Post by Doc on Apr 7, 2009 20:56:33 GMT -5
This was written by a friend of mine, Vindus. Unfortunately I can not link to the original.
Table of Contents:
I. Pros and Cons
II. Attributes
A. How each stat affects your other attributes
B. How much Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, and Magic does a Barbarian need?
III. Main Stat Builds
A. Str-Based Damage Dealer
B. Hybrid
C. Tanker (Recommended Build)
IV. Equipment
A. Accuracy Rings and Soul Gems
B. Gear Requirements for Dual Axes and Heavy Armor
V. Skills
A. Which Skills to Learn
B. Sage or Demon Path at level 89?
C. Tips on Using Skills
1. Tanking
2. Training
3. PVPing
Background Info:
Barbarians (also known as Werebeasts in other versions)
Gender: Male
Attack Type/Range: Physical/Close Range
Specializes in: axes and hammers
Parties need you for: tanking. DO NOT play this class if you're looking for a melee damage dealer but don't like tanking. Be a Blademaster instead
Go here for skill descriptions
www.ecatomb.net/skillpwi.php
Barbarian/Werebeast Guides I used so far:
* Teichen's Hybrid WB Guide [focus on Armageddon dmg] - looks more like a tank build IMO though
* IamNobita's Path to the Ultimate WEREBEAST - focuses on which skills to max first
* xkwisite's Tanker Barbarian Guide - about the usage of skills and being in a party
I. Pros and Cons really depend on your build/gear, but here are the overall assumptions.
Pros:
* High HP
* High HP Recovery Rate
* Good Physical Defense
* Skills to help keep aggro/hate of monsters
* Best Tank / Wanted in Parties
* Great damage at higher levels
Cons:
* Low hit rate (due to low DEX in most builds. Can be solved at later levels with the skill Blood Bath, as well as +50% accuracy rings)
* Low damage in the beginning/mid levels
* Low Magic Defense
* High repair cost
* High potion/hiero cost
* Requires patience. Many give up before reaching lv 89+ due to high costs & other classes excelling more in terms of damage. (Barbarians rock at endgame though)
II. Attributes
A. How each stat affects your other attributes
Strength (+4 Str adds +1 DEF; +6 Str adds +4 DEF)
* increases attack power for melee weapon
* increases physical defense
* Armor stat requirement: Usually 0.5 STR every level for magic robes, 1 STR for light armors, and 2.5 STR for heavy armors.
Dexterity (+1 Dex=Accuracy +8 and Evasion +Cool
* increases attack power for range weapon
* increases evasion
* increases accuracy
* increases critical hit rate (Every 20 DEX gives 1% more critical hit rate)
* Armor stat requirement: Usually 1 DEX every level for light armors, 0.5 DEX for heavy armors, and of course 0 for magic robes.
Vitality (+1 Vit=Max HP +17)
* increases physical defense
* increases magic defense
* increases HP
* increases HP regeneration rate (NOTE: HP regen is reduced by 75% when in combat mode)
Magic (+1 Mag=Max MP +7)
* increases magic attack power
* increases magic defense
* increases MP
* increases MP regeneration rate (NOTE: MP regen is reduced by 75% when in combat mode)
Lv Up Bonus: Max HP +34, Max MP +14
B. How much Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, and Magic does a Barbarian need?
* The amount of Strength in any build is simply the latest dual axes requirement for your level, nothing more & nothing less. There's no point adding more Str than necessary because the Str requirement of dual axes is already so high, that you'll barely have enough points to put in other stats.
* I recommend adding at least 1 Dexterity every 2 levels until you get 60 Dex no matter what build (if you have great accuracy/Dex gear though, just stop at around 50 Dex).
And remember, try to keep Dex in terms of 20s (+20 Dex=+1% critical hit rate). Most Barbarians try to have only 62, 80, or 104 Dex endgame; depending on your gears. 62 Dex is the heavy armor requirement for Lv 105; 104 Dex is the last light armor requirement.
