Thorix, a first life EE capable Dwarven Barbarian

[Mystickal]

Summary

A first life barbarian build that is capable of running EE content. This build is able to run some EE content solo, but some EE content will require a party to help take some of the heat off. No tomes required, no rare, hard to find or grind gear necessary.

Thorix Lvl 20 Barbarian


28 32 34 36 LEVEL
---- ---- ---- ---- -----
Strength 16 16 16 16 4:CON
Dexterity 8 10 10 10 8:STR
Constitution 20 20 20 20 12:CON
Intelligence 10 10 10 10 16:CON
Wisdom 8 8 8 10 20:CON
Charisma 8 8 10 10 24:CON
28:CON

If you manage to get your hands on a +1 STR tome before hitting level 8, then spend that level up point in CON. While Tomes are not required for this build, the build is easier to play if you get all of your stats to an 11 or higher by the time you are level 14-15.

Feats
1: Power Attack
3: Cleave
6: Two Handed Fighting
9: Improved Two Handed Fighting (requires 17 STR)
12: Greater Two Handed Fighting
15: Improved Critical: Slashing or Bludgeoning (depending on what weapons you've managed to loot)
18: Weapon Focus: Slashing or Bludgeoning (depending on what you took at lvl 15)
21: Overwhelming Critical
24: Weapon Focus: Slashing or Bludgeoning (whichever you didn't take at lvl 15)
26: Epic Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27: Epic Damage Reduction
28: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting

Skills:
Max points in Heal to help maximize the HP you recover from shrines and other healing. Max points in Listen so you can detect enemies that are hiding.. I also like to max Jump, because I like to jump around a lot. If you have spare points, put them in UMD so you can bypass some racial restrictions on gear, Balance, so you can stand up if you get knocked flat, and intimidate so you don't have to chase down enemies quite so much.

Enhancements:
Dwarf (18 points)

Cores 1-4

Tier 1 Dwarven Weapon Training (choose whether you want to use GreatAxes or Mauls)

Tier 2 Dwarven Weapon Training

Tier 3 Dwarven Runes (3), Dwarven Weapon Training

Tier 4 Dwarven Weapon Training, Throw Your Weight Around
Ravager (41 points)

Cores 1-6

Tier 1 Ritual Scarring (2), Do You Like Pain (3), Barbarian Power Attack (3), Hardy Rage (3)

Tier 2 I Like Pain (3), Cruel Cut (1), Action Boost Melee Power (1)

Tier 3 Slaughter (3), Festering Wound (1), Constitution (1)

Tier 4 Laughter (1), Cruel Cut (1), Constitution (1)

Tier 5 Blood Strength (1), Uncanny Balance (1), Critical Rage (2)
Frenzied Berserker (21 points)

Cores 1-3

Tier 1 Extra Rage (3), Die Hard (1)

Tier 2 Blood Tribute (3), Sprint Boost (3)

Tier 3 Blood Train (3), Supreme Cleave (3), Constitution (1)

As you level, work your enchancements towards Blood Strength primarily. That will become your primary healing method, so you want to get it as soon as you hit level 12. Don't worry about working towards the the Dwarven enhancement CON to Damage until level 16 or so - at levels 1-16 your strength and constitution will be not be dramatically different, so you won't see as much of a benefit as you will at later levels.

Epic Destinies

Once you hit epic levels, you can choose to fill the Fury of the Wild destiny or work towards Legendary Dreadnought. If you are trying to completely maximize DPS, You'll want to end up in the Legendary Dreadnought destiny using a nice maul. The only problem is that as a pure barb, you can't hop into the Legendary Dreadnought destiny. You have to jump into Shiradi Champion, which has very little to offer an angry dwarven barbarian. And not only do you have to jump into that destiny first, you have to completely cap it with 1.9 million XP in order to be able to choose Perfect Two Handed and Perfect Two Weapon fighting at level 26 and 28. If you want to see bigger damage numbers and be able to knock down most of the enemies in the game, go with Fury of the Wild. Fury of the Wild will also boost your Constitution by 4 points with Primal Scream.

Fury of the Wild

Tier 1 Tunnel Vision (1) Primal Scream (3), Fast Healing (3), Constitution (1)

Tier 2 Constitution (1)

Tier 3 Malicious Weapons (3)

Tier 4 Wild Weapons (3), Overwhelming Force (3)

Tier 5 Fury Eternal (1)

Tier 6 Unbridled Fury (1)

Legendary Dreadnought

Tier 1 Extra Action Boost (2), Constitution (2)

Tier 2 Momentum Swing (2), Improved Power Attack (1), Constitution (1)

Tier 3 Lay Waste (1), Constitution (1)

Tier 4 Anvil of Thunder (1)

Tier 5 Advancing Blows (1) Devastating Critical (1)

Tier 6 Master's Blitz Resistance (1), Pulverizer (if using Maul)(1) or Headman's Chop (if using Greataxe)(1)

Twists:
What Twists? This is a first life toon, so no fate points until you've started levelling up your EDs. Once you do, if you move into Legendary Dreadnought you'll want to Twist Primal Scream and Fast Healing, which are only 3 fate points. If you're an overachiever and manage to get 6 fate points, Tunnel Vision is another good twist.

