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Barbarian - Captain America build


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I've been running a Captain America build with a Barbarian with Philios and Light alignment. I've dropped playing with Inferno because of a problem with some elites hitting harder than bosses, so it's standard v14 with Superspawn. I've still started my toon in Easy as I wanted to try out the main campaign with such an odd build.

Having just started Normal last night I can notice that it's holding up pretty well. Natural Resistance paired with Iron Skin makes my toon able to withstand most of the punishment, and my conservative skill choice builds up on that. I've started the Hellfire Arena at level 42 in early Sloeford and for the first few rounds on stage 1 those bosses and superuniques had a tough time scratching my toon, I didn't try against a bunch of caster yet though.

Damage dealing has been going surprisingly well, as I'm running a few triple combos and have modified most CAs for a higher chance to hit and/better weapon damage. I'm able to run the combos and kill most mobs without much issues.

So what's my main problem right now? Damage dealing to bosses. It seems that nothing other than Concentrate can make them drop, but high HP vs low CA damage output makes for long tedious fights. So far in the Arena I was able to get there by patience, since I'm able to take the hits, but I'm thinking that the more I advance the bigger of an issue this will be. So, any idea on how to bypass this situation without %LL? Because so far I only have 3/8 pieces of the sets that grant it, at best.

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My daughter tried shield only and delayed it to level 75+. But her 36th chamber amazon has quite the opposite problem: she has a very high hit chance but low defense and no defense against spells except godpower. So to fight mages she has to play first person view and long range sniper style with a blowpipe and guided poison javelins. She finished easy arena level 10, and normal arena level 61, normal campaign was finished level 67.

Ring are around 15-15 damage now. Should be playable against melee and ranged enemies. Mages are tricks, because socketing x-x damage robs the needed block/reflecz ca socketing for an amazon.

 

An option for an Captain America build could be choosing the barbarian god and the MIGHT godpower. 1%life leech, 20+%higher attack speed cap, ... But this would probably need Grim Wards for mages

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5 hours ago, chattius said:

An option for an Captain America build could be choosing the barbarian god and the MIGHT godpower. 1%life leech, 20+%higher attack speed cap, ... But this would probably need Grim Wards for mages

Quite right, but I fear that this would be most effective only with a mastered Divine Devotion, which isn't the case with my build.

So I guess that unless I get some sort of %LL source I can't avoid this issue? Well, assuming I can survive the incoming damage it's just a matter of being patient enough to keep hitting with Concentrate. :3lmao:Or at least until I can get other sources of %chance to disregard armour (Pandemonium's Pride has it as a bonus for instance). Live and learn I guess, I'll keep playing and see what gives. I'm curious how it's going to go down against the round with Nimonuil, Mishirla and the other two, which incidentally is the one where I left yesterday.

Just so I'm clear, I'm not using any weapons at all. Like ever since level 1. Only shield and fists. :wink: And my intention is to keep developing the build like that. Now if only I could get a Tooth and Nail mini-set to drop...

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@Flix @chattius - There's something that's confusing me, maybe the two of you can help me understand. Since I'm running unarmed I don't have a weapon lore to increase attack speed, which in turn would increase the melee CAs' execution speed. So I slap a ring with +4% attack speed and I get "104% attack speed - 100% CA execution speed", then I exchange it for a ring with +4% casting speed and I get "100% attack speed - 104% CA execution speed". But, and here's where I'm confused, when I cast Berserk and I make a kill both speed values increase by the same proportion. :mellow: So let's say that my first kill gives me a 4% bonus, what I get is "104% attack speed - 104% CA execution speed".

Why is that? I'm not following the logic since Berserk is supposed to increase attack value/attack speed/movement speed, not casting speed.

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Berserk increases both attack and casting speed, I guess.

The spell token is "et_charge_attackspeed" which points to the blueprint bonus "bb_charge_attackspeed".

 

Typically you'll see one of the following on speed bonuses:

spez = "SPEED_ATTACK", -- weapons only

spez = "SPEED_CAST", -- spells only

spez = "SPEED_MAX", -- both weapons and spells

 

"bb_charge_attackspeed" has spez = "CHARGE_ATTACK_SPEED", which I assumed meant weapons only... but I never checked casting speed.  If you're seeing both values increase, then that tells the tale right there.  Consider it a perk for a Barb using the War Cries aspect.

The speed cap increase from the "Unrestrained" silver mod should only apply to weapons though.