80 Dex is the max you should have unless you're going for a pure PK build, then maybe around 104 Dex. Anymore than that is a waste.
* Add as much points in Vitality as you can (after all, more Vit=a better tank, which is the whole purpose of a Barbarian. Also, more HP=higher Armageddon damage -> more dead people).
* Barbarian builds do not add any Magic. Why? Because Barbarians don't have any magic attacks and the magic defense you get from Mag is too little; you might as well add those points to Vit instead.
III. Main Stat Builds of the Barbarian
NOTE: All builds focus first on fulfilling weapon/armor requirements, then differentiate, based on how you spend the remaining status points.
* Choose the build best suited for your play style; and there's no need to follow one build the whole way through. Actually, you'll have an easier time playing if you do not follow a single build completely the whole way through!
* You can try a hybrid build first (to level quickly), then move toward a tank build at higher levels (to survive in dungeons/TW/PVP), and lastly add a little more Dex before you reach max level (for PKing).
A. Str-Based Damage Dealer
Armor: Heavy
VIT=1 each level
STR=3 each level
DEX=1 each level
Comments: Levels quickly at low levels, but the low HP will kill you later. If you're looking for high damage, you might as well be a Blademaster instead.
B. Hybrid
Armor: Light for magic opponents, Heavy for physical opponents
VIT=1 each level
STR=2.5 each level
DEX=1.5 each level
(or 2 Vit / 5 Str / 3 Dex every two levels)
Comments: same comments as Build A, except that you will have a decent base accuracy and critical hit rate. Works well in PVP if you go with the Demon path at lv 89. Also, being able to switch from heavy to light armors will allow you to tank magic damage better than Build A. Still not as useful as a tanker build though.
C. Tanker (Recommended Build)
Armor: Heavy
VIT=all points left over
STR=follow equipment requirements
DEX=follow equipment requirements
Notes: Parties love this type. Great for tanking bosses/mobs, but don't expect to kill things as quickly as other classes until you're at a very high level. Once you get Armageddon lv 10 and very high HP, you'll pwn in PvP, but that's if you don't miss. Using Blood Bath helps.
IV. Equipment
A. Accuracy Rings and Soul Gems
* All builds will benefit greatly with the Blood Bath skill lv. 10 (Reduces maximum HP and current HP by 16% to increase accuracy by 200% for 10 minutes) and +50% accuracy rings. Blood Bath easily solves the low accuracy problem. The +50% accuracy rings are not a necessity, but it helps a lot in PVP at high levels, when you start to miss Archers and Blademasters most of the time.
A note on the +50% accuracy rings (aka LingYun rings): LingYuns are almost worthless if the base accuracy of a Barbarian isn't at least moderately high. LingYuns don't benefit from Blood Bath at all, which is their biggest downside. However, they become irreplaceable once your Barbarian's base accuracy is high. Also, you won't be able to get these rings until around lv 70; and even then, they are quite expensive and rare.
* Also, if you get to lv 90, you can replace LingYun rings with HH 90 gold rings (each +30% accuracy and +2 % crit) for more damage. Works best with the Demon path because this path adds more critical hit rate to some skills and +100% more accuracy for Blood Bath.
* It's best to slot accuracy gems on your weapons and HP gems for your armors. +Vit and +Dex bonuses are nice too. Some may choose to use Physical/Magic defense gems, but HP gems will make you much more well-rounded, and Armageddon is better with higher HP.
* M.def jewelry to balance out the defenses when using heavy armor is also recommended. Hell, a top Werebeast/Barbarian player in PW-MY, has stated, in his view, that “heavy armor WB with magic defense jewelry is the best most balanced way to equip one's WB.”
