I. Introduction

Hello, everyone. This guide, co-authored by myself and inkanddagger, is the result of receiving handfuls of PMs asking for updated information on fury wolf druids since the recent 2.4 patch that Blizzard released in April 2022. While it draws inspiration from inkanddagger’s The Fury Wolf guide (one of the most viewed guides on d2jsp), it adds a lot of novel information that is necessary to make a solid PvP fury wolf druid in D2R. Note this guide is meant for PvP GM melee fury wolf druids but contains a wealth of info for anyone interested in werewolf druids and melee dueling broadly. Disclaimer: Many of the items posted in this guide ARE NOT MINE but are posted as examples of good items to try and buy yourself.

In April 2022, Blizzard released the 2.4 patch which drastically changed Wereform Druids. While this patch created a lot of interesting balance and build changes, the four changes that are relevant for us here include:

➜ Werewolf now only uses the new attack speed calculation that was originally introduced in the Private Test Realm (PTR)
➜ Raised Werewolf attack speed cap from +75% to +150%
➜ Attack Rating bonus increased from +7% to +10% per level
➜ Attack Speed increased by 40% (Reduced the rollback frames value between each attack)

We can interpret this to mean the following:

1) fury wolf druids now can attack faster using a wider variety of weapons/gear than before, and
2) the fury skill had a slight buff to attack rating.

These changes were presumably made by Blizzard in response to years upon years of wereform players’ frustrations over wolf druids’ broken IAS whereby, prior to this patch, IAS gained from gear (oias) worked negligibly compared to IAS from your weapon (i.e., if you had a 40/15 jewel in your pelt, the 15% IAS would not “count” toward attack your speed in the way it does on D2R. It would only help to reach slower IAS breakpoints). This meant that, for 20+ years in LoD, GM melee wolf druids were limited to a very small number of weapons that did not hit nearly as hard as what other GM melee classes could wield, all so that they could attack at a reasonable speed. To do this, wolf druids in LoD were pigeonholed into using only two-socketed ethereal repair fools weapons with 40% base IAS in phase blades, fanged knives, and ataghans. Harder-hitting weapons accessible to other GM melee classes like berserker axes, legendary mallets, and ettin axes were not viable. Wolf druids also had to sacrifice putting two Lo’s in these weapons to put in Shael’s or 40/15’s simply to reach the necessary speed. The general consensus was that this put wolf druids at a pretty significant disadvantage in GM melee. They had long been considered the “fun” or “niche” underdog (no pun intended) – but you didn’t want to play a wolf druid if you cared about winning.

With 2.4, this is no longer the case. To summarize briefly, wolf druids can now gain IAS from all of their gear and can hit “3 frame” (the fastest attack speed) with more weapons than before, but they also can hit “4 frame” with an even wider of variety of weapons. Due to this change alone, a new guide is needed because wolf druids now have a wide variety of options to choose from, ranging from the fastest weapon type in the game (phase blades) to the slowest (legendary mallets)!

II. Stats and Skill Points

Shapeshifting Skill Tree. Max Werewolf, Lycanthropy, and Fury.

Summoning Skill Tree. Max Oak Sage.

Elemental Skill Tree. Max Cyclone Armor while remaining points go into Twister/Tornado/Hurricane to synergize Cyclone Armor and prevent Torch deaths.

* Note: Using Heart of the Wolverine instead of Oak Sage is very uncommon and used only in niche builds. Something that is more common now is to put a point into Shockwave (a Werebear skill) so that you can referee GM melee matches by Shockwaving Oak Sages to prevent them from flying into the middle of duels and dying. Not everyone does this but it is worth mentioning.

Stats. Generally, putting enough strength in for your gear, enough dexterity for Max Block (75%), and the rest into Vitality is key (no points into energy). For niche builds, you might pump strength (such as to wear a Fortitude in a sacred armor base) or dexterity (for more damage and attack rating when wielding a dagger), but this is rare.

III. Gear

Helms.

Cerebus’ Bite: An obvious choice and widely used in fury versus zeal for the attack rating boost. Common socket options include 30 max jewels, 40/15 jewels, 100ar/15ias jewels, Ber rune (for an Open Wound belt setup), Cham (for Angelics setup), or a good rare jewel if you have one. The 4+ Shape Shifting skills and 120% Bonus to Attack Rating are the most important stats on this, other stats can vary to make it more affordable.

Guillame’s Face: This is the helm of choice for fury versus fury duels due to the Crushing Blow, usually with similar socket options as Cerebus (see above). These can now be upgraded on Ladder with a perfect defense of 349.
Jalal’s Mane: This is less frequently used but some like it for the 30% FHR it provides if trying to hit the 42 FHR breakpoint. It is probably outclassed by the other options described here in most scenarios, but can still be usable especially if you are on a budget (a 200% ED Jalal is quite cheap now). If you stat to its 20+ strength, that can be quite useful too. Upgraded ones are perfect at 477 defense.

Rare Circlet: 2+ Druid Skills, 30% FRW (optional, to get to your opponent faster), visionary mod, 2 socket circlets are niche but usable in certain scenarios, particularly when you need two sockets (typically for 30% additional Increased Attack Speed or 2x 30 maximum damage jewels) and an attack rating boost. Ones with good stats (strength, dexterity, life) make this option even more appealing, but these generally should not be used unless they have two sockets (otherwise, stick to Cerebus).

