Hal's 1.10 Conc Build Guide (Updated Edition)

Not a few k, more like a few hundred, though it's totally dependent on your skill levels and such. A perfect berserker BotD compared to a perfect cb is about 50 more damage, which usually adds up to around 500 or so more damage/1000+ on crits. The real benefits are the lower requirements and the faster base speed, which lets it hit the final conc bp 22 ias faster than the cb (125 compared to 147; cb conc barbs usually have to just settle for 10, as they have to sacrifice too much for 9 frames).

-Hal
 
I just tested the angelic amu+ring +ravenfrost combined with demon limb on switch in singleplayer, and all combined it's a decent AR :surprise: Base dex and still about 80-ish% to hit in hell, not to bad. As for the PvP part, we have this agreement that if someone gets defeated a lot the others adjust their gear (sword/shield barb ditches shield for another sword against IK barb, zealot removes his "um" GA and rising sun for the enchant sorc to do some dmg etc) so the "not having a shield" isn't as bad as it sounds. I won't duel in pubby's with him ofcourse, I hardly ever duel in public duels, even with my blizzard sorc ^_^. Thanks for the advice (I forgot about the enchant charges on demon limb dagnabbit) :clap:
 
Maybe theres something i have missed here...
But in what ways is a botd berzerker axe better than a botd CB?

Cb got a 25-65 1H Dmg base dammage
BA got a 24-71 Dmg base dammage.

Is that the only difference?

Oh and nice guide btw.. Im building a concbarb now, still havent choosen a masteri yet, Im still all messed up.. Sword? Axe? Polearm? Mace?

Its gonna be either Sword or Axe i think.... But im still not sure..
 
Bender:

1. The base damage is higher, as you mentioned. This adds up when you take into account damage mods and such. For example, a BotD cb caps out at 499 max damage, on a superior one with perfect stats (415%), while the berserker caps at 549. When it comes down to it, this adds several hundred more damage to your attack, which doubles on critical/ds.

2. The berserker axe has lower requirements, meaning you can pump a lot more into vitality, which is much more important nowadays.

3. Berserker axe has a base speed of 0, while the CB is 5. What this means is that berserker axes hit the last frame for conc (9) 22 ias sooner than a cb (125 v 147), which is really nice once you get up that high. It's very easy to break 9 frames with a berserker axe, and you don't have to sacrifice anything in the way of gear. CB barbs, on the other hand, usually have to just settle for 10, since it's very difficult to come up with the extra 22 ias once you get that high (you'd have to socket your helm, shield, and armor with 15% ias jewels, get highlord's or cat's and some 20% ias gloves, and wear one of the 10% ias belts to manage it).

Likewise, both weapons have the same range, and berserker axes can be used in just about every good rune recipe, and the blood recipes. If you're going one-hand and a shield, the plain and simple fact is that the berserker is the best weapon you can get, period.

-Hal
 
Ok ill try max my axe mastery then.. Anyhow i dont think ill ever get to make botd in any weapon...
Well im still not quite sure on what mastery to max.. Swords seems to be more available.. You got many great unique sword.. Maybe a hybrid with 10points in sword and 10 in axe? or will that ruin it all?
 
It's generally better to max one or the other, since later in the game, you'll end up sticking with one thing, and then those other points wouldve been wasted. Just hold off on the mastery and work on other things until you get some idea of what you will be using endgame, and then pump that mastery.

-Hal
 
Hello, i am making my own conc barb now. For his weapon I have a 5 socket rune master 265% ED. Will that be a good weapon late game? What do you think I should socket it with? Should I get gloves with 20 IAS instead of draculs? I'm not poor, but i don't have the items to get a botd or anything close to it. Thanks for the help in advance.
 
hal,

hope this message goes thru. (ima virgin forum user)
i have currently built 2 conc barbs. 1=caster killa, other is strictly melee. ? is in regards to the melee build. set up is as follows..

