Crumbleton

So bloodthirst is an immediate attack when you kill something, so carnage providing AoE damage + bloodthirst (or mob stance) creates a kind of chain reaction of explosions when you get people low life, combined with you being able to crit stuff fairly easy at low hp you can plow through multiple enemies. Now mobstance and bloodthirst don't stack but you can still benefit from the 15% recovery time if you want, but myself i like to use guardian stance and get the extra engagements and % damage reduction because once i get a kill you start chaining them and it makes you fairly tanky, if anyone tries to disengage you get a free attack on them too. I like making Bruisers a lot, people who can throw down good damage and be really difficult to take down i use the Reckless brigand armor on my brute atm, and it increases my armor and damage as my health gets lower and makes me attack faster the more people I engange, so it really goes well with the Barbarian chassis. You can do a lot more focused builds on specific items etc, but I tend to like builds that are effective through out the entire game / come online early so a brute really works great for that, and when you get higher level you get access to a ton of great things too.

I'd suggest a barbarian, just because I love barbarians... But with frenzy, higher penetration with beserker and devoted, and the fighters accuracy boost for graze to hit and the barbarians hit to crit accuarcy isn't to much of an issue. You'll be able to smash, attack fast, be tanky , and just be awesome overall. You won't be locked into dialogue choices like paladins, aren't reliant on weird positioning things like rogues, or have to deal with the squishyness of helwalker. Brute is probably one of my top multiclass options you'll just be ****ing awesome. You come online really early as a brute multiclass too you'll get access to cleaving stance and blood thirst early which means after one kill you just statt going crazy in a group. Streetfighter is nuts too but I hate having to be flanked or bloodied, it's not hard to do, I just like the option of not having to deal with that. Although if you're fine with that they're insane.

Alright you could do something sort of silly if you want... You could do beguiler and debonair and use the debuffs / charms tand attack the charmed dudes for 100% crit chance.. But I kind of get what you want, a pure ascendant works too... You could do an ascendant / assassin build and get high damage from stealth that would allow you to hit ascended and spam cast. The thing with soul blade is that it's only a main hand attack so it definitely works better with 2h but could be alright with 1h. I'd go assassin / ascendant though since you can get that focus right at the start pump out cast, and possibly stealth again or just wade into melee. Just run with what ever concept you want it'll work more than likely!

I'm a fan of stuff like this in general, there are some classes that are typically better than others most of the time and for people who care about that stuff it's useful information to have imo. There will always be exceptions to list like this, certain very specific builds or what ever, but those are more outliers than the rule.

i think the main benefit of the the Voulge is even being able to stack the damage, i'm entirely unsure i think maybe only the voulge can proc it as far as i know, switching to a weapon would have more downside imo since a brute already has pretty crazy crit chance. ... a part of me wants to give an entire team voulges and see what happens

Kind of why I'm using it on a barb I like watching the lightning explosions!

Yeah, I've been messing with int values and Im unsure if it's worth it for carnage size. Switched to a brute too and it seems much stronger than the howler. Cleaving stance with the voulge is pretty strong. Especially since it gives more chances for carnage, and the extra graze hit amd crit conversion is pretty nice. Does the Deltros Cage armor increase the lightning damage of the voulge by chance?

does the on crit effect only work for weapon attacks or would spell attacks work too?

Just wondering, i wanted to go with a Howler build using brisk reciting to churn out offensive invocations so i dont care about the linger... would i just need enough int for my frenzy? I was planning on using Lord darryns Voulge for the additional AoE with caranage and crits, and mainly focusing on being a sort of "elemental" barbarian with invocations like Eld Nary, Thrice she was wrongged, and seven nights. I think the voulge applies to caranage hits, but i have no idea the effectiveness of int and caranage in deadfire if i should max it, or keeping it around 12-16 would be more than enough especially with those invocations. Any personal experience / advice would be great.

