Barbarian build (no spoiler)

[jerryberry]

Hello,

 

I have played POE for few hours when it first released, and I came back to this game about a week ago.

I was reading and studying through the various character builds in this forum; however, failed to find what I like to be my barbarian.

So, I came up with this barbarian build after studying more of the mechanism of this game.

I want to share this build to you hoping to get some more advice.

 

Race Death Godlike

- I liked the racial ability of doing more damages when enemies have below 25% endurance.

Attributes

- evenly distributed to 13 points each (

- I want my main character to be exceptional at all around, and I think it's good starting distribution as they can be added by items later stage of the game.

 

Abilities

Carnage

- Automatically earned when starting

1. Frenzy

- Barbarian without Frenzy is not a barbarian

2. Wild Sprint (= Heart of Fury)

- I want my barbarian to rush to the spell casters during battles.

3. Brute Force

- I think this ability works well with the racial ablilty of doing more damage on the enemies with below 25% endurance, since it targets ememies fortitude when it's lower than defence.

4. Thick-Skinned

- Damage Reduction on self

5. Threatening Presence

- Skicens enemies around

6. Barbaric Shout

- Terrifying enemies

7. Blooded

- more damage when below 50% endurance

 

Talents

1. Accurate Carnage

- +5 accuracy

2. Weapon Focus

- +6 Accuracy

3. Two Weapon Style

- 20% attack speed

4. Envenomed Strike

- raw damage vs. Fortitude (I hope this works well with Brute Force.)

5. Interrupting Blows

- +15 interrupt (I guess its good against spell casters.)

6. Superior Deflection

- +5 Deflection

7. Barbaric Blow

- works even greater with carnage

 

The concept is to run the battle field to down the spell casters while my other tanky charactors hold the front line.

 

I've played first few hours and finished the Rodric quest at hard difficulty and it works so far well for me.

I do not think the Wild Sprint is not really useful when I leave the battle with AI. The barbarian often runs to the weaker enemies rather than chasing the spell casters. I think the spell casters does sometimes have higher defence than other melee enemies. So, I can take the Heart of Fury instead of Wild Sprint for more damage.

The defence may be not sufficient, as I notice this barbarian often become unconscious during the battles.

I think I can give less in Resolve and more in Dex to increase the reflex as well as attack speed.

 

I've not considered any items and bonus stats earned during the play through. I've not given myself too much attention on these bonuses. You are welcome to add some of these bonuses, if you like.

 

[Mocker22]

In my opinion barbs work very poorly as a "caster rusher" You want to be targeting many enemies so carnage works, not just picking off casters 1 by 1 in the back. Here is some random notes.....

 

Brute Force imo is a waste. It's not too useful on many enemies and deflection is extremely easy to debuff.

 

Savage Defiance for healing is basically mandatory I'd say.

 

13 in each stat is going to be.....like really bad. You need intel for your carnage to have a decent AoE. With only 13 might your attacks are going to hit very softly, and this will be especially true on carnage where your doing less dmg already. With a barb your Deflection isn't great anyways and unless your going to spec for it and use a shield then another 3 won't matter. Forgot the Res. I would leave con around 10 since barbs already get more HP than other classes. Since you def don't want to min max I would say that 16 might and 16 intel, and around 15 Per would be my bare minimums.

 

I would drop envenomed strike and interrupting blows. Vulnerable attack or Savage Attack are nice. Apprentice sneak attack is a nice dmg boost. The upgrade to Savage Defiance may be worth it to you. If you want to take defense boosting abilities maybe get stuff to boost your will save. 5 deflection won't help you much. As a barb your gonna get hit. I'd rely on Shod in Faith for healing to survive.

 

Do you have a plan for weapon type? If not I'd say Soldier....there are a few weapons that work good for barbs.

[Boeroer]

I second nearly all what Mocker22 said. Especially what he said about caster clipping. That's not what barbs are good at. 

 

Other things:

 

- Keep in mind that barbs' performance depends on items - especially weapons. This is due to the fact that most special on-hit or on-crit effects work with carnage. 

 

- Brute Force can be great if you have any means of applying Weakened in an AoE (and take Threatening Presence for Sickened yourself). This can be done by a priest's Painful Interdiction for example. Sickened and Weakened stack and result in more than -40 fortitude and more than -30 Will. In this case Brute Force is wonderful. If you don't plan to do that: don't take Brute Force - Threatening Presence alone is not enough - because most enemies have higher fort than deflection anyways. Threatening Presence is still nice on it's own though.

 

- Envenomed Strike doesn't work with carnage - so in my opinion it's a waste. Vulnerable Attack is a solid choice for barbs - because it works with carnage and carnage does less damage than your initial hit - so +5 DR bypass via carnage is great. It's like a flat +5 damage bonus per hit. Savage Attack is only good later in the game when low ACC is not a problem anymore (carnage has reduced ACC, that's why).

