The Evolution of the Diablo Barbarian
Posted 29 April 2012 by FluxGamespy has posted a nice article that traces the evolution of the Diablo 
barbarian. They include coverage of the Diablo I warrior, the Hellfire secret Barbarian, the Diablo 2 Barbarian, and of course Diablo III’s version of the brutal, brawny, brooding, Bashioked, brainless, battle-scarred, bro-come-at-ready, brawling, basher.
Here’s the article, and here’s a quote. Thanks to Murdoch for the tip.
No foolin’, the Barbarian exists in the Diablo: Hellfire expansion — you just have to know where to look. The developers (fun fact: Hellfire was made by Synergistic Software, not Blizzard!) apparently toyed around with creating a new Barbarian class, getting as far as building a set of stats and abilities. For whatever reason he didn’t make the cut — his essence was banished from the final version of Hellfire and entrapped in an obscure text file. With a few magical tweaks you can unlock him and restore him as a playable character.
This secret Barbarian is essentially a modified Warrior — he even borrows the same character sprites — but when he uses his enhanced strength to pick up a huge two-handed weapon with one hand, and uses it to cleave (an attack that would later appear in Diablo 3) multiple enemies in a wide arc during a 12-second fit of stat-boosting Rage, there’s no mistaking him for his calm, weakling twin.
But man, is he dumb. For starters, he can’t seem to figure out how to use shields and bows effectively, so sell ‘em if you’ve got ‘em. He also lacks any magic ability whatsoever. Sure, you could equip some type of gear that grants some magic or mana bonus, but that’d be a waste — the Barbarian’s strength lies in, well, strength. But this also means he can never learn the town portal spell, so expect a lot of TP scrolls to take up valuable inventory space.
The Barbarian is regularly at or near the top of favorite D3 class votes, and I don’t think he’s getting there on the strength of his personality or witty dialogue. He smashes, and a lot of you guys like to smash. Is that all there is to it?
I love playing with Barbies.. I mean Barbs.. aww damnit!
My most favorite thing in the beta was to leap down a level to pick up a gold coin. That just felt SOOOOO ****ing awesome. Swooooooooosh…..BOOOOM. + 2gp.
I was so gonna play WD at launch but after the beta weekend I must say all other classes pale in comparison to the Barb.
Barbarian so much fun in D3 I agree, real sense of power with his skills.
Me Barbarian me smash, smash, SMASH, SMASH!
I prefer traditional melee type classes like fighters, relying on weapons and armour, and the barbarian comes closest to that archetype in Diablo 3. Hoping to see a templar/paladin/knight type class in the expansion.
The Barbarian has lost everything he holds dear. His homeland in ruins, his purpose for living destroyed and his sense of selfrespect vanished. He could run away from it all, just not giving a toss about anything, but instead he chooses to try and regain not only his own honour, but the honour of his people. He knows how to fight, how to survive and he’ll use that knowledge to show his mettle.
That, in my book, makes him a very strong character, and infinitely more exciting than some stupid girl, who just wants to show how powerful she is by throwing a few spells around.
Of course, the fact that he’s the most awesome, badass and over-the-top-without-being-silly combatant ever seen in a game, makes him my number one choice in D3 by far
I put up a quick ‘n’ dirty poll yesterday on first class to play and the top one is barbarian. Wizard and DH are kind of close for 2nd place but both way behind the barb. I was quite surprised at the gap.