Search the database
Search forum topics
Search members
Search for trades
diablo2.io is supported by ads
diablo2.io is supported by ads
18 replies   2505 views
2

Description

Hello fellow
Werebear
players,

Since the beginning of past year, I have been on quite a journey with the
Werebear
. I think those of you who play the
Maul
Werebear
might be interested in my endgame build below. I have not seen a build guide for this build so maybe it is new but of course I do not know for sure. I play single player offline. This build is players 8
Terror
zone viable and basically shreds everything to pieces (and I mean everything, even ghosts and physical immunes). With a few tweaks I think it might also be hardcore viable.

This build has a workable
Fire Claws
on top of
Maul
(with gg 101k dps physical with a 15% ed ethereal
Decapitator
or
Glorious Axe
and optional plus 44k dps fire). I came up with the idea when I made the Faith bow for my act 1 merc. Previously I had played the whole game with HoW and strong summons. I then thought to myself that the merc better not die in this setup so I went for
Oak Sage
. Also, I believe that the quicker you kill the monsters with the
Werebear
, the better it is for the survival of the whole party. Therefore, the whole zoo is now a one point wonder and I put the points instead into
Fire Claws
and its synergies. It is a total team effort of your party but it works perfectly well together. It feels like you are just dominating the game. I will start with the act 1 merc since this build is kind of build around her.

Act 1 merc:
  • Cold Arrow
    : freezes and slows down targets, thus helping out your whole party
  • Inner Sight
    : she casts it all the time and this reduces the defense of monsters significantly (my
    Werebear
    therefore does not have any problems hitting stuff)
  • Gear: Faith bow for the fanatism aura, Hustle armor for faster run/walk in order for her to keep up with you (works awesome!) and she also gets the skill
    Evade
    from Hustle, vampires gaze for life leech and damage reduction socketed with a cold facet.
Stats: Strength to wear gear. Dex I invested 200 points so when the merc is sometimes not nearby you still hit monsters at a good rate. Plus you will get a high health pool as a
Werebear
anyway. The rest in vitality.

Skill points distribution
  • summoning: One point in all the animals. Twelve points in
    Oak Sage
    . This with skills on gear gives
    Oak Sage
    a life pool of 1.6k which is kind of a sweet spot for his survival based on my experiences and plus 175% life for the whole party. This is sufficient and works great. With the plus skills on gear and one summoning charm skiller the pets have 80% resistances (85% is the max). With the additional life from
    Oak Sage
    the pets are certainly no pushovers and they survive surprisingly well. The zoo has two tasks of utmost importance. First keep the merc alive and second keep the Spirit alive. With
    Oak Sage
    the merc has 5k life, the Spirit wolves 1.7k life, the dire wolves 3.1k and the bear almost 9k. I only summon them at the beginning of my p8
    Terror
    zone runs. A few wolves might die but that’s about it. The merc basically never dies and the Spirit occasionally.
  • The remaining 29 points you put into the synergies for
    Fire Claws
    (elemental tree).
My gear
  • Weapon: The runeword Death in an ethereal
    Decapitator
    or
    Glorious Axe
    is the best choice (though the ethereal
    Glorious Axe
    is likely the best because of longer reach and less strength requirements). Because of the might aura from the merc and the mark of the bear from the Metamorphosis you will hit with 6 frames which is the fastest possible as a bear.
  • Amulet: Highlords
  • Rings: Bul-Khatos and a
    Carrion Wind
    . The latter is needed because of the “damage goes to mana” mod. Otherwise you will sometimes attack a super unique monster which has manaburn with your normal attack. The high life leech is also needed.
  • Belt
    :
    Arachnid Mesh
    because of the plus skill and the faster cast rate. You need at least 20% faster cast rate for shockwave imo, otherwise it is very slow.
  • In the inventory I am using a
    Flame Rift
    charm. Also six shapeshifting skillers and one summoning skiller.
Gameplay

