Rend and Tear
Hello everyone, you can call me Rosh. I have sunk thousands of hours into ARPGs as I am sure all of you have as well. Let me preface this by emphasizing this is not “my guide†- it is community built and was pioneered by all early players of Chaos Werewolf who shared any experiences online.
Chaos Werewolf seemed very intuitive to build will all the available modifiers up until you wanted to push absolutely end-game content. From about the point of entering Ascendant Mode, it can become unclear where to take the build, especially after establishing so much gear. Here, we’re going to take a look at the experience that is Chaos Werewolf a bit better.
[WARNING: This is not a budget build, good performance will require a substantial investment of crafting materials, iron bits and a lot of time farming for drops. Leveling as Chaos Werewolf can hit standstills and walls if certain gear is not acquired along the way]
[LEVELING]
This was a fun build to level. It was rewarding, many fights felt fair, and you were able to readapt if you had issues with Resistances or DMG Absorption. While leveling, you have options depending on the path you take but as you get to 100 you quickly become point starved, requiring players to pay attention to where they’re obtaining gear from if they don’t want to hit random walls because they didn’t pick up a few MIs along the way.
For the most part, any Chaos related gear that gives points to Occult or Bers will suffice. The extra points in whatever you get allow you reallocate out of those nodes into other talents, effectively increasing your total points and enhancing the potency of your skill spread. You’re going to really just max out your Werewolf form, defensives if felt necessary, and go straight to BoneChilling Cry and Voracity hardcaps. This will carry you an insane way through the game. Again, pump points into defensive and utility skills as needed or spread them to get a decent OA. Leveling Wolf should maintain about 15%-30% Crit Chance on the way to 100. Prioritize gear with %ChaosDMG, OA and HP. Devotions will also be great, as you progress, so be sure to get those Shrines. Devotions during leveling are very powerful, especially in Elite or below.
[GrimTools]
Man’s Version - Kills Mogdrogen per the video (likely all content)
Personal Version - Has killed Crate , Calla , Ravager and SR 32 (likely all content)
Legrad’s Version - Playtested by Mastarin - Legrad in his wisdom, scrapped up something in the Build Calculator in about 1 hour and without even playing it kills OG Celestials, Dread, Tempest Totem +5, Skele Keys +5 (likely all content)
Banana Peel’s - UBER N’ERFATAL, N’erfatal WITH debuff, N’erfatal WITHOUT debuff , Calla, Ravager , Old Mog, New Mog, Dread, Beronath +5, Tempest Totem +5, 17s Crate and SR 30-31 (all content)
[GAMEPLAY]
Frailty then Charge Ability + Bonechilling Cry is major opener for higher end content with DMG Reduc offered from our medal. If you use Sigil, you cast Sigil after your opener is finished. Charge Abilities may be bound to certain Devotion procs, requiring the player to use them periodically as needed. Defensives include your potion modifiers and Circuit Breakers, as your Blood of Dreeg and Rallying Cry are used as emergency heals and furthermore permanent buffs. Their uptime must be maintained, but it is not hard since the durations overlap.
The wolf’s biggest defense is genuinely aggression. Mystic’s class combo is life-starved and requires constant attacking in order for near 1-shots to not become 2-shots. Your biggest enemy is your own fear of facetanking.
Now to make an important note, Wolf can facetank a lot, but not everything. Much of what may have required hectic movement or egregious defensive abilities don’t matter versus +200% Attack Speed + 30% ADctH on Claws (Lifesteal fellas). But, if it 1-shots, it 1-shots. This means there are still abilities that will kill you since Mystic lacks on-use defensive abilities, relying on your Circuit Breakers and total HP as fallbacks in an already starving setup. Pay attention to your Circuit Breakers and you can facetank as you want.
[SKILLS]
These pick themselves. In this setup, you’re not using anything besides Feral Claws. Even Rip&Tear does less damage unless you get lucky on a critical for a big chunk while RR is stacked, so it’s typically not worth casting unless to proc Devos.
While leveling, your biggest increases to damage are going to be your Skills. OA stacking comes pretty easy early game. BUT if you have issues, start putting points into Rallying Cry and Blood of Dreeg earlier and split some points off from Werewolf or other offensive abilities. Not many, but enough to get some more in others. Spreading can be good while leveling. Once end-game, it will be the modifiers to Werewolf Form & Feral Claws, as well as pure %ChaosDMG and overall OA. Werewolves and Berserkers as a whole are naturally crit-based and thrive in high OA setups.
