Reaper Endgame Agile Fat Barbarian

[Gilga1]

I haven’t posted in a while... Recent updates have brought many changes and I'm happy to share the toon I'm currently playing.

My goal was to build a barb horc, big but agile at the same time, swinging a greataxe. Please note that means neither top tier dps nor defenses... it's pure flavor, not meta!

After U50-51 melee toons are always fun to play, and there is a lot of interesting and exciting stuff in the new Destinies.
I went for full hp/defenses, so I heavily invested in FotW and in Occult Slayer (t5 and capstone). Oh my! You're right, OS is a terribad enhancement tree, one of the worst trees ever made... but I was looking for something 'special': more fat, less damage. Regarding agility, light armor it is! 13 points in SD for evasion and some reflexes - as a barbarian, you need all the help you can get.
Finally, 11 points in LD, to grab a decent mantle (+1W).

Half Orc Barbarian 20 FotW(40) SD(13) LD(11)

Here’s a screenshot of my stats in reaper (self buffed).



Weapon stats


As expected, not a top tier dps. Decent stats for a THF tho.
I still get significant lag spikes when I swap multiple items including artifact, so the trance in this screenshot is not maxed out. I usually swap one item for trance plus a weapon set (full sentient + offhand) for Blood Feast and Unquenchable Rage.
If you have no problems at all, go for full sentient Int, artifact swap, etc.

Enhancements


Occult Slayer capstone and t5: 41 points. I already told you OS is bad. If you want to play a barb, FB is where the good things are. That said, OS provides some 'fatness' at least. Horc tree is quite expensive, I invested 6+1 points in Harper for a 60 seconds trance. 24 points in FB for Crazy Strike and core 4. Finally, 4 points in Ravager for Furious Rage and Barbarian Power Attack.
Disclaimer: as a melee, you should always take Haste boost. Horc boost is a thematic choice, not the best option.

Feats
THF line, PA, Completionist, IC, OC... I took Dodge, Mobillity, Spring Attack to cap dodge at 30%. I'm addicted to Spring Attack, what a fantastic tool! Epic Reflexes (everything helps, no fail on 1 is great too), Arborea as Scion.
Destiny feats are Doublestrike, Perfect THF, Harbringer of Chaos (for Fotw, see below).

Destinies


Core 3 x3 is a must for a melee imo.
FotW is a quite expensive tree, t5 in particular. Some t5 options (Lore of the Wilds, Scarred by Chaos) are 'flavor' and you don't really need more hp as barb. Anyways, as I wrote I went for full hp/defenses.
The fotw mantle disappoints me, so I picked LD.
SD... I like it! And getting viable reflex saves on a fat barb is an interesting challenge.

Gear Setup


Nowadays you have to slot Dripping with Magma. I really hope that insane thing will be nerfed soon, but right now it's a must include. So armor, or axe. I went for Magmatic Cleaver: free armor slot, and armor piercing covered.
A perfect artifact it's also a must have for a melee imo, because the extra slot is worth 10 melee power. The melee options we had aren't thrilling (the gloves proc is hilarious...): neck, bracers, trinket. I took the Perfected Jidz Tet'ka (insightful sheltering for more tankiness and insightful resistance for reflexes).
The main part of my gear looks so noobish: Part fo the Family and 4 Winter Set (trinket, ring, direwolf belt and boots).
Trinket and ring provide Incite and Insightful Incite, some Intimidate, the belt has Deception and Insightful Seeker. Superior Heroism helps with saves.
To complete my gearset, Tinkerer Goggles for Insghtful and Quality Deception (and Intelligence to help with the trance swap), Slate-Scale Capelet for Strength and Quality Strenght (Vitality and Quality Fortification too). The Band of Insightful Commands it's another must have (Insightful Accuracy + Quality Deadly). Titania's Glory is the best in slot helm for almost every melee.
I have reaper stats on helm and melee power boost on most of my items.


Regarding augments, I slotted 2 augment sets (Brutal blows and +3d6 sneak). Rest is for stats (Con, Cha, Dex, Ins Dex, Ins Str, Globe), Vertigo, Sheltering, Good Luck +3. You have to use an augment for Accuracy.

