TBM has increased the Interrupt times.

New Interrupt time = 2*(Old Interrupt time)+1s, with fast melee weapons interrupting for 1.7s/Ini and average one-handed melee weapons interrupting for 2s/Ini. Seeing as how attack speed has a minimum 1 INI attack speed, we can now keep enemies in perpetual Interrupt lock. We'll use my data from attack speeds to give our hearth orlan the close to 1 Ini per weapon attack.

References:

1. MountainTige's Interrupt Barbarian build https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85678-class-build-interrupt-barbarian/

2. kungapa's The very annoying barbarian build https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91722-class-build-the-very-annoying-barbarian

Interrupt Barbarian, revised for turn based mode

===================================

Class: Barbarian

--------------------------------------------------------------

Race: Hearth Orlan®

--------------------------------------------------------------

Background: The White that Wends - Explorer

--------------------------------------------------------------

Stats:

MIG: 10+ (17 R)

CON: 10

DEX: 3-18 (depends, 3 R)

PER: 21 (!)

INT: 15 (18 R)

RES: 4+ (9 R)

--------------------------------------------------------------

Skills: Prioritize Stealth. Possibly Athletics or survival as well

--------------------------------------------------------------

Stealth is important so that you can wait in safety while the main group of enemies gather around your tanks, then choose your moment to crush everything to dust.

Personally I'd reduce Con by 3 in order to increase Int by 3. But it isn't strictly necessary.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Abilities/Talents (a=auto, !=important, r=recommended):

There's some flexibility in the abilities, but not so much in the talents

Abilities

1.Barbaric Yell or Frenzy (see discussion)

3. Savage Defiance or Wild Sprint

5. Brute Force or Bloodlust

7. Threatening presence or Blood Thirst

9. (your chocie)

11. Heart of Fury (r)

13. Dragon Leap (r)

15. (pick your Fancy)

--------------------------------------------------------------
Key Talents:

Two Weapon Style(!)

Interrupting Blows(!)

Barbaric Blow (r)

Weapon Focus (!)

Accurate Carnage(!)

Whatever else you like (apprentice sneak attack, etc.)

--------------------------------------------------------------

Attack speed management

Before we talk about all the considerations for choosing what, we should talk about attack speed management.

- In the early game, the combination of Dex 18, clothes, Two-weapon Fighting Style & fast weapons like clubs/daggers/rapiers will have a recovery time of 1.03 INI per attack (or 2.06s/INI for both). Pushing Dex to 20 will bump this to 1.007s/INI (or 2.014 for both).

If you want to use average speed weapons, the combination of Dex 18, clothes, Two-weapon Fighting Style will have a recovery time of 1.31s/INI per attack.

FRENZY (+0.33 attack speed) changes the equation completely. Two-weapon fighting is extremely sensitive to non-Dex attack speed penalties (like from armor) and bonuses.

Dex 3, padded armour (-0.2 speed), two-weapon fighting style (+0.2 speed) and FRENZY (+0.33 speed )will have an recovery of 1 Ini with fast melee weapons or 1.00 Ini with Average melee weapons.

Once Frenzy runs out however, you'll be back down to 2.23 INI per fast attack (or 4.46 for both) and 2.94 INI (or 6 INI for both) for average weapons.

- Gauntlets of Swift Action +0.15 speed, which again changes up the equations. Alternatively, Mourning Gloves gives +0.1 speed and +15 Interrupt on kill

- With Dex 3, Two-Weapon fighting style (+0.2) Gauntlets of Swift action (+0.15), also using Durganising weapons (+0.15 speed) and armor (+0.15 speed), will allow us to wear Mail (-0.45 speed) for fast weapons like St. Wygelt's Cudgel and Mosquito (1.03 Ini). Alternatively, for average weapons like Godansthunyr, we could wear Breastplate (-0.4 speed) to achieve 1.09 Ini speed.

This is all without Frenzy, by the way. With Frenzy in the equation, you may as well wear durganized plate mail and it won't matter while Frenzy is up.

