VS. Guided Arrow Zons MEDIUM
Tmaul
gaze
6%ll gloves
40/15max shaft
string of ears
gore riders
08 Highlord's
1x11%ll ring
1x Raven Frost
150% faster run walk in small charms
50%fhr in small charms
KOKOKOKOKOKO Crystal Sword & KO Whinstan's on switch
>OAK
Windforce zons > Ballista zons > 7fpa zons > 8fpa zons
Barbarians have a trick of zig zagging at zons that actually keep them from getting hit by guided arrow. It's because of 160%+FRW and level 14 Increased speed. Unfortunately with the diminishing returns, even with 360%frw we are not fast enough to zig zag to dodge a guided arrow. We've got the next best thing: Meat shields. You cannot expect to summon wolves/oak sage as you advance. You have a very slow casting rate. Use them as a distractional shield.
Often times zons don't know what to do and take out your oak sage & spirits with guided arrow. The smart and experienced zons will switch to multishot and clear out all your summons once they see your X approaching via maphack.
The damage reduction variants(Ber gaze, Cham shaft, SoE) types bring more of a challenge than 7/8 frame or dmg variants. 7fpa zons' strategy is to put you in block lock, which would slow your advance long enough for them to slowly chip your life away, but you will never go into block lock. Dexazons have little if any chance once you are skilled enough to make a flawless advance. Pro-zons often have atleast 2k life AND decent run walk(140%+), they bring a slightly larger challenge. Pro-zons are also guided arrow only, and do not put any points in multishot other than the pre-requisite - your summons can feel a little safer.
Sheepzons that follow GI rules, private leagues that copy GI rules, or DII.net's bullshit suggested "fair" rules have no chance. They say pierce is bugged and is not supposed to pierce back and forth like that with guided arrow -- it's one BIG LIE to make you believe what they want -- there is absolutely no proof and no blizz employee has ever said that it was. I've been in their circles, they make up bullshit and the veterans of GI wdgafa often argue that it's not bugged. Conversations with gfraizer have been fabricated by believers of GA bugging to prove their losing point. Neither Guided arrow nor Pierce is bugged or over-powering.
The ravenfrost helps with the cold damage inflicted by the Ballista. Think of the 210% faster run walk as both offensive and defensive. It let's you advance faster and let's you chase her quicker so she has little time to fire off shots if she's at a distance she believes is safe. I prefer the extra damage over the leech(ring vs. shaft's socket)
Taking out the bowazon is much like picking up a woman at the bar. Be prepared. Be yourself. You'll be the one approaching her. Attract her curiosity. Be spontanious. Travel in packs, have your comrads distract her. Remove her friends from the picture so it's just you and her.
-Most if not all zons use maphack, if they use it, you use it. This should be your policy towards all opponents that benefit from map hack. Yes, you can play without maphacking and find her location by where she shoots from aswell, but i personally don't care to burden myself with one more thought proccess.
WITH MAPHACK
-Summon all pets.
-keep Blocking switch on when you are not attacking
-No zons are ballsy enough to approach you, therefore you will always be the ones approaching them.
-Before you approach write a !dialogue with a little sexual innuendo in it. As you advance with your sexual innuendo, it will cause a slight delay in the zon's reactions as he tries to read the moving distraction. Don't make the dialogue too derogatory as you're trying to insinuate curiosity, not ignorance. If he believes it is just cussing, his mind will automatically ignore it.
-If you are coming from the bottom, your advance should start at one screen's distance away from the zon. advance in a sort of zig zag: go up jsut enough to see their feet(she would see your head if she's not overly focused on the maphack X), back slightly behind your wolves by making a U turn to the right and head diagonally to the left towards the right side of the zon[if the zon is facing you](you should be seeing arrows fly to your right). Then summon spirit wolves to where you would be(at the end, or the corner point of the zigzag of where you're hopping to next).
-That point should be about 6 yards away and to the right(HER right)
-think of spirit wolves as a margin of error, the # of mistakes you could make while approaching the zon.
