Ideas for a Druid vs Druid (melee) Maul/Fury hybrid

[inkanddagger]

Ideas for a Druid vs Druid (melee) Maul/Fury hybrid

Okay so it isn't patch 09 anymore, and these guys slowly went the way of the buffalo, but with all of the renewed interest in pure melee DvD duels, I'm interested in making one.

Basically I'm having trouble on deciding stats, here's the dilemma:

In order to max all of the appropriate skills, I will have to leave one at base.
The current idea is:

Werewolf: 1 pt
Lycanthropy: Max
Werebear: Max
Maul: Max
Fury: Max
Heart of Wolverine: Max
Fire claws: 1 point (for stun lock with maul)

Since I will be at level 92 at the completion of the build, I feel like it is highly unlikely that any attack rating over 15k will effect the outcome of many duels (especially vs 2k and down defense werewolves), and beside, fury will have a higher attack rating than maul anyhow because of the inherent bonus from the werewolf skill. However, I could possibly max it out and use a single point oak sage instead (which will be at a 95% boost with my gear).

Stat points are also a big concern.
I don't really want to go "mostly vita" because then I lose out on a lot of damage potential.
I don't want to go "just enough dexterity for max block with 2 ravenfrosts" because I don't like to use more than one of them, or even 1 if I can help it and am in wolf form
I don't want to overshoot strength and lose out on vitality since my plan is to use HoW

Goals: ~4k fury, ~5k charged maul with werebear buffed (but not overbuffed)
~15k-20k attack rating, 5k life with HoW

I will be using a 15 stat annihilus charm

My old "balance build" was 165 str, 225 dext, rest into vita. Can or should I structure my new druid around these 09 era stats (165 so That no corpse-popping was involved when wearing valor). 200 dexterity should be fine at lvl 92 if I don't use ravens. But do you guys think thats an overshoot? I was thinkign 130-150 into strength. With 130 I can wear all of my gear with war travelers (my armor is a hellforge plate) with 140 I can wear gore riders. 150 would just be an added bit of damage and gear switching versatility.
After that everything goes into vitality, which should get close to 200 base, if I am adding correctly.

 

[MrGoth]

~

So the plan is to use fury in wolf vrs which classes/builds, and use maul in bear vrs which classes/builds? I'm not sure if this would work out in the long run, its a novel idea having the power of two characters in one, but it might be a bit weaker if you go up agaisnt a pure fury or pure mauler.

 

[Voice]

This is kind of a hard question to answer because of one big reason ... I have yet to see a maul bear do REALLY good vs. other druids unless they almost purely relied on fc damage.

I would say first find out what will allow a good mauler to be competitive then kind of work on that.

Another big question is what kind of weapon are you looking to using in wolf/bear form?

I would probably do something like this:

Str 141, w/ 15 stat annih You will be able to wear anything assuming your using ss (Jalals gives +str but what if you want to use cerebus for ar)

Dex Enough for max block w/o any ravens. I sometimes use cham'ed jalals/cerebus in order to use 2 x angelics for ar.

Vit rest obviously

I would also put one into shockwave. Also when I checked out your setup I am getting the impression you'll need to be lvl 94 to complete this build and lvl 95 if you want one into shockwave.

Your skill placement is basically the only route you can go only thing I see that is potentially changeable is oak vs. HoW. I know many use HoW on bear for the ar, but the more I use it I really dont know if it compensates for what you gain in oak. Its really comparing 2-3k + 1k or so damage ar vs. 2-3k life. If the ar bonus was higher it would be worth it, but you can almost gain the ar bonus of a lvl 14 HoW by just putting on a cerebus.

Overall its a nice thought but like I said in the beggining I really havent seen a VERY dominate bear in .10 yet, so maybe figuring out how to make one of them first would be a good before trying to make a good hybrid.

good luck.

 

[inkanddagger]

Lots of good advice in there. Here's a few of my thoughts:

*since the werebear skill is prebuffable, it will probobly be the last one that I finish, at either lvl 94 or 95.

*the de facto weapon would be a 105 ias griz caddy - hits 6/4 fury and the 5 frame attack break point for maul. This allows me to use ed armor to boost my damage, rather than max/max armor. On the flip side of this, I haven't seen any of the new attempts at maulers using the 4 shael,2 x 40/15ias phase with 120 max armor, shield, etc either. So it's a dilemma between going better minimum damage, tighter range, the ability to use gore riders for maul and using max/max and getting a higher average damage over time, with more speed to make up for the bears inherently slow hit recovey and block rate. Considering this, I would probobly have to use war travs and lose ds potential in order to gain average. It could just be that the hardest path is going to ultimately be the best.
Interestingly, with the 110ias phase blade, fury attacks at 5/4. I haven't calculated whether the speed would make up for the lack of d/s and min damage that could be had from using a griz caddy or cxxoq. More hits or higher damage per hit? In 09 i was easily more hits (block lock). In this patch no one knows for sure. Maybe I should filch on fury till lvl 94 and attempt to make a mauler just to try all of this stuff out?