Summon your minions and Spirit and then head into battle and
Charge
up your
Maul
. With the first hit you get the mark of the bear (25% ias and 20% damage reduction). Whats nice about this build is that you do not need the bonuses from the mark of the wolf because they are neglectable and don't move the needle very much. I have never tested it but I assume you would also lose your
Maul
charges when refreshing the mark of the wolf in wolf form so that is a no go.
Battle Orders
are also not needed. When
Maul
is charged up switch between
Fire Claws
and
Maul
the rest of the way. Make sure to never lose your
Maul
charges during a run. I am hitting about 2/3 of the time with
Fire Claws
and about 1/3 with
Maul
. The last monsters of a pack you should hit with
Maul
in order to not lose your charges until you encounter the next monsters. Fire immune and weak monsters you should hit with
Maul
in order to
Charge
up
Maul
efficiently. All unique or super unique monsters you hit with
Fire Claws
(one of the two damage types will inflict damage). Only in very rare cases a monster “wants to play tough”. This is for example hephasto,
The Cow King
or a
Council Member
when they spawn with the mods Stone skin and magic/fire resistance. Then you switch to the mang song's staff (this does not kill the monster very fast but gets the job done quite well imo).

There is one overarching rule. Keep
Oak Sage
up at all times. The Spirit does not die much and survives imo way better than HoW but when he does die stop mauling/clawing and resummon him. The exception is of course boss fights etc. Use shockwave to help out your zoo, Spirit, merc and for crowd control in genereal. Furthermore always remember that attack is your best defense. Otherwise simply use
Maul
and
Fire Claws
for shredding everything to pieces. Ghost go down with two hits also souls go down way faster with
Fire Claws
as well as many other monster types. The clear speed simply improves quite a bit as you can imagine.

Having played the maulbear for quite some time which I greatly enjoyed, the addition of a workable
Fire Claws
is just awesome. I only play players 8
Terror
zones. My
Werebear
never dies as well as my merc. Those of you who have played the maulbear should try this build out. I think you might enjoy it as well.

Here is the build with godly gear at maxroll: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/uf5cg0i2

Here is my gear which works perfectly fine: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/n747j0iq
5

Can be used to make Runewords:

7
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
Hello fellow
Werebear
players,

Since the beginning of past year, I have been on quite a journey with the
Werebear
. I think those of you who play the
Maul
Werebear
might be interested in my endgame build below. I have not seen a build guide for this build so maybe it is new but of course I do not know for sure. I play single player offline. This build is players 8
Terror
zone viable and basically shreds everything to pieces (and I mean everything, even ghosts and physical immunes). With a few tweaks I think it might also be hardcore viable.

This build has a workable
Fire Claws
on top of
Maul
(with gg 101k dps physical with a 15% ed ethereal
Decapitator
or
Glorious Axe
and optional plus 44k dps fire). I came up with the idea when I made the Faith bow for my act 1 merc. Previously I had played the whole game with HoW and strong summons. I then thought to myself that the merc better not die in this setup so I went for
Oak Sage
. Also, I believe that the quicker you kill the monsters with the
Werebear
, the better it is for the survival of the whole party. Therefore, the whole zoo is now a one point wonder and I put the points instead into
Fire Claws
and its synergies. It is a total team effort of your party but it works perfectly well together. It feels like you are just dominating the game. I will start with the act 1 merc since this build is kind of build around her.

Act 1 merc:
  • Cold Arrow
    : freezes and slows down targets, thus helping out your whole party
  • Inner Sight
    : she casts it all the time and this reduces the defense of monsters significantly (my
    Werebear
    therefore does not have any problems hitting stuff)
  • Gear: Faith bow for the fanatism aura, Hustle armor for faster run/walk in order for her to keep up with you (works awesome!) and she also gets the skill
    Evade
    from Hustle, vampires gaze for life leech and damage reduction socketed with a cold facet.
Stats: Strength to wear gear. Dex I invested 200 points so when the merc is sometimes not nearby you still hit monsters at a good rate. Plus you will get a high health pool as a
Werebear
anyway. The rest in vitality.

