|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
====---\\\ Werebear Druid Guide v.1.1
///---====
-- Sophie
Table of
Contents:
1.
Introduction
2.
Version
History
3.
Legal
Information
4.
Starting the
Druid
a.
Skills
b.
Attributes
5.
Equipment
6.
Mercenaries
7.
Links
8.
Credits
9.
Contact
1. Introduction (Hola, seňor.)
Hey. This is my guide for building a Werebear
Druid. This build is incredibly fun to
play, mainly because it’s almost impossible to somehow screw your character
up. You almost never die, and it’s a
hell of a lot of fun bragging about how much damage you deal.
Another fun
thing about this build is that it’s semi-balanced, getting you the most out of
two trees. While some hardcore players
put points only in the Shapeshifting tree, this build branches out a bit more. And don’t worry, you’re not missing much
from the Elemental tree except cool effects.
While the skills look good on paper, in combat they’re a bit
disappointing.
The Werebear
Druid is very powerful in PvM (player versus monster), and this is what the
guide will cover. But that’s not to say
that he can’t duel. He’s a decent
fighter when it comes to PvP (player versus player), but to be a master at it,
he’ll need to be built a bit differently.
Here are
some abbreviations you’ll see in this guide:
AR: Attack
rating
Bnet:
Battle.Net
Clvl#:
Character level
DEX:
Dexterity
FPA: Frames
per attack
FRW: Faster
run/walk
HP: Hit
points
HoW: Heart
of Wolverine
IAS:
Increased attack speed
lvl: Level
Merc:
Mercenary
PvM: Player
versus monster
PvP: Player
versus player
Slvl: Skill
level
STR:
Strength
VIT:
Vitality
WB: Werebear
WW: Werewolf
2. Version history (Keeping track)
Werebear
Druid Guide v.0.10 (July 27th,
2002)
· Started guide
Werebear
Druid Guide v.0.20 (July 30th, 2002)
· Spell checked
· Changed layout
· Readability changed
· Added Hunger facts
· Added Carrion Vine info
· Changed tables
· Changed abbreviations
Werebear
Druid Guide v.0.60 (August 7th, 2002)
· Changed equipment
· Fixed Cyclone Armor
Werebear
Druid Guide v.0.70 (August 7th, 2002)
·
Removed
Cyclone Armor
·
Added Act II
Mercenary info
·
Noted Oak
Sage bug
·
Added
specific equipment
·
Noted 225
STR info
·
Proofread
Werebear
Druid Guide v.0.80 (August 7th, 2002)
·
Added more
equipment
·
Removed PvP
section
·
Added Links
section
·
Changed
Shock Wave info
·
Removed
misleading gloves IAS info
·
Added 20
Dire/1 Grizzly info
Werebear
Druid Guide v.0.85 (August 7th, 2002)
· Added Shock Wave bugging info
· Deleted boots, gloves, and belt info. Waiting for compiled list from friends.
Werebear
Druid Guide v.0.90 (August 8th, 2002)
·
Completely
changed equipment section
·
Added more
to credits
·
Changed
author, and changed my password so my brother won’t go on as me anymore. =P
Werebear
Druid Guide v.0.95 (August 8th, 2002)
·
Added two
new low level weapons
·
Spell
checked
·
Proofread
·
Added
another thank you
Werebear
Druid Guide v.1.0 (August 10th, 2002)
·
Proofread
·
Edited
·
Finished J Thank you all
Werebear Druid Guide v.1.10 (September 12th, 2002)
·
Added Book
of Skills skill point
·
Added Spirit
information
·
Guide put
into the Strategy Compendium on www.diabloii.net
3. Legal information (Read number 3)
1.
You are in
no way entitled to reproducing this or any part of this guide without proper
consent of the author of this guide or any of his/her affiliates
2.
Disregard to
the above rule shall result in legal restrictions, suing, and/or legal
confinement
3.
And then
I’ll kick your ass
4. Starting the Druid
(Before you begin playing)
When you
start the Druid, make sure you give him a cool name. I mean, come on, if you’re on BattleNet everyone’s gonna see
it. If you want to go mysterious or
realistic, here are some suggestions:
TerraStriker
CallOfTheHunt
CulloftheWild
Something
like those would be cool. My guy’s name
is Terra_Former, which I borrowed from a friend. It means “Earth former”, which is really cool for a Druid because
of that whole nature thing. Of course,
you could be an idiot and call him Whack_My_Weed or something.
Oh, know
your skills. They’re not gonna be
explained in here, I’ll tell you that much…
The benefits
of a Werebear Druid are the massive bonuses HP, defense, and damage. My level 23 has 205% increased damage, and
has around 500 life, without Oak Sage.
