Barbarian Class - Finishing Touches

[mishy23]

Hi Everyone,
Okay I am once again looking for ideas for skills,
this time I am putting the finishing touches on barbarians,
and while I am happy with everything I have so far, I am lacking three skills.
I need ideas for the following:
1) A new passive to replace, or enhance the current 'increased stamina', I find this a useless skill after 1 point. My thoughts currently are creating a passive that grants a bonus to gold find, and maybe magic find at higher levels, unfortunately i'm not sure if this will be that useful either.

2) A new warcry or spell to replace howl, as this is now a druid skill. Not really sure what to make the new level 1 skill for the war cry tree.

3) A new warcry or spell to replace shout, as barbarians already have a defensive passive, I do not want to have a second skill that replaces defense, but unsure of what to put in its place, the war cry tree is a combination of nova like attack spells (or small area effects around barbarian) and war crys, so either type is acceptable.


Just a small update, barbarian combat spells are almost completely redone, the only 3 skills that have not undergone complete changes are stun and whirlwind and double throw.

Thanks,
-Mishy23

[godheadslament]

1. Give the barb a passive much like the Asn's double claw block passive. Whenever he uses two weapons give him a chance to block. I do see a problem with this however, and that is making the skill so it works with any dual-wielded item, and the original passive is quite specific.

2. Give the barb a summon! Summon ancients or something. That would rock.

3. Give him a warcry that is stonger against certain monster types maybe? Make it only effective against beast type monsters.

[mishy23]

Weapon block is a good idea, and is actually alot more flexible then one might think. I am already using this built into a combat skill...
...the new frenzy replacement, is a two handed attack, but instead of making you faster, makes you more defensive, increasing defense and adding in a chance to block with your weapons.

I thought about summons, but for balance I don't want Barbarians having summons, thats what oskills are for. Plus I just hate creating new summons, they are a pain in the arse.

Warcry isn't in the game anymore, I can ponder some new twist to this old skill (warcry replaced with a fire nova like thingamajig).


Of course all this stuff is subject to bugs, i put them in last night, but havent tested them yet, i'm hoping the mod will still boot up

Don't mean to shoot all your ideas down

I really want one ultimate skill for this tree...
Hmm, maybe i'll try something like a warcry that infuses allies with the power of the ancients, maybe have some cool transformation overlay or something. Too bad there are not any cool dragon graphics in game, might have to look at infinitum web site now that we can get back in there.

See i'm not dead any longer, actually working on the mod again

Okay now everyone cross their fingers, i'm hoping I can convert the dual claw charge-up skills to work for the barb.

-Mishy23

[godheadslament]

Maybe give warcry physical damage and call it earthquake or something? Make it toss random boulders around that can hit enemies much like volcano.

[mishy23]

Well one thing, warcry is physical damage in vanillar D2
And second there is a melee attack that creates an earthwuake already, good idea, just already sorta implemented.

-mishy23


BTW, i gave in and started using yahoo messenger, if anyone is interested my account is myrddhin23, just like my email

[Silverfire]

Hmm.. a low level battle cry in place of howl.
how bout something that temporarily adds + to damage and accuracy.
[boosts significantly after certain points, 8/16/24 etc.]

[godheadslament]

Damnit Otto. Why'd you have to get yahoo messanger? Get AIM!

[mishy23]

Hmm, I think I will try adding a warcry that adds damage, might be powerful, but I will make it high level.
As for battle cry I am keeping this skill in the game, slightly modified.

And as for AIM, bah i will never have anything to do with AOL sorry dude.

Okay I am also going to try and go with a weapon block passive,
now I just need 1 more skill for the warcry tree.
Something completely new I think, innovative...

Just to fill you in with some new skills added and working right now,
the left side combat tree has been changed from leap attacks to thrown weapon attacks, I have a skill that works with all missile weapons that fires a combination of ice bolt and bone spear, trying to add weapon damage into it but having issues with this right now.

The right side of the combat tree is dual weapon attacks, including a revised double swing, and new frenzy skill that adds fire damage and defense while charged up, and working on adding a modified claws of thunder type attack.

