[CLASS BUILD] The accident-prone squire

[Braven]

Braven always wanted to be a knight when he grew up.  He studied really hard, practiced with swords, worked out daily, and dreamed of the day he could ride off in glory on a faithful steed slaying dragons.  However, he had one big problem; he failed the knighthood eye exam.  He was both near-sighted and far-sighted in a world without bifocals.  He was also very clumsy and accident-prone.  He nearly burned down the local library by flailing around and knocking down candles.  In fact, he has a hard time just targeting one person while practicing swordplay and tends to hit everyone around him.  After his confidence and resolve was shattered from being denied the knighthood, he shouted a great, barbaric cry of fury and, with a gleam of fire in his eyes, set out to seek his own glory in the wilds. 

 

Premise of build:  A barbarian build with low perception and resolve, extreme endurance regeneration and massive AOE damage thanks to firebug.  The goal is maximum speed to proc "firebug" and "spelltongue" as quickly as possible.  Because of various speed boosts, we still reach zero recovery and max DEX for the fastest possible attacking.  Since there are lots of ways to increase accuracy (and we are not going for critical hits), the low perception doesn't really matter.

 

Race: Human or Dwarf seem best to me.  Human's fighting spirit lasts a long time and helps accuracy/damage.  Dwarf has great situational accuracy.

Background: Colonist

 

Starting Stats:

 

STR: 19  (needed for healing and firebug damage)

CON: 11

DEX: 19  (the quicker we can hit enemies, the more firebugs we can trigger.)

PER: 4

INT: 18  (carnage range and healing duration)

RES: 5 

 

Ending Stats (with rest bonus):

 

STR: 24 (+1 Heritage, +4 skull helmet)

CON: 12 (+1 boon)

DEX: 26 (+3 rest, +3 ring, +1 effigy-devil)

PER: 6 (+2 armor enchant)

INT: 22 (+4 ring)

RES: 5 

 

DR-Bypass: 9 (+5 vulnerable, +3 armband, +1 effigy) 

Survival: 14 (for +60% healing multiplier)  (9 base, +2 colonist, +2 barbarian, + 1 boon) 

If soloing, you can still get to 9 mechanics. 11/13 with gloves and rest bonus if needed to open a chest.

 

Weapons:

The Unlabored Blade (firebug) and Spelltongue with fire lash (increased duration, attack speed)

Early Game:  Use +speed rapier and dagger available at start of Act 2 since they are also noble weapons.

 

Armor:

Maneha's Armor (Has important 25% healing multiplier and allows for zero attack recovery).

 

Equipment:

Head:  Maegfolc Skull Hat (+4 might and unbending)

Cape:  Swaddling sheet (Stun on being Crit)

Hands: Riona's Armband (DR-bypass helps a lot with all the small hits we do)

Rings: +4 Int Ring (helps carnage and accuracy with instill doubt and blessing) and +3 Dex ring (also helps reflex/prone/stun defense)

Boots: Shod-in-Faith (massive endurance regeneration) 

Belt: Belt of Chimes (massive concentration boost, compensates for low resolve)

 

Ability/Talents:

 

1. Frenzy (big speed boost)

2. Weapon Focus - Noble

3. Savage Defiance (great source of endurance regeneration, extendable with spell tongue)

4. Veteran's Recovery (also extendable with spell tongue)

5. One Stands Alone

6. Vulnerable Attack

7. Brute Force (Also helps firebug accuracy since it targets deflection)

8. Two-Weapon Style

9. Threatening Presence (lowers enemy fort by 14)

10. One-handed weapon style (now helps dual weapons and spells like firebug)

11. Heart of Fury

12. Accurate Carnage

13. Barbaric Retaliation

14. Greater Frenzy

15. Thick-Skinned

16. Scion of Flame 

 

By end game, you are just spitting out fireballs everywhere and are basically unkillable with super high endurance regeneration caused by the spell-tongue extended healing.

 

ALTERNATE BUILD for even more firebug power and added defense:

 

- Switch out talents related to dual weilding in favor of sword/shield.  Use guantlets of swift action.

- In weapon set one, have spelltongue and small shield and start off a battle with it to increase attack speed, debuff enemy speed.

