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PvM Werewolf Druid: Natural Born Butcher (by Ombra) - Ombra - 08-24-2007
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::REVISIONS::
* Corrected minimum Dexterity needed: 39 points (for a Great Axe).
* Jalal's Mane (a Druid Pelt) seem to never spawn with auto-mods.
* Added Raven Skill formula to explain how Ravens work.
* Proposed better skill synergies for the Grizzly (in Summoning Skills).
* Added Miscellaneous section.
* Other minor text modifications.
* Improved text formatting.
::INTRODUCTION::
Here is a PvM Werewolf Druid that remains effective throughout the entire game.
During the development the hardest part has been to balance Attack, Defense, and
Maintenance Costs. For something gained, there was something else lost. And often it
was something as important.
Eventually I've found a great balance between the three. The result is here explained.
There's a reason for everything. Always. If I have made some strange or uncommon
choice, it's because of specific reasons that may not be apparent at first glance.
I'll give extra explanations where appropriate.
::STAT POINTS DISTRIBUTION::
The starting base stats of a Druid are:
STR = 15
DEX = 20
VIT = 25
NRG = 20
With 98 LevelUps and 3 Lam Esen's Tome quests, each worth 5 stat points, you receive
a grand total of 505 points to spend.
I recommend to raise the base stats to the following values:
STR = 130
DEX = 80
VIT = 355
NRG = 20
I'm not accounting for bonuses coming from charms. You can make some adjustments,
but don't stray too far.
You will use a Great Axe weapon that requires a Dexterity of 39. You won't use a Shield.
In any case, until Level 30, some Dexterity points are needed to put up the fights, or
you become a punching bag. Don't worry about raising your Vitality as much as possible.
Druids only receives +2 Life per Vitality point. What truly builds your large Life pool is
the combined effect of Vita charms, Oak Sage and the Lycanthropy skill.
As for Strength, it's enough for the equipment.
Never worry about Energy. The Werewolf needs only 4 Mana points to start the attack.
A Mana reserve of about 120 points will be enough to fight for extended periods, and at
higher levels you won't even need Mana Leeching.
::EQUIPMENT::
Helm = Jalal's Mane (Unique Dream Spirit).
Body = Chains Of Honor (4) Archon Plate.
Belt = Verdungo's Hearty Cord (Unique Mithrill Coil).
Gloves = Lava Gout (Unique Battle Gauntlets).
Boots = Gorerider (Unique War Boots).
Amulet = Mara's Kaleidoscope.
Ring1 = Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band.
Ring2 = Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band (yes, twice).
Primary Weapon = Breathe Of The Dying (6) Ogre Maul (Two-Handed weapon).
Primary Shield = None.
Secondary Weapon = Heart Of The Oak (4) Flail (One-Handed weapon).
Secondary Shield = Spirit (4) Monarch.
Anti-Physical Immune Weapon = Famine (4) Great Axe (Two-Handed weapon).
The Helm should be socketed with the "Cham" rune or a Jewel that "Cannot Be Frozen".
Getting chilled can proove much dangerous, depending on which and how many foes are
around you. If you think you can live without "Cannot Be Frozen", then use a "Um" rune
for some extra Res-All, which is never a bad idea.
I recommend "Cannot Be Frozen". Of course you may find a Rare Jewel that features
both mods.
Speaking of mods, don't try to get auto-mods on this Druid Pelt: Jalal's Mane never
spawns with any.
The Archon Plate is an Elite Body Armor. Repairing it can be expensive. You can resort to
an Exceptional Body Armor. You save a lot of gold but lose some Armor Class, which
becomes more noticeable when blessed by the Defiance Aura (more on it later).
Don't try to replace Chains Of Honor with Enigma. Enigma is not an option for this build.
Giving you the full explanation would take pages of motivations. I give you just one: you
cannot Teleport while in Werewolf form, which you'll be for most of the time.
Upgrade Gloves and Boots to their Elite version.
