Town Dump Werebear

The Town Dump Werebear is a hybrid Druid build developed by "safetypro" that emphasizes summoning skills with the Summon Dire Wolf and/or Summon Grizzly Bear pets as well as using the Werebear to engage in melee with, Hunger, and Shock Wave. The build is, like any melee build, rather gear dependent, but the gear is generally low-cost and easy to obtain in trade.

Stats
Standard stat placement is used, with a moderate investment in strength to use the Immortal King pieces at the start of the midgame and eventually hit the 225 or 232 needed for the last pieces at level 76, with the remainder being put in vitality.

Shapeshifting

 * 1 Werewolf: Pre-requisite
 * 20 Lycanthropy: Extended stay and life in Werebear form is key to survival
 * 1 Werebear: Primary form. Candidate for additional points, especially given 1.13 boost
 * 1 Feral Rage: Pre-requisite
 * 5 Maul: Main attack. Candidate for additional points
 * 1 Fire Claws: Pre-requisite
 * 1 Hunger: Auxiliary skill
 * 1 Shock Wave: Auxiliary skill

Summoning

 * 1 Raven: Pre-requisite, potential utility late for casters
 * 1 Summon Spirit Wolf: Pre-requisite
 * 1 Oak Sage: Pre-requisite
 * 20 Heart of Wolverine: Primary spirit
 * 20 Summon Dire Wolf: Primary summon
 * 20 Summon Grizzly: Summon for bosses

Items
The key item to the build is the Immortal King's Stone Crusher with either 4 or 5 pieces of the set -- the Gloves, Belt, and Boots are almost a given, and the armor is a solid choice given the bonuses. This gives the weapon huge elemental damage of various types on top of its very significant physical damage as a good method of dealing with physically immune monsters. Jalal's Mane is an obvious choice for headgear.

Hireling
An Act II melee hireling, particularly the Nightmare offensive hireling, fits well with the melee enhancers, such as Heart of Wolverine.

Tactics
The general idea is straightforward melee with the Dire Wolves as additional damage, bolstered by the spirit and mercenary aura. Maul is the primary melee attack with Hunger as an occasional "refill" of both mana and health or used when incoming damage is very significant to maintain as a tank. Shock Wave can be used, especially in large minion packs, to keep monster damage down until they can be dispatched. Against bosses, the tougher single grizzly stands up better to the heavy elemental damage than the trio of wolves. Prior to the IK maul, the weapon should be the hardest hitting to synergize with Maul and Hunger. PIs can be ignored or can potentially be taken down slowly via weapon upgrades or the 1-point Fire Claws skill with +skill mods.