Feral Rage?

[NecromanSassin]

I play exclusively untwinked, for the most part, and really want to make a druid I've never made before. On Feral RageI like the life leech, IAS, and FRW on it, and it looks like a real cool attack. Would Heart of Wolverine and Charrion Vine be a good combo? Oak Sage is really boring, and with the + damage from HoW, my leech would be pretty sufficient?

Any input would be greatly appreciated :grin:

Also, any tipd from people who have done it would be great.

Thanks :prop:

[Kiba]

Feral rage is a great skill for pvm , the leech and frw is awesome when its fully charged.

Its a one point wonder and doesnt need anymore then 1 skill point in it to be effective. Use it with fury just charge up with feral rage and then start swingin away with fury since the leech will carry over to fury as long as the red ball is active and every 10 seconds just do another hit with feral rage to keep the ball spinning.

HoW should work pretty good in pvm since your attack will be high you will leech more life then you lose.

[NecromanSassin]

I know 1 pt + skill (from helm, gc, etc.) makes Feral Rage a one point wonder, especially with Fury.

(For the next part, assume that I am using the "Max Leech on Rage, then switch to another move" combo.)
So Feral Rage, at level 6, has +75% damage. Would that cancel out the Hunger DR? If so, would Feral Rage/Hunger/HoW be a O.K. combo?
Does DR go before +x% damage, or do they get added in the calculator first (ex. 90+(-75)=15) and then applied to damage?
Also, would leech from Feral Rage and Hunger add up, or would one cancel out the other?

One more little fun fact: IF the leech from Feral Rage and Hunger IS added together, one would have 264 life steal at 20 skill points in each :p. Also, with level 20 Feral Rage, Hunger, and HoW: damage is +223%, which is decent considering I'm not using Fury (again, considering I'm right with leech theory and damage theory with Hunger/+damage).

[Verashiden]

Feral Rage only adds the Leech and FRW to attacks. It's + damage only applies if you use that particular skill. Still, uber leeching Fury is a nice thing.

[NecromanSassin]

I thought FRW was added because the ball was going around.

[Verashiden]

FRW is as well as leech. The thing not added is the + Damage from Feral Rage itself.

[xpumafangx]

What I would do if I was to do a pure feral rage werewolf. Would be to max out werewolf, lycan, and feral rage for shure. But I wouldnt add to wolves or bears. Spirit wolves would infact teleport too you but even then its not all that big of a deal. Then do fissue and fire claws. Or cyclone armor and twister. Then not use any of the pets.

[Verashiden]

That doesn't make sense though. You go from having a crowd control skill (Fury) to having a single target skill (Feral) so why wouldn't you want pets? Your killing speed is going to be diminished meaning it's going to take a larger amount of time to kill a back of monsters. The longer it takes the more likely you are to get punked around and possibly stun locked. With pets at least they can take some of the heat off of you and allow you to kill a decent amount of the monsters before they swarm you.

Of course, FC is indeed sexy and a good phys immune solution. But I'd rather have the security and have Azure Wrath on switch or something.

[NecromanSassin]

That doesn't make sense though. You go from having a crowd control skill (Fury) to having a single target skill (Feral) so why wouldn't you want pets? Your killing speed is going to be diminished meaning it's going to take a larger amount of time to kill a back of monsters.

I know this, but I'm looking for a build to have fun with, not to own with. If there wasn't a real challenge in Diablo, would the game really be fun?

[Verashiden]

... What?

Feral/Summon Hybrid doesn't own. All they do is take a few hits while you kill things. It in no way makes you invulnerable. But, I personally feel that running around with a pack is more fun than running around alone.

I like Hunter Druids. They use summons to protect yet it's still an extremely fun build. Summons don't dilute the challenge, godly items do. Even a pure Feral Wolf wouldn't be fun if you killed everything in one hit, right?

