Question about Barbarian/Druid

[Dyxx]

Good evening !

I have some questions regarding Barbarian/Druid multiclass.

Has someone played this as a Berserker/Ancient or Furyshaper/Ancient ? 

I want to play it as a melee with support from druidspells. Mostly DoTs casted before jumping in the heat of the battle !

As a weapon I'm interested in Lord Darins Volunge (badly false written...) and eventually a morningstar with modal.

As for Barbarian subclass I like Berserker for bonus pen for spells but I also like Furyshaper totems.

As for druid, if I remember correctly the cat form gets a speed buff which dosnt end if I end the shift ?

Did I forget a good subclass ?

So I would carry the speed buff over and could prolong it with salvation of time ?

[Boeroer]

28 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

Has someone played this as a Berserker/Ancient or Furyshaper/Ancient ? 

Yes, Berserker/Ancient

29 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

I want to play it as a melee with support from druidspells. Mostly DoTs casted before jumping in the heat of the battle !

Exactly what I did.

29 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

As a weapon I'm interested in Lord Darins Volunge (badly false written...) and eventually a morningstar with modal.

I didn't do that because I used the Stag form and the Community Patch to get dual Carnage (33% raw dmg from Barb + 25% dmg from Stag).

30 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

As for Barbarian subclass I like Berserker for bonus pen for spells but I also like Furyshaper totems.

Both are nice, BUT: if you summon a Furyshaper's Ward you cannot summon Ancient's summons like Sporelings anymore. I mean you can, but they will replace the ward - which most lieky is not what you want. And the Sporelings are very good imo (especially in combination with Wild Growth).

38 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

As for druid, if I remember correctly the cat form gets a speed buff which dosnt end if I end the shift ?

  Yes

38 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

Did I forget a good subclass ?

On the Barb's side? Don't think so. Mageslayer makes no sense and Corpse Eater, while thematically a cool pick in combination with an Ancient, is implemented so awkwardly that it's mechanically inferior to vanilla Barb imo.

On the Druid's side there's Fury (here I would suggest using Lord Darryn's Voulge), Lifegiver (good with Furyshaper, can't summon anyways) and there's always the Shifter.  

[Dyxx]

I'm sorry @BoeroerI can't quote as good as you on my phone, but all in all you gave me all informations I were looking for.

Furyshaper is out, I want to use those sporelings and I want to strengthen my spells with Berserkers pen.

The Stag form with community patch isn't possible for my due to my ps4, I gues Stag form isn't that usefull in vanilla ?!

But the cats speed buff is at least interesting, if it shows to be bad I'll abandon shifting.

Fury on the druid side is not what I want, if I get it right I'd have to shift into fury form --> cast spells --> unshape --> melee

That's to much hassle on ps4, I'm sorry.

Lifegiver is not what I'm intending it's more of a Lifetaker... 

What did you go for as a weapon ? 

I'd bet on Willbreaker ? Or Axe mainhand with bleeding cuts and fast offhand ?

[Boeroer]

35 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

The Stag form with community patch isn't possible for my due to my ps4, I gues Stag form isn't that usefull in vanilla ?!

True, the per-encounter "AoE attack" of the stag in the unmodded game is very bad.

36 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

But the cats speed buff is at least interesting, if it shows to be bad I'll abandon shifting.

It's the best form in an unmodded game pick imo (Boar as Shifter is also good, but only if you actually stay in boar form and fight with it).

37 minutes ago, Dyxx said:

What did you go for as a weapon ? 

I'd bet on Willbreaker ? Or Axe mainhand with bleeding cuts and fast offhand ?

If you don't want to fight shifted then Lord Darryn's Voulge and a Morning Star as backup are good picks. 

[Dyxx]

Thank you @Boeroerfor your replys and answering my questions !

I'm gonna play Berserker/Ancient like thought first.

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

Sounds like already made up your mind OP, but wanted ti chime in to say imo bear form might be your most interesting pick. Bear form gets a free 1/enc Roar ability to apply Frightened to enemies in a huge radius. Combine this with Spirit Frenzy to also apply Staggered to them, and youve massively debuffed the enemy’s offense in literally less than a second (also lowering enemy REF and FOR defenses a lot!)

They also have the equivalent of heavy armor with 0 recovery penalty, combine this with Thick Skinned and One Stands Alone and youre a hell of a tank when you need to be.

Its true Cat form has a speed boost, but in my experience it does NOT stack with Frenzy, so its not as much a boost as youd think. They do have naturally higher attack speed however.

[Dyxx]

5 hours ago, Porkchopsandwiches247 said:

Sounds like already made up your mind OP, but wanted ti chime in to say imo bear form might be your most interesting pick. Bear form gets a free 1/enc Roar ability to apply Frightened to enemies in a huge radius. Combine this with Spirit Frenzy to also apply Staggered to them, and youve massively debuffed the enemy’s offense in literally less than a second (also lowering enemy REF and FOR defenses a lot!)

They also have the equivalent of heavy armor with 0 recovery penalty, combine this with Thick Skinned and One Stands Alone and youre a hell of a tank when you need to be.

Its true Cat form has a speed boost, but in my experience it does NOT stack with Frenzy, so its not as much a boost as youd think. They do have naturally higher attack speed however.

Very good point but too late

[Boeroer]

Indeed, the Cat speedup will not stack with Frenzy. Frenzy's action speed bonus is weaker so it will get suppressed (but stuff like Spirit Frenzy's staggering or Blood Frenzy's raw DoT will still work! No suppression there).

But you can watch it as one additional use of quasi-Frenzy. If you want to spare Rage or have none left you can still speed yourself up an additional time. 

Good point with the bear form + Thick Skinned. Add a Blunting Belt, Dragon Pendant and Robust from Nature's Balm + Woodskin and later Form of the Delemgan (it all stacks fortunately) and you'll have awesome AR values but 0 recovery penalty.

But since OP wanted to fight out of Spiritshift but with LD's Voulge I guess Cat form is still the best pick, even if the speedup doesn't stack with Frenzy's.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Boeroer