The two-handed Barbarian DPS build arguably provides the most amount of damage for any melee-based character in Enshrouded. By investing in the Barbarian tree, you can take advantage of not only massive damage buffs, but also increases to critical hit and AoE (area of effect) damage. You can further enhance this build by hybridizing it with other skill trees, but only as you progress further through the game. There are limitations to the Barbarian tree, mostly related to the fact that if you want to make the most of it, you’ll need to use a two-handed hammer, but you can still create one of the best builds for damage-dealing in the game even if you don’t have one. On this page, we’ll give you our best recommendations for skill investments to achieve the most devastating two-handed bruiser class in Enshrouded.
Best tips for a two-handed Barbarian build in Enshrouded.
Best Early Skills – Barbarian, Warrior, Athlete¶
If the main goal for your build is to create the best two-handed melee DPS build as quickly as possible, you only have to focus on three main skill trees: Barbarian, Warrior, and Athlete. However, there are some skills from the Survivor skill tree that you’ll want to pick up along the way, so we’ll mention those here too. We’ve provided our recommendations for the best skills to get early on, but you may want to get these in a different order depending on your build priorities. Your choices may also be different if you’re playing in co-op with other people, as you try to make a build that complements those of your fellow adventurers.
With all that said, there are some core skills here that you will need to get for any two-handed DPS build. It may come as a surprise that one of the first of these is actually in the Warrior skill tree, in the form of The Warrior’s Path. The reason for this is that it increases your base damage output for all melee weapons by 10%, not just those that are two-handed. This is particularly useful in the early stages of the game when you can’t always pick and choose the best weapons available. As you develop your class, you’ll find that every now and then a one-handed weapon will drop which vastly outperforms any two-handed weapon that you might have, and if you haven’t yet invested in dedicated two-handed skills, there’s no reason not to use such a weapon for a while.
If you maintain this mindset of being flexible with your skill investments and weapon usage early on, you can be as versatile as you want as you try different setups based on the best available weapons at any given time. Along the way, you can obtain the bonuses to Strength and Constitution stats which can be found at the start of the Tank, Warrior, Barbarian, and Athlete skill trees, all of which will give you a good balance of health and damage output.
You can see the rest of our recommendations for skill tree investments in the tables below, where we list our priorities with the single purpose of developing and improving your two-handed melee DPS build. Note that we haven’t included utility skills from the central tree, nor have we included any from the Survivor tree, both of which have plenty to offer. If you want to learn more about these, be sure to check our Best Utility and Survival Skills page.
Barbarian Skills¶
You can invest in these skills in whatever order seems best to you. If you’re playing in co-op with friends, you can justify avoiding the central utility skills until later on in the game if you want to be as effective as possible in combat, since you can have one person dedicated to resource gathering if they’re willing to take on that role!
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Heavy Handed | An enemy’s stun bar is increased by an additional 20% when attacking into their block with a melee weapon. |
| Breach | When you break a block with melee attacks, the target will suffer 100% more melee damage for 2 seconds. |
| Relentless | Dealing critical damage with a two-handed weapon increases your critical chance by another 10% for the next hit. |
| Shockwave | Overpower an enemy to trigger a shockwave that increases nearby enemies’ stun bar and pushes them back. |
| Bash | Your parry bashes the enemy for 20 blunt damage. |
| Vigorous Deflection | You gain 30 stamina when you parry an enemy’s attack. |
| Heavy Specialization | Allows you to attack faster with two-handed hammers. |
| Blood Rage | When an enemy is killed within 10 meters with a melee weapon, the damage done with melee weapons is increased by 20% for 10 seconds. |
The above Barbarian skills are primarily useful for a two-handed build, but some of the skills (such as Breach and Relentless) apply to melee builds that use any kind of melee weapon. The main advantage that this tree offers is the ability to overpower your enemies with buffs to damage, as with Breach which can increase your damage by +100% whenever you break the block stance of an enemy, but also with increased critical hits from Relentless. Bash will give you a little extra damage whenever you successfully parry an attack, and you want to make sure that you’re parrying wherever possible to increase the stun bar for the aforementioned Breach buff.