B. Gear Requirements for Axes/Hammers and Heavy Armor:
lvl__str__dex__excess
1____5____5____0
2____6____5____4
3____8____5____7
4____9____5____11
5____12___6____12
6____*____*____*
7____16___6____18
8____16___7____22
9____20___7____23
10___20___7____28
11___24___8____28
12___28___9____28
13___33___9____28
14___*____*____*
15___40___10___30
16___44___11___30
17___48___12___30
18___52___13___30
19___56___14___30
20___60___15___30
21___65___15___30
22___66___16___33
23___70___16___34
24___74___17___34
25___*____*____*
26___79___17___39
27___83___18___39
28___*____*____*
29___90___18___42
30___92___19___44
31___95___20___45
32___*____*____*
33___100__21___49
34___104__22___49
35___*____*____*
36___107__24___54
37___110__26___54
38___*____*____*
39___120__26___54
40___120__26___59
41___125__26___59
42___*____*____*
43___129__26___65
44___134__26___65
45___*____*____*
46___137__31___67
47___143__32___67
48___*____*____*
49___151__32___67
50___151__32___72
51___155__32___73
52___160__32___73
53___160__32___78
54___164__32___79
55___*____*____*
56___169__32___84
57___173__33___84
58___*____*____*
59___181__33___86
60___182__34___89
61___185__35___90
62___185__38___92
63___189__38___93
64___194__38___93
65___*____*____*
66___198__38___99
67___203__38___99
68___*____*____*
69___212__39___99
70___212__39___104
71___215__41___104
72___*____*____*
73___220__46___104
74___224__47___104
75___*____*____*
76___232__49___104
77___236__50___104
78___*____*____*
79___246__50___104
80___246__50___109
81___246__50___114
82___*____*____*
83___252__53___115
84___256__54___115
85___261__54___115
86___263__55___117
87___267__56___117
88___272__56___117
89___277__56___117
90___277__56___122
91___277__58___125
92___*____*____*
93___281__59___130
94___285__60___130
95___290__60___130
96___294__61___130
97___298__62___130
98___303__62___130
99___308__62___130
100__308__62___135
101__308__62___140
102__*____*____*
103__309__62___149
104__314__62___149
105__314__62___154
V. Skills
Go here for skill descriptions
www.ecatomb.net/skillpwi.php
A. Which Skills to Learn
In the beginning levels (1-25), there will be more than enough skill points to train all skills, but after that, it becomes so overwhelming that you cannot keep up. That is why it is best to focus on maximizing certain skills first before others. Try to learn all of the skills though.
If you want to follow a strict skill build, you can find some here:
IamNobita's Path to the Ultimate WEREBEAST
Tiger form is best for tanking due to the increased HP/physical defense, as well as many useful PVE/aggro skills.
* True Form - Personal choice whether to max or not. At max skill lv, you gain 30% movement speed & 20% max HP more, but lose 30% more attack than if you had not trained the skill. Note that if you took the Demon Path at lv 89, True Form's damage penalty will be taken out once you get the skill book.
* Flesh Ream and Roar should be maxed ASAP. Those are your 2 most useful skills. The higher it is, the easier it is to maintain aggro.
* Alacrity of the Beast is very useful to cancel the mob's skills. Train this whenever you have extra Spirit to spend. More damage from this skill will help maintain aggro, and the shorter cooldown=more times to spam it.
* ShapeShifting Intensify - try to max this as well. More defense=better tank
* After focusing on the skills above, work on Frighten and Sunder next. The rest, you can leave at lv 1 until you have more Spirit/Coins to spare.
The Humanoid skills are mainly PVP-based, with a couple stun and AoE skills as well as buffs.
* Your 1st priority is to max Feral Regeneration, Beast King's Inspiration, Strength of the Titans, Axe & Hammer Mastery, and Blood Bath first. Then focus on the attack skills.
* Beastial Onslaught, Mighty Swing and Penetrate Armor are your 3 best single-target attack skills.
* Save the rest of your Spirit points to max Slam if you plan on AoE training, or Armageddon for PVPing. The others aren't as useful in terms of damage.
B. Sage or Demon Path at level 89?
Both are equally good.. Sage is best for defense, Demon is best for damage dealing. Choose which one you'll do more of.
