[CLASS BUILD] The Trashman (3.03 Single Axe Barbarian)

[Odd Hermit]

PotD, Full party. Not fully tested yet.

 

The Trashman is pretty much...for clearing "trash mobs". Cleaving through groups of the various run of the mill monsters and bad guys that are in no short supply. He does this in particularly barbarian-like fashion - with an Axe!

 

Named after Frank's wrestling pseudonym in 'Always Sunny in Philadelphia'. Short, hairy, ornery... kind of like an Orlan Barbarian?

 

 

This character takes advantage of several changes in the 3.03 beta, which I've noted in bold below.

 

 

This is not the most durable character to have on the front line, but it's an interesting alternative to the usual Tall Grass/Tidefall/Forgemaster's barbarian that I've stuck to. Luckily there are some items to take good advantage of a lower deflection frontliner. I also like the concept of a one handed weapon w/no shield, and axes in particular, it's just never been particularly appealing as a weapon choice in Pillars... until now.

 

The damage output is actually pretty high due to annihilation, and as a crit-build, it doesn't actually rely too much on high accuracy. I considered a Rogue We Toki build in light of these changes but this just felt like the better way to go and takes advantage of more new stuff. I'm really enjoy Heart of Fury as Per-Encounter with this build, I must say - with We Toki it's almost like your Barbarian has Slicken Spell Mastery.

 

 

Relative to a two hander build, this is less flexible and lower survivability. I can't sell it as some kind of new amazing build. Knight / One Handed simply doesn't cover as many great weapons(and no reach weapon to hide behind tankier melee), and We Toki is accessed in Act III vs. Act II. Edge of Reason gives you an almost-Tidefall option but is also acquired later. But it gets points for style, I think, combines disables with damage a bit better than anything else(although...Hours of Saint Rumbalt has prone and annihilation too...dammit), and I enjoy the animation far more than watching my barbarian prod things with a pike for carnage.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, here's the build -

 

 

 

Barbarian

 

Race: Hearth Orlan - Highly recommend over anything else.

Attributes:

• 15 Might
• 10 Constitution
• 10 Dexterity
• 20 Perception
• 15 Intellect
• 8 Resolve

~You can min/max further, to taste. Perception doesn't necessarily have to be this high, you're turning many hits into crits anyway - the +interrupt is still nice though.

 

Abilities(Odd numbers) and Talents(Even numbers):

 

1. Barbaric Yell
2. One Handed Style - Now converts 15% of hits to crits as of 3.03
3. Savage Defiance
4. Apprentice's Sneak Attack
5. One Stands Alone - Now only requires nearby enemies, as opposed to engaged enemies
6. Savage Attack
7. Frenzy
8. Accurate Carnage
9. Threatening Presence
10. Weapon Focus: Knight
11. Heart of Fury - Now Per Encounter
12. Stalwart Defiance
13. Dragon Leap
14. Interrupting Blows
15. Echoing Shout - Now foe-only
16. Beast Slayer, or Bloody Slaughter

 

 

Skills: Survival 12 is great for rank II of accuracy/flank damage

 

Gear:

 

• Weapon Set 1: We Toki
• Weapon Set 2: Edge of Reason

• Armor: Aloth's Leather Armor

• Belt: Binding Rope
• Gloves: Gauntlets of Swift Action (or Pilferer's Grip if you don't have it)
• Boots: Shod-In-Faith
• Rings: Ring of Protection, Ring of Thorns
• Neck: Swaddling Sheet
• Head: Garodh's Chorus (or Maegfolc Skull)

 

[Boeroer]

Cool. And HoF 1/encounter is sick! You can even put two other axes in the second weapon slot and switch to that just for HoF - because of HoF being a Full Attack.

[Elric Galad]

Or bash shield. It's called "heart of the hunt".

[Boeroer]

Badgradr's Barricade or Dragon's Maw should be fine.

[Dr <3]

Also godshuntir hammer can be an awesome choice

[Boeroer]

Godansthunyr please. I practiced a lot, did an exam and now am a PoE certificated spelling trainer® for that special tongue twister item.

I'm also certificated for Ilfan Byrngar's Solace, Badgradr's Barricade and Scâth Gwannek as well as for Elardh Dwr and Blaidh Golan. Eder was my master an I'm the apprentice - I swear.

[Dr <3]

So much science ( worshipping)

[MaxQuest]

The new One Handed Style looks sweet. Especially getting the extra +0.5 from battle axe crits.

 

But uhh, by having only one weapon equipped you miss the opportunity to deal double damage via Barbaric Blow and Heart of Fury.

On the other hand, you can start with dw or 1h+shield, use the blow and fury, and than switch back to 1h.

Edited June 2, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Boeroer]

So, basically like:

Cool. And HoF 1/encounter is sick! You can even put two other axes in the second weapon slot and switch to that just for HoF - because of HoF being a Full Attack.