Skill points distribution
  • summoning: One point in all the animals. Twelve points in
    Oak Sage
    . This with skills on gear gives
    Oak Sage
    a life pool of 1.6k which is kind of a sweet spot for his survival based on my experiences and plus 175% life for the whole party. This is sufficient and works great. With the plus skills on gear and one summoning charm skiller the pets have 80% resistances (85% is the max). With the additional life from
    Oak Sage
    the pets are certainly no pushovers and they survive surprisingly well. The zoo has two tasks of utmost importance. First keep the merc alive and second keep the Spirit alive. With
    Oak Sage
    the merc has 5k life, the Spirit wolves 1.7k life, the dire wolves 3.1k and the bear almost 9k. I only summon them at the beginning of my p8
    Terror
    zone runs. A few wolves might die but that’s about it. The merc basically never dies and the Spirit occasionally.
  • The remaining 29 points you put into the synergies for
    Fire Claws
    (elemental tree).
My gear
  • Weapon: The runeword Death in an ethereal
    Decapitator
    or
    Glorious Axe
    is the best choice (though the ethereal
    Glorious Axe
    is likely the best because of longer reach and less strength requirements). Because of the might aura from the merc and the mark of the bear from the Metamorphosis you will hit with 6 frames which is the fastest possible as a bear.
  • Amulet: Highlords
  • Rings: Bul-Khatos and a
    Carrion Wind
    . The latter is needed because of the “damage goes to mana” mod. Otherwise you will sometimes attack a super unique monster which has manaburn with your normal attack. The high life leech is also needed.
  • Belt
    :
    Arachnid Mesh
    because of the plus skill and the faster cast rate. You need at least 20% faster cast rate for shockwave imo, otherwise it is very slow.
  • In the inventory I am using a
    Flame Rift
    charm. Also six shapeshifting skillers and one summoning skiller.
Gameplay

Summon your minions and Spirit and then head into battle and
Charge
up your
Maul
. With the first hit you get the mark of the bear (25% ias and 20% damage reduction). Whats nice about this build is that you do not need the bonuses from the mark of the wolf because they are neglectable and don't move the needle very much. I have never tested it but I assume you would also lose your
Maul
charges when refreshing the mark of the wolf in wolf form so that is a no go.
Battle Orders
are also not needed. When
Maul
is charged up switch between
Fire Claws
and
Maul
the rest of the way. Make sure to never lose your
Maul
charges during a run. I am hitting about 2/3 of the time with
Fire Claws
and about 1/3 with
Maul
. The last monsters of a pack you should hit with
Maul
in order to not lose your charges until you encounter the next monsters. Fire immune and weak monsters you should hit with
Maul
in order to
Charge
up
Maul
efficiently. All unique or super unique monsters you hit with
Fire Claws
(one of the two damage types will inflict damage). Only in very rare cases a monster “wants to play tough”. This is for example hephasto,
The Cow King
or a
Council Member
when they spawn with the mods Stone skin and magic/fire resistance. Then you switch to the mang song's staff (this does not kill the monster very fast but gets the job done quite well imo).

There is one overarching rule. Keep
Oak Sage
up at all times. The Spirit does not die much and survives imo way better than HoW but when he does die stop mauling/clawing and resummon him. The exception is of course boss fights etc. Use shockwave to help out your zoo, Spirit, merc and for crowd control in genereal. Furthermore always remember that attack is your best defense. Otherwise simply use
Maul
and
Fire Claws
for shredding everything to pieces. Ghost go down with two hits also souls go down way faster with
Fire Claws
as well as many other monster types. The clear speed simply improves quite a bit as you can imagine.

Having played the maulbear for quite some time which I greatly enjoyed, the addition of a workable
Fire Claws
is just awesome. I only play players 8
Terror
zones. My
Werebear
never dies as well as my merc. Those of you who have played the maulbear should try this build out. I think you might enjoy it as well.

