rgb werewolf project- your tips please

Hi all, I really like melee with aoe, so I'm testing all werewolves+aoe viability with somewhat high investment in gear. Also d2r

Werewolf looks fantastic.
green- Fury

Rabies, blue- Fury

Hurricane, red- Fury and

Fissure proc from

Earth Shifter. Not going geddon, I hate its randomness, a ton of damage but can miss many mobs for a long time. makes me sad for the skill investment.

I need your tips for gear choices-
Fury

Rabies- Grief

Phase Blade, 4os armor with 4 perf facets, +3

Rabies pelt(maybe with Fury/

Werewolf/

Lycanthropy) with 3 perf facets. 4os

Monarch with 4 facets. trangs,

Gore Rider, highlord's, duel leach,

Raven Frost, and res

Belt, probably ik

Belt. merc is a question-

Frenzy merc with 2 Plague/ might merc with reaper's. Donnu if phys damage will be good enough without the might merc. shapeshifting gc's.

Fury

Hurricane- Doom

Great Poleaxe, 4os armor with 3 perf facets and 15 ias jewel. perf nightwing's with perf facet. laying on hands. rest of the gear similar to the first wolf. Infinity merc. Will also try Doom

Berserker Axe with 4os

Monarch with 4 perf facets, but worried that phys damage will suffer too much like that, also getting another

Cham

Lo

Ohm, sheesh. Elemental gc's.

Fury with

Fissure proc from

Earth Shifter- well,

Earth Shifter(

Shael), +3 Fury pelt with 3 perf fire facets, 4os armor with 3 perf fire facets and 15 ias jewel, laying on hands, rest is similar to the first wolf. Infinity merc. shapeshifting gc's(but not that critical here).

so as you see the goal here is to really try and make the aoe powerful, at the expense of the Fury damage(but not too much). If you have better gear suggestion around that note, i'll be happy to hear.

Thanks!

The only one I could speak on is the Fury/

Rabies build. I was doing it for a while and it was pretty fun.

Basically I had Fury,

Rabies, and

Poison Creeper maxed for the synergies and to be able to use each as needed at full strength. I could get my Fury damage to around the mid 20K range (usually using

Eth BOTD

Thunder Maul, also with Might Merc) and poison damage up to a max of around 70K with various weapons but that was usually based on just focusing on + skills which isn't practical for general play.

The sacrifices there were having only 1 hard point in each of the sages, not quite being able to max

Lycanthropy, and only having ravens and Spirit wolf for summons besides the

Poison Creeper. However, on the plus side all the skills are tanking yourself up and you don't have to depend on squishy summons etc.

Poison Creeper really isn't staying alive its more for just the

Rabies damage. That helps for PVP and Ubers where summons get wiped out fast a lot of the time.

I used

Rabies almost entirely for PVP (a whole other story of

Werewolf struggling survival among people way better set up for PVP play usually ). For PVM play

Rabies is more a well developed support skill while mostly using Fury.

Rabies steps up for dealing with physical immunes.

I found that the faceting of weapons and shields is not always as impactful as you think it might be (and invest in all the facets and bases to do) - For example I tried faceting a

Rune Master with 5 facets and a

Head Hunter's Glory with 3 facets, and when you compare it to just a Spirit or using

Plague Bearer that gives you plus skills and then synergies with

Rabies/

Poison Creeper... it wasn't always that much better. That was depressing after accumulating the parts, but good info to know!

One other quick thing about helms - I've found that for this same reason just having a faceted Jalal's works fine because you're getting +4 shapeshifting skills and +2 creeper, and then all the rest of the attributes, then the facet kicks in on top. If you can find the perfect rare pelt that probably would be ideal, but how much better and at what price? That's the question I ask myself after overspending several times.

I would at least try the more common options like Spirt,

Plague Bearer, faceted Jalal's etc. and see how it goes before spending a ton on some of this stuff.

I'm curious about these other hybrid builds but somewhat skeptical about how to get enough power from Fury and the elemental tree simultaneously to make it work, but updates on how it goes would be interesting to me.

