Praxium matchup guides: vs Barbarians

What is this guide for?

This guide serves as an attempt to break down the PvP matchup against Barbarians at a thorough, general level, while keeping the majority of tactics on the bottom shelf. It is intentionally guild agnostic, makes no assumptions around MT or other optional includes, and does not attempt to be the end-all-be-all when it comes to strategy against the guild in question.

Where are Barbarians strong?

• Great skillset. They come into power early and are a premier benefactor of Wyvern Trial rank flexing.
  • All defenses are secondary or higher, with offensive skills in a primary skillset.
  • Barbarian ability scaling and inner fire function make tertiary magic much less painful for Barbarians than for mage guilds.
• Sustained, reliable damage (until endgame/near-cap ranks)
  • Capable of buffing all weapon skills natively, as well as weapon perks like dual load, buffing weapon stats, roundtime reductions, etc.
  • Capable of damage at multiple ranges. They particularly excel at melee with Earthquake berserk (pulsing knock-down) and cooldown reductions on Advanced Combat Maneuvers
• Powerful wards, particularly against magic-based debilitation
  • SvS reactors cover most debil in the game, particularly magical debil
  • Stacking potency and integrity wards punish ignorance of Barbarian ward functions
• Robust survivability
  • Auto-stand with pulsing anti-stun/anti-web on Flashflood berserk, balance heal on Monkey form
  • Can natively buff all three defenses.
  • Capable of vitality restoration with Famine berserk and avoiding death blows with Volcano berserk.
• Limited Opportunity for huge punch-back
  • Drought berserk is capable of huge damage if the opponent plays into it.

What are their likely builds?

• Stats
  • Most Barbarians will spec into defensive SvS to a large degree to empower their wards further. On offense, they have two primary contests: power (strength) and fear (charisma)
  • Power Variant
    • Primary abilities: Kuniyo's Strike (stun roar), Earthquake berserk (cyclical knock-down)
    • Slash the Shadows is -stealth and possibly pulls from hiding
    • Screech of Madness is -discipline and -reflex, good combo roar that helps with other contests
    • Able to debuff both evasion and shield with Everild's Rage and Death's Shriek, respectively
    • No specific ward in the game for this contest outside Essence of Yew
  • Fear Variant
    • Primary ability: Wail of Torment (immobilize)
    • Serpent's Hiss can be used to possibly break up enemy groups
    • They have anti-magic roars that can damage attunement and lose prepped spells, but these have long cooldowns and you probably will not see them used.
  • Strong Defensive Stat Allocation
    • As Barbarian damage streams largely rely on melee maneuvers or high-roundtime HURLs, they rely on resisting debilitation in order to achieve damage.
    • Expect a strong emphasis on defensive statting regardless of build, particularly reflex and stamina.
    • Magic-using guilds need to spend some TDP investment into defending against Huldah's Pall and Rend/Warb Break. Barbarians abilities are not subject to either, so they are free to spend more on other contests.

What are they trying to do?

• Ward Up
  • They will attempt to mitigate debilitation opportunities with stat distribution and ability selection.
• Instant Debil
  • Barbarian roars are instant-cast debilitation with a couple seconds of roundtime. They will try to open with one or possibly two roars to land a quick debilitation.
• "Bombo" (Barbarian Combo)
  • Their general alpha gameplan consist of roaring, using War Stomp to instantly close to melee, and then chaining together multiple Advanced Combat Maneuvers.
  • War Stomp includes a 10-second "melee lock" that prevents basic RETREAT
  • They get reduced cooldown on ACMs like MANEUVER PALMSTRIKE as a guild perk, and Titan mastery has a chance to reset War Stomp's 2.5 minute cooldown entirely.
  • Expect multiple "Bombo" (close to melee, ACM chain) attempts in a typical spar

• Axis Meditation
  • Axis meditation is a quick-fire offense of highly accurate weapon hits at melee or pole range.

• Ranged Engagement
  • They are still capable of doing damage at range with MANEUVER POWERSHOT, stick bows, or spamming HURL with a thrown weapon.

How do you win?

Barbarians are a unique match-up for new fighters, particularly magic users. Their wards frustrate popular debilitation, roars are instant stun/immobilize, and War Stomp has a ten-second melee lock that disables retreat.

The combination of instant debilitation into a no-retreat meat grinder can lead to quick losses if you're unprepared. Don't be frustrated, and don't panic. Once you learn to handle this opener, the match-up swings in your favor.

