Shatterstar is really good that early in the game.

I just tried out the level 5 barb in serious combat for the first time (Killing the would be thieves for "A two story job" quest and I never felt like the lack of deflection/reflex mattered at all.

I'm gonna buy shatterstar, take the interrupt talent and rock Defiance Bay.

More temptation to make a Barbarian...

I just tried Firebrand (+Combusting Wounds) on my barbarian.

I don't think I will dual wield until HoF.

I don't think I will ever play anything but barbarian anymore...

Hehe - Firebrand is nice. It's also great on a cipher and a backstab-roue.

Too bad that is only 3x rest...

 

and the interrupt build where is gone???

Edited August 30, 20178 yr by Dr <3

The interrupt build will still happen when I get HoF, the only question is how many enemies actually survive long enough to get interrupted.

And yeah Spiritshift druid is something I wanted to try for quite some time.

I just crit a corrupted druid for 85 damage with firebrand.

I only have 15 base MI.

I don't have 2handed style.

And this would be possible with level 4.

(I'm 7)

I've always been a bit reluctant to play a barb since it seems that they really need all of their stats, and I never got a sense of an ideal build. I've tried out the high perception interrupt build, but I'd like to try a barb with higher might for more DPS; a hammer wielding barb sounds great. How does the following stat range seem: MIG 15, CON 10, DEX 15, PER 15, INT 15, RES 8?

Good.

 

I'd take Veteran's Recovery and Savage Defiance to counter the rel. low CON and he shouldn't be squishy.

 

I did my ultimate attempt with a max MIG, nearly max PER, max CON (because of Battle Forged) and max INT build with only 3 DEX (not needed for HoF at all) and it worked well, too.

Edited August 31, 20178 yr by Boeroer

I just died to a random ambush in Defiance bay, because my threatening presence kept triggering Psychic backlash.

Feelsbad when enemies use your own strategy against you. 

I told you (or somebody else) Threatening Presence vs. Psychic Backlash is a bad idea.

 

One should be able to turn it off like a modal.

 

Same will happen with Redfield or Executioner's Hood I suppose. But you can at least unequip those.

Edited August 31, 20178 yr by Boeroer

I told you (or somebody else) Threatening Presence vs. Psychic Backlash is a bad idea.

 

One should be able to turn it off like a modal.

 

Same will happen with Redfield or Executioner's Hood I suppose. But you can at least unequip those.

Yeah, I just didn't expect some super generic mobs, I never even pay attention to, will stunlock me to death with it. :D

Here's one of the last times I'll use Firebrand with my barb, because of HoF coming in.

The damage is quite respectable, with Might not being close to maxed (with more mnight I had crits with 100 damage but Dex seemed the bette roption)

You should name him Missy Elliot.

You should name him Missy Elliot.

When you're too cheap to use Prayer against fear scrolls.

Good.

 

I'd take Veteran's Recovery and Savage Defiance to counter the rel. low CON and he shouldn't be squishy.

 

I did my ultimate attempt with a max MIG, nearly max PER, max CON (because of Battle Forged) and max INT build with only 3 DEX (not needed for HoF at all) and it worked well, too.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. A fire godlike barbarian sounds interesting!

Yes - it's fun to play. Also because Blooded and One Stands Alone work with Battle Forged and Barbaric Retaliation. But Battle Forged has some annoying bug in combination with the watcher abilites as welll as with Second Wind (athletics): you will hit yourself with Battle Forged when using those, so watch out.

I really like barbs, one of my favorite classes, I did try a perception/interupt build - using Boeroers advice. I found it pretty ordinary though. Sure it interrupted a lot, but it didn't do much damage. Having said that I don't like dropping any stat below 8, so getting max perception and high int(18) really doesn't leave much for might. Also I think it probably only really shines late game - it's even more gear dependent than a normal barbarian. So I have found that a more balanced approach with decent might, intelligence and perception, something like 16/16/16 works really well, does plenty damage and interrupts a fair amount. To be honest I'm not sure maxing perception is a great use of stats.

