First time Path of the Damned - want to try the Fire Godlike Barbarian

[Luj1]

i want my main to be a Fire Godlike barbarian (we will use him to tank and reflect damage)

 

 

19 Might

18 Con

10 Dex

8 Per

15 Int

8 Res

 

sound good?

 

 

or is that low deflection

[Raven Darkholme]

Fire Godlike is not good.

It doesn't really matter tho, still very playable.

[Boeroer]

Low RES plus barb plus the intention to tank while dishing out fire retaliation damage will get you killed a lot until mid game on PotD. Even in plate armor with a Blunting Belt. You will eat a lot of crits. You can't rely on your Battle Forged as reliable damage source until high levels (when your health and endurance are much higher and also the damage from BF).

However- you can make it work if you use a shield in your second weapon slot and take weapon & shield style and switch to that once your endurance got reduced to 50%. Then you will catch more grazes than hits/crits and will stand up longer - but your retaliation still happens. You can combine your BF retaliation with the ones from items: the shield Sura's Supper Plate adds retaliation which stacks with that from other items (there are two armors and a cloak that have it). Then there's Barbaric Retaliation (ability). All in all this adds up to 4 similar retaliation effects, doing good damage. Use Vulnerable Attack and Ryona's Vembraces to make it more awesome. If you want you can also take Scion of Flame later on to boost your BF and then also use items with Fireball uses. There's a sabre that has 3 uses per rest. And you also should use scrolls with fire spells then. Your high MIG and INT are great for that.

This can be a lot of fun - just keep in mind that you will be really squishy at the beginning. Just keep on going!

[Blunderboss]

Im Currently playing with Barbarian as one of my Tanks he is using bashing shields and debuffing weapons (spear that gives disorienting) , you dont need more than 10 CON , even 10 is too much if you have full party . MIGHT is fine at 15 or even lower as u gonna be using shield u not gonna do too much damage , you want to have maxed perception for Interrupts and bonus accuracy ( this is important because using shield gives accuracy penalty u atleast want to cover that penalty with ur PER ) ,  Intelect should be always maxed for barbarian imo as long as u plan to rely on carnage INT is main stat , RES you can leave @ 10 because of shield u gonna be using , DEX i would not go lower than 10 it really depends how much recovery u plan to remove with items if one is aiming at 0 recovery from items and frenzy 10 DEX is way to go .

Edited April 18, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Boeroer]

But he wants to retaliate (with Battle Forged). This he can only do when his endurance drops below 50%. So I would strongly recommend a lot of CON in order to gain a lot of endurance and - maybe even more important - health. After he hits 50% endurance I would switch to the play style you mentioned. Before that I would use a two hander (maybe Firebrand - also works with Scion of Flame).

[Blunderboss]

With full party , high con , and Tanky barbarian 50% endurance might never happen tho atleast my 7 con barbarian never goes to that low unless he gets crit by some big enemy but then you want to heal up to full anyway . I think 10 Con is enough for completely everything in this game that is not solo , but i always use +2 Atheltic+3 Con buff from caed nua ( it gives best value out of all the buffs and will benefit every member in your party ) so i tend to have lower starting con on all my builds .

Anyway no matter what build u take , Rush Durgans Battery Great Hall - you will get Retaliate Helm and Bashing Shield with spell proc both items are amazing for this build imo 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Boeroer]

I don't know. Made a 28 CON (without resting and MC talents) fire godlike monk the other day (dwarf with max CON + dual Whispers of Yenwood (+4), +4 Iron Circle - also +15% DR if endurance below 26%) and combined it with the Mantle of the Dying Boar (only regenerates if your endurance is unter 33%) with light armor and low RES. He could reach 50% after some time and stay there for long. Was a good (=fun) build. Maybe I'll post that later here. Still working on it.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Boeroer

[Blunderboss]

Guess it depends on party setup : Chanter with Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits , KF Pala , Shod-in-Faith i even have trouble triggering stuff that requires 80% of endurance , oh i also took Veterans Recovery on barb 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Boeroer]

Yeah sure - that's really geat for survivability. But that will prevent Battle-Forged.

[Blunderboss]

One should consider if going fire God-Like is worth loosing Chorus helmet tho as its easy to get retaliation armor item and Battleforged is complicated and does 2 damage :D (i wonder how 2 damage works with all the DR , does it do minimal damage of 1 or something ? ) Also talking about retaliate stuff , Mantle of Wreathing Flame , what does it do ? does it even work ? it says friendly aura 3 per rest 0_o but i never seen any aura or any per rest uses on my characters 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Blunderboss

[bigwillystyle]

I tried this, and it's really hard to build around Battle-Forged as a primary damage source.  It's good in the "nice to have" sense, but it is really tough to maintain <50% endurance on POTD without getting whacked by spike damage.  When I was playing around with a Firebrand barbarian, I found that the damage spikes in WM1 / POTD were just too much to handle without higher CON - all it takes is a couple of Sidewinders and BAM dead barbarian.  

 

I love the Fire Godlike conceptually / visually & I think Battle Forged can be fun to have but I would not build around it unless I felt like deliberately frustrating myself

[Boeroer]

Battle Forged sclaes with level and gets pretty awesome at high levels. But something different: I just discovered that said monk's Turning Wheel works with Battle Forged. With Scion of Flame I did 100+ hits easily against some blights a minute ago.  It did not work with Lighning Strikes or Blood Testament Gloves - for whatever reason. Only Turning Wheel. But that's powerful enough I guess.

 

bigwillystyle: That's the reason I said you should stack as much CON as possible. Now, at lvl 16, my monk has 500 endurance. That's 250 at 50%. Thisis more than some characters have when they are full. And with the Mantle of the Dying Boar you can keep your endurance around 30% if you also have Second Wind. It also makes senso to take Acolyte's Radiance as a heal - but not full heal. As I said I begin with a two hander in order to get beaten up and then switch to weapon + shield in order to stay at under 50%. Works pretty well so far. Of course I go down more often than the usual frontliner. But the burn damage is really good. Iron Wheel is also great for this setup: You get more and mor DR the more often you get hit. The Iron Circle also helps when your endurance drops below 26% (= *1.15 DR). All in all it's fun. I think you can tranfer this to a barb - without the Turning Wheel Part of course. 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Boeroer