Gear
One of the nice things about this build is that it is not very gear intensive. Most of the named items are end rewards or fairly common drops. To give an example, at level 28 I was still running around in a level 8 Cloak of the Night, a level 9 Skull Fetish Mask, and a level 9 Necklace of Rage. These three items were not swaps, I simply didn't bother with better equipment. That said, there are some considerations when choosing equipment. First, you want to have the biggest constitution item you can find at any given level. Look not only for the main Enhancement bonus to CON, but also for Insightful, Exceptional, Alchemical, Profance etc. Your constitution is directly tied to how much damage you do, so the higher your CON, the higher your damage, HP, and Fort saves. Secondly, you want gear that will boost your healing amplification. Third, you want to have gear that boosts all of your stats to at least 11. If you have any ability scores sitting at a 10, a silver flame pot will make you helpless, and a helpless barbarian is a dead barbarian. Finally, Deadly items and Resistance items will help boost your damage output and saving throws. Some things that I would suggest farming:

Pale Lavender Ioun Stone (level 2)

Mantle of the Worldshaper (level 5)

Jeweled Cloak (level 12-14, or epic level 23-25)

Madstone Boots (level 13)

Fabricators Bracers (level 18)

Guardian's Ring (level 19)

PDK Gauntlets (level 20)

Iron Mitts (level 24)

Orcish Privateer Boots (level 24)

Magestar (level 26)

Epic Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance (level 27)

Weapons
The biggest, baddest GreatAxe or Maul you can find. Carniflex and a Maul of Might or nice low level weapons, Greensteel if you have it available, is good once you start getting to level 11 and can carry you all the way through level 20 (Though if you don't have Greensteel, Carniflex can keep you going well into level 14-15, and you can look at mid level GreatAxes to carry you through once that starts to wane - GreatAxe of the Chained Soldier is a good one). Once into epics, start working towards Thunderforged Items, though there are others you can pick up easier while farming ingredients.

Silver Flame Pots
You are also going to want to work towards 400 Silver Flame Favor. Once you get 400 Silver Flame Favor (usually this will happen sometime around level 14-15). The miracles of modern medicine are like cure serious pots on steroids, they will instantly heal you for 250 HP, but with all the barbarian and item healing amplification each one heals me for 725 HP. They do have some negative side effects - they give a -10 to all ability scores (except Constitution, which during combat is the main one we care about), and a -4 to your Fort saving throws, a -9 to your other saving throws (-4 directly, and -5 from the loss of Dex and Wis) and they will hit you with a 30 second slow (that can be negated through Sprint Boost). Unfortunately, if your other stats are not 11 or higher, drinking a Silver Flame pot will bring that ability score to 0 rendering you helpless. And a helpless barbarian is a dead barbarian. So make sure, before using Silver Flame pots, that you have brought all of your stats to an 11 or higher, whether by Tome or by item.

[Mystickal]

My endgame standing stats are:

STR:27
DEX:21
CON:60
INT:19
WIS:28
CHA:23

But during combat my stats shoot up:

CON
27 Base
5 Tome (Yes, I cheated!)
2 Dwarven Enhancements
2 Ravager Enhancements
4 Ravager Capstone
1 Frenzied Beserker Enhacement
11 Item Enhancement (Epic Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance)
3 Insight Item (Planar Focus of Prowess)
2 Ship
3 Epic Destiny Legendary Dreadnought
---
60 Resting
10 Mighty Rage
3 Hardy Rage
2 Rage Clicky or Pot
5 Primal Scream
4 Madstone
---
84 Self Sustainable
4 Double Madstone
4 Fabricators Bracers (only a 10 second buff, but processes on average about once every 30-40 seconds)
---
92 Constitution

In order to get all of these buffs, you have to hit them in this order: Primal Scream, Rage Clicky, Madstone Boots, Barbarian Rage. Then fight mobs while wearing the Madstone boots until the double Madstone processes. Then switch boots to something else to prevent the double Madstone from continuously processing. When the rage clicky wears off, you can not activate another rage clicky due to your other rages; however, you are able to drink a rage potion to extend the rage time. Or ask your friendly party wizard to cast an extended rage on you.

Discussion:

This build makes heavy use of the Dwarven CON to damage enhancement. When you're rocking a CON between 84-92, that's quite a bonus to damage (37-41 points). As all 3 Barbarian capstones add +4 to constitution, and dwarven enhancements and racial bonuses add another +4, it seemed natural to try to capitalize on the synergy. Putting 18 points into the Dwarf racial tree is quite expensive just to get CON to damage, but you also get +4 to hit, +6 to damage, +2 to Con, and +3 to saves vs spells. Well, and 20 HP, but barbarians aren't exactly HP starved. The hefty constitution also helps with the Ravager Capstone - Visage of Terror. Up to 6 mobs have to make a DC 57-61 will save. Even in end game EE content, not many mobs are able to make the save, and they drop like flies. The 6 extra rages provided in Tier 1 Frenzied Berserker give you 12 rages total, and each rage lasts nearly 3 1/2 minutes, so generally in quests I rage 2-3 times between shrines giving me 9 or 10 Visages per quest. Apart from the instant deaths from Visage, the build does excellent DPS with Frenzy, Pain Touch, and Tunnel Vision. Single target DPS is enhanced with Slaughter and Cruel Cut (both of which also increase melee power), and large mobs are enhanced 4 AOE cleave style attacks.