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Thanks for the info mate, and yeah both values climb up to 124,8% max at CA level 1.

The good thing about playing unarmed and using Concentrate as a substitute for left-click attacks is that now I only need to socket +%casting speed for CAs, so it releases some socket space that would otherwise be occupied with +%attack speed. :)

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For the Shadowwarrior Captain America build opponents level for deathblow was more important than socketing more x%damage from level 75-90 upwards. The SW heavy-hit CA has buildin x% damage so with lot of +allSkills and RegPerHit x% damage was added to the big amount from the CA. Deathblow however added something new. 66% deathblow meant that easy mobs were often in deathblow for the second of the doublehits.

enemy has 60000 hitpoints. attack does 10000 damage, and x%damage is at 1000% already. 3 sockets free

Socketing 3 more 34%damage would be 100% more, 1100%to 1000%is like 10%more damage . So we would do 11000 damage now and still need 6 hits.

Socketing 3 rings each 30% with diminishing returns perhaps 50%: 10000,10000,10000,20000,20000 5hits needed

With 67% deathblow: 10000,10000,20000,20000 = 4 hits

 

But the deathblow usefulness depends to a big amount how much x%damage the ca-brings

 

And yes the spidergirls were based on ca-speed not attack speed for weaponless attacks. The last builds could kill any boss in 6 seconds on highest difficulty.

 

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Just here for the title and concept!

..  always love builds that try to emulate heroes! :superman:

 Are you able to post some footage of how your build looks for youtube clip?

:crazy_pilot:

gogo

 

 

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25 minutes ago, gogoblender said:

Just here for the title and concept!

..  always love builds that try to emulate heroes! :superman:

 Are you able to post some footage of how your build looks for youtube clip?

:crazy_pilot:

gogo

 

 

 

The old Kungfu Dryads, sadly no video of a Shadowarrioe Captain America

Kungfu -Dryad , Waffenmeisterin, Furian did a video,

Same build v4.0, but with all the experience of years. Killing bosses with just two spells, curse and disease, Could be way faster if x%lifeleech flipkicks lower the threshold for disease way quicker.

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The Barbarian has a few differences from the Shadow Warrior in terms of the CAs, namely Concentrate which is more or less a Magic Coup that can be modified for RpH, so that CA at the end of a multi-hit combo is quite effective and will save me some socket room. If I can get that mini-set with Apep's Eclipse I know that the ring has a high RpH bonus. Deathblow hasn't dropped yet, but since I'm reaching level 50 it should begin to appear. And yeah, it's super effective. I remember that I played with an Inquisitor and had more than 70% and it was brutal. Having "native double hits" and deathblow will be awesome. :)

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Just hit my first stalemate situation with this build, final round of stage 1 in the Hellfire Arena. Namely I can't shell out enough damage to kill Nihlathak and Asmarael, and they can cause enough damage on my toon to have a go at it. I've been upgrading my damage output and generally speaking it's been going pretty well, even Octagolamus was a sure prey for my Barbarian build. I'm just stuck in that round in the arena though. Guess it's time for main quest then.

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What could help a bit: Did you place a Grim Ward?

If you don't have the War Cries tree - even unmodified GrimWard projectiles can remove a buff from the opponent. I think Nihlathak has Bone Armour. Some enemy KI has a high priority to recast buffs. While recasting they don't attack you.

        entry0 = {"et_duration_sec", 1500, 10, 0, 8 },
        entry1 = {"et_hits_persec", 1000, 10, 0, 4 },
        entry2 = {"et_chance_fear", 1000, 0, 0, 5 },
        entry3 = {"et_spelldamage_physical", 110, 55, 0, 133 },
        entry4 = {"et_closedown_buff", 1000, 0, 0, 5 },
        entry5 = {"et_missile_count", 900, 30, 0, 8 },
        entry6 = {"et_chance_piercing", 1000, 0, 0, 5 },
        entry7 = {"et_target_seeker", 1000, 0, 0, 133 },
        entry8 = {"et_debuff_movespeed", 300, 2, 1, 42 },
        entry9 = {"et_spelldamage_physical", 110, 55, 2, 133 },
        entry10 = {"et_chance_criticalhit", 99, 1, 3, 5 },
        entry11 = {"et_debuff_prone_fir", 100, 2, 4, 42 },
        entry12 = {"et_chance_bleeding", 200, 2, 5, 5 },
        entry13 = {"et_debuff_prone_ice", 100, 2, 6, 42 },

