Boeroer

Steering a bit away from the Gunhawk, sorry ... but one of the best single-target Streetfighters I ever played was a ranged Troubadour/Streetfighter with Gunner, Sure Handed Ila + Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr and Upgraded Whisps summons which shoot at your character to trigger Heating Up (and after enough lightning dmg even "On the Edge"). Sure Handed Ila applies both -20% recovery time AND -20% reloading time to all reloading weapons (guns + crossbows). On top came the Heating-Up bonus with 50% recovery bonus and Gunner with -20%. Using the Red Hand the shooting speed and also the damage per shot were pretty awesome. Leaving the arquebus modal on for +20 ACC was barely noticable imo. Needs some non-pierce weapon as backup of course (e.g. Eccea's Arcane Blaster or so). You can add Deltro's Cage Helmet. The whisps don't do a lot of dmg per hit but it's a "free" additional shocking lash so why not?

For example you can remove Carnage from the character --> a lot less unnecessary combat log entries.

Full Healing can be achieved by simply healing for a ridiculously high amount. But I don't understand where/how you would want to apply that...? If you alter an existing ability like Tough you don't have to touch progression tables, right? And can you not add several triggered "sub-effects" to Tough then? So one for every CON-value over 10? Man it's too bad that the attribute bonuses are not moddable.

Carnage can't crit and it doesn't get converted from hit to crit. That might have messed with your impression. I went with dual Sun&Moon + Swift Flurry/HBD on a Berserker/Fighter/Monk (lvl 20) because the log mostly lists relevant attack rolls then (and you can generate dozens of attack rolls with just one strike). And it's best to not have too high ACC against test dummies - else you'll see so many natural crits that you really have to search for hits and hit-crit conversions. I don't know if this approach has any other hidden problems that might mess with the outcome though. I was just too lazy and too impatient to really wait for a lot of normal auto-attacks to happen.

Okay, I logged 56 hits in the combat log with Disciplined Strikes + Berserker Frenzy and am no smarter than before. Of course 56 isn't a big sample size but I thought it could give a slight hint - but it doesn't really: Hits done: 56 Conversions: 20 (35.7%) Conversions by Berserker Frenzy: 9 Conversions by Disciplined Strikes: 11 With fully stacking conversions one would expect 47.5% conversion rate. 35.7 is better than 30% or 25% but not near 47.5%. You might find it funny that Berserker Frenzy did less conversions than Intuitive - but I guess Intuitive was just the first to try - if it triggers BF doesn't get a chance. I didn't check if the order in which you activate the abilites plays a role here (I mean which one will get checked first). Don't think that it matters. Guess more attacks are needed to be sure but I don't want to do this. It's incredibly boring work. I also later added Bloody Slaughter, Uncanny Luck and Barbaric Smash and did some attacks that I didn't log on a spreadsheet. I used Swift FLurry/HBD and two Sun & Moons to generate a lot of rolls in a short time - after enough attacks all the conversion abilities got at least listed once in the log. So they all seem to get checked at some point. Given the hints (char sheet, tooltips, combat logs so/so) I'll go out on a limb here and continue to state that conversions always stack (including B-Frenzy and Disciplined Strikes) - until somebody else takes the time and proves me wrong.

Right - makes perfect sense. You can attack any npc out of combat - and the effects always trigger no matter whether combat mode is active or not.

You can easily prolong it with WoD (did a lot of tests with it when doing my mini-mod for the weapon) but I never tried if this persists after combat ends...

Yes - as I said the base invocation "The Brideman" gives proper inspirations like "Set to their Purpose also does", but weirdly enough the upgrade "Each Kill fed his Fury" gives direct attribute bonuses (no "official" inspirations). I don't think it's a problem with the prolonging. For example Blood Storm and Wildstrike Frenzy seem to have no problem with prolonging inspirations/other effects on crit or kill. Imo somebody just made a mistake when implementing the ability. Just a guess though. Anyway this seems to be the reason why that ability stacks with inspirations. Like Ben Fidel's Neck (-10 to all defenses) stacks with afflictions. Maybe same underlying stacking mechanics.

If Disciplined Strikes gets suppressed by all means use Tactical Barrage instead. Not only +1 Power Level and +5 INT - which is beneficial for your AoEs and durations - but can also be used to counter Berserker Frenzy's confusion.

Okay I did some attacks first and now saw both Frenzy and Intuitive convert hits to crits in the combat log. Can't say anything about actual percentages though. Maybe the log just displays whatever - but if Intutitive would get supressed by Frenzy I would assume it wouldn't get mentioned in the combat log. But as I said: I don't trust the log with conversions. When I have more time I will do more attacks so that there are statistically somewhat relevant numbers - to see if the percentage comes near 30% or more. So far it seems they do stack though. I always assumed all conversions stack because of their "roll one after the other" mechanic.

