tao#1163: I live in southern California with my lovely wife and two lazy cats.
I love craft beer. Especially over the top hoppy IPAs. Southern California is amazing place to live if you enjoy craft beer.

tao#1163: My biggest hobby is reading Fantasy and Science Fiction. I’m a super cool guy. A few of my favorite authors are R.A. Salvatore, Dan Simmons and Neil Gaiman. Relating to Barbarians: Robert Jordan wrote six books about Conan the Barbarian. They are epic. Check them out.

tao#1163: I played D1 and D2 while growing up. I would attempt to finish the main story and then put it down. I wouldn’t really consider myself a real fan until Diablo 3 came out. I was hooked up until Act III Inferno. Memories of Rend, Revenge and Blood. Then my dedication to play the Auction House fizzled. I was delighted to find the Auction house removed when RoS launched and I’m glad I decided to come back.

tao#1163: Short answer: I’ve been playing Guildwars2 since launch.
Long answer: Games have been a big part of my life.

I grew in a small town on the Oregon coast, it rained a lot. At the age of eight I moved to Alaska, it snowed a lot. Both of these places meant spending time indoors.

My younger brother and I played pen and paper role playing games. We played D&D, AD&D, AD&D 2nd Ed. and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness (Our favorite characters were our mutant Koala bear ninja brothers). The games we played most were Middle Earth Role Playing and Rolemaster both by Iron Crown Enterprises. Because there was only two of us, we had to take turns as the Game Master. We could never adventure together.

Fast forward to March 99. EverQuest. We could finally go on adventures together! Fast forward to March 05. Enough EverQuest. World of Warcraft (WoW) had been out a few months then and we made the shift. Seven years of WoW with all of the various expansions was amazing. We chased best in slot gear over and over again. I don’t remember much of the gear, but I do remember the sense of adventure, discovery and our epic battles.

I got married. I went to college to get a degree in Animation. My brother moved out of state. I logged in to WoW less and less. When I did, I played solo because I couldn’t keep up with raid schedules.

My game playing became something I did that my wife didn’t. Then it occurred to me to share my joy of gaming with her. I would tell her the epic tales, the funny events and share my joy of gaming with her. She began to understand how much games meant to me.

Guildwars2 came out and some friends at work convinced me to try it. Guildwars2 combat is really amazing. Since the first arrow I dodged I was hooked. I showed my wife the beautiful character creator. She loved crafting her character and dying her clothes. Soon I was following her around in game and keeping her alive. I had unlocked her inner nerd.

Now my wife and I each play all eight classes and are creating our own stories of high adventure together…we still stop every twenty minutes while she dyes her clothes.

tao#1163: No, I’m all Barbarian. I usually play Krom for solo and T6 groups. I keep Serberus set up for Greater Rift support. Tempus is my Raekor’s model and everyone else is pretty much storage at this point.

tao#1163: I joined Casual Players Unite to have some people to play with. I’m laid back when I play and as much as I talk about speed clearing, I’m actually in no hurry. I think most people thought the word Casual meant you never played because the clan is like a ghost town these days.

I’m looking forward to being able to sort the roster by last log in date to make some room for new friends.

tao#1163: Vile Temptress. I love killing them with Earthquake Cave-In. The used to be my bane, now I Leap over their ranged attacks. I like to hear them scream.

tao#1163: I was fighting in T2, wielding my recently found Maximus. Eirena and I had finished the battle but the demon pet was still attacking something. I couldn’t see what he was attacking so close to me.

“What is it boy? What are you attacking?” I asked the demon.
Then I realized that there was no chain and that wasn’t my demon. It was just a random demon attacking me.

tao#1163: Goblin pack + conduit shrine = Loot carpet

tao#1163: When I started D3 I was lucky to play the Barbarian first. I had recently played a Goblin Warrior in WoW named Bhux Gold and really enjoyed being in the center of combat. I had historically played as a caster or thief in most games, but it turns out at heart I’m a melee fighter.

I want to see the fear in my foes eyes before my mace sends them back to Hell. The Barbarian is a savage fighter that goes berserk with furious rage. This couldn’t be further from my personality and I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy it so much.

