Well then this is the Barbarian Guide for you!
(*Note: the above is a parody of bad infomercials and is not to be taken seriously)
In this guide I'll be going over a build that is a personal favorite of mine, but one that not many play - The MF Concentrate Barbarian.(by LuckyAce)
Now you might be thinking, "What, you can MF on a Concentrate Barb?" and the answer to that is: Yes, you can!
First, let's get the Pros and Cons out the way:
Pros
- High Defense
- Gains more Defense with every attack
- Rarely Dies
- High Resists
- Makes use of a Shield
- Over 60% Chance to Block (CTB)
- Over 60% IAS (with end-game gear)
Cons
- Kills at the same speed as a PitZerker
- Killing Monsters takes a bit longer in Players 5-8
Introduction
As described in game, Concentrate is an attack that cannot be interrupted. This means while using this skill, your Barbarian has a greatly reduced chance of simply not attacking. It also improves your AR (Attack Rating) and Defense with each successful swing. Because of the defensive nature of this skill, it is best used with a shield that has FBR (Faster Block Rate), FHR (Faster Hit Recovery) and increased CTB (Chance to Block). These types of Shields are also known as 10/30/20s. When using Concentrate, your Barbarian will swing with his left hand weapon only. This means equipping a second weapon to his off-hand slot will have no affect on the damage of Concentrate.
[1] Gear, Stats & Skills
Next, let's get into the gear you need for this build. It'll be split into 2 sections, budget friendly, and end-game gear:
Budget Gear
Alternative Budget Weapons:
Lightsabre (suggested by @Th3ory)
Crescent Moon, Oath (suggested by @xSD)
—
Shield: Rhyme, in a Scutum or Hyperion or 10/30/20 Shield with All Res
—
Off-hand: Gull, Heart Carver Head: Immortal King's Will, socketed with 2 Perfect Topaz or a 3 socketed Barb Skiller Helm with +Life, + Battle Orders, Shout, Find Item, with 3 Perfect Topaz
—
Gloves: Chance Guards, Bloodfist
—
Body: Wealth, in any Normal or Exceptional armor, Skullder's Ire
—
Belt: Goldwrap (upgrade to a Battle Belt later for an extra potion slot)
—
Boots: Immortal King's Pillar (adds an extra 25% MF when paired with any other IK set piece) Amulet: Angelic Wings
—
Rings: Angelic Halo, Nagelring, or rare ring with: Life/Mana Steal, AR, Life, Strength and MF
—
Charms: Small charms with life, Res, MF, FHR. Grand Charms with +Combat Skills, +Warcries, +Life / +AR +Min/Max damage
Budget Mercenary Gear
Weapon: Insight in a Partizan
—
Head: Rockstopper or Crown of Thieves
—
Body: Duriel's Shell
End-Game Gear
—
Shield: Rhyme, in a Hyperion or Monarch
—
Off-hand: Blade Of Ali Baba (2x) socketed with 2 Ist each, Heart Carver / Blade Of Ali Baba socketed with 2 Ist Head: Harlequin Crest ( Shako), socketed with an Ist
—
Gloves: Laying of Hands or perfect Chance Guards
—
Body: Enigma, made in a Superior Archon Plate
—
Belt: Upgraded Goldwrap
—
Boots: War Travelers (45-50% MF) Amulet: Blood Amulet with +1/+2 to Barb Skills, Life, Life Steal, IAS/FHR, +15-20 All Res, +10-20 MF.
—
Rings: Perfect Dwarf Star, Blood Ring with Life/Mana Steal, AR, Life, Strength, IAS, All Res and MF
—
Charms: 35-40% Gheed's Fortune, Small charms with life, res, MF, FHR. Grand Charms with +Combat Skills, +Warcries, Life / +AR +Min/Max damage.| Annihilus, Barbarian Torch|
*Note: I strongly recommend using Enigma for this build, while pricey, it offers exactly everything your Barb needs to really excel at MFing. I also advise against using Fortitude. While it's a great runeword in it's own right, the biggest draw back on it for this build in particular is its chance to cast Chilling Armor. Since you'll be up close in monsters faces, having them frozen and then shatter impacts the chances of you horking items from them. This goes for regular and unique monsters.
