tnc

Thing is, there is no 2H crushing weapon in the Soldier specialization, forcing you to take another talent. Whereas Estoc partners perfectly with the Poleaxe in Adventurer. If Estoc were moved to Noble, the problem would be mitigated at least. As is, its stats and positioning in weapon focus talents just makes it the best. Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna use Grearswords. But out of stubbornness and role-playing reasons, not because they're better (they aren't). The thing is unique Poleaxes in the game have awful stats and there are very few of them. The best greatsword in the game gives you leech and it's so good for Barbarian. Estoc=greatswords>any other 2H weapon when you consider the stats on the unique weapons. Which imo is the most important thing when you choose the weapon type.

It's mechanics skill as far as i know.

I'd make it 5 barb 1 priest for some incredible melee buffs like accuracy, might etc. It would become so much more effective.

First increase your casters' accuracy with stuff like eldricth aim or some priest spells then reduce his resistances with debuff spells such as the ones that lower fortitude(sickened&weakened) and then paralyze&finish him. No need to cheese.

Yeah well i have a druid, cipher and priest in my party and the amount of heal and buff is on extreme levels. I like to focus on dps for barbarian so getting self heal or shouts are a waste for me. I also have frighten on cipher and the cost is so low i start the fights with it.

Not really because you can rise up with second wind.

Lets just end it you take shout and waste your precious ability point for a simple debuff spell, i'll take my awesome passive that is both fun and extremely effective.

Even better brute force/threatening presence/weakened debuff for -30 in total

And i'm proving your suggestion will actually hurt op's build. Barb shouts are not worth it at all just ask other more experienced people we all agree on it.

Dont understand why people reroll like that you can get any class in any part of the game why start over just to change your main :S Anyways, priests are great buffers you'll be okay, rly not much mistake you can make with choices. Make sure you max int tho its huge on priest.

We are not talking 'for you' we are talking about op that wants to have dps focused barb and my picks just plain suit his desire. Again i insist on shouts being useless. Ciphers cast it almost for free huge aoe frighten spell. At start you activate frenzy not your stupid shout lol. We deal damage remember?

Barbarians are best for two handed weapons because when you have high might and a two handed weapon (barb can reach enormous might with upgraded frenzy and max starting might) you can bypass DR with ease. This gives barb a huge advantage because your carnage attacks will also be effective since it is large damage per hit. Also the large attack bonus frenzy gives (%33) makes up for the slow attack speed of two handed weapons. So max might/dex some int, go either estocs or two handed swords for weapon focus.

Yeah, int increases the duration.

It doesn't matter if they start with 10 deflection. There are so many buffs and items in this game that increase deflection that it's not a problem after a certain point in the game. You can reach 120+ deflection in act 2. Getting high def stats at start will just make it easier to reach that sweet deflection spot. Barbarians already have high endurance, there really is no need to raise cons. it's a really small boost anyway.

I posted above why they are bad. All the casters already have those debuffs and even better ones. Even your main character has it for being a watcher. Why would you give your melee dps one miserable spell wasting an ability like that. It's basically just one ordinary debuff spell. It'll also take one round to cast. It's a waste ability for sure. As for vengeful defeat surely there are some fights you get wiped out or at least your barb goes down due to a mistake especially on Hard and PotD, let's not lie to each other just to prove a point. Any other difficulty isn't worth mentioning here anyway. When that happens everyone around him will most likely die since it's multiple carnage attacks AND full attacks on everyone (since it targets everything around you, and i assume you have more than 10 int). Let's say there are five enemies around you when you go down. Vengeful defeat will make a full attack with carnage on each of them. Every single one of them will recieve five carnage attacks and one full attack. I think that's certain death. You can even build your barb into a suicide bomber, i might just try that soon.

If you want to be tanky don't raise your constitution, raise your per/res. I know it sounds weird but deflection>endurance/hp BY FAR. If you can stack it high enough you just can't die.

The thing is there's no other good ability on that level. Barbaric shouts are crazy bad. Plus you can trigger vengeful defeat twice with a 'second wind' item and thrice with a ressurection spell and it deals huge bonus damage on everyone around you with carnage too AND you get the blooded active since you're low hp. It'll destroy things

That's weird but it might work. I just thought of something.. Is it possible to hit your Monk with another one of your characters and generate wound? Coz that might also solve your problem.

