I need some help with PvP fury/rabies druid.

[Kefir-Tribe]

I'm building a PvP fury/rabies druid for a BM single player tourney (SPF:ers look away, my plans are super secret). Planned gear is...

...vs melee.
Jalal's Mane (Um)
Stone
Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Dracul's Grasp
Gore Rider
Raven Frost
Raven Frost
Highlord's Wrath
Griswold's Redemption (3x Sheal + Eth)
Stormshield (Sheal)

...vs caster.
Jalal's Mane (Um)
Guardian Angel (Um)
M'avina's Tenet
Trang-Oul's Claws
Natalya's Soul
Raven Frost (or Dwarf Star)
Raven Frost
The Cat's Eye
Tomb Reaver (2x Shael +ed jewel)

...vs smiter.
Jalal's Mane (Um)
Shaftstop (Um)
Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Cleglaw's Pincers
Gore Rider
Raven Frost
Raven Frost
Highlord's Wrath
Tomb Reaver (2x Shael +ed jewel)

...vs trappers/FoH.
Jalal's Mane (Um)
Guardian Angel (Um)
M'avina's Tenet
Trang-Oul's Claws
Natalya's Soul
Raven Frost
Raven Frost
The Cat's Eye
Lightsabre (Sheal)
Stormshield (Sheal)

On switch PB with poison facets, CtA and Lidless.
Charms: 9x Spiritual GCs (mostly plain), 2x Sharp LCs (5dex, 19 life) and the rest fine small charms or resist charms depending on opponent.

Note that the tourney probably is going to take place in hell. The problem... Life. I get around 3000 while others talking about 5k-8k. What am I doing wrong? The AR isn't good either. Probably going to end up around 15k with melee charms. Please help.

Regards
Kefir

[Forcefeedback]

If you are playing with self found gear, congrats on all the drops! :xmas22:

It looks like your equipment is well thought out considering the limitations. If you happen to have numerous zod's lying aroung :bonk: make a BotD in a 1.07 berserker axe and you won't be dissappointed.

Make sure you've got enough stacked lightning resist for conviction against foh pallies. Same goes for cold resist against cold sorcs. It wouldn't hurt if other resist too were a bit over the maximum incase of facets etc.

Since you are building a hybrid, you sacrifice your attack rating by leaving werewolf skill lower or your life by leaving oak sage lower or a combination of these. In return you get another form of attack, which is strategically very useful for PvP.

[Kefir-Tribe]

If you are playing with self found gear, congrats on all the drops! :xmas22:

It looks like your equipment is well thought out considering the limitations. If you happen to have numerous zod's lying aroung :bonk: make a BotD in a 1.07 berserker axe and you won't be dissappointed.

Make sure you've got enough stacked lightning resist for conviction against foh pallies. Same goes for cold resist against cold sorcs. It wouldn't hurt if other resist too were a bit over the maximum incase of facets etc.

Since you are building a hybrid, you sacrifice your attack rating by leaving werewolf skill lower or your life by leaving oak sage lower or a combination of these. In return you get another form of attack, which is strategically very useful for PvP.
Thank you for your reply. The items are self-found except for the skillers and some facets, which I've traded for in the SP trading forum. No zods lying around but some lucky bastards in this tourney got botd, enigma etc.

I think I'm going to change the melee armor for Lionheart to save stats and get more life. About the caster armor though. Do you think it's better change GA for some high resist light armor like um'ed Viper, Smoke or Gloom? My stash space is pretty limited because of all equipment changes so I don't know how much resist charms I can squeeze in.

[xpumafangx]

Keep the shaftstop, and switch out ga for a high resist all armor. Dont use stone armor. Remaber to use shaftstop+verds belt vs windy druids. Because of the damage they do is phy. Also pruby your shaftstop for 98 life on it. That will get muti by werewolf, oak, and bo. Where plus to life per level items will not get effected by that. I do see your point to um runing the shaftstop because alot of vindacators are also templers. You might be wiser to use ort runes for the 30% resist lighting over the um rune.

One of the main things about werewolfs beating vindacator. Is that the weapon the werewolf uses have 3 key things about them; range 5-4, 1k max damage, and 5-4fps fury. I only see you getting 2 of those things. I am worryed that your low damage and low life will get you killed by a well built vindacator.

Also for melee vs melee builds you will need a really high attack ratting when fighting builds that have a really high def. You should not worry much about this. Only because anglic rings, amulet, and a demonlimb enchant will take care of this. You will have really low def no matter what you do, why I said toss the stone armor out. Then again your on single player. You did say bm turny but it does not sound like your going to cheat via items.?.??..

