Barbarian Feats Choices (Path of Berserker)

[cylofe]

Picking feats for barbarian doesn't look very straightforward. A lot of them seems to overlap with barbarian features, thus losing their effectiveness. Looking through them I have a few I think that might be good, but really am not sure. My barbarian is 1 str away from a 18 str, There are some really strong looking ones that seems to fit barbarian's class. I am considering the following:


Great Weapon Mastery - pros: advantage on hit dice roll with reckless attack should work well with the -5 hit +10 damage)? cons The bonus attack from critical / killing hit uses a bonus action, which both rage and fury needs. So the bonus action of this feat becomes useless on the turn I rage and I am using fury.
Alert - pros +5 initiative is great, especially since rage before someone hits you will reduce the first attack's damage. cons Barbarian eventually gets advantage on initiative. There are some overlaps. Would this be an overkill?
+1 str Atheletic - will let me hit 18 str. This provides a general overall boost. How "good" is a +1 boost in general? Not sure how useful the long jump/high jump/5 movement prone is though.
Polearm Master or Sentinel - use of opportunity attack. Seems like really overpowered feat. cons Barbarians get retaliation which uses opportunity attack. Can you only do 1 opportunity attack a round? Which one of the two is better?
Lucky - I read this one is good for any class.
Charger - seems useful for melee class, to close gaps. cons This uses bonus action to attack, which doesn't work well with rage and fury. I can't charge/dash on first time to reach my target and rage at the same time.
Savage attacker - I was going to take this, but swayed away from it. See this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?378365-The-Savage-Attacker-feat-is-underpowered) for more info.
Something else? Tough? Durable? Resilient (for the +1 str)? Mobile? They all seem kind of meh.



There are so many options. How does one make a decision? What would you take? What would you not take?

[Easy_Lee]

Retaliate, in addition to many of your other features, benefit most from a big weapon. You really can't go wrong with a greatsword, maul, or great axe (half orc) and great weapon mastery. You may not always take the bonus action, but having the option of bonus damage is useful.

That said, I wouldn't consider it before your main stats, which are universally useful. Alert and lucky are both arguably more useful. Alert stacks with advantage on initiative and immunity to surprise to just about guarantee that you go first.

Athlete is great if you have an odd strength score. If you play a standard array variant human, I can't see any reason not to take it at level 1 so you start with two 16's.

[cylofe]

Yes, I am definitely wielding a two handed heavy weapon for pretty much the whole lifetime of my barbarian.

I read somewhere else that feats were designed to be on par or just a bit less powerful than a +2 in your main stats, which is consistent with what you have recommended. Since I do have an odd str score, I suppose the primary choice for me would be for a +1 feat over the other things.

Thanks!

[Felvion]

I guess you are talking for very early levels. Taking the berseker path in my eyes means you have to deal the most possible damage out of every turn.
At early levels I wouldn't recommend great weapon master except especially for your first feat. The -5 penalty is going to be too much at this point making really hard to hit even with advantage. Also you won't be able to make good use of the "cleave" effect cause your bonus action will often be spend for fury attacks.
The Lucky is nice. You can make sure you save those spells that hurt you really bad early. Also it can save you from a nasty critical and finally ensure a must-hit attack of yours that managed to fail even with advantage.
Apart from lucky, all the other feats you mentioned seem inferior to a +2 bonus to strength. If you could possibly add +1 to your strength and another useful stat (con>dex>...wis?) that would be cool.
At later levels, when your strength and prof. bonus would be better, Great weapon mastery is a solid option. Perhaps you'll try to avoid fury at each and every fight due to the exhaustion cost and then the "cleave" effect would come in handy more often. Additionally, post level 5, it'll be safer to activate the -5/+10 when more attacks come in play.
A viable feat (to most martial classes) you didn't mention is Resilient-->WIS but after 6 you are ok against some wis-cha saves so i dont think you should bother.
Generally I wouldn't advise any other feat except from Lucky and Great Weapon Master. I think you'd better max your Str and Con which makes your capstone much more shiny.