Notable Passives:

1. Natural Attunement [8/8] - Attunement is not really useful in this build, but the extra Resistances undoubtedly are
2. Berserker [5/5] - As you're always on Low Health the Damage and Less Damage Taken bonuses will always apply
3. Ancestral Weaponry [10/10] - we recommend using a Two-Handed Axe, which would grant more Melee Physical Damage

In this setup, we recommend seeking Melee Physical Damage and some defenses, not much room for any significant changes. There are a lot of passives influencing your Minions or Spells which you don't really should pay any attention to.

Beastmaster Tree (27 Points)

Notable Passives:

1. Ursine Strength [8/8] - Strength is good, it increases Damage of Upheaval and Fury Leap. Reduced Damage Taken is obviously also extremely useful.
2. Ambush [10/10] - It boils down to a simple, but inconsistent damage boost for your Melee Attacks
3. Boar Heart [5/5] - The Aspect of the Boar reduces Damage Taken by 15%, if you're getting constantly hit with Melee Attacks, this effect can be permanent

There are again a lot of useless or inefficient passives that you should avoid, seek the ones increasing your own performance. We've allocated a significant amount of points to defensives and reduced the received damage, especially the Aspect of the Boar.

Notable Passives:

1. Thicket of Thorns [5/5] - Combined with the previous passives related to Aspect of the Boar, after receiving a Hit you will be rewarded with an additional bonus - a chance for increased Armor and to Reflect Damage
2. Focused Wrath [5/5] - It's the most suitable passive for the shapeshifting playstyle, it reduces Rage Decay and increases Damage
3. Force of Nature [10/10] - Allocate it for the Melee Physical Attack Damage bonus

This Tree is where you will be able to find the most advantageous passives, look for ones increasing your performance while Transformed, such as Focused Wrath and Rancour. Endurance, Health, and Health Regeneration will be important, it increases your survivability, especially in this setup where you will be low on Health at all times.

Summon Storm Crows - The upper right branch enables the utility and healing aspects of Storm Crows. Ornithology is very good, it will result in 30 bonus Intelligence. The most important passives are at the end of the branch - Goodberries with Winds of Restoration and Silverberries are the nodes granting you increased Health and Ward regeneration. It automates the Skill so you won't have to press anything, the Crows will Heal you and grant you Ward once every 10 seconds.

Summon Wolf - This skill has a singular goal, and it is to reach Pack Hunters passive. You won't use this skill, it's just there to increase the number of your Crows by one.

Werebear Form - This Skill transforms you into a bear granting you new abilities and Rage instead of Mana. You should use only Maul and Rampage, these two are the best Skills. Pick Rip and Tear to increase the damage of these two Skills. Invigoration helps with Health and Rage sustain, you will get 10 of both with each Hit. Territorial increases the Area of your Maul and Roar. The most important are Tremor Slam and Skull Crusher. These Skills will make you perform Upheaval after each Maul, and upgrade the Maul Skill by the passives from Fury Leap. The remaining points should be spent in Pummel and Bash for a better Rage sustain.

Fury Leap - It's another Skill that you won't ever have to use, it will be an extra source of damage for Maul. Because of that, pick only the damaging passives such as Crater for a bigger Area, Savage Impact for increased Damage, Brutal Impact for Critical Strike Multiplier, Unshacked to always Strike Critically, Panther Strike for more Damage, and Ambush Predator for increased damage against enemies on Full Life.

Upheaval - This Skill will be activated after every Maul, so the most important objective is to reduce its Mana Cost. Inexhaustible reduces Mana cost to 4 and grants Armour Shred Chance. Mantle Strike grants more Critical Strike Chance and disables enemies' chance to Dodge this Attack. The rest of the points should be spent to increase the Damage and Area even further.

Stat priority:

It's a defensive build that requires two Unique Items to work properly, these are Exsanguinous and Last Steps of the Living. With these items, your Health will be consistently drained keeping you at very low Health, but your Ward should be plentiful. Seek the default Health, Armor, and Resistance for increased survivability. Health will be by far the most important statistic. For Damage get Melee Physical Attack Damage with Critical Strike Multiplier, it will be easily achievable on a Two-Handed Axe. Remember to not let your Health go above third of its maximum value - an Affix for the Potions Health converted to Ward on a Belt is a good idea.

1. Melee Physical Damage
2. Attack Speed
3. Health
4. Resistances
5. Critical Strike Multiplier
6. Armor
7. Strength

Recommended Unique Items: 

+32 Armor +(2-7) Adaptive Spell Damage You lose 20% of your current health per second Gain 20% of your missing health as ward per second 20% increased attack speed, cast speed, and movement speed if you have used a potion in the past 4 seconds Immunity to Bleed at low health

Exsanguinous - With this Body Armour you will sacrifice 20% of the current Health per second to gain 20% of your current missing Health as Ward. It makes you immune to Bleed and increases Attack and Movement Speed if you've used a Potion recently.

+8 Armor (15-18)% increased Movement Speed +(10-15)% Ward Retention (11-15)% of Current Health Lost per second This is not affected by increases and reductions to health drain effects (11-15)% of Missing Health gained as Ward per second +(300-400)% Freeze Rate Multiplier while at Low Health You are Chilled every 3 seconds (30-36)% increased Movement Speed

Last Steps of the Living - These Boots work similarly to the aforementioned Body Armour when it comes to draining Health to get Ward. The bonuses to Movement Speed and Ward Retention are great, but the downside is the Chill effect applied every 3 seconds.

+36 Armor (140-240)% Increased Melee Stun Chance (14-24)% Increased Melee Stun Duration +160 Armor +(50-100) Health You cannot leech health

Boulderfists - Boulderfists prevent you from Leeching Health, it would normally be a downside but in this build, you don't really want to regain too much Health, you need to stay at Low Life at all times. Health, Melee Stun Duration, and Melee Stun Chance are good too.

Idols:

Health is what you're looking for, it can be found on all Idols no matter their size. Large Nobad Idols could get you a lot of Elemental Resistance While Transformed, the value of such affix is high since it's conditional, but you should be transformed at all times anyway.

Recommended Blessings:

• Cruelty of Strength: it increases your Physical Damage, which is the overwhelmingly dominant type of damage you're dealing
• Memory of Light: this Blessing provides you with more Health
• Crash of the Waves: use it for an increased Stun Chance
• Resonance of the Sea: grants you a small amount of Ward per Seconds, it is definitely of use

END NOTE

This is the beta version of our Werebear Druid Build for Last Epoch. Obviously, as the game gets new content updates, we will be updating this guide regularly, though it may be impossible to be done after each Patch.