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+--- Thread: Shapeshifter Fire Claws in 1.10? (/thread-9625.html)
Shapeshifter Fire Claws in 1.10? - Thlayli - 12-19-2003
Hey,
Returning D2 vet here, some of might know me better as Tommi "Tharn" Helminen from D1 days, but had to pick Thlayli as nickname since someone has already taken Tharn :o
It's amazing how much you forget when you don't play D2 for over 1,5 years, so most of what was crystal clear on my older days, are now dazed out blur in my memory... So could say I'm still partly n00b here, especially now with the 1.10 patch when all the old tricks what I DO remember doesn't work so very well anymore :blink:
Anyway, to get to the topic of the post, I'm building my first Shapeshifter Druid in 1.10 here, and have some small questions about skill distribution.
Currently I'm at Act 2 NM, lvl 49 and the game has been one whirl so far... all the potions I've used can be counted with one hands fingers for instance. But, the closing up Hell Difficulty with PI's is giving me doubts... So far here's my skill selection:
Werewolf 5
Lycanthropy 10
Feral Rage 11
Fury 20
Heart of Wolverine 4
+prereqs
Currently I've been thinking of maxing HoW for party play, but after that I'm bit open... have +5 skills right now, and think going to have at least +8 with end game equip, so I'm not so concerned of putting any more points to Werewolf or Lycanthropy, and Feral Rage seems to be in ok condition too, as my main attack is of course Fury.
So, Fire Claws has taken my attention... Should I now start to build it up so that I'd have at least something against PI's in Hell Difficulty? I'm going to play in 8 people parties anyway, but wouldnt want to stand still useless every time PI comes up, but the huge skill point investment is making me to hesitate... It would need additional 20 points to max it + 6 for prereqs and synergies. Exp lvl 88 is around the max I usually play my chars nowadays, so with my current lvl and quest status, I've 47 points to distribute. After 16 for max HoW, it would leave me 5 points to any other skills, which would be Feral Rage or maybe Werewolf for the life bonus. So, the whole question is that would lvl 25-28 Fire Claws with lvl 6-9 four synergies be worth the points? By my calculations lvl 20 Fire Claws with 5 points in all synergies gives around 1600 max fire damage, which, in my ears, doesn't sound too effective, considering that most monster have resistance, or even immunity against fire.
So, any thoughts or experience about Fire Claws in 1.10?
Also, this is a real n00b question but how does shields work while shape is shifted? Does the blocking work? Also, while using Fire Claws, does any other elemental damage from your equipment count? I was thinking of that if I would use Fire Claws, I'd put something like Azurewrath or Lightsabre along with Stormshield on alternative weapon slot, and switch to them when encountering physical immune, and back to 2-hand weapon when doing normal melee.
Haven't pumped up Dex at all yet, but have plenty of str now, and 110 vit, and I'd prefer to put all the rest on Vit for now. So wouldn't like to put useless points on Dex if the blocking doesn't work or is irrelevant. This is something I could test out myself, but asked anyway in conclusion to that previous weapon switching question, I'm very sorry :)
Hmm... That pretty much covers all my concerns for now. I'd would much appreciate any advice on this subject, thank you for reading my post!
Shapeshifter Fire Claws in 1.10? - Thlayli - 12-21-2003
Ok, just dumped my saved up around 20 skill points to fire claw + synergies and can warn everyone not do so themselves, the damage is horribly low :blink:
You can deal much more elemental damage using fury while wearing Azurewrath for instance.
So, in the end I actually ended up re-creating the character by deleting the old... wasn't uterly useless though, I was able to add sockets to my Jalal's Mane and Leviathan with the quest, and NM Hellforge gave me Io rune... Besides, I always like playing through the game with new characters so no harm done, although someone might think I'm crazy, the druid was already at lvl 74 thou :lol:
Shapeshifter Fire Claws in 1.10? - Caaroid - 12-22-2003
Fire claws can be very powerful if you focus on it (as in: max the synergies). You can achieve up to 8k of fire damage per swing.
But dont fo it with a wolf, bears are better suited for that