Must Hardcap: Werewolf, Voracity, Possession, Solael’s Witchfire, Sigil of Consumption (if using it, which is not recommended later into the game as you will be point starved), *Vulnerability, Bonechilling Cry, and Form of the Beast if using final optimized build. Put points into it as able as you obtain gear with appropriate skill increases.
[DEVOTIONS]
There is a handful of variations here, but let’s analyze Banana Peels Devo tree as a standard. Abom and Dying God are required. They’re insane damage boosts on a semi-controllable cooldown. The choices to get there are yours typically, but Chaos doesn’t have wiggle room anyways, so all your variations will look similar. Viper is taken mostly for Colors but does add 3% OA to your build. Not a negligible amount when we’re stacking it on all gear. Eel is purely for colors as well. Jackal again gets us closer to our required Devos and gives us a great 6% Total Speed + 2% Phys Res along the way. Solael’s Witchblade is self-explanatory. Hawk and Raven are great for OA and extra Crit Damage. Compass provides more Phys Res. Gallows gives us 6% HP and finally Korvaak with the 5% Crit and OA increase.
Other builds may fill in Korvaak, take Scorpion, or even Lantern if using a Bloodsworn Scepter.
The level of flexibility here is quite wide to your adaptation as you optimize your gear.
[GEAR]
There is quite some wiggle room in the early starts of Ultimate and Ascendant progression, but progression into higher echelons requires double Gruuldir’s. Playtesting has already been done with items like Bloodsworn Scepters and Fang of Ch’thon (for a Werewolf DoomBolt variant) to no avail. Dual Cleavers are the game.
Regarding acquirability, Legrad’s and my Personal Version may prove easiest to obtain first, before moving into acquiring Banana Peel’s version. It’s all based on drops.
[Helmets] - You may not acquire a helmet with a modifier for some time. Helmets with additional Chaos% are great until you can obtain the Ironeye Helm or a Wight Lord’s Casque, preferring the Casque. Ironeye Helm is however insanely useable prior to obtaining your recipe for the Mythical Horns of Eternal Nightmare. BiS is Scorv’s Visage, which will require an entire second character capable of killing him. You must go hated with Barrowholm to obtain Scorv’s. Don’t worry, I, Mastarin, as of writing this, also do not have my own skin of Scorv.
This is not a cheap build to make.
[Shoulders] - These can be many things along the way, with none having specific modifiers for us. Pick some with skill points you use. Luckily, our BiS Herald’s Bloody Crest (only with the right affixes) is easily farmable and drops often. Other options include: Elite Malmouth Tainted Mantle as a VERY early option, Awakened Bloodstone Shoulderguards once the Bird has been met, Mythical Blood Talon Pauldrons if lucky, Mythical Eyes of Prodromus if very lucky, as well as 3-set mixing Apoc or Rah’zin pieces. Apoc is preferable here for getting into Ascendant for better grinding if nothing else is available.
[Chest] - Another good handful of items is available to us with Bloodsworn Vestments being farmable and Elite Solael Void Vestments can be bought and both are adequate to get into Ultimate at least, even with bad rolls on your Vest. Past this, Infector’s Shade is our BiS for one setup because of built in HP and points into Werewolf. Bloodsworn Vest could roll better if you’re lucky and +3 enables you to put the points from Untamed Rage back into Werewolf. Cuirass of Desolate Ash is a lackluster alternative if you have it because it lacks HP and Phys Res which is important for Mystic in this setup. Devil’s Cage Hauberk is an even better alternative here with Phys Res, though not great. 3set mixing Apoc or Rah’zin sets also work amazingly to get into Ascendant and is recommended if you have pieces for Apoc specifically, as the 3set provides 12% Phys Res needed to step into higher damage. Overall, the easiest and most powerful will be the Bloodsworn Vest to obtain. Mythical Wildhowl Armor will be our BiS because of the Skill Spead on the gear and the ability covering our typical 150% damage increase as well as providing 12% extra armor. A huge boost for melee builds.
[Gloves] - There are no farmable MIs. You must craft gloves as you progress through the game or use pairs you find. Absolutely any of the Legendary Chaos Gloves in the game will also suffice until you get Mythical Voidrend Talons.
[Pants] - Mythical Voidweave Legplates or Mythical Shadowbinder’s Leggings are recommended. Shadowbinders are better for the HP until you get Grava’Thul’s Leggings rolled to the correct affixes. Mythical Demonbone Legplates are a very inadequate alternative if you have none of these. Even bad Grav’s may be better.
