The Mighty Kodiak

You have played druids. You have harnessed the raw forces of nature, and sent out a call for assistance to the great spirits of the woods around you. You have become the wolf, the silent assassin, stalking your prey and killing them quickly and without mercy. You have become the Grizzly, lumbering along, radiating threat, rending your foes limb from limb with one mighty heave of your powerfully muscled shoulders. You have asked nature for tools to deal with this growing demonic threat throughout the land, and nature has answered adequately. You grow convinced that you have truly mastered all of the power of nature…

But somewhere, deep inside the wilderness, a creature stirs from his slumber. He is the mighty Kodiak, largest and strongest of all of the bears. He awakens from his hibernation, opens his eyes, and scans for prey. Deep in the darkest recesses of Hell, demons quake with fear. The Kodiak is awake… and he is hungry.

Introduction, and a Brief History of the Kodiak

Ah, introductions. I’m SSoG, I’m reasonably new, and I’m certifiably insane. My biggest love in Diablo is making builds that are… different. Some might call them ugly. Heck, even I call them ugly. So there it is. I make ugly builds.

If you’ve read some of my other guides, all of this is familiar to you, from the guide formatting to the opening paragraph. I’m about to throw you for a loop though… because while this build was based around an ugly skill, the end result is anything but.

The Kodiak got started by a simple test. I wanted to find out if the -75% damage from Hunger operated like the damage penalty on multi-shot (modifying the final damage), or if it operated like a simple -75% off-weapon ED (turns out it modifies final damage, which was a bummer). However, that one simple test spawned another simple test (does it modify elemental damage?), which spawned another (how fast can it go?), and so on, until all of these simple tests spawned a very simple, very elegant build. Interested yet?

Why a Kodiak?

“but SSoG, I don’t share your love of ugly skills,” you might say. “Why should *I* play a Kodiak?” you might ask. That’s a very good question, and as such, deserves a very good answer.

Advantages

• Like all of my builds, the Kodiak requires a very low base skill-point investment. That leaves a lot of unspent skill points for you to express yourself with. You’ll never see me say “This is how you spend all of your skill points”. You’ll see me say “This is how you spend 20-30 skill points to establish a base. Here are some suggestions for the remaining skill points. Do what sounds fun”.
• The Kodiak is the fastest melee attacker in the entire game. End of story. Zealots, Frenzy Barbs, Double Swing Barbs, even Fury Wolves… all of them envy you. The only characters that can possibly beat you in terms of number of attacks per second are Whirlwinders, Throwers, Strafeazons, and Dtalon Assassins with 8 or more kicks (slvl 42+ Dtalon). And of those, only Throwers can cancel out of their animation in a hurry if they need to.
• Leech. Imagine having a 100% chance to cast Life Tap on every attack. Imagine, while we’re at it, that the life tap allows you to leech mana, too. Now imagine having all of this without using up a single gear slot. Welcome to the world of the Kodiak.
• You’re a werebear, so that little red ball… isn’t going to be so little, after all.
• Bosses are big, but you are bigger. You roar, they whimper. You kill them faster than anyone, except for an EXTREMELY high-end Kicksin (but you’re a lot more durable, in exchange).
• I don’t think you understand just how fast a 4-frame normal attack is. Seriously, it’s CRAZY.
• This may be built around an ugly skill, but it’s not an underpowered build. In fact, quite the opposite, I’d go so far as to say that this build is one of the more OVERPOWERED builds in the game.

Disadvantages

• Unlike Lifetap, Hunger doesn’t leech off of unleechables.
• You’ll have very low physical damage compared to other builds.
• Some of the more fun Kodiak ideas can be very gear-dependent (although there are usually cheap alternatives).

So... a Kodiak. That's, like, a werebear, right?

Yeah, that’s like a werebear. In fact, it’s just a werebear who uses Hunger as his one and only attack (except for the Mauling Kodiaks, who charge up Maul before going into Hunger-mode). You lose some physical damage, you gain a whole lot of leech.

Please note that I said that you lose some PHYSICAL DAMAGE. I said nothing about your killing speed, which with some creative gear setups will range from undiminished to greatly ENHANCED. Like I said earlier, *nothing* takes down bosses faster than an angry Kodiak. In fact, that’s how he got his name- the Kodiak is the largest bear on earth, size-wise. Polar Bears weigh more, but I figured Polar Bear would create the assumption that the build used Artic Blast or Cyclone Armor or Hurricane… so Kodiak it is.

