fury druid, able to survive?

[B4zz]

Hi, after my javazon turned out to be quite a succes, finding lots of nice items. Now i'm seriously considering to build a werewolf druid, using fury as main attack, though i really have no idea about his chances of survival, i'm not used to building melee characters on hardcore. Now here r my questions:

How's ur fury druid doing? What does he wear? How do you deal with highly dangerous creatures/situations like fire enchanted/iron maiden?

my gear is going to be something like:
- jalal
- lionheart in elite armor
- storm
- verdungo's
- gore rider
- dracul's grasp

-> no idea yet about jewelry / weapon

[HCTwinJava]

Hi, after my javazon turned out to be quite a succes, finding lots of nice items. Now i'm seriously considering to build a werewolf druid, using fury as main attack, though i really have no idea about his chances of survival, i'm not used to building melee characters on hardcore. Now here r my questions:

How's ur fury druid doing? What does he wear? How do you deal with highly dangerous creatures/situations like fire enchanted/iron maiden?

my gear is going to be something like:
- jalal
- lionheart in elite armor
- storm
- verdungo's
- gore rider
- dracul's grasp

-> no idea yet about jewelry / weapon


you can try, but there is no gurantee that you get good luck all the time dealing with nasty guys.

Gear should no big deal to a fury druid, as few ppl play such a build in HC.

You'll need 1 or 3 good minions to protect you: add 25+ skill points to your summon skill tree (oak>10, dir wolf>10, teddy bear=1, carrion vine=1, if your vine dies often that's ok) + all of your spare points endgame. Merc + minions = you don't have to run up against FE or any nasty things.

[LuckyDwarf]

Get a nice Tomb Reaver and 4 frames. ;)

Lucky

[B4zz]

You'll need 1 or 3 good minions to protect you: add 25+ skill points to your summon skill tree (oak>10, dir wolf>10, teddy bear=1, carrion vine=1, if your vine dies often that's ok) + all of your spare points endgame.

damn! i totally forgot about those minions, these could really get my out some pesky situations, thanks for the input !


Get a nice Tomb Reaver and 4 frames.
hm.. this sounds like a real neat idea, i need about 80ias to get a 4fps fury, if i used this calc right: http://students.washington.edu/akrinke/wereformadvanced.html

hm.. and i don't need to change much of my gear, thanks a lot both for the replies, i think i ll create my druid as soon as i get my hands on a cute tomb reaver (hope it's not too expensive..)

[fe-crazywolf]

Even though many people here know that I play mostly elementalists, sorc, necro, druid, any form of casting char, what you really want to do with melee chars is damage the monsters to a certain point and let either your really cool merc or teammates deal the killing blow. Yea, it will be tough not always being able to deal the killing blow on especially dangerous monsters such as fire enchanted with other mods, but safety is what matters in hc. Not advocating a leaching approach, but rather an approach where your melee fury druid will help weaken the monsters and retreat if the situation gets to dangerous to let other party members help, if you are playing in a party. If you are playing solo most the time then just tread cautiously since with even the best equipment monsters with nasty mods such as thorns, might, fanat can be deadly if not handled carefully. I'm no expert on melee druids, but I can say from experience that the times that I did die with melee druids in softcore were the times I rushed in not looking at the monster mods while attacking with glee.

I am assuming you will have the max oak sage build, remember to always have oak on, a few summoning charms with life are useful to boost oaks level if you can afford these charms. A one handed weapon with leach is an even better boost to get back life when you are being damaged. High damage and block is nice. If you can afford, the best shield to use is stormshield still for its very high defense, decent cold and lightning resist as well as damage reduction percentage. This 35% damage reduction will be a major life saver in many a situation, socket the ss with pdiamond for added 19% all resists. As for armor, my recommendation is guardian angel, for increased help with blocking as well as a boost to max resists if your resists are already over 75. This armor will help you in close combat with monsters, for rings, I would recommend using one ravenfrost so your druid will not be frozen when attacking monsters. The only time this would not apply is if a boss had the holyfreeze mod such as Duriel does and I believe Izual as well. Other nice rings to use for use as a secondary ring are bul kathos for the +skill, vitality and life leach is the best choice,dwarf star for the fire absorb is always helpful since now and again, one will always forget about a monster with fire enchant and having 90% +fire resist with 15% fire absorb will really save your life in many an occassion, a dual leacher if you really need the mana (these can now easily be found and gambled again). As for helm for melee druid, Jalal's is the obvious choice because of the faster hit recovery that is essential in combat, the + skills, as well as the resists given that make this helm an unbelievable unique.

[fe-crazywolf]

For amulet I would try to get a nice rare or crafted druid ammy, one can craft a +skills druid ammy with resists, some life and leach but it is hard, the other ammys that can work are rising sun ammy,

if you are really afraid of the fire explosion bug, which many will argue whether or not still exists. My friend dce_amon lost his 97 barb this season to a very badly spawned fire enchanted lister while his barb had several thousand life, if this says anything about the bug.

for boots waterwalks works well for its high life and the unique scarabshell boots are a very very good choice as well for the defense against poison, +to vitality and dex I think.