However, it's also good to choose the one that will balance your build (offset your weaknesses)
In general:
Humanoid (more offensive) + Sage (more defensive)=balanced
Tiger (more defensive) + Demon (more offensive)=balanced
Some major benefits of each path:
* Sage version of Armageddon reduces HP and MP cost to 35% of your current total.
* Demon version of Armageddon does 10% extra damage
* Sage version of Blood Bath reduces HP sacrificed to 10%
* Demon version of Blood Bath increases accuracy by 300%
* Sage version of True Form always increases maximum HP by 40%
* Demon version of True Form lets tiger form attacks do full damage
* Sage version of ShapeShifting Intensify always increases physical defense gain to 120%
* Demon version of ShapeShifting Intensify gives a critical hit rate increase of 2%
* Sage version of Beast King's Inspiration increases duration to 1 hour
* Demon version of Beast King's Inspiration lets affected party members gain 50% more Chi
* Go to www.ecatomb.net/skillpwi.php for more info about how these paths effect each skill. Many Barbarian players do recommend Sage path though, since it allows better survivability and tanking.
C. Tips on Using Skills:
Make sure you're always buffed with Beast King's Inspiration, Strength of the Titans, and Blood Bath (if you miss a lot) no matter what you're doing. Also have Beastial Rage activated if you need Chi for skills.
1. Tanking - Always Use Tiger Form:
Your 2 most important skills to use when tanking are Flesh Ream and Alacrity of the Beast.
* SPAM Flesh Ream to make the mobs attack you and not your fragile party members. Flesh Ream does stack bleeding damage, which is what helps maintain aggro over time. Try adding a couple attacks/skills that don't consume Chi in between Flesh Reams to prevent your Chi bar from being empty.
* You could use Roar if there are multiple monsters you have to tank. However, it sets the aggro to a set level, usually much lower than if you were spamming Flesh Ream. Plus, Roar has a long cooldown time (60 seconds), so use it only when you get mobbed.
* Use Devour only when you have aggro'd the mob previously (Devour only creates greater hate if you are the one it is attacking). It's also great for reducing the enemy's physical defense, but use it sparingly because it costs quite a bit of Chi, which can run out quickly when used in combination with Flesh Ream.
* Use Sunder to recover lost HP.
* Use Surf Impact once in awhile to reduce the mobs' speed, in case they choose to run away from you and attack your party members. That way, you'll have more time to lure the mobs back to you.
* Also use Frighten if the mobs are tough/dealing a lot of damage to your party.
* Whenever an enemy is casting a skill (especially magic), quickly use Alacrity of the Beast to cancel them.
* Constantly have Beastial Rage activated to build up Chi for skills.
* Invoke the Spirit, which reduces damage by 90%, helps a lot when tanking tough bosses.
2. Training:
If you're poor, use Tiger Form. DO NOT level up True Form if you plan on soloing with tiger form though. If you level True Form, your weapon damage will be reduced a lot more.
* 1st use Alacrity of the Beast to cancel monster skills, then use normal attacks.
* Cast Sunder whenever you're running out of HP or when you want to mob.
If you're rich with lots of potions and decent gears, use Humanoid Form. It is faster grinding.
Here's a nice combo for melee mobs:
* 1st use Mighty Swing to stun, then Slam to knockback
* Next, use Beastial Onslaught to reduce evasion while the mob is coming back to you, then Penetrate Armor to reduce defense
* And finally, 3 normal attacks
* Repeat
3. PVPing
Humanoid Form
* Use Blood Bath and Beastial Onslaught when dealing with high evasion players.
* Use Mighty Swing as much as possible to stun; Penetrate Armor to reduce their physical defense
* Use Armageddon wisely. Treat it more like a final attack rather than a starting one. You'll either be half-dead or have hiero cooldown after using it..
Beastial Onslaught and Slam can be chained with Armageddon when dealing with multiple enemies.
Beware when fighting Venomancers. Their Bramble Guard reflects 60%+ of your damage and can kill you
Tiger Form
* Best used when chasing people because True Form adds movement speed.
