Makaveli's DvC Fury Werewolf Guide

[DoC-Makaveli]

Makaveli's DvC Fury Werewolf Guide

Makaveli's DvC (Druid vs. Caster) Fury Werewolf Guide

Contents

1. Introduction
1.1 Description
2. Pros and Cons
2.1 Pros
2.2 Cons
3. Statistics
4. Skills
4.1 Summoning Skills
4.2 Elemental Skills
4.3 Shapeshifting Skills
4.4 Extra Skills
6. Equipment
6.1 Weapon Socketing
6.2 DvC Equipment
6.3 DvPhysical Equipment
6.4 Item List
7. Dueling Strategy
7.1 General Strategy
7.1.1 Shift-Fury
7.1.2 Feral Rage Usage
7.1.3 Reshifting
7.1.4 Sages
7.2 Amazon
7.2.1 Bowazon
7.2.2 Charged Strike
7.2.3 Poison Javelin
7.3 Assassin
7.3.1 Trapper
7.3.2 Whirlwind
7.4 Barbarian
7.4.1 Whirlwind
7.4.2 Warcry
7.5 Druid
7.5.1 Elemental
7.6 Necromancer
7.6.1 Poison
7.6.2 Bone
7.7 Paladin
7.7.1 Melee/Smiter
7.7.2 Hammerdin
7.7.3 V/T (Smite-based)
7.7.4 V/T (FoH-Based/balanced)
7.8 Sorceress
7.8.1 Fireball
7.8.2 Blizzer
7.8.3 Orber
7.8.4 Lightning
7.9 Team Dueling
7.9.1 General Tips

1. Introduction

1.1 Description

This build is a primarily a Druid vs. Caster Fury Werewolf build. It does surprisingly well against teleporting characters as it takes advantage of high run/walk speed and range, which allows the Druid to attack from further away than opponents suspect due to the large range and desynch caused by the combination of run/walk and range. While it really cannot compete with pure melee characters, it can be rather versatile to remain competitive with some otherwise difficult opponents.

2. Pros and Cons

2.1 Pros

1) High run/walk and range makes you competitive against characters melee Druids usually cannot even hit.
2) When duelers see Werewolf Druids, they usually dismiss them as uncompetitive and attack rather recklessly, giving you an advantage in public duels.
3) It feels great to kill the great PvP classes with an original, unexpectedly good character!
4) You get lots of life, well over 6000.
5) You get lots of damage, about 13000 (per hit) at 7/4/4/4 attack speed with Oak Sage, up to 17000 with Heart of Wolverine.

2.2 Cons

1) It is difficult, if not impossible, to beat pure melee characters and Smiters.
2) Barbarians cause problems because you cannot hit them with Fury as they Whirlwind (assuming they do it correctly).
3) It is difficult to kill characters with lots of summons.

3. Statistics

Strength: enough to use the weapon with the least amount of +str items you intend to use at once (i.e. hotspurs + verdungo vs. rare str boots + tgods)
Dexterity: enough to use the weapon with the least amount of +dex items you intend to use at once
Vitality: the rest
Energy: none

4. Skills

4.1 Summoning Skills

20 Oak Sage
20 Heart of Wolverine (leave this for last)
1 Raven
1 Summon Spirit Wolf

4.2 Elemental Skills

none

4.3 Shapeshifting Skills

20 Werewolf
20 Lychanthropy
1 Feral Rage
1 Rabies
20 Fury

4.4 Extra Skills

The skill placement listed above requires level 93 with skill quests. If you level above this, you could think about putting extra skills into feral rage or maybe some summons as distractions.

6. Equipment

6.1 Weapon Socketing

The weapon is the most important item for this Druid, but it is truly a must-have for the build. If you cannot get one, you need not read further in the guide. The weapon is an ethereal Tomb Reaver Cryptic Axe with 3 sockets. There are two options for socketing the weapon:

1) Zod + 2x ed/ias Jewels - this socketing will give you a 7/4/4/4 speed, meaning 7 frames between each Fury and 4 frames between each hit within a single Fury.
2) Zod + 2x Shaels - this socketing will increase your speed between each new Fury, making it 6 frames between the end of one Fury and the beginning of another. However, it does not affect the speed between each hit within a single Fury, as it will remain at 4 frames.

