(by THAC0)
"Evasive Frenzied Barbarian"
***(Thanks to Daemonis for his guidance in building this template.)

WF-Barb 18 / 2 Rogue
28pt build = 16,15,16,8,10,6
32pt build = 16,16,16,6,12,8

A few thoughts: It does seem that evasion is so powerful at endgame that its hard being a melee without it. Sampling some of the end-game content and raids implicate serious AOE effect damage, that without evasion or much fancy loot (that takes a long time to grind out for), spell a quick and painful death for melees with even >500hp. E.g., fail your reflex save on two delayed blast fireballs ... and that >500hp vanishes.

I hear what you are saying regarding pure-raged barb. Can put up some big numbers. There are many pro's and cons to staying pure vs. a 2 level splash in somthing else to bolster your Barbs effectiveness.

Arguably, even with the new MOD and FB prestige for barbs, greater Two Wpn Fighting+max Barb and WF power attack enhancements+dual weilding khopeshes is STILL the way to go for MAX DPS for a barb.

So it comes down to whether you want an evasion Barb or not.

I have an evasion Barb, and frankly, in the final analysis, judged that for me, it was worth the trade off of not having the capstone and minor boost to DPS. Evasion affords you a bit more survivablity and dove tails nicely with improved uncanny dodge - - - offering forgiveness when the AOE damage is flowing in your direction. Most end bosses now spam AOE damage spells! You can even gain a modest boost to attack speed via rogue enhancment and gain sneak attack damage to boot when you don't initially have agro.

There have been many good barb posts, pure class, 2rogue/18barb TWF vs. THF, etc. I don't claim to be a Barb expert by any means.

I personally went the 2Rogue/16 (soon to be 18)Barb, greater TWF + heavy pick route. Starting stats were: S18 D16 C16, rest dump stats. I consumed a +1Dex tome at creation to enable the full two weapon fighting feat chain. I opted for Picks over Khopeshes owing to a collection of special stat damagers I had and nice bursting of maiming picks that I had accumulated. Khopeshes have been found to be numerically superior, just a bit, over heavy picks in pure DPS. So I tailored my build around being a stat damaging (W/P) or vorpalling king on trash mobs and near top end DPS vs. red names when DPS matters.

Anyhow, at Level up: 1Rogue at start to boost skills around, 2-9Barb, 10 Rogue, rest Barb.

Feats (taken at level): 1) Powerattack, 3) TWF, 6) ITWF, 9)IC:Pierce, 12)GTWF, 15) Toughness or Stunning blow. Will take cleave at lvl18 to enable FB prestige class if I opt to swap it in vs. crit rage II.

With the Wizard spell "Disjunction" about to be added to the game, your WILL save will become important as end-game enemy mobs will be spamming this to dispel the magic properties of your gear. Imagine using the equivalent of masterwork gear on level 16 and higher raids. Not cool! LOL!!

I suppose if I were starting from scratch again, I would strongly consider going with S16 D16 C16 W12 to further boost my WILL save. Same pathway in terms of 2Rogue splash, rest Barb (want at least 18Barb to unlock top tier of prestige classes).

Regarding pure class Wizard - WF is definately the way to go. My own wizard is based off of my own "Stelemagus" build - affording great flexibility, master of metamagics for group/solo/pvp play, with stealth skills to support mana conservation and solo play, and UMD to do some clericing in group play. Folks are surprised the I can hit mid 30's UMD and wand/scroll use when deemed helpful.

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No particular build post for the 2rogue/18barb. I suppose for ideas you could check out the many have been posted on the forums. Assuming your starting stats are set, you can "experiment" with different enhancement schemes to tailor your own build!

And you can buy tomes cheap on the AH or with a bit of luck get one or several in quests. +1 tomes drop as loot often in Gianthold and higher quests. +2 tomes in the Vale or Rever's Refuge quests.

On my Barb, I put points into max Intimidate, max UMD (yep, in between rages or in a pinch, I can raise my dead cleric), just 1 point into tumble at creation, then either the rest into jump or balance.

Despite prepping for TWF early in my Barbs career, I still used a greataxe (bloodstone from desert encounter space + Carnifex from Delerahs end reward = +2 greataxe with crit range of 17-20) up until I hit level 12 or so - at which point I became a TWFer. At low levels, THF > TWF.

Frankly, you will be CRAFTING greensteel weapons at the end game that are greater than any basic DPS weapon you will find in the game, so as you are building those, you can still equip a Greataxe, rage up, and still be about 85-90% effective as a deadicated THF greataxe specialist.

And once you swap over to TWF, you will see that 10 attacks per round with decent weapons > 5 attacks with a fine great axe (and this is STILL the case if you have learned how to strafe attack with your greataxe).

I suppose, now that you can no longer train Crit Rage I and II enhancements, and Frenzied Beserker is the way to go for prestige class for Barbs, consider the following level up feat selections:

Levels:
1)Powerattack
3) Two-weapon fighting (TWF)
6) Cleave (to open up Frenzied Beserker prestige class)
9) Improved TWF
12) Greater TWF or IC:Pierce
15) Greater TWF or IC: Pierce
18) Stunning blow or Toughness.