I know that this bear is more quick than strong… but he has to be pretty big, to eat as much as he does and still be hungry.

A brief look at the damage options available to the Kodiak

“So, SSoG, how are we going to keep our killing speed up when our main attack drops our damage by 75%?” Another very good question, and one that I will be more than happy to answer.

Our main attack *ISN’T* dropping our damage by 75%. It’s dropping our PHYSICAL damage by 75%. The solution? Load up on other types of damage and use our ridiculously fast Hunger attack to deliver them as quickly as possible.

The Kodiak is going to have FOUR concerns. The first is going to be cranking Hunger up to ridiculous speeds, which will be done almost entirely with Weapon IAS. Later in the guide, I’ll have an appendix that has all of the important speed values. Anything slower than a 6-frame attack should be viewed as a huge disappointment and avoided if at all possible. Even if you’re poor, as long as you can afford a fistful of shaels, you can afford a 6-framer or faster.

The second concern is boosting Physical damage. Yes, it’s cut to a quarter, but this is still where we get our leech from, so it’s nice to load up. Besides, if your weapon averages 100 more physical damage, and you’ve got slvl 20 Werebear and Maul, you’re still adding an extra 136 damage, even after the Hunger penalty. That’s a decent amount of damage, and a whooole lotta leech.

The Kodiak’s third concern will be boosting Elemental damage. Remember that you’ll have a 4-6 frame attack, so all elemental damage will be applied 4-6 times per second. If you’ve got 1000 average elemental damage, this really adds up.

The Kodiak’s final (and most important) concern will be Crushing Blow. Load up on as much as you can. Best case scenario (and uber boss-killing mode) would be 100% crushing blow applied on a 4-frame attack (i.e. 6 crushing blows per second). When you face a decision on whether you should load up on crushing blow or speed, remember that speed increases your crushing blow, too. 100% crushing blow on a 6-frame attack is roughly equivalent to 67% crushing blow on a 4-frame attack.

Core Skills and Stats

Now, as I mentioned at the beginning, a Kodiak is going to have a lot of different roads he can take. I’ll get to those later. Right now, let’s discuss the points that ALL Kodiaks will have in common.

1 point in Werewolf, 1 point in Feral Rage- Prereqs. Yawn.

1+ point in Lycanthropy- Extra points means more life and a longer shapeshift duration. You’re going to want to boost this one a lot.

1+ point in Werebear- Extra points means more defense and more physical damage. Boost this if you are disappointed with your defense or leech.

1 point in Maul- A prereq, as well as a solid utility skill which can be charged up to increase your leech from Hunger (and the stun can be applied to a lot of enemies in a hurry, too).

1+ point in Shockwave- Not really necessary for the build, but it’s a ridiculously useful skill. Don’t sweat the damage, just invest enough to get a sufficient stun length (and keep in mind, Shockwave is bugged and only stuns for about 40% of the listed time).

1 point in Fire Claws- Another prereq.

1+ point in Hunger- Ah, the meat and potatoes. You can get by with one point, although additional points will increase your leech (which suffers from somewhat mild diminishing returns) and your AR (which suffers from no diminishing returns). A nice point to aim for is 9 in Hunger after +skills (after which the diminishing returns begin to accelerate), or however much is needed to boost your chance to hit (which is one of the most important considerations with this build). Don’t be afraid to max Hunger if necessary.

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 8+ points used for the core of the Kodiak build, with more points used to increase your duration, life, damage, or stun length. If you’re planning on getting to Lvl 85, that leaves up to 88 skill points unspent. I told you this was going to be flexible.

Stats:
Str- enough for gear. This’ll probably be a lot, since like most weredruids, we’ll be wielding big fat Mauls, Threshers, and 2-handed Axes most of the time.
Dex- Enough for gear. Don’t go for max block, since blocking means you’re not leeching anymore. I’d rather just take the hit and leech it back, personally.
Vit- Lots and lots and lots. You’ve got the Werebear bonus, and you’ve potentially got an Oak Sage… you’ll have a lot of life. And that’s a good thing.
Energy- Base. Your main attack will cost 3 mana and leech at least 30. Do the math.

Core Equipment

Every melee class in the game lives and dies by its equipment. Again, the Kodiak, like all of my other builds, is actually even more gear dependent than the standard melee character. He’ll be looking for very specific pieces of gear. Although most of these items aren’t too hard to find, there’s not much room for compromise.

