Werewolf Witchhunter Endgame Build

Introduction

Harness the power of the werewolf to explode packs of enemies in a single leap, with hunting prowess that would make Van Helsing jealous. This build utilizes the Werewolf’s Primal skills along with the Witchhunter exceptional clear speed to provide high octane and satisfying crunch.

in order to league start, the recommendation is KingdomTwelve’s Galvanic Shards Mercenary Leveling Build.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Build Mechanics

The build uses the Werewolf’s Lunar Assault for it’s massive freeze build up combined with Herald of Ice and Lunar Blessing to achieve great clear. When combined with the Witchhunter ascendancy’s Zealous Inquisition (which has a 10% chance to explode enemies for 100% of their maximum life) the build can get chain reactions that can reach off screen.

Lunar Blessing is a long cooldown that can be activated to automatically bomb enemies around you, as well as giving an insane amount of damage. This has a 10 second cooldown that cannot be recharged while the ability is active, but Second Wind III can be used to bypass this downside. With enough cooldown reduction, Rage and increased duration, Lunar Blessing can have 100% uptime. Lunar Blessing also get’s more duration with Rage which is mainly generated by Eternal Rage combined with Rage III or a couple +1 Rage on Hit jewels.

For single target the build relies on building up freeze which will allow Shred to rip off ice fragments that deal a large amount of damage. The build will also activate several buffs on the boss using Freezing Mark applied with Pounce for x% damage gained as cold. With the Charged Mark support it will also leave shocked ground for a guaranteed 20% more damage. When the target is frozen by Lunar Assault, several effects will happen; Ice Bite II or Bhatair’s Vengeance will give more x% damage gained as cold, and Brittle Armour will allow Shred to break Armour allowing the build to activate Scavenged Plating to further improve defenses.

With being a Mercenary and pathing through the Warrior area of the tree, it makes sense to use pure armour combined with improved Sorcery Ward to stay healthy and heavily mitigate any hit damage. With how easy it is to break armour on this build, Scavenged Plating will also give 40% more Armour. Be aware, this build suffers from effects such as burning ground as well as the Abyss monster modifier Shade Walker. Ground effects like this will hinder most melee builds and should be dealt with cautiously.

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Skill Rotation

Map Clearing

For mapping the build is fairly simple to play, but you’ll want to keep a eye on your buffs Freezing Mark and Lunar Blessing. When you engage enemies use Pounce to apply Freezing Mark, then hit the group with Lunar Assault to freeze them while also activating Freezing Mark. Most of the group of enemies will usually die here, but just pick off any frozen stragglers with Shred.

Bossing

On bosses the combo is similar to mapping, activate Lunar Blessing then Pounce on the boss to applyFreezing Mark, activate it by freezing the boss with Lunar Assault, then once they are frozen hit them with Shred until they die, if the boss isnt dead by the time the freeze is over keep hitting them with shred for a few second as you won’t be able to get another freeze immediately after the boss un-freezes, once a few seconds have passed do the same combo again.

With Bhatair’s Vengeance make sure you don’t activate Lunar Blessing just before freezing the boss or you will consume all your rage and recieve only a small damage buff, this does not really matter during mapping as you will be freezing so much.

The rotation will look something like this.

1. Lunar Blessing to start the fight
2. Pounce on the boss
3. Cross Slash To Detonate Freezing Mark, with Eternal Mark the mark will stay
4. Lunar Assault until freeze
5. Shred the boss for roughly 2-3 full combos and then finish with Cross Slash.

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Gameplay Tips

Mapping on this build is extremely fast with all the explosions from Herald of Ice and the Witchhunter ascendancy, however pay extra care to anything that does damage over time. Even though Armour and Armour Applies to Elemental Damage makes the build extremely tanky, the build has almost no mitigation against non-hit damage. This can be offset with some life regen or leech on gear, but it’s still going to do a lot of damage quickly.

Werewolf also has a couple of quirks to keep in mind. If you try to Pounce, Shred, or Lunar Assault, line-of-sight obstacles and targets that are far away will cause you to not attack. When this happens make sure to attack the enemies close to your character. Using the option always attack without moving setting will not fix this.

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Gem info

Below is a planner with the final Skill gem setup. main priority for linking with jeweler’s orbs are Lunar Assault and Lunar Blessing. Luckily, this build’s main damage is Shred; this is a weapon skill, meaning it will automatically open up 5 sockets at Level 90.

Some upgrades to consider are Bhatair’s Vengeance instead of Ice Bite II, and if you have the currency spare Rakiata’s Flow instead of Freeze.

The aura setup will require 160 Spirit for all auras to be active. If you do not have this, prioritize Scavenged Plating and Herald of Ice and use Rage III on Shred instead of Eternal Rage.

