Section 1: Introduction
This is a character that I had a ton of fun playing in the last ladder season, and I plan to make one this ladder, as soon as I get around to making a skelliemancer to build up some base wealth. I wanted to share it with you, because it's a significantly different build than I've seen in any of the guides here, and if you have half as much fun playing it as I did, it's worth your time.
Have you ever decided to go with a shapeshifter, but had a hard time deciding between the speed of a werewolf and the power of a werebear? What if I told you that you can have the best of both? What if I told you that you can have a powerful summons with this as well? What if I told you that this character can solo hell untwinked? (And can solo hell on players 8 if you happen to have some of the top gear I will list below - and I didn't have an anni or a torch. Full Disclosure: I didn't do all of hell level on players 8, just the bosses and level 85 areas.) Well, you'd probably think I was being true to my namesake... or lying. You may think that, but you would be wrong.
I actually made two of these druids last ladder season. The first one was untwinked, and soloed hell. The second one was well equipped, (but no anni, torch, or using any runewords that required a very high level rune) and could do Baal runs on players 8. Therefore, I would like to humbly submit for your review, the Idiot's Guide to the Little Bit of Everything Budget Druid. (I know, the name needs some work. It's the best I can come up with given you're investing skill points in all 3 trees, and that none of the equipment is extremely high end.) At first glance, this build appears similar to a Fire Claws/Fury druid, but there are definitely some game play differences, and obviously, most Fire Claw/Fury druids, don't use both WW and WB.
Section 2: Skills
A. Shapeshifting tree
Werewolf - 1
Lycanthropy - 10+
Werebear - 1
Feral Rage - 1
Maul - 1
Rabies - 1
Fire Claws - 20
Shockwave - 1
Fury - 20
Subtotal: 56
B. Summoning Tree
Raven - 1
Oak Sage - 1
Spirit Wolf - 1
Heart of Wolverine - 0 or 1
Dire Wolf - 10+
Grizzly 1+
Subtotal: 14
C. Elemental Tree
Firestorm - 20
Molten Bolder - 0+
Subtotal: 20
Grand Total: 90
Skills marked with a "+" are good candidates for further development once the base build is completed, which can be accomplished as early as level 79 with all skill quests completed. They can be applied at your discretion in any area where you'd like to improve.
Section 3: Explanation of Skill Distribution
WW, WB, and Lycanthropy - Since you're going to be using both the bear and wolf forms, you only need a single point in each of them. Your bound to find some +skill gear along the way, so their effective level will be higher than 1. On the other hand, Lycanthropy benefits both forms, and since you're a melee character, having extra life is a very good thing. With +skill gear, I had Lycanthropy at skill level 20, and I had 1800 life in hell difficulty, which I felt was a good balance between skill/stat point investment and survivability. That said, your "comfort zone" for life total in hell may be higher or lower than mine, but I do not recommend going with less than 10 in Lycanthropy, and this skill is definitely a candidate for further investment once the base build is completed.
Fury - Will be the attack you use most, and you'll obviously be using this in WW form. Fury synergizes nothing and receives synergies from nothing, but with a decent weapon this is a hell viable skill well worth maxing.
Fire Claws - Is your secondary attack. You're going to use this against anything that is physical immune, mana burn, and/or anything else that is very dangerous and not fire immune. Fire Claws is a "one enemy at a time skill" so you are going to want to use this skill in WB form, and make gratuitous use of shockwave. In case you are unaware, shockwave works on everything except Act Bosses. And I mean everything - the Ancients can even be stunned. Although it appeared that champions and unique monsters had some level of resistance to it. Sometimes multiple castings of shockwave was required to stun them, but once stunned they remained stunned just as long as the rest of their pack.
Firestorm - Is a 20 point synergy for Fire Claws. In order for your secondary attack to be effective in hell, you're going to need to be able to inflict several thousand points of damage with it, and even with a lot of +skill gear, a 20 point distribution in Fire Claws alone will not get you there. You need to max a synergy as well. If you want to take your Fire Claw damage even higher, Molten Bolder is an additional synergy for Fire Claws that can be worked on after the base build is complete.
