Patriarch Belbarak, Aldur’s Maul/Fire Claw Werebear
Level: 84
St – 141 (236)
Dx – 42 (149)
Vt – 307 (414)
En – 20 (90)
HP 1159 (3508 in WB)
Mana 516
Damage
Maul: 1410 – 2244 (1863 – 2990 fully charged)
Fire Claws: 4904 – 5909
Fire Claws with fully charged Maul: 5377 – 6633
Resists:
Fire: 85
Cold: 75
Ltning: 80
Poison: 75
Skills:
Lycanthropy: 20/34 on switch
Wearbear: 20/34 on switch
Maul: 20/32
Fire Claws: 20/32
Fire Storm: 12/22
1 in Prerequisites
Equipment:
Weapon 1:
“Shael x3” upped Aldur’s Rhythm
“Phoenix” Monarch
Weapon 2:
Mang Song’s Lesson
“Um x 2” Aldur’s Stony Gaze
Aldur’s Deception with Ruby (Fire resist) Jewel
Laying of Hands
Aldur’s Advance
Verdungo’s Hearty Coil
Mara’s Kaleidoscope
BKWB & Raven Frost
Bone Break, Flame Rift & DTorch
Merc (Act 2 – BA)
Vampire Gaze
"CoH” Dusk Shroud
“Infinity” Eth Thresher
Random musings:
There were three major things wrong with this build. Firstly, even upped to a Devil Star, Aldur’s Rhythm simply does not do enough damage, even with 500+%ED for the Werebear, 350%ED as a set bonus, 380%ED on Phoenix and 350%ED to Demons on the gloves (perhaps if I had three 40/15 to spare to put in the weapon, that might be better). Secondly, the Maul mechanic is really slow. It takes at least 15 hits to wind the damage up to its full potential and then 20 seconds later it’s gone if you don’t encounter another monster to hit. And finally, there was me. I tried to finesse a hybrid physical/fire build instead of biting the bullet and going full physical (hell, even full fire would have been better). All in all, these factors led to a frustrating experience. Safe certainly, but frustrating.
The gameplay was simple; Shock Wave, charge up Maul then Fire Claws. And it worked reasonably well, right up until I got to Hell difficulty, but we’ll get onto that in a minute. The problem with this gameplay came when I either misjudged the 20 seconds and Maul ran out, Maul missed and it ran out, I’d cleared out an area and had to double back and it ran out, or I had to go back to town for some reason and it ran out. You get the picture. I would then have to hit monsters another 15+ times to charge Maul up again. Honestly, I think it was more efficient just to use Fire Claws and be done with it; and that’s what I ended up doing. I played Normal and Nightmare and /players8 with no real difficulty, but Hell changed that immediately. I went down to /p5 to /p3 to /p1 within a matter of minutes and that’s where I stayed for the rest of the game. It got so frustrating I rushed the rest of Hell without doing my usual full clears (or almost full clears, I’m not completely anal about it!).
Shock Wave made everything really safe, and I only had one death. This death was brought about by running out of Lycanthropy at an unfortunate time and then debating with myself whether to recast Werebear or hit a fat purple. A moment’s hesitation was all it took. Shock Wave did have a dark side though. There were times I found myself completely hemmed in by stunned enemies without any way to kill them fast enough to escape. There was one time in Tal Rasha’s tombs I was surrounded by stunned skeletons and a Revenant was raising them faster than my Redemption aura could consume them. I had to Save and Exit.
I think I might revisit this build at some point and go full physical damage with a Might merc with a Reapers, HotW and a bear; this is what I should have done in the first place.
Level: 84
St – 141 (236)
Dx – 42 (149)
Vt – 307 (414)
En – 20 (90)
HP 1159 (3508 in WB)
Mana 516
Damage
Maul: 1410 – 2244 (1863 – 2990 fully charged)
Fire Claws: 4904 – 5909
Fire Claws with fully charged Maul: 5377 – 6633
Resists:
Fire: 85
Cold: 75
Ltning: 80
Poison: 75
Skills:
Lycanthropy: 20/34 on switch
Wearbear: 20/34 on switch
Maul: 20/32
Fire Claws: 20/32
Fire Storm: 12/22
1 in Prerequisites
Equipment:
Weapon 1:
“Shael x3” upped Aldur’s Rhythm
“Phoenix” Monarch
Weapon 2:
Mang Song’s Lesson
“Um x 2” Aldur’s Stony Gaze
Aldur’s Deception with Ruby (Fire resist) Jewel
Laying of Hands
Aldur’s Advance
Verdungo’s Hearty Coil
Mara’s Kaleidoscope
BKWB & Raven Frost
Bone Break, Flame Rift & DTorch
Merc (Act 2 – BA)
Vampire Gaze
"CoH” Dusk Shroud
“Infinity” Eth Thresher
Random musings:
There were three major things wrong with this build. Firstly, even upped to a Devil Star, Aldur’s Rhythm simply does not do enough damage, even with 500+%ED for the Werebear, 350%ED as a set bonus, 380%ED on Phoenix and 350%ED to Demons on the gloves (perhaps if I had three 40/15 to spare to put in the weapon, that might be better). Secondly, the Maul mechanic is really slow. It takes at least 15 hits to wind the damage up to its full potential and then 20 seconds later it’s gone if you don’t encounter another monster to hit. And finally, there was me. I tried to finesse a hybrid physical/fire build instead of biting the bullet and going full physical (hell, even full fire would have been better). All in all, these factors led to a frustrating experience. Safe certainly, but frustrating.
The gameplay was simple; Shock Wave, charge up Maul then Fire Claws. And it worked reasonably well, right up until I got to Hell difficulty, but we’ll get onto that in a minute. The problem with this gameplay came when I either misjudged the 20 seconds and Maul ran out, Maul missed and it ran out, I’d cleared out an area and had to double back and it ran out, or I had to go back to town for some reason and it ran out. You get the picture. I would then have to hit monsters another 15+ times to charge Maul up again. Honestly, I think it was more efficient just to use Fire Claws and be done with it; and that’s what I ended up doing. I played Normal and Nightmare and /players8 with no real difficulty, but Hell changed that immediately. I went down to /p5 to /p3 to /p1 within a matter of minutes and that’s where I stayed for the rest of the game. It got so frustrating I rushed the rest of Hell without doing my usual full clears (or almost full clears, I’m not completely anal about it!).
Shock Wave made everything really safe, and I only had one death. This death was brought about by running out of Lycanthropy at an unfortunate time and then debating with myself whether to recast Werebear or hit a fat purple. A moment’s hesitation was all it took. Shock Wave did have a dark side though. There were times I found myself completely hemmed in by stunned enemies without any way to kill them fast enough to escape. There was one time in Tal Rasha’s tombs I was surrounded by stunned skeletons and a Revenant was raising them faster than my Redemption aura could consume them. I had to Save and Exit.
I think I might revisit this build at some point and go full physical damage with a Might merc with a Reapers, HotW and a bear; this is what I should have done in the first place.
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