Magic Pelt: 3+ Shape Shifting Skills, 3+ Fury, +XX Life, two socket magic pelts have actually become quite useful in D2R. These are great pelts if you need the two sockets for whatever reason (again, for IAS or additional damage). Shoot for one with a minimum 10+ to Life.

Rare Pelt 1: The elusive 2+ Druid Skills, 3+ Fury, visionary, two socket pelt. Usually, they need 10 base FHR and good life to truly be worth it, but finding one of these in D2R regardless of the other stats would be useful due to the two sockets.

Rare Pelt 2: The more common 2+ Druid Skills, 3+ Fury, base life and/or FHR, two socket pelt. These were not used in LoD much (or at all) but they are now as two socketed pelts have become viable, mostly for purposes of putting in IAS jewels to reach certain breakpoints. The best is 2+ Druid Skills, 10% FHR, 3+ Fury, 30+ Life, two sockets.

Armor.

Fortitude: This is really your only viable option in melee vs. melee duels to its chance to proc Chilling Armor. If your opponent has Chilling Armor and you don’t, it hurts. Archon Plate is pretty standard but Lacquered Plate is a good option for more defense, and you can try Sacred Armor for high defense builds (but be aware that you will have to pump strength a bit to get there). In any case, shoot for a 1.5 LPL (resistances do not matter for melee vs. melee).

100 life, 4 Socket Jeweler’s Armors: You can try to pull this off, but it’s largely for all the rare/crafted melee leagues or any league where Fortitude is banned. In these cases, people like to put in 40/15 jewels or, in rarer cases, nice stat jewels. You can 4x 40/15 this to reach 3 frame for some cool weapon for fun!

Enigma: There is a case to be made for Enigma. 2 skills, high strength, and a Ber rune which allows you to place one more Ber in either your helm or shield and then replace Verdungo’s Belt with a crafted open wounds belt with faster hit recovery, strength, and life. You can easily have 10k+ life with this armor, but you will take more hits than with Fortitude after Chilling Armor - so, there is a tradeoff.

Belts.

Verdungo’s: Say hello to your #1 melee belt. This is hard to beat. The 10 FHR gets you halfway to the 20 FHR breakpoint and the DR is obviously important.

24 FHR / 5-10% Open Wounds / 20+ Strength / 60+ Life Crafted Blood Belt: These may not be used as much as they were in LoD. You will have to sacrifice at least one socket in your helm/pelt/circlet and/or your socket in Stormshield so that you have two Bers for the proper DR as you are getting rid of Verdungos. However, it still works for high-life builds. It also gets you to the 20 FHR breakpoint without having to do anything else. If you do use it, statting to the strength on it is essential for more life.

String of Ears: A very niche use is to use this without Cyclone Armor to take advantage of the MDR overflow bug, where the Magic Damage Reduced on the belt reduces your physical damage for any elemental damage done by your opponent. For example, Highlord’s Wrath amulet does 1-30 Lightning Damage. After 75% resistances and the 17% PvP penalty that’s 0-1.275 damage, which the game will essentially round to 1 damage per hit. That leaves 14 MDR for every hit you take that will be rolled over to physical damage reduced. This adds for each source of elemental damage. If your opponent is using Highlord’s, Ravenfrost, and a rare weapon with fire damage, you may end up reducing 42 damage per hit. The life leech on the belt will also add a tiny amount of life back. It works at 1% effectiveness in Normal difficulty where GM melee duels typically occur.

Immortal King’s: Using the Belt and Gloves combination for 25% additional IAS may be the only way to hit desired IAS breakpoints with certain slow weapons. The massive strength and dexterity on the items can also add significant hit points. Pair it with Crown of Ages or make sure to use two Ber runes in gear for maximum damage reduction. This is a very unconventional setup, but it has seen interesting results paired with an ethereal Runemaster.

Gloves.

20 IAS / 5-10 CB / 10+ Strength / 10+ Dexterity / 15+ Life Vampirebone Crafted Blood Gloves: This is something new for wolf druids in D2R since we can now get IAS from all gear. These are an incredible option especially for when you need 40 additional IAS from your gear to hit a particular attack speed (the combination of Highlord’s and these gloves will get you to the 40 IAS you need). The CB is also quite helpful versus wolf druids who tend to have high life, and the stats never hurt either!

Steelrends: A very common choice, especially for those harder-hitting weapons that benefit from Enhanced Damage. These are typically used when you don’t need IAS on your gloves.

Bloodfists: If you are going for the 42 FHR breakpoint, this is a very easy way to reach it and also provides 10 additional IAS to help you reach a certain attack speed, if needed. The minimum damage and life are nice too.

Immortal King’s: See the Belts section above for explanation.

Boots.

Gore Riders: An all-around solid option. The Open Wounds, Crushing Blow, and Deadly Strike are too useful to give up in most situations. Upgrade it for as close to 213 defense as you can.

War Travelers: If you already have maximum deadly strike (for example, ethereal Death Cleaver and Highlord’s), this is an easy way to add 400+ damage.

Goblin Toes: The only thing these have going for them is the 25% Crushing Blow. Can be interesting when paired with Guillaume’s Face, but you will walk and run very slowly.

Shields.

