**Tank barb help**

[TheBassman]

Well I've decided to make a Tank barb rather then a sorc to help out my girlfriend when she goes mfing.

I'd still like to do decent damage but what would be a good skill for this? I'm a big fan of Whirlwind but Concentrate seems like the clear choice.

Any help on gear, stats, skills would be a huge help.

~LesC

[alexkerensky]

Tanks barbs are my favorite kind of barbs, really. I go either with the IK set with concentration or Breath of the dying runeword in a big pokie stick. As for skills, conc is one, a point or maybe two in the masteries, max some shouts--the life one, the skill one, and maybe the def one. Maybe some points in bash or zerk for synergistic damage (zerk is magic damage, may help with phys immunes, but with a sorc helping, maybe not necessary).

As for points, lots of health to take damage, lots of strength to use equipment, and dex to keep up the attack rating. As for mana, don't. at 2 per shot, any mana leech is more than enough.

[inkanddagger]

shout/bo/conc/zerk/axe mastery/1pt iron skin/nat res

[Damienx]

Tanks barbs are my favorite kind of barbs, really. I go either with the IK set with concentration or Breath of the dying runeword in a big pokie stick. As for skills, conc is one, a point or maybe two in the masteries, max some shouts--the life one, the skill one, and maybe the def one. Maybe some points in bash or zerk for synergistic damage (zerk is magic damage, may help with phys immunes, but with a sorc helping, maybe not necessary).

As for points, lots of health to take damage, lots of strength to use equipment, and dex to keep up the attack rating. As for mana, don't. at 2 per shot, any mana leech is more than enough.


Don't know if I understood you properly about the skills. 1 in conc? 1-2 in mastery? max battle command?
Terrible skill distribution. If you're going for a tank barb, max conc (or main skill of your choice), mastery, bo, shout at the very least. Only 1 point in Battle Command. Then maybe some points in natural resists depending on gear.

About the dex. Using dex for AR is a waste of points. Better to get AR from items.

[AlmostInfinity]

If you are going to mf, ww is the better skill option since it kills much faster than concentrate. As for your gear, that depends on your wealth. I would recommend the IK set since it is cheap (armor is worth um, rest goes for pgems), it provides a large amount of mf, gives a lot of resistances, and does great damage in hell. If you want the more expensive route, fetch an ebotd in a great poleaxe or ghost spear.
Either way, your skills should look like this:
20 battle orders, 20 mastery (depends on your weapon), 20 ww, Rest into Shout
1 point into Battle command, Increase Speed, Natural Resistance, Berserk (for physical immunes), and their pre-reqs. You could also put one point into Find Item since you will be mfing.
Stats:
Str - enough to equip your gear
Dex - enough for gear
Vita - everything else
Energy - base

[TheBassman]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not the one MFing, I'm going to be sitting there taking the hits and distracting the hordes of beasts away from my GFs MF sorc. She will be the one MFing. I simply need a character that can take a ton of punishment but walk out of the battle alive. I can afford most NL items other then the dupes, can't afford ladder-only RWs. I also want Stormshield to be included because of the DR% which will help my tanking ability a great deal.

I thought about it last night and here's the setup I was thinking [PvM only]:
Arreat's Face Slayer Guard - ED%/IAS%
Ethereal Breath of the Dying Berserker Axe
Stormshield Monarch - Eld Rune
Ethereal Prudence Sacred Armor
Dracul's Grasp Vampirebone Gloves
Gore Rider War Boots
Thundergod's Vigor
Dual Raven Frost Rings
Highlord's Wrath

Barb Torch
Annihilius
Vita SCs [All remaining space]
Resist SCs [Enough to hit max resists]
FHR SCs [enogh to hit the 48%BP]

~LesC

[ubermoose]

If you only want to run around taking hits, maybe use a beast?

Bear adds a ton more life.

If you dont like that idea, you could instead make use of leap and grim ward [and even battle cry] to keep enemies away from your GF :P

[TheBassman]

Well I do want to kill things lol, but I plan on 1 point in leap with +skills I can knockback monsters well enough. Maybe a 1 point grim ward could help too. And probably going to use warcry for a bit of stun.

~LesC

[Damienx]

You also might want to consider putting an Um in the stormshield to help with the resists. Your gear seems fine though.

[TheBassman]

Well since I'm using charms to make up the difference, I thought an eld would help me more, by costing me less points in Dex since my build is all ready strength intensive.

~LesC

[KJunk]

I'm currently playing a tank barb (more or less) with a sorc friend of mine... playing hardcore and untwinked though so it's been a bit rough. My big hold up has been my weapon... fighting hard to make a good blood axe but I can't get ahold of many berserker axes to craft with :/ Not sure when I can gamble or vendor them either.

You'd think just standing there and getting in the way of things wouldn't require a great weapon, but there's still the leach factor.

[Barloc]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not the one MFing, I'm going to be sitting there taking the hits and distracting the hordes of beasts away from my GFs MF sorc. She will be the one MFing. I simply need a character that can take a ton of punishment but walk out of the battle alive. I can afford most NL items other then the dupes, can't afford ladder-only RWs. I also want Stormshield to be included because of the DR% which will help my tanking ability a great deal.

I thought about it last night and here's the setup I was thinking [PvM only]:
Arreat's Face Slayer Guard - ED%/IAS%
Ethereal Breath of the Dying Berserker Axe
Stormshield Monarch - Eld Rune
Ethereal Prudence Sacred Armor
Dracul's Grasp Vampirebone Gloves
Gore Rider War Boots
Thundergod's Vigor
Dual Raven Frost Rings
Highlord's Wrath

Barb Torch
Annihilius
Vita SCs [All remaining space]
Resist SCs [Enough to hit max resists]
FHR SCs [enogh to hit the 48%BP]

~LesC

Funny, thats almost exactly what I use to tank. Botdz-SS-Prudence are great since they never need repair ($$$) T-God's is sweet against mass souls.
Pretty much a like a BvB build really, save for a few item swaps. WW is best imo, and you can still use conc and zerk effectively with only 1 point on each(with Shout and BO maxed).You might want to consider Taunt which is great for pulling monsters off of your partner.

[Halciet]

Agree on the Taunt and Berserk comments. Berserk only needs one point, and taunt would help save your partner. Since you want to tank:

BO/Shout/Conc/Mastery, leftovers in ironskin. 1 in nat resist/inc speed/battle command/berserk/taunt/battle cry (lower enemy damage). Dex for block, str for gear, rest in vit.

Just read the conc guide. It will show you how to build, and give you pointers on holding aggro/tanking:

here (http://www.unc.edu/~jpurvis/conc/)

-Hal