-remember u cant dodge the arrows like the barbarian but you can avoid walking in their guided arrow's homing path
-only summon up to 2/3's of the screen of the amazon's view radius, in the inner 2/3's meat shields wont help you unless the zon is retarded.
-If you really retreat behind your pack of pre-summoned wolves before getting close to the zon, due to bad kharma, lag, whatever reason, make sure that it's a full retreat and resummon them then try again.
-Ok, back to the attack, Feral Rage off the Valkerye & Decoy, as they should be infront of you, to eliminate any distractions for your ravens/spirit wolves. Be careful, Pro-zons can capitalize on this and get a few hits off. You Feral for the faster run, not the leech.
-If you attack the zon and not the decoy by accident, please don't go back and attack the decoy.
-Now if you made it through the hard part and got close enough to take a swing at them, one of two things will happen: they will tank you(they die) or they run.
-Ravens come in handy here. Their points in Avoid will delay their escape. Their points in evade help you as ravens have helped me in the past by stopping them in their tracks. Ravens follow the zon as long as you do.
-Never stop. Never pause to think. Never switch back to your Block switch. You can go at the chase two ways: End it quick and do a cut-off or relentlessly lock on them.
-Cutting the runner off is very difficult to do and requires that the zon has not equipped a decent ammount of FRW and runs straight for atleast 20 "d2 yards"(a screen and one third). You would need larger distances for zons with FRW closer to yours. You must run along side her until you are next to her, running by her side, be no more than 1 centimeter away from her side. Then do a shift fury swipe diagonal towards her position (in other words shift-fury to where she would run to). Tmaul is range 3, a bit better than your average druid's single handed weapons. If you're skilled you hit her or cause her to go into an evade animation.
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*= point at where you shift fury.
-If you failed, Often times zons are confused and become awed by this maneuver and stop for a half a second to think about what you just attempted and end up pausing for longer than they had intended. Continue the pursuit if you fail. Barbarians do this trick when they are in pursuit aswell except with whirlwind, which works better.
-If you relentlessly lock on them they will eventually die. They can never stop and fire long enough to not be in danger of a fury as long as you are locked on them. Faster Running ones have a better chance of being out of range of your fury after they end their shot. They 80% of the time eventually fall. You can often take them out in one shot. Ravens, evade and desyncs might come into play aswell. Summoning valkerye would be a big mistake on their part. Slow casting often gave me the opportunity to get in a Fury.
-It all basically depends on how much life they chipped off of you while you were advancing on them. If it's more than half, you're in pretty bad condition as two hits fired off in the chase could end you.
WITHOUT MAPHACK
-Now if you're playing against the over-zealously legit zon without maphack, don't summon anything except your Oak Sage(because if you mess up and she launches several arrows at where you were-some hit you-hopefully one will kill the Oak Sage, giving you an opportunity to oak heal after u retreated---just a precaution)
-travel around carefully and seek her valkerye's (light radius if it's night) so the zon doesn't see you.(the smart zon will keep her decoy right next to her when she's playing against a druid)
-If you see her, run like hell in the opposite diagonal direction then make a quick sharp turn after you are a screen and half's distance away-this is to avoid her getting a lucky hit in before you've even begun to advance.
-The legit zon has quick reflexes and shoots anything that moves.
-If you think of summoning your poison creeper to check for a zon, because she will fire at it, don't, you don't want to let them know you're in that direction.
-now if you know her location & she doesn't know that you've scouted her, go around the other side of her to where the valkerye isn't, hopefully the left or upper side of her, summon all your pets quickly & advance in the fashion depicted below.(people have a tendency to hover their pointers along the bottom and right side of the screen when anticipating an opponent)
-they don't have time to multi-shoot your summons.
-From there, advance furiously straight at her. Ignore the valkerye & decoy. Ravens will begin attacking either the decoy or her.
