Hal's 1.10 Conc Build Guide (Updated Edition)

Chicken:

Levi is a great piece of gear for a conc barb, though GF is somewhat lacking, thanks to the low speed; it would take a ton of ias to get it to a decent frame (89 for 10). Your other gear looks pretty good, but you might really wanna consider using that CM instead of the doom, since it'd be faster and has that static field built in.

Joe:

Yes

-Hal
 
Halciet said:
Chicken:

Levi is a great piece of gear for a conc barb, though GF is somewhat lacking, thanks to the low speed; it would take a ton of ias to get it to a decent frame (89 for 10). Your other gear looks pretty good, but you might really wanna consider using that CM instead of the doom, since it'd be faster and has that static field built in.

Joe:

Yes

-Hal
Click to expand...

Thnx. The cresent moon is a phase blade, so the damage is horrendously low, is it even possible to get my dmg to 2k+ with this?(I'm lvl 79 at the dmg its dealing right now is 800-1000).
 
Ah, in that case, you might be better off with the GF after all; phase blades are cool and all, but their damage makes them somewhat ridiculous to use in hell. If you could remake in something like a balrog blade, that would be worth it, but otherwise, just stick with the GF.

-Hal
 
HI... i have been scamming this fourm over and over seeing ppl asking for an IK babba guide... u are always reffering to an existing guide... HEY i am bling cant find it any were... have read your conc. guide it looks nice but still wanna look at the IK build... so pls pls give me a link to it... i cant find it... blind etc call it what u want :buddies:

//hellwoodi-whj '

HC Euro ladder
 
I thought I would try this build out. My barb is at lvl 20 and wearing full sigons, except for the boots. with shout and conc my def is 1500. With a merc it is above 2000. If this keeps up the rest of the game I am going to be very happy!
 
Hi halciet,

Your guide looks great, ive started my barb and am going to make him an axe barb. However, i havent managed to get myself a botd zerker axe quite yet. Ive found a gimmershred though, think that would do it for a while? Or any other suggestions in the unique axes?

thanks
 
I'd never even thought of using gimmershreds on my conc barb before I made my BoTD. That is a good call in the uniques dept, probably the only 1h unique axe to help carry you unless you have good jewels to socket in a rune master.

Personally, I crafted a decent blood zerker that lasted me until I made a crescent moon zerker, which in turn lasted me until I made BoTD, which will last me until I can afford an eth 6 soc zerker to remake BoTD.
 
I've built myself a conc barb following the guide and he's great! Thx hal!

One observation. In the 1 point wonder department, you should definitely add WW.

Lets face it, most of us rarely conform to the area level that we're in. We're either rushing through an area that's much higher than us, or finishing up quests/rushing others in areas much lower than us. The conc barb excels at staying alive against monsters higher level than himself, but when faced with a bunch of lower level critters, it takes forever.

That's where WW comes in. In a word, area-of-effect. (yes yes, I know, 3 words, sue me)

I won't even go into comparing rushing the maggot lair with or without WW. Let's just say that even at 1 point, its doing damage comparable to conc because of the extra hits. To me the 1 point in WW is much more important than Increased Stamina/Speed, yet those got a generous mention. Make an old barb happy and tell me you'll add it?
 
Great build. I`m new to this forum and I was looking for something different. No more Whirlwind. I got spanked by a Necromancer...... In your build, Immortal King`s Stone Crusher is a good option for a weapon? And what type of weapon is the best for Breath of the Dying: axe, sword, mace?
 
Kath:

Sure, Gimmer is a pretty cool little weapon. Other great unique axes are Butcher's Pupil and Death's Cleaver, and Rune Master isn't half bad with a bunch of Shaels in it. And of course, Axes can be made into all of the best runewords, so Beast/Doom/BotD/Cresent Moon/etc are all options as well.

Web:

I've given whirl credit it the optional skill points section; while it's a nice extra, it's functionality is limited. I'll think about it, but at the moment, the next skill I'm thinking of discussing in future updates is Warcry. I've been working with 5 points of it and 15 in ironskin, and I'm liking it a lot.

Evil:

IK maul is alright, though I don't really suggest using two-handed weapons a lot (especially in pvp). In my opinion, the Berserker Axe is the best weapon for a BotD conc barb, since it's got a low base speed (making it easy to get 9 frames), the best 1h damage (since you'll want to use a shield anyways), and low requirements, so you can put more into Vitality.

-Hal
 
Great build! I made one this morning and he's currently lvl 81, and he's going great! For some reason when i go into PvP, melee druids are so easy to kill....?
 
Another question: I layed my hands on Swordguard Executioner Sword. Should I use this one or engage in the endless search for The Grandfather? In the end, I will use BotD.....if I can get ZOD. Thanx
 
hey hal, great guide,

my barb hardly ever dies, however, im a bit discontent wiht his killing speed.

heres my setup

20 bo
20conc
20 shout
currently maxing axe mastery, at about lvl 24 wiht + skills

i use arreats, ebotd zerker(lower end 352%ed),stonea armor,goreriders,highlords,layingof hands, verdungo,stormshield. ravenfrost,carrionwind

i have a few pdsc charms,

i was wondering how i could step up another notch.
15/ias my arreats and ss? maybe 40/15ias for more dmg too, butat least il reach last breakpoint

any other ideas?

thx
 
Halciet said:
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
Click to expand...


