Returning Player needs advice for brute or marauder

[juppsen]

Hey! The last time I did a playthrough must be around Patch 3.x. Now, I want to play again, but I'm not that sure, what to Pick as PC.

I want to use Eder as a tank swashbuckler, Tekehu SC druid for healing and aoe damage, Aloth SC mage for CC and damage, Maia as scout.

I never played a Berserker and am interested in a Brute (Devoted) or Marauder (Streetfighter). Will Eder take much damage from my carnage? I'd love the idea of high INT for high aoe DPS, but I don't want to kill my Party. Or should I switch from Berserker to Barbarian? How much less damage will this cost?

Thx for your advices!

[Constentin Lévine]

You can see the carnage AoE with this mod if that can help you to keep your party safe

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/448

Otherwise, if Berserker are tricky, it is more for the self-damages from their Frenzy than the Confused part. 

Also, their health is hidden while frenzy, so that can be difficult to stay at near death/bloodied (to get the streetfighter bonus). You dont plan to play any priest to keep him alive so my advice will be to choose Trickster as rogue part! 

[Boeroer]

Hi!

10 minutes ago, juppsen said:

Will Eder take much damage from my carnage?

If you give him a large shield and use the modal the Carnage damage from a Berserker is a non-factor.

The main concern with a Berserker is whether you can manage the self damage (so it's still fun) or not (then it might become frustrating). Hurting oneself can actually be benefical (see the Ability "Blooded" and the synergy with the Streetfighter's recovery speed) and even Confusion can be used to your advantage - but it's not super obvious how to take advantage of those things. 

The damage of a Berserker compared to another Barbarian subclass can be significantly higher in certain encounters - and early the same in others.
The most important upside of the Berserker (when it comes to damage output) is the +2 PEN via Frenzy (becoming Tenacious instead of strong). Penetration makes a huge difference in damage output if you meet enemies whose armor you would otherwise not be able to penetrate. Underpenetration causes such a big dive of he damage you are causing that you want to prevent it. However - iIf your enemy is "soft" anyway then the difference in damage output between Berserker and reg. Barb is not that noticable.

A Devoted/Berserker has insane Penetration (+4) but cannot switch to a more fitting weapon if he meets enemies who are resistant to the damage type of his devoted weapon. Therefore I almost always recommend Morning Star or Pollaxe for such a Multiclass. They both have two types of damage and the more effective one will be used automatically. The Morning Star has he additional synergy of its modal "Body Blows" + Brute Force and Knockdoen/Mule Kick. Pollaxe include a nice soulbound weapon which works very well with Barbs, too (but this can really mess up your Edér with a Berserker's Carnage). So my pick would be Morning Star. But all of the dual-damage-type weapon work well (war hammers, great swords etc.). The surdyness of the Fighter's abilities helps to iron out the self damage of the Berserker a bit. 

A Streetfighter/Berserker can do an insane amount of weapon damage (in melee naturally, but even ranged) if set up and played right. The damage per hit as well as the attack speed are tremendous which leads to ridiculous dps. But that combo is also prone to getting knocked out. For me it's a ton of fun - but I guess it's not everybody's cup of tea. Here I tried all sorts of weapons and the Morning Star is still great, but because the Streetfighter has good "Full Attacks" (attack that strikes with both weapons) like Crippling Strikes for example it's also nice to use a dual wielding setup. And of course that adds to the already high speed. The most fun I had with a dual dagger setup (Pukestabber + Lover's Embrace). Superfast attacks (I guess it's the highest sustainable attack speed you can achieve in thge game without "cheesy tricks"), good accuracy, lots of fun. Since the Streetfighter/Berserker is not bound to a special type of weapon you can always switch to a different weapon set if you meet enemies who are resistant/immune to the damage type of your preferred weapon set (here: slash damage from daggers). Just use a set of daggers and a set of clubs or stilettos as alternative or whatever.

   

   

 

 

 

[juppsen]

Thx for your advices! I read in another thread, that you recommend a morningstar, what sounds fun to me.

 

So, for a strong aoe build, without having to worry about killing mayself or my lovly friend, Devoted/Barbarian seems the way to go, right? PER>INT>DEX=MIG, something like this?

[Boeroer]

On 9/11/2023 at 7:37 PM, juppsen said:

So, for a strong aoe build, without having to worry about killing mayself or my lovly friend, Devoted/Barbarian seems the way to go, right? PER>INT>DEX=MIG, something like this?

You can circumvent the friendly fire easily (become resistant to INT afflictions), Devoted or Streetfighter makes no difference. Counting the self damage is easier with a Devoted indeed.

Attribute distribution would work. MIG can be as low as 10. Berserker is one of the few subclasses where high CON makes sense sice it makes managing the self damage a lot easier imo - especially with a Berserker/Streetfighter.

My preferred build with Berserker and a Morning Star is Berserker/Helwalker with max CON and Saru Sichr (early unique Morning Star).

But Devoted/Berserker with Morning Star is also very nice because of the synergies between the morning star modal and the Devoted's and Berserker's abilities that target fortitude specifically.