Max DPS TWF Build

[Shade]

Quick note for new players: TWF is the most difficult combat style to master, as well as get equiped for. As it requires twice as many weapons as THF and currently has less easy to aquire named weapons vs two handers as well. Also the actual fighting style itself can be a bit more difficult to master as you need to be much closer to your target to actually hit it, and attacking while moving effectively is more difficult to THF. So if your new to the game I do recommend you start out as a THF Barbarian, build up a good inventory of dwarven axes and perhaps get to 1750 favor to later create your TWF version.

So here it is: THE Frenzied Berserker Dwarf TWF DPS build.

This build works the same as my THF build only a few small changes to make it work for TWF. Still deserves a post as allot of people do miss a few key stats they need to make it work, so here it is.

TWF gets some nice benefits over THF like double stun, trip chances, and even triple now with the mod9.1 update. As well as more attacks per minuit resulting in good success with stat damaging weapons and vorpals. Overall DPS is a bit lower then THF at the maximum strength levels, but still extremely high.

Dwarf (+2 con, more hp, more rage, axe enhancements, awesome race)
Barbarian Level 16

Alignment: True Neutral or Chaotic Neutral. Minor advantages to each, with chaotic neutral being slightly better for weapon selection (can use weapons of true chaos), or true neutral for the option to use stability items. Either way be sure to go neutral as this will make you immune to unholy damage some monsters deal, and also let you use some of the most powerful endgame equipment without getting a negative level a good aligned character would get. Such as the littany of the dead which provides a nice boost to all stats, attack and damage or the Marilith chain which is one of the only armors in the game that can up your DPS - by granting you a seeker bonus. The downside to neutral is that you won't be able to use weapon of pure good, which are common at lower lvls.. However this build deals enough damage that an extra d6 means very little, and by endgame pure good weapons are not at all useful, so I highly recommend Neutral.

Stats:
(32 point build recommended, but playable with only 28 points)
Str 18 +5 level ups, 23, +6 item, 29, +1 tome, 30. +12 rage, 42, +6 double Frenzy = 48 - Max potential for mod 9 is over 70 strength - very temporary but quite possible.
Dex 15 - +5 item for 22, get the 1750 favor +2 dex tome to qualify for iTWF
Con 16 - +2 enhance, +6 item, 24 base, +11 rage, +2 rage potion = 37) (endgame: +3 tome + dual madstone = 48, +2 yugoloth = 50)
Int 8 (Doesn't matter)
Wis 10 (Will Save is important will be more so in the future)
Cha 6 (Not that important, tho 6 cha does mean you get helpless to cha damage from time to time)

28 Point Stats (not recommended but placed here to be more complete):
Str 17 - lose 1 here
Dex 15
Con 16
Int 8
Wis 9 - lose 1 here
Cha 6

Optimal End Game Hit points since this is important now (also exactly what I have now on my actual character):
240 - Pure Barb lvl20
20 - Heroic Durability
10 - Draconic Vitality (Gianthold Favor)
20 - Mions Legens (Toughness/Heavy Fort Hat)
30 - Greater False Life (Belt)
45 - Greensteel Item
20 - Yugoloth Potion Secret Effect
320 - 42 Con (+3 Tome - includes 140 points from rage + rage potion + yugoloth pot as this is a perma rage build)
= 705 Normal
----- (If Toughness Feat Selected)
23 - Toughness Feat
40 - 4 Toughness Enhancements
= 768 Feated
----- (Situational Buffs)
40 - Madstone Single Con +4 (46)
40 - Madstone Double Con +4 (50)
-----
= 848 Situational
----- (Ultimate maximum gear)
20 - +4 tome and +1 exception con, for 52 con
20 - +2 exceptional con put on a Tower of Despair Ring
----
= 888 Ultra Maximum Geared and Buffed

Keep in the mind the only tome required to make the build work well is the +2 dex tome you can get at 1750 favor or maybe before. The rest should be doable given some shroud raiding. I personally got +2 con and +2 dex for this guy in roughly 50 shroud 1-4 runs (less then 20 full completions).

