So I found this item..

[CowInvader]

Tomb Reaver
Unique Cryptic Axe (edit, woops neglected to add that in, thanks ;) )
Two-Hand Damage: 110-501
Required Level: 84
Required Strength: 165
Required Dexterity: 103
Durability: 65
Base Weapon Speed: [10] (Very Fast Attack)
+234% Enhanced Damage
+212% Damage To Undead
+60% Increased Attack Speed
+306 To Attack Rating Against Undead
All Resistances +49
10% Reanimate As: Returned
+11 Life After Each Kill
+55 Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+4 To Light Radius
Socketed (3)

So this item is reallllly freaking cool (makes me wish it was ethereal *drools*) and I would like to make a wereDruid to use it with. I played WW back in D2X Beta and had a lot of fun with it (the Werebear was just too sloowwww for me). I am wondering what yall think I should do, what the state of the Druid is, lots of good items are within my grasp so feel free to mention good equipment too.

BTW, does anyone want a gut siphon or Head Hunters Glory *edit: East Ladder, SC? I have extra ones and figure someone might want them.

[Chameleon]

Tomb Reaver (Unique Cryptic Axe)

It's a polearm, druid+polearm = lots of fun.

I wouldn't waste this on whirly barb but then again, I wouldn't waste the time building a whirly barb in the first place.

the Werebear was just too sloowwww for me

*raises eyebrow and leers*

As for equipment, you need the whappatity factor (aka. Crushing blow, so set aside a Goreriders for your feet.)
Armor: Chains of Honor; unless you want to MF, then Enigma
Helm: Weredruid = Jalal's Mane
After that, you can tinker with so much stuff that it isn't worth mentioning.

Otherwise, truely excellent find.

[whereagles]

Stick Shael Pul Pul into it and you got yourself the top anti-demon/undead whirlwind weapon ;) And since most monsters in the game are demon/undead... you're rolling.

[FenrisWulf]

Good lord, why would you waste such beautiful sockets with Puls? The 75% to Demons is factored at the same point as Strength, Skills, and so on; ergo, even with only a slvl 1 Fury, for instance, you would be better off with a 32% ED jewel than a Pul. With a slvl 20 Fury, you might as well have put a 14% ED jewel in that socket, as it would be just as effective as the Pul against Demons (and better against all other class monsters, to boot). :blink:

Please, please, please don't put a Pul anywhere near that weapon.

(of course, if damage calculations have severely changed since 1.09, such that +% ED in weapons is no longer modified by other %ED, feel free to hit me with a large trout)

For a Werewolf Druid, I believe that you would want to have at least two IAS jewels in there; you need 25% IAS to hit a 4 frame Fury. Of course, with two Shaels, you would hit a 6/4 Fury, as opposed to the 7/4 at 25% IAS.

For a Werebear, you could apparently get a 6 frame Maul going at two Shaels, too.

See the Wereform Central to do your own Weredruid speed calculating.

Congrats on the find. :)

[whereagles]

Huh?... what's your problem with Puls? It's one of the best pvm socket choices. The Tomb Reaver performs well vs undead. With Puls it will perform well vs demons as well, and that's all you need, since like 90% or so of the enemies are demon/undead.

Well... I guess you can also stick ed/ias jewels there. If you really want to be that uber vs. quill rats, that is...

[adeyke]

A Pul will only add 75% off-weapon ED against demons.

Two situations:
234% Tomb Reaver + Pul, against demons. Just enough strength to equip it, level 20 fury.

Weapon damage:
110-501 (305.5 avg)

Off-weapon ED:
165 (strength) + 75 (Pul) + 423 (fury) = 663

Total damage:
839-3822 (2330.5 avg)

234% Tomb Reaver + 40% ED jewel. Just enough strength to equip it, level 20 fury.

Weapon damage:
123-561 (342 avg)

Off-weapon ED:
165 (strength) + 423 (fury) = 588

Total damage:
846-3859 (2352.5 avg)

In other words, if you have just enough strength to equip the weapon and a level 20 fury, the 40% ED jewel will have a greater effect against demons than the Pul. Ant the 40% ED would also help against non-demons. So, in this situation, unless you need the AR vs. demons from Pul, a 40% ED jewel is strictly superior.

[whereagles]

Oh. I see... Was it this way in 1.09???

[adeyke]

Yes. Even there, demon and undead damage were just added as off-weapon ED. In some early version (1.07 and 1.08?), it multiplied your entire damage, but it's hasn't been like that in a long time.

