734 réponses à ce sujet

[Saphiro]

Isn't Isabella like... in the way? (on nightmare)

[theangryllama]

So.. great fun n all (fixed the sacrificial frenzy thing.. good times). But how in whatever diety you worships name do you duel the arishok. Didn't do it my first playthrough as a rogue and wanted to do it here but running into the same problems. Guy has 15million defense and so any character based off of autoattacks does nothing. Seriously i hit cleave and unless its a crit he takes 10 damage and thats the highest i saw. Is it basically kite him around for 20mins hitting mighty blow when its up and hope you don't screw up once in there, cause if you do thats it your getting punted around and charged before you get up until you are dead

[IN1]

AreleX, you'll need to keep Isabela in your party permanently now, you know that? Otherwise, the game will 'deactivate' her friendship attack speed bonus periodically if she's put in party reserve. You'll end up having -100% attack animation speed, which isn't funny at all, trust me. The only way to prevent it is to keep her in your party (so the bonus is applied at all times). Or just revert to older saves.
There are some fixes for this annoying (and potentially game-breaking) bug, but you obviously play the console version, so...

[AreleX]

IN1 wrote...

AreleX, you'll need to keep Isabela in your party permanently now, you know that? Otherwise, the game will 'deactivate' her friendship attack speed bonus periodically if she's put in party reserve. You'll end up having -100% attack animation speed, which isn't funny at all, trust me. The only way to prevent it is to keep her in your party (so the bonus is applied at all times). Or just revert to older saves.
There are some fixes for this annoying (and potentially game-breaking) bug, but you obviously play the console version, so...

Yes, I'm aware. I can just mod my save if I get the glitch, so I'm not concerned about it.

[IN1]

AreleX wrote...

IN1 wrote...

AreleX, you'll need to keep Isabela in your party permanently now, you know that? Otherwise, the game will 'deactivate' her friendship attack speed bonus periodically if she's put in party reserve. You'll end up having -100% attack animation speed, which isn't funny at all, trust me. The only way to prevent it is to keep her in your party (so the bonus is applied at all times). Or just revert to older saves.
There are some fixes for this annoying (and potentially game-breaking) bug, but you obviously play the console version, so...

Yes, I'm aware. I can just mod my save if I get the glitch, so I'm not concerned about it.

I see. All right, then.

[Shep309]

I normally don't run with Isabela simply because of this glitch... but what happens when the game forces her into your party, like the foundry quest in act 2 I believe?

Modifié par Shep309, 28 mars 2011 - 12:24 .

[AreleX]

Shep309 wrote...

I normally don't run with Isabela simply because of this glitch... but what happens when the game forces her into your party, like the foundry quest in act 2 I believe?

You get screwed.

[IN1]

Used your core build (slightly altered, of course) to do this. In fact, it is a crossbreed of your talent build and my elemental setup ideas. Impressive, but hugely impractical as a single-target nuker.

While using talents is clearly not this build's forte, it will out-dps anything else (Maker's Kiss/Shadow's Claw DW rogue included, and that speaks volumes) with its super-fast AoE auto-attacks.

[EternalShore0001]

AreleX, could you throw up a Tactics and Level up build for Isabela, based on your testing so far? I would like to test this out based on what you have done so far.

[AreleX]

I've made a new video and guide, Two-Minute Xebenkeck Clear, the next in the 'Say No to Kiting' series. It's a tough fight, but entirely doable if you go about things the right way. Check them out!

Two-Minute Xebenkeck Clear / Mini-Guide

I've also updated the Tactics section, so check that out, and make sure you're up to date.

EternalShore0001 wrote...

AreleX, could you throw up a Tactics and Level up build for Isabela, based on your testing so far? I would like to test this out based on what you have done so far.

Sure, I'll try to get that done soon.

IN1 wrote...

Used your core build (slightly altered, of course) to do this. In fact, it is a crossbreed of your talent build and my elemental setup ideas. Impressive, but hugely impractical as a single-target nuker.

While using talents is clearly not this build's forte, it will out-dps anything else (Maker's Kiss/Shadow's Claw DW rogue included, and that speaks volumes) with its super-fast AoE auto-attacks.