For top damage and accuracy you need these: 18+ might 18+ dex 10 cons 6-10 res 14+ int 6-10 per. Abilities in order: Frenzy(upgraded), blooded, brute force, threatening presence, vengeful defeat, heart of fury or something else. Do not get the self heal or shout abilities, you can apply those with casters. It's plain stupid to take them unless you don't mind gimping your character. Choices other than these seem really useless to me in terms of dps. One stands alone sucks dont take it. It gives you benefits for being engaged by 3+ enemies but you shouldn't be engaged by that many enemies since barbs aren't tanks. You'll go down in no time. Talents: Take 2-3 class talents and 3-4 offensive talents of your choice. Like 1 weapon focus 1 two handed style 1 something else. Taking accurate carnage before taking weapon focus is stupid since focus gives you more accuracy anyway. For weapon focus the ones that give you estocs or two handed swords are best. They also give you good one handed weapons.

Here's how you get the best dps value as Monk: Get swift strike + two weapon mastery you'll have an insane attack speed with your fists. Upgrade swift strikes (%10 more damage) get the fire damage(%5) per wound ability. You'll do crazy single target damage. Only use your wounds for activating swift strike and some force of anguish here and there. Forget about Torment's Reach that ability sucks dps wise compared to this build and it wastes your precious wounds to deal aoe damage which you don't need. Taking out single dangerous targets and reducing the enemy party's overall dps is always better. Later on you can switch to weapon instead of fists but fists are a lot stronger for the most part because they both give accuracy and damage and attack really fast.

Seriously. Please re read the topic name and my original post. I never said anything like that. My point is that considering damage focused spells FoF is a clear winner. I was wondering why is that the aoe spell deals more dmg per target than a targeted spell and is easier to hit because rolls vs reflex rather than deflection. Maybe it should be used on a low deflection target ? Such as a really dangerous caster(oh wait they have low deflection most of the time!) that you need to use a single target spell on ? The fact that different spells target different defenses is a great thing because it keeps your wizard on maximum effectiveness when you cast the right spells. Btw i don't think you're playing on PotD, there's no way you can cast fan of flames twice and win the fights Guess you're exaggerating to prove your own point.

For top damage and accuracy you need these: 18+ might 18+ dex 10 cons 6-10 res 14+ int 6-10 per. Abilities in order: Frenzy(upgraded), blooded, brute force, threatening presence, vengeful defeat, heart of fury or something else. Do not get the self heal or shout abilities, you can apply those with casters. It's plain stupid to take them unless you don't mind gimping your character. Choices other than these seem really useless to me in terms of dps. One stands alone sucks dont take it. It gives you benefits for being engaged by 3+ enemies but you shouldn't be engaged by that many enemies since barbs aren't tanks. You'll go down in no time. Talents: Take 2-3 class talents and 3-4 offensive talents of your choice. Like 1 weapon focus 1 two handed style 1 something else. Taking accurate carnage before taking weapon focus is stupid since focus gives you more accuracy anyway. For weapon focus the ones that give you estocs or two handed swords are best. They also give you good one handed weapons.

Your argument that fan of flames being the only useful level 1 spell is just ridiculous. Blind effect anyone ? The most op level 1 effect that you can use whole game for huge benefit? Or eldricth aim that lets you paralyze the STRONGEST enemy in the game easily? Maybe you should play the game a bit more and learn all the mechanics. Debuffs/disables>elemental damage especially on harder modes. There's a little thing called DR in this game and it doesn't help against disables )) That being said fan of flames has a bit high damage for its level but i suspect they made it that way so we can actually kill the phantoms/shades at start lol. Let's face it those fights would've been pain in the ass without it.

Swift strikes is the best thing you can get on Monk it can be upgraded to give +%35 more damage in total (25 as, %10 shock dmg)... You can keep it active for whole combat since it only costs one wound and it has long duration. Attack speed matters most for late game dps since there are very few ways to increase it

There's a lot of enchanting supplies in the game and you can also buy them and your stronghold generates a plant and creature part every turn i believe. So you'll have tons of enchanting materials by the end of the game. I start enchanting after i get the best unique weapons/armor but you can waste some on weaker equipments and still get away with it. Weapons that have attack speed bonus, bonus elemental damage or endurance leech are the best and you can further enchant most of them. Don't enchant the ordinary equipment it's not worth it. I think the middle of act 2 is a good place to start enchanting, you'll get some of the best equipment by then.