Wolf Druid (Leveling & Endgame)

Wolf Druid is a fast-paced melee build that freezes and stuns everything it hits. The build is surprisingly tanky, combining energy shield with large amounts of armour and "Armour Also Applies to Elemental Damage" to mitigate damage.

You use Pounce to quickly move between packs of enemies and Lunar Assault to kill them. Lunar Assault deals mostly cold damage and builds up tons of Chill and Freeze effect, so enemies are constantly crowd-controlled and pose little threat to you. Frozen enemies also explode on death thanks to Herald of Ice. Blowing up screens full of enemies is extremely satisfying!

Campaign Gearing

Upgrade your talisman to get as much damage as possible on it. Increases to Melee Skill Gem Levels are also good. Getting rings or gloves with Life and Mana Leech helps with sustain throughout the campaign, as well.

For defensive purposes, maximize Life and Elemental Resistances.

Gem Priority

Here is your priority for leveling and adding support gems to your primary skills.

1. Lunar Assault
2. Shred (support gems only)
3. Pounce
4. Cross Slash
5. Lunar Blessing
6. Herald of Ice
7. Freezing Mark (crafting this gem requires having a bow equipped)
8. Arctic Howl
9. Eternal Rage
10. Overwhelming Presence

How the Build Scales Damage

You are able to maintain four different Extra Damage buffs with 100% uptime just by performing your standard skill rotation. All you have to do is cast Lunar Blessing every 20-30 seconds, and cast Pounce and Lunar Assault while fighting enemies.

Here's a breakdown of each buff:

• Lunar Blessing - >60% Extra Damage as Cold for 25-30 seconds, which consumes Rage when cast to increase its duration, and rains down moonbeams on enemies with each attack
• Freezing Mark - 30% Extra Damage as Cold for 8 seconds, automatically applied with Pounce and triggered by freezing enemies or using Cross Slash
• Bhatair's Vengeance - >60% Extra Damage as Cold for 20 seconds, gained by freezing enemies with Lunar Assault
• Blazing Critical - 15% Extra Damage as Fire for 5 seconds, gained by casting Pounce on enemies

But wait, there's more!

• 39% Extra Damage from the passive tree
• 80 maximum Rage (Rage grants 1% More Attack Damage per point!)
• Eternal Rage (Generate 5 Rage per second at all times)
• 100% Increased Damage to Immobilized Enemies
• 40% Increased Damage to Enemies at Close Range
• Inevitable Critical (You can find a breakdown here)

Life Sustain

This build uses Blood Magic to solve mana, but that creates the problem of needing to fix life sustain! Here are some tools we can use to keep our life topped up:

• Cannibalism I
• Leech % of Physical Damage as Life - Ring mod
• Recover 2% of Life on Kill - Jewel mod
• Mark of Siphoning II linked to Pounce
• Holy Descent linked to Pounce
• Vitality I
• Sanguimantic Rituals, Touch the Arcane, and one small passive bonus that grants 5% chance to gain Arcane Surge on Critical Strike

Mapping

While mapping, you can mostly just cast Pounce and Lunar Assault to clear packs of enemies and quickly get through the zone.

Once you have enough spirit to use Eternal Rage, you can maintain 100% uptime on Lunar Blessing, and you should! Getting at least 30 Spirit from armour should be a top gearing priority once you reach the end of the campaign.

Bossing

This build has a powerful skill combo that will help you kill bosses quickly.

While in early acts or fighting bosses that cannot be frozen, you can just use Shred to damage the boss.

Pounce applies any socketed marks, meaning you can use it to easily apply Freezing Mark. This significantly increases Freeze buildup on bosses, so you can apply Pounce, then cast Lunar Assault until the boss is frozen.

Casting Arctic Howl while a nearby enemy is frozen will grant a flat cold damage bonus for up to your next 5 attacks.

Shred generates ice fragments when hitting frozen enemies, so cast it as much as possible once you have frozen the boss.

If both hits from Cross Slash hit a target, Cross Slash consumes the mark, then pulls ALL ice fragments to the target and makes them explode immediately! This will wreck boss' health bars!

So here is a step-by-step boss combo:

1. Pounce to apply Freezing Mark
2. Lunar Assault until the boss is frozen
3. Arctic Howl
4. Shred (full combo x2)
5. Pounce to re-apply Freezing Mark
6. Cross Slash
7. Repeat!

Useful Uniques

Wolf skills build up tons of Freeze and Stun effect on enemies, so your best unique item by far is Sine Aequo, from Arbiter of Ash. The only downside to these gloves is that they have very little in the way of defensive stats, so the rest of your gear should be focused on defense.

A From Nothing jewel in the radius of Resolute Technique allows you to pick up a bunch of valuable passive bonuses, including Overwhelming Strike.

Amulet Anoints:

Your best option is Overwhelming Strike, but if you get that bonus through a From Nothing jewel, then Doomsayer is your best option for increased clear and Heavy Frost is better for boss damage.

If you want a good low-budget option, use Serrated Edges.

Act Bonuses:

• Act 2: Charm Charges Gained
• Act 3: Stun Threshold
• Act 4: Life Flask
• Act 4: +5 Resistances
• Intermissions: Cooldown Reduction

Loot Filter:

https://www.filterblade.xyz/Profile?name=Llarold&game=Poe2