I have not personally tried the second option nor do I know anyone else who has tried (there aren't many of us DvC WW Druids around hehe), but I have gotten a new weapon, which I will socket this way and see if it changes anything. I doubt it will make much difference, so I suggest the 2x ed/ias jewel'd one.

6.2 DvC Equipment

This equipment is the normal gear for dueling a caster. Slight modifications are preferred against certain classes, which will be given in the dueling section below.

Helm: Jalal's Mane (Shael'd)
Amulet: 08 Highlord's Wrath (09 will suffice, the 08 just has a nice 30 run/walk)
Weapon: Ethereal Tomb Reaver
Weapon Switch: Call to Arms and Spirit (you may need to use Lidless if you do not have the str for Spirit)
Armor: Fortitude (Enigma is also nice choice for its run/walk, skills, and str)
Gloves: Dracul's Grasp (Steelrend is also a valid option, but I prefer Dracul's for their lower str requirement and Open Wounds)
Belt: Verdungo (or a nice Crafted Blood Belt with Open Wounds and Faster Hit Recovery)
Boots: Rare 30 frw, str, dex, res boots (or Sandstorm Trek)
Ring 1: Ravenfrost
Ring 2: Ravenfrost
Charms: Hellfire Torch, Annihilus, 20-37 max/ar/frw sc's, rest max/ar/life sc's. (I use 28x max/ar/frw sc's with 7x max/ar/life sc's)

6.3 DvPhysical Equipment

This equipment is to be used against characters for whom you need block and/or damage reduce such as melee Paladins, Barbarians, Bowazons, etc. I've never given this out publicly because I thought it was quite clever, but it's all yours now!

Helm: Jalal's Mane (Shael'd)
Amulet: 08 Highlord's Wrath (09 will suffice, the 08 just has a nice 30 run/walk)
Weapon: Ethereal BoTD Berserker Axe
Shield: Stormshield (Shael'd or Eld'd)
Weapon Switch: Call to Arms and Spirit (you may need to use Lidless if you do not have the str for Spirit)
Armor: Twitchthroe (ed/dex jewel'd)
Gloves: Dracul's Grasp (Steelrend is also a valid option, but I prefer Dracul's for their lower str requirement and Open Wounds)
Belt: Verdungo
Boots: Rare 30 frw, str, dex, res boots (or Sandstorm Trek)
Ring 1: Ravenfrost
Ring 2: Ravenfrost
Charms: Hellfire Torch, Annihilus, 20-37 max/ar/frw sc's, rest max/ar/life sc's. (I use 28x max/ar/frw sc's with 7x max/ar/life sc's)

This should provide you with at least 70% block (depending on your level and jewels) and 50% (max) damage reduce.

When AR is needed, you should switch to Angelic Amulet + 1 Angelic Ring.

6.4 Full Item List

This is a list of all the items you should have for the druid:

Jalal's Mane (Shael'd)
Vampire Gaze (Ber'd, preferably the 08 version)
08 or 09 Highlord's Wrath (08 preferred)
Angelic Amulet
Ethereal Tomb Reaver (socketing discussed above)
Ethereal BoTD Berserker Axe
Fortitude Light Armor (or Enigma Light Armor)
Stormshield (Shael'd or Eld'd)
Dracul's Grasp
Death's Gloves
Thundergod's Vigor
Verdungo
Ravenfrost
Ravenfrost
Angelic Ring
Angelic Ring
Rare Boots with frw, str, dex, res (or Sandstorm Trek)
Hotspurs
08 Gore Riders (or War Travelers)

Note: I only carry 1 sorb/max res item per element other than Ravenfrosts because I do not BM duel, but it shouldnt be hard to figure out what more you would need for that, Wisps, Dwarfs, Treachery, etc.

