D&D (2024) Tier List. Barbarian Review and Ratings.

[Zardnaar]

World Tree is up. Post 3. I gave it an S tier.

 

[FrogReaver]

Berzerker and Wild Heart

Berzerker
The Barbarians Barbarian. Formerly a D tier archetype the new one has been fixed. Very good yardstick out of the gate.

Frenzy.
Extra damage 2d6-4d6 at levels people actually play at. Stacks with existing rage damage bonus. More attacks you make more chance you have of triggering it. New Barbarian I'd already leaning towards dual wielding but the traditional great weapon+cleave combo also looks nice. No it's or buts it's a lot if danage early on married to a very good base class and easy to trigger. Gloomstalker cries in the corner. Already in S tier striker range.

Mindless Rage Level 6. Immune to charmed and frightened. If you're already under the influence they end. Situationally great when it's relevant but it's not going to come up that often. Other archetypes have better options.

Retaliation Level 10.
At will Battlemaster riposte ability. This ones going to trigger a lot. Very simple more damage and frequent. Thumbs up.

Intimidating Presence level 14.
Fear ability save negates. Decent but weaker than the other archetypes.

Very simple archetype. More damage at levels you care about and it's a generous amount. S tier for that but A overall as it's other abilities are comparatively lacking. Massive improvement over 2014 stinkbox.

Wildheart.

The wild heart barbarian gives up the Bezerker extra danage for utility. In a way it got nerfed as it lost its resistance to everything except psychic damage ability. Now it can pick what ability they want to use at level 3 via Rage of the Wilds. You basically have the choice of less damage, more movement or granting advantage to yor allies.

At level 6 you can gain a climb or swim speed or dark vision. All a bit situational so in effect sometimes you get not ability at level 6.

At level 10 you gain nature speaker. More utility. Unfortunately by now you have had around 7 levels of not a lot at levels people mostly play.

Power of the Wilds Level 14.

Finally you gain a great ability. You can fly, knock opponents prone or n effect dark your opponents. You can also choose what ability to use.

Overall the wild heart has great abilities at level 3 and 14. The base Barbarian class is very good. Overall a B+ climbing to A- or an A at 14.

I think Wild Heart should be lower. Maybe as low as C. Probably closer to C+. Maybe climbing to B- with it's level 14 ability. It's definitively more than a half step behind zealot now.

 

[FrogReaver]

World Tree

The World Tree adds a touch of support and control while raging. So it gets a big thumbs up in terms of something cool while raging.

Level 3 Vitality of the tree.

You Gan temport hit pits equal to your barbarian level. Additionally an ally gains report hit points (generally 2d6-4d6). Fairly simple not as good as more damage but you effect yourself and someone else.

Level 6 Branches of the Tree.
The crowning achievement of this archetype. At first glance you can teleport a creature beside you if they fail a saving throw. In effect this potentially gives ou an extra 30' of reach. This ability also works on allies as well. If a barbarian can't get into melee their damage tends to drop dramatically.

However you can also drop the opponent off a cliff, into a zone effect or pit trap. A flying barbarian can also drop the opponent which knocks them prone, 0 movement rate and then you can swoop in gaining advantage. Only real downside is it's a strength saving throw and it uses your reaction. This ability is great and potentially encount dominating depending on terrain, species and encounter design. It's great. Mortal Kombat get over here.

Level 10 Battering Roots. In effect you gain two more weapon masteries. Push or Topple and whatever ability your weapon has. Can combine with branches of the tree. Dual wielding light weapon barbarian?

14. Travel along the tree.
Bonus action rage plus long range misty step. That you can combine with your level 6 and 10 abilities. And you can keep using it every round. By now rage is more or less every encounter.

Well derp. Overall a great package married to a very strong base class. Utility and control with a very high power level. I'm going to give it an S tier. It's a great subclass top to bottom.

Zealot

I'm a big fan of World Tree, but the primary draw is a reaction ability that has a chance of teleporting an enemy beside you and dropping their speed to 0. It's hard to see how that makes the subclass be tier S. In the right party, with the right DM and encounter maps, i can easily see this subclass being S tier, but i see it struggling to be more than a glorified tank in many others. While I find it fun to play a good tank PC, I find it hard to rate a class as S tier just because it allows you to do that. I'd probably rate it as B tier (B+ at best) with the potential for S in the right party/campaign.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm a big fan of World Tree, but the primary draw is a reaction ability that has a chance of teleporting an enemy beside you and dropping their speed to 0. It's hard to see how that makes the subclass be tier S. In the right party, with the right DM and encounter maps, i can easily see this subclass being S tier, but i see it struggling to be more than a glorified tank in many others. While I find it fun to play a good tank PC, I find it hard to rate a class as S tier just because it allows you to do that. I'd probably rate it as B tier (B+ at best) with the potential for S in the right party/campaign.

Every ability they have is good. Compare level 6 ability to say Berzerker or Wildheart. Zealot on is also situational.

World Tree is the only one guaranteed to fore in combat.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm a big fan of World Tree, but the primary draw is a reaction ability that has a chance of teleporting an enemy beside you and dropping their speed to 0

It leans into the tank role, which isn’t something any other class can do in 5e.