Pros:
- HP and Defenses. Not a real tank, but you are a tough mobile unit to crack and you can easily tank low skulls raids, and dooms and quest bosses in R10. Dodge is good with 30% standing in reaper and Improved Uncanny Dodge on top.
- Solid self-healing and temp hp. Unquenchable Rage is great and it procs on Primal Scream, Rage and Horc boost. Unquenchable Rage (combined with Blood Feast) makes you truly unkillable in low skulls content.
- Evasion. It's fun to play an evading barb
- Good mobility: base speed, Sprint boost, Spring Attack.
- Easy to play... with few active things to manage: Frezy+KtA upkeep; Boosts: Horc + Reaper's Strike; OS bond actives: +5 to attack, Driving Force, Seeker's Strike, One Spirit; Adrenaline and few strong special attacks for dmg (Boulder's Might, Seeker's Strike, Raging Crush); CC (The Great Leveler, Trip, Ear Smash... and Adrenaline ofc); temp hp from Blood Feast/Affirmation.

Cons:
- You'll be haunted by a legitimate question: “Why didn't I take FB t5?”. OS is overall a terrible tree, nothing you can do about it.
- Not top tier DPS: Adrenaline helps, you can be quite effective against trash mobs. Raid bosses are a different matter tho.
- To Hit. Pump your Strength using Yugo and Toven Cookies, Raging Strength etc. Look for a Bard friend.
- In order to cap doublestrike you have to use Reaper's Strike. So I stopped at 70%.
- You have top tier survivability, but you can't heal your fellow party members. And that sucks.

As usual, feel free to ask for more informationn

[DaviMOC]

Wow! If thats not a tank I dont know what would be. I've been tanking r10 with a bit more than half of your stats. Impressive and unachivable for now. 64 its out of reach for me for a long time yet . XD. Good job!

Can you detail your dodge cap? Got 42% in a monk/fighter with all the spring atack feat line and ocean stance + ehancments investment, 30% dosent look like you would achiev only by trowing the featline and a light armor XD.

[Brac]

Great info, thanks for posting the build!

[Gilga1]

Can you detail your dodge cap? Got 42% in a monk/fighter with all the spring atack feat line and ocean stance + ehancments investment, 30% dosent look like you would achiev only by trowing the featline and a light armor XD.

Sure! The limit is the dodge cap: 25 base +2 guild Fencing Master +3 reaper (Reaper's Defense VI, and Reaper's Heightened Evasion x2).
My armor MDB is also 30: Legendary Wildcard 20, +2 guild Fencing Master +2 Mobility +6 Lithe. I'm short of augment slots. If not, I'd slot a +2 augment and drop 1 Lithe for 1 more sneak die.

[PrinceOfAsphodel]

My goal was to build a barb horc, big but agile at the same time, swinging a greataxe. Please note that means neither top tier dps nor defenses... it's pure flavor, not meta!

I was wondering a few things about why you were playing this build but I guess this answers them, lol.

I've always tried to take Precision as melee but I often see you prioritize Power Attack. I was wondering if you ever run into issues bypassing enemy fortification. I see you get 61 from gear and can drop by another 20 with Cracking Attack. Do you also use 5-piece Dreadbringer?

[Gilga1]

I've always tried to take Precision as melee but I often see you prioritize Power Attack.

Hey! Precision cannot be used while raging, so it's not an option. Also, I don't think the 25% extra fort bypass is needed anymore. The to-hit boost is useful tho.
Rage is a must have for almost every melee imo... huge bonuses to STR stat and 1000 temporary hp are hard to pass up.

I was wondering if you ever run into issues bypassing enemy fortification. I see you get 61 from gear and can drop by another 20 with Cracking Attack. Do you also use 5-piece Dreadbringer?

Not really, mobs have been nerfed hard and I feel good with 100% standing. And yes, you're correct: I use 5 Dreadbringer.
My base setup is 5 Prowess, 5 Dreadbringer, 2 Sucker Punch/One Against Many, 2 Treachery mp.
I have 97% fortification bypass standing + Cracking Attack.

[magaiti]

No haste boost? SMH.

[Gilga1]

No haste boost? SMH.

Ahahah, I agree. I think there should be a disclaimer somewhere in my original post XD

[tpbtoc]

Edit: What swap do you use for Unquenchable Rage?

Also would Insightful Reflex be a good option if you dump dex?

[PrinceOfAsphodel]

Hey! Precision cannot be used while raging, so it's not an option. Also, I don't think the 25% extra fort bypass is needed anymore. The to-hit boost is useful tho.
Rage is a must have for almost every melee imo... huge bonuses to STR stat and 1000 temporary hp are hard to pass up.

Lmao. I swear I forget everyday that Precision and Rage don't go together. But yes, I was mostly curious as to how big of a deal the 25% armor piercing was nowadays. Interesting to hear it's no longer as needed as before. Thanks a lot for sharing, Tronko. Very helpful.