Thanks!
It's my jam to spend time accumulating the Wealth to test these things... farming has to have a goal or it's pointless. I checked out

Plague Bearer and its damage is very poor, so it becomes a

Rabies build only. In that case it's better to use dweb.
Also I'll have to do the math but I think that really leaning on facets while keeping the skill relatively low may result in better dps, cause more skill points means more poison time.
About jalal's I already bought one, will test that.
I will report, it'll take some time cause I have only the cheap pieces for now. Fire build nearly ready though.

How about Plague weapon (

Phase Blade, for example) - if you rely heavily on

Rabies?
Also: surprised you decline armag - it roasts the crap out of em really nice n fast (my fireclaw+armag shifter can confirm - Plague pb + Phoenix shield is BiS for him, combined with merc's Infinity).
There may be also a hybrid approach: fire + poison. But questionable - you lose a lot of fire synergies n survivability with such setup.

Asha wrote: 2 years ago

How about Plague weapon (

Phase Blade, for example) - if you rely heavily on

Rabies?
Also: surprised you decline armag - it roasts the crap out of em really nice n fast (my fireclaw+armag shifter can confirm - Plague pb + Phoenix shield is BiS for him, combined with merc's Infinity).
There may be also a hybrid approach: fire + poison. But questionable - you lose a lot of fire synergies n survivability with such setup.

Inconsistent things trouble me... like the lower res proc. + it has much lower damage than Grief.
I'll try geddon in the end I suppose, after all else has failed. It's just so inconsistent, I tested it... But if you say so, i'll try.
Did you find it viable and fast enough in 8p cows? 5p cows?

About fireclaw +

Armageddon? Yes, I can definitely confirm. My dru is 94lvl atm, and mostly I raise him at crowd baalruns. Yes, he gets hit alot - but with 4k+ life, max res, absorbs, and 8k armag dps, he doesn't even need to scratch mobs with fc often. Phoenix recycles the crap, while Plague keeps it constantly LR-cursed. Combined with merc's

Conviction - everything burns like paper (Lister pack and minotaurs included)

I run the same build while being less geared*. Even being squishy and unable to break immunities, I vouch for

Armageddon. Honestly,

Armageddon taking its time catching up to you as you're moving around is a bigger issue than where its hits land: everything nearby will get roasted as long as you can survive being swarmed.


*full Aldur's Watchtower with

Medusa's Gaze (Obedience

Thresher on swap),

Laying of Hands,

Nosferatu's Coil,

Raven Frost, a res ring, pre-buff +3 Shape Shifting amulet +

The Rising Sun, and a Sazabi's Grand Tribute + Lawbringer

Frenzy Barb merc.

Asha wrote: 2 years ago

About fireclaw +

Armageddon? Yes, I can definitely confirm. My dru is 94lvl atm, and mostly I raise him at crowd baalruns. Yes, he gets hit alot - but with 4k+ life, max res, absorbs, and 8k armag dps, he doesn't even need to scratch mobs with fc often. Phoenix recycles the crap, while Plague keeps it constantly LR-cursed. Combined with merc's

Conviction - everything burns like paper (Lister pack and minotaurs included)

Ok I'm hyped to try it agin now that you both vouched for it. maybe with the

Earth Shifter? seems a power combo. maybe like 1 point into Fury and rest to geddon synergys. It's double effectivness cause

Firestorm and

Volcano are synergys to

Fissure and geedon both. And

Earth Shifter pack A massive +7 ele skills. I think with inifinty, as someone else explained in a diffrent post of mine, it's better to have +skill damage more than -fire resist. so i'll try with the fire facet armor. I do have a +3 geddon pelt, I can fill it with fire facets too, or do faceted jalal's... if enough people sell perf facets I'll buy them all. As a matter of a fact, I think i'll build this first... just need like 3/4 more facets and raise a dudu.
If survival becomes an issue, I'll ditch the facet pelt and make Delirium in it, it's such a perfect saftey tool, amazing.

Earth Shifter should be really cool, especially after 2.4 amplified the physical portion of Fire spells. As for Fury, that has worked just fine for me with only one hard point, and I'm not even running any Shape Shifting skillers. It's weak, but it's good enough for when it's necessary. Here's how my skill-point distribution looks — keep in mind I'm in my MF gear right now: It's not the most effective distribution, but those extra one-pointers add flexibility and group utility, especially given I don't have Infinity to break Fire immunities.

