Bearbarian Build (Also FoTW w/o Barb = Useless?)

[Failedlegend]

Hey guys so I was working out what EDs I'd be taking for each of my builds and I couldn't find one that worked well with my Druid/Fighter...US and LD are mostly focused on things that the build doesn't use but than I saw FotW and at bfirst it looked like the PERFECT fit until I realized it doesn't actually grant you any way to go into a rage despite the majority of the abilities rely on the use of rage.

Am I missing something here this entire ED seems pointless if you don't have at least one lvl of Barb so you have rage. All other EDs give that have prerequisite "Class-Specific" things for their abilities (ie. US gives Turn Undead & FS gives Inspire Courage)

So if I'm not missing something I thought maybe making a Druid/Barb/Fighter might work out possibly a Druid13/Fighter6/Barb 1 or a D13/B6/F1...I dunno what do you guys think? If anything it's just cool to think of a Raging Bear....a Bearbarian if you will.

Here's the original build in case your curious (I'll post the Bearbarian build tommorow after work)

Note:The 3 feats I'd likely ditch are Augment Summoning, CE and Bulwark if I decide to only take 1 fighter level.

Dwarven Druid13/Fighter7 (NW2/SD1)

Dwarf
Str 16 (Lvl-ups here)
Dex 12
Con 18
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 6

Skills:  Intim, Concen, Spot

Level Order: Druid 1-9, Fighter 10-16, Druid 17-20

Feats

1 Toughness
3 Augment Summon
6 Shield Mastery
9 Nat Fight 1
10 Power Attack (F)
11 Cleave (F)
12 Nat Fight 2
13 Great Cleave (F)
15 Nat Fight 3
15 ISM (F)
18 IC:Bludgeon
ED: ???
21 Combat Expertise
24 Bulwark of Defense



Spells
1(5) Maul, Ram's Might, Magic Fang, Longstrider, Jump
2(5) Pack Presence, Align Fang, Roar, Lesser Resto, Resist Energy
3(5) Shred, Spiderskin. Water Breathing, Neutralize Poison, Remove Disease
4(5) Rising Fury, Freedom of Movement, Cure Serious, Lesser Vigor Mass, Longstrider Mass
5(4) Reincarnate, Pack Aptitude, Animal Growth, Greater Vigor
6(3) Fire/Cold Shield, Tremor, Tenacious Pack
7(2) Relentless Onslaught, Regenerate

[Vissarion]

My understanding is that Primal Scream can be used to count as Raged, as well as Rage pots. They made the definition of 'Raged' for the FOTW abilities broad enough to accommodate more than just Barbs.

I'm planning on trying FOTW on my melee druid as well, as I came to the same conclusion as you did regarding how good it seems to look.

[aradelothion]

Any form of rage will work; rage pots, spells, Primal Scream, Madstone procs.

[Failedlegend]

Well Rage pots seems like it would cost a fortune to maintain at 75pp a pop.

Actually re-reading it now Primal Scream looks like a pretty good amount of rage, Cooldown 15 seconds duration 3 minutes, 5 uses per rest, also it's a nice attack

That said even though PS is a viable way to use rage fro, the FotW I'm actually quite intrigued by the Bearbarian build now if only for flavor reasons

Edit: Nevermind dumb idea the devs decided it would be an awesome idea to make the bear PHYSICAL abilities (Maul, Relentless onslaught,Pack Presence,etc.) spells instead of actual abilities so you can't use them while raged which greatly reduces you damage output making a bearbarian and the FotW ED pointless...again :P

[katz]

Well Rage pots seems like it would cost a fortune to maintain at 75pp a pop.

lol. my husband chugs haste and rage pots like they're candy.

[Failedlegend]

Dumb idea or not I still felt the need to see what the build is like...not really going to miss the feats I dropped though I do miss getting Great Cleave and ISM earlier and the loss of SD1 will kinda suck but other than that the build looks awesome. Too ba it doesn't work because PHYSICAL ATTACKS are classed as spells on druid for some reason

Dwarven Druid13/Barb6/Fighter1

Dwarf
Str 16
Dex 12
Con 18
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 6

Skills:  Intim, Concen, Spot

Level Order: Druid 1-9, Fighter 10,Barbarian11-16, Druid 17-20

Feats

1 Toughness
3 Shield Mastery
6 Power Attack
9 Nat Fight 1
10 Cleave (F)
12 Nat Fight 2
15 Nat Fight 3
18 IC:Bludgeon
ED: Fury of the Wild
21 Improved Shield Mastery (F)
24 Great Cleave



Spells
1(5) Maul, Ram's Might, Magic Fang, Longstrider, Jump
2(5) Pack Presence, Align Fang, Roar, Lesser Resto, Resist Energy
3(5) Shred, Spiderskin. Water Breathing, Neutralize Poison, Remove Disease
4(5) Rising Fury, Freedom of Movement, Cure Serious, Lesser Vigor Mass, Longstrider Mass
5(4) Reincarnate, Pack Aptitude, Animal Growth, Greater Vigor
6(3) Fire/Cold Shield, Tremor, Tenacious Pack
7(2) Relentless Onslaught, Regenerate

Anyways if you agree with me that having physical attacks as spells is just nonsensical and if anything bear form abilities should be more powerful when raged (not actually expecting that, just saying) being a bear and all you should head over to this thread http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=399699

[arminius]

Fury is only useless on Defender stance builds who are immune to rage. For them the cool non-rage stuff can be twisted out. For anyone else, go wherever your ragey little heart leads you, and chug those pots. It's worth it.

