Lopec's going Melee

[lopec]

Right, have been building windy druids for some time now, last edition ended at lev88 when I realised I had way to low life... (ver.1.0.Earthshifter...)
My 3rd build is slowly taking form (hoto+spirit / wizz+4ist shield) alot more booring, but much faster...
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Now I'm thinking about starting melee'ing, PvP is nothing for me, so pure PvM and hopefully übers or atleast boss killer (aiming for life leech where possible)
stayed up way to long last night and thought about skills and eq, and this is where I ended:

Skills
Max: Werewolf,Lycanthropy,Fury, HoW

EQUIPMENT

Weapon:
Jah+Gul+Eth (Sur + El)
Fury OR (wind)

Shield:
Vex + Vex + Lo + Jah
Pheonix

Helm:Io + Jah + Pul
Dream or shako

Armor:Dol + Um + Ber + Ist
Chains of Honor

Belt:Nosferatu's Coil

Boots:Gore Rider

Rings:2xmanald heal OR dualleach rings

Amu: +2skills, +allres

Gloves: Dracul's Grasp OR Soul Drainer

Merc:
Might merc, with infy... or?
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Since this would be my first melee-druid I'm wondering;

If I've missed something essential in the build?
Is there any idea in putting anything in 'cyclone armor' ?
Should I concentrate on: (in order)IAS, FHR, FCR ?

[Miikai]

3. Your going to be needing some IAS and FHR. FCR is not important with a shapeshifter.

[lopec]

Miikai;: yeah, what I thought *hm* Would blockingrate be a necessity?

Rings should be carrion instead of manald *hm*

This build would give me roughly (w-o skillpoints and bonuses from lycan/ww and such)

Ias: 50%
Fhr: 30
LL: 49%


HHHHMMM. Life leach may be overkill... Low fhr, would like to get my hands on some +1shapeshift/+12fhr then. (or is+7 max?)

[Miikai]

Get your FHR to 86 % or at least 42 %.

Dont remember what is the breakpoint for IAS for a shapeshifter.

FBR is good if your going for max block.

I would use manalds for leach, you can always use Feral Rage as your secondary attack. Leach on Feral Rage is awesome.

[lopec]

Breaking point on FHR=86? *hm* have to do some calculations :D
36/3 = 12 there, 3 skillers with fhr *hm*

About the blocking, do I need to raise blockrate, is it necessary even if I hit 86% FHR? Keep in mind this is going to be a boss killer mainly, no regular PvM or PvP, hopefully the big guys will target my merc instead of me aswell ;)


Manalds:
Replenish Life +5-8 (varies)
+20 To Life

Carrion:
6-9% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)

wouldn't carrion give more?

[WRcheza]

jalal's is a better helm than shako for pvm...well for all forms of shapeshifters.

i suggest using stormshield instead of phoenix because of the ctc firestorm..which interrupts your fury and causes you to stand still and take damage.

for rings...one raven frost and the other choice is yours.

having fury as a weapon might be too low end in terms of damage, but if that's where you want to go, then go for it. an alternate choice would be griefpb or ebotz.


will dracs, you don't need lifeleech anywhere else. lifetap will keep your health up pretty much at all times, even allowing you to leech off skeletons and souls

make sure you have max block if you're going one handed and keep that fhr at 86

[superjayson]

if you 're going to use a shield, use stormshield. Nothing more.

Phoenix is NOT a melee shield for druids.

If you want to forget a shield alltogether use ebotdgpa.

[lopec]

Oh, how could I forget jalal ^^ :D

damn, didn't think of the firestorm breaking fury *hm*
(reason I thought Phoenix is ofc the ''+350-400% ED'')
any other options than stormshield?

why the raven, only for the cannot be frozen (witch I don't think will be that much of a problem, since I'm only gonna go for bosses, any of them freezes?) or is it also for the +dex, for helping with block?

dracs '5% Chance To Cast Level 10 Life Tap On Striking' that could take me 20hits before it triggers, will the 10ll be enough to keep me alive until then?
*reading about life tap*
''When Cursed are damaged, the attacker gets healed 50% of attack damage.''
aouch, that's heavy!

