The Hellfire Barbarian could only be played after editing the Command.txt file in the Hellfire folder. He was similar to the Warrior class and used the same graphics, but was much tougher.

OverviewEdit

From the shattered lands of the South this proud race of people hails. A tribal and nomadic culture, the southern Barbarians prayed to no deity and swore allegiance to no leader. This was the reason that when the kingdoms of the East invaded the Barbarian lands, little resistance was found. The scattered villages fought valiantly, each man, woman and child battling to the death against the hordes of magic users from the distant lands, but to no avail. The lands of the Barbarians, beautiful forests and the majestic jungles, were conquered by the East, and the tribes scattered to the four winds. Still proud, the tribes still gather occasionally, but they are small in number. They despised all magic, for it was this mystical force that was used against them in the wars they had fought. Their battles in the war taught them much about magic however. Because of the war against the Eastern mages, all Barbarians have a certain immunity to magic bound within them as a result of so much exposure to the powerful forces. Training in brute strength and physical force was the norm for Barbarians, with great endurance and vitality being praised. They came to be large people, with flaring tempers which makes the blood of a Barbarian truly boil when he is outraged. Chief weapon to the Barbarians was the axe, for it was this weapon that proved most useful to them in the forests and jungles where they resided. Their great strength allows them to wield other weapons in a single hand, but the axe is still the weapon of choice for most Barbarians.^[1]

In-gameEdit

DifferencesEdit

The Barbarian had the following differences from the Warrior:

• +5 max Strength
• -5 Dexterity
• +50 Vitality
• -50 Magic (that is zero mana)
• Two handed Maces and Swords could be equipped in one hand.
• When using an axe, the Barbarian can strike monsters in the three squares in front of him at the same time (i.e. in an arc).
• He hits faster with maces and axes than everyone else (including the warrior).
• The barbarian is not very effective with shields. While equipped with one, he only receives half of the defense the shield provides. In addition, his base damage decreases and he doesn't block as efficiently as the warrior does.

Additionally, he had gained more damage per strength point and more life per vitality than the warrior (when leveling up, he gets 2 hit points and every attribute point spent on vitality also gives him 2 hit points each, but when equipping an item that gives "+X to vitality", the barbarian gets 2.5 hit points per vitality point added by this item). Also, the barbarian gains some base damage per vitality point, which can cause his damage to develop into significant amounts at higher levels.

He also gained a +1% resist all each level up and gained more life per level up than the warrior. Zero magic was not a major drawback for him. There were two problems caused by his complete lack of spells. He had to carry around many scrolls of town portal whereas all other characters had this as a spell. Unlike in Diablo II, these scrolls could not be compacted into a tome, so they took up a large portion of his small inventory. A Barbarian can learn spells using +Magic from equipment, and can cast spells using +mana from equipment. Thanks to his resistance bonus from levels, a prefix slot can be saved for a +mana prefix.

Since the Barbarian has no magic, it is probably best to sell all spellbooks you find unless they are for basic defensive spells such as Town Portal or Healing. The Barbarian also takes a very long time to cast his spells as well, so it is probably best to focus on Strength and Vitality rather than try to increase Magic.

Also, ranged attackers such as succubi run away when melee characters walked close. When fighting these foes, a warrior would have cast Teleport to chase them or Stone Curse to paralyze them. Learning these spells as a barbarian is tedious, as it requires gathering lots of +magic gear. A King's Axe of Vampires can help replenish mana used from teleports and stone cursing. A barbarian can use Enchanted Shrines to boost his spell levels (to reduce the casting cost of Teleport and Stone Curse)

The Barbarian's major weakness is his low Dexterity. He will need lots of +% to-hit on equip to be able to strike his enemies.

SkillsEdit

The Barbarian's special ability is Rage. For 12 seconds it adds 2*Character level to Strength and Vitality and 1.5*Character level to Dexterity. For 12 more seconds during his rest phase, it decreases Strength, Dexterity, and Vitality by the same values. Afterwards, you lose 2*Vitality of your Life points, but a bug exists so that if you click on an item in your inventory it will return to normal.

TriviaEdit

This section contains facts and trivia relevant to this article.

The Barbarian lore bears some resemblance to that of the Umbaru—both hail from jungles in southlands, and both suffered from mages.

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ Diablo: Hellfire Manual

Classes
Diablo and Hellfire Classes  —  Barbarian • Bard • Monk • Rogue • Sorcerer • Warrior Diablo II and Lord of Destruction Classes  —  Amazon • Assassin • Barbarian • Druid Necromancer • Paladin • Sorceress Diablo III Classes  —  Barbarian • Demon Hunter • Monk • Witch Doctor • Wizard