Obviously the most important thing on a melee druid to deal with monsters would be the weapon. The best weapon one can use but hardly practical or affordable is a Breath of the Dying eth beserker axe, a good one can be a lil more than 500 dmg one handed. As these are insanely expensive since they require the use of the runes zod and vex and, most zods are duped, it is not reasonable to obtain this. A practical choice would be either azurewrath sword, lightsabre, and schaeffers are excellent weapons. Azurewrath since in many baal runs, one has to worry about dolls immediately exploding around you, this sword will allow ample time to deal with these deadly foes. Lightsabre is also a good choice since it is almost as fast as azurewrath does around the same amount of damage and also has lightning absorb to protect against evil gloams, the ones that shoot lightning and can kill many characters in one hit, during baal runs. The sword also has non-physical damage that can help in dealing with monsters that are PI's. Finally schaeffer's mallet is a good choice because of its chance to cast static as well as its very decent one handed damage.

[B4zz]

thanks a lot for your reply
I gave up on Tomb Reaver, jsut tried to get one, and this nut asked enigma or high runes for it (hc-ladder..)

I m pretty sure now about putting stormshield on my druid anyways, i ll do some mf-runs now to get shaeffers or something i can trade for shaeffers, thanks for mentioning not to finish fire enchanted monsters, kinda had that in mind, letting my minions/teammates do that.

[Geralcik]

Just a note: don't limit yourself to Schaeffer's, you won't be swinging faster than 7fpa with it, while using Stormlash you can go down as far as 5fpa and you get additional crushing blow.

[cougar]

schaefer's is crazy slow. I've built a couple fury ww's and i didn't like schaefer's at all.

IIRC, ias outside of your weapon doesn't affect fury speed, at least it didn't back when i played em. This might've changed, not sure.

Lots of dmg reduction, crushing blow, high life leech, and lots of vit really worked well with mine.

I had a lvl 66 one this ladder until dying to an O-Knight casting Iron maiden on me. He had ghetto gear because he was my first char and he killed quite nicely.

Im gonna make a new one pretty soon here after i get my sorcy built, and I think im gonna try out a horizon tornado, and get as much crushing blow as i possibly can.

[STINGER]

Hard to beat an upped ribby, very low reqs, built in big crushing blow, killer knockin sound and damn fast! I personally like (2) handers. I did a Scheaffers Druid last season, and he needed help in Hell, he got beat down a lot, too slow. Bonehew can do the trick also, whindhammer, IK...etc. Just make damn sure you have as much CB as you can get and DS is very nice also.


Melee in 1.09 was one of those things that you could do blindly wiht a Druid or Barb with the big life. You just cant do that now, you have to really check mods, there is nothign you can do in gear to survive mand multi enchant monsters death explosions. WW us to be able to have good leech gear, and use Feral rage and kill while under IM without dieing, and I dont think this is possible anymore and I dont intend to try it.

[Frostburns]

I believe chiller babe has a fury druid. She seems to do fine with it, despite playing with no vita and 2 handed weapons only. In any case she's right up there with our KTA group (act 5 hell), so she can't be doing THAT bad ;)

[LuckyDwarf]

Realistically (No BotD or eth Zoded tomb Reaver), I would use the following one handed setup:

Jalal's
Ravenfrost
Dual leech + res ring ( I have one, so I'd use it)
Highlord's
Guardian Angel
Gore Rider
Dracul's
Verdungo's or 8/15 String (Depends on how much life tap is casting)
Stormshield
Stormlash
Switch: Tomb Reaver with enough WIAS to hit the fastest frame possible.

Lucky

[B4zz]

Just a note: don't limit yourself to Schaeffer's, you won't be swinging faster than 7fpa with it, while using Stormlash you can go down as far as 5fpa and you get additional crushing blow.

5fpa, for this i need to put a shael in it right?


Jalal's
Ravenfrost
Dual leech + res ring ( I have one, so I'd use it)
Highlord's
Guardian Angel
Gore Rider
Dracul's
Verdungo's or 8/15 String (Depends on how much life tap is casting)
Stormshield
Stormlash
Switch: Tomb Reaver with enough WIAS to hit the fastest frame possible.


k, i know what to get now, i really like this setup, thanks a lot for all the replies, really would have gone for shaeffers just for the damage, not thinking about the speed at all.

thanks too for the 2handed options, but i really don't like to build a melee char that isn't able to hide behind his shield, unless i can get my hands on a very cheap tomb reaver, but else i fully agree storm/lash is the way to go..

