Dear exiles, PoE 2 0.4 is very hot now. Ronarry's bear shaman build is looking absolutely amazing. So in this post, I wanted to talk about the leveling process for bears. I'm going to break down the main combos we will use while leveling, show you how to be faster, and how to approach the Bear during the campaign.
First Bear Combo
Your first combo when you're going to start Bear is going to be pretty simple. Pick the bear talisman. Don't worry, you will still be able to use Wolf's skills with it later on, but the Bear Talisman is going to give you your main attack, which is Maul.
Maul is going to generate Rage for you. It gives you 5 Rage every time you hit something, and it's going to help you generate a lot at the start.
And with your first gem, you're going to get Furious Slam, your main AoE skill, which is going to trigger a lot of various combos in the build. So, at the moment, Furious Slam will slam everything around you, and if you have 10 rage, it's going to give you even more damage, and you're going to perform a rage slam, which is pretty nice, but we're not focusing on that at the start too much.
And your second gem is going for Volcano because Volcano is stuck in very nice with furious slam itself. If you add Overabundance as a support to your Volcano, you will be able to create two Volcanoes, and every time when you are slamming near the Volcanoes, Volcanoes are going to erupt, firing more projectiles. They're also doing it basically, but I think eruption for slam is working very well.
First Build Rotation
So your initial combo through the best part of the campaign is going to put Volcano on the ground like two of them and just Furious Slam around to constantly hit Volcanoes and hit the enemies with projectiles from those Volcanoes.
(picture resource Ronnarry's YouTube)
On top of it, you will also be able to use more to generate Rage together with a basic set of supports. And I think a little later in Act Two, you can add Shockwave Totem to that combo as well. So, it's going to be Volcano, Shockwave Totem, and Furious Slam around. That's going to be your combo across the whole one, two, three acts, because it's working very nicely based on what we've already seen. And most of the other cool bear skills, such as Rampage and Ferocious Roar, are coming later on.
But there's another very cool thing that I wanted to mention. You will be able to take the very important skill from the wolf, which is Pounce. Pounce is going to transform you into a wolf form. So you will be able to run faster and get it very early. You can use the Pounce without changing your bear talisman. So click it, becomes a wolf, run around, and then use a bear skill again to change the form and start dealing the damage. I think it will significantly speed up our campaign experience. So, make sure you're using Pounce all the time.
Fury of the Mountain Swap
Also, after level 14, you will be able to replace the Maul completely with the Fury of the Mountain attack. Fury of the Mountain is going to give you Fissures. So, your combo will look like this. You're placing your Volcano or just a totem later in the endgame. You're clicking Fury of the Mountain to generate the Fissures, and after that, you'll either use Furious Slam or Rampage, which will be available later on. That's going to be your bread and butter combo after level 14. And in terms of support for Fury of the Mountain, just going for the basic stuff, such as Rage together with upheaval and probably rapid attacks later on, will be a main option.
Supports
1. Aftershock I
Now, let's talk a little about support gems for your starting skills. However, regarding support for the Furious Slam at the moment, I believe the first support should be Aftershock because Aftershocks give 25% to cause an Aftershock, which adds additional damage and stacks very well with Furious Slam by itself.
2. Rage I
And the second support is pretty questionable. I believe that if you don't want to use Maul to generate Rage, you can use a Rage support for Furious Slam. That way, every three slams you will generate like nine Rage, and the number of four slams is going to generate 12. And that time, you're going to use an enraged slam automatically. So that way, if you get like Rage I on Furious Slam, you will be able to just constantly furious slam without even bothering with Maul.
3. Fist of War I
If it's not going to work too well, there's an option with Fist of War I, which is going to give you Ancestrally Boost every 6 seconds. But I believe the lazy option for rage one is pretty nice.
4. Overabundance I
For the Volcano, you will need to get Overabundance to get plus one Volcano as already mentioned. And considering Casting, I think it's going to boost the damage pretty well, but Considered Casting is tier two support. So you're probably going to leave it empty until you can get it in. And for the totem, I think running Overabundance is making a lot of sense as well. And totem is going to stack especially well with furious slam because it's going to give you jugged ground whenever you're using enraged slam, and totem is going to erupt jugground, which is a very nice combination.
5. Maul
And the last basic skill is Maul, which gives you just additional Rage. So, if you're going to use it to generate rapid running attacks together with Rage I, it's probably the best idea. Don't forget to use furious slam when you're stacking at least 10 rage to get the enraged one.
Spirit Gems
1. Herald of Ash
I believe that at the start, just taking Herald of Ash is probably the better idea. There's also an option to take Herald of Ice, but I believe that Herald of Ash will be much easier to stock at the start. So, take Herald of Ash, you also don't really need to level it much, and that's probably going to be your first spirit-based gem.
2. Time of Need
After that, I think at a higher level, you can go for Time of Need for additional life regeneration with a blessing, and you can also add Clarity for additional spirit. So, before you get access to the Time of Need, I believe that running like Clarity and probably Cannibalism as an option to recover your life, together with Herald of Ash, is going to be the best idea. But later on, Time of Need is a pretty good thing that you can rely on for additional healing during the boss phases.
Pounce Setup
And the last gem to talk about is Pounce. So, since the Pounce is a mark skill, I recommend just running it with Mark for Death tier two when it's available, and with rapid attacks when you can get it. So it will just fill faster. So that way, you will be able to move even faster and cast Pounce faster for single-target damage as well.
Endgame Skills
At the higher level, you will have access to Walking Calamity and Rampage. First of all, the Rampage is going to be your main movement skill when you're playing shaman. So, from act three to six, and through the closeout to the end of the campaign, you will be able to use the Rampage. Rampage is going to eat out your Rage. But since you are playing the shaman, I believe it will be very easy to make sure that that Rage is not going to run out too fast. So perfectly in that part, like closer to the endgame, especially when you get Walking Calamity, you don't need to activate Walking Calamity and then activate Rampage to run around. But if you don't have Walking Calamity, the combo is staying the same. You're practically just activating your totem. You're activating your Volcano. After that, you're going around with a Rampage. And if you still have Rage and you want to stop it, you can use a Furious Slam at the end when you have 10 rage. That's going to be the main combo across the whole campaign, and we're just going to add Rampage to it later on. For more information about skills and supports, feel free to check Ronarray's written guide. He's going to update it constantly when the league starts.
Passive Tree
(picture resource Ronnarry's YouTube)
Best Item Stats
And the last part is gearing. I believe the gearing for the build at the moment is very simple. You mostly need to take good PoE 2 items with a high amount of armor and some life.
For the gloves, you will also need to search for physical damage to attacks, plus one level of melee skills, and an increased attack speed.
For the boots, you obviously need a movement speed as always. So, nothing changed on there.
And for body armor, I heavily recommend getting armor that applies to elemental damage because it's going to boost your survivability in general.
For the rings, you will need to aim for physical damage to attacks as well. And you can also get plus one level four melee skills on your amulet, too.
And the most important part of the gearing is always going to be like the weapon. So, try to change weapons as often as you can and always aim for higher DPS from each weapon. Plus level to melee skills is also going to come in handy. So don't forget about it.
Shaman Druid Ascendancy
(picture resource Ronnarry's YouTube)
Enjoy the League Start Build!
I'm absolutely sure that Bear is looking very good as a league starter, and we're probably going to have a lot of fun with this.
