N AR advice

I love playing shifters and want to be able to do dreamland or new bosses with them.

However, it's just not possible to do it effectively.
If I have 10k fury AR it says i hit the bosses around 70% of the time.
I know it's a lying character screen but I even prebuff ench, use ar charms and use malevolent to reduce their deff.
I hit lik 1/10 of the time.

I could use angelic ring / ammy but how can I survive the attacks then if I invest so much in AR. I have to use sara ammy and a lot of attackspeed and cb to to deal some damage. Also maybe draculs for life tab, since all leech is pointless.

Fireclaw is a joke, bears are completely useless because of the bad fhr, Hunger is ias bugged and 75% damage penalty. The leech somehow never works because of the hell penalty.

Wolf benefits from good fhr and are easily fast as well.

Do you have any advice? I don't have Fullmoon though I don't know what it would change.


Oh and I don't even want to start about nado druids, they are amazing pvp but you can't do content with them. Also fire druids are fun but the cooldown of 4s is too high to compete with the new mobs.

Sorry, but I'm a bit tired of running all new content with java or smite. Feels like we have 7 chars with different builds and only 2 can effectively do them.

Happy for any advice !


e:

Well the DL Bosses have high def I think and also dodge.
But how comes smite is so effective then.
Also they are level 99 and the char to run Dreamland probably (85-95) so this also cuts in the formular.

e2: I obviously know how to get 25k ar, but try it yourself and see if it helps...

yeah, the only viable chars to run dreamlands are smiter and java.
Pounce bear was the only one way to run dl as fast as java, but with nerf it doesn't work anymore.

In my opinion, there is no chance for melee attack chars in dreamlands, it will be too slow compared to smiter and java anyway.

if you say pounce is not an alternative anymore, seems like Fullmoon isn't that great in general. It can just provide some feral ias, which isn't a problem to reach anyway. Spirits are weak in boss runs too. Else it has no deff stats, probably wont buy it then and just play ama again...

Feral ias bonus from fullmoon, cerebus' and death's advance aura doesn't work in wolf/bear form

what why? They are especially made for shifters i thought so they add to the weapon IAS instead of OWIAS.

It doesn't work since it was implemented :)

Wow and I was really looking forward to starting a shifter here. That feral ias should be a top-priority fix

New items should hopefully address these AR issues, i've been wanting 95% hit on my zealer for a long time too and its hard without using angelics, and full moon helps alot with the 70-80 feral ias and 30-40 bonus AR, dragon jewels are also good for addressing AR issues but its hard to do dreamlands without the items that come from dreamlands for charas that arn't smiter/java

i can solo dreamlands with my druid...maybe not as fast as smiter/ama but it is still possible :). I have 18k AR with blessed aim merc and Heart of Wolv. I also wear Ik boots sometimes for the 400 AR bonus.

Just a little F.Y.I. , the reason that Smite works so well against bosses is that it always hits. It isn't a 95% chance to hit. Smite bypasses the formula altogether. The trade off is the low physical damage. However as we all know, crushing blow, amp damage and lifetap make it all worthwhile.

I picked up a Full Moon a couple weeks ago and decided to level a druid to test out Pounce. What a let down. Even with high end gear it felt like a complete waste of time. I respecced for elemental and it was even worse. Druids are just weak. With a better chance to hit, shape shifters might be fun again but as they are now it's just not worth the headache. They aren't even the strongest Werewolves. I made a Were-Barbarian using the Bul'Kathos sword set that had more health/armor/AR/damage/CB and was just a better all around werewolf. Druids should be the strongest shape shifters.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LordManhammer

Just a little F.Y.I. , the reason that Smite works so well against bosses is that it always hits. It isn't a 95% chance to hit. Smite bypasses the formula altogether. The trade off is the low physical damage. However as we all know, crushing blow, amp damage and lifetap make it all worthwhile.

I picked up a Full Moon a couple weeks ago and decided to level a druid to test out Pounce. What a let down. Even with high end gear it felt like a complete waste of time. I respecced for elemental and it was even worse. Druids are just weak. With a better chance to hit, shape shifters might be fun again but as they are now it's just not worth the headache. They aren't even the strongest Werewolves. I made a Were-Barbarian using the Bul'Kathos sword set that had more health/armor/AR/damage/CB and was just a better all around werewolf. Druids should be the strongest shape shifters.

---

Just a heads up, dreamlands (and most super endgame content bosses) have a 50% evade property, it evades even smite. So smite only hits 50% of the time :)

Just 4 info, smite can't be blocked in pvp with ctulhu/belials/plaguebringer

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Game

Just a heads up, dreamlands (and most super endgame content bosses) have a 50% evade property, it evades even smite. So smite only hits 50% of the time :)

---

That's so dirty:) Wouldn't the game check that endgame evade property and the AR formula separately then? That would explain why people feel like they are actually hitting 35% of the time even though the character sheet says they have a 70% chance to hit.

I have no clue about the def ratings of the bosses but if you take 5 or 10k for instance:

Chance To Hit = 200% * {AR / (AR + DR)} * {Alvl / (Alvl + Dlvl)}

Abbreviations:
AR = Attacker's Attack Rating
DR = Defender's Defense rating
Alvl = Attacker's level
Dlvl = Defender's level

(10000 / (10000 + 5000)) * (85 / (85 + 99)) * (0,5) * 200% = 30,8%
(15000 / (15000 + 5000)) * (85 / (85 + 99)) * (0,5) * 200% = 34,6%
(25000 / (25000 + 5000)) * (85 / (85 + 99)) * (0,5) * 200% = 38,5%
(25000 / (25000 + 5000)) * (90 / (90 + 99)) * (0,5) * 200% = 39,7%

If the bosses have double the def:
(25000 / (25000 + 10000)) * (85 / (85 + 99)) * (0,5) * 200% = 33%
(25000 / (25000 + 10000)) * (90 / (90 + 99)) * (0,5) * 200% = 34%
(12000 / (12000 + 10000)) * (90 / (90 + 99)) * (0,5) * 200% = 26%

Source: http://diablo.gamepedia.com/Attack_Rating_(Diablo_II)

Correct me if I'm wrong.

=> I think 12k AR can be easily achieved with AR charms and some minor gear changes towards AR % and prebuff ench.
However, 25k AR needs something additional like angelic set or base AR from set bonus mixed % AR , like ench prebuff.

At this point you still need to deal damage to them. You have to calculate the hit% cb on top and wear high damage gear besides good AR. Also IAS will increase your damage throughput. Working feral IAS would help it a bit, but as I heard it does not atm.
They will probably one shot you still, so you have to prebuff ench each time you die.
You also have to get good fhr rates as a shifter and some way to leech life like dracul(5% ;/). Better don't use too much %block, because that will take you more frames than just get the damage and use fhr frames.
Have fun getting high res and 50% dr on a shield with a bad %block rate. You are meele after all.
Also you want high frw because you can't tele and Knarst is a pain to kill without teleport.

It is pretty hard to get all the things you want as a shifter and work not even nearly as good as a javazon or smiter.

Conclusion: Shifters can run dreamlands for sure. It is not an easy alternative though, it requires some dedication and thought in gear build and time.
It will not work as good and easy as other chars, because you have all these restrictions and stat goals to achieve.

Aldurs will make a stable base build for that, you have 8 Burst of speed, good stats ( no %dr though sadly what really would be needed) and a lot of sockets.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lampogriz

Just 4 info, smite can't be blocked in pvp with ctulhu/belials/plaguebringer

---

If that's true then something isn't working as intended.