Werewolf Druid

Istaryu wrote:Uh, keep in mind that harbringer is not an attack, its a warp strike, it doesnt trigger life and mana on attack.

I am not using Harbinger to attack in Labs, it does almost no damage. I do use it to telly onto erynis' that hide in the back of the rooms from time to time. For Labs, it is strictly TC on right skill for main attack and MP on left to recharge globe on non-leech mobs like necrobots, observers, and corrupted mobs.

Crash wrote:You'd be better off with
Gehenna

Gehenna
Weapons
'ChamOhmLo'
Runeword Level: 83
20% Chance to cast level 32 Frozen Crown on Melee Attack
15% Block Speed
15% Hit Recovery
Adds 94-125 Cold Damage
Adds 150-200 Poison Damage over 1 seconds
+(144 to 171)% Enhanced Damage
+25% to Cold Spell Damage
-25% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+25% to Poison Spell Damage
-25% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Maximum Life +5%
Maximum Mana +(23 to 28)%
Requirements -33%
for cold pierce, max life, and some more cold damage, but you'll still want to be mindful of attack speed on the jewels and mo's and base item to reach werewolf breakpoints.

I would love to use

Gehenna

Gehenna
Weapons
'ChamOhmLo'
Runeword Level: 83
20% Chance to cast level 32 Frozen Crown on Melee Attack
15% Block Speed
15% Hit Recovery
Adds 94-125 Cold Damage
Adds 150-200 Poison Damage over 1 seconds
+(144 to 171)% Enhanced Damage
+25% to Cold Spell Damage
-25% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+25% to Poison Spell Damage
-25% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Maximum Life +5%
Maximum Mana +(23 to 28)%
Requirements -33%

but, unfortunately, it is impossible to hit 4 FPA with it. You need 115 minimum wIAS to hit 4 FPA and because it needs a rune in the last slot, it is not possible to hit 115 wIAS. I am going to stick with

Cold Blood

Cold Blood
Crystal Sword (Sacred)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 1020
Item Level: 120
Innate Cold Damage: (45.0% of Dexterity)
Regens 15% Life Over 5 Seconds Upon Taking Weapon Damage
100% Chance to cast level 50 Shatter the Flesh on Kill
1% Chance to cast level 50 Blizzard on Striking
25% Attack Speed
Adds (310 to 410)-(500 to 600) Cold Damage
-10% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+20 to Banish
Maximum Mana -50%
Requirements +100%
Socketed (6)

which only requires 2x IAS jewels to hit 115 wIAS and no MOs.

Crash wrote:also just a future warning, don't ever trust tooltip displays. It's almost always wrong because of display bugs scaling damage from incorrect sources like spell damage for flat elemental damage (it'll scale on the tooltip, but d2stats will show your actual damage before any %WDM calculation or pierce)

I am aware that the tool tip is inaccurate. How do you correctly calculate how much damage you are doing then with D2stats if it only tells you your damage before %WDM?

I am working on a purely elemental setup with at least a -170 cold pierce and still retain my defenses. I was able to keep my 60% Physical resists with the new gear and reworking my sleep charm, I am losing 10% dodge, avoid, evade by using Cold Hunger instead of Nezha, and I have lost 50k from defense. Other than that, I am basically the same stats as with the shark. I am going to test out the new build in Labs and see if it is still viable for survive-ability.

Ok, first findings:

Cold Hunger is out! The 10% avoid from

Nezha

Nezha
Druid Helms
'FelIst'
Runeword Level: 110
While in Wereowl Form: Adds 10-15 Damage
While in Werewolf Form: -10% Enemy Cold Resistance
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
25% Attack Speed
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
(40 to 45)% to Dexterity
Maximum Mana +(11 to 20)%
(50 to 80)% Magic Find

is huge as is the 50% Dex bonus. The wolf is massively more stable with the 81% avoid rather than 71%. I was also able to replace some old jewels in my

Nezha

Nezha
Druid Helms
'FelIst'
Runeword Level: 110
While in Wereowl Form: Adds 10-15 Damage
While in Werewolf Form: -10% Enemy Cold Resistance
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
25% Attack Speed
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
(40 to 45)% to Dexterity
Maximum Mana +(11 to 20)%
(50 to 80)% Magic Find

to bring my Defense back up over 400k. This change has brought down my Pierce from -170% to -135%, but there was a massive difference in survive-ability without the 10% avoid and lower defense.

