THF Dwarf Barbarian

[Breezwyn]

This is the dwarf barbarian I've been running. I found it somewhere on the forums, but I can't find the original thread. Do any of the updates warrant any changes to the build?

THF Dwarf Barbarian
Barbarian 20
True Neutral Dwarf


Stats
28pt 32pt
---- ---- --------
Strength 18 18
Dexterity 10 8
Constitution 18 20
Intelligence 8 8
Wisdom 8 8
Charisma 6 6

All level-ups into Strength


Feats

1 : Power Attack
3 : Cleave
6 : Great Cleave
9 : Improved Critical: Slashing OR Bludgeoning
12 : Two Handed Fighting
15 : Improved Two Handed Fighting
18 : Greater Two Handed Fighting
21 Epic : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic : Stunning Blow
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27 Epic : Epic Damage Reduction
28 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting OR Elusive Target
29 Destiny: Dire Charge OR Deific Warding
30 Epic : Blinding Speed
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea OR Plane of Earth


Enhancements (80 AP)

Frenzied Berserker (41 AP)

Die Hard, Frenzied Toughness, Frenzy, Frenzied Toughness II, Death Frenzy, Storm's Eye

Extra Rage III, Power Rage III
Angry Arms III, Blood Tribute III, Extra Action Boost III, Sprint Boost III
Mad Munitions III, Blood Trail III, Supreme Cleave III, Constitution
Wade In I, Constitution


Ravager (39 AP)

Furious Rage, Pain Touch, Demoralizing Success, Pain Touch II, Subsiding Fury

Do You Like Pain? III, Barbarian Power Attack III, Hardy Rage III
I Like Pain III, Cruel Cut III, Melee Power Boost III
Festering Wound III, Strength
Dismember III
Blood Strength, Uncanny Balance, Critical Rage II


Leveling Guide

1 - FB0 Die Hard; FB1 Power Rage I
2 - FB1 Power Rage II; FB2 Sprint Boost I; FB2 Extra Action Boost I, II
3 - FB0 Frenzied Toughness; FB2 Extra Action Boost III; FB3 Supreme Cleave I, II
4 - FB3 Supreme Cleave III; Rav0 Furious Rage; Rav1 Barbarian Power Attack I, II
5 - Rav1 Barbarian Power Attack III; Rav1 Do You Like Pain? I; Rav0 Pain Touch; Rav2 I Like Pain I
6 - FB0 Frenzy; Rav2 Melee Power Boost I, II, III
7 - Rav0 Demoralizing Success; Rav1 Do You Like Pain? II; Rav2 I Like Pain II; Rav1 Do You Like Pain? III
8 - Rav2 I Like Pain III; Rav3 Strength; Rav2 Cruel Cut I
9 - Rav2 Cruel Cut II, III; Rav3 Festering Wound I, II
10 - Rav3 Festering Wound III; Rav4 Dismember I, II, III
11 - Rav1 Hardy Rage I, II, III; (Bank 1 AP)
12 - Rav0 Pain Touch II; Rav5 Blood Strength; Rav5 Critical Rage I
13 - Rav5 Critical Rage II; Rav5 Uncanny Balance
14 - FB2 Angry Arms I, II, III; FB1 Extra Rage I
15 - FB1 Extra Rage II, III; FB0 Frenzied Toughness II; FB4 Wade In I
16 - FB2 Blood Tribute I; FB3 Blood Trail I; FB2 Blood Tribute II; FB3 Blood Trail II
17 - FB2 Blood Tribute III; FB3 Blood Trail III; FB1 Power Rage III
18 - FB0 Death Frenzy; Rav0 Subsiding Fury; FB3 Mad Munitions I, II
19 - FB3 Mad Munitions III; FB2 Sprint Boost II, III
20 - FB3 Constitution; FB4 Constitution; FB0 Storm's Eye


At the very least, by posting the build, I'll be able to find it again for future reference.

[unbongwah]

That might've been me. If so:

Do any of the updates warrant any changes to the build?

For heroic leveling, I would take the THF feats much sooner, as they're a lot more powerful / useful than before.