Here is the build with godly gear at maxroll: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/uf5cg0i2

Here is my gear which works perfectly fine: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/n747j0iq
7
Nice thanks!
I will consider doing this.
I think trying out Delirium for the merc instead of vamp might be cool, the like manic pixie merc that had a build post here sometime ago.
My only gripe with this is that you have no aoe whatsoever. I'll have to try this at some point.
7
This is very nice! Thank you, OP!

Much needed help to improve my fireclaws -
Maul
- Shockwave druid where I am currently facing these problems/thoughts:

- Heart of the Wolverine dying all the time (curious to see whether
Oak Sage
really stays alive more)
- Merc is good (A2 with
The Reaper's Toll
etc.) but I haven't thought about using the A1 merc for a change
- I'm level 81 but still eat a LOT of damage even in Act 2 Hell p1 sometimes...

Let's see! :)
7
oh, and for @or.houster:
I have Delirium on another merc and it's just great. The lolzies from the morphing wear off quickly, but due to the monsters getting confused, it adds a lot of safety. Sometimes happily chilling in
Baal
's throneroom with one last confused monster happily standing around.
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
I did some fine tuning of the build and swapped the
Carrion Wind
ring with a second Bul-Kathos ring and swapped the one summoning skiller in the inventory with another shapeshifting skiller. I think I overstimated the need for "damage taken goes to mana" from the
Carrion Wind
. I did not experience any problems yet with this set-up when facing uniques or super uniques with manaburn. Plus the short
Stun
from the
Twister
procs of the Carriona Wind overwrites the long
Stun
from shockwave. The zoo stays basically the same but you get two additional skill points for your main damage skills
Werebear
,
Maul
and
Fire Claws
. With the second Bul-Kathos the build feels even more powerful.

With godly gear and taking into account the
Inner Sight
from the rogue merc
Maul
now has 106k dps.
Fire Claws
(which consists of the 106k
Maul
damage plus 48k fire damage) now has a total of 154k damage. Not bad in my opinion, in particlar when taking into account that the
Werebear
is uninteruptable and does not nead the mark of the wolf buff nor
Battle Orders
.

I think this is the way to go in order maximze the full potential of the
Maul
Werebear
.

Link to build: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/b13u0ww6
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
I posted a video of this build on youtube. Obviously I am not a professional so it is nothing fancy. Nevertheless I hope some of you might enjoy it or find it useful.

Link:
7
User avatar

Bass 86

Sorceress Europe Playstation
DKBam wrote: 4 months ago
I posted a video of this build on youtube. Obviously I am not a professional so it is nothing fancy. Nevertheless I hope some of you might enjoy it or find it useful.

Link:
for endgame I found this build to be very weak

PSN ID- BassPV77
Time zone - UTC+3:00
DUKE NUKEM MUST DIE !
7
fraggykrueger wrote: 6 months ago
oh, and for @or.houster:
I have Delirium on another merc and it's just great. The lolzies from the morphing wear off quickly, but due to the monsters getting confused, it adds a lot of safety. Sometimes happily chilling in
Baal
's throneroom with one last confused monster happily standing around.
I have heard that monsters killed by another monster when under effect of confusion do not grant any experience.

Can anyone confirm?
7
User avatar

Necrarch 2013Moderator

Necromancer Europe PC
In my memories, this used to be the case back in LoD, but no more in D2R.

Image

Main: Necromancer / Second: Assassin / Third: Amazon / Check my stash, my crafts and my many cheap
Annihilus
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
Bass wrote: 4 months ago
DKBam wrote: 4 months ago
I posted a video of this build on youtube. Obviously I am not a professional so it is nothing fancy. Nevertheless I hope some of you might enjoy it or find it useful.

Link:
for endgame I found this build to be very weak
You are certainly right, this is obviously not one of the strongest builds overall in particular compared to other classes.

