Has anyone played a Barbarian - Mageslayer and how did it go?

[Bezhukov]

Any Barb that isn't in melee is trying to be too cute/playing away from the strengths of the class.

There are enough items that trigger when Bloodied to jump right into the fray, not coincidentally drawing attention away from the rest of the party which I think is the undocumented strength of the class. 

The downside of Frenzy can be an upside if it makes the Barb an AI target, especially when that target is a trap that becomes a far harder to damage when Bloodied. Pollaxe might be good to get some engagement if the fools who rushed in change their minds, and being alone even Wahai Poraga could be good. Both hits would trigger Carnage with all applying Spell Disruption, right?

I'd probably go all-in with Streetfighter to use Escape for positioning, but straight-up Barb would get Leap soon enough along with the good passives and ability upgrades.

[Boeroer]

13 hours ago, Bezhukov said:

Any Barb that isn't in melee is trying to be too cute/playing away from the strengths of the class.

That's obviously not the case when pairing the Barbarian with a class that has good ranged abilities (like Ranger). The only ability that the Barb will have to pick and which he will not be able to utilize is Carnage - and unlike in PoE, Deadfire's Carnage is not very impactful anyway. Everything else will either work with a ranged weapon such as Frostseeker - or you simply don't need to pick it (like One Stands Alone or Interrupting Blows). 

Frenzy, Bloodlust, Bloody Slaughter, Blood Thirst, Spirit Frenzy and Blood Frenzy all work beautifully with a war bow at range. Barbaric Smash is a great finisher with Frostseeker, too (only "wasting" the Carnage part). Leap is great for a ranged character.

Pair the Mage Slayer with a Ranger and you'll have a great spell disruptor. It's not what I would recommend every time - but it's an effective way to play a different Mage Slayer - and it's fun. 

 

If you use Effort/Hemorrhaging you can obviously do both: engage in melee and still apply spell disruption in an AoE (with shouts or any other class combo's abilities, for example a Troubadour's chant every 3 secs. So it's just your regular melee Mage Slayer with a little AoE twist which raises its usefulness towards mobs. 

If you use Instruments of Pain you can also use all your melee prowess but still be able to quickly take on casters at range - even over 10m if you decide to use a reach weapon such as Wicked Beast for example, which would also be a multihit weapon which would vastly improve your Swift Flurry procs, too; shutting down casters very quickly if not outright killing them.

Deadfire can reward you for thinking outside the box. That also includes the barbarian class: a ranged Berserker/Streetfighter with Essence Interrupter is one of the strongest hirelings you can build for the early game (for helping you at the digsite for example).

Of course you can play a great melee-only striker Barb (that's the assumed primary role anyway), too. But you are not forced to in terms of effectiveness.

For an effective and thematically coherent strict melee Mage Slayer I would pick a Mage Slayer/Monk with Swift Flurry - and I wouldn't use Wahai Poraga but Sun & Moon + Mohora Tanga. A Full Attack from Stunning Surge would not only stun the enemy (= no casting for the foreseeable future) but also have a high chance of refund (3 attack rolls for potential crit right away), would apply three stacks of spell disruption right away (also 3* Carnage with huge AoE size due to Turning Wheel), if Mohora Tanga crits and applies Red Flag Flying it's even 4 stacks of spell disruption with the first attack. Then maximum chance for crit chains via Swift Flurry/HbD (because Sun and Moon's dual heads and Red Flag Flying potentially triggering Swift Flurry and itself(! loop over loop). Would be devastating against any foe but especially against single casters in the back rows. Drawback - can shut down your game if you get too lucky with Red Flag Flying (too many loop iterations and the game just closes itself). 

If I would want to totally exploit the Mage Slayer spell disruption I'd pick Effort + Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak and roll a Mage Slayer/Blood Mage with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure and then cast pulsing, non-damaging spells such as Binding Web, Slicken and/or Pull of Eora - after I used Spirit Frenzy.

The invisibility will not get lifted as long as I don't deal damage, Effort's Hemorrhaging will piggyback on all crits I do (like from spell pulses), Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak's stun, Spirit Frenzy's stagger and my spell disruption would piggyback on Hemorrhaging again. I could stay invisible for the whole time A's Br. Departure lasts, casting debuffs and at the same time apply stun and spell disruption with those spells. And the stagger from frenzy as well as the stun from the cloak can trigger Hemorrhaging - which can trigger the stun ad stagger again (loop). I would immediately shut down all mobs with stuns except the ones which I cannot crit reliably (mostly bosses). Those may take a few secs longer. After the invisibility ends everybody (who's not superdefender_200) in AoE range would have 100% spell disruption, too.

