Suggestion for a melee brutish build

[Faraleth]

For my next character after a caster I want to play a melee again, but still not sure, how to build it exactly.

• Island Aumaua Barbarian (propably Berserker)+something:

1. Troubadour/Skald (question is, if I go with skald, can I still use other chanter invocations, or all should go to skeleton summon?) Amra seems a nice weapon for this 2, Aumaua can start 20 MIG + 5 from tenacious, so its basically always above 25. I like 2h axes anyway.
2. Monk (Helwalker/Shattered Pillar/Forbidden Fist) : what weapon tho? 

or

• Dwarf Skald+Helwalker like Powerotti's Rumbling Boar: only that this build is really squishy, so I would need Edér+Pallegina to tank for me, and thats 3 melee, may be too much. dunno if it can be modified for pure monk or Shattered Pillar or even Forbidden Fist? weapons would be Sun and Moon + Tuotilo I guess

 

and what would be a great team of npcs for these builds?

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by Faraleth

[dgray62]

If you're going with option one, I'd recommend skald, which synergies nicely with berserker. Focus mainly on martial invocations, but get one or two non-martial ones, since doing so will boost your phrase cap. For option two, I'd recommend Berserker in combo with Helwalker or Nalpazca, wielding Amra. Boeroer discusses the rationale for this here. And you can use fists as a backup weapon of course. You'll have so many wounds you can spam efficient anguish, forcing the victim into the carnage and wanton gore zones. Although I love the FF subclass, I wouldn't recommend it for a berserker ravager MC. As for Powerotti's Rumbling Boar build, it's one of my favorites, and it's actually not as squishy as you'd think, mainly because it can kill so quickly, spamming Her Revenge, which fries mobs. It's not a tank build, but can hold its own nicely as an offtank. Rather that single wielding Sun and Moon, however, I prefer dual wielding Sasha's Singing Scimitar and Sungrazer. You won't crit quite as often, but these weapons are more impactful and powerful IMO. You could use FF instead of Helwalker, but you wouldn't be able to dump RES if you do. This is viable if you do a no rest run, stacking the various stat bonii, preferably using one of the mods to make these permanent or to avoid the forced rest encounters.

[Boeroer]

If you have a Chanter in the party who can summon Ancient Brittle Bones and later use Many Lives I would suggest Berserker/Devoted with Amra+Riven Gore (after testing this combo yesterday more thoroughly).

Confusion, Cleaving Stance + Blood Thirst make this Brute extremely devastating in combination with skeletons + Riven Gore.

Cleaving Stance will lead to a situation where it will hit and kill a skeleton, procs again, kill the next skeleton and so on. Every time Carnage + Riven Gore will get triggered, damaging the "real" enemies as well. Attention: extremely deadly (like: final death as in "removed from party") for party members with <50 health who come too close (Riven Gore will destroy them). So either stay away or keep Modwyr in the second weapon setup for emergency "oh no" moments to unconfuse your Berserker right away. 

I also tried Berserker/Skald vs. Berserker/Troub. and Berserker/Beckoner so you wouldn't need another chanter in the party. It all works well but I'm still in favor of Troub. Skald can get lots of phrases from the fast hitting. Thus I tend to use invocations with him more often than with the other two (like Her Revenge) since they are so cheap and will also trigger Blood Thirst (especially if you hit your skeletons with it).

A Beckoner can summon Wurms instead of skeletons and make good use of the Changeling's Mantle later on (Primal Carnage works on your own Wurms). Its action speed buff will reach the full stack quickly because of 6 Wurms in Carnage AoE and it stacks with Tempered Fury (Amra Frenzy) and Frenzy (and Bloodlust of course).

Edited September 7, 2021 by Boeroer

[Faraleth]

Devoted sounds interesting, seems a pretty good offtank too, and maybe I can get on with mt Pallegina Herald (Troubadour) - I'm kinda bored with Edér present in all my parties as tank.

for the Devoted what would be the stats to focus and what (if any) to dump?

