Solo SSF new character

• Two damage types: Cold (via Hurricane) and Physical (via Feral Rage and Fury: Skill);

• Synergistic: Hurricane does damage in a radius around the Druid, and a Werewolf naturally fights in melee;

• Speed and safety: Werewolves move quickly and leech life (via Feral Rage), have lots of health (via Lycanthropy), and can achieve great amounts of attack speed and attack rating (via Werewolf); Hurricane provides constant chilling against any vulnerable enemies;

• Elemental-damage mitigation: Cyclone Armor, one of the prerequisites for Hurricane, provides a tri-element damage shield;

• Hybrid: Both Cyclone Armor and Hurricane are castable while shapeshifted;

• Flexible: Can level as Elemental first, leaving the physical part of the build for later, or as Shape Shifting first, leaving the elemental part of the build for later. You could instead try going for something in-between, but I'm unsure it'd work well;

• Versatile: You can grab many optional skills, including the aura-granting Oak Sage (max life) and/or Heart of Wolverine (damage and attack rating), the one-point-wonder Summon Grizzly, the body-cleaning Carrion Vine and/or Solar Creeper, the AoE-stunning Shock Wave (requires being in Werebear), and the dual-leeching Hunger;

• Engaging: You'll be recasting Hurricane every 12 seconds (less frequently than that if you put extra points into Cyclone Armor), refreshing your Feral Rage stacks every 20 seconds, recasting your Cyclone Armor whenever its absorption is depleted, resummoning your minions whenever they fall, keeping a mental note of the remaining duration of your shapeshifted status and potentially refreshing it early, cleverly positioning to unleash your Fury: Skill on either one target or multiple, and generally watching for your survival within melee range;

• Cheap to start with and makes use of many different stats: Spirit is inexpensive to make, and you'll eventually (or from the very beginning if you try levelling as a hybrid) have the freedom to throw on a mix of whatever melee and caster pieces drop;

• Boss killer: A fully-invested Fury: Skill in combination with some Crushing Blow will let you obliterate uniques, superuniques, and act bosses;

• Can be built around specific weapons: Windhammer and Horizon's Tornado immediately come to mind since you can synergise their chance-to-cast procs. Doom, while not normally build-warping, can become that way if you're crazy enough to invest into Volcano's synergies;

• Integrated cooling: Your Werewolf will never have to pant again!

• Not a levelling build: Due to the amount of skill points required to get both sides of the build going, its hybrid functionality is minimally viable by Hell at the earliest, and realistically only becomes robust post-Hell, so chances are you'll be playing as a Wind Druid or Fury Werewolf for a good while;

• Stretched thin: With a minimum of 60 hard points in Hurricane + synergies and 20 in Fury: Skill, you'll be relying on +Skills from gear and charms to make your support skills shine, get Werewolf high enough to aid you in hitting certain IAS breakpoints, and to have enough survivability coming from Lycanthropy;

• Hurricane trades power for reliability: Hurricane is perfectly accurate and ticks often, but the damage won't be as high as you'd expect from something with 40 points put into its synergies;

• Frequent repairs: You'll be losing overall durability not just from being a melee and thus frequently getting hit, but also tons of weapon durability from attacking so often with Fury: Skill;

• Horrible block frames: If you ever find yourself using a one-hander & shield rather than a two-hander, you'll cry from how slowly a Werewolf recovers from blocking;

• Have to gear as a melee AND caster: Reaching your desired breakpoints for attack speed, cast rate, and other stats may be tricky or impossible;

• Those damn squishy minions: In this build, that's every single one except for the Grizzly;

• Cannot teleport while shapeshifted: Whether you're using a Teleport staff, amulet, or helm, or you're persistent and lucky enough to have built an Enigma, you'll have to deshift whenever you want to warp around;

• "But I don't need air conditioning!": If you'd prefer to hit harder or already have chilling (the Act 2 mercenary's Holy Freeze is strictly better than Hurricane's chill because it works on more foes, and a cold-damage small charm may be good enough for your needs), you might prefer building for Armageddon over Hurricane. This build's warmer sibling is Armageddon + Fury: Skill Werewolf ( Earth Shifter is one of its weapon options, and it's a fun one: look at that +Elemental Skills modifier!), and its truly toasty cousin is the Armageddon + Fire Claws Werewolf (here's my current Lvl 95 build as a sample). You could also build around Werebear instead of Werewolf, trading movement speed and life leech ( Feral Rage) and sheer attack rate ( Fury: Skill) for raw damage, defense, a SPAMmable AoE stun ( Shock Wave), and immunity to stuns while you're attacking.

Runasutaru wrote: 1 year ago

Here's my suggestion: Hurricane & Fury Werewolf!
I haven't tried it myself, but I play a build very similar to it ( Armageddon + Fire Claws Werewolf). In short: Hurricane does AoE damage; Fury: Skill is single-target or pseudo-AoE depending on how you use it; Werewolf grants offensive and defensive bonuses and enables the use of some of your skills. It could be tough (or at least slow) to truly get going in an SSF scenario, but it should be a capable build in the long run.

core_hurricanefurywolf_build.jpg

Pros:

• Two damage types: Cold (via Hurricane) and Physical (via Feral Rage and Fury: Skill);

• Synergistic: Hurricane does damage in a radius around the Druid, and a Werewolf naturally fights in melee;

• Speed and safety: Werewolves move quickly and leech life (via Feral Rage), have lots of health (via Lycanthropy), and can achieve great amounts of attack speed and attack rating (via Werewolf); Hurricane provides constant chilling against any vulnerable enemies;

