Nubtro: Hello, I am Nubtro. I live in Slovakia, a small EU country in the heart of Europe. To those of you who may not know me, I´m responsible for figuring out many D3 game mechanics not limited to Barb, which helped players who care about these things to optimize their characters or simply get a better understanding of how skills, damage calculation and items work in D3.

One of my most prominent projects was “WW& Sprint RLTW mechanics” and with the introduction of RoS I gathered most of my game mechanics knowledge here.

This reminds me that I will have to update it soon now that 2.1 is out but I´m still busy playing and enjoying the game at the moment. I am a D3 player first and researcher/theorycrafter second. Thanks in advance for your patience.

I main a Barbarian and here is my EU profile. Current total D3 time played is 3750 hours, which doesn´t include the couple hundred during RoS beta. And yes I am working on getting a life these days :)

Nubtro: Hobbies beside gaming, movies, TV shows and One Piece…I´ve played tennis competitively on a national level in my youth and was pretty good at it, on par with even individuals who later got to ATP top 100 in singles or doubles. But I simply lacked the tenacity to become a professional sportsman and my natural shyness didn´t help much, either. Anyway, tennis is a hobby now, so are other ball sports and athletics, the queen of sports. The best way for me to relax is playing with my adorable cat(s), thinking about various topics and occasionally, dancing lol.

Talents. I don´t know. I can be smart but also lazy, so it evens out. I´ve learned German as a kid just from watching anime and animated series and as a result never had to “try” in school. Similar with English and games/forums. My strengths are analyzing and understanding things and to an extent problem solving, I lack in the memorizing department and at times have motivational issues (procrastination ._.). I am an introvert and prefer my thoughts over the outside world but to the surprise of many who may not know me yet, I am able to really enjoy certain social gatherings like parties, without a drop of alcohol.

Nubtro: I played D2 and D2: LoD, offline solo, on and off for years. Created spreadsheets for personal use and all my usual stuff. Gaming for me is not just playing, it includes gathering data, figuring out how things work, theorycrafting and optimizing, all of which are important factors for me that keep me hooked. I am just a curious person.

Nubtro: I am self-employed with an own office (not ready to publicize what I do at this point, sorry) and have a enough work these days and not much time for other games, but I tend to stick to one game at a time anyway. I´ve played Pokémon for 10 years or so, during that time I co-worked on figuring out the damage formula and breeding mechanics and kept track of Battle Frontier/Tower/Subway records (for those who know what I am talking about). I even held a world record once but a rival beat mine later :D

Nubtro: Fire Crusader from time to time, our strength bro. An IRL friend of mine rerolled one after his Wizard was completed. I did level one as well so we could share items while playing together. It was fairly easy to gear him up early on with my Barb gear. Permahorse is pretty neat for bounty hunting. Crus is solid, but I simply enjoy Barb more.

I did play all classes in vanilla (I think all but Monk were p100), but I haven´t found the motivation to really focus on another class in RoS yet. You could say I am still busy improving my Barbs. It takes a while as I play mostly solo.

That was until RoS 2.0.6. Now that 2.1 is released, I´m in full Barb mode again. Many new things to try and optimize. I am personally very happy that 2H weapons were fixed, at last.

Nubtro: I am currently not affiliated with any. I was in an elite clan (ZE) with people like Invis and Det0x when 2.0 launched but I took a break from the game in February (was burned out from beta) and then decided that I would want to play RoS at my own pace, without seeing all those elite players around me. I apologize, but I am simply weird like that. I´ve been given a chance to re-join but I am just leaving that decision open for now.

Nubtro: Tough one between Corrupted Angels, Succubi and Enslaved Nightmares. The former takes multiple times longer to kill thanks to their annoying single elemental shield. Succubi curse just breaks your sustain balance. Enslaved Nightmares cast various curses, summon Mallet Lords and for some reason also hit hard from a distance. Hmm, but the most dangerous damage in the game probably comes from Barbed Lurkers. You often do not notice you actually get hit (are they shooting snakes or what?) but then you constantly lose a lot of health, plus they like to backflip often, which makes them more difficult to kill for melee. They also destroy pets (Ancients) within seconds, similar to Exarchs and Anarchs (hoping for pet survivability boosts in GR30+ that were discussed in the Tavern Talk stream). Wait, I can´t believe I forgot to mention Armaddons. A pack of them being able to perma-stun you with their stomps is a very scary experience. But if I had to choose only one, it would be Succubi.

Nubtro: Probably during the paragon leveling era around half a year before RoS, when Death (who was one the best 2H Barbs in vanilla) came over to the EU server. We played together for the first time or so and for some reason I was constantly dying like a little girl to all sorts of stuff. Great first impression. Then of course letting my hardcore Barb called McLane shamefully die at level 57 to a Succubi + Phasebeast double pack because I didn´t pay enough attention and they appeared out of nowhere. I haven´t played hardcore since then. Yes, I´m a weakling :)

Nubtro: I seem to have real issues with answering these questions in a simple way. The moments when I figured out various game mechanics, especially if they didn´t make sense for a long time until it “clicked”. First paragon 100. Achieving my personal best in the 1 hour demonic essence challenge with Skorn WW/Rend while running Vault of the Assassin. Recently, when me and a friend killed T6 Ubers with our T5 Crusaders for the first time after I recommended adjusting our approach, builds and gear. T6 Malthael solo for the first time with my non-endgame barb then was cool as well, etc.

