Shattered Kingdoms

Barbarian is the one who is ready to go at a moments notice with anything on hand. A merc will more often need to be prepared to win. Barbarians have more utility, mercenaries have more options in combat. Barbarians have higher hp pools, mercs don't. I think its about as balanced as its ever been.

Plus, barbs can use any weapons, including fists.

Mercs usually need the spec'd weapon to win.

Why would a merc need to be prepared to win whereas a barb doesn't...? As cute as that narrative is, it doesn't make sense - affects equally affect both of them.

These differences are meaningless in PK, although perhaps they are meaningful in rp.

What Achernar means is that a barbarian can just get a rez and an enchanted weapon(even claws) and be ready to be fearful in PK(as much as he can be with 0 enchantments). A mercenary on the other hand needs more stuff(including armor and hopefully a subtype he is specced in).

Anyway, this discussion should not happen anyway. The only problem barbarians had(spam bash) was fixed some months ago when they can fury even while prone.

People always compare these classes as if their only purpose is to 1v1 duel one another with full prep. And even then a barb isn't far behind at all, depending on the weapons being used, races, etc.

It's basically a class that is more self-sufficient and ready to roll versus a class that needs a fair deal more prep and support to survive.

Not always. But IMO a barbarian at his best will lose to a mercenary at his best, excluding racial weaknesses or cabal spells.

And it should be like that, because a merc is more limited in what he can do than a barbarian.

Ghrom, barbs kick serious tail. SERIOUS tail. But everyone does have limitations. It's up to you to realize what a barbs limitations are and how to maximize their strength.

The only tweak I'd really see as even understandable would be some sort of tweak to headbutt. Other than that, there is no issues I can think of with Barbs.

I notice that when people complain about barbarians, they usually don't have any idea what to use. I mean, the only weapon that people really identify as very good for a barbarian is bandelore. Other than that, most people just don't know what works well for them.

Of course, I'm just as clueless as Ghrom. I don't know how barbarians can do well, I just know that they can. I mean, just friggin' look at the one log of Braxis tanking in Exile. That's up there with the really good merc tanking logs too. Ghrom, do some weapons research, get a good material, get it well enchanted, then see how you do.

Uh when my merc was fully decked and dueling decked barbs using weapons that can't be parried the barbs almost always never got below 50%. That gets made up for by the fact that mercs have more uses in group pk than barbs.