Need some PVM Advice

[Humps]

First post, glad to be here :wave:

Anyways, I made a Fury/Feral Rage druid on West HCL

My gear is as follows
JalJal's
Highlords
RFrost
Rare Ml Ll ring
Gore Riders
Dungos
Dracs
Anni/HFT
Upp'd non-eth Ribcracker
Smoke Runeword/Fort (Possibly Treachery)

Few 3% FR/W Life scs, resist charms.

I will be using this druid for the Ubers

Most of my friends have laughed at me because I'm not using your usual smiter (Sigh)

Ok question one, for my Ribcracker should I shael it, or socket it with a 15% ias 5max damage jewel?

OR

Should I look for an upped eth Ribcracker?

Also, I read the guide about the fury druid that solo'd ubers (Without dying Ofc)

Now, is the chance worth it in HC? I really don't mind doing the mini Ubers, key hunting etc.

And I was thinking putting 1 hard point into Raven/Wolves/Grizzlie (Meat Sheilds Ftw.)

Maxing all the S/S skills except for WW, leave it at ten till those hard points are into each of the summons.

Thanks for you time, great forums, glad to be here :thumbsup:

Also, I'm looking for fellow wolves on West HCL that aren't afraid to get thier hands dirty. (Most classes on HCL consist of casters, cough hdins cough)

[Strid]

Gear looks good, I'd personally go for CoH, but if your resists are to da max, no worries here.

You shouldn't look for Etheral Ribcracker, because you need to Zod it, if you want it not to break. This means no Shael/IAS jewel which means 6 FPA fury and even worse Feral Rage attacks. "Regular" upped Ribcracker with IAS or Shael is what you want. Especially with alot of the damage coming from the "Crushing Blow" which is independent of weapon damage.

You might find yourself needing AR, fighting the Übers and your spirit will die really fast in the Über Tristram, so consider going spirit less and max WW?

Meatshields are always useful, but low points summons serve better as distraction when strategically placed during battle. Also consider Poison Creeper which is great as distraction and tend to last longer even at low levels (1 pts. base and +skills). Poison Creeper is know for it's (relative) very good AI and poison also negates monsters healing. But if you don't have anywhere else to sink your points the summons are useful.

If you want to dedicate you druid to exclusively running Übers, then consider the fact that many people max Feral Rage to be able to focus the attacks on a single target effectively.

[Humps]

Thanks for the reply, I'll definatly go for the hard point in poison creeper, and the other summons later.

Also, anyone have an idea weither I should shael the ribcracker, or socket it with a 15% ias 5max damage jewel, I'm thinking shael, cause after all 5 max damage doesn't add a whole lot..

So

5% ias > very small change in damage

Any thoughts?

[Strid]

IAS or Shael, the speed is the same 8 FPA Feral Rage and 8/5/5/5/5 FPA Fury. So if you want to, it makes perfectly sense to put the +5 max jewel in the staff. Again the jewel won't do much of a difference, but that is equally true for other places you might put it. :)

[FrankWest]

5% IAS is far more important than 2.5 more average damage, especially as this could be the difference in one breakpoint or another based on the gear you have listed.

I hope you're looking for a challenge. I applaud not going with a cookie-cutter Uber-runner, applauded tenfold since you're in HC. However, my standard response to all non cookie-cutter builds that have aspirations for Ubering (especially since a good friend of mine recently had a disasterous failure in Uber Trist with his kickassin) is... They're cookie cutters for a reason. They work best. So yeah, based on what I'm seeing here, you're going to have a pretty hard time of it. Your gear is impressive, if a bit lacking in Attack Rating. Charms should help you out with that. AR/Resist GCs and some 20 life/ar (or resist) small charms are what you should be filling your inventory with.

Don't worry about your damage so much, and it'd definitely not worth compromising a potential IAS/far-better-damage-than-the-one-you-listed jewel or 20% IAS from a Shael in your Ribcracker just to have the extra damage from it being Eth. If there's a successful Uber-runner out there who relies on high damage rather than lots and lots of crushing blow, I don't want to meet them in a dark alley. Crushing Blow with constant successful hits are your bread and butter here.

Keep your wits about you, get your AR up to 13k or so, stack your resists, and prepare to break the cookie mould. :thumbsup:

Edit: Strid says the 5% won't make a difference in BP, and I believe him. Still... 2.5 more average damage isn't even worth flicking a booger at. :grin:

[Strid]

5% IAS is far more important than 2.5 more average damage, especially as this could be the difference in one breakpoint or another based on the gear you have listed.

I hope you're looking for a challenge. I applaud not going with a cookie-cutter Uber-runner, applauded tenfold since you're in HC. However, my standard response to all non cookie-cutter builds that have aspirations for Ubering (especially since a good friend of mine recently had a disasterous failure in Uber Trist with his kickassin) is... They're cookie cutters for a reason. They work best. So yeah, based on what I'm seeing here, you're going to have a pretty hard time of it. Your gear is impressive, if a bit lacking in Attack Rating. Charms should help you out with that. AR/Resist GCs and some 20 life/ar (or resist) small charms are what you should be filling your inventory with.

Don't worry about your damage so much, and it'd definitely not worth compromising a potential IAS/far-better-damage-than-the-one-you-listed jewel or 20% IAS from a Shael in your Ribcracker just to have the extra damage from it being Eth. If there's a successful Uber-runner out there who relies on high damage rather than lots and lots of crushing blow, I don't want to meet them in a dark alley. Crushing Blow with constant successful hits are your bread and butter here.

Keep your wits about you, get your AR up to 13k or so, stack your resists, and prepare to break the cookie mould. :thumbsup:

Edit: Strid says the 5% won't make a difference in BP, and I believe him. Still... 2.5 more average damage isn't even worth flicking a booger at. :grin:

Yeah, the 5% IAS will not do any difference because 70% IAS and 65% IAS both lies within the same two breakpoints. Actually the next BP is 71%, making a Shael rune just 1% short of 4 FPA fury. :grin:

And you're spot on .. Crushing Blow is the key!

[Humps]

Well Hopefully I'll do alright.. I'll definatly tell you guys what happens, and thanks, I went with the jewel, it will serve me fairly better if its within the same breakpoint

I also made him for hunting Dclone, and I succesfully killed in an 8 player game, solo, although it took a bit longer than a smiter, I'm pretty satisfied.

Yea, Uber trist will be quite a challenge, but if for some reason I fail miserably I'll have my friends smiter run in there and fetch my gear, then rebuild. Try again, and expect the unexpected.


Also thanks for the help guys, none of it was over looked.

Look forward to being active on these forums!

Edit, said shael, meant jewel :P

[Kirah]

Good luck Humps! Just remember not to activate more than one boss at a time. Everytime I got jumped by two or more bosses it really got ugly. Use the environment to your advantage in separting the bosses from their minions and focus on killing that boss. Mephisto was unleechable via feral so I couldn't get life of him until the life tap ctc went off. Stacked resists are useful vs that conviction aura.

If you go in a group having a necro to do terror on the minions is useful. But it sounds like you're going in solo.

go get 'em! (please give mephy a swift kick in the you know what for me)

good luck and good hunting!
Kirah

[Bjam]

I would highly recommend pre-buffing with Treachery for the +15% DR and +60% all res. Metalgrid is a good fix for any AR issues; you'll be doing less raw damage, but you will be hitting more often (more CB and steady leech). The net result will be a slower, but safer kill (extra defense and resists don't hurt either). You received good advice on using the non-eth Ribby, because vs. the Ubers attack speed/CB frequency > raw damage per hit.

Everything else looks great. You should be fine, but it is HC, so best of luck.