Important Abbreviations/Vernacular
FHR - Faster Hit Recovery
FBR - Faster Block Rate
FRW - Faster Run/Walk
IAS - Increased Attack Speed, of which I will only talk about weapon IAS.
BO - Battle Orders warcry, given to you by the runeword Call to Arms.
OS - Oak Sage skill.
HoW - Heart of the Wolverine skill.
ED - Either Enhanced Damage or Enhanced Defense, and it should be obvious given the item (I'll even spell out which one has both, and that's Fortitude).
Pwn - 1.The act of mercilessly slaughtering your enemy, and bragging about it afterwards, also referred to as owning them. 2.What this wolf will do.
All the pertinent ones right there, as I'm not too terribly prone to abbreviations!
The Stats
For sake of argument, we'll assume you'll be level 90-91 before fully equipping your wolf. Mine at level 91 has the base stats of :
Strength - 56
Dexterity - 109 (119 if you wish to use Angelic's at all, in the optional stash section)
Vitality - 360 (350 if statted for Angelic's)
Energy - 20
This provides enough Strength to have 146 on switch, for using an ethereal Spirit monarch. Dexterity raised for max block with +Dex gear, including EBotD, and as listed, it will be 10 higher if you wish to have the option of using Angelic's.
The Skills
Max Werewolf
Max Lycanthropy
Max Fury
Max Oak Sage
1 Pt Arctic Blast
1 Pt Cyclone Armor
1 Pt Raven
1 Pt Spirit Wolf
1 Pt Dire Wolf
1 Pt Grizzly
1 Pt Spirit of Barbs (optional)
Rest Heart of the Wolverine
Reasoning : With the suggested gear setup, you will still have close to 7k life with BO and HoW, and it will add roughly 4-5k AR, useful in some situations. The OS standard will net you over 9k life total after BO, and that's with 10 sc's with a FRW suffix (meaning with another purely optional stash switch, you'll easily break 10k life, and add even more damage and AR). 3 of the four summons are incredibly useful in specific situations, as will be mentioned later. Cyclone Armor is used to prevent mass stunlock by torchfire, as it's absorb is negligible against real elemental attacks. Spirit of Barbs is more a novelty, and as noted is completely optional, though it has its use against Barbarians. The rest is pretty standard Pure Fury.
The Gear
DISCLAIMER : I in no way advocate the usage of duped items, nor the thought that duped items will make for a stronger character. However, this section includes one item from a previous patch, that while it is possible to acquire a legitimate one (myself being an 08 veteran), chances are pretty good it's not kosher. This build will only be shy a little FRW from said item, and a little AR from the charm selection, and nothing more. With that said...
Amulet - 1.08 Highlord's Wrath, as noted in the guide by Stoutewolf. In my opinion, this is bar none the best pure fury amulet there has ever been. At level 91, it adds 34% Deadly Strike, and it's other stats are pure gravy (+1 All skills, which helps BO, 35% Lightning Resist, 30% FRW instead of the useless 20% IAS of the current one).
Alternate - Regular Highlord's Wrath. Just as good for all aspects other than the running speed.
Helm - Jalal's Mane, socketed with a rare 7% FHR/30% Enhanced Damage/20 Life/10% Resist All jewel. The stats are perfect for this build, adding a good amount to everything vital. Only things missing really are FRW and Deadly Strike.
Alternatives - Any jewel with 7% FHR will hit the breakpoint. The one mentioned above is an ideal, as it would allow for Jalal's to be upped.
Armor - Perfect Fortitude, in a light elite armor. This one is all about personal preference as far as which armor to put it in, but the stats are what matters on the Moor. The 300% Enhanced Damage adds about 2000 damage on the LCS (Lying character Screen), which with the level of Deadly Strike you will have, is actually/effectively 3000. The +life doesn't get multiplied unfortunately by BO/Lycanthropy/Oak Sage, but a little extra never hurts, and the Resist All is nice for stacking.
Alternatives - None. The only other armor that comes close to this will add less damage, add more life and resistance, and be more rare than cockatrice teeth, and that's a perfect Jeweler's/Whale elite armor with 4x7%FHR/20 Life/30% ED/10% Res All jewels in the holes. But we can dream!
Belt - Crafted Blood Belt (preferably Mesh Belt) - 24% FHR/+30 Strength/+80 Life/10% Open Wounds/1-3% Life Leech/20%+ Resist Lightning. The +life, resistance, and open wounds mods are variable, as if it's a few points off or has a different (or no) resistance, it'll still work. The main thing is getting that 24% FHR/30 Strength, as this is saving stats and hitting the FHR breakpoint we need.
