Barb Players: What are your thoughts on Concentrate?

As the title suggests, what are your thoughts on Concentrate?
Could it be improved? Is it fine as is?

For me personally it’s my favorite barb skill. It doesn’t require as much point distribution between synergies as Frenzy does for example. It can actually deal magic damage if you level Berserk a bit along with it. It’s uninterruptible, raises your DEF with each successful swing. There are certain items basically tailor made for the skill ( Swordguard comes to mind). It has a lot going for it. It’s the best skill to MF with on a barb in my opinion, even if it is a bit slow to kill in more populated games.

What do you all think about Concentrate? Would you make a barb centered around this skill? Or maybe a guide on how to build one?

I’ve tried WW, Frenzy, Beserker all for Travincal farming and I am respecting to a Concentrate Grief and shield build for a pure Trav horker. For my style, I can play it with my eyes closed, don’t have to worry at all about dying, and it’s only slightly slower. Plus I love the cannot be frozen mod and MF from Rhyme instead of shattering corpses with Raven Frost or having to invest into a Cham helmet.

I started the Barb to farm many areas as Frenzy but I’ve decided to keep him as a specialized character.

Hagawa wrote: 4 years ago

I’ve tried WW, Frenzy, Beserker all for Travincal farming and I am respecting to a Concentrate Grief and shield build for a pure Trav horker. For my style, I can play it with my eyes closed, don’t have to worry at all about dying, and it’s only slightly slower. Plus I love the cannot be frozen mod and MF from Rhyme instead of shattering corpses with Raven Frost or having to invest into a Cham helmet.

I started the Barb to farm many areas as Frenzy but I’ve decided to keep him as a specialized character.

Nice to meet a fellow Conc Horker! I have one myself, specifically built to farm certain areas of the game. Trav being the #1 spot. I also use Grief (in a PB) with Rhyme. I wish people would honestly give Concentrate more of a chance, it's such a good skill to focus on for MFing.

sorry for the offtop but Double Throw is king right now.

Godefroy1099 wrote: 4 years ago

sorry for the offtop but Double Throw is king right now.

I actually have a thrower but not for MF. I wouldn’t recommend one to MF with either only because they’re still very vulnerable to strong phys attacks (because no shield). Unless someone can make a Shield Thrower that doesn’t use Double Throw to MF, I’d be impressed lol.

I have no problems with survivability in my barb, not sure what are you talking about. with 4k health it's pretty easy to stay alive as a thrower

Whatever works for you I guess. I was saying I personally wouldn’t recommend doing MF with a thrower but, yeah.

Back to talking about Concentrate - if anyone has specific gear set ups they use for Concentrate and would like to share, please do. Would love to see other peoples takes on building around this skill

LuckyAce wrote: 4 years ago

Whatever works for you I guess. I was saying I personally wouldn’t recommend doing MF with a thrower but, yeah.

Back to talking about Concentrate - if anyone has specific gear set ups they use for Concentrate and would like to share, please do. Would love to see other peoples takes on building around this skill

why? I am doing mf ona thrower and it is fantastic, what is the advantage of other builds in that matter becasue I fail to see it. I guess it is just your narrow minded point of view.

I've got myself a bit unfinished conc barb with point into WW. It's just a build for your pleasure, quite safe with shield, quite relaxing

I'm going full Concentrate MF right now. Hope it will work out!

You convinced me to give it a try, sometime this weekend. I don't like pure Berserk and prefer Whirlwind. My issue with Frenzy is that it's hard to max Find Item, and the whole point of me using a barb for MF is +75% extra drops

My concern with Concentrate is the kill speed. It's the denominator of the MF efficiency equation, so slowness really adds up over time

I made my first Concentrate Barb in 2006, still one of my favorite builds.

Skills:
20 Concentrate
20 Battle Orders
20 Shout
20 Weapon Mastery
1 Whirlwind (and prerequisites)
1 Berserk
1 Iron Skin
1 Natural Resistance
1 Battle Command
Rest Bash - should be about 19 if lvl 99

Gear for my build:

Weapon - this will be the most debatable:
Ethereal Breath of the Dying (EBOTD) in a Colossus Blade - Not quite the damage as Grief, but the onboard Mana and Life leech mean minimal potion use, and the 30 to all attributes basically means 90 to Vita (because you can divert your hard points from strength and dexterity to vita), so effectively over 700 health after Battle Orders.
In a Colossus Blade over Phase Blade for range (3 vs 2 respectively) and its already indestructible from the Zod.
Sword over Axe because its fun to dual wield other sword rune words when not using a shield.

Armor:
Arreat's Face - Preferably Upped and Socketed with ED/IAS Jewel for breakpoint (if using EBOTD Colossus Blade)

Gore Rider - Preferably Upped

Storm Shield - with ED/9Dex Jewel. You only really need extra dexterity when using shields for max block, so might as well have this in the shield jewel. Hard points in dexterity does not improve attack rating very much. You could use a Max Dmg/ED jewel, but there is a bug that causes the Ed to only apply to minimum damage, so kind of a waste.

Dracul's Grasp for survivability on bosses, Steelrend for all else

String of Ears Belt, preferably upped. Some prefer Verdungo, but SoE has the same damage reduction and comes with life leech.