Feats:
1 - Two Weapon Fighting
3 - Power Attack
6 - Cleave
9 - Improved critical: Slashing
12 - Improved Two Weapon Fighting
15 - Greater Two Weapon Fighting
18 - Toughness or Stunning Blow - Depends on your focus. Toughness is not needed for 95% of content.. But for the endgame raids, you will want it if you are gona be the main tank. Stunning Blow is an awesome feat for clearing trash if your a good twitch skilled player, it will really speed up many quests. Altho in the new shavarath areas, saves are often too high so it's a tough call. Personal preference really, either wll work.

Note Improved and Greater two weapon fighting actually requires 17 base dex, however tomes count towards this. So 15 base +2 tome will work, and you can get one as your 1750 favor tome, or before even as they come unbound too. As you may not get one by level12 - feel free to substitute something else in the mean time and respec later to fix it. You could instead take either lvl18 feat or both at lvl12 and 15, then at lvl18 respec before you lvl up to fix it, as you should really have the 1750 favor by lvl18 or at least enough coin to purchase one.

Enhancements:
Enhancements: Type - Name Rank - (Cost)
First off Prereqs for Berserker:
[barbarian] - Damage Boost IV (10)
[barbarian] - Power Rage IV (10)
[barbarian] - Power Attack III (6)
[barbarian] - Frenzy Berserker I (4)
[barbarian] - Frenzy Berserker II (2)
[barbarian] - Frenzy Berserker III (2)
Now onto others:
[barbarian] - Sprint Boost I (2) (Get it early on, it rocks)
[barbarian] - Hardy Rage II (3) (Rank 3 generally not worth it)
[barbarian] - Extra Rage I (2) (Not sure this build can afford rank 2/3)
[barbarian] - Extend Rage IV (10)
[barbarian] - Improved Damage Reduction II (6)
[barbarian] - Constitution I (2)
[barbarian] - Might Capstone (2)
[dwarf] - Dwarven Spell Defense III (6)
[dwarf] - Dwarven Axe Damage II (6)
[dwarf] - Constituion I (2)
73 points spent if I added that right
--- Below depends on lvl18 feat:
Toughness:
[barbarian] - Toughness II (3)
[dwarf] - Toughness II (3)
If Stunning Blow selected:
[dwarf] - Tactics II (6)

1 point left for misc (Swap around you con/str enhancements depending on what + you have on your tome so as to even out the scores, and pick up higher ranks of extra rage or sprint boost with the points left over)

I will update the enhancements with a level by level guide and more details when I get more time.
Main thing is - get the rage enhancements early. Leave the power attack ones for later - as you need your to-hit bonuses at low lvl.. In general, only have 1-2 ranks of power attack by lvl10, 3 by lvl16, and don't get 4-6 until your lvl20 with some good raidgear to keep your to-hit bonuses up.

Tho you would want to modify this order somewhat depending on what equipment you acquire, for example if you had a str tome - modify power rage to keep your end str even, same for con/hearty rage, and if you get really high con like +6 item and +2 tome - you can then drop some extend rage and still end up perma raged and have a few more points for other things like more action boost.

Important Equipment to acquire by level12:
Dual +5 Dwarven Axes - This should be your main weapon set until you can get some nicer named items or greater banes, Do not mind the -4 to hit you will suffer using these - this build gains more then enough to hit anything in the game even with the penalty just fine, even with power attack on.
Bursting Dwarven axes (these rule at mid lvl especially if you use them on monsters with vulnerabilitis to those elements, you'll want to find at least +3 versions as to-hit bonus does matter at these levels)
Mithral Full plate (+3 is as good as +5 Full plate - just check your local auction house you should be able to get some early on - AC does have a impact at lower lvls)
Reavers Ring (fear immunity, very important)
Proof against poison item (I use a necklace or ring on this guy - cleric spell works as well)
Disease Immunity Item (belt of greater falise life on my guy, but a regular disease imunity will do until you can get one)
Fragment of the silver flame (dominate immunity)
Blindness Ward item (I use goggles, but any old set will do, ones with +spot are really nice tho)
Heavy Fortification Item (Either do black anvil mines, get your necklace or do the ochard, collect tapestries and get the minos legens helm - helm recommended)
Set of potions always: 100 haste, 100 rage, 100 lesser restore, 100 remove curse, couple remove fear, couple protection vs energy. Have these in a quick to access hotkey as you'll want to restore your rage and power it back up with a rage pot after each cycle.
Rage, shield, Divine favor,Divine power, haste clickes (these really increase your power during short boss battles, but cant be maintained to a long rage length - so there not a high priority)
Any other improved/greater resist cloaks/rings you can get. Otherwise ask the cleric, you need those buffs to do well.