Nantuc wrote:
Nantuc wrote:
Wolff wrote:I would recommend 1h and shield with strenght to lvl up. You will melt everything.

Also i'm strenght with a Tooltip of 7.8k dmg on Harbringer. I melt everything down in Faultz/Bremm/Dunc. Is dexterity better end game? Any dext end game werewolf can tell me his setup and Tooltip dmg on Harbringer?

I have a Dex build for doing T15 Labs. The only issue I have is with necrobots. Once they hit you once, they reduce my max block from 75% to 33%. Once this curse is on you, you are extremely vulnerable to their ranged shots.

Weapon: Crystal Sword Shark
MOs: 5x IAS, 5x EWD
Jewels: 4x 15% IAS, 15% FHR, 15% FBR, 2% LL, 1% ML, +4 Attributes crafted Jewels.
1x 10% IAS, 15% FHR, 1% LL, 2% ML, +6 psn res, Indestructible, crafted jewel. (for a total of 130 IAS.)

No more IAS jewels are required for the build, the rest comes from charms and base IAS attributes from gear to hit the speed modifier cap of 75% / 4 FPA.

Offhand: Abandoned Crafted Spiked Shield with +2 Base Block Chance, High ED (170% in my case), 7% Phys res (can go to 10%).
MOs: 3x elemental res., 5x Total Char Def, 2x ED (to hit 200% ED)
Jewels: 2x Lotto'd Tiered Unique Demonstone Blood Jewels with 3% Max Life, 4x SU Arkenstone Jewels (for the 4% extra Physical resists.)

Switchout:
Weapon: NimmenJuushin (For MotW)
Sockets: 6x Nih (for buff duration)

Shield: Goddess Runeword (for the +4 to all Skills)

Armor: Natasia's Legacy
MOs: 5x Elemental Resists

Helm: Nezha Runeword
MOs: 5x Elemental Resists
Jewels: 3x crafted 15% FHR, 15% FBR, 2% LL, 2% ML, 1% Dex

Gloves: Lucky'd Hammerfists (ED only)
MOs: 3x ED (to bring to 200% ED), 5x Elemental Resists, rest into Total Char Def
Jewels: 4x crafted 15% FHR, 15% FBR, 2% LL, 2% ML, 1% Dex

Belt: Lucky'd Blackvoid (both ED and Phys res)
MOs: 5x Elemental Resists, 2x ED (to bring to 200% ED), rest into Total Char Def
Jewels: 1x crafted 15% FHR, 15% FBR, 2% LL, 2% ML, 1% Dex
1x SU Arkenstone Jewels (for the 1% extra Physical resist.)

Boots: Lucky'd Akarat's Trek (Phys res. only)
MOs: 3x ED (to bring to 200% ED), 5x Elemental Resists, rest into Total Char Def
Jewels: 4x crafted 15% FHR, 15% FBR, 2% LL, 2% ML, 1% Dex

Rings: 2x Lucky'd Giant's Knuckles
MOs: 5x Defense, 2x UMO Explorer's Globe (for 6% all attributes)

Ammulate: Dyer's Eve
MOs: 5x Defense, 2x UMO Explorer's Globe (for 6% all attributes)

Stats: Everything into Dex, with wormhole all dex it comes to 5013.

Skills: According to guide. at level 142, I have 9 extra pts which I put into TC. (I am thinking of taking the one point out of everything under Elvensong so I can put the 3 pts into TC as well for 22K damage.)