Awesome job! There is no such thing as hugely impractical when it comes to big numbers, my friend.

Modifié par AreleX, 28 mars 2011 - 04:04 .

[Bozorgmehr]

AreleX - The ME2 Berserker Vanguard goes fantasy

An excellent guide and almost the exact same build I used my first playthrough! I'm dropping in quite late, but I wanted to complete DA2 myself first before checking the forum. Kudos for this great guide - amazing how fast people can finish these games and provide good info. I quickly went through all the pages but I've likely missed a couple of things so please forgive me when I address stuff that's already been discussed.

I went Reaver first because Berserker needs mana (lots of it) to become effective (which I didn't have early on) - Reaver's Blood Frenzy (passive) is always great, basically increasing overall damage by 50% at level 7 at no stamina cost (= win). Things will become unfair around level 15. With Sacrificial Frenzy, Fervor, Cleave (Claymore), (Unrelenting) Barrage and Deathblow you're a super-fast (auto-attacking) killing machine (with unlimited stamina). Nothing can come close to the speed at which this build can finish off mobs - they're death before knowing what hit em. Occasionally my party sheathed weapons (and got full health/stamina/mana back) between waves!

The most critical aspect of the Reaver/Berserker is party tactics. The R/B can take care of him/herself but it's really annoying when your party dies all the time. Like you've explained in the OP, the party composition is basically limited to ranged characters (damn 2H & FF) and they tend to be weak thus die quickly. Once I perfected party tactics that ensured good use of companions' offensive capabilities (CCC) and kept them alive without constant micro-management, things became much more fun. The only thing you need to do is command your party to move to a relatively safe position (away from Hawke so they don't get killed by your hand - I'm talking to you Varric, you ****** dwarf).

Party tactics are key (when you want to play without pausing) and I think there are some things that will make your party more effective. These are the tactics I used (@ level 23 endgame):

Anders

1. Self : Health < 25 % - Use : Health Potion
2. Self: Being attacked by melee attack - Mind Blast
3. Hawke : Health < 25 % - Heal
4. Self : Health < 50 % - Activate : Panacea
5. Ally : At least two party members below 50 % health - Activate : Panacea
6. Self : Health < 50 % - Aid Allies
7. Ally : At least two party members below 50 % health - Aid Allies
8. Ally : Dead - Regroup
9. Self : Any - Haste
10. Enemy : Target rank is Normal or lower - Jump to tactic 14
11. Enemy : Staggered - Crushing Prison
12. Enemy : Nearest visible - Petrify
13. Enemy : Nearest visible - Glyph of Paralysis
14. Enemy : Staggered - Chain Lightning
15. Enemy : Clustered with at least 2 enemies - Glyph of Paralysis
16. Ally : Being attacked by range or melee attack - Use current condition for next tactic
17. Ally : Health < 50 % - Barrier
18. Enemy : Nearest visible - Stone Fist
19. Self : Mana < 10 % - Use : Lyrium Potion
20. Enemy : Nearest visible - Attack

Heroic-/Valiant Aura is activated manually when Anders joins party and (the very few fights) when Anders has activated Panacea, disable it manually afterward).

I think using Anders for buffs and heals only is a bit of a waste. My party became much stronger (and killed much faster) with a (part-time damage dealer/ controller) Anders:

H/V Aura is great (must be active all the time) and only costs 20 % of mana pool). Panacea will effectively ruin Anders' combat abilities. Another 40 % chunk out of his mana pool is very bad and basically only allows one Heal, one Aid Allies and a Haste or two, before Anders runs out of mana. For me, Anders only needed to activate Panacea during prolonged fights (bosses only really) at which point he already has used most of his mana offensively (i.e. no mana waste when Panacea is activated).

