Guide to pure tiger barb
I have yet seen a decent guide to how to play a tiger barb, so I decided to make one.
The skills u will be using won't really change considering different pure tiger builds, but your stats will.
How to put stats:
As a barb your job is to be the tank, (with certain exceptions like your own FB's)
This means your going to want a lot of health, but keep that in mind this isn't Diablo II. So we arn't going to stick every point in vit.
The best weapon in the game for barbs is the new Rank 9 **Overlord Battleaxe at lvl 101
with a str req of 300 and a dex of 60 its the highest req of any barb item.
Lets start with the easy stats..
Stats
Magic: 5
Don't put any points into this, end of story.
Dexterity: 60 (max)
Dex will give you better accuracy
and every 20 dex u will get +1% crit hit chance.
and 60 is the dex needed for your rank 9 lvl 101 wep
When to add dex is a tough question, my suggestion is to aim to hit 20 as soon as possible then sink some into vit. then aim for 40 and then 60 to hit those crit breakpoints. keep in mind that extra dex from gear may allow you to hit the next crit breakpoint without adding dex at that time
Strength
Add 3 str per lvl, every lvl, until you hit 300
no more, no less
This will add damage and will allow you to equip any weapon you want that can be used with tiger skills,
any less than 3 per lvl you wont be able to equip the weapons u need at the level they are available
Vitality
This should be the rest. So unless your putting point into dex, that is 2 per lvl.
If you have already started and u need to find out what str you should have. you can solve that with the following formula:
(your level*3)-2= str you should have
Aggro:
As a barb your have the most heath so your the tank. That mean you want monsters attack you and not squishy players like wizards or clerics with low max health.
You main aggro skill is flesh ream, the more you use flesh ream the more a monster will hate you, (ie. want to attack you and not someone else). That hate is called aggro. Devour will also cause a monster to hate you more IF your are already its target. Devour will NOT steal aggro if the most isn't attacking you. Roar will aggro all monsters within a 12 meter radius and changes aggro to a set lvl based on the lvl of roar. (higher lvl is more aggro)
Note: Because roar changes a to a set lvl based on the level of the skill, if you have a monster your tanking with lots of stacked flesh ream and high aggro, roar may set his aggro to a lower lvl than it was was already at.
ok now to skills
Skills
Keeping in mind that you are pure tiger you don't want to waste points in human skill.
However since tiger isn't available till lvl 9, u can bring stomp of the beast king and Garrotte to lvl 2 if you want. (just to lvl faster, the spirit at these lvls wont make a difference.)
But past level 9 don't ever learn any human skills or level up the ones you have any further.
Maxing your skills
While this guide is based around going pure tiger and goes into great detail about what order to learn skills i have found that it truly is much better to max all your skills. Now the key issue here is spirit, if you have the coin however It is fairly easy to dump Exp in your genie and keep the spirit for your BH's to slow your leveling and vastly improve your skills. and i HIGHLY recommend that you keep all your skills maxed for level.
lvl 6
learn feral regen
Once u hit lvl 9 and and finish you cultivation, you can morph to tiger from now on you will only ever use human to buff (this will be explained later).
At lvl 9 u learn:
swimming mastery (which doesn't actually work for some reason )
True Form (tiger)
and Flesh Ream
learn all 3
Attacking with flesh ream (player lvl 9-28)
As this is the only attack you have that takes chi till 29 u wont have to worry about wasting any. As such This will be your main attack until lvl 29 when u get devour. (your second chi using move)
Flesh ream is damage over time and will stack if you use it multiple times. Becuase you dont have any other skills that use chi. you can use this as much as u want.
So spam this every time you can, Non stop. This is also your main aggro skill (see Aggro section above for more info)
lvl 13
shapeshifting intensity (SS intensity)
lvl this skill up before adding points to any skill other than BKI, axe/polearm mastry, and learning new skills
learn another feral regen at lvl 11 and 16
and another ream at lvl 14
lvl 19
now you get 3 new skills
learn them, at this lvl you still should have plenty of spirit
Beast kings inspiration (which will henceforth be known as BKI)
bestial rage
and alacrity of beast
Using: bestial rage:
the chi gain portion of this skill last 15 seconds during which every time your hit u will gain 5 chi
until lvl 29 u don't really have a shortage of chi so u will be using its second effect
the damage absorb portion of this skill last only 10 seconds
during which if you are below half health this will absorb up to 2k damage from direct magic attacks.
NOTE: this will NOT stop damage over time, (fire from pyrogoths and poison from spiders/ghouls)
NOTE: this skill only has 1 lvl so u wont need to ever lvl it up.
Alacrity of beast:
this is a great skill, but you will find it use at much later lvls when more mobs have skills.
This skill will cancel any enemy channeling, however you wont find many mobs with skills for a while, so you wont need to use t that often. But if you see any pretty lights on an enemy try to cancel the skill.
This skill also has a 50% chance to freeze for 3 seconds. So u can use it to stop those running enemies.
Tip on running enemies: if you see mob behind an enemy that likes to run, run past it before you attack.
This way when u attack your will be facing the screen and the enemy will run the direction your now facing. (which should be away from those other enemies)
Beast kings inspiration (BKI)
this skill is EXTREMELY important. It will raise your max health ( any any party members near u) for 30 min by a 12% at lvl 1 at +2% every skill lvl after that, maxing this skill is high priority
This skill and only be cast in human form so if ur tiger (which you should normally be) you will need to un-morph to do that, (be sure to re-morph again you use it)
Note: other things require you to un-morph as well, such as equipping or unequipping items, and the skill strength of the titans which you will learn at lvl 49.
at around now you will start to run low on spirit, and u will be to prioritize skills to lvl, which to chose will be explained as we go on.