So I should go for max blockrate(75%?)... even with max fhr?


thinking more about the weapons... (ebotz??)
wouldn't Fury actually do -more- dmg then a Grief?

With grief giving 1-187% damage to demons and
fury giving +208% ed

after all +%ed from fury etc. wouldn't the extra 350-400dmg from grief be negotiable?
(thinking of furys better mods in deadly strike, open wounds and fixed +40ias)

(please be patient with me, first time ever that I'm going melee ^^)





(ebotdgpa???)



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*doing some maths*
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(all math done on a lev80 char)

Phaseblade Grief
Base:31-35
RW: +150% (lv80)
Fury: +423%
End: 457,625+340/400

Phaseblade Fury
Base: 31-35
Rw: +208
Fury+423%
End: 563+0

damn. Grief kicks fury, even with extra chance of critical *sighs* Open wounds weights it to fury? nah. prob. not enough :/

(would add.... +222 dmg/sec I guess.)

[Miikai]

More change of blocking = More safety

I think grief is more a pvp weapon than pvm


"(please be patient with me, first time ever that I'm going melee ^^)"

There's no shame taking your time on your characters equipment :thumbsup:

[lopec]

There's no shame taking your time on your characters equipment :thumbsup:

Thanks :) I took some time looking at eth Breath of the dying (still don't know what the ''gpa or z would be) and even though the dmg on those would be amazing, I'm not sure I want to go w-o a shield.... however, the extra range from a polearm would prob get the big guys target my merc even more then me?

[WRcheza]

i'd have to say that almost every single melee char uses at least one ravenfrost. ar, dex, mana and cbf. those mods are to die for and for all of them to be found in one item makes other gear choices easier.

your lifetap will trigger in one or 2 fury attacks. i will guarantee it and even put money down. that's 5% chance to proc every attack. and even then, you should be using feral rage unless you encounter a pack of monsters. feral gives you huge life leech and lots of frw to get to places faster.

keep your fhr up even with max block. every bit helps when you're swarmed.

ebotd great poleaxe. it hits the second fastest fury possible while giving huge damage. keep it on switch when you won't need a shield. and sorry, but there are almost no other shield options...

ebotdz = berzerker axe. best one handed ebotd[some could argue...something else...] but the avg dmg is sweet and it is the ONLY one handed weapon with range 3.

honestly, grief could be used anywhere. i consider pvp gear in most cases, the most optimal of pvm gear.

[TheBassman]

I believe your damage calculations for griefpb are off, the +dmg applies to the weapon before the +%ED from other sources. So the damage on your grief would be MUCH higher than you're calculating. I believe so anyways.

[lopec]

well now... THAT would get interesting :D

however, also sounds all to good...

(35+400+150%+423% would give ~5700dmg... per hit?)


WRcheza: a very good thing that I happen to have 2x20ravens then, would dxt be more important then ar?

well. thanks for informing me about the ebotd's :) now, would you recommend grief or ebotd?

[WRcheza]

points in dexterity will not boost your ar as much as +ar items. luckily, ravenfrost has a healthy chunk of both.

but in terms of blocking, dex is very important, as it is the only stat that can modify your block percentage

that is a question better left to someone else.

in all my years of dii, i never EVER owned one botd. how funny.

[superjayson]

Thanks :) I took some time looking at eth Breath of the dying (still don't know what the ''gpa or z would be) and even though the dmg on those would be amazing, I'm not sure I want to go w-o a shield.... however, the extra range from a polearm would prob get the big guys target my merc even more then me?

z = zerker
gpa = greater poleraxe

[Verashiden]

Get a Upped Shaeled Ribby for switch. It'll eat bosses alive (Ribby = Ribcracker).

If you plan to Uber do max Feral Rage