hc werebear guide?
- Thread starter SawwaMaru
- Start date
i am also interested in this, i know bears can get tons of life and i will be playing it hardcore and need something to survive in hell. i hear a hunger bear is good for living acording to jary in another post. any tips on skills or stats would help. main thing is surviving that i'm interested in, don't need to kill really fast. just not die. thanks to anyone that can help us.
superjayson
Diabloii.Net Member
search this forum for the kodiak guide.
SSoG
Diabloii.Net Member
My ears are burning...:grin:
Anyway, "Kodiak" is a confusing term. You see, entirely independently of each other, Zabo and I both created Werebear builds on two different forums within a week of each other. His guide was for a PvP Mauler emphasizing size, while mine was for a PvM Hunger-based build emphasizing speed. Unfortunately, we both happened to name our builds the same thing- the "Kodiak". To avoid any confusion, I always refer to my build as a "Hunger Bear" around these parts. Here on Dii.net, Kodiak should refer to This guy. It's a solid build, but it's definitely more geared for PvP play than PvM play.
I've never ported my Hunger Bear guide over to these forums, in part because I'm too lazy to redo all the formatting, and in part because in the meantime, JanusJones has written his own guide to Hungry Bears. I disagree with him on several salient points, but the meat and potatos is the same. If you're interested, I discuss weapon alternatives in that thread on page 4, and Janus and I get into a discussion of elemental damage on page 5. I'm a big fan of Elemental damage on a Hunger Bear, since Hunger doesn't reduce it (so 1 point of elemental damage is as good as 4 points of physical). Azurewrath will actually deal more damage per second than a perfect Ethereal BotD Champion Axe + Might Merc and 200 Strength, thanks to that yummy dual magical/cold damage (and Azurewrath will be a lot more useful against PIs).
Also, for a huge and comprehensive list of good weapon choices for a Hunger Bear, this would probably be a good read.
If you have any other questions, ask them here or shoot me off a PM and I'll do my best to help you out.:smiley:
ok well honestly i believe u cant go wrong with hunger bear 
use flamebellow and fire claws n u will hit about 7k fire claws with 3 frames hitting and you can always switch over to something like botdz n pheonix
honestly i think best bear build wuld b
beastz
pheonix
6\6\2 cta
spirit (4 cta)
bramble, coh or best would be fort
bk ring
p ravenfrost
highlords, cats eye OR +3 ss ammy
dungos
dracs or lava gout
gores or travs
9x ss gc's
dtorch
anni
as many high psn sms u can fit in the rest of ur space
this will make you do rufly about 5-8k damage fire claws
the skills i wuld put up would be
20 lyc
20 wb
20 fireclaws
20 into either oak sage or HoF (which ever u want damage or hp)
20 (i cant member wot the bear version of feral rage is) <--- that skill
and the other 12 to ur disposal
use flamebellow and fire claws n u will hit about 7k fire claws with 3 frames hitting and you can always switch over to something like botdz n pheonixhonestly i think best bear build wuld b
beastz
pheonix
6\6\2 cta
spirit (4 cta)
bramble, coh or best would be fort
bk ring
p ravenfrost
highlords, cats eye OR +3 ss ammy
dungos
dracs or lava gout
gores or travs
9x ss gc's
dtorch
anni
as many high psn sms u can fit in the rest of ur space
this will make you do rufly about 5-8k damage fire claws
the skills i wuld put up would be
20 lyc
20 wb
20 fireclaws
20 into either oak sage or HoF (which ever u want damage or hp)
20 (i cant member wot the bear version of feral rage is
) <--- that skilland the other 12 to ur disposal
thanks for all the helpful links, i'm definatly going to be making a bear.. rarrrrr.
i will be trying to find a champion axe of some kind with as much increased attack speed as possible. as i don't have much in the way of gear (zero) i'll probably just be looking for shaels to stick in it then something for more damage. would the runeword treachery for the assassin work for druid? it has 45% increase attack speed in it? let me know if you have any more tips. i know there are better weapons but i can't afford an azure or anything like that right now.
thanks again for your help tho
i will be trying to find a champion axe of some kind with as much increased attack speed as possible. as i don't have much in the way of gear (zero) i'll probably just be looking for shaels to stick in it then something for more damage. would the runeword treachery for the assassin work for druid? it has 45% increase attack speed in it? let me know if you have any more tips. i know there are better weapons but i can't afford an azure or anything like that right now.
thanks again for your help tho
SSoG
Diabloii.Net Member
Off-weapon IAS is practically useless for high-speed weredruids. It's just a matter of how attack speed is calculated- at high speed, it's either on-weapon IAS or nothing, so Treachery isn't as useful for a Bear as for other classes. Now, sometimes the 45% will help you hit another breakpoint somewhere, and even if not, then the 60% resist-all and 15% DR are not to be scoffed at, so don't discount Treachery entirely... just understand that the IAS isn't as useful unless it's on-weapon. Use TheDragoon's speed calc to figure out all of your IAS needs- and remember to use the NEGATIVE of the speed listed on the Arreat Summit, so if you're wielding a -10 speed axe, put "10" under base speed, not "-10".
As for good weapons... if you find any blue Giant Threshers, Feral Axes, or Champion Axes, save them. Craft the Feral/Champion Axes (using the Blood recipe), and roll the Giant Threshers. You are looking for one of the following:
*_______ Champion Axe/Thresher/Giant Thresher of Quickness with two sockets from Larzuk stuffed with Shaels, and 10% oias
*Jeweller's Champion Axe/Thresher/Giant Thresher of _______ with 4 Shaels and 10% oias
*_______ Feral Axe of Quickness with two sockets from Larzuk stuffed with a Shael and a Jewel of Fervor (or two Shaels)
*Jeweler’s Feral Axe of _______ with 3 Shaels and a Jewel of Fervor
*Rare Mechanist's Champion Axe/Thresher/Giant Thresher of Quickness with any four other affixes, 2 Shaels, and 10% oias
*Rare Mechanist’s Feral Axe of Quickness with any four other affixes, a Shael, and a Jewel of Fervor.
In other words, you're rolling or crafting or cubing hoping for a weapon capable of getting 80% WIAS, along with as many other useful mods as you can get.
SSoG you rock. I read your guide on another site for the kodiak, very helpful can't wait to make this bear (i liked the idea of using the extra 25 skill points for hybrid builds perhaps wolves or bear as distractions/helper). I need to find a bit of gear first, least i know now what i'm looking for in the way of axes ect. then i'll know what to get for strength and dex and the rest will be life all the way.