geist_darkblade
New member
Hi I have a level 62 concentrate barb with a 2 hand sword only. Should I put a sheild on him? What is a good two hand sword for him?
Hal's 1.10 Conc Build Guide (Updated Edition)
- Thread starter Halciet
- Start date
Hey guys, this is just to let you know that I havn't forgotten about your questions and such, and I will get back to you on them soon. Had a VERY long week/weekend, and thus not a lot of time to respond in general, and thus I've been skimping a bit. I'll reply to all of these questions as soon as I get in from the department, a little later this evening.
Sorry again for the delays,
-Hal
Sorry again for the delays,
-Hal
Alrighty, lemme get some responses for yall:
Might:
You can find the chance to hit/be hit formulas over in the statistics forum. It's based on attacker AR and level vs. defender defense and level, though you can find the exact mathematics for it over there.
As for defense/blocking, I can't recall offhand which comes first, though it doesn't really matter, the math comes out the same regardless. If you have a 50% chance to be hit and 75% block, and get attacked 1000 times:
Defense first: 1000 goes to 500 from defense, then 75% of thoes are blocked if they make it through, so 125 hits.
Blocking first: 1000 hits goes to 250 making it past, then 50% of those miss, going to 125.
As for conc abd blocking: conc still blocks as normal, but still retains the uninterruptable mod, so you won't stop swinging until you let off the click. Pretty awesome, ain't it?
Iceball:
I tried the cracker out a bit back in the day, and it was pretty nice overall; the ias and crushing blow rock, along with all the defense bonuses. The damage is kinda low, even upgraded/ethereal, and the lack of a shield hurts a lot since you lose the base defense/blocking/resists/mods, but it's still a pretty nice weapon to fool around with.
tl:
You should be able to hit fine as long as you pace yourself so you're close in levels to your opponents. If you find yourself having a lot of trouble, Angelic rings/ammy will remedy any ar problems you're having, and using battle cry can make life a LOT easier as well. As for lower-level gear ideas, you might want to check the eq sections in the guide for ideas.
Geist:
A shield will make help you survive much better, and give you extra defense to capitalize on; as I state in the faq, I always advise using one, though it won't help you much if you don't have enough dex to keep the blocking up. As for a sword, i typically don't use them two-handed, since polearms and maces are much more powerful (i don't use them one-handed either, for that matter, since axes are better in that department), though things like Doombringer, Grandfather, and BotD cb are very powerful indeed.
Alright guys, sorry for taking so long responding...like I said, really busy week in general.
-Hal
Might:
You can find the chance to hit/be hit formulas over in the statistics forum. It's based on attacker AR and level vs. defender defense and level, though you can find the exact mathematics for it over there.
As for defense/blocking, I can't recall offhand which comes first, though it doesn't really matter, the math comes out the same regardless. If you have a 50% chance to be hit and 75% block, and get attacked 1000 times:
Defense first: 1000 goes to 500 from defense, then 75% of thoes are blocked if they make it through, so 125 hits.
Blocking first: 1000 hits goes to 250 making it past, then 50% of those miss, going to 125.
As for conc abd blocking: conc still blocks as normal, but still retains the uninterruptable mod, so you won't stop swinging until you let off the click. Pretty awesome, ain't it?
Iceball:
I tried the cracker out a bit back in the day, and it was pretty nice overall; the ias and crushing blow rock, along with all the defense bonuses. The damage is kinda low, even upgraded/ethereal, and the lack of a shield hurts a lot since you lose the base defense/blocking/resists/mods, but it's still a pretty nice weapon to fool around with.
tl:
You should be able to hit fine as long as you pace yourself so you're close in levels to your opponents. If you find yourself having a lot of trouble, Angelic rings/ammy will remedy any ar problems you're having, and using battle cry can make life a LOT easier as well. As for lower-level gear ideas, you might want to check the eq sections in the guide for ideas.
Geist:
A shield will make help you survive much better, and give you extra defense to capitalize on; as I state in the faq, I always advise using one, though it won't help you much if you don't have enough dex to keep the blocking up. As for a sword, i typically don't use them two-handed, since polearms and maces are much more powerful (i don't use them one-handed either, for that matter, since axes are better in that department), though things like Doombringer, Grandfather, and BotD cb are very powerful indeed.
Alright guys, sorry for taking so long responding...like I said, really busy week in general.
