Barik Best Main Tank
by Bolsenator
Tinkerin
Modify your Blunderbuss to fire a single slug that deals 560 damage.
Weapon
Brave and Bold
Gain 150-750 Health.
Armor
5
Bowling Ball
Gain a Shield with 300-1500 Health during Rocket Boots and for 3s after.
Rocket Boots
4
Failsafe
Dropping below 10-50% of your max Health resets the cooldown of Rocket Boots.
Armor
3
Healing Station
Standing near your Turret heals you for 45-225 Health per second.
Turret
2
Double Time
Increase the speed of Rocket Boots by 10-50%
Rocket Boots
1
Guide
Tinkerin is still by the best Barik talent, even with buffs to his Blunderbuss and Barricade.
Brave and Bold and Bowling Ball must be run on a 4 or 5, I prefer 5 on health and 4 on the personal shield.
Failsafe is necessary for Barik to stay elusive with his rocket boots, and keeps him covered with a bubble shield frequently. I like it on 3, but 2-4 could work as well.
Healing Station 2 is nice for getting some self healing, but it's a small amount, so don't expect it to keep you alive during battle. It can be helpful to hide behind a corner next to your turret, get some quick healing, then return to combat. I wouldn't run any more than 2 on this unless you are running with a Jenos heal. Even then, I prefer no more than 2 points on this card.
I like running Double Time as my last card, but there are some other useful 1 point cards. I also like 1 point in Forged Alloy, because it the increased health makes it take an additional hit for some champs to destroy. Some of his other cards could be used here, it mostly comes to your preference.
Almost always buy Cauterize first. Barik is great at surviving and will constantly be doing damage, so he's great at spreading Caut. Rejuvenate is typically the next thing to focus, especially if you have a Jenos heal. Haven, Blast Shields, Wrecker, and Master Riding are all good options late game depending upon what you need. With his Ult damage getting buffed, it might be worth getting Morale Boost, but I'm not sure on that one yet.
Don't try to use Barik's ult when at low health to keep yourself alive. Its best used either defensively to secure a capture/push and push people off point, or offensively to push onto the enemy's healer and dps and force them to run or die. The flame turret in his ult now does double the damage so it will hopefully be more impactful than in previous patches.
I love Barik, he's the best point tank currently and will always be a great pick during the current meta. I hope you enjoy him as much as I do, and get some usage from my loadout.
