How well does SC Barbarian do against Megaboss ?

[ekt0]

Single class Barbarian is one of the classes I find fun to play as a main character.

However, as I prefer my main character to be strong in their respective role, I wonder if Barbarian would do well enough against those megabosses, which are the most challenging fights in the game. I do not want my main character to be the weakest link while doing those fight, because it would make me feel bad, really bad.

While SC Barbarian has many fantastic skills at PL 8 and 9, most of them seem to not work well against the megabosses on PoTD upscale, especially the best one Barbaric Retaliation. Megabosses mostly attack in range or via spell. Even though some specific bosses have melee attack, the boss itself is just a single enemy. So, Heart of Fury and Barbaric Retaliation will not affect them much.

Compared to Rogue or Monk, Barbarian normal attack does not scale well, and the attack speed is low too as you cannot rely on the on-kill attack speed bonus / reset on any megaboss, resulting in low overall normal damage output.

So,  as skills are quite inapplicatble and low overall damage output, what does Barbarian do against Megaboss ?

Edited August 25, 2021 by ekt0

[Not So Clever Hound]

1 hour ago, ekt0 said:

what does Barbarian do against Megaboss ?

I'm not totally sure but the SC Furyshaper Bloodward could be useful to your entire party if you can multiply damage tics to generate a lot of passive healing? Have you tried that?

But yeah generally the SC Barbie is really good in fights that are the exact opposite of Megaboss encounters .

Edited August 25, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Boeroer]

Barbarian is one of the fastest attackers even without Blood Thirst - just because of Frenzy. And he gets certain dmg bonuses (besides higher MIG), too.

But against megabosses? Meh... not good imo. No class without refreshing resources is good against megabosses is my experience. SC Barb can get back resources via kill (Blood Surge) but in most megaboss fights that's not an option as you already said (against Belranga it works well enough though).

I did a solo Furyshaper run - and while most encounters were cool because of the amazing Blood Ward the megabosses didn't work out at all for me (but I admit I din't try very hard because I hate those endless encounters).

What you can do is use Lover's Embrace from stealth (Leap works very well here if you cancel it mid air to maintain stealth while landing near the target) to kill most of the megabosses and then use a potion of invisibility and retreat+hide. It's impossible to really kill Huani that way but for the rest it can be an option (didn't try with the Sigilmaster though).  

[Not So Clever Hound]

8 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

didn't try with the Sigilmaster though

It isn't optimal against the Sigilmaster if you can't take out the Sigils fast enough.

Taking damage triggers Auranic to be a lot more agressive with the Sigils whether she sees you or not, then at certain thresholds she's Brilliant, then her "Final Trick" is when every remaining Sigil goes fully ballistic on you wherever you are. If you were trying to just take her out with Lover's Embrace without caring about the Sigils, this "Final Trick" is a jaw-dropping "oh sh*t" moment  . Then you're dead.

In my experience it's better to take advantage of the fact that she can't move, take out the Sigils guerilla-style, and keep Auranic for last.

Lover's Embrace is best with Doru, can work with Belranga, situationally works with Hauani (if you have a Cipher to Disintegrate/Marux Amanth it at Near Death) and is very risky with Auranic.

By the way, the last time I used this on Doru, he didn't do anything (no magnetic overdrive etc) even at Bloodied/Near Death. He just stood there and died. I think Doru has seen me too many times with Lover's Embrace, now he's given up on life. He's like "oh, here is this little dude again with his tiny dagger, crap. This time I'm not even going to give him the satisfaction of trying."  

Edited August 25, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Boeroer]

Yeah, it's tricky.

Also Belranga is difficult to do that way because her initial defenses are so high that it's hard to even graze her without killing some spiderlings first. But you can only apply Lover's Embrace's DoT "True Love's Kiss" from stealth. So what I did was to use miss-to-graze food and Gloves of Greater Reliability and did a lot of reloads until I grazed her directly after the Leap, hehe.

Dorudugan is the easiest imo. Takes forever but requires no attention. Just start the fight, apply True Love's Kiss, vanish/retreat/hide and then do some chores (I mean you as player). 

Edited August 25, 2021 by Boeroer

[Not So Clever Hound]

3 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Also Belranga is difficult to do that way because her initial defenses are so high that it's hard to even graze her without killing some spiderlings first. But you can only apply Lover's Embrace's DoT "True Love's Kiss" from stealth. So what I did was to use miss-to-graze food and Gloves of Greater Reliability and did a lod of reloads until I grazed her directly after the Leap, hehe.

Yep, also: Rakhan Field Boots work nicely IIRC. But you may have to reload a couple times.