LLD101

[ShizNaX]

Maul Druid

Skills

Build #1
1 Werewolf
7 Lycanthroppy
1 Werebear
20 Maul
1 Shockwave
3 Skills remaining

Build #2
1 Werewolf
20 Lycanthropy
1 Werebear
10 Maul
1 Shockwave

Equipment

120 ias Naga
Swordback Hold
BladeBuckle/Rhyme/45 max shield of blockin
BloodFist
Peaseant Crown/45 max Helm
Spirit Shroud/60 max Armor/Rattlecage
Goblin Toe/Cow Kings hooves
Angelic Jewelry

Now the problem I have is I'm not sure if maxing maul is worth it, I could also go with a high life low dmg bear with lots of CB and OW. I'm also thinking its not worth investing in a spirit because like myself most people just kill them anyways. Also I was wondering if investing in crows or wolves might help because they induce block lock and such.
This guy will hit 5 frames per attack, also I'd like to get the FHR pretty high as I think it will help alot or not I'm not sure.

If you have any gear or skill ideas plz post them, or make comments if you think its a good build anything is nice thx

[Royale]

I don't know why level 29-30 Maul bears in Low Dueling are so rare, in my opinion they are a very effective build and pretty versatile as well, I have seen one before that was quite amazing even with modest gear, though unfortunately the player himself wasn't dedicated enough to go as far as he could have with the build.

Personally I'd say play to your strengths, if you're using max damage gear and charms then max maul to fully abuse the Enhanced Damage % factor, if you're opting for more life on your gear (which is probably a good way to get the edge on characters who are just naturally stronger than you) then max Lycanthropy.

I'd also highly reccomend that you put one point in Oak Sage or invest two to get Heart of Wolverine depending on your build, I think it would be kind of wasteful to opt for a fairly measely increment of damage or life over all the uses you can make of Spirits. They can be lightning rods for auto-target skills, they benefit your party immensely in team duels, they can provide as distractions, and that's aside from all the bonuses of the actual skills themselves. I don't think I'd ever make any kind of druid without using one of the Spirits.

Also what are you going to use for your belt, Deaths, String of Ears?

[ShizNaX]

Hrm I was thinking of using bladebuckle for the +stats as well as FHR but I'd have a string on switch, I don't think I'l be using the deaths combo because the 40 life from the bloodfists is going net me a whopping 80 life to 120 life depending on my build.

[fuh]

Does 30 Maulers as good as 30 furys?

[ShizNaX]

I really aint too sure, I havn't met any good fury druids lately I play ladder though not as many lld's

[Royale]

I never considered Bladebuckle, and I agree it would be pretty useful in this case (though if you make use of the +stats keep in mind you can't use any other belt). I like String of Ears for the high defense however, and % damage reduced really compliments a high life build for tanking ability.

I only mentioned Deaths because some players (though I believe this is usually in the case of lower duelers) use Deaths Sash alone just to get Cannot Be Frozen. I know Rhyme does that as well, so it really depends on your build on whether you'd rather sacrifice your belt or your shield to get Cannot Be Frozen, which pretty much all melee characters will intergrate into their build and I'd imagine that freezing would severely slow down a bear.

As for Maul vs Fury, though I've never seen as well-built a Mauler as I have a Fury, I would still vote on the Fury simply because it's faster, more reliable and will probably hit more often. I think the Mauler build is cool, mostly because it's more outside-the-box.

[hairy_brute]

Knarl (as well as I) had a lvl 29 Maul bear back in .09 (early .10 don't recall).

I've now come back from my 2 year hiatus and am playing on East, rather than west so I don't know if knarl still has his bear.

I think I read a post by him somewhere that he either lost the gear or disassembled him.

This was when the cap on druids was 29 so fury wasn't an option.

However, our Bears were pretty viable, granted I think we both had very nice gear / charms, but we could hold our own vs alot of duelers.

Anyways, I'm back in business on east and considering making a Bear in order to see how he rolls.

On your gear, my recommendations:
If you go with rhyme shield, go with 8 15 15 string
Armor: 4os socket of XX (life or fhr if you need it)
Helm: 3 socket max druid pelt (look for +3 some skills (1 attack skill, lycan, Summon like oak/wolverine)
I'd go with Cow kings boots

Depending on your AR, you may want to try Mahim Oak over dual angelics (Although it would be a hard sell). I used this back when angelics didn't have set bonus (I think). So the 20 dex / AR wasn't available to me.

Good luck

* edit with another note*
This was also back when spirit weapons weren't around, so poorly build chars would be stun locked by maul very, very easily. Now I imagine with 55% FHR!!! from just a shield / weapons, it's more difficult to lock people up like that.
However, most good melee chars wont be using this combo, so your stun will force them to get fhr.

[ChasingChickens]

.09 there were a lot of bears, 1.10 came and pallys started becoming more mainstream. I think sean took apart his bear because alot of the jewels went poof.

[DeadlyLLD]

I am not completely sure what you should do for a maul druid. I am pretty sure a pure offensive build just won't compete with zealots, fury druids, and kicksins. I did see a really good lvl 30 maul druid almost 2 years ago I think, who used the same basic gear as a defensive build conc barb (holy ornate of simp with 2 os, holy grim shield of deflecting with 2 os, holy grim helm with 10% fhr and 2 os). He seemed to do fairly well vs most of the melee LLD chars out there. The only problem is, after doing some skill planning on d2skill.com, even with a perfect 2 shapeshifting 3 werebear pelt and 20 points in werebear, it only adds about 150% defense (160% with spirit/sigons prebuff). I dunno if that could work or not. Lets say you get a 300 defense shield, 1200 defense armor, a 300 defense helm, and some other fairly high def stuff (string of ears etc), which could maybe total your defense to about 2000 before any skills (and this is with completely ideal gear). You would have about 5000 defense (I guess you could also get more defense with charms, but I would think 3/xx/15 scs would be the way to go). Do you guys think this kinda build would be viable?

1 werewolf
9 lycanthropy
20 werebear
10 maul
1 oak sage

With a helm that adds 2 shapeshifting, 3 maul, 3 werebear, 3 lycanthropy(and spirit weapon sigons shield prebuff), it would have these effects:

150% life as a werebear (from lycanthropy with prebuffs)
239% dmg and 160% defense bonus from werebear (casted using prebuffs)
50% life from oak sage (casted using prebuffs)
160% attack rating, 20-210% dmg, and a stun length of 3.2 seconds with maul

[meitou]

I still have my lvl29 maul druid BearCastle. It's made in 109 so the build is slightly different, but still useable for the testing purpose. I can equip it and duel some if anyone is interested.

[heprea]

iv heard that ppl have often used steeldrive or what ever its names was the uniq great maul as a weapon for mauler bear and form rest ppl have used high def items since bear form gives def% bonus but not too sure X_x i had few mauler druids ;\(they werent too g0dly)