After many restarts, I'd like to play with Berserk + Devoted Dual Wield

Veteran difficulty with a full party

I like a lot of damage, and area damage is even better. I was planning to play in turns. I intend to play as a human (I can't play as an Orlean in Deadfire), would elves or nature godlike characters work too? I don't know if not wearing a helmet might be too detrimental in the mid-to-late game.

I'm thinking of this attribute distribution (without Berath's blessings):

Mig 15

Cons 16

Dex 8

Percp 16

Int 14

Res 8

One of my biggest doubts is which weapon to choose. I was torn between the sword and the sabre. If I choose the sword, I intended to get the Modwry to remove the confusion effect, but there's also Caroc's armor that removes it. Which weapon has the highest damage and is easiest to crit?

Note: I don't have a problem with min/max stats :)

Hi,

for a Berserker I would pick Human:

1. Fighting Spirit: you will drop bellow 50% health often which would trigger bonus accuracy and damage. It's not limited like in PoE1 but procs every time you drop below 50% and stays on as long as you are below 50%

2. Fighting Spirit stacks with Blooded (Barbarian passive ability)

3. you retain the headgear slot

4. most portrait options available

Weapon choice:

Since you want to use the Devoted (and not use Monastic Unarmed Training I assume) swords are - generally speaking - the better pick because they have two damage types: slash and pierce.

With sabres you would be limited to slash damage. If you meet enemies with high AR against slash damage and even slash-immune enemies, you would be forced to either pick Monastic Unarmed Training and use your fists or switch to backup weapons and suffer a pretty nasty accuracy debuff because they are not the weapon type you are devoted to.

However, sabres arguably have the better uniques. Scordeo's Edge is especially good for critical hits (up to +20 accuracy due to "Adaptive") and the enchantment "Blade Cascade" is very nice, especially in combination with Blood Thirst and Cleaving/Mob Stance.

Another awesome sabre is Grave Calling with the enchantment "Grave Bound" which is also amazing at generating crits (paralyzed enemies get a 25% hit to crit conversion against them). You can steal iw very early if you wish. It also comes in legendary quality - which is pretty bonkers tbh. Spares you expensive/rare resources since you don't have to upgrade it yourself.

And there's several other cool unique sabres on the way. Sabres have the most (and most impactful imo) uniques in the game. One of them, the Animancer's Energy Blade, even deals less dmg but is faster than normal sabres and does raw damage that bypasses all armor. This would be a great backup weapon for you btw.

Swords also have nice uniques - Modwyr is great - but not as good as sabres imo.

My recommendation would be to go for sabres and either live with the accuracy malus in the few cases where slash damage would suck (maybe use spears, rapiers, daggers or clubs since they have an innate +5 accuracy bonus) or pick Monastic Unarmed Training to have good fists without accuracy malus as backup. Those also scale automatically and spare enchantment-related resources.

Devil of Caroc's Breastplate is perfect for you. You can steal it very early. The enchantment that makes you immune to confusion needs Vithrack brains. You can buy those in several shops occasionally, so watch out for Vithrack brains in shops all the time and buy some asap. You can even "wait" in shops: every new day the shop's "random" stock of enchantment resources gets reshuffled.

Attributes (you only gave 77 points and thus lack 1 point btw. - I guess you didn't include the culture's bonus point):

Berserker's self damages scales steeply with levels AND with Might and all other universal damage bonuses (Blooded for example). Because of that it's not a bad idea to NOT raise MIG too high since you also will get +5 while frenzied. You can safely lower it to 10 if you wish and not gimp your performance. You can also add some MIG back with items (all item effects stack in Deadfire unlike PoE1) and food+camping or resting bonuses from taverns.

CON at 15+ is a good thing for a Berserker to give you a bit more leeway with the self damage.

At the same time DEX is more impactful for DPS than MIG. So I wouldn't drop it too much. I would put 10 at least - but would be comfortable with 15+.

PER 16 is solid. In Deadfire all secrets and traps will be discovered by Perception (not mechanics like in PoE1). Most official companions don't have high PER so it's on the main character to provide solid PER (if you want to find all sorts of secrets and traps). Of course PER also promotes crits.

INT 14 is good. Carnage grows with INT - but Carnage isn't as good as it was in PoE1 so you don't need to push it too much. It's nice for longer durations of course (Frenzy, Disciplined Strikes and so on). Unbending is much(!) more powerful with high INT. So you could go higher and would still get benefits. But there are also several +INT items - should you want more.

