Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

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Dwarf God of War (Single Barbarian) - POTD Build Guide
By Lost Sinner
★ Dwarf Slayer - Build Guide for Mountain Dwarfs, or Fire Godlike / Human / Hearth Orlan.

★ Role: Tanker, Striker

★ Class: Barbarian (Corpse-Eater)

✎ Team comp: play well with anyone, recommended to have a Priest to boost his accuracy so he could land hits/crits alot more. Build powerplay at level 13.
   
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★ Showcase Video
✎ Character Creation
♦ Starting Attributes:
  • 20 Might
Not only you get more damage output, but also more healing effectiveness, which helps the Barbarian to reliably heal himself up with the build sustain, without the help of others.

  • 20 Constitution
This build is a CON-sustain tank, having around 680~700+ HP at full build and high Armor Rating / Damage Reduction that can goes up to 16~18 AR on his own, which will have the enemies take awhile to bring the Barbarian down, and before they finally could, the build sustain can quickly help him get back up to healthy again.

  • 12 Dexterity
As a Barbarian you have quite alot of Action Speed boost already, and most of his buffs are fast casts while the aggresive ones are designed to execute enemies. Whenever the Barbarian pop a kill, he will start chaining kills with 0s recovery and attack really fast, then there are even more Action Speed coming from gear choice and consumable. So putting more Dexterity wouldn't make much of an impact in this case.

  • 15 Perception
Enough to hit most of the times, either rely on consumables or a Priest to help boost him accuracy further, so he can score hits/crits more.

  • 8 Intellect
Carnage is no longer a thing for Barbarian, and as you have a supply of resources on eating corpses or getting kills, having Rage to spam abilities is not a problem. That and you also have better Power Levels as a single class, so 2 less INT won't have any impact to the character, trading for 2 other points elsewhere.

  • 3 Resolve
The lower Resolve you have, the better for you and more worse for enemies. Because of how Barbaric Retaliation works, the Barb enjoys taking Critically Hits, allow him to ferociously striking back at his enemies everytime they score a Critical, they will receive back an even more stronger blows from the Barb. And because they are weapon attacks, it opens up alot synergy with on hit effects from weapons or class passives.

Mountain Dwarf and Rautai are used for this guide.

♦ Leveling:
  • Level 1: Frenzy
  • Level 2: Blooded
  • Level 3: Two Weapon Style & Thick Skinned
  • Level 4: Barbaric Blow
  • Level 5: One Stands Alone & Bloodlust
  • Level 6: Bull's Will
  • Level 7: Spirit Frenzy & Savage Defiance
  • Level 8: Unflinching
  • Level 9: Barbaric Smash & Tough
  • Level 10: Bloody Slaughter

  • Level 11: Uncanny Luck & Brute Force
  • Level 12: Interrupting Blows
  • Level 13: Spirit Tornado & Stalwart Defiance
  • Level 14: Blood Thirst
  • Level 15: Improved Critical

  • Level 16: Heart of Fury & Wilder Hunter
  • Level 17: Spell Resistance
  • Level 18: Snake Reflexes
  • Level 19: Blood Surge & Barbaric Retaliation
  • Level 20: Prestige

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♦ Civil skills:
  • Job: Hunter
  • Active: 9 Alchemy & 13 Athletics
  • Passive: History

♦ Weapon Proficiency:
  • Battle Axe - Sabre - Mace - Club - Flail
✎ Equipment / Gear
✦ Gear:
  • Blackened Black Helm: +1 Intellect, +1 Perception, +1 Engagement.

  • Bone Setter's Torc (Neck): +10% Healing done, +5% Hits to Crits with weapons.
    ✖ Precoginition (Neck): -75% Crit Damage Taken, +25% Crit Damage Dealt as an alternate neck.

  • Patinated Plate (Heavy): 30% Chance to stun attackers for 2s when Hit with a melee weapon, +2 Armor Rating against melee Weapons, +20% Recovery Time.
    ✖ Reckless Brigandine (Heavy): can be used as an alternative replacment if you prefer a more aggresive approach that can reach to the same AR and even more offense stats, the Plate looks better on the Dwarf though..
    → +5% Action Speed in melee, increases with targets Engaged, +1 enemies Engaged. +5% Melee weapon damage, increases as wearer loses Health (Max +20% Damage), increases armor rating as wearer lose Health (Max +2 Armor Rating)

  • Ring of Regeneration: +1 HP per 6s. (scaling)

  • Ring of Greater Rengeration: +3 HP per 6s. (scaling)

  • Boots of Stone: +1 Dexterity, +1 Resolve, + Resistance to Might afflictions

  • The Undying Burden (Belt): +1 Athletics, +2 Constitution, Incoming weapon Damage is reduced as Health is lost (Max -10% Damage Reduction), Grants 2nd Second Wind.

  • Gauntles of Accuracy: +3 Accuracy

  • The Giftbearer's Cloth (Cloak): +1 Quick Item Slots, +1 Weapon Slots, +5 All Defenses except Deflection (increases with History skill)

  • Nalvi (Dog) -% Recovery penalty for armor, varies by armor type (Party-wide)

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✦ Weapon:
  • Main Weapon Set:

    • Magran's Favor (Battle Axe): +20% Crit Damage, +15% Damage as Burn, 6 Burn Damage per 1s for 4s on Critical Hits. Grants 5% Damage as Burn and 5% Action Speed on kills (Stack 4 times)

    • Aldris Blade of Captain Crow (Sabre): +10% Damage as Shock, +10% Hits to Crits conversion, Deals +10 Shock Damage on Critical Hits, Wielder gains +8 Health on Critical Hits.

