Latest revision as of 02:33, 21 August 2011

Barbarian Skills
All Skills Combat Masteries Combat Skills Warcries

The Barbarian's Warcries are among the most powerful support skills in the game. Virtually all Barbarians max out Battle Orders for the huge hit point bonus, and Shout is very useful as well. Warcries can be used as attacks as well, either to damage monsters or to weaken them.

Howl[edit]

Required Level: 1

Prerequisites: None
Details:

Monsters run away due to howl

"Frighten nearby monsters". Howling will cause affected monsters to cease attacking and retreat as a green 'rain' drizzles down on them. The effect of this skill is the same thing as "Hit Causes Monster to Flee" and the Necromancer's Terror curse, though the odds of it working are different.

Howl is most useful with a new character. Put a point into it and if you get swarmed in Act One send most of your attackers running off in terror.

This skill works by comparing your Clvl to the Mlvl of the monsters, factoring in the Slvl or the skill, and usually by late Normal this one becomes non-functional, when no monsters will run away at all. More points in the skill would help, but they are better spent elsewhere.

Monsters hit with this run in the opposite direction, and often very fast, faster than their normal movement rate. Monsters that are blocked from running will fight even with the green squiggles over their heads, so if you want to get away, cast it, run a step, and cast again. One Howl will cover most of the screen.

Howl does not work on other characters, Act Bosses, or most SuperUniques. One point is required as a pre-req for other more useful Warcries, and that's plenty.
Synergies:

Receives Bonuses From: None
Provides Bonuses To: War Cry, Berserk

Mana Cost:	4

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Enemy Runs (yards)	Enemy runs (seconds)	Slvl	Enemy Runs (yards)	Enemy runs (seconds)	Slvl	Enemy Runs (yards)	Enemy runs (seconds)	Slvl	Enemy Runs (yards)	Enemy runs (seconds)
1	16	3	6	32.6	8	11	49.3	13	16	66	18
2	19.3	4	7	36	9	12	52.6	14	17	69.3	19
3	22.6	5	8	39.3	10	13	56	15	18	72.6	20
4	26	6	9	42.6	11	14	59.3	16	19	76	21
5	29.3	7	10	46	12	15	62.6	17	20	79.3	22

Howl Builds[edit]

Find Potion[edit]

Required Level: 1

Prerequisites: None
Details: "Find Potion". Formerly "Find Health Potion", this skill now finds health, mana, and rejuvenation potions. A corpse that has had Find Potion used on it can not be raised by a necromancer, nor used by your own Find Item or Grim Ward. Like Find Item, the Barbarian must stand nearly on top of the corpse to use this skill. It can't be targeted at any corpse anywhere, like the Necro's corpse skills. If you target a monster across the screen, the Barbarian will run over and execute the skill standing on top of the targeted corpse.

Find Item is very good to get potions with also, especially when used on bosses and champions, since they'll pop another full drop, usually 4 potions from a Boss, and often full purples from Champions.

Potion odds are 60% Healing, 30% Mana, and 10% Rejuvenation.

Act One: Minor/Light Healing/Mana, Rejuves
Act Two: Healing/Mana, Rejuves
Act Three: Greater Healing/Mana, Full Rejuves
Act Four: Greater/Super Healing/Mana, Full Rejuves
Act Five: Super Healing/Mana, Full Rejuves

Potions are dropped based on the Act you are in, and difficulty level is not a factor. So you can get full purples in Normal/Act 5, but only partial purples in Hell/Act 1. No, it's not fair.

This is not a skill a Barbarian needs to use that often, if he has decent equipment and leech, but it can be nice to keep full of purples, and others in your party might appreciate it. One point is generally enough, especially if you have the normal Echoing weapons on your switch.
Synergies: None

Mana Cost:	2

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Chance to Find %	Slvl	Chance to Find %	Slvl	Chance to Find %	Slvl	Chance to Find %
1	15	6	55	11	71	16	80
2	27	7	59	12	73	17	81
3	36	8	62	13	75	18	82
4	44	9	66	14	77	19	83
5	50	10	68	15	78	20	84

Taunt[edit]

Required Level: 6

Prerequisites: Howl
Details:

Frenzy barbarian taunts some flayers

Taunt is set up to get those pesky fleeing monsters to come to you. I don't know the details of levels but believe only one skill point is all that's needed. When you have a monster strike and flee, instead of chasing, use taunt and they will walk directly to you for killing. This works even on those monsters that strike and knock you back. An excellent application is to Taunt ranged attackers or shamans. Once taunted, an enemy will march towards you to fight hand to hand, even if it attacks with a bow. Shamans will forget their ressurection duties after being taunted and wade through their own minions to fight at close range.