Varric

1. Self : Health < 25 % - Use : Health Potion
2. Self : Health < 50 % - Use current condition for next tactic
3. Anders : Any - Back to Back
4. Anders : Being attacked by range or melee attack - Jump to tactic 20
5. Merril : Being attacked by range or melee attack - Jump to tactic 20
6. Self : Being attacked by range or melee attack - Jump to tactic 20
7. Anders : Being attacked by melee attack - Armistice
8. Merril : Being attacked by melee attack - Armistice
9. Self : Being attacked by melee attack - Evade
10. Self : Surrounded by at least two enemies - Stealth
11. Anders : Being attacked by melee attack - Kickback
12. Enemy : Target is rank Normal or lower - Jump to tactic 17
13. Enemy : Target of Hawke - Use current condition for next tactic
14. Enemy : Health >= 50 % - Brand
15. Enemy : Staggered - Kickback
16. Enemy : Target of Hawke - Rhyming Triplet
17. Enemy : Nearest visible - Pinning Shot
18. Self : Stamina < 10 % - Use : Stamina Draught
19. Enemy : Nearest visible - Attack
20. Hawke : Any - Goad

Bianca's Song is activated manually when Varric joins the party. Also note how you can free 2 tactic slots by using the "jump to" command (no more Goad x3). I did the same with Elites and Bosses, when the system reaches tactic 12 and enemy isn't elite or stronger, Varric will jump to tactic 17 (and doesn't waste his most powerful abilities on fools). When enemy is Elite, he'll Brand the one Hawke's attacking and turns the target into a pincushion next (before dealing with lesser enemies). This only requires one "enemy has rank X" tactic slot instead of multiple.

Varric usually acted like a moron and easily became the proud winner of the "got yourself killed award". He does a good job diverting threat away from Anders (and Merril), but forgot to take care of himself (charging a group of melee enemies with Bianca, probably inspired by Hawke's 2H skills). Once I gave him Evade and Stealth he didn't die that often, maybe not the best abilities, but once the Scoundrel and Marksman trees are (almost) completed - Evade and Stealth are good abilities (much better than those of the other skill trees IMHO).

Merril

1. Self : Health >= 50 % - Activate : Blood of the Fist
2. Self : Health < 50 % - Deactivate : Blood of the Fist
3. Self: Being attacked by melee attack - Mind Blast
4. Self : Health < 25 % - use : Health Potion
5. Enemy : Target is Normal or lower - Jump to tactic 13
6. Enemy : Staggered - Crushing Prison
7. Enemy : Nearest visible rogue - Horror
8. Enemy : Nearest visible mage - Petrify
9. Enemy : Target of Hawke - Use current condition for next tactic
10. Enemy : Health >= 75 % - Hex of Torment
11. Enemy : Nearest visible rogue - Misdirection Hex
12. Enemy : Nearest visible warrior - Misdirection Hex
13. Enemy : Staggered - Chain Lightning
14. Ally : Being attacked by range or melee attack - Use current condition for next tactic
15. Ally : Health < 50 % - Barrier
16. Enemy : Clustered with at least 3 enemies : Tempest
17. Enemy : Target rank is Elite or higher : Horror
18. Enemy : Target rank is Elite or higher : Petrify
19. Enemy : Nearest visible - Stonefist
20. Enemy : Nearest visible - Attack

Elemental Weapons and Rock Armor (and Blood of the Fist) are activated when she joins the party. This is the only sustainable that should go into tactics to ensure Merril doesn't cast herself to death, can drink a health potion (that works), and benefits from Anders' Aid Allies when needed.

Also note how I use the "jump to" command. Merril will always Horror the nearest (Elite) rogue and Petrify the nearest (Elite) mage, but she'll still use those spells on non-rogue/-mage Elites/Bosses.

I noticed you use the "attack target of Hawke" tactic (20). I used this too (at first) but didn't found it useful at all. Your allies are attacking Hawke's target all the time which sounds nice and focusing fire on one target will kill it faster, but overall staff/Bianca damage isn't that good (compared to Hawke's 2H damage). More importantly though, this tactic forces allies to ignore nearby enemies. I had numerous occasions when they got killed by a low rank enemy who would die within seconds if Anders, Merril or Varric would focus on them (instead of Hawke's target). Ordering companions to attack the nearest enemy helped a lot. I also have them use Stonefist and Pinning Shot on the nearest enemies. Knocking- / slowing down enemies who try to get close to your (squishy) companions is win. This also helps to keep them safer - I order them around from time to time, depending where enemies are clustered, so they're usually close to each other. Any enemy that comes close is likely to get hit by one of those abilities.

