Boeroer

Combat focus "only" gives him 1 additional layer of Concentration which gets removed wen he gets interrupted. The next interrupt will cancel his ability he's currently trying to cast. You could add a second layer with the Upright Captain's Belt. That usually helps a lot. Best way to circumvent interrupts entirely is Rekvu's Fractured Casque which will make you immune once you have 1 injury. Getting a fairly harmless injury (Acute Rash) is easy if you cast Necrotic Lance on him until he goes down or to take him down with Fireballs (Serious Burn) right after rest. --> no more interrupts. Works outside of combat. Another way would be to cast a Priest's Litany for the Body on him: long lasting buff that lets him build up layer over layer of Concentration.

Yes, it is cheesy as heck.

@AndreaC: could you maybe add my latest build to the build list? Thank you! https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/106646-class-build-the-cauterizer/

<will insert backstory and picture here > <or maybe not...> =================================== The Cauterizer =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Barbarian -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Fire Godlike (optional) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: The Living Lands - Colonist -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 19 CON: 10 DEX: 09 PER: 18 INT: 19 RES: 03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Survival 12 (+2 from Sanguine Plate) We can't use Second Wind from Athletics because you will hit yourself with Battle-Forged's burn retaliation when using Second Wind (bug). -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) 2: Veteran's Recovery ® 4: Weapon Focus Soldier® 6: Accurate Carnage® 8: Rhymer's Summons 10: Scion of Flame 12: Two Handed Style 14: Apprentice's Sneak Attack 16: Savage Attack Abilities 0: Carnage(a) 1: Frenzy(!) 3: Savage Defiance 5: One Stands Alone® 7: Blood Thirst 9: Bloodlust 11: Heart of Fury 13: Dragon Leap 15: Blooded Story Talents: - The Merciless Hand - Gift from the Machine - Dungeon Delver - Song of the Heavens - Hylea's or Galawain's Boon --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended): Weapon Set 1: Firebrand (!) / some backup Great Sword (Justice for example) Weapon Set 2: some arquebus or arbalest Boots: Shod in Faith ® Head: none (Fire Godlike) Armor: Sanguine Plate ® Neck: Lost Periapt of the Winding Path Belt: Belt of the Ryoal Deadfire Cannoneer (!) Rings: Iron Circle, Band of Union Hands: Forgemaster's Gloves (!) --------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! A late build for PoE since recently the traffic in this forum rose again and I never posted my favorite Barb build since the Deafire Pack came out. The Cauterizer combines two very strong things: Firebrand and Blood Thirst. Firebrand has immense base damage and thus works very well with all sorts of dmg bonuses, including crits. Unfortunately you can't enchant it and so - most of the time - other weapons become better options when reaching the late(ish) game, mainly because of Durgan Steel and its speed bonus. But Blood Thirst helps: it can completely remove the need for attack speed bonuses IF you can manage to kill quickly enough. And nothing kills stuff more quickly (and triggers Blood Thirst with the kill) than Firebrand + Carnage. Add as many dmg bonuses as you can because you want to max out the damage per attack (not dps - dps comes from the removal of recovery through Blood Thirst). So the stuff I picked (Scion of Flame and so on) is there to increase damage per hit. You also want to crit as much as possible because Firebrand has Annihilation. In combo with Merciles Hand and Dungeon Delver you'll do +90% crit damage which is so powerful combined with the high base dmg of Firebrand. Good thing about Carnage: it may start off quite underwhelming because of its reduced damage and more importantly reduced accuracy - BUT: Carnage gains +1 ACC per char level. Combined with Accurate Carnage you will surpass the ACC of your initial hits at lvl 6 already. The more levels you gain the more likely you crit with Carnage. After lvl 6 it's better to attack a low deflection target in order to better hit a high deflection target with Carnage. The best way to use this is to gather the enemies and then hack away at them. Best to not jumo into their midst since this build has low RES (unless you have Heart of Fury). Better jump to the edge of a cluster. Squishy enemies may get one-shotted and immediately trigger Blood Thirst (and Bloodlust) which leads to a cascade of burning death strokes with no recovery. Kills with Battle Forgedalso trigger Blood Thirst - I found that to be a nice addition - also because it works with Blooded and Scion of Flame. Even more speed if you get hit. In game pre lvl 7 you have Frenzy to speed you up and balance out the lowish DEX a bit. With Sanguine Plate you can even get several Frenzies per encounter. Also great for your fortitude, healing and health loss. "But Boeroer: sometimes there are not that many squishy enemies and then I will be left with that very slow burning attacks!" True - that's where Rhymer's Summons come into play. The fun part is that Blood Thirst and Bloodlust also trigger if you kill your own skeletons. Carnage still applies to enemy bystanders. So... only one or two tough enemy left at the end of a fight and you need more speed? Good you summoned those incredibly squishy skeletons and can now kill them for insane attack speed! If you don't like that part of the build (because it feels like cheese or something) just pick Barbaric Blow. At the same time we don't want to go down all the time while we swing around. Because of that we maxed outr self healing potential. 14 Survival leads to a +60% healing bonus which applies to Savage Defiance and Consecrated Ground and Veteran's Recovery: tons of virtual endurance. Health is usually no issue with Barbs, even at 10 CON. But you need some levels to feel the effect. So play it safe in the early levels (like always with barbs). Your biggest friend in the party is somebody who debuffs enemies' deflection and your ACC - for example a druid with Nature's Mark or a Wizard with Eyestrike and a Priest with Blessing + Devotions and so on. You want crits! You also want Holy Meditation because your concentration is pretty bad. This combo is so devastating that my jaw literally (not figuratively) dropped the first time I used Blood Thirst and Firebrand together. He cauterizes enemies in half so quickly that other party members sometimes even don't get them chance to finish a spell. *whoosh-whoosh-whoosh* done. You may not want to use Tidefall as backup because wounding kills don't trigger Blood Thirst. It's too good to use it as backup anyway. You'll have 6 uses of Firebrand per rest (gloves + belt uses do stack!). Usually that's more than enough from camp to camp. That's also a reason why I don't use Runner's Wounding Shot. Enjoy!

