BuriBear

[Olon97]

The only reliable method I know of to get a 2 or 3 frame attack is strafe, and even then I'm not sure it isn't just an arrow spawning every 2 frames (as opposed to an animation getting sped up that much).

I'm also very curious about a 100% IAS demon crossbow with hunger. A long time ago on LL (before it shut down for a while) I vaguely recall people were observing that a normal bear attack wouldn't reach a 4 frame attack with a 100% IAS demon crossbow (different base attack issue?). I could be wrong about that. It sure would be nice to get my 4 frame attack with a weapon that takes advantage of my pumped dexterity. Fairly sure 2 or 3 frames is out of the question for bears and wolves.

Dragoon - thanks for the speed by feel guide. :D You're probably right about it being 7maul/6hunger. I may have to hit the lightning spires in hell again. It's the gore rider CB and elemental damage doing most of the work anyway, so the wide physical min/max gap and the 75% damage penalty shouldn't interfere too much. An average of times over ~20 spires each should give me a rough sense of whether I'm seeing a 16.7% increase (6 frame hunger) or a 40% increase (5 frame hunger).

[Occhidiangela]

And the arrows don't deplete, and the ranged weapon that uses the leverage of three springs to an arrow that pierces is transformed into identical damage potential when being used as a stick . . . in my case, the suspension of disbelief is not enough, but I realize that we each enjoy this game differently.

In any case, enjoy. :)

[FenrisWulf]

@Occhidiangela:
Heh, yes, we shall agree to disagree. :) My suspension of disbelief is set rather high, so thanks for allowing me to indulge my fantasies without needing to rely on silly things such as logic, or real-life mechanics. :D

No, not those fantasies. :blink:

[Bowa]

Sorry to bring up a newbie question - I'm new to this build (currently my Buribear is in his 30's).

You use hunger with a faster weapon on a weapon-switch; it's NOT your main attack, right?

[kandrathe]

I've recently found the down side of a Shael'd Buriza on my lvl 58 bear is that I cannot equip a shield and so suffer more from the resist gap in hell. Yes, I hit hard and most things I hit I kill quickly. But, without *real* good armor w/resists some places are harder than say for an equivalent barbarian or paladin. It is getting to the Abyss Knights that is a real rub. I'm tempted to switch out of bear form and just shoot them, and anyone could do that with a Buriza. :D

I had in mid-levels found/made two different interesting armors; a two socket blue Ancient Armor, Saintly (74%), of the Colossus(+45 life) req lvl 31, which I added 2 +15%IAS jewels. Later, I found a Ornate Plate, Godly (+148%), of Guarding (MR 3), which I used two jewels that added +10 STR, LR 29%, CR 25%, +15IAS.

I have ended up switching my armor to SMOKE'd Bone Weave, and use as an alternate weapon Islestrike and a good 4D shield. Hell casters or even Nightmare Chaos Sanctuary is one area where my bear struggles. So over time I've gone from +30IAS, to +15IAS, to zero on my armor, trading speed for resists.

[Logic_X]

I made a type of bear (he's currently level 86....kinda had to take most his stuff for my bowsorc though...so he's nude atm) - that is a spinoff of Roguemage's guide involving this build. Basically, he uses that secondary weapon you speak of - Fast weapon.

Here's my progression of equipment (I played twinked)

lvls 1-30 I flew by the skin of my teeth...simply because I couldn't use my charms or most my elemental damage equipment....worked pretty good, you just fight like any other melee character through these levels... just be sure you have a decent speed weapon. Pretty much leveled lycanthropy through this...and werebear form for a bit (for defense...damage doesn't hurt though, final weapon doesn't do much)

lvls 31-54 I used a sortof mini-set of equipment with whatever I could find - the main note is the "Coldsteel Eye Cutlass - Shael" - 40% ias, -30 speed weapon, with slow....very useful, fast, and good for those charms you start to get around this level bracket. He was very successful here with just random other equipment (with the exception of two ravenfrosts at level 45) - at getting through stuff. Worked on maxxing Fire Claws (after 1 point in hunger, and finishing werebear form, and lycanthropy, and prereqs)

lvls 54+ I use my 6 shael phase blade - Maxxed fireclaws, Maxxed Shockwave, and started on Hunger and a few summons. 6 shael phase blade acheives 4 frame Fire Claws, Hunger, and Maul for a bear, this is the equivalent of a full speed werewolf druid - and with all your charms becoming accessable to you (my final one was lvl 61 req 13-30 lc if it matters heh.....most my others were 1-2x lightning sc....and like 3 1-4x lightning sc).

This setup is very nice....and you have options for equipment (only pieces I used for damage were 2 ravenfrost rings, 1 Rising Sun Ammy, T-god's vigor belt, and infernostride boots) - and those provide VERY low amounts of damage and wouldn't make a signifigant difference - rest of the equipment is up to you (I chose hit recovery/block rate over resists, simply because I wanted to test him vs. a friend's werewolf.......but it could easily be adapted for resists + fbr or fhr....and still be very nice)

No enemies really give it trouble when you have resists ..... because it has massive life (even though I didn't level my spirit beyond lvl 9 with equipment) - and can take down most any enemy because its varied damage possibilities (Fire Claws provides good fire, a little ice damage, a little physical damage, a lot of lightning damage in my case). - and doesn't have to worry about curses from oblivion knights (low physical damage, over 125% leech = you don't notice it).....

hope that helps some people consider the usefulness of that secondary weapon :D.

[Olon97]

Sorry to bring up a newbie question - I'm new to this build (currently my Buribear is in his 30's).

You use hunger with a faster weapon on a weapon-switch; it's NOT your main attack, right?

Use hunger when it makes sense to you to use it. :) I ended up with no mana leach on my gear (highlords, jalal's, blood craft gloves good %CB but no mana leach - prismatic life leach ring I gambled rather than a manald w/o any resists, and a low-end raven frost I found on another char), so under most circumstances I just switch to Hunger with the Buriza for a quick mana refill (or if my life is dropping more than I'm comfortable with).

I noticed that hunger + cleglaws with Buriza was enough to reduce sparking from LeBs, due to the slow enemies and the fast attack. Of course I still miss sometimes, and then there's a gap big enough for a spark. The combination worked well enough to pin and kill hell Lister with stone skin + LeB - typically a very rough situation for a weredruid. A couple purples were still required if I recall, but that was mainly due to the occasional miss (and sometimes even enough of a gap for a counterattack from Lister).

I took a break from my Buriza toting bear around clvl 86 (hate leaching and the exp. penalties are tiresome), and passed off some of the gear to a new paladin (eschewing fanatacism for concentration, despite my love for speed I loathe playing a paladin whose aura's radius barely reaches his merc, much less nearby party members). Then started going out on more dates (no, that's not a Sorc variant), so not much progress has been made on any of my LoD chars the last few weeks.

Hell lightning spires weren't holding up nearly long enough to be reliable test vehicles for hunger/regular attack comparisons for the shael'd Buriza. Frame per attack testing really begs for much more controlled conditions in a modified single player game.

Resists are always an issue for weredruids with 2h weapons, whether it's a crossbow or a giant thresher, some combination of charms + non-shield gear has to come up with a lot of resists in hell.