The Amulet can be replaced with any better Rare/Crafted. When in doubt, you should
care for Res-All, Increased Attack Speed (IAS) and +Skills (in the order I listed).
Stick to dual Bul-Kathos' rings for the Life Leeching, Life Boost and +Skills they provide.
The Primary Weapon (BOTD) will make short work of any Non-Physical Immune monster.
You want to use it because it swings at an absurd speed, has dual leeching, inflicts
massive damage, and it's Indestructible (the Repair Costs would be prohibitive).
Have you noticed the "Famine Great Axe"? Maybe it doesn't makes sense to you, and
some explanation is in order.
What makes Famine so powerful is the Non-Physical-Damage is grants.
This damage spans across 4 different categories: Magic, Fire, Cold and Lightning. There's
also raw Physical Damage, of course. With 5 damage types applied, no monster can find
sanctuary around Famine. However, the better the underlying weapon is, the higher the
repair costs are. They easily become exorbitant no matter how big a wallet you possess.
Now... Physical Immunes are just Immunes to all the Physical Damage. There's no point
in employing the best weapon you can wield.
Since Famine is not "Indestructible", and its repair costs tend to be high, your best bet is
to socket the runeword on a Very Fast Attack Speed Weapon, with decent Durability and
cheap repair costs.
A Great Axe is perfect. It's a Normal weapon, Very Fast Attack Speed, Durability of 50,
and if socketed with Famine you can recover it from complete destruction spending
about 38000 Gold pieces.
For your information, the fastest Druid weapon is the Feral Axe. Famine will work on it,
but Feral Axe has a Durability of only 30, and it's an Elite weapon.
Your Fury skill will disintegrate it in, say, 10 minutes or so, and the repair costs will weight
on your economy. Can you afford to spend about two hundred thousands of gold pieces
every ~10 minutes, just for your weapon?
And what do you gain for such a tax? A marginal increase in Attack Speed and a ton of
Physical Damage which you don't need anyway.
That's why I choose a Great Axe. However, much depends on the 'roll' you get.
If it's perfect (+370% EDmg), the costs are those I mentioned. If it's not, the repair costs
drop considerably. With a non-perfect roll of +365% EDmg (only 5% below maximum) you
can seriously think about employing a Famine Gothic Axe as your 'all-purpose' weapon.
A Gothic Axe is the Exceptional version of a Great Axe and requires a Dexterity of 79,
which you have.
The Secondary set of weapons is not for combat. The combo HOTO/Spirit raises all your
Skills by +5, and it's meant to let you summon better minions, and transform into a better
Werewolf.
If you don't care about the "better Werewolf", use an Earthshifter (Unique Thunder Maul),
which raises your Summoning Skills by +7. But you get no boons to Shape Shifting Skills.
A note on the Gloves. Lava Gout gives you 20% IAS and "Half Freeze Duration", as well
as +24% Fire-Res. They're all wanted mods, but there can be better.
If you replace these Gloves, try to maintain IAS and Half Freeze at least.
Res-All, or even +Skills would be a nice addition.
A note on the Belt. Verdungo's gives you extra Vitality and Damage Reduction.
The Damage Reduction is most important and Verdungo's is the Belt I prefer for this build.
But that's my personal choice. You may want to replace it with one of the following:
* Goldwrap (Unique Heavy Belt) for 10% IAS, Extra Gold, and MF%.
* String Of Ears (Unique Demonhide Sash) for Damage Reduction, Life Leech.
* Nosferatu's Coil (Unique Vampirefang Belt) for Vitality, Slow Target 10%, Life Leech,
10% IAS.
About Call To Arms.
I've spent some words on Enigma, but I didn't even mention Call To Arms. Why?
Because I've seen that this Werewolf doesn't need it. Again I could write pages of
motivations, but you would probably not believe a word I say. Hence I only write that
you do not need Call To Arms. Either trust my word, or see it for yourself.