Middle of combat tree from top to bottom is stun, frozen edge (aoe freeze melee attack, looks neat), a new earthquake melee attack that opens cracks from where you strike and does phy/fire dmg, and a new version of berserk that does random damage.

Almost done combat tree than will work on the war cries.

-Mishy23

[mishy23]

Well here I am 15 days later...trying to get back on track, I pretty much had to scrap all my Barb changes and start over becuase somehow I introduced a bunch of bugs I couldnt track down.

But i'm almost recovered, but I am here because I need a quick idea.

1) How should I change berserk? I changed it to do random damage but its not working...and I cant use magic damage as that wont exist in this mod. Berserk can add any penalty or bonus for any amount of time after first hit, and do any type of elemental damage and bonus damage, any ideas?

-mishy23

[godheadslament]

Maybe have it lower your defense by a certain amount, but have it do increasing damage with each successful hit (up to 3 times). What I mean by this is it's sort of like how a charge would act, without the charge.

[mishy23]

Not a huge amount of interest right now in the mod,
but atleast alot is being done, been quiet with most of it.

But since i'm back to one of the places that nearly caused me to quit modding the first time around, i'm in need of some advice again,
the evil Barbarian class, which if I don't get right will ruin the entire mod


All I need is one more skill to complete all the trees, a level 1 skill for the warcry tree to replace find potion. I guess I want it to be a war shout like spell sorta thingamagig. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking maybe a cold or lightning type barbarian spell??? If that sounds feasible, as barbarian already has lots of fire stuff.


Okay Just for the heck of it i'll post what the current trees look like for barbarian (all skills working!!! just need a little cleanup)

Combat skills:
Stun - yea yea we all know what this does
Frozen Edge - usable with all edged weapons, causes a nice cloud of frost
Vital Strike - does a large chunk of extra phy dmg, dex boosts dmg higher!
Inner Flame - Berserk that converts everything to fire dmg, adds pdr
Whirl - whirl, whirl, twist and hurl
Shockwave - Yeah stolen from the werebears
Twinstrike - yeah its double swing with a cooler name
Dthrow - yeah I kept double throw too
Sworddance - interesting remix of frenzy, boosts defense/spd + fire abs?:)
Stormblade - ltng sword attack, charges up like asn claw attack.

Passive skills:
Sword mastery
Axe Mastery
Hammer Mastery (hammers only, no maces or staves)
Polearm Mastery (includes spears)
Throw Mastery
Dagger Mastery
Weapon Block
Runecraft <- yeah if you want to craft, you want to be a barb, trust me
Stoneskin
Natural Resistances

WarCry Skills:
Battle Cry
Battle Rage - bonus of +dmg and +def to all allies
Battle Command
Battle Orders
GrimWard
Pillage - find item
Taunt
Ancient's Wrath - a shout that summons armageddon, literally
Detonate - shout that causes an explosion ring aorund barb
???? - what do barbs need to be complete?


-mishy23

[Kiwivagrant]

Barbarians aren't known for their hygeine, especially when it comes to teeth. They would rather knaw on bones for hours on end with bits of meat sticking between their ivories.

So what about a minor poison cry that expels their putrid breath on the enemy, causing them to retch violently and become seriously ill? Could call it something like 'Putrid Breath' although that sounds more necromancic. Maybe 'Stale Breath' or something similar.

EDIT - this could also be a knockback skill, anyone been struck by a rancid smell, driving them backwards. Minor poison damage with knockback - good for when one gets swamped as well.



K.

[mishy23]

Not a bad idea, I was thinking about a poison skill as tey don't have any...
Hmm i'll ponder this some more, not sure if i lik knockback as its so powerful. But I definately will figure out something neat.
thanks!
-Mishy23


EDIT: I dont know what it is about Barbarians that cause me to take a break from modding, but the new melee skills are frustratingly complex.
Well I mostly have them done just need to actually finish this up, hopefully this will occur soon, sorry for the delay.
Luckily a few new mods are vailable to play until I finish up and blow the competition away
-Mishy