But for a Maulbear build, based on my playing experience, this is imo by far the strongest build I have ever played and come across.
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
I have been playing this build with a eDeath
Decapitator
for quite some time. It is a powerful weapon no doubt and I was very happy with it.

Recently, I found my third ethereal
Glorious Axe
which finally rolled with 5 sockets in the cube. I didn't know what to expect, after all it is has just one additional range adder point (though the min/max varies in comparision to the
Decapitator
; the damage total is basicaly the same between the two).

To me it seems the one additional range adder point makes a noticable diffence. The clear speed improves as you are more swinging at monsters than approaching them. You can hit from left to right. Also, you can clear larger monster groups more efficently without interruption (since with the
Decapitator
you need to reposition to the next monster more often in order to make an attack). I was pleasently surprised with the eDeath
Glorious Axe
.

The downside of the ethereal
Glorious Axe
with 5 sockets is it very hard to find/get as the maximum number of sockets is 6.
7
I tried this build before and actually enjoyed it. But then wanted to turn for more AoE style, so I returned to Fury. However, I just wonder about
Shock Wave
build. With it has already synergized with
Maul
, I just tinkered the build at Maxroll and on paper it shows solid physical damage. This means a real deal AoE effect.

I'm kind of busy these days but will try that, surely.

Image
Image
* I trade both ladder and non-ladder, please check before asking.
* All my trades are for runes, keys (especially KoT and KoH) and essences!
7
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/wp3r803h

This is the possible hybrid between
Maul
and
Shock Wave
. Due to FCR demand of
Shock Wave
, I changed the weapon, to ethereal Death
Berserker Axe
. Another marginal option could be weapon swap between Heart of the Oak and main melee weapon to reach 99 FCR.

Image
Image
* I trade both ladder and non-ladder, please check before asking.
* All my trades are for runes, keys (especially KoT and KoH) and essences!
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
When I started this thread I thought this was the most powerful and dominant
Maul
Werebear
build. Well, I am happy to report that I was wrong.

Trying to optimze things, I said good-bye to my act 1 merc Hannah and welcomed the act 5 merc Magnus. Magnus got a Lawbringer on his offhand, a Hustle weapon and Hustle armor. In addition a vampires gaze socketed with a
Cham
rune. The question is if the
Decrepify
proc from the Lawbringer can make a difference. The
Werebear
basically stays the same, you just use the
Bone Break
instead of the
Flame Rift
and put more points into Dexterity (because you do not have
Inner Sight
from act 1 merc anymore). In order to hit the fastet attack speed breakpoint you can wear an eDeath in a
Champion Axe
. In case you are in the radius of the fanatism aura from the Hustle weapon of the merc you will attack with the fastest possible speed of 6 frames. You lose out on quite some damage compared to an edeath in a
Glorious Axe
or a Decipitator. However, when the
Decrepify
has procced this build has around 50 % more physical damage output per second than the previously described build (the numbers on maxroll against the dummy do not show the real truth of the significance of the decprepify as you have to take into account the physical immunities in hell).

As mentioned before I only play players 8
Terror
zones in order to have some kind of a challenge so every damage output improvement matters.

How good does the act 5 merc perform? Well, I was pleasently surprised. He procs the
Decrepify
consistently. Overall, the clear speed noticely improved, maybe 15 % or so. Does it work perfectly? No, sometimes the merc stays behind and continues to fight a single monster. Also, he has the habbit to
Taunt
a monster once the
Decrepify
has procced. The
Taunt
then overwrites the
Decrepify
proc for a single monster. Usually several monsters get decrepified once it procs from the Lawbringer. You have to adjust your gameplay a bit and always watch out where the merc is or better where the
Decrepify
has procced, but more often than not you are slugging it out side by side. Bottom line, with the act 5 merc the damage output is improved.

But that is not it. Due to the Lawbringer which has the
Sanctuary Aura
against undead any possible threats from this monster type are basically gone or minimzed greatly (the undead who can still be dangerous at times are souls). You now just breeze through
Chaos Sanctuary
or
Tal
Rashas tombs without much of a challenge. Basically the undead are just waiting for you to slay them.

