Barbarian DPS build

[SirArthurDayne]

Hi, I'm looking for suggestions  for barbarian dps build, want to know what stats should I upgrade.
 

thank you

[Judicator]

Pump Might, Dex, and Int. Wear light or no armor for maximum attack speed.

[tnc]

For top damage and accuracy you need these: 18+ might 18+ dex 10 cons 6-10 res 14+ int 6-10 per.

 

Abilities in order: Frenzy(upgraded), blooded, brute force, threatening presence, vengeful defeat, heart of fury or something else.

 

Do not get the self heal or shout abilities, you can apply those with casters. It's plain stupid to take them unless you don't mind gimping your character. Choices other than these seem really useless to me in terms of dps. One stands alone sucks dont take it. It gives you benefits for being engaged by 3+ enemies but you shouldn't be engaged by that many enemies since barbs aren't tanks. You'll go down in no time.

 

Talents: Take 2-3 class talents and 3-4 offensive talents of your choice. Like 1 weapon focus 1 two handed style 1 something else. Taking accurate carnage before taking weapon focus is stupid since focus gives you more accuracy anyway. For weapon focus the ones that give you estocs or two handed swords are best. They also give you good one handed weapons.

[Matt516]

For max DPS, follow Judicator's advice. You'll be fairly squishy if you do that, so don't try to play the character tanky (i.e. don't send them in first, try not to get mobbed, etc).

 

I run a bit of a hybrid tanky/DPS Barbarian, which is suboptimal for DPS (obviously - any time you don't max out Might and Dex you're being suboptimal for DPS) but has a bit more staying power. Sounds like you want a purely damage-oriented build though, so you'll want to max those three stats.

 

Cheers.

[bobthe]

I mostly agree with the other responders with two exceptions:

 

1) Don't bother with vengeful defeat. If your strategy involves dying a lot that is a problem. Even with Second Chance you get so little endurance back you just go down again in no time. Better to just keep your barbarian up and swinging with Durance heals or some such.

 

2) Putting a few points into Dex helps with DPS due to attack speed. This can help mitigate medium armor penalties. I gave my barbie a 14 Dex (and 20 Str with racial)

[Laz0r]

The Barbarian setup that I run is the following:

 

Race: Hearth Orlan, they have a crit passive which is perfect for a melee DPS character.

 

Might: 18

Dex: 18

Int: 14

Con: 10

Per: 10

Res: 10

 

For a weapon use a pike or a quarterstaff, because you really don't want to get hit depending on what difficulty you're playing on. Pikes and quarterstaffs have increased range, which will allow you to poke at things from behind your tanks. A lot of people will dump Con and pump the rest into Int. It just depends on what you want. If you choose to pump it into int, your barb is going to evaporate as soon as a mob touches them on higher difficulties. These stats maximize your main DPS stats (Might and Dex) while making sure your AoEs still get a bonus from the +4 int.

 

Keep in mind that barbs have low starting deflection, so your health pool is literally your lifeline early game and is still very important later. An alternative to this is dumping con and putting the points into Per/Res. This will decrease the chance you are hit, and it's mostly a matter of preference.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Laz0r

[tnc]

I mostly agree with the other responders with two exceptions:

 

1) Don't bother with vengeful defeat. If your strategy involves dying a lot that is a problem. Even with Second Chance you get so little endurance back you just go down again in no time. Better to just keep your barbarian up and swinging with Durance heals or some such.

 

2) Putting a few points into Dex helps with DPS due to attack speed. This can help mitigate medium armor penalties. I gave my barbie a 14 Dex (and 20 Str with racial)

 

The thing is there's no other good ability on that level. Barbaric shouts are crazy bad. Plus you can trigger vengeful defeat twice with a 'second wind' item and thrice with a ressurection spell and it deals huge bonus damage on everyone around you with carnage too AND you get the blooded active since you're low hp. It'll destroy things

[bobthe]

 

I mostly agree with the other responders with two exceptions:

 

1) Don't bother with vengeful defeat. If your strategy involves dying a lot that is a problem. Even with Second Chance you get so little endurance back you just go down again in no time. Better to just keep your barbarian up and swinging with Durance heals or some such.

