Polearm War Hybrid

[Stormcloak]

I'm looking at a similar build to one of the threads below, but thought I'd post a new one so as not to threadjack.

I just picked up a new glad the other day and am training him in the art of the Polearms. I intend to build him as a hybrid, branching out into either the theatrics or rage lines (as I already have a glad building towards pure war).
He's a Dunder with stats of 70 / 82 / 71 / 73 / 70 / 56 / 57. (I know the presence and chi aren't great... I might look at supplementing whichever one is more important somewhat with equipment)

I can't quite decide which line to branch off into as both strength/agility and presence/chi are pretty much equal.

For the build, I'm looking at the following skill setup:

1) Polearm (only skill currently trained)
2) Battle-hardened
3) Death from above
4) Armour Movement
5) War-cry
...
10) Light as a feather

For skills 6-9 I'm thinking either:
Rage: Never say die, Devastating Power, Blood Drunk, Brute Force
Theatrics: Create Distance, Feint, Gratuitous Violence, Hamstring

I figure that the Dunder damage bonus would combine nicely with those passive Rage skills for some big hits. On the other hand, with the relatively high intellegence the activated theatrics skills might combine nicely to control an opponent.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!

[Prinny]

If you want to have Hamstring on 10 you can only get Light as a Feather to 5, if you want Light as a Feather on 10 you can only have hamstring on 5, you don't want neither of those so if you go Theatrics tree with Hamstring on 10 go for a lighter armour setup, going Light as a Feather idd pick going more war oriented with Called Shot (although depending on your build picking rage skills or theatrics ones exept for hamstring would also work)

Now as for Light as a Feather and Create Distance: you need 55 skillpoints to lvl them so far you have 50 in your initial setup so you will want to get atleast 5 points in either: Never say Die, Master of Arms, Iron Jaw or Grim Determination. from these I would pick either Master of Arms (just for fuck sake) or Never Say Die (it doesn't always trigger but when it does you get like 400+ health if you have it at 10)
Doing this assuming you take 1 of those skills to 10 you will have 60 points + 20 from Create Distance and Light as a Feather so 80 points in total.

Feint: Has a big chance to activate on each round and could be counterproductive if you have don't do alot of attacks and make us of alot of other skills that you wish to rely on (DFA is great but if you take War Cry along with it I think Feint might get in their way)

Called shot will help with hitting a specific part of the body and increasing your chances of doing a crit meaning you will be able to hit that injury you made earlier in the fight again to do more damage

Gratituous Violence: Personally I wouldn't get it with a pole arm since you don't do all that many attacks having a chance of doing 11 or so bleed extra wont do much for you
Crowd Pleaser: could be good ive never really tested it out but I could see it working with a parry-lunge style or something along those lines~
The rage skills basicly speak for themselves, theyre passive buffs to increase your power (although each skill is an increase in a different form of attack power)

Ive neglected the pure war build in this since you've already got a glad building in that direction, hope it helps ;)

Side note: While typing this out my laptop decided to perform an "update" and restarted my laptop making me shout out almost every curse word in my vocabulary. Thankfully there was "auto saved content" which is why you get the longer version of the story instead of the short one I planned on doing if it wasn't there :p

[Stormcloak]

Thanks for the feedback Prinny. I realise now I'd have to get another skill to get the 55 points required for tier 4 skills. I got a bit mixed up there, lol.

"If you want to have Hamstring on 10 you can only get Light as a Feather to 5, if you want Light as a Feather on 10 you can only have hamstring on 5"

I don't quite follow on that. How come you can only get one or the other to 5 and not both? I thought as long as you had the prerequisite skills and enough skill points you could train anything to 10? Is it something to do with tier 4 skills?
I'd be okay with taking Called Shot and Crowd Pleaser to get Hamstring if I could also get Create Distance all up to 10 - those two skills seem like they would combine nicely together (and along with war-cry). Something like:
1. Polearm 10
2. Battlehardened 10
3. Death from Above 10
4. Armour Movement 10
5. War Cry 10
6. Never Say Die 10
7. Create Distance 10
8. Called Shot 10
9. Crowd Pleaser 10
10. Hamstring 10

If that's not possible, dipping into Rage looks like it may be more attractive.

[Narol]

Not possible, you need 30 skills points in the Theatrics skills of previous levels to access Hamstring and you will only have 20 (10 from Called Shot + 10 from Crowd Pleaser).

So either you switch Hamstring for Gratuituous Violence or feint, or you go rage tree for the last 30 points...

[Stormcloak]

Okay - I understand now... I just got mixed up with focusing on the end too much :)
I'll probably dip into the Rage tree then.
1. Polearm 10
2. Battlehardened 10
3. Death from Above 10
4. Armour Movement 10
5. War Cry 10
6. Never Say Die 10
7. Devastating Power 10
8. Brute Force 10
9-10. Blood Drunk, and/or Create Distance, and/or Light as a Feather? Not sure which 2 out of 3 would work best together.

[Alba Kebab]

If you want to be offensive Blood Drunk and Light as a Feather, defensive Create Distance and Light as a Feather.

Or go 5/ 5 in two, some managers don't carry all rank 10 skills out there, as long as it works, no one will argue.

[Kreegan]

A note about Never Say Die: it really can not be relied on to save you just by giving you extra health because that particular effect of the skill may or may not trigger (in long fights it usually triggers though). The consistent part of the skill's performance is the reduction (even negation if you max it) of the low health/endurance penalties and even only these make NSD a very good pick, especially for defensive builds. If your gladiator makes it past the initial onslaught and manages to tire the opponent out without getting crippled in the process (or bleeding too much), he'll gain the initiative and probably win just because his offensive capabilities are pretty much untouched - unlike the opponent's.