by Axlett-Banx··Update 81 - Terror of Demogorgon·182·
Description
Do you want to feel like an unstoppable juggernaut at all points in the game? Do you like playing solo? Are your favorite buttons Left-Click and W? Then do I have a build for you...
As an avid solo player, I've run every class and every play style solo in my decade+ of playing. In my experience, Ravager Barbarian is an S Tier leveler throughout almost the entire game for melees. It has damage, it has durability, it has sustain, and it doesn't need past lives or tomes to do it's job. As such, this build doesn't utilize any tomes or past lives and assumes a 28-point build. Players with access to 32-point builds can choose to put their extra 4 points into Wisdom for a slight boost to Will saves.
I chose Human for this build for the extra feat and skill ranks, but you can play any race you like, even Halflings! If you choose not to play Human, simply take Power Attack at level 3, and take Cleave and Great Cleave at levels 15 and 18 respectively. As we level, Falchion is the best in slot weapon type due to it's innate critical threat range. However, you're a Barbarian, if you want to use a Greataxe, who am I to stop you? We'll also want to pick up any Strength and Constitution items, as well as Medium Armors and Sheltering items.
Our main low point, in my experience, is right at level 20. Monsters tend to have much higher AC and damage and the difficulty jump between Epic Hard and Epic Elite is huge. If you have access to Saltmarsh, I'm a huge advocate of getting an Epic Saltmarsh set- you can farm it on Heroic Elite at level 20 and you can wear it all the way to level 30. The difficulty should smooth out as you hit levels 21-23, and by 24 you should be feeling like a juggernaut again.
Base Stats
28-Point Build
STR18
DEX8
CON16
INT10
WIS8
CHA8
Ability Level-Ups
Lvl 4STR
Lvl 8STR
Lvl 12STR
Lvl 16STR
Lvl 20STR
Lvl 24STR
Lvl 28STR
Lvl 32STR
Lvl 36STR
Leveling Path
Lvl 1-20Barbarian
Feats per Level
level <1> (Barbarian): Two Handed Fighting (Human Bonus Feat), Power Attack (Standard)
level <3> (Barbarian): Cleave (Standard)
level <4> (Barbarian): Form of Pain (Alter Dark Gift)
level <6> (Barbarian): Improved Two Handed Fighting (Standard)
level <9> (Barbarian): Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons (Standard)
level <12> (Barbarian): Greater Two Handed Fighting (Standard)
level <15> (Barbarian): Great Cleave (Standard)
level <18> (Barbarian): Toughness (Standard)
level <21> (Epic): Eerie Aim (Epic Feat)
level <22> (Epic): Perfect Two Handed Fighting (Epic Destiny Feat)
level <24> (Epic): Strength of Arms (Epic Feat)
level <25> (Epic): Doublestrike (Epic Destiny Feat)
level <27> (Epic): Patience (Epic Feat)
level <28> (Epic): Deific Warding (Epic Destiny Feat)
level <30> (Epic): Overwhelming Critical (Epic Feat), Scion of Arborea (Legendary Feat), Enhanced Form of Pain (Dark Gift Upgrade)
level <31> (Legendary): Harbinger of Chaos (Epic Destiny Feat)
level <33> (Legendary): Legendary Strength of Arms (Epic Feat)
level <34> (Legendary): Titan's Blood (Epic Destiny Feat)
level <36> (Legendary): Epic Power Attack (Epic Feat)
Enhancement Notes
This build utilizes Ravager as it's primary tree with Frenzied Berserker as a secondary. If you have access to the Vistani Knife Fighter tree, take all 8 points out of Occult Slayer and put them into VKF to grab Haste Boost.
While leveling, put your first 8 points into Frenzied Berserker to grab Blood Tribute. Blood Tribute lets you take 1 point of Constitution damage to gain 150 temporary hit points for 1 minute. Feel free to use this each time the shield runs out- you will never run out of Con. This enhancement is more than enough to carry you to level 12. I also like to throw in 1 extra point to grab Sprint Boost but this isn't necessary for everyone.
After you pay the Blood Tribute tax, put points into Ravager. Grab Slaughter as soon as you can as that attack deals double damage BEFORE crits. If you have some doublestrike, you'll also occasionally hit some doublestrike slaughter crits and delete whatever you hit. At level 12, grab Blood Strength as soon as possible. While the healing may not seem like much from the description, in practice, it what makes you unkillable. Once you factor in all of the healing amplification from each trees' cores plus your melee power, you can completely stop using Blood Tribute except for emergencies.
Past level 12-13, start putting points back into Frenzied Berserker. From here, we really want the level 18 Core for Death Frenzy as well as the Cracking Attack line. The Crazy Strike buff is a huge DPS increase so be sure to use Cracking Attack on cooldown.
Once Ravager and Frenzied Berserker is filled out, put your last 8 points into Occult Slayer for some slight defensive bonuses. At level 20, grab the Ravager Capstone and use it on cooldown- the DC is based on your Intimidate score and almost never fails. From levels 20+, try to grab an Intimidate Item to boost this DC even higher as you level.
