Fireclaws WereBear?

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Hi,

I'm building an FC Werebear around my OATH in an ethereal Feral Axe. He's
level 72 now (SP) and just started Hell.

Current skill distribution:

Oak Sage 3
Lyc 15
WereBear 20
FireClaw 20
ShockWave 6
FireStorm 10

He's wearing a STONE armor (1917 def) for the Molten Boulder charges
synergy bug, so he does 2673-3027 fire damage bare-handed.

Pre-buffing equipment gives me +15 to Shape-Shift skills and +13 to
Summoning skills.

Fighting gear has 26 Fireclaws, 7 Maul and level 12 Shockwave, resulting in
a total Fireclaws damage of 3864-8974 with 7032 AR (with level 21 Enchant
from Obedience). 2724 life with Oak Sage active, 2051 without.

Where do I go from here?

Blocking most equipment slots, I can get 60%IAS for a 6fpa attack, while no
additional IAS already gets me 7fpa?

If I leave Fireclaws damage as is and keep the STONE armor, I have 18 skill
points (until level 85) for the Summoning tree. I could raise a nice
Grizzly and put some more points into Oak Sage (he seems to die quite often
at level 16)?

Raise FireStorm to 20 and swap STONE for a nicer armor (high resists)?
Still leaves 8 points for Summoning - 1 in Grizzly and the rest for Dire
Wolves synergy?

Max Oak Sage? Level 33 Oak Sage gives nearly 200% life..

How about OK's and IM? I plan to use Tiamat's Rebuke and a fast, low
damage, sword with Fireclaws against them? With a PhaseBlade, he'll have
200ish max physical damage and a 4fpa (6 SHAEL) attack? Lots of cold small
charms?

Thanx,

Oliver

 

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Oliver Wenzel schrieb:
> Hi,
>
> I'm building an FC Werebear around my OATH in an ethereal Feral Axe. He's
> level 72 now (SP) and just started Hell.
>
> Current skill distribution:
>
> Oak Sage 3
> Lyc 15
> WereBear 20
> FireClaw 20
> ShockWave 6
> FireStorm 10
>
> He's wearing a STONE armor (1917 def) for the Molten Boulder charges
> synergy bug, so he does 2673-3027 fire damage bare-handed.
>
> Pre-buffing equipment gives me +15 to Shape-Shift skills and +13 to
> Summoning skills.
>
> Fighting gear has 26 Fireclaws, 7 Maul and level 12 Shockwave, resulting in
> a total Fireclaws damage of 3864-8974 with 7032 AR (with level 21 Enchant
> from Obedience). 2724 life with Oak Sage active, 2051 without.
>
> Where do I go from here?
>
> Blocking most equipment slots, I can get 60%IAS for a 6fpa attack, while no
> additional IAS already gets me 7fpa?

7 fpa is enough.

> If I leave Fireclaws damage as is and keep the STONE armor, I have 18 skill
> points (until level 85) for the Summoning tree. I could raise a nice
> Grizzly and put some more points into Oak Sage (he seems to die quite often
> at level 16)?

More life is always good. Without synergies, the main use of a Grizzly
is to have a castable minion for attracting critters. To make him more
durable, investing in Oak makes more sense than boosting Dire Wolf.

> Raise FireStorm to 20 and swap STONE for a nicer armor (high resists)?
> Still leaves 8 points for Summoning - 1 in Grizzly and the rest for Dire
> Wolves synergy?

Methinks Stone is the perfect choice for that build. Unless you have one
of the uber Runewords though.

> Max Oak Sage? Level 33 Oak Sage gives nearly 200% life..

Yup.

> How about OK's and IM? I plan to use Tiamat's Rebuke and a fast, low
> damage, sword with Fireclaws against them? With a PhaseBlade, he'll have
> 200ish max physical damage and a 4fpa (6 SHAEL) attack? Lots of cold small
> charms?

You can stun OKs with ShockWave. Lure the Doom Knights away from the OK,
move them out of the way with your big physical dmg weapon using
FireClaws (AR bonus) while keeping Maul running (for higher physical
dmg, DKs are FI in Nightmare and Hell). Make sure no other OK is around,
stun the one left with ShockWave, alternate between Fireclaw and
ShockWave. With the huge FireClaw damage, two or three hits should be
enough.

---
Hannes

 

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Oliver Wenzel wrote:
> I'm a little confused here. I have 1 hard point in Grizzly and Dire Wolves,
> but when I cast him with +13 at level 14, he gets 3K+ life.
> Do +skills count for Dire Wolve synergies, too?
> Level 16 Oak Sage would double this to 6K+ life. Quite a tank for 2 skill
> points..

IIRC these synergies are the strange ones. Like Prayer - Meditation. I
think

 

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Hi,

Hannes Brunner <bruhan12@web.de> wrote in
news:3kjo69Fut96pU1@individual.net:

> Oliver Wenzel schrieb:
>
>> If I leave Fireclaws damage as is and keep the STONE armor, I have 18
>> skill points (until level 85) for the Summoning tree. I could raise a
>> nice Grizzly and put some more points into Oak Sage (he seems to die
>> quite often at level 16)?
>
> More life is always good. Without synergies, the main use of a Grizzly
> is to have a castable minion for attracting critters. To make him more
> durable, investing in Oak makes more sense than boosting Dire Wolf.

