[Class Build] The very annoying barbarian

[kungapa]

I posted this in another thread, but I would like to bring it up for discussion separately. One barbarian that I have had a lot of fun with for PotD is the stun-lock or excessive status effect barbarian.

 

The idea is to have the barbarian use carnage to pile as many on-hit/crit status effects as possible on the enemy - stun and disorienting being the main ones, but also dazed - as well as using passive auras and effects from being hit, such as sickened, terrified and stuck.

 

Attributes:

- 10/8/16/18/18/8, or something thereabouts. We want accurate and fast carnage, over as large of an area as possible to proc those crits to shut the enemy down.

 

Race:

- Hearth Orlan, to get more crits. Could also bump perception further.

 

Key abilities:

- Threatening presence

- Brute force (more crits if you target the lower defense)

- Barbaric retaliation (does this proc dazed, stun and disorienting?)

- Frenzy

 

Talents:

- Accurate carnage

- Weapon focus (peasant or soldier, depending on weapon choice)

- Two weapon style

- Interruption (potentially)

- Apprentice's sneak attack (what with stun allowing it)

 

Weapons:

- Here there is a choice. There are two combinations of weapons that will give you disorienting (-5 to all defenses), and stunning. Either spears (Cladhalíath and Vile Loners Lance), or warhammers (Godansthunyr and Strike Hard).

- Each has its benefits - speed and two different damage types for the warhammers, and more accuracy from the spears

- Of note is that both Godansthunyr and Vile Loners Lance have bonuses to their interrupt values - which is a nice bonus

- Possible to mix and match, but then taking two weapons focus might be good - or take the weapon focus for the stunning weapon

 

Other equipment:

- Gauntlets: Glittering Gloves to apply dazed (maybe overkill with stun already - but why not?)

- Head: Executioner's Hood to apply a passive frightened effect in AoE

- Waist: Binding rope, so foes hitting you get stuck

- Potentially Sanguine plate and Shod-in-faith, but that is a great combo for most frontliners. Swaddling sheet could also work, for more synergy when being hit by a crit.

- Potentially additional retaliation items - assuming dazed, stun and disorienting triggers from retaliation strikes

 

Total status effects applied:

Applied as attacks:

- Disorienting - Vile Loners Lance / Strike Hard

- Stunning - Cladhialath / Godansthunyr 

- Dazed - Glittering Gloves (including from Barbaric Retaliation, I believe)

 

Applied as passive AoE:

- Sickening - Threatening Presence

- Frightened - Executioner's Hood

 

Applied on being hit:

- Stuck - Binding Rope

 

Of course, durganize everything to get the speed up there, pile on a Dire Blessing, Devotions of the Faithful, and Frenzy. Crowns of the Faithful or other intellect buffs also work great - get the AoE larger. 

 

Edit questions: 
Are there any more status effect items that could be piled on to this? Would more retaliation be beneficial - or does retaliation not proc the status effects?

Edited February 16, 2017 by kungapa

[KDubya]

Using the Starcaller flail could also be a good choice. It has stunning, an on crit spell attack, a graze>hit and is fast speed so you'll attack more often than slower average speed weapons. You could pair it with Drawn in Spring, which has an inherent accuracy boost to mitigate the lack of weapon focus, March Steel Dagger, in case you need additional speed, or some of the various clubs or stillettos that are in game that no one tends to use. Even sticking with just flails would get you the early flail with the endurance drain or the fire lash flail with the speed enchant. I think there was even one from White March that had a spell effect on it but I can't remember.

[Boeroer]

I remember that even different kinds of retaliation - like Binding Rope + Lavender Wreath or Garodh's Chorus - suppress each other. Don't know how Barbaric Retaliation behaves in this case.

 

There are also issues with multiple "auras" like Executioner's Hood + Threatening Presence. But I can't remember exactly what it was. You'd have to test.

I skipped the Hood entirely because it's so easy to cause frightened with the first shout.

[kungapa]

I remember that even different kinds of retaliation - like Binding Rope + Lavender Wreath or Garodh's Chorus - suppress each other. Don't know how Barbaric Retaliation behaves in this case.