For a more in-depth discussion on attack speeds here if you can read my thread here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/138059-research-dex-bonus-speed-per-point-in-tbm-and-breakpoints/

--------------------------------------------------------------

With that in mind, we can discuss some ability choices.

-Barbaric Yell vs Frenzy: Frighten lowers enemy resolve by 2 as a free action. Frenzy will increase your attacks speed by 0.33. Both last 2 turns base, 3 turns if you have 15 Intelligence, or for 4 turns if you have 20 Intelligence. This is misleading however since Frighten wills stick to interrupted enemies for much longer than Frenzy, which will fade quickly since you're taking so many turns a round.

By the time Frenzy is over you may have already won the fight by Interrupting enemies so much that you can now take your time.

The case for Frenzy is even stronger if someone else is helping to Frighten or Terrify enemies instead of you.

- Savage defiance vs Wild Sprint: Savage Defiance gives some sustain. Wild Sprint helps to position for maximum carnage. I think you'll find Savage Defiance used little.

You could also skip both of these and grab Barbaric Yell/Frenzy instead.

- Brute Force vs Bloodlust: Brute Force can help generate more hits/crits against low fortitude enemies. Blood Lust (+0.2 attack speed after 2 kills for 8 seconds) helps after your Frenzy has ended.

- Threatening Presence vs Bloodthirst: Threatening Presence gives Sickening which reduces Frotitude by -10, so it works well with Brute Force and also reduces Resolve by 1 (-3 Concentration). Bloodthirst gives an immediate turn after a kill, but doesn't work so well with Frenzy since you'll lose a Frenzy turn duration from that extra turn gained from Bloodlust. However, after Frenzy runs out Bloodlust can help clean up a fight.

- Barbaric Shout: you don't need Barbaric Shout if someone else is in charge of casting a Terrifying spell when needed. I'd skip it and pick up.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Weapon choices:

A LOT of variations here.

Club/ Ruffian: St. Wygelt's Cudgel? -5 resolve (-15 concentration)

Rapier/ Noble: Mosquito? -5 Concentration

War hammer/Soldier: Godansthunyr and Shatterstar have superior interrupt times (2.5s and 3s respectively). Godansthunyr also has stun on crit, a very nice debuff to inflict in an AoE.

Spear/Peasant: The Vile Loner's Lance also has superior interrupt times (3s).

The trouble of Warhammer and spear is that these are average speed weapons, not fast. So there's some speed management involved.

I imagine most people will want to use Godansthunyr in combination with St. Wygelt's Cudgel. However, I believe prone/stun/paralysed enemies cannot be interrupted. Keep that in mind.

===

Interrupt calculations:

1. 21 Perception = +33 Interrupt

2. Interrupting Blows = +15 Interrupt

3. Kana holding Zephyr (-20 Concentration)

4. Kana Chanting Thick Grew Their Tongues, Stumbling O'er Words (-10 Concentration)

5. Frightened (reduces Resolve by -2 or -6 Concentration): Barbarian Yell or Kana Chanting "Lo, Their Endless Host, the Harbingers Doom" causes Frighten: -2 resolve, (-6 concentration, -4 will)

alternatively,

Terrified (reduces Resolve by -4 or -12 Concentration): Barbarian Shout and Kana invoking Reny Daret's Ghost Spake, "I'll Catch You, Ben Fidel", which , -8 will)

Total Interrupt from this combo with Frighten is 33+15+20+10+6 = 84 Interrupt which is pretty darn good since default Concentration is 75.

Examples:

- Wisps have 16 Resolve, which gives 75+18=93 Concentration.

- Anyone with 18 resolve has 75+24= 99 Concentration

- Gafonercos, a level 16 end game dragon, has 26 resolve which gives 46+75 = 121 Concentration. I highly recommend St. Wygelt's Cudgel (-15 concentration) to bring that to a 69% chance to Interrupt on a normal hit and 94% on a critical hit.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by mrbunnyban

Question: Can Stunned, Prone and Paralysed enemies be interrupted?

...seems like the answer is NO, at least for Prone enemies. Wow, that makes War hammer Godansthunyr much less desirable.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by mrbunnyban