Stormshield: This is really your only option in melee vs. melee. Popular socket options include 30 max, 40/15, 100/15, Ber (for Open Wounds setup), Cham (for Angelics setup), etc. Sometimes, people will try things like 7fhr/30ed/9str/-15 req jewels and such. Stormshield is a good place to stick your fancy and uncommon rare jewels since it is a universal shield used with every build.

Amulets.

Highlord’s: As much as we all miss our 1.08 Highlord’s, we’ll have to do without them. The 20 IAS and Deadly Strike are too good to give up in most cases here.

Angelics: Angelics is commonly used (with two Angelic rings) in fury versus zeal setups when you do not have a good fools weapon to make up for the needed Attack Rating.

Rings.

You have some different options here, similarly to LoD:

1. 9 Minimum Damage / 100+ Attack Rating / 20+ Strength + / 40+ Life Crafted Ring
2. 100+ Attack Rating / 20+ Strength / 10 + Dexterity / 40+ Life Crafted Ring
3. 100+ Attack Rating / 15+ Strength / 10+ Dexterity / 38+ Life Rare Ring
4. Raven Frost (usually use one and one of #1-#3) for Cannot Be Frozen
5. 2x Angelics

Generally, you would go with #1 when you have a weapon with lower minimum damage (a berserker axe comes to mind). The second choice is amazing as well but they are very rare on D2R. That is why you can now also go with #3, which are common and more affordable (get as close to 120ar/20str/15dex/40life to make it worth using over a second Raven Frost). Two Raven Frosts can be used with some success and is a very good budget option in the absence of good crafts/rares. Angelics are used in fury versus zeal matchups to make up for needed AR when you do not have a usable fools weapon.

On Swap.

- 6/6/4 Call to Arms
- Ethereal Spirit Monarch (for a lower strength requirement)

Charms.

- 20/20 Druid Torch
- 20/20/XX Annihilius

There are four options for the rest of your melee inventory:

1. 9x 45 Life Shape Shifting Grand Charms, 10x 3/20/20s (or as close as possible)
2. 37x 3/20/20s (or as close as possible)
3. 5/3/20 FHR small charms
4. A blend of #1, #2, and #3 according to your IAS needs emanating from Werewolf skill level and FHR needs

➜ The Werewolf skill grants a certain amount of IAS, with Level 38 and Level 42 Werewolf serving as important breakpoints. Therefore, you may have a weapon that would benefit more from 3/20/20s but you still need a certain number of +1 Shapeshifting Grand Charms to remain at Level 38 Werewolf for an IAS breakpoint. [The typical Cerebus setup lands you at Level 42 Werewolf with 9x GCs, but wearing a Guillame’s Face drops you to Level 38.] Example: A mithril point with 0 base IAS will need 40 additional IAS on gear to hit 5/4/4/4/7 frames with Level 38 Werewolf, but you will want to use as many 3/20/20s as possible. Assuming you are wearing Cerebus and Highlords, you will need 5x skill GCs to hit Level 38 Werewolf (after BO from CTA) while the rest of your inventory can be 3/20/20s (& Anni/Torch). If using Guillame’s Face instead of Cerebus, however, you would then need all 9x GCs to hit Level 38 Werewolf. The calculator linked below can help you determine how many GCs vs. how many SCs you need.

➜ If using Guillame’s Face and Verdungos, you just need 1x 5/3/20 to achieve the 42 FHR breakpoint. If not using Guillame’s or another item that grants good FHR (such as Bloodfists or Jalal), you will probably need 2x 5/3/20s to achieve the 20 FHR breakpoint with Verdungos.

A Note on Jewels and Damage Bugs.

First, IAS jewels are now more salient for wolf druids in D2R compared to LoD because we can use them in any of our gear slots. This means that you might want to socket something with IAS jewels whereas you would have never considered this in LoD. Second, the absolutely insane jewels in LoD (e.g., 30ED/60AR/9str/9dex, 7FHR/30ED/9str/9dex) are a thing of the past and do not exist at this stage of the game. If you have such a jewel or something close to it, it might be great to socket it in a pelt/helm or Stormshield, but I am writing this guide assuming that 99% of readers will not have them. Perfect magic jewels have become the standard: 30 max jewels, 40/15s, 100/15s, 40ed/9str, 40ed/9dex, 40/15max (for weapons), etc. are now widely used in GM melee.

We need to take space here to discuss one other issue about melee jewels: the ED/minimum/maximum damage bug. Since LoD, it has been considered completely useless to have ED and either maximum damage or minimum damage on your jewel. I will not spend too much describing the jewel bug because it is so widely known and the information can be found everywhere, including here. However, there is a significant misconception about this bug that continues to exist in the Diablo community, and is perpetuated on the d2jsp forums and elsewhere practically every single day. The misconception lies in the idea that jewels with ED and minimum damage are always bugged in such a way that they are not useful and should never be used, ever. This is simply not true, and this misconception is relevant for wolf druid players who would benefit from such a jewel greatly.

The gist of this misconception lies in the fact that many weapons have low minimum damage. When using a weapon like this, using a jewel with ED and minimum damage is actually better than a rare jewel with just 30% ED (and some other mods). But how?