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dX
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-SIDE NOTE:It has been suggested by a friend to let her see you so she could anticipate where you'd be coming from so that her mouse pointer would be on the wrong side of the screen opening up a 1 second window of opportunity for you to advance. I thought of that too, but it would be more like half a second because this zon is indeed over-zealously legit and with that comes brains and reflexes-- she would shoot as soon as her mouse pointer crossed the other side of her body when she sees you advancing. Not only that but she should wonder what's up after the 10 seconds it took you to go half a circle around her, & summon pets-- shell get smart and realize you're coming from the back side fire several shots and take out 1/2 of your life. Keep with my strategy and don't let her see you. Half a screen is not a far distance
-Never stop. Never pause to think. Never switch back to your Block switch. You can go at the chase two ways: End it quick and do a cut-off or relentlessly lock on them.
-Cutting the runner off is very difficult to do and requires that the zon has not equipped a decent ammount of FRW and runs straight for atleast 20 "d2 yards"(a screen and one third). You would need larger distances for zons with FRW closer to yours. You must run along side her until you are next to her, running by her side, be no more than 1 centimeter away from her side. Then do a shift fury swipe diagonal towards her position (in other words shift-fury to where she would run to). Tmaul is range 3, a bit better than your average druid's single handed weapons. If you're skilled you hit her or cause her to go into an evade animation.
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*= point at where you shift fury at.
-If you failed continue the pursuit. Barbarians do this trick when they are in pursuit aswell except with whirlwind, which works better.
-If you relentlessly lock on them they will eventually die. They can never stop and fire long enough to not be in danger of a fury as long as you are locked on them. Faster Running ones have a better chance of being out of range of your fury after they end their shot. They 80% of the time eventually fall. You can often take them out in one shot. Ravens, evade and desyncs might come into play aswell. Summoning valkerye would be a big mistake on their part. Slow casting often gave me the opportunity to get in a Fury.
-It all basically depends on how much life they chipped off of you while you were advancing on them. If it's more than half, you're in pretty bad condition as two hits fired off in the chase could end you.
VS. Poison Zons
Tmaul
gaze
6%ll gloves
40/15max shaft
string of ears
gore riders
08 Highlord's
1x11%ll ring
1x Raven Frost
150% faster run walk in small charms
50%fhr in small charms
KOKOKOKOKOKO Crystal Sword & KO Whinstan's on switch
>OAK
People tend to exagerate the damage of poison because they simply don't want to admit how weak & unprepared they were at taking a poison zon.
I remember being told "an average poison zon has 5k poison damage n00b" when arguing how fair poison was. This came from a paladin, nikodemus or something. Let's expand on this, naturally a zon would not carry much poison damage on their gear/weapon. A physical damaging weapon or gear that increased longivity or damage or speed would be of far greater use as far as i can contemplate. That leaves only inventory space for poison
Let's take a look at the possible poison charms:
209, 290, 383
383's are always duped.
I've found myself a 209 poison charm once when i was a newb. Most are duped aswell. 290 are mostly duped too. There are other powerful ammounts of poison. A zon carrying 383 would be considered illegit -- she's using a dupe, overpowering dupe that is extremely rare if it were legit--much rarer than a legit arkaine's valor that no longer even spawn. Carrying 10x 209 would still be considered illegit. Maybe we should only be careful of ILLEGIT poison zons the same way we should be careful of illegit ith zons.
100pd/frw sc <-- found a couple myself
100pd/fhr sc
100pd/20life sc <-- highly duped, still a small quantity of legit
Now if they loaded up completely on 100pd/frw and 100pd/fhr charms(which would be what i'd do) she'd have resistences in the negative 70's but would run as fast as you but would have at best ~1.6k life. All poison zons are Pubby and therefore encounter sorcs, they usually set resistences at zero or into the positives. 40x 100pd/fhrfrw sc's would also cost roughly an arm and half a leg. I don't think average pvp'ers could afford that. Hmm ok let's lower it down to 2.6k poison damage for ressistance's sake. Ahh, and you have 75% resist poison. that's 650 poison damage accumulated over 130 seconds. As you watch your orb drain down, you begin to realize poison doesn't do that much damage when you have resists. The truth is your average poison based legit zon carries 2k poison damage. Which does little after resistence.
-remove 7 of the 3max/20ar/frw SC's and replace them with 7 x 11%Poison Resist/frw SC's. You will now have 77% poison resist in Hell.
-Poison zons tend to be a little more fearless and some have actually advanced towards me as to get the upper hand.
