Sword and Board Barbarian

[JerekKruger]

For whatever reason I'd like to play as a single weapon and shield barbarian, and I was wondering if it's a viable concept.

 

I'm guessing that it would be best to focus on the barbarian's ability to control crowds through carnage rather than be a heavy damage dealer. As such I'm thinking of some sort of controller/off-tank.

 

I'm familiar with Boeroer's excellent time bandit build, but I'm looking for something wielding a more traditionally barbaric weapon, for example and axe or war hammer.

 

Any thoughts?

[Kaylon]

It will be more than viable once bash will work with carnage (hopefully next patch) -> Dragon's Maw Shield+The Unlabored Blade.

[Boeroer]

I like barbs with shields.

 

How about The Vile Loner's Lance (spear)? It has ok damage, an awesome interrupt time of 1 sec, has +5 ACC because it's a spear and it causes -5 to all defenses on hit.

Use Interrupting Blows, buff PER and DEX, use Threatening Presence and the Barb Yell to lower concentration and you will have a nice AoE interrupter who also lowers defenses.

Good thing about this spear is that it comes very early.

 

You could also use Cladhaliath for stunning if you like on-crit effects.

 

With axes I would take We Toki - but that comes quite late.

 

Dragon's Maw and Unl. Blade are very nice of course - but they come too late to plan a build around that. You will play at least 70 to 80% of the game without this combo. You can retrain of course once you get them.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Boeroer

[Braven]

If you want to stick with war hammers, there are a couple good ones for barbarians.

 

You could try a high interrupt build using shatterstar (buyable in Defiance Bay) war hammer which has an interrupt of 1 second. It also has guarding to help keep engagement as an off-tank.

 

If you want to focus more on attack speed later on, you can swap out Shatterstar for Strike Hard, another war hammer. It provides both a -5 deflection debuff on your enemies and higher attack speed. That weapon, combined with frenzy, Durgan steel, and gauntlets of swift action will allow zero attack recovery (with light/medium armor) which will increase your damage output quite a bit.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Braven

[KDubya]

The Vile Loner Spear and the retaliation small shield would be good before you get Dragon's Maw. Could swap to hatchet and shield for pierce immune foes.

 

I like to build offensive tank types and defensive damage dealers - things like Rogues with shields, Monks with lots of defensive abilities (Juggernaut), Two handed Paladins, Damage dealer Fighters and a Barb with a shield fits right in the pattern. For me anyways barbarians have a tendency to go face down in the dirt a lot so adding a shield that keeps them alive longer is a great addition. Once bash procs carnage the damage difference from dual wielding will be lessened.

[Boeroer]

If bash will work with carnage you could also try Badgradr's Barricade. It has bash and has (or had?) unlimited spell strikings of Thrust of Tattered Veils. Together with a priest or any other buffer/debuffer those would be triggered a lot - adding nice damage to your bash on crits.But looks good only with Drawn in Spring. It's a good thing that this weapon is great.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Boeroer

[JerekKruger]

Cool, I expected people to be less positive about the idea.

 

The Vile Loner's Lance seems like an excellent early game choice given the inherent accuracy bonus of spears and the nice on hit effect.

 

Going off of Boeroer's suggestion, how does

 

Mig  10

Con  10

Dex  16

Per  16

Int  16
Res  10

 

Sound as a attribute spread? My main concern is his low fortitude save and wondered if I should redirect some points into Mig or Con to make up for that?

 

Abilities wise I'm thinking something along the lines of:

 

Frenzy

Savage Defiance

Brute Force

Threatening Presence

Thick Skinned

Barbaric Shout

Barbaric Retaliation

???

 

Talents wise:

 

Weapon and Shield

Appropriate Weapon Focus

Accurate Carnage

Stalwart Defiance

Interrupting Blows

???

???

 

Any thoughts?

[Braven]

Barbarians need some of every stat, so min-maxing is not that useful.  INT, PER, and DEX are the most important, so that stat spread looks good.  I am not sure what you can really give up for more might.  Perception and Dex is very important for the interrupts, and INT is important for carnage and all of your ability duration.  You will get +4 might/con when frenzied.  That is 16 more Fortitude.

