[CLASS BUILD] Guts, the Black Swordsman

[Seer7]

If anyone is familiar with Guts, the Black Swordsman, from Kentaro Miura's manga Berserk, then this build should need no introduction.

 

For those who have no idea, this build is meant to bring Guts into Eora and is therefore meant to be faithful to the character and source material, within the game's limitations.

 

The two most noteworthy traits of Guts as a person are 1) his overwhelming strength, and 2) his unbreakable resolve. He also possesses incredible dexterity and perception, and a formidable constitution. Unfortunately, 18 attribute points is simply not enough to fully embody a character as physically overpowering as Guts. This build therefore concentrates on the two aforementioned traits above the others.

 

Though heroic in his traits, Guts is human above all else, and takes pride in that fact. Savannah folk is recommended for his subrace. He is a highly skilled warrior, ergo his class should be fighter.

 

Initial stats, from strength to resolve are: 20, 11, 12, 10, 8, 17. His culture should the Living Lands, as the strength bonus is necessary to reach 20 from the get-go. The fact it is a place renown for inhospitable environments and predatory flora and fauna is also fitting. He should also have a mercenary background, as this was Guts' occupation for most of his life.

 

Appearance settings:

 

Colours-

Primary = jet black

Secondary = black

Skin = second from the left.

Hair = jet black

 

Head-

Facial hair = 1

Head = 3

Hair = 10

 

I've included a portrait set for use in the game:

Put these in PoE's data\art\gui\portraits\player\male folder, found where you installed the game, and rename them male_human_r_lg and male_human_r_sm respectively.

 

Voice: Male - Stoic.

 

The distribution of his abilities and talents should be as follows-

 

Lvl 01: Knockdown

One of the most useful per encounter abilities in the game, and a good showcase for Guts' physicality.

 

Lvl 02: Two Handed Style

Guts began training at the age of six. His first sword was so large, proportionally, he struggled lift it. In time, he could swing it with remarkable force.

 

Lvl 03: Confident Aim

Guts is a well experienced and practised swordsman, who first entered battle at the age of nine.

 

Lvl 04: Hold the Line

Guts is frequently surrounded by enemies, this talent represents his ability to survive under such conditions.

 

Lvl 05: Vigorous Defence

One of Guts' abilities, gained through extensive combat, is his preternatural ability to sense incoming danger and deflect otherwise fatal blows.

 

Lvl 06: Weapon Focus: Soldier

Guts' trademark weapon is the truly enormous greatsword called the Dragonslayer, which is more akin to a sharpened hunk of iron than a traditional sword.

 

Lvl 07: Clear Out

This is an essential ability as one of Guts' signature moves is cleaving entire ranks of enemies apart in a single blow. Combined with his strength, it is devastating.

 

Lvl 08: Savage Attack

Guts' attacks might not be the mose precise but they are undeniably powerful.

 

Lvl 09: Weapon Specialisation: Soldier

Guts has defeated many dangerous opponents in single combat, both human and monster, which would not be possible for his rigorous experience in wielding his chosen weaponry.

 

Lvl 10: Unstoppable

This represents how difficult is to disable Guts through blows that would otherwise send a man sprawling in a heap.

 

Lvl 11: Unbroken

There are numerous times where Guts could have given up and died. Instead he clung furiously to life, determined to defeat his enemies.

 

Lvl 12: Weapon Mastery: Soldier

The only one capable of wielding the Dragonslayer is Guts. He is a true master swordsman.

 

Gear-

 

Head-

Recommended: The Pilgrim's Lasting Vigil (+1 perception).

 

Body-

Mandatory: Sanguine Plate (ideally upgraded to superb DR).

Guts uses the Berserker armour, and this is ideal to represent it.

 

Boots-

Recommended: Boots of Stability ®

 

Cloak/Amulet-

Mandatory: Shroud of Mourning (+3 resolve, plus other buffs)

Guts wears a cloak, and this one, while not as tattered, provides a very good buff to resolve which is important. The Cloak of the Tireless Defender fits better from an aesthetic point of view, but it's not as powerful.

 

Gauntlets-

Recommended: Bracers of Deflection ® or Gauntlets of Puissant Melee ®

 

Rings-

Mandatory: Pensiavi mes Rèi (+3 Might).

Mandatory: Ring of Thorns (+3 Dex, plus other buffs).

These are used to maximise damage and buff up attack speed respectively.

 

Belt-

Recommended: Blunting Belt ®

 

®=random loot.

 

Final stats with mandatory gear: 23, 11, 15, 10, 8, 20.