This loop doesn't shut the game down fortunately.

The only things that suck are the thematic clash (I mean a wizard who's violently opposing arcane magic, eh...) and that the invisibility sometimes doesn't take bc. of my own friend-or-foe spell resistance. But as a Blood Male I could repeat the spell as often as I wanted (if enough health). Another minor drawback is that Blood Sacrifice lifts the invisibility, too (bc. deals damage). I wouldn't play it though because Mage Slayer/Wizard just feels so wrong.

PS: nothing to do with Mage Slayer but Effort/Stalking Cloak: one can play a wizard/whatever with the great sword and the cloak, using Brilliant Departure + cc spell and have a friendly SC Druid with Entropy jn the party. Entropy only loses it's 3 "converting stacks" of 100% hit-to-crit if the converted roll deals direct damage. CC rolls don't substract from it. So the wizard could uphold an endless stun cycle on almost any enemy if the druid casts Entropy on them first. Entropy has no duration so it will stay on the enemy forever as long as you don't deal direct damage (pure DoTs like Insect Swarm or Disintegrate don't count as direct damage!). So as long a the wizard stays invisible his Hemorrhaging/stun combo will loop on the enemy because all hits will be crits. The occasional graze can be overriden with multiple attack rolls (pulses, spirit Frenzy piggybacks and so on). This can be used to stunlock an enemy for a long, long time. It doesn't lock MIG resistant/immune enemies - or ones with absurd defenses though (see Belranga right out the gates). Again: this loop doesn't shut down the game. It can create annoying sound effects though.

[Bezhukov]

Meh

You also lose the benefit of Blooded and the undocumented role I noted of having a low Deflection character in the thick of the fight to draw AI attention.

Ghost Heart/Mage Slayer is a great combo since Evasive Roll is so much earlier (and cheaper) than Leap and it provides a much-needed source of Accuracy and Full Attacks (or Concussive Tranquilizer if two-handing). Few Ranger abilities are ranged only.

One-weird tricks are fine for soloing but if you’re playing with a group might as well get the most out of each class and enjoy the synergies.

I like Barb to set a Trap while Fighter starts combat with an explosive to turn on Frenzy from Stealth then Escape/Roll/Leap into the backlines and try to draw attention while rest of party buffs up. Free Pull of Eora. 

If party has a better trapper then Barb can open combat. Marked for the Hunt has 20 range so ideal for that.

[Bezhukov]

Tactical Barrage + Barbaric Blow Carnage will have plenty of impact, especially with Spell Disruption tacked on. It’s fun to play to the strengths and unique features of each class instead of away from them. Pretty sure Streetfighter can find a way to make it very relevant too.

EDIT: welp did some research on Carnage and INT has no effect, nor does Sneak damage. Blow *does* give a much bigger radius, and obviously Action/Recovery speed effects trigger it more often, both important for Spell Disruption. 

Edited September 23 by Bezhukov

[Boeroer]

INT has an effect on Carnage. It changes the AoE size:

Konstanten about to attack Edér (with 15 INT):

Konstanten with 5 INT:

You can use a mod mafe by @Noqn to add an AoE indicator to Carnage so that its AoE size becomes visible:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/448

It doesn't change Carnage, it just adds the visual indicator.

Sneak damage has no effect indeed. Carnage is implemented like a spell basically. Cannot crit, too (that's why Blood Frenzy doesn't work with it, only Spirit Frenzy). But it scales with Power Level.

Edited September 23 by Boeroer

[Franknstein]

21 hours ago, Boeroer said:

I wouldn't play it though because Mage Slayer/Wizard just feels so wrong.

It's the Ultimate Nerd Egomaniac. Hates every other Wizard in the world, because they are lame! Sometimes own castings fizzle, because the Spell bears the name of a random lame self proclaimed Archmage!! So angry!

[Boeroer]

7 hours ago, Franknstein said:

It's the Ultimate Nerd Egomaniac. Hates every other Wizard in the world, because they are lame! Sometimes own castings fizzle, because the Spell bears the name of a random lame self proclaimed Archmage!! So angry!

I love those (sometimes silly) vindications of seemingly unfitting class combos. I really do... Makes me want to play one actually.

[Chaospread]

15 hours ago, Boeroer said:

I love those (sometimes silly) vindications of seemingly unfitting class combos. I really do... Makes me want to play one actually.

Yeah, a Mage Slayer / Blood Mage with double personality disorder who sometimes hates himself and spams blood sacrifice with suicide purposes