EDIT: Of course, you do still need Plague/

Medusa's Gaze's proc or a

Wand with

Lower Resist charges (those do exist, right?) to break Fire immunities even if you have Infinity, so keep that in mind when considering

Earth Shifter.

Runasutaru wrote: 2 years ago

Earth Shifter should be really cool, especially after 2.4 amplified the physical portion of Fire spells. As for Fury, that has worked just fine for me with only one hard point, and I'm not even running any Shape Shifting skillers. It's weak, but it's good enough for when it's necessary. Here's how my skill-point distribution looks — keep in mind I'm in my MF gear right now:
image.png

It's not the most effective distribution, but those extra one-pointers add flexibility and group utility, especially given I don't have Infinity to break Fire immunities.

EDIT: Of course, you do still need Plague/

Medusa's Gaze's proc or a

Wand with

Lower Resist charges (those do exist, right?) to break Fire immunities even if you have Infinity, so keep that in mind when considering

Earth Shifter.

Thanks for the image. Can't see myself using

Fire Claws... I like Fury much more, and it hitting fast is

Key to procing fissures. I'll have to test skill loadouts, see when Fury and geddon are both strong enough. I may have enough skills to invest some in Fury too, if I go max geddon it's 81 skills, Fury is 5, 86, and a 85 character has 96 skills... last 11 will have to go to Fury/

Fissure(more geddon duration)/

Werewolf, maybe for more needed ias. Also, the

Key might be mixing natural and ss charms... who knows. Will try.

Earth Shifter is a serious bonk, ton of phys damage and 33 crushing blow... let's hope it gives some whack with little skill investment.

Going for fully-synergised

Fire Claws and

Fissure would be mental, so I can't blame you.

Mixing charms up is a possibility, though Shape Shifting ones are bound to be more bang for your buck as they're boosting

Werewolf,

Lycanthropy,

Feral Rage, and Fury (or literally the entire tree if you're me). With that said, I've only had Elemental skillers drop, so those are what I'm using.

All this said, I can't imagine

Earth Shifter not hitting really hard. My concern is — as you brought up — whether you'll be swinging it quickly enough. Once you get used to it, recasting

Armageddon even with only 1 point in

Fissure is alright, so I'd definitely consider directing some skill points to

Werewolf if skillers turn out to be insufficient.

Asha wrote: 2 years ago

How about Plague weapon (

Phase Blade, for example) - if you rely heavily on

Rabies?
Also: surprised you decline armag - it roasts the crap out of em really nice n fast (my fireclaw+armag shifter can confirm - Plague pb + Phoenix shield is BiS for him, combined with merc's Infinity).
There may be also a hybrid approach: fire + poison. But questionable - you lose a lot of fire synergies n survivability with such setup.

In the build you describe, are you a bear or wolf?

I'n finding it very hard to survive without my merc, and he bites the dust a ton... Can't keep him alive.
Geddon is very powerful but it doesn't keep cows in hit recovery, so merc often gets swarmed and I can't save him. I use Treachery vgaze and

Eth gpa

Poleaxe.
Lately I switched the vgaze to Delirium and it helps, but a cow boss can 1-2 shot him.
If there are cows with might/fana/cursed- it's game over.
I only got to 2.7 k life and they can crush me if I'm amped, even with massive leech, but mainly because merc dies quickly and all my damage is heavily dependent on him.

I'm talking cows 8.

I thought that bear with

Shock Wave and fire claw will help a lot in that regard, but I see he attacks so slow and fire doesn't leech so I don't know... also my phys damage currently is low vs cows (50 phys res), fireclaws will deal 20+ k after resists, so maybe it's a giod idea.

To sum it up-
Are you a bear/wolf?
How do you keep your merc alive?

or.houster wrote: 2 years ago

Asha wrote: 2 years ago

How about Plague weapon (

Phase Blade, for example) - if you rely heavily on

Rabies?
Also: surprised you decline armag - it roasts the crap out of em really nice n fast (my fireclaw+armag shifter can confirm - Plague pb + Phoenix shield is BiS for him, combined with merc's Infinity).
There may be also a hybrid approach: fire + poison. But questionable - you lose a lot of fire synergies n survivability with such setup.

In the build you describe, are you a bear or wolf?

