Hungry Bear... To titan or not to titan?

[Guaicaipuro]

Yo.

So I had the crazy idea of making a WB whose main attack is hunger, so I'm going to max lycan, WB, HoW and hunger. As you all know, hunger carries a wonderful -75% damage penalty that makes the biting a much weaker attack than even a normal attack. My level 46 bear kills much faster in human form using a normal attack than he does as a bear using hunger.

I decided to solve this by equipping as much CB and DS as I could and making my attack as fast as the game would allow. It seems the absolute fastest bite I can get is 6fpa with an IK maul... The gear I've chosen so far is Jalal's, Highlord's, Duress, dual shaeled IK maul, Gore Riders, Raven Frost, a rare prismatic ring, and I'm undecided on the gloves. Might go LoH ftw against demons.

I'm also going to use a merc with might and a reaper's toll, so the decrep can help me further my damage.

So far I've put every single stat point into strength, making his base strength 245, and his gear enhances that stat up to 327. I wanted to make his base strength 255 in case I found him a CBasher. No dex, no vita, and of course no energy. Right now he's sitting tightly at around 700hp in A1 NM and things are going good...

My question is, should I keep pumping strength until the end, to maximize his damage as much as humanly possible? When I say that his damage sucks, it really sucks. Hunger damage is 401-684 using an upped 247% Steeldriver and level 2 maul is 1559-2599. Since this is a build that depends entirely on damage for survival, wouldn't putting points into vitality be a waste in itself?

Should I just make him a titan?

Discuss.

[Vang]

You maxing Maul? Its damage bonus transfers over.

[Guaicaipuro]

Nope, I'm going pure hunger.

[Rayder]

I myself have a level 80 something Hunger bear. He's very fun to play and has no problems killing things.

First off, I'm going to give you the pure Hunger route. Max Maul. Maul will increase your leeching capabilities to phenomonal heights, always good.

You're already maxing the other things that need to be maxed for pure Hunger, so that's good.

Now to the damage portion. Elemental. You want as much elemental damage as you can possibly get, as well as 100% Crushing Blow. DS won't make a difference as your physical damage is so small. However, it's not all about as much damage as you can get. What's 10k worth of damage if it takes you a minute to apply it? What you need is speed. A double-shaeled IK maul is a good start, but what you're looking for is a rare Feral Axe with the Of Quickness mod (40% IAS) and two sockets. You're going to socket this baby with a Shael and a 15% IAS jewel. With Hunger, this will give you a 4-frame attack right-off-the-bat. With douable-shaeled IK maul you get a 6-frame attack, fast but the least you want to be looking at.

[Omikron8]

why not an upped shaeled ribcracker ?

[Valvolux]

but what you're looking for is a rare Feral Axe with the Of Quickness mod (40% IAS) and two sockets.

Kind of hard weapon to come by IMO.

I've been toying with this idea for sometime now as well, I like the idea of Ik's maul if using a 2-handed, massive Elemental damage with 2 or more parts (which isn't cut by the -75% penalty).

If wanting to use a shield possible weapons are;

'Beast' Caddy - Nice Cb, Ow, and Ar for Fan (6fps)
Azurewrath - Huge magic and cold damage (5fps)
Horizon's Tornado - Could use synergies with the ctc nando for a 1k ctc nando (5fps)
Stormlash - Lightning, Cb, Static field (6fps)

I still think DS can play a vital part in this build, doubling your 500 physical damage is worthwhile IMO. Though Cb and elly damage should be your prime aims.

I'm not sure a pure titan build is worth it, tho if you can make up the lost in life with charms maybe it'll work.

[inkanddagger]

prebuff venom with trangs gloves and treachery?

[Griffin]

I think a "Titan" Hunger build sort of defeats the purpose of the skill. What's the point in leeching back huge amounts of life if your HP orb is too tiny to take advantage of that? As Rayder said, the real damage you deal will be all about Elemental and Crushing Blow. A weapon I haven't seen mentioned is Azurewrath: Shaeled or Fervored, and with a tiny amount of offweapon IAS (5-10%, i think), it hits 5 fpa Hunger. It also does massive magic/elemental damage. I'd definitely use that or the rare Feral Axe, if I had one.

[Rayder]

Forgive my horribly comprised post earlier, nothing seemed to be working right.

Now, some good points have been made weapon-wise. The best 1-handed weapon that just screams out to me is Azure Wrath. It's just so deliciously good, and with a 5-frame attack it's nice and fast. Azure Wrath is probably the best choice for everything but bosses or super-uniques.

For those bosses and super-uniques you want as much CB and elemental damage as possible (you should always have as much elemental damage as you can anyways) and a 4-frame attack. Of course, you don't need a 4-frame attack, but having 67% CB with a 4-frame attack is equivilant to having 100% CB with a 6-frame attack. This (http://home.comcast.net/~thedragoon/wereformadvanced.html) is a snazzy little calculator for were-form attack speeds. Very handy for figuring out your attack in frames.

As for stats, I suggest just enough Strength and Dexterity to use your items (remember, Feral Axes don't have any Dex reqs, but Azure Wrath does). You don't need any Energy as you'll be leeching so much back, which leaves us with everything else in Vitality. If you die in 2 hits your amazing leeching abilities will be worthless.

