Ask Dr. Goober (6-8-06)

[GooberGrape]

Hey GG whats crackin? I thought I would press the great doctuh for a drood fireclaw guide. Im not sure if I max lycen and wearbear. Or if there one pointers. Also fireclaws seems to be a low end damage kinda... I will be playing untwinked hc. RWM. Im not to worried about breakpoints yet since I havn't even started him. Fast reply would be apprecieted so I can start. Cya round.

Ahh, fireclaws. Easily my least favorite druid build. You're killing me, Smalls.

Anyway, look here first. The guides give you a general idea of what to expect.

1) What version are you running? If it was 1.10, you could use Carrion Wind and Stone armor for some sick bonuses. But we'll assume you're playing 1.11 and can't do those cool things. In other words, Rabies is right out.

2) You're going untwinked HC. This will not be as easy as it sounds. For that reason, I recommend maxing Lycan and leaving Bear at 1 point. This gives you lots of life, and a really long duration (so it doesnt pop every 40 seconds), and you only give up 1 fire synergy for it. A good deal, IMO.

3) You're gonna need Shaels. The ideal weapon is a 6-Shael Phase Blade, but basically anything that's really really fast will do. You don't even need much damage on your weapon, the fire will do the killing.

4) Did I mention summons? You should use summons. They are some good. Go with a Grizz for tanking, or try some doggies. Your choice.

5) Don't use a Spirit. Yeah, you heard me. You don't need the damage from HoW, and every time Oak Sage dies, you lose half your health. I don't need that kind of drama in HC, and neither do you. In fact, don't use a vine either, but that should be pretty self-explanatory.



1 Werebear
20 Lycan
20 Fireclaws
20 Firestorm
20 Molten Boulder
20 Fissure
1 Grizzly

But really, I'd never play that crap...sorry, but I can't deal with single-target single-element melee characters. Abobo agrees with me too, although last week he made a pact with the toaster to, as he says it, "GO VEGAN!!!". But I caught him last week eating some Toaster Streudel Breakfast Nonsense, and I'm pretty sure that stuff has eggs. Or at least, egg-like product. Pseudo-Egg. Psegg.

Now if you had 1.10, this would be a WHOLE different story. You could make a viable poison/fireclaw wolf that PWND the stratosphere. But it would require Carrion Wind and a Stone armor, things you might not get untwinked. Still, using the wolf gives you Feral Rage, which might not be a bad thing. Heck, if you want it, just replace "Werebear" with "Werewolf" and add in 5+ pounds of Feral Rageness to the above skills. I promise the wolf swings at least 1 frame slower, though.


Oh, and if you need a name, call him Bear-Naked :laugh:



You got a question? Ask the Goober!

askdrgoober@hotmail.com


-GG

[Day]

Nice post please keep them coming.

PS assume Abobo's a barb?

[somethingsin]

Pretty hard to complete though, with all the prereqs you've not mentioned

[GooberGrape]

Pretty hard to complete though, with all the prereqs you've not mentioned

Don't put hard points into Grizzly. Cast it from an item instead.

Fixed? Fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.


Also, you should probably max out the fire synergies last, but that's pretty self-explanatory.


-GG