If you truly want to counter Barbatos;
1. beware of surroundings, smart Barbatos wont hold that mace charge until he finds the good moment to do so, I myself likes to switch from using normal mace hit + longsword or mace charge.
2. know who you are, many suits fall victim to Barbatos like CCA suits, GM II, Paley Daley(sometimes), etc. . If you're one of them, either try to finish him off + manage your fuel and move around hoping he has skill issue or seek help. However many can also take down Barbatos fairly easily like the white devil, other brawler like Exia and so on; check your priority, check the situation weather you can take down Barbatos first or not.
3. Manage your dash.
4. Super armor and stuns; You can't get knockdown while in superarmor state, very few has that. It's a very useful tool from avoiding 2 of his skills. Stun however, he rarely gets one tbh, I'd say Asshimar Hyperion Zaku and Gundam stuns are ones you want to look out.

-BarbatosEnjoyer69

TL;DR

Turn your sound on, jump, shoot him, crisis averted.

Please do not listen to this propaganda
- Sincerely a Barbatos main

As a GM main I will say that its def possible to kill Barbatos using shield bash, HOWEVER, its a huge gamble and it only works if the Barbatos has less than 2 braincells in their head. Even if you do hit the shield bash the most important part is following that bash up with a headshot or a pre-placed bomb otherwise you're just delaying your death. If you really wanna bash a Barb then you should probably weaken it first. This applies to all the melee units except for Exia cuz by the time youre in bashing range Exia has already dashed thru you 3 times.

Unfortunately this guide falls short of mentioning a few crucial things. While barbatos is melee it's charged slam extends forward by at least 1 and a half units, which is just enough to catch a dodge even if you dodge to the side unless there is already at least a unit of distance between. Another detail to mention is that Barbatos has three dash charges while most have two on top of a highly mobile leap. What both of these details mean is that dodging to make distance between you and barbatos is not as effective as you think for mid to close range units. The best thing to do is circle around them and pray you're able to kill them fast enough before they dash off and get a heal pick up. Imho the main issue is that there is no reason not to be holding a right click at all times, if it slowed them down so Barbatos players had to time it properly it would be more manageable.

Most of this works, but the big one most people should take to heart is using your dash correctly and don't be afraid to use it early so you can dash again as soon as he gets close enough since he does have three. Also don't forget it's a team game and you should always retreat to them if your caught out by him.

idk about the shield bash one, half the time u shield bash and he just oneshots you at the same time lol

I would like to say as someone who plays barbatos, I do not walk up to people in straight lines. Good ideas tho :3

I've tried to use the Shield Bash on Barbatos, but I've never seen it remotely work from personal experience, mid animation and I'm just knocked back, it might have been fixed more recently, but I was angry that it didn't work a whole of Three times. Cause it's very hard to connect for how short that animation lasts.

i was just thinking zaku II might be the hardest counter barbie has. 3 different disengagement options, immense close range damage, can dance circle around them if they're caught unaware