I've recently patter a Titan Mauler. He was fun enough, and while I leveled him up using Fireclaws, I came to really like that skill. So I decided to make a Fireclaws Bear. Now, as a backup skill I could go for Poison, but that'd cost 40 points and Fireclaws really takes off on synergies. Plus, I'd have to be a wolf, and I wanted to be a bear.
OK, so I have to go for physical damage. But I want to hit fast, really fast. I could do a crazy 110 IAS Phaseblade thing, but the thing is, I really like leeching with melee characters. With a Phaseblade lacking any inherent ED, that's just silly.
So pretty much the only way this is gonna work is if I use really fast, hard hitting weapon. There are precious few of those around, of course. But I do have this:
Code:
Tomb Reaver
Cryptic Axe
Two Hand Damage: 121 - 553
Durability: 32 of 65
Required Level: 84
Required Strength: 165
Required Dexterity: 103
Fingerprint: 0xd7964d6e
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+80% Increased Attack Speed
269% Enhanced Damage
+151% Damage to Undead
+317 to Attack Rating against Undead
14% Life stolen per hit
All Resistances +50
10% Reanimate as: Returned
+13 Life after each Kill
76% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+4 to Light Radius
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Amn Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune
Socketed: Shael Rune
Now, it ain't ethereal, but it does have a ridiculous damage, sockets and resistance roll. Decent MF is a sweet bonus. I've never had a chance to use it on anything except the moron, which is a shame. rlvl of 84 is annoying, but I'll manage.
Nice thing is, if I use a A1 Rogue with 'Faith', I'll hit 5-frames with 2 shaels and I still have a socket for a 40ED jewel. Neat.
Questions:
- What weapon (pref. 2-hander) would be best for leveling to 84? Maybe some cheap-ish runeword in a cool 2-handed sword? Or maybe a Ribcracker? Hmmm... Any other ideas?
- Any comments on my planned skill distribution and gear?
Bear/Lycan: 1
HoW/5Wolves: 1
Fireclaws: 20, Synergies: 40-60
Maul: 1-20 (what do you think about that one?)
Helm: Jalal's ('Um')
Weapon: Tomby
Switch: beta-CtA+'Spirit'
Cube: Demon Limb
Rest of gear: ??????
I have serious problems deciding what to do here. Where do I get base for AR? One Ravenfrost won't be enough. I could go Hsarus' boots&belt, or Angelic Amulet+Ring. Or Amulet and 2 rings. Or I could use my amazing collection of AR charms, but then I won't have skillers.
And if I do the Angelic rings, where do I get leeching? Gloves are an option, but then I cannot use LoH. LoH is almost too good to pass up. Or maybe use Dracul's? But then I thought of using beta-'Delirium' on the Rogue. Someone made a thread recently where they said it worked out just fine, which was a surprise to me. I could use Wilhelm's belt for leeching, but 5LL hardly seems like enough.
For the armor I'm torn between 'Chains of Honor' and 'Fortitude'. This is primarily a Fire build, so physical %ED off weapon will be hard to come by. 'Forti' seems like an obvious choice, but 'CoH' takes care of Demons and Undead while also giving +2 skills to Fireclaws.
How would you setup a Fireclaws Tomb Reaver Bear?
--Greebo|||I find that Delirium interacts well with other curses- the Confuse radius is very large, and if Life Tap/Amp/Decrep go off from other sources, they affect a smaller area inside the Confuse radius.
I didn't have many AR problems and made no special effort, finding the inherent AR from FC pretty good.
Coldsteel Eye with Shael and Buriza are very nice levelling weapons for a Fire Claws bear, with some IK set pieces NM should go quickly and nicely. Or a 5-shael Cho-Ku-Nu could also be quick.
I used a two Shael Tomb Reaver on switch with Jeltz for fire immunes and that worked well. But that wasn't his primary weapon and he had huge leech from other sources.
Calorique had the best of both FC worlds (fire+good physical) with a big damage fast phase blade from 1.07 (4 socketed Cruel Phase Blade of Quickness!), but that may not be the route you want.
ImmolateKing used as much of the IK set as possible for a bear and was quite a good balance between fire and physical (and other elemental damage) with commodity gear. That may be a good method until you level for your Tomb Reaver.|||I might be missing something here, but is there a reason you're not using Infinity?|||Perhaps you can find some inspiration in JJ's Flaming Mauler guide.|||I just can't see why you wouldn't use the 110% IAS phase blade unless you are set on using the Tomby just because you want to employ it on a character.
If you want to leech using the PB put on Draculs for the ctc LT, it'll be just as effective as normal life leech with the minimal extra physical damage from Tomb Reaver.|||Very helpful replies, thanks!
@scrcrw: Well, I had thought that I'll need Fanaticism to reach 5fpa, but upon closer inspection I see that 120 WIAS + 50 oIAS does the trick also. That means HLW, Nosferatu and 20 on whatever gloves I take. Then I can indeed take 'Infinity' which solves a lot of issues and makes Fire damage increadible against all non-FI's. Good catch.