* You can cast Surf Impact, catch up to them, then return to humanoid form to attack.
* Alacrity of the Beast is highly useful to cancel their skills.
~And the rest will come with in-game experience
In Perfect World barbarian's are basically the meat shield. High HP,moderate physical defense, low magical defense, and low damage. Though it can be a relatively easy class to play if you stick to the rules.
Whats that? What rules you ask? Well little Johnny there a 3 rules to being a WB:
1. Never run when tanking bosses or difficult mobs when in a party. Unless that is of course your slow poke healer is out of casting distance and your hiero/pots are on cool down and you need a heal ASAP. It's a known fact that if you get stupid and try and run from a boss the parties going to wipe.
2. Tanking bosses is simple. It's basically a combonation of Ripping Bite(Spam like theres no tommorow), Bluster(Personally i only use this when i lose aggro), Raging Pounce(Time it to cancel bosses skills), Frighten(Aggro's and makes your life a little bit easier).
3. There is only one way to build your werebeast and thats with enough strength and dexterity for dual axes and heavy armor and every thing else into constitution. Dex or Str based werebeast's just get raped in PvP not to mention their perdition is useless.
Levels 1-19:
At earlier levels playing a WB is a cake walk. We have high HP to start with and if you go with the build i mentioned above you will have around 1k HP by level 15. Not to mention 99.9% of the mobs you'll be facing at this level will be physical and you wont have any magical mobs until at least level 20.
You will only have one skill to start with which is Beast Lords Whomp(Bestial Hammer). Use this to quest and grind your way to level 3. By which time you can go into vanish and can learn Garrote(Strangle) learn it. It's a good soloing skill at lower levels. I highly suggest that you don't waste any SP on upgrading BH(Yes,bestial hammer. Try and keep up with the acronyms). This skill will become obsolete at higher levels when you'll be needing all the SP you can get to get a skill which is actually useful. Once you get to level 9 go to your skill master and learn your transformation skill this will transform you into a tiger which will increase your movement speed,and physical defense, while decreasing your attack. Always level this skill as soon as you can even though it only goes to level 3.
Continue on your way to level 19 while putting only enough points into strength and dexterity for your dual axes and heavy armor and everything else into constitution. Once you get to level 19 you'll get your iron blood tablet from the vanish elder. Make sure you do this quest it's your first FB and you'll get an awesome blue Poleaxe which you'll likely use until level 35 or so. You can probably find lots of people willing to help you and earn some rep for themselves.
Level 30 Humanoid Skills Overview:
Once you reach level 30 you'll have noticed that there's several new skills available to you. I'll give you a quick run through of each skill and how high of priority it should hold for you.
Bestial Hammer:
This skill is basically worthless if you ask me. Due to the fact that when it's at level 10 which can't be achieved until somewhere in the 40's and even then it's only 7xx damage. There are plenty more useful skills that you could be using instead of casting this.
Strangle:
This is a pretty useful skill which does your normal damage plus an additional 15 seconds of bleeding damage. I tend to use this when soloing. It's not super important but it can be fairly useful.*Note: Only use this in PvP when trying to build up vigor for a more useful skill seeing as once the poison damage is reduced it only comes to about 200 or so over 15 seconds. Or if your willing to stack it continuously.
Thousand Ton hammer:
This skill is your bread and butter. Both for PvE and PvP, it does fairly decent damage aswell as a chance to stun your opponent. This is one of the few ways you'll be able to finish off an archer,werefox,or mage in PvP and you better hope your lucky since it only has a low chance of success. Level this skill ASAP.
Shatter:
This is a great skill to use when soloing mobs or even when your PKing alone or sometimes in a group if the WF is too slow to use their dispell with the same effect. The only downside of this skills i that you wont be using it at all during FB's. Level it as best you can.
Funeral Bell:
This is the first AOE you'll get and let me tell you, It's not all that great. It only attacks in a fan radius and does relatively low damage.Theres no real need for this skill but you can invest a little bit into it if you feel the need to.
