Boeroer

I'm completely aware that we agree on the mechanics. I also added that the problem with Carnage is that you get it automatically (class defining). I don't try to oppose tou, I'm just trying to point out some details that might be of interest to the readers of this thread. I don't have a problem with the intelligent barb. The points you make are true. It just doesn't bother me that much because I don't care a lot about immersion or meeting fantasy tropes or fulfilling expectations or making every class playable in a lot of different ways (as long as the class itself if fun to play even if it is a one-trick pony). But I get the point. My solution, as I said above, would be to remove all automatic abilities. That way you'd have more freedom for char development and you're not stuck with a barb who has to invest in INT just to make Carnage better.

You can say all that (threshold, low INT gimps) about every AoE ability in the game. In certain situations it doesn't matter if your INT is 10 or 15: you will scratch the circles of some enemies and damage them the same way as if your AoE covers their circles in whole. The only thing with the barb is that Carnage is an integral part because you get it automatically. You can't omit it. And this has to be balanced out in some way so the class is not too strong. So you get less ACC and low deflection and all that. If you want to play a ranged barb there will always be the feeling that you wasted the best thing of the barb. I think most people have the same feeling when lowering INT with Carnage. They think "if I already have an auto AoE attack that grows in size with INT I should put a lot of points into it or else it's a waste." And it's true that Carnage gets better with a lot of INT. But again: it may be that it doesn't matter a lot of times if you have 10 or 15 INT because it's enough to just barely scratch enemies, you don't have to cover them completely with your AoE. And it needs a LOT of additional INT to reach the next line. So, either make a barb with a LOT of INT or leave it a mediocre levels. It's of not much use to put 1 or two points more INT if you can't reach the next row of enemies with it. It would have been better to give the barb another automatic ability than Carnage. It should be an optional pick at lvl-up. That way you could have played a dumb barb (maybe even ranged) without the feeling that you're throwing away your best tool. I would have preferred that there are no fixed, automatic abilities for any class.

If it's as powerful as Battle Forged in PoE1 it's worth it. If it's the weak, non-scaling fire shield it used to be it's garbage.

Yes, but you need high CON on a rogue then - else the small health pool will kill you quickly.

I think it's great. Like Braven said, it's the passive and "no fuzz" part that makes it good. It doesn't matter if you are paralyzed, stunned or prone: you heal. It's as powerful (or even a bit more powerful) as Constant Recovery of a fighter. And nobody complaints about that ability. I always use it with healing bonuses and try to stack it with several other passive healing sources (like Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits + Shod-in-Faith boots for example). It is especially useful in the early to mid game where your endurance pool is a lot smaller than later. But since it scales it's also not bad in the late game. Unlike Savage Defiance which is very good in the early game and gets less an less useful the more you level. I like it a lot on all builds that have poor defenses, decent health (be it from class or through high CON) but want to be on the frontline.

Ha - nearly the same word as for "early".

I meant if you are going to use official companions only. I never use Vielo Vidorio. That is doesn't stack with other speed buffs is a real bummer.

I like to have both Edér and Pallegina in the party - and that's because a fighter with Disciplined Barrage with the aid of a marker paladin is a great boss killer.

I guess Gauntlets of Swift Action will always be the winner. Mourning Gloves are also nice - especially if you don't use other "non-stackable" speed buffs.

I know a bit russian because I lived in Uzbekistan for three years (2010-2013). But I never had to look up or use the russian words for cut or scar.

The question is what comes first. If first Comtessa's Gage gets calculated and then Confident Aim it's pretty cool. If it's the other way round it's not so cool. It could also be that both get calculated seperately and just get added. I never read about a proper test about this. But I know that Kaylon said not long ago that with both enabled you basically have pretty uniform damage rolls.

Cuts are wounds which you get when you get... well, cut. By a knive or a sword or a sharp piece of office paper. They turn into scars after some time. The "scars" in the face of the woman look quite fresh. Red and a bit gaping. Not like scars but like fresh cuts. Which I don't like on a portrait. So good job on removing those.

A barbarian with 1 INT can still hit adjacent foes with Carnage. They have to stand close ot each other, but it still works. Since it doesn't matter if the AoE of Carnage just barely scratches your circle or fully covers it, there is quite a bit of play when it comes to INT. A barb with 10 INT will not hit a lot less enemies than one with 15 INT for example. There are some sweet spots though. Once you mange you scratch the second row of enemies with your Carnage AoE things get interesting. And that's why some people like to max out INT. But it's not that much of a gimpage to play a barb with mediocre INT. Of course there's still Frenzy and Savage Defiance which get better the more INT you have...

Didn't you remove the scars and cuts with Photoshop?

