Okay, this is quite obvious and hardly warrants its own thread, but I couldn't find an appropriate topic without derailing an existing one, and maybe someone will find it interesting.

So, Berserker, as we surely can all agree, is by far the best Barbarian. ( ) Only the confusion is a bit annoying. Measures to get rid of it are widely known - upgraded Modwyr or Devil of Caroc breastplate will do the trick. However, for Brutes, there's an equally easy way out without restricting your selection of gear: All you need is Tactical Barrage and a custom AI script. I made my AI behavior to always start with Frenzy (+conditions: does not have body inspirations hardy/tenacious), then next highest in the list: Tactical Barrage +conditions has intellect afflictions / does not have intellect inspirations.

In action this means my Brute will open a fight by going into Frenzy, and, without delay, go from confused to acute - both Frenzy and Tactical barrage have zero recovery.

Edited July 16, 20187 yr by M4xw0lf

Wouldn't it be better to cast Tactical Barrage first and Frenzy second? Because Tactical Barrage will last longer when you cast it "unconfused" or in other words: with +4 INT. The result should be the same: confusion and smart cancel each other out.

I'll test if it makes a difference, of course you're right that it probably should.

 

€: yeah, buffing intelligence first works as expected.

Edited July 16, 20187 yr by M4xw0lf

More than that, Frenzy will be longer if you use the Tactical Barrage first as well. Obviously a tiny amount of Barrage duration is wasted due to the Frenzy activation time, but nowhere near as much as the Confused debuff does anyway, so Barrage first is always best. In the same way really as it is always a good idea to activate a fresh Tactical Barrage before the first one has elapsed (assuming you want to keep it active of course), since that tacks on 3.75s duration to the new Barrage. 

Yes, I feel bad already

Black Jacket + Berserker can switch on modwyr without recovery penalty and then switch back

Black Jacket + Berserker can switch on modwyr without recovery penalty and then switch back

Does the AI handle that reliably now?

Black jacket looses constant/rapid recovery, that's quite a nasty penalty

Black jacket looses constant/rapid recovery, that's quite a nasty penalty

But you can switch on any weapon slot without penalty, you can even attack with 2H and switch on shield

I don't think that losing Constant Recovery is such a bad thing. There are so many sources of healing that it's easy to circumvent that disadvantage. It's way more difficult to speed up switching.

 

Now, with the AI allowing for automatic switching it's also less of a tedium to do so.

Theoretically doesn't the Black Jacket save you two skill pts (quick switch and extra weapon slot) at the expense of constant recovery? Since a fighter can actually pick the subclass bonuses.

Theoretically doesn't the Black Jacket save you two skill pts (quick switch and extra weapon slot) at the expense of constant recovery? Since a fighter can actually pick the subclass bonuses.

No. You still need both abilities

Yeah you can select both abilities as a regular Fighter so that's all the BJ is saving you, at the expense of Constant Recovery.

 

In other words, any Fighter can select those abilities.

Edited July 16, 20187 yr by Verde

Yeah you can select both abilities as a regular Fighter so that's all the BJ is saving you, at the expense of Constant Recovery.

 

In other words, any Fighter can select those abilities.

No, you need both abilities for BJ to remove switch penalty and if you wish add one more weapon slot

Black Jacket gives you an additional weapon slot right from the start AND a faster switching recovery. It's not zero though.

 

You can then take a fourth weapon set via Arms Bearer (fighter ability) if you like and also pick Quick Switch to reduce switching recovery to zero.

 

A non-Black Jacket Fighter can only have three sets with Arms Bearer and can not reach zero switching recovery.

 

That's waht you pay for with the loss of Constant Recovery.

 

A Black Jacket can switch sets with no additional recovery if he takes Quick Switch as well. That means he can switch to an offensive set right before attacking and then immediately switch back to a defensive setup right after the attack. THis allows for maximum offense while executing the attack and maximum defense when recovering from the attack.

 

Imagine a Black Jacket/Bleak Walker: 1st set dual sabres for FoD, 2nd set hatchet + small shield with Binding Block. Switch to sabres, do FoD and immediately switch to shield, waiting for recovery to pass, likely binding an attack for +15 ACC, switch to dual sabre and do another FoD with +15 ACC, swtich back to shield and so on. In theory this is a much bigger advantage than having Constant Recovery.