-Every second is crucial.
-Attack from a point where the decoy and valkerye
-Don't try to Feral on the valkerye or decoy, you will just have to go without your raven's help. You almost always get hit while approaching a Guided arrow zon even if you follow my strategy above.
-If you're advancing from the bottom, a screen away go diagonal to the right towards them by clicking at the edge of your screen, once there hold down the Furying mouse clicker and drag the mouse all the way to the zon, quickly let go of the left clicker and relock on to the zon.
-If she has multi shotted you, down an antidote. Recast oak if you feel it necessary to oak heal, otherwise, Don't & continue with your limited life.
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-They've probably hit you by now, hit the hotkey to your antidote while you're furying or chasing them.
-follow exactly as above for Guided arrow zons on the chase and down an antidote whenever you get hit.
VS. Mage-a-Zons Difficulty MEDIUM
Tmaul
gaze
6%ll gloves
40/15max shaft
string of ears
gore riders
08 Highlord's
1x11%ll ring
1x Raven Frost
150% faster run walk in small charms
50%fhr in small charms
KOKOKOKOKOKO Crystal Sword & KO Whinstan's on switch
>OAK
Replace 3max/ar/frw charms with resist all/resist lightning/resist fire/frw charms until you recieve 75% resistence to fire/lightning and maintaining atleast 0% resistences to cold & poison. Cold damage in small charms do little damage and all mage-a-zons aim for more lightning/fire damage. Most charmfilled mage-a-zons would have about 15-600 Lightning damage, 225-375 fire damage, and under 125 cold damage. Mage-a-zons don't care to carry poison but still could carry some, but poison is of little threat. They don't care to carry cold because of the common use of raven frosts. Mage-a-zons take off their resistences when fighting with you but if they have resistences on or are in a public FFA, they would want their resistences at zero decreasing their elemental damage significantly.
These builds capatalize on the current trend of low resistences in other pvp builds. They are almsot always 8 frame ward bowers or buriza holders. They're the richer evolution of a board regular guided arrow zon and tend to be more experienced.
Treat these zons just like normal guided arrow zons. Do not reduce your DR, their arrows still pack quite a physical punch.
VS. Hybrid Zons MEDIUM
Tmaul
gaze
6%ll gloves
40/15max shaft
string of ears
gore riders
08 Highlord's
1x11%ll ring
1x Raven Frost
150% faster run walk in small charms
50%fhr in small charms
KOKOKOKOKOKO Crystal Sword & KO Whinstan's on switch
>OAK
These are basically the same as a Guided Arrow Zon except that they could use Jab. When they jab they are un-interruptable. These zons, if smart, will not go melee with you. they know the outcome. They have lower life than your GA zons. Jab's un-interruptable feature makes it more difficult for shield wielding classes, not for us. The Hybrid Zon usually always wears 160/60%ias armor and has full blocking and DR only when the Javalin & Stormshield is out. This means they have 32-40% Less DR when in Bow mode. They have 40%less DR because of the 40/15%ias in their Helm, if they are 7/8fpa--The ber is socketed in their StormShield rather than their gaze. 40%less DR really really hurts them. In this, the Hybrid zon is a bit more cookie cutter-ish--Guided arrow zons are a general category and can spring a variety of builds: different weapons, different ammounts of dr, wider range of damage among builds, different stat placements, all stated above. Javelins are range 3, same as a Tmaul.
-Treat them as a Guided Arrow Zon.(read above)
-When they retreat, they switch to their shield/jav for increased defense/blocking/DR(& run walk if they use titans) but also increased evading, which inturn takes away a bit of the advantage given to them by switching.
-Your life orb will go to full after leeching off these 32-40%less DR morsels in bow mode.
-If they do feel like experimenting and jab you, have no fear, they have bad AR and that un-interruptable wont help them as you smack 1/2 of their life out with just the first fury.
-Expect alot of misses: blocked furies, dodged furies, missed furies, interrupted furies when they go jab u.
-If you must, step back a few yards, let them come towards you and shift+Fury them as they approach. You could do so easily because of your 210% faster run walk which you had prepared for their Guided Arrow side.
