Tarisland Fighter Barbarian Thunder DPS build – Rotation, talents, and stats

Out of the mixed tank and DPS classes, the Fighter Barbarian is perhaps the best of the bunch for the DPS role. The damage that Fighter Barbarian can deliver is incredible, both in AOE damage and in single target damage output. Furthermore, the class has a unique talent to grant lots of damage buffs to their allies, alongside ramping up a lot of raw attack damage buffs to their abilities.

For those reasons, the Fighter Barbarian is going to become a very popular melee DPS for its high damage and raid-supportive buffs. If you like the sound of Thunder and what it can offer you or your raid, this guide will teach you how to do just that. Expect a closer look at Tarisland’s Barbarian DPS build, including skill breakdown, rotation, stat priority, and talents to take.

If you want our opinion, the Fighter Barb DPS Build enables it to be a strong class for all PvE Content. See our Tarisland Tier List for more information and grab some freebies with the latest Tarisland codes.

Fighter Barbarian Thunder Skills Explained

The Fighter Barbarian’s DPS spec is all about managing two different resource skills called Beastiness and Sanity. Sanity is generated by your second skill, “Axe Thunder”, while Beastiness is generated by “Wild Strike”, your first skill. You’ll be rotating these skills off cooldown to fill your meter. When your meter is filled, you press your third skill, which is either “Wrath of Thunder” or “Thunder Axe”, depending on talent choices. Either way, that consumes your meter for big damage, each with different styles of gameplay.

Outside of your core rotation, you have two buffs and an AOE skill. Your two buffs are “Bloodlust”, your sixth skill, and “Earthquake”, your fourth skill. For the most part, Bloodlust grants more attack damage and increased generation on your first and second skills. As for Earthquake, it’s a high-damage skill that also generates an equal amount of both sanity and beastiness resources.

As for the Inscribed Skill, it allows you to spam your first and second skill, and get more resource generation from them.

Fighter Barbarian’s Thunder Rotation

For the most part, the rotation for Fighter Barbarian DPS is rather simple. Keep in mind this is the rotation you’ll use when you follow our talent build later on in the guide. There’s some explanation in this section so you can easily follow along.

• Press Wild Strike,
• Axe Thunder x2,
• Wild Strike x2.
• Repeat till full resource cap.
• Spend on Thunder Axe.
• Earthquake,
• Basic rotation,
• And then Thunder Axe.

You must set your rotation up so that you get all your damage buffs on yourself and your target priority. Wild Strikes give you a small attack buff, while Thunder Axe gives you a 9% damage buff to the target when you hit it, provided you have the right talent point set up that we will go into later.

From there, you can then use your Earthquake for very large resource generation, and get enough buff from it. Moreover, that skill will do more damage as you already have your damage buffs applied. This allows for a very quick transition into another Thunder Axe so it can benefit from all other active buffs, plus the Earthquake damage buff.

Also, you always want to start with Axe Thunder skill, because the higher your Sanity, the more Combo you deal because of the Contest talent point. More combo means more extra attacks on all your spells. Moreover, that combo goes into your Wild Thunder core passive for more bonus damage for your Wild Strike and Thunder Axe damage modifiers. All in all, it’s important for Axe Thunder to be used more often than Wild Strike.

As for your Bloodlust usage, you mainly want to press it after your first rotation. You get even more attack buffs, and you get more resource generation for your two basic skills. You should be able to instantly get a full resource bar by comboing it with Earthquake, Bloodlust then one attack of Wild Strikes and Axe Thunder.

Use Inscribed Stone Skill when you don’t have any other buffs, as you can spam your Wild Strike and Axe Thunder with no cooldown and gain more resources from those skills.

Fighter Barbarian DPS Talents

• Wild Frenzy x3 – Wild Strike increases your attack and speed by up to 2%.
• Contest x3 – When Beastiness is greater or equal to Sanity, damage is increased by 4.5%. When Sanity is greater than Beastiness, Combo Rate is increased by 4.5%.
• Wilderness Control x3 – Increases Combo by 3%.
• Earthquake+ x2 – Earthquake increases Combo by 6% and the effect of the spell lasts 2 seconds longer.
• Thunder Axe x1 – Replaces Wrath of Thunder with Thunder Axe.
• Tearing Wound x3 – When Thunder Axe hits a target, it will increase the damage dealt to the target by 3% for 8 seconds, stacking 3 times.
• Zealous Throw x2 – Each time Thunder Axe lands a combo, it will increase your Haste for 8 seconds.
• Potential Unleash x2 – Earthquake grants you more Sanity and Beastiness and increases your damage after casting the skill.
• Thunder Axe+ x3 – Thunder Axe deals 5% more damage. Combo damage is increased for several seconds after the skill is cast.
• Cruelty x3 – Deal more damage to enemies lower than 25% HP.
• Bloodlust+ x2 – Bloodlust grants additional damage and the effect lasts longer.
• Storm Spread x2 – While Bloodlust is active, it grants you an aura that grants your nearby allies a 25% attack boost.
• Balance x3 – Adding more Sanity or Beastiness can give a chance to grant a portion of the value added to the other meter, which means more passive class mechanic filling, and more Thunder Axe procs per fight.