- In weapon set two, have firebug and another small shield.  Switch to this after a couple swings with spelltongue.  Now, you don't have to split your weapon hits with spelltongue which is no longer really needed and you will proc firebug twice as often.

 

----

Special thanks to the Boerer's Time Bandit Barbarian build, which this drew heavy inspiration from.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Braven

[Dorftek]

At lvl 14 now on my furthest playthrough so far, still haven't seen this weapon. Where is it? And when it comes so late is it worth making a build around it?

 

Edit: I'm talking bout the firebug Weapon

 

Edit2: I enjoyed the biography btw

Edited April 21, 2016 by Dorftek

[Elric Galad]

When you enter Stalwart for WM II, you'll see that the toon has changed a bit.

 

Go to the place which used to be a temple of Ondra. It is now a Temple of Abydon.

Talk to the smith girl, she will give you the quest. Do the quest (I don't want to spoil it), and you'll be rewarded with the Unlabored Blade.

 

But that's only the beginning. This is a Soulbound Dagger, you have to bound it to a character to unlock its upgrades.

Then you'll see this blade has a very special way of being upgraded...

Upgrade it to ultimate level, and you'll have firebug.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Elric Galad

[Blunderboss]

Im currently playing something similar Barbarian using Unlabored Blade and Bashing Shield that procs Thrust of Tattered Veils , with Wayfarers Hide  ( only 10% Recovery when Durganized , and i can get to 0 with Unlabored Blade , Durganized Shield , Gauntlets and Frenzy gives nice 2.11 ) but focused more on interrupts build with stats spread :

15 Mig ( +3 Garods Chorus Helm , Also Retaliation )

7 Con ( 3 Caed Nua Bonus )

10 Dex

18 Per ( +4 Cape also +2 Survival ) 

18 Int 

10 Res 

 

just got unlabored blade and cant wait to charge it , only lvl 10 for now maybe gonna make some changes with equipment later 

Edited April 21, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Braven]

At lvl 14 now on my furthest playthrough so far, still haven't seen this weapon. Where is it? And when it comes so late is it worth making a build around it?

 

Edit: I'm talking bout the firebug Weapon

 

Edit2: I enjoyed the biography btw

 

It is at the very start of WM2 and is very easy to upgrade to max.  Check the temple after it has been changed to a weapon smithy.

 

I generally like having builds that are good with early game equipment too.  This one is too, I just didn't list all the early game items I would get.  I would start off with march steel dagger and the speed rapier you can buy in Defiance Bay.  Then, get spell-tongue in White March, part one.  With vulnerable attack, they will still be very strong for damage because you attack so fast and bypass much of the enemy DR.  Check out my Glass Tsunami build for early game item advice.  I would use the same weapons and early game equipment that build uses.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed my bio.  I think that explains well why this barbarian has low perception and resolve.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Braven

[Braven]

Im currently playing something similar Barbarian using Unlabored Blade and Bashing Shield that procs Thrust of Tattered Veils , with Wayfarers Hide  ( only 10% Recovery when Durganized , and i can get to 0 with Unlabored Blade , Durganized Shield , Gauntlets and Frenzy gives nice 2.11 ) but focused more on interrupts build with stats spread :

15 Mig ( +3 Garods Chorus Helm , Also Retaliation )

7 Con ( 3 Caed Nua Bonus )

10 Dex

18 Per ( +4 Cape also +2 Survival ) 

18 Int 

10 Res 

 

just got unlabored blade and cant wait to charge it , only lvl 10 for now maybe gonna make some changes with equipment later 

 

The bashing shield would probably work very well with carnage in your build.  I have never tried it, but it looks fun.  However, the disadvantage of that is it requires a critical hit which means you probably want max Perception and accuracy.  I always found it hard finding a stat to drop with barbarian which is part of the reason I came up with this build. Resolve and Perception seemed like the easiest two to live without.  With 26 DEX, you will hit a lot more often, even with zero attack recovery, because it speeds up the animation time of each strike.

 

I really like that +4 PER cape, particularly because of the +2 survival.  I cut it from this build in favor of swaddling cloth because overwhelming wave is really power and it is available early.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Braven

[KDubya]

Try it with the Dragon maw soulbound shield. It has a 25% chance to proc taste of the hunt on hit or crit. It does raw damage and heals you.

