[CLASS BUILD] The Fountain of Woe - crit-looping Ravager with an overabundance of wounds

[Boeroer]

This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. There will be a video in the near future where we talk about this and other builds. Please check it out. I will post a direct link to the video right here as soon as it's online. This is build 1 of 5 from that collaboration.
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This build is mainly meant for inspiratation. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. 
I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post
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rancfre Ghostoo Cullywoot was born in Rauatai to human parents: a Berserker mom named Clawsine and a Helwalker Monk dad named Auamensh - who didn't really have the most healthy relationship as you can imagine... she losing her temper all the time while he enjoyed blows tis body and all that kerfuffle. But they tried for the kid's sake and somehow managed to raise Wrancfre. He learned the way of the Berserker as well as the path of the Helwalkers. Is parents drummed it into him (with swift flurries often) that one never couldn't cross those streams. At the age of 16 Wranfcfe still hadn't decided whose footsteps to follow. Everybody and their pets, animal companions and even conjured familiars told him he could not do both - because it is known that this foolishness would mean instant suicide.

So he crossed the streams...

"The power of pain
So hard to sustain
Cleaning my soul
Frenzy on, very noisin'
Love with spikes of pois'n
Purge the soul
Make wounds your gooooal!"
- Wrancfre while bodyblowing some c0cky wizards -



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The Fountain of Woe
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Difficulty: PotD
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Solo: untested
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Class: Ravager - Berserker/Helwalker
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Race: Human (any subrace)
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Background: Rauatai (or any) - Laborer (or any)
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Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings, ★=recommendation)
MIG: 10 (do not go higher - so with +2 from BB and +1 from Human pick 7 base)
CON: 19 (18 + 1 Rauatai) ★★
DEX: 14
PER: 18 ★
INT: 14
RES: 04 (3 + 1 Human)
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the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod

Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies  - (!=important, r=recommended)

01. Frenzy (!) + Force of Anguish (!) | Morning Star (!) + Pollaxe
02. Swift Strikes (!) | +1 Athletics (->4), +1 Intimidate (->2)
03. Blooded | +1 Athletics (->5), +1 Survival (->3)
04. Thick Skinned + Two-Handed Style | +1 Athletics (->6), +1 Intimidate (->3) | Pike
05. Barbaric Blow (r) | +1 Athletics (->7), +1 Insight (->2)
06. Long Stride | +1 Athletics (->8), +1 Insight (->3)
07. Bloodlust + Swift Flurry (!) | +1 Athletics (->9), +1 Intimidate (->4)
08. Efficient Anguish | +1 Athletics (->10), +1 Survival (->4) | Battle Axe
09. One Stands Alone | +1 Athletics (->11 ), +1 Bluff (->1)
10. Spirit Frenzy (!) + Duality of Mortal Presence (r) | +1 Athletics (->12), +1 Bluff (->2)
11. Bloody Slaughter | +1 Athletics (->13), +1 Bluff (->3)
12. Rooting Pain | +1 Athletics (-> 14), +1 Intimidate (->5) | Rod
13. Tough + Enervating Blows (!) | +1 Athletics (->15), +1 Survival (->5)
14. Leap | +1 Athletics (->16), +1 Insight (->4)
15. Barbaric Smash (r) | +1 Athletics (->17), +1 Bluff (->4)
16. Brute Force (!) + Turning Wheel (r) | +1 Athletics (->18), +1 Intimidate (->6) | Quarterstaff
17. Savage Defiance | +1 Athletics (->19), +1 Intimidate (->7)
18. Interrupting Blows | +1 Athletics (->20), +1 Survival (->6)
19. Blood Thirst (!) + Heartbeat Drumming (!) | +1 Athletics (->21), +1 Intimidate (->8)
20. Stalwart Defiance | +1 Athletics (->22), +1 Survival (->7) | Estoc
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Items (!=important, r=recommended)

Weapon Set 1: Saru Sichr (! - +Paralytic, +Legendary)
Weapon Set 2: Lord Darryn's Voulge

