[Class Build] William "Will" Breaker (1.2 solo PotD Brute)

[Vonmara]

A howling immortal one-man-army that smashes everything in its path with high Hit-to-Crit conversion.

 

 

"Sir! The third cohort has been repeled, they suffered heavy casualties! Should we send the cavalry?"

 

"Send the cavalry, the fourth, the fifth, the bloody reserves too! The enemy has us clearly outnumbered!"

 

"...Sir, it's just one man."

 

"what."

 

"With a Morningstar, Sir."

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/bi7qvIL

 

 

 

Until now, Barbarian has been a luckluster class to me, lacking the other martial classes high accuracy, and with not enough sustain to fulfill its role like it did in PoE1. Not to mention lack of any obvious CC.

 

However, the Morningstar modal completely changed my mind: in combination with Brute Force and Might afflictions, one can effectively increase their Accuracy by +35, by lowering the enemies Fortitude of that much. Note that the modal, while having a -25% damage penalty, can be turned off after scoring the first hit, as it persists for ~12s, and then on again.

 

Morningstars are underrepresented - the only two unique ones are Saru-Sichr and The Willbreaker. While the fomer is quite unimpressive, The Willbreaker has the following perks:

 

- 10% attack speed

- 10% Hit to Crit

- High raw damage over time on Resolve affliction ridden enemies (in this build, we will reach about 90 raw damage over 20s, by just hitting things. RIP deep wounds)

- 10% Chance to Shaken on Hit

 

Combine the former with the 30% Hit-to-Crit from Berserker, and another 25% from Intuitive, and we get to a nice ~53% Hit-to-Crit. And that's why we turn at the Devoted subclass, which adds more penetration on top of Tenacious, and additional Crit damage, all the same without losing in versatility, as Morningstars have good damage combination (Pierce/Crush).

 

The issue of self inflicted damage during Frenzy is addressed through spamming of Unbending Shield, Ring of Greater Regeneration, and last but not least, Devil's Due upgrade from The Devil of Caroc's Breastplate (incidentally coming with the Intellect Affliction Resistance we need), which provides healing on scoring Crits. Top this with a Voidward (-25% Raw damage, necessary because at high level and Might Frenzy ends up dealing about 30raw/3s), and you obtain a self-sustaining unstoppable killer.

 

I've tested this character in successfully clearing the Drowned Barrows, Nemnok included. I strongly believe this build is suitable for solo'ing PotD, even though it will suffer A LOT before getting its core ability, i.e. Brute Force, i.e. lvl 16. But again, in this game one can reach that level without much fighting.

 

 

Here's the build.

 

Race

 

 

Human, of course. Fighting Spirit is a free +7 accuracy. And we are able to keep our HP stationary.

 

 

 

 

Class

 

 

Berserker and Devoted. The former gives high Hit-to-Crit, Penetration, good Recovery and Carnage. The latter, more Hit-to-Crit, more Penetration, less Recover, ridiculous sustain.

 

 

 

 

Culture and Background

 

 

The White that Wends, as Perception will have to be maxed. This because the advantages of Hit over Graze are self-evident, thanks to high Hit-to-Crit.

Explorer for the bonus in History.

 

 

 

Attributes

 

 

 

Might 17 (+2 BB +1GotM)

Consitution 3 (+2 BB +1DuranceEffigy)

Dexterity 12 (+2 BB)

Perception 19 (+2 BB +1 Cauldron)

Intellect 16 (+2 BB)

Resolve 11 (+2 BB)

 

Justification:

High Might because we want to kill enemies before they kill us.

Who needs Consitution when you can heal everything.

Dexterity is always good, but other stats have priorities, we shall reduce Recovery with Mob Stance and high Engagement, Frenzy, Armored Grace, and Pets.

Perception maxed because Accuracy is king.

Good Intellect for duration of buffs.

Resolve not dumpstered because we want to save ourselves some debuff time.

 

 

 

 

Skills

 

 

 

Arcana 13, Athletics 10, and History maxed. The points in Arcana are enough for using Avenging Storm scrolls, which come always handy when you have Carnage; History because of The Giftbearer's Cloth.

 

Note that lowering enemies' Fortitude allows you to hit more easily with Plague of Insect scrolls

 

 

 

Abilities

 

 

 

Berserker | Devoted

|

1 Frenzy | Disciplined Barrage

2 Blooded |

3 Barbaric Yell |

4 Thick Skinned | Fighter Stances

5 | Two Handed Style

6 Determination |

7 One Stands Alone | Disciplined Strikes

8 | Hold the Line

9 Bull's Will |

10 Unflinching | Vigorous Defenses

11 Spirit Frenzy |

12 Barbaric Shout |

13 Interrupting Blows | Unbending

14 | Mob Stance

15 | Armored Grace

16 Brute Force | Refreshing Defenses

17 Leap |

18 | Weapon Specialization

19 Spirit Tornado | Unbending Shield

20 Blood Thirst |

 

Justification: Skipped Savage Defiance because Robust is negligible compared to all the other heals this character has access to; also, costs too much Rage, which we will need to spam the staple of this build: Spirit Tornado. Not only it deals decent damage, but the Terrified acts as an Interrupt: cast Spirit Tornado (no matter if it is already active!) when you see undesirable enemy abilities about to go off, namely Arcane Dampener, which will probably kill you right away. The rest of the Rage should be used on Leap, a gap closing tool that comes in handy every now and then to hit the backlines quickly, and Barbaric Shout, large AoE Shaken affliction (great in combination with The Willbreaker's "The Mind Makes Real" upgrade), increases by 3 your Engagement, leading to a nice total of 7, with Hold the Line, Thick Skinned and Blackened Plate Armor Helm; thus Mob Stance can potentially bless us with a -35% Recovery time.

