The Bearking - Earthquake Regen Druid Build Guide

Arguably the tankiest build in game as of 1.1.7

Good aoe and single target damage

Insane regen, over 2.5k health / s and 1.6k ward/s

1.5k health and ~8k ward during fight in bear form

2 skills with guaranteed boss stun!

CoF friendly, easy to farm gear, based mostly on common affixes

Doesn't need hybrid health affixes to minmax

Party friendly. Feel like real tank from WoW

Play monoliths at your own pace, you can run by enemies fast in a bear form or clear as a human

Can easily do 1000+ corruption (I haven't tried more yet)

Requires Vessel of Strife and Cleaver Solution

Requires player to continuously transform between human and bear form (not 1 button build)

Gameplay mechanics is quite simple:

1. Approach boss or pack of mobs.
2. Spam Earthquake to trigger aftershocks around our totem - Divining Totem 1/1 PrefixChance on hit to summon a Thorn Totem.
3. If you are low on ward or run out of mana, Werebear Form . On transform we get 70% damage reduction and Juggernaut 1/1 + Berserker 1/1 from Warcry and we stun everyone around. and massive boost to melee dmg from werebear form (400%).
4. Spam Swipe to get massive health regen boost from Sabertooth's Endurance 5/5 - 525% at 7 stacks!
5. If pack is dead Rampage to the next group of mobs.
6. As soon as human form becomes available, transform back to get 70% damage reduction, cleanse and haste from Eterra's Renewal 1/1.
7. Go to point 2 and repeat.

Additional skills:

• Maelstrom - Never used directly.
• Gives us Haste to boost DoT defence from shoes Advent of the Erased
• Slows enemies and gives us more dmg Cyclone 1/1
• Warcry / Roar - We use the tree to boost transformation into Werebear Form. Directly we use it only as an emergency to interrupt boss skill or make as immune to damage for 1s and recover our ward.

This build is strictly an endgame build as Vessel of Strife enables it, so you need to use some other build to level the character.

It's easy. Don't Evade. When in danger, Warcry and slowly move to the side and use Earthquake from a few meters away.

Jokes aside, let's look at the order in which I could farm the endgame gear.

1. I would switch to this build only after obtaining 2 core items: Vessel of Strife and Cleaver Solution.
2. Get the chest with as much armour as you can find. Don't worry about SuffixArmor and Reduced Bonus Damage from Crits for now, cause most of our enemies are Blind from Earthquake .
3. Get any belt and boots with T5/T6/T7 SuffixIncreased Cooldown Recovery Speed. The higher the better.. Reduced cooldown of Werebear Form is the foundation of the build.
4. Get any helmet, amulet and Ascetic Gloves with SuffixHealth Regen Per Second.
5. Get 2x Opal Ring. Focus on PrefixStrength and capping the resistances.
6. Get Ornate Heorot Idol with PrefixChance on hit to summon a Thorn Totem. Get 8-10%. It greatly boosts our single target damage as all aftershocks will appear in the same spot.
7. By now you should be comfortable ~100-200 corruption. So now, let's start farming truly endgame gear.
8. First I would focus on obtaining the other axe - Hakar's Phoenix. First - one with +2 skills, then - one with +2 skills and 1LP to slam PrefixMelee Physical Damage. If you are CoF, you might get lucky and upgrade your Cleaver Solution at the same time.
9. After that I would focus on getting the Decayed Skull, cause it's the easiest ones to farm. Get 2LP with decent DoT mitigation rolls and slam SuffixHealth Regen Per Second. Even if you don't hit the other affix, skip it for now, you will upgrade it later.
10. If you haven't switched to Advent of the Erased I would do that now. Get high DoT mitigation and 16+ WW. Keep rerolling them untill you get a pairt with SuffixIncreased Cooldown Recovery Speed. I was a bit unlucky and it took me around 40+ pairs before I rolled T7. After which I rolled a couple of T7s in a row... You can settle for less initially, even T5 is fine. You can greatly speed up the process by discarding a pair as soon as 2 suffix slots are already occupied.
11. After getting the shoes, I would focus on getting the gloves. In the `Equipment` section I wrote a guide on how to craft Ascetic Gloves with PrefixExperimental Armour applies to Damage over Time.
12. Now you should be ready to face Aberrorth. Remember to swap to Grand Vision of the Aurora before the fight to increase your chances for Nihilis.
13. Nihilis greatly boosts our dmg, but we may still struggle with in monos with packs of enemies that are not Blind yet. Replace the chest with a one that has SuffixArmor and Reduced Bonus Damage from Crits to get as much crit damage reduction as possible.
14. Time for Red Ring of Atlaria. Try to farm them on using Prophecies or simply buy on the market. Having a good slam is entirely optional.
15. Red rings should cap our resistances, so we can try to farm better idols. Get Grand Heorot Idol x3 with PrefixHealth Regeneration. Getting prefix only should be quite fast, but getting decent ones with SuffixHealth Regen While Transformed might take a very very very long time.
16. Upgrade the belt to Praetorian Belt or legendary Azurral's Fury as per `Equipment` section.
17. Farm Aberroth to get 1LP Nihilis
18. By now the build is pretty much finished. Enjoy 1000 corruption.

How to fight bosses? Most fights (except Aberroth) I don't move. My Werebear Form cooldown is at 3.4s. After transform, first 2s we have 70% dmg reduction from Druid passive. So we are vulnerable to hits for only 1.4s, which is 40% of the time. On using Werebear Form we also roar and have a guaranteed stun on enemies (including bosses) for 1.5s (or 0.75s). So if you learn boss attack patterns, you can always anticipate a big hit in a human form and simply Werebear Form to prevent it. And even if you miscalculate and make a mistake (skill on cd or you are already a bear), you can always use Warcry to also guarantee stun. This tactic is quite crazy, cause every 6.8s you have a guaranteed stun.

Enjoy!