PvM Fireclaw Bear - Skilltree

[relliKniaP]

PvM Fireclaw Bear - Skilltree

I am a newbie when it comes to Druids and Druid builds in general, can someone suggest how to distribute my skills as a PvM Fireclaw Bear?
I have seen some examples on the boards though and i figured that i will definitely want.....
20pts in Fire Claws - main source of damage
20pts in Volcano/Firestorm/Fissure/Molten Boulder - synergy
Now, i have some questions about other skills.

1) How much in Maul for FI?
2) How much in Werebear? Some people say that it should be maxed, other say that 1 with +skills is enough.
3) 10pts in Lycanthropy or max?
4) Is Fire Claws damage with one synergy maxed acceptable? All leftover points, after the build is done, should go in other FC synergies, right?
5) What 1pt-wonders does the Druid have?
6) I have noticed that people praise Shockwave for its crowd-control capability. Only a single point there i assume?

 

[Mitch Turnbuckle]

Hello,

I am currently playing Fireclaws build and the majority of mo skill points are going to be spent. My few leftover points will be used on the following 1 point wonders:

Shapeshifting:
1 point Shockwave

Summoning:
1 point Raven
1 point Carrion Vine
1 point Oak Sage
1 point Grizzly

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

It really depends on your gear. If you have a really high physical damage weapon, you may want to use it more by taking more advantage of your bear skills. However, if you just really want to go Fireclaw, then you don't need to pump more than 1 points into virtually anything except your fire skills.

1 Lycanth, +skills giving you around ~10 is more than enough. That's 100+% life bonus and plenty of time for the shift, for just one point. Let the +skills do the magic.

1 Werebear, +skills giving you extra damage/defense. This is not worth maxing really. The DEF at ~10 is like 120% (not enough to warrant 20 points in my opinion), the extra damage is over 100%+, but think about what weapon you're using--that's physical damage, phase blade? No not worth that.

20 Fireclaw. It's your build.
20/20/20 in the synergies that you prefer.

1 Oak, more life for 1 point is fantastic. +Skills raising it to ~10 is great. You don't need to max this unless you just want to. This is PVM, so I would just go for more points in synergies for more damage. You'll have well beyond 3k+ life as it is with just 1 points lyc/oak and some +skills to bump it up.

1 Vine, good for helping to eat corpses (carvers!).

Dump remaining points into damage synergy for fire claw.

-- Fire claw is about delivering high fire damage super fast. You'll have very little physical damage. So a multi-shael'd phase blade might be your weapon of choice, and you'll notice the physical damage on that thing, isn't much. So naturally building skills that help out physical damage aren't doing much with that phase blade.

Mercs can help for the FI's. Keep a wand of lower resistance charges on switch; it can work small miracles on some of those FI's.

Cheers, :sunny:

 

[Ed from Russia]

I think it's all a matter of preference; here's mine:

20 Fire Claws
10+ Lycanthropy (invest 10 immediately to make the duration acceptable, add more if you prefer some safety
1 Shock Wave (an awesome crowd control skill, equipment bonuses will make it last long enough)
1 Maul (for FIs)
1 in each prerequisites (Werebear, Werewolf, Feral Rage)
all the rest in FC synergies
no summons

IMO, Fireclaws need 60 skill points (FC and 2 synergies) to work properly. 40 is possible but will make you a bit slower (though safer because of Lycanthropy and Oak Sage). 80 points is awesome.

If you play multiplayer a lot leave Lycanthropy at 1 and max Oak Sage. I don't agree with an earlier poster; 1 point in OS is useless because he will die too often. Either max or don't use at all.

As a weapon you use a shaeled phase blade, so physical dmg is low and points in Werebear will have little effect. Instead, to deal with FIs get some Crushing Blow. Use Gore Riders and consider using something like Ribcracker on switch.

You can add a 1pt Grizzly and it can be a useful tank. But in the it is you and your Merc that will do the killing.

Also read SSOG's advice here. It's pretty much a guide on its own.

 

[relliKniaP]

soo lets conclude... in your experience, is

1 with +skills in Maul enough for FI?
1 with +skills in Shockwave enough for decent crowd control?
1 with +skills in Oak Sage enough for it to survive?

As for Lycantropy and Werebear, i will see how much im going to like the "+life" and "+defence" and put points accordingly

 

[Nazdakka]

For FIs, your 4 fpa attack means you can do a lot of damage with Crushing Blow.

 

[superjayson]

soo lets conclude... in your experience, is

1 with +skills in Maul enough for FI?
1 with +skills in Shockwave enough for decent crowd control?
1 with +skills in Oak Sage enough for it to survive?

As for Lycantropy and Werebear, i will see how much im going to like the "+life" and "+defence" and put points accordingly

assuming you can load up on ss skillers maul/sw/oak are all one point wonders and will serve you well. especially shockwave. your oak will die depending on how stupid it wants to be that day, but its only a simple recast..

the defense on the werebear skill is unbalanced to the extreme. IE: a lvl 20 werebear gives the exact same defense boost as a lvl 3 shout. even with perfect gear i would be surprised you see you get over 8k defense which is hardly significant. especially considering the life boost you can get from putting points into lycan instead.

 

[relliKniaP]

Thanks for all the advices everyone I have one more question tho

All FC synergies give the same bonus but which ones are the most useful?

 

[superjayson]

fissure>volcano>firestorm>molten boulder
in that order

 

[MalVeauX]

All FC synergies give the same bonus but which ones are the most useful?

The ones that let you cast something while you wait to get access to Fire Claws. Otherwise, it makes no difference at all really since you will be shifted and unable to cast them anyways. I would go with Firestorm & Fissure as a start. They're useful early on. It's too bad they didn't let Geddon be a synergy, that would have been a two`fer and wonderful... alas.

Cheers, :sunny:

 

[superjayson]

and if only blizzard didnt make armageddon have the entire elemental tree as a pre-req too ;p