Under each category, I’ll list the absolute tastiest items you could possibly find, but I’ll also include a bunch of acceptable alternatives for those on a budget. Keep in mind that this is all general gear recommendations. There will be more specific recommendations under each of the sub-classes.

Before we begin, here’s a quick list: Mods we need- Crushing Blow, Elemental damage, Enhanced Damage, Defense, Resists, absorb, AR, Cannot Be Frozen, FHR, some form of PMH/Open Wounds/Poison Damage. Mods we like- Magic Find, Gold Find, DR (straight or percentage based, to help keep us out of hit recovery), Life, +skills, +strength, Faster Block Rate, Slows Target, ctc effects, faster run/walk. Mods ranging from unnecessary to undesirable- Leech (life or mana), Increased chance of blocking, off-weapon IAS, knockback, hit causes monster flee, faster cast rate, +mana, regenerate mana.

A note: We will need a little bit of off-weapon IAS to reach certain breakpoints, but never more than 30%, so it’s better just to punch some holes in uniques and drop in a pair of jewels of fervor than to look for it as an actual item mod.

Armor

Duress. Duress duress duress. Duress? Duress. Duress duress, duress duress, (duress duress duress). Duress duress? Duress!!!!!!1!1!!!2!

Why duress? Could it be that duress is pretty affordable, and has Fantastic defense (further boosted by your Werebear skill), great fhr (important because werebears have HORRID hit recovery rates), one of the few non-weapon sources of Open Wounds, enhanced damage, a little bit of resists (but not much), and some of the best elemental damage in armor form? Actually, no, that’s just icing. It’s because Duress has 15% crushing blow, making it one of two armors in the entire game with the mod.

If you’re on a budget… there’s always Rattlecage, the other armor with crushing blow. It’s less desirable because the other mods range from very weak (+45 AR) to downright annoying (hit causes monsters to flee 40%), but it has better crushing blow and is a decent armor switch against bosses. Treachery’s IAS is useless, but the resists and %DR are welcome, and the poison damage gets SICK with a 4-frame attack. Or just go find anything that nicely fits the mod list above.

Shield

For most characters, one of the primary concerns is finding one of the highest-blocking shields possible. The Kodiak is something of an exception. Personally, I like looking for one of the LOWEST-blocking shields possible. Why? Well, if you have a shield equipped, that means you’re wielding a phase blade and your main attack takes 4 frames. Blocking in werebear form takes 12 frames. Every time you block, you lose out 3 attacks, which means 3 chances to kill your enemies, and also means 3 chances to leech. Personally, I’d rather just take the hit and leech it back. This isn’t to say that max block isn’t viable, it’s just to say that it’s not as important.

As for shields to look at… Swordback Hold (50% open wounds) is a nice, cheap option if you need some way to prevent monster regeneration. Mosers offers great resists, and Tiamat’s offers great elemental damage packaged with a pleasantly low blocking percentage. Of the Elite Uniques, Storm Shield is (obviously) fantastic, but don’t overlook Blackoak Luna (life, dex, 50% faster block, and cold absorb) or Spike Thorn (30% fhr and 15-20% DR), both of which have a very nice 40% chance to block, which is FANTASTICALLY low for a unique (only Tiamat’s and Lance Guard have worse). Or you can ignore my preferences and go for max-block anyway, snagging Whistan’s.

If you’re on a budget… find a high or low blocking shield (whichever you prefer) and fill it with PDiamonds or elemental damage jewels. You’ll have enough strength to wield a 4os shield. In fact, a 4os shield stuffed with very high-end resist/elemental damage jewels will EASILY outpace Tiamat’s in terms of usefulness to the build.

Helm

Guillame’s face. 35% crushing blow, 30% faster hit recovery. This is the beginning and the end of the discussion when it comes to Kodiak helms, unless you somehow manage to get 100% crushing blow without it (Windhammer, Goblin Toe, Rattle Cage, for instance). Other great helms are Rockstopper (40+% to all main resists, 10% DR, 30% fhr), Blackhorn’s (slow target, PMH, Lightning absorb), Vampiregaze (paltry elemental damage, 15-20% DR, 10-15 MDR), Shako (skills, life, 10% DR), and Crown of Ages (with skills, 10-15% DR, fantastic resists, and 30% fhr, it’s probably the best non-guillame’s… but also the most expensive). Giant Skull is the only other source of CB in helm form… but I don’t like it because of the knockback. Jalal’s has FHR, Skills, resists, and a small AR boost. Cerebus’ has open wounds, skills, and a HUGE AR boost. Both are very good, too. Delirium is fun because the Confuse will trigger CONSTANTLY. Really, there are a ton of quality choices for the helm.