Spirt-wise, you can go HoW or Oak. HoW means you have better leeching and can hit better, an Oak will increase your already huge amount of life. Not too hard of a choice, really, just go with whichever you feel like (and it seems you've taken to the Wolverine.

And as for your comment

"Since this is a build that depends entirely on damage for survival, wouldn't putting points into vitality be a waste in itself?"

This build, as do all builds really, depends on its damage to survive. However, it depends on its elemental damage not its physical. The physical damage is for pure leeching purposes only. At level 1, Hunger leeches back 75% health and mana. Meaning if you did 10 physical damage, 7.5 points of health and mana would be returned to you (disregarding all resistances, difficulties, etc.). More physical damage merely means you'll leech more, which is always good, but you can have only 1 point in Hunger and still be more than Hell-viable.

[Valvolux]

A weapon I haven't seen mentioned is Azurewrath

I swear no one reads what I post! :shocked:

Good call on the Venom Ink.

[Guaicaipuro]

I will definitely take the elemental damage comments into account, and will begin the hunt for that. I already have a demon limb put aside for weapon switch to be used for its enchant charges, so there will be a little bit coming from there.

The reason I wanted to go titan on this guy was to be different and see how much phys. damage I could get to deal with this guy using what might be one of the most underestimated attacks in the game. I was even thinking of Steelrend to boost my damage further as I have a very good pair laying around (58%), but as I'm told, that wouldn't do much for me.

The Azurewrath option is interesting but I'm not the current owner of that fantastic little sword, unfortunately...

[Quietus]

What about dual dreams? Even without synergizing, this should give 1-1600+ lightning damage, correct? To me, that seems rather... obscene, at a constant four frames.

[Rayder]

Dual Dreams could work, but you'd be restricted to 1-handed weapons, of which only a 6-Shaeled Phase Blade and Griswold's Redemption with a Shael and 3 15% IAS jewels can reach 4-frames without OIAS (too tired to look to see if there are others, probably are but meh). Which would leave us with Azurewrath as our weapon, which is in no way bad. For non-bosses/super-uniques, dual Dreams works fine. But for bosses and super-uniques, you'd be better off using Guilliame's Face for the 35% CB. You could still use the shield of course, or switch to a 4-frame weapon so you can maximize the 100% CB you should have :)

[xpumafangx]

Dual Dreams could work, but you'd be restricted to 1-handed weapons, of which only a 6-Shaeled Phase Blade and Griswold's Redemption with a Shael and 3 15% IAS jewels can reach 4-frames without OIAS (too tired to look to see if there are others, probably are but meh). Which would leave us with Azurewrath as our weapon, which is in no way bad. For non-bosses/super-uniques, dual Dreams works fine. But for bosses and super-uniques, you'd be better off using Guilliame's Face for the 35% CB. You could still use the shield of course, or switch to a 4-frame weapon so you can maximize the 100% CB you should have :)


Ok your a smart one:thumbsup: . But still when I was working with hunger I never ever needed a sheild. I was all ways able to kill monster with pure damage alone. Not only that but I was playing a werewolf. To top it off your talking about using a werebear? That means you get a alot more damage then I would using the same skill. So what if it removes damage. That does not mean to replace it all together. The bottom line is to do alot phy damage from your weapon. No you wont be doing as much as mual or fury. But it will kill in hell.

Also I am suprised no one here has even said a word about hunger being anti iron maiden..

If you want me to go over the numbers with you fine. Just ask me too.

[Guaicaipuro]

Dream sounds really cool, but I play SPlayer and my chances of finding a Jah are... Slim to none. I've decided to stock up on as much elem. damage as humanly possible while going the titan route and see how it works. I'll report back when he reaches Patriarchship.

[Rayder]

Ok your a smart one:thumbsup: . But still when I was working with hunger I never ever needed a sheild. I was all ways able to kill monster with pure damage alone. Not only that but I was playing a werewolf. To top it off your talking about using a werebear? That means you get a alot more damage then I would using the same skill. So what if it removes damage. That does not mean to replace it all together. The bottom line is to do alot phy damage from your weapon. No you wont be doing as much as mual or fury. But it will kill in hell.

Also I am suprised no one here has even said a word about hunger being anti iron maiden..

If you want me to go over the numbers with you fine. Just ask me too.

Well, a Werewolf can't reach 4-frames with Hunger without some serious WIAS, which leaves you with a 6-Shaeled Phase Blade, or a Feral Axe with 98% WIAS. This in turn leaves you lacking for some extra elemental damage from you weapon. Also, besides offering more damage Werebear gives you more life for each point in Lycanthropy, which fits in with the idea of Hunger being able to leech back all of your life in super-fast time.

As for the physical damage, yeah, the more of that the more you leech back, but it gets reduced by 75%, so you'd need a lot of it to be truely effective.

For Iron Maiden, it all depends on how much physical damage you do. It's really up to you to decide if you can give more than you take, because even with low damage you'll still be hurting due to the insane damage returns from IM. In the end, you're the judge on it.

[xpumafangx]

Amp by its self takes care of any need for elemental damage. Elemental damage is just another way to deal with phy immues. I mainly use elemental damage for phy immues. But thats by skill damage or just dealing out alot of hits. No I was not trying to get a 4 fps hunger attack. You can do just as well with a 5fps or 6fps.

Good luck, Guaicaipuro.