[Sib]

would poison creeper be an option here too?
I'm still learning about all the skills etc so im not so sure if it would do sufficient damage, but without summons, the lone wolf would be surrounded, squeezing all the monsters onto one or two poison mats, making the creepers damage quite high, right?

[NecromanSassin]

I definitely know Feral wouldn't kill everything, it would just be cool having more leech than double your damage. With Feral/Hunger, I think, a Druid wouldn't have to worry about life as much, so he could go with less in vitality and less in Oak Sage.

Poison Creeper eh? I might try it. Once I figure out a final build for myself, I might (MIGHT) adjust it to see if Poison Creeper fits, but I don't think it will.

Edit: Forgot to add this, I am also thinking of a Bear Hunger build. Extra damage from Maul could compensate for -75 from Hunger. Could, but I donno.

[Verashiden]

Most Hunger forms use High Elemental Damage weapons because that damage isn't reduced by hunger. Creeper would be insane.

[NecromanSassin]

True, Creeper isn't that tough... doesn't even pass 100 at lvl 20.
Hm, I didn't know elemental damage wasn't reduced with Hunger, that brings up some thoughts.

Right now, my Werewolf looks like this:
Max Feral Rage
Max Hunger
10-15 points Lycanthropy
1 point Werewolf
20 HoW
Rest into Grizzly/Dire Wolf

or

Max Feral Rage
10-20 Hunger (extra skill points in it)
10-15 Lycanthropy
1 Werewolf
20 HoW
8-12 Grizzly
5+ Dire Wolf


Werebear is a lot more straight foreward

15+ Hunger
20 Maul
15+ Lycanthropy
1 Werebear
20 HoW
Keep about 2/3, or 1/2, of Grizzly points in Dire Wolf
and, of course, enough points into Shock Wave to keep me alive

With more damage from Maul, less points would be needed in Hunger to be effective. But that is if I go with non-elemental weapon.

[Mitch Turnbuckle]

Hello Necromansassin,

That is pretty much the exact same build as the first (and only so far!) Werebear I have played. Final skill point distribution is as follows:

Shapeshifting

13 - Lycanthropy (I will place leftover points here after other skills are at proper levels)
20 - Werebear
20 - Maul
10 - Hunger (no more due to diminishing return & plus skill effects)
1 - Shockwave

Summoning

10 - Heart of Wolverine
15 - Dire Wolves
15 - Grizzly

I use a totally unoriginal Act 2 Might mercenary to keep damage as high as possible to offset -75% from Hunger usage. Currently, I am (well the Werebear actually) is in Act I Hell, and is using a shaeled Butcher's Pupil + Lance Guard (65% Deadly Strike), and Goblin Toe + Rattlecage (50% Crushing Blow), with crappy resists and (depending on some gear choices) roughly 2500 life, it is doing well killspeed wise. . . but is definitely in need of better resists. I am of course only using what items I have found.

[Liquid_Evil]

Most Hunger forms use High Elemental Damage weapons because that damage isn't reduced by hunger.

My thoughts are that Hunger is a skill that demands physical damage to enable it to leech the most effectively. This makes the werebear more suited for the skill than wolves because they come equipped with Maul (which enhances the ED of all skills while that green ball is active) Piling on crushing blow and elemental damage on a quick, low damage weapon defeats the purpose of this skill. If you leech 75% of nothing, you leech nothing. That said, don't forsake ALL speed for damage. Try and find a good middleground. I'd focus on a 6 frame maul and 5 frame hunger. I believe its capable with properly socketed Windhammers, IK mauls, Oath Feral/Champion Axes, and Tomb Reavers.

[Verashiden]

But I didn't say all Elemental no real damage. Some use Baranar, some use Azure, and the richer ones use Famine. All of those weapons have decent enough physical damage to leech while still providing enough elemental damage to kill. For PvM you can go as slow as 8 frames and be safe.

[NecromanSassin]

Mitch, thanks for the advice. I will probably start my werebear now and see how it turns out!

Oh, and I play untwinked, so this should be a really good challenge for me :smiley: