[CLASS BUILD] The Golden Dragon (barbarian tank)

[Boeroer]

You could also use a sword + shield and two battle axes. Sword and axe share the same Weapon Focus. Spears have +5 ACC,so it's not that bad when not using Weapon Focus Peasant for spears.

[StormOwnz]

 

How would you level a character like this?  He seems awfully squishy until he gets a good number of those abilities.  Looks like a crapload of fun once you get them though.

He's not. With a large shield, barbaric yell and thick armor he's not too squishy at the beginning, even with 3 CON. I would also take Veteran's Recovery as the first talent. It's better than Constant Recovery (without Rapid Rec.) and adds a lot of endurance. I also pump survival to 8 in order to get +40% healing received. Since the deflection with a large shield and maxed RES is good you mostly catch grazes if you get hit at all. Thick armor will catch most of that damage and what remains as MIN damage will get healed by Veteran's Recovery. No, not squishy. Once you get Weapon and Shield Style (next talent I'd pick) you can easily take the role of the main tank.

 

You can start with higher CON of course and retrain later. Because later you def. don't need CON at all. Remember: with 3 CON a barb has quite the same endurance as a fighter with 10 CON. And a fighter with 10 CON and a shield is not squishy.

But I encountered no problem with 3 CON right from the start. Alse keep in mind that this was not a solo run. When soloing I would use more CON - mostly because of fortitude.

 

 

 

Boeroer how did you survive with 3 CON? Even if I give him 10+ CON my barb still gets ate up.

[Boeroer]

If you combine the barb's ACC lowering tools and for example a priest or paladin to buff his deflection it shouldn't make a difference if you have 3 or 10 CON since you shouldn't get hit in th first place.

 

The first few levels are a bit tough though if that is your only tanky frontliner. Because barbs have such crappy starting deflection - and your abilities that make up for this are not developed yet. The higher base endurance and health make no difference (even if you gave him 20 CON). The effects of CON are only useful and visible after some levels. I guess at lvl 6 it gets a lot easier once you have Weapon & Shield Style and Stalwart Defiance. Please note that the abilites/talents are not in the correct order. Maybe I should edit that. You'd pick Yell, Veteran's Recovery, Savage Defiance, Weapon & Shield Style, One Stands Alone and Stalwart Defiance if I remember correctly.

[gloomseeker]

Just wanted to drop by and thank you for sharing the build with the community. I was looking for some inspiration to build a character who would be both durable and fun to play (especially when it comes to covering dialogue checks) and this one fits the bill very nicely. 

 

I'm playing through the game to prepare for Deadfire and enjoying my tank of a Barbarian quite a lot (and I usually don't like tanks). 

 

Cheers Boeroer! 

[DeadMoney]

This was my build for my second playthrough of PoE1. It was so satisfying to play that I decided to use it (and not my own first build) for the DLCs - and now I'm trying to make the exact same guy in PoE2... which is harder than I thought, but still very fun.

[Boeroer]

Thanks guys for the nice feedback.

[draego]

Thanks guys for the nice feedback.

 

This was a very fun build. Do you think this build will translate to POE2? I did a build very similar with this but with variant weapons that focused on CC or Debuffs but i know in POE2 the on hit effects for carnage were removed. That alone seemed to kill my build being moved to POE2.

Edited May 15, 2018 by draego

[Boeroer]

I would have to check if there are any bashing shields that are worthwhile - and because Heart of Fury is PL 8 I would maybe use a single class barb. Or multiclass with Unbroken and substitute HoF with Cleaving Stance and Blood Thirst.

Or maybe Barb/Paladin.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Boeroer

[gloomseeker]

I would have to check if there are any bashing shields that are worthwhile - and because Heart of Fury is PL 8 I would maybe use a single class barb. Or multiclass with Unbroken and substitute HoF with Cleaving Stance and Blood Thirst.

Or maybe Barb/Paladin.

 

I'm going with Barbarian/Unbroken (level 8 at the moment) and it's fine but the lower constitution feels more of a liability than it did in the first game (first run for me so I don't have any of the blessings of Berath enabled and some of my choices may not be optimal plus I'm still looking for a really nice shield). With hindsight I'd probably keep constitution around 5 at the start of the game (I got my hand on an item with +2 in constitution and it does make a difference). 

[Rooksx]

Why is Badgradr's Barricade better offensively than Dragon's Maw? Less crush damage and Thrust of Tattered Veils is only once per encounter. 

[Boeroer]

Thrust of Tattered Veils is unlimited per encounter. It procs on every crit you do with the bash. Since Carnage has a +1 ACC bonus per level and bash has as well, you end up with +32 bonus accuracy on carnage-bashs (+37 with Accurate Carnage) at lvl 16 which lets you crit a lot and trigger Thrust of Tattered Veils a lot. Now imagine Heart of Fury with its exponentially rising number of attacks the more enemies you can reach...

