The MaulerThe Werebear has long been an underdog class in Diablo 2 PvP, long ago dethroned as a top melee class by changes in patch 1.10 in D2 LoD, and then completely nerfed into obsolescence by attack speed changes in the early patches of D2:R.
But with some new changes introduced in Diablo 2: Resurrected patch 2.7, the Maul Werebear has once again become competitive with Zeal Paladins, Concentrate Barbarians, and Fury Werewolfs in D2 Melee PvP.
These changes are
1) the introduction of the Metamorphosis runeword, allowing the Werebear to achieve usable attack speed frames once again, and
2) more importantly, the skill Maul has joined the ranks of Zeal and Concentrate as an uninterruptible attack (that is, it no longer can be put into hit recovery by a melee attack and can no longer be block locked). This makes it viable even though it attacks much slower than it did in LoD. The huge bulk, decent defense, and good damage of the class makes the lower attack speeds less relevant overall.
ExpectationsMaul is by no means an S tier skill now.
However, with the correct build and gear, you will be able to hold your own against Fury, Zeal, and Concentrate. In some cases, you should even be able to win a majority of your duels against them (although it will be close). But most importantly, you are a bear and that makes you cooler than the others.
BreakpointsYou no longer need to worry about FHR or block rate breakpoints. But you will want to know some of the more important attack speed breakpoints.
Maul is pretty unusual in that it builds up speed as you land more consecutive attacks. The green charge ball around you gets bigger representing your damage and speed increasing with each successful attack.
Also, the runeword Metamorphosis adds the "Mark of the Bear" modifier to your character after you land your first attack. In addition to 25% damage reduced, Mark of the Bear adds the same amount of IAS as a level 5 Fanaticism aura.
With a Berzerker Axe and other [0 base speed] weapons:The most relevant IAS breakpoints for a zerk [0 base speed] are
80,
120, and
135 (
gear and weapon added together as a total).
80 ias -
Initial swing is 12 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 10 frame. After 5 Mauls, the Action Frame drops from 7 to 6*. After 6 Mauls you are at 9 frame.
*the Action Frame is the frame where the damage is actually applied, so even though your attack animates at the same speed you are actually landing the damage 1 frame faster.120 ias -
Initial swing is 11 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 10 frame with the Action Frame at 6. Second Maul brings you to 9 frame. If you manage to get to 9 Mauls, you will hit 8 frame.
135 ias -
Initial swing is 11 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 9 frame. Will hit 8 frame after 8 charges. If you push all the way to 150 ias (doable with Black Hades or Rare armors), you can hit 8 frame in just 7 charges.
Honorable mentions:
55 ias/75 ias -
There are some builds where 80 ias is only achievable with IK Gloves and Belt. You will be at max damage reduced after Mark of the Bear is triggered, but before that you are vulnerable.
If you want to use rare/craft gloves and Verdungoes belt instead, 75 starts at 13 frame, gets to 10 frame on the first Maul, and takes 7 charges to hit 9 frame.
If you only have Steelrends and can't get faster than 55 ias total, you're at 11 frame after the first Maul and 10 frame after the 4th charge. This is very slow, but the damage can make up for it.
130 ias without Metamorphosis -
Initial swing is 11 frame, you hit 10 frame at the 4th Maul charge. If you push all the way to 145 ias you hit 10 frame at the 3rd Maul charge.
With a Phase Blade:The most relevant IAS breakpoints for a PB [-30 base speed] are
100,
115, and
130.
100 ias -
Initial swing is 10 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 8 frame. Action frame drops from 6 to 5 after 5 mauls.
115 ias -
Initial swing is 10 frame but with a faster Action Frame than 100 ias. First hit with Metamorphosis is 8 frame. Action Frame drops from 6 to 5 after 4 mauls. You will get to 7 frame if you manage to land 9 Mauls.
130 ias -
9 Frame initial swing. First hit with Metamorphosis is 8 frame. You get the 5 frame Action Frame on the second charge. You get to 7 frame after 7 charges. This can only be done viably with Phaseblade, JMoD/JWoD shield, Highlords, and 10+ ias blood/craft gloves. It's probably the best build but very hard to achieve and requires the most expensive gear.
140 ias without Metamorphosis -Initial swing is 9 frame. You will hit 8 frame after 6 Maul charges.
Honorable Mentions:
75 ias / 95 ias / 110 ias / 125 ias -
It's not possible to get the 115 and 130 ias breakpoints on certain setups without using IK Glove / Boot combo or Craft Gloves with Upped Goldwrap or Sigons Gloves / Belt combo. So if you want to use String of Ears or Verdungo's belt with craft gloves and Fortitude, Steel Carapace, or Black Hades (more gear options discussed below), you are restricted to 75 or 95 (Fort depending on gloves), 110 ias (Carapace), or 125 ias (Black Hades).