-arreats w/ 15ias(no better jewel)
-gf w/ohm
-glad bane(needed cbf since i use angelic set)
-ss w/ 15ias +56 def
-ik gloves/ik belt/ik boots(for +25ias/def/ar bonus and other set bonuses)
(still debating whether its better to use my 20iasgloves/15%string/gores instead tho)
-i use angelic set for ring/ring/ammy

char lvl is 87..

dam = 1.5k-5.5k (no psn)
ar = is 34k
defense = is around 24k 30somtin k whwn conc active
life = is at 4.4k
when i switch to echo arach valor and +3 ammy 2xsoj i get a lvl 44 bo/shout

then i switch to duelin gear and cast lvl 23 enchant

the ? concerns my xtra skill placement (currently):

20 conc
20 shout
20 bo
20 sword mast
1 each pre req
1 iron skin, nat res, frw, stamina

i ended up placing xtra skill pts in iron skin however which is BEST for leftover skills usage...>?

should i have put pts into....
-iron skin (increase def)
-zerk (for synergy bonus to magic damage for conc)

of the 2 which is best?

i seem to have a lil trouble when duelin a few godly barbs, their damage takes off chunks, my 1.5k-5.5k non-psn dam takes off pinch at a time.

agin sry i prob should have posted my own page but agin im new to forums.

thanks,

o and by-the-way excellent guide
 
Andy:

Runemaster is a pretty decent weapon, just really slow. It takes a good amount of IAS to hit the breaks with it (70 for 11, 105 for 10, and a whopping 174 for 9), so you'll want to get your gear set to hit at least the 11 (i'd aim for the 10). You could get down to 9, but that would mean putting 5 shaels in the runemaster, 15 ias jewels in your helm and shield, getting 20 ias gloves and highlords or cat's, and then wearing a 10% ias belt...which is a lot of work. Easier to just get one of the earlier ones, and then maybe stick something like some ed/max jewels in the weapon only.

Gloves are up to you. If you can get your runemaster down to 10 frames without ias gloves, sure, go ahead and wear the draculs ;)

Trigger:

Your damage and such seem great, though I'm guessing your swing-speed is rather slow, which is one problem. Another is that most of the vet pvp barbs are literally decked out in charms and gear like enigma and BotD, which is another reason they probably tear you up so bad (a BotD weapon can get upwards of 7-9k damage with a conc barb in perfect gear). Likewise, while conc barbs are good for straight melee combat, a good whirler will kill you regardless, since it's hard to hit things with conc, seeing as how you have to stop to swing.

As for your leftover points, you're doing the right thing overall. Defense will help you out a lot more in melee pvp; the 20% magic conversion from berserk is really nice, but all and all, the less you get hit, the better, so no worries, you're on the right track. Just hang in there, if you're ever lucky enough to score BotD, you'll be a lot more powerful. Don't feel bad if you lose a lot i npvp though, since it's hard for conc barbs in general with all the changes to things like blizzard, fireball, and blessed hammer, and the introduction of stuff like enigma and exile.

-Hal
 
Hi Hal,

I'm a big fan of your guide. Well written and well thought out. The term "well oiled machine" is a very apt description :)

I was hoping I could get your thoughts on something. I am building an untwinked concentrate barb on west hc ladder. I am wondering about the idea of using two handed mauls so I can skip a dex investment and get more life. My thought is that since def is so high, the majority of physical attacks won't hit me, so I will have less need of a shield than most typical characters . So I would benefit more from the extra life vs elemental attacks. It seems to me that a barb pays the highest price of all classes by going with a shield, because the life it costs him is multiplied by his battle orders. Another factor is that since my weapon will be low end, I need the best base dammage possible to help with killing speed. IK mauls seem pretty common to find and would do a decent job, so I will hope to find one eventually.

For me, the loss of dammage reduction on stormshield is irrelavant because I am new to hardcore and will likely not own one for a very long time if ever.

I know there are monsters that ignore target defence, namely Lister and co., and I suspect the vipers in act two as well. I think it would be a very worth while addition to your guide to list all itd monsters to help with similar decisions, and to let concentrate barbs know what monsters to be cautious of.
 
how do u fight with packs of monsters like listers, and in act4 sanctury with concentration. once they surrond u, u r done
 
Sawse:

Huge life seems like it would be a great thing, but in reality, the extra blocking from a shield gives you more, by negating all of those hits. You can certainly get by without one, as many people have built the build to use a 2h weapons instead, though as you mentioned, a lot of thing ignore defense, and most of them happen to be high-end enemies in the later acts of hell.

The extra life v elemental attack is good thinking, though this is better countered with resists (and even then, no amount of resist is going to protect you from the likes of black souls and such). Likewise, the idea of using IK maul because it has high damage to help killing speed is somewhat irrelevent, due to the slow base speed of the maul; it needs a huge 163 ias just to hit 11 frames, and a whopping 280 for 10. It is a nice weapon because of the crushing blow and % damage to demons/undead though, and is likewise very common, so it does perform fairly well. Yuo might want to dual-shael it, just to make sure you get your frames down.

