Hal's 1.10 Conc Build Guide (Updated Edition)

Hal, or anyone of that matter, have you had a chance to test out a conc Barb in pvp?

If you could get def > 30k or so, then it maybe viable enough to survive some Whirlwinds in BvB. It would probably die vs smiter, but for general PvP, as long as you have enough F R/W, seems very viable...

Jut thought id ask for making a new barb :P

Regards,

Sasha
 
We had a rather extensive pvp testing program going for the build back in november/early december, but after messing around with it for a long while, our main tester, l2aider, found the whirlwind build to be a much more viable build for pvp. Conc is great in bvb, though it can be beaten by an angelic set whirler (unless he doesn't drink pots). It also performs very well in almost every type of melee duel, other than against paladins, since most of them either use smite or the dracul/exile combo on the zealot.

Against ranged characters it struggles, since you have to actually catch up with them, then stop to swing. It can be done, of course, just not as well as a whirler. One thing we were testing was putting a point or 10 into whirlwind, making a sort of hybrid to handle ranged attackers, though if you were going to do this, you might as well just pump whirlwind and drop your extras into ironskin, making a whirl dueler instead.

-Hal
 
*looks at Halciet's Str suggestions* :scratch:

I have like...251 str after items, and 271 vit after items. However, base str is probably around 200. Maybe a bit more. Does that mean I screwed up? I only have 71 dex after items. I could've went with a bit lower strength, but I wanted people to be able to see my cool armor :) Plus, more strength means more damage.

So you have over 6000 life and do 7300 damage without merc? Holy cow! How do you do that? I don't even break 6000 damage WITH my might merc! Without might merc I get about 2900-4800 damage. After BO I only get 3221 life! Maybe IK set isn't good for this build?
 
Well, since you're running the IK set, you don't need dex for blocking, and you likewise need a bit more str, since your gear has higher reqs and lower stat mods.

As for how I'm doing it (keep in mind that I've been playing this build since July, and have thus gathered up a good stock of items):

Arreat's with 40/15 ed/ias jewel
Stormshield with 40/15 ed/ias jewel
BotD Berserker Axe
Verdungo's (40/15)
20% ias/dual leech/stat/25% poison length red blood gloves
War Travelers (alternating with Gores, to test the WB Hyppthesis)
Highlord's
Ravenfrost (2xx/20)
BK Ring

2x Echoing war axes
1x 20/20 annihilus
2x fine/balance charms
37x 3/xx/xx fine/vita charms

Actual stats:

6034 life
15639 ar
2271 - 7744 conc dmg without merc
18528 standing/29818 Conc defense

This is with the offensive (bash) path at level 99.

-Hal
 
You made it to level 99? Holy moly! How long did it take you? I'm assumign this is non-ladder?

I guess not everyone should expect the life and damage you can pump out eh? :) I don't have echoing weapons, or any of the charms you do, except one Anni charm (14/19). But still, even having hal your life, and not doing nearly as much damage will carry me thru hell I hope?
 
Aye, he's not ladder, he was a pre-patch version that i saved my spare points on after filling out the definates (shout, bo, conc, mastery) until i could see what made it in and such. You'll be fine with even less than half of 6k. I was doing great with 2k on some of the other iterations, so no worries there.

One thing of note: there is no reason for you not to have two echoing weapons, as they are very, very easy to shop. If you're in act 4 or 5 hell, do some store runs for a bit until you have a pair, as they're easily two of the most valuable (use wise) items in the entire build.

-Hal
 
Halciet said:
making a whirl dueler instead.
Click to expand...

aye, my first ladder ww barb (level 88) had bad stat placement but still kicked some a_ss with angelic amu/rings combo. Ive been playing sorcs for too long now, and now that i am in possesion of the runes for BotD i guess ill remake the whirler...

Shame though about WW > conc but hey, ill be making a PvM one for sure !

Thanks for the guide Hal,

Regards,

Sasha
 
tl998 said:
You made it to level 99? Holy moly! How long did it take you? I'm assumign this is non-ladder?

I guess not everyone should expect the life and damage you can pump out eh? :) I don't have echoing weapons, or any of the charms you do, except one Anni charm (14/19). But still, even having hal your life, and not doing nearly as much damage will carry me thru hell I hope?
Click to expand...


NEVER compare your concentrate Barb vs Hals..:) It will only make you feel bad..lol
But, like Hal said, this build with 1/2 what hes got will do very good in hell still..for instance my build.