Animal Companion - This is more personal preference than anything. I spent 10 hard points in Dire Wolves. I used them more than Grizzlies, and with my +skills they had a decent survival rate. My Grizzly was extremely durable, but since I was able to kill stuff on my own, I was more interested in the crowd control offered by the Dire Wolves, than the tanking abilities offered by my grizzly. They didn't kill much, but they take the heat off you and your merc. After I finished my base build, I split my remaining skill points on Dire Wolves and Grizzly, which offer passive bonuses mutually shared to life and damage, respectively.
Spirit - Is completely optional. You don't have the skill points available to devote more than a single point to either of them, and in hell difficulty, they will die frequently. I ended up putting a single point into both OS and HoW, and normally had HoW active. The build is not mana intensive at all, so frequently recasting your spirit is more of a nuisance than anything.
Section 4: Attributes
(There's nothing particular unusual about this):
Strength - As always, enough to use your gear. The highest strength requirement item I have in the gear selection below is from the shield slot, which is 156 for both Stormshield or a Spirit runeword. So I would set 156 as the upper maximum. If you aren't going with either of these items you can get by with less (and with some gear setups, considerably less).
Dexterity - If you take my advice and use a shield, you'll need a significant investment in dexterity to maintain a max block rate. How much depends on what shield you go with, but between hard points spent and gear, you'll need about 200 in dexterity by the time you hit level 80.
Vitality - Once you have your strength requirement satisfied, and have enough for max block, all remaining points go here. By mid nightmare, you should be allocating your points as approximately an even split between dexterity and vitality. My characters had vitality scores around the mid-point between strength and dexterity.
Energy - None of course.
Section 5: Skill and Stat Point Allocation
The first skill you are going to want to max is Fury, which is a bit problematic seeing as how it's a level 30 skill. Fortunately, there are some options for your skill points pre-level 30. You're going to want at least 10 points in Lycanthropy, so you can certainly siphon off some of you excess skill points there, and if you like Dire Wolves, you can start pumping them as well, while picking up all the prerequisites and one point wonders along the way. But skill points 30-49 should definitely go into Fury.
After that, the next thing you have to get working on is Fire Claws and the Firestorm synergy. You won't be hard pressed to use this skill with any frequency pre-Hell, but you've got to start developing it in NM so it's ready to go when you're ready to go.
After that, you're done with the base build, so do as you'd like with my suggestions above.
As for stat allocation, now that we have respecs available, I would prioritize strength and vitality at the expense of dexterity in Normal. Blocking is certainly not necessary in the early stages, and I would recommend foregoing a shield entirely in the early going in favor of something like Bonesnap to help you level a bit quicker. Respec when you're ready to equip your endgame shield.
Section 6: Equipment
A brief introduction here. There are three things that you need to look for that are critical to the performance of this build.
+Skill Items - The most important thing to look for is anything that gives +skills. Your points are spread out quite a bit in this build, and so anything you can do to squeeze every last drop that you can out of your skills is well worth it. I was only able to solo hell on players 8 in the second iteration of this build because I had +7 to the summoning tree and +10 to the shapeshifting tree.
Max Your Resistances and Blocking - The second thing of almost equal importance is getting your resistances and Blocking as close to max as you can. There's a ton of gear combinations that will allow you to have resist all 75% in hell, but I just wanted to stress that here. I recommend you get a healthy dose of resistances out of your body armor and helm, and you'll see that reflected in the specific gear sections below. If you cannot max all of them, at least shoot for the max in lightning and fire, and do what you can for cold and poison.
Crushing Blow - As you will see further down in this section, none of the weapons are uber (remember, this is a budget build). You won't be seeing any eBotD berserker axes or other such items. To supplement our rather low damage output, you're going to need at least one, and preferably two sources of Crushing Blow. You'll be using Fury a lot, so it's not necessary to go overboard with CB, but more is better. I had 35% on the second interation of my character, and I found that satisfactory.
Other very useful mods you're going to want are life leech, and at least one source of mana leech, and cannot be frozen.
I've broken down the gear into three subsections: Top Choice(s), Adequate Substitutes, and Good N' Cheap. So something for everyone. The top choices are generally not high end runewords. If you have access to them, feel free to use them, but I generally don't like to include equipment I do not personally use as a recommendation, and I don't have any high end runewords.
Let me stress once again - you don't need ANY of the top choices to be able to solo hell. My first character who soloed hell (on Battlenet, but always played solo, so the equivalent of players 1 setting) had his equipment almost exclusively from the Good N' Cheap choices.