Berserker

A quick note on Resilient Barrage, although not something you really need, I consider it a nice upgrade - because of its synergy with Reaver. Instead of your argument to ignore it (due to lacking Reaver synergy) I use it to get the most out of the Frenzy bonuses. Damage is highest when Hawke is low on health therefore it's important to have Hawke last as long as possible with as little health as possible. Resilient Barrage reduces damage taken thus allows Hawke to fight longer with low health. Companion's Barrier comes in handy too. I've deliberately put Barrier relatively low on party tactics so companions will unleash hell on enemies first (and the first time Hawke's health gets low it will be replenished by Anders' Heal anyways). Around the time companions have used most of their offensive spells (and/or waiting on cooldowns), Hawke will be low on health again. This is the time you want Hawke's damage output to peak to keep party damage on par (little companion support, i.e. no more Haste and CCCs, for example): Hawke's health < 50 % + (Sacrificial) Frenzy + Claymore + Barrage + Berserker (and high stamina) aided by (up to 12 s) Barrier for extreme damage resistance = bye bye enemies.

Adrenaline is counter productive and will only lower damage output - duration is too short to make it worthwhile - only needed to unlock Death Blow.

End-game, Berserk is amazing. +15 % damage of remaining stamina is insane. My level 23 Hawke, who took on the final bosses, had 400 stamina (STR 41, CON 39, WIL 64). That's an additional (.15 * 400) 60 damage per hit! And considering the speed Hawke swings his/her sword/axe  I'm not sure how damage output is calculated exactly and don't know if stuff like Cleave (Claymore) and Frenzy double effect of Berserk, but even without you're already dishing out double damage.

Reaver

Blood Frenzy is awesome - the only reason I picked Reaver over Berserk, and because most of the other good skills are not available at low levels and you want to work on the Vanguard tree first (and you can get Fervor at level 13). You already explained the usefulness of Sacrificial Frenzy (in the OP) very well and it's worth adding it consumes health instead of stamina when activated (no messing around with Berserk).

Devour has its uses when Anders is death or can't use his healing spells and potions are on cooldown. Plus it's a cool power to use - you can 'bite' a Golem LOL - and will restore full health (biting an Assassin in the face after a backstab you barely survived (and too dangerous to activate Sacrificial Frenzy) is great, Voracious upgrade will auto-stagger Assassin (and all other enemies) and usually results in a Crushing Prison CCC to hold the Assassin (and blocking the use of potions while you beat the crap out of him.

Aura of Pain is useless - pathetic damage to enemies, less than the damage Hawke takes when using it. You do need it to get Fervor though, making it a worthwhile investment. A 10 s +30 % attack speed per kill is almost game breaking. This is easily the best power available to a 2H Warrior IMHO.

CCC FTW

CCCs are incredibly powerful and can be exploited with ease and little effort. All you need is Sunder and Chain Lightning, Crushing Prison and Kickback on your companions. These skills are available during Act 1 and will multiply the party's damage output. Sunder (and Claymore) will guarantee lots of staggered enemies, who take insane damage when hit by one of those powers. Anders is of more use with a couple of CCC spells than Panacea & Co - the added party damage will severely decrease damage taken by all companions which (like I said) results in Anders hardly using his healing powers at all. The best defense is a good offense! Anders unique powers to resurect companions and group healing are indispensable during prolonged engagements, but they are few and you can always respec before those fight if you want/need to.