And it’s not that hard to pick up flying..

 

[Mort]

I'm a big fan of World Tree, but the primary draw is a reaction ability that has a chance of teleporting an enemy beside you and dropping their speed to 0.

It's not just enemies. It also allows you to yank allies away from danger at a respectable 30ft range (or to just generally reposition), reducing movement to 0 is optional, so doesn't hamper allies. And it's not x times per day limited, that's also big.

That ability kicks in at 6th level, where unlimited teleporting is not the least bit common.

It's hard to see how that makes the subclass be tier S. In the right party, with the right DM and encounter maps, i can easily see this subclass being S tier, but i see it struggling to be more than a glorified tank in many others. While I find it fun to play a good tank PC, I find it hard to rate a class as S tier just because it allows you to do that. I'd probably rate it as B tier (B+ at best) with the potential for S in the right party/campaign.

The one ability is excellent. But they also get excellent abilities in every tier. From decent temp HP (to allies, every round) to REALLY good range (at 10th level, if they grab a reach weapon, that's going to give them a 20ft melee range. And they get to add extra weapon masteries on top of that!)

And the 14th level ability is one of the better subclass capstones. Unlimited 60ft bonus action teleport and a teleport the entire party up to 150 foot (also bonus action) kicker? That's really nice.

I'm not sure any of the new subclasses (of any class) get a better set of abilities.

 

[FrogReaver]

Every ability they have is good. Compare level 6 ability to say Berzerker

I think the Berserker level 6 ability is amazing.

or Wildheart.

I already think wildheart is tier C.

Zealot on is also situational.

Zealot level 6 ability is also amazing.

World Tree is the only one guaranteed to fore in combat.

Which is only guaranteed to let you tank. While it can be very fun, the ability to tank is not a tier S ability.

 

[FrogReaver]

It leans into the tank role, which isn’t something any other class can do in 5e.

There's many ways to tank in 5e. This is one of the better ones, maybe the best, but it's not the only.

And it’s not that hard to pick up flying..

There's only 2 other ways in the game for a raging Barbarian to do so - be an Aasimar or be a Dragonborn - neither of which are great races otherwise. And just to be clear, when you say 'pick up flying' you mean a once per long rest ability to fly.

 

[FrogReaver]

It's not just enemies. It also allows you to yank allies away from danger at a respectable 30ft range (or to just generally reposition), reducing movement to 0 is optional, so doesn't hamper allies. And it's not x times per day limited, that's also big.

Sure, you can do that to your heart's content, but what's the use case benefit there? Ranged allies should really be more than 30 ft away from you and probably don't want to be that close to melee anyways. Melee allies should mostly already be engaged with their target.

Maybe occasionally at the start of battle if you go before a slower melee character you can teleport one 30ft forward to help him close the gap, but that's fairly situational as well.

Like maybe if you could teleport someone anywhere within 30ft I could come up with better use cases.

But as it stands the only consistent Use Case I see is to help you tank - which is cool, i like tanking, but getting a good tank ability isn't tier S.

That ability kicks in at 6th level, where unlimited teleporting is not the least bit common.

Teleporting to the Barbarian takes away most of the benefits of traditional teleporting. Misty step can be used in exploration to get places you otherwise couldn't or to really kite enemies in combat. This can't.

The one ability is excellent. But they also get excellent abilities in every tier. From decent temp HP (to allies, every round) to REALLY good range (at 10th level, if they grab a reach weapon, that's going to give them a 20ft melee range. And they get to add extra weapon masteries on top of that!)

I'm not saying any of the abilities are bad. You've not got to sale me on this being a good subclass. But it being good, doesn't mean it's tier S.

And the 14th level ability is one of the better subclass capstones. Unlimited 60ft bonus action teleport and a teleport the entire party up to 150 foot (also bonus action) kicker? That's really nice.

I have no problem with that, but @Zardnaar is supposed to be giving the higher level subclass abilities little weight due to rarely being played, so even if it's the best level 14 subclass ability for Barbarian, his weights shouldn't mean that ability has much impact on the rankings.

I'm not sure any of the new subclasses (of any class) get a better set of abilities.

I'd pit Zealot or Berserker against it.

 

[Ancalagon]

I think the Berserker level 6 ability is amazing.

I agree it's a good one but... when it happens, ok, fantastic. But often is that going to be? Maybe 1/3 battles? And the barbarian won't be targeted/fail their save in every battle, so it's going to be relevant in say, 1/4 battles...

The World Tree ability is relevant every fight - I wouldn't say every found, but saying 1/2 of rounds seems quite likely. So even though it's not quite so dramatic/clutch... it can be. Bamfing a friend out of a very dangerous situation - that too will happen rarely, perhaps even more so than the shrugging off a charm/fear, but it sill be just as impactful.

So you have the same "big clutch" potential, but also a "useful almost all the time" (in combat) side to it, and a small utility one too (climb up on a roof, bamf up the rest of the party up).

So based on frequency and potentcy, the World Tree level 6 ability is better.

Which is only guaranteed to let you tank. While it can be very fun, the ability to tank is not a tier S ability.

It's not just tanking -it's tanking and control