- Jul 8, 2004
- 3,398
- 347
- 83
Stats
Skills
20 Bone Spirit
20 Teeth
20 Bone Wall
20 Bone Prison
10 Bone Armor
1 Clay Golem
Gear
The Planning Stage
In my last mat thread, ffs suggested that:
Sounds pretty cool! Let's give it a whirl.
I made a necro bear 7 years ago that also utilized CTC bone spirit and spirit with Oath and Bone, so I was interested in comparing play styles between the two builds.
In keeping with the Southern Pacific theme I established with Tilafaiga, Matau is named after the bone hooks used by the Maori people of New Zealand.
Leveling and Observations
This guy was a lot more powerful then my previous necro bear for a couple reasons:
For a character with Werebear and a weak Bone Armor as his only defensive skills, I felt surprisingly safe. So safe, in fact, that I manage to go through the game without dying (I know all you HC folks are laughing right now
), but that rarely happens with my non-barb characters, even when I'm packed to the gills with defensive gear.
Part of that safety was actually due to the knockback on Brand. Before I started this guy, I was thinking I'd have to grit my teeth and just deal with the annoyance of KB, but it turned out to actually be a benefit on this character. Against single enemies, I could stun-lock them against a wall and against groups, the knockbacks helped keep me from being totally surrounded. There must be some kind of formula for knockback, because it's definitely not 100% of the time (THAT would have drove me bonkers).
As a necrobear, I could only use normal attacks, but that had its upsides when I squared off with ghosts - probably the monster type I least like encountering. Usually, the mana leeching from ghosts means you're forced into an annoying attack-mana-potion-attack-mana-potion sequence. With normal attack, I don't need any mana! The other aggravating thing about ghosts is how they stack on top of each other, so you get hit by 10 of them at once. Bone spear's auto-pierce meant that I could blast through any number of ghosts with each attack. Tack on my amp proc breaking their physical immunity and ghosts were no trouble at all. *Bustin' makes me feel good!*
Finally, as a melee character, proccing Brand's amp damage felt a lot more natural this time around. Amp went off very consistently, probably even more so then with my previous bowazon, since I was in front of my merc more often.
Code:
Lvl 82
Normal Attack: 1203-1450 (w/ Might)
Bone Spear: 1108-1174
Life: 2514 (as a Werebear)
Resists: 75 F, 18 C, 80 L, 33 P
Str: 95 | Dex: 76 | Vit: 304Skills
20 Bone Spirit
20 Teeth
20 Bone Wall
20 Bone Prison
10 Bone Armor
1 Clay Golem
Gear
Code:
Guillaume's Face 'all res jewel w/ dex'
Mara's Kaleidoscope
'Brand' Demon Crossbow
'Fortitude' Archon Plate
Havoc Hand crafted gloves*
String of Ears
Gore Rider
Beast Gyre rare ring*
Raven Frost
Switch: eth 'Beast' Berserker Axe / eth 'Spirit' Monarch
Merc: eth 'Infinity' CA / 'Fortitude' Archon Plate / Crown of Thieves 'ias jewel'
Charms (combined stats): 198 life, 84 fire res, 76 light res, 31 poison res, 10 cold res, 32 min damage, 10% fhr, 7 dex
Havoc Hand
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 10
Durability: 10 of 14
Required Level: 73
Fingerprint: 0x5d9c3b90
Item Level: 92
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
2% Life stolen per hit
7% Chance of Crushing Blow
+55% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Strength
+19 to Life
Lightning Resist +12%
Beast Gyre
Ring
Required Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0x213c44c2
Item Level: 89
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Minimum Damage
6% Life stolen per hit
+15 to Strength
+17 to Life
+1 to Mana after each KillThe Planning Stage
In my last mat thread, ffs suggested that:
Sounds pretty cool! Let's give it a whirl.
I made a necro bear 7 years ago that also utilized CTC bone spirit and spirit with Oath and Bone, so I was interested in comparing play styles between the two builds.
In keeping with the Southern Pacific theme I established with Tilafaiga, Matau is named after the bone hooks used by the Maori people of New Zealand.
Leveling and Observations
This guy was a lot more powerful then my previous necro bear for a couple reasons:
- Much higher physical damage output - Oath attacks a lot faster (6 fpa) than Brand (8fpa), but the added damage from Fortitude, Brand's amp proc, and the might merc, the added deadly strike from Brand and Gores, and the extra crushing blow from my blood gloves and Gores meant my overall physical damage output was a lot higher. I wasn't able to pack on all that extra damage on my last necro bear because I had to sacrifice a lot of gear slots for survival (Drac's, res belt, res boots) and a better hit chance (Angelic amulet and ring, BA merc)
- Much better chance to hit - Of course, all that extra physical damage goes to waste if I can't hit anything. Without Brand's ITD and Infinity's conviction aura, all I had was about 980 AR with my final gear . With the two, I could consistently hit everything from trash mobs to act bosses. That freed up the merc and some extra gear slots for the aforementioned added damage.
- All the life leech I needed (without Drac's) - All that added physical damage and high chance to hit, coupled with 21% life leech from my blood gloves, rare ring, and String of Ears, meant I no longer needed Drac's to survive in Hell. I was able to leech back all the life I needed without having to continually drink potions.
- More consistent magic damage - Oath fires off bone spirits 30% of the time, Bone fires off bone spears 15% of the time. Brand blasts off spears 100% of the time. That consistency meant I could always count on firing off a ton of spears when I started attacking.
For a character with Werebear and a weak Bone Armor as his only defensive skills, I felt surprisingly safe. So safe, in fact, that I manage to go through the game without dying (I know all you HC folks are laughing right now
), but that rarely happens with my non-barb characters, even when I'm packed to the gills with defensive gear.Part of that safety was actually due to the knockback on Brand. Before I started this guy, I was thinking I'd have to grit my teeth and just deal with the annoyance of KB, but it turned out to actually be a benefit on this character. Against single enemies, I could stun-lock them against a wall and against groups, the knockbacks helped keep me from being totally surrounded. There must be some kind of formula for knockback, because it's definitely not 100% of the time (THAT would have drove me bonkers).
As a necrobear, I could only use normal attacks, but that had its upsides when I squared off with ghosts - probably the monster type I least like encountering. Usually, the mana leeching from ghosts means you're forced into an annoying attack-mana-potion-attack-mana-potion sequence. With normal attack, I don't need any mana! The other aggravating thing about ghosts is how they stack on top of each other, so you get hit by 10 of them at once. Bone spear's auto-pierce meant that I could blast through any number of ghosts with each attack. Tack on my amp proc breaking their physical immunity and ghosts were no trouble at all. *Bustin' makes me feel good!*
Finally, as a melee character, proccing Brand's amp damage felt a lot more natural this time around. Amp went off very consistently, probably even more so then with my previous bowazon, since I was in front of my merc more often.
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