Nope. No mention of suppression on the char sheet in combat nor in the tooltips when one hovers over the portrait (or the list of active effects right of the portrait which opens another sort of tooltip). Will do some attacks later, must get groceries first.

They get suppressed? That's new to me. I never read about that in any Brute build discussion but this is important. I mean it makes sense since both are actives. But how does one determine that? Is it listed as suppressed on the char sheet? Or doing a lot of attacks and observe that only Berserker Frenzy gets shown in the combat log? There is some issue with conversion display in the combat log. For example Debonaire conversion never gets displayed even though it's 100% - instead the combat log shows Uncanny Luck or Dirty Fighting (which one you have). So I don't trust the log there. If there's no simple way in order to be sure one would have to do a certain number of hits and check whether the percentages match (kind of) 30% or 47.5%?

Yes, you have to decide which of the two classes you want to bind the soulbound item to.

You can even skip Tactical Barrage (or one of the two other PL buffs) and get two Stones of Power. If you stack them in the stash after the fight you can use the Power Surge (+1 PL, stacks with every other PL bonus) in every fight. It's very convenient because it has no duration (lasts till the end of the fight). Lord Darryn's Voulge is indeed nice on any Barb-combo. The Brute also gives you Clear Out which is cool with any AoE effect (like Static Thunder). Amra with Riven Gore is nice on a Brute, too. Dual Carnage on crit and even more importantly Clear Out pushes the initial enemy into the two Carnages it procs which means it not only gets the two attack rolls from Clear Out but 4 Carnage rolls on top. Riven Gore triggers quite often and then it's Blood Thirst + Cleaving Stance time. By the way: a Brute whom I also liked (but who was a bit specialized) was Fury/Unbroken with Disengagement goodies. Fear Ward terrifies your enemies and should they disengage they eat massive disengagement attacks (nice in combination with Brute Force and Mob Stance - Barbaric Shout already gives you +3 engagement so you can go with Mob Stance instead).

Solo it's a pain but in a party (especially with a Paladin) not so much. Barbarian gets Stalwart Defiance eventually which helps a lot imo.

It is I guess because it's not giving inspirations but direct attribute buffs. Only the upgrade does this. The basic invocation gives the fitting inspirations. I guess it's an oversight.

If you want to dual wield I would check out the unique one handed weapons and decide which ones I like best. It's all about the enchantments. Like Helz said it's usually better to have one weapon set with one sort of damage type and a second set (or even third) one alternative dmg types. When mixing dmg types in one set you will rarely have the optimal outcome. A dual wielding Devoted can make good use of unarmed attacks as fallback: everybody gets the proficiency for unarmed combat automatically, Devoted included. Fists do crush damage - so for example a Devoted could any non-crush weapons set mainly (for example swords with pierce/slash dmg) and pick Monastic Unarmed Training for his fists as fallback for the situations when he meets foes who have a weakness against crush damage.

Nope, not like that. Conversions will get rolled one after the other until they all got rolled or until one actually converts. So in your example first Berserker Frenzy checks if it will convert a hit to a crit. If not, then Disciplined Strikes gets checked and so on until one triggers or all got checked without success. Thus, the stacking is a series of chances. You can calculate the final chance rel. easily as follows: Multiply the chances NOT to convert (so for example Berserker Frenzy has a 70% chance not to convert - or a 0.7 multiplier). 0.7 Berserker Frenzy * 0.7 Barbaric Blow * 0.75 Disciplined Strikes = roughly 0.37. So you'll have a 37% chance NOT to convert - or in other words a 66% chance to convert. You can simply add more multipliers to that calculation (Uncanny Luck, weapon conversions, Blood Slaughter etc.). Berserker/Fighter has one of the highest "passive" melee crit conversion rates of all multiclasses. I even think the highest if you consider Bloody Slaughter, too. Barbaric Blow is very good with high crit chance (in addition to its own conversion) because it does a lot more dmg then. It's quite expensive so it better be worth it. By the way: usually different kinds of conversion won't "chain". So for example a hit from a graze-to-hit conversion will not get converted further to a crit. The general rule is: only one type of conversion per attack.