Head: Death's Maw (r - for self-damage resistance)
Back: Cloak of Greater Protection
Neck: Amulet of Greater Health (r - or a +1 CON amulet like Cipher's Shackles)
Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (! +Legendary (a), +Devil's Due (r) - regaining health on crit, +Mechnical Mind (!) - remove Berserker Confusion)
Waist: The Undying Burden (r - for self- damage resistance and more CON->health)
Hands: Gauntlets of Greater Reliability (r - helps to graze enemies with very high defenses with Body Blows)  
Rings: Voidward (! - greater self-damage resistance), Ring of Prosperity's Fortune (helps with crits when rich) or Chamaeleon's Touch (+1 CON & +1 DEX)
Boots: Boots of the Stone
Pet: Abraham (not only speed but also +10 health on kill) or Socrates (+20 health on kill - recommended if Edér uses Abraham -> +30 health on kill)

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What is this build about:

• gaining wounds incredibly fast from Frenzy‘s self damage, paired with the Helwalker‘s rising MIG bonus (+1 per Wound) and the increased damage to self (+5% per Wound).
• together with the self damage you're not only gaining wounds faster than you can spend them but you also profit from Blooded (+25% dmg) as well as Fighting Spirit (humans’ passive ability, +7 ACC, +15% dmg)
• lowering enemies‘ fortitude defense a LOT on the fly with:
  • Morning Star‘s modal „Body Blows“: -25
  • Spirit Frenzy (staggers): -10 (-5 MIG)
  • Enervating Blows (weakens): -10 (-5 CON)
• targeting enemies' lowered Fortitude:
  • first with special abilites like Force of Anguish/Efficient Anguish
  • later with Brute Force: target Fortitude with all attacks that would target deflection instead (if Fortitude is lower)
• because of this, extreme accuracy is not required to deliver lots of critical hits (but of course it would still help, so please send buffs )
• Force of Aguish pushes enemies into your Carnage AoE. Usually the initial target of your hits doesn't get affected by Carnage. With Force of Anguish it does! You push the enemy into Carnage Area before Carnage dmg get rolled - so Carnage treats the enemy like any other who's in the AoE: raw dmg. This means that Force of Anguish with Carnage does extra raw damage to single targets which is great. 
• using a multihit weapon and pair it with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. A weapon such as the Morning Star Saru Sichr: it has 2 attack rolls, the normal physical pierce/crush roll and "Poison-Dipped", a DoT effect that rolls against Fortitude (what a nice coincidende). They both count as „proper“ melee attacks and they can both trigger Swift Flurry and HBD when they critically hit! The great thing about such multihit weapons (there are others such as the flail Sun & Moon or the Pike Wicked Beast) is: no matter which attack roll crits and triggers SF or HBD, those additional attacks roll twice again: the physical and the additonal one. Those can crit again and trigger another SF/HBD attacks and so on and so forth, creating a loop. This is a huge advantage over single hit weapons and raises the chance to cause a deadly loop of crits that can kill an enemy on the spot. Works best against low fortitude foes obviously.
• in addition to the Swift Flurry stuff the DoT of Saru Sichr is very powerful: the DoT stacks with itself - and every time you reapply the DoT you trigger a tick immediately which leads to a significant increase of dps (same as with Bleeding Cuts from Battle Axes or Deep Wounds).
• it also interrupts very reliably with not only Force of Anguish, but also Rooting Pain. Since you gain wounds so frequently you also trigger Rooting Pain frequently which interrupts bystanders (and damages them a bit)
• pair all that with Blood Thirst at the latest levels…  
• essentially it is a debuffing+CC+damage-dealing build, best used for hunting down squishy but dangerous enemies. But is also very helpful against bosses due to the fast and reliable debuffing of Fortitude, which helps most party members to land spells a lot more easily etc.