RES not only influenced deflection (which is already low due to Barb + Frenzy and thus you can forget about it in the first place) but also influences how long hostile effects stay on you (including your confusion btw.). Because of that I would like to put it at 10 in order to not get a malus (increased duration of enemies' hostile effects they put on you) - but 8 is okay since there will be items/food, inspirations etc. which can lift you over 10.

So altogether my attributes would be (I guess):

• MIG 10

• CON 15

• DEX 15

• PER 16

• INT 14

• RES 08

Of course a few points here and there (for example taking away points from DEX and giving them to MIG like so: DEX 12, MIG 13) does also work well. It doesn't matter too much compared to the impact of abilities and gear selection.

Since your character will be good at offense but will need constant healing, I would recommend to use a pet that grants healing on kill. Abraham for example has such a property and also makes you attack faster in armor. Devil of Caroc's Breastplate also has some healing capabilities (on crit). Also some gear that grants resistance to damage works nicely against Berserker's self damage: Death's Maw helmet, Voidward Ring...

Cheers!

21 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Hi,

for a Berserker I would pick Human:

1. Fighting Spirit: you will drop bellow 50% health often which would trigger bonus accuracy and damage. It's not limited like in PoE1 but procs every time you drop below 50% and stays on as long as you are below 50%

2. Fighting Spirit stacks with Blooded (Barbarian passive ability)

3. you retain the headgear slot

4. most portrait options available

Weapon choice:

Since you want to use the Devoted (and not use Monastic Unarmed Training I assume) swords are - generally speaking - the better pick because they have two damage types: slash and pierce.

With sabres you would be limited to slash damage. If you meet enemies with high AR against slash damage and even slash-immune enemies, you would be forced to either pick Monastic Unarmed Training and use your fists or switch to backup weapons and suffer a pretty nasty accuracy debuff because they are not the weapon type you are devoted to.

However, sabres arguably have the better uniques. Scordeo's Edge is especially good for critical hits (up to +20 accuracy due to "Adaptive") and the enchantment "Blade Cascade" is very nice, especially in combination with Blood Thirst and Cleaving/Mob Stance.

Another awesome sabre is Grave Calling with the enchantment "Grave Bound" which is also amazing at generating crits (paralyzed enemies get a 25% hit to crit conversion against them). You can steal iw very early if you wish. It also comes in legendary quality - which is pretty bonkers tbh. Spares you expensive/rare resources since you don't have to upgrade it yourself.

And there's several other cool unique sabres on the way. Sabres have the most (and most impactful imo) uniques in the game. One of them, the Animancer's Energy Blade, even deals less dmg but is faster than normal sabres and does raw damage that bypasses all armor. This would be a great backup weapon for you btw.

Swords also have nice uniques - Modwyr is great - but not as good as sabres imo.

My recommendation would be to go for sabres and either live with the accuracy malus in the few cases where slash damage would suck (maybe use spears, rapiers, daggers or clubs since they have an innate +5 accuracy bonus) or pick Monastic Unarmed Training to have good fists without accuracy malus as backup. Those also scale automatically and spare enchantment-related resources.

Devil of Caroc's Breastplate is perfect for you. You can steal it very early. The enchantment that makes you immune to confusion needs Vithrack brains. You can buy those in several shops occasionally, so watch out for Vithrack brains in shops all the time and buy some asap. You can even "wait" in shops: every new day the shop's "random" stock of enchantment resources gets reshuffled.

Attributes (you only gave 77 points and thus lack 1 point btw. - I guess you didn't include the culture's bonus point):

Berserker's self damages scales steeply with levels AND with Might and all other universal damage bonuses (Blooded for example). Because of that it's not a bad idea to NOT raise MIG too high since you also will get +5 while frenzied. You can safely lower it to 10 if you wish and not gimp your performance. You can also add some MIG back with items (all item effects stack in Deadfire unlike PoE1) and food+camping or resting bonuses from taverns.

CON at 15+ is a good thing for a Berserker to give you a bit more leeway with the self damage.

At the same time DEX is more impactful for DPS than MIG. So I wouldn't drop it too much. I would put 10 at least - but would be comfortable with 15+.

PER 16 é um valor sólido. Em Deadfire, todos os segredos e armadilhas serão descobertos por meio da Percepção (e não por mecânicas como em PoE1). A maioria dos companheiros oficiais não possui um PER alto, então cabe ao personagem principal garantir um PER sólido (se você quiser encontrar todos os tipos de segredos e armadilhas). É claro que o PER também aumenta as chances de acerto crítico.

