My two cents why Barbarians are better than Dwarves imo, especially leveling.
My Barbarian rogue twink had 255 strength with a fungi on unbuffed at level 18. Likely cannot do that with any other race. (300+ backstabs at 29)
Barbarians have 13 more starting strength and 5 more stamina than Dwarves. That means if a Barb and Dwarf had the same gear that gets a Dwarf to 255 str, the Barb can swap out both of their rings for MR rings and have +28 MR vs. the Dwarves extra 5.
Barbarians have slam which is extremely useful against casters. I was able to solo Unrest basement 30-40 due to this. The hags are nasty otherwise. If you're soloing you're not backstabbing anyway (except for extra melee hit, Slam can save your life).
Very popular bracers leveling are Heroes bracers, +10 strength for 150pp. Barbarians can wear, Dwarves cannot.
None of those reasons outweigh personal look preferences or if you have a hard on for barrel rolls. Otherwise, min/max, Barbarian is always #1.
|