Spirit of Barbs (Diablo II)

Spirit of Barbs Summons a spirit that provides a damage reflect aura.

Class: Druid Skill Tree: Druid Summoning Skills Required Level: 30 Damage Type: - Cast Delay: - Active Prerequisites: Oak Sage (6), Heart of Wolverine (18)

Skill progression Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Mana Cost 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Damage {{{Damage1}}} {{{Damage2}}} {{{Damage3}}} {{{Damage4}}} {{{Damage5}}} {{{Damage6}}} {{{Damage7}}} {{{Damage8}}} {{{Damage9}}} {{{Damage10}}} Life 213 266 319 372 426 479 532 585 639 692 % Damage Returned 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190 210 230 Radius (yards) 20 21.3 22.6 24 25.3 26.6 28 29.3 30.6 32 {{{Variable D}}} {{{D1}}} {{{D2}}} {{{D3}}} {{{D4}}} {{{D5}}} {{{D6}}} {{{D7}}} {{{D8}}} {{{D9}}} {{{D10}}} {{{Variable E}}} {{{E1}}} {{{E2}}} {{{E3}}} {{{E4}}} {{{E5}}} {{{E6}}} {{{E7}}} {{{E8}}} {{{E9}}} {{{E10}}}   Level 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Mana Cost 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Damage {{{Damage11}}} {{{Damage12}}} {{{Damage13}}} {{{Damage14}}} {{{Damage15}}} {{{Damage16}}} {{{Damage17}}} {{{Damage18}}} {{{Damage19}}} {{{Damage20}}} Life 745 798 852 905 958 1011 1065 1118 1171 1224 % Damage Returned 250 270 290 310 330 350 370 390 410 430 Radius (yards) 33.3 34.6 36 37.3 38.6 40 41.3 42.6 44 45.3 {{{Variable D}}} {{{D11}}} {{{D12}}} {{{D13}}} {{{D14}}} {{{D15}}} {{{D16}}} {{{D17}}} {{{D18}}} {{{D19}}} {{{D20}}} {{{Variable E}}} {{{E11}}} {{{E12}}} {{{E13}}} {{{E14}}} {{{E15}}} {{{E16}}} {{{E17}}} {{{E18}}} {{{E19}}} {{{E20}}}

Synergies No synergies {{{Synergy2}}} {{{Synergy Effect2}}} {{{Synergy3}}} {{{Synergy Effect3}}} {{{Synergy4}}} {{{Synergy Effect4}}} {{{Synergy5}}} {{{Synergy Effect5}}} {{{Synergy6}}} {{{Synergy Effect6}}}

Description

Spirit of Barbs is, much like the Thorns aura the Paladin uses, all but useless. It only reflects melee physical damage, and only damage taken. While this works excellently for the Paladin at early levels, the druid must wait until lvl 30 to get this skill, and while it could possibly be useful in Act 5, by the time the player enters Nightmare the skill will become more and more useless.

The problem lies in the game's scaling. Monsters both increase their damage and life as the game progresses, but their life increases at a much greater rate. So while in Normal the monster may deal 10% of it's life in damage, the same monster might only eal 3% of its life in damage in Hell.

Conversively, the player increases their damage output faster than their life. This creates a deadly discrepancy. Since Spirit of Barbs depends players/minions actually getting hurt, they will have to risk their lower health pools constantly in order to deal damage, and that damage makes less and less of a dent into monster hit points as the game progresses. Eventually the danger versus the payoff becomes rather slim, which in turn is why almost all druids instead focus on one of the other two spririts: Oak Sage or Heart of Wolverine.