Its quite surprising, how efficiently a third (utility) branch stacks with 2 handed weapons. “Brawny” allows your men to wear best of armors without being dramatically fatigued, and “weapon master” with “battle flow” allows to wield even devastating orcish 2handers and swing those around without problems (Which base damages compensate lacking of damage output, compared to first (attack) branch). It also helpful to spent a point to “battle forged” from defence to maximize outcome from heavy armor, and possible spent last point on “sundering strikes” or “nine lives”, depends on how important that particular character is.