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Now with all of the number crunching and planning out of the way, it's time to play the Werebear! Playing a Werebear is not overly difficult, thanks to the insane amount of life that a Werebear gains. A Werebear can be played in a similar way to a Melee Paladin or Barbarian, but this would result in not playing the character as powerfully as possible. There are a few striking differences to playing a Werebear as opposed to the other melee classes.  The first major difference is Shockwave. This skill is the ultimate "panic button." In nearly any emergency, using Shockwave guarantees that the approaching monsters will stop in their tracks, unable to do anything as you pound away. Thus, if you want to play it safe, the first thing you would do whenever faced by an approaching pack of monsters is use Shockwave. Aiming: There are a few things to remember about aiming Shockwave. First is that the closer to your Werebear that you aim when using shockwave, the more spread out the waves get, and so the more area you can cover with one shot. Thus, in general, it's a good idea to aim as close to your Werebear's feet as you can. Just be careful because if you aim too close you can actually end up MISSING monsters right in front of you as the Shockwave bolts shoot to either side of the monsters.  Wide Spread:  The next thing to remember is that the waves travel a set distance across the screen of a few yards. Thus, you DO need to be fairly close to your target in order to hit it with Shockwave.  Finally, there are some types of monsters that are particularly annoying to a Werebear and should be Shockwaved as soon as possible.   In particular, Yetis and Urdars are especially annoying to a Werebear. If you are not using a very fast attacking weapon and a lot of Faster Hit Recovery equipment (common breakpoints are 48% and 125% Faster Hit Recovery), monsters with stun can cause a very slow death as you stand there stunned and they whittle away at your enormous life total. I have found that, with a slow weapon, even three of these monsters can be enough to leave a Werebear nearly stunlocked. In a situation like this there are two things you can do: Shockwave - Switch to Shockwave and hold the button down, hoping to stun them so that you can attack them. Remember to use Shockwave again before they come out of the stun or the whole situation will repeat itself. Run Away - Hey, it even happens to the best of us. If you find yourself in a bit of a jam, don't feel bad about having to run away. Think of it as a tactical retreat! Now, there actually is more to running away than one might expect. The secret is to run far enough away, fast enough that only about 1/2 the monsters follow you all the way. This way, you can reduce their ranks and then kill them in smaller, more manageable groups. I have found that running away about one and a half or two screens quickly and then turning around to fight whatever has followed you (with 20-40% Faster Run/Walk boots) works quite well. Sometimes, however, even just initial separation from the monsters can be enough to turn the battle in your favor as the monsters take about a second to attack you once they reach you. Of course, if you use Shockwave as they're approaching, it's even better as they can then stand there, stunned, while you wail away.  These guys are a pain. Werebears that use Two-Handed Weapons tend to have somewhat bad resistances so mage monsters in Hell can tear them up. This is where a solid strategy can come in handy. When you initially run up to a group of monsters, check to see what the group is composed of. If it's all mages, then run up, Shockwave them, and kill them. If it's a group of mostly mages, but some melee attackers, run past the meleers and kill the mages as before, and then target the meleers. This way, you can keep the mages from pounding on you as you engage the melee monsters. This is an especially sound plan if you are facing Oblivion Knights as their Iron Maiden curse can spell almost instant doom to a Werebear with little Damage Reduction and life leech. However, in groups of mostly melee monsters or 50/50 splits, it can often be difficult to target the mages initially. Another strategy is required. The "Tactical Retreat" - As before, you can take advantage of monster AI's by running away from the mob as detailed above. This will cause the melee monsters to follow you (and perhaps one or two ranged monsters). Now you can shockwave the group and kill whatever melee monsters remain. Thus, when you run forward to engage the rest of the group, it will likely be mostly ranged attackers and you can take care of them as detailed above. These guys are a pain. Since a Druid cannot cast Elemental spells while shape-shifted, physical immune monsters can stop a Werebear dead in its tracks. If you are dead set on killing the monster, the best advice I can give here is to find yourself a very fast attacking weapon and use elemental damage from the weapon, charms, and possibly Fire Claws to whittle down the monster's life. Good weapons to switch to in this case are Baranar's Star for massive elemental damage or a 6-Shael Phase Blade for massive speed, where you can get your elemental damage from another source. In both of these cases, Tiamat's Rebuke is a great shield to use as it adds additional elemental damage to your attack, allowing you to knock down the monster that much quicker. Again, Fire Claws is actually fairly decent in this situation, so if you have put points into it, this is where it will shine. Just make sure that you don't run out of mana with no other source of elemental damage equipped. Basically, use your common sense. If a battle suddenly turns against you, don't feel the need to tank the whole group, use Shockwave and retreating to your advantage. Also, when facing Andariel, Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal, don't feel like you can't move around. If you've just been hit by a hard attack, it can often be useful to disengage from melee for a few seconds, re-group, and let health potions take effect. If you have spent points on summonable animals, this is where they will be extremely handy, allowing you to disengage whenever something big is coming (like Diablo's Firestorm or Lighting Blast attacks) and not have to worry about the boss following right on your heels. Special Note for Lister - When fighting Lister and the Minions of Destruction, Shockwave is your friend. It can leave all of the Minions except Lister stunned while you kill them one-by-one, always making sure to re-stun them whenever it is about to run off. If they start landing hits on you before you can stun them, run back a few paces, turn and fire Shockwave. This is perhaps the best place in the game for this skill as it makes this usually difficult battle laughably easy. Finally, let me end by saying that your tactics should probably be changed slightly as your attack rate changes. A very fast attacking Werebear can run the risk of staying in a battle until the last second before disengaging, while a slower attacking Werebear should probably play it more safe, leaving combat sooner. This is why I tend to favor the faster weapons as they allow you more flexibility in battle, allowing you to change from your current attack to Shockwave should the tides of battle turn against you. I hope that this guide will leave you with the information and ideas necessary to create a Werebear that strikes fear into the hearts of the demons of Hell. If you have any comments/suggestions about this guide, feel free to email me at akrinke@u.washington.edu. Continue onward to the Thanks/Links/Miscellaneous page. |