[Elric Galad]

I don't know what it worths but penetrating shot should work with firebug, overwhelming wave and echoing shout (even if it is not included in your build.)

 

It works on line spells and jump spells.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Elric Galad

[MaxQuest]

The goal is maximum speed to proc "firebug" and "spelltongue" as quickly as possible.  Because of various speed boosts, we still reach zero recovery and max DEX for the fastest possible attacking.  

I like the idea, but not quite sure if spelltongue is needed.

Due to DW, speed enchant and frenzy, you are already at 2.096 speed coefficient. Enough to compensate for 1.1 from durganized hide armor.

 

Sure, the buffs prolongation is good. But if you have a priest (and with that low acc, you probably have one), you will have Salvation of Time available in case the fight goes for longer than usual. As for offhand weapon Vent Pick might be a viable alternative. Theoretically it's full attack proc should also lead to more firebugs.

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

Another variant would be to go for Unlabored Blade + Small Shield. The benefit of it is, that at zero recovery you will attack with your main hand every n frames, and not every 2xn (n = 27 at 10 dex). Practically doubling your firebug rate. Also you will get sweat bonuses in the form of extra def from the shield, and even more if you will take Weapon&Shield and OneHandedStyle talents.

The only downside is that you will have to take Gloves of Quickness instead of vambraces, such that:

1.33 x 1.2 (speed) x 1.15 (gloves) x 1.15 (durganized shield) = 2.11

Edited April 22, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Blunderboss]

Try it with the Dragon maw soulbound shield. It has a 25% chance to proc taste of the hunt on hit or crit. It does raw damage and heals you.

Im thinking to have 2 sets later , Unlabored+Barricade for damages and in 2nd slot Dragonmaw + Some debuffing weapon for tougher fights , wondering what weapon is best for debuffs 

Edited April 22, 2016 by Blunderboss

[MaxQuest]

[...] and in 2nd slot Dragonmaw + Some debuffing weapon for tougher fights, wondering what weapon is best for debuffs

Usually I'd say something with stun or prone on crit. But at that low PER, and with a medium shield, it should be a more guaranteed effect like disorienting, so: Strike Hard followed by The Vile Loner's Lance. Another route would be to go for marking weapons; or spelltongue. Edited April 22, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Blunderboss]

Oh on my build i have 22 Per ( 18+4 from Cape) so prone on crit that is , " We Toki " Axe seems like nice fit 

Edited April 22, 2016 by Blunderboss

[MaxQuest]

^ We Toki and stunning Cladhalíath are awesome

[L4wlight]

As for offhand weapon Vent Pick might be a viable alternative. Theoretically it's full attack proc should also lead to more firebugs.

Sadly, the last time I tested it in 3.02, it wasn't a full attack. It's just a +20 Accuracy and +50% fire lash for your next attack.

[Blunderboss]

 

As for offhand weapon Vent Pick might be a viable alternative. Theoretically it's full attack proc should also lead to more firebugs.

 

Sadly, the last time I tested it in 3.02, it wasn't a full attack. It's just a +20 Accuracy and +50% fire lash for your next attack.

Another sad note :

FoD from Vent Pick wont proc Paladin's sword and the shephard :/

[Boeroer]

I guess it can't trigger a full attack. This would mess up animation badly. Full Attacks and the actual effects of an active ability seem to bee two components that form the ability you "buy". All the spell striking or spell holding items only proc the effect, not the attack type or any animation. Some of them don't even proc the AoE effect but only a single target one (Twin Sting on a ranger). So I guess there's also a separation between effect (that applies to any target that gets hit) and array of targets (aka AoE).

Does Unlabored Blade only proc Firebug on one target or does it jump?

[Boeroer]

Spell holding and spell striking items don't use talents that are related to their spells/abilities: Sanguine Plate can't profit from Greater Frenzy, Vent Pick doesn't profit from Intense Flames or other FoD related talents. However, they seem to be able to profit from Scion of Flame and friends and also Penetrating Shots and so on.

[MaxQuest]

Sadly, the last time I tested it in 3.02, it wasn't a full attack. It's just a +20 Accuracy and +50% fire lash for your next attack.

That's sad... If it doesn't trigger extra attacks, and just amps the next one, it's usefulness is greatly reduced. And I bet it doesn't even stack with itself, if there was several procs on carnage hits from a single swing...

