FireClaws Bear Needs Advice plz

[xlegolasxgimlyxstriderx]

Hello.i recently made a fire claws bear cuz my concentrate barb kept getting owned by druids. and i like swinging fast so the druid seemed good for that. anyways i made him and hes doing good. hes in act1 hell and one of these days im gonna stop dueling and finish the rest of the acts and good quests. but anyways heres all my status and equip on my bear. its decent stuff i think but any suggestions from those who have made a succesful fireclaws bear is appreciated.

PvP_Rables (the i is lower case l since other name was taken) LvL73

Stats Without equipment: Strength 105 Dex 165 Vit155 Energy20

Stats with equipment: Strength 190 Dex 179 Vit 199 Energy60

Total life in form with oak sage:2003

Resist in hell. Fire -32 Cold 28 Lightning 18 Poison 28

Skills. All elemental skills have +5 all. ShapeShifting +17all. Summoning +5all.

1(6) Firestorm 17(22)MoltenBoulder 20(25) in Volcano and Fissure

1(6)Oak Sage

1(18) All presquites (excuse my spelling) to fireclaws.
20(37)Fire claws

Attack Rating in Bear Form 7121
Defense in bear form 3782
FireClaws Damage in bear form 10k-11k

Equipment setup Jalals Mane Totemic Mask 5/3 Fire Facet
Gemmed Phase Blade 6Shaels
Stormshield Monarch Open Socket
Shaftstop Mesh Armour 15ias
Hellmouth War Gauntlets
Scarabshell Boots
String of Ears Demonhide Sash
2x Stone of Jordan Ring
Dread Torc Amulet Since its a rare ammy ill list its mods

2ShapeShifting (druid only). 5% bonus Attack Rating.
21Life. Light Resist *25 .44% gold find. 5*light radius

Last but not least the charm setup

5x Spiritual Grand Charm
1x Spiritual Grand Charm of life (15 life)
1x Spiritual Grand Charm of lightning (1-4 Light Damage)
1x Spiritual Grand Charm of Quality (2 Max Damage)
1x Flaming Large Charm of Dexterity (26-41 Fire Damage
4Dexterity)
6x Small Charm of Vita (20's)
1x Emerald Small Charm of Vita (11Poison Resist 20 Life)
1x Annihilus Small charm
1x Tome of Town Portal

I was considering getting a Chains of Honor for the resist and skills. Ide like to know if this is top armour for this build and if not what is. Thank you for reading this and all your help is appreciated.

[The_Witch_King]

From my experience with my FC bear you definitely want CoH....it's an invaluable part of my build, and it will help out with your resists.

Edit: You may also want to consider getting a pair of Magefists for your gloves slot too, instead of Hellmouth. An extra +Fire skill will knock your FC up another lvl :thumbsup:

[i need grissies set]

2k life : / with oak sage :(

at leasyt 3k with oak sage in my prefernce but nice setup

[zombone]

The only real suggestion I have for you is that if you're dueling you need to get yourself at least one ravenfrost. Cannot be frozen is such a valuable mod, not to mention the good AR boost it would give you. I would seriously recommend picking up one of these.

Also, a Maras seems like it would be a much much better choice regarding your amulet situation. Easier said than done, I know - Maras aren't cheap. I've been trying to get one for months now and still no luck. :)

Other than that, your life total is a little on the low side (to make a personal comparison, my FC bear's life is ~2200 and thats *without* oak sage). But your damage, AR, and attack speed are pretty good.

My recommendation: Go for a Chains of Honor, pick up a ravenfrost, swap your hellmouths with some magefists, and replace your rare ammy with a Maras. I think you'll be one tough mofo then.

[xlegolasxgimlyxstriderx]

well ive got the raven so ill do that. i know this isnt really on topic but do you think that for 2x 3-20-20s and 3x 290s i could get maras and a CoH

[Voice]

say bye bye to the sojs and ammy .... use angelic ammy + ring ... and possible a raven.

arachnid is a nice belt or use verdungos .... string can work though.

CoH

i perfer waterwalk boots 60+life ones

magefist gloves maybe bloodfist

shael or fire facet it

fire facet the jalals

[xlegolasxgimlyxstriderx]

with the CoH i have all max resist except fire which is at 24. ill give the angelic ammy ring a look, didnt know it had a good bonus. with 2 ravens my new Ar is 11k. thx for all the input people.

[KOL_Famine]

Ouch I don't think 11k ar is going to be anywhere near enough for dueling 40k defence pals and barbs.