If you’re on a budget and can’t afford ANY of those… gamble circlets. Check the mods list above for what you want, and try to focus on elemental damage.

Jewelry

Angel Ammy and Ring if you have trouble hitting things. Boosting your chance to hit will do more to boost this build’s effectiveness than almost anything else you could do. Outside of that, just check out the mods list and see what you can get. Ravenfrost is also very handy for the Cannot Be Frozen (have you ever seen a chilled bear? It’s slow).

If you’re on a budget… talk to Gheed.

Belt

Verdungo’s is your best bet for the dr% and the fhr (in case you hadn’t noticed by now, you want some fhr. Seriously, we’re talking a 13-frame hit recovery if you don’t get any). Barring that, String of Ears also has dr%.

If you’re on a budget… don’t cry yourself to sleep if you can’t get either of those. Craft a blood belt for the Open Wounds if you don’t have it anywhere else, or use any old belt you want.

Gloves

Dracul’s Grasp offers Open Wounds, and with a 4-frame attack that ctc lifetap will be going off all over the place. Most of the time it’s just overkill, but it lets you continue leeching against unleechables. Steel Rend has 10% crushing blow (best in glove form) and 30-60% enhanced damage (i.e. more leech). Lavagout and Hellmouth are both very fun choices, since they add substantial elemental damage, and both have ctc effects that will trigger frequently (lavagout boosting your AR and fire damage with enchant, Hellmouth boosting your elemental damage with firestorm and meteor). I prefer Lavagout for the AR (AR is important for this build), but Hellmouth is a very fun (and pretty) choice.

If you’re on a budget… Bloodfist offers life and FHR. Venom Grip offers 5% crushing blow, although the other mods aren’t as tasty. The best budget gloves, however, are crafted Blood gloves, which offer 5-10% crushing blow, a little bit of life, and any other mods you happen to spawn.

Boots

Goblin Toe (25% CB) or Gore Riders (10% open wounds, 15% crushing blow, 30% faster run/walk). I prefer the Gore Riders for the fr/w (because, in case you missed the theme here, bears are very slow), but Goblin Toe is fantastic if you have less than 100% crushing blow.

If you’re on a budget… it doesn’t get much cheaper than Goblin Toe, but use whatever you want.

Charms

Anni and Torch are both no-brainers if you have them. I mean, duh. What build wouldn’t love them?

Resist charms and life charms are, as always, appreciated. Faster Run/walk and Faster Hit Recovery charms are also fantastic for this build. The hit recovery breakpoints you’re going to be looking at are:
13 frames (0%)
12 frames (5%)
11 frames (10%)
10 frames (16%)
9 frames (24%)
8 frames (37%)
7 frames (54%)
6 frames (86%)
5 frames (152%)
4 frames (360%)

The 4-frame is probably going to be unreachable, but the 5 frame is doable, the 6 frame is good, and the 7 frame is probably the minimum you’re going to want to go with. Remember, time spent recovering is time NOT spent leeching.

The Weapon

Like all melee builds, the Kodiak is more dependent on his weapon than any other piece of gear. As a result, we've got an entire section devoted to weapons! They'll range from super-cheap (6os Phase Blades or shoppable Giant Threshers of Quickness) to the super-expensive (yes, there is an obligatory BotD reference), so there should be a weapon for all budgets... but just because there are so many options doesn't mean you have a lot of flexibility. We are looking for very very specific mods (specifically, obscene amounts of WIAS), so we're pretty much limited to one of the weapons on this list. Which one doesn't matter, but you do have to pick one.

Whites, Greys, Blues, and Yellows (aka Kodiaking without the Twink)

First off, let's establish a list of base weapon types that are sufficiently fast for our purposes, as well as the relevant speed breakpoints.

