Dragon Marks Considered Harmful?

[Taerdra]

Sure the THF feat chain is nice, but it's not absolutely necessary to be good at DPS...

To use an old addage, there are men barbarians and boy barbarians... The THF chain is the easiest way to separate them if both have PA and IC. Proper enhancement choices are the other.

[Sojourner]

Thanks for the info - I'd been wondering if Half-Orcs get marks. Not being an Eberron PnP gamer...

Yeah. The dev's have said that Half-Orcs will be geared towards barbarians and rangers. But I've got no idea how they're going to implement their marks. Bonus to search of course (given pnp version) but thats not terribly useful for either.

I'm betting one of their spell-like abilities will be "Wild Instincts" for a bonus to Listen and Spot. But after that who knows.

To use an old addage, there are men barbarians and boy barbarians... The THF chain is the easiest way to separate them if both have PA and IC. Proper enhancement choices are the other.

And the THF chain is for the boys?

It's a nice chain. But, like has been said above, it isn't a critical set of feats. It adds some DPS, but so do other feats. How much it adds compared to others is pretty setting specific so hard to say.

I would never recommend against anyone taking it. But, I wouldn't call anyone gimp just for their lack of it. (I might based on what they replace it with, but not just for the lack).

[teddok]

No, it would be the same as having the Black Scale Armor in terms of usefulness. If you really need healing, you can always dismiss your rage, then heal. But it's an ability, so they should allow us to use it.

I would have to agree with you on that one.

[Taerdra]

And the THF chain is for the boys?

It's a nice chain. But, like has been said above, it isn't a critical set of feats. It adds some DPS, but so do other feats. How much it adds compared to others is pretty setting specific so hard to say.

I would never recommend against anyone taking it. But, I wouldn't call anyone gimp just for their lack of it. (I might based on what they replace it with, but not just for the lack).

I'm glad you picked up on the joke... but like all jokes there is some truth in it.

If the debate is what feat chains adds the most damage to a barb after you take PA and IC, the THF is better than the rest of the options. Maybe I misread the question

Yes, you can go Stunning Blow... but so what they're dead in 1-3 swings anyway.

Yes, you can Cleave and Great Cleave... but the cooldown timers are somewhat painful and Glancing Blows are constant. I think you would find that Glancing Blows w/ G2HF will contribute more damage.

The rest are things you take after you have your DPS maxed out.

So, yes... 2HF separates the "men" barbs from the "boys" barbs based on the assumptions stated. I never said a "boy" barb = "gimp"... it's still a barb... It just doesn't produce the "wow"s ("... that the fastest I've seen the dragon go down", "... I've never had a fellow barb 4x my kill count before", etc.) that a truly maxed DPS, well-played barb can.

[lobode]

cleave/ great cleave are great for using special effect weapons on multiple mobs, like cursespewing/destruction/paralyzing. THF puts out constant damage on multiple mobs. So it really depends on what your going for as for Dragonmarks on barbs, i would stay away from it, as I believe there is much better Feats out there.
but to each their own, this game doesn't have to be played with a min/maxed toon as the player behind the toon is a big part of how well you do. I will probably never get a dragonmark on any of my characters but i have played with many who where the mark and have not seen any reason to doubt their abilities.