 

2) Putting a few points into Dex helps with DPS due to attack speed. This can help mitigate medium armor penalties. I gave my barbie a 14 Dex (and 20 Str with racial)

 

The thing is there's no other good ability on that level. Barbaric shouts are crazy bad. Plus you can trigger vengeful defeat twice with a 'second wind' item and thrice with a ressurection spell and it deals huge bonus damage on everyone around you with carnage too AND you get the blooded active since you're low hp. It'll destroy things

 

 

I'm not so much saying that I think Vengeful Defeat isn't effective at dealing damage as much as I'm saying you just don't need it. My barbarian hardly ever goes down. If I had taken this ability it would not have triggered even once yet. Sure, you could plan to use it and put your barbarian in situations where they may go down faster, but then you're just wasting health and forcing yourself to rest sooner. It's just unnecessary and long term, with resting in mind, i think it's more effective to prevent going down than to rely on it as part of your strategy. But it could be a fun strategy, I won't deny that.

 

Also, Barbaric Shout and Yell are not amazing by any means but they aren't "crazy bad". The shout includes a -20 to accuracy. That is quite effective at reducing incoming damage. The yell is a bit less useful at only -10 accuracy but it's per encounter instead of per rest so you can use it more often.

Edited April 6, 2015 by bobthe

[tnc]

I posted above why they are bad. All the casters already have those debuffs and even better ones. Even your main character has it for being a watcher. Why would you give your melee dps one miserable spell wasting an ability like that. It's basically just one ordinary debuff spell. It'll also take one round to cast. It's a waste ability for sure.

 

As for vengeful defeat surely there are some fights you get wiped out or at least your barb goes down due to a mistake especially on Hard and PotD, let's not lie to each other just to prove a point. Any other difficulty isn't worth mentioning here anyway. When that happens everyone around him will most likely die since it's multiple carnage attacks AND full attacks on everyone (since it targets everything around you, and i assume you have more than 10 int).

 

Let's say there are five enemies around you when you go down. Vengeful defeat will make a full attack with carnage on each of them. Every single one of them will recieve five carnage attacks and one full attack. I think that's certain death. You can even build your barb into a suicide bomber, i might just try that soon.

Edited April 6, 2015 by tnc

[bobthe]

The AOE on yell and shout is very big. You should be able to get it off before the enemies are close enough for melee while still affecting all the ones nearest to you. I also like to grab the +4 Int inn bonus. Why use yell and shout when you have casters with similar abilities? Becase it's more abilities you can use before resting. As I mentioned before, resting frequency is something to consider. Plus I've been assuming they stack but I could be wrong on that. Even if they don't stack it's still more stuff you can use before resting.

 

 

As for vengeful defeat surely there are some fights you get wiped out or at least your barb goes down due to a mistake especially on Hard and PotD, let's not lie to each other just to prove a point.

 

Actually that happens very rarely for me, even on hard, and even less so past the level where Vengeful Defeat becomes available. Yes, it does happen occasionally but I have not actually lost any fights since around that point in the game even when my barbarian goes down. I've revived her exactly once in such a circumstance. Therefor the added damage from Vengeful Defeat would barely even be noticable. Therefor^2 that means that an ability like yell or shout, even if not used every combat, is still more useful than Vengeful Defeat unless you're "spamming barbarian deaths" at the enemy intentionally.

 

Again, I'm not saying it isn't effective or fun, just that it's definitely not an obvious "must have" grab for any barbie build.

[tnc]

We are not talking 'for you' we are talking about op that wants to have dps focused barb and my picks just plain suit his desire. Again i insist on shouts being useless. Ciphers cast it almost for free huge aoe frighten spell. At start you activate frenzy not your stupid shout lol. We deal damage remember?

