The Barbarian is the strongest class in straightforward melee combat. His weapon mastery skills supplement this nicely. His Warcries add strength, as well as aiding his allies, making him an effective member of the party as well. Additionally his Combat Skills aid his natural proclivity to melee combat, particularly his ability to wield two weapons and his abilities in leaping.

The Barbarians characteristics can be confusing. Certainly adding to his damage by developing his prodigious strength is always a temptation. Energy would seem to be less of a concern. However, he needs enough of it to use the skills he requires, and it is the least developed of his characteristics. Dexterity is necessary for his attack rating, as well as supplementing his defense rating. He has a strong vitality, but developing it further extends his ability to remain in combat and strengthens his stamina.

When looking for items, the Barbarian enjoys a greater flexibility than the other character classes. Starting with a higher strength makes armament less of an immediate problem. As for weaponry, the only weapon he requires, is the one he has developed skill in. Here the only choice is; either to do more damage with a two handed weapon, retain a shield for magical resistance, or use two weapons.

Two-Handed Weapons and Dying
When using two Two-Handed Swords, or a Two-Handed Sword and Shield you must take extra care when looting your corpse after dying. When you loot your body a Two-Handed Sword will be automatically placed in both hands rather than in just one hand as you had before, and your second Two-Handed Sword or Shield will be placed into your inventory. If you do not have room in your Inventory, the item will remain on your corpse. When this happens you will have probably looted everything on your corpse except for the Shield or second Two-Handed sword which was unable to fit into your inventory. Warning: If you die while your corpse is still on the ground you may drop important items that you have just recovered from your corpse. This happens because any items you are wearing while a corpse already exists will be dropped to the ground. It is therefor extremely important to make room in your inventory for those weapons before attempting to retrieve your body. Keep this in mind when using Two-Handed Swords or learn the hard way.




Defensive Warcries will be shared with any friendly party members that are inside the Warcry radius when a Warcry is activated. Offensive Warcries will hit monsters within the radius of the Warcry when cast. Generally Warcries increase in radius with additional skill points.

You can stack different defensive Warcries but you can not have more than one offensive Warcry on the monster. If you cast Taunt and Howl, the last one to cast will be the one that's active on the monster.

There are three Warcries that you can give bonuses to yourself and other members of your Party. Shout increases Defense. Battle Orders, a party favorite, increases the max health, mana, and stamina of the Barbarian and his party members. Battle Commands increases the Barbarian and party members skill levels by 1. All three of these Warcries can also be stacked, meaning you can have all of them active on yourself and party members at the same time. The animation will rotate among these three Warcries to let you know all three are active.

Once Battle Commands is available, cast it first, before casting Battle Orders, and Shout. Battle Commands will raise Shout and Battle Orders by one skill point before you cast them, and will increase their effectiveness and lengthen their duration. By casting Battle Commands first, instead of after these Warcries, you will get a free skill point in your casting of Shout and Battle Orders. Battle Orders is a great skill for the Barbarian and for his party members. Battle Orders is loved by all classes for the increase in Life, by mana hungry classes such as the Necromancer and Sorceress for the increase in total mana, and by all the classes for the increase Stamina for running longer distances.




The Whirlwind focused Barbarian is a very popular choice. The Whirlwinder uses Whirlwind as his main skill and sometimes uses Leap Attack. Times can be hard until level 30 for the Whirlwinder. Find a good weapon and use Bash, Stun, and Leap Attack until you're 30. After you are 30 and have your first point into Whirlwind it will be smooth sailing. Watch out for Horror Mages that cast Iron Maiden. If you're Cursed with Iron Maiden, stop fighting until it wears off or have it healed. You can touch a shrine to remove the curse. You may want to avoid the Chaos Sanctuary for fear of Iron Maiden at higher levels and difficulty levels. Leap Attack is considered a ranged attack so you can use it without fear even when cursed with Iron Maiden. Also beware of Mana Burn Unique Monsters.

Skills
Suggested skills are Whirlwind (20), Weapon Mastery of your Choice (20), Howl (1), Shout (1 or more), Battle Orders (5+), Battle Command (5+), Find Potion (1), Find Item (1), Increased Stamina (1 or more), Increased Speed (1-4 or more), Iron Skin (10-20), Natural Resistance (3-7), Bash (1), Leap (1), Leap Attack (1), Stun (1), Concentrate (1). If you have extra points, spend them in Iron Skin, or one of the "or more" skills.

Barbarians have a Critical Hit that is based on the Mastery Skill Level, so it's important to maximize your mastery.

Strategies
Build up 170 Strength to wear Ornate Plates. Build up Dexterity to number necessary to use the best weapon you decide to focus in. Place every other point into Vitality. It's not wise to place points into Energy because you will only receive one Mana per Energy point. Find items that give +Mana instead.

Assign Leap Attack on the left Action Button and Whirlwind on the Right Action Button. Try to lead monsters into a tight pack, click beyond them using Whirlwind. Your goal is to avoid stopping right in the middle of the packs of monsters which can cause instant death. Use Leap Attack on dangerous Uniques, and Shamans or other threats that need to be taken care of right away. Use Leap Attack to move around, and to jump over Rivers, and to get where you want to go quickly.

Equipment
Collect enough % Life Steal to keep healed while you fight and enough % Mana Steal so that you're not running out of Mana while you're fighting. Beyond that, try to maximize your Resistances (especially Lightning, Fire, Cold), and try to increase your Defense as much as possible.

Look for at least one item that adds Cold Damage. This will chill monsters and some of them will shatter leaving no corpse to raise by raising monsters.

Weapons
The weapons you choose to focus in are up to you however the Lance is the best choice for Whirlwinders. Lances have the potential to do the most damage and have a range of 5. Some people choose to use two Swords (Executioner's Swords), a Maul (Martel de Fer), Polearms (Bec-De-Corbin), or Spears (Pikes). Keep in mind that Polearms, and Spears offer the best range, so when Whirlwinding, you'll be able to hit target's from further away. Try to find Mana/Life Steal on those weapons, +Skills is also nice but Damage is probably the most important stat. You may also find -Monster Defense Per Hit to also be useful on a weapon since it strips away their Defense making them easier to hit. This is higly effective on bosses and other high hit point monsters.