 

I skipped Accurate Carnage as Carnage deals raw damage, therefore making it unaffected by grazing. Bull's Will is because Will is never high enough vs Arcane Dampener.

 

Spirit Tornado and Unbending Shield should be always up and running, as we have the resources to do so (massive heal, Devil of Caroc +2 class resource pool, Gauntlets of Discipline). The former applies Staggered on Hit, which means -10 Fortitude to the enemy, which means a good bonus for hitting with Brute Force.

 

 

 

Equipment

 

 

Weapon: The Willbreaker. Hit-to-Crit, Shaken affliction, tremendous DoT. Could we ask for more?

 

Chest: The Devil of Caroc's Breastplate. Provides the much needed Resistance to Intellect Afflictions, heal on Crit (and we will Crit a lot), expanded Resource Pool. Sweet.

 

Head: Blackened Plate Helm. Bonus Perception and Engagement. Note that Helm of the Falcon gives better recovery than 1 extra engaged, but BPH looks more badass.

 

Back: The Giftbearer's Cloth. Combine this baby with Refreshing Defenses (which usually needs to be used only once per fight, thanks to our low Deflection), and we will reach 150+ defenses.

 

Neck: Strand of Favor. Possibly the best amulet in game.

 

Feet: Footprints of Ahu Taka. Bonus Dex and +10% healing.

 

Hands: Gauntlets of Discipline. Let's be honest: would you like any puny bonus from any other bracer, or one additional use of Unbending Shield? Exactly. Get these babes.

 

Waist: Pretty much anything, but a bonus ~130 heal from an additional Second Wind makes me go for the Undying Burden.

 

Ring1: Voidward. 30 damage every 3 seconds from Frenzy at max level are no joke. Cutting it down to 22 is not bad.

 

Ring2: Ring of the Solitary Wanderer. If enemy has no significant debuffs, Ring of Greater Regeneration.

 

Edited September 22, 2018 by Vonmara

[sarcongin]

Nice build! I'll try it for a solo run

[Boeroer]

Yes - nearly exactly as I played it.

 

With one exception: why not Clear Out? I loved it with my Morning Star Berserker/Devoted.

 

It does really nice damage on clumped mobs - because Carnage will trigger on every hit of the AoE attack. And it will apply Shaken and Body Blows to all enemies you hit with it. It will apply prone and push the enemies around as well. I mean the latter might not be desired sometimes, but still...

 

For the levels before getting Brute Force you can make great use of Knockdown and then Mule Kick: both target fortitude and Mule Kick even gets +10 ACC. Those are pretty darn good attacks for a guy with a Morning Star (and Barbaric Yell). You can retrain as soon as you get Brute Force.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Boeroer

[mant2si]

I done last 2 runs with Black Jacket/Berserker (with same gear and same primary weapon). I didn't understand how people can ignore such cool 2H AOE attacks like WotEP - Spin Assault, or Wicked Beast or Stalker's Patience

On my opinion 2 pen, can't compensate such cool skills, combine them with Avenging Storm from Heaven's Cacophony

Edited July 31, 2018 by mant2si

[Boeroer]

Because it's just average.

[Dorftek]

I done last 2 runs with Black Jacket/Berserker (with same gear and same primary weapon). I didn't understand how people can ignore such cool 2H AOE attacks like WotEP - Spin Assault, or Wicked Beast or Stalker's Patience

 

On my opinion 2 pen, can't compensate such cool skills, combine them with Avenging Storm from Heaven's Cacophony

Yeah I'm playing a blackjacket/assassin right now who use a lot of those special gear skills and it's awesome with backstab and assassinate.

[Vonmara]

With one exception: why not Clear Out? I loved it with my Morning Star Berserker/Devoted.

 

It does really nice damage on clumped mobs - because Carnage will trigger on every hit of the AoE attack. And it will apply Shaken and Body Blows to all enemies you hit with it. It will apply prone and push the enemies around as well. I mean the latter might not be desired sometimes, but still...

 

I wasn't aware about this interaction, that sounds great! 