 

There are also issues with multiple "auras" like Executioner's Hood + Threatening Presence. But I can't remember exactly what it was. You'd have to test.

I skipped the Hood entirely because it's so easy to cause frightened with the first shout.

 

Using the Starcaller flail could also be a good choice. It has stunning, an on crit spell attack, a graze>hit and is fast speed so you'll attack more often than slower average speed weapons. You could pair it with Drawn in Spring, which has an inherent accuracy boost to mitigate the lack of weapon focus, March Steel Dagger, in case you need additional speed, or some of the various clubs or stillettos that are in game that no one tends to use. Even sticking with just flails would get you the early flail with the endurance drain or the fire lash flail with the speed enchant. I think there was even one from White March that had a spell effect on it but I can't remember.

 

Starcaller is nice - but there is a nice synergy between a stunning and a disorienting weapons that I wanted to exploit. Lower their defenses, and then stun them. The Forgotten Tears of the Beloved has a 10% on-hit daze effect, but we are already dazing with the Glittering Gloves.

 

I remember that even different kinds of retaliation - like Binding Rope + Lavender Wreath or Garodh's Chorus - suppress each other. Don't know how Barbaric Retaliation behaves in this case.

 

There are also issues with multiple "auras" like Executioner's Hood + Threatening Presence. But I can't remember exactly what it was. You'd have to test.

I skipped the Hood entirely because it's so easy to cause frightened with the first shout.

 

I tested it a bit yesterday (killing civilians in Stalwart village...), and from what I remember both raw damage from Barbaric Retaliation and Binding Rope effect triggered, and both sickened and frightened showed up as a status effect on the enemies.

 

I'll go back and double check - and maybe throw on the Coat of Ill Payment to test the regular retaliation too.

[Boeroer]

Cool, then maybe it was fixed - or it was just a problem with Binding Rope + Lavender Wreath.

 

I remember now that they also did something with those items that emit auras like Redfield and Executioner's Hood.

Because when you used for example Knockdown at the same time when the aura "pulsed", Knockdown (prone) did apply to all enemies in range of the aura. As if the prone effect "piggibacked" on the aura. They fixed this in one of the later patches I think. Maybe they were also fixing other issues with those auras as well then.

[kungapa]

Didn't test wreath + rope.

 

The aura issue you describe sounds like a nice bug though. Theoretically, the auras could have come to "pulse" things like the stunning effect and the disorienting from the weapons (due to Carnage, as I assume the bug didn't impact auto-attack status effects).

[Boeroer]

As far as I know it only worked with active abilities.

[Kaylon]

Different retaliation effects on items don't stack. Effects coming from abilities, weapons and shields stack with everything like always...

[kungapa]

So Binding Rope + Barbaric Retaliation + Sura's Supper Plate would stack, but throw Coat of Ill Payment in there, and it would conflict with the Rope?

[Kaylon]

So Binding Rope + Barbaric Retaliation + Sura's Supper Plate would stack, but throw Coat of Ill Payment in there, and it would conflict with the Rope?

Exactly

[Boeroer]

Yes, even though they are dirrent effects (stuck/sicken/piece damage) those ret. items like Binding Rope/Lavender Wreath/Coat don't stack. That's what I wanted to say. Now I also remember that I tested a max retaliation barb. Barbaric Retaliation definitely stacks.

Battle Forged (fire godlike) and potion of Flame Shield also stack.

Edited February 18, 2017 by Boeroer

[Mygaffer]

I remember that even different kinds of retaliation - like Binding Rope + Lavender Wreath or Garodh's Chorus - suppress each other. Don't know how Barbaric Retaliation behaves in this case.

 

There are also issues with multiple "auras" like Executioner's Hood + Threatening Presence. But I can't remember exactly what it was. You'd have to test.

I skipped the Hood entirely because it's so easy to cause frightened with the first shout.

I really hope they rework a lot of how suppression works for Deadfire, I always feel stymied at how many things suppress each other in this game.