 

[Boeroer]

Since it's a Berserker and the weapon to go is Amra I would go max MIG. Mediocre CON should suffice (get a heal-on-kill pet and maybe wear Amulat of (Greater) Health and mybe take Tough if it's not enough). Good PER. DEX can be mediocre I guess because the action speed buffs and Cleaving Stance + Armored Grace and later Blood Thirst will counter that. INT needs to pretty high because confusion will take away 5 points of INT - but you want to reach your bystanding skeletons with Carnage as much as possible so its AoE should still be big. Stuff like Ring of Overseeing can help, too. RES can be dumped IMO. 

Do NOT take Unflinching! I did that and it clears confusion at some point (dropping below 50% health because of Frenzy but healing up from killing skeletons -> resistances kick in). Removing confusion also means you won't kill skeletons anymore which also means you don't get the heal on kill from the pet and all the other on-kill effects. I died several times from Berserker Frenzy and wondered why for some minutes...

So maybe something like this (ignoring racial/cultural maximums for the moment)

MIG: 18
CON: 12 
DEX: 11
PER: 16
INT: 18
RES: 03

Points can shift quite a bit depending on what items/consumables with attribute bonuses you like. For example I used two Rings of Overseeing and Aloth's Armor, Charm of Bones and Heaven's Cacophony - so I could def. get away with lower INT and invested a bit more in MIG and CON instead during my tests. 

By the way: high PER is nice with any player character because official companions have quite low PER which makes detecting some traps and secrets more difficult. If you have hired an adventurer with high PER you obv. don't need to think about that point. 

[Faraleth]

11 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Do NOT take Unflinching! I did that and it clears confusion at some point

its odd, since Confused is an Intellect affliction while Unflinching is for DEX/CON/MIG, so it shouldn't do anything with it, right?

thanks for the details, I think Abraham will be the perfect pet for this anyway. I think I'll go with some heavy armor, like Blackened Plate or Patinated Plate
 

[Carys]

In my two skald runs - chanter/pally and chanter/fighter, I never once had the Watcher summon.  My chants were damage ones, or sometimes CC.  I was the main tank for both runs, and if I needed summons, I'd use a companion for them.  I found it fun being the tip of the spear, swinging and blasting, and letting other party members be support.

[Faraleth]

3 minutes ago, Carys said:

In my two skald runs - chanter/pally and chanter/fighter, I never once had the Watcher summon.  My chants were damage ones, or sometimes CC.  I was the main tank for both runs, and if I needed summons, I'd use a companion for them.  I found it fun being the tip of the spear, swinging and blasting, and letting other party members be support.

the summon is not for the summoned mobs:

 

[Ouroboros226]

For style go aumaua, or a godlike using their body type. Use a great sword and morningstar, get the black plate armor. You can't look more badass than that. Black knight / blackguard.

For roleplay. Death godlike with aumaua body type. Get the mod that allows head items on death godlike to use a black hood or the black metal helmet. Priest of Berath + barbarian or fighter. Don't get a SINGLE heal or support spell. You only take punishment spells and minor avatar. You are not there to protect anyone, you are the herald of Berath. Clad in black metal, ushering countless souls to your goddess. Punish them. Berath is the judge and jury, you are her executioner. A chanter sings with words, your symphony is sung with carnage. There is only blood, metal and death. In Berath's name!

Edited September 7, 2021 by Ouroboros226

[Faraleth]

nah, I will be Berserker+Devoted with Amra, thats for sure.

and either Island Aumaua with Deadfire Arch. background (its really a new perspective on the game, by FAR the best reaction from npcs and quests) or a Boreal Dwarf from White that Wends (for an Icewind Dales like dwarf)

[Ouroboros226]

35 minutes ago, Faraleth said:

or a Boreal Dwarf from White that Wends (for an Icewind Dales like dwarf)

Man my PTSD. You just reminded me of wiping countless times to Isair and Madae in Icewind dale in my teenage years. I died more trying to beat them than to Ornstein and Smough in Dark Souls  

[Faraleth]

I soo want an IWD2 EE, real shame they lost the source

[Ouroboros226]

40 minutes ago, Faraleth said:

I soo want an IWD2 EE, real shame they lost the source

I feel you  After playing Deadfire I just want PoE3. Do you know if Obsidian has mentioned if they will / will not make it? 

[Faraleth]

there will be no PoE3.