The biggest weakness of this build is the low will save. At level 28, my will save actually works out to a 44 which isn't too shabby, but during leveling I would constantly be held, commanded, and danced. This weakness can be somewhat mitigated with Freedom of Movement and Protection from Evil. The easiest place to get Protection from Evil is by the Silver Flame Talisman. You'll likely be running the necropolis quests to get Silver Flame favor and Silver Flame pots, so it's just a quick click on each of the three altars. There is a level 9 favored soul hireling, Lani Vesta, who carries Freedom of Movement. As a bonus, she can keep your HP topped off until Blood Strength kicks in at lvl 12. At level 24, Orcish Privateer Boots provide a reliable Freedom of Movement through endgame. Spell absorption items will also provide some protection. I find that in heroics, I only need 1 spell absorption item, but once into EEs, unless you are fortunate enough to pick up the Pale Lavender Ioun Stone, you'll need to carry multiple spell absorption items as the charges get depleted quickly.

Why no heavy armor proficiency? Barbarians get +10 to their PRR while raging and wearing medium armor. The difference between Heavy and Medium armor PRR at lvl 28 is 10 points - with other PRR sources sacrificing a feat to gain 10 PRR didn't seem like a good trade off.

While this build doesn't require any past lifes, it can definitely be enhanced by some. 3 Bard past lives, giving a +6 to saves vs illusion and enchantments, will help shore up the weakest part of the build. 3 Pally past lives will help with healing amplification - a barb can never have enough healing amp! And finally, 3 monk past lives will provide a +3 damage, like having a built in deadly III item. Desirable epic past life feats are standard fare, Fast Healing from the Primal Sphere and Brace from the Divine Sphere will enhance survivability, Enchant Weapon from the Arcane Sphere, and Doublestrike from the Martial Sphere will enhance damage output. PRR Passive bonuses are also of course nice. This build is strong enough that you should be able to run off destiny without too much difficulty for farming other Epic Destinies.

[Mystickal]

Reserved

[adrian69]

Summary

A first life barbarian build that is capable of running EE content. This build is able to run some EE content solo, but some EE content will require a party to help take some of the heat off. No tomes required, no rare, hard to find or grind gear necessary.

Thorix Lvl 20 Barbarian


28 32 34 36 LEVEL
---- ---- ---- ---- -----
Strength 16 16 16 16 4:CON
Dexterity 8 10 10 10 8:STR
Constitution 20 20 20 20 12:CON
Intelligence 10 10 10 10 16:CON
Wisdom 8 8 8 10 20:CON
Charisma 8 8 10 10 24:CON
28:CON

If you manage to get your hands on a +1 STR tome before hitting level 8, then spend that level up point in CON. While Tomes are not required for this build, the build is easier to play if you get all of your stats to an 11 or higher by the time you are level 14-15.

Feats
1: Power Attack
3: Cleave
6: Two Handed Fighting
9: Improved Two Handed Fighting (requires 17 STR)
12: Greater Two Weapon Fighting
15: Improved Critical: Slashing or Bludgeoning (depending on what weapons you've managed to loot)
18: Weapon Focus: Slashing or Bludgeoning (depending on what you took at lvl 15)
21: Overwhelming Critical
24: Weapon Focus: Slashing or Bludgeoning (whichever you didn't take at lvl 15)
26: Epic Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27: Epic Damage Reduction
28: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting

Skills:
Max points in Heal to help maximize the HP you recover from shrines and other healing. Max points in Listen so you can detect enemies that are hiding.. I also like to max Jump, because I like to jump around a lot. If you have spare points, put them in UMD so you can bypass some racial restrictions on gear, Balance, so you can stand up if you get knocked flat, and intimidate so you don't have to chase down enemies quite so much.