-Hal
Fanaatikko-
New member
Hi all.
I started playing hc the day before yesterday, and I decided to start a Conc Barb. He's going pretty well, already lvl 35 in act5 normal. My friend twinked me quite well, I'm using cathans seals and full sigon's set. Today I shall get bloodletter, and damage goes uuuuup
I just wanted to say that this build looks really good. I hope it can keep me alive, but still be able to kill. Great job Halciet, your guide is one of the best I have ever read. :yep: rock on
I started playing hc the day before yesterday, and I decided to start a Conc Barb. He's going pretty well, already lvl 35 in act5 normal. My friend twinked me quite well, I'm using cathans seals and full sigon's set. Today I shall get bloodletter, and damage goes uuuuup
I just wanted to say that this build looks really good. I hope it can keep me alive, but still be able to kill. Great job Halciet, your guide is one of the best I have ever read. :yep: rock on
JacksRevenge
New member
Just thought I'd update my progress with my now favorite character.
TankerMcGhee is now lvl 73 and just mowing through Hell act 1. Some things I've discovered:
Damage isn't everything - My previous fav char is my titan, TitanMcGhee, I dropped every single stat point into str(606 after eq) and with a botd war pike he does around 12k ww. Yet even in hell act 1 whirling through groups would get tense as his life bulb would contstantly being jumping up and down. Now I don't think my conc barb's bulb has budged since normal baal. That may sound like an exagerration but I did not use a pot through NM, I have so many full rejuv's I've had to mule them around. That was with mediocre equipment(headstriker) and 22%ll/2%ml.
Equipment is nice, but not necessary - This build is not real equip dependant.
Good eguip definately speeds things up but you can survive without it. I went through nm with headstriker, gaurdian angel, arreats, soe, sigon boot glove combo and mosers shield. True this isn't junk gear but none of it is too hard to come buy.
I am really pleased with this barb, and with some big equipment upgrades I am starting to feel invincible. Doom has to be my new favorite runeword, if you can get one I highly recomment it. I didn't realize how big an impact the Holy Freeze aura plus the freeze target +3 would have, half the baddies I hit just shatter, its great. An armor choice I saw mentioned earlier, Stone, is also terriffic. It's not up there with CoH but it's a hell of alot easier to make. I think I got all the runes from NM hellforge quests. 1926 def, str, nrg, little res I love it. Don't overlook the lvl 16 clay golem charges either, this little dirt clod really helps your merc and slows bosses to a crawl, although if he get's bombarded by elemental attackers he drops pretty quick but at 5k a charge he's not too expensive.
So looking over Hal's list of goals from the top of the guide here's what I've come up with.
Durable = 16k def after shout/ 22k while attacking
49% pdr with SS and SoE
75/75/51/47 resists with crappy charms
1900 life after BO
Able to Kill = 3k Conc attack with added shatter effect from Doom
Beserk + Holy freeze dmg handles PI's
Nothing that I can't kill (in theory)
I still am working on my ax mastery and am looking for a pair of gore riders and then I think this guy will be complete.
Thanks Hal for the terrific build and guide and sorry to everyone for my long winded post.
TankerMcGhee(JacksRevengew2)
us west sc ladder
TankerMcGhee is now lvl 73 and just mowing through Hell act 1. Some things I've discovered:
Damage isn't everything - My previous fav char is my titan, TitanMcGhee, I dropped every single stat point into str(606 after eq) and with a botd war pike he does around 12k ww. Yet even in hell act 1 whirling through groups would get tense as his life bulb would contstantly being jumping up and down. Now I don't think my conc barb's bulb has budged since normal baal. That may sound like an exagerration but I did not use a pot through NM, I have so many full rejuv's I've had to mule them around. That was with mediocre equipment(headstriker) and 22%ll/2%ml.
Equipment is nice, but not necessary - This build is not real equip dependant.
Good eguip definately speeds things up but you can survive without it. I went through nm with headstriker, gaurdian angel, arreats, soe, sigon boot glove combo and mosers shield. True this isn't junk gear but none of it is too hard to come buy.
