Help Getting Started with Barbarian Build.

[Habber_Dasher]

Hello I'm just starting out with Pillars of Eternity and I was wondering if I could get some pointers on builds. I decided to go with a barbarian and my goal is to build a character that is somewhat tanky but can still dish out damage. With this in mind I want to go with plate armor and dual wield, hoping that two weapon style, frenzy, maybe blood lust, and various enchantments would still result in high attack speed without allot put in dex. I also kind of want to dual wield axes, but thats mainly for style points  . With that I have to stat distributions in mind:

 

Boreal Dwarf, Deadfire Archipelago 

 

Mig: 20

Con: 13

Dex: 10

Per:10

Int:15

Res:10

 

This one is mainly about pure damage with a little extra endurance 

 

Pale Elf, Old Vialia 

 

Might:15

Con: 10

Dex: 10

Per: 19

Int: 16

Res: 8

 

This one could have more utility through an on crit weapons like We Toki while still hopefully doing good damage through battle axes crit multiplier bonus.

 

Questions: Would Either of these builds be effective? What in your opinion is the better one? Could they be improved? Are Battle Axes effective Weapons? Like I said, I'm just starting so I don't know much about the items available in the game or if my assumptions are accurate. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Blades of Vanatar]

Plate early on fine but as you level up into the mid game you can switch to a lighter armor. Blaid Gholan is a fine armor which is also looks cool on a Barbarian. As does Wayfarer's Hide.

[mosspit]

I tried Wodewys / We Toki and Strikehard / Godansthunyr. Basically, 1 weapon to debuff and the other to provide the crit effect. You can kinda stunlock enemies around the barb which can be fun to watch. Your stat spread looks good. For the crit variant, just note that it will be realized only after midgame. In the meantime, you can maybe try for an interrupt build.

 

Of course, you can try the dps route. Rimecutters or Sabres (Bittercut, Resolution, Purgatory) are nice, especially once HoF is accessible. I plan to try out Firebrand in my current playthrough based on recommendations.

Edited October 1, 2017 by mosspit

[limaxophobiacq]

Stats for both are fine, though personally I'd drop 2 points of Con on the first one for more Int.

 

For weapon choice there are some great battleaxes in the game but they all come a bit late and the bonus crit damage wont do you that much good early game since your accuracy early on is pretty low and you'd almost certainly be better of with sabres or maces (though maces OTOH dont have any great late game choices).

[Boeroer]

Looks good.

 

Battle Axes look fine on a barb and the annihilation enchantment (or other on-crit effects) works ok if you're not playing Path of the Damned. On PotD you'll need the help of party members (causing afflictions) in order to make very effective use of it.

 

I personally prefer hammers though because of the dual damage type (so, no problems when meeting foes who are resistant to a certain damage type) and because you can get a good one (Shatterstar) early.

 

Another foolproof pick is to go for Tidefall + Blood Thirst. Tidefall is one of the best dps weapons when you can reduce recovery - Frenzy, Blood Thirst + Bloodlust are great tools for that. Its wounding works very well with high MIG and with Carnage - and at the same time the Draining does, too. So you will drain a lot of endurance as long as you are hitting. The wounding helps to kill faster which will trigger Blood Thirst and also Bloodlust more often. It a great mixture that makes you more sturdy and lets you kill faster. Another plus ist hat you can get Tidefall pretty early and it comes in superb quality - outranking any other weapon in terms of damage and accuracy that you can get at that point. And it stays to be top notch until the end of the game.

As backup weapon you should consider St. Ydwen's Redeemer when you meet vessels (aka undead and constructs). Blood THirst will trigger when the Redeemer destroys a vessel (works with carnage) which basically leads to a fight where you have no recovery at all because you'll destroy a vessel with every strike. It's hilarious!  

 

I second Blaidh Golan: it's a good armor for barbarians. Sanguine Plate also is. You can catch a crit that triggers Frenzy and when this runs out you can trigger your own, maintaining speed. Bloodlust stacks with Frenzy, so it's not wasted if they overlap. The advantage of the Frenzy from Sanguine Plate in comparison to the barb's own one is that the first doesn't need any activation time while the latter has a seperate animation that takes some time to complete. Also plate armor + Blood Thirst is a smart pick because Blood THirst wil set your recovery to zero after a kill no matter what your armor penalty is.

[mosspit]

Btw, high Might, high Int, average-to-low Res, excellent candidate for Shod-in-Faith.

[Boeroer]

Right!