 

[Odd Hermit]

Cool. And HoF 1/encounter is sick! You can even put two other axes in the second weapon slot and switch to that just for HoF - because of HoF being a Full Attack.

 

Wodewys for the Nature's Mark proc + something else, maybe even a non-axe with a nice spell strike. I wish full attacks didn't favor duals so heavily though.

 

Badgradr's Barricade or Dragon's Maw should be fine.

 

Badgradr's is for my rogue. Riposte rogue might be interesting with it now, I haven't yet tried it though.

[Boeroer]

I used a Barricade rogue (Devil of Caroc) in a playthrough when it still procced Thrust of Tattered Veils twice (in this beta, that's fixed). It was very good - also in terms of dps. But I skipped Riposte because it was too bad. Maybe now it's worth it. Even when skilled for tanking a rogue's deflection isn't superhigh and grazes happen a lot. Now - with 30% riposte chance, that might lead to something.

 

Edge of Reason while doing HoF could be seen as a nice instant-heal ability.  Ouh! What about dual wielding duplicated Edge of Reason and doing HoF? 

Edited June 2, 2016 by Boeroer

[Odd Hermit]

I used a Barricade rogue (Devil of Caroc) in a playthrough when it still procced Thrust of Tattered Veils twice (in this beta, that's fixed). It was very good - also in terms of dps. But I skipped Riposte because it was too bad. Maybe now it's worth it. Even when skilled for tanking a rogue's deflection isn't superhigh and grazes happen a lot. Now - with 30% riposte chance, that might lead to something.

 

Edge of Reason while doing HoF could be seen as a nice instant-heal ability.  Ouh! What about dual wielding duplicated Edge of Reason and doing HoF? 

 

I use Edge of Reason against prone immune/resistant/high fort boss types for better survivability. Adding Dragon's Maw to that might be worth it for some fights, tough call when you're losing 15% hit to crit conversion for it though.

 

Against larger groups of enemies I usually am using HoF early for damage to burst stuff down rather than saving it for healing, but for tougher/longer fights it could be worth saving for healing.

 

 

My plan for rogue would involve support(Paladin/Priest) to get higher deflection, but the new escape does give a substantial deflection boost. IMO the duration isn't long enough to build around though.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Odd Hermit

[Boeroer]

Yeah, now you really have to think a bit before choosing your favorite weapon style.

 

Concerning rogue & Riposte:

You can pile up a lot of defense against disengagement on top of your normal deflection with Fast Runner (+5), Graceful Retreat (+12), Cape of Withdrawal (+15) and that lvl 2 chanter phrase "The Fox did run and leap" (+10). So this +42 bonus would stack with your normal (and buffed) deflection. You can then just run past foes and provoke disengagement attacks like crazy - most of them will graze or miss. With the new Riposte it should result in plenty of Full Attacks while also working as distraction for most enemies who will chase you and forget to attack the other party members. I tested this a while ago with the old riposte and it works. It was just not good enough with 20% of all misses. I will test that again soon. 

 

And I never tested if Riposte gets triggered while you are rone or stunned. If it does, then switching to the Solace Shield when you fall on your face and having Orlan's Bramble Ring might be great: +100 to all defenses while you are prone or stunned while doing Riposts.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Boeroer

[Loren Tyr]

And I never tested if Riposte gets triggered while you are rone or stunned. If it does, then switching to the Solace Shield when you fall on your face and having Orlan's Bramble Ring might be great: +100 to all defenses while you are prone or stunned while doing Riposts.

 

I had Durance feebly flail at my rogue, and it triggers when Paralyzed. Thus it stands to reason it always triggers. I also peeked under the hood, and I don't see any checks on any status effects, supporting this. Thus, counter-intuitively, even a Petrified character should Riposte. I suspect carnage damage should trigger it as well, but that's obviously a bit more difficult to test out.

[Odd Hermit]

Yeah, now you really have to think a bit before choosing your favorite weapon style.

 

Concerning rogue & Riposte:

You can pile up a lot of defense against disengagement on top of your normal deflection with Fast Runner (+5), Graceful Retreat (+12), Cape of Withdrawal (+15) and that lvl 2 chanter phrase "The Fox did run and leap" (+10). So this +42 bonus would stack with your normal (and buffed) deflection. You can then just run past foes and provoke disengagement attacks like crazy - most of them will graze or miss. With the new Riposte it should result in plenty of Full Attacks while also working as distraction for most enemies who will chase you and forget to attack the other party members. I tested this a while ago with the old riposte and it works. It was just not good enough with 20% of all misses. I will test that again soon. 

 

And I never tested if Riposte gets triggered while you are rone or stunned. If it does, then switching to the Solace Shield when you fall on your face and having Orlan's Bramble Ring might be great: +100 to all defenses while you are prone or stunned while doing Riposts.

 

One handed style is now at least more fun and powerful than it was, but I don't think this makes up for the additional effects from wielding two unique items, a durgan shield, or just the typically stronger damage and more available and versatile two handers.

