2H melee specialist Options

[rbeverjr]

Great players of IA who can rule the game on insane with ease, please let me know which melee person you consider best to wield 2H weapons (particularly halberds) and why. My thinking is kensai or barbarian. The kensai should be able to Greater Whirlwind and hit just about anything but his defense will suck without potions or Spirit Armor. The barbarian has much better defense (rage, resistance, good armor), but he may be using Critical Strike rather than Greater Whirlwind - not sure which would be optimal. But these are the thoughts of a lesser player. What do you think?

[bulian]

If I ever find some time, I'll give the K9/T a try!

It will be interesting to see if you think a K9/T is still viable if Use Any Item is removed.

I can't recall using a thief or backstabbing in IA - it seems there is enough burst built into some of the weapons (Thor/Poseidon's Wrath/The Truth) and enough defensive resistances, immunities to backstab, and contingencies (SS/PFMW/AI) that opportunities for backstab to shine are very limited. Perhaps a missed opportunity by the mod - one can imagine a 2000 hp monster, for example, with no physical resistance where backstab or the thief HLA would be a lot of fun and highly advantageous.