Help with Concentrate

[jshorted]

Newb player here.

I started my first barbarian, and he is level 60 now. I have maxed BO AND concentrate.

For some reason...concentrate doesn't do much damage. Using a Plague Bearer, my damage only gets to 600-1600. My regular attack is close to that. My leap attack which has one point in it gets up to 1300.

I do not see where my damage is going up 280 percent...am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

[Katon]

What are your skill point placements? Also, Plague Bearer has +300 poison damage which isn't effected by enhanced damage. So that's probably why your regular attack doesn't seem to do that much less damage than Concentrate.

[jshorted]

I'm maxed on concentrate and BO, have 10 in shout, some singles, and like 8 in sword mastery. I have some +skills items as well.

It is really frustrating how low the damage is. Even a Might aura merc only brings it up to 1800 max.

I just need to know if it is all the sword, or I did something wrong.

[Ax2Grind]

Plague Bearer is a decent weapon, but isn't designed as a power leecher. A lot of the damage is poison and that isn't enhanced by Concentrate, so when the physical damage gets boosted it's going to look closer to a standard attack than you think. I'm currently using a CLvl77 with Immortal King, short the armor (damn it), and hitting over 4,000 in maximum damage. Of course, there's a minimum of about 800 in non-physical damage with it and the magic bonus from the Berserk synergy, so it all depends on how you look at it.

Concentrate isn't necessarily meant to give whopping damage as much as give decent damage and rating with the benefit of higher defense during the entire use of the skill. Keep attacking and your defense remains high, stop and you drop back down. If you're looking for pure damage, Leap Attack challenges Charge and Impale, but is unfortunately as bugged as an ant hill. A pure Leap Attack build, much like a pure Charge, should be prepared to rejoin frequently. Berserk is competitive in damage, too, but in exchange for total magic you give up your defense, so you need a different technique and gear set-up.

List your exact skill placement and full gear for detailed advice.

[jshorted]

yeah, so tell me why my character deals no damage: (also, this character is Hardcore)

Skills

MAX Conc
MAX BO
10 Shout
8 Sword Mastery
1 stun
1 WW
1 Leap
1 Leap ATK
1 bash
1 BC
1 Howl
1 Resist
1 Iron Skin

w/ gear stats

STR 170
DEX 125
VIT 205
MAN 20

GEAR

plague Bearer for weapon
Duriel's Shell
IK Helm
IK Belt
IK gloves
IK boots
Tiamat's rebuke shield w/ perfect Diamond (adds damage also)
oak curio, cathans

CONC damage: 613-1654

I can kill NM mephisto without taking any damage, but it takes 5 minutes of hacking. Act 1 in Hell is impossible.

[Ax2Grind]

Hmmm. Pure Concentrate builds max it, Bash, Berserk, Battle Orders and a mastery (Stun, Leap, Leap Attack, Increased Stamina, Increased Speed, Iron Skin, Natural Resistance, Howl, Shout, and Battle Command for pre-requisites or one-point wonders). You seem to be well on your way to this, except you've decided to go with Shout over Bash. Given this is hardcore, I agree that higher defense is warranted, but realize taking those points out if a damage synergy (granted only 5%) and putting them into a warcry to add 10% more defense will cost you. It's simple math: kill power versus survivability.

Hitting more often is also a major issue, and there are no attack rating synergies for Conc, so to get more damage and hit more often (getting even more damage) max Sword Mastery next. You can skip Berserk for now, and perhaps all together depending on how you handle physical immunes in hell, just remember poison takes a while to work and 300 isn't going to dent most undead.

Might I suggest switching to another non-variable weapon with lower requirements, say Headstriker? If you can trade with a Druid you may be able to get by without the +45%PRes and it'll raise your critical hit rate (Critical/Deadly Strike). You should see a big difference, then, but probably not enough for hell. You'll need better gear for that in hardcore, so keep Meph/Baal running for now.