 

Issues:

• the self damage which gives you a lot of wounds also kills you quickly
• the self damage of Berserker’s Frenzy scales steeply with Power Level (unusual +2 per PL base dmg). This base damage gets boosted by MIG, the Helwalker’s increased self dmg percentage (remember +5% per wound), Blooded (+25%) and effects of items (such as Baubles of the Fin or a pet like Harley etc.). That's the main resaon to not raise your base MIG over 10. You will gain +15 MIG already from Frenzy and the Helwalker passive - you don't need more and you don't want more because it makes you go down more quickly.
• to avoid killing yourself you should def. raise CON, pick up items with CON and/or health bonuses. In addition pick “Tough” and wear an amulet of Greater Health. This makes the build surprisingly sturdy at the early levels bc. the self dmg is still low.
• also use items that give you resitance to damage (Undying Burden, Death's Maw, Voidward!) - they work very well to soften the self damage and make it manageable. This, together with the high health, balaces out the self damage at higher levels very well. 
• unintuitively picking Iron Wheel is not a good solution. Even though it raises CON and AR and sounds lie a good idea: it doesn’t stack with Berserker’s Hardy (+5 CON and +2 AR) - so a lot of its effects would be wasted. Better to pick Turniung Wheel for more dmg and longer duration of buffs (such as Swift Flurry).
• get items that heal you up: Abraham (+10 health per kill) or Socrates (+20 health per kill) and the Devil of Caroc Breastplate (healing over time on crit - also useful against Confusion)
• This build profits a lot from a good healer in the party obviously. But raising Athletics like there's nothing else also helps. It heals you a great deal at 20+. Savage Defiance is better than going down in a pinch, too. 
• Berserker’s Confusion is annoying and cannot be exploited with this build - so you want to get rid of it asap. You could do that with Enlightened Agony - but that’s wasting 2 ability points. Better to get Devil of Caroc Breastplate and enchant it. Or use food like Luminous Lobster. But since the Breastplate also heals on crit it’s the best pick imo.
• as long as you have to deal with Confusion do NOT pick Rooting Pain! It will interrupt yourself. Only pick Rooting Pain when you have enchanted the Breastplate properly (or got rid of Confusion otherwise)
• the DoT "Poison Dipped" of Saru-Sichr which produces that double-hit effect for SF/HBD does not work against poison-immune foes.
   

Why is it fun?

• always wounds to spend and buff you up - alsmost never has to use auto-attacks right from the start.
• hits very well right away: Body Blows + Force of Enguish alone carry the build through early game alone - because Boy Blows is a "free" and big defense debuff/ACC buff right away.
• good weapon damage even without exploiting critical hits
• nice CC early on - especially satisfying when using it against casters an other annoying enemies
• later becomes even stronger with Spirit Frenzy and Enervating Blows, debuffing Fortitude even more
• with the introduction of SF and then Brute Force it makes another leap
• finalizing the fun ability collection with Heartbeat Drumming and Blood Thirst, who doesn't like crit chains + Blood Thirst, right?
• so it’s just works well from start to finish - which makes it enjoyable
• when a crit loop happens (and that's often if you focus on the right enemies) it’s just jawdropping
• I personally enjoy the challenge to keep it alive
• lots of crits, paired with the right voice (noble for me) results in lots of contagious laughter during battle - which is just so fun and is lightening my mood

 

Hope you enjoy!
Cheers!

Edited Sunday at 07:08 PM by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

What makes builds fun for me?

