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Rogue Legacy 2 Class guide: Barbarian

Barbarians are one of Rogue Legacy 2’s first melee classes, and easily amongst its most fun and direct to play. These melee powerhouses can dish out colossal amounts of damage and take quite a beating in return. While their ranged and magic options are somewhat limited compared to most other classes, once a Barbarian is up close there’s nothing much an enemy can do about it. Armed with axes, powerful shouts and damage-soaking vitality, Barbarians can happily hack and slash their way through Rogue Legacy 2 with ease. We’ll help you get the best out of this class with our Rogue Legacy 2 Barbarian guide.

Rogue Legacy 2 Barbarian Weapon

The Barbarian’s weapon is their main method of dealing damage. It is an axe called Labrys, which hits hard and restores a decent chunk of mana with each hit. In addition to its basic hits dealing considerable damage, any of the Barbarian’s swings with Labrys become automatic crits when attacking on the ground.

While you do miss out on the additional crit damage, It’s not all bad news for a Barbarian that attacks while airborne. When doing so, the Barbarian performs an impressive spinning attack that can clear out most pesky hovering enemies nearby. While the animation is a little cumbersome and lengthy, it can thankfully be cancelled out of with ease by performing a spin kick. And – in case you are still thinking of favouring ground attacks exclusively – any attacks in the air do become automatic crits, provided that you areperforming a dash attack while doing so.

Rogue Legacy 2 Barbarian Talent

Winter’s Shout is the Barbarian’s main talent, and its proper usage is integral to getting the most out of the class. Performing the shout will destroy projectiles in a radius around the Barbarian, clearing a path for them to close with their enemies. In addition, any enemy that is within the area is frozen for one second. While this is an incredibly useful way of interrupting enemy attacks and getting yourself out of danger, the secondary properties of the Shout further incentivises the Barbarian’s risk/reward gameplay style.

Firstly, any attack against an enemy hit by Winter’s Shout in Rogue Legacy 2 is an automatic skill crit, even if the Barbarian is attacking while airborne. But this automatic crit is only achievable in the second that the enemy is stunned following the shout. This means that – while Winter’s Shout gives you time to get away from an enemy’s swing, it also gives you a moment to get up close and deal some heavy damage yourself.

Additionally, rather than recharging after a set amount of time has passed, or enemies have been hit a certain numbers of times like many other talents, Winter’s Shout instead recharges when the Barbarian is hit. As Winter’s Shout is a highly potent tool, it is sometimes worth considering when to tactically take damage in order to get a recharge. And even without this consideration, getting hit as the Barbarian never feels too bad when it guarantees you’re able to counter with a shout soon after.

Barbarian Class Passive

The Class Passive for the Barbarian is called Tough. This ability grants Barbarians a flat 20% increase to their vitality. This upgrade provides a significant increase to the Barbarian’s survivability and synchronises nicely with the rest of their toolkit. Not only do Barbarians need to be constantly in the fray in order to deal damage – risking damage all the while – their class ability recharges when they take damage. Tough ensures that Barbarians are able to use the rest of their class abilities to their full advantage, without worrying about keeling over after taking a hit or two.

Barbarian Secondary Class

The Barbarian’s secondary class is not quite as radical a departure from the class’s basic gameplay as something like the Mage to Reaper transition. Instead, it is more akin to a Ranger becoming a Ballistic Archer; focusing on a similar style of weapon but switching up its properties to distinguish from the basic Barbarian.

Purchasing Hephaestus’ Hammer in the Soul Shop unlocks the ability to transform your Barbarians into Fighters. Wielding Hephaestus’ Hammer as a fighter means that your grounded attacks are no longer automatic skill crits. While this may seem like an overwhelmingly negative change, don’t worry. The automatic skill crit property has instead been transferred to your dash attack, allowing the Fighter’s attacks to be deadly right from the moment they close in on their foe.

The even more noticeable change from a regular Barbarian is that the Fighter’s ground attack takes on the appearance of their mid-air attack. Swinging Hephaestus’ hammer causes the Fighter to spin in place rapidly, dealing multiple hits with their hammer all the while. The speed and damage of this are both significant, but the move is not without its downsides. Unlike attacking with the Labrys axe, the Hephaestus’ Hammer does not deal knockback on hit, potentially leaving you wide open without proper care and timing.