Werewolf is one of two shapeshift forms tied to the Berserker mastery, the tenth class introduced with the Fangs of Asterkarn expansion. It hits packs hard, carries built-in lifesteal, and makes early leveling fast. It also silently disables a whole category of skills the moment you transform, which is where most players lose points and momentum.
Quick answer: Max Werewolf and Form of the Beast first, take Voracity for the lifesteal, and skip every weapon pool skill and default-attack replacer. Pair Berserker with Occultist or Shaman for bleed resistance reduction, and stay shifted the whole time.
How to unlock Werewolf on the Berserker mastery
Berserker requires both Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods installed alongside Fangs of Asterkarn. On the official class page, Berserkers are described as defenders of Asterkarn who take on Mogdrogen’s beast forms. The mastery is built on three pillars: dual-wield specialization, Monstrous Transformation, and the class warcries.
Werewolf comes from the Monstrous Transformation line. Activating it costs 50 energy. Once shifted, your basic attack becomes Feral Claws, a 2-energy strike with a 90-degree arc that hits up to two targets. Rip and Tear is the form’s second dedicated attack. The transformation itself grants no stats on its own, so Form of the Beast is the node that actually pays you for staying shifted.
Wereraven is the other half of the same node. It plays as a cold caster with no weapon damage at all, so choose Werewolf only if you want your equipped weapons to scale your hits.
Skills that stop working in Werewolf form
This is the single most common mistake with the form. Two categories of skill go dead the instant you transform, and the wolf’s own tooltip does not spell it out, so it is easy to sink points into abilities that never fire.
- Default-attack replacers like Onslaught, Cadence, and Savagery. Feral Claws overwrites your basic attack, so these cannot run.
- Weapon Pool Skills (WPS), meaning any “% chance to activate with default weapon attack” passive. Bloodfangs and Belgothian’s Shears are the usual casualties.
Because Onslaught stops building the moment you shift, anything that feeds off Onslaught stacks also stops mattering. Rip and Tear does not appear to build those stacks either, so a stack-based plan falls apart once you commit to the wolf.
Plenty still works while shifted. Warcries, mobility skills, spells, shield-block effects, and artifact actives all fire normally. Percentage-chance procs on weapons and shields keep triggering too, even though the form itself cannot block. So a Quake-proc shield or an Icicles-proc weapon still contributes damage in wolf form.
| Works in Werewolf form | Disabled in Werewolf form |
|---|---|
| Warcries (Rallying Cry, Bonechilling Cry) | Default-attack replacers (Onslaught, Cadence, Savagery) |
| Mobility skills (Leap, Blitz) | Weapon Pool Skills (Bloodfangs, Belgothian’s Shears) |
| Spells, shield-block effects, artifact actives | Onslaught stack generation |
| Percentage-chance procs on weapons and shields | Eye of Reckoning and other block-based skills |
Skill point priority for Werewolf
Spend on the wolf and its payoff node before anything else, then layer in lifesteal and defense. Everything tied to weapon pool skills is wasted here, so keep those points for your damage type or your second mastery.
| Node | What it does |
|---|---|
| Werewolf | The transformation itself; take it first. |
| Form of the Beast | Grants the stats the raw transformation lacks. |
| Voracity | 28% Attack Damage Converted to Health, the reason the form survives packs. |
| Untamed Rage | 33% damage absorption once you drop below half health. |
| Rallying Cry | Instant heal of up to 30% of your health; Frenzied Cry cuts its cooldown to 8 seconds while dual wielding. |
| Implements of War | Flat bleed and the dual-wield unlock; take it last of the core picks. |
Note: the v1.3.0 patch that shipped with the expansion reduced Monster Life Leech Resist on Ultimate difficulty, making attack-damage-to-health conversion roughly 16% stronger against an average boss. That makes Voracity land harder than its tooltip number suggests.
Second mastery: Bleed vs Chaos Werewolf
Feral Claws deals weapon damage plus Piercing and Bleeding, so the second mastery mostly comes down to which of those types you want to boost or convert. There is no single correct pick, but a few combinations stand out for different goals.
| Second mastery | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Shaman | Devouring Swarm gives -35% bleed resistance; Primal Bond adds 135% bleed damage, longer duration, and 15% absorption | Less offensive ability and crit support |
| Occultist | Curse of Frailty strips 45% bleed resistance, plus offensive ability and crit damage | Little direct bleed-damage support beyond the resist cut |
| Nightblade | Dual Blades passive adds flat Piercing that still lands in wolf form while dual wielding | Its headline active skills do not fire in wereform |
| Oathkeeper | Solid defensive kit for survivability | Eye of Reckoning and shield skills are WPS-locked or block-based |
For a pure bleed line, Bloodfrenzy is the anchor at 110% increased Bleeding damage, backed by Open Wounds and Bloodborne. Berserker’s own exclusive skill, Bloodborne, nearly matches Shaman’s Primal Bond stat-for-stat, but the two are mutually exclusive, so you commit to one or the other.
A common bleed setup pairs Berserker with Occultist. Max Werewolf, Voracity, Bloodfrenzy, and Form of the Beast on the Berserker side, then add Curse of Frailty, Solael’s Witchfire, Second Rite, and Vulnerability from Occultist to strip bleed resistance and pad your damage. Push offensive ability along the way, since critical hits are what keep the self-heal flowing.
Chaos Werewolf conversion
Blight of Ch’thon converts every point of Pierce damage on Feral Claws into Chaos, and that one passive is the entire reason Chaos Werewolf exists. Bonechilling Cry then cuts enemy Chaos resistance by 25%, and Occultist backs it up with Solael’s Witchfire and Vulnerability. Switching between the bleed and Chaos versions is a simple respec, so you can test both on the same character.
Gear, weapons, and the cosmetic trade-off
Both dual-wielding and two-handed weapons affect Werewolf’s output, because the form pulls from your equipped weapon stats even while it replaces the attack animation. Implements of War splits into two halves: the passive half carries over, so its flat bleed and dual-wield unlock both work while shifted. The 18% chance to trigger Onslaught does not, since Onslaught is a default-attack replacer.
Barrog’s Bloody Arm is an easy early grab. It drops from Barrog, the Bloodied in Lower Crossing, the first area past Devil’s Crossing, and it noticeably smooths out Act 1. Because this is a melee build that stays in the enemy’s face, gear that keeps your resistances and health up matters as much as raw damage.
One trade-off is permanent. Your equipped gear’s appearance disappears the moment you shapeshift, no matter what you wear. Developer Zantai addressed this directly, explaining that the form once had a time limit so players could see their gear between transformations, but “gameplay trumped fashion” in the final design. Pick Werewolf as a long-term character and you are committing to looking like a wolf, full stop.
You will know the build is working when Feral Claws is clearing normal packs while Voracity keeps your health topped off through the lifesteal. The weak point is tough single targets, since the v1.3.0 patch raised boss health by roughly 32% at level 100. That change hit every melee build, not just the wolf, so lean on your second mastery’s resistance reduction and your warcries rather than expecting the base form alone to carry hard bosses.
