Please Buff Concentrate Barb

I urge the developers to buff Concentrate by improving the synergies as shown below (e.g. similar to Berserk synergy change in Patch 2.4) to improve the viability of this defensive-oriented character and expand build diversity. The goal is to keep proposed suggestions sensible and not drastically alter the design or fantasy so it can be taken into consideration.

If you’re a Concentrate Barbarian, you’re going to want to use Iron Skin to maximize your defense. Therefore, it makes sense to replace Bash synergy w/ Iron Skin as it better compliments the skill while adjusting the other synergies as follows…

Concentrate Synergies

  • Battle Orders: +15% Damage per level
  • Berserk: +3% Magic Damage per level
  • Iron Skin: +1% PDR per level

The reason Iron Skin and not Shout was to incorporate stronger tradeoffs with skill choices as Iron Skin is typically inferior to Shout past a single hard point invested because Shout gets the same per level defense bonus yet affects the entire party. Lastly, increase the effectiveness of Battle Orders and Berserk synergies by bumping up their respective percentages as shown above.

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Without AoE this build (and similar other) will always stay behind.

As the developers noted in Patch 2.4, they did not want to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to class balance changes. Instead, the proposed changes in the OP is a reasonable approach to improve the performance of this skill without resorting to drastic changes.