Barbarian's History

"I came to see firsthand the barbarians, those near-legendary, immense, relentless, dual-wielding furies of combat dwelling upon their sacred Mount Arreat." Instead, I stand here looking at a mountain that has been torn asunder by some extraordinary force. The sight, I must confess, is incomprehensible. Yet what I see before me cannot be denied..."

Returning from Diablo II, the dual-wielding Barbarian is one of the stoic guardians of Mount Arreat. Retooled with powerful new abilities and moves, this "I came to see firsthand the barbarians, those near-legendary, immense, relentless, dual-wielding furies of combat dwelling upon their sacred Mount Arreat." plate-wearing savage wields ferocious weapons to annihilate the demonic forces threatening the world of Sanctuary.

In my journey to catalogue the various denizens, civilizations, and fauna of our world, I have traveled far and wide, but never before have I been struck with such dismay as when standing upon the ramparts of the ancient fortress of Bastion's Keep. I came to see firsthand the barbarians, those near-legendary, immense, relentless, dual-wielding furies of combat dwelling upon their sacred Mount Arreat.

Instead, I stand here looking at a mountain that has been torn asunder by some extraordinary force. The sight, I must confess, is incomprehensible. Yet what I see before me cannot be denied.

What truly happened here? Where are those majestic warriors of old?

Though they were once misunderstood as simple, bloodthirsty invaders, the long and noble history of these proud people is now rightly acknowledged. And therein lies the greater tragedy here, for those of us familiar with the nobility of the barbarians remember too what they call their "vigil", the concept that lay at the very heart of their culture. The barbarians consider it their sworn duty to protect Mount Arreat and the mysterious object within. They believe that if they fail to uphold their duty to the great mount, or are not given a proper burial upon its slopes, they will be denied a true warrior's death, and their spirits shall roam the land without honor for all eternity.

If there are any barbarians left alive, they must truly be without hope. Perhaps this is the genesis of the rumors of monstrous things reported to resemble the barbarians in size and ferocity, but that are in reality nothing more than unreasoning, inhuman beasts. Could the destruction of not only their home but also their very beliefs have actually brought this magnificent race so low?

The Barbarian's Fury System

The Barbarian's Fury system is a new play style in Diablo III similar to the Warrior's "rage" system in World of Warcraft. As it currently works when the Barbarian attacks, it builds Fury into a total of three containers. More attacks build up more Fury. In turn, the Barbarian can use this Fury to unleash more powerful attacks. Once fully drained, the Barbarian must begin attacking again to gain Fury. Several questions were asked recently on the Battle.Net forums about the Fury system and how it is progressing.

How much fury does each skill cost? As an example.

Bashiok: They require fury in amounts of full fury globes. So the most one can cost is 3.

Does each ability cost a full globe?

Bashiok: Yes, currently abilities that do cost fury cost one or more full fury "globes". Don't get the term 'fury globe' too stuck in your brain though, there's going to be an official name for them and it may not be globe.

The Building of Fury!

Do abilities cost a portion of each globe?

Bashiok: There aren't and probably won't be abilities that cost a portion of a fury ... ball. I'm going to call them fury balls. Wait ... no ... that's a terrible idea

Are the globes valued numerically, similar to rage, and the abilities cost a "number" of Fury?

Bashiok: Right now they actually are, but that's because it's sort of mid-transition from an old fury system. They'll simply be shown and referred to in ability cost as full globes. At least that's the current thought. As I said it's still a system and game in development, and any of this can change entirely. This is just a peek into the current workings.

Does fury deteriorate over time?

Bashiok: Yes.

Is fury cost affected by skill growth (adding more points to a skill).

Bashiok: I don't know of any abilities that do right now but it's always a possibility for balance later.

When you use a fury skill, does the damage dealt serve to recharge your fury (meaning that you could theoretically have a net zero fury cost when attacking crowds)?

Bashiok: It does, but of course it's subject to change.

How many dots of fury (dots, yes) does the ground stomp cost? If three, I can see people holding it for when they need it, and not using any other skills to conserve fury.

Bashiok: It doesn't cost any fury, but it does have a cooldown.

On that note, is 3 the absolute maximum? Or can you go a little over 3, like 3.9 or something, so you'll get a full bubble soon after? If 3 is the hard max, then you'd have to use a 3 dot skill immediately before it decays to 2.999 or something.

Bashiok: Fury decay doesn't happen that quickly. There's a grace period in there before it starts ticking down.

So it looks like each fury ball has 5 ticks to charge up. So cleave, which seems to be the most basic attack will take 5 normal hits to charge up before it can be used assuming it takes one fury ball. And if Whirlwind required 3 fury balls, then there would potentially be 15 normal attacks in between each use? Ouch! Spamming normal attacks and using a special attack about 10% of the time doesn't seem very epic to me. It would also suck for PvP, because it will be hard enough to land a special attack in most situations let alone 15 normal attacks just to get to use a special attack.

Bashiok: Fury is also built from incoming attacks. If you're in a moderate sized scuffle you can unleash abilities pretty regularly. The animation that was shown in BlizzCast was made in a test environment, using a single weapon and attacking stationary (and non-attacking) zombies. So it built up fairly slowly, but nice and consistent for the video, which was the point. In a normal game, and as the barbarian especially, you're quite often surrounded and the balance of normal attacks/fury gen/special ability use feels quite nice.