A. Weapons
As I stated earlier, I highly recommend using a shield, and therefore, all of the selections are weapons that only take one hand to use.
Top Chioce:
Upped Fleshrender - Bonus points because the standard version has a level requirement of just 38, so it's a leveling weapon, and then it eventually becomes your end-game weapon. It requires 133 strength upped, so that's still well within our strength range.
Adequate Substitutes:
In all cases, this group will be items that offer nearly the same performance as the top choice, and all could be considered end game viable - that will be true for all the equipment sections. Really, you can't go wrong with any of these choices. Also, I'd highly advise socketing your endgame weapon with a Shael rune (unlees you're using a runeword of course).
Heart of the Oak Runeword (Ko-Vex-Pul-Thul) - It has to be done in a mace or staff weapon, and since we need 4 sockets and a one handed weapon, a scourge is really you're only choice here. It certainly isn't a cheap option, and needing a Vex places it out of the price range of a lot of people - including me. I did NOT use this weapon, because I didn't have the runes for it. But with +3 skills, FCR, a ton of resistance, and mana leech (among other things) I sincerely feel that this would be a very solid choice if you can afford the runes.
Nord's Tenderizer and Baranar's Star - I'm lumping these two together because they both offer good base damage and elemental damage which will make dealing with physical immunes all that much easier. You could even take on a dual physical and fire immune with these weapons. Baranar's Star does have a rather high strength requirement of 153, so it's a bit on the high end of our strength limits.
Stormlash - Great weapon, extremely fast, but really hard to acquire, and you can't equip it until level 82. It's not a bad weapon at all to graduate into during hell difficulty, but I cannot make it a top choice simply because it takes so long to use it.
Upped Dark Clan Crusher - a poor man's Fleshrender
Good N' Cheap:
King's Grace Runeword (Amn-Ral-Thul) - works in swords. Big bonuses to attack rating and damage, especially against demons and undead, which makes up 2/3 of the monsters in the game. I used this weapon for a while with my first druid...
Honor Runeword (Amn-El-Ith-Tir-Sol) - until I found a five socket weapon to make this one. This one has a little bit of everything - bonus damage and attack rating, life leech, +10 strength, mana per kill, deadly strike, and even +1 to all skills. The base weapon is harder to acquire than the runes.
Aldur's Rythm - is included only for completeness. It is far and away the poorest of the options I listed here, and the only reason I'd consider using it would be if I had the complete set, as the bonuses offered by the completed Aldur's Set are quite impressive.
B. Armor
Top Choice:
Chains of Honor (Dol-Um-Ber-Ist) - I'm deviating from my cheap gear promise on this one, but this armor has everything. Arguably the best armor in the game for any melee class, and especially good for a build that could use +skills. And given the runes you need to make it, it should be awesome. If you can afford it, go for it. It's worth the cost of the Ber.
Adequate Substitutes:
Duriel's Shell - Solid defense, life, and resistances. Very good balance.
Goldskin - For those in need of additional resistances, you can get +35% resist all in one place. (If you socket it with an Um, or preferably a +15% resist all jewel with a good second affix, you're up to +50% resist all.) It's cheap to up this armor, which brings the defense quite high, and it still only requires 140 strength to equip.
Rain Runeword (Ort-Mal-Ith) - Only the Mal is even somewhat uncommon, and it does give a very nice +2 to all skills along with some other bonuses. If you make this in a decent base item, you could do a lot worse.
Duress Runeword (Shael-Um-Thul) - This one is extremely under-rated as far as I'm concerned. You get 40% FHR, some resistances, and 15% CB chance, making it an excellent option if you're finding it difficult to squeeze CB out of your other equipment slots.
Aldur's Deception - the +skills makes this the only item of the set that is worth using by itself.
Que-Hegan's Wisdom - Solid choice, and +1 skills is nice, although I'd prefer everything above before I used this.
Good N' Cheap:
Skins of the Vampermagi - Even a low end one offers a decent amount of resistances and +1 skills. And the low end ones can be traded for a few pgems.
Smoke Runeword (Nef-Lum) - With 75% defense and +50% to all resistance, at the low, low price of just a Lum makes this a great armor, especially if you use a decently high defense base armor to start with.