Optimal equipment to attain by level 20 (none of this is needed for the build to work well, just some goals) :
Greater Bane Dwarven Axes - these are the best DPS for the end game and very optainable via auction house current, perhaps the most plentiful weapon on there.
+6 stat items, should have at least Str and Con, ideally wis too.
Raid loots to go for:
Titan Belt, Beareavement and Madstone Boots and a Greensteel accessory for +10-45 hitpoints. So try to do Shroud, Reaver and Titan often.
Ring of unknown origins - This is disease and poison immunity in 1 slot, nice item to free up spots.
Firestorm Greaves - Highly recommended if you want to be a strong tank in the shroud elite (lvl19 raid)
Shroud Weapons - Mineral Green Steel Dwarven Axes, Triple Holy/Ice/Fire Dwarven axes. These are extremely powerful weapons that will take you ages to aquire, but are well worth it once you can afford them. In the mean time until you get them, just go for Tier2's or Greater Banes.

You can of course swap Dwarven Axes for Heavy picks if you happen to have allot more and better picks (and subsequently IC: Slash for Pierce). But overall dwarven axes will be best for this build.

If your looking for a more detailed guide to gear, check out my definitive guide - gearing up section here:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...75#post3533475

Skills:
Balance
Spot
Jump (Get this to about ~15-17 ranks and stop, that should put you at 40 while raged, which is the cap)
1 Rank of Tumble (sacrifce balance at hte early levels you won't need much)

Spot:
Crossclass skill, but very much worth it. Like the class video says, barbarians make good scouts.. And really, played correctly they do indeed, they are often best for running into stealthed enemies and traps if you don't have a rogue, and sometimes even if you do have a not so tough rough. So seeing the stealthed enemies is a huge asset. This works quite well if you get the FF/+spot item from like Co6. Youll also noticed the odd trap or secret door, even in high level quest. Even finding most of the trap boxes for the rogues lately as I got my spot up to 25 (well at mid levels).

Jump:
As a frontline combatant, your primary job is to run really fast and jump over the enemies frontline combatants.. To kill there clerics and wizards in the back ranks. So many barbarians don't realise how huge this is. Trust me, its HUGE.

Tumble:
Lets you move faster when under the effects of a bad spell like slow or that nasty white dragons ice freeze effect.

Balance:
Important for monsters that trip often. For the most part this DC is only 15 and easy to make, but it does scale slightly higher for bosses like the demon queen - hers is about DC20. Also important if you want to be good at PvP - other players trip DCs can be very high.

No intimidate? :
Your a low AC death dealer, you do not want agro, you want the enemy dead before he makes you dead.

Thoughts on the build now that I've played it a fair bit:
Barbarians are very powerful now, and in module6 with stunning blow we are just that much better. I have played this build allot now, fully capped for a long time and done every raid in the game on elite several times. He works extremely well as THE main melee tank/dps dealer in any group/raid. Dwarven axes are the most versatile 1handed weapon due to there top end base dmg and x3 crit multi - even the harder targets with heavy fort, red/purple named status will die quickly as you have the great base damage to rely on no other weapon can match. As well as having all the important mods like vorpal and wounding possible on dwarven axes for those special targets where it works well - not much considering this builds dps but a couple quests like running with the devils and shroud demand those weapons. Some might think a human build with khopesh might be better - but in my experience I find the difference is small enough that it just comes down to a matter of skill and survivability by far, besides that humans often do not have the hit points or saves it takes to handle the most difficult elite raids like shroud.

(Edited to change over to Frenzied Berserker for allot more DPS)

[Cambo]

Looks nice, but would like your feedback on possible modifications to suit me more.
How about Warforge for Resistance and power attack enhancements.
and 1 level of fighter to take khopesh ?
Could wear the docent of quickening for more mele output

[Impaqt]

Why take the Cross Class Spot when Listen dose the same thign and is not cross class?

