Druid Questions
Before you read on, this is part of my untwinked HC project so I cant count on ANY uniques or set items whatsoever. No MF'ing will be done in the project of 7 untwinked characters but they can mule freely between then. Hence one of the items I am calculating on is a Stone armor since doing 14 hellforges (7 nm and 7 hell) will probably make that possible.
I am trying to make a hybrid melee druid using the stone synergy bonus to Molten Boulder and spending 20 in Fire Claws. With about +4 to shapeshifting skills (or all skills) this will net me around 1500 (with no Firestorm), 2450 (with 12 Firestorm) or 3000 (with 20 Firestorm) fire damage per hit depending on the choices to be made. The +4 can easily be achieved with some pelt and an amulet.
I will spend 20 on Oak Sage (since this is HC), 10 on lycantrophy and 4 on prereq's so this means 54 skills are spent. Aiming for an end level of about 89 allows 88+12=100 skills total. So 46 to be spend in shapeshifting or synergy for Fire Claws.
It seems two roads are open still, either Bear or Wolf. Both seem to have considerably different advantanges, and I find it hard to decide which way to go. I am considering the following two options:
First option: Maul Bear
19 Maul (since it seems that 20 second maul duration will be active while hitting with Fire Claws, this will greatly improve physical damage and leech)
15 Shockwave (for a 12.4 second duration with +4 skills).
12 Firestorm (total fire claws damage would be 2398-2548)
Second option: Fury Wolf
20 Fury (great physical damage, AR and good against fire immunes)
1 Rabies (prereq)
5 Feral Rage (left over skills, going for a Grisly would be an option too)
20 Firestorm (total fire claws damage of 2988-3175)
I cant depend on any uniques or sets, so I probably will go with a fast one handed weapon for Fire Claws since I will need a shield for resists (Strength seems a nice option for some CB). This means damage from Fury and Maul wont be that impressive, but it is still a means to kill fire immunes. The bear has ability to stun (Maul and shockwave) making it the safest option. The wolf may have a better IAS because of a lvl 5 Werewolf (not sure, IAS calculations on druids are confusing) which helps the fire claw damage which would be higher anyway. I am even considering a Feral build since I never liked fury that much on my realms IK wolf (all except armor).
To compensate for the lack of crowd control the wolf would probably go with a Holy Freeze merc (and possibly a Nadir helm). The bear could go for holy freeze defiance or might (although might seems a bad idea since a one handed weapon wont be too much damage anyway).
Any idea's on the issue ?
(yes I have read the horrible guide in the strategy section which just pulls numbers out of the air that are totally incorrect untwinked)
Before you read on, this is part of my untwinked HC project so I cant count on ANY uniques or set items whatsoever. No MF'ing will be done in the project of 7 untwinked characters but they can mule freely between then. Hence one of the items I am calculating on is a Stone armor since doing 14 hellforges (7 nm and 7 hell) will probably make that possible.
I am trying to make a hybrid melee druid using the stone synergy bonus to Molten Boulder and spending 20 in Fire Claws. With about +4 to shapeshifting skills (or all skills) this will net me around 1500 (with no Firestorm), 2450 (with 12 Firestorm) or 3000 (with 20 Firestorm) fire damage per hit depending on the choices to be made. The +4 can easily be achieved with some pelt and an amulet.
I will spend 20 on Oak Sage (since this is HC), 10 on lycantrophy and 4 on prereq's so this means 54 skills are spent. Aiming for an end level of about 89 allows 88+12=100 skills total. So 46 to be spend in shapeshifting or synergy for Fire Claws.
It seems two roads are open still, either Bear or Wolf. Both seem to have considerably different advantanges, and I find it hard to decide which way to go. I am considering the following two options:
First option: Maul Bear
19 Maul (since it seems that 20 second maul duration will be active while hitting with Fire Claws, this will greatly improve physical damage and leech)
15 Shockwave (for a 12.4 second duration with +4 skills).
12 Firestorm (total fire claws damage would be 2398-2548)
Second option: Fury Wolf
20 Fury (great physical damage, AR and good against fire immunes)
1 Rabies (prereq)
5 Feral Rage (left over skills, going for a Grisly would be an option too)
20 Firestorm (total fire claws damage of 2988-3175)
I cant depend on any uniques or sets, so I probably will go with a fast one handed weapon for Fire Claws since I will need a shield for resists (Strength seems a nice option for some CB). This means damage from Fury and Maul wont be that impressive, but it is still a means to kill fire immunes. The bear has ability to stun (Maul and shockwave) making it the safest option. The wolf may have a better IAS because of a lvl 5 Werewolf (not sure, IAS calculations on druids are confusing) which helps the fire claw damage which would be higher anyway. I am even considering a Feral build since I never liked fury that much on my realms IK wolf (all except armor).
To compensate for the lack of crowd control the wolf would probably go with a Holy Freeze merc (and possibly a Nadir helm). The bear could go for holy freeze defiance or might (although might seems a bad idea since a one handed weapon wont be too much damage anyway).
Any idea's on the issue ?
(yes I have read the horrible guide in the strategy section which just pulls numbers out of the air that are totally incorrect untwinked)
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