Flaming Wind:
This is a pretty decent skill even though it only has an 8 meter or so line radius. Though it does cost 1 chi which you will be wanting to save for much more useful skills at higher levels. Level it a bit, it can come in handy for AOE parties at lower levels if the mage is taking abit too much damage.
Swimming Mastery:
Max this it's self explanatory. Since it only has one level and it's extremely cheap while increasing your swimming speed by 50%.
Bestial Strength:
Level this one ASAP since it'll make your job a lot easier and it's pretty cheap too.
Inspire:
Always have this at the max possible level since you should have it on whether your soloing,AOEing, doing FB's, running HH, or PKing. Not to mention this skill has effect on your entire party giving everyone 30% more HP at level 10.
Burning Blood:
This skill is absolutely 110% necessary if you wan't to PK. Though the only turn off with this skill is the fact that it's alot of HP to trade in for 10% more hit rate at lower levels. But at level 10 it's 200% hit rate for a mere 16% less HP. Trust me at higher levels if you don't use this you'll have alot of trouble killing dex based builds.
Tiger Based Skills:
Roar of The Tiger:
Like i said level this up ASAP. Always use this in HH,FB's, Luring for AOE parties at wolves or spiders, or even for running forest ruin.
Raging Bite:
This is your main aggro tool. Keep this at the highest possible level. This is also a fair bit of damage too seeing as you can stack it.
Wrath of The Tiger:
This is a great skill, Make sure that when fighting bosses you time it correctly to cancel their skills. Especially on higher level HH or FB bosses like asura and you can save your hiero. I suggest keeping this at a moderate level since the skill cancel is effective at any level of the skill but it does do fairly decent damage.
Tigers Maw:
This is a pretty helpful skill, but the only problem is that it'll cost you 35 chi to use it. So the only time you should really be using this when in a party fighting bosses "IF" the WF doesn't have their armor break at a decent level and is willing to use vigor transfer on you so that you can use veil of shadow or sundering heaven.
Bestial Fury:
This is a great skill to use when tanking bosses since they'll be focused on you without interruption you can just cast this every 30 seconds to build up your vigor. Needless to say just learn it.
Poison Fangs:
This skill is pretty controversial but i have to say i did test it on a fellow guild member on PW-MY to check the damage difference with it at level 10 and i did an additional 300 damage with it consistently. I think it's worth leveling so long as you have the money and SP for it.
Axe and Mace Mastery:
This is basically common sense. Just keep leveling it.
During your onslaught from level 30 to 40 you will notice that you have received only 3 new skills. Yeah, You may find this some what disappointing but seriously, Deal with it. Two of these skills will become very important in the future and the other a useful filler.
Level 40 Humanoid Skills:
Splitting Earth:
This is the only new humanoid skill available to you levels 30-40. But trust me this one was well worth it, it will be our first decent AOE and extremely effective for luring end game. I highly suggest getting this skill to at least level 5 by the time you have reached level 70 as while luring in human form you will use this to keep the mobs aggro. Also this will be one of your few useful skills in TW seeing as you can use this then perdition or vice versa. Note: The higher level this skill is the further the knock back range. So it'll save you a lot of pocket change on hieros.
Level 40 tiger skills:
Turbulent Seas:
To tell the truth this skill isn't all that great. Though i do recommend investing a little bit into it as if you master the ability to lure in tiger form it can also be quite a hiero saver due to it's slowing effect. Though i do not suggest upgrading this over frighten which should be maxed well before investing in this and is a much more effective skill as it is a 360 degree AOE and also reduces the mobs attack power.
Tigers Challenge:
This is a great skill and is highly effective when used at the right time. I suggest trying to keep this skill at the highest possible level, though it's alright if you let it lag behind a level or two so long as you can effectively use ripping bite and frighten to hold aggro. Also never think that this skill is completely useless in PvP seeing as after level 89 whether you go heaven or hell it will be useful for you while pulling catapults in TW.