Extremely close tothe build I posted earlier today.. Glad we're on the same page

[Shade]

Why take the Cross Class Spot when Listen dose the same thign and is not cross class?

Listen doesn'te quite do the same thing. Listen allows you to see the little red blops showing the monsters movement - in the heat of face paced combat sometimes you will miss those as there pretty small.

VS spot which is very obvious as its shows the whole monster just in a darker shade.

And beyond that - items to boost it, spots is much more accessible and tends to be a low enough DC that even as a cross class skill you will suceed 100% of the time anyways, generally about 20 skill is enough for 95% of the content.

Then spot is just much easiest to get high via items:
IE Listen boost in lootgen comes on hats. But the best hat to use by far is the minos legens, with some swaping for the helm of freewill when you need fear imunity.. So that makes using listen hats a tough setup.
Vs Spot - which comes on googles in lootgen, and some different slots in named/raidloot. Vs other googles, you don't tend to lose much - perhaps you have the sandstrom glasses for trueseeing, but then again the cleric or wizard can just cast that on you so you can have both. The other nice item with a spot bonus - which i use on my main barbarian is the Titan ring, +3 dodge AC and +13 spot, very nice combo.

Other great spot items:
Mumified bat (+5 spot, perm featherfal - decent mind lvl item, was really nice before it was nerfed from +7)
Kundarak Devling Googles - one of my first main spot items, blindness ward +10 spot, good for lvl10.. Upgrade to dream visor later as blindness ward isn't a big deal at max levels.
Dream Visor - Very cheap to buy on the AH and almost always there as its a common drop in a very popular quest, for +13 spot
Intricate Field Optics - A step up from the dream visor, much more rare and expensive, but secret door detection and +2 wisdom are nice bonuses.
Vs Listen items:
Mumified bat, +5 listen on this too
... and thats it. There really aren't any good high level static listen items which causes a problem as your limited to helms..

And the last thing it effects: DMText hints. I'd estimate there are more then double (Spot) hints in the game vs listen. In general listen just tells you what monsters might be in the next room - which most people know anyways.. Via spot which tells you about secret doors, traps and secret optional objectives.

So yea spot is definetely the way to go.

[Mad_Bombardier]

And beyond that - items to boost it, spots is much more accessible and tends to be a low enough DC that even as a cross class skill you will suceed 100% of the time anyways, generally about 20 skill is enough for 95% of the content.

Then spot is just much easiest to get high via items:

That was my conclusion, too. Spot comes on Goggles, which is for a melee build the most unused slot (unless you have the Sandstorm Goggles from the DQ). Listen only comes on Helms and Rings (with exception of Blacklace Blindfold from Delera's, Mummy Bat, and the Ioun Stone). So, you lose a valuable helm/ring slot and gain a useless goggle slot by choosing Listen. And no Barbarian worth his hide armor will sacrifice the Bloodstone for a Listen trinket.

8.5 cross class Spot + 11 item = 19.5 and Blindness Ward (BW goggles of Spot +11 are very common).
17 class ranks Listen + 0 item (due to slot issues) = 17
17 class ranks Listen + 7 item (Blacklace Blindfold) = 24 but no Blindess Ward and DEX-1 (not a bad option if you don't mind carrying a stack of pots).

[Illuminati]

Solid build, but meh for more dwarfarians =)

[sigtrent]

I ran some numbers with the weapon damage calculators and it looks like on critable monsters a human with piercing using equivilent picks does better damage than a dwarf with dwarven axes, especialy on monsters you pretty much auto-hit.

The more damage bonuses you add, the better the picks do so it seems a better growth path as well.

Now against non-crit mosnters, the dwarven axes are a clear winner.

[rimble]

I ran some numbers with the weapon damage calculators and it looks like on critable monsters a human with piercing using equivilent picks does better damage than a dwarf with dwarven axes, especialy on monsters you pretty much auto-hit.

The more damage bonuses you add, the better the picks do so it seems a better growth path as well.

Now against non-crit mosnters, the dwarven axes are a clear winner.

Why Human? Be a Dwarf, pick the critable ones, axe the non-critable ones, hehe.

[jacobzzz]

i dont know why you wouldnt go pierce: deathnips... best dps weapon for twf, and W/P rapiers/SS/dagger...