7. Dueling

7.1 General Strategy

7.1.1 Shift-Fury

In order to fully take advantage of this Druid's large range, you need to hold Shift and use Fury simultaneously so you can hit enemies who come too close (although they will not expect you to hit from the distances you are able to). I have a few tips on how to do this well:

1) Some duelers will get into a pattern, which you can predict after a couple times, so that you can get to the place to which they will teleport. Shift+Fury in place, and if they teleport close enough, you will hit them (this druid gets upwards of 13,000 physical damage per hit, so a full Fury will do a LOT of damage).
2) Note the dueler's tendencies. If the dueler likes to teleport on top of enemies to attack, remember that, and Shift+Fury when you think they are about to do this to you.

7.1.2 Feral Rage

1) There are some scenarios in which you will not want to use Fury. These scenarios occur when the enemy has multiple summons. For example, let's say an Elemental Druid has 5 wolves summoned and he teleports on you to attack. If you use Fury, the hits will go wildly from wolf to wolf, rather than hitting the Druid. A much better strategy in this scenario would be to namelock Feral Rage so that you only hit the enemy and not his summons.
However, if the enemy only has a single summon (maybe a Golem or Shadow Master), you should continue to use Fury.
2) Feral Rage is also very nice for its ability to increase your run/walk speed. Some "less than GM" players might charge it up on monsters. =)
3) If you can get the tough namelock of a Druid or Necro under his many summons, try to hold Shift+Feral while maintaining the namelock. This will make you stand in place attacking, but if the enemy does not go out of namelock range (minimap range), you will keep the namelock until they come back for another attakck. When the enemy comes back, you can unexpectedly attack very quickly. This is especially useful against Elemental Druids because they often teleport away to recast summons.

7.1.3 Reshifting

DvC dueling is much different than Melee Druid dueling. In melee, everything is generally very organized and the players agree that when you deshift back to human, the duel is over, but this is not the case in DvC. If you are alive, the duel is not considered over, so if you get down to 1 life and deshift, reshift back to Werewolf immediately to get another chance.

7.1.4 Sages

You should use Oak Sage in the vast majority of matchups, but there are a few exceptions below. Always remember to recast your sage if it dies!

7.2 Amazon

7.2.1 Bowazon

Difficulty: 8/10
Equipment: DvPhysical

This is a very difficult duel because you must take off your Tomb Reaver and duel with the slower, low-damage BoTD. Also, the Bowazon will not likely stop to melee you, so you will need to try to run ahead of her and Shift+Fury. You must attack from ahead to account for desynch from the server, wherein what really happens cannot update in real time, so the running enemy is actually a little further along than he appears on the screen. You probably aren't going to win this duel consistently, but it just is not built for this duel.

7.2.2 Charged Strike

Difficulty: 4/10
Equipment: DvC with Thundergod's

This is not too challenging of a duel (assuming the Amazon is not using Farcast...) because you can really tank her longer than she can tank you. Just chase her and namelock Fury.

7.2.3 Poison Javelin

Difficulty: 7/10 (with Enigma)
Difficulty: 3/10 (without Enigma)
Equipment: DvC with Death's Gloves

This duel is difficult IF the Amazon uses Enigma. If she does not have teleport, just chase her like a Charged Strike Zon, while trying to avoid the Plague Javelins (these have big round poison clouds), do not worry if you run into the Poison Javelins (the lines of poison clouds) as they drain your life VERY slowly. The duel is much more difficult if the Zon has teleport because she can possibly hit you with either Plague or Poison Javelins and teleport away until your life drops. You need to avoid both types of poison javelins and attempt to get close to her so you can attack. Try to use your run/walk as as much of an advantage as possible because she cannot teleport very fast, no matter how much FCR she has, so you can possibly catch up to her unexpectedly after a teleport.

7.3 Assassin

7.3.1 Trapper

Difficulty: 3/10
Equipment: DvC with Thundergod's

This duel is surprisingly easy. If the Trapper just sits on her traps, you have a stalemate, which can occur in many D2 duels, it just comes down to who will play offense. Anyway, if the Trapper is at all active, try to catch her as she moves before she can get down all 5 traps. If you can get her on the run, keep going, but do not chase her if she has been away long enough to cast 4+ traps close together. The only way you can lose this duel is to walk into 4+ traps at once and get locked. With less traps, you can take hits and Mind Blast and continue running without becoming completely immobilized. Sometimes shadows stray from their Assassin, so charge up Feral on the shadow if you get a chance without getting hit, the run/walk can definitely come in handy.