They are tanks, able to withstand lots of damage and remain in the
fray. Also, they don’t require much
mana.
Unfortunately,
the single con of a Werebear Druid is a very devastating one. He’s incredibly slow. From his actions to his running speed, he’s
very sluggish. Even with the fastest
running speed and IAS, his speed doesn’t compare to that of a Werewolf
Druid. Some people say this isn’t such
a bad thing, but if you’re a serious player, you know it’ll hurt you bad. If you just play for fun, then enjoy. J
4.
a.) Skills
(The best and worst)
A WB Druid
doesn’t need many skills. A WB Druid
that specializes in the Elemental tree is like a man asking Jennifer Lopez on a
date: slapped, smacked, and dead.
Completely ignore the Elemental skill tree because it’s a waste of your
precious skill points. You can’t use
those spells while shapeshifted. Many
people choose to ignore the Summoning tree also, but I beg to differ. With slow attack speed, getting rid of
little imps like Fallens and Flayers can be a pain in the ass. Like the pain of a million bee stings on an
open wound.
But whether
or not you’re going to use summons, it’s highly recommended to use a Spirit:
Oak Sage, or HoW. Spirit of Barbs is
useless. Don’t even bother. A level 20 Spirit of Barbs will return as
much damage as a level 2 Thorns (which you could easily get from an Act II
merc). In addition to such that, due to
your high defense, you won’t be getting hurt enough to return any damage worth
returning.
There are
very few people who say it’s best not to waste skill points on a Spirit, and in
some ways it’s better to use them to max Fire Claws or Shock Wave (or even
Cyclone Armor). The Solo Werebear is an
example of this. Points go strictly
into the Shapeshifting Tree, no Summons of any kind and no Elemental
spells. I disagree with this, because a
level 20 Fire Claws or Shock Wave will not give you the benefits that a level
20 Oak Sage or Heart of Wolverine would.
It’s up to you to decide what type of Werebear you want to be though.
If you
choose Oak Sage, then pump up your strength by a lot. If you’re gonna use HoW, then pump up more vitality. In the end, I choose HoW for the extra AR. And obviously, being able to dish out more
damage is more important than having 10K life.
I like to go for the quick kill strategy. Either way, remember that you’ll already have more life and
damage than normal, with or without spirits.
Lycanthropy
and Werebear are obviously your main skills.
In the long run you want to max these out, naturally. With any extra bonuses, you’ll have them at
slvl24 or 26. Your main attack will
either be Maul or Fire Claws. Fire
Claws isn’t exactly a top-notch skill, in my opinion. But at high levels, it can dish out more damage than you can
imagine. I’ve heard of people who max
out this skill and do just fine in the game.
The only downside is that it’s worthless against Fire Immune
monsters. Maul is usually the preferred
skill, though, universally.
Hunger will,
at one point in the game, be your right mouse button attack (Maul will be your
main attack). To me, Hunger is my
favorite skill. It’s been a lifesaver
and a time saver. If I’m powerful
enough I sometimes clear a whole level with one-hit-kill Hunger attacks. It’s almost impossible to die. Here’s an example:
At slvl1,
Hunger leeches 72% life and mana, while adding a 50% bonus to AR. These numbers increase dramatically. At slvl20 you leech 176% life and mana, and
get an AR bonus of 240%. No matter what
level you have it at, though, it will always deal 25% of your normal damage
(-75% damage).
So let’s say
you deal 180-240 damage, in WB form and with HoW active. Using Hunger, you’ll then deal 45-60
damage. With 72% double leech, every
hit that connects will land you 32-43 life.
At lower levels that doesn’t seem like much, but let’s say you’re in Act
V, dealing around 600-800 damage.
You’ll be leeching 108-144 life, which can be crucial to saving yourself
from the Barbarian Ancients (possibly the hardest battle you’ll face in the
game). Also, Hunger attacks faster than
Maul, so you’ll be landing many more hits.
Shock wave
is an attack that stuns the enemies and does minimal damage. It may sound bad, but it’s your only crowd
control skill. It’s particularly useful
against small creatures and more or less Cows.
I personally don’t enjoy this skill, but in the end, it comes down to
that when you’re stunning enemies for five seconds, you won’t be dying any time
soon. Shock Wave is also effective in
PvP dueling, against those damn Sorceress’ and Amazons (not to say that you’ll
win those battles, because those two builds are not even fun, they’re just
unfair). Anyway, I could rant forever
about how much I hate spamming the screen with Guided Arrows and Hydras, but
I’d rather not. Also remember that
Shock Wave has a bug at slvl20 where the attack doesn’t stun the enemies for as
long as it says it does. Should be
fixed in v.1.10. Here’s a table with
the recommended skill levels of all your spells. You may count in your + to skills items if you want, but remember
that Werebear and Lycanthropy are best maxed out naturally. Just think of how much damage a slvl 26 WB
would do. Also keep in mind that these
are your long-term goals. Don’t go
maxing out Lycanthropy or WB too early.
A pet is
always useful and pretty helpful along the way. Grizzly Bear should be left at around at slvl1, 5 at most. The pet you do want to consider maxing or
close to maxing is Dire Wolf. This gives
all other wolves and bears +% to life, which is great news for your grizzly,
because frankly, it dies quite often.
With a lot of life and decent damage, it will be as great as a tank as
you are (or close). Spirit Wolf isn’t
worth putting points into, because the bear doesn’t need much +% to defense or
AR. Level 1 is enough (which gives +50%
to defense and AR).
Here’s a
table of skills and their recommended skill level. The first number is the level it should be at around clvl 30, the
second is by clvl 60, and the third is your final goal for it.
|
Skill |
Recommended SLvl |
Comments |
|
Werewolf |
1 |
Prequisite |
|
Werebear |
7/13/20 |
Max out naturally |
|
Lycanthropy |
7-8/15/20 |
Try to get it to high levels early
on. Max it out naturally |
|
Feral Rage |
1 |
Prequisite |
|
Maul |
4-5/10/20 |
Eventually maxed, but some people like
it at slvl 10 |
|
Fire Claws |
1 |
Prequisite |
|
Hunger |
1 |
Useful in certain situations |
|
Shock Wave |
1-2/2-4/4-5 |
Crowd control. Early in the game 1-3 is enough. |
|
Raven |
1 |
Prequisite. More if you’re a PvP WB |
|
Poison Creeper |
0-1 |
Prequisite. You may want to completely ignore this branch of the tree |
|
Summon Spirit Wolf |
1 |
Prequisite. Passive bonus to wolves and bears |
|
Oak Sage |
5/15/20 |
If your main spirit is HoW, 1 point. |
|
Carrion Vine |
0-1 |
Useful as a constant pet. A maxed Carrion Vine can get you 400 life
per corpse |
|
Heart of Wolverine |
5/15/20 |
If your main spirit is Oak Sage, 0
points. |
|
Summon Dire Wolf |
1-2/4-10/11-20 |
Good pets and good passive bonus to
wolves and bears. Don’t put too many
in here if you’re concentrating on vines |
|
Summon Grizzly |
1/1-3/3-5 |
Your best pet. Can tank quite well at slvl 20 |
|
|
|
|
That setup
should give you enough flexibility without needing to reach level 99 to max
every skill. Grizzly Bear doesn’t need
to be at too high of levels, and shouldn’t really reach more than 10
naturally. Usually an item will give
you + to all skills or Summoning skills, and that should make your Grizzly much
better (remember, all bears and wolves get passive bonuses from the others).
Currently,
I’m really not a big fan of vines. They
slow down your game if you don’t have a fast computer and they die rather
easily unless you invest a lot of points in them. I suggest completely ignoring vines, unless you really want some
life leech. Either way, don’t put more
than one point into Poison Creeper and put none in Solar Creeper. There are a few people partial to the
Carrion Vine, because at high levels it can return as much as 400 life on
average. I still don’t think it’s worth
the investment though.
Oh, and one
more thing before we go on. Currently,
neither Oak Sage or HoW give extra bonuses past level 20. This is a bug that will hopefully be fixed
in v.1.10.
Up to level
30 there’s a certain way you should put your skills to get the best out of
everything. Here’s what I recommend.
|
CLvl |
Skill |
|
1 |
Werewolf |
|
2 |
Lycanthropy |
|
3 |
Raven |
|
Skill point from Den of Evil |
Lycanthropy (or Poison Creeper) |
|
4 |
Lycanthropy |
|
5 |
Lycanthropy |
|
6 |
Werebear |
|
7 |
Oak Sage |
|
8 |
Spirit Wolf |
|
9 |
Werebear |
|
10 |
Werebear |
|
11 |
Werebear |
|
12 |
Maul |
|
13 |
Maul (or Carrion Vine) |
|
14 |
Lycanthropy |
|
15 |
Maul |
|
16 |
Lycanthropy |
|
17 |
Feral Rage |
|
18 |
Fire Claws |
|
19 |
Heart of Wolverine |
|
20 |
Summon Dire Wolf |
|
21 |
Heart of Wolverine |
|
22 |
Heart of Wolverine |
|
|