Barbarian 30-60 build

I would like to share with you the build I used on my Barbarian from level 30 all the way to 60. Why 30? Because that's about the point where you step into Nightmare difficulty. Act 2 especially can be tough. Normal mode is very easy but Nightmare ramps it up a notch and very often it requires a re-shuffling of your skills in order to progress. I was ready to give up on my Barbarian at this point because I was taking too much damage with my previous hodge-podge build. The fact that I was using a 2-hander didn't help either.

I came upon an interesting build on a forum somewhere but unfortunately I can't remember where, to link to it. I decided to give this build a try and I was very impressed. My Barbarian became an unstoppable force (and immovable object) and he sailed easily all the way to Inferno Act 1 using this build.

You won't have all the sweet runes that finalize this build from level 30. But the skills themselves don't change at all. Only one passive skill changes, but much later. Instead, the basic build continues to improve as you go along and unlock better runes. Furthermore, it so happens that you don't even need to enable Elective Mode if you use the same skill placement I use.

I found that this build works best with sword-and-board, i.e. 1H weapon and shield. Your mileage may vary with a different weapon setup but personally I wouldn't want to give up the extra protection afforded by the shield.

Without further ado, here's the build at level 30:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WeRVkP!bVe!ZZaa

Primary
Frenzy with Triumph - This is your bread and butter Fury generator. It deals massive damage to a single target and it works best with a fast weapon. Triumph heals you for a significant amount when you kill an enemy. I consider it essential for survival. You will use this rune all the way to 59.

Secondary
Seismic Slam with Shattered Ground - Seismic Slam is your main Fury spender. I love it because it deals massive damage in a 45 degree arc in front of you to all the monsters caught in it. More importantly, it knocks them back, allowing you to recover if you are surrounded. The rune simply improves the range of the skill and the knockback effect. This rune is so good that there is no reason to change it even at 60.

Defensive
Ignore Pain with Bravado - It seems that Ignore Pain has become a must for most builds and this one is no exception. Pop it up whenever things become hairy. The Bravado rune is temporary until you can get a better one but it is still very good, knocking enemies back if they surround you and also dealing 50% weapon damage to them. In fact this rune can be used as an extra source of DPS if you so desire, popping Ignore Pain whenever it's off cooldown. While the cooldown itself is fairly short, I prefer to use it only when shit happens.

Might
Revenge with Vengeance is Mine - Revenge is one of my favorite skills. It has a chance to activate when you are taking damage. So the more you are hit, the higher the chance. It procs very often when you are surrounded or standing in a pool of nasty damaging stuff. You need to keep an eye out for it but it does some nice AoE damage when you hit it. Make sure not to wait too long because the effect eventually expires. Damage aside, the main strength of this skill is that it heals you for a very nice amount for each enemy affected by the skill. It is literally a lifesaver. The rune (temporary until much later) increases the healing effect and also gives you some Fury.

Tactics
Warcry - This one buffs your armor (and your allies') by 20% for 1 minute. The cool thing is that it also generates Fury so I use it whenever it is off cooldown, every 30 seconds. At level 30 there is no rune for it yet.

Rage
Wrath of the Berserker - This one is optional but highly recommended. It provides massive burst damage and even though the cooldown is long at 2 minutes, I like to save it for boss packs when I can pop it and destroy them in a few seconds. Runed, this skill becomes even better, but at level 30 you will have to contend with the naked skill.

Passive
Nerves of Steel - Awesome defensive passive. It increases your armor by the same amount as your Vitality. Since you will have a ton of Vitality anyway, this means that you will have huge amounts of armor. This passive does a lot to help mitigate a great deal of physical damage.
Tough as Nails - Further increases your armor by an additional 25% but also improves your Thorns damage. If you have a build centered around Thorns, this passive is a must. Otherwise it still does a lot of mitigation which makes it important for this build.
Superstition - While the previous two passives take care of physical damage, this one reduces non-physical damage by 20% and also gives you a little Fury when taking ranged or elemental damage. In all, it's a solid defensive skill and highly recommended.