  • Second Weapon Set:

    • Sungrazer (Flail): +15% Damage as Burn, -1 Crush Armor Rating on Crits, 5% chance to launch a small Burn AoE on Hits or Crits. Killing an enemy with a Critical Hit launch a Burn AoE.

    • Shattered Vengeance (Club): +5 Accuracy, 33% chance to apply a stacking Curse that increase enemy damage taken.

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✦ Alchemy:
  • Taru Turu Chew: +3 Constitution, +3 Dexterity, +3 Might
  • Potion of Deftness: +5 Accuracy, +15% Action Speed.
  • Potion of Merciless Gaze: +15% Hits to Crits conversion.
  • Potion of Spirit Shield: +3 Armor Rating
  • Potion of Healing: Morderate or Major.
✎ Abilities Preview
♦ Corpse Eater subclass:
  • Bonus: Gains Flesh Communion, which allow character to consume dead corpses of Kith, Wilder, Beast. Granting them 3 Rage resources in return and large health restored, allow the Barb to play aggresively by spamming their abilities and an amazing source of healings.
    ✖ Because Flesh Communion requires a physical corpses to consume, enemies who are exploded on dead won't be available to be feasted on or other not included enemy types that are not eatable such as Primordial, Vessels, Spirits. Against such enemies, you have to manage your resources like normal Barb would.

  • Penalty: +1 cost to each Barbarian abilities.
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✦ Abilities:
  • Barbaric Retaliation: whenever the Barb gets Critically Hit, they will do a Full Attack on the attacker. It's a powerful retaliation skill, that will proc most of the times with this build, you are also built to take multiple attacks and sustain through most threats. It's also a great combination to on hit effects skills or weapons.
    e.g (1): two included backup weapons have 2 useful modal effects that can reduce target -25 Reflex (Flail) and -25 Will (Club), they also have their own on hit effects like -1 Crush Armor Rating and stacking curse (+damage taken). All that effects can apply on the enemies that Critically Hit Barbarian in combat if you prefer the Barb to take a more supportive approach.
    e.g (2): Skill passive such as Interrupting Blows can also interrupt enemies if the Barb retaliation attacks are Crits or Stagger them if the Barb is currently having his Spirit Tornado active.

  • Blooded: +25% when below 50% HP.

  • Thick Skinned: +1 Slash/Pierce/Armor Rating.

  • One Stands Alone: +20% Damage when engaged by 2 or more enemies, +1 Engagement.

  • Bloodlust: +20% Action Speed for 10s on personal kills.

  • Blood Thirst: recovers immediately each time the Barb kill a target.

  • Blood Surge: 25% chance to regain +1 Rage resources on kills.

  • Unflinching: Resistance to Might/Dexterity/Constitution afflictions when above 50% HP.

  • Spirit Tornado: Grants Strong and Fit inspirations and some boosts in stats which +5 MIG, +5 CON, +25% Action Speed and -10 Deflection. When upgraded, Terrifed nearby enemies on cast and Stagger enemy on weapon Hits.

  • Stalwart Defiance: Grants Robust inspiration which +5 CON, +2 Armor Rating, +10 HP (scaling) restored per 3s. When upgraded, the cost is reduced by one.

  • Brute Force: weapon attacks target Fortitude instead of Deflection if Fortitude are lower.

  • Bloody Slaughter: +20% Hits to Crits, +35% Crit Damage to enemies < 25% HP.

  • Barbaric Smash: Full Attack with +20% bonus damage, +35% bonus Hits to Crits, +50% Crit Damage, when upgraded can regain resources if the attack kills.

  • Heart of Fury: a spin attack that does Full Attack with +25% bonus Damage on every nearby enemies.

✦ AI Behavior Script:
10 Comments
wespe___o=/;;;:* 10 Jan, 2022 @ 7:13am 
As this guide still gets reading in 2022, I´d like to point out something that is not obvious for new players:
1. This Guide is from summer 2018 - v.1.1. The game is a bit different since v.5.0 :D:
2. CorpseEater Subclass seems nice for Rage-Regen. but it´s not viable for TANK in the thick of battle.. not more than other options
3. Those STATS are extremely risky (esp. in PoTD) without proper Gear and Party-support
4. Ideally no Subclass, or Berserker if you have the Gear (or Party support)
Arnaud Future 3 May, 2021 @ 10:25am 
Is the Corpse-Eater subclass really necessary? From my experience you don't really get the opportunity to use this ability mid-fight, especially if you're the tank, as you can get interrupted.
cloudedmaximus 4 Mar, 2019 @ 6:14am 
Hello! Great guide! Wondering what you mean when you say Ring of Regeneration is scaling? Thanks!
•҉Terse 6 Jan, 2019 @ 7:27am 
What do you mean by "carnage no longer matters"? This is the first I have heard of this.
Fingersofsalad 28 Aug, 2018 @ 2:06am 
Would this build be able to solo the game?
Quickpawmaud 4 Jul, 2018 @ 8:28pm 
the hot and aoe damage on kill seems like it would work really well
Quickpawmaud 4 Jul, 2018 @ 8:12pm 
i kind of want to multiclass with fighter on this what would you recommend for that?
Quickpawmaud 4 Jul, 2018 @ 6:38pm 
ah i did not know passive mattered much outside of roleplay and speech checks
Lost Sinner  [author] 4 Jul, 2018 @ 5:31pm 
The Giftbearer's Cloth, the Cloak used in this guide scales with History.
Quickpawmaud 4 Jul, 2018 @ 4:08pm 
why history and not intimidate or something?