TheDragoon's Werewolf Guide

Skill points in Diablo II are rare. You can only get one for every level you gain, as well as 4 per difficulty level (via quests). Thus, it is a good idea not to waste too many of them. In this way, it is best to have a plan, a course of action for each character that you start. In this section I will endeavor to give my own take on the importance of each skill, give my recommendations for it and strategies to its use.

Shape-Shifting Skills

Werewolf
Well, since the build is named after this skill, it must be quite good! This skill is probably where a Werewolf's first point will be spent, allowing him to shape-shift. The basics of the skill is that it is on a timer (and so can't be used after using most elemental skills, thus making elemental/shapeshifting hybrids rather annoying to play, at best) and that it starts off giving a huge bonus to attack speed in the form of SIAS (skill increased attack speed). Additional points raise this bonus, but it is on diminishing returns so it stops increasing the attack speed significantly rather quickly. In addition, once the SI or "Speed Increase" is maxed out, Skill IAS stops playing any role (more on this in the Weapons Section).

However, this skill also gives a HUGE bonus to Attack Rating for every point put into it (15% per point). This alone would make me want to max this skill out. However, I often do not max this skill immediately. Rather, I put points into Lycanthropy until it is around level 10 and about 5 points into Feral Rage and then work on maxing this (but taking time out to max Fury out as quickly as possible).
Recommendation: MAXED eventually

Lycanthropy
This skill is one of the most important, yet least flashy, skills that a Wereform can invest in. It serves the double purpose of increasing the amount of time the Druid can stay in the Werewolf form without having to re-shift (an additional 7 minutes at skill level 20) as well as adding a healthy bonus (115% extra life at level 20) to the life pool. Since both of these abilities are important, I would recommend maxing this skill. However, I have found that it is NOT necessary to max it as soon as possible. The main reason to put points into this skill early in the game is not for additional life, but to increase the length of time that you can remain in the Werewolf form. Thus, when I start a Werewolf, I will raise this skill up to about level 10 very quickly (before level 15) and then concentrate my skill points into skills that raise my damage, attack rating, attack speed and life leech. However, I always make sure to have this skill maxed out by the time I start Hell difficulty, as Hell monsters hit HARD and the extra life is definitely worth the skill point investment.

Also note that since Werewolves tend to have few defenses besides their stunning offense, when they DO start taking hits, they can lose a lot of life fairly quickly. Lycanthropy can help you stay alive long enough to either finish off the monsters or leech back some life. This is a very important Werewolf skill.
Recommendation: MAXED

Werebear
Now, this is not a Werebear build. As such, you wouldn't normally want this skill. However, if you want to put points into Fire Claws and Hunger, you'll need to drop a point in here as a pre-requisite.
Recommendation: 0 or 1 point

Maul
This skill is in the same boat as Werebear. If you want Fire Claws or Hunger, you'll have to drop a point in here. Otherwise, skip it.
Recommendation: 0 or 1 point

Feral Rage
This can be one of the key differences between the best werewolves and the rest. Sure, the Werewolf can do a decent job of clearing out monsters by using only the Fury attack, but the best players know that this skill can boost your gameplay to a whole different level. With steady returns in life leech and run/walk speed for additional points this skill makes an excellent support to Fury. Since the timer on it lasts for 20 seconds, it need only be used once every 15-20 seconds in order to keep it going and due to its run/walk bonus, it's harder to run this skill out of charges than the Werebear skill, Maul.

People often scoff at additional Run/Walk speed in PvM as a mere convenience, but in reality, the huge bonus from this skill will let you run down prospective prey that much faster which can have strategic significance. Normally, a group of monsters may bulge out, stopping you from running around them to take out the elemental mages behind the first wave. However, with Feral Rage active, you might have enough time to run around the group before it can choke off the passageway, allowing you a way through to take out the more dangerous foes behind (Oblivion Knights, anyone?).