It was just a theory - never played a barb like this for more than a few minutes after "consoling" one.

 

Yes, with low MIG barbs suck (at least for me). The damage malus of Carnage (-34%) has to be countered with high MIG in my opinion. Else you will have Carnage that hits like wet noodles against anything with a bit of DR.

 

For a good interrupt barb you would need high MIG, DEX, PER and INT. You could drop CON and RES then, but that would lead to a really awful early game. Later on it could be ok though and also powerful - if you manage to interrupt-lock whole groups. Can't say if that's possible early on, but I doubt it.

 

It's a nice concept in theory but in a real playthrough the simple things (like using Tidefall with Blood Thirst asap) seem to be more effective... and fun.  

Edited September 1, 20178 yr by Boeroer

I was deciding to use an interrupt barb using more or less the setup mentioned. But to me, it seems like it more or less will feel like a CC barb with stun/prone-on-crit weapons. There are no hard immunities against interrupts (as far as I know), but at the same time interrupt doesn't really give the stats reduction the way the hard CC does. So it kinda evens out.

The main problem of interruption Build is the minimal advantage ( and moreover it is a theoretical advantage more than a real practical one) against a build with just stunning weapons. Godshantyur stuns most opponents in your aoe, with high int and the stun debuff (-30 deflection) you can keep everyone permastunned. All while for interruption build you have to invest a lot more for stat points ( max per --> low might) and items ( lower dmg)

Yes, but one-handed stunning or overbearing weapons come very late while the ones with good interrupts (Shatterstar, Vile Loner's Lance) can be obtained fairly early. Also, an interrupt build is basically also a build for stunning or overbearing weapons. So I start by using Shatterstar and then later add Godansthunyr and will have both approaches combined (because Godansthunyr also has higher interrupt than normal AND stuns). It surely doesn't hurt to cause long interrupts - but once you have HoF they don't matter that much anyways.

Edited September 1, 20178 yr by Boeroer

I feel like interrupt and stun compliment each other very well.

Before I started this barb I also had a consoled barb and I tried both routes of having 2x stun or 2x interrupt weapons and it just doesn't work as well,

because there's enemies you won't reliably crit as a barb and interrupt on certain enemies which attack slowly (like the bear in Russetwood) doesn't happen the exact time it would reset their attack so all you get is 1 second interrupt from their relatively long recovery phase, unless you stop attacking until their recovery is just about finished and time it perfectly. (Or you have no recovery but you need durgan's for that and a solo barb has a hard time with doing the battery before level 11 and then comes HoF...).

 

But if you have both stun and interrupt (especially Godans... which has 0.75 interrupt on top of stun) even if you only graze an enemy the stun will help out the interrupt and vice versa.

(interrupt always seems to reset a recovery after a stun wears off)

Edited September 1, 20178 yr by Raven Darkholme

Since you guys are discussing Barbarians:

 

Is Frenzy a "must" talent? In theory, the inability to see your Endurance would be a "no go," so I am thinking of not taking it. Will this nerf my DPS too much?

Since you guys are discussing Barbarians:

 

Is Frenzy a "must" talent? In theory, the inability to see your Endurance would be a "no go," so I am thinking of not taking it. Will this nerf my DPS too much?

Depends on your stats.

For the barbarian before HoF, since I mainly attacked with Firebrand, which is 2handed, I needed max Dex, so I couldn't max Mi and I even dumped Con all the way.

This meant i not only needed frenzy to make up for that, but also have max bonuses, through resting, whore and consumables for every serious fight.

This is probably not a good approach if you're learning how to play the class, so if you have 10 base Con and 15 base MI (at least) you might not need Frenzy.

Also bear in mind there's Sanguine Plate which gives you 2x frenzy per encounter if you get crit, I also used that quite a lot, unless I needed Stun/Prone reduction.