Alternatives - As mentioned, it will work as long as it meets the Strength and FHR requirement, which could also be a rare.
Boots - Gore Rider. This one's a no-brainer. Second from highest available FRW, and the best melee mods available for boots. Since they have the same requirements as a Stormshield, you can even up them.
Alternatives - None. The Deadly Strike will add a good bit of damage, the Open Wounds will tear apart characters that are hard to hit or like to run away, and the Crushing Blow is even handy when facing other extremely high life characters.
Gloves - Bloodfist. The two key stats here are the massive +40 Life, that gets multiplied by BO and OS/Lycanthropy, and the 30% FHR, that completes the needed gearing for 86% FHR for 3 frame recovery (all told, you end up with 91%). And since double-upped they still have a low Strength requirement, why not?
Alternatives - Well, in the unlikely event you manage to score that sexy dream armor up there, you'll have 89% FHR without gloves on, so that would open you up to two notables : Dracul's Grasp and Steelrends. Of the two, I would recommend Dracul's, despite them being considered bad mannered, for the simple reasons of A)Like they don't have Exile on, and B)The Open Wounds combined with the belt and Gore's will utterly pwn against melee and Whirlwind Barbs/Assassins.
Rings - Two perfect Raven Frosts, or at least 200+ Attack Rating/20 Dexterity. Massive boost to AR, helps save stats when assigning for max block, and even gives a healthy boost to mana, especially after BO. But most importantly, these little gems provide Cannot Be Frozen, which is absolutely essential, especially in public games. Keep one on at the very least at all times!
Alternatives - Below will be the optional stash equipment, and this will be covered there.
Weapon - Perfect, or as close to as possible, Ethereal Breath of the Dying Berserker Axe. What's not to love about this beast? Sick damage, range 3, which helps against casters and smiters, and also prevents barbs from clipping you with whirlwind, and a huge stat boost to boot. Stellar!
Alternatives - For this particular build, as you're a lazywolf and statting everything in, none. I know, a Grief will do more overall damage, but it lacks the stat savers and also doesn't have range 3. You could however base the build around Grief instead, and then just use that (same principle as before, minimize stash running while not losing much from the overall character). Either way, it will do a ton of damage, but the EBotD will end up adding more life and is still worthwhile to use when chasing casters (personal opinion, as I found trying to nail a fast moving sorceress with Grief to be supremely frustrating).
Shield - Stormshield, with a Shael rune socketed. 35% Damage Reduction, complimentary +Strength, the two main resistances that need stacked, and great chance to block with decent blocking rate. No substitute.
Alternatives - Something other than Shael in the hole. I'm a firm believer in spending as little time as possible recovering/blocking before going back on the offensive, so it was never a question for me. A Dex/ED/Res/Life jewel would be a good alternative though if you don't feel the need to block faster.
Prebuff and Precasting Equipment - On weapon switch, a 6 BO Call to Arms in a weapon you can carry (I like flails, non-ethereal so I can charge Feral Rage with it) and an ethereal Spirit Monarch. For prebuff, you will go somewhere the other duelers aren't, where you won't get insta-ganked by uberstrong mobs of critters, and wear Treachery in a lightweight low defense armor, for the level 15 Fade. This will add 60% Resist All, 15% Damage Reduction, and make you look utterly sexy as an ethereal wolf! A little time consuming? Yes, but well worth it, especially since that's the only stash item you absolutely must have, as it hits the Damage Reduction % cap exactly with Stormshield.
Charms - Perfect Anihilus and Druid Torch (goes without saying, though the really important part is 20 stats on each), 27x3 Max Damage/XX AR/20 Life sc's (3/20/20 being ideal, and most likely not kosher, so aim for 3 Max and 20 life, and let the mass of them combined with the werewolf skill take care of any missing AR), 10x5% Resist All/5% or 3% FRW sc's (Again, these can be iffy, and the 5% FRW sc's are from patch 1.09 or earlier, but they are the best for an all arounder). More on charm selection in the optional section, but this setup will give a load of life and damage, a good amount of stack, and plenty of speed, especially after charging Feral Rage.
Summary : All together, you'll be looking at around 20k AR, 12k effective max damage with Deadly Strike calculated into the 8k listed, range 3 attacks,9/5 Fury speed, 9k life, max block, max DR%, 86% FHR, 5 frame blocking, stacked resistance in hell without the Anya quests (which are bugged to not apply after you've died once in a game), and a good deal of FRW that is supplemented by charging Feral Rage.