Gameplay
As you can see, this build centers mainly around defensive skills but also has some nice health recovery via Revenge and the Frenzy rune, as well as good damage thanks to Frenzy, Revenge (again) and Wrath of the Berserker. Between all the mitigation and health recovery you will use very few health potions. For this to work you will obviously need a good 1H weapon and shield but fortunately these are cheap to buy on the Auction House until level 55 or so. For the shield I recommend as much block as you can find (ideally about 20% or so), and then armor. Shields also have Strength, Vitality (which also gives armor via the passive) and other desirable stats.

Progression from 30 to 60
This build will evolve in your journey to level 60 but the beauty of it is that you'll be using the exact same skills. Only the runes change, for the better. Here's what I recommend, as you go along.

Level 32
Warcry gets its first rune, Hardened Wrath. This doubles the armor bonus to 40%. You will use this until level 60 when I recommend another rune.

Level 36
Ignore Pain gets Ignorance is Bliss. This rune gives you additional healing while Ignore Pain is active. At 20% that's a lot of healing. If shit hits the fan, pop this and you will do a complete turnaround.

Level 40
Wrath of the Berserker gets Impunity. This rune doubles your damage while Wrath of the Berserker is active. In other words, you can deal double damage every 2 minutes. This allows you to burn down boss packs and bosses in record time.

Level 40 (but you can do it at 60 if you don't feel the need)
After 40, when you feel like you are getting too close to death for comfort, you have the option to swap the Superstition passive for Relentless. While you will lose some elemental resistance, your survivability will be greatly increased when your health gets really low. This passive has saved me numerous times and allowed me to recover from desperate situations. I'd say it's a must for hardcore builds. In addition, it also reduces your Fury costs by 75%. This skill used to be even better because it reduced costs by 100% but it got nerfed because people were using a build where they deliberately got their health down to 20% so they could kite tough mobs from a distance with unlimited Weapon Throw and/or Seismic Slam with Shattered Ground. This really sucks, IMO, but Blizzard are sometimes dicks like that.

Level 52
Revenge gets Provocation. You give up some healing and also Fury generation but Revenge now procs twice as often. Believe me when I tell you that the tradeoff is definitely worth it. Now it seems like it's up all the time. Do massive AoE damage! Because it procs more often you can also heal more often (even though the amount is smaller) but this does wonders when you're surrounded by lots of monsters or when you get a boss pack with Plagued or Desecrator.

Level 59
Frenzy gets Maniac. Each stack of Frenzy increases your damage by 4% for a potential total of 20%. That's a huge amount of extra damage. You'll be forgoing the healing after monster kills but this rune is much better for downing boss packs and tough mobs.

Level 60
Use Impunity for Warcry. While you'll be giving up some armor, I think you'll gain a lot more by boosting all your resistances by 50%. Don't use this if you don't have enough base resistances because the difference won't be significant.

At level 60, your build will look like this:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WeRVkP!bVU!cZbccZ

It's a very solid defensive build that can also deal a fair amount of damage provided you have a decent weapon. I'm currently in Inferno Act 1 with this build but I haven't really played the Barbarian a lot there due to lack of good equipment. I did kill a few Inferno boss packs with this build, although in truth I am a bit squishy. If you've used this build or have better suggestions I'd love to hear all about it.

It's raining legendaries

Well, chance is fickle indeed. I played Diablo 3 for a month for countless hours, leveled my Monk to 60, grinded a lot of Hell and a tiny bit of Infeno with > +100% Magic Find and I never saw a legendary item drop. And then, on my noob Barbarian I get 2 legendaries a few days apart, with 0 Magic Find (read that again: ZERO MAGIC FIND). A few days ago I got this legendary amulet. Today, at level 51, I got this sword in Act 1 Hell from a random elite boss:

The Ancient Bonesaber of Zumakalis. Now the first question that needs to be asked is who the hell is Zumakalis? Leaving that aside (because we all know it's some random name that Blizzard slapped on this item), the second question is what to do with this sword?

To me this looks like a very good weapon for a Monk. At level 45 120 DPS is not too shabby. Slap a Ruby on it and you cat get a lot more out of it. Attack speed is decent and it looks like there's quite a bit of life leech on it. That's cool. My Barbarian certainly can't use it at level 51 because it isn't itemized for Barbarians and besides he's already got a more powerful weapon, and my Monk is 60 so it's definitely useless to him. The only remaining option is, of course, to sell it.