Arreats
Bane
DoomBringer/shael'd
StormShield
GoreRider
Ravenspiral
Ravenfrost
Highlords
Laying of Hands
And the belt, is either Verts/or Nos..the one with 10%ias in it.
2xWarcry spears
3 combat charms
and some posion. maybe 350-400

output;
max damage 2900 without might merc, with is 3400
def is 14k, concentrate is 24k
Life is 2400's
2 resist are maxed, cold/lighting, the othes are 69 fire, and 20 posin.(Bane helps there, with the 50% less duration in posin)

This is by far the strongest barb I've ever built. I absoulty love him, in any act, any amount of people. Just last week I took on the ancients with 6 people ingame...it was awesome, and I love it when people praise you in battle. And I aint no where near Hals barb.:) But hope I am one day.

On a side note, the bash route. As I clicked it, it only gave me 12 more points per click more damage? That sucks! I feel I wasted 1 point clicking it, so I'm thinking of going natural resits, so i clicked that once, and then thought, damn that was dumb, if I ever get CoH, that will take up the resits problems. So what to click?
I figure my def is just fine, having no problem being hit, so no point clicking IS maybe?
Icreased speed is nice, but seems like a waste, when speed sometimes kills, in certain acts.
Kinda a problem for me now, what to click, he lvl 87 right now, so Igot a few more points coming.

What are some of ya'll other Barbs clciking out there? Would find item really be worth it? I do do a bit of rune hunting, by mf does really help that I figure..so I dont know. But otherwise, even with decent items, and fair stats, you'll rule in pvm.:)
 
CyberHawk said:
Would find item really be worth it? I do do a bit of rune hunting, by mf does really help that I figure..so I dont know.
Click to expand...

Yes,find item is worth it. It's like an extra drop. You won't find as much stuff as when constant meph or baal running but considring it only takes a second to do it's totally worth. I put my extra points in find item as my merc is an even better tank and his decrepify removes physical immunities. if not I probably would have added more to Berzerk.

Anyways,this has been my favorite barb build in Diablo 2. he was tough when I first entered Hell(ladder) but once I started using my previously unused warcries(taunt,howl etc.) he became effective and more importantly immensely fun. I've since built him up to have pretty good(not perfect) gear and he owns everywhere in the game. Today I soloed Diablo Clone and it was pretty cool to see noticeable pieces of life coming off him while I stood there and absorbed all his attacks. Fun..:)

My gear...
Andy's Visage
Death Cleaver Berzerker
Gladiator's Bane
Stormshield
Raven Frost
Dwarf Star
Highlords Wrath
Gore Rider's
Verdungo's/Nosferatu's
Dracul's Grasp/Laying Of Hands

I only have a couple damage charms,1 each,of warcry,combat and mastery charms,a couple vita charms and the rest are mediocre resist charms for maxing resists.
 
yeah why not.:) I have thought more about it, and I could also use that grim ward, not so much for me, but alot of people get into trouble in baal runs, and need some protection, which in turn makes me feel more powerful. :winner:
 
The thing about the build is that it doesn't really matter what equipment you use
Click to expand...

Does this mean that this build would be viable for being untwinked? I want to make an untwinked character of each class and this looks like the choice for barb. Do you think it would work in hell untwinked? Thanks
 
I started a conc barb on uswest ladder, and as its my first ladder char, i'm completely untwinked. At first it was a bit rough, since my dps was very low and my resists sucked. I used a 2hd sword for a while, then switched back to to a 1hander and shield when i found a better weapon.

When i got to act4 normal, my resists were too low, and i was getting destroyed by inferno, lightning etc. So i went back and killed andy, durial, and meph a couple times and that solved all my problems =p. With resists maxed or close, i went through act4 and 5 in no time.

Nightmare mode was about the same deal again, resists suck, and low dps.
I picked up enough gear for resists on the way basically, and relied on grouping with sorcs etc to make up for my dps. I was a great tank, just no dps =p. In act3 nightmare, durance2, i came along a 70-110 club, with like 20-25% to crushing, open wounds, crit strike, prevent heal, and a bunch of other stats. And a bp with 400ish ac, 18/15 dmg/spell absorb. At the end of NM i had a 2 socket shield and made the shael/eth shield, cannot be frozen owns ;p. After that i was unstoppable. Solo'd NM diablo using only 1 pot, and i smacked baal around np.