Phase Blade-
6 Frame Attack- (30% IAS + 10% off-weapon IAS) OR (40% IAS)
5 Frame Attack- (45% IAS + 10% off-weapon IAS) OR (55% IAS)
4 Frame Attack- 85% IAS

Chu-Ko-Nu or Demon Crossbow-
6 Frame Attack- (15% off-weapon IAS) OR (10% IAS)
5 Frame Attack- 25% IAS
4 Frame Attack- 65% IAS

Large Axe/Great Axe/Military Axe/Gothic Axe/Champion Axe-
6 Frame Attack- (45% IAS + 5% off-weapon IAS) OR (50% IAS)
5 Frame Attack- 65% IAS
4 Frame Attack- (80% IAS + 10% off-weapon IAS) OR (85% IAS + 5% off-weapon IAS) OR (90% IAS)

Feral Axe-
6 Frame Attack- 40% IAS
5 Frame Attack- 60% IAS
4 Frame Attack- 75% IAS

Thresher/Giant Thresher-
6 Frame Attack- (45% IAS + 5% off-weapon IAS) OR (50% IAS)
5 Frame Attack- 65% IAS
4 Frame Attack- (80% IAS + 10% off-weapon IAS) OR (85% IAS + 5% off-weapon IAS) OR (90% IAS)

These are the only weapons capable of reaching a 4-frame attack with Hunger (actually, you can reach it with mauls and speed 0 Axes/Polearms, too, but it requires too much of a gear sacrifice to be worthwhile). You will want to use one of these if you are dealing large amounts of elemental damage, or if you have 67% or more Crushing Blow. Now let’s compare the white versions of the 4 “fast” hunger weapons:

Both the Phase Blade and Demon Crossbow deal 33 average damage. The Elite Axes/Polearms will deal around 75 average damage, making them far and away the best leechers of the pack. The Phase Blade has the advantage of coming with a shield, which makes it the preferred weapon for Kodiaks who like blocking or who use their shield as an additional source of elemental damage. The Phase Blade has 6 sockets and can hit top speed using 3 jewels, 2 Shaels, and one open socket . The Demon Machine has 5 sockets and can hit top speed using 3 jewels, 1 Shael, and one open socket. The Champion Axe and Giant Thresher have 6 sockets and can hit top speed using 4 Shaels, 2 open sockets, and 10% off-weapon ias (or 3 Shaels, 2 jewels, 1 open socket, and 0% off-weapon ias). The Feral Axe has 4 sockets and requires all 4 to hit top speed (3 shaels and 1 jewel of fervor). Neither the Phase Blade nor the Demon Crossbow requires repairs. Stat point wise, the Feral Axe has no dex requirement, the Champion Axe requires 59, the Demon Crossbow requires 98, the Phase Blade requires 136, and the Giant Thresher requires 140. Considering all of that, the best weapons of the bunch are the 6os Phase Blade (if you want a shield), the 6os Champion Axe (if you want more damage/leech with low stat reqs), and the 6os Giant Thresher (if you want to max out your damage and range).

With all whites and greys sufficiently covered, let's take a look at blues and yellows. First off, I ignore all Jeweler's ________ Of Quickness combos, because they're very hard to find and offer no advantage over socketed versions of the same base weapon type, anyway. I'm only discussing blues and yellows that are actually better than their socketed counterparts. Anyway, here's the list of Blues/Yellows to be on the lookout for.

Magical Weapons

• _______ Champion Axe/Thresher/Giant Thresher of Quickness with two sockets from Larzuk stuffed with Shaels, and 10% oias
• Jeweller's Champion Axe/Thresher/Giant Thresher of _______ with 4 Shaels and 10% oias
• Jeweler’s Feral Axe of _______ with 3 Shaels and a Jewel of Fervor
• _______ Feral Axe of Quickness with two sockets from Larzuk stuffed with a Shael and a Jewel of Fervor

Rare Weapons

• Mechanist's Champion Axe/Thresher/Giant Thresher of Quickness with any four other affixes, 2 Shaels, and 10% oias
• Mechanist’s Feral Axe of Quickness with any four other affixes, a Shael, and a Jewel of Fervor.

As you can see, once you start factoring in magic items, the Feral Axe, Champion Axe, and Giant Thresher quickly outpace the other “fast” hunger weapons in terms of raw power. Theoretically, one could get a rare Cruel Mechanist’s Feral Axe of Storms Of Quickness with a Shael and a Ruby Jewel of Fervor that had 340% enhanced damage, 75% ias, and 6-120 lightning damage that attacked at 4 frames per second and leeched 100+% of the physical damage dealt. Champion Axes and Giant Threshers have the advantage because they can become just as good... but they're actually SHOPPABLE (Feral Axes cannot be purchased). Champion Axes can be purchased from Hratli, while Giant Threshers can be bought from Halbu and Larzuk. If you were patient enough, you could actually shop Larzuk for a Cruel Giant Thresher of Quickness and then pray for 2-sockets.