Luckily, the RMAH is now functional so I can make some good money with this sword. Or can I? Though I was kinda expecting it, I was dismayed to find out that I can get somewhere between $1.70 and $2.00 for it. Oh, minus Blizzard's $1 fee, that would be in fact $0.70 or $1.00 tops. Yikes! Of course, I understand that this is simply a leveling weapon that will be replaced as soon as possible so it can't hold its value very well. On the other hand it has to be better than the yellow weapon I sold the other day for $1.25.

The sad truth is that competition on the AH is bound to be fierce and people will undercut each other viciously. Now, of course, I could try to sell this on the Gold Auction House but I would get between 50K and 70K for it. Not too tempting. That would value gold at 29K-35K per $1 (before Blizzard's tax) or ~70K gold per $1 after Blizzard's tax. It is obvious to me that even after Blizzard takes their cut, I'd still be better off selling this for the minimum of $1.70. I highly doubt you'll be able to buy less than 100K gold for $1 when commodity auctions are enabled. In fact I predict that prices will go down to 1M / $1 or even less, but that's another story.

So it's settled then, I'm going to try to sell this for a maximum of $2. It's sad but necessary. I can't let it gather dust in my inventory because I can't use it (unless I decide to level a second Monk but I doubt that will ever happen).

I've read a blog post somewhere (sorry, can't remember the blog) where the poster argued that it might be better to keep legendaries unidentified in your inventory until the big "legendary patch" is released (probably 1.1), which buffs legendaries going forward. But this assumes items are assigned attributes at the moment of identifying them, and not when they drop. That's certainly possible but we don't know that and I simply don't want to risk waiting until this item is completely worthless.

Should I sell it then after gold trading is enabled? That would allow me to value this item better in terms of gold per dollar. What do you think?

My first legendary

So there I was, minding my own business, killing fools in the sewers of Act 2 of Nightmare with my level 39 Barbarian. After dispatching a group of champions, I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed this on the ground.

WTF! A legendary amulet! Fricking awesome!

It turns out that this was a pretty good upgrade for the Barbarian, after I fitted it with a Ruby for some extra damage. One of the best features of this amulet is the +7% run speed. Now I have a total of +17% run speed which is pretty sweet.

This amulet, called Talisman of Aranoch, is all the more amazing as it dropped with only 22% Magic Find and it happened not only to be an upgrade for my Barbarian, but also a level-appropriate item.

Now I have become a true believer. No longer am I paranoid that legendary items are just something that Blizzard creates and injects directly into the Auction House. Lol jk.

D3 Marathon - Day 13

There isn't much to say about day 13. I was gone most of the day and only got about 3 hours of play, spent exclusively on farming Acts 2 and 3 in Hell with my Monk. I make about 100K an hour doing that, during which the 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor also built up quickly.

I didn't find a single upgrade for the Monk, though I did get a couple of rare drops for my other classes. On the other hand I spent about 200K on the Auction House for some incremental upgrades that I thought were "cheap" but they barely raised my DPS from 10K to 10.8K. At least my Monk looks better now without that ridiculous helmet he was wearing previously.

It has become clear to me that the only way I'm going to get 15-20K DPS is to buy a much better weapon. My current sword gives 500+ DPS along with some Dexterity. I would need at least a 800+ DPS weapon in order to progress. The problem is that those weapons are very expensive, usually upwards of 1 million gold. I pretty much have 2 options right now: spend most of my gold on getting a better weapon or continue to grind Hell in the hopes of getting better drops and more gold.

I'm reluctant to spend so much money though because it might still be worth something when the RMAH finally decides to show up. But this is a catch-22. Don't spend gold - can't progress. Spend all the gold - be broke but progress and perhaps make some of it back before the RMAH is released. What to do?

My plan is to keep an eye out on the AH for some good deals on a better weapon. While in the past I've been able to snag some really sweet gear for very low prices, all of a sudden, from level 59 and up, a wall has been erected and the bar has been set a lot higher for those items. Up until then, I considered a good deal anything south of 50K. Now, I'll be very happy to find a 800+ DPS weapon for less than 500K.