I'm a little confused here. I have 1 hard point in Grizzly and Dire Wolves,
but when I cast him with +13 at level 14, he gets 3K+ life.
Do +skills count for Dire Wolve synergies, too?
Level 16 Oak Sage would double this to 6K+ life. Quite a tank for 2 skill
points..
>
>> Raise FireStorm to 20 and swap STONE for a nicer armor (high
>> resists)? Still leaves 8 points for Summoning - 1 in Grizzly and the
>> rest for Dire Wolves synergy?
>
> Methinks Stone is the perfect choice for that build. Unless you have
> one of the uber Runewords though.

I'm working on a Fortitude armor - already have two GUL from Hellforge.
Just need another 6 to cube a LO ;(
>
>> Max Oak Sage? Level 33 Oak Sage gives nearly 200% life..
>
> Yup.

I'm currently saving up my skill points until I decide (and find I need to
do something)..

>
>> How about OK's and IM? I plan to use Tiamat's Rebuke and a fast, low
>> damage, sword with Fireclaws against them? With a PhaseBlade, he'll
>> have 200ish max physical damage and a 4fpa (6 SHAEL) attack? Lots of
>> cold small charms?
>
> You can stun OKs with ShockWave. Lure the Doom Knights away from the
> OK, move them out of the way with your big physical dmg weapon using
> FireClaws (AR bonus) while keeping Maul running (for higher physical
> dmg, DKs are FI in Nightmare and Hell). Make sure no other OK is
> around, stun the one left with ShockWave, alternate between Fireclaw
> and ShockWave. With the huge FireClaw damage, two or three hits should
> be enough.

Maul doesn't amount to much physical damage at 20% per hit - do you need to
actually hit or is attack enough? Anyhow, with 300% damage from Might merc,
5 Maul hits just add another 100% - not worth the effort, IMO.

Somebody suggested using Hunger when OK's are around? 140% life leech at
level 7 could just offset the IM damage. OTOH, with Hunger/Maul I'm really
short AR-wise.

I'll try your strategy when I get there..

Regards,

Oliver

 

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Oliver Wenzel schrieb:
> I'm a little confused here. I have 1 hard point in Grizzly and Dire Wolves,
> but when I cast him with +13 at level 14, he gets 3K+ life.
> Do +skills count for Dire Wolve synergies, too?
> Level 16 Oak Sage would double this to 6K+ life. Quite a tank for 2 skill
> points..

Well the passive bonuses for Druid summons existed ever since LoD is
out, long before the term 'synergy' was introduced. So yes, +skills help
here.

Even though a Grizzly has lots of hit points, he has no resists
whatsoever making him quite vulnerable against magic attacks.

>>Methinks Stone is the perfect choice for that build. Unless you have
>>one of the uber Runewords though.
>
> I'm working on a Fortitude armor - already have two GUL from Hellforge.
> Just need another 6 to cube a LO ;(

Which reminds me that I should make a char around the Fortitude armor I
made after I had found my one and only LO. If I find some time and the
mood to do that beside the Ironman thingy I'm currently occupied with.

> Maul doesn't amount to much physical damage at 20% per hit - do you need to
> actually hit or is attack enough? Anyhow, with 300% damage from Might merc,
> 5 Maul hits just add another 100% - not worth the effort, IMO.

Hmm you might be right, especially if you add in the poor AR of Maul. I
forgot that my last Wearbear used a Buriza and lots of Dex instead of
Str for the damage bonus. He had enough AR to hit things even with Maul.

> Somebody suggested using Hunger when OK's are around? 140% life leech at
> level 7 could just offset the IM damage. OTOH, with Hunger/Maul I'm really
> short AR-wise.
>
> I'll try your strategy when I get there..

You don't play in HC mode, right? So it won't hurt that much if my
strategy fails .

---
Hannes

 

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In article <3kmdsqFv7ou5U1@individual.net>,
Hannes Brunner <bruhan12@web.de> wrote:
>Oliver Wenzel schrieb:

[big snip]

>> I'm working on a Fortitude armor - already have two GUL from Hellforge.
>> Just need another 6 to cube a LO ;(
>
>Which reminds me that I should make a char around the Fortitude armor I
>made after I had found my one and only LO. If I find some time and the
>mood to do that beside the Ironman thingy I'm currently occupied with.

Interesting. What are you planning?

When I found a Lo, I went for a Fanatic Zealot. Worked quite nice, solo-ed
Hell without much problems, though IM was tricky. Solved that by throwing
Gimmershreds; AR from Fanatism was enough to have a reasonable
chance-to-hit.

I put a second traded Lo in a 14% Superior 4-socket Great Hauberk.
Unfortunately resists-wise it was a tiny bit better than the previous one
(in a non-superior Archon Plate), it had the same life/level, and it
confirmed what I read: repair costs were fenomenal: 30+K gold / point of
durability. That one went on my Skelliemancer's merc.

I've contemplated redressing my IK Barb with that Fortitude armor, and a
bunch of other uniques, but haven't done that yet. To make most of his
(almost) maxed Mace Mastery I'd have to dual-wield maces, but the
two-handed ones are not like sword in that respect, so I'd have to settle
for dual-wielding one handed maces... Hmmm...

Regards,

Patrick.

 

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Patrick Vervoorn schrieb:
>>Which reminds me that I should make a char around the Fortitude armor I
>>made after I had found my one and only LO. If I find some time and the
>>mood to do that beside the Ironman thingy I'm currently occupied with.
>
> Interesting. What are you planning?

I'm looking for a build where the 300% enhanced damage is not only a
nice add on but makes a real difference. If the ED would help with
Vengeance, it would be an Avenger sorc. Other ideas are zealing necro,
zon or sorc. Maybe with a Passion Elder Staff or Shillelagh.

---
Hannes