Battlemaster Skill Tree
Template:Class navbox The Barbarian's skills are divided into three skill trees, each of which has about 18 known skills. Most of these were first seen at Blizzcon 2008, and while they are very much subject to change during the game's continued development, viewing them in this state is still informative and interesting.
Most Barbarian skills require Fury to cast. Fury is a mana-like bulb that fills up when the Barbarian hits enemies, then drains quickly away when he stops hitting. This means that a Barbarian is unable to use his more powerful abilities at the start of a fight, and must charge up his Fury before he can begin to unleash his more devastating attacks.
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Diablo 3 Skill Trees
Unlike the skill trees in Diablo II, the trees in Diablo III are not focused on just one aspect of a character. All known D3 skill trees have a wide variety of skills, with more passive than active, and all allow for a variety of play styles.
All active skills in the BlizzCon build were capped at 1 skill point (or rank, as skill levels are called in D3), while most passives went up to 15 points. This will not be the case in the final game; active skills will allow more than 1 point, and passives may have different maximum ranks, to allow better game balancing. Know that skills will be modified, that some will be removed, that others will be added, and that the numbers are almost certain to change.
Tier 1 Skills
These skills are available for use as soon as new Barbarian is created.
Battle Rage
- Active Skill
- Max Rank: 1
- Description: The barbarian enters a rage which increases damage done by 100% and increases Critical damage by 30%. Lasts for 15 seconds.
- Fury Cost: 50
This warcry boosts damage substantially. The amount of Fury required sounds considerable, but in the BlizzCon demo a Barbarian of around lvl 6 or 7 had about 100 Fury, and could fill the bulb in a battle with just 4 or 5 enemies. The duration at level 1 wasn't long enough to last between battles, so players had to remember to cast this one as soon as they had enough Fury, just after a battle started. Remembering to recast it during longer battles was trickier. Presumably more points will add to the duration, but that's not yet known.
Perseverance
- Passive
- Max Rank: 0/15
- Increases the duration of Battle Rage, Battle Cry, and Ignore Pain by 10%
A basic war cries mastery, increasing their duration but not boosting their effect. Likely this one increases 10% per skill point invested.
Power of the Battlemaster
- Passive Skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Increases damage of all Battlemaster skills%
- Rank 1: Increases damage of all Battlemaster skills by 10%.
- Rank 2: Increases damage of all Battlemaster skills by 20%.
- Rank 3: Increases damage of all Battlemaster skills by 30%.
- Fury Cost: None
This passive sounds like the weapon mastery skills of D2, but note the differences. This does nothing to boost Attack Rating, and furthermore, it only boosts the damage of skills in this skill tree. Not overall weapon damage, or the damage of skills in the Barbarian's other skill trees.
Iron Skin
- Passive skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Toughens the Barbarian's skill, increasing his/her armor.
- Rank 1: +10% armor.
- Rank 2: +20% armor.
- Rank 3: +30% armor.
- Fury cost: None
Like Power of the Battlemaster, this one seems to increase at a steady 10% per skill level.
Tier 2 Skills
These skills are available for use once a Barbarian reaches level 5. There is no requirement that he invest 5 skill points in this tree before using them, as some early Blizzcon reports erroneously stated.
Hammer of the Ancients
- Active Skill
- Max Rank: 1
- Description: A massive attack that deals bonus weapon damage plus additional physical damage. It also increases the damage from critical hits.
- Rank 1: Deals 100% weapon damage, an additional 2 physical damage, and increases critical hit damage by 20%
- Fury cost: None
This massive damage attack is dealt with an overhead slam; the Barbarian brings his weapon down straight overhead, like a man driving a railroad spike with a sledgehammer. The Barbarian's weapon vanishes when he uses this skill, the graphic replaced by a giant golden mace.
| Hammer of the Ancients. |
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Rank: 4/5 |
The skill's hover text from June 2008 said:
Battle Cry
- Active Skill
- Max Rank: 1
- Description: A battle cry that increases the armor of the Barbarian and all other party members.
- Rank 1: +80% armor. 60 second duration.
- Fury Cost: None
| Battle Cry |
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Rank: 5/10 |
The skill hover was shown in the WWI gameplay movie, and that text is reproduced in the table below.
Scavenge
- Passive Skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Increases the chance that a monster will drop a health globe.
- Rank 1: +7% increased chance
- Fury Cost: None
This would not only help the Barbarian; it would make him more popular in parties, since the healing from health globes is shared to all nearby characters.
Critical Attacks
- Passive skill
- Description: Increases the damage bonus of critical hits.
- Max Rank: 15
- Rank 1: +20% critical hit damage.
- Fury Cost: None.
This looks like a very powerful skill, since critical hit damage is going to be a huge part of Diablo 3. Also note that it enhances all types of critical hits from all of the Barbarian's attacks, not just those in this skill tree. Furthermore critical hits impart various bonuses on top of their damage; critical hits from lightning stun monsters, critical from cold freezes them, etc.
This skill should also make the game more visually fun and vibrant, since monsters that die to critical hits explode in various entertaining ways.
Shield Specialization
- Passive Skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Increases the Barbarian's chance to block with a shield and the amount of damage he can block.
- Rank 1: +8% chance to block, +6 damage blocked.
- Fury cost: None
The figures on this one were hard to read and are very suspect. They were small, single-digit numbers, at least. The function is correct though, and makes for some interesting questions about how blocking will work in D3. It sounds like blocking has a % chance to succeed, but that unlike in D2, successfully blocking won't entirely eliminate the damage. Different shields will probably have different damage absorption values, and the various shield skills will apparently boost the amount of damage absorbed per successful block.