[rheingold]

Stats are fine. For me personally if I play a dwarf barb I have trouble dropping their strength down, I normally go for a balanced attribute spread something like:

Might 14

Con 10

Dex 15

Perc 15

Int 15

Res 9

It's tough justifying low might when the dwarf model looks like Conans big brother.

Orlans on the other hand I'm happy to drop a couple more points of might at around 12 or so. I must stress this is a role playing decision.

As is the fact I dont like dropping anything below 9. Still the barbs work great with those stats. Cant wait for carnage to work with bash.

[rheingold]

Vile loners lance is great, though you could also go the dozens route for their spear. Both work well and look cool and will last till WM2 where you can pick up a better weapon, and the dragons maw shield. Spears will also help with the shield accuracy debuff, at least if you are using medium/large shields.

[KDubya]

Vile loners lance is great, though you could also go the dozens route for their spear. Both work well and look cool and will last till WM2 where you can pick up a better weapon, and the dragons maw shield. Spears will also help with the shield accuracy debuff, at least if you are using medium/large shields.

 

If you wait till act 3 you can get the spear without joining the Dozens. I dislike their mob rule and their bonus is terrible.

[Boeroer]

Sadly - not anymore. I tried it the toher day and it won't work anymore. Maybe it's just a bug - but I tried again in another playthrough and that also didn't work.

You get the symbols glowing, pick up the soul vessel, try to do the ritual - but nothing happens.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Boeroer

[JerekKruger]

Huh, that sucks. I suppose it gives a bigger reason to side with the Dozens, but it doesn't really make sense.

[Elric Galad]

It is a stupid joke, but your topic led me to think about creating a "Sworn and Bored" Paladin for roleplay.

[Teioh_White]

Sadly - not anymore. I tried it the toher day and it won't work anymore. Maybe it's just a bug - but I tried again in another playthrough and that also didn't work.

You get the symbols glowing, pick up the soul vessel, try to do the ritual - but nothing happens.

 

I know I did it in 3.0, and multiple times before that, so it'd have to be a pretty new addition. Also a weird one. I'd lean towards bug, which could take awhile. I imagine the patches will slow down now that the games 'done'.

[Boeroer]

Yeah - it really felt like a bug, too. No hint that this behaviour was inteneded - like a small text like "You step into the chamber but nothing happens" or something.

[JerekKruger]

Is the unenchanted spear still available to loot? I suppose one explanation could be that some other group from the Dozens did your job and already looted the spear.

[MaxQuest]

Sadly - not anymore. I tried it the toher day and it won't work anymore. Maybe it's just a bug - but I tried again in another playthrough and that also didn't work.

You get the symbols glowing, pick up the soul vessel, try to do the ritual - but nothing happens.

Is that about Cladhalíath?

(if so.. in 3.0 it was working fine, although have spent 15 minute to finally figure out that I needed two party members to be standing on some runes first)

Edited March 22, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Braven]

It also took me a while to figure out the floor runes.  It is particularly counter-intuitive if soloing.  

 

I was able to do it soloing with ranger by using the animal companion.  I think after the two runes are activated, you can step off them.

 

I haven't tried getting the spear (outside of the dozen's quest) since 3.0.  It worked before that, though.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Braven

[Boeroer]

Well I did it several times before - I know what you have to do-  and it worked. But not anymore. At least for me. As I said - maybe just a bug.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Boeroer

[Ymarsakar]

Savage defiance can be pretty good for a quick heal on the bar, with the new healing multipliers.

 

The aoe terrify has been rather useful so far. And it also tends to draw aggro due to being a debuff, if it sticks.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Boeroer]

Does Threatening Presence and maybe the Executioner's Hood do the same thing? I mean, drawing attention?

I know that "Come, Sweet Winds of Death" of the chanter causes foes to attack him. Which is nice if you play him as a tank.