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I am not expecting the Barbarian to be much of a defender beyond being a thick frontliner. Probably no marking but, lots of strength-based striker-oriented 2-handed weapon powers and high mobility. Not sure how rage will figure in but, I heard it will be in.

MatteBlack wrote:

I am not expecting the Barbarian to be much of a defender beyond being a thick frontliner. Probably no marking but, lots of strength-based striker-oriented 2-handed weapon powers and high mobility. Not sure how rage will figure in but, I heard it will be in.

I was actually re-reading the description of the Controller (PHB page 16) and wonder if a Barbarian couldn't be a controller.

With their rage powers, they could deal high damage and cripple/weaken/confuse foes. I'd love to see how a non-magical controller would work, and I wonder if the Barbarian might fit the bill.

MatteBlack wrote:

Not sure how rage will figure in but, I heard it will be in.

Just a guess: you activate an encounter or daily power that gives you some bonus that lasts beyond the "end of your next turn," and after that period creates the equivalent penalties for a shorter period.

WolfStar76 wrote:

I was actually re-reading the description of the Controller (PHB page 16) and wonder if a Barbarian couldn't be a controller.

A martial or primal controller would be hard to pull off, but in general a controller does low damage but to several targets (although there are certainly other roles a controller plays). It should be some sort of "hit everyone in range" effect, such as the 3.5 whirlwind attack, but preferably after adding 1 to the character's range. Give that kind of a character a ranged weapon and watch out. Again, though, the damage would be low against each target in order to keep the class balanced. Obviously, my theory would require that the character would have to be a controller with a minor in something other than striker.

All speculation, of course.

Cryonax wrote:

Just a guess: you activate an encounter or daily power that gives you some bonus that lasts beyond the "end of your next turn," and after that period creates the equivalent penalties for a shorter period.

I could see it being a rage bonus to hit, damage and/or Hp as a daily for the encounter or as an encounter until the end of your next round.

I am definitely eyeing barbarian for some possibilities for my Hexforged.

Cryonax:
Hexforged is the name for a specific gish build of a Warforged Infernal-pact Warlock. It is based off of the Hexhammer, a similar build involving an infernal-pact dwarf. Both can be found on the char op boards, usually somewhere on the first three pages.

Back to topic. I'm more of the opinion that rage will end up looking similar to what happened with the 3.5 paladin's smite. That is to say, I don't think rage will be a specific class feature or just one power, but rather a progression of powers over the course of the three tiers. This would help rage scale as the barbarian levels over the course of an adventuring career, much like the paladin smite now does (eg, Thunder Smite and Stunning Smite) Having rage be a class feature limits how well it would scale with level IMO, since very few class features increase in power over levels. Having rage as just one power is also wrong, since then it would be another "twofold pact" type scenario, where every barb would need to take the rage power just to be effective.

I can also see rage being more oriented towards immediate reaction/interrupt attacks and actions that trigger once the barb is bloodied :D .