• The Two Handed Fighting Feat is now: While Two-Handed Fighting: +60% Strikethrough Chance. You can now Strikethrough while moving. You also gain a +2 Combat Style bonus to Melee Power while Two-Handed Fighting. While using a Two Handed Weapon (not including Bastard Sword or Dwarven axe), your Ability Score bonus to damage improves to 2x the Ability Score you use for damage.
• The Improved Two Handed Fighting Feat is now: While Two-Handed Fighting: +30% additional Strikethrough Chance. You also gain a +4 Combat Style bonus to Melee Power while Two-Handed Fighting. While using a Two Handed Weapon (not including Bastard Sword or Dwarven axe), your Ability Score bonus to damage improves to 2.5x the Ability Score you use for damage.
• The Greater Two Handed Fighting Feat is now: While Two-Handed Fighting: +30% additional Strikethrough Chance. You also gain a +6 Combat Style bonus to Melee Power while Two-Handed Fighting. While using a Two Handed Weapon (not including Bastard Sword or Dwarven axe), your Ability Score bonus to damage improves to 3x the Ability Score you use for damage.

So maybe change the feat order to THF (1) / Power Attack (3) / ITHF (6) / Improved Critical (9) / GTHF (12) / Cleave (15) / Great Cleave (18). Depends on whether you want extra Cleaves (besides Supreme Cleave) or extra Strikethrough + higher damage mod sooner. Humans can move Power Attack to level 1 and Cleave to level 3.

Enhancements: the barbarian trees got revamped a while back so they are better balanced. Frenzied Berserker, Occult Slayer and Ravager are actually all viable options for your primary tree (depending on how much DPS vs survivability you want), so you no longer have to feel pigeon-holed into the 41 FB / 39 Ravager split. I plan to dust off an old TYWA build and see how it does now.

[Breezwyn]

YES!!! That's the thread I was looking for! I had copied and pasted the relevant info into a document file, but had forgotten to bookmark or subscribe to that original thread. Thanks so much! Thanks for the updated advice as well!

I'm already at level 10 with this build, but I won't blow my heart to change things around. When I TR at level 20, I might convert to human in order to grab the feats sooner.

Quick extra question: If I TR into human with 34 build points, STR and CON get maxed and 2 build points get put into DEX. If I have a small DEX tome, I could take Precision at level 3 instead of Cleave. Would that be worth fitting in on a human, to switch to when fighting undead and other fortified enemies?

[unbongwah]

If I have a small DEX tome, I could take Precision at level 3 instead of Cleave. Would that be worth fitting in on a human, to switch to when fighting undead and other fortified enemies?

Good question: barbarian Rage disables Precision, so normally you would skip it and just use Power Attack. But as part of the barb Enhancement pass, some of the DPS bonuses were "decoupled" from Rage so they would still work while un-Raged, like the crit bonuses. So are there times when it's better DPS to turn off Rage and switch to Precision?

. . . if I figure that out, I'll let you know.

BTW the original build assumes you don't have Harper. If you do, you could bump up INT instead of DEX and put points into Harper for Know the Angles for the Insight bonus.

[Captain_Wizbang]

solid build

[Dulcimerist]

I've been using this build for many years as well. My very first character I created in 2010 was a dwarf barbarian swinging greataxes, then it morphed into this build after the huge enhancement overhaul. This has always been my main, and is currently doing the EPL grind.

This build is so fun that I created a gnome version for lots of giggles in heroics. Now that you mention KtA, I might have to finish unlocking Harper so I can try it out on my gnome barbarian. What do you drop in order to put APs into Harper?

[magaiti]

Feats:
1) Take THF feats before Cleaves, Strikethrough rocks.
2) Dire Charge is The level 29 feat for DPS melees, period. Deific is for tanks and casters.
3) Blinding Speed >> EDR, though feat order depends on your gear, maybe you have alacrity until 30.
4) Arborea >> Plane of Earth, unless you do something fancy, like EK

For Barbarian 20, consider 41/31/8 AP split for Harper (KtA)

Consider Bard 18 / Cleric 2, for Domain (Strength or Destruction) and Divine Might (you'll need Charisma gear though); Twist in Confront any Foe, it does some real damage.

[iconiclastic]

My build is just about the same only I took less of frenzied berserker. I got it up enough to get the strikethrough bonuses but I wanted the capstone in another and I wanted the terror PK ability because it kills stuff VERY fast and allows you to zerg more

[kiryamo75]

¿What about an 1 Fighter level splash?

+1 Feat and Heavy armor Proficiency

[Breezwyn]

That's tempting, but I'm unsure if that would be worth giving up the enhancement capstone?