Highlord's Wrath
Raven Frost
Bul-Kathos

Body Armor: In most cases these are best in an Archon Plate, Sacred Armor is an alternative for more defense but require an additional ~16 hard points in strength, and the extra defense is not too necessary given the already extreme defense of this character (remember Concentrate gives a huge bonus when attacking)
Chains of Honor for survivability on bosses / ubers
Enigma for mobility in group games and magic find
Fortitude for melee dueling (here is where one might consider Sacred Armor)

2 Heart of the Oak on switch for Battle Orders and teleporting

Max damage charms (they are better than poison charms)


Happy Slaying

Phoenix_00 wrote: 3 years ago

I made my first Concentrate Barb in 2006, still one of my favorite builds.

Skills:
20 Concentrate
20 Battle Orders
20 Shout
20 Weapon Mastery
1 Whirlwind (and prerequisites)
1 Berserk
1 Iron Skin
1 Natural Resistance
1 Battle Command
Rest Bash - should be about 19 if lvl 99

Gear for my build:

Weapon - this will be the most debatable:
Ethereal Breath of the Dying (EBOTD) in a Colossus Blade - Not quite the damage as Grief, but the onboard Mana and Life leech mean minimal potion use, and the 30 to all attributes basically means 90 to Vita (because you can divert your hard points from strength and dexterity to vita), so effectively over 700 health after Battle Orders.
In a Colossus Blade over Phase Blade for range (3 vs 2 respectively) and its already indestructible from the Zod.
Sword over Axe because its fun to dual wield other sword rune words when not using a shield.

Armor:
Arreat's Face - Preferably Upped and Socketed with ED/IAS Jewel for breakpoint (if using EBOTD Colossus Blade)

Gore Rider - Preferably Upped

Storm Shield - with ED/9Dex Jewel. You only really need extra dexterity when using shields for max block, so might as well have this in the shield jewel. Hard points in dexterity does not improve attack rating very much. You could use a Max Dmg/ED jewel, but there is a bug that causes the Ed to only apply to minimum damage, so kind of a waste.

Dracul's Grasp for survivability on bosses, Steelrend for all else

String of Ears Belt, preferably upped. Some prefer Verdungo, but SoE has the same damage reduction and comes with life leech.

Highlord's Wrath
Raven Frost
Bul-Kathos

Body Armor: In most cases these are best in an Archon Plate, Sacred Armor is an alternative for more defense but require an additional ~16 hard points in strength, and the extra defense is not too necessary given the already extreme defense of this character (remember Concentrate gives a huge bonus when attacking)
Chains of Honor for survivability on bosses / ubers
Enigma for mobility in group games and magic find
Fortitude for melee dueling (here is where one might consider Sacred Armor)

2 Heart of the Oak on switch for Battle Orders and teleporting

Max damage charms (they are better than poison charms)


Happy Slaying

I have my skills almost like yours, but a difference: i'm going with 10 Shout, 20 Find Potion, 2 Find Item and the rest to Bash. Just like the print.
The gear im going with Chance Guards, War Traveler, Goldwrap and Enigma on a Balrog Skin for MF. I have a Dwarf Star and The Rising Sun as one ring and amulet, so i can LAUGH AND LAUGH at Travincal's Council face. Im using a Grief on a Phase Blade and a Rhyme Shield.

Helmet i have an Arreat's Face socketed with a Perfect Topaz.

It's not the most efficient and optimal gear, but i'm having a ton of fun with it. Hardly drink a potion. And the physical immunes i use the Berserk skill, so i don't need Bone Break sunder charm.

My impression has been, slow but safe. I’ve never used it exclusively but at stages of the game have found it useful even as just a one point wonder, especially since Bo boosts it. I’ve used it mostly as a method for leeching back life as a shield Berserk barb, a build which inevitably is a middle stage of my Metamorphosis through trav before I go dual wield ww. Any time I’d reach 1/3 health I’d start concentrating enemies and when the defense buff kicked in, could reliably soak back my health. I’d also use ww for repositioning though have died more than a few times mistiming it with Berserk and rolling through the middle of the pack with zero defense.. Despite not being perfectly suited, Concentrate and Berserk accommodate each other well, they share synergies, and their huge differences in utility balance each other out when used in conjunction.

I do wish the defense bonus was a bit longer so you could combine it with other skills, namely ww. I like the idea of throwing out a Concentrate strike before wwing with a big ass 2h Axe straight threw the middle of a crowd, that is, assuming blizz hadn’t decided to castrate all non-sword 2h ww builds, but I digress. Sorry, this isn’t the thread to go about my ww gripe.

I could see the Concentrate build being very useful during ladder reset in a team setting, particularly hardcore. With decent res and base defense, he could likely tank and crowd control for an entire party, not to mention bo for all the squishy cannons who would surely compose most of the party. I think the build makes the barb go even further as one of the best support chars in the game.

Rik wrote: 3 years ago

My impression has been, slow but safe.

Well stated.
Concentrate Barb is best for Ubers and surviving Hardcore.
He can also MF Mephisto, Pindleskin, and Nihlathak fairly well, just a tad slower.

MF on packs will be too slow using the Concentrate skill - i.e. cows, pit, etc.
However, a single point to Whirlwind goes a long way. If you have high-end gear, in 1-player game just about any Act V pack goes down in a single pass, and Cows take about 2 passes.

If you took down the Ubers with a Smiter Paladin and said to yourself "so now what", try it again with a Concentrate Barbarian.