Thorix, a first life EE capable Dwarven Barbarian

[Mystickal]

Oh - and rage clickies:

ML1 - Ring of Rage 1:30, 1 charge
ML2 - Brawn's Spirits 1:30, 3 charges
ML3 - Barbarian's Spirit 1:30, 1 charge
ML6 - Armor of the Amok 1:30, 3 charges
ML7 - Bloodrage Symbiont 1:30, 3 charges
ML8 - Blood Machete 1:30, 1 charge
ML20 - Epic Brawn's Spirits 2:30, 5 charges

I would usually hit the clicky when first ramping up the rage because it lasts longer, but once you have barbarian rage active you can no longer activate clickies and can only sustain with rage pots (30 second intervals) or the rage spell from a wizard.

[sty0pa]

Wow, 2 1/2 years old and you're the first one to point out the typo.

At level 12, yes, it should be Greater Two HANDED Fighting, not Greater Two Weapon Fighting.

However, at level 28, it correct and should be Perfect Two WEAPON Fighting - this raises your doublestrike by 5%, even with a two handed weapon. Perfect Two Handed Fighting increases the damage of glancing blows by 10%, and the chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows by 10%. So, with Perfect Two Handed Fighting, you're glancing blow damage is 60% (50% without) and the chance to produce a weapon effect is 19% (9% without). Since glancing blow damage can be minimized to 0 after DR, and has no chance to crit or doublestrike, I found better DPS with Perfect Two Weapon Fighting and the additional 5% chance to doublestrike. This may be different now, in the 2 1/2 years since the original post there have been many changes to game mechanics and I am unable to test as Thorix is currently running through racial past lives.

Ha ha, well, shows your advice is still relevant and helpful - thanks for the build in the first place.

[Skheld]

Would this build work for a half orc? Ive been gone a while and all the changes are a bit confusing. Would I dip into the half orc racial tree and grab the weapon proficiency tree? OR since this is built around a dwarf should I ignore the half orc tree completely?

[unbongwah]

Would this build work for a half orc?

The whole point of this build is to take advantage of the dwarven enhancement Throw Your Weight Around (TYWA): "You may use your Constitution modifier to determine the damage you deal with" racial weapons - in this case either greataxes or mauls, depending on which weapon type you choose. Without TYWA, there's not really any point in making a CON-based barbarian, in which case you might as well stick with a conventional STR-based build like Zoda, which is easily adapted to whatever race you want.

[Skheld]

The whole point of this build is to take advantage of the dwarven enhancement Throw Your Weight Around (TYWA): "You may use your Constitution modifier to determine the damage you deal with" racial weapons - in this case either greataxes or mauls, depending on which weapon type you choose. Without TYWA, there's not really any point in making a CON-based barbarian, in which case you might as well stick with a conventional STR-based build like Zoda, which is easily adapted to whatever race you want.

Thanks a ton with a speedy reply. I do appreciate it. I'll attempt Zoda's build as well as maybe attempt to adapt the build to half orc. If not I'll reincarnate into a bard and hang out at the local pub.

[URjustSOL]

Summary

A first life barbarian build that is capable of running EE content. This build is able to run some EE content solo, but some EE content will require a party to help take some of the heat off. No tomes required, no rare, hard to find or grind gear necessary.

Thorix Lvl 20 Barbarian

                 28    32    34    36   LEVEL
               ----  ----  ----  ----  -----
 Strength        16    16    16    16   4:CON
 Dexterity        8    10    10    10   8:STR
 Constitution    20    20    20    20  12:CON
 Intelligence    10    10    10    10  16:CON
 Wisdom           8     8     8    10  20:CON
 Charisma         8     8    10    10  24:CON
                                       28:CON

Anyone using this in 2020? I'm thinking of TR'ing into this from my 12-8 fighter/cleric.

[Mystickal]

Anyone using this in 2020? I'm thinking of TR'ing into this from my 12-8 fighter/cleric.

Depends on what you're trying to run. The barb trees have changed very little since this build was posted, and so playing this build on HE and EE content should still provide a good experience.

However, with moving the level cap to 30, the introduction of Reaper difficulty, racial reincarnation, and the epic destiny update, the build will not handle the higher levels of play that it once did. I'm still rolling Thorix as a lvl 30 Barbarian, but he is in a much different state than he was here.