I’ve dabbled with the other classes and actually enjoy the Monk class…but I don’t have the stash space to play a dexterity class. I’ve considered using a second account to play Monk, but I don’t want to start over on Paragon points now.

tao#1163: I work as an artist for a video game studio. This has given me a unique perspective on Diablo 3. I’m constantly in awe of the art and degree of care put into the game. I’m so impressed by how far the game has come since release. The amount of new content in 2.1 blew my mind. I wanted to send the team cupcakes.

When I sit down to play, I want to play. I’m not interested in testing on PTR because it feels too close to work. I’ve been on the developer end of game forums and it can be pretty disheartening to read some of the stuff people write about your game when you are working so hard. All games are constrained by time and money and there is never enough hours in the day to do everything you want to as a developer.

I’m happy that Diablo is still getting updates and improving in small ways all the time. I’m looking forward to the next five years of updates.

tao#1163: I like to be right in the thick of it. I want to crush the entire screen at once. Savage Slam has to be one of my favorite ways to play. I wrote a guide for it here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/15141445095

tao#1163: Leap – Death From Above.
Ever since I used Leap the first time it’s been on my skill bar. It feels primal, powerful and brutal. I love the idea of landing in a pack of unsuspecting enemies and killing them before they even realize what is happening.

tao#1163: Dirty Rabbit. You can check it out here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/15539134739
Dirty Rabbit is a very fluid, very fast and very fun Might of the Earth build that is great if you want to move really fast leaving a trail of dirty death behind you.
The build got its name because I’ve always used the Hellscape Mask transmog on my helm. I thought that the helm had two huge horns but once I found my first pair of Lut Socks, I realized the horns were actually rabbit ears.

tao#1163: I would give all Barbarians unlimited Fury at level 67 without any deterioration. This would keep season gameplay intact and fits very well with the Barbarian fantasy. “Fury can never be maintained when you seek it, you understand now that it comes from within.”

This is an action role playing game. I want to feel heroic. Having endless Fury feels heroic. Calming down isn’t very Barbarian. I understand that this mechanic was designed to keep the Barbarian pushing forward into battle, but after 67 levels you should get the idea to push forward.

The reason I want this change is that Barbarians are not able to effectively use our primaries to do damage and get enough fury. If we want to run any secondary spenders we are stuck using either Earthen Might or Call of the Ancients – Ancient’s Fury.

tao#1163: I’ve been very lucky to learn from some great barbarians here on the forums. I was a forum lurker for a long time before I realized I knew some of the answers to questions people were asking. I still do my own experiments but having some idea of how the game works was really helpful.

One thing I do that I think really helps me find an effective build is that I don’t play with any user interface damage numbers. I find them distracting from and I feel like the numbers can lead me down false roads. For example, Fire Earthquake builds will yield really high crit numbers, but the power of Pain Enhancer is glorious to behold with a Physical Earthquake set up. Basically to find a good build I go by ‘feel’. That is why it’s so great to have T6 as a baseline for testing and then use Greater Rifts to really push the build to its limits.

I feel like the knowledge I’ve gained from the forums has helped me get to better builds faster and I’m doing my best to give some of that knowledge back to the community.

tao#1163: My favorite quote is “Back to hell, dog!” I actually like to yell it at my screen. My favorite Barbarian lore quote is written on the Eyes of the Earth helm.

“Mountains crumble. Cliffs fall. Canyons rip asunder. The forces that shape the land are a mystery to most. But not to you. Not anymore.” That sums up how powerful I feel wearing the Might of the Earth set. I love it.

tao#1163: Fifteen years of chasing the loot carrot has taught me a valuable lesson. Play with what the game gives you. Focus on the great item you last picked up, instead of dwelling on that next drop you want. When we are grateful for what we already have, we have more fun. When we seek after the next drop, we only find frustration. This is a game. Enjoy it!

tao#1163: A tough question. There are lots of Barbarians I’d like to hear from but I think you should interview PRI#1584 next. He has a great sense of humor and wrote the first Earthquake guide that taught me so much.

tao#1163: What is your history as a gamer? What are some of your favorite games?