 

- Interrupting Blows can be great for a fast hitting barb - because it also works with carnage. There are no immunities to interrupts. Take two one handed weapons with high interrupt value (there are two great war hammers with 1.0 sec and 0.75 sec for example). Combine this with high PER and you will land a lot of long lasting interrupts in an AoE. If you're fast enough, you can interrupt-lock whole groups. Also works with a certain spear and a shield - you don't have to be dual wielding.

 

- Barbaric Blow is really bad unless you have a weapon with an on-hit or on-crit effect. Then it's ok.

 

- Wild Sprint is only per rest (which is really annoying). Boots of Speed are passive and cost you nothing but have the same effect.

 

- Barbaric Shout is great despite the fact it's only per rest.

 

- If you like Death Godlikes you should combine this with Bloody Slaughter. That's a great combination - especially with carnage. You can use another thing with this combo:

 

- Heart of Fury (HoF) can be a real gamechanger in tough fights. There's a reason that it's only 1/rest: It's superpowerful if you know how to use it. If you have high INT (and therefore a huge carnage AoE) and are dual wielding + Vulnerable Attack the damage will be hilarious - if you can manage to hit 5 to 6 enemies with it. Each hit will trigger carnage by itself which leads to many, many hits. It's really great if you combine it with Death Godlike and Bloody Slaughter, since during this Full Attack + tons of carnage hits most enemies will be reduced from uninjured to badly injured - or from badly injured to death. When HoF and Death's Usher + Bloody Slaugher meet - nothing will stand afterwards. It's especially great if you have a draining weapon like Tidefall or so - because after the usage of HoF your endurance is 100% again (if you managed to hit 5 to six foes). It gets even better if you have a weapon that has an on-hit or on-crit effect since the chance that the enemy gets debuffed and hit again with the same attack is big. For example: if you have a weapon that causes prone most of the time you use HoF everybody will lie on the floor afterwards if they are not dead. Against one or two enemies this ability is totally worhtless though. You have to reach as many enemies as possible.

 

- Blooded: is only good (in my opinion) if you take a Fire Godlike or combine it with Vengeful Defeat: then the enemies get really hurt when you go down. You can combine this with HoF and also Barbaric Blow: If you feel that you might be going down and are below 50% endurance: first trigger HoF, then Barbaric Blow and then, when you keel over, Vengeful Defeat will be triggered. All these will have more damage because of Blooded. And maybe Death's Usher and Bloody Slaughter also kick in. Vengeful Defeat is only great if you have any means of reviving (second chance item or paladin or priest or chanter). THis way you can go down, deal damage with it and get up again.

 

Wow - this is more text than I planned - sorry!

Edited January 22, 2016 by Boeroer

[DreamWayfarer]

Boeroer is like (almost) always right. I'd like to add that, at lower levels, if you want a disabler or interrupter barbarian wielding a single one-handed weapon may be worth it, since you likely wish to stack as much accuracy as possible.

Edited January 22, 2016 by DreamWayfarer

[limaxophobiacq]

- Interrupting Blows can be great for a fast hitting barb - because it also works with carnage. There are no immunities to interrupts. Take two one handed weapons with high interrupt value (there are two great war hammers with 1.0 sec and 0.75 sec for example). Combine this with high PER and you will land a lot of long lasting interrupts in an AoE. If you're fast enough, you can interrupt-lock whole groups. Also works with a certain spear and a shield - you don't have to be dual wielding.

 

Note on Interrupting Blows if you dont have 15+ perception: You are better of buying down Might 5 points and Perception up 5 points and taking savage attack rather than taking Interrupting Blows, both give same accuracy and interrupt but savage attack gives +20% damage vs +15% for  5 might.

[Blades of Vanatar]

I second nearly all what Mocker22 said. Especially what he said about caster clipping. That's not what barbs are good at.

 

Other things:

 

- Keep in mind that barbs' performance depends on items - especially weapons. This is due to the fact that most special on-hit or on-crit effects work with carnage.

 

- Brute Force can be great if you have any means of applying Weakened in an AoE (and take Threatening Presence for Sickened yourself). This can be done by a priest's Painful Interdiction for example. Sickened and Weakened stack and result in more than -40 fortitude and more than -30 Will. In this case Brute Force is wonderful. If you don't plan to do that: don't take Brute Force - Threatening Presence alone is not enough - because most enemies have higher fort than deflection anyways. Threatening Presence is still nice on it's own though.

 

- Envenomed Strike doesn't work with carnage - so in my opinion it's a waste. Vulnerable Attack is a solid choice for barbs - because it works with carnage and carnage does less damage than your initial hit - so +5 DR bypass via carnage is great. It's like a flat +5 damage bonus per hit. Savage Attack is only good later in the game when low ACC is not a problem anymore (carnage has reduced ACC, that's why).