Let’s say you are using a weapon that does 150-400 damage. Let’s also say that, from your gear, skills, etc., you have 1000% ED. That turns into (150 * 11) - (400 * 11), or 1650-4520 damage. Let’s now say you socket a 30 ED/10 minimum damage jewel into your pelt - now you have 160 minimum damage with 1000% ED and 400 maximum damage with 1030% ED, which translates into 1760-4520 damage. Let’s compare this to a jewel with just 30 ED (we won’t assume other stats here but just imagine some), which would give you 1695-4520 damage. This is objectively worse than the 30ED/10 minimum damage jewel. Well, what about a 40ED/15 maximum jewel? Is that bugged? Yes, ED and maximum damage on the same jewel, unlike minimum damage, is bugged and should be avoided. A 40ED/15 maximum damage jewel, for example, would give us (150 * 11.4) - (415 * 11) damage, which is 1710-4565. 1760-4520 damage (from a 30ED/10 min jewel) is better overall than 1710-4565 (from a 40/15max), even if it is just by 5 average damage. If the bug was fixed by Blizzard, the 40/15max jewel would turn our damage into 1710-4731, but the bug may not be fixed anytime soon.

Having ED + minimum damage on the same jewel is bad, though, if you plan on using a weapon with high minimum damage. This is because adding more minimum damage when you already have high minimum damage will result in significant diminishing returns. At this point, just having the plain ED jewel is more beneficial, but this mostly applies to weapons like Grief and legendary mallets. We are spending time discussing this here because wolf druids often use weapons with lower minimum damage where the bug would no longer really apply in the way people think it would. This means jewels like the one below are very good and should not be disregarded. Since this applies to any melee build using a low minimum damage weapon, it would also be nice if the melee community more broadly had this information.




IV. Weapons and Attack Speed

As stated above, the most major change to the Werewolf Druid in D2R Patch 2.4 is the ability to get most weapons to 4 frames per attack or even faster now. One disappointing change from LoD is that being chilled by cold damage will slow you down now, even after you have achieved 4 frames per attack. So plan to keep a Cham or Raven Frost on hand.

How Enhanced Damage, Strength, and Dexterity work with Weapons.

In general, weapons receive 1% extra Enhanced Damage (ED) for each point you put into Strength. The two exceptions are Hammer weapons (Legendary Mallet is the only one-handed Hammer class weapon), which receive 1.1% extra ED for each Strength point (a slight bonus) and Dagger weapons, which have a reduced bonus of .75% extra ED for each Strength point (a penalty). However, when you use a Dagger, you also get .75% extra ED for each point put into Dexterity, so the Dexterity bonus more than makes up for the strength penalty and makes Daggers one of the top melee weapons.

Hammers include the following: Legendary Mallets, Ogre Mauls, and Thunder Mauls (Legendary Mallets are the only relevant ones here since two-handers are not used in GM melee)

Daggers include the following: Fanged Knives, Bone Knives, Legend Spikes, and Mithril Points

The ED bonus a Hammer gets can be calculated with this formula: ED bonus = [Strength * 110/100]
The ED bonus a Dagger gets can be calculated with this formula: ED bonus = [Strength + Dexterity * 75/100]

The implications of these bonuses, in some cases, can be significant. When you do the math, it becomes clear that a mithril point can now be just as good as (or better than) a Berserker Axe with similar stats, even though the Berserker Axe has higher average damage than the Mithril.

Note: Other weapon types, such as Phase Blades, swords, etc. do not have these extra ED bonuses. That does not make other weapon choices bad, however. Even with all of their ED bonuses, daggers still have some disadvantages (i.e., absolutely terrible range, issues with speed versus their low damage, etc.).

Weapon Selection

This is where things get tricky and drastically differ from LoD, so we need to get into as much detail as possible. To make this section more accessible, we will begin with a description regarding which kinds of weapons are better for which kinds of opponents, and then break it down by commonly available runewords/unique items followed by the more elusive rare weapons.

The first thing to note is that two socketed ethereal repair fools/cruel weapons are beyond rare on D2R (but extremely common on LoD). While this is the ultimate goal for any melee character, you will have to 1) understand that they may not be commonly available on D2R for some time, but 2) know that it is okay because, with the IAS changes to wolf druids, you do not need 2 OS erep weapons to be viable in GM melee anymore. You have many options, which we will cover.

The second thing to note is that, generally, you go for high attack rating setups for versus zeal due to their defense, and high damage/crushing blow setups for versus fury druids due to their low defense but high life. What this translates to, as we will see below, is often something like this: EDC/Angelics (high AR setup) for versus zeal OR EBOTDZ (high damage) for versus fury. Or, in rare weapon terminology: fools ethereal weapons (high AR setup) for versus zeal OR cruel 400+ ED ethereal weapons (high damage) for versus fury. This means you will have to use completely different weapons (and potentially entire setups) for facing zealots and wolf druids. In most scenarios, you would never be using the same gear for versus a zealot as you would a wolf druid. So, be prepared for gear swaps and using tokens!

Commonly Available Uniques and Runewords Proven to Work.

