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Today, we're diving into a melee character that I don't play very often, but this build is highly requested. So, I decided to jump in, give it a few extra tries, and test it out. My goodness, was I surprised by how insanely powerful the Fury Druid is!

Stats Allocation

Strength

For strength, you generally want to allocate just enough to equip your gear. With the gear I have, my strength is bumped up to over 200. You could make an argument for putting even more points into strength to further increase your damage, as we dump all remaining points into Vitality. With this setup, I have 4,000 life before using Battle Orders, and 4,200 with it. If you wanted to forego 100 or 200 points in Vitality and allocate them to strength for more damage, you could certainly do that. However, even with this setup, we're one or two-shotting most normal monsters.

Vitality

We allocate most of our points here, reaching a significant amount of life which helps in tanking hits. This is crucial for survivability, especially in higher difficulties and tougher encounters.

Resistances

For resistances, since this is a magic find variant and not a dedicated Uber build, having lower resistances is acceptable. You leech back so much life that it compensates for the lower resistances. However, if you're going to areas with Souls, you'll want to have higher lightning resistance or fire resistance, depending on the area. For general gameplay and farming on the player's eight difficulties, the resistance setup works just fine.

Skill Tree

Shape Shifting

    • Werewolf: 20 hard points

    • Lycanthropy: 20 hard points

    • Feral Rage: 20 hard points

    • Fury: 20 hard points

We max out both Werewolf and Lycanthropy for the significant boosts they provide. Feral Rage is used regularly as a buff, lasting for 20 seconds, and Fury is our primary attack skill, maxed out to deliver maximum damage.

Summoning

    • Oak Sage: 1 point

    • Raven: 1 point

    • Spirit Wolf: 1 point

    • Dire Wolf: 1 point

    • Summon Grizzly: Remaining points

    • Heart of Wolverine: 18 hard points

We use Oak Sage, Raven, Spirit Wolf, and Dire Wolf to unlock Summon Grizzly, which serves as a great tank. Heart of Wolverine boosts attack rating and damage for us and our summons. This setup maximizes our damage output while providing a sturdy tank in the form of the Grizzly.

Gear

Weapon

    • Breath of the Dying Archon Staff: This base has a high minimum of damage, providing a consistent amount of damage. Feel free to use any D2R items base you prefer, like an ethereal war pike, zerker axe, or even a shield.

Helmet

    • Metamorphosis: This helmet is used to pre-buff with Mark of the Bear and Mark of the Wolf, providing significant boosts to attack rating, attack speed, and damage.

Armor

    • Enigma: This allows teleportation, which is crucial for mobility, especially in farming runs and Uber hunts. It also provides a host of other beneficial stats like faster run/walk, strength, and magic find.

Gloves

    • Laying of Hands: These gloves are perfect for melee characters, providing increased damage to demons, fire resistance, and increased attack speed.

Belt

    • Verdungo's Hearty Cord: Provides life, damage reduction, and faster hit recovery.

Boots

    • Gore Riders: These boots offer crushing blows, deadly strikes, open wounds, and increased run/walk speed, making them ideal for maximizing damage output.

Amulet and Rings

    • Highlord's Wrath: This amulet provides skills, increased attack speed, deadly strike, and lightning resistance.

    • Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band: Provides life leech and skills.

    • Dual Leech Ring: Offers mana and life leech, life, and resistances.

Swap

Call to Arms and Spirit: Boosts skills for casting Battle Orders and other beneficial auras.

Charms

Shape-shifting skill charms, an Annihilus, and a Hellfire Torch for Druid are essential. Small charms with magic find, resistances, life, and faster hit recovery fill out the inventory.

Mercenary

Might Act 2 Mercenary:

    • Reaper's Toll with a Shael Rune: Offers great crowd control with Decrepify.

    • Andariel's Visage: Provides life leech and other beneficial stats.

    • Fortitude: Increases damage and survivability.

Showcase

Eldritch and Shenk

A common test area, showing the build on the player's eight difficulties. The Fury Druid swiftly chops through mobs, demonstrating its power and leech capabilities. Even on player eight, the build manages to sustain itself with ease.

Chaos Sanctuary

Another popular farming area, showcasing the build's ability to clear the chaos Sanctuary efficiently. Using teleport from Enigma, we navigate the area quickly, taking down elite packs and seal bosses with ease. The leech and damage output makes short work of even the toughest enemies.

Diablo Fight

Against Diablo on players eight difficulty, the Fury Druid's power is evident. With the combination of Mark of the Bear and Mark of the Wolf, along with Feral Rage and Fury, Diablo is brought down quickly, showcasing the build's strength.

Uber Tristram

With a few gear swaps like Dracul's Grasp for life tap and Thundergod's Vigor for lightning resistance, the Fury Druid can tackle Ubers efficiently. The build's high life leech, damage output, and tankiness make it a formidable choice for Uber runs.

Conclusion

The Fury Druid is a powerful and versatile build, capable of handling high difficulties and tough encounters with ease. Whether you're farming for items or tackling Ubers, this build has the strength and survivability to excel. Give it a try and see just how strong the Fury Druid can be!