Barb THF or TWF?

[avatar28]

been away from the game for a long time, just wondering is it more viable to have a pure barb go THF or TWF.

I had a 20 WF barb, TR'd him to fighter, now i'm about to TR him back to barb.

I already have 2 Lightning II heavy picks.

I also have triple pos maul, and triple pos Falchion.

I like using the Falchion because it crit on my barb 15-20 and on a 19-20 it hit for x4.

I was considering maybe a lightning II great sword or great axe if I was going back to THF, or if I stay TWF I would keep my heavy picks...


Another thing to consider, is go back to being a WF (36 point build) or roll up a 36 pointer Half Orc..


Thx!

[nivarch]

I'm far from being very knowledgeable on barb, but until experts come in here are a few things.

Because of their PrE (that slightly boosts THF more than TWF and also requires cleave and gives supreme cleave both of which work better for THF), barbs usually got THF.

Falchion is still the weapon of choice for THF when you don't have access to the good named items. The items to look for as a THF barb are :

• epic elemental greataxe of fire. Easy to get and works well in the new content where fire immunity is rarer than ever.
• epic antique greataxe. While harder to get than elemental greataxe, it's still not very hard to acquire. It's a very good weapon that bypass all DR and works well everywhere.
• eSoS. Nothing to add. Good luck on the grind

Also heavy picks are kinda lackluster now: helpless doen't provide autocrits anymore.

Oh also, HOrc are currently superiors to WF for a barb in almost every way.

[Dasthug]

Currently THF is really the only choice for a pure barb, mostly due to the rage crit boosts from the Frenzied Berserker enhancements.

[Alex301]

Unless you're playing an arcane, half orc is better than WF is just about every area. With the new overwhelming critical feat I think you're better going 18 barbarian/2 fighter to get the feats needed for it for better dps than pure barbarian. You would really want to go with khopeshes instead of heavy picks as well now.

As for whether to go THF or TWF i think they're both viable, although you will certainly see more THF barbarians than not. For single target dps i'm not sure which is better. The epic destinies add some new mechanics you have to take into account for a capped toon. Haste boost from the legendary dreadnaught destiny for example will favour TWF since you're getting even more attacks and therefore weapon procs as a barbarian. With the vicious damage from frenzied berserker and the ability to twist in the extra 1d12 damage from the fury of the wild destiny this can add a lot of extra damage for TWF. The eternal fury ability, which gives you a chance to regain 1 adrenaline use on a vorpal strike, is also going to allow TWF to regain adrenaline uses more quickly since they attack more often.

With that said, there are abilities that favour THF as well, such as the ability to increase the chance of weapon effects procing on glancing blows. I'm not sure if the adrenaline abilities of the fury of the wild destiny apply to the off hand attacks of TWF either.

I haven't ran any of the numbers so i'm not sure which is better for single target damage. THF certainly offers higher aoe dps though.

[Feithlin]

My Barb 18/Fight 2 dwarf was TWF, but I respeced him for THF. It works better with the cleaves cycling from my point of view. It also makes points allocation easier to apply for eToughness (21 Con needed).

The 2 fighter levels splash makes it easier to fill the feats. I'm not yet decided with the epic OC feat so I kept the option opened by making it obtainable with only a feat swap (changing SB for WF).
I went with:
* THF line
* IC
* Toughness
* PA
* Cleave, gCleave
* Stunning Blow
SB is a lot more useful than WF atm, and I tend to think that it's better than OC too. If I keep it, I may add iSunder as the epic feat (the other one will be eToughness).
I think I'll opt for the Dreadnaught epic destinies.

Note that by going human, you could make room for both SB and OC.

[avatar28]

I would never go Human just for the extra feat, The neutral ability scores just aren't worth it imo, I would go back to WF for the immunities and extra Con and PA, or Horc for the extra strength and damage enhancments....

I also would never go to kopesh's, because they will be the next weapons to be nerfed.

As I said before, I always liked the Falchion for the 25% crits after you get IC:S...

As for the picks, I never made a set of heavy picks for the helpless auto crits, more or less for the x4 weapon crit multi on a crit, currently I hit about 300 per arm on a crit with my fighter - with 50 STR, on my barb fully raged they hit much, much more when I crit for x6..

Someone told me a while back that falchions and Mauls weren't that good for THF because they swing slow, so at the time said great axes where better, or even two handed swords. I don't know if they changed the speed of attack with 2 handers since I stopped playing almost 2 years ago....

[Monkey_Archer]

Unless you have something specific in mind, theres almost no reason not to go 18/2 THF horc. Horc, Berserker, and both relevant epic destinies are all so biased towards THF, it will take a lot more then just 2 LS picks for a TWF barb to compete. The barb capstone is very also weak now that you basically need 2 fighter levels to get overwhelming critical.