Edited June 20, 2018 by Boeroer

[dzikidzwon]

I registered here just to let you know this build works awsome.

 

It's squishy at first, but around level 8 it becomes all around great. You can take a punch, do damage and due to high intelligence and resolve you pass all conversation checks.

 

Also, it looks cool.

[Boeroer]

Thank you.

[Stonebridge809]

Is this build still viable in the current game? But maybe put con and res up a little bit early game? Might b my MC to go alongside dragon thrasher chanter(or paladin) depending on what u suggest. With wizard, Cipher, priest and either a ranger or druid

Edited August 2, 2018 by Stonebridge809

[Boeroer]

This build works like on day one. No changes to mechanics or so.

 

For not so experienced players I would recommend to lift CON a bit in the early game, yes. Although a barb with 3 CON has about the same endurance as a fighter with 10, his lower deflection makes it harder in the first few levels.  Raising RES is difficult because it's already at max (18). Maybe you meant DEX? 

 

Paladin or Chanter do both work. What you like better. 

Edited August 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[Stonebridge809]

Yea think I meant dex. But mainly con I'd lift a bit for few lvls. Do you have a ranged Cipher build? Or a tank ish frontline monk? Seen few builds but none that jump out at me. Thanks for reply. Love your guides

[Boeroer]

Thank you.

 

Nope, I only have offensive monks - one can be used as a sort of punchbag-tank later on. He's pretty powerful after some levels: The Monksterlasher.

 

Tanky monks are the Juggernaut and the Anvil. Both are in the build list here.

 

I don't have a ranged cipher either, sorry.

Edited August 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[Stonebridge809]

Is it certain abilities or the weapons listed in post tht help with the golden dragons dps?

Edited August 9, 2018 by Stonebridge809

[Boeroer]

Err... both.

[BlindDruid]

I play a really similar Barbarian, just opted for unlaboled blade instead of bittercut. I did take some "offensive" talents (bloodthirst e.g.) instead of threatening presence.

It is a really fun build which does quite some damage if the unlabored blade proccs while HoF - or just when Autoattacking.

Spoiler

btw. you can easily farm up the blade in the temple of skaen (if you opt not to search for the "daughter" beforehand - or want to use effigys resentment anyways). There are priests which keep healing themselves. so if you left one or two for your barb you can easily get the last 2 levels of the blade in this area.  I got the blade unlocked fully after doing the repairing the canons quest (the first Quest i always do in WM2) and the temple of skaen afterwards. This way you profit from a nice item (the blade starts pretty strong) for the wm2 quest, and when the blade gets dull you go somewhere else where it is easier to hit with it. You can also grab Ryonas Breastplate for a pally/monk/chanter and kill the Paladins after the canon quest. This way you have the recommended shield pretty early and the blade unlocked + a great armor for another character.

Also the enemy barbarians at the temple of wael have a high healthpool, so dealing 2.5k DMG+ solo is a thing there - by solo i mean the rest of your group runs away after only priests are left - behind a corner or something like that- fast forward, because it takes some time, but you want to clear the area anyways. Your priest can buff acc to speed it up a little.

 

just equip a normal shield instead of a shield with bash to not "waste" any damage dealt on another item.

 

I used a higher con though, but I can see that a lower Con works on this character as well.

 

unlabored blade is imho a great weapon for this build.

It also gives you 2 healing chain per rest which is complimenting your huge health regeneration with survival healing II/III and 25% healing from neck/belt ( i ran this as neck) and an dimensional shift which is totally awesome if you jump into enemy lines, use HoF and some enemies slip past you, you can then dimensional shift back and switch with your monk or another partymember if you need to. It's only 1 per rest, but it can certainly help for a messed up pull.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by BlindDruid

[Markovka]

If I gonna pick human - I won't gimp this build ? And if not - Dex 3 and Mig 19 for human would be optional (instead of Dex 4 and Mig 18 for elf) ?

Edited December 21, 2020 by Markovka

[Boeroer]

No, it would not gimp the build. A slightly different allocation of attribute points also won't have any noticable impact. 

[Shunpo]

Great build, currently using it for a first playthrough and loving it so far.

I'm only using the story companions and wondering what the optimal party comp would be? Currently running Eder - Tank, Durance - Priest off-tankish, Pallegina (Fire General Build), Aloth CC wizard, and just got Grieving Mother and put her in but no idea what to do with her.

[Boeroer]

Thanks.

Imo Hiravias is a better companion than Grieving Mother - but you can give her a hunting bow for example, fire some arrows and then use some cipher powers. Mind Control (Whisper of Treason, Puppet Master, Ring Leader) and also Amplified Wave are very good. 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Boeroer

[Desmodeus]

On 1/3/2022 at 8:30 PM, Boeroer said:

you can give her a hunting bow for example, fire some arrows and then use some cipher powers

She can also be decent with that Blunderbuss from second DLC - each pallet has seperate focus gain and blinding cone is pretty cool.