::SKILL POINTS DISTRIBUTION::
----------Elemental Skills (0 points)----------
Firestorm = 0
Molten Boulder = 0
Arctic Blast = 0
Fissure = 0
Cyclone Armor = 0
Twister = 0
Volcano = 0
Tornado = 0
Armageddon = 0
Hurricane = 0
----------Shape Shifting Skills (62 points)----------
Werewolf = 20
Lycanthropy = 20
Werebear = 0
Feral Rage = 1
Maul = 0
Rabies = 1
Fire Claws = 0
Hunger = 0
Shock Wave = 0
Fury = 20
----------Summoning Skills (48 points)----------
Raven = 1
Poison Creeper = 1
Oak Sage = 20
Summon Spirit Wolf = 8
Carrion Vine = 1
Heart Of Wolverine = 0
Summon Dire Wolf = 12
Solar Creeper = 1
Spirit Of Barbs = 0
Summon Grizzly = 4
Total Skill Points used: 110.
Elemental Skills...
None of these are useful to you, for you don't have enough Skill points to invest in them.
Shape Shifting Skills...
I had to choose between Werewolf and Werebear. I chose the Werewolf. The fact that it
looks cooler than the Werebear is purely coincidental. Both Werewolf and Werebear can
maximize their skills 'of interest' with the same number of points: 62.
But if the Werebear promises huge Damage, the Werewolf promises high Attack Speed.
Since the weapons I gave you (BODT and Famine) grant huge Damage on their own,
Attack Speed is what shifts the balance towards the Werewolf.
As for the extra Life that a Werebear grants, you can easily fill the gap with Vita Charms.
I've found out that once you go past a certain amount of Life Points, you become virtually
invincible. With this build you can easily reach 6000 Life points. You can have much more,
like 7000 (yes, without CTA), if you care more about Vita charms and less about Skillers.
Your huge Life pool and your crushing power are simply too much for any mob, unless
you do something stupid.
Add to the picture your Tanks (Grizzly and Mercenary) and you build a Godly Werewolf.
Summoning Skills...
Contrary to popular belief, the Ravens are helpful throughout the whole game.
Ravens can blind your foes. A Blind monster doesn't attack, not even if his friends do see
you. They cannot be targeted nor killed. If they can't blind an enemy, they can at least
attack him and interrupt his attack. No reason at all to not use them all the time.
Know that Ravens can easily blind out Hell monsters as well.
In situations where every monster around you employs a ranged attack, Ravens make
your life extremely easier. Once you enter Melee range it is not a laughing matter, for
you are at the top of the feeding chain. But so long monsters can keep you at bay, they
can laugh in your face all they want.
Let the Ravens blind 'em, then resume your butching routine...
The Raven effectiveness is based both on your Level and the Level of the Raven Skill, as
explained by the formula:
RavenLevel = CharacterLevel - 2 + RavenSkillLevel
Each Vine/Creeper has its use. The Poison Creeper ceases to be effective soon, but it's a
great helping hand to get you started. It's a prerequisite Skill anyway.
The Carrion Vine is a little wonder: decomposes corpses and quickly refills your life.
It's a weak minion that can be targeted, and killed in few shots. You can't keep it out of
harm, because its job takes it where corpses are.
Investing more than 1 point in it is a waste though, for it will never have enough health
to survive in battle. Simply resummon it when needed.
By the way, the Recovery Percentage listed in the Skill's description refers to your life,
and not to that of the corpse. If you have 5000 Life Points and the Vine recovers 10%, it
will refill you with 500 Life Points per corpse.
The same goes for the Solar Creeper, which refills your Mana. The Werewolf only needs
4 Mana points to commence the attack, but it can't do a thing without Mana.
Unfortunately in Hell Difficulty (and especially in Act 5) Mana Burn monsters are common
findings. The Solar Creeper will ease your life.
In regard to the Spirits, only the Oak Sage is worth any Skill point.
