Help me build my Barbarian... no seriously, help?

[Yosharian]

So I've attempted one playthrough so far, a dual-wielding Rogue.  I didn't finish the game (various reasons).  Now I'm thinking of starting another playthrough.  I'm after a character that can dish out damage and be somewhat tanky.  I didn't like that my Rogue had to play so cowardly during the last playthrough.

 

I will be playing on Hard mode with Expert Mode probably turned off because it annoyed me having to guess spell AoEs.  Probably.

 

UPDATED: ok so I've decided on a class and my supporting party.  Will be:

 

Front line

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

Tank: Zahua using the Juggernaut Monk build

Secondary tank: Sagani's ranger pet

 

Ranged/Second line

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

DPS: 2H Barbarian

Ranged DPS: Sagani

Ranged/backstab: Devil of Caroc

 

Support/back line

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

healbot/buffer: Durance

CC/buff/debuff: Kana Rua

 

So I'm trying to decide between a balanced approach:

 

Mgt: 18

Con: 10

Dex: 10

Per: 10

Int: 20

Res: 10

 

and balls-to-the-wall glass cannon:

 

Mgt: 18

Con: 3

Dex: 19

Per: 15

Int: 20

Res: 3

 

And now I'm considering a third option, dumping DEX (!!!!) in favour of CON:

 

Mgt: 18

Con: 18

Dex: 4

Per: 15

Int: 20

Res: 3

 

The idea being, yes he has the attack speed of a cruise ship, but he hits like a tactical nuke going off (will pick talents/abilities based around making the most of those high recovery time attacks) and has the HP of a small mountain.

 

Anyway current build is:

 

Race: Fire Godlike

Background: Old Vailia, Slave

 

Mgt: 18

Con: 18

Dex: 4

Per: 15

Int: 20

Res: 3

 

Abilities:

----------

1 Frenzy (respec into this from Barbaric Yell which is better early on)

3 Savage Defiance

5 Blooded (not 100% decided upon this yet but will see)

7 Threatening Presence

9 Barbaric Shout

11 Thick-Skinned

13 Dragon Leap

 

Talents:

--------

2 Gallant's Focus (since I have no Pally and I rarely use Blessing even when I do have a Priest around)

4 Two-Handed Style

6 Apprentice's Sneak Attack

8 Barbaric Blow

10 Weapon Focus: Adventurer (reason I'm taking this so late is because I won't be using an Estoc until I get a really good one - going to rely on Firebrand until then)

12 Accurate Carnage

14 Greater Frenzy

 

BONUS TALENTS:

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

Second Skin: +2 DR when wearing armor (Winds of Steel - side with Knights of the Crucible)

Wael's Boon: +1 Intellect, +10 defense against Confused (side with Wael during the Council of Stars)

Blooded Hunter: +1 DR slash/pierce (Save Alwah during Prison Of Ice)

Song of the Heavens: +1 DR shock +1 PER (allow Delem to eat 3 birds during Songs of the Wild)

Dungeon Delver: +0.1 crit damage (Help Cwyneth during At The Mercy of the Tribes)

Gift From The Machine: +1 might, 5% max END (feed the prisoners to Aldhelm during Undying Heritage)

 

PS: my style is pretty min-max so feel free to go all out

 

PPS: Does anyone have Zahua and Devil of Caroc's attributes?  I can't find them anywhere.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Yosharian

[Zenbane]

You will probably want to avoid the Chanter based on your feelings about Paladins, and avoid the Druid based on your feelings about Wizards. The 2H Barbarian will likely be very reminiscent of your Dual Wielding Rogue experience.

 

So... I would suggest going for the Juggernaut Monk build. I tried this recently and absolute love it:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/82367-class-build-the-juggernaut-a-heavy-armored-monk/

 

 

[Sylvus_Moonbow]

Is there a [Class Build] here on the forum for a Barbarian like there is for that Monk?

[Vicarius]

Is there a [Class Build] here on the forum for a Barbarian like there is for that Monk?

