Barbs ain't the problem
The jank ass blocking is
Main issues with blocking:
Half the time a hit will simply go through (happens most when very close together)
Impacts, even with a buckler a barb can break through your parry. Personally I think a buckler should be the one thing that can stop it, even a heater shield realistically should too, shit my flute does a better job then I these shields half the time
No "stun" with a successful block. I've flute parried barbs to death, in the dungeon too. Parrying a felling axe is the easiest because it's very rare they'll get a hit in in-between your parry/riposte, but a war maul for example, you can parry sure, but you will absolutely get hit whilst reposting, making it impossible to actually counter. You also get hit because of the high impact power. I'm okay with impact power, but it genuinely sucks to have ZERO ways to out play then in melee
I'd personally keep impact powers, but you'd still get staggered by any successful block, meaning you could do chip damage to someone who is blocking successfuly. think it would make the fight pretty even. Current very one sided towards anyone with good impact power because they A) barely lose any damage and B) they won't get staggered
I won't lie I tried a couple cancerous looking barb builds, rogues and rangers can still fuck you up pretty good. I got absolutely melted by a rogue who was on top of the pyramid module, I just simply couldn't get to him with all the speed in the world because of his positioning
When facing a shield with a hatchet, I was scared and did get blocked a few times, but the second I just hugged them it was over, just goes right through
Most barb abilities that were buffed require you to land hits/kills, which would be a lot harder if blocking was fixed
I'm glad less meta abilities are getting some love, I'd like to see that trend continue to other classes
TLDR: fix blocking and this buff won't mean shit