INT 14 é bom. Carnificina aumenta com INT, mas não é tão eficaz quanto era em PoE1, então não precisa investir muito nela. É útil para durações mais longas, claro (Frenesi, Golpes Disciplinados e assim por diante). Inabalável é muito mais poderoso com INT alto. Então você poderia investir mais e ainda obteria benefícios. Mas também existem vários itens que aumentam a INT, caso você queira mais.

A RES não só influencia a deflexão (que já é baixa devido ao Bárbaro + Frenesi, então você pode esquecê-la), como também influencia a duração dos efeitos hostis (incluindo a sua confusão). Por isso, eu recomendaria defini-la em 10 para evitar penalidades (aumento na duração dos efeitos hostis que os inimigos aplicam em você) — mas 8 está bom, já que haverá itens/comida, inspirações etc. que podem aumentar a RES para mais de 10.

Então, no total, meus atributos seriam (eu acho):

• MIG 10

• CON 15

• DEX 15

• POR 16

• INT 14

• RES 08

Claro que distribuir alguns pontos aqui e ali (por exemplo, tirar pontos de Destreza e dar para Magia, assim: Destreza 12, Magia 13) também funciona bem. Não faz tanta diferença comparado ao impacto das habilidades e da escolha de equipamentos.

Como seu personagem será bom no ataque, mas precisará de cura constante, recomendo usar um pet que conceda cura ao matar inimigos. Abraham, por exemplo, possui essa propriedade e também aumenta sua velocidade de ataque ao usar armadura. A Couraça do Diabo de Caroc também oferece alguma cura (em acertos críticos). Além disso, alguns equipamentos que concedem resistência a dano funcionam bem contra o dano próprio do Berserker: Elmo da Mandíbula da Morte, Anel da Proteção do Vazio...

Saúde!

Hello again! I ended up choosing Orlean, focusing on the battleaxe to deal more critical damage using two weapons, and I chose the monastic unarmed combat style you mentioned to face enemies immune to cuts. I'll probably leave aside the sabers and unique swords. Will this hurt me later? Although the Magran axe exists, there's only one and I don't know if I can get it easily ;/

Do you think it was a good change? (to the battleaxe and orlean) I'm having fun at least in this early game (Port Maje), I don't know how it will be later on hehe

I followed your stat tips and now I'm going after the items you recommended.

Note: I'm able to play with Orlean now because I found a voice that better suits an Orlean MC who commands a ship. :D

Edited April 15Apr 15 by Kinjosk

4 hours ago, Kinjosk said:

Hello again! I ended up choosing Orlean, focusing on the battleaxe to deal more critical damage using two weapons, and I chose the monastic unarmed combat style you mentioned to face enemies immune to cuts. I'll probably leave aside the sabers and unique swords. Will this hurt me later? Although the Magran axe exists, there's only one and I don't know if I can get it easily ;/

Do you think it was a good change? (to the battleaxe and orlean) I'm having fun at least in this early game (Port Maje), I don't know how it will be later on hehe

I followed your stat tips and now I'm going after the items you recommended.

Note: I'm able to play with Orlean now because I found a voice that better suits an Orlean MC who commands a ship. :D

Battle axes are fine but there aren't many unique ones and they come rather late. However Magran's Favor + Slayer's Claw is an excellent combo once you get them.

The Battle Axe modal "Bleeding Cuts" is very good - so good acually that it's usually worth keeping it activated at all times even though it slows you down. But the raw damage over time stacks and every time you hit again the current stacks tick immediately for raw damage. It gets even better once you pick Blood Thirst.

Edited April 15Apr 15 by Boeroer

57 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Machados de batalha são bons, mas não há muitos únicos e eles chegam bem tarde. No entanto, Magran's Favor + Slayer's Claw é uma excelente combinação depois que você os consegue.

O modal do Machado de Batalha "Bleeding Cuts" é muito bom – tão bom na verdade que geralmente vale a pena mantê-lo ativado o tempo todo, mesmo que isso te atrase. Mas o dano bruto ao longo do tempo se acumula e toda vez que você acerta de novo, os acumuladores atuais aparecem imediatamente para dano bruto. Fica ainda melhor quando você escolhe Sede de Sangue.

I understand... I'm glad now that I know there are two good weapons in the game. Thanks again! Now I can enjoy the game in peace. 🙂