Is Int still really important for Barbarians compared to PoE? Using Lord Darryns voulge

[Crumbleton]

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.

[Boeroer]

Yes, Static Thunder applies to carnage hits. So more INT = bigger AoE = more Static Charges (if there are enough enemies). But Carnage can't crit, so while you can apply Static Charges via Carnage you can only trigger them with a crit on the initial target. No problem though since a crit triggers all Static Charges in an AoE.

 

I think 14-16 is enough, no need to go for maxed INT if you don't want to.

[Crumbleton]

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

[Boeroer]

Only crits with the Voulge afaik.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Boeroer

[arkteryx]

Are there any other weapons that synergize as well with carnage? Now that on-hit effects and modals only affect the primary target, Lord D's is the only weapon I know that really gains anything from the aoe. Does Wahai Poraga do three carnage hits? I know WotEP only does one. I miss Tall Grass knocking everyone down, carnage just feels so boring now.

[Boeroer]

Afaik the only other thing that procs off of Carnage is Spirit Frenzy's Staggering iirc(?).

[Verde]

Ah yes, the Intelligent Barb I suppose one can be sophisticated and savage.

[Crumbleton]

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?

[Ophiuchus]

Ah yes, the Intelligent Barb I suppose one can be sophisticated and savage.

I like to RP my Warlock as a Patrick Bateman type.

 

[MountainTiger]

 

Ah yes, the Intelligent Barb I suppose one can be sophisticated and savage.

I like to RP my Warlock as a Patrick Bateman type.

 

 

 

I've been thinking of a Corpse Eater named Hannibal

[arkteryx]

I highly recommend brute. Berserker/devoted with lord D has +4 pen, can self cleanse the confused, lots of good passives, and clear out works like a mini heart of fury. There are some synergies on howler about summoning skellies then killing them to proc grave calling and other on kill effects, but it feels gamey and clunky to me and anyway works just as well with someone else summoning the skeletons for you.

[Boeroer]

Yes, Berserker/Beckoner is def. gamebreakingly good with Grave Calling, but it's too cheesy to be long lasting fun.

 

Another great thing with Brute, especially with Devoted, is Brute Force if combined with a Morning Star (I know, "again he says that" ) and Spirit Frenzy. Clear Out and Knockdown/Mule Kick target Fortitude anyway, but lowering the enemies' Fortitude by 35 (Body Blows + Staggered) and then being able to target that defense with all attack rolls is very nice. And the Fort. debuff also helps your party a lot.

 

Also The Willbreaker is one of the best weapons for a Devoted in my opinion.

If you also pick a Barbaric Shout or so you can even debuff the Will defense of enemies a lot while hitting them (-10 from Shaken and The Willbreaker lowers per hit). Also the enchantments like "The Mind Makes Real" work perfectly with Barb shouts.

 

One can also think about picking Tactical Barrage instead of Disciplined Strikes. It's true that the crit conversions of Berserker and Disciplined Strikes stack (multiplicative only though) but longer durations, bigger AoE and +1 Power Level (that's +5% multiplicative dmg with abilities) is not bad at all. Depends on how much other crit conversions you have. Every additional one has less and less impact du to the multiplicative nature - so at some point it can be better to go for Tactical Barrage than for Disciplined Strikes.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Boeroer

[Ophiuchus]

Yes, Berserker/Beckoner is def. gamebreakingly good with Grave Calling, but it's too cheesy to be long lasting fun.

 

Another great thing with Brute, especially with Devoted, is Brute Force if combined with a Morning Star (I know, "again he says that" ) and Spirit Frenzy. Clear Out and Knockdown/Mule Kick target Fortitude anyway, but lowering the enemies' Fortitude by 35 (Body Blows + Staggered) and then being able to target that defense with all attack rolls is very nice. And the Fort. debuff also helps your party a lot.

 

Also The Willbreaker is one of the best weapons for a Devoted in my opinion.

If you also pick a Barbaric Shout or so you can even debuff the Will defense of enemies a lot while hitting them (-10 from Shaken and The Willbreaker lowers per hit).

Refresh my memory: will the -10 to all defenses from the Ben Fidel upgrade stack with those Fortitude debuffs? I want to try a cheese-free Howler soon.

[Boeroer]

Yes. One of the best debuffing invocations since it stacks with all debuffs that only target one or two or three single defenses - or lower attributes (which also lowers defense).

 

Howler is a great debuffer while also doing good damage. Very useful party member.

 

Same as Fighter/Chanter. With Skald/Devoted and a Morning Star, combined with The Waves, Ben Fidel and the Weakening Chant + Clear Out you can lower Fortitude by 55(!) amongst other defenses in a cone while generating lots of crits for your phrases with one single attack (cause Clear Out targets Fortitude). If you want you can switch then and use Karabörü on such a debuffer crowd and choose Clear Out again: you can do tremendous AoE dmg because several crits will lead to the AoE of Karabörü triggering. In this case I would use Black Jacket though.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Boeroer

[arkteryx]

Not disputing that willbreaker is good for devoted and barb gains from the fort debuff, but there's no synergy from a brute himself wielding it. Having a teammate wield it is just as good. Lord Darryn's specifically gains from the extra carnage hits making it better on a barb than on anyone else. The upgrade that makes it disorient on proc is also really nice.

[Crumbleton]

Not disputing that willbreaker is good for devoted and barb gains from the fort debuff, but there's no synergy from a brute himself wielding it. Having a teammate wield it is just as good. Lord Darryn's specifically gains from the extra carnage hits making it better on a barb than on anyone else. The upgrade that makes it disorient on proc is also really nice.

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

[Boeroer]

Sure, if you have another teammember that can use a Morning Star to lower Fortitude in an AoE (Clear Out/Clear the Path/Clean Sweep, Heart of Fury, Whispers of the Wind, Whirling Strikes) then that's also nice. The Voulge is also a nice weapon for Devoted because with Pollaxes you can then cover three different damage types (slash/crush/shock) which is great. The only real downside is that it can't get upgraded to legendary or even mythic quality.

 

Speaking of Pollaxes... does the AoE of Wahai Poraga trigger Static Charges to explode with crits? That may be a way to get them to explode faster. Does it make any difference...? Or Wispers of the Endless Paths to generate more crits? But Black Jacket in that case? Don't know...    

[Crumbleton]

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 

[Boeroer]

I also think only a crit with the Voulge triggers the stacked charges - but I didn't test it.

 

Too bad you can't bind the Vould to a single class Monk. Stacking Static Charge AND Resonant Touches would be pretty cool I guess.

[Crucis]

I really wish that the Voulge poleaxe hadn't been made a soulbound.  Honestly, not that big a  fan of soulbound weapons, in large part because of a) the ones with class limitations and b) the considerable difficulty in completing some of the levels.  It wouldn't have been such a big deal if there'd been other unique poleaxes, but there aren't.  And the only "normal" unique poleaxe is a strange one with a spinning attack that's not an enemy-only AOE.