Maximize it, and you will nearly triple the life of the entire Party, including minions and
Mercenary.
The Heart of Wolverine promises great boosts in Attack Rating and Damage, but once
employed, even if maxed out and further improved by Skillers, the boons de-facto applied
are so low that you fatigue to notice them.
What you notice all too well, instead, is that with half the Life Points, your minions and
Mercenary tend to die one after another.
The Spirit of Barbs is just a suicide.
The truth about Heart of Wolverine and Spirit of Barbs is: they're meant to be used in
conjunction with the Oak Sage coming from another Druid.
Spirit Wolf, Dire Wolf, Grizzly.
The synergies that these Skills grant to each other allow you to 'customize' your Grizzly
(your Tank summon with no doubt).
The wolves cease to be effective not too soon, but as you hit Level 30 you want to switch
to the Grizzly. Our Teddy bear can achieve great attack power and a big life pool that
rivals that of most Hell monsters.
But if you just toss 20 points in it, what you pump up is the damage it inflicts. Cursed with
Iron Maiden, such a Grizzly commits suicide in 2 seconds.
What good is a dead Tank?
Never forget that you are the official Can-Opener. What best serves you is not another
fighter, but a reliable Tank who won't leave you alone with a dozen mean-looking brutes
drooling on your neck.
Thus your Grizzly should simply have high Life, good Attack/Defense, and from low to
moderate Damage. Split the skill points as I suggest (for example), and you are set.
If you want more Life and even less Damage, divert points from Summon Grizzly to
Summon Dire Wolf. Don't touch Summon Spirit Wolf.
And did you know that the Grizzly has a Knockback attack?
::MISCELLANEOUS::
Carrion Vine and Solar Creeper...
A minor bug affects the Carrion Vine. It seems to never fill your Life Orb to maximum.
Although the Character Screen says that you are in full health (and the Life Orb appears
to be full), in reality you are at least 1 Life Point away from your current Max Life.
Proof is that if you head back to town and talk to a healer, you 'hear' the healing sound.
Any amount of "Replenish Life +X" mod will fix this bug.
Drinking a potion, touching a Health Shrine, Refilling Shrine or Well also works.
Perhaps the Solar Creeper is affected by the same bug, but it's hard to determine since
Mana regenerates spontaneously.
Note that the portrait icons of Carrion Vine and Solar Creeper are erroneously swapped.
Carrion Vine recovers Life, but the portrait shows a Blue creature.
Solar Creeper recovers Mana, but the portrait shows a Red creature.
NOTE (for modders): The portrait bug can be addressed in the PetType.txt file.
Locate the line beginning with vine. For that line, swap the contents of the micon1 and
micon2 cells, so that they read vines and cycleoflife respectively.
Werewolf and Lycanthropy...
Every time you improve these skills you must return in Human form and transform back
to Werewolf in order for the changes to take effect.
The opposite is also true, and once the effects of a Skill Shrine will wear off, you'll retain
the boosts as long as you'll remain in Werewolf form.
::MERCENARY::
Act 2 Defensive, hired in Normal or Hell Difficulties (not in Nightmare).
Equip him with what you want. I only recommend an Infinity (4) Voulge.
You need this Mercenary for the two Auras he provides: Defiance and Conviction.
Give him something to max out his Resistances. In any case, do not equip him with stuff
that provides Offensive Auras, auto Curses or auto Spells that might trigger the mobs
still idling around you.
The last thing you want is half the world's population that rushes to your position...
The Conviction Aura will greatly improve your elemental damage (when using Famine).
Conviction also lowers the enemy Armor Class, rendering monsters even easier to hit.
Defiance Aura will greatly boost your Armor Class and that of your minions.
You lack the protection of a Shield. You would sacrifice too many valuable things to wear
one, and your own Armor Class isn't enough in Hell. Defiance will set things right.
Finally, Defiance boosts your Mercenary's own Armor Class, making him an even tougher
Nut-to-Crack.