As a caviar, the act 5 merc can also take down undead monsters. Due to the
Sanctuary Aura
which removes the physical resistances of the undead, the merc can dish out damage of around 10k per second with his normal attack and around 25k with
Frenzy
, even without prioritizing his damage output. From a
Werebear
perspective, it also feels like you have a little brother at your side who is very very eager to prove he is worthy to fight alongside you. He is like a maniac with Hustle,
Burst of Speed
and
Frenzy
. His survivability is excellent. The act 5 merc has a life pool of 6800 with
Oak Sage
. He does not end up in hit recovery very often. I do not summon the whole zoo anymore, three wolves and the grizzly are sufficient to keep the Spirit and the whole party alive. In case you summon more pets the barbarian sometimes stays behind them and does not attack. In my opinion the act 5 merc fits better than the act 1 merc. The barbarian and the
Werebear
complement each other very well.

The best in slot weapon for this build is an eBotD in a
Glorious Axe
. The damage is basically the same compared to the eDeath in a
Champion Axe
. However, with the BotD you also just hit the 6 frames attack speed breakpoint when you are not in the radius of the fanatism aura of the merc (in case you have a Metamorphosis base with at least plus 2 to
Maul
). Furthermore the minus 25% target defense makes a big difference. It feels like you are hitting almost everything. Also the plus 200% damage against undead make a difference.

Just recently I started to play with the eBotD
Glorious Axe
. This build now somehow feels like as if you have beaten the game with the
Werebear
as there is not much of a challenge left in the game.

Here is the link to the build at maxroll: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/er3go0l0
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
I did some further modifactions regarding the Maulbear build with act V merc support. In another thread someone mentioned that his fav weapon for a Fury druid is among others an eBotD in a
Thunder Maul
. I did then have a closer look at that weapon. The
Thunder Maul
has the highest avg damage in the game but is a bit slow. The question is if the wearbear, as the physically strongest appearing character in the game, can wield this powerful weapon to his advantage?

Yes he can :-) It is a bit of a stretch but with all shapeshifting skillers in the inventory you will hit the fastest attack speed breakpoint and hit with 6 frames per second when you are in the radius of the fanatism aura of the merc (from his Hustle weapon). The
Maul
damage per second goes up to 86 k damage compared to the 73 k damage per second with the eBotD in a
Glorious Axe
which I mentioned in my previous post. The
Thunder Maul
is in my opnion the most godly weapon for this build due to the significant additional damage. You will hit with 7 frames per second when you are outside the reach of the fanastim aura, but the
Maul
damage with a
Thunder Maul
with 7 frames per second is basically the same as with the 6 frames
Glorious Axe
. You win a lot of damage also considering the
Decrepify
proc from the Lawbringer of the act V merc.

I have read mixed reviews before about the act V merc with a Lawbringer. For example that he is not proccing the
Decrepify
very often. In comparison with my previous post I gave the merc an
Arreat's Face
(instead of a
Vampire Gaze
) which further boosts his attack rating and defense. The merc has an attack rating of 4300 for his normal attack and an attack rating of 10500 for
Frenzy
. The Lawbringer also has a -50% target defense. The merc is proccing the
Decrepify
around every 2-3 seconds it feels like. Furthermore, though he is fighting always in the thick of it he rarely dies. You can always help him by using shockwave so that he is attacking stunned opponents.

The D2 game is always full of surprises. I would not have expected this but the act V setup with Lawbringer and the
Decrepify
proc is a huge boost while playing players 8 difficulty. It is in my opinion surperior to the rogue merc Faith bow setup. The
Decrepify
is simply very powerful.

Here is the link on maxroll for the eBotD
Thunder Maul
setup:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/5ymk064b
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
Up to now I have only played the
Werebear
with the Act I and Act V Merc. Recently, I gave the Act II merc a try. The merc wears an Infinity, Hustle armor and a
Vampire Gaze
. The
Werebear
now has maxed out synergies for the
Fire Claws
. He is now wearing a Grief and a Phoenix shield to maximize the damage output from the
Fire Claws
(both are solid options but I will discuss my personal bis weapon further down below).