Well, Berserker excels at melee compared to the other Barb subclasses due to 30% crit conversion and ofc the higher PEN. Both is great with the Voulge/Static Thunder. He pays with hefty self dmg and confusion. The confusion is bad with the Voulge because you will hit your buddies with Static Thunder. Besides that - a Furyshaper makes as good a melee fighter with the Voulge as any other Barb subclass. Also - if you get some engagement (for example via Barbaric Shout and/or the Pollaxe modal) you can really profit from the Fear Ward: enemies will eventually disengage when terrified and thus grant a lot of disengagement attacks which will apply Static Thunder as well. This is cool. By the way: using Nature's Terror in combo with a Fear Ward is not redundant because Nature's Terror will have higher ACC and will soften up the Will defense of enemies for the Fear Ward.

I personally like Furyshaper/Beguiler a lot. Berserker/Ascendant is also cool once you get rid of confusion. While ascended you can make good use of Action speed buffs (Frenzy, Bloodlust) and Blood Thirst to squeeze a lot of spells into the ascended phase - with +3 PEN (cipher passive + Tenacious). Speaking about witches: I never tried - does anybody know if Static Thunder from Lord Darryn's Voulge generates focus?

Lord Darryn's Voulge is great in melee with a Barbarian because Carnage works with Static Charge. That turns the Voulge into an AoE weapon. You don't need to bind the Voulge to the Barbaria class for this. You can bind it to the Druid class and get the +3 PL to Storm spells and get Static Charge, too. The Barbarian side would give static thunder which would also disorient - but imo one can pass that as a Tempest and go for the +3 PL for storms instead.

The +2 PEN of Devoted + the Tenacious inspiration of Berserker Frenzy (also +2 PEN) gives the Great Sword enough PEN. Also because it has two damage types as well (pierce/slash) so even if pierce or slash AR of the enemy should be really high: most of times it's not both. The main avantage of the Morning Star is Body Blows + Brute Force. If you have a preference for Great Swords you can totally go with that.

I don't know. Barbarian solo on PotD needs quite long to become good. I did an Ultimate with a Barb and is was more demanding than for example Wizard. I think I would try Wizard. Prepare to rest a lot.

If you want to use a two handed weapon then Morning Star is the best pick for a Brute imo. Brute gets "Brute Force" (how fitting) from the Barbarian side which lets the Barbarian target fortitude for his attacks if it is lower than the defense his action was originally targeting. The Morning Star modal "Body Blows" does -25 fortitude which is a huge debuff. The Barb can also apply Staggered automatically via Spirit Frenzy which is another -10 fortitude on top of the -25. This is very good. It makes the -25% dmg from the modal totally worth it. Attacks like Mule Kick or Clear Out trget fortitude to being with, so again the Morning Star shines. It also shines when it debuffs fortitude for your party's casters. Some of theoir best spells target fortitude, too. In addition to that (especially important with Devoted who doesn't want to switch ot another weapon type), Morning Star has decent PEN (unlike Great Sword) and two damage types (crush/pierce) which is a great combo imo because often enemies who are resistant to pierce dmg are often especially vulnerable to crush dmg. The Morning Star has lower base dmg than the Great Sword - but base dmg is less important than PEN. The Willbreaker is the best Morning Star in most situations. Saru Sicher is also good (especially vs. non-poison-immune bosses) and you can get it quite early. I'm a sucker for INT so I would always go for high INT (it's also great with Unbending). I would be cautious with very high MIG. You'll get +5 from Frenzy anyway and maxed Might also means maxed self damage from Berserker Frenzy - which can get really hefty at higher levels due to power level scaling (yes, the self damage scales up as well). Don't go too low either though. I thingk I would settle around 13-15 or something like that. DEX is a multplicative damage influencer. I would go rel. high. Like 16 or so. CON isn't very important. PER is nice to have, not only for early game accuracy but also because you need it for discovering traps and other secrets. 16+ If you're not planning to have high deflection (difficult anyway because of Frenzy) you can dump it to 3. I would go with something like this I guess: MIG: 14 CON: 10 DEX: 17 PER: 17 INT: 17 RES: 03 This is without Berath's Blessings. If you pick human your RES is 4 minimum instead of 3.

Well, +3 PEN is better than +1, especially with spells - and the +2 also applies to spells that don't have the elements keyword. I even combine that with Heart of the Storm and such to get +4 PEN. And should you overpenetrate - well there aren't that many spell dmg bonuses anyway, so... Confusion is easy to counter. Use Svef (it's no problem to find/craft/buy enough Svef for every fight until you find a better countermeasure), some of the resistance food or get Devil of Caroc Breastplate early with some mechanics and enchant it with Mechanical Mind. One could argue that Helwalker/Fury would be better because he also gets Tenacious without the confusion and on top gets high MIG and INT (and besides the casting speed that's a valid point) - but in my case it's just that a "Fury" and "Berserker" just fit so well thematically. Like... fury & rage...