7.3.2 Whirlwind

Difficulty: 7/10
Equipment: DvC

This is a difficult duel because, like Whirlwind Barbarians, you cannot really hit them while they Whirlwind. You can potentially catch them between Whirlwinds and get some hits in, but you will need to attack just as their Whirlwind ends so they do not hit you again. Another strategy that sort of works is to go into a corner on the map and force them to come to you as you Shift+Fury. However, if they have traps, they could possibly immobilize you trying to do this. (To avoid this to an extent, you could go to an outside corner of the stone walls in the Blood Moor so you can go around the corner quickly to avoid more traps being laid on you.)

7.4 Barbarian

7.4.1 Whirlwind

Difficulty 9/10
Equipment: DvPhysical

You really have no chance here unless the Barbarian is not good. The trend for Barbarians to go without shields is definitely a plus here, but it is still unlikely you will have a chance. Try the tips listed in the Whirlwind Assassin section, but you really are not going to have a great chance of winning. If the Barbarian tries to Berserk you, Fury him! You could do lots of damage if he doesn't have a shield especially.

7.4.2 Warcry

Difficulty: 4/10
Equipment: DvC

This duel will likely be very easy. Just chase him and namelock Fury. If he teleports on you, Shift+Fury. However, if the Barbarian has LOTS of mana and a very high cast rate, he could possibly attack so fast that you cannot even reach him (I have seen one Barbarian that has done this to me, but he did have bugged mana charms, I'm not sure it's even possible legitimately.

7.5 Druid

7.5.1 Elemental

Difficulty: 8/10
Equipment: DvC with Vampire Gaze (Ber'd)

This duel is very difficult because you have low DR, he has physical damage, and he has lots of summons. If he has no summons, the duel is no challenge at all and you can use Fury, but that is unlikely. Vampire Gaze (Ber'd) can give 33 DR if it is the 08 version and verdungo gives 15, making a total of 48% (almost max) DR. If the Druid has summons, you need to namelock Feral Rage instead of Fury so you will only hit him and not his summons. It is somewhat difficult to namelock Feral because it is not easy to get your cursor to the Druid under his summons, but it is possible, and it is your only chance. The duel is by no means impossible.

7.6 Necromancer

7.6.1 Poison

Difficulty: 6/10
Equipment DvC with Death's Gloves

This is not an easy duel, but you have a good chance to win. Make sure you have max poison resist (and hopefully about 65 stacked res to negate Lower Resistances). He must come pretty close to you to hit you, so try to anticipate his teleports to get in a good position to possibly hit him with Shift+Fury. Do not be afraid to take a Poison Nova or two if it allows you to get in some hits.

7.6.2 Bone

Difficulty: 9/10
Equipment: DvC

This is a very very difficult duel. You do have a chance, but it is a slight one. If at all possible, avoid getting hit by Clay Golem because it slows down your run/walk speed, making it almost impossible to get to the Necro without dieing. You need to try to force the Necro to teleport on you. Try to avoid open spaces so that they cannot invisible Bone Spirit you from far away, so they will be forced to come close to you.

 

[DoC-Makaveli]

7.7 Paladin

7.7.1 Melee/Smite

Difficulty 10/10
Equipment: DvPhysical with Angelic Ring and Amulet, 08 Gore Riders (or War Travelers)

You really have on chance against a good melee or Smite Paladin with Exile. There is no real strategy to this duel, just put on the block equipment and melee him. Use Shift+Fury if possible to get in a few attacks before he can attack you.

