Assistance requested for a barbarian hireling build

[KDubya]

My barbarian hireling is not very effective, where have I gone wrong?

 

This is on hard difficulty, main is now level 12, barbarian hireling will hit level eleven very soon, or could re-hire.

 

Itumaak came down with a slow bug so I had to park Sagani. Main is a two hander fighter spec'd for damage with Eder, Aloth, Grieving Mother, Durance.

 

For role play reasons I do not want to use any of the godmode races.

 

Also I do not want to use the cheesy , at least in my opinion, retaliation gear. Nor use the obviously bugged "One stands alone"

 

The Barbarian is aptly named "Dirt Nap" as he spends too much time face down in the dirt.

His stats are

Boreal dwarf

Might 20

Con 16

dex  18

Per  3

Int  18

Res 3

 

health 1395

endurance 233

 

Deflection 29

Fortitude  81

Reflex   49

Will       49

 

Acc 57

Damage 25-36 wielding Justice two handed sword with savage attack modal

 

Talents/abilities - Blooded, Barbaric Shout, Bloodlust, carnage, frenzy, savage defiance, weapon focus soldier, savage attack, two handed style, greater frenzy and barbaric blow.

 

defeated 11 enemies, damage down 2124.7, damage taken 1195.9, knocked out twice

 

originally I had him in exceptional leather, after the two knockouts switched to fine plate. Gear wise he will always get hand me downs.

 

 

 

He is more ass kicked than kick ass. I use him as I use my two fighters to fire an initial ranged volley and then close to melee. In the tough fights I throw in a yell to de-buff the enemy, hit frenzy at the start of the fight, hit the heal after the frenzy wear off, hit something big with barbaric blow.

 

 

[mazeltov]

He already has W.F.: Soldier; give him a pike and have him poke from behind the tanks. When adds spill around the tank line, have Aloth and GM CC them before they gib your ultra-squishy Barb. His high Endurance and self-regen talent should be enough to survive most incidental AoE damage.

 

"Distance is the only armor I require." - Gilden Silveric

[Kelstrom]

Give him pike or Tidefall (the 2h sword with endurance leech).

Get thick-skinned, accurate carnage and vulnerable attack.

You got some not so worthed talents like greater frenzy, barbaric shout, barbaric blow.

Use second chance items + Vengeful Defeat.

Priority buffs from Durance - Inspiring Radiance + Devotions for the Faitfhul

 

Also there are 4 patches now and no mention about One Stand Alone being bugged. No dev confirmation, at least i havent seen one.

 

But since you have 2 tanks you cant utilize OSA properly so its not so big if you dont have it. You can just poke with spear behind the fighters.

[Jimmysdabestcop]

Barbs already have awful deflection. So by dropping Res and Per you just make it worse. Absolutely cant be frontline. Has to flank or attack with reach weapon.

 

Barbs are cool but you def have to micromanage them.Try and set your Barb up to Crit a lot and get this pike ( you can still chant it up to superb and put elemental damage mod on it too): It is easier for orlan rogues to use this pike and basically crit and sneak attack every attack.

 

 

Tall Grass 18-26

• Increased Reach: +1.8 Weapon Reach
• Exceptional: +8 Accuracy, x1.3 Damage
• Predatory: +10% of Hits converted to Crits
• Overbearing: Crits can inflict Prone

[KDubya]

Thanks all for the tips.

 

It sounds like a barbarian is not what I need. Too fragile, requires too much baby sitting. Avoiding bugs and exploits probably not helping my barb either.

 

Think I will either make another DPS fighter, monk, tanky chanter or maybe just re-make a ranger .

[Kelstrom]

These "substitutes" you mentioned will do about 10-20% of the DPS potential the barbarian can do.

 

If you dont wanna baby sit your chars maybe switch to more easy difficulty. The barbarian can be made tanky enough to be a passive DPS machine, which can only use 1 active skill at the start of the battle and maybe another skill later.

 

Since you have 2 tanks you dont need to baby sit the barb, put a heavy armor + slash/pierce DR belt and just right click on the enemy. If you are not lazy enough set frenzy to "Q" button and click it some times. If you think your barb will die, set salvage defiance to "W" and click it when low endurance. This is the best passive gameplay to DPS ratio you can get in the game.

 

Cypher, rogue, monk, wizard, druid - these DPS classes require a lot more attention and die faster than tanky barb.

[Jojobobo]

I think a problem with your build, unless you go with a reach weapon as people have suggested, is that you're going to get interrupted a hell of a lot with that low Resolve; because of this you won't be able to get too thick into the fray and therefore can't make use of the Barbarians best ability - One Stands Alone.

 

A successful Barbarian I was running on hard is below - with the rationale behind my choices in parentheses:

 

Coastal Aumaua - The Living Lands (I was really after just maxing Might here, and the racial isn't dreadful, but obviously the cheesier races like Moon Godlike are better)

 

 

Might 21, Con 3, Dex 18 Per 3, Int 18, Res 15 (Max might = max damage, max dex = max attack speed, max int = large Carnage AoE and Frenzy duration, middling Res = reasonable concentration, min Per = who cares too much about interrupt or deflection on a Barbarian. Min con is probably the most shocking choice, but honestly even without activating Frenzy my barbarian's con wasn't far off Eder's - with Frenzy it's more than good enough).

 

Abilities - 1 = Frenzy, 3 = Blooded, 5 = Brute Force, 7 = Bloodlust, 9 = One Stands Alone, 11 = Heart of Fury (this build was all about damage and DPS, not fear de-buffs or tanking. Let a dedicated healer worry about your endurance and a dedicated de-buffer worry about de-buffing).

