Druid Build help

[Craig]

I've cracked open my Werebear Druid save game back up, I've just passed into nightmare level at level 46. I have one or two pieces of advice to seek.

I have (un-magiced) 100 Str, 85 Dex, 95 Vit, 30 Mana. As a werebear what should I lump up on?

I have two items, a War scythe that does about twenty less damage but is Very Fast, and a claymore that does aout 20-30 more damage but is only Fast. I don't want to end up taking ages to swipe at monsters, but I want to do plenty of damage. Neither adds anything Really Shiney (tm) like Leach or Skil levels....Which do I use?

Should I beef up my skill points on Heart of the Wolverine or Oak Sage? The oak sage seems to die very easily, but when fully buffed I have about 600+ HP opposed to about 450 with HoW........

Any specific items out there I should look for?

Thanks!

[moltovir]

I think most Werebears go with HoW because they already get lots of life from Werebear and Lycanthropy. If you want to build a sturdy tank, take Oak instead, the damage and AR bonus from HoW isn't that big and you'll stay alive longer. Don't try to divide points between the two: one good spirit is better than two bad ones, and you can't cast both simultanously anyway (or rather, ).

I'm not sure which build you're going to make, so I can't give any specific skill advice, but most werebears put one point in Grizzly to have a sturdy tank, and some points in Shockwave to have some crowd control.

In their wereforms, druids only get advantage of Increased Attack Speed on the weapon itself, not on your other equipment, so most were-builds use a weapon with a low base speed and lots of on-weapon IAS. Druids have very quick attack speeds with mauls and polearms. I assume the War Scythe you're referring to is Grim Reaper; don't be fooled by the low weapon damage: the 100% Deadly Strike will make sure you always do double damage, and since it's faster than your sword, Grim Reaper is the way to go. If you want to know how fast you're attacking, see this. Check this site to look up the base weapon speed of the weapon you're using. The lower this value, the faster your weapon is. The calculator in the first link will show you your attack speed in frames: Diablo 2 is run at 25 frames per second, so a "5 frame attack" means you attack 5 times per second.

For stats, I think it's best to put enough points in strength and dexterity to be able to use your equipment, but since you play untwinked you have no idea what you're going to find later in the game, so it's best to have a small safety margin. I think +- 150 strength and +- 100 dex should be enough to cover all your needs, but later in the game you might want to go with more strength (to wield large mauls) or more dexterity (to wield elite polearms). Energy should be left at base: use mana leech to cover all your mana needs. Every point you can spare should go in vitality, since it's massively enhanced by Oak Sage, Lycanthropy and Werebear. You're a tank, so you need the life.

If determining what items to use, these are some mods you should look for:

On weapons: enhanced damage, +min/max damage, increased attack speed
On weapons and other equipment: deadly strike, leech, crushing blow, attack rating
On other equipment: resists, +life

Try to keep your resistances maxed or at least positive, especially fire and lightning.

Edit: my apologies if I explained things that are already very obvious to you, I don't know how extensive your technical knowledge about the game is

[Craig]

I don't know much about the technicalities of the game, so any explanation would be great. I'm not using Grim reaper, but a fairly good war scythe, only magical though. What I;m loking at is maginally less damage fo higher attack speed, or More damage and marginally slower?

Untwinked? You mean Legit? Or unplanned?

Gotcha on Items, I figured most of that. Unfortunately some of my resists are negetive, I've been worried about that.


I'll repost more precise info later....

Thanks!

Edit: Ok the polearm is a Savage War scythe of Carnage, the sword is Rare a Claymore. At full swing, and maul charged up:

The Scythe gives 129-401 damage, and an AR of 1478
The Claymore gives 169-393 damage, and an AR of 1697

[moltovir]

Untwinked means you use the equipment you find while playing the game, as opposed to twinked where you transfer good items from other characters to your current character to make the game easier

In your case I'd pick the War Scythe. The damage difference is very small, and the scythe attacks at a much faster speed than the sword. The AR does make a difference though, but if your chance to hit doesn't drop by more than 5% when switching the scythe for the sword, you shouldn't notice that.

[Craig]

Cool thanks.

Edit: I gambled a rare maul that does 60 -100 damage, the others pale in comparison (damage wise). The rare, however had two sockets; a shael has gone in straight way (found it 20 minutes later!), so now I'm up fast attack. I dunno If I want another or I want to add bells and whistles