PvM Party-Stunner ("Peacemaker") Guide (Rough) i

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PvM Party-Stunner ("Peacemaker") Guide (Rough)

Hey yall
I am interested in writing up a guide for a rather interesting druid build I have been testing with friends, and would like any feedback people are interested in giving.

The build is what I call a "stunner". Quite simply, that is all it does offensively.

Skillwise it is simple also:
Heart of Oak
Lycanthropy
Werebear
Shockwave
Health-Replenish Vine (put 1 point in when availiable, all points after other skills maxed)
+ the pre-reqs

The Druid spends all his time in werebear form, and only casts one spell, Shockwave. He does not attack at all.

Itemwise these are the qualities looked for, with the items I am using in parenthesis.

Hat - Resists, Skills, (Spirit Keeper)
Armor - Skills, Resists, Life, Cast-Rate (Que-Hagans)
Ammy - Skills, Resists, Cast-Rate (Metalgrid)
Weapon - Skills, Cast-Rate, Resists (Wizardspike)
Shield - Block-chance, Skills, Resists (Whistan's Guard)
Belt - Resists, Life (Verdungos)
Gloves - Mana % increase (Frostburns)
Rings - Resists, Cast-Rate, Life (Ravenfrost, Dwarf Star)
Boots - Resists, Life (Tearhaunch)
Charms - Shapeshifting, Resists, Life
Merc - Defiance

Stat-wise I have just enough strength to wear the items, just enough dex to have 75% chance to block, with the rest in vitality.

When playing, I keep oak sage and werebear form up, giving the party a big life increase, and acting as a huge tank with max resists, high absorb, and 75% block.

now for the beauty of the peacemaker:
I STUN!
with the exception of superuniques and some other assorted infrequent mobs, I am able to stun all creatures, from Normal to Hell, for 13 Seconds!
Baal Runs become almost sickeningly easy, as I can chain-cast at basically no mana cost, with my vine healing a % of my life, if i ever get hurt. I remove the most hard to control element in PvM, the ability of the mobs to do anything *grin*

The only problem with this build is of course its utter reliance on others to do damage. But when you offer immobile mobs which will not attack, who can pass up the chance to party with the druid who gets the mobs to simply stop!
 
[email protected] said:
Hey yall
I am interested in writing up a guide for a rather interesting druid build I have been testing with friends, and would like any feedback people are interested in giving.

The build is what I call a "stunner". Quite simply, that is all it does offensively.

Skillwise it is simple also:
Heart of Oak
Lycanthropy
Werebear
Shockwave
Health-Replenish Vine (put 1 point in when availiable, all points after other skills maxed)
+ the pre-reqs

The Druid spends all his time in werebear form, and only casts one spell, Shockwave. He does not attack at all.

Itemwise these are the qualities looked for, with the items I am using in parenthesis.

Hat - Resists, Skills, (Spirit Keeper)
Armor - Skills, Resists, Life, Cast-Rate (Que-Hagans)
Ammy - Skills, Resists, Cast-Rate (Metalgrid)
Weapon - Skills, Cast-Rate, Resists (Wizardspike)
Shield - Block-chance, Skills, Resists (Whistan's Guard)
Belt - Resists, Life (Verdungos)
Gloves - Mana % increase (Frostburns)
Rings - Resists, Cast-Rate, Life (Ravenfrost, Dwarf Star)
Boots - Resists, Life (Tearhaunch)
Charms - Shapeshifting, Resists, Life
Merc - Defiance

Stat-wise I have just enough strength to wear the items, just enough dex to have 75% chance to block, with the rest in vitality.

When playing, I keep oak sage and werebear form up, giving the party a big life increase, and acting as a huge tank with max resists, high absorb, and 75% block.

now for the beauty of the peacemaker:
I STUN!
with the exception of superuniques and some other assorted infrequent mobs, I am able to stun all creatures, from Normal to Hell, for 13 Seconds!
Baal Runs become almost sickeningly easy, as I can chain-cast at basically no mana cost, with my vine healing a % of my life, if i ever get hurt. I remove the most hard to control element in PvM, the ability of the mobs to do anything *grin*

The only problem with this build is of course its utter reliance on others to do damage. But when you offer immobile mobs which will not attack, who can pass up the chance to party with the druid who gets the mobs to simply stop!
Click to expand...
:| What's the point? You can have that and have a nice maul too.
 
Another prob with this is the fact that in hell stun length is quartered i beleive. Thats makes youre mana pool very small as you have to continually spam shockwave to keep a decent no. of enemies stunned. I dont mean to dump on youre build but as fenris said you could attack as well. Heck shockwave, summon grizzly, and might merc and youre damage output could be very high, although you will have to have heart of the oak for ar issues unless you go angelic ammy and ring.
 