If you trigger Frenzy at the start of combat and also took Veteran's Recovery then the concealed endurance/health is not too bad - because you heal automatically. If I'm not sure if endurance drops too quickly despite Veteran's Recovery I like to trigger Savage Defiance. It's strong from early to mid game. Later it falls behin because it doesn't scale with level, but with healing modifiers like survival and item (up to +85%) it stays to be useful. At the same time Shod-in-Faith boots work very well with such stats.

Good job on removing the cuts. Those were a bit over the top for my taste.

Yes, I would put the points into DEX.

Hm... they must have changed this or my memory is failing me. I remember having a conversation with MaxQuest about this some time ago.

I think you will have to test this.

No that's fine. He bought that invisible treadmill from Yurdan the other day...

Nice. Who did those?

Huh? Since when is that? As far as know those also stack. At least they did in the past. But since reload speed bonuses are multiplicative, you get diminishing results when stacking them. For example 100 * 0.5 (Swift Aim) * 0.8 (Gunner) * 0.8 (Sure Handed Ila) = 32% of the original reload time. If they would be additive you would get 100*(1-0.5-0.2-0.2)= 10%.

Yes,it stacks. It's one of the few things that stacks with nearly every other speed buff (if you use a ranged weapon of course).

I like high MIG and INT because I always use Veteran's Recovery and/or Savage Defiance. High MIG also counters the -34% damage malus from Carnage a bit. Stun suppresses prone. It's of little use to combine We Toki with a stunning weapon like Cladhaliath except for the times you meet foes who are immune to one of those afflictions. The combo Wodewys + We Toki or Shatterstar + Godansthunyr is more useful in my opinion. I would also try a single handed Cladhaliath with Stunning + Vicious. +17 ACC and 15% hit to crit is nice if you're looking for AoE stuns. Dual Wielding with a spear just looks stupid. 10 MIG can work, but it will take some time to stack some other damage bonuses so that the lack of MIG gets less obvious. So in the early game you damage per hit will be meh if Frenzy runs out. Later on - with more crits and other damage mods - you don't feel it any more and DEX will be more important. A lot of DEX also helps with the lengthy animation of Frenzy.

You can retrain at every merchant/inn. While doing this you can also reallocate stats. This also works with hirelings but not the official companions. You have 78 points to spend. If you dump CON (I don't recommend this) and RES you can put everything else at 18. Barbs tend to be very squishy at the beginning but grow sturdier with every level because of their huge bonuses to endurance and health. If you dump CON then you take this advantage away. I wouldn't go under 10 with a dual wielding approach. You want to get close. And if you do get close you will get attacked because of your abysmal deflection. Having very low RES and low DEX, combined with the longer attack animation and recovery of two handers or heavy one handers, will get you interrupted a lot in the beginning. It is not a big problem if you mainly flank, but if you want to engage more than one enemy at a time you will have problems. DEX at 10 when dual wielding will be ok though. Keep in mind that DEX is a multiplicative damage tool while MIG is only additive. Also,the 24% speed bonus will get applied to animation AND recovery while all other speed bonuses like Frenzy and so on only affect recovery. With heavy one handers or two handers, which have a lot longer animation phase than light weapons, the difference between low and high DEX is very visible. You could do it like this: MIG: 17 CON: 14 DEX: 10 PER: 17 INT: 17 RES: 03 It is normal that you graze and miss a lot in the early game. Barbs start with only mediocre accuracy and on top of that Carnage has a penalty of -10 ACC. You can use a single one handed weapon in the early game to deal with this. With every level Carnage gets +1 extra accuracy. If you take Accurate Carnage your Carnage accuracy will be the same as your normal accuracy at lvl 5 already. So, hitting stuff becomes easier with every level. At level 16 Carnage will have +11 ACC compared with normal attacks. Still, since you want to rely on crits I would put a lot of points into PER, yes. And while you are at it, you can combine the effect-on-crit approach with an interrupting approach. Both like high PER. For this I like war hammers because they are not only a good pick for Heart of Fury, but also have two damage types and most importantly: there's two uniques with increased interrupts time AND one of them is stunning (Godansthunyr) while the other is annihilating (Shatterstar). This is a great combo. But getting Godansthunyr will take some time. Before that the interrupting approach is a good substitute for stunning - and you can get Shatterstar very early. I personally would go for two handers with an on-crit build and buy the Temaperacl first and later buy Hours of St. Rumbalt. Mainly because you can get them a lot earlier than the one handed weapons which stun/prone on crit. And Rumbalt has a great enchantments combo that works very well with crits (and Blood Thirst). Doing crits with a durganize Rumbalt if you also took Merciless Hand is very satisfying. Of course you can do both: use a two hander for auto-attacks but switch to DW when executing Heart of Fury. But then forget the interrupting.