From Dark and Darker Wiki
The Axe Murderer
The Felling Axe Murderer is a meta build. The class with the most dps and scary to fight in melee. Can be outplayed with range.
Skills
Rage:
The best skill for barbarian because of the movement speed. The extra damage is a nice bonus. Defence is reduced.
Savage Roar:
Best PVE Skill in game. Reduces physical dmg from enemies by 25%. With your big life pool you seem to be indestructible. Reveals Mimics and invisible enemies.
Perks
Axe Specialization:
The core perk for this build, since it allows you to do massive damage. Works also on throw able Francisca Axe. It is also the best beginner Perk because you can clear pve faster with the damage bonus.
Smash:
Helps your clearing speed a lot. Great for surprising and chasing enemies behind closed doors. Barbarian has only 10 Resourcefulness. Time not looting is helping you survives drawback makes a lot of noise.
Iron Will:
Gives you around 30% Magic damage reduction, which is insane. Highly recommended, when teaming with a wizard.
Toughness:
Great Perk overall. Adds 13hp with beginner Gear.
Morale Boost:
Great for experienced PVPler. Saves you some consumables. And lets you stay longer in fights. But its a snowball effect. If you cant kill it is useless.
Two Handed Weapon Expert:
This Perk is a trap the damage bonus is negligible.
Savage:
Can be used when starting fresh but this doesn't compensate a good armor. Don't forget to switch the perk after finding one.
Carnage:
I can see the potential. But i didn't use it, because the bonus only lasted 4 seconds and against pve you had more than enough damage.
Berserker:
You should always have healing and be close to max HP to give you the best chance at victory. Skip this one.
Weapons
Recommended 1-hand Weapons: Horsemans Axe; Hatchet (Doesn't work with Smash)
Recommended 2-handed Weapons: Felling Axe
Huge Attack speed when hitting your targets. Be careful when missing. Has a huge recovery time.
Armor
Recommended Head: Gjermundbu; Barbuta Helm
the best Helmets in the Game. Great Armor and great Headshot Reduction and Great Magic Resistance.
Recommended Chest: Northern Full Tunic; Regal Gambeson
Northern Full Tunic is one of the best armors in the game with huge armor ratings and a bonus to magic resistance. Regal Gambeson is the best allrounder Armor, you can never go wrong with it.
Recommended Legs: Heavy Leather Leggings; Leather Leggings; Loose Trousers
It is recommended to grab one of these from the merchant. Get the cheapest ones, since you only look for the stat bonus.
Recommended Hands: Riveted Gloves; Reinforced Gloves; Leather Gloves
It is recommended to grab one of these from the merchant. Get the cheapest ones, since you only look for the stat bonus.
Recommended Feet: Lightfoot Boots; Heavy Boots; Rugged Boots; Adventurer Boots
Lightfoot Boots are the only one with scaling movement speed. Clearly the best choice. But Barbarian starts with good Boots.
Play Style
Solo:
You are at a disadvantage entering solo, so make the best out of it and use Guerilla Tactics!!!
You can hear enemy Teams almost every time beforehand and let´s you evade them. Avoid noise yourself.
Move at the outer circle of the map to avoid players.
Choose your fights. Wait for enemy players to start PVE or be distracted by looting.
Hit hard and retreat.
Jumping lets you hit enemies with shields.
The Felling axe has enormous Attack Speed when hitting. But Recovery time is huge when missing a swing. So be careful against faster enemies like rogue and Wizard. Switching to an Bardiche or Zweihander is recommended against them.
Use your Throwing Axes against fleeing enemies. It is massive damage and slows a hefty amount. It let´s you also run faster.
Use your Throwing Axes!!!
Fleeing enemies can also be chased with fists, because of your high strength your fist do a respectable amount of damage. Against fast enemies you can´t hit them in the back because of the movement speed penalty of the weapon and the extra slow when swinging and the short range of the felling axe.
Going through the swarm is not as punishing as you might think.
Blue Potting Before and during every fight!!! Don´t be afraid to hit Fighters in heavy armor. They fall like everyone else.
Team:
Communication is king. Communicate with your team when you hear enemy players, enter a new room, place a campfire.
Buff before engaging especially with haste and invisibility from wizard. Surprise and terror is a really valuable weapon. A lot of players will panic and not even try to retaliate.
Be careful of Rogues hitting you in the back when engaging through doors.
When its a stallmate play smart don´t rush in headlessly when the enemies are skillfull. Stay close together. Use your throwing axes and Throwables to help range fights.