Build and skills
My build has changed a little bit now that I'm farming Hell.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#UZXgQT!YZX!cZZaaa
I've replaced Mystic Ally (because he kept dying at higher levels and I was tired of wasting Spirit refreshing him) with Seven-Sided Strike runed with Sudden Assault. This is my "emergency" nuke and helps me a lot especially for champions and rare bosses. Besides, the cooldown is low enough that I can use it often, including on annoying monsters who like to run away.

Barbarian
I have also put in a few hours over the past couple of days on my Barbarian who's level 30 and has just finished Normal difficulty. Because he does 700 DPS at this level, everything is a piece of cake for him. Why so much? Because he has some of the best items courtesy of his big brothers the Demon Hunter and the Monk. He does have some issues with survivability, though he hasn't died once in all his 30 levels. I can tell, though, that he will never be my main.

Next, I'll be continuing to attempt to gear the Monk for Inferno Act 1. Will I succeed? It remains to be seen.

Follow the D3 Marathon

Character names

Today, in world premiere, I'm going to reveal the names that I will give each class when Diablo 3 is released. I talked before about class and gender choices and I can safely say, after playing each gender for each class in the beta, that I have made a final decision.

Demon Hunter - Male - Prometheus
I picked the name for two reasons. First, there's Prometheus in Greek mythology whose story I find extremely fascinating. I mean, stealing from the gods, defying them to the very last, that takes balls man! Besides, the male Demon Hunter can very well be Greek, with his darkish looks. The second reason is that my most anticipated movie this year is, you guessed it, Prometheus.

Wizard - Female - Andromeda
The Wizard fires galaxies and Andromeda is one of my favorite galaxies, so there you go. Besides, I think the name sounds really cool.

Barbarian - Male - Orion
I have always liked the name Orion, as it applies to the constellation and the mythical character. OK, I admit that Orion The Hunter might be better suited for the Demon Hunter but in my mind it feels like this is a very good name for the Barbarian.

Monk - Male - Rasputin
In a departure from Greek mythology, I am naming my male Monk Rasputin. Why? Well, it should be obvious. Diablo 3's Monk evidently hails from Russia, and that beard is a dead giveaway. Not that I admire the real Rasputin or anything, but I think the association (and coincidence) is funny.

Witch Doctor - Female - Arachne
I struggled with this one for a long time. Finally I turned back to Greek mythology and settled upon the name Arachne. Why? Because the Witch Doctor plays with spiders, among other things.

So these are my choices. I'd be interested to hear some opinions/criticisms. I would also enjoy it if you shared your own characters' names in the comments. Come on, don't be shy!

The beta Barbarian

My review of the Barbarian is finally here, the very last class that I played in the beta. It's not that I hate the Barbarian, but as the only class to transfer from Diablo 2, I thought it would be the most boring. It turned out to be a lot more fun that I anticipated.

The Barbarian is a big, lumbering brute who will smash anything in his path with his humongous weapons. I just love how enemies are flung across the screen like rag dolls by many of the Barb's skills.

I tried both male and female Barbarians but I am going to stick with a male because I like his voice better and he looks more experienced and threatening than the female.

In a departure from Diablo 2, this Barbarian uses a different type of resource - Fury, which acts very similarly to the WoW Warrior's Rage. Fury is also somewhat similar to the Monk's Spirit, although it is generated by using certain skills as well as getting hit. There's a fixed pool of 100 Fury and you start with an empty bulb. You build Fury as you push forward, hitting enemies and getting hit by them. When you're out of combat your Fury slowly depletes until it reaches zero. A later passive skill not only prevents it from depleting but also generates a small amount every second. Another passive adds an extra 20 Fury to your pool and also boosts the regeneration rate.

While initially I felt a bit constrained by the lack of Fury, I realized that the Barbarian isn't that much different from the Monk. His primary skills are powerful enough to do serious damage and a few hits will build up sufficient Fury to unleash more powerful skills.

Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.