C. Shield
We want max block, so any shield with a high block rate is going to be favored.
Top Choice:
Stormshield - an item that needs no futher explanation. If you have it, use it. This was the shield I used for the second build. At 156 strength, it will likely be your highest strength requirement. Socket it for extra resistance, or if you're covered there, throw an Eld in it to save some points in dexterity.
Adequate Substitutes:
Spirit Runeword (Tal-Thul-Ort-Amn) - Again the base item is harder to acquire than the runes. You'll need 156 strength for this one too, as the lightest 4-socket shield is the Monarch. The +2 skills are nice, but one very big drawback of this choice is you'll need an obscene amount of dexterity to reach max block. Prohibitively so, in fact. With a high strength requirement, and gobs into dexterity (seriously - do the calculations - at high levels you're looking at upwards of 300), your vitality will take a big hit. So if you don't care about maxing block (and I strongly advise that you should care), this would be the top choice. However, if you like to max block, I would rather have...
Sanctuary Runeword (Ko-Ko-Mal) - Huge block rate and huge resistances. If you don't have a Stormshield, this would be my second choice.
Whitsan's Guard and Gerke's Sanctuary - both fairly easy to acquire and have great block rates, although you'll need to add a pdiamond for resistances. (Or an Um if you must - to me, Ums are rare enough to be runeword only. I cannot justify socketing them into a shield for 3% more resist all than a pdiamond.)
Good N' Cheap:
Rhyme Runeword (Shael-Eth) - everyone should be able to afford this. I'd make it in a tower shield (or pavise if you already have the strength requirement satisfied) for the best base block rate, but you'll get the bonus 20% chance to block, +25% resistances, and even some magic find. Can't go wrong!
Sigon's Guard - Huge base chance of blocking, and even +1 to all skills.
D. Headgear
Obviously, you are going to want to use a druid pelt here.
Top Choice:
Jalal's Mane - Huge +skills, resistances, life, mana, and a ton of other good stuff. Definitely socket worthy.
Adequate Substitutes:
Rare +2 to druid skills pelt - (or circlet, although the pelt is probably a bit easier to acquire, as if you get lucky Anya can even hook you up) - with other good attributes, like leech, resistances, damage reduction, magic find.
Harlequin Crest - The old standby. +2 skills, bonus life, mana, 10% DR and even magic find. No resistances though, so if you're lacking in that department, you may need to socket it with a resistance jewel with some other decent second mod.
Cerebus' Bite - Not as good as Jalal's but no slouch either.
Spirit Keeper - I had this on my first druid - it's better than you think!
Good N' Cheap:
Rare +1 druid skills pelt - (or circlet) with other good attributes. You can sometimes get one of these as a reward after rescuing Anya in Normal!
Aldur's Watchtower - again only if you're using other item(s) of the set.
E. Boots
Top Choice:
Gore Riders - You need some Crushing Blow with this character, and this is a great place to get some. And with this choice you get Open Wounds and Deadly Strike to boot, even better!
(This is one of the item slots where I feel the top choice is significantly better than the alternatives.)
(Not-so) Adequate Substitutes:
Golbin Toe - crushing blow, but not much else. This also qualifies as Good N' Cheap
Good N' Cheap:
Tearhaunch - more resistances never hurt.
Aldur's Advance - again, only if you're using other item(s) of the set.
F. Belt
Top Choice:
Arachnid Mesh - ton of good mods, especially +1 skills - need I say more?
(This is other item slot where I feel the top choice is significantly better than the alternatives. Still, Arachnid Meshes don't exactly grow on trees, so if you don't have one...)
Adequate Substitutes:
String of Ears - Damage reduction and some life leech are always useful, although with a lot of the other gear choices, you probably already have a fair amount of life leech. I used String with both my druids, and it served me very well.
Nosterafu's Coil - about as hard to find as Arachnid Mesh, although not nearly as useful. Life leech, slows target, a bit of IAS, and the +15 strength should indirectly mean +15 more to vitality. So certainly not a bad option.
Good N' Cheap:
Nightsmoke - for the resistances. Up it if you want more belt slots.
Goldwrap - for some IAS and obviously, magic find, also can be upped if you cannot live without 16 belt slots.
G. Gloves
Top Choice:
Lavagout - I found that the Enchant procs quite frequently, and usually procs again before the timer expires, so it ups your attack rating and damage, which is great for this build. Not that hard to get your hands on either... get it? I'm here all week folks!