One "win button" for a no reload challenge would be to use a chanter, skill him for maxed Dragon Thrashed ACC and damage and give him one single weapon. Then bring a priest. The reasons are: - Dragon Thrashed keeps on working even when the Chanter is withdrawn (Priest spell). - Dragon Thrashed gets +12 ACC from single weapon usage (seems like it's a bug, never got fixed) You end up with a high ACC burning/slashing "totem" which can't get killed and blocks chokepoints. Another one is to bring a Cipher and equip same Chanter with an Preservation item and the Solace shield or Little Savior (which I mentioned above). I don't know if this got fixed lately, but Withdraw is an official "stun" effect and thus used to trigger Preservation, giving the Chanter +100 to all defenses. Then cast Defensive Mindweb. All party members will share the insane defenses of the withdrawn Chanter... Chanter can't get killed and at the same time damages all enemies big time = you can't lose = win button.

Exactly. Binding Roots as well. So a Ranger + Binding (Thorny) Roots + Vion-Ceth works. But also Woodskin (e.g. enemy druids).

"Flanderization" - best new term ever. On the other hand it brought us the Berath's Blessing which allows Edér to equip a pet as well. The only Blessing I ever play with.

Right. Summoned one handed weapons don't remove the offhand weapon. Why should they? No switching might be a safety feature for you if you have AI on: if you summon a weapon and AI switches weapon sets and the summoned weapon disappears - that would be a bummer.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/106565-31-enemies-on-potd-are-being-pulled-too-easily/

You get the same loot and more nautical experience (gaining ranks for you and your crew- making ship fights easier).

No difference.

Yes, right. Firebrand has a +25% burning lash which makes it ok. If you want to build around it you can use Bleak Walker and add Ring of Focused Flame, Scion of Flame + Spirit of Decay for +2 PEN and +10 ACC and additional +25% burning lash with Flames of Devotion. That means you can turn on Rending Smash with no ACC loss. Not too bad combined with the lash(es). Firebrand itself profits from Scion of Flame and Ring no matter if you use FoD or not. FoD of a Bleak Walker just can add an additional +1 PEN with Spirit of Decay and more lashes. Nothing too special but a viable combo if you don't want to shift anyway. Druid/Devoted would also work well I think. +2 PEN from Devoted, +1 from Scion and +10 ACC from the Ring. Nice for the enhanced crit damage.

If you want to survive fort-based CC you should look for effects that shorten/suppress the affliction or make you immune or nigh invulnerable when suffering from a certain affliction. Examples: Wear an item with Preservation (e.g. Blaidh Golan) and Ilfan Byrngar's Solace in the second weapon slot. Once you get proned or stunned switch to that weapon slot with the shield. You'll get +100(!) to all defenses as long as the affliction lasts - because Preservations from items and shield stack. You will be untouchable. Little Savior does the same. Wear Fenwalkers. They not only provide +20 defense against certain mean afflictions but also reduce their duration by 3 secs. That usually means you only get grazed (half duration) and then that reduced duration even gets reduced further by 3 secs. Supergood item if you don't want to put too many points into your defenses. And all in all for a no reload run I would say a priest is mandatory simplky because of Prayers and Litanies against X which make the game a ton easier: no need for defenses if you are immune. Fights with Adragans which can be a major pain in the slapreceiver turn into cakewalks if you can't get petrified.