Finally, the life leech can have a great strategic significance, as well. Due to the normally low levels of resistance that seem to plague Wereforms, Lightning Enchanted Bosses can tear a Wereform to shreds in seconds. However, with the additional 52% Life Leech this skill will give you at level 20, you can now stand right next to the LEB and regain your life as fast as you lose it.

Now, this skill can make a HUGE difference to your playing, but it doesn't necessarily need to be maxed out ASAP. Often, the low levels of life leech on this skill work just fine for Normal and most of Nightmare difficulty. However, once you reach Hell, it is definitely a help to have an upper level of damage to this skill. Thus, I often just place 5-10 points into this skill early on and then work on maxing out the other skills (Fury, Werewolf, Lycanthropy and the Spirit). Then at the very end of the game, it is often good to return to this skill and try to finish it off.
Recommendation: 5 points early on up to MAXED at the end

Fire Claws
This skill adds a fire component to your melee attacks while in Wereform. In addition, it gives a healthy +AR% bonus. While this may seem all well and good, the extra damage is not really that impressive when compared to the eventual physical damage output of your Werewolf (Fire Claws adds 235 damage at level 20... a high level Werewolf can easily deal out an average of 2500 physical damage). In addition, Werewolves rarely have Attack Rating problems and are at their best when furying away for big, fast damage. For these reasons, despite its usefulness for dispatching physical immune monsters, I do not use this skill. However, do not let my words scare you away from trying it, as I have known several people who use this skill to great effectiveness, it's just not a personal favorite of mine.
Recommendation: 0 points or MAXED

Rabies
This skill causes your Werewolf to bite a nearby monster, passing along a poisonous disease (poison damage) which can be caught by nearby monsters and begin damaging them, as well. The catch? All poisons from this skill (including those that the nearby monsters "catch") run off of the same poison duration that starts when you initially bite. Thus only the monster you target for the bite takes full damage while the rest of the monsters will take very little damage since the poison takes a second for them to "catch" it and then it ends 4 seconds after the initial bite. If this was not the case and one bite could infest a huge group of monsters, causing them all to catch it and pass it along to other monsters who pass it on to other monsters... then it would be a good skill. However, since all poison stops 4 seconds after the initial bite, it really isn't THAT good of a damaging skill. Skill points are best spent elsewhere. Just place one point here as a pre-req. for Fury.

In an effort to be complete, I will mention that Rabies uses the Hunger attack animation and so will tend to be faster than the Werewolf's Standard Attack.
Recommendation: 1 point

Hunger
Here is another skill that can be quite useful. Hunger deals 25% of your standard attack damage, but it gives you a HUGE bonus to life and mana leech. This skill is awesome for untwinked characters as it allows them to use their skills quite liberally despite the relative rarity of mana leech items. However, for those who slap a mana leech ring onto their characters the second they reach level 15 or earlier, this skill is nearly useless. Fortunately, if you do decide to put a point into this skill, it has its own animation (which is kind of cool) and it can work well with only 1 invested skill point (and +skill items make it even better!)

Similarly, this skill gives Werewolves the ability to easily deal with some of the most potent monsters in the game: Lightning Enchanted Bosses. Since it raises your life leech to a very high level, it can make you leech back more than enough life to make up for being hit by the lightning bolts. Thus a monster that might originally tear a Druid to shreds (due to possibly low resistances) is greatly reduced to more of an annoyance. Don't forget, however, that this skill will only function if you are dealing physical damage, so it is useless against physical immune monsters.

