Dwarf Barb and occult slayer ...build help please

[RavenStormclaw]

I want to build a dwarven occult slayer barbarian. This is my first foray into barbarians and I kinda like the occult slayer tree. Dwarven because I like the synergy with axe uses and I want to use the dragon mark line as well since that seems to synergies well with occult slayer. Self healing would be nice but I'm not opposed to using the sovereign store pots if I must. Any help would be appreciated.

[Lauf]

I want to build a dwarven occult slayer barbarian. This is my first foray into barbarians and I kinda like the occult slayer tree. Dwarven because I like the synergy with axe uses and I want to use the dragon mark line as well since that seems to synergies well with occult slayer. Self healing would be nice but I'm not opposed to using the sovereign store pots if I must. Any help would be appreciated.

28 point build or 32/4/6 ?

[RavenStormclaw]

28 point build or 32/4/6 ?

32 point

[Lauf]

Self healing would be nice but I'm not opposed to using the sovereign store pots if I must

To quote a couple of posts from the BYOH barb thread:



Potions and especially silver flames potions are the only way to build a true BYOH barbarian.
During heroic levels you can heal using CSW potions from house kundarak and a hireling. It is super easy if you don't zerg like mad.
Just aggro a few mobs at a time and you'll be fine.
As soon as you get to lvl 14 you should be able to access to silver flame potions.
Max dodge, prr, blurry, ghostly, move smart, Max heal amp.
Pop displace for tough fights. Spell absorb, fom on gear. Worship UMD.
FOM, Deathward and fireshield are more important than saves and the DPS of a barbarian can kill stuff before they can cause you troubles.


you should also be advised that you can buy silver flame pots in game with plat, all you need is to have enough silver flame favor.


you've mentioned synergy between dwarf and the OS tree, which makes me assume you'd like to roll a pure barbarian for the OS capstone ("You gain a bonus to your Spell Resistance equal to your Constitution score") .
working under this assumption (pure barb) I'd suggest the following feats:
1. PA
3. Cleave
6. Great Cleave (or Least Dragonmark, whichever you prefer)
9. Improved Crit: Slashing
12. Least Dragonmark (or Great Cleave, whichever you didn't take at level 6)
15. Skill Focus: UMD (you're unlikely to have significant UMD before this level anyway)
18. Toughness

for abilities, if you max strength and con, heroic level ups in strength would qualify you for the overwhelming critical feat at level 21; an additional level up in con (or +1 tome) would qualify you for epic toughness at 24.

now, assuming you have / will have access to +2 tomes, I would suggest starting with slightly lower con (18 instead of 20), and raising cha to a starting 12 for UMD purposes.

the skills I'd recommend you focus on raising are UMD, concentration & balance.

you can find more information on how to raise your UMD here:
http://ddowiki.com/page/UMD#Sources_of_UMD

I won't go into specific enhancements because I suspect you'd be testing them out to see which work best for you, so not much point in going into details there.

hope this helps. good luck with your barb :)

[RavenStormclaw]

To quote a couple of posts from the BYOH barb thread:



you should also be advised that you can buy silver flame pots in game with plat, all you need is to have enough silver flame favor.


you've mentioned synergy between dwarf and the OS tree, which makes me assume you'd like to roll a pure barbarian for the OS capstone ("You gain a bonus to your Spell Resistance equal to your Constitution score") .
working under this assumption (pure barb) I'd suggest the following feats:
1. PA
3. Cleave
6. Great Cleave (or Least Dragonmark, whichever you prefer)
9. Improved Crit: Slashing
12. Least Dragonmark (or Great Cleave, whichever you didn't take at level 6)
15. Skill Focus: UMD (you're unlikely to have significant UMD before this level anyway)
18. Toughness

for abilities, if you max strength and con, heroic level ups in strength would qualify you for the overwhelming critical feat at level 21; an additional level up in con (or +1 tome) would qualify you for epic toughness at 24.

now, assuming you have / will have access to +2 tomes, I would suggest starting with slightly lower con (18 instead of 20), and raising cha to a starting 12 for UMD purposes.

the skills I'd recommend you focus on raising are UMD, concentration & balance.

you can find more information on how to raise your UMD here:
http://ddowiki.com/page/UMD#Sources_of_UMD

I won't go into specific enhancements because I suspect you'd be testing them out to see which work best for you, so not much point in going into details there.

hope this helps. good luck with your barb :)

thanks for some sound advice.

[Qhualor]

well, if you are planning on umd to heal with realize that its a cross class skill so 2 points for 1 rank. csw pots don't require you to switch weapons and does the same amount of healing as a csw wand. heal scrolls are 40 umd so that's going to take significant amount of points which means you may need to put points in cha. cha is not needed for a barb for anything unless you actually want umd. the quote above says you can get SF pots by level 14. maybe if you do every single SF quest including necro 4 up to level 14, which usually isn't the case for a lot of people. usually you unlock the favor by 18-20. also realize you cant use umd while raged and you only get so many between shrines depending on if you spend AP for more rages. a barbs rage last as long as how much investment your con score is plus any AP spent in the tree. a barbs rage is their bread and butter so if you aren't utilizing rage so to use umd, than maybe barb isn't the best choice for you. rage increases your con and str score plus your will saves. you get fatigued after dismissing rage or after it wears off so you will need to drink lesser resto pots to remove it. at 17 a barbarian gets the tireless rage feat and you no longer fatigue.

personally, I think umd is a waste of effort into building for a mostly pure or pure barb. it pretty much defeats the purpose of the class and I think as you get into tougher content you will see why umd is really not a good investment. its better to play smart and learn to play with csw and SF pots and there is no shame using hires.