Optional Stash Items (for those who don't mind minimal swapping) - Angelic Combo I feel is absolutely indispensable, even if you don't like swapping out stuff all the time. Three clicks and you have all the AR you need to smack a zealot around, even if he's packing Exile. Don't forget to add 10 more points to Dexterity after reaching 75% block if you are wearing 2 Raven Frosts, so that way when you swap to the combo you're still at 75%. One other combo to mention is the elemental stack combo, which will pretty much negate anything with -res, and that's by throwing on Kira's Guardian with 70% Resist All (socketed to taste) and a Sanctuary Troll Nest with 70% Resist All. Two items just boosted overall resists by a net of at least 40% (with that least one being Cold), and by a LOT more on the other three resists, especially fire and poison. Since it is a high blocking shield, you might even consider it against a Rabies hybrid, if you're confident enough in your ability to kill him before he catches on to the fact that you have all of 15% DR now and goes in swinging with Fury. One final optional stash item setup would be varying the 10 FRW/Resist All sc's with either 3/AR/FRW or 3/max/20 life scs. But once again, this section is totally optional, other than the Angelics.
Credits
First and foremost, the entire Diabloii.net Druid Forum, for all it's great members and ideas.
Mepersoner and TheUnchosen, for getting me to drop that bloody bow in 1.08 and start a wolf!
CallMeJay, Ink, Kiba, Oilerfan, Pumafang and Verashiden for their in-depth information on wolves in this current patch (and previous ones, for that matter).
Anyone I might not have mentioned, but still deserves a thank you!
Shaperla, for not throwing the banstick at me for mentioning an icky item (though NOT advocating it's use, merely stating it is the ideal one) >.>
Remember, even if you are lazy, you are still a wolf! Make us proud, rip some ears off, and in the words of the first werewolf guide I ever read : "Hit hard, hit fast, hit first!"
Awrooooooo!!
FIN
Addendum A : I will write a short strategy section for this later, as another post. Any comments or questions are welcome, though bear in mind the concept of the build in reference to stash gear, as it was meant to minimize this while retaining flexibility. Thanks guys!|||Awrooooooooooo!
Look forward to making one on nl when I have the time
so you don't recommend any two hander with CoA at all right?|||great guide!|||What about keeping an Eth Tomb Reaver (Zod, 2x 40/15) in stash for pesky casters? Longer range, no block (but non needed), and correct me if I'm wrong but you don't need FHR when dueling Casters anyway, right?|||Really nice job bro! For the Etomb questions, this guide is all about not having to run back and forth to switch, you can get by without one. With this guide also you save stats by not having to stat around another weapon set up for more life. Personally I would never be without a 2 handed long range switch, but in the past I've had to deal without one.|||Quote:
Really nice job bro! For the Etomb questions, this guide is all about not having to run back and forth to switch, you can get by without one. With this guide also you save stats by not having to stat around another weapon set up for more life. Personally I would never be without a 2 handed long range switch, but in the past I've had to deal without one.
ahhh got it!
Very nice guide btw.
Kell, what realm are you on? I would like some advice on my fury druid|||so what do you think about "average" resists.... must be maxed or around 40-60??|||For res the main one to worry about it lighting, ravens take care of cold pretty nicely.|||Thanks for all the responses, guys! BAMF has the points down on all of his replies, especially the resistances (I almost never take Highlord's off in a pubbie) and weapon choice (one of the main deciding factors over Grief). A quick mention for strategy, as I've found it to work against the untrained masses : smiters will be your most likely source of trouble, but most are scrubs that A) Never walk, and B) Lead with Charge. That said, if you're fast on the hotkeys, you can run, baiting them to charge, and toggle walk as soon as you see the crouch begin for the animation of charge. Now here's the tricky part, that is mentioned at the end of the guide, and will also work versus smite if you aren't backed against something (the other useful tip for dealing with smite). Charge as I recall is a 5 frame attack, fixed. Your initial attack is at 9 frames. This means in order to connect at the same time you will need to delay 4 frames, or 4/25 of a second. It's tricky, but it can be done, and it will assure that you won't get a bugged animation for fury (look around for this, it's been part of several debates, and a link is included in Jay's Vitawolf guide). If you end up getting smite to the face and can't land a hit, back off, and wait for the next exchange. If you know for sure you will be able to connect, wade right in (preferably with your back to an object to prevent them ranging you, which I've found happens even if they have a phase blade equipped). It's far from guaranteed, and more of an art than a science, but it has worked for me before. Next installment will be : How to make a bowazon cry!|||Cool guide, some of those jewel mods you listed...and the ow belt good luck w/ those..atleast for me! 08 hi lords are a ton man..great build though.
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