UltimaLuminaire

I use confuse on enemy Priests or Paladins just to be a jerk, but otherwise can't be bothered unless the affliction happens to come with something else I'm doing.

I'll need to investigate my game. There has been damage variation on my end that combat log attributed to crit and now it's bothering me because your explanation is definitely in line with how it should work given interactions with graze.

Frenzy in a Riposte build seems fine unless you are also casting Spirit Shield, which does not stack with the active armor bonus from your improved Frenzy. The extra pen and Might, though, is still great and should function with your Riposte build without issue. If it's the raw damage, you can use whiteleaf or eat food for some passive regen. If it safely takes you to bloodied, you'll be able to take advantage of Bloodied without relying on enemies hitting you.

While it does not work on ranged, there are edge cases like Whispers of the Endless Path's cone AoE or on melee attacks that have a bounce effect like Eager Blade. Tangent, but there was a funny glitch during beta where using a ranged weapon would proc carnage on the primary target, which was hilarious since I had to recheck my combat log just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Current patch works as intended, though, so no random +33% raw damage on ranged attacks. Was cool while it lasted.

Thank you, Dr <3. I also suspect from the way the visual effect flares out from the target that Carnage has been changed into some kind of cone or limited projection like AoE, which is why it's hard to hit enemies a certain distance to the sides or at an angle towards your MC's sides. It's pretty easy to hit enemies extending a pike out forward from your MC. Love the observation on grazes. I've seen carnage crit since I've used Barbaric Blow a lot over my 7+ playthroughs of the first 20 hours, each using different configurations of Boeroer's old PoE tank Barbarian build, translated for Deadfire (so max might, perception, int, and resolve). The penetration doesn't matter and the extra 25% damage does apply. So 9 carnage damage would end up at 11.25, more if you're using Killer Gloves and the pet mentioned by KDubya. @dunehunter That's self evident. Luckily there are niche things you can do with 2h. Sanguine Great Sword is consistently good for sudden healing in big fights, Whispers of the Endless Paths procs carnage on anything caught in the cone, and there's funny stuff like the Eager Blade acc + action speed buff that relies only on getting a crit (doesn't matter if with carnage or not, and Bounding Strike will proc carnage lol). The damage doesn't fall far behind despite using 2h for self-buff because attack speed has diminishing returns and you reset your primary weapon often mid-game. Barbaric Blow costs 2 Rage, which is expensive but reasonable. Always best to multi-class for more Full Attacks if you need more damage, because pure Barbarian is terrible at renewable nova.

I would also be interested in actual Carnage range. All I can tell is it seems to have been decreased from PoE1. With 18 Int, PoE1 let you hit enemies all around you. Now, it almost seems to struggle to hit enemies a pike away from your target. I also haven't noticed a significant range increase with Barbaric Blow, meaning the base size must be very small indeed. I'd test this more extensively, but my desktop needs to be replaced. If anyone is willing to figure this one out, it would be much appreciated.