75 ias still starts at 10 frame, but the first Maul charge is 9 frame and it takes 4 Maul charges to get to 8 frame, and 8 Maul charges to get the action frame down from 6 to 5.
95 ias also start sat 10 frame, also is 9 frame after the first Maul charge, but achieves 8 frame with only 2 Maul charges, and gets the action frame down to 5 after 5 Mauls.
110 ias also starts at 10 frame, but hits 8 frame on the first Maul, and gets the action frame down to 5 after 4 Mauls.
125 ias starts at 9 frame, hits 8 frame on the first Maul, and gets the action frame down to 5 after 3 Mauls.
With a Fanged Knife or Bone Knife:The most relevant breakpoints for a [-20 base speed] weapon are
70 and
125.
70 ias -
Initial swing is at 11 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 9 frame. You hit 8 frame after 8 Mauls.
125 ias -
Initial swing is at 10 frame. First hit with metamorphosis is 9 frame. You hit 8 frame on the 2nd Maul charge.
135 ias without Metamorphosis - Initial swing is 10 frame. You reach 9 frame after 3 Maul charges. You reach 8 frame after 10 Maul charges.
Honorable Mention -
If you can push all the way to 180 ias (almost impossible under most circumstances but technically still possible) you will start at 9 frame and get to 8 frame on the 7th Maul charge without Metamorphosis.
All base -10 weapons:If you have a nice rare fools weapon in a base like War Spike or Cryptic Sword, the most relevant breakpoints are
65,
95 and
145.
60 ias -
Initial swing is at 12 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 10 frame. After 5 Mauls you are at 9 frame.
95 ias -
Initial swing is at 11 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 9 frame. After 8 Mauls you are at 8 frame.
145 ias -
Initial swing is at 10 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 9 frame. After 4 Mauls you are at 8 frame.
140 ias without Metamorphosis -Initial swing is 10 frame. You reach 9 frame after 6 Maul charges.
All base +10 weapons (Ettin Axe, Hydra Edge, etc):The most relevant breakpoints are
80 and
125.
80 ias -
Initial swing is 13 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 11 frame. You get to 10 frame after 4 Maul charges. If you push all the way to 90 ias, you only need 3 charges. You will get to 9 frame if you make it to 10 Maul charges.
125 ias -
Initial swing is 12 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 10 frame. You get to 9 frame after 5 Maul charges.
Honorable mention:
165 ias -
Initial swing is 11 frame. First hit with Metamorphosis is 10 frame. You get to 9 frame on the 3rd Maul charge. If you can push all the way to 170 ias, you will get to 9 frame on the second Maul charge. This requires a 70 ias Ettin/Hydra etc, 160/60 JMoD, Highlords, and 20 ias gloves.
Skills and Stat PointsStats should be built to your gear. The heaviest equipment you'll wear is a Sacred Armor, which requires 232 Strength. Dexterity with Stormshield for max block is 237 for lvl 99. Dexterity required with JMoD at lvl 99 is 255.
Skills: max Lycanthropy, Werebear, Maul, Oak Sage. I like to add a point to shockwave so I can referee Oak Sages for my friends who duel. Then you can either max Heart of the Wolverine or Cyclone Armor (split with a synergy) for some extra hit points. I pretty much always use Oak Sage.
GearThis is the sort of gear that you'll want to collect for your Mauler, depending on the build you want to use.
Boots: Gore Riders, Immortal King (can be used with gloves for 25% ias if you don't want to use the belt for some reason e.g. maybe you have a craft belt or need the dr%)
Shields: Stormshield - 15 ias Jewel/(40ed or 15 max), JMoD/JWoD - Jeweler's Monarch/Ward of Deflection 60 ias (60max or 160% ed) - Ward is better than Monarch but harder to find, Spirit monarch for Battle Orders swap. Ward is used with Steelrend. JMoD is used with other gloves.
Helm: Metamorphosis in an elite base with +3 Maul. Good secondary mods can be Cyclone Armor, Heart of Wolverine, or Shockwave. Cerebus is also a good and viable helm if you don't have access to Metamorphosis. You can run a Ber rune to help with dr% or a Cham rune if you don't want to have to swap a Craft Ring with a Ravenfrost.