[Mad_Bombardier]

i dont know why you wouldnt go pierce: deathnips... best dps weapon for twf, and W/P rapiers/SS/dagger...

/facepalm. Maybe because Deathnips don't grow on trees.

[Strykersz]

One interesting point to consider is that if non-deathnip heavy picks out damage DA's on crittable mobs(haven't checked, someone else can do it) than it would likely be better to switch to IC pierce and use the DA's on non-crittable mobs. Your dps on the non-crittable mobs wouldn't be changed(IC wouldn't matter against them) and your dps would go up against crittable mobs, although the cost to equip the character would go up.

[death_smurf]

decent build, however how can it be a max dps twf build when you left out barbarian damage boost enhancements? leaving out an enhancement that would give you 5 more pts of damage every hit and 15(with DA's... 5 and 20 with picks) more on crits pretty much denotes that this is not a max dps build. still a good build but lost the true focus of max dps at least in my opinion.

[Twerpp]

Nice build lol. Thats what Im running right now currently 4th lvl. I went with 16dex though I figure Ill get the +3 tome some day just keep running reaver on schedule..and who know what mod 6 brings.. until then he can rock imp crit piercing feat as well. I think I put the excess into wis for a lil help with will saves. Barbs and Dwarves have a lot of killer AP and will shine more in later levels..

Bereavement which usually not a lot of people want out of Titan will really make this build rock. Should be relatively easy to get. Find yourself a +5 burst of pg dwarven and a few greater banes and youre one Nastey dwarf.

[Shade]

decent build, however how can it be a max dps twf build when you left out barbarian damage boost enhancements? leaving out an enhancement that would give you 5 more pts of damage every hit and 15(with DA's... 5 and 20 with picks) more on crits pretty much denotes that this is not a max dps build. still a good build but lost the true focus of max dps at least in my opinion.

True in a sense.

I definetely used that when it was +10 dmg instead of the heavily nerfed +5, +major combat delay.

Overall i think the DPS - in the sense of overall damage done in a quest can often be higher by using the DR boost that the build has.

In cases of powerful monsters or bosses - sometimes you simply cannot just continue attacking non stop and hope you survive.. Often the cleric might be trying to catch up to you (clrs dont run fast like this build hehe), or not able to heal fast enough to keep you alive.. So you have to lose DPS and back off and kite the monster sfor a second while the cleric castchs up/cooldowns to heal you.. Vs having that DR boost up means you can continue to attack nonstop and survive, it makes a huge difference.

Also the all the action boosts have a ~1.5 second or so delay assosiated with them - so if your attacking fast as you can and you want to get that dmg boost in - you have to interupt your attack animation, activate it, wati 1.5 seconds, then attack again - this cna add up to a loss of 5+ seconds.. Almost enough to lose any benefit that boost is given you anyways.

Vs using the DR boost - well yea the DPS is still lose if you use it mid battle - however the reason your probably using it is different - ie to survive.

Now ideally you always use these boost before battle - however thats rarely possible with the fast paced combat of DDO.

Or if you PvP.. The barbarian using the DR boost vs the one using the DMG boost ... The DR boost guy wins every single time - i know i tested it allot hehe.

As such i don't consider the DR boost worth dropping for it. I mean i would like to have all 3 action boosts, but just don't have the AP for them. Everything taking is rather important and can't be traded around easily. Even with the xtra 8 AP lvl16 gives i find it hard to justify.

In most cases it means losing either axe dmg or axe attack - which is not worth it, consistant DPS vs limited boost dps..

[death_smurf]

while i see your point i guess its a matter of opinion really. i beleive the dr boost to be a good boost, however not really a way to "maximize dps" while it is very handy in end boss fights... there are very few groups of mobs currently in the game that stand a chance of lasting more than 5 seconds in front of well built twf barbarians. honestly there really arnt even sorcerers that could pull agro(exclude undead) off of a barb using heavy picks(death nips and damage boost) and thats without ax enhancements. crits in 175(off hand) to 230(main hand) tend to hold agro effectively when ur getting those numbers 1/4 of all attacks. survivabilty: dead enimies dont tend to deal much damage! as far as the timer when u click it, its very easy to click before entering the battle while running to it. there is no delay in your run and with a little skill u suffer no loss in attack time.
Maybe the new mod will hold enemies that will out last the damage boost but i have yet to see any that can(some boss fights excluded). so i beleive the dr boost will def make u more survivable, maybe slightly easier to heal for the cleric. However it will not increase your dps overall. Just my opinion and i know you know barbs well not trying to argue or down your build as i said its a very good build but I dont beleive it is truely a max dps twf barbarian.