Enhancements:
Dwarf (18 points)

Cores 1-4

Tier 1 Dwarven Weapon Training (choose whether you want to use GreatAxes or Mauls)

Tier 2 Dwarven Weapon Training

Tier 3 Dwarven Runes (3), Dwarven Weapon Training

Tier 4 Dwarven Weapon Training, Throw Your Weight Around
Ravager (41 points)

Cores 1-6

Tier 1 Ritual Scarring (2), Do You Like Pain (3), Barbarian Power Attack (3), Hardy Rage (3)

Tier 2 I Like Pain (3), Cruel Cut (1), Action Boost Melee Power (1)

Tier 3 Slaughter (3), Festering Wound (1), Constitution (1)

Tier 4 Laughter (1), Cruel Cut (1), Constitution (1)

Tier 5 Blood Strength (1), Uncanny Balance (1), Critical Rage (2)
Frenzied Berserker (21 points)

Cores 1-3

Tier 1 Extra Rage (3), Die Hard (1)

Tier 2 Blood Tribute (3), Spring Boost (3)

Tier 3 Blood Train (3), Supreme Cleave (3), Constitution (1)

As you level, work your enchancements towards Blood Strength primarily. That will become your primary healing method, so you want to get it as soon as you hit level 12. Don't worry about working towards the the Dwarven enhancement CON to Damage until level 16 or so - at levels 1-16 your strength and constitution will be not be dramatically different, so you won't see as much of a benefit as you will at later levels.

Epic Destinies

Once you hit epic levels, you can choose to fill the Fury of the Wild destiny or work towards Legendary Dreadnought. If you are trying to completely maximize DPS, You'll want to end up in the Legendary Dreadnought destiny using a nice maul. The only problem is that as a pure barb, you can't hop into the Legendary Dreadnought destiny. You have to jump into Shiradi Champion, which has very little to offer an angry dwarven barbarian. And not only do you have to jump into that destiny first, you have to completely cap it with 1.9 million XP in order to be able to choose Perfect Two Handed and Perfect Two Weapon fighting at level 26 and 28. If you want to see bigger damage numbers and be able to knock down most of the enemies in the game, go with Fury of the Wild. Fury of the Wild will also boost your Constitution by 4 points with Primal Scream.

Fury of the Wild

Tier 1 Tunnel Vision (1) Primal Scream (3), Fast Healing (3), Constitution (1)

Tier 2 Constitution (1)

Tier 3 Malicious Weapons (3)

Tier 4 Wild Weapons (3), Overwhelming Force (3)

Tier 5 Fury Eternal (1)

Tier 6 Unbridled Fury (1)

Legendary Dreadnought

Tier 1 Extra Action Boost (2), Constitution (2)

Tier 2 Momentum Swing (2), Improved Power Attack (1), Constitution (1)

Tier 3 Lay Waste (1), Constitution (1)

Tier 4 Anvil of Thunder (1)

Tier 5 Advancing Blows (1) Devastating Critical (1)

Tier 6 Master's Blitz Resistance (1), Pulverizer (if using Maul)(1) or Headman's Chop (if using Greataxe)(1)

Twists:
What Twists? This is a first life toon, so no fate points until you've started levelling up your EDs. Once you do, if you move into Legendary Dreadnought you'll want to Twist Primal Scream and Fast Healing, which are only 3 fate points. If you're an overachiever and manage to get 6 fate points, Tunnel Vision is another good twist.

Gear
One of the nice things about this build is that it is not very gear intensive. Most of the named items are end rewards or fairly common drops. To give an example, at level 28 I was still running around in a level 8 Cloak of the Night, a level 9 Skull Fetish Mask, and a level 9 Necklace of Rage. These three items were not swaps, I simply didn't bother with better equipment. That said, there are some considerations when choosing equipment. First, you want to have the biggest constitution item you can find at any given level. Look not only for the main Enhancement bonus to CON, but also for Insightful, Exceptional, Alchemical, Profance etc. Your constitution is directly tied to how much damage you do, so the higher your CON, the higher your damage, HP, and Fort saves. Secondly, you want gear that will boost your healing amplification. Third, you want to have gear that boosts all of your stats to at least 11. If you have any ability scores sitting at a 10, a silver flame pot will make you helpless, and a helpless barbarian is a dead barbarian. Finally, Deadly items and Resistance items will help boost your damage output and saving throws. Some things that I would suggest farming:

Pale Lavender Ioun Stone (level 2)

Mantle of the Worldshaper (level 5)

Jeweled Cloak (level 12-14, or epic level 23-25)

Madstone Boots (level 13)

Fabricators Bracers (level 18)

Guardian's Ring (level 19)

PDK Gauntlets (level 20)

Iron Mitts (level 24)

Orcish Privateer Boots (level 24)

Magestar (level 26)

Epic Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance (level 27)

Weapons
The biggest, baddest GreatAxe or Maul you can find. Carniflex and a Maul of Might or nice low level weapons, Greensteel if you have it available, is good once you start getting to level 11 and can carry you all the way through level 20 (Though if you don't have Greensteel, Carniflex can keep you going well into level 14-15, and you can look at mid level GreatAxes to carry you through once that starts to wane - GreatAxe of the Chained Soldier is a good one). Once into epics, start working towards Thunderforged Items, though there are others you can pick up easier while farming ingredients.

