Patriarch BeastMaster – Summoner Wolf – AKA “the snow plough”
Level: 87
St – 136 (235)
Dx – 174 (210)
Vt – 195 (220)
En – 20 (65)
HP: 825 (1788 in wolf form)
Mana: 347
Resists:
Fire: 75
Cold: 75
Ltning: 75
Poison: 75
Skills:
Raven: 20 (39 on switch)
Spirit Wolf: 20 (39 on switch)
Dire Wolf: 20 (39 on switch)
Grizzly: 20 (39 on switch)
Heart of the Wolverine: 12 (31 on switch)
Werewolf: 1 (20 on switch)
Lycanthropy: 1 (20 on switch)
Feral Rage: 3 (17)
Oak Sage: 1 (15)
Damage:
Feral Rage: 526 – 2750 (After Might & HotW)
Raven: 3222 – 3550 (Before Might & HotW)
Spirit Wolf: 883 – 903 Cold
Dire Wolf: 1479 – 1696 (Before Might & HotW)
Grizzly: 4171 – 4322 (Before Might & HotW)
Equipment:
Weapon 1:
Eth Lacerator
Stormshield w/ Ruby (36%ED) Jewel of Truth
Weapon 2:
“HotO” Flail
“Spirit” Monarch shield
Jalal’s Mane w/ Rusty (13%ED) Jewel of Fervour
“CoH” Dusk Shroud
Lava Gout
Gore Rider
Trang Oul’s Girth
Mara’s Kaleidoscope
BKWB x 2
Bone Break and DTorch
Merc (Act 2 – Might)
Eth Vampire Gaze
“Treachery” Dusk Shroud
“Infinity” Eth Thresher
Random musings:
Since the changes to the Druid summoning tree, I had wanted to give a hunter druid a go with a full feathers and fur army. I had planned to use a Witchy (or perhaps an upped one) to apply the Amplify Damage that my beast army would need to truly shine and take a back seat for a laidback build. I saw that the Lacerator had a 33% chance to cast AD and thought, “Well, that’s juicy. And I can use a shield too. Bonus!” A further bonus was I had an ethereal one stashed away. Fantastic.
I had a 2os, +3 Lycanthropy, +2 Werewolf pelt that I could equip nice and early, so I thought I’d start off playing melee and switch over to some sort of ranged weapon later before I equipped the Lacerator. I didn’t put any hard points into the Shape Changing tree initially as I assumed I’d be attacking at range in the near future and the plus skills on the pelt were fine for early Normal.
I started off with the full Death’s set, partial Hsarus, my pelt and a few bits and bobs, and with my beast army at my side, I strode through the majority of Normal with petty much no change in equipment other than putting and Ort and Sol into my pelt to make Lore. I kept the Death’s set on until Normal Shenk, before I decided that a change was in order and equipped Fleshrender.
I was in Nightmare and still planning to go to a ranged attack at some stage, but Fleshrender and later an upped Fleshrender kept me whacking away at my enemies until I thought, “What the hell, I’ll keep playing melee!” So, that is how a normal hunter druid morphed into a summoner wolf, goodbye to my laidback build.
That’s enough about the evolution of the build, now for some talk about the gameplay. Well, I was able to get through Normal and Nightmare on /players8 and Hell on /players3 without any deaths, in fact, I hardly even had a close shave. There is a dark side or two to this build that belies the previous statement. After deciding to play a melee werewolf I was, of course, in the thick of things and the life leech I had was struggling to keep up. On top of that, the 50% Flee on the lacerator meant that the enemies I hit would frequently turn tail and run (more on that later) and my wolf would tear off after them, immediately losing all my armour and two-thirds of my blocking ability. This became a bit of a worry when fighting a group of enemies when they all had a free hit on my unprotected back. The solution to this was to walk everywhere, a great big pain in the butt. Feral Rage was close at hand, and it solved the problem of my life leech and my slow walking speed.
Another dark side of the build was the previously mentioned 50% Flee on the Lacerator. Anything that was immune to Flee fell very quickly, especially when Amplify Damage popped. If I could push the enemy against a wall or the pack was dense enough that the monsters were unable to escape, they too fell quickly. Individuals or loosely packed mobs evaporated before me as they would scatter to the four winds, many of these monsters I never saw again. I began to call BeastMaster my snow plough as small packs were pushed aside leaving clear space ahead.
The third dark side of the build was the double-edged sword of Ravens. When they ranged ahead of me blinding all the ranged attackers, they were a godsend. On the other hand, when they overrode my Amplify Damage curse while in melee range, they became a pain in the arse. All told, the benefits of your Ravens outweighed the drawbacks, but it was a close-run thing at times, especially when you had to recast them every few minutes.
The fourth and final dark side, and the one that brought about my few close calls, was the weapon switch. Having to switch to my secondary set-up to recast Ravens or Werewolf was a frequent occurrence, but I didn’t always remember to switch back once I was done. All of a sudden, I found myself in a fight doing pretty much no damage and with considerably less chance to block.
Those dark sides aside, the build was easy, if not a little frustrating at times. I am considering remaking the build using Rabies. I would have to sacrifice some raw physical damage as my hard points in the summoning tree would be reduced, but the idea of having fleeing or blind enemies slowly dying of poison appeals to my warped sense of humour!