-They will resort to GA when they feel your Tmaul if they are concerned with winning.
-Most hybrids aren't mentally set enough to transition from jabbing to GA'ing and are slow on the response and sometimes panic in the first 10 seconds after transition when you're chasing them.
VS. Pure Jabazons MEDIUM
Tmaul
gaze
6%ll gloves
CHAM shaft
string of ears
gore riders
08 Highlord's
2x11%ll ring
10x shapeshifting +life charms
50%fhr in small charms
Flesh Renderer & Lidless on switch
>HOW
Remember how I mentioned the one good fury killing base strategy of this build? Well it's difficult to complete one Fury fighting uninterruptable opponents. The jabazon is, out of all the repetitive stand still melee builds, the best leecher. Paladins and Fury WW's rely on dmging you to death while maintaining life leech, while jabazons rely on out lasting you & playing the statistics. They're hard to kill because they leech all their life back. Pure Jabazons do a bit more damage and have much better attack rating. Good ones have over 2k life because they carry little FRW, if any.
-Summon all pets
-If they try to take out your HoW, let them, attack them while they are attacking your HoW. Recast HoW before it wears off
-Feral Rage their valkerye and decoys first not for the sake of leech but for the sake of your ravens/spirit wolves to get a hit in
-Expect to be stabbed alot, they'll only make a small dent in your 5k+ life, but it adds up over time.
-Expect alot of misses: blocked furies, dodged furies, missed furies, interrupted furies when they go jab u.
-You have a decent chance of hitting them with their "average" defence.
-Step back 10 yards, let them come towards you and shift+Fury them as they approach. theyll whine and tell you to "stand still!" I have yet to face one that remembered to walk towards me. Doing this is your best chance of winning.
-These can last 5 minutes if you are stepping back and not having much success.
VS. Fanatic Zealot MEDIUM
Tmaul
gaze
6%ll gloves
CHAM shaft
string of ears
gore riders
08 Highlord's
2x11%ll ring
10x shapeshifting +life charms
50%fhr in small charms
Flesh Renderer & Lidless on switch
>HOW
Your run of the mill zealot. You usually win these unless they are packing a duped 08 valor. They increase their chances of winning substantially. This is where the basis of your build can thrive. Pro-zealots have 2.5k+ life and do enough damage to be a threat. One good Fury can take them out as I often do. Most Zealots were zons that were bored of being a zon and were impressed by a few good zealots. The average Zealot often has high Holy shield, 20 Charge, 20 Fanaticism and 20 Holy Freeze. Points in their Zeal only increase the number of hits(up to 5) and Attack rating. They have above average defence because of their holy shield.
The best of the best zealots will always beat the best of the best smiters. It's been proven again and again, cross-realm, same realm, private realm, etc etc. Cocky smiters can deny it all they want.
Good news, If a zealot misses with the first hit, he misses the last 4 hits. Bad news, most use Eth rune bug. Duking it out with these guys often leads to a win. All decent zealots nowadays Zeal at 8/4/4/4/4. All decent zealots zeal at an initial 8 frames and can not zeal faster. There are no 2handed weapon wielding zealots. Zealots that do not use Eth bug have no chance against you, a pity.
More bad news, Holy freeze slows your attack speed! mine goes from a 9 to 10 frame initial attack but is still a constant 5 frame fury. Unfortunately i've always forgotten to try methods of countering this little problem: Faster base weapon, More IAS on the weapon, IAS outside the weapon... Good Luck!
Zealots that have an ethereal hellslayer in the switch to charge are a joke. The damage is not a threat because of your 4k life but will put you through the FHR animation. The strength required to equipt that hell slayer puts them at a serious disadvantage against you. Take advantage of them when they are shieldless.
-Summon all pets. Position the dire wolves behind you about 1-2 yards away so the zealot wont be tempted to take them out first. Position your HoW as far behind you as you can. Position Poison Creeper and Ravens infront of you -- Yes i know they all tend to wander.
-Let him approach you
-If he does go for the pets first, make him regret it.
-Expect your Spirit wolves to die in the first 5 seconds of engaging the paladin's zeal. They served their purpose of saving you from one hit--meat shields.
