My concentration barbarian has been my favorite, and one of my most successful characters. I've decided to share my knowledge so that everyone else can get a chance to have fun, with the funnest melee character(In my opinion). Please provide feedback, whether positive or negative. Hope this is helpful to many. Enjoy!

There are such a wide range of builds one could choose when using a conc barb, but I'm just going to talk about some of the most effective and common builds.


Skills
Every conc barb should max these skills:
Concentrate
Battle orders
Shout
Axe Mastery
Iron Skin
Any remaining skills, put into Bash.

**Note**Some people prefer to max Bash over Iron skin, but I have had more success with Iron skin before Bash.

Stats
Strength- Enough to use every build you plan on using
Dexterity- Enough to have max block with every build you plan on using
Vitality- Remaining points go here
Energy- This is a Melee character


Setups
Ok so heres the best part, the gear setups. I'll be showing some of the most common and effective builds, some with 10th frame attack speed (75 IAS), and others with 9th frame attack speed (125 IAS). No melee character is cheap, so be prepared to spend some fg if you want to do this right.

10th Frame Fort
Weapon: Ebotdz
Helm: Ethereal Upgraded Arreat's face
Armor: Sacred Armor Fortitude
Shield: Cham'd Stormshield
Belt: Verdungoes
Boots: Upgraded Goreriders
Gloves: 20ias with the best stats you can get (15str/15dex/ high defense gloves work best)
Amulet: angelics
Rings: angelics
Inventory: 37x 3/20/20's
Torch+Anni

10th Frame Prudence
Weapon: Ebotdz
Helm: Ethereal Upgraded Arreat's face
Armor: Glitched Ethereal Sacred Armor Prudence
Shield: Cham'd Stormshield
Belt: Verdungoes
Boots: Upgraded Goreriders
Gloves: 20ias with the best stats you can get (15str/15dex/ high defense gloves work best)
Amulet: angelics
Rings: angelics
Inventory: 37x 3/20/20's
Torch+Anni

9th Frame Fort
Weapon: Ebotdz
Helm: 100AR/15ias'd Upgraded Arreat's face (Or Glitched Arreat's)
Armor: Sacred armor Fortitude
Shield: 100AR/15ias'd Stormshield
Belt: Verdungoes
Boots: Upgraded Goreriders
Gloves: 20ias with the best stats you can get (15str/15dex/ high defense gloves work best)
Amulet: Highlords
Rings: 2x Raven frosts
Inventory: 9x 132AR/45life Grand Charms
10x 36AR/20 life Small charms
Torch+Anni
**Note** Less AR charms may be used and supplemented with 3/20/20's, depending on the situation.

9th Frame Prudence
Weapon: Ebotdz
Helm: 100AR/15ias'd Upgraded Arreat's face (Or Glitched Arreat's)
Armor: Glitched Ethereal Sacred armor Prudence
Shield: 100AR/15ias'd Stormshield
Belt: Verdungoes
Boots: Upgraded Goreriders
Gloves: 20ias with the best stats you can get (15str/15dex/ high defense gloves work best)
Amulet: Highlords
Rings: 2x Raven frosts
Inventory: 9x 132AR/45life Grand Charms
10x 36AR/20 life Small charms
Torch+Anni
**Note** Less AR charms may be used and supplemented with 3/20/20's, depending on the situation.


Ethereal Upgraded Black Hades
Weapon: Ebotdz
Helm: 40/15'd Upgraded Arreat's face (Or Glitched Arreat's)
Armor: Zod'd, cham'd, 40ed/15ias'd Ethereal Upgraded Black Hades
Shield: 40/15'd Stormshield
Belt: Verdungoes
Boots: Upgraded Goreriders
Gloves: 20ias with the best stats you can get (15str/15dex/ high defense gloves work best)
Amulet: Angelics
Rings: Angelics
Inventory: 37x 3max damage/20 life/20AR charms
Torch+Anni

Steel Caraplace
Weapon: Ebotdz
Helm: 100AR/15IAS'd Upgraded Arreat's face (Or Glitched Arreat's)
Armor: 100AR/15IAS'd Ethereal Steel Caraplace
Shield: 100AR/15IAS'd Stormshield
Belt: Verdungoes
Boots: Upgraded Goreriders
Gloves: Steelrends
Amulet: Highlords
Rings: 2x Raven Frosts
Inventory: 22x 3max damage/20 life/20AR charms
5x 132AR/45 Life Grand Charms
Torch+Anni

Glitched Valor
Weapon: Ebotdz
Helm: 100AR/15IAS'd Upgraded Arreat's face (Or Glitched Arreat's)
Armor: 100AR/15IAS'd Glitched Valor
Shield: 100AR/15IAS'd Stormshield
Belt: Verdungoes
Boots: Upgraded Goreriders
Gloves: Steelrends
Amulet: Highlords
Rings: 2x Raven Frosts
Inventory: 22x 3max damage/20 life/20AR charms
5x 132AR/45 Life Grand Charms
Torch+Anni

Strategy
I'm sure most of you know GM Melee dueling strategy; Swing at your opponent and hope he dies before you do. In my opinion, the real strategy is using the right build at the right time. Some of the builds here have more AR than others, or more defense than others, so by understanding your opponent, you have to make the decision on which build your going to use.

Conclusion
These are just some of the most common and effective builds. There are so many more builds and variations of these builds. If you ever want to discuss or have questions about another build that is not listed, don't be scared to shoot me a PM. I hope this is helpful to many. Please provide feedback!

This post was edited by Biglouy on Aug 20 2010 01:40pm

All weapon choices: Ebotdz/10.

Like I said, this guide covers the most common and effective builds. The only other weapon I would consider using on a conc barb, is a 2 handed fools sword of some sort. But that opens up a huge variety of different builds.




Nope Grief is BM.

This post was edited by Biglouy on Aug 20 2010 01:52pm

yea what's up, is it not Gm to use Grief?

There is currently no build in the world of melee chars that makes BotD a superior weapon to any other weapon, for any and all characters, anymore.

can you post some screenshots of your stats with these setups like in the zealot guide? like a s/s of your character screen with damage, defense, life, etc

I disagree. Like I said, the only other weapon that I would consider is a 2 handed fools sword, which makes writing a guide difficult, since not everyone has those available to them.





That was my original intention, but I can't find a hero editor that works for 1.13. I may just reveal my own character's stats.

This post was edited by Biglouy on Aug 20 2010 02:07pm

use editor
good guide hope it's useful for those who seeks builds

I think you should add AR helm builds aswell.

the problem is low dc % with angelics + botd, isnt edc + engelics will do more dmg?

Very nice guide.
I also find Iron Skin more helpful than bash.