Next is a review of all the skills and runes in the beta, broken down by skill slot, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions and tastes.

Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
All of the Barbarian's primary skills generate Fury.
Lv 1 - Bash
This is first spell you start the game with. It generates Fury and does 150% weapon damage to a single target. It also has a 20% chance to know the enemy back. This is a very solid single target skill that will get a lot of use early in the game.
    Lv 6 - Rune - Clobber
Your first rune at level 6 will improve Bash so that instead of 20% knockback chance it gets a 35% chance to stun the target for 1.5 seconds. This isn't much but I guess it's better than nothing. In those 1.5 seconds it's almost a given that normal monsters will be dead.
    Lv 13 - Rune - Onslaught
A more interesting rune for Bash comes at level 13. It removes the knockback component but adds 2 "reverberations" that each deal 20% weapon damage. Essentially it allows you to deal 190% total damage with one Bash. The animation looks like small shockwaves which radiate forward from the point of initial impact. This is a very good improvement but at that level I'm not using Bash anymore so it might be moot depending on your play style.
Lv 3 - Cleave
My favorite primary skill comes early, at level 3. It easily replaces Bash because now it does AoE damage to monsters in a wide arc in front of your character. The damage is only 120% but it affects so many more enemies. I have always loved spells called "cleave" in games. In WoW, one of my Warriors' favorite spells was also Cleave. So for me this is a no-brainer.
    Lv 9 - Rune - Rupture
An awesome skill is made a lot deadlier with this rune. The rune adds an explosive effect (for 85% weapon damage) to all enemies killed by your Cleave. The explosion will damage any enemy in a 8 yard radius. This makes Cleave amazing. Monsters will literally blow to bits around you in a chain reaction after cleaving them a couple of times.
Lv 11 - Frenzy
Frenzy is another old favorite from Diablo 2. The effect is similar. Each hit increases your attack speed by 15%, starting at 110% weapon damage. You can have a total of 5 frenzy stacks. The interesting thing is that the DPS display under your character's stats doesn't change while the stacks are up. Is this a bug or is it intended? I don't know, but it's hard to judge the effectiveness of this skill without a visual cue. While this skill is awesome for single targets (bosses especially) due to the high (185% total) damage, it kind of sucks for large groups of monsters. That's why I didn't use it a lot.

Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Secondary skills consume Fury.
Lv 2 - Hammer of the Ancients
At level 2 comes your first Fury spender. Learn to use it well because this could very well be one of your best secondary skills. Hammer of the Ancients slams the enemies in front of you for 200% weapon damage. In addition, it gets an extra 5% chance to crit. Positioning is obviously important here as it won't hit every monster around you, so you will have to make sure to gather them in front of you before unleashing this baby.
    Lv 7 - Rune - Rolling Thunder
This rune gives Hammer of the Ancients a shockwave that extends forward for a lengthy 22 yards and deals 155% weapon damage to everything in its path. That's in addition to the skill's 200% damage. I just love this combo.
Lv 5 - Rend
Rend is one skill that didn't jive well with me. It does 210% weapon damage to all enemies around you but that damage is a DoT, over 3 seconds. I would rather not wait 3 seconds for the damage to take effect, if you know what I mean. I simply can't get the hang of DoTs on melee characters. DoTs are excellent for ranged characters because you can run around waiting for the monster to drop but on melee classes you are just being pummeled during that time.
    Lv 11 - Rune - Ravage
This rune simply increases the range of Rend. Sorry but it didn't work out for me either way.
Lv 12 - Seismic Slam
This skill is somewhat similar to Hammer of the Ancients as it does 155% damage to everything close by in a 45 degree arc, also knocking them back. Due to the lack of runes in the beta this skill can't reach its full potential but it is very impressive nonetheless. The 45 degree arc is quite wide and it extends almost to the edges of the screen meaning that one hit will affect even enemies in the back, essentially "sweeping" everything away from you. This is my go-to secondary skill at level 13.

Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Ground Stomp
At level 4, along with an extra skill slot, you get Ground Stomp which is a very good crowd control skill. It will stun enemies in a 12 yard radius around you for 4 seconds (which is plenty) but has a 12 second cooldown. The cool thing is that it also generates Fury when used (instead of consuming it) so my advice is to use it whenever it is off cooldown.
    Lv 12 - Rune - Deafening Crash
If you like crowd control, this rune is a no-brainer. On top of Ground Stomp's effects, it also slows down enemies after they recover from the initial stun.
 Lv 8 - Leap
As much as I like Ground Stomp, Leap takes the cake. It should be called Leap Attack, because that's exactly what it does. The Barb leaps in the air and when he lands (preferably in the midst of his enemies) he does 85% weapon damage to everything in an 8 yard radius. It also slows the enemies' movement by 60% for 3 seconds. I love Leap because it allows me to quickly get in position right in the middle of the action and then hit those monsters hard with my AoE skills. But more than that, Leap can be used every time it is off cooldown (10 seconds) to boost your mobility, since jumping in a direction is quicker than running there. Furthermore, you can also use it to jump to lower of upper sections in the dungeon. It's much quicker than taking the stairs. If that's not enough, Leap also generates Fury when used, which gives you a further incentive to use it whenever it is off cooldown, whether to move or just to generate extra Fury. For example, if I'm fighting a tough boss, I'm standing right next to him anyway, but I will still use Leap every time it's up, for the extra Fury it gives me.

Force ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Ancient Spear
I was tempted to dismiss this skill when I first heard about it but after using it I understood its utility. It acts like a grappling hook, pulling the targeted enemy towards you, dealing 185% weapon damage and slowing it by 60% (so it can't run away quickly). In addition, it also generates Fury but has a 10 second cooldown. Just like Leap discussed above, Ancient Spear is best used whenever the cooldown is up, for the extra damage it provides (albeit to a single target) and the extra Fury. I find it invaluable for those pesky summoner skeletons who call their minions right in your face and then cowardly run away.
Lv 13 - Revenge
Your last skill in the beta, at level 13, is Revenge. It's a strange one. It is a semi-active skill, in the sense that it stays inactive until the 15% chance per hit received is triggered. Only then can you activate it for a decent 220% weapon damage to everything around you. The trouble is that in 5 minutes of play this skill barely activated twice. Granted, at level 13 a character is overpowered in the beta and manages to kill monsters extremely quickly, thus avoiding being hit very often. I'm guessing this skill might become more valuable later when it's hard to avoid being hit. For now, though, I find Revenge somewhat useless, especially since you have to keep an eye on it when it activates. Even then, you have to use it within a few seconds or else it expires. Having said that, I think Revenge could use some more testing and I plan to do so in the full game. I think there's more to it than meets the eye.

Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
Lv 10 - Pound of Flesh
At level 10 one of your choice of passives is Pound of Flesh which increases the chance to find health globes by 25% and also doubles their effectiveness. This is quite a solid passive which gives the Barbarian extra survivability but I skipped it because in the beta it's hard to die if you are paying attention. I can see how valuable this skill will become later in higher difficulties and for hardcore characters.
Lv 10 - Ruthless
This passive simply increases your crit chance by 5% and also your crit damage by 50%. The bonuses are so awesome that it's hard not to pick it.
Lv 13 - Nerves of Steel
While I'm sure this passive will be very useful for high-Vitality Barbarians, in the beta it is useless, unless you equip your Barb specifically with Vit gear. As it is, since my Barb's Vitality at level 13 is 38, this passive merely boosts my 213 Armor by an additional 38. Very unimpressive.

Next, I will talk about my level progression from 1-13.

Level Progression

Level 1
Use Bash to bash stuff.

Level 2
Use Hammer of the Ancients whenever you have excess Fury and/or there are several monsters in front of you.

Level 3
Replace Bash with Cleave.

Level 4
Use Ground Stomp as often as possible. It mitigates damage taken and also increases your Fury.

Level 5
Skip Rend.

Level 6
Keep using Cleave and ignore the Bash rune.

Level 7
Rune Hammer of the Ancients with Rolling Thunder.

Level 8
Replace Ground Stomp with Leap.

Level 9
Ancient Spear is yummy. Use it at every opportunity, even on monsters you're fighting toe-to-toe.
Make sure to rune Cleave with Ravage.

