Guide written by Spearthrower on the DiabloII.Net Single Player Forums.
A WB differs from a WW in 2 key areas... 1 is killing speed.... WB's do not have a "Fury"-like skill to reap mass destruction on groups of enemies. 2 is in defense, a WW does not need defense and is geared more towards leaching life than not being hit. Ultimately with a WB you can tank anything taking very little damage and doing a LOT of damage at a slower pace. The WB is the 1 hit killer.
The WB has 2 key problems which you need to know about before creation. 1 is speed - WB's swing weapons VERY slowly.... in fact you probably haven't even seen slow until you have seen a WB at low levels with basic equipment. With my 1st layout I was swinging once every 2 seconds!!! This is no joke and when added to the WB's other problem it becomes deadly (for the WB).
Problem 2 is your ability to hit things. WW's have an AR bonus given to them from the actual skill WW form, WB's don't - for this reason they have to use Heart of the Wolverine (HoW) a level 18 summoning skill and pump a lot of points into their primary attack "Maul".
Speed is the first thing you need to worry about with a WB and Attack rating (AR) is next. We will look at ways to help these out later.
The key skills are obviously going to be maxed (eventually)
Lycanthropy Level 1, also requires WW (which is stupid).
Adds a lot of life and Wereform duration.
Werebear Form Level 6.
Adds Damage and Defense and Life.
Maul Level 12. A charge up skill.
Increases damage as you charge up, stuns enemies, adds AR
Heart of Wolverine Level 18.
Summons a spirit that increases damage and attack rating.
Carrion Vine Level 12.
Eats corpses and returns a percentage of life to you. Carrion Vine is a must... with the huge amount of life you will eventually have as a WB, those healing potions just don’t have any effect. The carrion vine returns a percentage of your life, which, at higher levels can mean an awful lot of HP's. Only 1 point is necessary in this skill.. why? Because vines tend to be hated by all monsters and will always be killed during the fight, it is more of a cast when needed than a permanent summon. Use it at the end of a fight when you are low on health or during a tough fight where it can provide both health regen and another target for the enemy. Remember it also eats corpses so if you are facing a resurrecting type enemy it will stop this from happening.
Fire Claws Level 18.
Adds fire damage to attack and adds AR. This is unfortunately an awful skill. The fire damage is tiny although it can be used with maul to increase its damage. Some people put a lot into this skill hoping that it will help them against physical immunes (PI's) in hell. Remember that there are probably more enemies immune to fire than to any other element. I personally would say this is not worth investing into at all.
Hunger Level 24.
Steals mana and life but has a huge damage penalty. This is a difficult skill to assess because it depends largely on your equipment. I do not use this skill and have thereby saved 2 skill points - Fire Claws is a pre-requisite of it. If you have no other way of leaching life and mana then this is your only option, but I do think that any character should have at least a small amount of life and mana leach on their equipment. Even if you need this skill remember that its damage is reduced by 75% which can be offset by the added damage of Maul but still means that it is only a back-up skill (funny to use on Fallen) and only 1 point is needed.
Shockwave Level 24.
Causes a... ok, a shockwave which does some damage and stuns enemies. This is potentially a very powerful skill as it stuns the enemy for a very long time. This is not a skill to focus on until you are a high level but I intend to finish with about 15 points into this which returns a stun length of about 10 seconds.
Type players 8 the moment you start the game. Go off and do the Den of Evil quest killing everything and picking up anything of any worth along the way. By the time you have completed the Quest you will probably be level 5 and have enough cash to start yourself off.
It is really important that you save any chipped Diamonds and Amethysts that you find. Go back to Akara and get your reward and nip over to speak to Charsi. You need to get yourself a large axe as it has very fast attack speed for a Druid. What you are really looking for is a socketed Large Axe and you want to put Amethysts into it as soon as you find them. This really helps out with your ability to hit things. As soon as you reach the level requirement for Charsi to start selling ring mail you also want to pick yourself up a socketed one and put chipped diamonds in it.
