U51 Preferred Epic Destiny trees

[SylvanPhoenix]

What are you all using for your ED trees for THF barbs post U51? I'm currently level 26 and I have mostly FotW with a bit of LD and I was considering should I also pull in some Shadowdancer?

For instance, should I focus on doublestrike or strikethrough?

Do you all prefer the FotW's mantle vs LD's mantle?

I know that Dire Charge was in favor when you twisted it in but do you all invest into LD for that now? Do you worry about CC as a barb or just focus purely on DPS and let others provide the CC?

Thanks!
Sylvan

post edit: I realized I should state my goals as that probably helps a lot! I plan to run mid-level epic reaper content with a group (lvls 26+). Once I get to 30 I'll want to run the endgame content, including raids.

[PrinceOfAsphodel]

What are you all using for your ED trees for THF barbs post U51? I'm currently level 26 and I have mostly FotW with a bit of LD and I was considering should I also pull in some Shadowdancer?

For instance, should I focus on doublestrike or strikethrough?

Do you all prefer the FotW's mantle vs LD's mantle?

I know that Dire Charge was in favor when you twisted it in but do you all invest into LD for that now? Do you worry about CC as a barb or just focus purely on DPS and let others provide the CC?

Thanks!
Sylvan

post edit: I realized I should state my goals as that probably helps a lot! I plan to run mid-level epic reaper content with a group (lvls 26+). Once I get to 30 I'll want to run the endgame content, including raids.

Dreadnought and Fury are basically the two best options. Fury's mantle is pretty decent for high reaper runs if you have good cc in the group but it's utter garbage for raids.Dreadnought is better. Outside of the mantle, I actually think the destinies reflect the opposite. Dreadnought's Dire Charge is really helpful for going through dungeons (assuming you can hit the stun DCs), and not very helpful against raid bosses, like Adrenaline would be. If you do main Dreadnought, Grandmaster of Flowers becomes a must because of the +6 stunning DCs.

You should always aim to have all 9 cores of the destinies you're allowed to have, because the melee power outclasses everything else. If you're like me and don't have a ton of epic past lives, you won't reach that... but it should be the goal.

The way doublestrike works in today's meta is: if you can get to 100 standing doublestrike, you push all the way up there. If you can't no matter what you do, aim for 70 and let the Reaper Strike boost take you to 100. More than 70 is not necessarily useless since you still get more double hits when not using the Strike, it's just less important than getting to 70.

If you're old school and took both cleave feats, just go for doublestrike. Your build will have enough aoe. If you're on the new spice and dropped cleaves in favor of other feats, then strikethrough is your friend and you definitely want to be at 200 at cap. I would aim for 200 even if you do have a cleave in your rotation. Over 200 starts becoming pretty irrelevant for raids in particular but still nice for mid to high reaper quest runs.

I am currently on a raid boss dps Barbarian (12 Barb, 6 Bard, 2 FVS) so probably not the build you had in mind when asking the question but in case you're still curious, I take no CC. I just want to focus on my one job. If I were on a pure THF variant, I might consider using Dire Charge if the DCs look attainable. You need over 120 in this day and age I hear, so it's no easy feat.

[Hawkwier]

What are you all using for your ED trees for THF barbs post U51? I'm currently level 26 and I have mostly FotW with a bit of LD and I was considering should I also pull in some Shadowdancer?

For instance, should I focus on doublestrike or strikethrough?

Do you all prefer the FotW's mantle vs LD's mantle?

I know that Dire Charge was in favor when you twisted it in but do you all invest into LD for that now? Do you worry about CC as a barb or just focus purely on DPS and let others provide the CC?

Thanks!
Sylvan

post edit: I realized I should state my goals as that probably helps a lot! I plan to run mid-level epic reaper content with a group (lvls 26+). Once I get to 30 I'll want to run the endgame content, including raids.

Hey. Can only talk from my personal perspective but I run a THF (Ravager capstone, T5 Frenzy, 6 Harper) barb at cap in high R (though not exclusively as depends on group) and raids. Also got full ED points. YMMV...

So I go for CC. DPS=0 for a soulstone, and in high R your best defence is not getting hit, and a mob can't hit you if they are cc'd. Going full DPS is a viable option, but personally I find that too risky in high R, and my DPS, whilst not optimal, isn't too shabby.

I run LD T5s for the epic moment as need that to compensate for losing Meld, and that is pretty much required as a melee in high R for rednames imo (see not getting hit). The other LD T5s are good too (leveraging improved trip and mproved sunder are great if you can fit them in), though I don't use these action boost recharge as it's too infrequent. I also use the LD mantle and full Direcharge.