 

- Interrupting Blows can be great for a fast hitting barb - because it also works with carnage. There are no immunities to interrupts. Take two one handed weapons with high interrupt value (there are two great war hammers with 1.0 sec and 0.75 sec for example). Combine this with high PER and you will land a lot of long lasting interrupts in an AoE. If you're fast enough, you can interrupt-lock whole groups. Also works with a certain spear and a shield - you don't have to be dual wielding.

 

- Barbaric Blow is really bad unless you have a weapon with an on-hit or on-crit effect. Then it's ok.

 

- Wild Sprint is only per rest (which is really annoying). Boots of Speed are passive and cost you nothing but have the same effect.

 

- Barbaric Shout is great despite the fact it's only per rest.

 

- If you like Death Godlikes you should combine this with Bloody Slaughter. That's a great combination - especially with carnage. You can use another thing with this combo:

 

- Heart of Fury (HoF) can be a real gamechanger in tough fights. There's a reason that it's only 1/rest: It's superpowerful if you know how to use it. If you have high INT (and therefore a huge carnage AoE) and are dual wielding + Vulnerable Attack the damage will be hilarious - if you can manage to hit 5 to 6 enemies with it. Each hit will trigger carnage by itself which leads to many, many hits. It's really great if you combine it with Death Godlike and Bloody Slaughter, since during this Full Attack + tons of carnage hits most enemies will be reduced from uninjured to badly injured - or from badly injured to death. When HoF and Death's Usher + Bloody Slaugher meet - nothing will stand afterwards. It's especially great if you have a draining weapon like Tidefall or so - because after the usage of HoF your endurance is 100% again (if you managed to hit 5 to six foes). It gets even better if you have a weapon that has an on-hit or on-crit effect since the chance that the enemy gets debuffed and hit again with the same attack is big. For example: if you have a weapon that causes prone most of the time you use HoF everybody will lie on the floor afterwards if they are not dead. Against one or two enemies this ability is totally worhtless though. You have to reach as many enemies as possible.

 

- Blooded: is only good (in my opinion) if you take a Fire Godlike or combine it with Vengeful Defeat: then the enemies get really hurt when you go down. You can combine this with HoF and also Barbaric Blow: If you feel that you might be going down and are below 50% endurance: first trigger HoF, then Barbaric Blow and then, when you keel over, Vengeful Defeat will be triggered. All these will have more damage because of Blooded. And maybe Death's Usher and Bloody Slaughter also kick in. Vengeful Defeat is only great if you have any means of reviving (second chance item or paladin or priest or chanter). THis way you can go down, deal damage with it and get up again.

 

Wow - this is more text than I planned - sorry!

"Caster Clipping".... watch "Into the Badlands" much?!

[Boeroer]

Yes!

 

I find it to be a good term for that kind of "work". :D

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Note on Interrupting Blows if you dont have 15+ perception: You are better of buying down Might 5 points and Perception up 5 points and taking savage attack rather than taking Interrupting Blows, both give same accuracy and interrupt but savage attack gives +20% damage vs +15% for 5 might.

Wait, I'm confused. I thought interrupting blows just lengthened the duration of interrupts you cause by 15%, and didn't give any other bonus.

 

edit: the wiki article on interrupting, the specific entry for the interrupting blows talent, and every other source I could find on this, including various threads on this forum, each seems to state a slightly different version of exactly how interruption works. I'd really appreciate some clarity.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[Boeroer]

No, they give you a higher chance of causing an interrupt. With PER 15 you will have a value of 15. With Interrupting Blows it will be 30.

 

If you hit somebody, you will roll d100 + interrupt value (here 30) against concentration.

 

Concentration with 15 RES is 90.

 

So without Interrupting Blows it would be d100+15 > 90 = interrupt time of weapon applied

 

With Interrupting BLows it would be d100+30 > 90.

 

 

That's better than prolonging the interrupt time by15% I think.

 

 

You can lower concentration by 10 then with a chanter's phrase. Then your chance to interrupt a RES-15-Guy with your 15 PER and Interrupting Blows would be like 50%. Another way are all the spells/powers that lower RES. Like Miasma of Dull Mindedness and so on. That will further lower concentration by 30 points.

 

So it's not too bad to max PER if you want to cause a lot of interrupts. With 20 PER and all the stuff I listed above you would have to roll d100+45 >50 against a 15 RES guy. That should be an interrupt almost every time. If you combine a chanter, a wizard and an interrupt-barb you can perma-lock a lot of foes without any defense or immunity against this.  

Edited January 22, 2016 by Boeroer

[jerryberry]

Thank you all guys for the tips. I will def try to apply your suggestions on my build. I was a bit disappointed by the direction of the game mechanic which drives the barbarians to be AoE damage dealer, not specially strong for 1 on 1 fights.