Ethereal Breath of the Dying Berserker Axe [410%+ ED]
➜ A harder-hitting high-damage 4 frame weapon for fury versus fury (it is the “cookie-cutter” fury versus fury weapon)
➜ Can reach 5/4/4/4/6 with 58 additional IAS on gear at Level 42 Werewolf, or simply use 5/4/4/4/7 while not having to worry about getting any additional IAS on gear

Ethereal Breath of the Dying War Spike [410%+ ED]
➜ A faster but lighter-hitting 3 frame weapon for fury versus fury
➜ Can reach the fastest attack speed by obtaining 53 additional IAS on gear at Level 42 Werewolf Typically achieved by using Highlord’s, 1x 40/15 jewel, and 20 IAS CB gloves
➜ Do not use at 4 frame

Ethereal Rune Master Ettin Axe [5 sockets, 270% ED]
➜ A harder-hitting and very high-damage 4 frame weapon for fury versus fury
➜ There are many configurations for this as far as what you can put inside. Here are some common ones: “Zod Lo 40/15max 40/15max 40/15max” for versus Fury or “Zod 40/15ias Lo Lo Lo” for fury versus zeal

Ethereal Death Cleaver Berserker Axe “Zod” [275%+ ED]
➜ Considered the “cookie-cutter” weapon for fury versus zeal
➜ Will be used at 5/4/4/4/7 so you do not need to worry about any additional IAS on gear
➜ Should be used with Angelics amulet and rings for the attack rating boost necessary for versus zeal

Ethereal Stone Crusher Legendary Mallet “Zod”
➜ A very slow but extremely hard-hitting fury versus fury weapon
➜ This is really only used as part of a 100% Crushing Blow build with Guillame’s Face, which means hard hits very hard every time you hit, but the downside is its slow speed
➜ Ideally, you want at least 35 additional IAS on your gear to hit an okay (but still slow) speed

This post was edited by Koston on Sep 21 2022 12:55am

The Elusive Rares.

Before we begin this section, we should note a few things. First, we will show examples below of weapons that are real, currently exist in D2R, and have been proven to give an edge over more commonly available weapons, such as the runewords and uniques described above. You will notice these do not look like the imports from LoD. Not only do those not exist in D2R in accessible numbers (and even if they do, they are not very affordable), they are no longer needed due to the IAS changes for wolf druids. A good one-socketed erep weapon on D2R is equal to or, in rare cases, better than the crazy 2 os erep fanged knives we saw on LoD, so do not disregard these weapons as “bad” because they lack two sockets or base IAS.

Second, it is very difficult to beat out the runewords/uniques with a non-repair weapon. Typically, you need the combination of ethereal + repair mod + Lo rune to beat out a BOTD or EDC. The rare exception is a very hard-hitting base with 40 IAS (i.e., a 40ias/300ed/fools/eth legendary mallet). In other words, do not go buying every fools/cruel weapon you see. It should at a minimum have the repair mod, and this of course makes the weapon quite expensive and rare on its own. Add on base IAS and good ED and you might have to break the bank to afford these.

Third, there is a sort of “sweet spot” when it comes to rare weapons for a wolf druid in D2R. This “sweet spot” concerns the tension between speed of the weapon base (commonly referred to as the WSM, or weapon speed modifier) and the average damage of the weapon. To put it briefly, if you have a wicked fast weapon, it is generally okay if the weapon does not have insanely high average damage. And, on the flip side, if you have an insanely hard-hitting weapon with very high average damage, it is generally okay if the weapon is on the slower side (but not too slow). Major problems arise when you have a weak weapon ( with low average damage) that is also slower (4 frame), or, inversely, when you are sacrificing too much to try and make a harder-hitting weapon (meaning high average damage) fast. Let us consider an example of weapons that might seem good or “stylish” at first glance, but, in actuality, would not outperform EDC + Angelics:

➜ 0 IAS / 250+ ED / Fools / Ethereal Repair weapons in weak bases such as elegant blades, ataghans, falcatas, etc. [typically needs over 100 additional IAS for 3 frame]

In this case, the Enhanced Damage, fools mod, and repair mod does not make up for the very low average damage in combination with the fact that they could not viably be used at 3 frames.

Let us consider two examples of fools weapons that can work and would outclass EDC + Angelics:

1. 40 IAS / 250+ ED / Fools / Ethereal Repair Fanged Knife
2. 0 IAS / 290+ ED / Fools Ethereal Repair Ettin Axe, Berserker Axe, or Legendary Mallet

The first of these two examples demonstrates a weapon that has lower average damage but benefits from a druid’s dagger bonus and can attack wicked fast, making it quite good. The second of these examples demonstrates amazingly hard-hitting weapons, which makes it okay that they are slower. The moral of the story: the WSM and average damage of a rare weapon are extremely important in determining its usefulness. It also means that a wolf druid cannot simply pick up any erep fools/cruel weapon they see and become untouchable.

With that being said, let’s break down how much IAS on each weapon type you would need in order for it to be considered usable. You want, of course, the amount of IAS listed below in combination with the following stats: 260+ Enhanced Damage / Fools Mod / Repair Mod / Ethereal OR 400+ Enhanced Damage / Repair Mod / Ethereal. We assume Level 38 Werewolf to offer some flexibility in your gear, but the amount of IAS you need might slightly differ if you have lower than Level 38 or Level 42. We begin with the fastest weapons in the game and end with the slowest.

➜ Phase Blade, 33 average damage, 30 WSM: Can have 0-40 base IAS. You need 58 additional IAS for 3 frames on a Phase Blade with 0 IAS, although it is not recommended since you will have to sacrifice certain gear and jewel choices to achieve it. Ideally, you should have 30-40 IAS as you will only need 18-28 additional IAS on gear to achieve 3 frames. Phase Blades were more salient for wolf druids in LoD than D2R because they were one of only three weapon choices wolf druids had. They are still usable in D2R but there are simply better choices now. Phase Blades should only be used if you can achieve 3 frame attack speeds - their average damage is too low to attack any slower. They are a good “budget” option for fools/cruel weapons since they are somewhat common on D2R.