Silver Flame Pots
You are also going to want to work towards 400 Silver Flame Favor. Once you get 400 Silver Flame Favor (usually this will happen sometime around level 14-15). The miracles of modern medicine are like cure serious pots on steroids, they will instantly heal you for 250 HP, but with all the barbarian and item healing amplification each one heals me for 725 HP. They do have some negative side effects - they give a -10 to all ability scores (except Constitution, which during combat is the main one we care about), and a -4 to your Fort saving throws, a -9 to your other saving throws (-4 directly, and -5 from the loss of Dex and Wis) and they will hit you with a 30 second slow (that can be negated through Sprint Boost). Unfortunately, if your other stats are not 11 or higher, drinking a Silver Flame pot will bring that ability score to 0 rendering you helpless. And a helpless barbarian is a dead barbarian. So make sure, before using Silver Flame pots, that you have brought all of your stats to an 11 or higher, whether by Tome or by item.

Interesting concept 1st life build.


If you're using using uncanny balance in FB, I wouldn't worry to much about balance skills outside a few points to offset armor penalties if you have them. You're not going to be knocked down that much, and it's unavoidable in EE with about no matter how good your balance score is unless you're a dex flavored build. Those two points could be used else where by picking up spiked boots or if you're constantly running with someone who casts FoM.

Also concerning skill points, you can do market place jump pots, and so newer players know, that jump is the one skill, don't know if swim does as is it's never been important, but Jump caps at 40 points. 15-25 is pretty optimal for normal questing and leaping over trash mobs and this can be achieved usually without spending a single point in the skill.

I thought Primal Scream negated all other rage abilities except Barbarian rage, so I've got to log on to my barbarian now and check that out.

You could also suggest that if they can obtain a +2 strength tome by level 6-7 (8) they can start with 15 strength.

Iron Mitts are superior to PDK gloves, but the content is rough and the drop rate isn't that high.

Interesting build overall.

[Singular]

Good build!

I just TR'd into a twf version of this. I'm going to take the 4th core of Frenzied Berserker b/c that gives you Death Frenzy. If you add up all the extra crits, you get a possible, situational, +7:

+3 axe
+1 Death Frenzy
+1 OC
+1 LD: DC
+1 LD: HC

[Naeleros]

This is the build I'm using to farm martial epic past lives. It's formidable from 20 and beyond...so, a very good build for running the ED loop.

[Vincentthegerman001]

Hey, I had a 32 point build, and decided to put the leftover 4 points I had into int, for search, and additional skill points. That's not a bad thing, is it?

[vraelliott]

...
Fury of the Wild

Tier 1 Tunnel Vision (1) Primal Scream (3), Fast Healing (3), Constitution (1)

Tier 2 Constitution (1)

Tier 3 Malicious Weapons (3)

Tier 4 Wild Weapons (3), Overwhelming Force (3)

Tier 5 Fury Eternal (1)

Tier 6 Unbridled Fury (1)
...

Why no Sense Weakness? Is Malicious/Wild Weapons really better than Acute Instincts and Sense Weakness?

[FestusHood]

Why no Sense Weakness? Is Malicious/Wild Weapons really better than Acute Instincts and Sense Weakness?

Depends how often stuff you are fighting is helpless. A con build like this isn't using stunning blow, so it might not be that often.

[Vincentthegerman001]

December 2015

Is this still viable now?

[JershaRocks]

December 2015

Is this still viable now?

Yes, I'm running it right now. Can run epic content above my level no problem. It's a fun build. :)

[Mystickal]

Why no Sense Weakness? Is Malicious/Wild Weapons really better than Acute Instincts and Sense Weakness?

Sense Weakness is nice, I typically carry it on all my melee toons - it's especially useful in conjunction with Overwhelming Force. The problem is that you also have to take 3 ranks of Acute Instincts, which only really gives you +2 to wisdom (so a +1 to your Will save) - the bonus to skills and saves vs traps (which can largely be avoided in game anyway) IMHO aren't so useful - so you're using 25% of your destiny points in order to get Sense Weakness. If you have fate points and can twist in other abilities, then Sense Weakness may be a better choice, but since this was my first life, I felt it was more important to have the additional damage from Malicious/Wild Weapons. Alternatively, if you're running in L.D. twisting Sense Weakness is highly recommended.

[Mystickal]

Hey, I had a 32 point build, and decided to put the leftover 4 points I had into int, for search, and additional skill points. That's not a bad thing, is it?

No, that's not a bad thing - I typically bump my INT up higher than most do in order to grab more skill points. Though my recommendation would be to put those extra points with the goal of getting all of your stats to a minimum of 11 (in support of the use of Silver Flame pots), so depending on tomes and gear you'd bolster different stats.

[Mystickal]

Good build!

I just TR'd into a twf version of this. I'm going to take the 4th core of Frenzied Berserker b/c that gives you Death Frenzy. If you add up all the extra crits, you get a possible, situational, +7:

+3 axe
+1 Death Frenzy
+1 OC
+1 LD: DC
+1 LD: HC

Death Frenzy is definitely nice; unfortunately it requires pulling 10 action points from somewhere. Since you need 41 points to get the Ravager capstone, and 18 points to get the Con to damage, I didn't see any way to fit that in without dramatically altering the build.

