Barbarians - Dual Wield or 2H

[Anaeme]

I am torn between focusing my barb on 2H or TW style

 

Anyone have thoughts on which style is better?

 

Also interested in which weapons work best

[Boeroer]

With two weapons you can achieve 0 recovery with Frenzy (even with low DEX). That's very powerful. Especially if you have high PER and Interrupting blows.

 

Two Handers are good for carnage damage because that's only 60% of your original damage. A lot ot that gets caught in enemies' DR - so the higher the damage per hit the better.

 

I don't think you can say that one way is generally better than the other. It also depends on the weapon enchantments. Since those work with carnage all those things like draining, wounding, rending(!) and so on also work in an AoE. 

 

The best example is Tidefall: It has high damage and ACC because it's superb (good for carnage), it drains endurance (one swing at 5 enemies might give you 50 endurance back) and it is wounding - meaning that 25% of the dealt damage will go on top as DoT. It's a great weapon for barbs.

Another is the VIle Loner's Lance: this spear causes -5 defense on hit - that also applies to carnage hits. And it has a long interrupt (1 sec). Together with a second weapon that causes an affliction on crit - likea custom crafted Cladhaliath spear - this barb becomes a great crowd controller. 

 

So it depends what your barb is suppoed to do. For pure DPS I think dual wielding sabres might be the best setup - especially if you plan to use Vengeful Defeat and Heart of Fury. Somebody said two Rimecutters are best.

But there is also a nice build that uses Firebrand - and it's devastating

For a mix of DPS and tankyness I would choose Tidefall or Drawn in Spring + shield.

For a tank with a little CC I once made a build with Spelltongue and a shield which worked extremely well - look for "[CLASS BUILD] The Leech" in this forum.

For a crowd controller you can use whatever weapon causes an affliction on hit or crit - like I said above. We Toki + Edge of Reason is a good setup for CC, DPS and tankyness.

 

 

I personally think that Tidefall and the Vile Loner's Lance are great weapons for a barb because you can get them early and they are powerful. You can plan your whole build around them and you don't have to wait till Act III or White March to get them. A personal tipp is Spelltongue - if you know what you're doing it's special enchantment is very powerful on a barb.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[Anaeme]

Many thanks @Boeroer, much to think about there...

[Kaylon]

While dual wielding barbs work, not using The Grey Sleeper as a barb is like having a ranger and not giving him Stormcaller... 

[Boeroer]

That's right. Because of carnage the Spell Chance of Grey Sleeper will trigger often. I just hate all those undead summons that stand in the way all the time.

It's really a pity that Nightshroud is not for barbs.

For the same reason Wodewys is also great for a barb. Nature's Mark is a powerful spell and when a barb uses this axe it triggers a lot. You can combine it with We Toki for a CC-fest.

 

St. Ydwen's Redeemer is also great on a barb if you meet groups of vessels.

[AndreaColombo]

That's right. Because of carnage the Spell Chance of Grey Sleeper will trigger often. I just hate all those undead summons that stand in the way all the time.

 

Indeed, that's an example of power that looks good on paper but doesn't really work in-game. The undead need micromanaging to attack your enemies or they'll just stand there idly, which just adds to the overall clutter (and as they cause no DPS while standing there, your enemies won't target them so they're not even good as fodder.) Besides, when you find The Grey Sleeper you're already facing enemies who are high level enough to not be threatened by the undead it summons in the slightest.

 

So ultimately it's a rather useless, cumbersome power. I'd rather give it up in favor of a higher change of triggering Twin Stones.

[Boeroer]

The summonig is crappy, but the Paralyze and Twin Stones are ok - although Twin Stones (due to its weird AoE) is difficult to aim with a sword in melee.

However - I think a fully enchanted Wodewys is better for a barb. To pair Nature's Mark with Carnage just makes sense.  

[AndreaColombo]

However - I think a fully enchanted Wodewys is better for a barb. To pair Nature's Mark with Carnage just makes sense.  

 

The problem with that axe is that, IIRC, it can't go beyond Fine and Barbarians really need the Accuracy.

[JerekKruger]

Somebody said two Rimecutters are best.

 

How do you get two Rimecutters?

[AndreaColombo]

^ either patiently waiting for Azzuro to show up and offer it twice (you need to make in-game time pass to make Azzuro show up); buying one from Azzuro and duplicating it via the unique stronghold item that duplicates an item you already possess; or using the console and calling it day.

Edited February 13, 2016 by AndreaColombo

[limaxophobiacq]

If you dual-wield as barbarian one of the weapons should almost certainly have the speed enchant since (if I understand correctly) the bonus speed applies to both weapons.

 

Danulya + Vile Loners Lance can be gotten about mid game, with Vile loner available earlier, and gives nice combination of practically no recovery (1.7%) in rage while wearing fullplate and using Vulnerable attack (once everything is durgan), and also the interrupts and -5 to enemy defenses from Vile Loner.

 

Strike Hard + Godansthunyr warhammers does much the same, and also an on-crit disable. Soldier weapon focus also lets you use tidefall which is nice since those two come kind of late.

[id3a]

If you dual-wield as barbarian one of the weapons should almost certainly have the speed enchant since (if I understand correctly) the bonus speed applies to both weapons.

 

I don't think that is true. 

[limaxophobiacq]

 

If you dual-wield as barbarian one of the weapons should almost certainly have the speed enchant since (if I understand correctly) the bonus speed applies to both weapons.

 

I don't think that is true. 

 

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83777-attack-speed-20/?p=1771262

 

People who counted frames and did maths said so. Also I've tested in game and with setup that would only have 0 recovery if it was true and it had 0 recovery.

Edited February 14, 2016 by limaxophobiacq

[Boeroer]

 

 

However - I think a fully enchanted Wodewys is better for a barb. To pair Nature's Mark with Carnage just makes sense.

The problem with that axe is that, IIRC, it can't go beyond Fine and Barbarians really need the Accuracy.

I think that's not a big problem because it triggers on hit and not only on crit. And once it triggered your ACC is basically +10 for both of your weapons.

[KDubya]

Plus you could have Wodewys and another on hit weapon like Vile Loner's Lance in one weapon set and two speed or damaging weapons on another weapon set. Start with the axe, get the proc of Nature's Mark and then swap to the other set.

[Boeroer]

I wonder if Nature's Mark from the Axe and Aspirant's Mark stack...? That would be sooo nice!

[JerekKruger]

^ either patiently waiting for Azzuro to show up and offer it twice (you need to make in-game time pass to make Azzuro show up); buying one from Azzuro and duplicating it via the unique stronghold item that duplicates an item you already possess; or using the console and calling it day.

 

Ah, my bad, I looked it up on the Wiki and saw "Azzuro" and assumed he was some killable NPC I'd forgotten. Hmm... I might have to try this out.

[Boeroer]

I wonder if Nature's Mark from the Axe and Aspirant's Mark stack...? That would be sooo nice!

Sadly, Aspirant's Mark gets suppressed by Nature's Mark. 

[JerekKruger]

Sadly, Aspirant's Mark gets suppressed by Nature's Mark. 

 

That is a shame, though not particularly surprising I guess.