➜ Ataghan, 36 average damage, 20 WSM: Should have 30-40 base IAS. You need 43-53 additional IAS on gear to achieve 3 frame attack speeds. There are not many good ethereal ataghans floating around on D2R, but this is the same deal as the Phase Blade: they were more relevant on LoD because they were one of three weapon choices wolf druids had, but there is much more variety possible now. Again, don’t try to use an Ataghan at 4 frame because the base average damage is too low to attack any slower.

➜ Fanged & Bone Knives, 36 average damage, 20 WSM: They have the same average damage and speed as ataghans but they benefit from the bonus that druids get when wielding daggers, making these weapon bases a very good option if you can find one. Even with the dagger bonus, though, you will want to only use these if you can get one that comfortably reaches 3 frame attack speeds because they are the weakest daggers available. Ideally, you need 30-40 base IAS on these to do that (same as the ataghans). The only difference between a fanged and a bone knife is the fanged knife’s ability to spawn two sockets (bone knives cannot); however, this is not as relevant in D2R because two-socketed good weapons are nearly non-existent.

➜ Legend Spike, 39 average damage, 10 WSM: A slightly stronger dagger choice compared to fanged and bone knives, but a bit slower. Since it has slightly higher average damage, it can be used somewhat comfortably at 4 frame attack speeds. Technically, you could get one with 0 base IAS and reach a good speed with only 24 additional IAS on your gear, but any base IAS on this dagger type will help tremendously in reaching faster speeds. Even with 40 base IAS, achieving 3 frame will be difficult - you would need 77 additional IAS to reach it.

➜ War Spike/Truncheon/Elegant Blade, 39 average damage, 10 WSM: Unless you can find an erep one with two sockets, there are much better weapon choices for wolf druids. These weapon types have the same average damage and speed as Legend Spikes but do not benefit from the dagger bonus. This means they have low average damage and cannot reach 3 frames easily. However, one with 30-40 base IAS can still reach 5/4/4/4/6 frames (32-42 additional IAS on gear is needed), so, if you can find one with some base IAS on it, they would outclass EDC & Angelics, but only marginally so.

➜ Caduceus, 40 average damage, 10 WSM: Same speed but slightly higher average damage than the war spikes, truncheons, and elegant blades. Same sort of deal: one with 30-40 base IAS should be usable.

➜ Cryptic Sword/Scourge, 41-41.5 average damage, 10 WSM: Cryptic swords and scourges are interesting in that their average damage is somewhat deceiving - they have a very, very low minimum damage but very high maximum damage. They say that people who like cryptic swords/scourges like to play the lottery. You might hit at the lower end of the damage range and tickle your opponent, or you can get those nice big chunky hits that resemble that of a berserker or ettin axe. Pray to RNGesus and see what happens. You can technically use one without any base IAS and achieve 5/4/4/4/7 speeds with 24 additional IAS on gear, but ideally you want one with 30-40 base IAS to reach higher speeds.

➜ Mythical Sword/Tyrant Club/Reinforced Mace/Falcata/Conquest Sword/Tomahawk, 45-46 average damage, 0 WSM: These are sort of considered the very “whatever” weapon types for wolf druids on D2R at the moment. Their average damage is very middle of the road and their weapon speed is just too slow to ever hit 3 frames, so they don’t do a great job of hitting that “sweet spot” described above. Ones with 20-40 base IAS so you can easily hit 5/4/4/4/7 frames (with just Highlord’s) are usable, but I wouldn’t go breaking the bank over these weapon types unless it has 30-40 IAS and very high ED for these (290% or more). Note that Mighty Scepters are at the higher end of this damage range (they hit 46 average damage whereas most of the other ones in this list are 45, while Tomahawks are 45.5). Mighty Scepters are pretty solid bases that would be worth buying.

➜ Mithril Point, 45 average damage, 0 WSM: These are the highest damage daggers in the game and therefore can be quite good. They were not very relevant in LoD because of their inability to spawn two sockets, which does not matter as much in D2R. They benefit from the druid dagger bonus and can reach 5/4/4/4/7 frames with just 40 additional IAS on gear, even if the mithril point has 0 base IAS. Can’t really go wrong with this one.

➜ Berserker Axe, 47.5 average damage, 0 WSM: Starting with berserker axes and the weapon types below, we are now getting into the “harder-hitting” weapon types. If you’re into melee, you already know that berserker axes are one of the most sought after and highly desired weapon types in the game. They don’t have an insanely slow WSM like a legendary mallet but still enjoy a nice average damage, plus they have good range. There’s not much bad to say about them. Even one with no base IAS will work fine because you only need 40 additional IAS on gear to reach a reasonable 4 frame attack speed. If you can find one, go for it.

➜ Devil Star/Hydra Edge, 48 average damage, -10 WSM: These are similar to berserker axes - they have a very small increase in average damage but are unfortunately slower, which makes them a bit more difficult to use on a wolf druid. Unlike a berserker axe where you can go with 0 IAS on the base, you will want at least 10-20 IAS on these. That way, you can reach the 4 frame attack speed with 40-50 additional IAS on gear. 30-40 base IAS is ideal, of course. If you can get away with a very high ED one, it is possible to make one work with 0 base IAS.