Also note that the Werewolf Hunger animation is 3 frames shorter than the Werewolf's Standard Attack animation and so its Hunger attacks will usually be a frame or more faster than the Werewolf's Standard Attack.
Recommendation: 0-5 points

Fury
Now here is the reason that Werewolves are the offensive juggernauts they are: Fury. This skill acts somewhat like Zeal in that one Fury attack is made up of one Standard attack and 4 "Fury" attacks. These "Fury" attacks are much faster than the Standard attack is, and so it makes your Werewolf attack much more quickly. In addition, Fury adds a TON of damage to your attacks as well as Attack Rating. This skill, combined with Werewolf, is very much like the Paladin combination of Fanaticism and Zeal. A Werewolf player will want to use this skill whenever possible (and not charging up/recharging Feral Rage) as it is the Werewolf's best source of speed and damage. This skill should be maxed out as quickly as possible (ie level 50).
Recommendation: MAXED ASAP

Summoning Skills
Though not necessarily specific to the Werewolf, these skills are invaluable to help your character reach its full potential.

There are basically two ways to choose summoning skills for a Werewolf. The first option is the solo Werewolf. In this, the Werewolf forgoes the use of summonable "meat shields" and only adds skill points to his spirit of choice. This makes the Werewolf the only tank of the build as well as the only source of damage and so the Werewolf must do quite a bit of damage as well as have a good amount of life leech order to do this. In the end-game, this is often not a problem since Werwolves attack so quicky and for so much damage (via Fury) as well as having insane life leech levels (via Feral Rage) but getting there can occasionally be difficult.

The second option is the Werewolf with summons. In this build, the Werewolf need not tank every monster that it runs into as it has placed a few points into the summoned creatures (Spirit Wolves, Dire Wolves, Grizzly). These summonable creatures take some of the heat off, allowing the Werewolf to focus more on destroying its enemies than on keeping itself alive in tough battles. These builds are equally potent, the solo Werewolf having more points to spend on becoming a creature of mass destruction, the summoning Werewolf having a better defense and being less likely to be overwhelmed. In addition, these summonable minions can be very useful for helping you park monster packs or bosses that you don't want to fight (like Physical Immune monsters or MSLEB bosses). From here it is really a choice of preference. However, I would urge anyone new to the game to go the summoning route, as it is a little less equipment dependent than the solo Werewolf.

One last thing about the summonable minions (by this I mean Spirit Wolves, Dire Wolves and Grizzly) is that their passive bonuses carry over to each other. Thus, each point placed into Spirit Wolves will give its bonus to Attack Rating and Defense to the Dire Wolves and Grizzly. In this way, if all three skills are maxed, the summonables will deal a very large amount of damage. However, a Werewolf build can't really max all three skills without being more like a Summoner than a Werewolf, so don't expect to max them out with this sort of build. If you wish to see how powerful they can become, however, play around with Chippydip's Skills Information page.

Raven
Basically, this skill is only really useful for the first 10 minutes of PvM combat. Though it does have uses for PvP, a standard PvM Werewolf build really doesn't need more than the pre-requisite point in this skill.
Recommendation: 1 point

Spirit Wolves
This is another skill that doesn't really have a huge damage output. However, since you can potentially summon five of them, these wolves can be quite useful as a buffer for your druid. Think of how today's cars employ "crumple zones" that give way easily, but help protect the passengers. Well, these wolves can serve a similar purpose. Summoning them before heading into battle can buy your Werewolf time to kill several of the monsters before the whole group begins to attack you. By employing +skill items, you can be able to summon the maximum of five of these guys with only one point spent here (and it's a pre-requisite for the other summons, too!)
Recommendation: 1 point

Dire Wolves
These wolves do significantly more damage than do the Spirit Wolves. However, since most of your skill points will probably be spent on making your Werewolf more powerful, rather than these, I usually skimp on points here. However, with a large number of points into Grizzly, these wolves can pack a bit of a punch, making them quite useful. Again, +skill items can be employed in order to save points here, by only placing the single point into this skill.
Recommendation: 1-3 points (depending upon whether you want to use them and your use of +Summoning Skill items)

Grizzly
Here's just what your Werewolf always wanted, a friendly bear to take some of the heat off! The Grizzly is quite powerful in terms of its damage output as well as its tanking abilities, even in Hell. However, this guy often falls into the same problem that plagues the wolves: too few skill points to go around. Thus, I will often place only one points in this skill, hoping that my +skill items will make it powerful enough to tank (even if not really damage) a good number of the monsters.