At lvl 67 i'm in Hell act1 atm with most of the quests done. Resists all around 35-50, 3000ish def with shout, 6500ish with conc. 1700hp with orders. Maxed conc, orders, shout, got all the 1 point wonders.

The only things i'm not sure about yet is what to leave my str at, and what weapon i'll use for end game. Currently, i have 120 str, enough dex for max block, which is 69%, and the rest vit. Because i dont have access to a lot of twink gear, it can be frustrating when you come across a slightly better weapon that requires more str then i got ;p.

As for the end game weapon, i have 5 unspent skill points atm, that i'm not going to spend on a mastery till i know what i'm doing, I hear axes are the best in the end, but i'm using a club atm, and swords seem to drop like rain ;p. I'll keep saving the points till i get 20, then i'll see what i want to spend the rest on, i'm thinking either bash for the syn or ironskin/resist depending on how my gear is by then.

-mesos
 
Hey guys, I tried to update/respond this weekend, but the forums were being screwy. Anyhoo, first item of discussion: the guide has been reposted, with extensive CSS formatting by R. Purves. Special thanks to Ryan for his hard work, as it has saved me a lot of time in general. It's alot easier on the eyes now, and much, MUCH easier to search.

Now then:

cyber:

Bash isn't going to do much for you with a weapon like doombringer. On average, 20 points in bash will add around 500-600 damage or so to a BotD berserker axe, which doubles on critical and deadly strikes. If you have a low-damage weapon, however, it's typically better to invest the points elsewhere. Whatever you choose is fine, as the build only really requires the 4 main skills to be maxed and a point into nat resist, berserk, and bcom; after that, anything goes ;)

kdawg:

Yes, the build works fine untwinked, though you will have to take your time before moving from difficulty to difficulty, and spend a bit doing Andariel/Baal runs and such for items. Just pace yourself; I didn't enter hell with any of my copies of the barb until they were level 70-76.

igotbanned:

Yes, it will; I directly suggest an ethereal both berserker axe as the choice weapon for the build in the guide, if you read through.

-Hal
 
theseus said:
i have a sword with 116% critical strike, does this mean that i always do double damage?
Click to expand...

I don't think you can get critical strike as a stat on a weapon, unless you mean deadly strike. And even then no you don't get it all the time, it caps at 95%, however when combining it with a high critical strike % it would be nearly every swing. Also is it just me or is 116% an odd number for a stat like that?
 
He's probably talking about headstriker, that thing can get up over 100% displayed deadly strike, but that's just the displayed number; it caps at 95%, just like you said.

-Hal
 
:scratch: :scratch:

great build.... works really well

but i m tryin to use my baba for MF any1 already tried.... can i have example of some gear u use(d)...

i am now usin shako//skulder//goldwrap/WT/chancys/ML 2 skill amu/ raven /LL ring /shaeled doombringer/ storm.

it s great mf but dmg r a bit low and it can take some time to kill a monster cuz no CB or DS so i wait for ideas...

i thought about Highlorad / goreriders/ layin handy (i need fire resi and ias) and lightsaber with amn (so that i have a cheap duall leech sword which is verry fast) and i can replace my LL ring by a nagel or dawrfstar... what u think about it ? other ideas...

thx , ced
 
wizix said:
:scratch: :scratch:

great build.... works really well

but i m tryin to use my baba for MF any1 already tried.... can i have example of some gear u use(d)...

i am now usin shako//skulder//goldwrap/WT/chancys/ML 2 skill amu/ raven /LL ring /shaeled doombringer/ storm.

it s great mf but dmg r a bit low and it can take some time to kill a monster cuz no CB or DS so i wait for ideas...

i thought about Highlorad / goreriders/ layin handy (i need fire resi and ias) and lightsaber with amn (so that i have a cheap duall leech sword which is verry fast) and i can replace my LL ring by a nagel or dawrfstar... what u think about it ? other ideas...

thx , ced
Click to expand...

I use pretty well the same as you, but my weapon is 'Crescent Moon' berserker axe. The static field brings everything down to half health, which allowed me to jump from players 4 to players 8 (I play sp). A side benefit is lightning dmg charms now do +35% dmg.
 
:innocent: :innocent:
forgot to say i m using swords so i maxed sword mastery.. i know axes r better but i wanted swords for switch to ali (shaeled shaeled for speed as 60%more mf isnt a big deal if i need 10 years to kill a boss) + gull which alloew me to still have "decent" (for a switch) dmg and great mf boost (180%) for final hit and find item skill.
 
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