➜ Small Crescent, 49 average damage, -10 WSM: Small Crescents are cool and hard-hitting weapons. Much like the Devil Stars and Hydra Edges, 10-20 base IAS on them would be best, although 30-40 base IAS is ideal. If you can get away with a very high ED one, it is possible to make one work with 0 base IAS.

➜ Ettin Axe/Seraph Rod, 49.5 average damage, -10 WSM: These weapons are great in that they hit hard as hell and do not yet have that very slow 20 WSM like legendary mallets. Good ones are hard to find and, again, you ideally want 10-20 base IAS on them, but you could definitely make these work with 0 IAS if the ED is very high (290+).

➜ Legendary Mallet, 55.5 average damage, -20 WSM: There’s nothing quite like a good legendary mallet, but these truly have their pros and cons. Obviously, they are the hardest-hitting weapon in the game but come with a heavy (no pun intended) price… they are slow as hell. Just because they hit so hard, you could definitely do one that has 0 base IAS and make it work, but be advised that you will be hitting slow and have to make some hard gear sacrifices to even hit a slow (but acceptable) speed. If we assume Level 42 Werewolf and a Mallet with 0 base IAS, you will need: 34 additional IAS for 6/4/4/4/8 (pretty slow), 72 additional IAS for 6/4/4/4/7 (still slow but getting better), and 83 IAS for 5/4/4/4/7 (good 4 frame speed). Getting one with 40 IAS is the dream here (would only need 43 additional IAS to achieve 5/4/4/4/7), but this would be costly. You can get a non-repair 40 IAS / 250+ ED / Fools ethereal one and Zod it, which would work too (but don’t break the bank over a Zod’d non-repair weapon!).

~ Examples of Fools/Cruel Weapons That Actually Exist and Work ~

Example 1a: A fools weapon that hits hard, but only hits four frame (for fury versus zeal)
Example 1b: A fools weapon that doesn’t hit as hard, but hits three frame (for fury versus zeal)
Example 2a: A cruel weapon that hits moderately hard and hits four frame easily (for fury versus fury)
Example 2b: A cruel weapon that hits extremely hard but needs sacrifices to hit four frame (for fury versus fury)



V. Faster Hit Recovery and Blocking

The FHR breakpoint table for the Shapeshifted Werewolf is:

0% 7
9% 6
20% 5
42% 4
86% 3
280% 2

The chance to be put into FHR is based on the amount of damage done to your total life base.

If an attack takes 1/16 (.0625) of total life base = 37.5% chance to cause Faster Hit Recovery
If an attack takes 1/8 (.125) of total life base = 75% chance to cause Faster Hit Recovery
If an attack takes 1/4 (.25) of total life base = 100% chance to cause Faster Hit Recovery

What this means for the average dueler:

Most melee attacks will fall into the 37.5% chance to cause FHR once you have more than 8k life or so, so it isn't really necessary to go for the fastest breakpoint. 20% or 42% can sometimes make a noticeable difference against very high damage opponents (vs using 0% or 10%), such as a Zealer using a BotDz. Don’t sacrifice too much to get there, though.

The FBR breakpoint table for the Shapeshifted Werewolf is:

0% 9
7% 8
15% 7
27% 6
48% 5
86% 4

Almost all builds will use Stormshield, so the most relevant breakpoints are 27% and 48%.

In patch 2.4, D2R has changed how blocking animations are triggered, making FBR somewhat less important.

From the patch notes:

Blocking will no longer interrupt a player while performing a skill or attack. If a player character triggers a block during this time, the damage will still be negated, but the animation will not play.

This means you can still block attacks even if your shield isn’t animating the block, and you can actually attack somewhat more frequently now than you could in previous patches, since the block animation is no longer interrupting your ability to attack. Placing a Shael rune in your Stormshield can provide some slight benefit since you will still see a block animation play occasionally, but it’s more common to use a damage jewel or Cham rune now than in previous patches.

VI. Shifting Up

This will be the shortest section in the guide, but an important one.

When shapeshifting into Werewolf form, use this order:

Battle Command, Summon Oak Sage, Battle Command, Battle Orders, Cyclone Armor, Werewolf.

Shapeshifting is done in this order because the second Battle Command adds +1 skill to your Oak Sage, giving you more life. You can now cast Cyclone Armor while Shapeshifted in D2R, so it’s also OK to cast it after Werewolf if you choose.

VII. Melee Dueling Strategy

In D2 LoD, it was common to say “Go” over your character’s head using the ! command in the chat box. This feature has been removed entirely from D2R, so the accepted method of initiating a melee duel is to hold your Shift key to stand stationary and swipe the air in the direction of your opponent. Once both have given this signal, you may now walk into the duel. Never run, as it drops your block chance and defense (and violates GM melee rules, anyway).

A note on Oak Sages: Be advised that, if you don’t have a Shockwave referee present to paralyze your Oak Sage, walking too far from your Oak will almost certainly trigger it to follow you and potentially suicide into your opponent. Spawning your Oak nearby and keeping it close before the duel starts may mitigate this issue.