End-Game Mercenary Gear
—
Head: Harlequin Crest ( Shako), Crown of Ages, or Ethereal Andariel's Visage
—
Body: Ethereal Fortitude, made in an Archon Plate, Boneweave or Balrog Skin (Personal fav)
Stat Point Distribution
- Dexterity: Around 150-155. This is to make sure you have at least 60%+ CTB with end game gear.
- Vitality: All left over points go here.
- Energy: No points here. Barbs get all of their Life/Mana from Battle Orders.
*An example of what your stat points may look like at Lvl. 94 (this is without Battle Command, Battle Orders or Shout being casted):
*End-Game Stats with Battle Command, Battle Orders and Shout casted:
Skill Point Distribution
1 Pt to Find Potion, 5-7 Pts to Find Item (This is to increase the chances of horking items from corpses. Ideally you want anywhere from 52-55%. You can also make use of Heart Carver to up the % without adding in too many points)
- Combat Masteries: 20 Pts to Blade Mastery (formerly Sword Mastery), 1 Pt to Iron Skin, 1 Pt to Natural Resistance, 1 Pt to Increased Stamina, 1 Pt into Increased Speed.
- Combat Skills: 1 Pt to Bash, 1 Pt to Stun, 20 Pts to Concentrate, 1 Pt to Berserk (this is to help with any Physical Immune monsters you may run into in NM and Hell. It also provides Concentrate with magic damage each level), 1 Pt into Leap
*Extra Points: Depending on your Barbs needs, you have a few options to place your extra skill points into:
- Iron Skin: Great for an extra boost to defense, especially if you plan on playing this build in Players 5-8. An extra 3-4 points is good here.
- Bash: Gives Concentrate a little more raw damage. 3-4 points is also good here.
- Natural Resistance: If your resists are a bit lacking in Hell, adding 3 points into this skill should fix things.
Early Leveling Guide
[2] Gameplay Tips
Below are some helpful tips I've come up with over the years of playing this build:
Tips
*An example of "baby leaping": - Use Teleport to reposition yourself and get your Merc to safety if he's losing life too rapidly. If you have Teleport from Enigma, doing this is especially useful against The Council. The most important thing for your Merc in this situation is to prevent the hydras from mass-targeting him. Each time you Teleport, he will reappear next your barb.
- Know your Barbs limits and when to pull back in combat. Despite the high survivability of the MF Concentrate Barb, it is always best to know when to pull back from a situation, lest it result in Death. For example, when approaching unique monsters with Fanaticism, Extra Fast and Amplify Damage, its better to solo out the unique monster itself rather than take them all head-on. Doing so could result in a bad situation very quickly.
[3] Best Farming Areas [2.4]
Here's a list of the best places and monsters to farm with this build:
Travincal
*An example of drops from a Trav run, Players 1, before horking:
The Swampy Pit
Shenk the Overseer & Eldritch the Rectifier
Rakanishu & Tristram
The Pit
The Arreat Plateau
[3.1] Other Farming Areas (Suggested by D2io members)
Nihlathak / Nihlathak's Temple
xSD wrote: 2 years ago Really cannot leave out Nihlathak as a fantastic place for a Conc barb to farm, especially a budget/MF one now with the Tomb Vipers fix.
Nihl is one of the easiest bosses for Conc barbs as you can WW/ Leap through all of halls, Leap Attack to him, Howl, and then just Conc him to Death. It's how I tend to ladder start if I really want to focus on pushing a less played class.
[4] Closing Thoughts
While those who MF with a Barbarian often choose the PitZerker as their go-to, I feel the MF Concentrate Barbarian deserves some spotlight as an alternative (and safer) build to farm with. This is a build I have been personally playing through my D2 play history of nearly 20 years, and it has only gotten better with time. Though it can't kill monsters as fast on Players 5-8 it, I still feel it can hold its own to a PitZerker. I have not seen many PvM Concentrate build guides, especially ones centering around MF, so I suppose you could say this is an "original build" of sorts.
I also want to thank @Th3ory for encouraging me to make this guide and share it with everyone here. I was hesitant at first given that Barbarian is one of the least played classes in D2R, and more hesitant since it revolves around a skill most barb players either use for PvP or BvB.
I hope to all the Barb players who read this guide or those looking to try out a niche build in general, you'll give this build a chance either on NL or for Ladder Season 1.
- LuckyAce
LuckyAce
130