Perk dead-end for early bro

[Lemartes]

So we have a good bro who has ascended to level 11, and he's been built as a 2handed frontliner.
Has good Melee Attack and Defence, Hp and Fat, but a perm init debuff.
Problem is he has three perk points and I have no idea what to do with them.

He has:
Colossus (he's a frontliner)
Pathfinder (it makes previously annoying fights fun)
Relentless (I can't live without it)
Footwork (Safey/wiggle over to hit enemy backliners)
Nimble (we're at day 99 and only starting to aquire non-bandit level Armor while keeping everyone alive)
Berserk and Killing Frenzy (make the most out the two hander kills)

And now I don't know where to go. What would you take?

My thoughts:
One should probably be a weapon mastery, but he switches between two handed axe and flail depending on the foe, but he doesn't really need the extra fatigue anyhow and the other bonuses seem meh. Plus if we get an artifact weapon he's the best candidate and we could have the wrong mastery.

Since fatigue hasn't been an issue I don't see a reason for Recover.

We could take Indom as an emergency button? But we have footwork for that. It just syncs slightly with Berserk.

Dodge would be up for grabs if he didn't have a perm init debuff, and his tanky support brothers are rocking overwhelm.

Gifted seems like a "fine" pick since more stats is always better.

Part of me is screaming give him Battle Forged to let him expand into Heavy armor and at worst we have a single dead point in Nimble later, but for now we benefit slightly from it while keeping Nimble at over 50% damage reduction (and can fall back on Nimble for multiple fights where Armor can't be maintained)

So my current best idea is give him gifted, Battle Forged, and I guess a weapon mastery once we find something named for him.
Please tell me why this is a stupid idea and what you'd take instead.

[Scrapper]

With the perks you've already given him you should probably make him a duelist. If he can wear heavy armor effectively then give him battleforged, you'll also need recover because late game content is super fatigue intensive. I'd dump the flail as they're pretty ♥♥♥♥ late game where hammers and axes tend to be the go to's (With one 2h swordbro to cleave down chaff).

A lot of ok early game bros are the ones you'll kill off later as they lose effectiveness late game due to the perk choices you had to make on the way up in raider gear.

[Gilius Thunderhead]

My vote is for Underdog/Mastery/Recover or Reach/Mastery/Recover or Reach/Underdog/Mastery

[UnluckyNoob]

There are mansplitter and berserk chain which are stronger than base weapons, but require more fatigue. Since you have no dodge and enough fatigue using heavy weapon with mastery is obvious choice.

Quick hands is obvious 2H pick especially with berserk already picked. But be careful because its another skill using fatigue and I really don't believe you have as much fatigue as you say.

Gifted/fortified mind are standard picks. I suppose your bro have awful under 60 base resolve so fortified mind is a must have.

Underdog is usually autopick, but not so much for low mdef bros. And without dodge you bro is most likely under 40 mdef punch bag. Although 5+ mdef is still a good choice.

These are 5 missing perks for only 3 slots. You already picked 2 from this list so just replace BF with another one.

P.S. Nimbleforged is OK, but it requires high quality named heavy armour to work. Or at least named nimble armour to be somewhat useful. So I won't pick it here.

[Lemartes]

Thank you for all the suggestions, it's really putting alot into perspective.

This bro is probably never going to live long enough to see 30Mdef, so putting him in a position to leverage Reach Advantage and Underdog would probably just get him killed, though they would be great picks to round out his build if he were a better brother.

But we would have ~62 fatigue if he gave him an ork berserker weapon, which would let him kill much harder.
In fact, if he kills so hard he starts to actually accumulate fatigue (a rarity currently) then suddenly we have a great reason for, and a bit of synergy with a berserk kill into Recover, which would keep him chain-killing and/or able to Footwork to safety.

Lastly, his base Resolve of 57 has definitely left him wavering at times after some heavy blows, so FortMind/gifted would lend him higher overall reliability while also making certain fights much less of a massive pain.

This would seem to point to taking Mastery and Gifted (more Mdef, get Resolve above 60, and probably top off just a bit more Matk), though it would probably be wise at this point to hold off on Recover until we can confirm he would get use out of it, and if not then FortMind or Underdog become attractive capstone just to leverage some extra stats.

And as always I try to remind myself this bro dying is just another chance to learn from all my stupid build mistakes.

Thank you again for taking the time to respond to my ramblings.

[Scathe]

underdog is good for a bro that expects to be in the middle of the front line, it will still provide a small bonus. 2 enemies will make it in melee with him, more if your line gets pushed around by orc warriors. mastery gifted underdog is what I'd go, or maybe fearsome mastery gifted.

[Lemartes]

Small update, he's dead.
Maybe I'll actually remember next time not to have one boy in range of 4 billmen.

[gvandinteren]

RIP