 

Weaponry:

 

The one blade worthy of Guts in PoE is Tidefall. It has very useful non-craftable enchantments like Wounding and Draining, which enhance damage and user survivability. It can also be enchanted to a limited degree, I suggest either Slaying: Beast, as dragons are classified as beasts, or an elemental damage. I recommend Freeze as the Adra Dragon is vulnerable to it.

 

I would also suggest an Arquebus to abstractly represent Guts' cannon, integrated in his mechanical arm. There are no throwing knives, so these cannot be represented, nor can his grenades.

 

(Anticipated) Frequently Asked Questions:

 

What skills should I raise?

Athletics, primarily.

 

Why Knockdown?

Admittedly, with Guts' 8 intelligence it will last around 4.5 seconds but you can use it twice per encounter. That amounts to ~9 seconds of prone vs 13.5 seconds of Disciplined Barrage, assuming both knockdowns hit. Once you level, you'll can see around 6-7 seconds worth of prone in some instances, which brings you closer to a total of 12-13 seconds. Besides that, intelligence is easily buffed once you hit Brakenbury and keep some appropriate gear on you.

 

Why not use Defender?

-20% attack speed, which is a no-no when he's already attacking so slowly. Vigorous Defence provides a means to weather a beating. Aside from that, Guts is far from conservative in battle.

 

Why not use the Drake's Bell to represent the Dragon Slayer?

It's not a greatsword.

 

Why put a point into constitution?

Puts you over the 1000HP-200ED line, nice and neat. There are numerous items that could do this, eg. Girdle of Eotun Constitution, but I wanted to keep mandatory gear to a minimum considering he's hogging some really powerful stuff.

 

If you're not convinced, then put that extra point into intelligence. Why? With the right rest bonus and gear, you'll be able to hit 15 INT which is the requirement for a fair few INT-based dialogue checks, while you'll rely on resolve for the rest. Guts makes for a pretty good PC with his high resolve, btw.

 

Why bother with dexterity?

Attack speed, which matters when you're wearing full plate and swinging a greatsword.

 

So why not take Armored Grace?

Because there are other abilities which reflect Guts' character better.

 

Why have X ability/talent at Y level?

Feel free to mix them around if you wish, the above is just a suggestion.

 

Y u no min-max?

Not my style. If you want to then dump con entirely and buff dex to 17 and perception to 12-13 (depending on whether you leave a point to raise INT to 9). You'll end up with 774HP and 155EN by level 12. With the above gear you'll hit 20 DEX and 13-14 perception which means +30% to attack speed and +3-4 to deflection, along with an interrupt of 9-12. With some +2-3 constitution gear you can gain up to 833-863HP and 167-173EN by level 12.

 

If that's still not enough dump INT too and use it to drive up your perception. I wouldn't recommend Knockdown in that case, but you probably already know that.

 

Hints:

-Once Frenzy triggers, activate Vigorous Defence to offset its deflection penalty.

-Save Knockdown for tough opponents, with Guts' strength it is very difficult to resist.

-Recommended party support is a Paladin with Zealous Focus for the accuracy buff, and other per encounter buffs like Hastening Exhortation. A Chanter would be useful as well.

[TT1]

Dex and Int too low. This build is just bad. Sorry, bud.

[Exoduss]

only bad thing about the build in POE can be that it doesnt have min CON other than that INT doesnt matter for fighters( having 8 is not bad but you can go 3 if you want) , and dex is just ****ed by sanguine plate anyway so why stack it?

[MadDemiurg]

Should be a barbarian, not fighter. DPS fighter is a sad sight. Imo carnage is a perfect ability for the archetype you're looking for.

Edited May 22, 2015 by MadDemiurg

[Exoduss]

Sanguine Plate makes any char barbarian no :D?

[MadDemiurg]

Carnage is what defines barbarian, not frenzy.

[Seer7]

Dex and Int too low. This build is just bad. Sorry, bud.

only bad thing about the build in POE can be that it doesnt have min CON other than that INT doesnt matter for fighters( having 8 is not bad but you can go 3 if you want) , and dex is just ****ed by sanguine plate anyway so why stack it?

I mentioned that you could dump CON to buff up other stats if you want, like DEX, it's just not something I like to do. I could be persuaded to go as low as 8, like with INT, and put that into DEX or even perception for the deflection bonus. INT isn't really important for this build. I suggested buddying up with a Paladin for hastening exhortation, but you could also use Deleterious Alacrity potions to buff up attack speed.

 

Should be a barbarian, not fighter. DPS fighter is a sad sight. Imo carnage is a perfect ability for the archetype you're looking for.

I considered that, but decided against it for the simple reason it wasn't true to the character. Sanguine Plate largely fills in what the class choice leaves out.

[Raven Darkholme]

Gotta agree with Mad, nobody cares about Frenzy, it's carnage, that matters. Why do you think people cried like bybies, when retaliation got replaced with frenzy on Sanguine.