Gear

You've already put weapons and armor in the OP, but there's nothing about jewelry yet. There are a couple of awesome pieces. The Etched Ring of the Twins can be bought in Act 2 (immunity to knockback), the Dull Brass Amulet (immunity to flanking) and the Ring of No Wishes (immunity to stun and critical hits) during Act 3. These things are amazing! You're basically immune to everything except the most devastating special attacks (you're still knocked down by a charging Ogre, but that's about it). No more knockdowns, no more Assassins who can stun you, no more critical hits, no more backstab bonuses for enemies = you're beheading enemies all day long. In fact, Meredith's special ability that stuns everything (including Meredith herself) had no effect on Hawke (not sure if that's normal since I only fought her once, but being the only one who could move seems lame if intended). Hawke comfortably slashed her beloved Boss-killing Bloom into the Knight Commander's face without opposition!

Damn, this is quite the wall of text - sorry for that. I'll hope there's some useful info you can use for your already great guide. Keep it up! Oh, and awesome videos - too bad DX11 sucks atm, I suffer the occasional framerate drops - no recording for me yet. I also noticed you never order your companions around - when I stop doing that they die quickly. I don't pause the game, but still order them to go somewhere safe every now and then. The Deep Roads Dragon would have killed my party when it moved against them - for example, but it didn't use the fire attack which would kill your entire party instantly for you. Whenever a dangerous enemy gets near my companions I sent them to the other side of the room, if I don't, they're death (90% sure).

Cheers

Modifié par Bozorgmehr, 28 mars 2011 - 08:43 .

[AreleX]

Borzomehnger! Welcome to the party!

I considered having Anders speced for offense as well as support, and laziness (too much thinking, I don't like change, too many buttons to push, etc) eventually stopped me from doing it. If it has your endorsement, I'll give it a shot.

Good point about Resilient Barrage. I skipped over it because I cannot even begin to tell you how much I agonize over spending talent points - it's one of the reasons I put the level up guide off for so long, I'd think and think and think, and just get a headache. I do agree with you, though; Non-Resilient will get you low faster, Resilient will keep you low longer.

I don't have a section on accessories? I swear I did! Thanks for the heads-up.

Varric is the very definition of lemming, I agree, but he is nowhere near as bad as Anders has been for me, but my Anders hatred is well-documented already. I'll throw it in again, anyways: Thank you for the buffs, but I hope you burn in hell.

I've never tried Jump to tactic, but from what I've heard, it's bugged out. You've had success with it?

How do companions handle Stealth? The only time I really see it is when Varric gets low enough to use Back-to-Back, and at that point, I'm more concerned with killing what got him down there.

Thank you for the well-thought out post, you've definitely given me some things to consider!

[Bozorgmehr]

AreleX wrote...

Borzomehnger! Welcome to the party!

Thanks, better to be late than sorry

I considered having Anders speced for offense as well as support, and laziness (too much thinking, I don't like change, too many buttons to push, etc) eventually stopped me from doing it. If it has your endorsement, I'll give it a shot.

I know how you feel - my Hawke (and companions ran around with multiple ability points available most of the time) - I couldn't decide when and where to put them. Bless those respec potions - eventually I used them quite a bit to try new things.

Good point about Resilient Barrage. I skipped over it because I cannot even begin to tell you how much I agonize over spending talent points - it's one of the reasons I put the level up guide off for so long, I'd think and think and think, and just get a headache. I do agree with you, though; Non-Resilient will get you low faster, Resilient will keep you low longer.

I used your logic first, but I died too fast when low on health and Barrage (+Frenzy) active. Resilent helped a bit, Barrier was much more effective though. It's also a good sign to activate Frenzy. A nice upgrade but nothing spectacular.

I don't have a section on accessories? I swear I did! Thanks for the heads-up.

They really improved gameplay - thought it was worth mentioning

Varric is the very definition of lemming, I agree, but he is nowhere near as bad as Anders has been for me, but my Anders hatred is well-documented already. I'll throw it in again, anyways: Thank you for the buffs, but I hope you burn in hell.

Anders is pretty bad too and when he dies (early) your party is doomed. Varric can be resurrected - maybe that's why he act the way he does.

I've never tried Jump to tactic, but from what I've heard, it's bugged out. You've had success with it?

