There's some interesting information in this thread. However, I think the magnitude of the perceived problem (mana burn for a wolf) largely depends on playing style and equipment. It can be managed. Attack speed does make a big difference, as does weapon range. If you can reach out and kill the monsters before they have a chance to burn your mana, then you will avoid the problem in that instance. A fast polearm is ideal, and tomb reaver socketed with two sheal runes is best, IMO. A non-eth, 2 or 3 socketed tomb reaver shouldn't even be all that "expensive", tho I haven't tried to trade for one in a long time. Of course, eth shalel/shael/zod tomb reaver is better, if you can get it. As I mentioned before, I play with fury on one button and fire claws on the other. Tomb reaver gives a 4 frame attack with fury and a 6 frame attack with fire claws, and has a range of 4, and I can often kill monsters before they have a chance to hit me. If you get mana burned, swing around in a circle, waiting for the mana to regenerate. It's good if you have a merc that can tank for a moment. That's another advantage of tomb reaver; it has a 10% chance to "reanimate" monsters as a "returned" skelly to fight for you, and they will help tank. Use a freeze merc (or a might merc armed with doom) to slow the monsters down, to give you more time. As someone pointed out, fury requires 4 mana, but my wolf regerates mana fast enough that it only takes a second or two. Then move back, standing behind your merc if possible, and attack. If you see mana burn PI ghosts approaching, move behind your act 2 merc, and while they attack the merc pick them off with fire claws. The only problem my wolf has now (since knights don't cast IM anymore) is the occasional combination physical immune/fire immune boss, but oh, well. Druid's are not the best class. My comment regarding the utility of "damage taken goes to mana" items may be obsolete. I used Naj's plate armor (which has 45% DTGM) on my wolf in 1.09, and I remember when I switched to COH in 1.10 I almost died a couple of times because I wasn't expecting the mana burn to be a problem, and I hadn't learned play-style techniques to deal with it yet. I thought this was due to the change in armor, but maybe it was due to the change in game mechanics. I still think Naj's plate is decent armor for a wolf on a budget, and recommend nigma for those who can get it.
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