 

Try this guide out. You don't always have to min max to the extreme of some of these builds but the ideas are solid. Enjoy

 

Character creation and development guide.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844

[Zenbane]

Is there a [Class Build] here on the forum for a Barbarian like there is for that Monk?

If you really wanna go Barb-Tank, then I'd recommend the "Active Defense System" build;

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844

 

 

4. Barbarians - Active Defense System

Role: tank/debuffer/disabler

 

Race: Hearth Orlan. Previously, he was optional – for this build, he's absolutely mandatory. The only valid alternative is the Boreal Dwarf - he'll shine against his racial foes but will be somewhat weaker against everyone else. Dwarf's stats are also not as convenient here.

 

Stats (Hearth Orlan, the White That Wends bonus included): 

 

M 2

C 17

D 3

P 21

I 18

R 17

 

The stats are the classical pre-addon tanking distribution. The only difference is that, because of perception now giving accuracy, they lost any sense for the majority of tanks. Not for this barb, though – he still manages to put them to good use. The mental stats maxed also make him a great party leader (which now is more of a rarity).

 

Weapon of Choice: Hatchet & Shield early on, then Spear of the Vile Loner, then Starcaller flail. Spear is more of a temporary weapon – it allows us to be useful by giving some extra debuffs (-5 defenses to everyone who's in the carnage zone) and interrupts. Sure, we'll swing rather slowly with our bad dex, once in 4 seconds or so, but its 1 second interrupt time still makes its worth it. It's almost a mini-stun.

 

The Starcaller benefit is that it can stun your foes on a critical hit and, well, the stun is a very good disable and it lasts for quite a while – 4 seconds. Starcaller is also a fast weapon so, even with our bad dex, we'll attack once in 2.5 seconds. That's without armor, of course – like many other builds, we'll fight in the full plate initially but later on we'll go for the 0% recovery penalty (that'll happen around the same time the Starcaller will become available for sale). So, since we'll attack a lot of foes, our chances to stun at least someone are pretty good. That's why the hearth orlan is indispensable – you want as much hit to crit conversion as you can get. Durgan steel upgrade, potion of merciless gaze, paladin's upgraded zealous aura, priest's Dire Blessing – those are your friends here. Accuracy buffs and deflection debuffs will work rather nicely too, that's why Boreal Dwarf can work. +15 accuracy is no joke crit-wise.

 

Talents and ability choices:

 

1st level: Barbaric Yell. Quite an obvious choice for an accurate 2 might tank. But, once again, at level 9 you respec into Frenzy – we want to hit real fast with our Starcaller.

 

2nd level: Weapon and Shield style: hard to tank without deflection. We have great amount of endurance but crappy defenses – gotta fix that ASAP.

 

3rd level: Savage Defiance. Sure, it works half as good as it does for your ordinary barbarian, but that's in terms of the pure endurance. Considering we'll have about twice as much deflection than your ordinary barbarian (and so we also take twice less damage), the survivability increase will be roughly the same. And it's an excellent increase in the early game.

 

4th level: Stalwart Defiance – said increase is going to get even bigger than this. +10 to all defenses is a lot. Almost negates the initial barbarian frailty. Also, combats got a bit faster in the 2.0, so 20 seconds of duration mean more than they previously did.

 

5th level: One Stands Alone – so it's more or less another 10 deflection for us and, as a tank, we want to have as much of that as possible.

 

6th level: Superior Deflection: we don't want to go for the Cautious Attack as we relatively care about our attack speed. Meaning that it's already as low as it can get and we can't afford to bring it down any further.

 

7th level: Threatening Presence. Even for the pure tank it's better than the Thick-Skinned.

 

8th level: Accurate Carnage – more attacks landing will mean more potential criticals.

 

9th level: Barbaric Shout. You also respec into Frenzy at this point – Starcaller should become available rather soon.

 

10th level: Weapon Focus: Adventurer – more Starcaller crits, you know. Yeah, we're a strange tank, even though we're really defensive, we gain a lot from our attacks. But then, considering the main feature of the barbarian is the carnage, that's only logical, no?