7.7.2 Hammerdin

Difficulty: 7/10
Equipment: DvC with 2x Anglic Rings, Angelic Amulet, 08 Gore Riders (or War Travelers)

Use Heart of the Wolverine. You will get less life without Oak Sage, but since hammers do so much damage, you cannot tank many whether you have Oak or not. The idea of this duel is to get the most attack rating and damage possible to combat the Paladin's high defense due to Holy Shield. With 2x Angelics and Heart of the Wolverine, I get 37251 AR, which is plenty to hit Hammerdins, even with max Holy Shield. I also get an insanely large 17,000 damage with the War Travelers and Heart of Wolverine. When dueling a Hammerdin, never attack him from above as the hammers he casts will appear just above him. You cannot usually rush right in against a Hammerdin because he will cast hammers, of course, so you need to try to predict his Charges or Teleports and Shift+Fury where you expect him to go. Take advantage of the walls, it is useful to position yourself so that he cannot hit you with hammers unless he teleports on you because you can get some hits in if he does this. When a Hammerdin teleports on you, quickly walk down and to the left of him to attack, you can be safe from hammers here, but be aware that if he changes his position, the new hammers could hit you, so do not chase him out of the hammer field. Wait until the hammers are gone and walk out of it. Continue to do this and you have a real chance to beat him.

7.7.3 V/T (Smite-based)

Difficulty: 9/10
Equipment: DvC with Anglic Ring, Angelic Amulet

There is good news and bad news for this duel. The good news, his Smite is weaker than a pure Smiter. The bad news, he also has FoH, so you cannot take off your res gear. All you can do is try to play defensively. Let him come to you so you can Shift+Fury him.

7.7.4 V/T (FoH-based/balanced)

Difficulty: 7/10
Equipment: DvC with Angelic Ring, Angelic Amulet

These builds can be so different I just made two sections for Smite- and FoH-based V/Ts. Dueling an FoH-Based V/T is not as difficult as a Smite-based one for this character. His Smite can still be potentially very strong, so you cannot dismiss it. You will probably lose straight up melee vs Smite, so you need to play somewhat defensively. Predict his charges and Shift+Fury. When he comes to Smite you, Shift+Fury, get a few hits in, then run back so he is not able to do much damage. Repeat this, never leaving yourself open to multiple Smites at once. The FoH can also do substantial damage, especially with Conviction (these paladins can have up to -205 resistances and 8000 damage FoH, so it can definitely do tremendous amounts of damage). If you see him trying to FoH, play aggressively and Fury him. The casting animation for FoH takes quite a while, so if you can attack him as he casts FoH, you can hit him fast enough that he cannot cost before you attack. He will have to run away or start Smiting. If he runs, let him go, stay back to avoid a Conviction+FoH hit (which can take thousands of life). If he Smites, run, and then Shift+Fury before he attacks. If he gets to close, run away and Shift+Fury again. If he Smites, play defensively, if he tries to FoH, play offensively.

7.8 Sorceress

7.8.1 Fireball

Difficulty: 3/10
Equipment: DvC with Hotspurs

This Druid is very good at dueling Fire Sorceresses especially. If you use Hotspurs, you can take LOTS of hits, so it is unlikely the Fb Sorc can beat you by staying far away and spamming at you. It almost never fails that they begin to play more offensively. If she teleports on you, GREAT, she's most likely dead, 13k damage at at least 5 hits is likely to take even the most bugged Sorceress's mana down.

7.8.2 Blizzer

Difficulty: 7/10
Equipment: DvC

This duel is much harder than other sorceresses because it can do a lot more damage and it does not have to get close to do it. Try to force the Blizzer to come to you. Go around corners, go to narrow parts of the map, whatever you need to do. If he teleports on or near you, you can likely get off an attack. If you can hit them with a Fury, you may be able to get in lots of hits because the speed of your attack often stuns the opponent so that she cannot teleport away. There is not really a GM way to stack enough res for it to matter without carrying lots of items for which you do not have room. If you've got room, try a thul'd Kira's Guardian (maximum of 105 res), 50 CR ring, 45+ CR boots, Mara's, Arctic Belt (40 CR), 30 CR gloves, 50 res Tomb Reaver. That is about 350 res, which is not enough for it to matter in Hell, but it might work in Nightmare, giving 245 res above 75.

7.8.3 Orb

Difficulty: 4/10
Equipment: DvC

This duel is somewhat less difficult than a Blizzer. An Orber needs to get a little closer, providing possibilities to get in attacks. Try to avoid full Orbs, of course, but do not be afraid to take some shards if you can get in an attack. You have lots of life on this Druid (i get about 6600 with Oak), you can take lots of hits.