Level 10
Grab the Ruthless passive and become even more awesome.

Level 11
Ignore Frenzy and Ravage.

Level 12
Replace Hammer of the Ancients with Seismic Slam.
If you're still using Ground Stomp, rune it with Deafening Crash, otherwise ignore it.

Level 13
Try Revenge if you feel it's better for you than Ancient Spear.
Ignore the Nerves of Steel passive.


This concludes my discussion of the Barbarian in Diablo 3's beta (patch 18, subject to change in future patches or the final game). Here's my level 13 build.

As mentioned at the beginning, the Barbarian is a lot of fun, much more than I expected. Every hit is massive and you will never get tired of seeing monsters thrown around like toys. I am very excited to play a Barbarian in the full game. Strangely enough, the Barb feels a bit more fragile than the Monk and even some of the ranged classes. I just hope he's viable at the end-game, in Inferno. From what I understand, a lot of people will be playing a Barb at launch and it's no surprise. It was one of the most popular classes in Diablo 2 and it remains so in Diablo 3.

Also read:
The beta Demon Hunter
The beta Witch Doctor
The beta Monk
The beta Wizard

Class genders revisited

A looong time ago before I was even dreaming of getting into the beta, I made a tentative decision about which genders I would choose for each class in the full game. Now, after gaining some experience with all the 5 classes, I thought I could make a more informed decision. I was wrong. I hadn't yet seen these class armor set videos. Make sure to watch them, they are definitely worth it.

Here are my impressions after watching these videos.

Barbarian
I like the sets a lot. The look very barbaric, especially the early ones. Later ones are really awesome. These make me want to play a Barbarian.

Demon Hunter
I mentioned repeatedly that I would be playing the Demon Hunter as my first class. The sets are okay-ish but some of the helms are ridiculous.

Monk
The Monk's sets are the ugliest of the bunch. It makes both genders look like clowns.

Wizard
The clothes themselves are very good but many of the shoulders and helms but are ridiculous.

Witch Doctor
I like the Witch Doctor's sets a lot. The hats, especially, are awesome. I can only imagine how cool they look when actually playing the game.

And now for some revised impressions of each class gender.

Barbarian Male
The Barbarian male is the actual Barbarian from Diablo 2, only aged about 20 years. I like the dude. He looks powerful and experienced and he won't take shit from anyone.
Barbarian Female
I was planning to play a Barb female because I like how she looks. She has nice curves, she looks powerful and muscular. But I dislike her voice and she reminds me too much of Fiona, the ogre from Shrek. Besides, she could easily be the male Barb's daughter, much less experienced and a lot more naive.
Verdict
I choose the male Barbarian.

Demon Hunter Male
This dude looks like a jerk. I hate his hunched-over posture and how he holds his arms at his side. Also, he's too thin.
Demon Hunter Female
Her posture makes her look like a stuck-up bitch.
Verdict
It's hard to make a decision here. I think I'm gonna go with the female, as she seems to be the lesser of two evils.

Monk Male
I like the male Monk. He reminds me a lot of Rasputin, with his beard and accent. He looks suitably powerful and I liked how items in the beta looked on him.
Monk Female
I don't know what to make of her. She doesn't seem to be related to the male in any way, not even by race. Are they both Russian? They could be, but something about her doesn't click.
Verdict
I choose the male Monk.

Wizard Male
The male Wizard looks like a wimpy 16-17 year old. He could be the female Wizards younger brother.
Wizard Female
She is smoking hot, especially without armor. I'm in looove with her.
Verdict
Female Wizard all the way!

Witch Doctor Male
What the hell is wrong with this guy? Not only is he shaking like he's got Parkinson's (at his age the chances of that disease are high) but he's got a damn potbelly! Oh and I don't like his voice. Not the accent, just the voice.
Witch Doctor Female
She's much better than the male, and hot looking to boot. And she doesn't shake.
Verdict
Female Witch Doctor all the way!

The class set videos have definitely helped me in my decision-making but unfortunately the Demon Hunter suffers from both lackluster sets and annoying character design. But that's purely my opinion so feel free to disagree with me in the comments.