[Boots] - Mythical Bloodmist Boots are the best, period, until you get a crafted pair of Intrepid Warboots. To reiterate, Mystic is HP starved and needs what it can get. Every other pair of boots are the same except for these with the %HP. Mythical Voidwalker Footpads may alleviate some damage types but doesn’t cover everything, in the event you feel too squishy.
[Belt] - Rhowari Girdle can be bought from the Rovers very early on and is an available step piece into making the build, but is to be replaced quickly. Rah’Zin’s Waistguard or Smoldersteel Girdle are our BiS belts here. Mythical Fiendleather Girdle is a strong alternative prior.
[Rings] - Sigil of the World Devourer is BiS purely for the DMG Reducing Ability, allowing us to change our medal to the Voidplume. Prior to that, the ring slots are a very flexible piece up until you want to start pushing fast Celestials. Many combos of these rings work-- but in our testing there is optimization in OA stacking, not Res Shred. Moving forward, several items like the Judicator’s Seals are insane value for big pushes into Ascendant mode and provide great damage reduction until you acquire your BiS medal through crafting it. Damage Reduction bonuses don’t typically stack unless they’re worded differently, to shorten why we’re replacing it once we get the Mark. Devourer Ring is a very strong alternative even to our Mythical Entropic Coil, but only if you roll OA based affixes, especially [Aggressive] Devourer Ring [of Attack] or [of Corrupted Peaks]. Voidheart is probably strong, as is Mythical Combustion Band, but Resistance Shred is already handled by Dbl. Class Skills (BoneChill + Frailty): we need OA. Those rings do work as insane alternatives though in my experiences. Mythical Voidstorm Band frees up a Devo constellation if you’re lucky to have it drop for you, since you won’t have to take a Flat Resistance Reduction ability anymore, enabling you to also change Mark of Dreeg to another Riftstone or Seal of Resonance on your weapons, temporarily. I was not lucky enough to get one. It looked like a fun ring to have along the way.
[Amulets] - Several options are available but a few stick out hard. The non-mythical Avatar of Chaos has a Damage Reduction Aura for 15%, enabling you to feel more comfortable pushing into Ascendant Mode. Remember, Damage Reduc doesn’t stack. Take the biggest one to stay comfy for now, or switch your DMG Reducing items and replace one with something that will do more damage-- proceed to use the smaller DMG Reduction effect, it’s fine. Rah’Zin’s Gem is a 3rd place alternative, with the RR on Frailty. Darkblaze Source is our 2nd place alternative to our BiS for it’s conversion effect on Blood of Dreeg’s flat damage bonus and extra Attack Speed, as wella s +4 to Vuln giving us -4% of RR, a best of all worlds compared to Rah’zin’s.
[Medals & The Voidplume Problem] - So… Voidplume Crest… about that. Have fun. They’re quite uncommon and the spawns for them are spread in Dread Wastes far and few between. You will spend some time rerolling or farming for a good one that covers your resistances and offers OA. Until then, Mark of Blood’s Deceit is your defacto BiS and serves as a secondary setup option to kill Celestials for those who aren’t maxed with Noktukari for their Sigil. Many may stop at this point with their Crafted Mark as it was quite sufficient for SR 35/36 and most Celestials, as well as +5 Altar content, but will not give you 30s Ravager Kills typically, unless you apply Ascension Bonuses to your gear for extra DA Shred. You cannot replace your Mark until you obtain the Sigil Ring from Noktukari. Again, many will opt on a combo of rings and will use the Mark and call this build quits here.
[Relic] - Aurora. Extra Circuit Breakers are valuable. Circuit Breakers are abilities that activate in an emergency, saving you from getting clapped randomly. Very important with my note at the beginning regarding the build’s gameplay.
[CLOSING]
Comments are welcome for improvement or additional test suggestions.
I’d like to give shout outs to Nightmare Arcade who streamed his Chaos Wolf leveling experience from day 1 and inspired me to start. This Mogdrogen kill by Man also gave me great confidence that the build was going to be good.
Legrad, Adrakal and Ehe provided invaluable knowledge and build contributions in the Discord. Legrad whipped up that version fast for what it is. Andrakal and Ehe have provided great and knowledgeable suggestions for testing and pushing.
Mastarin edited, hyperlinked and organized the entirety of this post as well as play tested and evolved on Legrad’s build build prior to Banana Peel dropping his monster setup… what a creative build.
