I Need Werewolf PvM Druid

[Ombra]

Hello,

I've been trying to figure out a good build for a Werewolf Druid,
but I keep hitting a major problem: what skills I favor, the build ends up with many nemesis. Too many at once.

Be them Physical Immunes, Fire Immunes, Cold Immunes, Iron Maiden casters, packs of mana burn monsters... or even combos of the above.
More or less these become common findings in Hell difficulty.

I wonder if it is even possible to build a good PvM Werewolf.
A godly geared merc is definitely a must.

Anyway, do you guys have a good build for me?
Those I've found around seem to be poorly effective once Hell difficulty is reached. Unless I missed some.

Thanks a lot,
Ciao ciao : )



[edit]
Please clarify me one thing.

The Unique Belt "Razortail" features a Piercing of... 33.
Other Unique Items have a Piercing of even 100, like the famous Buriza Do-Kyanon.

What is this number 33 exactly??

Is it a chance % that my attack will completely bypass the target's Physical Resistance, thus inflicting 100% damage in 33% of hits?

Or is it a negative boon applied to the overall target's Physical Resistance... therefore a Physical Immune (+100 Phy) will be lowered at +67 Phy... and bye bye immunity?

In the former case no Physical Immune would stay immune around you.
In the latter case, only an immunity of 133 and above would still hold.
I don't quite remember if I have ever met such a monster...



Anyway, I have this Skill Points allocation in mind. See if you like it:

::Shape Shifting Skills:: (62 pts)
Werewolf = 20
Lycanthopy = 20
Feral Rage = 1
Rabies = 1
Fury = 20

::Elemental Skills:: (21 pts)
Arctic Blast = 1
Cyclone Armor = 20

::Summoning Skills:: (27 pts)
Raven = 1
Poison Creeper = 1
Oak Sage = 20
Summon Spirit Wolf = 1
Carrion Vine = 1
Heart Of Wolverine = 1 (not too sure about this one)
Summon Dire Wolf = 1
Summon Grizzly = 1

Total Points: 110 : )

There's a lot of potential for Protection and High Physical Damage.

You can guess most of the equipment.
However, as a primary Weapon I would use an upgraded "Fleshrender", socketed with a good rune, like Shael, Gul or Jah.
The primary Shield instead would be a Pavise (3) with Sanctuary.
Gloves would be the "Lava Gout", which give a little chance to cast Enchant on striking. There are so many useful Gloves for this build... it's hard to pick up one. Hey, the Stash is big enough ; )
Of course, the Belt would be RazorTail.
Finally, to further amplify the tremendous boons on FleshRender, the boots would be Gore Rider, and the body armor Chains Of Honor on a Chaos Armor (my dream actually...)

If RazorTail works, and allow you to damage even the Physical immunes, then you just don't care if a monster is immune to something, because all the damage you do is Physical.

In any case a good merc will help.
Do you think it is a good setup?



Ciao ciao : )
[/edit]

[Teareon]

Please clarify me one thing.

The Unique Belt "Razortail" features a Piercing of... 33.
Other Unique Items have a Piercing of even 100, like the famous Buriza Do-Kyanon.

What is this number 33 exactly??

Is it a chance % that my attack will completely bypass the target's Physical Resistance, thus inflicting 100% damage in 33% of hits?

Or is it a negative boon applied to the overall target's Physical Resistance... therefore a Physical Immune (+100 Phy) will be lowered at +67 Phy... and bye bye immunity?

In the former case no Physical Immune would stay immune around you.
In the latter case, only an immunity of 133 and above would still hold.
I don't quite remember if I have ever met such a monster...

This is a percentage chance for your projectile to pass completely through the intended target... obviously applies mostly to arrows//bolts and javs

sorry can help with the wolf part... havent built one in a long time

edit: on a side not for PIs you could use a banars star of somethign like a fammine mallet

[Ombra]

This is a percentage chance for your projectile to pass completely through the intended target... obviously applies mostly to arrows//bolts and javs

sorry can help with the wolf part... havent built one in a long time

edit: on a side not for PIs you could use a banars star of somethign like a fammine mallet

I see... so it's just like the Piercing passive skill of the Amazon.