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Ascendancy

Being a Witchhunter provides massive clear with Zealous Inquisition and Culling Strike, as well as a massive defensive layer with Sorcery Ward.

Ascendancy points should be assigned in the following order:

1. Zealous Inquisition – Provides insane clear value and allows the build to one-shot most packs of enemies with a bit of luck.
2. Obsessive Rituals – Sorcery Ward will lower our total armour but improves the max hit damage you can take which is something armour struggles against.
3. Ceremonial Ablution – Allows Sorcery Ward to work against all damage types
4. Pitiless Killer – Gives Culling Strike which helps clear even more and kills bosses at 5% health but isn’t too much value as the cull threshold nodes are too far away for this build.

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Skill Tree

This interactive skill tree will provide you with an overview of the final state of the build. When assigning your attributes, you will need to account for the necessary requirements of your particular character.

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Gearing

In the table below, you will see a breakdown of the most important affixes for each gear slot, as well as what unique items the build uses. These are listed in order of priority, so consider your gearing options carefully.

Make sure that you are capped at 75% all elemental resistances, with as high Chaos Resistance as you can achieve while meeting the necessary attribute requirements to equip for your gear and skill gems.

Slot	Base	Prefix	Suffix
Main Hand	Any High Physical damage Talisman	1. % Increased Physical Damage 2. Adds x to x Physical Damage	1. x+Level to all Attack Skills
Helm	Any High Pure Armour Helm	1. Increased Armour 2. +x to Maximum Life	1. +x% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage 2. Elemental and Chaos Resistances
Body	Any High Pure Armour Body	1. 60+ Spirit 2. Increased Armour 3. +x to Maximum Life	1. +x% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage 2. Elemental and Chaos Resistances
Gloves	Sine Aequo	1. High Skill Speed
Boots	Any High Pure Armour Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Increased Armour	1. +x% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage 2. Elemental and Chaos Resistances
Belt	Any Belt	1. Maximum Life 2. Increased Flask Mana Recovery Rate	1. Elemental and Chaos Resistances
Both Rings	Elemental/Chaos Resistance Ring	1. Adds x to x Physical Damage to Attacks 2. Adds x to x Cold Damage to Attacks	1. Attributes if needed 2. Elemental and Chaos Resistances
Amulet	Any Amulet	1. Maximum Life 2. x% Increased Global Defences	1. +x To Level of All Melee Skills 2. Elemental and Chaos Resistances
Life Flask	Ultimate Life Flask	1. x% Increased Recovery Rate	1. +x% Chance to gain a charge when you kill an enemy
Mana Flask	Lavianga’s Spirits	1. Lowest amount of Reduced Amount Recovered

Unique Items

Rare items can be used in the place of these uniques however try to obtain them as soon as possible as they provide massive value for the build.

• Sine Aequo – This unique makes it so when you build Freeze, it will Freeze them at 50% instead of 100%. This makes the build much faster, and the 20% more damage on top makes this item a huge priority.
• Lavianga’s Spirits – With the flask mana nodes on the tree this basicly solves any mana issues the build may run into, before this a magic mana flask will be ok but you’ll have to remember to push it.

Some Chace uniques to consider are as follows

• Heart of the Well – The extra damage gained as cold that can roll on this item is really good value for damage in the jewel slot even without other good rolls.
• Headhunter – With the builds already high clear speed adding a headhunter will take it to the next level and make abyss and breach farming incredibly smooth.

Socketables

This table will show you what socketables are used for each gear slot.

Slot	Socketable
Main Hand	Greater Iron Rune
Helm	Greater Iron Rune or Resistance Runes if required
Body Armour	Greater Iron Rune or Resistance Runes if required
Gloves	Greater Iron Rune or Resistance Runes if required
Boots	Greater Iron Rune or Resistance Runes if required

Jewels

There are many useful affixes on jewels, and this build has two sockets for them to be inserted in. Look for a combination of these modifiers.

• x% Increased Armour
• x% increased Melee Damage
• x% Increased Skill Speed While Shapeshifted
• x% Increased Cold Damage
• x% Increased Magnitude of Shock You Inflict
• x% Increased Elemental Damage
• Gain x Rage on Melee Hit
• + x To Maximum Rage

Flasks and Charms

The recommended setup for your flasks is:

• Magic Ultimate Life Flask – High recovery rate and x% Chance to gain a Charge when you kill an enemy.
• Lavianga’s Spirits – Lowest amount of Reduced amount recovered.

The recommended setup for your charms is:

• Dousing Charm (Ignite) – Also Grants # Guard | #% Chance to gain a charge when you kill an enemy.
• Staunching Charm (Bleed) – Also Grants # Guard | #% Chance to gain a charge when you kill an enemy.
• Thawing Charm (Freeze) – Also Grants # Guard | #% Chance to gain a charge when you kill an enemy.