nooblish kind of pvm-werebear question

[bohne]

I don't even know where to start...
well, after a long break I started playing dia again, afew months ago... I haven't had access to the 'net from home untill yesterday, so obviously it's been in sp.
After some fun with a necromancer and no fun with an assassin, i ventured back to druids. No, that is not my problem, I'm coming to that now.

My problem seems to be hell, or probably 1.1, I don't know, I'm not that firm with that patch yet.

My werebear, lvl 78 is dying in act 1 hell. :( so far he's got about 1,3k life, res are all about +50, but somehow he's dead meat once he gets surrounded. I'm using a double-shael bonehew, I'v got a shaftstop on, I'm getting cbf from deaths sash(also got the gloves) rest of equipment is rares.

any ideas?

ah, and skills are basicaly wb, lyc, maul and oak. my ar isn't too good... but i haven't found a raven yet.

peace,
aka

[TurbulentTurtle]

Is the problem the AR? Is that why you die so frequently? Because you cannot hit the monsters? If so, just try to find some Attack Rating charms (Steel ____ charm).
Or you can do what I did to my Druid, Angelic ammy and Angelic ring. Both of those items gives a massive AR set bonus,around 930 for you if I'm not mistaken.

Does that help?

[bohne]

Is the problem the AR? Is that why you die so frequently? Because you cannot hit the monsters? If so, just try to find some Attack Rating charms (Steel ____ charm).
Or you can do what I did to my Druid, Angelic ammy and Angelic ring. Both of those items gives a massive AR set bonus,around 930 for you if I'm not mistaken.

Does that help?

The problem is that I don't know why I'm dying. :)
It might be the ar, but unfortunately I haven't found the angelic amu, yet.
I tried angelic ring+armor to see if the ar would help - and it did raise my ar significantly, but alas - my defence... well, i don't know, my ar gets me to around 75-80% to hit monsters in act 1 hell, is that enough? I have a bunch of steel charms, but then i would have to sacrifice a lot of res which, currently, are coming mainly from charms. what would you consider more important: high res or higher ar?
or maybe you're just not supposed to go wandering about in hell alone... but at that lvl?

another thing that came to me as I'm writing this is fhr... i don't think i got any - it didn't use to be that much of a problem in days past... could it be now?

thanks for the reply so far.

peace,
aka

[TheUnchosen]

Bohne,

I've heard 1.10 patch, the monsters are ALOT harder than 1.09 monsters.
Maybe your character is fine but you're not accustomed to the harder monsters.

Basically.......you suck. :D

[mepersoner]

Bohne, your life is horribly low, and you need to carry around some pots to heal with. You're not leeching much life in 1.10 now and you need pots to stay alive.

[TurbulentTurtle]

Bohne,

I've heard 1.10 patch, the monsters are ALOT harder than 1.09 monsters.
Maybe your character is fine but you're not accustomed to the harder monsters.

Basically.......you suck. :D
:lol:

It might also be some of the gear you're using. You have to pay a king's ransom to stay alive and solo hell.
As for the AR thing, 80% should be pretty good. I don't know what's going on...

I might have to agree with Unchosen on this one :/

[bohne]

Well then, sounds as if my assumption is true. Hell just isn't for soloing as a melee-char.
Dang, I think I got lucky when I started playing with a necro - he got through all of hell except baal himself. I think it would have been a lot more frustrating if i never got through the first act.

hmpf, well... I think I'll have to do some more runs and stash more nice things and throw away the pride and use more pots... it's just that sometimes i just die too quick... like for example from those pesky cold-enchanted archers.

k, thanks
aka

EDIT: did i say oak up there? I meant how of course. I'm stupid. and tired.

[Summoned]

it's just that sometimes i just die too quick... like for example from those pesky cold-enchanted archers.
About those cold-enchanted archers... happens to everyone.

Edit: Especially if they're skeletal and you can't leech off of them.

[bohne]

About those cold-enchanted archers... happens to everyone.

Edit: Especially if they're skeletal and you can't leech off of them.