Mainly so I have something to do I'm combat =p instead of waiting for those 3 chanting phrases. Although ill probably just turn the per rest items to per encounter and not look back lol

Yeah I mean it'll definitely make some items crazy good but at the same time you're able to rest pretty much as much as you want it's just a little tedious, I'm running a solo class chanter atm and I'm pretty tempted to use it because I hate using scrolls too lol

Yeah I'm testing out bellower now and Thrice is doing quite well for me it explodes smaller groups. I'm looking at using grave calling / singing scimitar so I can cast my damage, empower a skeleton summon and kill them foe the foe only chill fog ( I think that's how it works?) While I wait for my chants to recharge I guess... Because I'm honestly not so sure I should be using bellower I kind of think a troubador with way more frequent nukes may be better, but at the same time these things wreck so idk!

man.... i mean what if i tell you i love playing dwarf bleak walkers? Does that make me... a monster?

Ah okay wasn't sure if they'd be all funky or not. Thinking of swashbuckler, hunter, or sheperd with amra, was kind of leaning towards an assassin / devoted and just dealing with the - 10 accuarcy when it happens. Think that'd be fine? I figure popping out of stealth and getting crits and hopefully a frenzy would let me start chugging through enemies paired with cleaving stance

just curious if they have an extra crit modifier or anything in there!

Alright just to add to this.. Holy **** I'm loving this so far. Between hunters mark, FoD and the Flame ring I have +30 accuracy, im only lvl 7 now but I'm able to just obliderate single enemies. With sworn enemy, retribution, Bleak walker FoD, it's pretty fun.

Yes - if you want to use it most efficiently. But if you are not solo anybody in your party can profit from it - it's not necessary that the ranger executes the attack. yeah At that point though.... it's not a combo =( unless i designed a sort of double team set up like a Bleakwalker/ Devoted Crusader who's job it was to use my rangers take down + mark accuracy

Man that'd be rough!..... honestly i was trying to get away with not using lay on hands here, just a pure single target smash face. Seems dumb, but i mean i get stuck on concepts even if it's not... err optimal? EDIT: so its the first instance of damage made by an attack correct? So it'd favor a single high strike over something like dual wielding?

Hmm yeah I was thinking of coupling it with the morning star so it has the better hit chance. I was thinking of using the paladin so I could follow up with the FoD and have the healing + Armor for me and my companion. I'd probably have Eder as a swashbuckler too since I'm a sucker for him, and a theurge adventurer as a second line healer. I was thinking of a devoted even since I plan on using a morning star and it has the double damage types, but I'm unsure if it's worth it since I could use an estoc with the modal if need be for penetration or a great sword for slashing. I figured with the modal, access to leap boots, and sickened I can debuff fortitude pretty well to make sure take down combo works.

Hmmm wasn't going for armor stacking more so a pet that could possibly live. Being a ranger I was attempting to not use ghost heart. But mainly as I said build around takedown combo

I was messing around in the character builder a bit and noticed take down combo has a whopping 100% damage increase for the next attack. I was thinking of pairing this with a morning star / Bleakwalker to be able to debuff fortitude enough to hopefully follow up with a big ass crit with FOD. Is take down combo reliable? Will I be frustrated and hate my life for even trying this? Am I wasting my time for really wanting to use ranger in melee and not taking advantage of driving flight and the reload faster talent? I was planning on doing PotD upscale which I normally do paired with paladins healing / armor aura and stalkers bonus armor would my pet still just be dead constantly? I'm kind of looking for a fun build I can micro pretty hard. Was doing a warlock but it seemed a bit much having to blood sacrifice every few seconds since I was casting so fast. So I had to micro but it wasn't enjoyable pressing 1 button mindlesly.

Beserkers with 1 fury shaper! I mean don't worry about the carnage damage and just give it a go, could be pretty hilarious especially once people start getting leap.

Hm I just assumed it would but I haven't tested, if not I could see nalpazca being a really good fit for what I want to do

Well I figured dance of death wouldn't pair so well with blood mage because I'd be taking damage

How does spirit tornado work? Is it just an aoe around me at the time of cast? Will it be typically useless for a backline? So I guess warlock is mainly banking on instant recovery at high level which means I could potentially go heavy armor while sage is more accurate, and probably better for a more general build?