Yep. I have definitely pointed this out in the past, and would not shed one ounce of tea or juice if things shuffled around a bit. I dislike a shield boost as a beserk. It'd make better sense as a form or meditation. IMO, if an ability consumes a ton of IF, it should be doing something extra special.

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"Brace yourselves, Squanto is going to bleh blah fart fart bleh.." -the player of the character formerly known as Pureblade

What other abilities are you using at the same time?

I've lowered berserk costs a bit in the past and there is a barb analyze that I believe nullifies the cost of your next berserk. Not sure anyone uses it though? Not saying it can't be improved more. But I am trying some different approaches here.

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"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

It is <Ana rage> and I can use it, just tried it in game. I also agree with the OP, that have a shield boost as a berserk is a little rough.

So, at 75th (sorry, 75th, not 80th) my Barb has 418 ranks of Expertise. ANALYZE RAGE is way beyond me.

The only abilities I keep up are Bear and Dragon/Eagle. If I'm getting hit I'll use Monkey and Piranha. I try to keep up at all times Bear, Dragon/Eagle, and Wildfire, and seem to be able to do this more or less consistently, but cannot seem to add anything to the mix. I group my weapons rotations by melee and ranged, so I'm not frequently swapping between Dragon/Eagle, and I roar fairly infrequently.

Again, to be clear, my issue isn't that some barb abilities are berserks, but that a fair chunk of the buffs I'd like to be using are blocked to me because of steep IF costs. Compared to my Paladin, who at 50th circle, can do this -

Letting your senses extend further, you feel there is pulsating (10/21) mana to the southwest, and dusky (6/21) mana to the southeast.
You sense the Heroic Strength spell upon you, which will last for about three roisaen.
You sense the Courage spell upon you, which will last for about ten roisaen.
You sense the Sentinel's Resolve spell upon you, which will last for about nine roisaen.
You sense the Divine Guidance spell upon you, which will last for about eight roisaen.
You sense the Clarity spell upon you, which will last for about seven roisaen.
You sense the Marshal Order spell upon you, which will last for about three roisaen.
You sense the Holy Warrior spell upon you, which will last until you fail to provide 5 mana for it.
You sense the Divine Armor spell upon you, which will last for about nine roisaen.
You sense the Righteous Wrath spell upon you, which will last for about fourteen roisaen.
You have not exhausted your ability to smite your foes at all.

And this is before casting RuE on my weapon. Hilariously, this represents as much offensive buffing (+str, +stam, +OF, +weaponstats) and more defensive buffing.

Ideally, by 80th, I should be more than able to use >1 berserk (maybe not two experts, but I should be able to keep up at least one), >3 forms. Meditations are fine, I feel.

Analyze flame is a nice way of keeping IF up, but it's difficult to gauge exactly when I'd need to use it. So, sure, I throw it in the rotation periodically. The other analyzes seem very case specific and I rarely use them, though sure, DAMAGE can be a good way of speeding things up briefly.

Here's a little more info on the barb I suppose (again, 75th) -

You are currently practicing the Turtle Form and will hold focus of it for 13 roisaen.
You are currently practicing the Dragon Form and will hold focus of it for 39 roisaen.
You are currently practicing the Monkey Form and will hold focus of it for 75 roisaen.
The Wildfire Berserk will rage within you for 5 roisaen.
The Contemplation meditation will persist in your mind for 22 roisaen.
The Tenacity meditation will persist in your mind for 10 roisaen.

I may not understand how IF usage works, but the passive point is currently between 8 and 9 stars. If I put up Bear the passive point is between 2 and 3. I thought the passive point is where if I just sit still and do nothing now, my IF gen/cost will maintain things, but that is obviously incorrect because a few minutes after putting up Bear, Wildfire, Monkey, and Dragon dropped. A few minutes after that, Bear dropped.

I understand our spell fuel is based on combat, but the difficulty, at 75th circle, I face with keeping up even a portion of our buffs is pretty maddening. Being in combat should drive IF such that we can use ADDITIONAL abilities, such as roars, not be required to maintain even a portion of our abilities. In combat, even occasionally doing ANALYZE FLAME I can't keep Bear, Turtle, Dragon, Monkey and Wildfire up, which is a damn shame because I'd like to be using even more than that (Tornado, Tsunami, Piranha, Python, and maybe Earthquake/Flashflood/Landslide.

I find this really frustrating, as all the magic using characters I have are more than capable of keeping up numerous buffs + cyclic at any given time, and, aside from the number of spells kept up, they're more than capable of buffing a respectable range of things. I'd rather not spend my entire time in combat only doing ANALYZE FLAME.

I think you are just trying to layer on too many forms at one time. The end game is 200th circle. Trying to layer on a fourth form at 75th just isn't going to happen until you are higher (based on my PAFO).

What I wonder is if IF ranks play into how much IF one has and how many abilities can be used at the same time.

Rhadyn da Dwarb - Blood for fire!

At around 80th chicle I use

Form eagle
Form monkey
Form piranha

Berserk flashflood
Berserk tornado

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The Frustrating part to me, is when I roll back to my Barb, I feel infinitely weaker. I go back and read some old posts on it, and it seems to say, the way things are came only after begging and severe limitations, as if some GM's wanted it worse for us.

Yeah, that was what I had read. Barbs had frustrating rules, that the rest of magic didn't.

I just don't like that we have to be killing stuff to get the most out of our abilities... currently. I'd rather combat equating to getting even more out of our abilities. For me, that means utilizing the right hand side of the passive regeneration bar. Many ideas have been brought up over the years on how to do that. I just think Kodius is ever-swamped.

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"Brace yourselves, Squanto is going to bleh blah fart fart bleh.." -the player of the character formerly known as Pureblade

Thanks a ton, Kodius. I'll play with it a lot and let you know how it seems.

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"Brace yourselves, Squanto is going to bleh blah fart fart bleh.." -the player of the character formerly known as Pureblade

From what I can tell, the changes you made are awesome. Thanks!

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"Brace yourselves, Squanto is going to bleh blah fart fart bleh.." -the player of the character formerly known as Pureblade

Huuuuuuuuuuuh.... Little bit of testing seems to be a lot smoother. Killing at a steady clip, with Wildfire + Bear, Monkey, and Turtle, I manage to keep IF hovering right around the passive point +/- a star or so, and Wildfire seems to be holding up just fine.

Neat change, whatever it did. I'll have to try with two berserks or an additional form. Thanks!

>> I may exponentially decay the reduction (from the linear reduction in place now) so you get more benefit sooner from ranks.

A thousand times this.