-Resummon the HoW whenever it's killed
-You'll have a problem if HoW wanders into the zealot's attack too often as you would need to recast it, opening a window of opportunity for them.
-If the paladin expected you to be a 7/4/4/4/4 hitting shield carrying Werewolf he'll lower his blocking % by dropping his dex to decrease the chances of block lock(if he's pro, pro's sometimes can do this).
-Ravens are your best friend, Paladins have the best blocking, require less dex for 75%blocking and block faster than other classes -- About 2 in every 5 games i've played with them they are set atleast once in Block lock. Block Lock on them doesnt last long for our builds. Your shield holding bretheren have an advantage over you on these matchups because they often win because of the paladin's block lock. It was rumored that mace class weapon cause more block locking than swords, axes, etc. Just a rumor in my opinion.
-Your average decent zealot will put you in FHR animation once every 25 shots. Your pro zealot will put you in FHR animation every 10 shots. They do quite a bit of damage with their ethereal cruels.
-Use the back stepping shift-furying technique explained above. Quite a few paladins know to walk though. This almost ensures your chances of winning.
-Sometimes zealots backstep themselves, if they do walk towards them and smack them as they try to shift zeal you with their range 2 weapons(i personally don't know why they do it, they have ITD from ETH Bug -- it helps them a little, i suppose). You stop advancing as soon as you reach range 3. Technically you are out of their range of shift zealing and can get some hits in, but they will lock on you to try franticly to leech back life as soon as they realize this -- if they're still alive.
-Remember you are using HoW, the battle could be over in 4 zeals from a pro.
-These battles don't last as long as if you were wielding a shield. Either you have no luck at all and you die in 30 seconds or they die.
I'M BURNT OUT MAN!!! TOO MUCH D2 @$(*$$&@*@&$)@&$@)&*@ this isn't good for my eyes...
Here are a list of VS. Strategies i have failed to complete:
FFA
Team Duels 2v2
Team Duels 3v3
Team Duels 4v4
Handicap Team Duels
shaman
shockbear
fury werewolf
2handed fury werewolf
werebear
fire claws werebear
orb sorc
tri-elementalist
hydra sorc
other sorcs
trapper
claw claw sin
claw/shield sin
hybrid sin
bone spirit necro
foh/smiter
pure smiter
holy freeze
defiance smiter
charging foh'er
blessed hammers
Good Luck!
-={Weapons & Gear}=-
My Recommended Weapon Choices & Calculations for them:
Thunder Maul
str req=253
dex req=0
33-180 base
speed=20
MAGICAL cruel of quickness 300ed/40ias
166.6-886.9dmg 390%ed/55ias 9/6/6/6/6Fury (with ohm/40ed15ias)
163.2-868.8 380%ed/70ias 9/5/5/5/5 (40ed15ias/40ed15ias)
149.6-796.4 340%ed/75ias 8/5/5/5/5 (shael/40ed15ias)
ETHEREAL 6 socket "robo" thunder maul
str req=243
dex req=0
49.5-270
151.5-813 200%ed/75ias 8/5/5/5/5 (40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed/15ias/zod)
159.075-853.65 215%ed/75ias 8/5/5/5/5 (superior 15%ED)(40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed/15ias/zod)
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Great Poleaxe
str req=179
dex req=99
46-127 base
speed=0
MAGICAL cruel of quickness 300ed/40ias
206.8-563.2 340%ed/75ias 7/4/4/4/4 (shael/40ed15ias)
ETHEREAL 6 socket "robo" great poleaxe
str req=169
dex req=89
69-190.5
210-574.5 200%ed/75ias 7/4/4/4/4 (40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/zod)
220.5-603.225 215%ED/75ias 7/4/4/4/4 (superior 15%ED)(40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/zod)
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Giant Thresher
str req=188
dex req=140
40-114 base
speed=-10
MAGICAL cruel of quickness 300ed/40ias
164-460 300/80ias 6/4/4/4/4 (shael/shael)
ETHEREAL 6 socket "robo" giant thresher
str req=178
dex req=130
60-171
158.6-447.2 160ed/80ias 6/4/4/4/4 (40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/shael/zod)
167.75-473 175ed/80ias 6/4/4/4/4 (superior 15%ED)(40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/40ed15ias/shael/zod)
I highly Recommend either a
275%+ED Cruel tmaul of Quickness with two 40%ed/15%ias jewels for a 9/5/5/5/5 fury
or
6 socket Ethereal Tmaul with 5x 40/15ias's and a zod for an 8/5/5/5/5 fury as the main weapon. get superior if you can.
