Help with Barbarian Build: Sword, Axe, Hammer Barb

[Ohmega]

This is still in the works. Not getting much time to play right now - middle of the week and I'm working full time. I could "test" it with my other lvl 16 barb but where's the fun? (and it's on Hard Difficulty not PotD - which I am now on)

My Barbarian is still level 8.

I wanted to do a Two-Weapon Style Barb using Heart of Fury stacking crits. Honestly, I don't know if the damage will be comparable to the normal Two-Handed Barb builds with Tall Grass and Tidefall etc or the Estoc build (probably not) but going to give it a shot and see what happens.

Mainly need some advice on the issue of using Axes/Swords AND War Hammers as they use up two different Weapon Proficiencies as Talents, so it chokes the build a bit. I'm wondering if it's honestly worth it to take BOTH the Weapon Proficiencies. This ENTIRELY depends on what sort of accuracy Carnage uses and how Heart of Fury works with weapons in secondary and tertiary weapon slots. If Carnage/HoF uses Weapon Proficiency Accuracy bonus or not (probably does). Feel free to move the weapons around to optimise talents, nothing set in stone.

Probably a secondary tank type (I don't really run proper tanks in the first place - prefer 2 or 3 semi-tank damage dealers), probably Heavy Armour (abuse 1H weapon speeds and free disengage attacks) - I need to test how things like Eye of the Storm works with Engagement (should work really well with this build but in practice???).

Here is the build I've been thinking about:

Wild Orlan, Deadfire Archipelago, Slave
STATS (with race/background inc):
M 17
C 12
D 9
P 18
I 18
R 4

WEAPONS:

Endgame Main:
Wodewys
Strike Hard (setup for HoF damage? - may not be worth)

Primary Main:
Shatterstar +1 Engaged, +.5 Crit Damage
Sheathed in Autumn +1 Engaged

We Toki +.5 Crit Damage, Crits can Prone
Edge of Reason +.5 Crit Damage, Crits Drain 20% Endurance

and/or

Godansthunyr +1 Might, Crits can Stun
Steadfast ???? (is an option - not much offence though)

IDEAL TALENTS/ABILITIES:
Hold the Line (4 enemies engaged)
Weapons: Sword, Axe, Hammer
Two Weapon Style
One Stands Alone (+ Ruphec's Watchful Cloak) = +4 req. to flank.
Arms Bearer
Heart of Fury
Echoing Shout
Vulnerable Attack
Bloody Slaughter (if talent is available)
Accurate Carnage (if talent is available)

Eye of the Storm?
Barbaric Retaliation? (haven't used before, seems average but might work well with build)

Currently has (lvl8 )
ABILITIES:
Carnage (default)
Defiant Resolve
Frenzy
One Stands Alone
Savage Defiance
Second Wind (default)
Threatening Presence

TALENTS:
Hold the Line
Two Weapon Style
Weapon Focus: Knight
Weapon Focus: Soldier (not optimised - just wanted freedom to switch up weapons and try things as I go, Vulnerable Attack would've been the choice otherwise - not too sure how it fits into overall build yet though)

N.B. I'm running a Rogue (first time) that's using Sabres at the moment.

Any insight or suggestions would be very helpful. As I said, don't have much time to play-test, write all this out exactly right or theory craft this as much as I'd like. Need to sleep, will try to check back tomorrow morning.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Ohmega

[Boeroer]

How exactly do you think HoF works?

 

It has nothing to do with your second or third weapon slot. It uses the weapon(s) in your active weapon slot and does a Full Attack against every foe in AoE range and then triggers carnage for each hit. That means you will hit <amount of enemies>*<amount of enemies> times. So when you target 6 enemies you will execute 36 attacks. You can multiply this by 2 if you are dual wielding. In terms of crit damage nothing comes close to Resolution + Purgatory with HoF. But you won't crit 100% of the time. That's why dual Bittercuts with Spirit of Decay are the best DPS option for HoF - and the fact that Bittercut has two damage types and therefore is effective against most targets except earth blights.

 

All the other weapons you mentioned with on-crit effects also work, but they don't do as much damage as resolution+purgatory or bittercut.

 

What also works nicely are the bashing shields Badgradr's Barricade and Dragon's Maw, but they also don't as much damage.

 

Dual wielding with HoF does more damage than a two hander - because of the Full Attack, doubling your hit count. But this is only true if the initial target isn't killed after the first swing of the Full Attack - because then HoF will stop, failing to do the second swing. So it's wise to target the strongest foe when executing HoF with a dual weapon set.

 

What is really nice (if you're not only after damage) is HoF with Spelltongue. This will drain so much duration for your buffs that they will last for the whole fight. Even the damage boost of HoF (+20%) gets prolonged for more than 30 secs usually. And you will steal attack speed for more than a minute easily while taking all buffs away from the enemies.

 

You don't need engagement at all for HoF.

Good abilities/talents in combonation with HoF are Aspirant's Mark, One Stands Alone, Blooded, Blood Thirst and Bloodlust, Frenzy, Savage Attack, Galant's Focus, Weapon Focus, Accurate Carnage, Vulnerable Attack, Dragon Leap. Blood thirst will allow to add an attack after HoF without recovery, clearing up what's left of the enemies. Bloodlust will give you +20% attack speed for the same reason and purpose (stacks with Frenzy).

 

I don't know where you got the info that HoF uses all weapon slots or has something to do with engagement. That's not the case.

 

I finished a solo PotD run with such a barb by the way some days ago after we had a nice and fruitful discussion about barbs + HoF in the forums here. The thread should still be there - on the first or second page I guess. Lots of infos about HoF from Kaylon, Jojobobo and others who tested the heck out of HoF.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Boeroer

[Livegood118]

I think the confusion on Heart of Fury comes from its description. I believe it says attacks will all equipped weapons - this confused me on my first playthrough.

[Boeroer]

Maybe PoE needs a definition of the term "equipped weapon". I always thought it's the weapons that you have in your hand right now.

I agree that the description is confusing though. It also needs an example so that people can understand what HoF truly does.

I think that all the descriptions of abilities and talents need simple examples.

[Ohmega]

I think the confusion on Heart of Fury comes from its description. I believe it says attacks will all equipped weapons - this confused me on my first playthrough.

This. Thought you hit with your other weapon slots. But now the numbers make more sense. I also get a lot of really weird interactions in the game so it's hard to pin down what everything actually does (especially when the descriptions are super useful...).

 

Well, now this build is a lot less viable. And the Engagement thing was just an idea to help get more targets for HoF or get more attacks off with low dex, high armour, vulnerable attack running. I'll still give dual wielding a go but yeah, most of this build isn't really a thing anymore and won't need to mess around with two different weapon proficiencies.

 

Thanks for the help. Saved me a lot of confusion down the road.

[Boeroer]

It can still be good to use weapons from different weapon focus groups. You can use Gallant's Focus instead of weapon focus. It's only 2 ACC difference and works for every weapon.