 

11th level: Brute Force – put some Weakened+Sickened combo on them, hit them better, stun them harder.

 

12th level: Quite an empty level for us. Well, Interrupting Blows, Gallant's Aura (if you have no palading), Snake's Reflexes etc – these all can be useful. Take whichever you fancy the most.

 

13th level: Thick-Skinned: better than nothing. Everything else doesn't do anything for this build.

 

14th level: same as 12th.

[Yosharian]

I didn't realise you could respec EVERYTHING including attributes... this changes everything.  But you can't respec companions attributes... sadface.

 

 

Is there a [Class Build] here on the forum for a Barbarian like there is for that Monk?

 

Try this guide out. You don't always have to min max to the extreme of some of these builds but the ideas are solid. Enjoy

 

Character creation and development guide.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844

 

Thank you for the post, it's extremely helpful!

 

 

You will probably want to avoid the Chanter based on your feelings about Paladins, and avoid the Druid based on your feelings about Wizards. The 2H Barbarian will likely be very reminiscent of your Dual Wielding Rogue experience.

 

So... I would suggest going for the Juggernaut Monk build. I tried this recently and absolute love it:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/82367-class-build-the-juggernaut-a-heavy-armored-monk/

 

Thank you for the suggestion but I am definitely going to go Barbarian now, I'm quite sold on the idea.  Also I will be using that monk build with Zahua (as much as I can, don't know his attributes yet so I hope they're good!).

Edited October 29, 2015 by Yosharian

[AndreaColombo]

Zahua's stats are very close to the Juggernaut's; imho he's one of the strongest story NPCs.

[Parasol_Syndicate]

I've had good results Making a 2H barbarian with high MIG, DEX, and RES. 

Went Aumaua for aesthetic reasons. 

Does lots of damage, quickly, and gets to do stuff in conversations. 

 

Is it optimal? Not hardly. 

Is it playable? Yes very. 

[Yosharian]

 

Zahua's stats are very close to the Juggernaut's; imho he's one of the strongest story NPCs.

 

 

Thanks.

 

I've been considering switching to a Fighter after all these buffs.  Been reading your Lady of Pain build, it's pretty sick.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Yosharian

[AndreaColombo]

^ I'll be posting some updates to it shortly. I managed to get 10 DR bypass and 15-frame recovery with a pure-melee version.

[Boeroer]

Blade of the Endless Paths for the win! Why don't you add Ryona's Vembraces for another 3 DR bypass? With that attack speed it would contribute enormously against high DR foes in PotD. But 13 DR bypass might be overkill most of the time.

[Yosharian]

Blade of the Endless Paths for the win! Why don't you add Ryona's Vembraces for another 3 DR bypass? With that attack speed it would contribute enormously against high DR foes in PotD. But 13 DR bypass might be overkill most of the time.

 

This is my problem with DR bypass - sometimes you don't need that much DR bypass, or any.

 

 

^ I'll be posting some updates to it shortly. I managed to get 10 DR bypass and 15-frame recovery with a pure-melee version.

 

I have a question which you might know the answer to, Sanguine Plate grants Frenzy, but does this item-granted Frenzy benefit from any effects which claim to alter standard Frenzy?

 

Off the top of my head there's Greater Frenzy (obviously, and almost certainly won't work with SP Frenzies but though I'd mention it anyway) and there's the Berserker's Belt which claims to extend Frenzies by 20%?

 

Also, does your Intellect play a part in the duration of Frenzies granted by SP?  (since my character obviously has a ridiculous intellect score)

[AndreaColombo]

^ I do not know off the top of my head but I can test it tonight or during the weekend.

[Boeroer]

No it does not - sadly. So neither greater frenzy nor the belt do anything for the sanguine plate induced frenzy. At least that was the case with Version 2.01. I had to retrain my barb because of that.

[Boeroer]

Stupid mobile version... double post again.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Boeroer