I recommend the Ethereal Tmaul more than the Cruel tmaul of Quickness as the one faster initial frame does make a difference in certain situations
Thundermauls, Legendary Mallets and Ogremauls have a 110% dmg/str bonus, for every 100 points in strength, you recieve 110% dmg bonus. therefore a 1.1% dmg bonus per strength point. 253 strength = 278% enhanced damage. Shopbotters come across cruel tmauls of quickness quite often.
I have the best possible Cruel Tmaul of Quickness in 1.09 and from my experience that extreme max damage gives me an edge against opponents with lower damaging faster 2-handed weapons, i'm a one fury killer. I've sold a rollback dupe of it awhile back too, there's only two in existence unless the other guy duped my tmaul with that last dupe.
take a look at what i use to give a full and idealistic idea of what you would need
Get a Cruel Great Poleaxe of Quickness with Shael&40/15ias or a robo great poleaxe for catching sorcs & necros. Don't use stat points in dex, save it for vitality and depend on dex from Gear.
Minimal GEAR:
1.09 20%DR 8%ll Vampire Gaze (ber)
Shaftstop(cham)
another Shaftstop(40/15max)
8%ll/15%dr String of Ears
Gore Riders
Good Life leech 6% with decent stats crafted gloves or 1.08 Hellmouths if you're a lame lazy bastard who uses dupes.
Thundergod's Belt
Some rare circlets with +dex to equipt polearms/buriza, 30%frw to chase down sorcs/necros/runaway from bvb's, and +2 druid skills
armor with lots of dex and some resists and light class to equipt polearms
take a look at what i use to give a full and idealistic idea of what you would need
Minimal Jewelery:
1.08 Highlord's Wrath if you can get it, 1.09 if you cant.
Two good 10-11%LL creafted rings (Attack rating first priority, second is life and strength, fourth is resists)
Two Raven Frosts(20dex, high AR)
Two Dwarf Stars(15mdr only)
take a look at what i use to give a full and idealistic idea of what you would need
Charms:
86%
I know you don't want to go through all that preparation & preparation isn't everything, but it is the single determinent in the outcome of 99% of all agreed pvp matches played on bnet.
-={Attribute Point Distribution}=-
If you use a cruel thundermaul of quickness: 253 strength AFTER gear/charms
If you use an ethereal "robo" thundermaul: 243 strength AFTER gear/charms
(the ethereal property subtracts 10 points from dex and strength requirements on all items)
Base Dex
Rest of the points into Vitality
Base Energy
You end up with higher levels of vitality than shield druids but what makes the druid is his charms.
-={Skill Point Distribution}=-
20 How
20 Oak Sage
20 Were Wolf
20 Lycanthropy
20 Fury
1 Rabies
1 Feral Rage
1 Poison Creeper
4 Raven
3 Spirit Wolves
You have 110 Skill points to distribute at level 99
-98 from Levels gained
-12 from Skill quests from all difficulties
This build requires 110 skill points and therefore your druid must be level 99 to complete. Ouch. I'm aware of the max level 20 bug on the summoned spirits but 1.10 is just around the corner.
-={Skill Point Distributing Order and Leveling}=-
*get rushed to hell cows all points gained during rush go to 1werewolf rest lycanthropy
*go cow
*first get 10 points into lycanthropy to stay alive
*then 20 points in HoW to help your cow runners so u can leech faster. never kill the cowking or be in proximity of someone killing the cowking. Follow a bowazon with your HoW but dont steal their drops.