Nubtro: Hmm…I am not a story/lore guy, but I´ll try. Shen is hilarious, Lyndon is amusing, but I would probably choose Haedrig who seems like a chill dude, despite his tragic family history. Having a blacksmith as a friend can never hurt in case your blade stops being sharp. Or Diablo. Who wouldn´t want a hot blooded chick able to create a ring of fire as a wing? Please ignore the last one.

Nubtro: It was my favorite class in D2 and I was determined to play it in D3. During the open beta weekend I tried all classes and also became very fond of the Demon Hunter. She´s simply very cool (and still my 2nd favorite). DH might have been a wiser choice at the beginning where Inferno for Barb meant Sword and Board, 10K damage and Revenge spam to stay alive, until double tornado saved our souls (no, I did not invent the spec). I am now glad I chose the Barb, which was overall the best and most enjoyable class in vanilla in my opinion.

The flow of the Barbarian 5 skill synergy (ITF + ToC + WW + RLTW + OPKS) in vanilla embodied the “action” portion of action RPG for me as it rewarded an active type of gameplay. I would like to use this opportunity to say thank you to the dev(s) responsible for creating that synergy. You are very talented.

Nubtro: I´ve probably tried all possible setups over the years. I like to mix it up to keep the experience fresh. But if I had to choose one, it would be melee, cutting them up or smashing their skulls. Basically performing a physical action that seems to have a direct impact on monsters, not necessarily related to creating magic out of thin air (which does have its own charm of course).

Nubtro: Most people expect me to say Whirlwind given my history with WW/RLTW breakpoints, and it wouldn´t be wrong. I honestly like most of our skills. But just from an animation/fantasy/coolness/feeling of power perspective, I think Seismic Slam (Rumble) is my favorite skill (even though it´s not melee). I wish it would still knock back (or up) monsters though, if only to get a response from the performed action on the monster side beside just damage (like, I caused a shockwave and you should feel it). Also to proc Strongarm bracers.

Nubtro: 1st Barb: Fire LeapQuake with Wrenching Smash, no spender, with Insanity Ancients as burst, stat stick off hand, with 45% cooldown reduction.
2nd Barb: Lightning WW/Rend with perm-Ancients and Odyn Son / Shard of Hate, zero cooldown reduction.
3rd Bar: Various Physical builds depending on my mood, ranging from Raekor Charge through Rumble spam to BK Oath WW.

I also have a Cold LeapQuake Barb and a Fire spender one but they are more like gear holders. I hoard too much because I see potential in many items, so most of my character inventories are full at the moment. Having to store research equipment (white weapons and different aps setups) doesn´t help much either heh.

Note that the above answer was written during 2.1 PTR (2.0.6 live) but now that 2.1 is live, I mainly enjoy physical WW/Rend Barb (“triple tornado”) and even managed to clear Greater Rift rank 35 with it, which is pretty solid. Those who were missing the WW vanilla gameplay in RoS should try this out, it feels amazing. Here is the thread where players discuss different gear and build setups:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/14059366635

Nubtro: I´ll answer from another angle. I would increase monster density and adjust the spawn pacing. There is no excuse for large empty hallways with the occasional 3 trash monster pack in rifts, which still happens despite 2.1 improvements. It is not just about being engaged in battle vs time spent running around (the former is obviously more appealing), but Barb abilities also scale well with monster numbers.

As for the Barb class itself, listing just one thing wouldn´t be “me” (I seem to fail at this interview). Increase Fury generation, reduce base cooldowns by 20%, add elemental runes to Sprint and Ancient Spear, create more synergies with secondary item stats and between skills themselves etc.

Easiest potential solution at the moment is most likely re-implementing as set effects some of the mechanics that were removed before RoS (talking about ToC and ITF).

Here is some food for thought: Why does the game feel amazing for everyone with an Empowered Shrine active? And why should that feeling not be achievable by normal means in endgame with the best gear?

Nubtro: In an ideal Sanctuary, full speed run-up with a majestic/roaring jump and the heavy impact followed by a merciless charge through, without downtime limitations (not the biggest fan of cooldowns in this sort of game, wait =/= action, but I sort of found my peace with it).

If I had to choose one, it would be Leap. Once upon a time and then later again, in a certain thread, I´ve mentioned how amazing it would be to cover distances on the battlefield by Leaping consecutively, an unparalleled coolness factor attached to it. The idea was to implement a Wormhole-like mechanic to Leap, allowing you to jump again within 2 seconds, before the cooldown begins ;)

Nubtro: “Bul-Kathos guide(s) my hand!”
That one is potentially hilarious if you think about it in a certain way or situation…

Nubtro: This one is very difficult. I feel obliged to mention some veteran players and hope that the ones I do not mention won´t feel offended:
Det0x#2856, who is an elite Barb player with godly gear, record holder in vanilla uber kills and one of the few people I actually chat with in-game. He is very loyal to the Barb class.
Death (Phantom#11548), arguably the best 2H vanilla Barb and a very knowledgeable and experienced player with other classes beside just Barb.
Zylog#1818 is a very knowledgeable player and former right hand man of Chazhang who was one of the best min-maxers in the game in vanilla.
RagingKoala#1984, our class forum´s charmer, is another great choice.
Zapro#2758 is an elite player and his one-liners are almost legendary at this point – that would be a risky interview, but it could turn out to be very entertaining.

Nubtro: What in the Barbarian repertoire of skills or gear would need to change or be improved for you to see yourself playing and enjoying D3 and the Barb class in a year from now?

Posted by: Nubtro09/25/2014 09:51 AM

Btw. I answered the questions originally early August (during PTR), but Grim didn´t get my answers back then so I had to resend them a couple of weeks ago.