Adequate Substitute:
Dracul's Grasp - I used Lavagout for most of the game with both characters, but this would definitely be a solid choice.
Good N' Cheap: Chance Guards if you want some mf.
H. Rings
Top Choices:
Raven Frost and Bul-Kathos - ideally one of each
Adequate Substitues:
Stone of Jordan, Dwarf Star, Whisp Projector - although I highly recommend at least one RF.
Good N' Cheap:
Nagelring, Manald Heal
Rare with resistances, +AR - pretty much mandatory if you don't have a RF.
I. Amulets
Top Choice:
Mara's Kaleidoscope - +2 skills, huge resistnaces, very tough to find. Therefore, consider these...
Adequate Substitutes:
Seraph's Hymn - the bonus to paladin skills doesn't do you any good, but the +2 skills and bonus attack rating and damage to demons and undead does.
+2 Skills Rare (or crafted) Amulet with other good mods
Metalgrid - would work but I like everything above this better
Good N' Cheap:
Eye of Etlich - doesn't get much cheaper than that, and +1 skills along with some cold damage always helps.
+1 Skills Rare (or Crafted) Amulet with other good mods - you can gamble one of these while you're still in normal.
Section 7: Mercenary
I went with a might merc, and I had him equipped with a 3xAmn Hone Sudan, Shaftstop, and a chromatic tiara of life everlasting. Based on the equipment selection, you probably realized that I was going for crushing blow, resistances, life leech and damage reduction - all things that help keep your merc alive, and helping you. An argument can be made for a holy freeze or a defiance merc, that would also provide some benefit to you. Just like with you, CB is an important mod to look for on your merc's equipment.
Section 8: Gameplay and Realistic Expectations
So what are we looking at damage wise here? I ended up with a Fury damage range of 2099-4107, with a 71% chance to hit Hell Baal. Those numbers are the second iteration of this build, with an upped Fleshrender and are prior to casting HoW, without Enchant procing on my Lavagouts, as I don't know if you'll use that skill/item. Average Fire Claw damage in Bear from was just shy of 6K. (Sorry, I don't have the screen shots, so you'll have take my word for it - or you won't if you think I'm a lying bastard. The only reason I have the numbers is because I discussed this with a friend a while back and saved an e-mail. Sadly, I cannot provide any figures regarding the first character, as he is on a bnet account that has long-since expired.)
But going with just those base numbers, my terrible math skills yield that you will land at least one crusing blow per five swing fury cycle approximately 66% of the time against Hell Baal, assuming a 35% chance of landing a crushing blow. Those numbers are obviously better if you factor in HoW and Enchant procing on the gloves. From my memory, I was able to take out Hell Baal in players 8 with Lavagouts, HoW active, and my merc helping in about two minutes - not super fast but not bad either.
As for gameplay, Fury is going to be your attack of choice, provided that you aren't up against something that is physical immune and/or mana burn and/or generally nasty to deal with (like an extra fast pack of frenzytaurs or stygian dolls). For most creatures, the "use Fury until everything is dead" tactic works very well - even in hell difficulty.
However, when you do run into one of the aforementioned groups, the first thing you do is order an all-out retreat. At that point, you shift into bear mode, go Fire Claws on left click, Shockwave on right click. Hopefully, you have some access to some +skill items like I did, so your one point investment in Shockwave actually is cast at level 11. Keep them stunned while you whack away using Fire Claws. In big packs, one stunning is obviously insufficient to take out the entire pack, so refresh your Shockwave at regular intervals (preferably before it runs out.)
Now, I know what you're thinking... "What happens when you run into something that's immune to both fire and physical damage Mr. Smartypants? You don't have anything to deal with it." And in this instance, you'd be correct. I have no magical solution as to tactics when you only have two major damage types, and you run into something that is immune to both of them. Fortunately, dual physical and fire immunes are not particularly common, so you don't have to worry a great deal about this. However, you do have two options available. Option 1 is you still retreat and transform into a werebear, and you still get shockwave ready. Here the idea is to stun them and run like hell. It's only going to be boss packs that spawn dual fire/physical immune, so even if you stun and run past them right into another pack, chances are those aren't going to be another undefeatable dual immune pack. Option 2 is more straightforward - cast Powerword: Save and Exit.