• they are powerful/impactful (enough) - there's no fun if your character feels like a millstone around the party’s neck
• they don’t need late game gear to function - although getting late game gear to improve them can be a motivation. But having to wait forever in order to make your character click for the last hour of the game can be frustrating
• you don’t have to wait for late game abilities for them to be fun to play ad impactful (same as above) - although having the goal of reaching a great high lvl ability can add to the fun and motivation. Even at lvl 20 (if you have DLCs installed) there's still a good amount of game left to enjoy the highest lvl abilities
• they don’t need a lot of repetitive setups in every fight - that's not as much of a problem if that’s easy to script though (although I personally don't like to use the AI with my MC) but for example: if you need to manually switch several grimoires at the beginnig of the fight the fun will not last and you will stop doing that quickly. If your character's performance relies on that switching you most likely won't feel okay with this character
• No overpowered 1-trick ponies (at least not too early in the game). It’s okay if that happens in the late game, but it ruins the playthrough if you can win every fight with the same trick and the same character - while the rest of the party is only there to watch (looking at you, Grave-Calling Berserker/Beckoner)
• Good reactivity - it gets frustrating if the character plays like a slowpoke but would profit a lot from being more reactive. This can also mean using a reloading weapon is better than using a recovery weapon (reloading can be stopped for other actions, recovery cannot)
• fits the party - best if it fits a lot of party compositions and doesn't need a party build around it. But sometimes that can be fun, too. Anyway: it's no fun to use a build which mechanics don't blend into the others'
• not too much micromanagement - but also not too little. For companions low micro can be great - for my MC I like to (reasonably) micromanage and use active abilites manually.
• this leads to plenty (or even unlimited) resources. I personally like it if resources can be refilled somehow or costs can get refunded. Can also mean the resources are fixed but there are great abilities that aren't too expensive
• general versatility - being good at/useful for more than one single thing
• craftiness/creativity of the build (something to be proud of when a build idea does indeed work)
• out-of the ordinary/original (there's not much exitement when taking a well-trodden path)
• good character story (at least in my head) so it’s not a blank slate. An emotional connection does help a lot. And no - the silly stuff I write at the top of my build posts are not the stories I use.  
• thematically coherent and somewhat believable
• stylish/cool/badass
• good/entertaining sound effects (surprisingly important!)
• good vfx (without crashing the game or destroying the performance)   

Edited September 9 by Boeroer

[Chaospread]

I love Barb and Monk, builds which debuff CON and hit quickly, so this is a great pick with all of its synergies!
I like Ravager because Barb is so good CC/kill group of enemies as well monk is great against single opponent.
Don't you think that eqs like Ring of Reset, Nemnok's Cloak and/or "saving/life" items to prevent "suicide"?
Hoping to see a day a MC class with a barb not berserker
Anyway, as I said, wonderful build, as usual, or rather, better that usual!

[Boeroer]

I really like Furyshaper. Maybe I 'll post my favorite Warcaller build with Furyshaper one day.

 

[yorname]

I'm playing the this class as a hireling, I have a couple of questions about ability choices: why not pick Torment's Reach as well? I get that FoA has better single target damage, but as the only way to spend wounds, did you find the push effect often unnecessary? Besides even using FoA nonstop you still can't spend all the wounds generated solely from self damage, so I think an alternative can help a lot.

[Boeroer]

@yorname I know, but I found myself not using it much. Same with Skyward Kick. I just feel that FoA is the best use of wounds with this build, interrupt, CC and good PL-scaling plus a little nice extra damage (see below). And since this build is  short on ability points (bc. so many good ones to pick) I ended up not picking them up at all during my final run with this. And of course I need it because it targets fortitude instead of deflection. Skyward Kick does this, too - but the knockup effect annoys me so much because it makes the enemy untargetable for a short time which makes allies lose their "target lock" and sometimes waste their attack (esp. ranged allies). Force of Anguish doesn't have that problem. The pushing is cool imo - and I even forgot to mention the best part about FoA + Carnage:

FoA pushes the enemy into the Carnage AoE before (!) Carnage gets rolled. That means that the enemy sufferns the normal weapon damage PLUS the Carnage damage on top. Carnage usually doesn't hurt the initial target, only the bystaders. And this is the only combo (besides Llengrath's Warding Staff + Carnage on a Warlock) which does this. So it's like a free raw dmg bonus on top which makes its single-target dps go up considerably. 

At the higher levels, epecially after getting Blood Thirst, you can spend wounds with Force of Anguish rel. quickly. If you mainly focus on taking out casters, rogues and other rel. weak foes you can kill pretty quickly and reset recovery, sprinting to the next one, repeat and so on.

But of course: if you like Torment's Reach better it's def. a viable alternative. But I'd still keep Efficient Anguish at least until Brute Force is available - because you want to be able to pick your ability based on which defense is lower (deflection or fortitude).  

