Werewolf skills q

[dragon457]

Werewolf skills q

Ok, so I'm making my first shapeshifting druid, using werewolf to be specific. I'm clvl 11 right now, with 8 in WW, 2 in Lycan, and 1 in Oak Sage. My problem is, I'm not sure where to go with him. I'm not really picky right now on what to specialize in, shapeshifting skill wise, but I'm not sure which skills are good to max with a WW Druid.

I've tried reading the few WW guides there are in the forums, but they all seem very vague, and only really explain the skills, which I already know about through the Summit.

I was thinking maxing WW (of course), Lycan, Oak Sage and Fury. From what I've gathered, this is a pretty standard 'Fury WW' Druid. But what else should I possibly consider putting points into? Or is a Fury WW really a good idea to begin with?

I'd have posted this in the Druid forum, but, you know, I trust my SPF brothers and sisters more.

 

[factotum]

You're forgetting Feral Rage, which gives you essentially free life leech so long as you keep the skill going--in fact, I believe it's generally used as the WW skill of choice until you get high enough level to use Fury. As far as anything else is concerned, your only real choice of skill for a WW is Fury, so there's no problem there; you might want to look at Rabies (or else something like Armageddon, although that spell is costly with all its pre-reqs) to handle physical immunes in the later game.

 

[dragon457]

Thanks, factotum.


Upon consideration, I might try this:

WW 10
Lycan 20
Fury 20
Oak Sage 20
Feral Rage 15

And as you said, for immunes, I might try throwing the rest in Fire Claws or Rabies, as you've suggested.

Anyone else with any suggestions?

 

[hung]

Feral Rage rox!
It saves me all the time.

Well, looking for skills to kill physical immunes is a bad idea since you're thiking in max WW and lyc IMO, you can do it using items...

when you max ly ww oak and fury, you can look to feral rage and some points in dire wolf, to increase your grizzly hit points.

doing it and with the right gear you can build a great character

I think you don't need 15 in feral rage.

my ww druid lvl 89:
20 lyc
20 ww
20 oak
20 fury
5 dire wolf
1 grizzly
6 feral rage
1 in pre-reqs

 

[dragon457]

Heh, I think we posted responses at the same time, cause as you can see, I'm not thinking of maxing WW anymore.

 

[dragon457]

Well, hung, that skill spread sounds interesting. I'll give it a try!

Thanks bud.

 

[Ravenforce3]

For killing physical immunes, nothing works quite as good as the combination of Baranar's Star and Tiamat's Rebuke. I had a Fury druid with wolves as back ups and he did EXCELLENT through hell with that setup. Maxing block, dispite having a shield, isn't that important. Coupled with Smoke or Lionheart, high enough base life, Jalal's Mane, and your choice of supplimentary equiptment, your druid will fear no immunities.

 

[EdgeFrog00]

in my opinion, oak sage is too weak to survive for long in hell, i don't max it. you really get tired of recasting it, so 5 or 6 pts is enough for me and leave the rest up to +skills. I put points into grizzly and dire wolves, and my grizzly's strong enough to kill FE council member by himself in hell/players 8 (not quickly, but i don't die either!).

frog

 

[NSXdreamer]

I'm making a fury wolf as well right now, already at level 65 act 4 nightmare. Personally I think you don't need to put that much in feral rage, as they get diminished return pretty fast. I just put in 4 pts in there, and leave it to +skill. Right now I plan on max fury (already did), lycantrophy (already did), werewolf (trust me you are gonna need the AR bonus there), oak sage. Rest of the points I plan to drop in grizzly, just to have a meat shield.

For PI I use a passion scourge, the +1 to beserk works fine now, but I'll see how it goes. I thought about rabies and fireclaw, but they need too many pts to be able to kill anything late game, so might as well save those pts.

 

[dragon457]

Thanks guys. All this gives me a lot to think about.

 

[kapers]

im also building a ww druid, im lvl 36 in nm act1 and have the following skills:
20 ly
13 ww
4 fury
1 oaksage
1 in pre reqs

i plant to max fury, ww, oak sage then a couple pts into feral rage.

i never considered putting points into grizzly untill reading this post. is it realy worth it or should i max fury instead of points into grizzly?

 

[LprMan]

I have lvl 83 WW druid atm, hell completed:

Lycantrophy 20
WW 20
Fury 20
Oak Sage 20
Carrion Vine 12

I don't think you should max Feral Rage, I have only 1 point there ad I use it only to increase my running speed. Of course it depends on your gear, but it is possible to leech more than enough with Fury, my druid has 31% life leech + chance to cast lvl 10 Life Tap (Dracul's). I think that is enough life leech and Life Tap helps your merc very much. Also Carrion Vine is excellent, it dies quickly, but it heals you fast. My build could have been finished (without Carrion Vine) on lvl 70, and I think you will play further. I decided to use those points in Carrion Vine and never looked back

PI's are nasty, but I advice to give Reaper's Toll to merc or use Gimmershred and Tiamat's Rebuke on switch. Gimmershred is much better than Baranar's, it has much more elemental damage on it and has lower requirements.