• .Countering the Melee Burst (Axis or "Bombo")
  • Roar(s) -> War Stomp (10 second melee lock) or MANEUVER RUSH -> Advanced Combat Maneuver(s) or quick-fire Axis hits, the basic concept is similar
  • If available, have your anti-engagement tools such as Halo or Khri Vanish ready.
  • Earthquake Berserk is pulsing knock-down, so be sure to stand if you're tagged.
  • Barbarians have no defending buff, so trying tactical maneuvers like SHOVE or TRIP as soon as they close to melee can be effective.
  • Parry is the best defense against melee maneuvers. Buffing parry, stancing parry, and keeping high balance while maintaining MAF and a native reactor is effective at mitigating melee weapon damage. Consider scrolling a spell like Sure Footing.
  • Axis can be interrupted by disengaging, knock-down, hiding, or debilitation. If you're a stealth guild, a snap-cast of a spell like Earth Meld or Refractive Field will interrupt Axis' attack chain. Stun hiders can also interrupt Axis.

• Ideal Scroll Selection: Awaken, plus a fear barrier (Nonchalance, Courage, Redeemer's Pride).
  • Barbs can damage from missile range, but their premier damage stream combo is locking
  • Redeemer's Pride is a popular choice as this also doubles as a barrier for willpower defense.
• Roars are susceptible to SvS ward stacking.
  • The instant barrage of debilitation is powerful, but the voice pool mechanic gives successive roars a LONG cooldown.
  • If you are able to resist or mitigate the opening debil, further debil attempts will be limited (outside Earthquake berserk).
• Know the Wards, Pick Your Contest (particularly if you're a magic-using guild)
  • Swan form/Serenity meditation is a powerful integrity barrier combo that will stop any capped spell, then goes on cooldown for 15 seconds.
    • This combination can be cheesed, as it contests ALL magic, not just debilitation or TM.
    • An Air Bubble wand (available in Fang Cove) can be used to ablate Swan while your "real" debilitation is being prepared. The same is true for any wand.
    • Lacking a wand, snap-cast your cheapest debilitation spell, and then you have 15 seconds to follow up with a real debil before the integrity ward re-forms.
    • Preload spells such as Dragon's Breath or Calculated Rage are great at ablating the ward cheaply.
  • Focus on gaps in the stats/wards: nonmagical debilitation, AOE magical debil, spirit offense, or things that contest willpower defense.
    • They usually stat into stamina and reflex and can natively buff all physical stats. However, they cannot buff discipline/intelligence/wisdom.
      • As such, anything that contests willpower is a strong candidate. Standout hard debil include things like Soul Sickness (Badger form does not defend against spirit attacks) or Demriss' Resolve
    • Don't under-estimate soft debil.
      • Weapon-based offense cannot scale as much as targeted magic, so Barbs are particularly vulnerable to conditions that lower their offensive factor, such as Malediction or Vertigo. This will neuter their offense.
• Sleep Them, or Immobilize Them.
  • No native answers for unconscious or sleep.
  • They have ZERO answers for immobilize available to them by any means, even gyres or wands.
  • Landing Ice Patch will be difficult, but if you have access to a immobilize and can land it, it is particularly effective (Khri Terrify, Aether Wolves, Halt, Soul Sickness scroll or wand).
• Keep Your Reactors Up
  • They primarily employ physical damage. Every guild has a native physical reactor, so stacking it with armor and Manifest Force can lead to significant damage reduction for most guilds.
  • Ensure Manifest Force remains up. It ablates after six hits, but is incredibly powerful at mitigating their burst. Disengage and recast when necessary.
• Stay at Range, Damage Race Them
  • They will close to melee multiple times, but unless there is a large discrepancy in their offense ranks vs. your defensive ranks, most guilds who rely on targeted magic can out-damage them at range due to elemental damage's various advantages.
• Do Not Feed Drought Berserk
  • Drought berserk stores huge portions of incoming damage over the last 30 seconds and adds it to the Barbarian's next attack.
    • It's a short timer, but the damage scaling is capable of large damage
    • The Barbarian's opponent controls this dynamic, though, and Drought provides no +accuracy component.
      • Debilitate them, or if you estimate you've hit them for huge chunks of vitality, hide/run away for a few seconds to avoid retaliation (it's a very short window).
      • Alternatively, stay at range and hold your shield. The efficacy of this strategy will depend on your evasion/shield ranks, but Drought provides no accuracy. If they cannot land a successful hit, Drought does nothing.