Battlemind Brutal Barrage question

[Castiel]

So, I'm looking at the Brutal Barrage power, and I feel like it should be really good, and everyone says it can be really good, if you get the feat support for it, but I don't know what that feat support would be. Does anyone know what kind of feats I should look at to improve its effectiveness?

[Ashdate]

So, I'm looking at the Brutal Barrage power, and I feel like it should be really good, and everyone says it can be really good, if you get the feat support for it, but I don't know what that feat support would be. Does anyone know what kind of feats I should look at to improve its effectiveness?

Due to the fact that it does multiple attacks, what you're really looking for are boosters to your damage, such that they can be applied each time. I think the Battlemind Handbook covers it well (look under the level 13 power section there's a spoiler tag specifically devoted to the power), but here's an idea of what you'd be trying to do.

Take the Son of Mercy Paragon Path for "Lawbreaker's Doom". You add your Wisdom bonus to your damage against the target of that power until the end of the encounter, and slow them on a hit.

World Serpent's Grasp: Whenever you hit an enemy that is slowed, knock it prone.
Headsman's Chop: +5 damage against a prone opponent when using an Axe of Heavy Blade

Mark an enemy, use Lawbreaker's Doom. Next round, let the fun begin.

[Castiel]

So now here's my second question:

The most prominent option seems to be using Son of Mercy to get a slow and a boost to damage, then putting it on the ground to get benefits of various other abilities and items.

I like that idea, but it seems like you could do some cool stuff with crit fishing with the resurgent wilder theme too (18-20 crit range w/ psionic at-will). My idea is to use a khopesh (axe and heavy blade) and then a combination of Reaving Axe Brute (prone on a crit) and Heavy Blade Opportunity (use an at will for OA) to just spam brutal barrage, and crit about 50% of the time (even more once you get brilliant recovery). Once you crit you use headsman's chop and gauntlets of brutality to get in some extra damage + two weapon opening, deadly axe (makes axes high crit), and then put on a bloodiron weapon and ring of giants and you've got yourself a nice little damage/control machine.

Which of these would be more effective do you think? They both require you to use up your PP, and my idea requires you to use a specific weapon and a lot of feats to really take advantage of the situation, but I think it could be really cool in conjunction with a hybrid or MC ranger.

[Firebug]

Another option is MC Monk for the Soaring Blade paragon path. At 16 it adds your con mod as lightning/cold/fire damage to all heavy blade attacks, and gives it 2d10 extra "high crit" dice. Or if you have access to dragonmarks, Mark of Storm + Lyrandar Wind-rider to add your Con mod as damage to all of your lightning or thunder attacks (and +1 to hit with them too). Soaring Blade and Son of Mercy can both use Lasting Frost + Wintertouched for some easy vulnerability as well, although Son of Mercy will require a frost weapon.
Alternatively (again) you could go with MC Swordmage and take their Malec-Keth Janissary paragon path to add 1d4 cold/fire/thunder/lightning to each attack. This (in particular) makes each brutal barrage into a damage roll, allowing you to apply things to the damage roll you would normally not be able to. Things like enhancement bonus, weapon focus, item bonuses to damage rolls, etc.

I believe Son of Mercy takes the cake for straight up damage though, because since your MC is free you can MC Warden. Son of Mercy adds slow and Wisdom mod to the damage, MC Warden adds con mod with hammer/mace attacks that slow, Frost hammer/mace, lasting frost, hammer rhythm, etc.

Two weapon opening doesn't sound like its worth it to me. Its just a MBA, not an op attack, you can't use another Brutal Barrage. Your MBA is probably still Strength based, so potentially worthless anyway. And its with an offhand weapon, which we've not seen yet, can't be a Khopesh (because its not offhand), so will suck up some of your gold budget as well. Very few offhand heavy blades.

[Ashdate]

So now here's my second question:

The most prominent option seems to be using Son of Mercy to get a slow and a boost to damage, then putting it on the ground to get benefits of various other abilities and items.

I like that idea, but it seems like you could do some cool stuff with crit fishing with the resurgent wilder theme too (18-20 crit range w/ psionic at-will). My idea is to use a khopesh (axe and heavy blade) and then a combination of Reaving Axe Brute (prone on a crit) and Heavy Blade Opportunity (use an at will for OA) to just spam brutal barrage, and crit about 50% of the time (even more once you get brilliant recovery). Once you crit you use headsman's chop and gauntlets of brutality to get in some extra damage + two weapon opening, deadly axe (makes axes high crit), and then put on a bloodiron weapon and ring of giants and you've got yourself a nice little damage/control machine.

