Is briarheart a good dps set?

Brokensocket

Say matched with VO or something, seems the sustain would be amazing

Jim_Pipp

I'd be interested in people's experiences, as I often hear this set criticised but I like it in practice, and on paper it sounds good. I'm happy to be corrected.

The briar thorns are easy to proc early in a fight, giving a strong buff to weaopon damage (which is affected by brutality buffs), and as the heal has no cool down so you can get great healing if you are using a lot of AoE dots and are fighting large groups of mobs. While it isn't BIS, on my stam sorc and stampler it is a a fun set.

Asmael

Other - please explain

Talking from the perspective of a stam DK (I heavily doubt it holds true for stam sorc for instance):

Considering the way Homestead absolutely RIP'd crit multipliers and vMA daggers not being as good anymore (since they provided the raw weapon damage needed), I would have previously said that this set is trash, same for Hundings actually.

Today - not so much, so I'll carefully say this set has potential.

DocFrost72

Yes

Running 5 hundings, 5 Briarheart, 2 Kra'gh. 8.3k Jabs (not whole damage, each individual jab) crit are really nice, and with 70% chance the noncrits are offset by burning light anyway. People confuse "good" with Best in Slot (which it is NOT). Vicious Ophidian dumps on all other drop sets.

Chilly-McFreeze

Uptime is 10 secs for 449 weapondamage boost. Can proc every 15 sec, leads to 299 dmg on average. Same as Hundings but with the benefit of self heals. So yes, I would think this is valuable if you can proc it on cooldown.

datgladiatah

Other - please explain

Unfortunately i never found sharpened weapons, only precise. And they cost me WAY too much gold for what it's worth. Though I built it on a stam sorc, with this on top of crit surge it was definitely overheal. I couldn't save myself from one hit mechanics most of the time and I could never tell if my healing was much better on or off, since I'm always healing a ton anyways.

To me, Briarheart is like BSW for stam players, because they have activation periods where they can effectively use ultimates or spam without wasting heavy attacks, and then when it's off you work on getting your rotations back up. But it's not as strong. What is important for good DPS, in my opinion, is your ability to survive as a squishy melee ranged character in tough aoe situations. My stamplar doesn't survive nearly as well as my sorc, therefore my dps on my sorc is more dependable. And I think if you're having a tough time surviving as a stam character, Briarheart is a good answer without crippling your potential damage too much.

Truewavesound

Briarheart set used to have an internal cooldown on the heal (2 seconds I think), rendering it pretty meh. Has this been removed? I don't have a full set - can anyone test it?

cpuScientist

Other - please explain

This is an almost good set currently you will get less out if this than you will out of Hundings so it's bad. But if it got a change to say 600 weapon damage and upped the chance to proc and dropped the cool down (basically burning spellweave treatment) then it would be a good set. But as is now it is not a good set. Hundings outclasses it.

DocFrost72

Yes

Truewavesound wrote: »

Briarheart set used to have an internal cooldown on the heal (2 seconds I think), rendering it pretty meh. Has this been removed? I don't have a full set - can anyone test it?

ICD is one second, like most sets. Can confirm, I use it

Edit for tag: @Truewavesound

Izaki

No

LOL

Oreyn_Bearclaw

The way the math works out, it is basically a hundings set with a heal if you proc it on cooldown. As you won't always proc on cooldown, it is generally worse for damage than hundings which is the basic crafted 5 piece for stamina damage.

Now it can certainly be useful when solo or if your healer is less than stellar, but as a straight damage set it is not all that great.

Stannum

You cannot craft hounding on jewellery. And briar can be used with NMG. This combination is great for crit focused builds. With khajiit race you have about 90% crit rate proc on CD, good penetration and free healing.

bebynnag

Yes

i have used it since it was launched initially on my stamblade, and for a while on my stamsorc (both khajits)

you obviously need high crit rating to benefit from the 5th piece, but everything can proc it inc dot's & aoe's, caltrops, twin slashes, flurry, endless hail & poison inject on my stam blade gave me 85% up time, add hurricane into the mix on my stamSorc and were talking abuou 95% uptime (im on console so this is an estimate) i did try blade cloak, but with an already busy front bar there were simply better skills to be slotted.

i run the set with full hunding & engine guardian when it was 1st introduced,
i switched engine for kragh once that was introduced
monster set is optional/personal preferance

i successfully used this set up for my stamsorc in vMA i am not competing for leaderboard scores/flawless runs. i am still very much in the 'happy to get a complete & a weapon at the end' group of players.

olsborg

No

It has a cooldown, look at all the heavy armor sets that does much of the same, ravager, seventh legion, sure they work in slightly different ways, but no cooldown.

gp1680

Just recently started wearing it on my stam sorc. I'm currently wearing five heavy Hundings, 2 heavy Velidreth, robust Briarheart jewelry (wpn dmg on two rings, fire resist on necklace) and Briarheart precise sword/dagger. With crit surge and the wpn damage proc, I can get over 4,000 wpn damage. Along with hurricane, bound armaments and the health proc from Briarheart, so far I'm pleased. I currently use the wpn damage mundus stone for PVP and the thief when I'm PVE'ing.

