My Mauler's future...

[Graecus]

My Mauler's future...

Hi all.

After reading Zabo's excellent Kodiak guide, I started making a mauler werebear druid, who eventually turned out very fun to play.

However, as I stopped playing this guy for a couple of weeks (during which I created an excellent summon necromancer for mfing purposes from scratch), I started reading around and got some new ideas about my mauler. In particular, I consider making him a mauler summoner, combining the best of both worlds.

Bear in mind, I have started this game with no uber items in my inventory.. yet. My necro will eventually take care of that though

So far (Act 3 Normal, lvl 28 with 2 skill points unused), I have spent my skill points like this:

Werewolf: 1
Lycanthropy: 7
Werebear: 12
Maul: 2
Shockwave: 1

Raven: 1
Summon Spirit Wolf: 1
Oak Sage: 1
Summon Dire Wolf: 1

Let's go to what troubles me.

I am considering allocating my skills as following:

Lycanthropy: 20
Werebear: 20
Maul: 20
Heart of Wolverine: 20
Summon Grizzly: 20
Others points to Shockwave & prereqs

Is this build viable for pvm hell? Using skills calculators I estimated that, without any skill points added (I am aiming for +6 or +7 skills at least), once I max this build I will have a very powerful druid (+165% life, +183% dmg, +120% defense) with a killer mauling attack (dmg +20-260%, atk +210%) and a second tank with impressive damage (945-1039) and a very good amount of life (825-1125) that will easily go up as its synergies get extra points (a mere +2 in skills and werebear life rises to 1100-1500). In these figures I don't even include the bonuses from the heart of the wolverine, which will add great damage and attack rating (too tired to do the maths at this point ). I simply chose HoW because I thought that as a werebear I will have enough life already, although I am aware that through Oak Sage I can get my life to insane amounts.

Looking forward to your remarks. All answers will be greatly appreciated!

 

[MortIIs]

Hmmm the skills look ok. But what are you planning for gear? for hell you'll need quite some res.

 

[Graecus]

Nice to know you approve mate

I haven't concluded on gear yet. There are three items I have decided upon so far, that offer +skills and great resists at the same time:

Jalal's Mane
Heart of the Oak weapon
Chains of Honour armour

I will post the rest when I do some more research on the matter . I should also get a Might Act 2 Merc, but I haven't decided on his equipment yet. :/

 

[MortIIs]

Hoto is nice for casters but it lacks damage; try to get your hands on an upgraded ribcracker or somethign like that.

 

[Graecus]

Interesting idea man! I hadn't thought of using a staff. Great qualities though, crushing blow, great bonuses to speed, dexterity, defense... do all these bonuses mean my wb is going to strike faster? How should I upgrade the ribcracker btw?

Regarding the boots, I would probably choose something between War Traveller and Gore Rider, although they lack +to resistances (the best choice for that seems Tearhaunch greaves).

Any ideas for my build's equipment are welcome!

 

[MortIIs]

As for the boots, you can always use rares with frw and res or Aldur's boots 50% fire res. You can get further res from annihilus/torch/anya quests

 

[Verashiden]

SafetyPro made a guide revolving around Maul/Summon. Search for the "Towndump Bear"

 

[Graecus]

Actually, the Town Dump was what made me think about summons in the first place. Problem is, I have already spent 12 points in Werebear! :/

 

[Verashiden]

Shouldn't hurt the build TOO much. I mean, you have SW, so... yeah.

 

[superjayson]

you're build is pretty much a copy of mine except im only lvl 90 so grizzly isnt maxed yet.

i pretty much used same gear as zabo's guide except i use a cerebus+jalal's and ebotd + grizz caddy.

 

[Graecus]

Good to know somebody else has done the same thing. Essentially, my build is just like SafetyPro's with emphasis on werebear instead of Dire Wolves... which is not such a good thing for the bear (loses synergies) but is great for me.

How is your experience of hell with this build guv'nor? Which skills did you max first/last? Any suggestions on stats allocation?

 

[superjayson]

i built mine with pvp in mine so i have max block.
I didn't want to max two spirits so I juts chose HoW due to the extra AR and damage.

i cant tell you which i maxed first cause i made this char months ago, but every druid i make i always max lycan then my main attack (maul) first.

 

[Graecus]

No probs, I get the picture! Thanks!

For now the safest thing is to pump points to Lycan and Maul, maybe one point in grizzly and let +skills help it. For now. Such a shame though- grizzly can be a proper butcher with a maxed synergy! Btw, I'm building mine for PvM purposes. Think it's got chances for decent hell use?

 

[superjayson]

oh yeah. i actually pvm more with him than anything since maulers in pvp arent that good. anything with shockwave is good in hell.

grizzly still get synergy bonuses from the wolves, even if its not from points you invest your self. only skills of any class that do that.

 

[Verashiden]

Sorc Elemental Masteries do that as well I thought >.>

 

[superjayson]

oh yeah that too, but thats a bit different ;p

 

[Ewoks]

Hi,

2 weeks ago i started make my werebear/summoner druid, i`m on 25 lvl and i thinking about something like that:

werewolf 1 pts
werebear 20 pts
lycanothropy 10 pts
maul 20 pts
shockwave 1 pts

raven 1 pts
HoW 20 pts
wolves 10 pts
diere wolves 10 pts

rest in wolves

and grizzly at 13 lvl from runewords "BEAST" on bersarker axe,

What do u think ??

 

[superjayson]

Beast is a crappy weapon for a bear (and wolf). Unless you're fine swinging terribly slow.
And no the aura from beast doesn't help either.

 

[Verashiden]

It helps, but you're still swinging at 9 frames. It's a craptacular weapon for shape Shifters.

 

[Graecus]

I liked the 10 points in lycanthropy idea. It's 10 points I could invest in a grizzly synergy, should add significant life to my grizzly! Then again, which one is more worth maxing, werebear or lycanthropy???