I haven't been following this thread lately, so please excuse me if this has been mentioned already. I was trying this very strategy for a while but I came up with a couple problems with it.

1) Howl isn't very complimentary to a tank. When I party with casters it is a top priority for me to keep the baddies off my caster. Mixing in taunt helps, but it is a bit harder and not perfect.

2) All too often when I get to said IM caster and dispatch him with my zerk, I found that I have activated yet another group of IM caster supported baddies and then my caster is double screwed.

Here is what I have just been trying lately, and it has been wonderful for me:

Whenever I am going into areas that I know I will probably see casters (chaos sanc, world stone keep), I put conc on my left click and zerk on my right. Since I have been pumping zerk as my last skill, it actually does more damage than conc does, so it dispatches the baddies pretty quickly. And now with zero hotkey usage, I can switch back and forth between the two for refilling my orbs when I feel safe that IM won't hit me. My potion drinking has gone down considerably, I tank EVERYTHING for my casters, and I don't have to jump hotkeys all the time while I'm in a place that could quickly kill my character if I'm not quick enough on the keys. Just my 2 cents, but it is working great for me.

-Gran
 
Ok, let's see:

Indian:

Yeah, wolves have a lot of trouble against high defense/blocking/pdr, and they can't interrupt you. Druids suck with blocking too.

Evil:

Swordguard is ok in the lower/mid levels, but it lags bad at high levels. Grandfather isn't so great either, as it lacks IAS, which a conc barb lives off of. I'd personally use it for awhile until you can make a cresent moon or Cruel berseker or something to hold you over for BotD

Kath:

You're pretty much stacked out. The only things that could really help would be some 40/15 ed/ias jewels in the helm and shield, finishing off axe mastery, and possibly getting some blood gloves with crushing and ias on them. Likewise, some 3/xx/xx charms would be nice, since every 3 can add upwards of 30 some damage to your build (34 on my 99er, which of course doubles on C/D strikes).

Alternately, you could pump your last 20 points or so into bash; that'll give you another 100% damage.

Grandar:

Playing in a group, Howl isn't complimentary, true. Of course, since you're supposed to be acting as tank, you can just stand there and draw fire and let the sorc take care of the IM enemies.

For single play, however, they are absolutely great tools. You can, of course, drop a point or five into warcry as well, which I'm going to mention in the next revision of the guide.

The extra points in berserk are fine as well, as I mentioned in the guide. It's all a matter of taste though. I've tried them all, and right now, I'm enjoying 15 ironskin/5 warcry a lot. Berserk is great, but I already do a good 7.5k damage with it with just one point, so it wasn't important to me.

-Hal
 
I agree that howl/taunt are wonderful in single player and that this is all a matter of personal taste. And I personally dont like wc'ing and then just standing there. I'm a killer even when I don't need to be. It is especially helpful when I play with my necro buddy so that he can have more fodder for CE. Some day, I may try the wc/is approach you just mentioned. It's probably more useful than a halfway attempt at a zerk barb. :)

Just so you know, I never presume to know more than you or to correct you. :) My main point was just how incredibly easy it was having zerk on right click. I think superhal gave me the idea last week and I've been loving it ever since then.

Oh, and Hal, I was thinking earlier about something and meant to ask you. I remember reading in that booyaka guide that a high lvl of jump will knockback the entire screen. You think that could possibly be more useful than warcry when tanking for a caster? Of course, it depends on ranges, but it's a thought. And it does synergize LA...
 
Gran:

No offense taken at all, I was just providing a view =)

As for your leap attack question, I am in the process of booting my server development system as we speak to give it a test, but regardless, even if it did knockback a full screen, that might actually be counter-intuitive, as it could push them to the sorc, or else far away, so you'd have to go find them again anyways. If the sorc stayed right on you, it might work alright though. Grim Ward works in a similar manner, as well.

-Hal
 
Like grandar, I have found much use for the conc/zerk combo, where I use left click conc mostly (and dangerously). I teeter on the edge of suicide as I find that the IM casters generally only have IM casted on me for very brief instants most of the time, I just conc them until I see the animation for the curse, then switch to right click zerk (1 pt+skills) until I see if it was IM. This has worked perfectly well for me for 2 weeks, except once in a game with lag. So for any game without lag problems and a quick hand, I find this a very successful technique and much quicker than warcry, seeing as you switch from attack to attack versus attack to defense. I do want to state the importance of conc/warcry/zerk combo for when the game is laggy as it is much safer.

In regards to the leap knockback, it takes a lot of skill to use that in comparison to warcry. I find that the amount of time wasted keeping the enemies in a manageable situation with leap is better done with warcry. At least for party play, otherwise it doesn't matter much which you use.

My play style leads me to hate grim ward. I have never been able to gain control of a room using the totems. It has saved my *** once in a while, but I don't have the patience to use it for crowd control on a regular basis. Once again, I think warcry serves the purpose better 99% of the time, even with its limited range. As Hal has said about knockback, it's a melee barb's worst enemy, at least w/out teleport.

I guess I should mention all my advice has been tainted by ctc life tap on dracul's. It has spoiled me rotten. I don't have any idea how I ever lived without it before.
 
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