[CowInvader]

Just to clarify with you, that WW I put up there was for werewolf not whirlwind ;)

Anyway, I like speed, but I plan on being in were-form nearly the entire time (does that sound logical? or am I missing something here) and so I won't have to go all the way up to 40 IAS.

Man o man, but 25 is such an annnnoying number for IAS totals :(. Also by checking out that link I see that adding IAS elsewhere will do nothing for me and increasing the level of Werewolf to very high levels with + skills doesn't help me out too much either... what to do what to do.

Here are the jewels I have, hopefully I can find some better ones before my new werewolf is able to use that thing.
Saphire Jewel of Fervor
15 IAS
26 CR

Carbuncle Jewel of Fervor
+5 Max Damage
15 IAS

Eagle Scarab Jewel
29 ed
2 to dex
ATDo 1
4 MF

Now I need to decide on skills
So far the only thing I'm decided upon is lvl 20 Fury and lvl 20 Lycanthropy.
Now I need to decide on which Summon if any (wolves or bear), Oak Sage or Wolvering, and should I get a creeper? I remember playing with a mana creeper before to keep my mana up but when I'm dealing so much damage and now that dual leach is back on rings I shouldn't have to worry about mana.

What suggestions for taking care of immunes, should I perhaps weapon switch a B-Star (w/ Shael for 5 frame fury) + Tiamat's then just fury them and take advantage of the speed of dealing out that elemental damage. (I'd have to get my hands on each one of those items though :( ) Is it worth investing into fire claws? or rabies? What I'm leaning towards is just staying with fury and getting a 3/4 socket shield and dropping random facets into it. Perhaps I have found a use for my stupid Head Hunter's Troll Nest? Then again I could have 4 elements with a 4 socket white one, but I don't really like poison all that much and I can cover that aspect with poison charms.

Another thing I'm wondering about is investing into Feral Rage. Is it worth it/does it even work to switch between feral rage and fury to build up your "Rage" and then fury with the benefits of that rage?

I presume to have around 5-6 all skills + 2 to Shape- Shifting. If I can find some Bul Katho's I'll probably use those giving me around 7-8 to all but that remains to be seen.

As far as items go I'm thinking about Jalal's /w something in it. A Mara's or else a cool +2 Druid Skills ammy. Some dual leach jewelry (I have an 8ll/2 ml and a 7/6). Gore Rider's. That weapon. Chains of honor (if I can manage to get a Ber rune :\, if not I'll steal my Hammerdin's enigma for the time being). Verdungo's Belt. An 18/19/5 annih. However I have no idea what to use for a belt. I think that I should be fine as far as leach goes (maybe not, I have some rare 3/3 + 7 strength and 2 high resists gaunts but I don't think I'll be needing those resists), should I go for some magic find? Maybe try and find some of those Unique gaunts with ed%? Any ideas?

Total resists should be 49(wpn)+30(anya)+~25(maras)+65(CoH)+19(annih) which puts me at max for all :). (edit, whoah I forgot about Jalal's adding another 30, what a crazy amount of resists, eat your heart out conviction... anyway, it seems like overkill, perhaps I could sub in a different plate, a +2 valor maybe? a shaftstop? what do you guys think?)

Then should I go min str and dex to use the wpn (with or w/o equip + annih?) and then pump vit, thats what I would plan on doing, what are your opinions?

[adeyke]

Another thing I'm wondering about is investing into Feral Rage. Is it worth it/does it even work to switch between feral rage and fury to build up your "Rage" and then fury with the benefits of that rage?

It works and it's worth it. Both the FRW and the life steal can be charged up and these charges stay when you switch to a different attack (though you have to refresh them every 20 seconds or the charges will go away). Even with a single point and some +skills, it can give a sizeable boost to your life steal, and all you have to do is switch to feral rage for a hit every 20 seconds.

[FenrisWulf]

Ah, thank you, adeyke. As you may have noticed, I was a bit off in my calculations; I forgot to take into account the effect of the existing on-weapon ED. Whoops. :P

Setting up an inequality:
for d = +% ED already on the weapon
e = +% ED from skills, stats, other gear, et cetera
s = +% ED on the jewel/rune you're considering socketing instead of a Pul,

if s > .75 * (1 + d) / (1 + e), then the jewel/rune will be more beneficial than the Pul.

What this shows is that if you have a large amount of external +% ED, or a small amount of on-weapon +% ED, the jewel/rune will become increasingly effective in comparison to the Pul. On the other hand, a very high on-weapon +% ED or fairly low external +% ED will make the Pul look more attractive (against Demons, of course).

In this particular case (+588% external ED, +234% weapon ED), a 37% ED jewel will be more effective than a Pul against Demons.

