Maneha?

[Greensleeve]

So I'm determined to use Maneha during my next playthrough. I'm a bit torn on how to build her though. 

 

The two options I'm considering are a sword-and-board build with bash, the other is a variant on MountainTiger's Interrupt Barbarian. 

 

I've heard bash is great with barbarians. I guess it's because of 1/encounter Heart of Fury? Getting full attacks while still maintaining solid defenses. Badgradr's Barricade seems like the best choice. Insight would be appreciated. 

 

The other option would see her with Godansthunyr and Strike Hard. Defense-debuff, stunning, meet Carnage, and go to town. I'm worried she'll be mildly squishy even in heavy armor unless managed, and I don't know how heavily I want to do that. Any opinions on the tankiness of dual wielding barbarians in heavy armor? 

 

I also considered Boerer's Leech build, but it seemed... inappropriate to slap a rapier and buckler on a rough-and-tumble pirate like Maneha. But I'm sure I can convinced (though I have a fighter build in mind mixing Spelltongue and Abydon's Hammer). 

[bigwillystyle]

For option #1, I would go with Dragon's Maw instead of Bagradr's

For option #2, as long as you give Maneha the Shod In Faith Boots & Veteran's Recovery talent, she'll be fine ... as a barbarian she has a massive health pool

 

I'm not personally fond of the Interrupt barbarian specifically for Maneha because her perception is so modest

[Boeroer]

Yeah - an interrupt build with Maneha is a bit meh-neha because she only has 9 PER.

 

For max damage with HoF you need dual sabres, all dmg mods you an get as well as Vulnerable Attack and a Ring of Searing Flames (or a wizard with that spell). Combusting Wounds + all those hits from HoF are devastating, having the potential to kill even tough bosses if there are enough adds around. With 5 enemies in (carnage) range yoiu will generate 25 hits on each target - that means 25 times Combusting Wounds on each target. Death Sentence...

 

Bittercut and shield is also a good setup, if you either choose Badgradr's Barricade or Dragon's Maw. Both special attacks while bashing work with HoF. I'm currently playning such a barb tank (not Maneha, but close, at least stat wise) and used both. I consider both to be great options for HoF, but Dragen's Maw seems to be better, esp. with a barb who doesn't crit a lot (see Maneha's PER) because Taste of the Hunt has a 25% spell chance on hit and crit and Badgradr's has 100% on crit only. It makes you more tanky because of Taste of the Hunt and the additional use of Savage Defiance and deals raw damage which is also nice. Badgradr's Barricade may generate more hits for Combusting WOunds though. I don't think Taste of the Hunt counts as a hit for COmbusting WOunds when it gets triggered.

I really can't say which is better overall - it would require some testing, dealing HoF to the same group oder and over again - I didn't do that. At the end I chose Dragon's Maw because it becomes superb without any resources and looks kind of cool.

 

Other on-crit effects like prone on crit or stun on crit don't seem to work properly with HoF. Same with draining. There are way to few CC effects and not enough draining - it seems those effects only procs once per HoF. Didn't test this excessively though. And honestly you don't need that because in 90% of all cases there's nobody left who could suffer from an affliction after HoF. The few who might survive normally have like 10% endurance left and then die from the ongoing combusting wounds' DoT effect.

 

So, tl;dr: dual sabre + HoF = max damage. Weapon + Badgradr's Barricade or Dragon's Maw = also great.

 

Fun Fact: HoF gives you a 20% damage bonus for a few seconds. If you use Spelltongue for HoF you not only get+15% attack speed for like a year or so (sadly only until the encounter ends) , but also that HoF damage boost gets prolonged a lot so that it will last until the end of most encounters - like all the other buffs you had on when using HoF. It will not do as much damage as a sabre, but it's also a very powerful setup. And Spelltongue + Badgradr's Barricade also don't look too bad together.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Boeroer

[Greensleeve]

Good to know. I'll probably go for Bittercut and Dragon's Maw on Maneha then. I was leaning that direction anyway. 

 

I saw your Leech build a while ago and it opened my eyes to how cool Spelltongue really is. And while the synergy with a barbarian is pretty great, I'm cobbling together a Fighter build using Spelltongue, a two-handed weapon, and Quick Switch, so my MC has dibs on it already. I suppose it's a decent candidate for duplicating though. 

[Boeroer]

That also works. Go for the Blade of the Endless Paths and try to reach 0 recovery with it + Spelltongue.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Boeroer