If you like Animal Companion's damage you should use Persistence (best single target dps ranged weapon anyway) and pair it with Predator's Sense, Vicious and Merciless Companion and also Brutal Takedown. Brutal Takedown is very nice because its damage is fixed and thus only has to overcome 1/4 of enemies' DR. Don't ask me why - it's the same with all fixed dmg abilites (look at Iconic Projection). Also Brutal Takedown provides two Knockdowns. Brutal Takedown's dmg does NOT profit from Predator's Sense and stuff though. Look at it als a fixed bonus that bypasses 3/4 of enemies DR and you will not be disappointed. Usually I can two-shot casters until the later game (Wounding Shot + Fox's Brutal Takedown => *pouf*). Add Stalker's Link, Marksman and so on for Sagani. You don't need PEN shot because Wouding from Persistence (raw DoT) takes care of high DR since it's lash damage is calculated PRE DR. It also profits from MIG (25% raw lash becomes a 32.5% raw lash with 20 MIG for example). Persistence provides constant DoT effect (Wounding) even when not using Woundig Shot which means that the Animal Companion will always get the +50% dmg boost from Predator's Sense as long as you two attack the same target. The base dmg of Animal Companions scale with level. So even if they start out a little bit on the wet-noodle side they scale extremely well with level and any dmg bonuses you can provide them with. They don't attack very fast, but will bite through heavy armor easily aftr some levels. The fox is the same as the wolf - which means their base dmg is even higher. Persistence, although being one of the strongest dps weapons in PoE, can be obtained very early in the Endlass Paths on lvl 4 (south-west of the map). I usually skip Faithful Companion because I run out of points (and there are other options to deal with Mind Control in a party). Also because higher defenses on the Animal Companion most of the time only lead to grazes (if the do anything) - but a grazed Mind COntrol ist still a full Mind COntrol - just shorter. I rely on Priest or Paladin to deal with such things without the need to boost defenses which usually means a lot of investment for little outcome compared to immunites or suppression like Priests/Paladins can provide. But Resilient Companion is also on my list most of the time. IN the early game it's very useful. Later on it doesn't matter that much - you can keep it or retrain. You can also retrain Sagani once you get Twinned Arrows. At that point there's no need for Swift Aim anymore (they are mutually exclusive). SO if you took Swift Aim or Vicious Aim you can retrain, skip it and go straight for Twinned Arrows. Spares you a point that you can put to better use in the late game.

Yes, kind of niche. But you can build around a blunderbuss and turn the nicheness into a generally viable and useful concept using several class combos. I consider the modal to be pretty awful except for a Streetfighter though. Mainly because Powder Burns has low dmg and more importantly friendly fire.

There are no penalties to dual wielding in general. There's only a -35% dmg penalty to Full Attack abilities which are executed with two weapons.

Not really.

Nope. Afaik the only summons that "stack" are from Grave Calling/Hel Beckoning/Essence Interruptor and from Many Lives Pass By. All others will replace each other.

You forget the fact that you have 4 hit rolls with a blunderbuss. This can be very useful in certain situations/setups. Like Confounding Blind, Combusting Wounds, The Shield Cracks, applying afflictions, triggering special on-hit effects and so on.

I only know that Heart of the Storm works with Fury's Wildstrike attacks since they have shock as base dmg.

Hi. I didn't test it thoroughly lately but I think the "leeching" aspect of the rapier Spelltongue is not as powerful as it used to be. When I did this build I could prolong my own buffs and positive effects on me endlessly with enough enemies around. I now have the impression that this doesn't work as well as it used to. Either you have to really hit enemies with actual buffs on them - or the durations you leech are shorter nowadays. It will not be as overpowered as it used to be. Still a viable concept though. If you are looking for a really fun barb to play (with the latest game version) then I would advise to buy the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer asap, grab Forgemaster Gloves and use Firebrand as your main weapon. Pick all the dmg and ACC boosts like One Stands alone, Two Handed Style, Accurate Carnage and whatnot and aim for Bloodlust and Blood Thirst. Then let your jaw drop when hitting groups of enemies. Hard CC from your party members helps to land crits. So much fun...

I know of no other one handed melee weapon which does lightning dmg. Scordeos Edge is always nice. And get yourself some Boltcatchers.

It's funny: in PoE Barring Death's Door was supersituational. It prevented you from dying because of low health, not from knockouts due to low endurance. As such, you would use it once, maybe twice in a playthrough. But that was ok because you got the spell without any drawback - came automatically with all the other spells at level up. Now with endurance/health gone it has to be redesigned to be of any use. If the designers would have wanted to keep its nicheness then they would have redesigned BDD in a way that it prevents death from too many injuries. THat would have been the 1:1 translation from PoE to Deadfire. But at the same time priests have to hand pick their spells now. So you want to make sure you don't pick a spell that you might only use twice in a playthrough. That made the 1:1 translation less attractive and they ended up with the current solution - which is a pain in the stern to balance.

Yeah - and there doesn't seem to be any intention to stop...

A very tenacious one obviously...