Enhancements
[Frenzied Berserker]
Core:
Die Hard (1), Frenzied Toughness I (1), Frenzy (1), Frenzied Toughness II (1), Death Frenzy (1)
Tier 1:
Cracking Attack (3), Power Rage (3)
Tier 2:
Angry Arms (3), Body Blow (3), Blood Tribute (3), Sprint Boost (1)
Tier 3:
Mad Munitions (3), Constitution I (1)
Tier 4:
Crazy Strike (3), Constitution II (1)
[Ravager (Barbarian)]
Core:
Furious Rage (1), Pain Touch I (1), Demoralizing Success (1), Pain Touch II (1), Subsiding Fury (1), Visage of Terror (1)
Tier 1:
Ritual Scarring (2), Do You Like Pain? (3), Barbarian Power Attack (3), Hardy Rage (3)
Tier 2:
I Like Pain (3), Cruel Cut (1), Action Boost: Melee Power (3)
Tier 3:
Slaughter (3), Festering Wound (1), Ability I: +1 Strength (1)
Tier 4:
Laughter (1), Dismember (1), Ability II: +1 Strength (1)
Tier 5:
Blood Strength (1), Uncanny Balance (1), Critical Rage (2)
[Occult Slayer]
Core:
Weapon Bond (1), Resistance (1)
Tier 1:
Parrying Bond (3), Uncanny Dodger (1)
Tier 2:
Guarding Bond (2)
Epic Destiny Notes
For Destinies, we will be utilizing Fury of the Wild, Legendary Dreadnought, and Divine Crusader.
Fury of the Wild:
Quick Cutter is the best Epic Strike for melee leveling due to it being an AoE cleave as well as having a huge damage rider attached (20d6 on-hit DoT at level 20 that stacks and increases as you level). You can choose to take Adrenaline instead for the huge Adrenaline + Slaughter crits, however Adrenaline only affects a single target so I find it to be less effective for solo-leveling. At level 23, take the Spirit of the Beast enhancement instead of Furious so we can pump the Quick Cutter damage rider to 2d6 per character level. At level 26, we will need to reset this tree so we can take Furious for +3 Strength, and grab Primal Force to set the Quick Cutter damage rider to 3d6 per character level. As we hit 30 and beyond, take all of the T5 enhancements (Note: The Great Leveler is an okay enhancement. The animation can be a little slow so I like to start a fight with the Great Leveler as I'm running up, then hit Quick Cutter).
Legendary Dreadnought:
LD is basically just a stat boost tree. Unlike Fury of the Wild, LD doesn't have any unique attacks or abilities. However, the stats we gain are extremely effective. Take the Mantle as well as the Combat Brute enhancement to give your weapons another +1W that pairs nicely with Crazy Strike. When we have extra points, grab the doublestrike and the Armor of Dusk enhancement to raise our dodge cap in medium armor. For the last few points, you can put 2 points into the mantle upgrade if you decide to start grouping or you can put them into Carry On to add a small attack speed bonus to your Melee Power action boost (Note: If you have Haste Boost from VKF, Carry On does NOT stack).
Divine Crusader:
Unfortunately, Fury of the Wild is a pretty expensive tree, so we don't have a lot of points left over after getting what we want from that tree and from Legendary Dreadnought. Divine Crusader does, however, give us a nice chunk of defenses for a very low cost. On top of that, we also gain a little bit of accuracy, damage, and melee power.
Epic Destinies
[Fury of the Wild]
Core:
Die Hard (1), Die Harder (1), Die Harderest (1), Be the Whirlwind (1)
Tier 1:
Strength or Swiftness: Quick Cutter (3), Savage Take Down (3)
Tier 2:
Fear my Vengeance (3), Primal Scream (1)
Tier 3:
Wild Weapons: Doublestrike (3), Fury Selector: Furious (3)
Tier 4:
Wilder Weapons: Wilder Weapons - Doublestrike (1), The Voice of Fury (1), Force Selector: Primal Force (3), Unquenchable Rage (3)
Tier 5:
Lore of the Wilds (1), Scarred by Chaos (1), Unbridled Fury (1), Nature's Fury (1), The Great Leveler (3)
[Legendary Dreadnought]
Core:
Fearless (1), Weaponmaster (1), Thick Skinned (1), Unparalleled Accuracy (1)
Tier 1:
Dread Mantle (1), Shrug Off Punishment (3)
Tier 2:
Esoteric Touch (1), Honor or Backstab: Honor (1), Combat Brute (1)
Tier 3:
Strike Twice (3), Epic Power & Precision (3), Armor of Dusk (3)
Tier 4:
Strike with Fear (1), Kick While They're Down (2)
[Divine Crusader]
Core:
Just Cause (1), Confront any Foe (1), Weather any Blow (1)
Tier 1:
Spear of Light (3), Divine Sundering (1)
Tier 2:
Bulk Up (1), Divine Deflection (3)
Skills
Skill
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
Gear
[Standard]
Other Notes
As stated before, this build centers around solo-leveling. Frenzied Berserker is certainly higher damage for groups and for endgame, but as a solo player, Ravager's healing makes you unkillable. Ravager's healing even works in Reaper mode, however I would not suggest soloing reaper unless you have past lives, gear, or good quest knowledge. That said, if you are a new player or you want to try solo-leveling, this build will easily carry you to the level cap.
awesome guide bro, be interesting to see what you would suggest as gear for levelling, i just came back to the game after years and that would really help getting back into the racial tr grind
awesome guide bro, be interesting to see what you would suggest as gear for levelling, i just came back to the game after years and that would really help getting back into the racial tr grind