You can also increase the stun bar of an enemy with the Shockwave skill, which can impact multiple enemies at once if you group them before executing the attack. If you consider that you can add an extra +20% base damage from melee weapons with Blood Rage, you can consistently achieve +120% base melee damage. However, you’ll need to invest in the Heavy Specialization skill to reach Blood Rage, which only increases the speed of two-handed hammers, so it’s worth holding on to these whenever you can find a decent one. Increasing your base speed with a melee weapon will allow you to inflict more hits in a short space of time, so your overall damage will increase in that way, too.
(1 of 2) The Warrior’s Path provides a base increase to your melee damage regardless of weapon type.
The Warrior’s Path provides a base increase to your melee damage regardless of weapon type. (left), Heavy Specialization is exactly what it says; you’ll need a two-handed hammer to utilize this. (right)
Overall, the Barbarian skill tree rewards an aggressive playstyle. You can enhance this even more by investing in the Double Jump utility skill from the Survivor tree, and then the Jump Attack (I & II) skills. This will allow you to inflict even more damage to multiple enemies at once whenever you perform a jump attack, so you’ll want to spam this as often as possible.
Warrior Skills¶
We’ll now recommend a few Warrior skills that are specifically recommended to enhance your two-handed melee damage, especially if you’re using a blunt weapon, such as a hammer. There aren’t as many skills to mention here, but you’ll further increase your Strength and Constitution stats along the way, leading to an extra +10% melee damage and +50 health points.
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| The Warrior’s Path | When attacking with a melee weapon all damage is increased by 10%. |
| Brute | All melee blunt damage is increased by an additional 10%. |
| Hammer Time | All melee blunt damage is increased by an additional 20%. |
| Veteran | When attacking with a melee weapon your critical hit chance is increased by 10%. |
You won’t be able to invest in all of these skills until you approach the end of the Revelwood region, or just at the start of the Nomad Highlands, depending on how many Shroud Roots you’ve completed. Still, once you get there, you’ll have an additional +10% base melee damage, and an extra +30% blunt damage if you’re lucky enough to find an appropriate weapon. Add to these the +10% critical hit chance from Veteran, and you’ll soon find that you can consistently hit silly numbers with your two-handed melee DPS build. At this stage, your primary build is essentially complete, and you’ll have the freedom to invest in more utility skills or hybridize with other trees that might complement the Barbarian tree, such as Battlemage.
If you don’t have access to or prefer not to use a blunt weapon, you can invest in the Slasher and Butcher skills for a combined +30% buff to slashing damage, or the Thrust and Pierce skills for a combined +30% to piercing damage instead. However, we strongly recommend using a blunt weapon wherever possible, especially in the case of a two-handed hammer, to make the most of this build.
Best Armor and Consumables¶
Once you’ve completed your two-handed Barbarian build by investing in the skill tree, the only concern you’ll have is how much you can further enhance it by wearing appropriate armor and using relevant consumables. This should be fairly obvious as you unlock new recipes, and luckily for you, most of the best armor sets are crafted. You’ll want to invest in whatever set boosts your crit chance and damage output, such as the Rising Fighter set at the lower levels, the Adventurer and Mercenary sets at the mid-levels, and the Solider Armor set as you reach the end game of the early access. All of these armor sets focus on improving your overall critical hit chance and crit damage, but you’ll also gain extra health and stamina from them.
In terms of consumables, you don’t necessarily want to dedicate all of your buffs to strength increases, as mentioned in the tip above. You can do this when fighting bosses to ensure that you’re hitting as hard as possible, but when you’re fighting multiple enemies or farming them for resources, you’re more likely to run out of stamina before you need extra damage.
(1 of 2) The Flask of the Fell is a great addition to any build that requires more stamina, including Barbarian.
The Flask of the Fell is a great addition to any build that requires more stamina, including Barbarian. (left), The stamina recharge buff from Sugar makes it one of the most useful food consumables for any class. (right)
There are plenty of options for extra stamina buffs from a variety of foodstuffs that you’ll unlock naturally as you progress through the game, but also consider those that improve the recharge rate of your stamina. You can always try to balance these by using a food item for extra recharge, such as Sugar (made from Sugar Cane) while using potions such as Flask of the Fell to increase your overall stamina pool.
More Enshrouded Build Guides¶
And with that, we’ve covered everything you need to know to make the best possible two-handed Barbarian build in Enshrouded. If you want to learn more about other build types, be sure to check the links below.
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