 

Talents - 2 Barbaric Blow, 4 - Accurate Carnage, 6 - Two Weapon Style, 8 - Greater Frenzy, 10 - Weapon Focus of choice or whatever, 12 - Vulnerable Attack or whatever (really just looking again for DPS and the last two at DR reduction, though Vulnerable Attack decreases attack speed it is modal so really you can pick and choose when you do or don't think it's necessary).

 

This guy was vastly my main damage dealer and was taking out close to 50% of my enemies and making most mobs a breeze (it's great how you can target the big monster of the group and watch the little ones fall at your feet too). Give him low DR high recovery armor and something with Second Chance (there's a ring with Second Chance you can get in Defiance Bay, Gwisk Glas if possible later on) and watch the damage rack up. In the end I got bored of Hard because of this and now am trying PotD with a different class for fun, but it was definitely very good at taking stuff out. I'm sure everyone will bemoan my low con, but from experience you really really don't need it.

[Doug]

One Stands Alone requires engaged by 2 or more enemies.

Engaged by 2 or more enemies = Dead!

 

i'd suggest ranged rogue/cipher

[Kelstrom]

One Stands Alone requires engaged by 2 or more enemies.

Engaged by 2 or more enemies = Dead!

 

i'd suggest ranged rogue/cipher

Sometimes the humor is good in this forum

[Jimmysdabestcop]

I think a problem with your build, unless you go with a reach weapon as people have suggested, is that you're going to get interrupted a hell of a lot with that low Resolve; because of this you won't be able to get too thick into the fray and therefore can't make use of the Barbarians best ability - One Stands Alone.

 

A successful Barbarian I was running on hard is below - with the rationale behind my choices in parentheses:

 

Coastal Aumaua - The Living Lands (I was really after just maxing Might here, and the racial isn't dreadful, but obviously the cheesier races like Moon Godlike are better)

 

 

Might 21, Con 3, Dex 18 Per 3, Int 18, Res 15 (Max might = max damage, max dex = max attack speed, max int = large Carnage AoE and Frenzy duration, middling Res = reasonable concentration, min Per = who cares too much about interrupt or deflection on a Barbarian. Min con is probably the most shocking choice, but honestly even without activating Frenzy my barbarian's con wasn't far off Eder's - with Frenzy it's more than good enough).

 

Abilities - 1 = Frenzy, 3 = Blooded, 5 = Brute Force, 7 = Bloodlust, 9 = One Stands Alone, 11 = Heart of Fury (this build was all about damage and DPS, not fear de-buffs or tanking. Let a dedicated healer worry about your endurance and a dedicated de-buffer worry about de-buffing).

 

Talents - 2 Barbaric Blow, 4 - Accurate Carnage, 6 - Two Weapon Style, 8 - Greater Frenzy, 10 - Weapon Focus of choice or whatever, 12 - Vulnerable Attack or whatever (really just looking again for DPS and the last two at DR reduction, though Vulnerable Attack decreases attack speed it is modal so really you can pick and choose when you do or don't think it's necessary).

 

This guy was vastly my main damage dealer and was taking out close to 50% of my enemies and making most mobs a breeze (it's great how you can target the big monster of the group and watch the little ones fall at your feet too). Give him low DR high recovery armor and something with Second Chance (there's a ring with Second Chance you can get in Defiance Bay, Gwisk Glas if possible later on) and watch the damage rack up. In the end I got bored of Hard because of this and now am trying PotD with a different class for fun, but it was definitely very good at taking stuff out. I'm sure everyone will bemoan my low con, but from experience you really really don't need it.

 

Not a bad build, I like it. But with items and enchants you can probably keep Might at 18, Dex at 16 and int at 16. It would let you bring Per or Con upto 10, I prob go Per. Every attribute is pretty easy to get +2 items or enchants for. Con, Dex and Might have +3 items even. And there are a lot of them. I had a hard time giving stuff out to my main 6 party members so attribute bonuses wouldn't get surpressed.

 

The only item I found that weren't on par were the boots. They seemed out classes by everything else.

 

But if the OP wants an easier time managing a character and still giving out some nice DPS while not taking damage. He could roll a fighter and go 3 for Int and Con. It would let you max Might, Dex, Per and Res. Won't need con cause he wont get hit really.

 

Dual wield something (probably sabres), pick the 2W talent gives you +20% attack and you can still take defender which gives you -20% they cancel each other out. Rest of talents focous on damage ones and probably Acc. You can take the 2nd defender talent though. Later you get the -16% recovery for armor talent. Which makes you attack faster again.

 

If its your CHAR you can even add the Savage Attack modal -5 accuracy but if you have the space pig pet its +5 Acc. So again it cancels each other out. End game you can just switch modals from Defender to Savage Attack. They cant both be active.

 

Plus if you have a Paladin and another character with a shield. There are 2 shields in game that give +5 to all defenses for all party members. It stacks so thats a +10. Plus a +10 deflection ring or gaunlet as an item.

 

And you only wasted a possible 2 talents on defense. Which isn't bad. Your fighter a tank-like with out even trying. While you can set your Paladin up to be all tank and no damage if you wanted.

 

Now with your Fighter DPS/Tank hybrid you straight tank Paladin. Say a Wizard/Druid. Cipher and Priest you could still recreate that Barbarian you want. You won't have to worry about your 2 front liners so you can bring that Barb in to flank the enemy or again attack with reach.

 

Set your priest up as you gunner while not healing,buffing/debuffing and have the Cipher and Druid sling around there spells. Plus early game druid and can shape shft and do some serious melee damage but it drops off after level 6-7.

 

If you set your team up that way Jojobobo Barb build will really help you cause you will have 2 other characters taking all of your damage. While the barb flanks or reaches to hit enemys and use his AoE ability.