And with the Oak Sage boosting the life of the whole party, your Mercenary becomes
another Godly Tank to rely on.
I recommend, however, that you equip him with the weakest, cheapest Polearm you can
find. You don't want him to suicide on Iron Maiden, do you?
Never forget who plays the Can-Opener in your games...
::CHARMS::
I recommend Gheed's Fortune, Annihilus and Vita charms.
If you also get a Hellfire Torch, so much the better.
Skiller charms are superflous, though.
This Werewolf is not a Skill-Thirsty build. The +Skills you receive off the equipped items
are enough. I know, I know: you don't believe me. See for yourself then.
Beware. The blind pursue of more (unnecessary) power, through Skillers, makes you
lose sight of what keeps you alive: Life points and the Vita Charms to boost them.
::YOUR WEAK POINTS::
Well, you have the same weak points of a Melee fighter, and of any other character in this
game for that matters. Namely they are:
* The Iron Maiden curse.
* The Mana Burn mod.
You also have a third weak point, which can be a problem only in Hell Difficulty.
* The Conviction Aura.
Now, don't let Conviction scare you. It lowers your Elemental Resistances and Armor Class.
Other than that... you are still alive, with intact crushing strength, and a large life pool
that (Conviction or not) is just not easy to dry out.
You also have Full Rejuvenating Potions, you know? Otherwise what the heck did you pick
them up for? Drinking a couple once in a while justifies their placement in your belt.
Uber Mephisto is another story.
::WHAT CAN YOU TAKE ON WITH THIS BUILD::
Any regular monster.
Any Champion.
Any Miniboss.
Any SuperUnique Boss.
Any Act Boss.
Diablo Clone, Lilith, Uber Duriel and Uber Izual.
Baal can be problematic for his ability to blow away your mana.
Keep some mana potions at hand. Even Minor Mana Potions will do.
Once you have it, Use the BOTD Ogre Maul to beat the crap out of Baal.
BOTD dual leeching will keep you alive and charged.
With this setup Hell Baal won't last 2 (two) minutes. Just reach him, lock onto him,
and whack him to death.
::WHAT CAN YOU NOT TAKE ON WITH THIS BUILD::
The Three Ubers. Enter Uber Tristram alone, and they are going to skin your back.
You'll make a fine exotic carpet, though.
Jokes apart, Uber Mephisto and his Conviction pose too big of a threat.
Seek the aid of a strong Paladin.
::WHAT ABOUT PVP?::
What about suicide?
Finished.
I'm open to suggestions and proposal of valid alternatives.
Kind Regards,
Ciao ciao : )
PvM Werewolf Druid: Natural Born Butcher (by Ombra) - Phallock - 08-24-2007
Nice write-up, I don't usually worry about repair cost, you can repair with some pretty cheap runes, but I can see where that would get old fast too. I have been looking for a guide like this. I will give it a try. Going to take some time to get everything though.
PvM Werewolf Druid: Natural Born Butcher (by Ombra) - Ombra - 08-24-2007
Phallock Wrote:Nice write-up, I don't usually worry about repair cost, you can repair with some pretty cheap runes, but I can see where that would get old fast too. I have been looking for a guide like this. I will give it a try. Going to take some time to get everything though.Thank you.
Take your time and have faith. Fun too!
You're right, the repair runes are common. Yet you need many.
And it gets old fast indeed.
Hitting the Repair button is less frustrating ^_^
Ciao ciao : )
PvM Werewolf Druid: Natural Born Butcher (by Ombra) - FraterPerdurabo - 01-24-2008
Does anyone have any comments on this guide? Any criticism? I cannot remember all that much from Diablo, so I need to know whether this is worthy of a sticky or not?
PvM Werewolf Druid: Natural Born Butcher (by Ombra) - Ombra - 01-25-2008
Greetings,
many have looked at it, but only Phallok -and now you- have posted.