I am really pleased with this barb, and with some big equipment upgrades I am starting to feel invincible. Doom has to be my new favorite runeword, if you can get one I highly recomment it. I didn't realize how big an impact the Holy Freeze aura plus the freeze target +3 would have, half the baddies I hit just shatter, its great. An armor choice I saw mentioned earlier, Stone, is also terriffic. It's not up there with CoH but it's a hell of alot easier to make. I think I got all the runes from NM hellforge quests. 1926 def, str, nrg, little res I love it. Don't overlook the lvl 16 clay golem charges either, this little dirt clod really helps your merc and slows bosses to a crawl, although if he get's bombarded by elemental attackers he drops pretty quick but at 5k a charge he's not too expensive.
So looking over Hal's list of goals from the top of the guide here's what I've come up with.
Durable = 16k def after shout/ 22k while attacking
49% pdr with SS and SoE
75/75/51/47 resists with crappy charms
1900 life after BO
Able to Kill = 3k Conc attack with added shatter effect from Doom
Beserk + Holy freeze dmg handles PI's
Nothing that I can't kill (in theory)
I still am working on my ax mastery and am looking for a pair of gore riders and then I think this guy will be complete.
Thanks Hal for the terrific build and guide and sorry to everyone for my long winded post.
TankerMcGhee(JacksRevengew2)
us west sc ladder
so far i'm not doing so well
Kaine - Level 23
Just made the staff in Act 2 Norm and am going to the palace place now
Str: 66
Dex: 46 (with a little + from eq)
Vit: 76
Eng: 10
Resitances... Fire: 20, Cold: 5, Lightning: 59, Poison: 28
Skills: Bash 1, Stun 1, Concentrate 5, Howl 1, Taunt 1, Battle Cry 1, Shout 7, Find Pot 1, Find Item 1, Axe Mastery 4, Iron Skin 1.
i've got a defensive merc - who's doing ok. he dies a bit - but he's new. up till now i'd been using the girl from the first act that i get as a quest reward.
i have crappy equipment, and am using a two handed axe.. because a one-handed just isn't doing enough damage.
I'm about to waste 5000 chipped gems in the hopes of getting a better axe - or i'm going to upgrade em. can't decide
i pretty much have to use a ton of health potions, and am crawling through quests...
Kaine - Level 23
Just made the staff in Act 2 Norm and am going to the palace place now
Str: 66
Dex: 46 (with a little + from eq)
Vit: 76
Eng: 10
Resitances... Fire: 20, Cold: 5, Lightning: 59, Poison: 28
Skills: Bash 1, Stun 1, Concentrate 5, Howl 1, Taunt 1, Battle Cry 1, Shout 7, Find Pot 1, Find Item 1, Axe Mastery 4, Iron Skin 1.
i've got a defensive merc - who's doing ok. he dies a bit - but he's new. up till now i'd been using the girl from the first act that i get as a quest reward.
i have crappy equipment, and am using a two handed axe.. because a one-handed just isn't doing enough damage.
I'm about to waste 5000 chipped gems in the hopes of getting a better axe - or i'm going to upgrade em. can't decide
i pretty much have to use a ton of health potions, and am crawling through quests...
Well Hal, I think I've managed to adapt your build to my no-shield barb (obviously for IK). I really took the angelic set to heart, and wore the ammy, 2 rings, and the ARMOR all the way from level 14 to level 76! :lol: Some people may think that was sad, but I really liked that setup! The rest of mid level gear consists of IK boots, gloves, and belt, helm (for those nice resists, IAS, +life, decent skills, etc) and also a swordguard Executioner sword (even thoI was a mace barb.
During one of my merc-leveling runs I got a RIBCRACKER from nm Meph, and started using that instead of swordguard. I didn't hit as hard, but I swing faster, and the crushing blow really helps. Then came the endless NM baal runs to level up enuf to use IK armor and maul. A few levels before I got to level 76, I switched out the ribcracker for the unqiue Ogre Maul (forgot the name) and found out that while I had less defense, the damage ROCKED! I was owning everything with veyr few hits even in 8 player games.
Then finally..i got to level 76, put on my IK set, switched one of the Angelic rings for a Ravenfrost, and completely OWNED nightmare baal. Baal didn't stand a CHANCE against me and dropped in 20 seconds! My Might merc has 105% chance of crushing blow, plus my maul has 36%, so between us two Baal went down like a sack of bricks.
And now in hell, I still use one angelic ring, and the ammy for a 4000 AR boost. I have a total of over 12.8K AR with pretty much no dex invested, and I haven't maxed Mace mastery yet. My def with Shout is 12.5k. My 10% dual leech is probably kinda low, but I usually don't get hit much, so potions keep me alive and happy. My resists are maxed all except for cold which is kinda close at 57. Once I mule an anni charm it'll be maxed THANK you Halciet for your awesome guide! My barb kicked butt in act1. Now I'll see how he fares in act2.
