Deities or Barbarians, which would you chose?

[arakes99]

Thanks to the recent changes. A barbarian with the right stats can now get:
62 AC
15 DR
Feast Healing 1 and 2
44AB
34 Str
Epic Rage
Evasion
Expose Weakness
High fort and will saves
and
30 damage a hit

They can solo all the bosses, with little effort, except the White Dragon and maybe the Dracolich, depending. But they shine in PvP as well. Nothing outside some really powerful magic will bother one of these 60 AC, Uncanndy dodge, DR wielding beasts that regenerate. Even dwarven defenders don't have these kind of defenses. With a minimal investment you can have 18 minutes a rest worth of rage. The 62 AC doesn't even require CE or ICE.

Sure the gods are powerful, but are they stronger than this?

[dzidek1983]

They are... cos they dont need UMD to not fail on reflex or will saves.

[arakes99]

Did I forget to mention you can get the Fort and Will saves into the mid 30s? The reflex does suffer, a tad, but Whirlwind rage helps with that.

[dzidek1983]

If you go whirlwind rage then will suffers.

[Young Werther]

Iron will for WoD and steadfast gives you what 10 will? I assume he's going barb 20, wod 10 looking at what he posted.

[arakes99]

The beauty is this works with a variety of builds. You can do 20 barb always, but then 10 WoD, 10 AK, 10 Dervish, and a few other tasty combinations. The tastiest treat is taking 5 battlerager on a dwarf, which gives you another 2 AC getting you to 64. Now that's a nice package.

It's pretty much the defacto best class on the server, even rivaling the Favored Soul and Bard, except this bad boy needs no magic and doesn't get dispelled.

[dzidek1983]

How do you get base 34 STR and fast healing is beyond me...

[arakes99]

Base? No no..clearly I'm posting rage statistics here. But when you can have rage for 18 minutes a day plus. Who cares?

Even without rage these still have 15 DR and fast healing with a decent AB and damage. So you slog through the weak stuff and rage up the bosses or pvp. Sure is KIND of like a weakness. But if 18 minutes is supposed to be some kind of limitation, then our spellcasters really need to have their spell durations looked at.

But try even getting close to this on any other class or build. You will fall drastically short. Fighters and Man At Arms, Swashbucklers. Weak.

[Young Werther]

I'm curious does the movement speed bonus stack with haste? Is it therefore faster than most builds?

[dzidek1983]

It should.

[Rask]

I'm curious does the movement speed bonus stack with haste? Is it therefore faster than most builds?

It does.

[dzidek1983]

How did you roll 62AC without ICE? i get to 61 top, dodge feat??

[Young Werther]

Maybe he bought 10 tumble.

[kleomenes]

I play a level 30 melee cleric and a level 30 barbarian/AK. The recent buff to barbarian has reduced the vast power level difference, its true, but to me I think I am more confident soloing with the melee cleric.

His damage is functionally higher as he can afford to take lower AC against mobs and two-hand, as he has stone body and regeneration (he very rarely has to cast Heal). He has spells for emergencies and for handling casters.

The barbarian only competes if he rages and he has to use consumables that the cleric does not (although could). He might be better in a single fight, in fact. He probably is - although if he can be ground down its a problem as he has to drink heal pots or heal with heal kits; not a large imposition but still, an imposition over constant regeneration. I am stingy with gold though.

To me, the cleric therefore has reliability, sustainability and flexibility. And is cheaper!

Add party members into the mix and the barbarian is bringing IKD and Expose, but the cleric is bringing cleric buffs and healing for them, too. He's much more useful then IMO, rather than just considering a solo situation.

What's certainly the case now is that if you had a party of two, you would want one cleric, one barbarian, not just two clerics. As the barbarian buffed and healed by the cleric outperforms the cleric.

I'm not a balance guy but I thought I'd post as someone who has a finished build in both classes, and played old barbarian extensively - which was pretty poor as a class.

Of course, there's a point to be made that clerics, while not quite favoured soul level, are a powerful class ahead of the curve. So if something is comparable to that then they are pretty powerful

Going very deep fighter like I have on another character certainly seems a little lacklustre

[dzidek1983]

Yes but you forgot one bonus the Barbarian has... he is one click away from the action, Cleric is several rounds of buffing from action.