One sleeze ball trick I keep up my sleeve when doing turnys is to know who your dueling what they use, and counter it. Im glad your finding out stuff about who your dueling. That is a great thing find out alot more!
Like for say vers elemental users I like to get around 50% aboseb in the element that they are using. It really makes them mad.

[Kefir-Tribe]

Keep the shaftstop, and switch out ga for a high resist all armor. Dont use stone armor. Remaber to use shaftstop+verds belt vs windy druids. Because of the damage they do is phy. Also pruby your shaftstop for 98 life on it. That will get muti by werewolf, oak, and bo. Where plus to life per level items will not get effected by that. I do see your point to um runing the shaftstop because alot of vindacators are also templers. You might be wiser to use ort runes for the 30% resist lighting over the um rune.

One of the main things about werewolfs beating vindacator. Is that the weapon the werewolf uses have 3 key things about them; range 5-4, 1k max damage, and 5-4fps fury. I only see you getting 2 of those things. I am worryed that your low damage and low life will get you killed by a well built vindacator.

Also for melee vs melee builds you will need a really high attack ratting when fighting builds that have a really high def. You should not worry much about this. Only because anglic rings, amulet, and a demonlimb enchant will take care of this. You will have really low def no matter what you do, why I said toss the stone armor out. Then again your on single player. You did say bm turny but it does not sound like your going to cheat via items.?.??..

One sleeze ball trick I keep up my sleeve when doing turnys is to know who your dueling what they use, and counter it. Im glad your finding out stuff about who your dueling. That is a great thing find out alot more!
Like for say vers elemental users I like to get around 50% aboseb in the element that they are using. It really makes them mad.
Thank you for your input.

I agree that a perfect ruby in the shaft is probably best. But I don't need shaft when using Storm + Verdungo's so for one-handed melee I need something else. I was thinking Stone for the FHR but I'm leaning towards Lionheart because of the nice stats/life/ed bonus. With 15 dex on it I can save 15 hard points from dex to vita. Other options I've thought of is Arkaine's Valor (mostly for the skill bonus) and a Jeweller’s Gothic Plate of the Centaur (4x Pruby) which would increase life with ~1,1k. Any recommendations?

About AR. I'm worried about that when changing to Angelic combo I'll lose dex ---> Chance of blocking. Maybe it's not that significant.

About the BM part. The point of the tourney is that "everything goes" but you get a score penalty for using "BM tactics" like enigma teleport, charges of enchant etc. The only penalty I'll get (I think) is for using Life Tap, Slow and Knockback. The only item combination that isn't allowed as it seems right now is stacking the two types of absorb (i.e. Blackoak + Raven).

I don't know that much about the competition but there'll be teleporting hammerdins, trappers, poison/bone necros, blizz sorcs and the almost legendary BvA barb TUB.

[Zhao_Yue]

Another thing you should consider is replacing the Guardian Angel with a frw armour or a 4 x Thul vs Blizz Sorcs/4 Ort vs FoH. GA is a heavy armour which will slow you down and catching running/tele casters will be difficult. Also, going against negative resist casters without stacked resists will hurt quite abit.

Vs Smiter and trappers try to get at least 48 FHR to reach the 5 frames hit recovery because they will try to stun lock you if they can. Another useful strategy is to charge feral rage on an opponent/minion, makes them much easier to catch if they break free.

Who has 5k-8k life? The most I believe is TUB with 5.3k, unless new duelers have recently emerged. I'll only have 1.7 at most, so I'll be in worst shape than you! I'll give you credit for entering a shapeshifter in a tournament full of teleporters, it will take some patience to play. Since I've seen you build, I'll tell you that I'll be entering a special Liberator, so you'll be dogding hammers when you face me. :xmas17:

Good Luck! :xmas30:

[Kefir-Tribe]

Another thing you should consider is replacing the Guardian Angel with a frw armour or a 4 x Thul vs Blizz Sorcs/4 Ort vs FoH. GA is a heavy armour which will slow you down and catching running/tele casters will be difficult. Also, going against negative resist casters without stacked resists will hurt quite abit.

Vs Smiter and trappers try to get at least 48 FHR to reach the 5 frames hit recovery because they will try to stun lock you if they can. Another useful strategy is to charge feral rage on an opponent/minion, makes them much easier to catch if they break free.

Who has 5k-8k life? The most I believe is TUB with 5.3k, unless new duelers have recently emerged. I'll only have 1.7 at most, so I'll be in worst shape than you! I'll give you credit for entering a shapeshifter in a tournament full of teleporters, it will take some patience to play. Since I've seen you build, I'll tell you that I'll be entering a special Liberator, so you'll be dogding hammers when you face me.