During one of my merc-leveling runs I got a RIBCRACKER from nm Meph, and started using that instead of swordguard. I didn't hit as hard, but I swing faster, and the crushing blow really helps. Then came the endless NM baal runs to level up enuf to use IK armor and maul. A few levels before I got to level 76, I switched out the ribcracker for the unqiue Ogre Maul (forgot the name) and found out that while I had less defense, the damage ROCKED! I was owning everything with veyr few hits even in 8 player games.
Then finally..i got to level 76, put on my IK set, switched one of the Angelic rings for a Ravenfrost, and completely OWNED nightmare baal. Baal didn't stand a CHANCE against me and dropped in 20 seconds! My Might merc has 105% chance of crushing blow, plus my maul has 36%, so between us two Baal went down like a sack of bricks.
And now in hell, I still use one angelic ring, and the ammy for a 4000 AR boost. I have a total of over 12.8K AR with pretty much no dex invested, and I haven't maxed Mace mastery yet. My def with Shout is 12.5k. My 10% dual leech is probably kinda low, but I usually don't get hit much, so potions keep me alive and happy. My resists are maxed all except for cold which is kinda close at 57. Once I mule an anni charm it'll be maxed THANK you Halciet for your awesome guide! My barb kicked butt in act1. Now I'll see how he fares in act2.
Baal said:
First of all, I would max out the masteries last.
Second of all, the chipped gem foruma sucks now. Don't use it. If you have to reroll use 3 Pgems. ilevel in=ilevel out
Thirdly, At your level...you could benefit a lot from either the entire sigon set, or the entire Tancrred set (tancred uses one-handed axe) I'm on USWest Ladder and i have both sets. tell me if you want to trade for either.
Heck, you can even mix and match the two, and use full Tancred while also using sigon belt, gloves and shield. This will give you 55% IAS I think, 15% life leech, 5% mana leech, slow target by 35%, resist all (20?), great defense for level 23, good strength bonuses, good FRW, and some mf! Not much more you can ask for at low levels.
Glad to hear the majority of the readers are doing very well; as for Baal, I'm assuming your biggest problem is based mainly on your equipment, and thus my only suggestion is to do andy runs for a bit in attempts to pull up some nice set/rare/unique items. Blocking would probably help a lot too; my level 16 version of the barb went high dex right off the bat for max block, and just used a rare axe I gambled up from Gheed that ended up having ed, max, cold damage, and dual leech...too bad the % was so low, else I would've upgraded it.
I likewise wanted to point out, tl, that crushing blow caps at 95%, so while your merc may have over that, it only calculates to 95% (if cblow >= .95; cb = .95, in a sense). The same goes for hit %, deadly strike, dodge %, max resistances with item bonuses, etc, etc.
-Hal
I likewise wanted to point out, tl, that crushing blow caps at 95%, so while your merc may have over that, it only calculates to 95% (if cblow >= .95; cb = .95, in a sense). The same goes for hit %, deadly strike, dodge %, max resistances with item bonuses, etc, etc.
-Hal
yeah my stuff isn't so great. i'm not too good at equipment getting... i'd type is out - but that's a lot of typing - with all the modifiers... the only good thing i think i have is my Hawksmail Scale Mail i got from that ugly thing at the end of the 2nd Act. then some rare stuff for my gloves, boots, axe and rings...
who's this Andy? i'm not good with shortform names - as i don't really remember any of the character names (except baal, diablo, pindleskin and Andariel (is that who you mean?)
maybe i should restart my character and use the eq i have to outfit him? and do better stat/skill placement?
who's this Andy? i'm not good with shortform names - as i don't really remember any of the character names (except baal, diablo, pindleskin and Andariel (is that who you mean?)
maybe i should restart my character and use the eq i have to outfit him? and do better stat/skill placement?
tl:
I'm not sure about pierce anymore, though I believe you used to be able to pierce 100% (at least with the burrito); might want to check the amazon forum, as they're more into the mod as a whole.
Tancred/Sigon mix could work quite well, though I'm pretty fond of the sigon set as a whole, with a good mix of rare/set pieces to fill in the gaps.