The secondary ED I use is Fury at T4. This for fully augmented Primal Scream and Adrenaline. Also the self-heal from rage/scream.

Both Adrenaline and Direcharge are Epic Strikes so mutually exclusive - Direcharge for mobs and adrenaline for rednames.

I miss out on a 3rd tree for now, and will probably be looking at Shadow-Dancer for the cores assuming I get more ED points in Legendary Levels. I reckon those cores are best of the 3 trees tbh, but the points system isn't flexible enough for me to take them without giving up too much in LD and Fury.

Anyway I've found this is what works best for me. Getting over the realisation that I didn't necessarily have to take 3 trees was the most difficult part to get my head around, but tbh personally I haven't missed the lost MP that much.

Hope this might help.

[SylvanPhoenix]

Dreadnought and Fury are basically the two best options. Fury's mantle is pretty decent for high reaper runs if you have good cc in the group but it's utter garbage for raids.Dreadnought is better. Outside of the mantle, I actually think the destinies reflect the opposite. Dreadnought's Dire Charge is really helpful for going through dungeons (assuming you can hit the stun DCs), and not very helpful against raid bosses, like Adrenaline would be. If you do main Dreadnought, Grandmaster of Flowers becomes a must because of the +6 stunning DCs.

You should always aim to have all 9 cores of the destinies you're allowed to have, because the melee power outclasses everything else. If you're like me and don't have a ton of epic past lives, you won't reach that... but it should be the goal.

The way doublestrike works in today's meta is: if you can get to 100 standing doublestrike, you push all the way up there. If you can't no matter what you do, aim for 70 and let the Reaper Strike boost take you to 100. More than 70 is not necessarily useless since you still get more double hits when not using the Strike, it's just less important than getting to 70.

If you're old school and took both cleave feats, just go for doublestrike. Your build will have enough aoe. If you're on the new spice and dropped cleaves in favor of other feats, then strikethrough is your friend and you definitely want to be at 200 at cap. I would aim for 200 even if you do have a cleave in your rotation. Over 200 starts becoming pretty irrelevant for raids in particular but still nice for mid to high reaper quest runs.

I am currently on a raid boss dps Barbarian (12 Barb, 6 Bard, 2 FVS) so probably not the build you had in mind when asking the question but in case you're still curious, I take no CC. I just want to focus on my one job. If I were on a pure THF variant, I might consider using Dire Charge if the DCs look attainable. You need over 120 in this day and age I hear, so it's no easy feat.

Thanks, this was super helpful. If you have a link handy to your raid boss dps barb build, I'd love to consider it for a future TR. I want to try an 11 barb/8 druid (wolf)/1 fvS build next.

I do usually run in groups so others typically put down most of the CC though long ago (2013 - I took a long break from the game) I ran this toon as an 18 barb/2 fighter for better stuns. I've gone back and forth on whether I need to have CC as part of my build hence one of my OP questions.

[SylvanPhoenix]

Hey. Can only talk from my personal perspective but I run a THF (Ravager capstone, T5 Frenzy, 6 Harper) barb at cap in high R (though not exclusively as depends on group) and raids. Also got full ED points. YMMV...

So I go for CC. DPS=0 for a soulstone, and in high R your best defence is not getting hit, and a mob can't hit you if they are cc'd. Going full DPS is a viable option, but personally I find that too risky in high R, and my DPS, whilst not optimal, isn't too shabby.

I run LD T5s for the epic moment as need that to compensate for losing Meld, and that is pretty much required as a melee in high R for rednames imo (see not getting hit). The other LD T5s are good too (leveraging improved trip and mproved sunder are great if you can fit them in), though I don't use these action boost recharge as it's too infrequent. I also use the LD mantle and full Direcharge.

The secondary ED I use is Fury at T4. This for fully augmented Primal Scream and Adrenaline. Also the self-heal from rage/scream.

Both Adrenaline and Direcharge are Epic Strikes so mutually exclusive - Direcharge for mobs and adrenaline for rednames.

I miss out on a 3rd tree for now, and will probably be looking at Shadow-Dancer for the cores assuming I get more ED points in Legendary Levels. I reckon those cores are best of the 3 trees tbh, but the points system isn't flexible enough for me to take them without giving up too much in LD and Fury.

Anyway I've found this is what works best for me. Getting over the realisation that I didn't necessarily have to take 3 trees was the most difficult part to get my head around, but tbh personally I haven't missed the lost MP that much.

Hope this might help.

Thanks! I appreciate your insight. Yeah, it's clear I have to make choices since I don't have full ED points.