Berserkers vs Monks (opinions)

[Haplok]

Damn, you're tempting me to play a Sage, Boeroer.  Combusting wounds (if I can land it, usually cannot on something worth bothering) + Lance multihit would be pretty sexy also. Finally made it to level 15 and I must... resist... urge... to restart... again.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Haplok

[Boeroer]

Hehe. The thing that bothers me most is that rel. long summoning time. If you have a party that "prepares" at the start of every fight it is no problem, but it's not a nice setup for rushing into battle.

 

For stuff like Combusting Wounds and everything else that requires to overcome fortitude you can use weakening stuff. I even had a Troubadour with that weakening chant and -2 MIG, a Warlock with Sprit Frenzy (causes Staggered -5 MIG in an AoE with spells) and Brute Force and a single Black Jacket "debuffer" with Willbreaker and Clear Out (and also flails and clubs and pike). It is so beneficial and makes the game so much easier to reduce fortitude in an AoE because every second enemy and its dog have 100+ fortitude and the best spells go against it. And this combo of characters does that job awesomely well: -25 from Body Blows, -10 from weakened, -10 from Staggered...

[Haplok]

Yeah that... and effects do expire, particularly in longer PotD fights. Which is annoying. The damage per hit is also nothing to write home about... and crits to trigger attack cascades aren't a given in such a build, particularly vs tougher foes. Maybe I'll try to finish my current playtrough first.

The Spirit Lance does look damn sexy though.

 

But yeah, in case I do something like that, I'd tune my party to lower enemy Fort, like you recommend.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Haplok

[peolone]

Actually you attack at 10.8 m range with Citzal's Spirit Lance + Instruments of Pain. It's a reach weapon and thus has a base range of 1.8 meters. 1.8m * 6 = 10.5m.

 

Lance + Heartbeat+Swift Flurry is better than Driving Flicht + Mortars. Every AoE hit has the chance to proc Swift FLurry or Hearbeat Drumming or both. On average this results in many more additional attacks (with the original AoE damage) than with Driving Flight (1 for Hand Mortar, 2 for Fire in the Hole). Also the damage of the mortarts is lower and gets even reduced further by Driving Flight.

 

Nalpasca/Berserker is an awesome combo by the way. Due to self damage of Frenzy (which doesn't cancel Dance of Death), Enduring Dance and drugs the wounds fly in more quickly than I can spend them. I use Savage Defiance right after Frenzy to counter the high self damage at higher levels.

And what about this juicy Nalpazca/Berserker build? I can imagine that it goes on pair with the Engoliero estoc? And that one has to take whiteleaf to counter the bleed from frenzy? But wouldn't the estoc come a little bit late? What other weapon do you suggest in the early to mid game?

[Haplok]

If you like estocs, Eager Blade is really good also and available immediately in a shop.

[peolone]

If you like estocs, Eager Blade is really good also and available immediately in a shop.

 

I know, but I don't want to stick to just one damage type. What about a berserker/monk that uses morning star plus modal to lower FORT and then switches to the engoliero estoc to spam torment's reach or force of anguish? Do you think it would be a viable option? Or would it be better not to mix two different build ideas? P.S. Sorry if the question sounds stupid, I don't have much time to test stuff atm (I've even posted this reply to the wrong thread    )

Edited September 4, 2018 by peolone

[1TTFFSSE]

This was my test of Berserker vs Helwalker in beta 2.1 featuring mirror classes multied with priest

 

 

 Beta 2.1 Patch test:

 

Shaman Woedica / Berserker 9,288 dph

Contemplative Woedica / Helwalker 12,520 dph

Witch (rdps) 11,943 dph

Cipher asc   10,670 dph

 

 

This was a very curious and "close" run now in beta 2.1 patch. I primarily wanted to test monk vs barbarian after the dual wield and lion's sprint nerfs....and the results are pretty sad for barbarians in the upcoming patch.

 

While before they could compete and surpass the likes of strong monk and rogue dps thanks to the permanent +15 accuracy stat from lion's sprint, without it their dps drops significantly I would say and the nerf to dual wielding does not help either.

 

Before the patch The Shaman of Woedica (or Skaen)/Berserker could put out overall damage similar or just a bit lower than a Witch Rdps, while maintaining overall better single target damage which in my book was impressive for its versatility. Now it is significantly lower almost by 2500-3000 dph. This is very important to note because the Shaman gets hit particularly hard by the adjustment to Lion's Sprint, while the Witch can compensate by using Borrowed Instinct - so you can pretty much see very clearly how much 15 less overall accuracy/per encounter hurts. 

 

With the nerf to Barbarian Lion's sprint and dual wield attacks even a single class cipher ascendant now does much better by default as you see from the numbers-because dual wield attacks became weaker, barbs became significantly weaker. 

 

Enter a new star kid on the block for hybrid spellcaster/pummeler- the Contemplative. To see how many bonuses I could stack I went Woedica/Helwalker, because I wanted to use fists for the great monk bonuses to unarmed+woedica spiritual weapon. With lashes you can get +15% shock lightning strikes, +10-20% (on average) from turning wheel, and finally +20% raw from spiritual weapon woedica to your super fast fist attacks. Helwalker might bonus on top of that and dance of death accuracy. This guy is very efficient because after launching a massive damage over time aoe attack in storm of holy fire, he goes in pummels things to death. Anyways that character won this latest test although I suspect with the buff to eldritch aim casting time a wizard/ evoker has distanced himslef from the rest of the field even more in this upcoming patch.