All right I'll replace Razortail.
As for the Physical Immunity to break... see if you like this idea : )

The Amplify Damage curse is the only thing that can break Physical Immunity (correct me if I'm wrong).
Being not a Necromancer, the only non-weaponry item that gives you the Amplify Damage curse is Atma's Scarab (amulet).

It grants a 5% Chance to cast Level 2 Amplify Damage on Striking.
Like saying 1 out of 20 hits. Level 2 means 11 seconds. Good enough.

This Werewolf builds a massive EDmg% between Lycanthopy, Werewolf, Fury and the Heart of Wolverine.
And it uses a Fleshrender... which features EDmg% on its own, as well as mods like Prevent Monster Heal, Chances to Open Wounds and Chances to inflict Deadly Strikes. Gore Rider further adds to these chances.

Standard PI monsters would see their Immunity completely broken to 0%, while minibosses would retain a +80 Physical Resistance... which wouldn't be enough to withstand all the damage coming from 11 seconds of Fury.

And even if it is: no problem.
The miniboss is prevented from healing, and maybe it'll die on its own to the opened wounds.
Meanwhile you keep whacking it, waiting for the next curse.



How does that sound?
Ciao ciao : )

[Kyle Destroyer]

It's not amp damage, it's decrepify, the only useful way to use that curse would be to have a reapers toll on your merc, which has a 33% chance to cast decrepify.

[Phallock]

So back to the basic question; is there a decent PvM Werewolf build that can handle Hell? I am curious too.

[Ombra]

So back to the basic question; is there a decent PvM Werewolf build that can handle Hell? I am curious too.

Oh yes, there is.
I have refined the previous ideas I posted, and have come up with what appears to be a killer build.
Not kidding.

I won't share it now. First I want to be sure that this one works and is effective even in Hell.
And that's what I'm doing. I'm taking my time to repeatedly walk up and down the whole Hell Act 5, to find those packs of monsters who can halt me consistently.
I'm sure I'll find them. No build can be perfect.

But up until now only 2 kind of monsters can slow me down.
::Iron Maiden casters::
They pose a serious threat, as they do to all meleers.

::Mana Burners::
Mainly a drag, but still a problem. Although few mana points are enough to do a massacre, the Werewolf can't fight without mana.

If you can live with these two "flaws", then my build is for you.

By the way. I'm conducting the tests with an Editor-made character.
I have set him to level 99 (the game will pit me against the most pumped up mobs), I have set the Skills and given him the items to equip.

Socketed items have been socketed in-game, so to not get the perfect rolls that never happen anyway (at least to me).
No charms at all. Only the potions in the belt, and a TP book.
No Call To Arms. It'll be part of the build, but I won't use it for the tests.
No mercenary. An aura merc will help a lot. But no merc during the tests.

I do this to compensate for the fact that this character is born maxed out, and has not gone through the troubles of leveling in a normal way.
It is also to introduce some added difficulty, because you never know what this blasted game has in store for you.

As I said, so far so good : )
That is, if a monster isn't a Mana Burner or an Iron caster, then it's dead meat no matter what. This includes Immunes of every kind, regulars, Champions, and minibosses.
The three Ancients go down fairly quickly as well.
Last time I challenged them, two were aura enchanted, with Fanaticism and Conviction.
It has been the thoughest fight ever with this build.
Won in 3 minutes, 1 Grizzly (who survived, btw) and 3 Full Rejuv Pots drank : )

Is that good enough for a no-merc, no-charms Werewolf?

*... sounds like I'm selling a product... better stop*

I'll post the complete build in the next days. Stay tuned.
Ciao ciao : )

Hi,
The tests are finished.
I just have 4 questions.

1) Is it possible to hire a Mercenary that uses the Salvation aura? (never seen any...)
2) How good a Res-All% charm can be?
3) How good a Vita charm can be?
4) Would you prefer to:
- sacrifice Resistances and bet on the fact that you'll collect Rel-All charms to compensate?
... OR...
- sacrifice Life Points and bet on the fact that you'll collect Vita charms to compensate?

You answer these questions --> I finish to write the build, then post it.

Kind regards,
Ciao ciao : )