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UA 8 Barbarian Discussion
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<blockquote data-quote="Kinematics" data-source="post: 9212442" data-attributes="member: 6932123"><p>Caveat: Personal opinion only.</p><p></p><p>Having done a ton of these spreadsheet models for various classes, I don't feel like the barbarian is lacking in damage. Even the low-damage subclasses are comparable to good fighter subclasses (with averaged out novas, rather than particular spikes), and the Berserker is well above that.</p><p></p><p>What always felt lacking was gaining levels and not getting anything new or interesting. Brutal Critical steps up theoretical average damage, but it isn't something you <em>do</em>. It's just a bonus on the rare chance that you crit. Relentless Rage and Persistent Rage were nice bonuses in theory, but may have never actually come up in play. (Still cool when they did, but not a strong motivator in and of themselves.) Indomitable Might was of marginal value because very little made use of a Strength check.</p><p></p><p>So the issue with going up levels in barbarian was that it was <em>boring</em>. At best you might look forward to a subclass feature like Retaliation or flight. But there was precious little motivation from the class itself to keep progressing levels.</p><p></p><p>Brutal Strike doesn't improve on damage over Brutal Critical to any significant amount, but it lets you <em>do</em> things. They don't have to be tactically specialized, but they give you "Grog smash!" moments that let you do something cool. And that is worth vastly more than a bit more damage for motivating someone to want to gain more levels in this type of class.</p><p></p><p>Summary: I don't think it was so much the lack of damage that people complained about (Brutal Critical's low average damage boost is more due to the rarity of crits than the damage itself), but the lack of anything meaningful to look forward to. Brutal Strike and its improvements provide that meaningful something, along with Primal Knowledge making Indomitable Might actually mean something as well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kinematics, post: 9212442, member: 6932123"] Caveat: Personal opinion only. Having done a ton of these spreadsheet models for various classes, I don't feel like the barbarian is lacking in damage. Even the low-damage subclasses are comparable to good fighter subclasses (with averaged out novas, rather than particular spikes), and the Berserker is well above that. What always felt lacking was gaining levels and not getting anything new or interesting. Brutal Critical steps up theoretical average damage, but it isn't something you [i]do[/i]. It's just a bonus on the rare chance that you crit. Relentless Rage and Persistent Rage were nice bonuses in theory, but may have never actually come up in play. (Still cool when they did, but not a strong motivator in and of themselves.) Indomitable Might was of marginal value because very little made use of a Strength check. So the issue with going up levels in barbarian was that it was [i]boring[/i]. At best you might look forward to a subclass feature like Retaliation or flight. But there was precious little motivation from the class itself to keep progressing levels. Brutal Strike doesn't improve on damage over Brutal Critical to any significant amount, but it lets you [i]do[/i] things. They don't have to be tactically specialized, but they give you "Grog smash!" moments that let you do something cool. And that is worth vastly more than a bit more damage for motivating someone to want to gain more levels in this type of class. Summary: I don't think it was so much the lack of damage that people complained about (Brutal Critical's low average damage boost is more due to the rarity of crits than the damage itself), but the lack of anything meaningful to look forward to. Brutal Strike and its improvements provide that meaningful something, along with Primal Knowledge making Indomitable Might actually mean something as well. [/QUOTE]
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