Lvl 26
poison fang:
this buff adds wood damage to your attack for 15 min, 12% at lvl 1 and +2% at each skill lvl past that
learning lvl 1 of this skill is a high priority but after lvl 1u will need to lvl this sparingly
this buff is used in tiger form. So u dont need to unmorph to recast
lvl 29
after cultivation u will get a spark u can fill up along with your chi bar (a spark =100 chi (1 full bar))
you also learn have access to 3 new skills along with a effectively free spark eruption learn spark first as it cost like nothing
Devour, Blood Bath, and axe/polearm mastery
axe/polearm mastry should be maxed before anything but BKI.
prioritize:
1st learn devour then axe polearm, max BKI, SS intensity, and learn true form (lvl 2)
2nd after that max ream (lvl 5)
3rd max alacrity (lvl 3)
4th feral regen lvl 5
5th bloodbath
you will need bloodbath to unlock strength of titans (which will now be known as Titans) at lvl 49
but you wont actually be using this skill.
Using Devour:
This is your second chi using skill, it will lower the targets defense for 10 seconds and does high damage on its own. Make sure u always have the targets defense lowered which u have then chi
it will also lower the targets attack level by 1 (attack damage by 1% )per skill level , however this effect is only for 4 seconds, so u wont really use it for that this skill will increase aggro towards u if u already have it but will not take aggro if you are not the target (unless you manage to actully steal aggro with damage but as a barb that's highly unlikly you will out DD enough to take aggro that way)
modifying old skill use
with devour taking up most of your chi u wont be able to flesh ream as much, use ream when u have chi to spare, but make sure u have enough to you devour when u need it, bestial rage now is useful for getting chi, and so in alacrity. Make sure you cancel channeling with alacrity too.
Note:devour used before flesh ream will also increase the damage of each bleed "tic" for every flesh ream cast while the - def debuff is active. the damage per bleed is based on the def of the monster at the time u used ream NOT what its def is currently at. so even if the 10 seconds of devour has ended every ream you did during those 10 sec will deal more damage per bleed. this also means that if use devour AFTER ream the ream damage per bleed wont increase.
the damage per tic is set when you the skill (fleash ream or sunder) is cast.
Lvl 34
now u get to learn roar
Roar:
this skill is very handy in the right situations, but those only arise in a party.
This skill will make every enemy withing a 12 meter radius stop whatever it is doing and attack you.
It is used when squishy squad members are attack and u need to get the monsters off of them. This skill will rest the aggro of every affected monster to a set lvl determined by the level of this skill. So if that means if u have been reaming another monster for the past 20 seconds his aggro with go down.
Lvl 39
surf impact
ur first aoe (area of effect) attack skill as a tiger barb
after completing your lvl 39 cultivation and getting ur second spark u will be able to learn surf impact
this handy skill will deal damage to all enemies within a 4.2 meter radius +.2 per skill lvl
and will slow the down by 50% for 4.4 seconds +.4 every skill lvl
Learning this skill lvl 1 is a high priority. Sadly past lvl 1 you wont really have the spirit you need to lvl this skill for a long while as u wil have many more important skill to level
39 skill priority
1st learn surf impact
2nd max beast kings inspiration (lvl5) then SS intensity
3rd max posion fang/flesh ream/alacrity/blood bath lvl 1 if u haven't learned it yet
4th roar
lvl 44
Frighten
like surf impact u wont be able to lvl this as much as u would like.
Learn lvl 1 as soon as u can. But past that its low priority
slows enemies by 23% +3% every skill lvl and lowers their attack by 12% of your weapon attack +2% every skill lvl. 12 meter radius
Note: this skill will cause monsters with no target to attack u if they are in the radius
if u haven't learned bloodbath yet do so b4 adding points into anything else
lvl 49
strength of titans
this skill raises attack by 12% +2% every skill lvl
affects all party member within radius
Note:this skill, like bki, is cast in human form so cast them both before morphing back to tiger
this skill is high prioity
So now u realize why we cant go both human and tiger..
Priorities
if u still have learned bloodbath yet.. do it first as u cant learn titans without it
1st learn Titans
2nd max BKI
3rd max axe/polerm mastry
4th SS intenisty/ then feral regen
5th flesh ream/devour/alacrity/ check next lvl*
6th roar
7th surf impact/frighten (you wont ever have spirit for these)
8th bloodbath lvl2+(let alone this)
*if u dont have enough sprit to lvl ream, devour or alacrity, but u do have enough for roar, learn roar.
Lvl 59
you finally made it to the next step
u get another spark (along with advanced spark eruption)and...
INVOKE and SUNDER!!!!! MUAAHHAHAHAA
learn these 2
Note: to get invoke u will need SS intensity lvl 10 if for some reason I have dont this my now. Get that done.
Sunder requires (requires 2 sparks)
110% weapon damage (all at once) plus 4993.7 (why the .7???, idk) over 30 seconds PLUS gain 2100 health over 30 seconds PLUS really cool spinney tiger graphic 12 meter raduis
THATS FREAKING AWESOME
Invoke the spirit (requires 2 sparks)
for 20 seconds 90% damage reduction, speed is reduced by half for those 20 seconds
but honestly who cares unless the guy is running away 90 freaking percent damage reduction
skill priory is now:
1st Sunder/invoke
2nd BKI/ (Axe/polearm mastery)
3rd titans
4th feral regen if not already at lvl 10
5th flesh ream to lvl 10
6th alacrity
7th devour
8th roar
9th surf impact/frighten (you STILL wont ever have spirit for these)
10th bloodbath (so u can forget about this)
lvl those skills until u hit 79
I will add pretty text colors and other updates later.