Good Luck!
Oh no, my evil plans are revealed ;). I've considered the 4 x ort/thul/ral approach and I don't know. Maybe it's better then smoke + changing charms. Each armor means 6 squares of stash while 9 SCs means 9. On the other hand smoke gives 20 FHR which solves the FHR problem.

When I stated 5k-8k I was referring to the mysterious werewolves that appear in all PvP guides. I've never passed 4k with any character. Maybe it's base strength with enigma and >40:scared: life on the skillers that does the trick.

I'm looking forward to meet your... little friend :).

[xpumafangx]

That could be me if your on uswest or another member of wolfpack. UMMM ya its not hard get really low str for items as low as you can go. Get just enuff dex most of the time its alot less. Go with 2 handed weapons and put the rest into vit. You dont even need bo. But 6 bo plus 2 from cta, 1 from anni, and 2 from spirit sheilds, gives you like lvl 11 bo. I get way up in the 8ks. I brag 10k life but I dont remaber the last time I saw that amount. From like level 50 some thing bo from a barb warcryer,I think.

[Kefir-Tribe]

That could be me if your on uswest or another member of wolfpack. UMMM ya its not hard get really low str for items as low as you can go. Get just enuff dex most of the time its alot less. Go with 2 handed weapons and put the rest into vit. You dont even need bo. But 6 bo plus 2 from cta, 1 from anni, and 2 from spirit sheilds, gives you like lvl 11 bo. I get way up in the 8ks. I brag 10k life but I dont remaber the last time I saw that amount. From like level 50 some thing bo from a barb warcryer,I think.
Yeah, but even with base strength and ~150 in base dex a lot of life from other sources is needed.

[xpumafangx]

Mine has alot less dex then your thinking. Think below 75 some where. Maybe even way below. We don't use sheilds. So we dont need dex. O and :xmas10:

[Kefir-Tribe]

Mine has alot less dex then your thinking. Think below 75 some where. Maybe even way below. We don't use sheilds. So we dont need dex. O and :xmas10:
How do you get away with no blocking in PvP? Are you just duelling casters?

[xpumafangx]

ya its really good vers windys, smiters, and well basicly any attacks that you can't block. Also range becomes very inportant i use shift fury alot. So I am never right next to who I am fighting.

I will make a werewolf with a sheild soon but thats honestly just for werewolfs vs werewolf. At that point ill be using a ebotd zerk, 2 200, 20, ravenfrosts, highlords, duress, verd, storm shealed, duress, dracs, 4 skilled bite helm and gores.

[Kefir-Tribe]

I have one more question. Is it worth putting a point in Raven, spirit wolf and perhaps even dire wolf to cause block animations and to get targets for GA and BS?

[Forcefeedback]

1 point in raven and spirit wolves. Keep all the wolves out so you get 5 extra targets.

[Kefir-Tribe]

1 point in raven and spirit wolves. Keep all the wolves out so you get 5 extra targets.

Okay, thanks.

[stoutewolf]

BM right? i mylsef am a GM player but here is maybe an option to get lots of life if u have a bit of patience:



use 39 20life scs to cast werewolf, u should be able to get lots of life, after u are i shapeform u switch back to the charms u were using

[Kefir-Tribe]

BM right? i mylsef am a GM player but here is maybe an option to get lots of life if u have a bit of patience:



use 39 20life scs to cast werewolf, u should be able to get lots of life, after u are i shapeform u switch back to the charms u were using
If that works it's an interesting idea. Though I don't have 40 (39?!) small charms of vita I could fill my inventory with life charms. The problem is that I don't have a single square free space in my stash for them.

[Rangniheldr]

That could be me if your on uswest or another member of wolfpack. UMMM ya its not hard get really low str for items as low as you can go. Get just enuff dex most of the time its alot less. Go with 2 handed weapons and put the rest into vit. You dont even need bo. But 6 bo plus 2 from cta, 1 from anni, and 2 from spirit sheilds, gives you like lvl 11 bo. I get way up in the 8ks. I brag 10k life but I dont remaber the last time I saw that amount. From like level 50 some thing bo from a barb warcryer,I think.

I have 10246 life with my own bo + oak ;-)

[stoutewolf]

If that works it's an interesting idea. Though I don't have 40 (39?!) small charms of vita I could fill my inventory with life charms. The problem is that I don't have a single square free space in my stash for them.

sorry i ment 40 :),hmmm, only option in this case is to call a friend with the mule where the charms are, it will give u a big life boost

[stoutewolf]

sorry i ment 40 :),hmmm, only option in this case is to call a friend with the mule where the charms are, it will give u a big life boostway-too-late-edit: cast wereform with shapers, then switch to life sc inventory