Resists: Max at 85%, 300% total on each element
Physical Resist: 60% (needed because Erinys in Labs reduce Phys Res by 10%)
Max Block: 75%
Dodge, Avoid, Evade: 81%
Defense: 419K
Life: 15.2K
Deadly Strike: 47%
Crushing Blow: 16%
Tooltip: MP Damage: 12K - 19K
TC Damage: 12K - 21K
Harb. Dmg: 5.6K - 10K
Magic Find: 136%
IAS: 335%
FHR: 290%
FBR: 275%

for the life.of me I still can't wrap my head around how you can do t15 labs with that equipment since NOTHING in that gear contributes to crystal sword damage except the shield and natasha's legacy

Nantuc wrote:How do you correctly calculate how much damage you are doing then with D2stats if it only tells you your damage before %WDM?

multiply your d2stats damage by whatever %wdm the skill you're using deals.

if d2stats says you do 10k cold damage, twisted claw is 150% wdm, so you'll do 15k cold per hit. I would highly recommend searching for a different weapon though. talxis does nothing besides give you the ias needed.

look into a craft, even with cold pierce maybe, or find one of those su's like cold blood.

Crash wrote:
Nantuc wrote:How do you correctly calculate how much damage you are doing then with D2stats if it only tells you your damage before %WDM?

multiply your d2stats damage by whatever %wdm the skill you're using deals.

if d2stats says you do 10k cold damage, twisted claw is 150% wdm, so you'll do 15k cold per hit. I would highly recommend searching for a different weapon though. talxis does nothing besides give you the ias needed.

look into a craft, even with cold pierce maybe, or find one of those su's like cold blood.

Hi Crash, thanks for the info. As far as my dex build, I made it solely so that I could add max block to all of the other defenses I get as a wolf. As a melee character clearing is slow anyway, I was just looking for the additional help to survive. I wasn't trying to improve my damage. I did however, change out all my gear to try for a pierce dex build, even though I managed to get decent damage, I was unable to hit the pierce I needed without sacrificing key aspects of my defense such as the added avoid from Nezha and 60% Physical resist, not to mention 300% on my elemental resists.

I still am unable to kill most of the bosses, but I can clear much of the trash content and skirt around most of the bosses. I am very interested in what RumbleAlex's new upgraded build is. I think he said he is using Azurath. He posted a video of beating Phoeboss in T15 with his new setup, so I am very interested in what his setup is. I have switched from using Shark to using Cold Blood however and changed out my LL jewels to Life on attack jewels. I am also using some other pierce gear, but I have to stay with Nezha because the additional 10% avoid is worth its weight in gold. I will continue to use this new setup to level to 150. Thanks for your suggestions.

Nantuc wrote:additional 10% avoid is worth its weight in gold.

Avoid has great increasing returns and in your case that 10% is actually around 30% of less dmg, so wise choice to keep it. I don't have much experience on labs, isn't avoid reduced on higher tiers?

Jampula wrote:
Nantuc wrote:additional 10% avoid is worth its weight in gold.

Avoid has great increasing returns and in your case that 10% is actually around 30% of less dmg, so wise choice to keep it. I don't have much experience on labs, isn't avoid reduced on higher tiers?

Yes it is along with Def, Phys res, Block chance, ele res and several other nasty negatives. Having as much Defenses as possible is always a good idea in that place. When I tried Cold Hunger in place of Nezha, I instantly noticed how much more damage I was taking, so it was a very quick test before I put Nezha back on.

What's the highest Harbinger damage have you guys achieved while maintaining decent survivability? I had reached around 7500 damage with strength build at level 136 although I was missing on quite a number of tough to get charms. Is this a good damage amount?

yaksa wrote:What's the highest Harbinger damage have you guys achieved while maintaining decent survivability? I had reached around 7500 damage with strength build at level 136 although I was missing on quite a number of tough to get charms. Is this a good damage amount?

My current farm build at level 144 melts Duncraig and Faust.
On-Screen shows 13K Harbinger and 26K Mana Pulse. D2stats shows: