wrapping up a barb swashee

[cru121]

I have a character that I am taking through various swashbuckler incarnations.
Right now I am lvl 18, Shadar-kai, Rogue 2 / Bard 4 / Barbarian 12.
I am not sure what to take for the last two levels.

I am leaning towards Bard 6. For one thing, this would open the option of taking tier 5 in swashbuckler, if I wanted. Secondly, this would open third cores in bard (the passive benefits of swashbuckler's third core are probably nice enough for 1 AP)

Barbarian 14 would another point of DR (okay) and Indomitable Will (+4 Will save in rage). Many barbarian rage feats were buffed in barb pass, but it seems that Indomitable Will has not gained any new features, or has it? More barb levels would also improve my healing in Ravager, if I ever decided to use it. (Currently using the passive heal-over-time in FrB - I already have enough crit expansion from swash).

Rogue has skills, sneak attack and possibly other interesting offensive perks for which I probably don't have AP.

For epics, I have still some ED work to do, but I want to try staying in *gasp* Fury of the Wild. With Ear Smash and Adrenaline, I have two sources of no-fail helplessness; hoping to spam those. Also eyeing that 3BC vorpal sickle and Perfect SWF for more adrenaline and more vorpals.

[unbongwah]

It basically boils down to tier-5 Ravager vs Swashbuckler, which in turn partially depends on what weapon(s) you use. Crit Rage will only stack with Swashbuckling if you use rapiers or kukris, in which case they become 13-20/x3 (x4 if using Balizarde). Also the free healing from Blood Strength will go up another tick with 2 more barb lvls.

Whereas Exploit Weakness would be better than Crit Rage for any other Swashbuckling weapon. But remember barb Rage disables Precision, which you need active for Thread the Needle's dmg bonus.

At some point, I theory-crafted ideas for bard / barb builds using T5 OS instead: Bond of Destruction should stack with Swashbuckling and One Spirit's heals aren't based on barb lvls; plus Seeker's Strike should go well with Adrenaline. And I liked that OS abilities don't depend on barb Rage, so I could switch between Precision and Power Atk as needed. But that was a long time ago - before all the recent buffage to Kensei etc. - so it's definitely in flavor build territory now.

[cru121]

As I mentioned, right now I am using T5 in Frenzied Berserker, relying on Accelerated Metabolism for hjealing.
I am also using Focused Wrath for stronger crits on 19-20 (atm 13-18x3, 19-20x5).
I want to try staying in FB to see if it remains viable in epics

I like OS as a secondary tree, but T5s unfortunately look fairly bad. Not sure how fast does psychic bond recharge, but probably not fast enough to spam the fun abilities.