 

We Toki + Dragon's Maw with weapon and shield style is probably a better front-liner barb overall and then you don't have to bother swapping weapon sets around so much.

 

Anyway, I just did a bit of testing with a Riposte build. Can't say I was particularly impressed. The new escape is quite nice though, sending a rogue kill squishies is less risky now. But as a pseudo-tank, the low health pool is a pita especially if using disengagement to fish for riposte procs. It's not bad but I don't think I'd build or play around it. I didn't see my rogue get ripostes while proned or stunned but I didn't test enough to say for sure.

[nem0]

Question(trouble finding the answer with search function), do carnage secondary hits do .67 times your full damage or do they subtract 33% as if you had a might penalty?  Due to damage generally being additive I would think it would subtract 33% but I can't find confirmation.

[Loren Tyr]

Yup, Carnage just subtracts 0.34 from the damage multiplier, same as Crit/Graze, Might, Sneak Attack, etc. For Barbarian and Ranger companion stag Carnage anyway, Druid Stag Carnage subtracts 0.67.

 

(and yes, that means that Druid Stag Carnage will generally do negative damage; rounded to 0 in practice, but it actually shows up like that in the combat log)

Edited June 3, 2016 by Loren Tyr

[MasterCipher]

That's really good to know. -34% modifier is >>> than losing 34% off the total. -67% is suprisingly bad that pet would be better than druid. I got too many grazes/misses to realize the high damage potential of a gish druid.

[Loren Tyr]

Druid Stag does seem a bit low true, and grazes are essentially misses with that multiplier (and it's one per rest as well). On the other hand the Druid's stats are easier to boost than Stag Companion and they hit like a truck and at a very high base damage and -5 DR. It's 18-29 base damage, I expect that's why they toned down the Carnage damage percentage (well, that and Wildstrike, presumably).

[Elric Galad]

Yup, but Stag's carnage works with avenging storm )

 

The Cladaliath spear is a good candidate for this build too. +4 from coordinating and +5 from spear is really good to pile accuracy and stun effect is even better than prone.

 

I guess a similar rogue build could work, but I wonder if loosing full attacks worths it.

[Boeroer]

Barbaric Blow is also not bad if you have two weapons equipped (and it's the only Full Attack the barb can get atm - because Kockdown from the Girdle of the Driving Wave is still bugged). And as I said before: it's totally legit to switch to a second weapon slot just for HoF and Barbaric Blow (BB) instead of using the one handed setup which is for crits. It would be nice of course to stack the +15% and the +12 ACC with the increased hit chance of BB/HoF - but I think that a Full Attack is always better for those two abilities.

You don't need Two Weapon Style for this since it's ony one attack. It's just more micromanagement than simply click the HoF/BB button.

 

Like: We Toki for the one handed setup and Edge of Reason + Wodewys for the second one. It's very likely that a HoF in a crowd triggers Nature's Mark from Wodewys. And with Egde of Reason you will have a quick additional heal with those two abilities. 

Edited June 6, 2016 by Boeroer

[Jojobobo]

I know people have mentioned Godansthunyr, but unless I'm missing something isn't it much better for the build? I've not tested out We Toki in game to know how the prone duration would compare to the stun duration of Godansthunyr, but even so stun seems to be a way better debuff and once it's inflicted on a foe subsequent stuns should be easier (-30 deflection allowing for more crits compared to the -10 for prone). Also, as far as I'm aware, Godansthunyr has an interrupt of 0.75 - making it a juicy peach for an interrupt barbarian by rivalling that of two-handers - and it also had the crush/pierce thing going for it, which I'd imagine is useful in Carnage situations with mixed enemy groups.

 

It's late game and dragon protected, but still all these weapons tend to be a little late game.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Jojobobo

[Boeroer]

Godansthunyr is great. You can even wield it with Shatterstar (1 sec interrups) for even better interrupts. There's also less enemies who are immune to stun than to prone. And it gives you +1 MIG, too.

 

We Toki is better in terms of dps because of annihilation. And if you want to crit as much as possible anyways annihiltion is a good enchantment, too.

[Jojobobo]

I guess that's true, still the dramatically easier crits due to the debuff is definitely a factor.

 

In terms of the attack speed here, am I right in think it's only Durgan + Frenzy + Swift Action (as far as I know, none of the cool on crit items also have a speed enchant)? Because that is a little sucky, and would require a lot less armour - Frenzy and DAoM don't stack right?

[Boeroer]

Yes, but you could add Bloodthirst (+20% speed after two kills for 20(?)sec), it stacks with the others. Maybe even Blood Thirst would be nice (0 recovery after a killing blow - doesn't matter how you kill the enemy) if you don't want to wear light armor. 

 

Frenzy and DAoM don't stack, that's right.

 

edit: BloodLUST and BloodTHIRST - sorry for the confusion!

Edited June 9, 2016 by Boeroer