StormHarbinger
First Post
Barb Experience
DMing for my monthly group Sunday night and one of the players couldn't make it. Wouldn't have been a problem except his Warlord (the party's only tank) bit the dust the previous game session (dang ghouls and zombies in Rivenroar!).
He's going to try out a swordmage, but since he wasn't around I rolled up Ogg the Barbarian, level 3 and full of piss and vinegar. Executioner's Axe and Hide Armor, gave him 14's in everything since he's a one-shot. Certainly not optimized.
He kicked some major ass. While he could not suffer a great many attacks (and did drop once), he dealt a ton of damage. The Brutal 2 aspect of Executioner's Axe certainly helped a couple of times with that. But since we're here to discuss the barbarian powers, here goes:
Like one of the posters above, I completely forgot about Rageblood Vigor and Swift Charge. Nor, obviously, was I able to use Rage Strike at 3rd level. Howling Strike is VERY powerful as an at-will, especially since Ugg (my player's changed his name; later he became Gog and Grog) charged just about everything he saw. 12.5 average damage is nothing to sneeze at, for sure.
Recuperating Strike he used a couple of times, but with his generic Con of 14, was less useful. I'm very interested to see the effect of a Con build with this ability, as it basically results in DR 4.
Avalanche Strike was also very interesting. In keeping with the theme of giving up defense for offense, you get a 3W Encounter power which gives any attacker against you +4 to-hit next round. I liked it for the 3W, which gets crazy with a weapon doing 1d12. And he wasn't made to pay this time, but with multiple enemies around you you'd probably be wishing for Great Cleave.
As his Daily Rage, Ugg took Bloodhunt Rage, which when he used it he critted on it, leading to 52 damage and one dead Boneshard Skeleton. IN-tense.
Overall, I'm very excited for Barbarian. I don't want to get into the Rage Strike discussion here, but I do like the way they've handled Rage in 4E. Ugg will continue to fill in for missing party members, and we'll see what happens as WOTC responds to playtest reports. One thing that is clear (and that has been belabored to death) is that they need editors. 'Nuf said.
DMing for my monthly group Sunday night and one of the players couldn't make it. Wouldn't have been a problem except his Warlord (the party's only tank) bit the dust the previous game session (dang ghouls and zombies in Rivenroar!).
He's going to try out a swordmage, but since he wasn't around I rolled up Ogg the Barbarian, level 3 and full of piss and vinegar. Executioner's Axe and Hide Armor, gave him 14's in everything since he's a one-shot. Certainly not optimized.
He kicked some major ass. While he could not suffer a great many attacks (and did drop once), he dealt a ton of damage. The Brutal 2 aspect of Executioner's Axe certainly helped a couple of times with that. But since we're here to discuss the barbarian powers, here goes:
Like one of the posters above, I completely forgot about Rageblood Vigor and Swift Charge. Nor, obviously, was I able to use Rage Strike at 3rd level. Howling Strike is VERY powerful as an at-will, especially since Ugg (my player's changed his name; later he became Gog and Grog) charged just about everything he saw. 12.5 average damage is nothing to sneeze at, for sure.
Recuperating Strike he used a couple of times, but with his generic Con of 14, was less useful. I'm very interested to see the effect of a Con build with this ability, as it basically results in DR 4.
Avalanche Strike was also very interesting. In keeping with the theme of giving up defense for offense, you get a 3W Encounter power which gives any attacker against you +4 to-hit next round. I liked it for the 3W, which gets crazy with a weapon doing 1d12. And he wasn't made to pay this time, but with multiple enemies around you you'd probably be wishing for Great Cleave.
As his Daily Rage, Ugg took Bloodhunt Rage, which when he used it he critted on it, leading to 52 damage and one dead Boneshard Skeleton. IN-tense.
Overall, I'm very excited for Barbarian. I don't want to get into the Rage Strike discussion here, but I do like the way they've handled Rage in 4E. Ugg will continue to fill in for missing party members, and we'll see what happens as WOTC responds to playtest reports. One thing that is clear (and that has been belabored to death) is that they need editors. 'Nuf said.