Taunt will not work on Berserk, Possessed, Fanatic, or other creatures immune to Terror or Confuse, nor SuperUniques, Champions, or Bosses.
If there are no enemies in range when Taunt is used, the animation and sound will still play, but Mana will not be deducted.

Synergies:

Receives Bonuses From: None
Provides Bonuses To: War Cry, Frenzy

Mana Cost:	3

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Target's Damage -X%	Target's AR -X%	Slvl	Target's Damage -X%	Target's AR -X%	Slvl	Target's Damage -X%	Target's AR -X%	Slvl	Target's Damage -X%	Target's AR -X%
1	5%	5%	6	15%	15%	11	25%	25%	16	35%	35%
2	7%	7%	7	17%	17%	12	27%	27%	17	37%	37%
3	9%	9%	8	19%	19%	13	29%	29%	18	39%	39%
4	11%	11%	9	21%	21%	14	31%	31%	19	41%	41%
5	13%	13%	10	23%	23%	15	33%	33%	20	43%	43%

Taunt Builds[edit]

Shout[edit]

Required Level: 6

Prerequisites: Howl
Details:

Frenzy barbarian casts shout

"Alert your party of impending danger, raising your and their defense ratings". This war cry provides an Aura-like defense bonus to any friendly character or minion in range. The bonus is to a character's total Defense, so if you had 1200 Defense and Slvl 14 Shout adding 230%, you'd go to 2760 Defense.

This works well with Iron Skin, and has 70% more defense per Slvl. However Iron Skin is passive and works all the time, so whether you should max that, or this, or which first depends on how good you are at remembering to always keep this Warcry active. If you can remember, then Shout provides a bigger bonus, and with points in it this lasts quite a while.
Synergies:

Receives Bonuses From:
- Battle Orders: +5 Seconds Per Level
- Battle Command: +5 Seconds Per Level
Provides Bonuses To: Berserk

Mana Cost:	6

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Defense +X%	Duration (seconds)	Slvl	Defense +X%	Duration (seconds)	Slvl	Defense +X%	Duration (seconds)	Slvl	Defense +X%	Duration (seconds)
1	100%	20	6	150%	70	11	200%	120	16	250%	170
2	110%	30	7	160%	80	12	210%	130	17	260%	180
3	120%	40	8	170%	90	13	220%	140	18	270%	190
4	130%	50	9	180%	100	14	230%	150	19	280%	200
5	140%	60	10	190%	110	15	240%	160	20	290%	210

Shout Builds[edit]

Find Item[edit]

Required Level: 12

Prerequisites: Find Potion
Details: "Target corpses to find hidden treasures". Operates like Find Potion but will harvest an item of some sort from a corpse. An extremely powerful skill, especially with good Magic Find on the Barbarian, and half a dozen or more points in this skill. Due to the sound it makes, this skill is often referred to as "Hork". Plus it's fun to say, "Pindleskin just horked up an Eaglehorn!"

Find Item works just like killing the monster again. They re-roll what they can drop, and if you are successful, they'll cough up a full item drop. This is especially good on Bosses and Champions, who have a much higher chance of dropping something magical or better. Find Item finds potions, as well as gold and every type of item. Uniques, Runes, Jewels, etc, if a monster can drop it, Find Item can find it.

This skill does not work on Act Bosses, some SuperUniques (Shenk) or monsters that don't leave a corpse, such as ones that die frozen, or Frozen Horrors in Act Five's Ice Caves. Also bodies can only have one corpse skill used on them, so you'll be competing with the Druid's Vines, Necromancer skills, Paladins with Redemption, and more. Fire Enchanted bosses can be Horked upon just fine, even though they are just a puddle of blood.

Find Item should be used on all dead bosses and champions, especially if you have a good MF% and/or GF%. The gold from champions can be quite huge, doubled. It's very useful when in parties, since you can stop a few seconds to use this, recharge your BO and other warcries at the same time, and still get exp as the others in your party keep killing.

It's easiest to Hork a lot of targets by holding down the right click while pointing at nothing, then keeping it down as the Barbarian runs around. He'll stop and hork any corpse he encounters, usually doing the animation twice per corpse, though only the first one checks to drop anything. It's easier to keep it depressed than clicking every single monster individually, and often it's hard to even see a target, with so many items on the ground. You can keep the "show items" button depressed as you Hork, so if anything good pops up you'll snatch it quickly, though you need to not point at the hover tag of anything, or you'll stop Horking. Often on big mobs you'll have to run around and pick up all of the gold, or even all of the potions (and drink them) to see all of the items, there will be so much stuff.

Horking in bigger games gets more drops, though your % Find Item is factored in. Playing solo you can get many more items with Hork than you can killing the monsters in the first place, if you have a good % in the skill. On big mobs you'll often run out of mana doing this, but you should hork up quite a few blue and purple potions, so it's easy to drink a purple to refill. Or you can Hork a pack, kill the next and leech full, hork them, etc. Corpses left too long or ones you leave the screen or level from often vanish, so it needs to be done quickly.

