Ahoy,

I thought this might take until the weekend, but I guess not. I've long been waiting to finish Wesley the Fireclaws Werebear, now my 8th Pat/Mat.

Patriarch Wesley
Level 81

Stats:
Str: 65 (160)
Dex: 165 (242)
Vit: 245 (290)
NRG: 20 (93)

Once going...
Life: 2150
Mana: 516
Resists: 75/75/75/42
Maul damage: 672-1076
Fire claws damage: 4212-4851

Gear:
Aldur's Stony Gayze
Aldur's Rhythm
Aldur's Deception
Aldur's Advance
String of Ears
Laying of Hands
Stormshield
Carrion Wind
Rare ring (20/30 Cold/Lightning Resist)
Communal Amulet of Enlightenment (+3 Shifting skills, +28 NRG)

Merc: Act II Offensive
Rare Chaos Armour (defense 960)
Strong Grand Crown of Balance
The Reaper's Toll

Skills:
20 Firestorm
15 Molten Boulder
5 Werebear
5 Lycanthropy
20 Fireclaws
10 Oak Sage
1 Grizzly and prereqs and the rest of the shifting tree (except Hunger)

Gear gave +3 Summoning, +7 Shapeshifting, and +4 Elemental.

I started this build way back when I first decided to put my new Aldur's kit to good use. It was the first of the class-specific sets I completed. After some debate here about what to build, I Shaeled the mace and made a Fireclaws Werebear. He kicked butt all the way through Nightmare, but then...

The physical damage on the weapon almost renders this build impossible. Given the fact that this should be the ultimate druid set, if only for some builds, its pathetic. Its not on the scale of a naked Bowazon, but its far harder than my Martial Artist, or the Wolfbarb.

So Hell was a pain. I struggled my way through to the River of Flame, and then found myself impotent to clear the Sanctuary: Pit Lords and Oblivion Knights are fire immune. I MPed that bit, then pressed on. The worst areas were the Frozen River and Ancients' Way. The fight against the Ancients was peculiar, however. I died once, got transformed back into human form in a single hit once, so rerolled, and I rerolled a FE Madawc and Cursed Talic.

When I did fight them, I think the Talic was attacking my Grizzly. I saw it dying, so I resummoned it nearer to me. Talic didn't pursue, so I only had to deal with Madawc and Korlic. Korlic had tolerable mods, so I killed him, and Madawc followed. I then looked around for Talic. Although I'd been fighting near the entrance to the WSK, I found Talic milling around the entrance from the Ancients' Way. Anyone seen this before? Could it be made into a reproducible way to separate the Ancients?

I died against Achmel, which sucked, because I had to retrieve my kit in pieces, given how much I was relying on +strength gear. That took some time. And there wasn't a hope in Hell of beating Lister, so I had to park him. Again. Baal was simply annoying: he kept teleporting around the map. Not attacking, or cloning, just teleporting. And I really felt his 60% chance to block: I eventually shifted into a Wolf for the increased AR. Before I forget, Hellforge dropped a Lem. Okay, but I really want a Pul!

What can I say about Aldur's set? It sucks. Badly. Any melee build is marred by the low damage on the weapon. Also, one-handedness implies a shield, which curses one with the abysmal block rate of a transformed druid. If I was ever surrounded, my 2k life didn't matter: I was stuck in either block or hit recovery. And I couldn't find any decent ways of working around the set. Trying to get to Anya, I eventually stripped him of Aldur's stuff, gave him some other goodies (Jalal's Mane, Reaper's Toll, some IK pieces, and so on) and played as a Feral Rage Wolf to finish the area. Very lame.

If I were to build another druid to use this set, there are two options:

1. Wind druid. I know the set isn't suiting towards a caster, but if a Windy can make it untwinked, he can make it with this set. Things like Frostburn and Gloom's Trap can make up for some bits. Its cheesy, but it won't be as painful as this was.

2. Fireclaws/Rabies Wolf. I'm still playing 1.10, so I'd employ the synergy bug to get a good Rabies on the cheap. That way there'd be a better backup attack. This won't be any cookie cutter though: be prepared for a lot of red potions.

Thanks for the read. I'm very glad this character is now finished. One day I'll upgrade a Ribcracker and make a real shapeshifter. Now I just need to Mat my 'sin, and all 7 classes are done!

30-30