The core playstyle of the build is very much focused on improving your damage buffs, alongside dealing significantly higher consistent target damage. The core of the playstyle means you’ll be filling as much of your attacks to get yourself buffs via Bloodlust improvements, alongside Wild Strike damage bonuses. Moreover, you want to combo as often as possible for more damage, alongside generating even more of your Beastliness and Sanity so you can use your consistent damage boost on Thunder Axe. In addition, you further improve your attack damage via Earthquake, making it last longer. With the right attributes, you’ll be able to get this buff up often, alongside getting more generation from the spell proc for even more Thunder Axe damage.

Also, be advised that Thunder Axe is a fantastic set of talents. You remove some of the burst from the class, but your consistent target gets higher, alongside giving you another way to buff your own attack. This gives you a 9% damage buff to the target, which is massive for a buff to single-target raid damage. Think of all the combos that go into that. You can see why it is a pretty important talent for Barbarian’s single-target DPS in raid environments.

Fighter Barbarian Stats Explained

In terms of your stat priority, you want the following:

1. Combo
2. Omni
3. Cooldown
4. Strength
5. Hit
6. Stamina

Combo is the main stat for Thunder Barbarians, as it allows you to deal extra attacks on all of your skills. Furthermore, it has synergy with the core passive talent Wild Thunder. This gives you a 10% chance each time you press your main rotation to turn your second skill into a stronger version that deals more damage. The higher your combo, the more damage that skill will do. In addition, many talents also increase your Combo damage too, making it another reason to keep getting Combo past 50%.

Next up we have Omni. Omni is an important stat because it gives you more chances for Wild Strike to attack again. This is a way to get more resources and more combo attacks. Moreover, when this core talent unlocks, then Wild Strike will increase the damage of your next attack. Considering you Wild Strike into Axe Thunder, that means more big damage to Axe Thunder. If you can get Axe Thunder to proc into Wild Thunder, then it’s even better. Focus on adding Omni as your next highest stat to a 15.6% chance so you get max cap out of that skill.

Cooldown is a nice stat for Barb to help reduce the cooldowns on the Bloodlust and Earthquake abilities. It’s also worth mentioning it relates to the Core Passive of Wrath Build Up, which is a chance to refresh the cooldown for Earthquake. You get the chance for every 200 Beastiness and Sanity you spend. More cooldown means more skills to generate resources, which means more resource expenditure and more resources spent equals more chance to reset Earthquake cooldown. It’s a self-contained cycle of aiding your core rotation. Get Cooldown to 26% as a minimum, any more is still beneficial.

Outside of these, you want Strength, Hit, and Stamina. Strength is a flat increase to your attack rating. Meanwhile, Hit allows you to hit bosses in the content you’re running. Check the instance you’re heading into and select the attributes button on that dungeon or raid to get an idea of the Hit you need to secure you land 100% of your attacks. Meanwhile, Stamina is a passive defensive stat, which is nice since you’re melee and more likely to get hit by attacks.

In terms of Inscribed Stone Runes, there are a few decent examples to focus on. Keep in mind these are values of purple-quality runes at level 10.

• Strive – A chance for your direct damage to deal damage equal to 185% of your attack power to the target.
• Burst – Dealing direct damage to the target grants a stack. At 23 stacks, it detonates for 308% of your attack power to the target. Great for synergising when you have your attack buffs active from Bloodlust, Earthquake and your Wild Strike buff. The damage is then modified by the Thunder Axe 9% attribute too.
• Out of Control – 13% chance to deal damage equal to 90% of your attack to the enemy and surrounding targets. Nice for some added AOE when you weave your direct damage skills onto a target.
• Sprawl – 20% chance whenever you deal any damage to apply a DoT to a target, dealing 15.6% attack power to the target per second. Stacks 5 times and lasts 5 seconds. This is another solid damage boost for any skill and works for your AOE skill too.