My next crafting steps will be to swap in five medium Hundings for PVE to increase wpn damage even more with med armor skill line.

datgladiatah

Other - please explain

I think the biggest problem with it since Homestead is the healing can't crit because it's a proc. And it was already a very weak heal since there's an internal cooldown and it's a 6th of the potential of crit surge.

RABIDxWOLVERINE

Yes

It works but there are a lot of better sets out there for DPS not to mention it's ugly as hell. I like leviathan a lot but yet again it's ugly as ***...

gp1680

datgladiatah wrote: »

I think the biggest problem with it since Homestead is the healing can't crit because it's a proc. And it was already a very weak heal since there's an internal cooldown and it's a 6th of the potential of crit surge.

Agreed that it doesn't seem like a lot, but it heals you every time you crit. If you are running hurricane and/or bloodthirst, with crit surge, the combination of all three are real nice.

Jim_Pipp

Hmm, a lot of people run it with hundings? On my stamsorc I use for soloing group dungeons (normal and vet) I was pairing briarheart with twice born star (extra crit and crit damage), and had two pieces of kena. I'd put down loads of AoE (hurricane, blade cloak caltrops etc) then proc kena. Against large groups of mobs I had over 100k dps! (I know other builds can do that, but this was the first build I did it on!).

I'm thinking of swapping tbs for nightmothers gaze, but keeping briarheart to farm Vma because surviving and sustaining is so easy on a stam sorc.

Autolycus

Other - please explain

Briarheart is not good enough to take the cake in a veteran trials dps build. It's great for a lot of other things, but not for competitive content. There are a couple of reasons, but mostly other sets just do it better.

I've heard of and witnessed a variety of combinations working well with Briarheart, but of everything I know that supports it, it is all pvp or open-world content.

fred4

No

Tried it. Was not impressed. Like others have said there is a 1 sec cooldown, rendering the heal rather pitiful. Other than that it is Hunding's by another name. For my gameplay, solo PvP mostly, both of these sets are outclassed by proc sets, such as Viper. The heal is just too small that I would notice the difference. It is not in the same league as Crit Surge or Bloodthirst. You could argue all healing is welcome and it adds up, which is true. I still think it's a very "meh" set.

Evil_Rurouni

Other - please explain

It's a good overland set on a high-crit build such as a Khajiit stamsorc (which is what I use it on) or possibly a stamblade, but it's merely OK in dungeons and trials.

I originally used it in conjunction to a set of NG to get my critty kitty up and running when he hit vet, and as an affordable starter set it does the job.

It doesn't compare with VO at all except as a set you use instead of VO when overland.

Nemesis7884

which would you rather use as a solo pve overland set, this or ravager? (on a stam dk medium armor, only use jewlery and weapon)

i would pair it with hundings or nmg - probably nmgs when going briarheart and hundings when going ravager? I really like the briarheart but its so ugly...ravager has at least decent looking weapons

acw37162

It's fun.

It's not so good, tho. As far as end game community expectations.

For running around playing the game, conquering dungeons and stuff not afaraid of the occasional wipe or struggle buss. It's fun and clear just about anything.


The weapons still don't come In sharpened which is a bit of a drag.

Nemesis7884

yeah and robust jewlery and the daggers are rare and expensive...i would use 1 weapon + helmet + jewelery so i can user another sharpend weapon (bow on backhand is also bh and also precises so i can get the crit going while running into melee)

still have to get robust rings and the dagger... the thing that is holding me back right now and why i'm googling towards the ravager is simply because bh is quite ugly...they really chose the most ugly style for it

tough with the ravager some pieces seem to be ebony which i like, especially the axes while others are alliance style

Flameheart

No

If PvE is meant with that question, then nope.

It's obviously a minor Hunding with unsafe uptime and if you are doing 4-men-instance stuff I would prefer Night Mother Gaze (besides VO) or its big brother Twice Fanged Serpent any time, because you can't expect to have all mob resistances debuffed to zero (this usually won't be the case even in raids).

If you have Mahlstrom weapons you will use just 3 pieces VO anyways (for the 5% damage buff). You use VO in PvE not for the sustain, you use it for the 3-set-bonus (5% damage buff).

crobarXIII

Yes

Is it a good dps set? yes.. Is it a great dps set or bis? No..

This set is basically hundings rage with jewelry & healing. This set is also easy to get & can be bought at traders & you can easily combine it with NMG.

Due to the coming changes to sustain, it's uptime my be reduced.