The greedy Barbarian will have around 11 (44%) points in this, though diminishing returns hit hard after Slvl 4 or 6. It's not hard to add 5 or 8 to all of your Warcries though, especially with an Echoing sword, to get this to a useful level. If you are looking for big Find Item, a three-socket (Topaz) Barbarian helm with +3 Find Item is a great hat for riches. Many Barbs add points to this once they have good points in Natural Resistance, and have maxed out their weapon mastery, WW, and BO, which comes around Clvl 70-75.

Drop odds depend on the skill level, not the number of players in the game. (As the odds of an initial drop do.)
Item quality is determined just as usual, with the Barbarian's Magic Find factored in. It's therefore ideal to cast Find Item after weapon switching to higher MF% equipment.
Find Item works on all corpses except for Act Bosses and a few SuperUniques. Regular boss monsters, champions, and other bonus types are the best targets, for their higher quality drops. When a second drop is triggered, it acts just like the first drop: i.e. bosses drop 4 potions and an item, champions usually drop 2 potions and a large stack of gold, etc.
Find Item can not be used on monsters that shatter and leave no corpse.
Once Find Potion has been used on a corpse, no other corpse skills will work on it, including Find Item or Corpse Explosion. Monster shamans will not be able to resurrect it either.

Synergies: None

Mana Cost:	7

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Chance to Find +X%	Slvl	Chance to Find +X%	Slvl	Chance to Find +X%	Slvl	Chance to Find +X%
1	13%	6	35%	11	44%	16	49%
2	19%	7	37%	12	45%	17	49%
3	24%	8	39%	13	46%	18	50%
4	29%	9	41%	14	47%	19	50%
5	32%	10	42%	15	47%	20	51%

Find Item Builds[edit]

Battle Cry[edit]

Required Level: 18

Prerequisites: Howl, Taunt.
Details: "Fearsome cry reduces enemy effectiveness". This one frightens nearby monster reducing their AC and damage. A skill not used much in the later game, but one that's very good in situations. This warcry substantially lowers the target's defense and damage for the duration, and for a very low mana cost. The radius of the Warcry is small, so it's not of much use to WW Barbarians, but Dual Wielders often use this to practically guarantee they'll hit their target, and take much less damage during the fight. It can be very useful for WW barbs from Slvl 18 to 30, as they'll often have just Bash for an attack at that point.
Synergies:

Receives Bonuses From: None
Provides Bonuses To: War Cry

Mana Cost:	5

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Duration (seconds)	Target Defense -X%	Target Damage -X%	Slvl	Duration (seconds)	Target Defense -X%	Target Damage -X%	Slvl	Duration (seconds)	Target Defense -X%	Target Damage -X%	Slvl	Duration (seconds)	Target Defense -X%	Target Damage -X%
1	12	50%	25%	6	24	60%	30%	11	36	70%	35%	16	48	80%	40%
2	14.4	52%	26%	7	26.4	62%	31%	12	38.4	72%	36%	17	50.4	82%	41%
3	16.8	54%	27%	8	28.8	64%	32%	13	40.8	74%	37%	18	52.8	84%	42%
4	19.2	56%	28%	9	31.2	66%	33%	14	43.2	76%	38%	19	55.2	86%	43%
5	21.6	58%	29%	10	33.6	68%	34%	15	45.6	78%	39%	20	57.6	88%	44%

Battle Cry Builds[edit]

Battle Orders[edit]

Required Level: 24

Prerequisites: Howl, Shout
Details: "Improve party members' life, mana and stamina".

Frenzy barbarian casts battle orders

The most popular party skill in the entire game, virtually no Barbarian is satisfied with less than 20 base points in this skill. It works on the Barbarian and all friendly players and their minions, increasing everyone's maximum hit points, stamina, and mana by a percentage.

The warcry lasts for a good amount of time, longer with every skill point in it, and most Barbs max this one out quickly, and try to find bonus Warcries equipment to add even more to it. Dual "echoing" swords are a popular weapon switch item, for Barbs who really want to up their BO.

Post v1.09, this skill increases your current hit points as well as the max. Prior to v1.09, the skill only increased the maximum, so a character who had 800/1000 hit points would jump to say, 800/2000 hps, and look half dead. In those days it was necessary to drink a few potions, or leech to fill up the red bulb. This also created a danger if Battle Orders' duration expired, since a character would drop back down to their normal hit points, and then look half dead again when BO was recast.

Once you've played a Barbarian for a bit, you'll develop a timer in your head for how long since you last cast BO, and will learn to cast it again before then. BO lasts from 2.5-3 minutes at the level most Barbarians have in it. The mana cost is very low, so it's best to cast it any time you have a moment, even it's only been 30 seconds or so. It's possible to forget or not be able to stop for it during heated battles, and if you run out in the middle of a mob, it can be fatal. When there are multiple Barbarians in a party, the player with higher level BO should cast it for everyone, and keep track of the time so it does not expire.

It's always good to cast it before you go to town, so you'll ideally get back to the dungeon and recast to reset the duration before it runs out. It's always a good idea to refresh the BO before starting a big boss fight.

Most Barbs max out Battle Orders. It's a good idea to get it to at least Slvl 6 or 8 immediately, so you'll have enough duration on it that you aren't always running dry and having to leech full again.
Synergies:

Receives Bonuses From:
- Shout: +5 Seconds Per Level
- Battle Command: +5 Seconds Per Level
Provides Bonuses To: Concentrate

Mana Cost:	7

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Duration (seconds)	Stamina Life Mana +X%	Slvl	Duration (seconds)	Stamina Life Mana +X%	Slvl	Duration (seconds)	Stamina Life Mana +X%	Slvl	Duration (seconds)	Stamina Life Mana +X%
1	35	35%	6	85	50%	11	135	65%	16	185	80%
2	45	38%	7	95	53%	12	145	68%	17	195	83%
3	55	41%	8	105	56%	13	155	71%	18	205	86%
4	65	44%	9	115	59%	14	165	74%	19	215	89%
5	75	47%	10	125	62%	15	175	77%	20	225	92%

Battle Orders Builds[edit]

Grim Ward[edit]

Required Level: 24

Prerequisites: Find Potion, Find Item
Details: This skill erects a gruesome, bone and gristle scarecrow from the corpse of a targeted monster, that casts the Terror curse on any monsters that draw near it, causing them to run away. This is one of the coolest and most clever skills in the game, but has hardly any practical use since few Barbarians are weak enough to want monsters to run away from them. Has some corpse-recovery utility, but few players will spend a skill point in it for just that purpose.

Grim Ward will not work against Super Unique Monsters and Bosses.

Synergies: None

Mana Cost:	4
Duration:	40 Seconds

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Radius (yards)	Slvl	Radius (yards)	Slvl	Radius (yards)	Slvl	Radius (yards)
1	2	6	5.3	11	8.6	16	12
2	2.6	7	6	12	9.3	17	12.6
3	3.3	8	6.6	13	10	18	13.3
4	4	9	7.3	14	10.6	19	14
5	4.6	10	8	15	11.3	20	14.6

War Cry[edit]

Required Level: 30

Prerequisites: Howl, Taunt, Shout, Battle Cry, Battle Orders.
Details: Damages and stuns all monsters in range.

The stunning effect of this skill, especially at higher durations, is extremely useful.
With the addition of the Synergies in patch 1.10 this skill became more used as the damaging skill in the Singing Barbarian build. With level 20 in the skill and all it's synergies, the Barbarian has a damage of 690-736 per cast. The skill also works well with fast cast, especially since all the enemies in mêlée distance around him stay stunned for as long as he uses it, and may be weakened by his Battle Cry/Taunt as well.
War Cry has a rather small radius, much smaller than any of the other War Cries.

Synergies: War Cry receives the following synergistic bonuses:

Receives Bonuses From:
- Howl: +6% Damage Per Level
- Taunt: +6% Damage Per Level
- Battle Cry: +6% Damage Per Level
Provides Bonuses To: Stun

Skill Level Progression [e]

Slvl	Mana Cost	Dmg	Stun Length (seconds)	Slvl	Mana Cost	Dmg	Stun Length (seconds)	Slvl	Mana Cost	Dmg	Stun Length (seconds)	Slvl	Mana Cost	Dmg	Stun Length (seconds)
1	10	20-30	1	6	15	50-60	2	11	20	83-93	3	16	25	118-128	4
2	11	26-32	1.2	7	16	56-66	2.2	12	21	90-100	3.2	17	26	126-136	4.2
3	12	32-42	1.4	8	17	62-72	2.4	13	22	97-107	3.4	18	27	134-144	4.4
4	13	38-48	1.6	9	18	69-79	2.6	14	23	104-114	3.6	19	28	142-152	4.6
5	14	44-54	1.8	10	19	76-86	2.8	15	24	111-121	3.8	20	29	150-160	4.8

War Cry Builds[edit]

Battle Command[edit]

Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Howl, Shout, Battle Orders.
Details: Battle Command adds a +1 to all of the Barbarian's skills, and does the same for all characters and minions in his party.

Frenzy barbarian casts battle command

Higher levels are useful for the longer duration.
This warcry should always be cast first, before Battle Orders or Shout, so those skills will be cast at +1.