 

 

 

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That's interesting! I'm mainly counting on the War Cries tree for Battle Orders at Concentration mastery and Shout+Berserk, but there are indeed some heavy debuffs in that skill tree. I need to give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks mate! :)

PS: And you rock, Grim Ward did the trick. Not only does it debuff bosses but it also keeps their summons at bay. Grim Ward is very interesting, I may need to invest some brain cells in working this into my build, though since I'm playing with a physical damage build I suppose just the bronze mod Hamstring will suffice. Much like Stun I don't think I'll use for it raw damage as much as the side-effects it produces on mobs. On a similar note, do you think that an unmodified Howl can work just as well as an unmodified Stun as an opening move in a multi-hit combo?

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I guess there's no trick into killing the Forest Guardian other than causing him damage faster than he does his full heals?! I've been advancing a lot in the campaign but I can't seem to make him drop fast enough. I've been out of luck with finding deathblow gear and Battle Orders also doesn't do the trick.

I may have to use Thor's Hammer on this one. :D

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With my Singer my strategy was Howl.

Grim Ward, then

I howl, howl, howl and howl, some more howls, did I say I howl?

Probably 20 howls then I start philios god power, war cry, stun, 5 howls, war cry, 5 howls, war cry, ...

recasting grim ward if needed.

...

A full heal is way less powerful if the enemy has only 10-20% of its max hit points and needs ages to cast a heal because of howls slowing

Without howl.. perhaps deadly wounds or whatever reduces max hit points, weaken from magical damage. Think 20%less max hitpoint from wounds, and 20% less stats from weaken. So you only have to do 60% of the normally needed damage.

 

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Yeah, I get your strategy of heavy debuff mixed with spell damage. Old Steve though is more of the working class of having to do everything bare-handed, sturdy as he is. So no matter what strategy I use I can only drop about 40% of the Forest Guardian's HP before a full heal comes into place and oh my, here we go again. I even have Concentrate modified with Enervate, so weaken is a factor in my attacks. I have no clue how to deal deadly wounds without using weapons since I believe that modifier is only present in them, and I do have Bash unmodified. I guess that leaves me without options, ha ha.

Thing is, the casting speed bonus on jewellery is too small, as is the attack speed bonus if I were to use a weapon without a proper weapon lore. Guess I'm stuck in that round of the Arena until I can get some other upgrades on my build. :dntknw:

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Small update:

  • Forest Guardian is down. I forged some damage rings into a couple of Talin's set pieces, used Battle Orders and had 40% deathblow. It still wasn't easy and I had to keep tweaking the damage output until I could cause him enough damage but it went down. Stopped at the round with Garganthropod because I was still pre-mastery.
  • Finished Normal at level 69, went crystal hunting and reached mastery level just before the Phoenix Nest. Tripple buff running, mastery in Tactics Lore, Armor Lore, Concentration and Constitution. Those Dracolin Elites and Lithos (is that the name of those mini-Facetteleon thingies?) suddenly stopped being such a nuisance.
  • Got confident and fought Narmul, it went alright but man is that boss hard! I was able to deal him enough damage without deathblow or life leech, so I'm very happy right now.

Next step, hunt the Elemental Lords for the legendaries and finish the Arena. Then speedrun Gold and start Platinum for all the big bonuses, see how it goes there. I've been getting a lot of set pieces drops in the Crystal Planes but I still don't have those specific pieces I'm after. My toon is well balanced right now though. Let's see how the hunt for the Elemental Lords, and more specifically the round against all of them at once, goes down. :)

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The 5 elementals at once are tricky. I was level 80 at hard/gold when I finished arena. I call my newest singer barb a forum character. One fight in the arena, read forum while godpower recharges, ...

The weaponless amazon of my daughter kinds stagnates. The amazon lacks spell block/reflect and while alchemy has a nice trophy for this, you have to collect the trophies first.

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Indeed they are, even more so when the SB on Mr. Rogers already makes mobs grow 10 levels above him. So while I'm hunting for the legendary relics on each of the four I'll have a good glimpse at how hard they're hitting, though in all honesty it's mostly about Lightning and Earth Lords. Those two... Anyway, since I'm not playing with Inferno anymore they should be more accessible. I mean, I did kill Narmul bare handed and he's not easy. We'll see how it goes.