I'm totally new to the forum and the only info I have is my own experience. Didn't know it was bugged, but it worked for me. Varric is still using Goad and I never saw Anders or Merril use Crushing Prison on weak enemies (only Elite/Boss), they target mages and assassins first (not warriors) so for all I can tell it works. I only used this during most of Act 3 and never noticed something not working although the game's pace makes it hard to keep track of everything. I never stood by and watched companions execute commands. Perhaps I should

How do companions handle Stealth? The only time I really see it is when Varric gets low enough to use Back-to-Back, and at that point, I'm more concerned with killing what got him down there.

I added Stealth last and only saw Varric use it once. He attacked almost immediately, but his enemies had already selected Hawke as their new target. It kinda works like Armistice used on himself. He died less with Stealth so I guess it's a cheap (and small) investment in his survivability at best.

[atheelogos]

loving these guides.

[spudrow2005]

the use of adrenaline depends on your play style. spamming adrenaline can give u massive burst damage (some damage numbers apparently got higher than the beserkers stam based buff) at the expense of the sustained beserker buff so it goes well if u like to spam your weapon attacks. as mentioned this build is good for buffing and auto attacking with the occasional activated ability, also this build forgoes activated ability cross class combos (relies almost entirely on sunder) and 2handed upgrades though the sustained dps numbers more than makes up for it.  personaly i like a bit more of an active approach and use my abilties more

[Roxlimn]

Adrenaline goes perfectly with a Second WInd setup. There are instances where you want to activate Second Wind to finish up a second buff phase, but still have leftover stamina. Adrenaline everything away, then Second Wind.

[0x30A88]

That you put so much effort into this is really impressing. Thank you!

[Graunt]

Just curious as to why so many suggest using Kickback on staggers.  It doesn't actually do any increased damage, it just knocks enemies back farther, and you're wasting a Chain Lightning/Prison damage opportunity.

Varric is the very definition of lemming, I agree, but he is nowhere near as bad as Anders has been for me, but my Anders hatred is well-documented already. I'll throw it in again, anyways: Thank you for the buffs, but I hope you burn in hell.

Very much so.  I cannot tell you how many times I've literally watched Anders go from standing next to Hawke/Varric shooting his target at range, to running up for absolutely NO REASON AT ALL to melee range just to continue attacking the same target.  Varric is nowhere near as bad as that, but he's pretty much like "Hawke, hey, look at m..." oops, dead.

Modifié par Graunt, 29 mars 2011 - 09:13 .

[Bozorgmehr]

Roxlimn wrote...

Adrenaline goes perfectly with a Second WInd setup. There are instances where you want to activate Second Wind to finish up a second buff phase, but still have leftover stamina. Adrenaline everything away, then Second Wind.

I don't know how damage is calculated, but a 8% damage boost for 10 s isn't really good. Yes, it stacks, but even with the no-cooldown upgrade you still have to wait on the activation animation. Which means you can use it 10 times (maybe) to get an 80% damage bonus for one or two seconds. That sounds good, but it also means you haven't hurt anyone during those 10 seconds and it requires 4 ability points to get there. Compared to S-Frenzy which you have to activate only once and with health at ~50% you're doing a 100% extra damage without the need to invest 4 points + no need to remain passive for while to stack and regain stamina. I can't see how Adrenaline is worth my time. Or am I missing something?

How does stacking work? Does every Adrenaline use its own duration, i.e. the first 8% increase cease to be in effect after 10 s? Or does stacking mean it carries over those 8% and you still have 10 s duration when you've used Adrenaline 10 times (+80% damage for 10 s)?

It would be great if damage is calculated like this: { (base damage) * Cleave (Claymore) * Blood Frenzy } * (1.08)^x (x is the times Adrenaline is used) for example. But I don't think it is - it looks like an extra 8 % of base damage only which makes it pretty useless IMHO.

Graunt wrote...

Just curious as to why so many suggest using Kickback on staggers. It doesn't actually do any increased damage, it just knocks enemies back farther, and you're wasting a Chain Lightning/Prison damage opportunity.

I think it depends on party tactics. If you put CL and CP high on your mage's list, they will use it straight away. Putting Varric's KB low on his list will have him use his other abilities first. And by the time he's going to KB a staggered enemy - mage's CL and CP are on cooldown anyway.