[Full_Circle]

Jalal's
Ravenfrost
Dual leech + res ring ( I have one, so I'd use it)
Highlord's
Guardian Angel
Gore Rider
Dracul's
Verdungo's or 8/15 String (Depends on how much life tap is casting)
Stormshield
Stormlash
Lucky

Looks like a decent set-up, but I'm curious where you plan to get resists...

even if you Um everything you can...
Jalal's - 45 all
Res all ring (I'll assume 15 all) - 15
GA - 15
SS - 22
3 Quests - 30
plus some CR and LR (SS and Highlords)

= 127% all, with decent CR and LR.
You need 190 to max out everything with GA in Hell, and that's a LOT of res charms. :cheesy:

I don't know what exactly I'd change, just thought I'd point that out. Maybe if you have enough good res charms, you can go with that set-up, though. :scratch:

[Full_Circle]

had a little time to think about it, and here's the change I'd make...

either swap Drac's for LoH (what I think I'd do) :thumbsup:
or
swap Gores for Aldur's Boots

either way you gain 50% FR which you desperately need, and either IAS for LoH or life for Aldurs. You'll still need a fair amount of charms, but it's doable.

:drink:

[stevethatsmyname]

meh... i dont think GA would be best for fury druid, just my 2 cents.

[Full_Circle]

maybe I need to make a fury druid again... I can't seem to stop posting on this thread :lol:

just a few switch weapon options -

1) Chant - Demon Limb. fire damage is small, but the AR boost is nice.

2) Pre-Buff - DCC or Fleshrender + Sigons. a little bonus to oak, bear, and ww.

3) Life Tap Charges Wand - Probably not worth it unless you plan on fighting a certain clone.


Also, one more point on the gear. Atma's Scarab to break physical immunities may be your best bet. I like AMP... AMP is nice.

[tooie1]

Stinger is right, an upped ribcracker is by far (IMHO) the best WW weapon.

Here are it's stats for a 275% ED:

Two-Hand: 311-466 (388.5 avg)
+50% Chance of Crushing Blow
+15 to Dexterity
+100 Defense
+100% Enhanced Defense
+50% Faster Hit Recovery
+50% Increased Attack Speed
+100 Durability
+50% Damage to Undead (blunt weapon bonus)

Reqs:

63 Str
35 Dex
Lvl - 56

That's a WHOLE lot of points to put in vit

My setup - which is a lot cheaper than the others that have been mentioned

Jalal's (not socketed)
Lionheart Scarab Husk
Upped Rib (only 262%) /w shael
Rare +1 SS Skill/resist all ammy
Rare Mana leach/resist gloves
Carrion Wind (if you want to use rabies - I can take it or leave it, can always swap out with raven)
Life leach/resist ring
Infernostride
Rare belt with str/life/resist (IK also works)
Resist/life/dmg charms (nothing great)

Lvl 78
154 Str (like +70 from items)
79 Dex
363 Vit
50 Eng

Standard skill setup except I maxxed rabies to try out carrion bug and I don't max werewolf since there's no need to unless you need AR. I also just put 1 pt in sage since it's not too useful in hell. I put ~10 each in wolf/bear and use bear. Might merc with reapers/eth duriels/tals completes the setup.

3.2 K life
3 - 4.6K fury
~9K rabies
resist maxxed except for cold

I've made shield druids but I never liked them, to each his own. Leeping Bstar/Timats on switch for PIs still works.

[Slash]

if you are thinking of soloing hell, you are really going to need some elemental damage. With that in mind i chose the IK set.

Using IK maul(sheal/hel---5 frame fury), gloves, belt, and boots you get WELL over 1K elemental damage. Resist is a small problem, so try and get um for your jalas. The str req turns out to be about 180, but you cvan use some nice big armour also. I solod hell succefully...died in chaos to IM but thats a different story :)

I liked it, it was fast, and preetypowerful...not as good as what stinger said but it lets you solo hell.

[NightShade]

Assuming you have res to make up for it, this is what I'd probably go for :

ColdSteel eye Upped
Highlords
Gore riders
Blood crafted gloves (CB)


That'd be my wepons set up.

that's 70% + Chance to DS, CB (In a pinch I'd consider dropping the jalals.)

[kenshinlod]

i built a fury druid last season and got him thru hell and stopped about around lvl 80.

anyway, i built him around the ik set as suggested by some people in the druid forum.

here was the set up.
jalals
ik maul
ik armor
ik belt
ik boots
ik gloves
carrion wind
raven frost
highlords

i thought he was pretty powerful and didn't have any trouble with any monsters (besides the oblivion knights). the maul gets nice elemental dmg with the other sets and the glove gets dual leach. armor gets good res and belt has 20% dmg reduction.

closing thoughts. i did that carrion wind bug with rabies. if i had to do it over again i wouldn't pump up rabies at all since i was killing fine with just fury even for the PIs. i would max fury, oak, lyncanthropy and maybe werewolf. ravens are useful since they blind enemies (gloams, etc.) and the dire wolves are good meat shield. the merc used bonehew but didn't have reapers(decre) or reaver(returns) which would be better IMO.

kenshin

[ZounceHC]

This is the Druid I want to make:

Stormlash / SS
Jalals
Lionheart
Highlords
Gore Riders
Draculs
TGods
Ravenfrost / Probably start with manald and get Dual Leech later.

Then make up Resists in charms if i'm lacking.

I want to max Heart of the wolverine instead of sage as I think i'll have good life already and want to be able to kill fast and possibly duel when he's finished. Do you guys think it's viable to do this or is it too big a sacrifice to life? I was thinking 1h Druid w Wolverine > 2h Druid w Oak?