Are Barbarian levels worthy it if I can't take any Tier 5?

[Nayus]

I'm making a SWF Barbarian come U22 and Swashbuckling seems pretty effective for us, we can Swashbuckle with a Light Pick (1d4) to 18 x5 instead of a Dwarven Axe (1d12) 19 x4. I believe both the increased critical threat range, critical multiplier and SB goodies will pay off for losing Glancing Blows, especially 7% doublestrike and 6d6 scalable sonic damage on criticals, since Glancing Blows never crit and you can't get THF feats to increase Glancings at the same time you're taking SWF.

But I'm needing some help figuring out my enhancements, which are leading me towards discarding the Barbarian class itself. Barbs are known for their supreme criticals but all threat/multiplier effects in all 3 trees are Tier 5 except for Bond that only works below 50% HP.
Swashbucklers have Exploit Weakness and Coup de Grace for Tier 5, this isn't even a competition.

It seems pretty logical to simply stay in the Tier 2s of every tree but then I'm not sure I'm really getting enough DPS to justify this whole thing.

Would Barb levels still be worthy it without Tier 5s? How would you spend out the enhancements points?

[junta64]

This may sound crazy but stay pure bard. I was just playing around and got 45% alacrity, 27% dodge, 49% double strike, and a 68 reflex save. Strength was buffed to 52 and I had full BAB thanks to warchanter.

When you start spending points in the SB tree its very hard to stop.

[Qhualor]

well considering barb enhancements were designed with THF in mind and a lot of enhancements are based off of that, it doesn't surprise me that a barb might suck at SWF and some of those enhancements might not work well.

[Nayus]

well considering barb enhancements were designed with THF in mind and a lot of enhancements are based off of that, it doesn't surprise me that a barb might suck at SWF and some of those enhancements might not work well.

They only have a few Glancing Blow enhancements for THF.

[Qhualor]

Frenzied Berserker

Angry Arms: +1%/+2%/+3% chance of triggering weapon effects on glancing blows and +3%/+4%/+5% glancing blow damage.

Mad Munitions: +1%/+2%/+3% chance of triggering weapon effects on glancing blows and +3%/+4%/+5% glancing blow damage

Supreme Cleave: Tactical Melee Cleave: Expend 10 hit points to activate this ability to attack enemies around you. This attack deals +0/+1/+2[W] damage. (Activation Cost: 10 Hit Points, affected by Dungeon Scaling. Cooldown: 9/6/3 seconds)

Focus Wide: When you score a vorpal hit, you increase your chance of triggering weapon effects with glancing blows by +10% and gain +10% glancing blow damage for 12 seconds.

Tantrum: Tactical Melee Cleave: Expend 25 hit points to activate this ability and attack enemies around you. This deals +5[W] damage and has a 50% to knock down each damage enemy briefly on a failed Fortitude save vs. 20 + Strength modifier. Abilities that trigger on Supreme Cleave also trigger on Tantrum. (Blood Trail, Wade In, Lash Out, Sundering Spin

Fury of the Wild

Malicious Weapons : Passive Bonus: +[3/6/9]% chance to trigger weapon effects with glancing blows.

Wild Weapons : Passive Bonus: +[3/6/9]% glancing blow damage.

Unbridled Fury Epic Moment : Active Ability: (Cooldown 5mins) Every three seconds, for thirty seconds, you gain Adrenaline Overload: Your next attack deals +400% damage and has +16 critical threat range and confirmation of critical hits. While this is active and you fight with a two handed weapon, Glancing Blows produced on enemies around you when you stand still and attack deal +100% damage and have 100% chance of triggering weapon effects. You gain the feats Two-Handed Fighting, Improved Two-Handed Fighting, and Greater Two-Handed Fighting for the duration. Requires and consumes 10 Fury. You gain 1 Fury each time you land a vorpal strike with a melee attack (roll a natural 20 and confirm the critical hit).

Glancing Blows will proc on cleave attacks. Glancing Blows do stack. there are a ton of enhancements that increases crit range, your damage output, modifiers, etc that are just too many to list. of course a lot of them are increased even more while raged and frenzied. I know there are a lot of players that are not a fan of FB, or even at least a mostly pure barbarian, but I doubt SWF would be a good fit for them. SWF and Swashbuckling has its pros with doublestrike, but a barb can get it from the Martial past life. only up to 9%, plus if you are lucky to get the bard buff also, but it just comes down to which you would rather have.