ps. until they make a DA's that are as effective(same crit range or better since only a 3x modifier) as deathnips on critable mobs. for a true dps build those axe enhancements are better spent on damage boosts while dual weilding deathnips, or a blend of a seeker 10 heavy pick combo if deathnips not available . again just my opinion but one i have tested many times.

[Shade]

ps. until they make a DA's that are as effective(same crit range or better since only a 3x modifier) as deathnips on critable mobs. for a true dps build those axe enhancements are better spent on damage boosts while dual weilding deathnips, or a blend of a seeker 10 heavy pick combo if deathnips not available . again just my opinion but one i have tested many times.

Well if thats your opinion, then regardless of wheather it has the dmg boost its not "max dps" as it's a slashing spec build rather then a piercing one. in your mind (altho it certainly works either way given some enahncement changes)

Personally I don't believe dual deathnips every come close to the DPS of a good set of greater bane dwarf axes /w enhancements, but thats a difficult comparison to judge so does come down to a matter of opinion.

As well as the problem of actually aquiring those dual deathnips.. I mean since the exploit to get the tome pieces is fixed - the time investment required to get them is utterly insane. Litterally requires at best hundreds of runs of the black mausoleum... Or auction house prices of 400Kpp per page x 16 pages = 6.4 million platinum.

6.4 million platinum can buy a truckload of awesome greater banes. Usually I pay around 300-400K per +4 greate bane (the best ive seen on the AH, perhaps +5 will show up in mod6) , so even at the high mark - 400k, that gets me 16 weapons, or 8 weapon sets.. Considering the amount of monsters with a type of DR or imunity to crits - that definetely sounds better then dual deathnips to me.

Currently I know of about 4 people on my server who have that set - and everyone of them exploited heavily to get them. Personally not a fan of exploiting, even if it was still possible. And whats even funnier is I outkilled a human barb with a set of them on my cleric.. If i took my barbarian, he would be about 10x behind - so those weapons are certainly not a be all end all - the real factor for DPS is player skill.

[jacobzzz]

how is it an opinion of what one is better dps? One does more dmg, the other does less dmg... and its very clear to me that you've never used deathnips or dont want to go into piercing because that is the spec that you argued so much about that wasnt nearly as good as a thf build... just do the math... DA you will be critting on a 17 raged... deathnip 15... on a deathnip you will get seeker +8 thats +32 dmg to your crit, maiming adds 3d6 dmg to your crit... on top of all that its a X4 crit instead of X3... sure its kind of based on crits but 1 in 4 swings will crit, and you say the real factor of dps is skill? is it that hard to click the right button on your mouse multiple times?

[Cowdenicus]

All I have to say is I would love to see the (melee) build that out dps's my HUMAN TWF Barbarian.

He already has a set of w/p picks, and soon will have a set of bursting of maiming picks.

Bursting of maiming on a pick is just sick. Especially when you crit on a 17, (and get 10 attacks a round).

[Shade]

It's not my math, it's Thotts. And yea like i said in my post I agree its innacurate, but I don't see you posting a more accurate set so why complain, your the one who was talking about math in the first place. I just put it there to prove that it's wrong, even the guy who wrote a complex website to calculate it can't get it correct, much less you.

But regardless, it does incorporate the crit range and I updated it to include the small xtra crit dmg deathnip will do for seeker +8.
So it's 32 dmg vs 18, ie seeker +8x4, vs seeker +6x3 (bloodstone)
So +14 dmg on crits. Brings deathnip up a bit but it's still behind the greater banes.

[jacobzzz]

when you get your barb up to lvl 14 or 16 i guess we should both do like 2-4 man dragons and take screenshots 1 b4 the kill... showing the time left in the dungeon and the other at the end right when velah dies... the other ppl in the party have to be clerics/bards have equal parties maybe each have 1 bard/1 cleric and then we can see who has better dps