 

I done last 2 runs with Black Jacket/Berserker (with same gear and same primary weapon). I didn't understand how people can ignore such cool 2H AOE attacks like WotEP - Spin Assault, or Wicked Beast or Stalker's Patience

 

On my opinion 2 pen, can't compensate such cool skills, combine them with Avenging Storm from Heaven's Cacophony

 

That's actually sexy. And here I thought Blackjacket was cool just because of Scordeo's :D

Edited August 1, 2018 by Vonmara

[Heijoushin]

Points for the introduction where they send in the cavalry, the fourth, the fifth, and the reserves.

[Vonmara]

Did some more testing, cleared Splintered Reef, optimized the build a bit.

I think there might be a bug with the Morning star Modal and The Mind Makes Them Real: the latter doesn't proc when the modal is on. Anyone else noticed something similar?

[Boeroer]

Nope, but maybe I just missed that because I usually switched the modal off as soon as an enemy was affected.

[joshmays289]

I really like this build. I'm trying it out now.

 

One question, why does lowering fortitude of the enemy increase my accuracy? I though accuracy was always vs deflection?

[Haplok]

Barbarian Brute Force ability allows to target Fortutide instead - if lower. Multiclass characters can access it at level 16....

 

 

Ah, the days of PoE 1 Firebrand before the nerf... Back then you could also target Reflex with regular attacks of that summoned sword...

Each attack with Carnage was like a fireball explosion...

Edited August 6, 2018 by Haplok

[Nariom]

Hello!

 

Thank you for your build, I'm trying it on solo veteran with a scale up. The begining is a little rough but being carefull with the pulls helps a lot.

 

I just reached level 6 and you listed One Stands Alone as the ability pick at that level, but it's a Power Level III barbarian ability, which is only accessible at level 7 with a multiclass. I don't know if it's been patched or something, maybe it comes from The Beast of Winter? What would you recommend instead?

 

Right now I'm going with Confident Aim since there is not a lot of choices left, and I could use graze to hit, but it could be respec later. Almost everything else is active or linked to weapon choices (only leaves Fast Runner, Determation, Accurate Carnage and Wilder Hunter). Also it means skipping an ability later on in order to be able to pick One Stands Alone, I'm thinking Bull's Will because it's nice against the Arcane Dampener like you mentioned but it's a little specific and there is not much room here.

 

Or did I miss something? Please let me know. If I spot any other change I'll list them here, but the rest of the abilities seems fine.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Nariom

[Vonmara]

 

I just reached level 6 and you listed One Stands Alone as the ability pick at that level, but it's a Power Level III barbarian ability, which is only accessible at level 7 with a multiclass. I don't know if it's been patched or something, maybe it comes from The Beast of Winter? What would you recommend instead?

 

Right now I'm going with Confident Aim since there is not a lot of choices left, and I could use graze to hit, but it could be respec later. Almost everything else is active or linked to weapon choices (only leaves Fast Runner, Determation, Accurate Carnage and Wilder Hunter). Also it means skipping an ability later on in order to be able to pick One Stands Alone, I'm thinking Bull's Will because it's nice against the Arcane Dampener like you mentioned but it's a little specific and there is not much room here.

 

Or did I miss something? Please let me know. If I spot any other change I'll list them here, but the rest of the abilities seems fine.

Yeah sorry that was a bad typo from a copy and paste. I think Determination is the best call here, and One Stands Alone at 7 over Bloodlust would be my call. But it's anyone's call.

[heldred]

Fun build, thanks for sharing!

 

On a separate note, I cringe every time I see, “13 Arcana for Avenging Storm.”

 

Dear Devs, could you actually leave some class defining abilities alone? Imagine the outrage if we added Heartbeat Drumming scrolls or potions of Citzals Martial Power... then again, they might as well, then we can have a consumable-driven classless progression system (sarcasm off).

[Boeroer]

Dear Devs, could you actually leave some class defining abilities alone?

This - this a hundred times!

[Haplok]

Fun build, thanks for sharing!

 

On a separate note, I cringe every time I see, “13 Arcana for Avenging Storm.”

 

Dear Devs, could you actually leave some class defining abilities alone? Imagine the outrage if we added Heartbeat Drumming scrolls or potions of Citzals Martial Power... then again, they might as well, then we can have a consumable-driven classless progression system (sarcasm off).

Indeed. But consumable usage is a cost and a choice. One I usually don't make. I cringe even more thinking about a certain helmet, which is available immediately on your arrival in the main hub. Edited September 22, 2018 by Haplok

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

To be perfectly honest with you guys, I'd prefer a classless system in Deadfire, where I'm able to control every aspect of my char's progression... 

 

That being said, I'd also like to have the mob's deffences and armours rebalanced for that, too. 

 

Oh well... it's off-topic, but... I just think that too much time has been devoted to making this 'class balance' balanced and even now it's not fully working :D.

 

On topic now:

 

I like having a class that debuffs Fortitude. Could some of the PoE wizards here(mean it literally) give me a tip on how many different things I can stack as Fortitude debuffs… I've always been a Reflex fanboy... as you may have noticed in that Zerg Queen vid I posted.  

[Moritsuna]

Nope, but maybe I just missed that because I usually switched the modal off as soon as an enemy was affected.

Do you have a script for this? It seems annoying to do constantly.