This is a big one over at the Druid forum and everyone seems to agree that you need DEX for a WB. I don't agree. DEX is used in 4 ways by the game – To figure blocking, max damage of bows/throwing weapons, a modifier of defence, a modifier of Attack rating. We get defence bonus from being a Bear that far out-weighs the bonus from DEX. We are going to be using a 2Handed Weapon as our primary, so no shields possible ... .... And finally our aim is to get attack rating from equipment which I will discuss later, however between levels 8 and 18 you are going to have a hard time hitting things, that’s why I suggest collecting your amethysts and diamonds which give you decent AR without spending anything on DEX. Certainly up to level 6 you wont need to have anything in DEX so I would put 4 in STR and 1 in VIT for the first few levels, this lets you wear better equipment earlier and provides enough life to take some hits. By the time you reach high levels your equipment will also add a fair amount of DEX.. but this is far less important than AR.
As mentioned before, WB’s are obliged to place 1 point into WW as a pre-requisite of LYC ... my first point went in WW my next 3 in LYC.. then using the 1 point from the quest and the 1 from gaining level 6, put 1 into Oak Sage and 1 into WB.
Oak Sage is from now on your best friend (at least until you get HoW), re-summon her whenever she dies ... and die she will. Get into the habit of having her around; she will take some of the pressure off you as monsters aren’t too happy with her presence. Remember that when you play “players 8” the Oak Sage’s HP’s are boosted by this making it a fairly decent tank even at low levels. Obviously she is only standing in for HoW so don’t place any more points into this skill!
Ok, you can now turn into a WB ... try it .... It’s great eh? Now turn back again and go fight in human form! Why? You will probably find that the swing is a little too slow at the moment and you are already doing enough damage in human form ... at the moment the pros are outweighed by the cons of WB-form. At this level WB is best used when fighting boss gangs where the defence and damage bonus (plus the life bonus from LYC) can help out.
Over the next few levels you may start to get problems hitting things ... use your amethysts & diamonds, use +AR charms/rings/amulets you find until you reach the magic number 12 when you get Maul. Maul is our primary skill and has an AR bonus attached to it ... it is similar to an Assassins charge-up skill and it’s damage increases as you hit. If you stop hitting things the charge-up will run out after 20 seconds and you will revert back to normal damage levels.
During these levels keep pumping STR and VIT at a 3:2 ratio. If you really can’t resist then pop a point or 2 in DEX but it is ultimately unnecessary! Get a point into Poison Creeper as a pre-requisite of Carrion Vine (CV) (as the points there you might as well use the vine) and maybe put a point or 2 more into LYC, if you need a little more damage (unlikely) put 1 more point into WB. When you reach level 12 have 2 points saved – 1 into Maul, 1 into CV which now also becomes your best friend and also likes dieing a lot
Every level from here on until 18 I would put into Maul, you see, you need the AR it gives. If, however you find that you are hitting enough but are getting low on HP’s at times then place points into LYC or WB. This is the key to WB management.. if you find you are lacking in an area, use the next levels skill point to boost it.
I beat Andariel at level 12 ... this is not obligatory and some people enjoy taking the game at a slower pace. In fact, this helps a lot because your chance to hit is based upon your level and the targets level .... If the target is a few levels higher than you it gets harder to hit it effectively. This part from 12 – 18 is probably the most difficult part in a bears life ... bear with it!!! ;P
At level 18 get HoW - this is your source of AR and improves damage. From here on your skill distribution is pretty much geared towards placing 1 in either LYC, WB, Maul or HoW .... As I explained before, if you feel a deficiency in 1 area then add points to the skill that helps that area out .....
It’s all about managing your character in an effective way and you can exclusively pump these skills from now until they’re maxed if this is what you want.
As soon as you get through to Act 2, go shopping! Get higher defensive armour (again with sockets for diamonds) if you are high enough level then you are looking for a Maul (fitting huh?) it is a big 2handed mace. If you are level 16 you can gamble them off the skinny guy – Elzix is his name (I think) – he lives behind the Palace.