7.8.2 Lightning

Difficulty: 2/10
Equipment: DvC with Thundergod's

This duel is about like dueling a Fireball Sorceress. It will not do a great deal of damage per attack due to Thundergod's, so you have lots of room for error. This duel is slightly easier than a Fireball Sorceress because it takes more time to cast Lightning, so you can get in attacks when they stop to cast Lightning and they cannot hit you as many times as quickly as Fireball Sorceresses. Again, if she teleports on you, she's dead (which a LOT of casters do not know/expect).

 

[LorveN]

Yikes, a well written guide! Now I got to read it through completely... Looks good so far! :thumbsup:

 

[kingdryland1]

Nice one,from a quick reading I have one remark. Not all V/T have lower smite damage than normal smiters. There are plenty out there that have exactly the same smite potential (max smite/hs/fana). The foh based V/T is called T/V.

 

[DoC-Makaveli]

no one called it t/v when i played v/t's! but that was like 09 -.-

 

[LorveN]

Just a personal opinion, I prefer using Aldurs boots versus firesorcs, since they give 40frw, +50life (turns to ~250 for me), 50 Fireres (if perf).
They do wonders, you catch them faster too.

 

[DoC-Makaveli]

Hotspurs will allow you to tank much more with 90 fire resist. The frw on aldurs is very nice, but the life and resist is pretty much negated by the amount of damage the 90 fire resist allows you to take.

 

[DoC-Makaveli]

Also, if you never plan to use Hotspurs, it would be better to continue to use frw/str/dex/res boots without adding the extra str/dex required to wear Hotspurs, meaning higher vit anyway.

 

[xpumafangx]

Its a ok build. Built the same thing my self. Honestly ebotd gpa is just as good as eth tomb reaver. I honestly perfer it over eth tomb. The double shealed eth tomb is pure crap though.

Smiters are actly a really easy kill for a 2 handed werewolf. Shaftstop+verd= dead smiter, v/t, t/v, and libarator. Your only getting just over 6k life. Mine has 9.5k - 10.5k life. You also forgot that a bow merc with harmony. Does just fine vers casters. After you get killed once by a pure melee build its more of a problem. I should just post my guild.

 

[DoC-Makaveli]

The build is meant for GM dueling, so of course I didn't include a merc.

Why Shaftstop+Verd? Ber 08 Gaze + Verd = 48 DR and you don't lose the 300 ED from Fortitude.

I seriously doubt you beat exile/grief smiters... and t/v can have up to 8-8.5k foh with -205 res, so DR definitely does NOT guarantee a win. Same with a Lib's hammer...

I only have 6.6k life, but i have 200% frw... gl catching a halfway decent casters without high frw. If you use Shapeshift gcs, your damage would also be lower..

I have not tried BoTD GP in duels, but I just loaded it up on my single player clone of my bnet character. At first glance, I definitely disagree that it is as good for several reasons:

1) Slower attack speed.
8/5 frame Fury, 8 frame Feral with BoTD
7/4 frame Fury, 7 frame Feral with Tomb Reaver

2) BoTD has no res, whereas Tomb Reaver has up to 50, meaning you would have to make it up somewhere else.

3) You do not gain much damage from BoTD. A perfect Tomb Reaver with ed/ias jewels has 225-1035 (630 avg) damage and a perfect superior BoTD GP (415%) has 355-978 (666.5 avg). You actually lose max damage, but you gain some average. This small gain by no means makes up for the loss of attack speed. High attack speed not only means you get more hits in, but it will becomes harder for enemies to get away once they are attacked.

 

[Kiba]

Both weapon's are good vs certain Character classe's.

Puma proved too me that a werewolf using ebotd gpa can beat a wolf usin eth tomb with 2ed/ias/ zod when his wolf killed my wolf with eth tomb a bunch of time's usin ebotd gpa . It's the +5 Range on ebotd gpa that make's it stand out from from eth tomb the +1 extra range make's a big difference.

Odd thing is i have more luck killin smiter's with ebotd gpa over eth tomb , but eth tomb is better suited vs caster's as already stated.

