`WARNING/POST UPDATE INFORMATION : Archon shards are to be used on this build !!! To be exact I use 3 Red Shards on Melee Critical Damages & 2 Yellow Shards on Casting Speed.

First of all : Why would you go full strength to the limit on [Baruuk] ?

The reason : [Baruuk] himself. You need to question yourself : how does his kit works ?

Passive : Each attack dodged by his 1, each ennemy touched AND (both have this effect) put to sleep by his 2, and each ennemy disarmed by his 3 will discharge his calm. The angrier [Baruuk] is, the more he is resilient (up to 50% damage reduction. NOT armor bonus, DAMAGE REDUCTION)

1 : COME AT ME BRO : [Baruuk] has an invincibility barrier that activates while he does'nt attack ; this barrier is 180° at 100% range, up to 360° at 200% (yes it can give you an absolutely untouchable frame). Each melee attack, projectile, ennemy charge, everything that comes to your face will miss and discharge your calm.
This ability can also double the range for the 3rd ability, but this is mearly a bonus here, knowing we won't use this ability much
(If you have an Helminth, THIS is the ability you might consider to change for this build)

2 : SLEEP : Simple, one press, and all the ennemies around get sleepy. Each ennemy touched by the ability discharge your calm TWICE : once they are touched, and once they really go to sleep. Increase the duration and they will sleep longer BUT it will also take longer for them to really go to sleep.

3 : THE KNIVES : You're asking yourself "why are we putting the strength to the limit ?" This is the first reason. Baruuk's knives are one of the best protective ability in the game :

• Each knife gives 10% damage reduction (max 90% at 9 knives)
• The number of knives wielded by Baruuk goes up not by increasing range or duration but by PURE STRENGTH (at this strength we have 27 knives, which is a lot)
• When near an ally, a pet, a bot, a defense objective, a mobile defense objective, or anything that is on your side and has HP, [Baruuk] will slowly generate knives around it (up to half your current quantity) which will give to that ally the damage reduction (the knives given to ally don't affect in any way the ones you have around you, and if you recast they don't disappear)
• Each knife (around you, or around an ally) can target an ennemy within [Reach] and disarm it, you loose the knife (or the ally looses it) but you decrease your calm which is great

4 : END THEM : The Serene Storm may be the strongest exhalted weapon of all. It is just too good to be true.

• A melee weapon with ranged and oversized projectiles. Damages going over 6 digits with just 1 press of the 'E' button. Not without saying that the melee's projectiles have the tendancy to... let's say ignore a lot of walls and aren't stopped by any ennemy.
• It don't even uses energy ! (it just calms [Baruuk]), you need to use your other abilities to charge your 4 (in opposition of all other exhalted which require to choose between using energy for them or the other abilities)
• It only weakness really being its speed, but it can easily be fixed with arcanas and berserker fury.
• This is your win condition in this build, your go-to ability, the shoryuken of your flawchart Ken.
• In addition, the augment we did put here will give the weapon adaptative damages, which mean it will change its elements to match the ennemies' weaknesses, maximizing the damage input with uncalculated mods (not even mentioning the absurde increase in status chances). You can litteraly use the exhalted as a stat stick, it would still be awesome.
• Oh by the way, this weapon gives you an additionnal damage reduction of 40% when active.

"But in that case, why would you change the first ability ?" Because it has a huge problem : You cannot attack while being invincible while consuming a lot of energy. And that's the problem of [Baruuk] : its OG concept ("you passively charge your ult, and after a moment you use it non stop"), because waiting for the 4 to charge only makes you loose time. You want the 4 to be used constantly and as efficiently as possible, rendering the 1st ability useless in this build.

Why Tharros Stike ? Well the only thing that may cause you problems in very high level are bosses like Accolytes. Well do you imagine what would happen if they got no shield and no armor at all ? Exactly, they're no problems anymore AT ALL.

So.... now, why exactly the stats :

• Max strength = overkill : 30 (and more due to molt augmented) knives is just too usefull, it's an awesome quantity so you don't have to worry about them, plus this just helps a lot not to recast it every 20 seconds to keep the damage reduction. This strength also gives a nice bonus to the damage output of the exhalted weapon. With molt augmented you can rise to 430% strength and that's insanely awesome

• Lower duration and efficiency : [Baruuk], in this build, doesn't really care about efficiency. His 4 isn't affected at all by it and the usage of the other abilities don't require that much energy, but use a Zenurik operator if you really wish to keep it up. The same can be said for the duration : The knives and the exhalted don't care about it and it is GREAT for your 2 as they will completely go to sleep faster (which mean quicker loss of calm). Also Tharros Strike is a definitive armor & shield deletion so no duration is necessary

• And the range, i just find it good as it is, no need to change it according to me. Not enough of it and it will render the sleep and tharros strike unpractical, but too much of it will slurp all your knives too fast and it will be harder to keep up the energy needed to hold your 90% damage reduction.

How would you use this kit ?

As i said, the go-to here is mass murdering ennemies using the Serene Storm. So, how do we overkill them ?

First action of all : always keep an eye on your knives. You always need to have more than 9 to ensure a maximized damage reduction. So use it anytime you don't have enough of them. This is also the first ability to cast in each mission.

Second of all : when you see an mob pack : go in the middle of it and press 2. Some of your knives will go disarm the ennemies and angry Barukk, and your 2 will touch them all and also lower it, so don't even think twice : you have at least 90% damage reduction.

Three : Press... 4 then 'E'.. A LOT. You'll see, with the two previous actions, you will always be charged up to activate your 4. An input can charge it for 30 seconds. But worry just a bit not to brainlessly kill to much, you MUST keep your calm gauge on the go with the 2 and the 3, this means interacting with living ennemies, find packs, put them to sleep to mass charge and then kill them. You don't need much energy but you must take care of it.

Four : When you have a boss or an eximus that gives you hard work, press 1 to make them as easy to bully as a kid.

For the rest of the mods here :

• Steel Charge : We are melee monkeys here, we need that mod
• [Adaptation] : it's for additive durability for the frame, you can totally use rolling guard instead if you prefer or anything else that fits you
• Umbral Vitality / [Umbral Fiber] : same as adaptation but gives a bonus to umbral intensify in addition. (DO NOT hesitate to change them for other mods that you may prefer)
• The Arcane [Fury] is here for even more melee speed, you NEED that with this weapon

If you think that the strenght is really overkill and you'd want more efficiency, don't hesitate to replace an Umbral mod (except [Umbral Intensify]) or [Augur Secrets] and replace it with [Fleeting Expertise]. It will anihilate the ability of the 2 to sleep ennemies but will make it Reuseable faster and will get you back to 105% efficiency.

With all of this, you are now ready to go on a mission, do 80% damage inflicted and 2% damage received.