[bobthe]

We are not talking 'for you' we are talking about op that wants to have dps focused barb and my picks just plain suit his desire. Again i insist on shouts being useless. Ciphers cast it almost for free huge aoe frighten spell. At start you activate frenzy not your stupid shout lol. We deal damage remember?

 

And I agree that your picks suit his desire. All I am saying is that it's not the only build and that my recommendation does not require one of your suggested abilities. I am trying to provide OTHER suggestions to the op. You seem unable to accept that both our suggestions are viable for some reason.

[tnc]

And i'm proving your suggestion will actually hurt op's build. Barb shouts are not worth it at all just ask other more experienced people we all agree on it.

[Dongom]

 Brute Force + Threatening Prescence (or another person who can put -20 Fort debuff) = awesome.  

[bobthe]

Well in some builds Vengeful Defeat is even less useful, as I have pointed out in my case, so what exactly is your point? Most things are situational. To simply rule out one option becuase it doesn't match your playstyle is naive. What if the op wants to solo? Or simply not use certain classes? Or maybe he wants a more casual playthrough where microing your barbarian's deaths and resting isn't something he has to worry about?

[tnc]

Even better brute force/threatening presence/weakened debuff for -30 in total

[Ichthyic]

yeah, gotta say, vengeful defeat would be pretty useless in solo...



 

[tnc]

Lets just end it you take shout and waste your precious ability point for a simple debuff spell, i'll take my awesome passive that is both fun and extremely effective.

[tnc]

yeah, gotta say, vengeful defeat would be pretty useless in solo...

 

Not really because you can rise up with second wind.

[bobthe]

 

yeah, gotta say, vengeful defeat would be pretty useless in solo...

Not really because you can rise up with second wind.

 

 

Second Wind doesn't give back very much endurance. In my experience it wasn't very useful but I also have a high Con and lots of Endurance. If you're taking enough damage to go down, the few endurance second wind gives back won't last long. However, if you are using Vengeful Defeat, then Second Wind becomes much more useful. It's also more useful on the squishier classes than on high-endurance classes since the endurance it gives back appears to be fixed.

[PIP-Clownboy]

Brute Force/Threat Presence if you like crits. 

 

Only way I'm using a vengeful defeat build is from a hired companion that I have no problem losing to perma death in Ironman. Let him solo stuff while everyone hides. Basically like a fantasy Xcom rookie fodder.

 

I prefer my Barbs nearly immortal. Savage Defiance and healing boots can switch to endurance leech set in a pinch; rarely ever go below 50% in POTD while vaporizing everything on screen.

 

 

Do not get the self heal or shout abilities, you can apply those with casters. 

 

 

Savage Defiance heals for insane amounts with high might/int and is instant cast with no recovery. Why would I waste a round casting crappy Priest heals when he could be casting protection against treachery/accuracy buffs/debuff etc. 

Edited April 6, 2015 by PIP-Clownboy

[tnc]

Yeah well i have a druid, cipher and priest in my party and the amount of heal and buff is on extreme levels. I like to focus on dps for barbarian so getting self heal or shouts are a waste for me. I also have frighten on cipher and the cost is so low i start the fights with it.

[DracoSpirit86]

Bit of con not a bad idea on barb, extra health is extra time to beat the hell out of your target. The panic self heal use will likely depend on your party set up.. it's good in a pinch, but if you have loads of healers in party, you'll likely not need it.

[PIP-Clownboy]

Yeah well i have a druid, cipher and priest in my party and the amount of heal and buff is on extreme levels. I like to focus on dps for barbarian so getting self heal or shouts are a waste for me. I also have frighten on cipher and the cost is so low i start the fights with it.

 

You keep saying Savage Defiance is dumb and useless to take in a bunch of posts, which is quite honestly ridiculous. After frenzy with around 25-30 might, Savage Defiance will heal for nearly the same amount as Durance's 3rd, 4th, 5th level heals combined and it's basically instant cast. You want to heal your Barb with a Druid/Priest that's cool, but don't act like you aren't sacrificing DPS/CC to do so.  

Edited April 7, 2015 by PIP-Clownboy