VIII. Resources

https://chthonvii.github.io/d2r_24ptr2_wereform_calculator/: A comprehensive IAS calculator that can probably answer all of your IAS questions

GM Melee Ladder

Shapeshifting Ladder

The infamous jewel bug, but see above for misconceptions about it

Users to PM with additional questions: inkanddagger, Weed4me, oscarmk

Q&A

Q: Will this [insert very specific gear configuration] work and/or be effective?
A: We have provided ample information in this build for you to be able to determine what a good GM melee wolf druid build is versus what is not. However, if you are still feeling overwhelmed, feel free to PM anyone that plays wolf druids a lot (see Resources section).

Q: How about this particular fools/cruel weapon? Will that work?
A: Using the IAS calculator linked above and that alone, you should be able to determine if a specific weapon is viable for your specific build.

Q: Where can I go to participate in GM melee duels as a wolf druid?
A: There will be two GM melee ladders that welcome wolf druids as participants. These include the only all-inclusive GM melee ladder that allows all GM melee builds to participate (zealots, wolf druid, jab zons, and conc barbs) and a shapeshift GM melee ladder. There will be forum gold/item prizes and/or trophies awarded to winners in these ladders. All dueling takes place on Non-Ladder.

Q: Where can I go to participate in casual GM melee duels as a wolf druid?
A: The main game is pn/1. We try to keep it up as often as possible. All dueling takes place on Non-Ladder.

Q: What about tournaments?
A: The first tournament that allows wolf druids as participants recently passed. In what turned out to be an awesome series of duels, a wolf druid scraped by the top paladins and placed first, winning 10,000fg. These tournaments are all Non-Ladder only. We offer good prize pools so the stakes are high! There will be many more tournaments in the future.

Q: Is there an active community of wolf druids on D2R?
A: Absolutely. There are quite a few of us. There are two Discord servers that may be of interest to you. The first is the Discord server associated with the all-inclusive GM melee ladder linked above. We allow anyone who is currently on the GM melee ladder or has serious intentions to join it. PM Tier1 for an invite to this server. Then, there is also a Discord server that is still in development, but will be homebase for the upcoming fury versus fury ladder. PM inkanddagger for an invite to that one.

Q: This seems like a really expensive build. Exactly how expensive is it? Will [insert amount of forum gold] get me everything I need?
A: Keep in mind that GM melee in general is the most expensive PvP scene in D2R. It is not just wolf druids. However, while it is expensive, entry-level wolf druids are cheaper to build - so you can buy one to test it out and see if you like it before buying big upgrades. Slap on an EDC or EBOTD, Fortitude, Cerebus or Guillame’s Face, Gore Riders, Highlord’s, etc. and see if you like it! If you do, then it might be time to start investing more heavily into rares and better items.

Acknowledgements:
Thank you to inkanddagger, Weed4me, oscarmk, Jpost, Tier1, and Lastsoulx for providing screenshots, advice, feedback, and just for being awesome.

This post was edited by Koston on Sep 19 2022 07:48pm

Examples

Obtaining these stats or close to it should, at a minimum, make you competitive for casual dueling in pn/1 and even on the GM melee ladders mentioned above.

➜ A “cookie-cutter” BOTD setup, 42 FHR, 5/4/4/4/7 speed (fury versus fury)


➜ A “cookie-cutter” EDC setup with Angelics, 20 FHR (fury versus zeal)


➜ A higher-strength EDC setup using Sacred Armor Fort and 20 FHR (fury versus zeal)


This post was edited by Koston on Sep 19 2022 07:48pm

➜ A 4 frame fools setup with 20 FHR

Someone that doesn’t understand Ed + min/max bug should never be writing a melee guide. Smh



Not to mention one that thinks a phase blade rare is good or a trophy. Especially one with only 1 socket

This post was edited by Bui6Pays40Percent4Wins on Sep 19 2022 08:54pm

What’s your issue with what is written? Be specific and use math.

The blatant self promoting of his gear, such as the terrible jewel, as “trophies”. Along with the terrible phase blade he posted in trophy room that is easily beat by Ebotdz.

Once you finish high school and have some basic math down, come back and show us your work.

Appreciate it.

I’ve already done the math for him and blasted him in a couple threads with it.

Nor is the math in d2 hard. It’s primarily math you learn in roughly the 5th grade. It’s just simple algebra.

Imagine being bad at math simulator, which is all melee in d2 is.

At first I was a bit sad that our first page was going to be tainted by someone that has a reputation for not playing D2R and equating D2R with LoD, but I realized that it is a good thing since it shows why this guide is needed. The changes to wolf druids in D2R have been very drastic and lack of knowledge, misunderstandings, and misconceptions continue, and I'm hoping that this guide will ameliorate at least some of it.



The two relevant parts of the strategy guide that address this user's statement can be found here:



And here:




Also note that the guide was not written solely by me. It was primarily co-authored by myself and who is arguably the most knowledgeable player when it comes to wolf druids, and was also written with the feedback of probably 75% of the wolf druid community that currently plays D2R and therefore have a very solid understanding of the current mechanics/gameplay needed to write this guide. I also have not made any note of which gear, if any, in the guide is mine, and I have appropriately acknowledged in the guide the users who lent me screenshots of their gear that they allowed me to post in this guide with their permission.

I have never posted any items in the trophy room, but I did defend the use of 1 OS e rep fools/cruel weapons for wolf druids on D2R.

I'd like to keep the discussion civil if possible. I appreciate input. However, unless there is solid evidence (proven by math/screenshots) that disproves any part of this guide, there shouldn't be any reason to attempt to discredit it.

This post was edited by Koston on Sep 19 2022 10:05pm