Little questions about a Maul Werebear

[froncker]

Little questions about a Maul Werebear

Hi there,

I've been thinking quite a lot about a possible charbuild, well I'm talking about a Maul WB.
I've read several guides, including the "Kodiak" (written in a nice way btw.), but I still don't know, whether a PvM Maul Werebear would be useful or not.

Is it useful not skill Fireclaws, as it would cost a lot of skill points?
Because I read also a guide, in which it was suggested to kill enemies only, by using Maul and stunning them before with Shockwave.
Of course the would be problems with some PIs, but I would use Reapers Toll at my Merchant, so that I have Decrepify.
At last, I wanted to know, whether you could recommend it, using Shape Skillers with Life?

Thanks so far,
froncker.

 

[KellKheraptis]

Welcome to the forums! The PVM Mauler I've been playing with recently is found http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=590115 <--there. Safetypro outdid himself on that build, and throughout the thread are alternate gearings and strategy discussions about how to deal with certain situations the build might come across. PI's are no sweat from the mercenary packing a Reaper's Toll for decrepify, and for you, you have a huge elemental bonus on the IK Maul from using 4-5 IK set items (my personal preference is using all of the IK set but the helm, using Shael Jalal's and Highlord's to hit the desired Maul attack speed of 7 FPA, a lot cheaper than going CoH, but again, just a preference).

Fireclaws is a totally different animal, and to be really effective, requires a lot of investment in synergies. A hybrid between the two is certainly viable, such as using a griz set weapon and getting it to swing at 5 fpa, charging Maul and then switching to fireclaws to continue stunning and doing a ton of fire damage (and not to mention the stacked AR bonus of the two). Fireclaws is a decent secondary attack on the Town Dump build as well, seeing as how it's on the way to hunger, and will add a good chunk of AR (also, fire has it's own in built stun, IIRC, to go with the charged up maul and shockwave). All in all, while it isn't that viable for pvp given that it's 7 fpa with a two handed range 2 weapon, it will utterly plow through pvm, between the permastun of maul/shockwave and the massive CB of the IK maul. My two recommended reads are the above link and superjayson's rated pvp fireclaws werebear *another shameless plug* which can be found in the build guides section (I think...) or on a forum search. Hope this gives you a good start, and if nothing else, the ursine gurus are on frequently (I'm primarily a wolf guy, but my broad specialization is the druid in general). Have fun!

~Kell, feeling all sagely-like *perches on a cliff somewhere and howls!* Awroooooo!

~Kell