Baal:
Andy is Andariel, the boss of act 1. Don't fret having troubles thus far, as it can be rough with non-tweak gear. You could restart if you wanted, or you might want to just do a few mf runs and see how it goes; you're still small, so you might want to play with it a bit. If you're still having trouble after mfing/gambling and such, then sure, get a fresh start; I'd probably hold out until at least 30 or so though.
Also, if you're playing on the realm, you should definately look into trading. If you're on east, let me know, I'll see what I can help you out with.
-Hal
I'm not sure about pierce anymore, though I believe you used to be able to pierce 100% (at least with the burrito); might want to check the amazon forum, as they're more into the mod as a whole.
Tancred/Sigon mix could work quite well, though I'm pretty fond of the sigon set as a whole, with a good mix of rare/set pieces to fill in the gaps.
Baal:
Andy is Andariel, the boss of act 1. Don't fret having troubles thus far, as it can be rough with non-tweak gear. You could restart if you wanted, or you might want to just do a few mf runs and see how it goes; you're still small, so you might want to play with it a bit. If you're still having trouble after mfing/gambling and such, then sure, get a fresh start; I'd probably hold out until at least 30 or so though.
Also, if you're playing on the realm, you should definately look into trading. If you're on east, let me know, I'll see what I can help you out with.
-Hal
a question
you say in the guide you want to reach 2000 hp... and also have 156 str, and 222 dex for this shield... but you don't have enough points to even get that at level 99... so when you say that much HP do you mean after the BO? because i'm just planning and looking ahead and with 156str, and 222 dex, you can only have 179 in vit - which is 867hp...
so i'm curious as to how many points you plan to have in each at level 99
you say in the guide you want to reach 2000 hp... and also have 156 str, and 222 dex for this shield... but you don't have enough points to even get that at level 99... so when you say that much HP do you mean after the BO? because i'm just planning and looking ahead and with 156str, and 222 dex, you can only have 179 in vit - which is 867hp...
so i'm curious as to how many points you plan to have in each at level 99
Yes, the life total is after BO. I need to update that part of the guide to reflect statistical array changes I've made over the months since the original publish of the guide. I now suggest just getting enough dex to hit max block with items, rather than excessively pumping it. I'm likewise much more fond of lower str builds now than I was in the past. My current iteration in testing has 81 base str and 132 base dex, with the rest in vitality. Between charms, gear, and BO, he's hitting just over 6,000 hp, while still maintaining a good 7300 damage without his merc.
-Hal
-Hal
does that mess your plans up for equipment though? or are you just using a lot of +str and dex charms/items? just curious because i'm trying to plan how to go about my character - and your str and dex changes are pretty hefty. sorry for spamming with questions, just like to make sure i'm doing this guy as best i can
The original iterations of the build went with safer str/dex totals, since I wasn't sure what kinda of items I'd find/trade for. Now that I've built the character and played through with him many, many times, I have all of my gear together, and thus I've rebuilt him using the minimum stats he would need in order to wear everything/get max block with the boosts from his items.
81 str; annihilus adds 20, making it 101, which lets me equip BotD, which lets me equip Enigma, which lets me equip Stormshield and upgraded Arreat's, ending with 255 str.
132 dex, as annihilus adds 20, botd 30, raven 20, and arreat's 20, giving me 90, taking me to 222.
For your first run through, if you don't really know what kind of gear you'll be sporting, don't be afraid to put a bit extra in. There are no circumstances where you will need more than 156 str though, and likewise no legitimate reason to have more than 222 dex (unless trying for max block with a shield with a lower block rate).
-Hal
81 str; annihilus adds 20, making it 101, which lets me equip BotD, which lets me equip Enigma, which lets me equip Stormshield and upgraded Arreat's, ending with 255 str.
132 dex, as annihilus adds 20, botd 30, raven 20, and arreat's 20, giving me 90, taking me to 222.
For your first run through, if you don't really know what kind of gear you'll be sporting, don't be afraid to put a bit extra in. There are no circumstances where you will need more than 156 str though, and likewise no legitimate reason to have more than 222 dex (unless trying for max block with a shield with a lower block rate).
-Hal
Sounds good, but as you go, just pump enough dex to keep your block % at 75 in the character window (hover over the defense field to see your block %); that way you won't waste any. Also, make sure you're reading the updated version of the guide on the UNC CH servers, as that one is much more current, and I can access and alter it easily.
-Hal
-Hal