• Elemental-damage mitigation: Cyclone Armor, one of the prerequisites for Hurricane, provides a tri-element damage shield;

• Hybrid: Both Cyclone Armor and Hurricane are castable while shapeshifted;

• Flexible: Can level as Elemental first, leaving the physical part of the build for later, or as Shape Shifting first, leaving the elemental part of the build for later. You could instead try going for something in-between, but I'm unsure it'd work well;

• Versatile: You can grab many optional skills, including the aura-granting Oak Sage (max life) and/or Heart of Wolverine (damage and attack rating), the one-point-wonder Summon Grizzly, the body-cleaning Carrion Vine and/or Solar Creeper, the AoE-stunning Shock Wave (requires being in Werebear), and the dual-leeching Hunger;

• Engaging: You'll be recasting Hurricane every 12 seconds (less frequently than that if you put extra points into Cyclone Armor), refreshing your Feral Rage stacks every 20 seconds, recasting your Cyclone Armor whenever its absorption is depleted, resummoning your minions whenever they fall, keeping a mental note of the remaining duration of your shapeshifted status and potentially refreshing it early, cleverly positioning to unleash your Fury: Skill on either one target or multiple, and generally watching for your survival within melee range;

• Cheap to start with and makes use of many different stats: Spirit is inexpensive to make, and you'll eventually (or from the very beginning if you try levelling as a hybrid) have the freedom to throw on a mix of whatever melee and caster pieces drop;

• Boss killer: A fully-invested Fury: Skill in combination with some Crushing Blow will let you obliterate uniques, superuniques, and act bosses;

• Can be built around specific weapons: Windhammer and Horizon's Tornado immediately come to mind since you can synergise their chance-to-cast procs. Doom, while not normally build-warping, can become that way if you're crazy enough to invest into Volcano's synergies;

• Integrated cooling: Your Werewolf will never have to pant again!

Cons:

• Not a levelling build: Due to the amount of skill points required to get both sides of the build going, its hybrid functionality is minimally viable by Hell at the earliest, and realistically only becomes robust post-Hell, so chances are you'll be playing as a Wind Druid or Fury Werewolf for a good while;

• Stretched thin: With a minimum of 60 hard points in Hurricane + synergies and 20 in Fury: Skill, you'll be relying on +Skills from gear and charms to make your support skills shine, get Werewolf high enough to aid you in hitting certain IAS breakpoints, and to have enough survivability coming from Lycanthropy;

• Hurricane trades power for reliability: Hurricane is perfectly accurate and ticks often, but the damage won't be as high as you'd expect from something with 40 points put into its synergies;

• Frequent repairs: You'll be losing overall durability not just from being a melee and thus frequently getting hit, but also tons of weapon durability from attacking so often with Fury: Skill;

• Horrible block frames: If you ever find yourself using a one-hander & shield rather than a two-hander, you'll cry from how slowly a Werewolf recovers from blocking;

• Have to gear as a melee AND caster: Reaching your desired breakpoints for attack speed, cast rate, and other stats may be tricky or impossible;

• Those damn squishy minions: In this build, that's every single one except for the Grizzly;

• Cannot teleport while shapeshifted: Whether you're using a Teleport staff, amulet, or helm, or you're persistent and lucky enough to have built an Enigma, you'll have to deshift whenever you want to warp around;

• "But I don't need air conditioning!": If you'd prefer to hit harder or already have chilling (the Act 2 mercenary's Holy Freeze is strictly better than Hurricane's chill because it works on more foes, and a cold-damage small charm may be good enough for your needs), you might prefer building for Armageddon over Hurricane. This build's warmer sibling is Armageddon + Fury: Skill Werewolf ( Earth Shifter is one of its weapon options, and it's a fun one: look at that +Elemental Skills modifier!), and its truly toasty cousin is the Armageddon + Fire Claws Werewolf (here's my current Lvl 95 build as a sample). You could also build around Werebear instead of Werewolf, trading movement speed and life leech ( Feral Rage) and sheer attack rate ( Fury: Skill) for raw damage, defense, a SPAMmable AoE stun ( Shock Wave), and immunity to stuns while you're attacking.

With all the considerations above having been stated, here's what you'll be looking to invest in:

Elemental
1 Arctic Blast (prerequisite; not usable while shapeshifted)
1+ Cyclone Armor (prerequisite; more points = less-frequent Hurricane recasts)
20 Twister (prerequisite and synergy; not usable while shapeshifted)
20 Tornado (prerequisite and synergy; not usable while shapeshifted)
20 Hurricane

Shape Shifting
1+ Werewolf (level of investment depends on your amount of Increased Attack Speed and +Druid/Shape Shifting skills; this calculator is very useful)
1+ Lycanthropy (a multiple-point investment is highly recommended)
1+ Feral Rage (prerequisite)
1 Rabies (prerequisite)
20 Fury: Skill

Recommended extras:
1+ Oak Sage
1+ Heart of Wolverine
1 Summon Grizzly (preferably granted by your Druid pelt so you can skip the 3 points of prerequisites)

Even if you choose not to go for this build, maybe someone else will feel enticed to give it a go. If you want to see this Druid in action and/or get in-depth information, there are written and visual guides out there. Consider giving the chilly man-wolf a try this upcoming Winter!

human_being wrote: 1 year ago

I hope you helped the OP, but I'm definitely trying this next. Awesome.