Awoved will be there instead

[Boeroer]

8 hours ago, Faraleth said:

its odd, since Confused is an Intellect affliction while Unflinching is for DEX/CON/MIG, so it shouldn't do anything with it, right?

Yes, it's weird. But my confusion got removed all the time - and once I removed Unflinching it stopped.  Need to investigate more what happened...

[dgray62]

Does Unflinching downgrade all afflictions? That would be a major discovery!

[Moritsuna]

 

21 hours ago, Faraleth said:

nah, I will be Berserker+Devoted with Amra, thats for sure.

and either Island Aumaua with Deadfire Arch. background (its really a new perspective on the game, by FAR the best reaction from npcs and quests) or a Boreal Dwarf from White that Wends (for an Icewind Dales like dwarf)

Just wondering, why not pure berserker? Is devoted that much more worth it just for Amra? 

[yabadaba]

2 hours ago, Moritsuna said:

 

Just wondering, why not pure berserker? Is devoted that much more worth it just for Amra? 

I think Devoted is there mostly for Clear out and Mob stance, that and lower Berzerker self damage I suppose.

[Boeroer]

Confusion + Blood Thirst + Cleaving Stance + Riven Gore against skeletons is a deadly, deadly combination.

SC Berserker would also work well (and can get plenty of Rage back via skeleton kills + Blood Surge). But the Berserker/Devoted kills a lot faster due to the "skeleton-kill-chain" that is triggered by confused Cleaving Stance + skeletons.

Doesn't need to be Devoted tbh - any Fighter would do. But Tenacious + Devoted stacks to +4 PEN which is pretty sweet I think. Especially since Amra is slash-only and you meed quite a few slash resistant foes.  

[Faraleth]

On 9/8/2021 at 6:40 PM, Boeroer said:

Confusion + Blood Thirst + Cleaving Stance + Riven Gore against skeletons is a deadly, deadly combination.

and for Ishiza. poor poor Ishiza.

 

btw I finished the game with this Amra devoted brute. insane damage. I think in overall damage this beat my previous dps champion, the assassin/soulblade.

[Boeroer]

42 minutes ago, Faraleth said:

btw I finished the game with this Amra devoted brute.

Cool, I'm still trying to slip a few hours into my week in order to play him. Currently lvl 7 in Neketaka. I brought a SC Troubadour and a SC Beckoner as skeleton fuel providers. In the early-ish game having 9 wurms on the field is pretty devastating, too. 

A SC Psion is a marvelous mind controller by the way. Whispers and Dominations left and right - dominating is obviously better because the confused Brute will flip enemies back who are only charmed. The best thing about Psion is that they generate focus while they cast and recover. No other class does regenerate resources non-stop, not even Chanters (chanting pause after invocation). Just don't get hit.

Also brought an SC Kind Wayfarer with dual pistols to harvest 2 Zeal for every dead skeleton with Divine Retribution. Should be able to spam (Shared) White Flames non-stop at PL 9. The range of White Flames is pretty bad though, need more INT/+AoE size stuff.

Currently my Brute goes down a lot because I can't get too near with the Pally (else he will be destroyed). But soon I'll have a "+20 health on kill" pet...

 

[Faraleth]

I found it kinda average until like 12-13, when it started to become a powerhouse, then another power jump at 15-16, and ofc reaching the final potential at 19.

until 12 I had a melee dps in the group, but at 13 he was started to slain party members, so I replaced all melee and sent away Maia (Ishiza was just consantly dead), and after that I had only Pallegina as Crusader (modified to Shieldbearer+Unbroken tho) in melee with me. she survived all, but no one else were able to.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Faraleth

[Boeroer]

Yes, you can't send anyone near the dude at some point. Even now - when I place 9 Ancient Brittle Bones skeletons near him he will Cleave all in range (up to 9 + 18!) to death which just instakills his buddies, too (if in Carnage range). 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Boeroer

[dgray62]

What food are you using for this build, Boeroer? I imagine that Brew Battered Ysae would be good for the added CON and area of effect bonus.

Edited September 23, 2021 by dgray62
Typo correction

[Boeroer]

I don't pay much attention to food. Have been using fruit for the added healing until now (also works with the +20-health-on-kill pet) and it works fine.