 

[xpumafangx]

The 2 weapons are truely equels by far!

Not only that but avarge damage is all that matters. When it comes to damage. Thats a well proven and backed up thoery about this game. As Wolfz all ready stated. Ebotd gpa has a longer range which you forgot to talk about. That is why I beat him when dueling. Its also what its better to use vers smite. And thats why you are loosing to smite. Foh is a joke when you aborsb. Gm dueling and Bm dueling has a real fine line. The only fact on this is. The only rules that matter are the rules the 2 duelers agree with when they are dueling vers each other. Anything is can be aloud at any time. Not only that but if you think a 5fps fury is too slow why did you state to use a ebotd berserker axe? Every one here knows that a grief phase blade is shorter weapon, with a higher avarge damage, and same attack speed. If you where so inclind to use a 4fps weapon use a 4 socted 3x40/15% ias jewels + 1 Lo rune griswalds caddy. That weapon right there is a powerful weapon that meets a 4fps fury. Its not as powerful damage wise as a greif phase. But it does do well vers a ebotd zerk.

If you really want the 300%ed from a fort. Instead of using a 1.08 vamp. Use a 15% dr doubled bered Coa 31%. It comes with plus 1 to all skills, and a cool 20-30 resist all. And last time I checked duel leech doesnt matter in duels any more. The resson why I stated use a shaftstop. Is because the + to life on it helps out a ton. Your all ready going to kill any one other then a barb, werebear, or werewolf. In 1 fury with out fort.


Also the big thing you need for killing smiters is 9k or more life. After having 40-50% dr, 5fps fury, 6-10k damage, and a range 5 weapon.

 

[stoutewolf]

The 2 weapons are truely equels by far!

Not only that but avarge damage is all that matters. When it comes to damage. Thats a well proven and backed up thoery about this game. As Wolfz all ready stated. Ebotd gpa has a longer range which you forgot to talk about. That is why I beat him when dueling. Its also what its better to use vers smite. And thats why you are loosing to smite. Foh is a joke when you aborsb. Gm dueling and Bm dueling has a real fine line. The only fact on this is. The only rules that matter are the rules the 2 duelers agree with when they are dueling vers each other. Anything is can be aloud at any time. Not only that but if you think a 5fps fury is too slow why did you state to use a ebotd berserker axe? Every one here knows that a grief phase blade is shorter weapon, with a higher avarge damage, and same attack speed. If you where so inclind to use a 4fps weapon use a 4 socted 3x40/15% ias jewels + 1 Lo rune griswalds caddy. That weapon right there is a powerful weapon that meets a 4fps fury. Its not as powerful damage wise as a greif phase. But it does do well vers a ebotd zerk.

If you really want the 300%ed from a fort. Instead of using a 1.08 vamp. Use a 15% dr doubled bered Coa 31%. It comes with plus 1 to all skills, and a cool 20-30 resist all. And last time I checked duel leech doesnt matter in duels any more. The resson why I stated use a shaftstop. Is because the + to life on it helps out a ton. Your all ready going to kill any one other then a barb, werebear, or werewolf. In 1 fury with out fort.


Also the big thing you need for killing smiters is 9k or more life. After having 40-50% dr, 5fps fury, 6-10k damage, and a range 5 weapon.

dont forget the fhr on coa which makes it an ideal helm versus smiters. I myself prefer shaeled tomb over ed/ias versus casters because most casters dont have much life so they will die anyway(mostly in 1-2 hits).

@topicmaker: plz explain to me why you have an botd zerker in your stash, you don't have any block with storm anyway so nn for the 1 hander imo. I don't see the option: bloodfists for gloves what makes me sad, those gloves are the ones everyone should have imo.
I suggest you put enigma in your must have list along with a frw circlet and treachery for prebuff. Versus boners pack as much frw together as you can so use your circlet+eni because magic damage cant be sorbed, use feral rage on their walls and such and dodge the clay gollem.

Remember, namelock fury changes your range to 1, shift fury however makes it 4 (with tomb) or 5 (botd)

why do you use HoW when casters are your main goal to kill, the low damage add and ar add makes how only viable versus high defensive chars IMO. I think oak sage is a better pick for this build (tell me why i am wrong if i am)

IMO normal goreriders are better as 0.8s cause of the ow and cb on them.

