yeah fortitude and pheonix are pretty damn good now

i was wrong there, you probably lose up to 800 live. still the damage and resistances make more then up for it. i find phoenix pretty useless by the way, because it's shite for blocking and what else do you need a shield for?

Kortez: Dont even think about using fortitude against anything else than stationary targets like smiters/zealots.
You NEED enigma to catch casters/bowazons period. For casterkilling, nothing has changed. Botd+beast and enigma still is #1.
And yes, phoenix sucks major ass on barbs. For blocking use ss, for dmg use beast.

wuaffiliate: I cant help but laugh when reading your hilarious posts. First, you state that botd+wiz is superior for "dueling" casters. Then you admit that you use absorb, and thats what makes botd+wiz so good. Then again, you claim that you only use him for killing nk/tg:ers.

Fact is:
1) Decent sorcs WILL tank botd+wiz barbs (especially shaeled wiz, i.e. no ow) unless they nullify all dmg by absorb.

2) Decent sorcs WILL tank botd+wiz barbs when they use 1 absorb + stacked resist. If you "dont have a problem taking the majority from any sorc" with botd+wiz and only 1 absorb then you're either lying or only dueling the standard 400 life pubbie tal rasha sorc.

Ofc you dont die when you absorb, any 3-year old knows that. My point was that you wont kill them either before they kiss akara unless they are utter retards trying to tank an absorb-barb.

Your barb is not "very much fit" at all to deal with anything but elementalchars by absorbing. I'd like to see you kill any decent nec/druid/paladin/amazon/barb or assasin using botd+wiz. It simply wont happen, you're living in fantasyland.

Quite pathetic of you to mention my bm-charger "guide". I simply posted a brief gear/skill-layout by request, nothing else. Since you fail to realize it; this "crappy" outline is a POOR-MANS #1 choice to get rid of nk/tg-newbs.

Ever since I made my barb, I dont have to absorb BMers, I just kill them. Sometimes I use max res or stacked res, but never absorb. Learn to play barb instead.

If I'm such a waste of time, why do you bother answering?

Kortez: hehe, I'm Europe btw. =)

You dont need fortitude to beat meleechars, therefore I see no reason whatsoever to use it.
70-80% of all duelers are casters, be it elemental (sorcs etc) or not (necs/druids/hammerdins).

Lets make it clear, the difference between 40% inc speed (which I have on my barb) and 45% (maxed) is barely noticable. 20 pts in increased speed is such a waste it's hilarious. There are other MUCH better skills to max for a barb.
You wont EVER outrun a good amazon without some serious sacrifice in gear (i.e. frw-charms or whatever). Even then, you'll have a hard time due to desynch, you simply cant tell where she is. Why bother when you can simply teleport? Without teleport you'll also eat like 15 arrows before you even catch up on her.

You dont have to drink as a barb, you have 600+ mana. In fact, if the rules doesn't allow drinking, all casters (except sorcs) will run out of mana before you, just play a tad defensive. Ofc, when they drink, so do I.

I seriously have a hard time believing that you could catch any decent caster unless your barb is completely dedicated to frw (i.e. massive frw on charms/gear) and thus desynching. The good sorcs/necs stay off your screen 99% of the duel. Heck, I even had a hard time catching them with my charger...

I wonder how you beat the following classes without teleport (assuming competent players ofc, not the usual pubbiethrash):
defensive necs (all good casters play defensively against barbs btw)
defensive sorcs
defensive hammerdins
constantly teleporting druids (i.e. you'll always end up in their tornados when trying to ww)
massive frw trapassas that just sidestep your wws
foh:ers with 25+k def and either massive fcr or massive desynching charge

There is a reason that the best barbs on USwest (revolution, blobs etc) went FROM a 160 ed armor setup TO enigma. That reason is casterkilling.

If you build a barb around fortitude, there is no chance you'll be good against all classes. Also keep in mind that you lose the 45% frw from enigma
Building around enigma on the other hand, well, lets just say that I haven't lost to any meleechars (except other wwbarbs ofc) yet with my non-block, 3k def, 12k ar enigma bp-barb.

i practice with those guys from german dual leagues, and i outrun all of the amazones. the frw % that come wit the run skill count more than normal frw. which other skills would you stat by the way? i don't need any more skill points. of course i need to get the 45% that enigma gave me with charms, but alltogether i will not lose more than 1000 life, which is ok compared to the great damage boost and resists i get.

defensive nec: they have to stop when they want to shoot, that's where i get them. basically it has to come to a shoot-out, because when we both run i don't hit him and he doesn't hit me.
same for sorcs, though i hate defensive sorcs, because they are just boring to duel against. i like action
defensive hammerdins i beat with open wounds, as i said above. they are my fav opponents actually, because i like pissing them off specially easy duel if they don't drink, but most do, because they suck.
druids end in a shootout aswell, same reason as necros and sorcs. but with fortitude they will be dead even faster (by 1/4th).
assas are hard, but then again they don't do much damage so i've got a good bit of time to hit them.
foh-ers, i put my 4topaz shield on and laugh at them when they run to town.

3k def and 12k ar and you win?
lets just say that you haven't fought any good melee char yet

by the way, one of the main reasons 160/60 armos got exchanged is more likely because %ED and max/min dmg jewels are bugged and don't work properly in armory.

This post was edited by Kortez on Dec 17 2004 10:14am