Yeah, this is basically a normal Bear without an attack. You can get close to that with just Shapeshift Charms, Jalal's and a +2 Ammy. Yeah you can get it up to over 20 seconds with it maxed and all those +Skills, but you'd just be sitting there. So if you have the items, why do it and ignore an attack yourself? You can stun everything fine with the +Skills and 1 point in it. Maxing Carrion Vine is also not really beneficial, it drops off way too much in benefits per point. SW doesn't have a duration reduction in NM/Hell anymore either.
 
I think thats a little harsh. Stunning is great and very teamfriendly. Since a maulbear will hardly kill anything anyhow, why not?

I would perfer arm + shock tho.

Garbad
 
i like the barb mercs, tho you won't get any aura off of them. They have stun and bash and get themselves killed much less often when you are spamming shockwave.
 
First off, the stun length in hell does not seem to 1/4, but seems to be no shorter than 1/2 - which is still a long, long time.

Compared to a combat were, this guy is not offensive, but i will say this again - HE STOPS ALL MOBS. (sides the few uniques)

The reason i dont have him with a Maul is a) Blocking is essential to tanking the few mobs which are not stunned, and b) Wizardspike gives huge resist, mana and cast rate. (or to a lesser extent, Suicide Branch).

The point of this build is to give glass cannons a MUCH easier time running the hard bits, and it does. When we run with this build, we never have to restart hell maps due to a bad mob spawn - just sent the peacemaker in before the sorcs/assy and its safe as can be.

Mana-wise, with frosties and wizspike, I never run outa mana (each cast costs 7).

And in closing, as Garbad said, it is MUCH harder to kill things in hell with a maulbear rather than a sorc/assy/hammer. So I went for a build which would help those types.

So based on the fact that this is designed to take hits and keep the mobs permastunned, leaving the glass cannons to, well, cannon, are there any suggestions on how to better do this?
 
Uh...get an upgraded ribcracker and you will kill your share fairly easily.
...Assassins kill slow.
Shockwave is still plenty of time with just a few +skill.
Blocking isn't essential, leech is. You leech life and mana back from the mobs while they sit there helpless. I've taken a 1.10 mauler through hell using mostly shockwave dun tell me it can't be done.
 
Instead of putting all remaining points into carrion vine (which really won't do you much good), maybe you should put some points into an animal summons, like dire wolves or grizzly. It'll help you escape unstunnable monsters and assist your party members with some of the killing.
 
i am going to do some internal testing with cast-rate and shockwave.
As it stands, since I am using a 50% fcr wep, any possiblity for damage is out the door. BUT, since shockwave is not reduced in hell, a 13+ length stun could be shaved down to perhaps 6 or 7, allowing me to, as has been suggested, toss 20 points into maul (as carrion doesnt need more than 1 point in it).

Since the focus of this build is to keep monsters always stunned, I believe that rediculously fast cast is important, so that the monsters get at most 1 attack off before being stunned.
 
How about making a stunner/summoner?
20 Shockwave
1 Werebear
20 Lycan
20 Spirit
20 Dire Wolves
20 Wearbear
1 all vine and prereq.

106-7 based on which spirit you choose
I'd choose Heart of the Wolverine because you wont need as much life because everything will be Stunned
 
I was wondering a) who is the Glasscannon in youre party and b) you said before sins and sorcs you send in the stunner. Hmmm what sorc build sides single tree sorcs would have an extremely hard time in hell. I mean if you cant kill a creature with any of youre spells the monster is most likey immune to youre spells thus no need to stunn and let him kill cuz well he cant. Although i could see the shockwave being very cool for meleesorcs.

Anothe rquestion i have is this, if i have a glass cannon build wouldnt i be building the char for max damage for the fastest kill i could possibly get? Thus hopefully not needing the full 13 sec duration of shockwave. This could help in you lessening the base skill and going with all pluses for the skill and getting summons as a meatsheild for the chars as well. This would help you solo as well if needed.

I am not trying to be harsh so much as ive tried a build VERY similar to his and found that as soon as there is more than 3 other ppl in the game the other 19 points into shockwave was useless. I would stunn for maybe 5-6 secs with my plus skills and thats all that is needed. The other members of my group easily mopped up the stunned before the duration ran out. I am just saying that my build could have easily been more usefull with another skill like summons or like garbad said armageddon. And with armageddon you could still have same setup just have lower shockwave in place of a cool fire skill that rains down around you and on top of the stunned monsters:D
 
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