Berzerk & no Synergies

[Condor]

Berzerk & no Synergies

Is it viable for a Concentrate barb to go through the game and still be effective if you only have 1 point in Berzerk, but do not put any points in it's synergies of Howl & Shout?

I am considering a build with 20 points in Battle Orders, Bash, Concentrate, and Sword. Other points going towards prerequisite type of items. It looks like it would have good Concentrate damage, but I wonder if going against IM type of monsters would make this a bad build with no Berserk synergies attached and only 1 point in Berzerk.

Condor

 

[rikstaker]

Bash is where the leftover points of a conc barb should go according to the conc viking Hal.The core should be conc,mastery,bo,shout with rest going into bash.Since it adds just 100% ed,in comparison shout gives much more in defense & zerk synergy.BTW,shout is better as a synergy to zerk than howl.

Rik *waits for Hal*

 

[Killfrenzy]

a 1pt zerk is still an excellent phys immune/IM killer. Remember it converts all your damage into pure MAGIC damage. Very few monsters have much resistance to it. So if you have a decent weapon zerk will take chunks out of things even with 1 pt

 

[Condor]

Bash is where the leftover points of a conc barb should go according to the conc viking Hal.The core should be conc,mastery,bo,shout with rest going into bash.Since it adds just 100% ed,in comparison shout gives much more in defense & zerk synergy.BTW,shout is better as a synergy to zerk than howl.

Rik *waits for Hal*

Yep Rik, I realize per Hal's guide; that Bash would be an end skill that you could add to. I was however looking at the synergies of Concentrate and wondered what a build around it would do with using Bash before Shout.

My concern is of course that almost all builds indicate a 20 point distribution into Shout; where what I am looking at, there would not be 20 points available since they were allocated towards Bash for more offense in Concentrate.

Whether or not 1 point in Berzerk to be used against physical immunes with no synergies would survive, I do not know.

So I am trying to find out if it 'could' work or not. If not, could it work as a partial split between Shout and Bash of say 10 points to each. Bash adds to the damage that Concentrate gives; where Shout I think is more defense added. I am looking at a more offensive Barb with utilizing Bash to help Concentrate have more damage output. That is the goal at least in my mind.

I don't want to go in with only 1 point in Berzerk, get to Hell, and realize now (after it is too late) that I am not going to be able to kill physical immune monsters. Maybe the Merc can, but I want to be able to kill all monsters encountered and have the Merc as backup and help; not as primary.

Condor

 

[Condor]

a 1pt zerk is still an excellent phys immune/IM killer. Remember it converts all your damage into pure MAGIC damage. Very few monsters have much resistance to it. So if you have a decent weapon zerk will take chunks out of things even with 1 pt

Thanks Killfrenzy for your reply. My brother and I were considering trying even another Barb, with a different spin on the build.

The way I understand, Berzerk with 1 point will convert the damage to all Magic damage and convert that to 150% of normal damage. Drawback is no defense while using Berserk.

We are just trying to decide all the little things and read all the builds here to see if what we are thinking works. If they do, we are going to try a Concentrate barb with Bash and no Shout; might be very interesting.

Condor

 

[Halciet]

It could work, but I wouldn't suggest doing it. 100% damage is quite pathetic, unless you have a ton of damage charms and an incredibly powerful weapon. With 39 3 max charms and a 412% BotD berserker axe, it was only adding around 600-700 damage, which is definately not worth giving up the benefits of shout for. If you used a massive 1000+ damage 2-hander, you might consider it, but then you'd be losing the ar, speed, and defensive bonuses guaranteed by having a shield.

-Hal

 

[Condor]

It could work, but I wouldn't suggest doing it. 100% damage is quite pathetic, unless you have a ton of damage charms and an incredibly powerful weapon. With 39 3 max charms and a 412% BotD berserker axe, it was only adding around 600-700 damage, which is definately not worth giving up the benefits of shout for. If you used a massive 1000+ damage 2-hander, you might consider it, but then you'd be losing the ar, speed, and defensive bonuses guaranteed by having a shield.

-Hal

We shall take heed to your advice. Thank you.

Condor