This makes logical sense. Pebbles will bounce off of a shield without effect, but if something huge hits, it's still going to hurt; just less than it would if you hadn't blocked it at all.
Tier 3 Skills
These skills are available for use for any Barbarian who is level 10+, and has placed at least 10 points in other skills in the Berserker skill tree.
Furious Charge
- Active Skill
- Max Rank: 1
- Description: Charge directly at an enemy, dealing weapon damage to the target and to enemies in the area.
- Rank 1: Deal 120% of weapon damage to the target and 80% to enemies in the area.
- Fury cost: None
| Furious Charge |
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Rank: 1/1 |
The hover text for this skill from June 2008:
Ignore Pain
- Active Skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Reduce all damage taken for X seconds.
- Rank 1: Reduce all damage taken by 79% (?) for 10 seconds.
- Fury Cost: 50
The image of this one is very hard to read, so the % damage reduction is dubious. Seventy-nine percent seems too high, though. At any rate, the figure is subject to tweaking in later development. It's not known if more points would increase the damage reduction, duration, or both.
However much it reduces damage by, it would clearly be a valuable skill for most Barbarians, especially for Hardcore players. If the duration remains this short even with more points, it's an indication that the D3 team wants Barbarian combat to be a very busy, intense activity. Most of his skills, including the war cries, require Fury to cast, Fury can only be built up during combat, and most of the skills have a fairly short duration. It looks like barbarians are going to be very busy clickers, constantly cycling through their skills and adding buffs, and rebuffing, right in the middle of intense combat. In fact, that's the only time they can add buffs, since they don't last very long, and they require rage to cast.
Deliberate Defense
- Passive Skill
- Max Rank: 0/15
- Description: Critical hits increase the Barbarian's armor.
- Rank 1: On a critical hit, +10% armor for 15 seconds.
- Fury cost: None
Another indication that Blizzard wants the Barbarian to realize his (or her) full strength only during combat. This one increases your defense when you land successful critical hits. So it's a sort of passive buff, but one that only triggers during combat. It's unknown what more points in this will increase; defensive bonus, duration, or both.
Improved Battle Rage
- Passive Skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Gives melee attacks a % chance to make Battle Rage cost no Fury for X seconds.
- Rank 1: 7% chance to active no-Fury cost Battle Rage for 8 seconds.
- Fury cost: None
Another interesting "bonuses in combat" type skill for the Barbarian. Battle Rage is a WarCry that substantially boosts the Barbarian's damage and critical hits for a short time. This skill sounds like it would automatically trigger Battle Rage during combat, for no cost. The duration looks to be 1/2 the usual duration (level 1 Battle Rage lasts 15 seconds). More points in this would presumably increase the % chance to trigger, and perhaps the duration as well, unless that's always 1/2 the duration of normal Battle Rage. More points in Battle Rage would presumably increase the damage and critical hit %, and perhaps the duration as well?
Death Proof
- Passive Skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: The barbarian resists even death. Upon receiving fatal damage the Barbarian is kept alive and gains 30% of maximum health.
This effect cannot occur more than once every 300 seconds.
- Fury Cost: None
A creative approach to a skill on this one. It does nothing for the Barbarian while he's alive, but if he dies it will instantly resurrect him, returning 30% of his maximum hit points to give him a fighting chance. If he dies in a huge mob, that 30% won't help much. But if he dies to a bit of lag, or one bad break from a really fierce boss, this could be a very helpful skill.
The real power of it would go to Hardcore players, for whom death is forever, rather than just a moment or two of inconvenience while running back to battle from the nearest check point. If death remains without penalty and is so easy to bounce back from, it's unlikely that softcore players would have much use for this skill, other than as a convenience.
Whether or not Death Proof is overpowered, underpowered, or somewhere in between has become a hot issue, touching off numerous contentious forum threads. One fine example, with players making points on both sides of the argument, can be seen here.
Tier 4 Skills
These skills are available for use once a Barbarian reaches level 15+, and has spent at least 15 points in the Berserker skill tree.
Inspiring Presence
- Passive Skill
- Max Rank: Rank 15
- Description: Increases the effect of Terrifying Shout and _______.
- Fury cost: None
We couldn't read the name of the skills listed in this one. Terrifying Shout was a decent match for one name, but it's in another skill tree, so it's probably wrong. The other skill name doesn't look like any Barbarian skill. At any rate, this skill is planned to increase the effect of two other skills, which is a fairly standard application of masteries in D3. It was not yet activated in the Blizzcon build.
Natural Resistance
- Passive skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Increases all resistances.
- Rank 1: +10 to all resistances.
- Fury cost: None
The passive from D2 returns, but with a much reduced initial bonus. How much this one would be worth long term depends on how much the returns diminish by, as well as how easy it is to achieve a high resistance just from equipment. (And how useful/necessary resistances are in D3.)
Mighty Hammer
- Passive skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Increases the damage of Hammer of the Ancients.
- Fury cost: None
This one is clearly a work in progress, without any listed bonuses to damage or critical hit. If you're a Hammerdin fan, you probably got your hopes up for a second when you saw this name, eh?
Tier 5 Skills
There was a space for these in the Blizzcon build, but no skill icons were found on that line. There will surely be some in the final game, or else existing skills will be redistributed so some occupy higher level tiers on the skill tree.