[Mystickal]

If you're using using uncanny balance in FB, I wouldn't worry to much about balance skills outside a few points to offset armor penalties if you have them. You're not going to be knocked down that much, and it's unavoidable in EE with about no matter how good your balance score is unless you're a dex flavored build. Those two points could be used else where by picking up spiked boots or if you're constantly running with someone who casts FoM.

The balance isn't there to prevent those occasional knockdowns, it's there to help you stand up faster once you do get knocked down. With Blood Strength, if you're not fighting, you're not healing, and so the quicker you get up and start swinging again the better off you'll be. You are correct, with Uncanny Balance you are immune to most knockdown effects, but there are still some times that you can get laid out.


Also concerning skill points, you can do market place jump pots, and so newer players know, that jump is the one skill, don't know if swim does as is it's never been important, but Jump caps at 40 points. 15-25 is pretty optimal for normal questing and leaping over trash mobs and this can be achieved usually without spending a single point in the skill.

These days, I try to get around 10 points in jump, so that jump will be maxed out at some point in epic levels. Since this build isn't STR based though, the jump tends to be lower than a comparable melee toon. I like having jump topped out at 40 in order to assist platforming, getting to those hard to reach areas, and just general utility. You can certainly use pots or clickys to boost the jump skill - personally, I tend to be cheap and not want to carry around 20 different pots for different circumstances, so I find it easier just to make sure my jump is always high enough.


I thought Primal Scream negated all other rage abilities except Barbarian rage, so I've got to log on to my barbarian now and check that out.

Rages are definitely coded in an odd way. In order to make maximum use, you have to hit them in this order: Primal Scream, Rage Clicky, Madstone Boots, Barbarian Rage


You could also suggest that if they can obtain a +2 strength tome by level 6-7 (8) they can start with 15 strength.

Definitely, if you can get a +2 STR tome then STR can be lowered to 15. The key thing is that STR must be at 17 by the time you hit level 9 in order to take Improved Two Handed Fighting. I'd put the additional points into the other stats to try to raise them above an 11 minimum to support the Silver Flame pots.


Iron Mitts are superior to PDK gloves, but the content is rough and the drop rate isn't that high.

The PDK gloves are definitely viable, but on a first life build it can take a while to farm 5 PDK commendations. The Iron Mitts drop both in epic Prove Your Worth (which would be a rough quest for this build without a good rogue) as well as in rare encounters in the Three Barrel Cove (epic) wilderness area. There are only 4 named items that drop in the wilderness area, one of the other ones is the Orcish Privateer's Boots, so you can farm the wilderness area for both items.


Interesting build overall.

Thanks!

[sty0pa]

Feats
1: Power Attack
3: Cleave
6: Two Handed Fighting
9: Improved Two Handed Fighting (requires 17 STR)
12: Greater Two Weapon Fighting
15: Improved Critical: Slashing or Bludgeoning (depending on what weapons you've managed to loot)
18: Weapon Focus: Slashing or Bludgeoning (depending on what you took at lvl 15)
21: Overwhelming Critical
24: Weapon Focus: Slashing or Bludgeoning (whichever you didn't take at lvl 15)
26: Epic Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27: Epic Damage Reduction
28: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting


In each of those places (12, 28) don't you mean Two HANDED fighting, not Two WEAPON fighting?

[adrian69]

In each of those places (12, 28) don't you mean Two HANDED fighting, not Two WEAPON fighting?

Feat 12 is a reverse feat progression mistake, and is definitely an error. Perfect Two Weapon Fighting gives main hand weapon 5% Double Strike no matter what fighting style a player is using. Consensus is that 5% DS is far better than 10% Glancing Blow Damage/Proc from Perfect Two Handed Fighting.

[adrian69]

Rages are definitely coded in an odd way. In order to make maximum use, you have to hit them in this order: Primal Scream, Rage Clicky, Madstone Boots, Barbarian Rage



!

Still never been able to get Primal and Rage Pots to stack as they're both morale bonuses, though many claim they do. However, key word there may be clicky. Are you meaning gear clickies? Oh, I can't think of named gear with Rage off the top of my head, but is that the work around in the coding?

[Mystickal]

In each of those places (12, 28) don't you mean Two HANDED fighting, not Two WEAPON fighting?

Wow, 2 1/2 years old and you're the first one to point out the typo.

At level 12, yes, it should be Greater Two HANDED Fighting, not Greater Two Weapon Fighting.

However, at level 28, it correct and should be Perfect Two WEAPON Fighting - this raises your doublestrike by 5%, even with a two handed weapon. Perfect Two Handed Fighting increases the damage of glancing blows by 10%, and the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by 10%. So, with Perfect Two Handed Fighting, you're glancing blow damage is 60% (50% without) and the chance to produce a weapon effect is 19% (9% without). Since glancing blow damage can be minimized to 0 after DR, and has no chance to crit or doublestrike, I found better DPS with Perfect Two Weapon Fighting and the additional 5% chance to doublestrike. This may be different now, in the 2 1/2 years since the original post there have been many changes to game mechanics and I am unable to test as Thorix is currently running through racial past lives.