 

FoD from Vent Pick wont proc Paladin's sword and the shephard :/

Interesting why... I remember clearly that FoD from Vent Pick was triggering Pallegina's Vielo Vidorio on my previous run.

[Blunderboss]

Maybe it doesnt work with Sword and Shepherd specificaly , one thing i noticed is that KF talents are bit buggy , for example if you retrain Strange Mercy wont work untill you exit the game and load it again,

Anyway this not working does support a general rule that Boeroer mentioned (Spellholding/Striking stuff not benefiting from class specific talents) which makes sense once again cuz u know.. Goal of PoE was always balance

Edited April 22, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Elric Galad]

Maybe sword and sheperd is triggered by skill activation while some other FoD talents are triggered by each attack. This might be meant to avoid double proc from S&S healing (meanwhile applying speed buff 2 times is not a pb).

 

Reverse engineering, yeah !

Edited April 22, 2016 by Elric Galad

[nem0]

 

As for offhand weapon Vent Pick might be a viable alternative. Theoretically it's full attack proc should also lead to more firebugs.

Sadly, the last time I tested it in 3.02, it wasn't a full attack. It's just a +20 Accuracy and +50% fire lash for your next attack.

 

According to my combat log Vent Pick(most likely because it is triggered on hit or crit) does not add the +20 accuracy since the roll is already done.  My accuracy on procs remains the same as my base.

[Braven]

Does Unlabored Blade only proc Firebug on one target or does it jump?

It jumps. I have also seen it bounce back and forth between two enemies, so it isn't limited to one hit per enemy. How much it jumps seems to vary. Sometimes it jumps all over the place and sometimes it doesn't jump at all.

 

The fact it often jumps multiple times is why it is so damaging. Much better than other weapon proc effects, in my opinion. Vent pick can't hold a candle to it.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Braven

[Boeroer]

OK. Great. Thanks for the info.

[Erstarrung]

Try it with the Dragon maw soulbound shield. It has a 25% chance to proc taste of the hunt on hit or crit. It does raw damage and heals you.

This is a great build, and I'll sure give it a try for my TCS run (with the alternate build with 2 sets with weapon & shield),

 

As I'm not an expert, I have three questions, however, which I hope somebody with real knowledge of the game can help me solve:

 

When soloing, it's impossible to get the Swaddling Sheet (as I'll have nobody to send on that adventure). What would be a suitable replacement?

The Mantle of the Excavator? - That would as well free up the armor enchantment (for +2 CON?).

And in the meantime Lilith's Shawl? Or Hiro's Mantle for some Retaliation and DR?

 

The first Weapon Set would be Spelltongue with which shield?

Black Sanctuary for the Warding Seals? Or Sura's Supper Plate for some more Retaliation (as it would stack with Hiro's Mantle)? Or would Badgradr's Barricade be the better choice?

 

The second Weapin Set would consist of the Unlabored Blade and the Dragon's Maw Shield. As the shield also grants Savage Defiance, would it be viable to retrain the Barbarian at that point? The advantage would be that I gain another Talent to use (but what for?) and wouldn't have to spend time activating Savage Defiance (as it would be a passive ability from the shield), but the disadvantage is that it would only trigger at 50% Endurance (would that be too late?) and wouldn't benefit from Spelltongue's extended duration (as I would already have switched to the second Weapon Set).

[Braven]

I think the shield choice depends on the situation and progression in game. If facing prone/stun, use the one from endless paths (along with hide armor with stacking benefits). For ranged attackers, the one from twin elms. Little savior is good for general purpose use. Black Sanctuary is good, but hard to get, so very late, late game.

 

Ideally, you would start off dual weapons and switch to sword/shield half way through the game. I feel like the higher attack speed is more useful in the early/mid game before you get Durgan steel and firebug. At the start of WM2 is when I switched. Also, there are two great early speed weapons, combined with vulnerable attack, has the highest damage in the early game for quick zero recovery.

 

Keep in mind that bashing shields will effectively reduce the attack speed of the firebug dagger in half, thus reducing firebug procs by 50%. As a result, the bash shield effects needs to be better than the dagger to be worth using.

Edited April 28, 2016 by Braven