You may most certainly try it, and I'm sure you'll do fine to a point, but I feel that no shield in hardcore is murder. There are plenty of nice shields like Rhyme and such you could possibly use, so just weigh it over before you decide. And I will most definately take your point about a list of ITD enemies into consideration for the guide; I'll look into it after I get done with my current project: a rewrite of the barb faq.

TheZealot:

Not sure if you were asking me or Sawse with this question, but Lister and his crew are a joke. With max blocking and pdr, their damage is significantly lowered, plus they can be hit with Battle Cry to lower that damage even more. They can also be leeched, and since conc can't be interrupted, you'll be perpetually gaining life back, so there is no real threat in them.

-Hal
 
TheZealot said:
how do u fight with packs of monsters like listers, and in act4 sanctury with concentration. once they surrond u, u r done
Click to expand...


Are you saying there are "ignore target defence" monsters in the chaos sanctuary? Which ones are they?

I am very new to concentrate barbs. My test character is only in the early part of act 3 normal. I'm just trying to get an opinion on my ideas. It may well be that a shield is absolutly mandatory. But,... I still think a barb looses far more than any other class by investing in dex for blocking because of the high life:vitality ratio that is further magnified by battle orders. I just want to get as much benefit from bo as possible, so I wanted to see if going with out a shield is a reasonable option for hardcore. Damn those itd monsters. If there were none of those it would be a no bainer.
 
Thanks for the advice Hal

Having read how thouroughly (sp??) you playtested and refined the build, I will defer to your experience and max block. I've got myself a sigon's shield so it has a nice high %. Too bad it doesn't have any fbr. Do you think faster block is crucial? I would prefer a diamond in the shield (and don't have a shael yet anyway).

As I said in my post above, I am in act 3 norm now, and am enjoying the build a lot. I must have played 200-400 characters, but this id my first ever that is focused on high defence. I didn't know what I was missing. I love that it's so hard to hit me. It's cool to be surrounded, and still be able to ignore the mob and use your warcries to help out other party members or find item or message a friend. I actually did think to myself: "man that Halciet has set me up with a tight build!"

So thanks again for taking the (considerable ammount of) time to share all your experience and knowledge of this great build.
 
lol, it's not a problem man. Sigon's is a great shield, and vastly underrated, with the huge block rate and the +1 skills; I am using it myself on my newbie version of the barb as we speak. Faster block rate is nice, but it's not really important for a conc barb, since its main function was to get you out of block quickly so you wouldn't get block-locked. Conc barbs, on the other hand, can't get block-locked period, since our attack is uninterruptable, so you have no worries with that. Feel free to pdiamond it.

it may be hard to see the potential of a shield at this point, but over the levels, it will become more apprant to you. The max block is a no-brainer, but other things nice about it is the extra slow for socketing and mods, and the extra defense for conc/shout/ironskin to capitalize on. Another great thing I like about shields is that is insures that you have a nice AR rate...since you have to pump dex for blocking, you're also getting more ar, and every 4 points, some more defense. Likewise, the limitation to a one-handed weapon is another "bonus," in a sense, as all one-handed weapons are natrually swung faster than two-handers (based ont he way speed is calculated), and so you're almost guaranteed a faster swing frame. Blocking is kind've like a template that makes sure the character stays balanced.

-Hal
 
in act4 sanctury, those mage knight cast IM, if u attack u would kill urself with 1 or 2 hit, same with amp. the swing speed is really important, u only got 1 sword, u gotta hit like frenzy to make concetrate effective
 
TheZealot said:
in act4 sanctury, those mage knight cast IM, if u attack u would kill urself with 1 or 2 hit, same with amp. the swing speed is really important, u only got 1 sword, u gotta hit like frenzy to make concetrate effective
Click to expand...

You use berserk against IM enemies, since it isn't affected by the curse. In such situations where you run into a crowd of enemies supported by a curse-slinger, you always howl to break up the crowd and either leap or tele directly to the caster, using berserk to take him out. After that, you can either use howl/taunt and berserk to take out the rest of the group, or return to town to get the curse removed.

-Hal
 
TheZealot said:
how do u get a fast swing speed, concentrate doesnt increase any attack speed
Click to expand...

Through your equipment. Most of the better items available have IAS on them, and then items like Highlord's, Cat's, several gloves and belts, and jewels all add IAS, which increases attack speed. You just get enough to take your weapon to the breakpoints.

-Hal
 
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