With the Grief and the
Conviction
Aura from the merc weapon you will hit basically everything (minus 25% enemy defense and ingore targets's defense from Grief and the minus 83% enemy defence from the
Conviction
aura). Also you will have no leech problems as the damage from Grief is so high for a one-handed weapon. Plus the
Werebear
will hit the attack speed breakpoint relatively easily with Grief. The
Werebear
will only hit with 7 frames per seconds (6 frames is the fastest for two-handed weapons) in this setup. He cannot hit faster with a one-handed weapon if I am not mistaken. The damage from
Maul
and
Werebear
does not really scale very well in this build. Therefore you can spend some skill points according to your preference once you have reached the attack speed breakpoints. You can wear
Magefist
for example for higher
Fire Claws
damage and a higher faster cast rate. Shockwave is pretty fast now.

The first thing I noticed when heading into battle was that the Act II merc is more likely to die than the other two mercs I have played. Sometimes he needs special attention and sometimes in particular pods. This was not the case with the other two mercs. Therefore I spend a few points into dire wolves and grizzly so that they both have 85% resistances to elemental damage and can contribute to keeping the merc alive. After taking a few swings with the
Fire Claws
it became obvious that I have up to now never seen the
Werebear
take a more damage inflicting swing. Wow!! It feels like he is on steroids. He is hitting slower but with higher damage. The Infinity runewords seems very powerful.

Here is the link to the build with Grief on maxroll: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/um4020ih

Now to my best in slot weapon when playing players 8 difficulty. The best in slot weapon is in my opinion an ethereal
Stormlash
with a
Zod
. You will lose out on quite some physical damage compared to Grief but you get the 15% chance to cast level 10
Static Field
on striking. I am playing with a normal
Stormlash
socketed with a
Perfect Skull
(I can then also wear another Bul-Kathos instead of a dual-leach ring). This works awesome!! Basically what it does is that you are hitting about 70-80 percent of the monsters with minus 25-50% of their health pool. You significantly reduce the swings needed to kill an enemy. You only need one to two swings of the maxed out
Fire Claws
to kill a monster most of the time. I have read in other threads that some want something like a "melee splash" for melee characters. Well, this is probably as close as it can get (though you still have to finish off every monster). Obviously the benefit is in particular for playing higher player counts. With the normal
Stormlash
you will not leech as much but with the
Redemption
aura from the Phoenix shield it is totally sufficient.

Link to build with ethereal
Stormlash
: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/co7460bt

This build is very powerful, maybe even more powerful than the build with the Act V merc (Lawbringer and Hustle weapon). You are not hitting as fast with the
Fire Claws
Werebear
but the damage output is better and with the
Static Field
proc you have significant aoe damage (
Static Field
procs about every two seconds when you are attacking). This outweighs the lower survivability of the Act II merc, but with a beefed up zoo he stays alive quite well now.

Often I am testing stuff like procs and auras etc. first in the Cow level as this is sort of like an optimal setting with its large monster packs. This
Stormlash
Fire Claws
Werebear
is the fastest of them all by far in view of clear speed on players 8 settings.
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
After playing some more, I can conclude for the
Stormlash
Fire Claws
Werebear
that you can also use a normal
Stormlash
socketed with a fire rainbow facet instead of an ethereal
Stormlash
. The damage output from both is on a similar level.

Up to now I have never really focused on magic find. Priority for me was always high damage output and clear speed in order to find high runes basically.