This series of weapons is the backbone of Druidic weapons, and while you may later in the game end up with a Feral Axe .... For the foreseeable future you will be using the Maul series ... i.e. Maul (normal), War-Club (exceptional), Ogre Maul (elite). Poor mans Maul will be socketed with Amethysts and perhaps a skull of the highest grade available. Rich mans will be rune-worded with a nice Mid-level Rune word. Rich-Jammy-Muler will have a Bonesnap Maul. All of these will hopefully be upgraded whenever possible and at level 29 will have a shael put in them (remember the speed issue)
That is the complete basics as I see them. Focus on these skills and boosting Strength to meet your ultimate weapon requirements and throwing everything else into VIT. Upgrade armour wherever possible (WB-form boosts that defensive rating). Make Full-Rejuvs up with your cube because later on when you have thousands of HP’s, healing potions are useless. Sometime in your mid-30’s you can if need be put a point into Shockwave to help with a little crowd control, although this wont be particularly useful until at least slvl 5-6 ... but any +skills equipment will help out with this for now. Also I would definitely support working towards having a Grizzly Bear – even if its only 1 point in it and the pre-reqs. Together with your HoW and 8 players he gets a fair amount of life and deals moderate damage ... although he is soooo slow it’s a joke, but he's cute to watch... oh and he stuns monsters... heheh !
If you still need AR then a Blessed Aim merc will help a lot.
I use a Holy Freeze merc... if monsters are slowed then you are relatively hitting faster
A Might merc... this is purely for overkill WB's do ridiculous damage already
Act1/Act3 Merc - Use them as an elementalist to help against PI's in hell.
This is at the end of the guide because as I said ... we are SPers and not everyone has all the great stuff.
We have talked about .... Mauls. Remember that Shapeshifted forms get a lot more benefit from Increased Attack Speed when it is actually ON the weapon not on equipment. That said .... any IAS is appreciated when in WB form.
A notable exception is the Ribcracker – Very nice indeed for a mid-level bear.
Feral Axes – potentially the best WB weapon in the game
The Immortal Kings Stone-Crusher (Set piece Maul) – a very viable ultimate weapon due to its good damage and fast speed only problem is its character level req of lvl76
The rule of thumb: Fast as possible and high damage. Use the socketing quest to put SHAEL runes into them (if you have shaels cluttering your stash )
High defensive ratings on a bear make it a formidable tank .... This is definitely a character to look for high defence armour! Runewords rock if you have the potential. If you happen to have a shaftstop collecting dust (don’t we all?) then wear it ... in fact any armour type you have with Damage reduction is wonderful!
Sigons Set: Using Helmet & Gloves & Boots/Belt you get some excellent bonuses including IAS, MF and most importantly +AR per lvl from the helmet.
If you have Twitchthroe it is very useful for a Bear at low-mid levels ... IAS, +DEX.. they all work.
Fast run helps on boots bears are slooooowwwwwww!
Life and Mana leach are fairly important as with all melee character. However with the HUGE damage a bear does only a little of each is really necessary ... if you can’t get mana leach on anything, try to find something with +mana after kill ... you will eventually get something (I did)
Anything at all with +AR ... collect charms with this mod, you ultimately only need a few Steel charms to get your WB’s AR up to good enough levels even for Hell. If nothing else, never under-estimate the power of Perfect Diamonds and Amethysts.
Ravenfrost Ring: For its +AR and +DEX
Look for the “Visionary” mod on a helm ... it adds a % bonus to AR per level.
If all else fails - fight monsters that aren't too much higher level than you. This is the biggest factor in the "to hit %" and something that confuses a lot of people. That figure is more an indication of your level versus the monsters level. If its so low that you rarely hit - i.e. under 70% - then go back a bit in the game and level up... this steadily improves your to hit%. With ridiculously high AR you will always hit things even if your level is much lower than your targets while it tells you that you have 55% chance to hit or something! Fight near to your level and all will be well.
There is a much under-used low level set called Angelic Set. This was one of my key tactics and my ultimate argument in going against DEX. With just the ring and the amulet you get a massive AR bonus (as well as other mods), wear 2 rings and an amulet and you get double that. I want to point this out as many of you quite possibly have this set lurking on a mule (possibly even from D2Classic) and this can boost your AR up to levels which stand you in good stead for Hell. You are looking for a minimum of 3000 – 3500 AR in Hell, although anything higher is obviously better but anything more than 5K starts to become unnecessary (we aren’t PvPing in SP are we?)
And for the last time let me remind you that speed on the weapon is very important! Just wanted to drum that one home!
Well, that’s all, although I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things and possibly made some errors in others so if anyone sees any of these let me know and I will edit it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask on the thread or PM me. If anyone wants to flame/criticise ... go ahead as this is only my opinion, not the ONLY way to do it and it has worked for me.
Oh yeah ... most important ... enjoy!!!!