Fire Rogue fits more to the build style-wise, but I prefer the 'Infinity', I think.
@nubikoen: Excellent, just what I needed. Thank you. There should be a master list of guides from the SPF. I looked in the Druid forum, but found nothing useful.
@purplelocust: Boy, that sword... Cool stuff. If I had that sword, I'd reconsider my build, it's real sweet. You seem to like Bears, don't ya?
I have some insane CB gloves which I think I can use here (6LL/3ML/20ias/10CB or something like that, have to check the exact numbers but I remember I crafted something like this). With Nosferatu I should be set for leeching and I will have two spots for Ravenfrosts, which together with all the crazy %AR should give me enough base of AR to be able to use 8 skillers. In the worst case I'll dump a few points into dexterity. Between beta-CtA and Wearbear, I should have plenty of Life.
@Dodgydave: How do you kill the immunes? Mercenary and CB? Hardly seems reasonable or enjoyable to me. Like JJ says in his guide: either you do /p1, you're fine with FI's and get bored with the rest, or you play /p5 and non-FI's are fine, but the rest in annoyingly tough to kill. Neither option sounds like fun to me.
I appreciate the replies,
--Greebo|||I found that a point in Hunger does wonders for a Bear. It's a heavy investment, but since red pots have such pathetic returns for a Druid, having a 1-point Hunger as an option is my favorite way to fill a Bear's bulbs. Also, the life leech on CoH would lead me to suggest that as the armor (but you already know I'm a fan of that armor) - it would also really help with resists, which are an issue when using a 2H weapon (except that nice Tomby, of course). I'd also consider SoE or Nosferatu's Coil as a belt.
Druids' natural weapons (the ones they get the IAS bonus for) do not include 2H swords. Some twinking options include Hwanin's, Athena's Wrath, a Crescent Moon Thresher, and hey, who's to say that a Bear couldn't put a Reaper's Toll with a Shael to good use? My 1.09 Bear actually used a Shael'd Buriza as endgame (as not a lot of better options exist in 1.09), but that has a sweet level 42 requirement and a bear swings fast with it (and the damage is good and includes a good dose of cold damage). I'd maybe try that with the idea of popping 2 Shaels in a Bonehew at level 64 to see if it's a step up or not.
For AR and ED, are you planning HoW?
Just some ideas - worth what you paid for them.|||I'll second a vote for Drac's and an ordinary phase blade. For FIs, having a decent physical damage weapon on switch may be a good plan. That's where you could use the Tomb Reaver, for example.
I did go through a bear phase a while ago- I wanted to get used to bears as I was planning to make Beast and do some odd bear builds, but that was around the time the Atma ethereal bug was discovered and that put my Beast plans on hold and I haven't gotten around to following through on that.|||Quote:
@Dodgydave: How do you kill the immunes? Mercenary and CB? Hardly seems reasonable or enjoyable to me. Like JJ says in his guide: either you do /p1, you're fine with FI's and get bored with the rest, or you play /p5 and non-FI's are fine, but the rest in annoyingly tough to kill. Neither option sounds like fun to me.
I appreciate the replies,
--Greebo
I was trying to remember the exact set up for mine but it eludes me. I played through at players 8 and think I used a combination of crushing blow, open wounds, lightning damage from SCs and merc to kill them.
It was certainly slower but I don't think depressingly so, Infinity on the merc would also speed things up from the lightning damageside of things.|||@purplelocust & Dodgydave
I'll readily admit that 110 IAS PB is a valid build, with some playing around. Heck, if I use it together with two 'Dreams' and 'Infinity' I won't have to take any lightning charms. But honestly, reading about CB, OW and lightning damage from charms as a valid backup against FI, well it makes me cringe a bit. I'm not saying it won't work, but I know (100%) that it's something I won't enjoy. I mean, killing Lister that way? Just no. Not for me.
And not using my beta-'CtA' just so that I can hit fireclaws at 4 frames and physical at 5? That's aksing a bit too much I think.
I may do that build some other time, although I doubt that. For now, I want to make a Mauling Clawer or a Clawing Mauler, whatever the appropriate name is. And I'm gonna do it without Drac's, because from my experience with beta 'Delirium' (normal 'Delirium too, actually) is that it's all the CC and safety one needs, ever. And druids have Shockwave on top of that. That will do the trick. Life Tap on top of that is pure overkill. We all have ways we like to do things
@RobbyD
I think I'll just level with Ribcracker. 'CoH' will go on my moron. Not about to make a second one. Besides Anya (20) + Tomby (50) + Forti (29) + Jalal's (45) I'm sitting at @144. HLW will take care of LR and I can make PR, FR with SC's to whatever level I want.
I'll dump a point on HoW, but I'll rely on physical damage from Maul and Wearbear. Not sure which I'll invest in yet, I'll think about it.
Thanks for feedback everyone!
--Greebo
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