In my opinion there is a very interesting magic find build for the
Stormlash
Fire Claws
Werebear
without much
Sacrifice
to the overall damage output. This build performs very well in players 8 settings and can definitely hold his own in view of clear speed (compared to other
Werebear
builds and not to other characters of course). You swap the Chains of Honor with a
Skullder's Ire
(plus 123 to magic find at level 99) and socket it with a fire rainbow facet. Instead of
Gore Rider
you are also wearing
War Traveler
. With proper charms and ring you can get above 200 magic find relatively easy. You lose a great amount of resistances with the armor swap. Therefore you put on a Mara's instead of the Highlords. Quite a lot of things are dropping with this build :-)

Magic Find build
Stormlash
Fire Claws
Werebear
: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/4hjn05cz

The strategy is simple with this build. You approach mobs and start hitting with
Maul
to
Charge
it up and not lose the speed bonus until the first
Static Field
procs. Then you switch to
Fire Claws
. Quite a lot of monsters can go down with one hit, it is quite amazing. It is also nice to be responsible for your own procs for a a change, instead of having to rely on your mercs to proc something.

The highest possible
Fire Claws
damage output (in case I am not mistaken) you can achieve by wearing a 4 socket armor with three fire rainbow facet jewels and one 15 IAS jewel. This dude is a one shot monster on players 8 once
Static Field
has procced one or two times.

Build with three fire facets and one 15 IAS jewel in armor: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/4rjk052r
7
OP
User avatar

DKBam 26

Druid Europe PC
After the positive results with the
Stormlash
for the
Fire Claws
build I checked out some other unique weapons for the
Werebear
as well.

The
Bonehew
is a nice weapon for the
Werebear
and you can dominate on players 5 settings but players 8 is a bit too much. The
Bonehew
would imo be a very good weapon if you could trigger the
Corpse Explosion
charges in Wereform. Without this possibility you have to transform into human form and you then lose the
Maul
(speed) charges. As a consequence it only makes sense to use the
Corpse Explosion
charges at the end of a run.

The ethereal
Tomb Reaver
is a great weapon for magic find but it is not on the same level imo as top tier runewords. You lose out on quite some damage compared to an etheral Death runeword in a
Decapitator
or an ethereal BOTD
Thunder Maul
. Players 8 settings can be challenging.

In my stash I then came across a non-ethereal version of
The Reaper's Toll
. Up to now I have never played this weapon. What is nice about a non-ethereal version of
The Reaper's Toll
is that you can get to the fastest 6 frames attack speed breakpoint for the
Werebear
by socketing the weapon with a 15 IAS jewel (with mark of the bear from Metamorphosis etc.). And this is achieved without any aura support from the merc. The by far best option is then to hire an act 2 might merc. Since the
Fire Claws
itself is maxed out with about 3/4 of its synergies the merc is wielding an Infinity. The results were very surprising for me. This build can dominate players 8 settings with ease. He does not has the highest overall one shot ability and single target damage, but he is just motoring his way through enemies very efficiently. Plus you always have a cloud of
Decrepify
around you which makes this a very safe build imo, also for your merc and pets. Basically you are just busy using
Maul
and
Fire Claws
for whatever comes your way. You do not need to spam shockwave as much. Overall, the clear speed is one of the best. From all of the builds he is the fastest
Baal
killer for sure.

Where would I rank the build with the non-ethereal Reaper's toll? Well, the cream of the crop for players 8 settings of the builds mentioned here in this thread is imo the
Stormlash
Fire Claws
build. However,
The Reaper's Toll
build comes in second imo. Surprisingly for me he plays even better than the eBOTD
Thunder Maul
build with a Lawbringer wielding act 5 merc. I suppose it is simply always nicer to proc stuff yourself than having to rely on your merc.

Link to Reaper Bear build at maxroll: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/bm3m00z2
7
what a cool guide, I might actually try to build this
9

Advertisment

Hide ads
999

Greetings stranger!

You don't appear to be logged in...

No matches
 

 

 

 

Value:
Hide ads forever by supporting the site with a donation.

Greetings adblocker...

Warriv asks that you consider disabling your adblocker when using diablo2.io

Ad revenue helps keep the servers going and supports me, the site's creator :)

A one-time donation hides all ads, forever:
Make a donation