@puma: i think shaeled tomb does wonders in pvp one again:badteeth:

 

[xpumafangx]

Its a cheaper option thats all. For the price of a botd gpa. vers double shealed zodded eth tomb. Comes out to about the same. Ebotd is still more expive some of the time. As in not every one sees how good a eth 3 socted tomb reaver.

 

[swiftrunner]

This is a very good fury guide. Can a mod sticky this plz?

 

[DoC-Makaveli]

I suggested BoTD zerker for the block equip because it adds 30 dex, which is needed to get high block because this build has low dex. The build actually gets up to 75% block in that equip depending on the level, base dex, and socketing (notice Twitchthroe has +20% block).

I do use Oak Sage most of the time, I use HoW against Hammerdins though.

I really did not think about CoA, which, I agree, would be better than 08 Gaze against Smiters. The 30 fhr outweighs the 2 DR. I still do not see the usefulness of Shaft however... If you get 45+ DR from CoA/Gaze + Verd, another armor would be better. Enigma's +2 skills & Jah would probably add more life than shaft's +60, as well as adding 8 DR to make max.

1 fury does not kill all casters... definitely not max block ones

max/life sc's or shapeshift gc's would be much better against Smiters, but the build is mostly for dueling casters and there really are not enough spots in the stash to carry 2 sets of charms, you just need to balance them to your liking. This is really what makes the build less competitive against Smiters, melee chars, etc

GM dueling never allows prebuffing so I left out Treachery on purpose... I'm not going to get into a discussion of GM vs BM nor am I changing the guide to accomodate what I consider BM. The guide continue to follow these rules: no merc, no more than 1 sorb/max res item per element (excluding ravenfrosts), no prebuffing, no bugged items. If you do not agree, it doesn't take a stroke of genius to figure out how to add these things.

Balanced v/t's or t/v's or whatever you want to call them do pose a problem because you cannot easily get DR + stacked res at the same time. If you stack enough res to negate -200 res, its difficult to also have high DR, meaning Smite will hurt more. I do not have room to carry a separate equip for t/v's, but a good idea might look something like this: Ort Kira's + Ort Shaftstop + 1x high LR ring + Highlords + Verdungo (or Tgods, depending on how strong he is with Smite) + frw/res boots... or just add lots of lr/frw sc's

I actually used to use Bloodfists sometimes, but I decided 86 fhr was not really necessary (I got it with shael Jalal + Bloodfist + 2x sc's) . I think it's better to get the bp below.

 

[xpumafangx]

The plus 60 on shaftstop does give more life then jah does. Its because plus to life like from a small charm of vita gets effected by wereform, oak, and bo. Where plus to vita, plus to life per level, and plus a % life does not.

 

[DoC-Makaveli]

What about the +2 skills to Oak, Lych, and Bo?

 

[xpumafangx]

See thats why prebuffing is a good thing. You cast it as a prebuff. Then switch to your dueling gear... I'll do a quick test right now and repost what I found.
_______

What I found is this. jalals, coh, anni, 4bo cta, and spirit monarch. 9732 life

jalals, enigma, anni, 4bo cta, and spirit monarch. 9811 life.

jalals, p rubyed shaftstop, anni 4bo cta, and spirit monarch. 9894 life

That was casted with those items on.

Then I did what I normaly do when I need alot of hitpoints.

Now I did the prebuff with jalals, coh, anni, 4bo cta, and spirit monarch. Then switched to p rubyed shaftstop, and pressed w to go to ebotd gpa. Total life 10346.

How I prebuffed. I first casted battle commands, then battle orders. Then I casted oak sage. I battle commanded it, then I battle ordered it. I was able to get more life out of my oak sage by battle commanding it.

Did that with the same items I used with the shaftstop set up. But with out battle commanding my oak sage. Found that my life after words where. 9776 life

Point is, you battle command your oak sage and you get more life. Thats the proper way to prebuff for hit points.

 

[swiftrunner]

But he says he wants to leave prebuffing out of discussion.