicinity less likely to focus their attacks on them.

PvE talent, skipped. Pick this feat up if you are running a pve build or just want the extra reduced threat.

Insanity: Permanently increased the barbarian's resistance to fear effects.

Passive fear resist; prereq for unstable mind.

Grisly wounds: The barbarian augments the Butcher combos with their own inborn brutality, adding more damage over time.

I no longer think this ability is worth it, even for the butcher build. The DoT damage is still fairly weak evenwith the upgrade, it's the good base damage that makes butcher strong. If you want to run a Butcher build I would recommend grabbing Reverse swing instead of picking up this talent. I've removed this fromthe butcher build.

No escape: Grants an ability that enables the barbarian to throw their weapon, impaling their enemy, cause massive damage that lingers for a short time and also stuns the victim. This ability disarmsthe barbarian for a short time.

The damage from the frontload attack + dot damage is VERY strong, plus the fact that it stuns. If you are having trouble getting your weapon back, keep smashing your active block button until you get it back. This is probably considered our strongest ability at the moment. I was apprenticed to 75 earlier and my no escape actually one shotted a level 80 regular mob. It's awesome, pick it up. It seems they've fixed the bug with this ability as well, so no complaints here.

Combo - Earth Shatter: This mighty combo stuns all foes in close vicinity.

Another AoE stun. What more needs to be said? You want this feat. Although the stamina cost is pretty high, so use cautiously.

Finishing blow: Grants the barbarian a charge ability available after they knock back an enemy. Their charge caused severe damage but a high stamina cost and long reuse time.

Funcom recently fixed the bug that allowed us to do insane amounts of damage with that extra second attack, but in the process they broke this ability. It still takes no stamina, but it's only doing maybe 50 damage more then a white attack currently. Completely useless now, if you really want to put one point in it for being able to close in on a knockdowned target okay, but i think its better to start a combo and run up. This is going to be skipped until they fix it.

Arcane Marauder: When hit by spell damage the barbarian gains natural health regeneration and drains mana from enemies around them.

After getting this ability I'm still not sure exactly how it works. It seems that it's currently bugged and procs from EVERYTHING. This includes running, sprinting, attacking, I mean ANYTHING. I haven't been able to test how much mana it regens but with 1 point in it it adds 9natural health regen which isn't very noticeable. We will see where this feat goes, it may become useful at 80 in siege pvp but for leveling I would skip it, or add one point in it.

Unstable Mind: Grants the barbarian an ability which immunity for a short period of time.

Beastial Wrath anyone? The duration on this is around 9 seconds with 3 points, and has a two minute cooldown. From my experience with it only one point is necessary, atleast at the moment. You still get the snare break, and until end game PvP is around, thats about all you need. Even then it could be arguable that only one point is needed with a second snare break feat easily accessible by picking up Escape Artist in the general tree. Unless you need points to move further down the Berserker tree and don't want to put points into an earlier feat I would only put one point into this FOR NOW. This ability will start to really shine if there are snares that are easily reapplied continually with little to no cooldown, or in siege warfare.

Swarm Fighter: Grants the barbarian an ability that taunts all minions in the area for a short period of time. Every attack from a minion will trigger a heal effect when this ability is active.

Another pve talent, could be possibly useful against pet classes in PvP but doesn't seem worth the five feat points.

Hammer and Anvil: Enhances Stunning Punch combo by increasing the damage it inflicts.

You will be using stunning punch a lot, and this increased the damage and is also a prereq for Comatose.

Fearsome agility: When hit in combat there is a chance to gain a short evade buff. This can stack up to 5 times.

More survivability. There isnt really enough points for it with the butcher build but if you arent planning on using butcher it seems useful enough.

Rampage: When hit in combat you will occasionally damage every enemy around you for a small amount.

The usefulness of this talent depends on how much it procs and how much damage it deals which is information we don't really have access too at this point. Either way it's required for Thirst for Blood, so it's a must have.

Comatose: Enhances Stunning Punch combo by increasing the amount of time the victim is stunned for.

A longer stunning punch? Yes please.

Rampaging horde: Grants an ability that increases the damage inflicted upon foes based on the number of friendly barbarians within range. Maximum number counted is 10.

Unless you and all 48 of your friends are barbarians, not worth it.

Combo - Scatter Foes: Grants the barbarian a combo that will knock back all foes in a wide cone in front of them.

Another AoE knockback. This is a very useful feat and anyone this far down the Berserker line will definitely want to get this.

Combo - Decapitation: Grants the barbarian a swift combo that inflicts massive damage and increased the chance of a fatality. This combo has a long reuse time.

Do I really need to explain why to get this feat? Huge damage and possible forced decapitation plus it's a prereq for Thirst for blood.

Welcoming death: Grants an ability that increases the damage inflicted by the barbarian's attacks based on the number of dead foes nearby, up to a maximum number of 10.

Doesn't seem very useful for PvP; if all your teammates are dead this feat isn't going to save you anyway. This feat doesn't really sound that great at all honestly, even for PvE. chances are if you are in a raid or instance you will be continually moving after each pull so this will never really take effect unless you are killing in a confined area.

Thirst For Blood: Grants an ability that drives the fellowship into a wild bloodlust. Attacking or being attacked can trigger a damage bonus effect and multiple applications of this effect eventually boosts health and stamina regeneration.

Extra damage, more health, and stamina regen. This is the end all feat of the Berserker tree.

General Tree:
Excellent balance: Grants the rogue an ability which makes them immune to being knocked back in combat. Additional feat points increase the duration of the immunity and shortens the refresh time.

Required. A nice feat to have anyway, especially if you are fighting another barb or a knockdown heavy class.

Natural protection vs Toughness:
Natural protection: Increases the rogue's elemental resistance ratings.

Toughness: Increases the rogue's physical resistance rating.

Physical or Magical resistance? I personally will be going for Toughness. So far with my experience as a barbarian, our toughest fights are going to be against other melee classes. I usually rip up the cloth classes, of course this subject to change at end game. For now i'll be sticking with Toughness.

Subtlety: The rogue's strikes are less likely to attract a foes attention in battle, making them less likely to break off from their current target to attack the rogue.

PvE talent, stake it if you want to PvE. Otherwise skip it.

Second Wind: Grants a new special ability that gives a short duration but substantial stamina boost. Takes a moderate amount of time to refresh.

Just what barbarians need. I don't know about you guys but I burn through stamina like nobodies business, and a barbarian without any stamina is a worthless autoattacker.

Keen senses: Substabtially reduces the reuse time of the Search ability.

Not sure what it actually lowers the search timer too, although a very fast search would be useful in PvP situations, atleast more useful than an extra .5% physical damage reduction.

Quick recovery: The rogue instantly recovers stamina after being knocked back in smelee.

Stamina= good. Plus a LOT of classes have knockdowns, this way you can hopefully avoid knockdowns with Excellent Balance, but if you do get knocked down you will atleast get some stamina back from it.

Alright, I am going to break form here because I am going to be comparing a couple of the 2nd and 3rd tier General abilities together. The choice of what to pick
becomes a lot tougher choice at this point. Acrobat gives you more survivability. Endurance means a shorter cooldown on second wind, which means more stamina overall. Escape artist and Agile mind both sound extremely useful, but it's hard to tell how much of an effect fear and charm will have on people in PvP. At this point I am probably going to stick with Endurance and Acrobat. Depending on the cooldown of Unstable mind and how often I find myself snared I will be picking up Escape artist accordingly.

I hope this helps out some of you who are having a hard time deciding what feats to get.