*then 10 more points in lycanthropy
*Add items as you reach the level
*Calculate in those in your free time during cow runs how much strength you will actually get from items and charms, subtract that from your total strength required for your weapon and the total will be how much you would need for strength.
*1 point feral rage
*1 point rabies
*20 points in fury to do quests
*Stack enough +5str Large charms to wield your weapon(if you have +str on an item u cannot equipt at your level yet, such as crafted rings/gloves) & COMPLETE ALL YOUR SKILL/ATTRIBUTE/USEFUL QUESTS(den,cain,sewers,jade falcon,tomb,izual,shenk,anya, ancients)
*In Nightmare hire the highest level Offensive act2 Mercinary. Equipting him is not necessary, he'll die no matter what, it's a waste of time equipting him at lower levels. Once he gets high enough, strong enough, and dexterious enough equipt a shaft with CHAM on him, & your gaze or circlet and one of your "robo" poleaxes.
*+ points in werewolf as you quest
*Have a friend with decent elemental damage to help you with the Hell Ancients
*Now go cowing again
*20 points into werewolf
*4 points in raven
*3 point in spirit wolves
*1 point in poison creeper
*rest of the points into oak sage, wait a month for level 99, then go duel in hell.
Shortcuts:
U can just save time and make two characters, same distribution in skill points & stats except one is Oak only and the other is HoW only. end up at level 87(crafted ring lvl requirement).
Or ignore the approaching 1.10 and end the spirits at level 19 each(highlords = +1skills) to compensate for the max lvl 20 bug on spirits.
Or
-={1.09 PVP RULES}=-
No illegitimate items
-No ITHs(...)
-No hacked(occy rings, chaos nooses, whites, legit lookalikes"armageddon fetch", bugged strings, bugged jewels, etc, etc)
-No Hex(90/90/90's)
-No common dupes(08gaze, rare ammies, raven spirals, 3RedDot 3/20/20, 383pdsc, etc, etc)
-No uncommon dupes(ECBBOQ, grims, 08gores, 08hells, etc, etc)
No hacks(maphack, gear viewer, auto-aim, etc etc)
No Eth bug usage
No healing/mana potions or shrines
No mercenaries
No Amplify Damage Chance To Cast charges.
No slow usage by physical attackers
Hell Difficulty
Explanation:
If you can't see why the illegitimate items are ruled out, open your eyes. The game designers set specific rules to balance the game out. Breaking those rules with items that were not supposed to spawn, or not supposed to spawn anymore(they stopped spawning for a reason) is CHEATING. The reason why the zon is regarded the king of pvp is because of the maphack. Maphack is one of the causes of so many lame rules implemented by narrow minded leagues. Gear viewers, X-rays, PKTK, etc give an enormous unfair advantage to a player that is pathetic enough to capatalize on it. Eth is a known bug, any who choose to use it is a cheater. Many people don't see this -- it throws the balance that the game designers intended completely off. Are you so desperate to win that you'll throw away your ethics and delude yourself to think it's not cheating -- since, everyone else uses it? Amp, Slow, Mercs are obviously flaws the game designers over looked for PvP. You can make an exception with the healing/mana potions rule if both parties agree to it. Try a friendly game that allows potions--it's more challenging. No exceptions for the illegitimate items, they are set in stone, THOU SHALT NOT BE LAME. These rules are simple and they actually work too, unlike that total crap of a list, the Diabloii.net's so called "Common PvP rules for organized fair games and tourneys," in the PVP faq section. Everything else not ruled out in this rules list IS fair, take as long as you need to derive to an answer of why they are such. If you need further explanation of illegits, gaming ethics, how dii.net's 'suggested' rules is 85% crap, i've moved 6 paragraphs of bitching on to another .txt file and I would be irritated but willing to enlighten you upon request.
-={Final Comments}=-
Yawn. Hopefully my next 2h WW guide will not be incomplete. :)
gl hf dd
-={Thanks/Acknowledgements}=-
Tommi Gustafsson - Compiling the correct FHR tables. Go here
http://www.hut.fi/~tgustafs/subc_compgames.html
Ruvenal - many of the statistics on her were from him at one point or another
The Dragoon - the two handed weapon FPA spread sheet