Suggestion for a melee brutish build

[Exanos]

Will it work as well with lord darryn voulge or amra is way better?

[dgray62]

4 hours ago, Exanos said:

Will it work as well with lord darryn voulge or amra is way better?

It wouldn't work for this build. You wouldn't want to use LDV while confused, for if you did you'd be hit as well by the AOE lightning bursts. With Amra, you'd damage everyone around you (but not yourself) with both carnage and riven gore, and if you're surrounded by skeletons you'll often kill them, triggering bloodthirst, bloodlust and various on kill effects, such as healing from the Abraham pet.

[Boeroer]

The Many-Lives Skeletons have <50 health (won't scale) which means that Riven Gore one-shots them - which leads to this absurd chain of on-kill effects including Cleaving. 

Usually I don't put Amra on the top of my weapons' list because on-crit effects are not very effective when it really counts (against tough enemies). But since you will crit the skeletons all the time you will also trigger Riven Gore all the time - even if the actual enemy is tough as nails. Also all the killing triggers Tempered Fury very quickly - which stacks with Frenzy (yay).

The funny thing is that even slash-immune enemies die pretty quickly because all the Carnage that originates from the Skeletons you kill will bring them down. I wondered why Greater Earth Blights lasted longer than the other enemies (but died eventually) - I just forgot they were immune to slash damage.

I think for this "special" build it's among the best weapons. Engoliero and Sungrazer (nearly always get killed with a crit when cleaves get them, triggering the powerful AoE) are also very good though. Basically everything that has an AoE component (even St. Drogga's Skull!) will be pretty great as long as it doesn't hit you as well. Engoliero's Ghost Blades will hit you - but at the same time heal you so that's no problem. I thought Sungrazer's AoE should hit me as well but I somehow survived the tests with it...

But Battle Axes are particularly useful in combination with Blood Thirst and the skeletons because Bleeding Cuts are such an enormous dmg increase while you have no downside anymore (long recovery gets skipped) - so it's not only great against mobs but also melts away bosses in no time.

By the way: I'm not using Abraham anymore but a pet that does +20 health on kill instead of Abraham's +10 (forgot the name, white cat). Blood Thirst makes Abraham's primary effect (reduced armor penalty) unnecessary.

 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Boeroer

[Exanos]

3 hours ago, dgray62 said:

It wouldn't work for this build. You wouldn't want to use LDV while confused, for if you did you'd be hit as well by the AOE lightning bursts. With Amra, you'd damage everyone around you (but not yourself) with both carnage and riven gore, and if you're surrounded by skeletons you'll often kill them, triggering bloodthirst, bloodlust and various on kill effects, such as healing from the Abraham pet.

Damn, i rolled a brute (devoted) with poleaxe. Anyway to change/add battleaxe to my weapon list (via console?), don't want to start again, just hitted lvl 12... I hate (love) this game. Can't hit PL7/9 without restarting for new build...(i need to stop reading boeroer posts...)

Edit : Wait. Confused berseker with lord darryn voulge and deltro helm should get a pretty hight shock lash then... Anyway to change race too via console :D?

Edited September 24, 2021 by Exanos

[dgray62]

13 hours ago, Boeroer said:

By the way: I'm not using Abraham anymore but a pet that does +20 health on kill instead of Abraham's +10 (forgot the name, white cat). Blood Thirst makes Abraham's primary effect (reduced armor penalty) unnecessary.

Ah, that makes sense, thanks! I presume that you upgrade fury eventually to Blood Storm, in order to prolong it indefinitely? I know from experience that the spirit frenzy upgrade is no good when you are playing confused, since you'll stagger yourself when you cast it. Although I suppose you could select Spirit Frenzy so long as you were resistant or immune to STR afflictions. Also, do you bother with Amra's Tempered Fury/Unstable Temper upgrade? It seems like it is unnecessary for this build.

Edited September 24, 2021 by dgray62
Typo correction

[Boeroer]

3 hours ago, dgray62 said:

Ah, that makes sense, thanks! I presume that you upgrade fury eventually to Blood Storm, in order to prolong it indefinitely?

Exactly. I only need to cast Frenzy once.

3 hours ago, dgray62 said:

Also, do you bother with Amra's Tempered Fury/Unstable Temper upgrade? It seems like it is unnecessary for this build.

I used Tempered Fury. It was quite nice for the part of the game where I had no Blood Thirst yet. Because of the skeletons it triggers all the time.

Edit: eh - I just realized that Temper does exactly the same but with the deflection penalty. Heh - as a Brute my deflection isn't superbad (also have Refreshing Defense) - so I guess Tempered Fury is worth the enchantment costs maybe. 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Boeroer

[Faraleth]

On 9/24/2021 at 8:00 AM, Exanos said:

 Anyway to change/add battleaxe to my weapon list (via console?)

with Unity Console, you can add and remove weapon profs

[masterty66]

How are you hitting 25 might for Amra if you're starting with 18? Frenzy gives 5. Where is the other 2 might coming from to unlock Amra's bonuses?

[Boeroer]

I went with a Dwarf from the Living Lands (21). Berath Blessings for another 2 (23). Then I get bracers of Ogre Strength very soon which leaves me at 25 right away and don't even need Frenzy's bonus. Without Breath Blessings 21 is also enough of course.

A human from the Living Lands would also do. Or an Aumaua from wherever.

Currently I'm at 27 MIG without food and without Frenzy (just from items and story passives like from the Cauldron). With food I could hit the cap - but I'm not aiming for that. 

The high MIG is nice for the healing on kill which occurs all the time - which makes my Brute kind of immortal as long as there's skeletons and no hard CC (but the Brute's resistances help). Another reason to get Mountain Dwarf (resistance to Constitution afflictions which Fighter has no passive for). Getting enfeebled and even weakened is kind of bad even though it doesn't completely disable you. The rest (dazed, immobilized, frightened and so on) is not a problem because as long as you are not completely disabled you can always kill skeletons for healing.  

But I'm also running two chanter's - and both have all three resistance phrases. So in a pinch I can switch then to that songs and they will remove all afflictions very quickly while switching to Ancient Brittle Bones (to get skeletons out).

Edited September 26, 2021 by Boeroer

[dgray62]

I've been playing this build and it's amazing. Early on the brute was a very sturdy and competent warrior with Monastic Unarmed Training. However, things got crazy once I got Amra and upgraded it. In the first fight following this, a bounty, I struck out at an enemy, surrounded by several other foes and a horde of skellies. Poof! There was a en explosion of greenish skeleton smoke and gibs and everything was destroyed, including, unfortunately, a party member who got too close to the mayhem. It's a crazily OP build, but definitely keep the party members away as Boeroer recommended!