Barbarian tank build

[TheBruce]

So i'm looking to make a barbarian that isn't a glass cannon, can take a hit similar to a fighter, and still deals decent damage. Is this possible at all?

[tnc]

It is possible but it'll have weaker dps depending on how tanky you want him to be. You can wear a medium armor and still be tanky enough since high tier medium armors can offer pretty good defensive stats. Also there are some nice defensive class talents for barbarian such as barbaric shouts.

 

Stats need to be balanced i think, so you should not min max for half tank/half dps. Might be like this : 10 might 10 dex 18 constitution 16 perception 10 int 16 resolve. (You can take from cons or might and put it to others)

[KingsGambit]

They'd lack the fighter's inherent endurance regen but throw a shield and heavy armour on (along with items to increase deflection and other defences) and they may perform well enough. The main issue you'll find is that their class abilities/talents are more geared toward dealing damage. They have low starting deflection vs. fighters/paladins (15 vs. 25 respectively).

 

They do have Thick Skinned, Savage Defiance, Stalwart Defiance and Threatening Presence which could be useful, as well as their Barabric Yell which fears in an AoE. The latter two Sicken and Frighten respectively which are good debuffs to reduce enemies effectiveness, which is sorta an indirect form of tanking ) Frenzy will be a bad choice for him tho.

 

You will be hamstringing him in terms of damage tho. Wearing heavy armour increases recovery speed and holding a shield means *not* holding a second/two-handed weapon. Carnage is great no matter what, what Frenzy will penalise his defences, making him a worse tank. You will likely also need to take defensive talents like "Weapon and Shield Style" or "Cautious Attack" for example, and you don't get many talents (six?) so picking a defensive one over an offensive one is obviously the cost.

 

It's all a trade off. Every defensive talent is one less offensive one. Heavier armour/shield lowers damage output.

Edited March 28, 2015 by KingsGambit

[Killyox]

Sort of a bump but "one against all" or w/e is english name is VERY VERY VERY VERY powerful. It gives +20 dmg (!) when you are fighting vs 2-3 foes. With carnage it gets crazy. It's +20 dmg, not +20% dmg. So with DW high Might/Con build it's nasty. I did 70 dmg crits with starter weapon (also had Wild Attack modal on and Frenzy)

 

On a side note, pure tank builds are not really needed at all

Edited April 6, 2015 by Killyox