I'm not disappointed. Well... not much.
After all, this community is oriented more towards PvP rather than PvM, and user Ombra is Mr nobody around here.
Maybe it's because the build lacks the breakpoints data, and people dismiss it as a poor guide?
I don't know. Perhaps. But breakpoints haven't been an issue during the play-test of this Druid. If it doesn't hit maximum IAS it goes damn close, I'm positive.
Probably I should have stated it clearly since the beginning. My bad.
In all honesty I would guarantee that this build works like a charm, but my opinion is biased. And I doubt you have the time (or will) to edit such a Druid and test it to see if it's worth.
However not only I have written about the build and tested it. I have also started a newborn character and brought it to high '90 through regular solo play (with some aid from the "players" console command beginning from level 80).
The hard part has been to endure the first 30 levels (until Fury skill was available).
Past that, it has been easier and easier with each new level up.
I claim that this Druid is an Engine Of Destruction, although it doesn't look like it on the paper. If only people would try it... they'd be in for a pleasant surprise.
As for you, I thank you, but do not worry about sticking the build: I don't see many threads in this section, and there's no worry that this guide will be obscured anytime soon.
So long it's visible I am satisfied.
Kind regards,
Ciao ciao : )
PvM Werewolf Druid: Natural Born Butcher (by Ombra) - FraterPerdurabo - 01-26-2008
Well, what I gather from this build is that you've made this Werewolf and played around with it a little, but haven't really done much research on the class.
I can see where you are going with Famine, but I'd not recommend it. Yes, it does have a lot of elemental + magical damage on it, but monsters also have generally higher resistances to elemental than to physical (because of the monsterous amounts of elemental damage that sorceresses dish out). Yes, it is better for taking down physical immunes, but vs. general monsters, it's not that great.
Also, forget about Great Axe, it's a barbage base for a weapon. Other thing: you have not mentioned polearms anywhere in this build. THE craziest weapons for a Werewolf in the game are polearms. What you can get hold of is an etheral Tomb Reaver with Zod and 5x15%/40ed%s. Insane damage, far more than BOTD or Famine. The single best Werewolf weapon is a 1.08 cubed 6sox cruel polearm, those were insanely rare back in the day, and even rarer now.
BOTD is a decent polearm, I think that it's generally used in War Pikes, not sure about that though. When thinking about Axes, you should definately be using Berserker Axe for either your Famine, or Grief. Yes, Grief is an easy to get runeword with nice speed and high damage. In addition, you can wear a shield with it. Even though it doesn't look like it, you CAN block in Werewolf form. Grief BA + Stormshield is a nice choice for damage and safety.
The other argument for Berserker Axe, with a range of 3, it has the single highest 1h weapon range in the game. And yes, that is important.
Now for armor, yes CoH is a nice armor, but what about Enigma or Fortitude? I know that you cannot Teleport in Werewolf, but the runeword is still great even without it. Many Smiters and Sorcs use Enigma. +STR is very handy indeed, +life is nice, and FRW% is something that every werewolf needs. Fortitude is far better than CoH, loads of damage, nice life and nice resists. CoH is generally just used for the +2 skills for casters, and even then it's not that great.
Oh and amulet, why Mara's? Sure, the resists are nice, but the +2 skills isn't all that handy... Why not Cat's Eye for more FRW%, DEX, IAS% (if you need it). There are far better choices than Mara's.
Now, for breakpoints. People don't just want to make any character, people want to make a great character. Breakpoints are what make it. There is no point in going for an IAS% overkill. Frankly, no rich D2 player will take you seriously if your character hasn't taken breakpoints into consideration. Use this calculator to see exactly how much you need:
Weapon Speed Calculator
FHR% isn't all that important since this is for PvM, however it is nice to hit the first few frames.
I'm not saying this is a bad guide, I'm just saying that it could use a little more exploration. Go to other forums and read other peoples' Werewolf guides, see what they have come up with.