I'd try this:

Equipment setup Jalals Mane Totemic Mask 5/3 Fire Facet
Gemmed Phase Blade 6Shaels
Stormshield Monarch Facet or Shael
Chains of Honor
Blood Fists
Water Walks
Trang Belt
2 x Angelic rings
Angelic ammy

Trangs belt gives you cannot be frozen so you can wear two angelics and get up to 20k ar comfortabely. CoH gives 8 dr so your still at 42 dr which is respectable. Jahlas + Bloodfists gives you the 54 fhr bp which is essential. All the gear has + life which stacks with lyc and sage properly unlike + vit and life per level // vit per level.

[Atticus]

about weapon ias, is the 6shael phase the fastest, or will a 4shael griz caddy hit fast enough?

[Voice]

If in bear form you need a pb with 110 ias .... typically the best weapon IMO for a fc bear is a 4 x shael + 2 x ias/ar pb. I had a 110/ 165ar pb ... that helped a lot in the ar department ... other options are 2 x ias/all resist jewels ......

Basically you want a 4 x shael + 2 x ias/ second mod jewels in it. With fc you are going for fire damage not physical damage so dont use griz ... not to mention it would be slower.

[KOL_Famine]

Depending on richness and were yoru dueling (pubby) the caddy bear can be alot better. Me and inkanddagger were meshing out a caddy bear something like this:

20 Bear
20 Lyc
20 FireClaws
20 HoW
20 Moulten Boulder

Using a caddy with an assortment of various shaels ias/ dmg mods to get to 5 frame and the stone bug. The idea was too attach as much physical damage onto the fireclaws to help with the absorb noobie epedemic in public. Along with a level 35 - 40 bear with an eth stone and metal grid to get in the vicinity of 20k defence to stop the constant locking of linked melee attacks.

[Duy]

would it be better to go ik gloves + ik boots than magefists + waterwalks?

the ik combo gives more ar and the extra stats from the gloves allow for more points into vit.

i really dont think the one extra point from magefists is really that necessary - since you're damage is 11k.

[Voice]

IMO waterwalks + mage > IK combo ...

oh and koh i wouldnt think that maxing out lycan + wb would be necessary for this build .... from what your sayin your only getting 1 synergy for fc ... most try to get 3. that set up seems more like melee vs. melee so you could get phy + fire damage.

[KOL_Famine]

Well i'm pretty sure most people don't like their chances chasing a running bowazon etc or anything that can tele and spam a skill with a Werebear hence it being pretty melee ... I was just making the point that a caddy is probably the better (10 x more expensive) route that will give a stronger much more versatile druid to handle public situations and situations in which your opponent is not a public noobie who has - 100 fire res.

Also with the stone bug your getting two syns which with a nice setup you should get around 7k fc damage, with 3 or 4k physical and 20k defence which really helps infinitely vs zealots (most common melee) with about the same life (more lyc, but no oak).

[Duy]

IMO waterwalks + mage > IK combo ...
hey Voice,

could you tell me why this is so?

[Voice]

IK stats worth mentioning
20/20 str/dex
110 ar
40 run/walk
44 life = 22 vit

Mage
more damage + mana
+15 dex
60+ life = 30 vit
20 run/walk

Basically what it comes down to is your gonna need enough strenght for ss = 156. If your using jalals + CoH = +40 strength.

If your using a decent armor you'll probably need around 110 strength plus or minus a few. That means that the +20 strength on IK becomes almost useless.

Then you compare IK(w/o str) vs. waterwalks.
waterwalks
45 stats
IK gloves AND boots
42 stats
ar
run/walk.

so only thing IK has vs. waterwalks is ar + run/walk. Granted if vs. casters the run/walk would be invaluable ... however it can be made up. Not to mention i get more damage w/ mage fist which i liked b/c one hit kills are what you want w/ fc, because its hard to get a lot of hits w/ tele'ers

Basically when i did took IK vs. waterwalks + mage i considered the +str on gloves to almost not exist b/c if using CoH and jalals you'll get the str. you need for ss. And the other stats that IK has over waterwalks could easily be made up w/ a good pair of gloves .... bloodfist possible if you dont want damage.

[Duy]

hmmm... after that explanation i think im leaning even more to the ik combo. the life and damage may be less, but it adds 110 ar. FC bears deal huge fire damage, so more ar helps a lot.

[xlegolasxgimlyxstriderx]

wouldnt the dexterity from magefists add to attack rating?

[Voice]

wouldnt the dexterity from magefists add to attack rating?
+ar helps more than + dex.
the baisc point is waterwalks almost beats IK on its own if the + str is negated .... I went for more damage b/c i think i had enough ar on my fc bear anyways .... I wanna say around 25k but im not sure.

[Duy]

wouldnt the dexterity from magefists add to attack rating?
i didnt know magefists had dexterity.

25k ar - does that allow you to hit 30k def barb and pallies comfortably?

[Voice]

I never really had a problem in duels to be honest ...... and i dont think the gear i mentioned above is what i wore thats what most wear though