Problem is that I sometimes can't even get close enough to leech. Probably shouldn't try. *sigh*
Well, ok.
Kind of ok, anyways.
Do people still play hardcore?

peace,
aka

[mepersoner]

Maximize your damage and life. Get decent leech, but as a bear I'd just focus on picking up rejuvs, your physcical damage will take awhile to build up, and you don't have feral to maximize with.

[Dimoak]

Spam Shockwave.

[mepersoner]

Don't spam it, just use it once, charge in and get some attacks off, repeat.

[Dimoak]

Don't spam it, just use it once, charge in and get some attacks off, repeat.
No, spam it and stun every monster and pick them off ez.

[mepersoner]

Err, you don't need to spam it, just need to hit the group with it, and then rush in. Spamming it could run you out of mana pretty quick.

[Dimoak]

Okay, spam til you're mana bulb is say 2/3 gone and then leech off them while they're sitting there like 'durr'. My maul bear got through hell without too much trouble..and he had like upd cracker/lionheart/jalals.

[mepersoner]

Cracker is the best weapon ever. It looks cool, has cool mods, and best of all, makes the coolest sound in the game.

[bohne]

I used cracker up to erm, lvl 70 or something, but alas - in sp you can't upgrade it, and bonehew is also quite quick.
Hm, I should have thought about shockwave, but never liked that skill a lot. But then again, i never knew where to go with all those skill points left, hrhr...
thanks!
peace,
aka

[QuickShifter]

I used cracker up to erm, lvl 70 or something, but alas - in sp you can't upgrade it, and bonehew is also quite quick.
Hm, I should have thought about shockwave, but never liked that skill a lot. But then again, i never knew where to go with all those skill points left, hrhr...
thanks!
peace,
aka

A good tactic for shockwave is to have it assigned to a hotkey on the RMB
(right mouse button. Also have your attack(s) on the RMB.
Now when you encounter a group of monsters, hold down the RMB and choose an attack (most players choose maul for PvM) when you get in range of them change the attack to Shockwave with the hotkey, and when all are stunned switch back to Maul. With this method you get a seamless and fast shift between your attacks and shockwave. Before I learned this my werbears had alot of trouble.

Good luck

[Summoned]

but alas - in sp you can't upgrade it
That's incorrect info. :p

[SaiyajinGuitarist]

Ok let me try this again. I was half way through a rather lengthly reply and my computer froze. Lost it all. I hate electronics.

AS I WAS SAYING..... I have somethings for you to concider. Here they are.

Carrion vine. Even just 1 pt is enough. Massive leech that uses % of your life total instead of % of dmg like regualr leech. This could be extremly useful in hell since phys leech is nerfed so bad. An added bonus is that it serves as an extra target/tank. (not so much a tank cuz of low life but... hey) Useful for breaking up packs and luring them to you. Plus you can clear out resurrecting pricks and be done with them.

Shockwave. I know its already been mentioned but I thought it would be good to drive the point home.

Ravens. Who cares about the dmg. Its crap anyway. The best part about these guys is what they can do to enemy AI. They can blind (huge when your dealing with them archers) and they can confuse the hell out of other guys. Trying to target them sometimes. Weird. Plus they look kinda cool. Following you around cuz they know your a STONE COLD KILLER and their next meal is only seconds away. :P j/p.

A quick gear note. Get something with Dim vision charges (if you dont use ravens). Unshift and hit those pricks with it before they see you and then bear mode and Heman pimpslap em before they see again. Life tap charges are fairly easy to shop too.

Hope some of that stuff proves useful to you. It sounds handy anyway. Good luck.

[bohne]

Wow, that's a bunch of good ideas.
I should have asked earlier - I'll have to do a bunch of lvlups in nm first, it seems.
Thanks a lot!

@Summoned:
Hmmm, I start believing that most of those "Online-Realms only" aren't in fact what they're called. I've allready seen three Gheeds Fortunes so far. So why not try upgrading stuff that shouldn't work? Unfortunately I've only got one pul... and saving it for a runeword.

thanks all of you

peace,
aka