Note: Your Grizzly has the ability to knockback and stun enemies.
Recommendation: 1 point

Oak Sage and Heart of the Wolverine

Now is where you have some choices to make: selecting a spirit. Both of these spirits are extremely powerful, yet you can only summon one at a time. Thus, the arguments for the spirits go this way:

Oak Sage: This spirit capitalizes upon the fact that the Werewolf already deals a ton of damage and instead focuses on increasing its life total even further! Werewolves that use this spirit find themselves with so much life that they have more lee-way when fighting against large packs of monsters.

Heart of the Wolverine: Heart of the Wolverine works to increase the damage output of a Werewolf to insane levels. It supplies a damage increase of +153% at level 20 as well as a healthy dose of +AR% (+158% at level 20). However, since Werewolves get so much Attack Rating from the Werewolf skill, this part of this spirit is somewhat of a moot point.

The debate over which spirit to use can go on forever, but the majority of Werewolf players (myself included) tend to prefer Oak Sage. The additional life can definitely help to shore up the somewhat weak (though only somewhat!) defenses of a Werewolf as well as grant its summonables, mercenary and party of characters additional life, thus making THEM last longer, too. As stated before, the AR from HoW really doesn't do much for a Werewolf, and the damage is somewhat pathetic compared to Fury, but every little bit can help! There is no right or wrong answer to this debate as it really comes down to personal preference. Just pick a spirit and go with it! Note: in version 1.09 there is a bug where spirits no longer increase in their bonuses after skill level 20. For this reason, people have advocated only putting enough points into these so that when you add in your +skill items the spirits are exactly level 20. However, this bug is likely to be fixed in 1.10, so I would recommend just maxing these skills in preparation for the patch's release. Also note that if you play multi-player, it can often be beneficial to place at least one point into the other spirits just in case you party with another Druid that uses the same spirit as you.
Recommendation: MAXED

Vines
Some people advocate the use of the Vines to help your druids. However, they are quite graphically intensive, so if you are playing on a slower computer, expect them to drop your frame rate significantly (which is why I don't use them). But, for those with computers that the rest of us drool over, I will give some basic descriptions of uses for them:

Poison Creeper: This skill, like ravens, does decent damage in the early-going, but quickly runs out of steam later in the game. Additionally, the low life of this vine causes it to die off quickly toward the end of the game. Thus, if you wish to use vines, put just a single point here as a pre-requisite. Otherwise you can skimp on the points here to invest them elsewhere.
Recommendation: 0 or 1 point

Carrion Vine: Some Werewolf players use this skill to aid Feral Rage (or even instead of Feral Rage) in keeping their life totals up. However, remember that it can KILL a player's framerate if the computer is too slow, so watch out, when using it!

This vine is also of great use in one other situation: battling resurrection. Act Two (and to a certain extent, Acts One and Three) can be a pain if you run into a large pack of monsters with other monsters in the back resurrecting every monster you kill before it can even touch the ground. In this situation, this vine shines, as it will eat the dead bodies, preventing resurrection and allowing you to eventually kill off this pack without having to resort to luring the monsters away from the resurrection monsters to kill them. However, this vine is probably not something to be used when playing with a necromancer or a paladin relying upon redemption as it will tend to eat all of the dead corpses that those classes prey upon.
Recommendation: 0 or 1 point

Solar Creeper: Werewolves rarely hurt for mana. All Werewolf skills require very little mana to be effective, and so this vine would be a bit of a waste. A single item with mana leech or +mana after each kill can be all that a Werewolf needs to keep his mana pool full.
Recommendation: 0 points.

Now with skills out of the way, it's time to move on to choosing your weapon.