Level 50 Humanoid Skills:
Divine Strength:
Simply put, This skill is self explanatory. Max it and it's as simple as that, just don't forget to always buff yourself and your party with it.
Defiance:
This is a really great skill, remember how were always complaining about our hit rate? Well second only to blood bath this is the cure to that problem. Not only is this skill great because it reduces our opponents evasion by 50% but also because it's our only ranged skill as well as being one of our highest single target damage skills. But wait! It gets better if you decide to go heaven this skill reduces your opponents evasion by 100% or if your hell then it'll give you an additional 35% crit rate for 6 seconds.
Level 50 Tiger Skills:
Tigers Presence:
Honestly this is one of my favourite skills to use as a Werebeast. Probably because of it's triple debuff effect. Trust me you'll want to max this skill ASAP. Once it's maxed it'll reduce all of targets within the 12m radius's attack power and attack speed by 30% while reducing their move speed by 50%. I tended to chain this with bluster and (when i had the vigor) sundering heaven. Also this skill is a great way to gain vigor. When tanking bosses or even elite mobs always cast this every 15 seconds.
Level 60 Humanoid Skills:
Armageddon:
Just to tell you guys the truth, I never really liked this skill. Partly due to the fact that i had around 15k HP and every time i used it 7.5k HP would tick and my hiero would go down a considerable amount. But if your really into PKing or have a need to crash zhen parties this is the skill to do it with. The only downside of this skill is that werebeasts have an excruciatingly low hit rate. Which means we needed to use bloodbath if we wanted to make sure they weren't just gonna turn around and PK us. Therefore reducing our HP and our damage, though the damage should still be sufficient with a pure con build. Also if you can get your hands on a ling yun, this skill can be used without blood bath and is basically GG. Note: This is a very expensive skill to level up but in the end is worth it. Though if you don't crash AOE parties or aren't involved with TW at all don't bother with it.
Level 60 Tiger Skills:
Sundering Heavens:
I really like this skill, It's great if you can manage luring for AOE parties in tiger. Also this skill can be useful when tanking bosses and your doing fine and have no need to use black tortlen, just use this to get the job done a little quicker and save yourself and the healers abit of trouble. If your the kind of guy who likes to lure in tiger form you should level this up quite abit.
Veil Of Shadow:
Whether your tanking tough bosses, or trying to get that last few second on the crystal with your catapult this skill is amazing! Not to mention it only has 1 level and is very cheap to learn. Just get it.
Note:
I will not be giving any information or be talking about the 3 new Werebeast skills due to the fact that i never did have the chance to use them and never will. Also because these skills only have 1 level it's easy to see that a little bit of commonsense will tell you what you need to know to be effective when using these skills.
Finally now that were through with all that skill hooplah we can get on to the real core of what it means to be a Werebeast, That's right party etiquette:
Party Orientation:
Now, Im Sure that some of you are wondering "Hey, i have all these great skills but how and when do i use them when in a party? Being in a party is fairly simple for Werebeast's so simple in fact that i can divide it up into 3 sections. Now there are however a few rules which apply to all sections:
Rule 1 - Never ever run when tanking a boss.
Rule 2 - Always buff your party with Divine Strength and Inspire.
Rule 3 - Aggro,Aggro,Aggro.
Section 1, Running HH and FB's:
There's one main differences i have noticed between HH and FB's, Simply put the difference is that HH bosses take a whole lots longer to kill while FB bosses tend to be quite a bit quicker. Either way you should follow the guide lines listed below to safely get your party through this ordeal:
- Usually i like to start off bosses with a few quick raging bites. This will insure that you get early aggro coverage, while still having Tiger's Challenge to grab that aggro back in the case that you do lose it.
- Usually after i feel that i have built up sufficient aggro ill begin casting Tiger's Presence which will make the healers job a lot easier and if the boss has AOE skills which he manages to get out it can make the difference between having your entire party laying dead or vice versa.