[Mystickal]

Still never been able to get Primal and Rage Pots to stack as they're both morale bonuses, though many claim they do. However, key word there may be clicky. Are you meaning gear clickies? Oh, I can't think of named gear with Rage off the top of my head, but is that the work around in the coding?

It's been a little while, but IIRC it didn't matter if the rage came from a clicky or from a pot - either way would work. I found a screenshot that I took of the build, so you can see the 92 CON that I broke down in the original post:

https://image.frl/i/62w65en29ruwckl6.JPG

Now I'm gonna have to redo a Barbarian Life so I can see how high my CON can get - this was back with an 11 item, 3 insight, and no exceptional, quality, profane, or racial past life bonuses. Should be able to get way up there now!

[Mystickal]

Oh - and rage clickies:

ML1 - Ring of Rage (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Ring_of_Rage) 1:30, 1 charge
ML2 - Brawn's Spirits (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Brawn%27s_Spirits) 1:30, 3 charges
ML3 - Barbarian's Spirit (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Barbarian%27s_Spirit) 1:30, 1 charge
ML6 - Armor of the Amok (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Armor_of_the_Amok) 1:30, 3 charges
ML7 - Bloodrage Symbiont (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Bloodrage_Symbiont) 1:30, 3 charges
ML8 - Blood Machete (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Blood_Machete) 1:30, 1 charge
ML20 - Epic Brawn's Spirits (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Brawn%27s_Spirits) 2:30, 5 charges

I would usually hit the clicky when first ramping up the rage because it lasts longer, but once you have barbarian rage active you can no longer activate clickies and can only sustain with rage pots (30 second intervals) or the rage spell from a wizard.

[sty0pa]

Wow, 2 1/2 years old and you're the first one to point out the typo.

At level 12, yes, it should be Greater Two HANDED Fighting, not Greater Two Weapon Fighting.

However, at level 28, it correct and should be Perfect Two WEAPON Fighting - this raises your doublestrike by 5%, even with a two handed weapon. Perfect Two Handed Fighting increases the damage of glancing blows by 10%, and the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by 10%. So, with Perfect Two Handed Fighting, you're glancing blow damage is 60% (50% without) and the chance to produce a weapon effect is 19% (9% without). Since glancing blow damage can be minimized to 0 after DR, and has no chance to crit or doublestrike, I found better DPS with Perfect Two Weapon Fighting and the additional 5% chance to doublestrike. This may be different now, in the 2 1/2 years since the original post there have been many changes to game mechanics and I am unable to test as Thorix is currently running through racial past lives.

Ha ha, well, shows your advice is still relevant and helpful - thanks for the build in the first place.

[Skheld]

Would this build work for a half orc? Ive been gone a while and all the changes are a bit confusing. Would I dip into the half orc racial tree and grab the weapon proficiency tree? OR since this is built around a dwarf should I ignore the half orc tree completely?

[unbongwah]

Would this build work for a half orc?
The whole point of this build is to take advantage of the dwarven enhancement Throw Your Weight Around (TYWA): "You may use your Constitution modifier to determine the damage you deal with" racial weapons - in this case either greataxes or mauls, depending on which weapon type you choose. Without TYWA, there's not really any point in making a CON-based barbarian, in which case you might as well stick with a conventional STR-based build like Zoda (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/453857-Zoda-Pure-Zergbarian), which is easily adapted to whatever race you want.

[Skheld]

The whole point of this build is to take advantage of the dwarven enhancement Throw Your Weight Around (TYWA): "You may use your Constitution modifier to determine the damage you deal with" racial weapons - in this case either greataxes or mauls, depending on which weapon type you choose. Without TYWA, there's not really any point in making a CON-based barbarian, in which case you might as well stick with a conventional STR-based build like Zoda (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/453857-Zoda-Pure-Zergbarian), which is easily adapted to whatever race you want.

Thanks a ton with a speedy reply. I do appreciate it. I'll attempt Zoda's build as well as maybe attempt to adapt the build to half orc. If not I'll reincarnate into a bard and hang out at the local pub.

[URjustSOL]

Summary

A first life barbarian build that is capable of running EE content. This build is able to run some EE content solo, but some EE content will require a party to help take some of the heat off. No tomes required, no rare, hard to find or grind gear necessary.

Thorix Lvl 20 Barbarian


28 32 34 36 LEVEL
---- ---- ---- ---- -----
Strength 16 16 16 16 4:CON
Dexterity 8 10 10 10 8:STR
Constitution 20 20 20 20 12:CON
Intelligence 10 10 10 10 16:CON
Wisdom 8 8 8 10 20:CON
Charisma 8 8 10 10 24:CON
28:CON




Anyone using this in 2020? I'm thinking of TR'ing into this from my 12-8 fighter/cleric.

[Mystickal]

Anyone using this in 2020? I'm thinking of TR'ing into this from my 12-8 fighter/cleric.

Depends on what you're trying to run. The barb trees have changed very little since this build was posted, and so playing this build on HE and EE content should still provide a good experience.