Black Jacket gives you an additional weapon slot right from the start AND a faster switching recovery. It's not zero though.

 

You can then take a fourth weapon set via Arms Bearer (fighter ability) if you like and also pick Quick Switch to reduce switching recovery to zero.

 

A non-Black Jacket Fighter can only have three sets with Arms Bearer and can not reach zero switching recovery.

 

That's waht you pay for with the loss of Constant Recovery.

 

A Black Jacket can switch sets with no additional recovery if he takes Quick Switch as well. That means he can switch to an offensive set right before attacking and then immediately switch back to a defensive setup right after the attack. THis allows for maximum offense while executing the attack and maximum defense when recovering from the attack.

 

Imagine a Black Jacket/Bleak Walker: 1st set dual sabres for FoD, 2nd set hatchet + small shield with Binding Block. Switch to sabres, do FoD and immediately switch to shield, waiting for recovery to pass, likely binding an attack for +15 ACC, switch to dual sabre and do another FoD with +15 ACC, swtich back to shield and so on. In theory this is a much bigger advantage than having Constant Recovery.

In theory you can launch x3 full attack with Pistol and Blunderbusses without recovery. I even has something like Weapon Master build concept :D

Edited July 16, 20187 yr by mant2si

Black Jacket gives you an additional weapon slot right from the start AND a faster switching recovery. It's not zero though.

 

You can then take a fourth weapon set via Arms Bearer (fighter ability) if you like and also pick Quick Switch to reduce switching recovery to zero.

 

A non-Black Jacket Fighter can only have three sets with Arms Bearer and can not reach zero switching recovery.

 

That's waht you pay for with the loss of Constant Recovery.

 

A Black Jacket can switch sets with no additional recovery if he takes Quick Switch as well. That means he can switch to an offensive set right before attacking and then immediately switch back to a defensive setup right after the attack. THis allows for maximum offense while executing the attack and maximum defense when recovering from the attack.

 

Imagine a Black Jacket/Bleak Walker: 1st set dual sabres for FoD, 2nd set hatchet + small shield with Binding Block. Switch to sabres, do FoD and immediately switch to shield, waiting for recovery to pass, likely binding an attack for +15 ACC, switch to dual sabre and do another FoD with +15 ACC, swtich back to shield and so on. In theory this is a much bigger advantage than having Constant Recovery.

Answered my question thanks. I do agree Constant Recovery may not be necessary. Same with 0 swap time and 4 arms sets, so really the BlackJacket is a decent trade off. I played one with Streetfighter and it was effective, but it was my first playthrough.

I tried a Black Jacket/Berserker with "only" three weapon sets but with 0 switching recovery yesterday - the idea is to deal Body Blows with a Morning Star (in orde to "abuse" Brute Force) and to use the primary attacks with it, switch to a weapon & shield setup for recovery or when I get pummeled too hard and switch to a dual wielding setup for Barbaric Blow/Penetrating Strike. It gives you a lot of advantages - but is surely is very tedious to manage. I didn't find a good AI setting for this kind of behaviour yet (that didn't totally bug out). If I could it would be quite a good composition.  

Edited July 17, 20187 yr by Boeroer

Is it worth to take tactical barrage? does the 25 hit to crit chance of disciplined strikes stack with the 30 from frenzy of the berserker?

It does stack, but not additively. Those conversions are checked one after the other. So if Disciplined Barrage doesn't trigger then the Berserker's Frenzy conversion gets checked and so on. So this leads to a situation where every additional conversion adds less and less overall chance.

 

For example a 25% conversion and a second 30% conversion will result in an over chance of ~48%, not 55%. Now also pick Uncanny Luck with 5% and you end up with ~50%. Only a ~2% improvement. That's why I would never take Uncanny Luck if I already have some conversions (except if I wanted the resistance part badly). Same with Critical Focus or even Dirty Fighting. It's just not worth it once you already have good conversion numbers. As single conversions they would be ok. 

 

But +25% is a big chunk on its own and 48 is still a lot better than 30 or 25, so my pick for a melee char would nearly always be Disciplined Barrage - also for a Berserker because there are other means to remove confusion (Svef, Priest's Liturgy, Devil of Caroc Breastplate, Modwyr, Monk's Clarity of Mind or Wizard's Infuse - if you multiclass and so on).

Edited July 18, 20187 yr by Boeroer