[Seer7]

Gotta agree with Mad, nobody cares about Frenzy, it's carnage, that matters. Why do you think people cried like bybies, when retaliation got replaced with frenzy on Sanguine.

Retaliation was nerfed, but Sanguine still has it; I think they gave it Frenzy to partially make up for the nerf. Pity both of them take up so much room, enchantment-wise.

[MadDemiurg]

Well, if poking enemies to death 1 by 1 is more true to the character than cleaving through them with carnage then OK .

[Crescent Hawk]

I also think Guts leans more towards Barbarian than a disciplined fighter. A Barbarian can be a master swordsman after all.

[srlapo]

Retaliation was nerfed, but Sanguine still has it; I think they gave it Frenzy to partially make up for the nerf. Pity both of them take up so much room, enchantment-wise.

Only in old saves from before the patch. The plate doesn't have retaliate in new games.

[Exoduss]

Sanguine Plate doesnt stack with Hiro's Cloak anyway , so it was never a loss just a buff , now you can have 2 Retal items Hiros+shield and frienzy on sanguine plate , also frenzy can pop twice a fight now , so its basically 30 seconds of +4MIG+3CON+33%Aspeed thats just amazing . 

[Incendax]

Thirded. Guts is a Barbarian.
Especially with One Stands Alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qacgb2b8LVU

Edited May 24, 2015 by Incendax

[Seer7]

 

Retaliation was nerfed, but Sanguine still has it; I think they gave it Frenzy to partially make up for the nerf. Pity both of them take up so much room, enchantment-wise.

Only in old saves from before the patch. The plate doesn't have retaliate in new games.

 

Well that sucks. I used this build through most of my second playthrough before retaliate was nerfed. Even after the nerf the addition of Frenzy kinda made up for it, but looks like the changes to Retaliate and the Sanguine Plate have reduced the appeal quite a bit.

 

I like using Fighter because deflection is higher, in general and with things like Vigorous Defence, and the additional weapon talents and abilities could really max out damage. Pre-nerf Sanguine Plate plus Clear Out made for a good representation, imo. Now it's at a point where neither class is really ideal, but I'd still edge towards Fighter because it makes much better use of RES, which represents his character well, plus Unbroken. I can understand the argument for Barbarian though.

[Hopekiller]

Been years since I've read Berserk, but I agree with the responses that he's more of a barbarian than a fighter. Also, since he's using the Berserker armor, he should probably also use the Sanguine Plate (Frenzy) ingame. 

 

Also, I must disagree when you portrait him as more dexterious than enduring. Alot of the early fights (before Griffith betrays the mercenary company) leave him exhausted, but still standing due to his immense Constitution. In the fight with Zod the Immortal, it was also his immense STR, CON and RES that left them alive. From what I've read (up to ch 300'ish alot of years ago), I don't believe DEX and PER are characteristics defining Guts.

[Seer7]

The build does specify that he should use the Sanguine Plate. The problem with a character like Guts is there's a good argument for either side, he's really overpowered. I stated in the OP that I decided to focus on his STR and RES attributes the most, hence why they're stacked, and the best class to do that with is Fighter. For either Fighter or Barbarian, stacking CON isn't a bad decision, it's just not ideal. (I'm sure a lot of people would argue stacking CON for any class is a waste). Barbarians, also, make heavy use of INT in order to get the best out of Carnage which is less appropriate than stacking RES for Guts, imo.

[Yipikayey]

I always start playing RPGs with a character called Guts with a 2 handed weapon. It's kind of a tradition already. In some ways barbarian is better, in others, fighter is better, constant self regen, for starters, help to make Gutts the unkillable beast he is, refusing to die and ignoring pain at expense of his health, while carnage, represents his ability to slash enemies easily. 

 

I disagree with the Dexterity and intellect. He IS really fast and nimble, even tho he is very durable and his CON could represent his ability to refuse to die, you can interchange that with the fighter's passive imo to get some dexterity up there. He is really fast, he manages to defeat Griffin due to speed, strength and intelligence. He is very precise with his attacks, and manages to stop before cutting Griffin's shoulder too.

 

I don't know why people see Guts in a way kind of like barbaric and flailing his weapon senseless, he does not, he is much more like a fighter in that sense, precise with a very good martial sense, it's only when he is in really desperate fights where his resolve and constitution really shows.

 

With the Berserk armor, it's another story tho. He stops being Guts and starts to be Nuts (horrible pun i know :D).

 

But if i had to choose between Barbarian or a Fighter... i don't really know, the Barb allows you to feel like he does the AoE crazy damage he should while the Fighter makes better for the durable refuse to die mofo that Guts is, while having the possibility to spec into Two handed Sword to represent it.