Edited Sunday at 07:10 PM by Boeroer

[yorname]

11 hours ago, Boeroer said:

@yorname I know, but I found myself not using it much. Same with Skyward Kick. I just feel that FoA is the best use of wounds with this build, interrupt, CC and good PL-scaling plus a little nice extra damage (see below). And since this build is  short on ability points (bc. so many good ones to pick) I ended up not picking them up at all during my final run with this. And of course I need it because it targets fortitude instead of deflection. Skyward Kick does this, too - but the knockup effect annoys me so much because it makes the enemy untargetable for a short time which makes allies lose their "target lock" and sometimes waste their attack (esp. ranged allies). Force of Anguish doesn't have that problem. The pushing is cool imo - and I even forgot to mention the best part about FoA + Carnage:

FoA pushes the enemy into the Carnage AoE before (!) Carnage gets rolled. That means that the enemy sufferns the normal weapon damage PLUS the Carnage damage on top. Carnage usually doesn't hurt the initial target, only the bystaders. And this is the only combo (besides Llengrath's Warding Staff + Carnage on a Warlock) which does this. So it's like a free raw dmg bonus on top which makes its single-target dps go up considerably. 

At the higher levels, epecially after getting Blood Thirst, you can spend wounds with Force of Anguish rel. quickly. If you mainly focus on taking out casters, rogues and other rel. weak foes you can kill pretty quickly and reset recovery, sprinting to the next one, repeat and so on.

But of course: if you like Torment's Reach better it's def. a viable alternative. But I'd still keep Efficient Anguish at least until Brute Force is available - because you want to be able to pick your ability based on which defense is lower (deflection or fortitude).  

Yeah, I found having both to be quite fun: If someone teleports to my back line, I can push them towards other enemies and use them to stun the crowd.

The biggest limitation I had with only FoA is that when all enemies are in melee ranged/engaged (including fighting single bosses), pushing them messes with my other melee characters in the same way like Skyward Kick making enemies untargetable.

[Boeroer]

7 hours ago, yorname said:

The biggest limitation I had with only FoA is that when all enemies are in melee ranged/engaged (including fighting single bosses), pushing them messes with my other melee characters in the same way like Skyward Kick making enemies untargetable.

Yeah that can be true.

I put a disclaimer on top of all builds so that it's clear that I mean it as an inspiration - and I left a lot of abilities without recommendation (which aren't necessary for the basic "gist" of the build) so that readers can adapt it to their liking. I hope nobody feels they have to stick to everything I did beause that's not what I want or suggest. I personally love Force of Anguish in this case - but I can see that other players might like stuff such as Torment's Reach more. I mean it is very good if you can generate lots of wounds like with this guy. And if you want to take this to a slightly different role where you engage mobs more than singular enemies (which was what I did) it could be the better ability in the first place. 

I also tried to spend some more wounds with Instruments of Pain (could for example skip Interrupting Blows and Rooting Pain easily for it) and then do Body Blows and Swift Flurries etc. from afar - but I didn't really use it then because it takes some time to cast+recover and that felt less fun to me in this case. Usually you'd also spend wounds for Thunderous Blows - but that's redundant bc. of Berserker Frenzy. 
Dichotomous Soul is never a waste - but again in this case it also didn't feel right to me. What felt right was going in hot, seeing out single casters and healers and then using FoA all the time (also playing with the direction where to push the enemies) and finishing with Hulk Barbaric Smash (often for free - amazing finisher imo).
And I really, really do like my interrupts, so...    

Edited Monday at 02:55 PM by Boeroer

[yorname]

4 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I put a disclaimer on top of all builds so that it's clear that I mean is as an inspiration - and I left a lot of abilities without recommendation (which aren't necessary for the basic "gist" of the build) so that readers can adapt it to their liking. I hope nobody feels they have to stick to everything I did beause that's not what I want or suggest. I personally love Force of Anguish in this case - but I can see that other players might like stuff such as Torment's Reach more. I mean it is very good if you can generate lots of wounds like with this guy. And if you want to take this to a slightly differnet role where you engage mobs more than singular enemies (which was what I did) it could be the better ability in the first place.

Of course! I like how this build can be very flexible, like with a spellblade using Confounding Blind + double BotEP I didn't even need to pick Brute Force, but that character is by no means neccessary because Body Blows + Brute Force is a great starting point already.

 

[Boeroer]

3 hours ago, yorname said:

like with a spellblade using Confounding Blind + double BotEP

Aha - I like to do that BotEP trick with a Geomancer or Arcane Knight.