Judicator

This is where you screwed up. RES is a tank stat and Barbarians are awful tanks, they're better off as DPS. I'm running a Barb with 21 MIG, 16 DEX, 15 INT and he's liquifying everything on Hard. Armor is similarly useless on a Barb since it only slows them down. Have a Fighter or Paladin tank, let the Barbarian kill stuff. Also Barbaric Yell sucks.

No, I just want to know what options I have.

Yeah, Shatterstar is pretty good, and it's nice that it can be enchanted further. I have Pallegina using it in my current playthrough. Anything else?

Any good war hammers out there? I was thinking of making an off tank character switching between war hammer & shield and a greatsword (eventually Tidefall).

Maybe on easy, on higher difficulties this certainly isn't the case. Well, I'm playing on Hard and my Barb is destroying everything in his path. You need to have your tanks engage the enemies first and have him kite them, of course, but after that the Barbarian can slaughter entire groups in a few blows.

Mostly because of the backer characters.

Nah, Keldorn was pretty solid. Only his Dex was lacking. 17 STR and CON are respectable if not optimal.

Eh, a Barbarian can pretty much mop up an entire encounter by himself. They do require micromanagment though.

A focus on Might and Dex + Confident Aim, Weapon Focus/Specialization/Mastery, Two handed/Two weapon style, Armored Grace, and Savage Attack would do the trick. He should have some very good, consistent damage against single targets.

Depends. Some go up pretty high.

Balanced does not mean homogeneous. You can have different weapons all of which have different areas of specialty, which are still balanced against each other. When each weapon is useful and best in different circumstances, and no one weapon dominates all the others, that's balance. When one weapon is the best weapon under 90% of situations, that's not balanced. Exactly. It's not about them all being the same - it's about there not being an obvious winner. Estoc is the obvious winner. Greatsword is terrible in comparison. Which makes Matt sad, because a Barbarian using Carnage with an Estoc just looks and feels wrong. Eh, my Barb is using an Estoc and loving it.

I'm playing with a Barbarian right now (21 Mig, 16 Dex, 15 INT, 7 Per, 9 Res, 10 Con) and he's destroying everything on Hard. Just make sure you have a tank or two to engage the enemies first.

I just can't imagine a hulking warrior with anything else than a 2H weapon. It would be more effective against opponets with high DR anyway. The estoc is looking especially sweet. BTW, should I use light or no armor?

They're not, it's just that you have to be bellow 50% Endurance to trigger it.

I'm thinking of going with a two-hander actually.

wut Helmets have attribute bonuses. Especially at early levels (i.e. when godlike really should shine) that's very useful. Yeah, but plenty of other items add attribute bonuses and they don't stack.

If I want to build a melee DPS character which of these two would be better? The Barbarian has his AoE damage while the Fighter would have more consistent single target damage because of things like confident aim and weapon specialization.

Fire Godlike seems counter-intuitive for tanks. If you let your tank get to >50% Endurance then you're doing something wrong. Still, Godlike are all pretty good seeing as helmets in PoE are ass.

I'm currently playing with a Bleak Walker off-tank. 18 10 10 12 10 18 And he's tanking well thanks to Faith and Conviction even when armed with a two-hander. With a shield he's as good as a fighter with the defender talent. And his damage with FoD and an Arbalest is great, he can take out an enemy priest or wizard in one shot.

Sure, though I can never bring myself to play a bellow-average int character in any game. I'd rather sacrifice on point of defense.

I don't know about best, but with their abilities they have nice, consistent damage as well as excellent defense.

What if you want to make a hybrid off-tank? Something like 16 Might, Perception, and Resolve? Or maybe 18/14/16? Weapon focus/specialization X, confident aim, defender mode, weary defender, and one weapon style of your choice . The stats will make him good in dialogs too.

Scratch that, peception and resolve are mandatory for tanking since they both give deflection.

Depends on the build. From an RP perspective, I want to say Resolve, but honestly, you really should only take Resolve if you are going to tank. Constitution is also largely meaningless, but it's debatable. Might is good for anything that wants to do damage (or heal, but healing in PoE? All the lols). Well, what is left? Dex is out since he's going to be using heavy armor and a 2h weapon. Perception seems not all that usefull except for the deflection. Int is nice, but probably not that good for a paladin, at least not like it would be for a caster or a barb.

Speaking of paladin builds, what stats should a paladin focus on? I'm thinking Might, con, and resolve? Using a greatsword most of the time, and switching to a war hammer and shield when the situation calls for it.