- Some bosses as you may have noticed have skills or special attacks, I believe the first boss that you will encounter with skills is located within FB29, This is where you should begin to practice your timing with wrath of the tiger to cancel those attacks before they end up killing you. On the MY version this was a very difficult practice due to the 3-5 second skill delay but here it should be fairly easy for you. By the time that you begin running HH you should have this ability perfected so that you can cancel AOE's from bosses like Drums which possibly can wipe out some of the squishy's in you party.
- Sometimes you will be required to lure a boss towards your party or away from your party ill use Armorer Ko. as an example. Usually you'll have to lure this boss towards the wall because if not the 4 territory war bosses that spawn will kill you. I find that the most efficient way to lure a boss is to have everyone else in the party stop DPSing while you hit it with ripping bite once and run to where you want it to be. Then once it has reached and you've resumed your aggro routine it's safe to commence DPSing.
Section 2, Zhen or AOE Parties:
Now depending on where your leveling at there will be 2 distinct types of mobs, Aggro and Passive. Aggro mobs like spiders or wolves will aggro you as soon as you walk into their radius. This means easy work for you since you'll just have to run by the mobs, collect a few, and then return to the party. Though your going to have to be a lot more careful when AOEing at aggro mobs and make sure that the Priest,Mage,or Archer don't get overwhelmed by mobs and die. If you notice this happening your probably gonna want to run into the middle of their AOE's and cast Tiger's Challenge.
If you happening to be AOEing on passive mobs, Well your job just got a little bit more difficult. There's 2 ways that you can do this either in Humanoid or Tiger form. While in humanoid you'll want to just use Splitting Earth every 8-10 seconds or so after you've got some mobs following you. Even though while in Humanoid you only have to use 1 skill, the downside is that you wont have as much speed as in tiger as well as your hiero taking a slightly heavier beating. If you decide you want to lure while in tiger what your gonna want to do is aggro the mobs and cast tigers presence. Depending on how far you need to lure the mobs you may need to use either Tigers Challenge or Sundering Heavens to keep the mobs going. I however highly suggest using Humanoid to lure until you've figured out how to micro manage your barbarian very well.
Summary:
- Always keep an eye on the Priest,Mage, and Archers health.
- 2 mob types, Passive and Aggro as well as luring strategies for each.
- 2 luring styles, Humanoid and Tiger.
Section 3, Territorial War's:
Once again, you'll want to make sure that you've fully buffed yourself as well as your party. If not do it. Anyways well start with TW, In which from my experiences Werebeasts will be put into 1 of 3 parties. 1. Perdition Squad. 2. Mixed. 3. Catapult. Below ill break down each party type for you.
Perdition Squads:
This is a rare tactic in territory wars but it has been done. This squad usually consists of all Werebeast's but a priest can be thrown in as well for good measure. Most members of this party will be given spark pots so that they can use perdition. Usually the party will break up into groups of 3, each including 2 Werebeasts. The idea is that the Werebeast's will run into large groups of people, perdition at the same time(Probably killing everything caught in the radius), and then regroup. This can be a highly effective tactic during higher level territory wars.
Mixed Squads:
This is basically your normal group with a Warrior,Barbarian,Werefox,Priest(Or Two), an archer, and/or a Mage. The basic goal of this party is usually to frag and defend the catapult teams, though they can also be used to cause distractions or to escort a perdition team into the fray. Also depending on how the battle is going it may end up becoming a defense team. The werebeast's sole role in this squad is his buffs, After that he should just try and frag to the best of his ability or to aid others in the party once they come under attack.
Catapult Teams:
This is the kind of squad that only the very best of werebeast's will get into. Usually the 3 highest levels in the guild. Possibly even only the 2 highest depending on the guilds strategy. Catapult teams tend to consist of 1 Werebeast, 1 Werefox, 1 Warrior, 2 Priests(Possibly 3), and maybe an archer. The classes all contribute certain buffs and heals needed to keep the werebeast alive. When pulling catapults you need to know when to use your pots, special pots, black tortlen,and or sundering heavens, as well as skills like frighten.
And that is the end of my MONUMENTAL barbarian guide