What I'm curious about is how the toon will run in the Cursed Forest. I'm thinking about starting Gold, save point at Sloeford and straight into that area for gear hunting, then main campaign straight into Platinum. I fear the Abishai though, he's a tricky one.

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Haven't updated my progress here in a while, here it goes.

After going through some issues with the Lightning Lord in Normal I went and did the Cursed Forest. Got a bit too confident with the Abishai when he was at 10% health and almost died, glad it was just a jump scare. I did alright in that area and then fine tuned my damage output a bit more and went to try different combinations of CAs against the Lightning Lord. Ended up with a combo of Howl+Stun+Concentrate which proved effective at that point and I was able to kill him in the Swamp and in the Arena as well. The rest of the Arena I also did alright, repeated the combo a bit with many of the bosses.

Jumped to Hard and went straight away into the Arena, got to the Elemental bunch again and this time the combo didn't work as I can't shell out enough damage. But I guess I can blame my handicap for that since my damage almost triples if I equip a weapon. So I'm doing the main campaign and I'm dominating everything up until the Swamp, where I arrived today. Bosses haven't been difficult and the only instances where I noticed my HP going down were with casters, but nothing troublesome. Solid build so far, the damage handicap is the main issue of it.

After mastery level I began to put all points into Strength for weapon damage and I'm keeping Tactics Lore at char level. Raised both Berserk and Warfare Focus up until my fourth CA was modified and now I'm modifying the War Cries tree. So 1+2+2 and now 1+4. After the tree is modified I'm going to master all the Focus skills because the triple buff and its mods are what drive this build. So up up and away they shall go.

Still trying to get a full set with %LL, I have two at 5 pieces. But in terms of gear I'm actually focusing more on the modifiers on each piece of armour rather than the bonus for wearing several. This way the modifiers I use can be more specific. Right now my routine is combo 1, 2 and 3 in succession, those being Howl+Stun+Concentrate, Whirlwind+Double Attack+Concentrate, Stun+Frenzy+Concentrate. Combo 4 is reserved for Berserk+Shout and the fifth slot cycles between Leap Attack when travelling and Grim Ward while fighting bosses.

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So good old Steve managed to wipe the floor with most of Ancaria. Finished Hard, tried again to unlock the Elemental Lords round in the Arena and managed to kill the Lightning Lord at much cost (hurray!). Completed it. My joy wasn't to last though as I climbed one level when doing the Arena, so when I went after him again in the Swamp he had me, hard. So yeah, bye bye SB, rinse and restart. I don't have anything else to do in this difficulty level other than hunting for the Elemental jewels the Lords give, so I don't know, maybe I'll just leave it be and head to Nightmare.

I have three complete sets, but none of those gives me the upper edge of having %LL. Still, solid build with a nasty handicap which I can circumvent most of the time. I'm curious if I can keep up with this handicap in Nightmare without LL though, it's supposed to be a big jump in mobs' stats and I can't tell if my damage output will be able to keep up. But hey, my SB is gone now so I shouldn't have much issues at early areas.

I still had a few jump scares in the Arena, which tells me that this build could do better still. I'll see what I can find to improve it.

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Before summerbreaks the unarmed Amazone from my daughter was one set item away from full Glaurung set for x% life leech. The Amazone lacks a lot in defense when trying to be played unarmed. The whole playstyle for the Amazone seems to be long range sniper style. Perhaps trying again in a few weeks with carefully optimized items.

I think if I would try the Captain America build I would opt for Divine Devotion. My 'GrimWard Preacher' is at 72.4s cooldown and an uptime of 18s for the godpower now.

 

Divine Devotion, all three foci, tactical lore, armour lore, concentration, alchemy, combat discipline, ancient magic

 

Looks strange for a fighter type, but the godpower, the warcry tree, stun and berzerk are all spells.

 

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I'm actually thinking about rewriting my conservative sketch and try to milk more out of it with a few different skills.

For instance, I have Toughness but I'm mastering 7 skills before even putting more than 1 hard point in it. At level 108 without mastery in the Berserk Focus I already have around 30% DM from Natural Resistance, whereas Toughness is at 6%. Another skill that's pretty much sitting there is Shield Lore, and come to think of it wearing a shield with a penalty to attack speed (it's attack speed right?) won't matter much because playing weaponless uses casting speed. Plus I have 42% chance to block melee but 35% chance to reflect melee from Iron Skin, so maybe it's a fair trade (block vs reflect with high DM). That way I could potentially get two different skills into the build. What do you think?

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