Gloves: Steelrends, 20 ias Craft gloves with crushing blow/stats, 20 ias ethereal repair durability gloves with high defense, Immortal King's
Belts: Verdungo's, Upped String of Ears, IK, Blood Belts - I personally prefer upped String over Verd's if you aren't using IK combination. The higher defense, MDR, and life leech (yes it still works a tiny amount in PVP) can actually work better than the Vitality on Verd's
Amulets: Angelic, Highlords, Metalgrid or a Craft amulet could theoretically work with some setups instead of Angelic Wings
Rings: Blood Crafts, Angelic Halos, Ravenfrost
Armors: Fortitude (high defense preferred), Eth Upped Shaftstop, Eth Upped Black Hades, Eth Upped Toothrow, Rare Eth Rep with 2 sockets, eth Steel Carapace (40/15)
Weapons: BotD Zerk/War Spike, Ethereal phase blade -
30+ ias fools. 2 socket version is the top weapon for the class, 1 socket with Lo rune is competitive. Other rares are usable but keep an eye on breakpoints. C/T/A for Battle Orders swap. EDC is usable in some matchups.
Charms: Torch/Anni and then you can use all max/ar/life small charms, or you can use Shapeshift lifers with high HP. Both of these will work on a Mauler, but SS lifers are slightly better to a point because they add defense in addition to damage/ar/life. On most builds, 7 or 8 SS lifers are optimal with the rest being small charms. You can also use (no more than two) 132ar/45life grand charms on a Mauler to boost ar without losing too much defense or damage. Personally, I'm just using 9 Shapeshift Grand Charms and 10 ar/max/life small charms to keep it simple.
HotkeysWorth mentioning is your hotkey arrangement, just to make sure you are maximizing your summoning and shift up.
I personally use this arrangement
F1 = Oak Sage
F2 = Battle Command
F3 = Battle Orders
F4 = Cyclone Armor
F5 = Werebear
A = Shockwave
S = Maul
F2, F1, F2, F3, F4, F5 gets you an extra level of Oak Sage and Cyclone Armor.
BuildsI've tried all of these builds (and they are by no means all of the possible builds), and they all work to varying degrees. I've gotten some wins against top Fury and Zeal with all of these. My Druid is currently level 97 and does not have any perfect charms, my craft rings are low end without attack rating, and none of my uniques or runewords are perfect. If you have access to better gear than me, you're on your way to the top. I'm currently ranked #5 on the D2:R Shapeshift ladder with my Mauler.
The Fast Bear - Ursus arctos horribilis (Grizzly)
The Fast Bear focuses on attack speed while maintaining healthy defense and attack rating. Your character screen damage will be much lower than the others, but your blazing speed means you are applying more damage per second in the game (more attacks, more crushing blows, more deadly strikes, more open wounds). The Fast Bear is my preferred build, as it has the most potential.
There are two version of the Fast Bear.
Version 1Hits the 130 ias breakpoint. Higher HP and damage, but lower defense than the other version.
Armor: Shaftstop
Shields: 1) JMoD with Craft/Rare Gloves at 130+ias
or 2) JWoD with Steelrends at 115+ias
Weapon: 40 ias Phase Blade - Socketed with as many Lo runes as possible
Amulet: Highlords
Rings: Blood Crafts
Gloves: Rends or 10+ias Blood Craft/Rare
Boots: Gores
Belt: Verd's or upped String of Ears
Version 2Hits the 115 ias breakpoint with craft gloves, can hit 130 ias with IK combination. Higher defense and attack rating but lower HP than the other version.
Armor: Eth Upped Black Hades with 30 ias
or Erep Rare armor with 2k+ defense and 30 ias
Shield: Stormshield 15 ias
Weapon: 40 ias PB
Amulet: Highlords
Rings: Blood Crafts
Gloves: 10+ ias eth rep Rare or Blood Craft, IK
Boots: Gores
Belt: Verd's or upped String of Ears, IK
Thoughts:Note that if you don't have a 40 ias PB, you could use a 20 ias PB with 20 ias craft/rare gloves and still get to 115ias. If you have a 2 socket 20 ias eth fools with two Lo runes, use that over the 40 ias 1 socket. Just always make sure you have more than 115 ias.
The Shaftstop build is the most viable setup that allows you to use 130 ias. It is 9 frame initial and reaches 7 frame two charges faster than 115 ias. This is my current preference.
However, the differences between 115ias with Rends/JWoD and 130ias+ with Craft/Rare Gloves/JMoD aren't huge. One has more defense so you get hit less, the other gets to a faster ias breakpoint to eventually overwhelm your opponent with speed. This really comes down to preference; they're basically tied for best overall setup.
The Fat Bear - Ursus arctos middendorffi (Kodiak)
The Fat Bear has massive amounts of HP (12k is possible!), high defense, and big damage. It's a little slower than the Fast Bear, but can be dominant when you just need more HP and Damage.
Weapon: BotD (Spike or Zerk are both usable)
Jewelry: Craft Rings with Highlords.