Using Kickback on normal enemies is a waste of stamina unless it's used to save Anders when he's attacked by melee for example. Since staggers happen all day long using a 2H warrior, why no get the most out of it when Varric does use it on a (elite+) enemy?

[Graunt]

Bozorgmehr wrote...
Using Kickback on normal enemies is a waste of stamina unless it's used to save Anders when he's attacked by melee for example. Since staggers happen all day long using a 2H warrior, why no get the most out of it when Varric does use it on a (elite+) enemy?

Because it's a complete waste of a skill point just for an upgraded knockback.

Modifié par Graunt, 29 mars 2011 - 01:36 .

[Roxlimn]

Bozorgmehr:

The main attraction in using Adrenaline is that you're going to be taking it anyway for Death Blow (so that you can actually regain stamina). Generally, though, you activate Cleave and then do Assault and Scatter and then attack and your stamina's gonna be going down. Solution I use is Second Wind. Before I use Second Wind, I use the Adrenaline I have anyway to maximize what stamina I have left, and then use Second Wind. It's essentially a free +5% except for the activation animation.

I'm sure Sacrificial Frenzy is awesome, but I don't have that skill.

[Bozorgmehr]

Graunt wrote...

Bozorgmehr wrote...
Using Kickback on normal enemies is a waste of stamina unless it's used to save Anders when he's attacked by melee for example. Since staggers happen all day long using a 2H warrior, why no get the most out of it when Varric does use it on a (elite+) enemy?

Because it's a complete waste of a skill point just for an upgraded knockback.

That also depends. Playing on NM without pausing basically makes all AoE attacks counter-productive. This sorta makes it useless to get into the Bianca tree for example. There are also a limited number of tactical slots and when you make threat management Varric's priority there ain't many left you can use on other (offensive) skills. Kickback is single target ability with small CC effect which is a decent ability.

I agree it's something you should only invest in once Varric has all the other (more useful) skills, but in Act 3 you still have some points left - getting Kickback (plus upgrade) isn't a bad choice at that point. When you've got the important Scoundrel and Marksman skills, there isn't much of an alternative IMHO. Kickback is best of the rest - not great, but better than nothing.

[Manveru123]

Just a few things to share. I've found SnS Berserker/Vanguard to be a better option for me, because:

- it removes the need to stack STR over 41 for chance to hit due to The Vague Blade's effect. If you get it, that is.
- there's a shield in Act III with Immunity to Knockback, that's the only thing which can stop a properly geared B/V.
- you have more skill points to spend, since SnS tree is generally useless for this type of character and you're not spending any points in 2h tree.

Just personal preference I guess but it seems to work exceptionally well for me. Great topic btw.

[Roxlimn]

Manveru123:

I've played an SnS BV almost to completion. It's pretty spiffy - too bad I'm going to have to redo Act 3 to get the Vague Blade. I'm deciding on whether to finish with Glandivialis instead.

Anyways, I'm thinking about something here. Shield Defense penalizes you -25% Damage for +25% Damage Resistance. Is it enough to offset Barrage?

[Bozorgmehr]

Roxlimn wrote...

Bozorgmehr:

The main attraction in using Adrenaline is that you're going to be taking it anyway for Death Blow (so that you can actually regain stamina). Generally, though, you activate Cleave and then do Assault and Scatter and then attack and your stamina's gonna be going down. Solution I use is Second Wind. Before I use Second Wind, I use the Adrenaline I have anyway to maximize what stamina I have left, and then use Second Wind. It's essentially a free +5% except for the activation animation.

I'm sure Sacrificial Frenzy is awesome, but I don't have that skill.

I haven't tried W&S on my 2H warrior yet, but they look pretty good.

I focused on getting the good Reaver, Berserker skills asap. I took Mighty Blow, Giant Reach and Sunder, worked on specs and VG trees. Sacrificial Frenzy is amazing and with Death Blows stamina was never an issue and the bigger your stamina pool the more you get back per kill (those reinforcements coming in when fighting bosses are great to get stamina back for free, plus a 10 s +30 % attack speed per kill too).