However, with moving the level cap to 30, the introduction of Reaper difficulty, racial reincarnation, and the epic destiny update, the build will not handle the higher levels of play that it once did. I'm still rolling Thorix as a lvl 30 Barbarian, but he is in a much different state than he was here.

[URjustSOL]

Depends on what you're trying to run. The barb trees have changed very little since this build was posted, and so playing this build on HE and EE content should still provide a good experience.

However, with moving the level cap to 30, the introduction of Reaper difficulty, racial reincarnation, and the epic destiny update, the build will not handle the higher levels of play that it once did. I'm still rolling Thorix as a lvl 30 Barbarian, but he is in a much different state than he was here.

thanks for the reply. I'm only going to play this lvl 1-20 then TR again. Since I only play solo, it's almost impossible to get far beyond 20.

any issues getting this character leveled to 20?

[unbongwah]

Update 45 is about to make this build a bit more interesting. :)


Major revamp to THF (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/511788-U45-Preview-2-Balance-Two-Handed-Fighting-Changes): glancing blows replaced by Strikethrough and GTHF adds 3x ability mod to damage rather than 1.5x for 2H weapons.
Dwarf HP bonus becomes +5% quality. If you switch to Occult Slayer as your primary tree, Bond of Destruction gains +10% Quality HPs.

@OP: Anything you plan to do differently after U45 goes live?

[Dulcimerist]

Update 45 is about to make this build a bit more interesting. :)


Major revamp to THF (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/511788-U45-Preview-2-Balance-Two-Handed-Fighting-Changes): glancing blows replaced by Strikethrough and GTHF adds 3x ability mod to damage rather than 1.5x for 2H weapons.
Dwarf HP bonus becomes +5% quality. If you switch to Occult Slayer as your primary tree, Bond of Destruction gains +10% Quality HPs.

@OP: Anything you plan to do differently after U45 goes live?

I'm interested to know a good update to this build as well, as I'm interested in trying it in the HC league server.

[unbongwah]

I'm interested to know a good update to this build as well, as I'm interested in trying it in the HC league server.
Strimtom has a build in his HC thread, although he doesn't go for TYWA.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/523140-Strimtom-s-Hardcore-Ready-Character-builds-Season-4

But part of the beauty of this build is its simplicity: max CON and enough STR to take the THF feats are the only stat pre-reqs, so it works fine on 28-point lives or 36-point ones.

[Dulcimerist]

Strimtom has a build in his HC thread, although he doesn't go for TYWA.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/523140-Strimtom-s-Hardcore-Ready-Character-builds-Season-4

But part of the beauty of this build is its simplicity: max CON and enough STR to take the THF feats are the only stat pre-reqs, so it works fine on 28-point lives or 36-point ones.

Thanks! I went with the Strimtom build, but I had found the Season 3 thread - that barbarian is different, so now I'm wondering if I messed up.
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/516052-Strimtom-s-Hardcore-Ready-Character-builds-Season-3

Wishing he had written which order to take the enhancements. I picked up the Blood Tribute right away.

[kiryamo75]

¿What about an 1 Fighter level splash?

+1 Feat and Heavy armor Proficiency

[unbongwah]

¿What about an 1 Fighter level splash?

+1 Feat and Heavy armor Proficiency
Not worth giving up the Ravager capstone. Especially for a CON-based barb like this.


Visage of Terror: Terrorize up to six enemies, killing them with fear if they fail a Will save vs 10 + Constitution modifier + half barbarian level. Enemies who make their saving throw are paralyzed with Fear for six seconds instead. Doesn't affect bosses. (Cost 1 Rage. Cooldown: 30 seconds)

Passive:

+4 Constitution

+150 hitpoints

+40 healing amplification

Same story if you switch to Occult Slayer tree:

Mind Over Magic: You have Spell Resistance equal to your Constitution score.

+4 Constitution

+150 Hit Points

+10 Magical Resistance

+40 Healing Amplification

[jskinner937]

That’s basically what I went to 5k favor with on hardcore.

Although very handy while leveling heroics, I would swap cleave at cap.

[Mystickal]

That’s basically what I went to 5k favor with on hardcore.

Although very handy while leveling heroics, I would swap cleave at cap.

I don't take cleaves at all while levelling anymore. They slow down the attack chain too much and strikethrough does a much better job. I would relegate cleaves to non-2HF who need a way to hit large groups at once.

[Dulcimerist]

I don't take cleaves at all while levelling anymore. They slow down the attack chain too much and strikethrough does a much better job. I would relegate cleaves to non-2HF who need a way to hit large groups at once.

Yeah, the revamp to the Two Handed Fighting feats and strikethrough make the THF feats much more appealing to take as soon as possible on THF builds.

[Binn05]

Yeah, the revamp to the Two Handed Fighting feats and strikethrough make the THF feats much more appealing to take as soon as possible on THF builds.

Can anyone give me pointers on how to optimize this build for u57 content?
I'm an old player coming back to the game after around five years without playing the game, and I'm searching for easy builds to TR my char.