What is the definitive PVM Fury build? (is rabies PVM viable?)

[Neomaxim]

I'm essentially building my first melee-centric Druid with no desire to twink him at all. Built from scratch, what is the most PVM viable build (ladder, softcore).

I am suspecting it'll be a vanilla Fury build, probably suplimented by Feral Rage right? Or is a maxed Rabies build a way to go?

I'm looking for survivability I suppose, but kill-speed is nice.


Likewise a couple quick questions...


Stats, where am I distributing? I assume every Fury build goes two-hander so is Dex sort of needless as I won't be going max-block and have so many skills that raise hit-chance?


Edit: BTW, I don't care how PVP nerfed I am. I don't intend to play PVP at all, so if that helps....

[Kiba]

Rabie's wont help much in Pvm , my rabie's can do 28k and that wont even kill an act 1 hell Zombie but it does kill weak little monster's.... rabie's would be a waste of point's for pvm.
I maxed Dire Wolf's as one of my extra skill's for my pvm wolf and they do help a lot , and who wouldn't want cool wolfie's too run by your Side???
What's your budget for Gear?
I usaully use a eth tomb or ebotd greater poleaxe with a one hand weapn (ebotd Z )and Stormsheild on switch for safety. This mean's i use enough dex for max block.

If you do go pure 2 hand only enough dex too use wep is needed. I suggest an Ebotd Greater Poleaxe.

And few extra tip's , Hand's down in my opinion the best thing you can do for your fury druid in pvm is too use an Atma's Scarab ammy for the amp curse and slap a Reaper's Toll on an act2 merc for Decrepify , these will allow you too Dominate any monster in hell mode Including Physical Immune's!

Good Luck , Awoooo!!!
*Kiba

[sablast]

Max lycantrophy, fury, werewolf. Go two handed, no shield at all.
Rest of the points you can put in dire wolfs and one in bear, that way you'll have great tank. Also if you'll have problems surviving you can put couple of points in feral rage, that can be very helpfull. Regardless, always use feral rage whether you have 1 point or more in it.
Maxing feral rage is a bit useless, do it only if you have really crappy damage.

I wouldn't recommend maxing oak, but you can put one point in it and see if you like it or not and then consider maxing it.
Like ElohimWolf stated, deal with PI by casting amp (atma scarab or lacerator on switch) or decrepify (reapers toll on mercenary or switch), I always use lacerator for that purpose.
Rabies won't help you much, maybe on p1, poison creeper is more usefull for pvm then rabies

[Zigot_HD]

Why not :

Max Werewolf
Max Fury
Max Lycan
Max Oak

( standard fury druid build )

One point to summon Grizz for tank ( more into summon later on if you like more tank.)
Rest into poison/ or cold armor ( for those elemental - cast before shapeshift )

Save some stat point ( for placing in dext to get max block if you re-consider killing those PKer : slap a storm shield/grief on ladder then you have a nasty Melee PvP druid )

Go 2 hander in 90% of the time.... ( Bonehew , tomb reaver, ribcraker - up rib ( my favorite fury weapom ) , eth feral oath, ebotd GP )

Atma, lacerator for PI

Right mouse feral, left mouse fury, always cast-recast oak, raven, wolf/bear, poison

Z

[Neomaxim]

Thanks guys. All of this is much appreciated.


So how useful does said Creeper end up being if I choose to go that route?

[xpumafangx]

creeper is more of a pvp summons. It has a low life. But it has a really smart ai. Smart for most summons do. It will not get hit by missle attacks. The only problem with poison creeper is that when it gets attacked by a large group of melee monsters. It will get killed.

But if you attack a windy with it. It will kill them if they stand still. And if the windy has like 5 spirit wolves out it does more damage. The only thing a windy could do is have a melee merc, or a bear summons out.

[Omikron8]

20 lycan
20 fury
20 HoW
1-? werewolf (depending on your AR sources)

this is softcore, damage is king and the HoW survives often enough in hell to only require semi-frequent summoning

with 300+ vit and some charms you should be able to hit 2k+ shifted life which is enough for hell if you have decent res and leeching damage

[icicle]

Maxed Werewolf, Lycan, Fury, and either HoW or Oak Sage. One point into Raven and one point into Hunger (and pre-req).

Use 2 Ber'ed CoA, Fortitude, 3s eth Tomb with Zod, Dracu, Goreriders, Ravenfrost, BK ring, Highlord and fill your stash with SS lifers or 20life sc. Invest some points into strength, and minimal for dex (for equipment), and dump the rest into vitality.

You can hit 7/4/4/4/4 if you use 2x 40/15 + Zod on your Tomb or 6/4/4/4/4 if you use 2xShael + Zod. You'd probably have close to 50% deadly strike and your max damage can easily hit 20k.

With that kind of damage, you really don't need any dire wolfs or bear to tank. If you encounter Oblivion Knights/Death Knights, switch to Hunger instead of Fury. Works well for my wolfie.

[HSoB nightwalker]

Why not use an EBoTD archon staff? Seems like this might be better, doing more average dmg and less requirements than Great Poleaxe anyway. I guess it has somewhat slower attack speed and less range than said Great Poleaxe..