Concentrate

Attack that is not interruptible and improves attack rating and defense.

Concentrate is a Barbarian Combat Skill (level 18, requires Stun; it unlocks Whirlwind and Berserk). It is a single melee attack that cannot be stopped once it starts, raises your defense while you swing, and takes synergy damage from three other skills. The numbers that decide it are the damage bonus, +70% at level 1 and +165% at level 20 before synergies, and the defense bonus, +100% rising to +290%. It costs 2 mana.

The numbers

The damage bonus is skills.txt Param1 (70) plus Param2 (5) a level: +70% at level 1, +165% at level 20, +215% at level 30; it reads lvl. Each hard point in Bash adds 5% (Param8) and each hard point in Battle Orders adds 10% (Param7); both read blvl.

The defense bonus is Param3 (100) plus Param4 (10) a level, applied as the row's aura stat skill_armor_percent: +100% at level 1, +290% at level 20. The attack-rating bonus is ToHit 60 plus LevToHit 10 a level: +60% at level 1, +250% at level 20. Mana is a flat 2.

A fourth line, the share of the damage dealt as magic, is Berserk hard points percent (calc4, EType "mag"); it is 0 without Berserk points and is left out of the table.

How it works

Concentrate is a normal weapon attack: Chance to Hit is rolled with the bonus above, and a hit deals weapon physical damage with the +% added to your other Enhanced Damage; leech, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike and Open Wounds apply. The Basin says the defense bonus lasts for the attack animation, so it is up continuously while you keep swinging, and that once the attack is executed it cannot be interrupted by Blocking, casting, hit recovery, knockback or stun.

The Berserk synergy converts, it does not add. The Basin's page says 20 hard points in Berserk make a Concentrate hit 80% physical and 20% magic, not 100% physical plus 20% magic. The conversion happens after +% damage and a mastery, Critical Strike or Deadly Strike double, and before resistances: the magic share ignores the target's physical resistance and meets its magic resistance instead. See Magic Damage.

Synergies and +skills

• Bash: +5% damage per hard point (Param8).
• Battle Orders: +10% damage per hard point (Param7).
• Berserk: +1% of the damage dealt as magic per hard point (calc4).

All three read blvl. Concentrate's own damage, defense and attack-rating lines read lvl, so +skills from items raise them. Concentrate feeds Bash and Stun with +5% attack rating per hard point each. A weapon mastery adds its attack rating, damage and critical-hit chance, and the Basin notes a mastery's double applies before the magic conversion, so it doubles the converted share too.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player. The defense bonus and the uninterruptible swing are not damage and are not cut. The Basin's page says nothing more about Concentrate against players.

Build notes

• Level 20 is +165% damage, +290% defense and +250% attack rating for 2 mana; each +skill adds 5%, 10% and 10%.
• Battle Orders is the big synergy, 10% a point, and a Barbarian takes it for the life anyway; Bash is 5% a point and also feeds Stun and Double Swing.
• Berserk points trade physical for magic one percent a point: worth it against physical immunes, nothing against the rest.