*The HoW vs oak debate - this is coming from the "titan with oak sage vs. balance build with HoW" argument.

A typical well-geared titian fury wolf with oak sage has ~5k life and ~4-5k max fury (considering griswolds or typical 7/4 cruels)

My balance build with HoW will have ~5k life, and ~4-5k max fury.

Interesting to note is that HoW will give a higher edmg% than a titan build with oak sage, giving the HoW build greater damage potential while maintaining 5k or better life. Plus there is just enough extra attack rating to justify leaving werewolf at base. (considering +11skills to shift and +9 skills to summons using only mangs song as a prebuff).

 

[Voice]

Hmmmm I havent ran any numbers on this but I got a spreedsheet that will do it. I'll do it tomorrow or friday sometime (I'm extremely busy atm).

I kind of agree if your going hybrid you almost need to use griz caddy unless you want a totally different setup in your stash for ed/ias pb and another for fury weapon. Gear for the most part would be basic. The real kicker would be what armor to use.

Helms: Jalals / Cerebus(cham'ed) (I would probably go Jalals for wolf Cerebus for bear)
Ammy: Highlords / angelic
shield: shaeld ss
Belt: xx/dungos
Gloves: bloods or rends.
Boots: war travs, I really dont think you need gores but you might keep some in stash.
rings: raven, 100+ar 40+life +stat; 2 x angelic
Armor: max/max of whale or ed/dex-str of whale.


Also note for bear you could go defensive route. I noticed that with 10k def. my bear doesnt get hit near as much as I thought he would. So maybe getting high def wouldnt be so bad.

This post is kind of short because I need to get back to studying .... I'll try to give more insight when I have time .. back to concrete for now.

 

[Sim.The.GoSu]

Hello, just thaught I'd pop in to say hi and help Ink.

Three words.. Talk to Welt.

 

[Furo]

Wow Sim nice to see your alive, Welt did make his bear, unfortunatly it sucked real bad and he has given up as far as I know.

 

[Weltkriegpally]

Wow Sim nice to see your alive, Welt did make his bear, unfortunatly it sucked real bad and he has given up as far as I know.

lol. Incorrect, john. My bear just needs better charms and a more viable armor. Recall that I never finished him. As far as "sucked real bad", it has killed most of the decent wolves repeatedly, just hasn't gotten to duel any of the so called "godly" ones. I have been playing ladder landing him better gear, so don't worry, he is coming back with a vengeance.

--welt

 

[Furo]

Lolz I find it funny how Fallen, nor myself or any other Druid remebers you killing one wolf lol. Odd :scratch:

 

[inkanddagger]

After locating one of my trusty old 09 weapons, I've been thinking about another option:

85 ias phase blade, 135% ed, 3 ar, with a Lo
gores instead of travs

this brings my average damage higher than with 105 ias caddy (both weapons are 5 frame maul) and travs. 70% ds seems much better than 35% with higher on screen damage.

If I go the phase route, I'm going to be using max armor no question.

With HoW, in wolf form, the average damage of the 6/4 phase is extremely close to the average damage of the 7/4 caddy with oak sage (given that I am doing balance/HoW vs. Titan/oak).

Welt, I may just toss you a bunch of crap sometime this week - maybe tomorrow? Set your mauler up with the gear I'm planning and see how it works (how much life does yours have with HoW? I'm planning 5.3k)

keep an eye out for me on acct *crossouttheeyes

 

[inkanddagger]

Just a quick update - DrinkAndSwagger is currently level 86, with fury, maul, lycanthropy, and HoW maxed. Werebear is at level 12, which means I need to go to 94 to finish the build.

Current stats:

Fury - 2906-4983 with Lo caddy, 19873 attack rating with no angelics or ravenfrosts (I use strength rings), 4894 life (no I do not use battle orders,demon limb, etc.)

Maul - 2404- 3498 uncharged, well over 5k top charged (with 105ias caddy), 14382 attack rating (I use 1 ravenfrosty in bear form), 5100 life, 4804 defense

It is doing fairly well, better than my dedicated fury wolf even, even 8 levels from being finished.

 

[Voice]

congrats !!