Your Barbarian and You: Part I

Meet the Meatshield

If you ever played Blizzard’s flagship, World of Warcraft, then you will be familiar with the term Meatshield. If not, this term refers to the class or specialization that gets the (un)glamorous job of bearing the brunt of the damage. In essence, this is the Barbarian. With high damage/armor/health, and low avoidance and self heals, the Barbarian qualifies as the meatshield of Diablo III. However as I will soon explain, this class is still quite enjoyable despite some lacking mechanics.

The Barbarian hero is your classic warrior type, which basically boils down to this: high damage output, but a high damage intake. Unfortunately this tends not to work in our favor, as enemy damage far outscales our own. However, this only becomes true in the latter parts of Hell mode onwards; much of the leveling experience can be done with a strong offensive build.

First things First:

The most important piece of gear for your Barb is your weapon(s), without a doubt. A new weapon will change your DPS more than any other piece of gear (assuming of course you’re not using inferior quality armor). Continuing with weapon importance, one of the larger decisions is to use a 2H weapon, 2 1H weapons, or a 1H and a shield. This decision affects Fury generation the most, as dualwielding produces more than a 2H which produces more than a 1H and shield. To be honest, this decision is usually most influenced on what weapons you find or are able to afford, so be flexible while leveling. Also, Fury, while an important class mechanic, is not necessarily our largest source of DPS, but more on that in Part II. Finally, understand that Barbs are more gear dependant than Ranged heroes, and have a little higher learning curve. Barbs can be frustrating, but they can also be incredibly fun to play. Stick around and see for yourself in Part II: Let’s get active! Ability overview for the Barbarian’s 22 active skills.

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’][/author_image] [author_info]This article was written by Eric N. Eric has been a hardcore gamer for all his life and plays a Barbarian in Diablo 3 and he is currently having lots of success in Inferno.[/author_info] [/author]