The Barbarian. Take your Warrior from the original Diablo, put him on supplements, steroids, and put him in the jugles fighting lions and tigers and bears and then oh-my do you have one big, mean, brooding, badass. He is the man of brute force and strength who can take a licking and very well keep on ticking. His power surrounds his bodily strength and dexterity as well as his 30+ skills that offer him extended abilities in the field. Tools that enable him to pick up any weapon, and trash with it like there is no tomorrow.
So who is the Barbarian? He's lean, big, and complete agression. He's an unintelligent guy yes, a classic Football Defenseive Lineman whose been knocked in the head a few times... if anyone has seen the Batman and Robin movie with the character Bane, you get an idea of how this guy is (and if you have read the comic books Knightfall chapters, you will know where the author of this get's his name ;) His fierce blows though make up for his lack of intelligence. He is the guy you want backing you up most definetly if you are playing the role of a mage (Sorceress) or cleric (Necromancer) and will be the man in charge of keeping enemies at bay as you heal. He can take blow after blow and maintain his killing spree unscathed from it all. Why? Because he's no ordinary man. He's a killing machine.
Mmmm... killing machine. So how does he play? Imagine the Warrior from the original Diablo, put him on 6 years worth of steroids and muscle toning and heavy protien shakes and supplements, shave his head, make him watch Braveheart in Scotland, and then give him a new set of combat-ready skills and you have The Barbarian. He's the man's man. The character who needs fancy magic or truly special skills to aid in his slaughter-fests, just the cool tempered blade of an axe, and a maybe let out a War Cry to pump himself up.
He's simple, easy to understand, and easy to use. His skills and how you choose their growth is about the only thing that will take any real attention away from the brute strength and getting right down in the field of battle.
So how does he handle in terms of playing as him? Heh, you need to ask? He can pick up any weapon, object, or piece of armor and find a protective or lethal use for it. His strength is unparalelled as is his Dexterity and Stamina, the Barbarian has the most attack power, the most wind, the fastest running speed, he is physical perfection making him the easiest to use character for those of you whom like to smell the breth of Panther-women as you hack them to bits. He crushes the skulls of his foes and then eats their hearts (literally, see his skill trees, honest) and then scare away their bretheren. Quite the resourceful bugger he is, though unfortunatly for us he's one of those types that you just get bored with at times when you want something different in each battle situation. Going in, hacking apart enemies is fun yeah, but doing the same things through the game would become tiring and meaningless as the attacks generally are the same, the skills that we do know of don't offer advances like we would have hoped and the weapons are also limited, it would be cool being able to toss around the bodies of other enemies depending on strength levels and such. The Barbarians strength is only used in his attack power and ability to wear armors. As with all characters his speed drops when he suits up bigger and bigger armor and his endurance when running is cut, but he still maintains the fastest and highest running abilities and attack power, so he makes for a character that many will enjoy. Those wishing to use more thoughtful and devious manners of hunting/killing will want to look elsewhere I'm afraid though.
So what are his special abilities? His skills range from War Cries (to assist in chasing or luring enemies from his poisition), Various Fighting Abilites like being able to throw two weapons at once or leap and attack your foes from some distance away. His most important skill tree though is his passive set of skills in his "Masteries" tree. He can specialize in the further uses of any weapon in the game he can carry including polearms, axes, swords, bows and arrows, even missile weapons like throwing knives. These skills allow him to attack violently and with the abilitie to equip two weapons at once, the Barbarian can hit with double the damage and attack speed following one blow with the next, though using a two-handed axe as it is meant to be used is obviously more effective. The Barbarians skills are all centered around power attacks and drawing the enemy near or scaring the enemy away to focus on just one or two, rather than the whole pack of them.
