If you were Team Jacob in Twilight, then this is the perfect build for you. The Oracle Freezing Werewolf build revolves around a werewolf druid that shreds enemies with cold attacks, freezing them in their tracks and decimating them quickly in Path of Exile 2.
Why Use Oracle Freezing Werewolf
This build is league-starter friendly. It does not require a significant investment, yet it can still deal heavy damage, and you look howlingly cool while doing it. However, this build is not a fast map-clearing build.
The build revolves around a simple set of skills: Pounce, Shred, Cross-Slash, Lunar-Blessing, and Lunar-Assault. With these abilities, you can freeze enemies and shred through them so quickly that they will not know what hit them.
Early Campaign Progression
Early on, you will receive a Talisman immediately. Use it, and you will automatically gain the Shred skill, which will be your main DPS ability for now. Make sure to use the Wolf Form associated with the Talisman.
For your first few Skill Gems, prioritize unlocking Lunar-Assault, Pounce, and Frost-Bomb. These skills form the foundation of this build and work extremely well from the very start of the campaign.
The skill rotation is relatively simple:
Frost Bomb > Pounce > Lunar Assault > Shred > Shred > Shred
This combo will often freeze enemies in place even without Support Gems, making it very easy to clear packs. Not only that, but it also offers a much faster attack speed compared to many other builds at this stage of the game.
Once you unlock Arctic-Howl and Herald-of-Ice, they will greatly improve your AoE clear and overall cold damage.
Equipments
For your Talisman, prioritize bonuses to % Physical Damage or Added Physical Damage to increase your base damage, which will then be converted into cold damage. Added elemental damage is a nice bonus, but it should not be your main focus.
For your armor, prioritize pieces with high Armor and Energy Shield values. The higher these stats are, the better. For prefixes, aim for Maximum Life along with additional Armor or Energy Shield.
It is also highly beneficial to get Attack Speed bonuses on your gloves and Movement Speed bonuses on your boots whenever possible.
Mid Campaign Progression
By the time you reach Act 2 and Act 3, you should have already unlocked Cross-Slash and Savage-Fury. These skills give you even more powerful offensive options.
Cross-Slash is an excellent finisher, especially against stronger enemies and bosses. Hitting a marked enemy with Cross-Slash causes all Ice Fragments to converge and explode on the target, dealing massive damage. Make sure to use Pounce to mark your target before using Cross-Slash.
Your basic rotation at this stage should look like this:
Savage Fury > Arctic Howl > Pounce > Lunar Assault > Shred > Shred > Shred > Cross Slash > Back to Pounce
Make sure to socket Close-Combat-i into both Shred and Lunar-Assault as soon as possible. Also, add Ice-Bite-i to Arctic-Howl, as it significantly increases your damage against frozen enemies.
Equipments
Your priorities at this stage remain the same: Added Physical Damage, Armor, Energy Shield, and Maximum Life.
However, this is also the point where you should start getting your Runic Ward online and adding sockets to your armor pieces to improve your elemental resistances.
Late Campaign Progression
In Act 4, you will soon gain access to a Rank 13 Skill Gem, which allows you to unlock Lunar-Blessing. This skill further increases your cold damage and also looks great with its moonbeam effects. You will need to spend Rage to extend the duration of Lunar-Blessing, so it is best to activate this buff in the middle of your combo.
Your equipment priorities remain the same as before. Continue stacking Maximum Life, Added Physical Damage, and Elemental Resistances. Try to upgrade your rings and amulet with better options that provide more damage and stronger elemental resistance bonuses.
At this stage, your main focus should be on adding more Support Gem sockets to your skills and upgrading your current Skill Gems to higher levels whenever possible.
Endgame
In the endgame, not much changes. Your skill rotation remains largely the same as it was in Act 4. You will be using Pounce to move around quickly, freezing enemies with Lunar-Assault, using Shred to generate Ice Shards, and then finishing marked targets with Cross-Slash to detonate all of those shards at once.
Your gear priorities also remain mostly unchanged. However, this is the stage where you should start looking for Increased Elemental Damage with Attacks and continue improving your elemental resistances, including Chaos and Poison resistance.
Look for Sapphire and Heart-of-the-Well to further improve your survivability. By this point, your Added Physical Damage scaling should be converting into massive amounts of cold damage, allowing you to deal impressive DPS.
That covers the Oracle Freezing Werewolf build in PoE 2! It's a relatively easy build to put together and play. Just keep in mind that while it deals excellent damage, it does not clear maps as quickly as builds like Spirit Walker Elemental Twister or Martial Artist Thunder Flicker. Even so, it remains an excellent league starter and a strong choice for progressing through the game.