Level: 87
St – 136 (235)
Dx – 174 (210)
Vt – 195 (220)
En – 20 (65)
HP: 825 (1788 in wolf form)
Mana: 347
Resists:
Fire: 75
Cold: 75
Ltning: 75
Poison: 75
Skills:
Raven: 20 (39 on switch)
Spirit Wolf: 20 (39 on switch)
Dire Wolf: 20 (39 on switch)
Grizzly: 20 (39 on switch)
Heart of the Wolverine: 12 (31 on switch)
Werewolf: 1 (20 on switch)
Lycanthropy: 1 (20 on switch)
Feral Rage: 3 (17)
Oak Sage: 1 (15)
Damage:
Feral Rage: 526 – 2750 (After Might & HotW)
Raven: 3222 – 3550 (Before Might & HotW)
Spirit Wolf: 883 – 903 Cold
Dire Wolf: 1479 – 1696 (Before Might & HotW)
Grizzly: 4171 – 4322 (Before Might & HotW)
Equipment:
Weapon 1:
Eth Lacerator
Stormshield w/ Ruby (36%ED) Jewel of Truth
Weapon 2:
“HotO” Flail
“Spirit” Monarch shield
Jalal’s Mane w/ Rusty (13%ED) Jewel of Fervour
“CoH” Dusk Shroud
Lava Gout
Gore Rider
Trang Oul’s Girth
Mara’s Kaleidoscope
BKWB x 2
Bone Break and DTorch
Merc (Act 2 – Might)
Eth Vampire Gaze
“Treachery” Dusk Shroud
“Infinity” Eth Thresher
Random musings:
Since the changes to the Druid summoning tree, I had wanted to give a hunter druid a go with a full feathers and fur army. I had planned to use a Witchy (or perhaps an upped one) to apply the Amplify Damage that my beast army would need to truly shine and take a back seat for a laidback build. I saw that the Lacerator had a 33% chance to cast AD and thought, “Well, that’s juicy. And I can use a shield too. Bonus!” A further bonus was I had an ethereal one stashed away. Fantastic.
I had a 2os, +3 Lycanthropy, +2 Werewolf pelt that I could equip nice and early, so I thought I’d start off playing melee and switch over to some sort of ranged weapon later before I equipped the Lacerator. I didn’t put any hard points into the Shape Changing tree initially as I assumed I’d be attacking at range in the near future and the plus skills on the pelt were fine for early Normal.
I started off with the full Death’s set, partial Hsarus, my pelt and a few bits and bobs, and with my beast army at my side, I strode through the majority of Normal with petty much no change in equipment other than putting and Ort and Sol into my pelt to make Lore. I kept the Death’s set on until Normal Shenk, before I decided that a change was in order and equipped Fleshrender.
I was in Nightmare and still planning to go to a ranged attack at some stage, but Fleshrender and later an upped Fleshrender kept me whacking away at my enemies until I thought, “What the hell, I’ll keep playing melee!” So, that is how a normal hunter druid morphed into a summoner wolf, goodbye to my laidback build.
That’s enough about the evolution of the build, now for some talk about the gameplay. Well, I was able to get through Normal and Nightmare on /players8 and Hell on /players3 without any deaths, in fact, I hardly even had a close shave. There is a dark side or two to this build that belies the previous statement. After deciding to play a melee werewolf I was, of course, in the thick of things and the life leech I had was struggling to keep up. On top of that, the 50% Flee on the lacerator meant that the enemies I hit would frequently turn tail and run (more on that later) and my wolf would tear off after them, immediately losing all my armour and two-thirds of my blocking ability. This became a bit of a worry when fighting a group of enemies when they all had a free hit on my unprotected back. The solution to this was to walk everywhere, a great big pain in the butt. Feral Rage was close at hand, and it solved the problem of my life leech and my slow walking speed.
Another dark side of the build was the previously mentioned 50% Flee on the Lacerator. Anything that was immune to Flee fell very quickly, especially when Amplify Damage popped. If I could push the enemy against a wall or the pack was dense enough that the monsters were unable to escape, they too fell quickly. Individuals or loosely packed mobs evaporated before me as they would scatter to the four winds, many of these monsters I never saw again. I began to call BeastMaster my snow plough as small packs were pushed aside leaving clear space ahead.
The third dark side of the build was the double-edged sword of Ravens. When they ranged ahead of me blinding all the ranged attackers, they were a godsend. On the other hand, when they overrode my Amplify Damage curse while in melee range, they became a pain in the arse. All told, the benefits of your Ravens outweighed the drawbacks, but it was a close-run thing at times, especially when you had to recast them every few minutes.
The fourth and final dark side, and the one that brought about my few close calls, was the weapon switch. Having to switch to my secondary set-up to recast Ravens or Werewolf was a frequent occurrence, but I didn’t always remember to switch back once I was done. All of a sudden, I found myself in a fight doing pretty much no damage and with considerably less chance to block.
Those dark sides aside, the build was easy, if not a little frustrating at times. I am considering remaking the build using Rabies. I would have to sacrifice some raw physical damage as my hard points in the summoning tree would be reduced, but the idea of having fleeing or blind enemies slowly dying of poison appeals to my warped sense of humour!
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