For a Perfect Tombreaver (+588% external ED, +280% weapon ED), you would need a 42% ED jewel to work as well against Demons as a Pul. :P (of course, an Ohm would be more than equivalent)

And, if you chose to hire a nice Might Merc (assume slvl 15 Might, taking you to +768% external ED, +280% weapon ED), then you're down to a 32% ED jewel.

With a slvl 25 Fury (adding 102% more external ED), on top of the last situation, we're now down to around a 30% ED jewel.

So, whereagles, I do apologize for my rather harsh condemnation of Puls; it was moderately unfounded. However, I still hold that there are better options, namely pure +% ED socket fillers, since they're effective against all monsters, not just Demons.

(also, it's easier to adapt your build to add more external +% ED than weapon +% ED, ie, more +skills, higher strength, et cetera)

[FenrisWulf]

@CowInvader:
To clarify my notation:

As you know, after slvl 4, one single Fury attack consists of 5 individual swings. The first swing is at the same speed as the Werewolf's normal attack; the next four are at a separate Fury attack speed. Therefore, when I said "6/4 Fury", I was trying to convey the point that the first swing will last for 6 frames, and the next four swings will each take 4 frames to complete. Hope that makes sense.

Those are fine IAS jewels, but feel free to wait until you can actually use it to socket it, just in case something better comes along. :)

You definitely shouldn't need a point in Solar Creeper. A point in Carrion Vine would probably come in handy, though. It's quite helpful against Skeleton packs and PI groups, since you won't be able to leech back life.

BStar + Tiamat's is the standard PI solution. Gimmershreds are also great. Of course, these are uncommon items; in a pinch, high Elemental damage Wands can be purchased from any of the Hell wand vendors; Lightning and Fire are good flavors to go for. I think that the ones with blue feathers have the fastest base speed.

Definitely use Feral Rage. It doesn't require a huge point investment (I usually go for 10, but you can probably cut back if you're running low), but should be used at all times. There's simply no reason not to. As adeyke said, the Life Leech and R/W bonus will carry over as long as the orb is circling around you; it's on a 20 second timer since the last Feral Rage hit, so just be sure to refresh it every 15 seconds or so before switching back to Fury.

I haven't played 1.10 all that much, so I can't give much help on the item choices. :)

Min Str & Dex seems to be the strategy that most people take, so you should be good there.

[whereagles]

Fernis: it's ok. Hanging around D2 forums for a while kinda makes you immune to flaming, lol :D

Cowinvader: LOL! I should have known, since you stated talking about druids. I'm not into druid jargon, though. My top-level druid was a lev 3 dude :rolleyes:

Adeyke: I see. Well.. this game can get annoying because you never know how good an modifier is, lol.

And how about maces? Does that "+50% to undead" add like off-weapon enhanced damage, or does it add to base weapon damage vs undead?

[adeyke]

Maces' (or, rather, blunt weapons') +50% damage to undead is also just off-weapon ED. There's no difference between it and other kinds of +% damage to undead.

[CowInvader]

Update on my druid

I've decided to go with heart of wolverine and a bear for my tank. Also, I'm using GlimmerShred+ 3 socket shield /w fire light and cold facets in it on the weapon switch for dealing with PI's. Got the whappity factor today from Gore Rider's, but I still haven't found any better jewels than what I listed before.

I'm currently in Kurast @ lvl 23 and am doing awesomely. I got myself a brutal Maul and am having no trouble soloing in 4+ player games ;)

I don't have any weapon upgrades until lvl 38 when I can use Fleshrender and then I don't have anything for quite a while so hopefully I will find something fun to use up until then. Does anyone have any ideas for crafts or runewords I can use that are fairly easy to aquire?

I've decided to use a shaft until I can use my +2 Valor since that runeword armor is a bit out of reach for me right now. Since I won't have that 65 resist all I will have to use one of my Mara's. In the ring department I've decided on 1 Raven Frost + something else which is where my question(s) come in. The Cryptic Axe returns 10% of the monsters I kill as returned's. Do they fight on my side? or do they fight against me? If they fight against me, would wearing Nature's Peace Ring keep that from happening?

[adeyke]

The reanimated monsters are on your side. However, they don't really do a whole lot. They just wander around (they don't follow you), fight a monster if it's nearby (without dealing a whole lot of damage) and die by themselves if you wait too long (like a necro's reviveds). So they're free tanks for a short time and they remove corpses, but don't expect them to kill things for you.

And yes, the RIP property on Nature's Peace does stop the reanimation.