Runeword Weapons for WearBears

[EuroJamie]

Hi, I'm fairly new to this forum (in fact this may be my first post!), an dfairly new to Druids in general. Currently I'm trying to build a Summoner WereBear, but I don't have a decent weapon for him. I've got a stack of fairly lowlevel runs, and was looking at trying to make up a runeword. I just wondered if anybody had any opinions on what decent low-level runewords there are that can be used for this build.

The thre I'm looking at are as follows:
* Black
* Famine (TalIthAmnThul) - is this even enabled yet?
* Honor

Any thoughts on these 3 for my WB would be greatly appreciated,

EJ

[Forcefeedback]

Welcome to the Druid forum!

Read the stickies if you haven't allready and enjoy you're stay.

Last I checked, Famine was like;
Famine
Fal + Ohm + Ort + Jah
Axes & Hammers only
Clvl Required:
+30% Increased Attack Speed
+270-320% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Ignore Target's Defense
Adds 180-200 Magic Damage
Adds 50-200 Fire Damage
Adds 51-250 Lightning Damage
Adds 50-200 Cold Damage
12% Life Stolen Per Hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+10 To Strength

I'm not sure though.

Honor and King's grace are nice one's(Honor better) but you're attack speed will suffer(no IAS and no chance of shaeling).

If you use two handed weapons, I suggest something fast, a very fast(-10 attack speed and still 16frames per attack) weapon like a Battle scythe, Grim scythe, Thresher or Giant thresher(I suggest polearms since you can donate it to you're merc once you find something better for you're self).

If you use one handed weapons, I suggest muling a 5 socket(Honor) Phase blade for you're bear for the -30 weapon speed it offers and results in a 13frames per attack once equipped.

[EuroJamie]

Thanks for the advice!


Last I checked, Famine was like;
Famine
Fal + Ohm + Ort + Jah
Axes & Hammers only
Clvl Required:
+30% Increased Attack Speed
+270-320% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Ignore Target's Defense
Adds 180-200 Magic Damage
Adds 50-200 Fire Damage
Adds 51-250 Lightning Damage
Adds 50-200 Cold Damage
12% Life Stolen Per Hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+10 To Strength



Yeah, I kinda wondered about this. I was looking at the runewords on diabloii.net where it lists the Famine word that you're talking about here (http://www.diabloii.net/items/runes/runewords-weapons.shtml#Famine%201.10). However, if you scroll down the page a bit to where it lists the 1.09 runewords, it lists another Famine (http://www.diabloii.net/items/runes/runewords-weapons.shtml#Famine), composed of the runes I mention above:

Famine
TalIthAmnThul
Tal (7) + Ith (6) + Amn (11) + Thul (10)
Works: Axes and Clubs
Clvl Required: 23
170-210% Enhanced Damage
+9 Max Damage
+150-200 Attack Rating
13-44 Cold Damage
550 Poison Damage over 10 seconds
7% Mana Steal
7% Life Steal
-100 Def to Monster Per Hit
Drain life -20
+5 to Hunger (Druid only)

It also states that this word hasn't been enabled (as of Mar '02), but I wondered if it had been since then. I guess probably not, given that there is already a word with this name in operation, but you never know...

Any thoughts?

[GenXCub]

The famine you're referring to was part of a planned addition during 1.09 that never happened.

If you're playing 1.10, I think good runewords to look at for weapons are Beast, Crescent Moon, and Doom. Crescent Moon is the cheapest of those, but it helps SO much with its Ignores Target Defense mod.

[Ragnarok]

Today i just finished hell with my werebear summoneer (shockbear). I had that Beast Runeword on my Berserker Axe and I liked it. Thought against Baal and Ancients i was just watching when my grizzly and merc did the job.

[Garbad_the_Weak]

Actually, I recommend NOT making a runeword. Instead, I would rather make a thresher or some other good weapon and put as many shaels as you can in it and then fill it with perhaps a ral, amn, or something like that for the damage.

Personally, I would rather have a fast hitting but lower damage weapon.

Garbad

[Crogon]

yeh, what garbad said :) phase blade makes a decent 1 hander with a bunch of shaels. i would use 4-5 shaels then either ral or eth myself, for a temp weapon. honor is about the best low lvl runeword, if your gung-ho on that idea though. :)

[Jay20016]

Might I suggest the Unique Ogre Maul, the Windhammer, or for now an upgraded Steel Driver with a Shael?

I used the Steel Driver from about lvl 28 to about lvl 70. I upgraded around lvl 45 and it put me well over 1400 damage per hit, before I even used the Maul skill. I used the Normal difficulty socketing quest to add a shael to it and I've had Very Fast Attack speed ever since. I'd recommend using some more IAS though through your gear, as it always help. IK is a great way to do this (with the 25% from any two items) as well as socketting a Jala's(or anything else you feel you'll use for a while) with a 15% IAS jewel.

The Windhammer has some ok effects too, as 50% crushing blow will seriously help you out. Also, 260 - 300 damage isn't too shabby. :)

[Crogon]

uh, Jay.. outside ias (on your gear) almost NEVER adds 1 molecule of speed to a werewolf, and rarely to a werebear. especially with unique weapons and etc. it may help with steeldriver though, i haven't looked. check dragoons speed calculator in the sticky and you'll see what i mean. i always make that my first stop when considering a weapon for a druid. :) stacking oias (like 60-110+ ias) is usually fairly useless.