Might-stacking Barbarian Theorycrafting

[Nornir]

Not sure if anyone else has had this idea but I'm wondering how viable it would be to stack Might on a Barb in a POTD run.

 

The idea is that the Barb has access to several per encounter abilities so by stacking Might and trying to proc Blood Thirst we can go through every one of these abilities in short order to generate consistent burst damage without any need to rest.

The build might look something like this:

Race: Human

Stats:

MIG: 20 (+1 Background)
CON: 10
DEX: 10
PER: 16
INT: 18
RES: 4

Abilities:
Auto - Carnage
Auto - Fighting Spirit
1. Frenzy
3. Savage Defiance
5. Brute Force
7. Threatening Presence
9. Blood Thirst
11. Heart of Fury
13. Dragon Leap
15. Echoing Shout

Talents:
2. Two Handed Style
4. Weapon Focus Adventurer
6. Veteran's Recovery
8. Accurate Carnage
10. Stalwart Defiance
12. Barbaric Blow
14. Greater Frenzy
16. Quick Switch

Weapon: The Grey Sleeper + Abydon's Hammer
Head: Maegfolc Skull
Neck: Cloak of Comfort
Armor: White Crest Armor
Waist: Berserker's Belt
Gloves: Gauntlets of Accuracy or Ryona's Vambraces
Rings: Gathbin Family Sigil + Gwyn's Band of Union
Boots: Shod-in-Faith

 

So with Maegfolc Skull, Abydon's Hammer and Greater Frenzy we can reach 34 Might before rest and food bonuses.

For survivability we can use that Might to enhance the effects of Veteran's Recovery, Unbending (Maegfolc Skull), Shod-in-Faith and Savage Defiance.

For per-encounter abilities we can open with in any battle we have: HoF, Dragon Leap, Barbaric Blow, Echoing Shout and Ring of the Ancient Forge

 

We also have Abydon's Labor, Dancing Bolts and Overwhelming Wave per rest along with any scrolls we might have.

So I've only done some minor testing with it solo. Ring of the Ancient Forge can stun an entire room which allows you to crit often with the rest of your abilities applying a long daze if not also outright killing the room. Echoing Shout gets boosted to 54m and with careful positioning you can get this to hit twice for about 70-90 dmg each though Int only increases the length so the AoE is rather narrow. Savage Defiance can be triggered instantly after Frenzy to allow you to survive getting swarmed so you can pull off HoF etc in as clustered of an area as possible.

There are some problems that became obvious straight away though. For one White Crest Armor is probably not worth it due to the Cumbersome property. I thought Dragon Leap would be fine for positioning purposes but Overwhelming Wave and Dancing Bolts are probably not worth the trouble since positioning Echoing Shout is quite important.

The Grey Sleeper also appears to be a better candidate to use when using HoF and Barbaric Blow. It has some decent procs as well. That being said if enemies survive the intial burst then the barbs DPS can drop off significantly. You're forced to rely on a slow auto-attack + carnage and Frenzy only lasts 20s with about half of that used by the burst. Perhaps a Durganized Tidefall might be a better option in this case?

 

 

So, does anyone have any ideas on improving the build? Is it even particularly viable for a POTD run in the first place?

[Natures Bounty]

High might is very beneficial for barbarians without a doubt. Your build looks totally viable. It seems like a good idea to try Grey Sleeper for HoF - never experimented with it.

At the same time, I´d say that there is some room for optimization - if you want to strive for it.

 

I would suggest dropping

- brute force (overall, most opponents have higher fortitude than other defenses - often even by a big margin)

- threatening presence (as a solo barbarian, you probably don't have that much use for the -10 Fort, -10 Will sickening effect; and from the middle of the game on, -10 Fort won't be enough to acticate brute force on a regular basis)

 

 

I would suggest to choose instead:

- One stands alone (you will always be surrounded, so the +20% damage bonus will almost always apply)

- Blooded (HoF will almost automatically activate this passive +20% speed bonus, helping you to reach zero recovery more often. Before you get HoF, its also beneficial because you do not have any teammates who steal your kills, right?)

 

For solo barbarians, I like Argwes Adra as armor for several reasons: you get second chance which is very nice to combine with vengeful defeat; +2 Lore is always good in solo play; and not to forget the high damage reduction. Last but not least - I just like the colour!

 

But for more details on Barbarian solo builds, it's probably up to Boeroer I guess ;-)

[BALONEYPWNY]

As I understand it, Overseeing doesn't affect Carnage. May want to replace Gathbin's ring with something else.

[Boeroer]

It does affect Carnage

[Boeroer]

A might stacking barbarian works really nice with Novice's Suffering by the way. MIG buffs the flat damage bonus of Novice's Suffering. All other dmg mods that boost base damage (crits, Savage Attack, One Stands Alone, Blooded and so on) don't though. But on the other hands the base damage malus of grazes and Carnage also don't do much. It's a very nice apporach for the early and mid game.

 

Another thing that works extremely well with high MIG is wounding - like on Tidefall. Wounding damage also gets boosted by MIG which leads to high wounding numbers.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Boeroer

[BALONEYPWNY]

It does affect Carnage

Does it not display an increased Carnage circle? I tested this about a month ago with various Overseeing items and saw no increase.

[Boeroer]

Last time I checked it did increase the yellow indicator circle. But the increase is not that visible because the base range of Carnage is mediocre. 10% is not that much, too. You can see a bigger effect on chanter's chanting range for example because it has a way bigger base radius.

 

But I have to admit that I tested this a long time ago while I played around with several barb builds.

 

It may be that Obsidian changed that, but why should they? But to be sure I will check later today and report. Always good to know if something got changed "secretly", so thanks in advance for pointing this out.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

I just checked and it still works as it used to: Overseeing gives you a +10% range bonus with Carnage (10% to the base radius, that's basically the radius with 10 INT).

I made a lvl 1 barb with 10 INT and targeted a random guy in an inn:

 

The translucent yellow circle indicates the range of carnage with 10 INT. The dashed circle around the barb is the reach of the weapon, NOT carnage range.
Not I put on a Ring of Overseeing:

 

Note the tiny, even more translucent ring around the yellow Carnage area. That's the 10% increase. It's marginal. Overseeing is much better when you use it on ability/spells that have a big base radius. Carnage's base radius is not very big, so Overseeing doesn't do a lot. High INT is much better to expand your Carnage area. But of course if you really want to max the range of Carnage you have to use it.

 

A chanter for example who wants to extend his Dragon Thrashed range as much as possible can stack Voice of the Mountaintop (+20%), Overseeing (+10%) and high INT. Because his base chanting radius is so big, this leads to a notably higher AoE increase (not percentage-wise of course, but in flat numbers) than with Carnage.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Boeroer

[BALONEYPWNY]

it seems our neighborhood friendly blue Orlan has max Perception. I must have missed that outer circle.

 

Thanks.

[Nornir]

The Overseeing ring was actually to help with Dragon Leap, Echoing Shout, Ring of the Ancient Forge etc though it's not a particularly a necessity. It might stand out more as a choice if one were to use scrolls heavily with this build. That could work for bigger fights perhaps where you'll blow through your abilities and be stuck with hitting enemies with a pointy stick.

Thanks all for the suggestions by the way.