Boots: Gores
Gloves/Belt: Immortal King's Gloves/Belt
Shield: Stormshield - 15 ias Jewel
Armor: Fort
or Black Hades with 30 ias
or Rare Erep with 30 ias (needs to be better than Black Hades)
You'll really want to aim for at least 120 ias if possible, which means 60 BotD, 25 gloves (IK), 15 Shield, 20 Highlords.
You can get to 150 ias with Black Hades or a Rare Armor. You can also use eth Steel Carapace with a 40/15 jewel for the 135 ias breakpoint. I have found this works better than Fort against many people since your defense and speed can overcome the damage lost.
The absolute top build for a Fat Bear is BotDz, Erep Sacred Armor with life and 2 sockets (80ed/30ias), 40/15 Storm, IK Gloves/Belt, Highlords and Craft Rings, and Gores. You'll be at 150 ias and have 12k life, 20k defense, 14k attack rating or so depending on your rings (mine in the picture actually don't have AR), and you'll start at 6.5k damage and build up to 10k or more.
The Cookie Cutter (C/C) - Ursus arctos (common brown bear)
Named because it's "cut out of a mold" without much room for creativity, the Cookie Cutter setup focuses on using easy to obtain gear that is affordable and available while still being competitive.
Weapon: EDC
Jewelry: Angelics
Armor: Fort or Black Hades
Boots: Gores
Shield: Storm with 40ed/15ias jewel
Helm: Metamorphosis
Belt: Verds or upped String of Ears
Gloves: 20 ias Rare/Craft are optimal, IK gloves/belt are the second best choice, Steelrends are the last viable choice.
If you go with EDC, Storm (40/15ias), 20 ias Craft Gloves, you'll be at 75 ias. This is missing a few charge up break points that 80 ias gets, but it's still usable if you just don't want to use IK for whatever reason.
I've also seen others have success using the slower 55 ias breakpoint with Rends, but I just personally don't like how sluggish it feels. I wouldn't trust it against Fury Druids, but it is probably usable against certain Zealers and some of the less common melee classes like Conc and Jab.
Build ThoughtsThe Shaft/JMoD setup is the most versatile, and is best against other Fury and general melee.
The "cookie cutter" EDC setup is admittedly not that great because of how slow it attacks, but it does work against Zeal surprisingly well. That's because it hits hard and has great attack rating, and the huge life pool of Maul can tank enough Zeals to pull out a win. It's worst against other Fury.
The Fat Bear may actually be the best vs Fury, but make sure you have good craft rings with AR to hit them after Fortitude triggers Chilling Armor.
The builds that are "in the middle" of these using a rare weapon with Fort/Black Hades work very similar to the Shaft/JMoD setup, but have less HP. They can have a little more damage and defense to make up for it, but overall a little less tanky. I suggest you go for the 130 ias Shaft/JMoD/Rare setup if you can afford it, and go for the Rare/Fort/Storm build at 95 ias otherwise.
No Meta - No ProblemIf you can't use Metamorphosis for whatever reason (don't have one, it's banned where you duel, etc) there are some alternatives that I've had success with.
Helms:
Cerebus - Ber rune with a Ravenfrost gets you to max dr. Cham with two Stat rings is 45% dr. Both can work.
2 Druid 3 Maul 2 Socket Rare Pelt - ChamBer
Crown of Ages - Cham/15ias
Weapons:
Phase Blade - 115 ias total (weapon plus gear) will start at 10 frame, 9 frame after the first Maul, and 8 frame at 8 Mauls. if you put a 15 ias jewel in your helm and push it to 130 ias total, you hit 8 frame after just 7 Mauls. At 140 ias, initial swing is 9 frame and you will hit 8 frame after 6 Maul charges.
Berzerker Axe - 130 ias total you hit 10 frame at the 4th Maul charge. If you push all the way to 145 ias you hit 10 frame at the 3rd Maul charge.
The rest of the gear is the same as the above. There are some options though like a 40/15 Eth Steel Carapace armor if you wanted to get BotDz to 120 ias with Stormshield. There may be higher breakpoints achievable using Andy's face as well.
Final ThoughtsI'm most well-known as Fury Druid player, but I've always wanted Maulers to succeed. Making Maul uninterruptible fixed the terrible block rates that were holding it back for many years. Metamorphosis is just icing on the cake. I know the build may seem slow and lumbering at first, but I think if you build one that you will be surprised at just how much it can accomplish. Beating top zealers is within your reach, even if you have less than perfect gear like me. I'd also like to credit ChthonVII and Warren1001for their work on IAS speeds in the current patch.
Bonus Material:This post was edited by inkanddagger on Jul 10 2023 02:59pm
D2:R