[URjustSOL]

Depends on what you're trying to run. The barb trees have changed very little since this build was posted, and so playing this build on HE and EE content should still provide a good experience.

However, with moving the level cap to 30, the introduction of Reaper difficulty, racial reincarnation, and the epic destiny update, the build will not handle the higher levels of play that it once did. I'm still rolling Thorix as a lvl 30 Barbarian, but he is in a much different state than he was here.

thanks for the reply. I'm only going to play this lvl 1-20 then TR again. Since I only play solo, it's almost impossible to get far beyond 20.

any issues getting this character leveled to 20?

[unbongwah]

Update 45 is about to make this build a bit more interesting.

• Major revamp to THF: glancing blows replaced by Strikethrough and GTHF adds 3x ability mod to damage rather than 1.5x for 2H weapons.
• Dwarf HP bonus becomes +5% quality. If you switch to Occult Slayer as your primary tree, Bond of Destruction gains +10% Quality HPs.

@OP: Anything you plan to do differently after U45 goes live?

[Dulcimerist]

Update 45 is about to make this build a bit more interesting.

• Major revamp to THF: glancing blows replaced by Strikethrough and GTHF adds 3x ability mod to damage rather than 1.5x for 2H weapons.
• Dwarf HP bonus becomes +5% quality. If you switch to Occult Slayer as your primary tree, Bond of Destruction gains +10% Quality HPs.

@OP: Anything you plan to do differently after U45 goes live?

I'm interested to know a good update to this build as well, as I'm interested in trying it in the HC league server.

[unbongwah]

I'm interested to know a good update to this build as well, as I'm interested in trying it in the HC league server.

Strimtom has a build in his HC thread, although he doesn't go for TYWA.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...uilds-Season-4

But part of the beauty of this build is its simplicity: max CON and enough STR to take the THF feats are the only stat pre-reqs, so it works fine on 28-point lives or 36-point ones.

[Dulcimerist]

Strimtom has a build in his HC thread, although he doesn't go for TYWA.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...uilds-Season-4

But part of the beauty of this build is its simplicity: max CON and enough STR to take the THF feats are the only stat pre-reqs, so it works fine on 28-point lives or 36-point ones.

Thanks! I went with the Strimtom build, but I had found the Season 3 thread - that barbarian is different, so now I'm wondering if I messed up.
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...uilds-Season-3

Wishing he had written which order to take the enhancements. I picked up the Blood Tribute right away.

[kiryamo75]

¿What about an 1 Fighter level splash?

+1 Feat and Heavy armor Proficiency

[unbongwah]

¿What about an 1 Fighter level splash?

+1 Feat and Heavy armor Proficiency

Not worth giving up the Ravager capstone. Especially for a CON-based barb like this.

Visage of Terror: Terrorize up to six enemies, killing them with fear if they fail a Will save vs 10 + Constitution modifier + half barbarian level. Enemies who make their saving throw are paralyzed with Fear for six seconds instead. Doesn't affect bosses. (Cost 1 Rage. Cooldown: 30 seconds)

Passive:

+4 Constitution

+150 hitpoints

+40 healing amplification

Same story if you switch to Occult Slayer tree:

Mind Over Magic: You have Spell Resistance equal to your Constitution score.

+4 Constitution

+150 Hit Points

+10 Magical Resistance

+40 Healing Amplification

[jskinner937]

That’s basically what I went to 5k favor with on hardcore.

Although very handy while leveling heroics, I would swap cleave at cap.

[Mystickal]

That’s basically what I went to 5k favor with on hardcore.

Although very handy while leveling heroics, I would swap cleave at cap.

I don't take cleaves at all while levelling anymore. They slow down the attack chain too much and strikethrough does a much better job. I would relegate cleaves to non-2HF who need a way to hit large groups at once.

[Dulcimerist]

I don't take cleaves at all while levelling anymore. They slow down the attack chain too much and strikethrough does a much better job. I would relegate cleaves to non-2HF who need a way to hit large groups at once.

Yeah, the revamp to the Two Handed Fighting feats and strikethrough make the THF feats much more appealing to take as soon as possible on THF builds.

[Binn05]

Yeah, the revamp to the Two Handed Fighting feats and strikethrough make the THF feats much more appealing to take as soon as possible on THF builds.

Can anyone give me pointers on how to optimize this build for u57 content?
I'm an old player coming back to the game after around five years without playing the game, and I'm searching for easy builds to TR my char.