I'n finding it very hard to survive without my merc, and he bites the dust a ton... Can't keep him alive.
Geddon is very powerful but it doesn't keep cows in hit recovery, so merc often gets swarmed and I can't save him. I use Treachery vgaze and

Eth gpa

Poleaxe Infinity.
Lately I switched the vgaze to Delirium and it helps, but a cow boss can 1-2 shot him.
If there are cows with might/fana/cursed- it's game over.
I only got to 2.7 k life and they can crush me if I'm amped, even with massive leech, but mainly because merc dies quickly and all my damage is heavily dependent on him.

I'm talking cows 8.

I thought that bear with

Shock Wave and fire claw will help a lot in that regard, but I see he attacks so slow and fire doesn't leech so I don't know... also my phys damage currently is low vs cows (50 phys res), fireclaws will deal 20+ k after resists, so maybe it's a giod idea.

To sum it up-
Are you a bear/wolf?
How do you keep your merc alive?

3,7k life puppy shape, 4,4k life - teddy.
Plague pb + Phoenix shield, coh, mara, jalal (so far, until i find a gg 3armag 3fc pelt), strings,

Magefist. Merc with forti, infi, andi

Ok report on red wolf-

Fissure procs from the

Earth Shifter- very small damage, cant build around it. what really shines is (and thanks to all who suggeted this) armaggedon. Cow on p8 drop like flies- when they get hit from a

Meteor. Problem is- if I/merc get cursed- it's game over(in p8 cows). got to go to town to get it off. Simply not tanky enough.
Current gear- 3os pelt with 3 arma and 3

Hurricane facted with 3 perf facets. highlord's. The big bonk

Earth Shifter(

Shael). 4os

Archon Plate with 4 perf facets. Laying on hands, string, Ik

Boots, duel leech ring,

Raven Frost.
skills- all fire skills maxed except of

Fissure, leftover points to

Lycanthropy, some in

Werewolf and Fury.
The

Fissure proc does compliment the arma, there's an area of constant Death around me. I wish merc wouldn't die so often, I hope Fortitude will make a diffrence when I put one on him.

Fury damage is crap on p8 cows, but it heals me very good. Very fun build, not for the faint of heart, and high micro management, casting arma

Hurricane' stopping to re-up bo, and getting

Feral Rage on- it's a buff party that never ends.
I believe a fireclaws variant of this will be better- no need for huge str req of

Earth Shifter, and more arma damage, probably immense fire claw damage. Will do it once I get the runes.

I hope I'll have time to continue to green/blue wolves, But I believe they'll be crap- after seeing what amount of damage it takes to destroy high count cows, I don't think

Hurricane or

Rabies will be up for it no matter the setup. We'll see.

Thanks for all the great comments so far!

or.houster wrote: 2 years ago

I don't think [...]

Rabies will be up for it no matter the setup. We'll see.

Thanks for all the great comments so far!

My very first clear of D2 (pre-2.4) was on an untwinked

Rabies +

Fury: Skill

Werewolf in players1. Not only was I new to the game in general, but I also made the mistake of going with 20pt

Oak Sage instead of 20pt

Lycanthropy, so I had to rely on

Poison Creeper +

Rabies to kill off Hell Ancients because I could not tank more than a hit or two.

It took one hour and fifteen minutes of continuous kiting to get it done.

I think you can guess my opinion on

Rabies' power. It's very fun to watch it spread, and I'm sure it's a lot more usable after the 2.4 buffs, but... it's still

Rabies.

Runasutaru wrote: 2 years ago

or.houster wrote: 2 years ago

I don't think [...]

Rabies will be up for it no matter the setup. We'll see.

Thanks for all the great comments so far!

My very first clear of D2 (pre-2.4) was on an untwinked

Rabies +

Fury: Skill

Werewolf in players1. Not only was I new to the game in general, but I also made the mistake of going with 20pt

Oak Sage instead of 20pt

Lycanthropy, so I had to rely on

Poison Creeper +

Rabies to kill off Hell Ancients because I could not tank more than a hit or two.

It took one hour and fifteen minutes of continuous kiting to get it done.

I think you can guess my opinion on

Rabies' power. It's very fun to watch it spread, and I'm sure it's a lot more usable after the 2.4 buffs, but... it's still

Rabies.

Sounds like fun lol.