Which of these would be more effective do you think? They both require you to use up your PP, and my idea requires you to use a specific weapon and a lot of feats to really take advantage of the situation, but I think it could be really cool in conjunction with a hybrid or MC ranger.

I think Reaving Axe Brute is okay, but it would require two other feats (MC Fighter and Reaving Axe Student) so MC ranger is right out, and one of its "benefits" (knock an enemy prone on a crit) doesn't really mesh that well with the Wilder theme in the context of the power.

Realistically, spending your standard action to use Psychic Surge to give yourself a 15% chance to knock the enemy prone on your first hit seems... lackluster when you can guarantee it on your first hit (with World Serpent's Grasp + Son of Mercy's "Lawbreaker's Doom"), and when the second "hit" - crit or not - would knock em prone anyway as part of the Brutal Barrage power.

Yes, getting a free OA when they stand up (and using Brutal Barrage again through Heavy Blade Opportunist) is good, but that's really apart from the Wilder power; I'm just saying that the two don't mesh that well together. Take either (or both) on their own strengths, although noting that one gives up your theme, whereas the other takes potentially 4 of your precious feats.

But yes, assuming you go straight Battlemind, to get the above combination by level 13 (8 total feats) you're looking at:

1. Fighter MC (Battle Awareness?)
2. Reaving Axe Student
3. Reaving Axe Brute
4. Headsman's Chop
5. World Serpent's Grasp
6. Heavy Blade Opportunity (P)

You probably want to fit in Axe Expertise if your DM doesn't give it to you for free, and maybe Weapon Focus for an additional +2 damage per hit, which means you won't really have much choice for feats.

(edit: weapon focus only adds to damage rolls, oops)

[Firebug]

Unless you are doing something (like Malec-Keth) to add a damage roll to Brutal Barrage, weapon focus doesn't apply. The Axe expertise "brutal" also won't apply because he's using a Khopesh that is already brutal, and will only use that property for non-Brutal Barrage attacks anyway. Heavy Blade Expertise, or Weapon Master would probably be more useful.

[Ashdate]

Unless you are doing something (like Malec-Keth) to add a damage roll to Brutal Barrage, weapon focus doesn't apply. The Axe expertise "brutal" also won't apply because he's using a Khopesh that is already brutal, and will only use that property for non-Brutal Barrage attacks anyway. Heavy Blade Expertise, or Weapon Master would probably be more useful.

Right, listen to this guy. I forgot about the Khopesh's brutal ability, and instead just compared Heavy Blade Expertise with Axe Expertise (which made me pick the latter).

[Castiel]

what book is the malec-keth thing in? And would it be more worthwhile to MC or hybrid the two together?

I suppose I should explain why I'm asking. I'm trying to build a character for a game that can act as a defender, but when needed can pull out some striker level damage, and the battlemind seems like it should be able to do that.

The two options I'm considering are below, keep in mind that neither of these builds are super optimized, mostly because I don't believe perfect optimization is necessary for this DM, but I would like to be above the curve. We're also starting at 17.

Ranger/battlemind hybrid as a human. This build is really only viable because the DM has houseruled that if you can be counted as weilding two weapons if you have a one-handed weapon in your main hand that you are proficient in (he doesn't like the drizzt ranger steryotype). This does decrease versatility as far as weapon enchantments go, but it allows me to use a bastard sword for dual weilding as a ranger hybrid without having to spend a hybrid talent feet. By 17 my at wills would be twin strike, lightning rush, and forceful reversal. The encounter power would be untamed outburst, and dailies would be attack on the run, blade cascade, and some daily from battlemind. The whole idea is to capitalize on the ranger's fantastic standard multi attacks in the standard action, and then use the battleminds immediate actions and minor actions to punish your marks. The build should be able to nova fairly regularly, should have decent defenses, and be pretty versatile in combat. Eventually lightning rush will probably be retrained to brilliant recovery. I'm not sure how effective the build would be, or what Epic Destiny/Paragon Path to go for (preferably something that gives extra power points). Any suggestions?

And the second option is to pretty much abuse brutal barrage in whatever way you guys think is best.

[Firebug]

Malec-Keth Janissary is from the Manual of Planes (4e).