I have never needed summons or elemental tree, my weapon&shield on switch are powerful enough to kill PI's and my merc can tank. In fact I can be surrounded by almost everything, that Life Tap gives me&my merc so huge bonus to life leech. I have never cared about FE's, their explosion is not powerful enough to kill my druid

Of course some of those items I mentioned are qute hard to get, but at least I advice you to use same skills as I did

 

[ricrestoni]

I think you might try 10 in WW (too high diminishing returns for att speed, and only more AR), and for PIs a lot in rabies and using Carrion Wind, a ring that gives you level 21 Poison Vine charges (or something like that), which synergizes with Rabies. Then you take your Poison dmg to the heights.

 

[strijdje]

completly agree with Lpr, however i have retired that WW goes i wanted a werebear, he has maxed fireclaws and 3 of his synergies maxed, wich is definitly a l337 build too :wink:

if u wanna go WW in 1.10, go with Lpr suggestions, tiamats and gimmershred on switch for PI's :thumbsup:

 

[nemar]

my first baal killer
20 ww
20 lyc
20 fury
20 oak sage
pre requis and creepers.
max grizzly (last points)

very good in 1.09, with only one problem : use full rejuv potion

more difficult in 1.10, I can say
- with +skill, have you're 5 birds, very good with new power.
- put one point each creeper min, they can help you and kill cadavers.
- forget spirit of barbs, monsters have to much hv to be usefull.
- grizzly is no more a tank, direwolf could by a good alternative.

 

[whomhead]

my fury WW in 1.10 is a pretty similar build to the others listed here. basically it runs down like this... WW is a great skill early on, and you don't want it to wear off in the middle of a tough battle, so try to get around 10 in it and then i let it wait until the end game before pumping it the rest of the way. feral rage loses usefullness after about 5-6 points, so i wouldn't reccomend anymore after that. oak sage gains life with each point put into it, but it seems to also gain defense as well, so at slvl 20+ it can tank for a moderate amount of time. you'll still have to recast it from time to time, but it is a great skill to have around. your grizzly, on the other hand, will be a powerful tank from slvl 12-13 and up, especially if you have plus to skills gear. so i would suggest:
20 Lyc
~10+ WW (but max it as you get further in hell because that's when AR starts to matter)
5-6 feral rage
20 fury
20 oak sage
15 grizzly (this should hit its max slvl very late in the game, so add points slowly here... by lvl 80 you should be putting points in either grizzly or WW)

edit: and don't forget to cast ravens! they blind targets now... very useful!

 

[NSXdreamer]

I'm still trying to decide if I should use the carrion wind ring with high level rabies, or put those pts for grizzly. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Oh also I don't know about you, but I try to maintain a around 90% hit, so I pumped WW early on.

 

[LprMan]

Oh also I don't know about you, but I try to maintain a around 90% hit, so I pumped WW early on.

I have lvl 20 WW too, and I think it is almost a must. My WW druids chance to hit is about 80% in hell act 5 with maxed WW

 

[Ravenforce3]

Gimmershred is much better than Baranar's, it has much more elemental damage on it and has lower requirements.

The reason I mentioned Baranar's is because that was actually my end game weapon on my druid. Sure, the Str requirement is kinda high, but with perfect resists, mid lvl Cyclone Armor, and about 1.5k life (mind you he never survived to see .10...I accidentally deleted him :xx: ) he could do quite well. However, I'm not saying that it is better than Glimmershred. I'm just speaking from my own personal experience.

 

[dragon457]

Holy cow! I went to bed last night, thinking no one would post any more in this thread, and just look!

I like your idea though, Lpr, except I don't know about using a vine as opposed to having a grizzly for meat shield/diversion reasons. I CAN see, however, that having a few leeching items with only 1 pt in Feral Rage would probably be more than enough for leeching. But does Carrion Vine heal hirelings too? If so, then it might be worth the trip. Decisions, decisions.

One other question that sprung up for me was the effect of weapons on WW. Doesn't any mods on weapons carry over to your WW attacks? Or is it only the damage from the weapon? I noticed that when I equiped a short sword, early on, that had poison damage on it that it poisoned monsters. Do all mods/elemental damages from weapons work this way? If so, wouldn't finding something with X% magic damage help with PI's, in WW form? Or am I just be optimistic? The Summit should state this, one way or the other, but it only mentions dmg, I think.

...now...grizzly or vines...hmmmm...