For Act Bosses, even though you'll have a better FC damage than Fury damage, I found Fury to be much more effective, as you're base damage isn't great, so you're going to want to rely on your Fury attack to maximize the frequency of landing a crushing blow. I'd also highly recommend getting up a grizzly against act bosses, and recasting HoW (if you opted for the skill) whenever necessary. Act bosses were not a major problem. This build could not take them out quickly, but with a high leech rate on both my main character and my merc, there was little chance of dying - i.e., I was leeching back life faster than I was receiving damage.|||i like your guide. i think you could do with some highlighting and some bigger text for the section heads, maybe bold around gear selections, just to make it a bit easier to read. i also would like to see some screen shots or final damage outputs (in text if screenies are impossible) for your 'meh' build and your fully decked out one. i'm really curious on your fury AR and damage.
it seems like most of your gear is centered around +skills and you would rely entirely on weapon for fury damage (which is where most of any fury wolf's damage comes from) but you've picked some sub standard weapons to use for sheer damage. where does the AR come from? what kind of chance to hit, say hell baal, do you have (i know you said bear side for single targets, just curious and he's a good base to compare AR)? are you in wolf form more or bear? do you go around in one, then quickly switch to the other as situations warrant or just go with whatever shape you were in last?
i want to repeat that i like your guide and think the build is interesting. i'm not trying to nit pick you or anything.|||@cdm - constructive criticism is always appreciated. I made the guide a little easier to read, added a couple of extra sections, and expanded the gear choices a bit (I cannot believe I forgot to add Durress in the Adequate Substitute Armor, as that's what I used for a good chunk of time). The answers to your specific questions are in Section 8.
Thanks again - I've never written a guide before, and I'm certainly open to advice from any and all regarding means of improving it.|||I like your build. Seems both solid and fun. Fleshrender is old school and I like that too - Shael it and use Highlord Ammy probably.
I'm on NL now so upping a FR or getting one would be hard but I do have a 296ed Stormlash Shael'd. COH is needed for the resists. Good choice on Lava Gauts (AR), Jalal, COH, Gores, Raven, BK,SS and Arac - good skill build up. With my wep - would change skill set as follows. The reasoning is: I would use fireclaws more if it had more punch/damage and I like the AR. But a lot of that is personal preference and having fun.
This build could definitely kill hell baal. I also like the + 9 to SS and 7 to all with equip. You would get more with Flesh with your setup.
I think it's a good job for a guide and a good idea for shapeshifting that works for you. I have the same build for a wolf with my Stormlash. Yep it's spendy and hard to get a good one - but I use mine well. The static, lite dmg, and CB rocks with FC. A. Shapeshifting tree
Werewolf - 4
Lycanthropy - 12
Werebear - 1
Feral Rage - 1
Maul - 1
Rabies - 1
Fire Claws - 20
Shockwave - 1
Fury - 0
Subtotal: 42 approx
B. Summoning Tree
Raven - 1
Oak Sage - 1
Spirit Wolf - 1
Heart of Wolverine - 0
Dire Wolf - 1
Grizzly 8
Subtotal: 12
C. Elemental Tree
Firestorm - 7
Molten Bolder - 7
Fissure - 7
Volcano - 20
Subtotal: 41
Grand Total: 95|||I always go old school - usually out of necessity as I've never had any luck scoring high end runes, so a good percentage of the high end 1.10 runewords (ladder and non) are out of reach.
A shaeled Stormlash is an excellent choice for a weapon - as I said in the guide, if it was usable prior to level 82, it would probably be a top choice. Upping the fire damage is certainly a viable option. There are 20 unspent points in my skill setup, so you could theoretically max a second synergy and still do everything I listed. Out of curiosity, why 7 each in FS, MB, Fissure and 20 in Volcano? That seems very specific to be just a rough estimate of how many you'd like.
One thing that I didn't include in the guide is that character is an excellent Pit runner. There are no standard monsters that spawn physical immune, and while there is a small chance of a random unique spawning phys/fire immune I've rarely encountered one.
You do need the +skill to make the build shine though. In the first iteration of this character, he was able to solo hell, but there were definitely parts where the going was slow, and grew rather tedious. So it's possible with low-end gear, but it's not nearly as fun.
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