[Failedlegend]

Fury is only useless on Defender stance builds who are immune to rage. For them the cool non-rage stuff can be twisted out. For anyone else, go wherever your ragey little heart leads you, and chug those pots. It's worth it.

Sadly it WAS worth until I realized that it nullifies all the bear form abilities (rend,shread, relentless assault,pack presence,etc.) since their classed as "spells" thus rage blocks them...which is dumb...since their PHYSICAL melee abilities.

lol. my husband chugs haste and rage pots like they're candy.

I'm fairly poor on the server this guy will be getting rolled on only have about 10k plat :P

[katz]

I'm fairly poor on the server this guy will be getting rolled on only have about 10k plat :P

i bankrupted myself when i TRed my rogue trying to keep him in haste pots.


but anyways... i thought this was in reference to FotW... i woulda thought that by that level you'd be making enough from your adventures to afford the pots?

[Failedlegend]

i bankrupted myself when i TRed my rogue trying to keep him in haste pots.


but anyways... i thought this was in reference to FotW... i woulda thought that by that level you'd be making enough from your adventures to afford the pots?

Heh by the time hit 20+ that will probably be true...just saying you'd eventually run out...but Primal scream would probably be enough but again with it the bear melee abilities not functioning under rage makes raging a huge penatly and again FotW is pointless

[unbongwah]

I'm currently working on a bear tank build (druid 13 / ftr 6 / wiz 1), currently lvl 18, and two things I can tell you: dire bear melee DPS is vastly behind winter wolf (+30% atk speed, twice the crit range, and 5d6 SA dmg = no contest); and if you're relying solely on melee DPS as a bear (or wolf), you're doing it wrong - even if you go STR-based like I did, spells like Ice Storm & (Greater) Creeping Cold are quite useful.

[Failedlegend]

I'm currently working on a bear tank build (druid 13 / ftr 6 / wiz 1), currently lvl 18, and two things I can tell you: dire bear melee DPS is vastly behind winter wolf (+30% atk speed, twice the crit range, and 5d6 SA dmg = no contest); and if you're relying solely on melee DPS as a bear (or wolf), you're doing it wrong - even if you go STR-based like I did, spells like Ice Storm & (Greater) Creeping Cold are quite useful.

I wouldn't rely solely on melee except while raged (obviously) and the short duration of rage makes it easy to buff-up drop any DoTs/AoEs/HoTs/etc. before-hand.

Honestly though I'm not entirely with being uber since this is fairly lax static group that we use to test various builds to see if their fun & or powerful the former we tend to keep if it doesn't have the latter or we reformulate it. Now I know the Barbearian won't work because some genius figured it would be quicker or something to make the animal form abilities spells instead of something like cleave or monk strikes

[katz]

does the rage SPELL block bear abilities? because it doesn't block casting and all that good stuff. neither does primal scream. i may have to experiment with my freshly 20th level druid now....

[Failedlegend]

does the rage SPELL block bear abilities? because it doesn't block casting and all that good stuff. neither does primal scream. i may have to experiment with my freshly 20th level druid now....

please do...i'd love to know

[bigolbear]

The arcane spell 'rage' does not prevent casting in any way.

The pot mimics this spell as if cast by a 5th lvl wizard, except it is single target only. it lasts 90 seconds - 3 times as long as a haste pot.

There are also many many rage clickies available in game: ring of rage being the easiest to get (hazadils warhouse line), and i think brawns spirits has 3 clicks. there are lots of others and it is available as a random loot gen too.

there is also a canith crafting option for weapons, (not sure of name) makes the weapon have a proc chance to rage you when you hit some one with it. it is VERY easy to craft.

regarding fury of the wild - adrenaline use: you are considered raged, any rage effect works including spell and pots. you probly wont need the pots when rolling with a nice arcane and at lvl 20+ the rage pots are trivialy cheap - my tactics fighter uses them all the time when soloing(+1 str is +1 dc and that matters to me).

Im working on a bear tank my self man, I have to agree with the person who said the dps is lacklustre - a real shame, bears are close to my heart

If its a real flavour build you might consder 5 or 6 lvls of wizard or 6 or 7 sorc - rage and haste from the mana bar, and displacement too. pickup extend if you do that tho - and watch that ASF.

[Failedlegend]

Heh well 13 Druid is req'd IMO if only to get Relentless Onslaught than some etxra feats at least 1 fighter...so I guess 6 Wiz would work but i don't think it suits my character vision (A Angry Dwarven Druid who's rage manifests as a Bear...a raging one...wizard doesn't really fit in there)

For now I'll probably stick with my Druid13/FIghter7 than if by the time I hit 20 the devs have fixed the "physical attacks as spells" bug I'll go FotW and rely on rage pots and Primal Scream for raging...maybe even LR+1 a single Barb level in just to claim the title Barbearian :P Otherwise I may not bother with an ED and just TR.

Side note: Bears get HUGE style points when they intimidate, props to the dev who made that animation