A lot pf people don't like Wolverine and think he's really bad or clunky to play. And if you play the spirit-scaling builds that dominate MHbugle, I agree! However, if you forgo spirit-scaling, Wolvie's dps is not only better, he also gains trash clear with more powers at your disposal.

 

Play Wolverine if you like...

 

• Good single-target damage.
• Up in your face berserker melee gameplay.
• A lot of strong damage over time powers. You can hit a group with one or two of these powers then run away and most of them will be gone by the time you run away.
• A simple to play build. This build is mostly applying your dots and hitting your powers off cooldown.
• Decent mobility thanks to crimson leap and run through.

 

Don't play Wolverine if you want...

 

• Big AOE. Should go without saying that doesn't really fit Wolverine's lore and powers.
• A tanky hero. Even if you forgo the glass cannon "Let's Make it Quick" talent, he's not a very tanky hero.
• A top-tier or OP hero. He's good and a lot better than people give him credit for, but he's not matching Nova, Juggernaut, Blade, or Rogue.

 

Spirit-Stacking Versus No Spirit-Stacking

 

Spirit-stacking deserves its own section since every other popular Wolverine build, including the top-rated Wolverine build, stacks spirit to power up Savage Slash. There's honestly a lot of disadvantages to spirit stacking, and few advantages, if any.

 

The upsides of spirit-stacking.

 

• You get health from M'kraan Crystal. 
• You get a big fury pool so you never need to worry about running out of fury, which is a legitimate concern when clearing trash with this build.

 

The downsides of spirit-stacking

 

• You are contributing dps to merely one skill in Wolverine's arsenal, and it doesn't even scale that much from stacking spirit (3%). As a result...
• The overall dps is worse, even with an ideal slot 3 cosmic that has crit rating, crit damage, fury to damage conversion, and the might affix.
• You lose cooldown layers, meaning not only less damage, but also less flexibility with what you can use.
• You only have one option after building up furious assault stacks, and Run Through can only hit one target. Whereas in this build, Tornado Claw can hit multiple enemies, giving you options.
• Bloody claws is still on the skill bar for the dot so it's basicaly doubling up on two left-click/spam ablitites.
• Feral Roar is necessary to maintain spirit, depriving you of even more cooldown layers.
• The Swath of Destruction talent is chosen in the fourth row because you're not always using bloody claws, resulting in weaker dots overall, and you can no longer use bloody sweep at will to clear trash.

 

tl;dr: Spirit-scaling is worse in almost every single way - damage, clear, and damage over time. You will see it in my spirit-stacking ttk at the bottom of the guide. The only advantage spirit-stacking has is a really large fury pool that has no risk of running dry.

Build Explanation

 

This build is pretty simple. You apply dots with  and . You hold down  as another dot, left-click/spender, and buff for your dots. You hit , ,  off-cooldown. Every 15 seconds, you hit your signature,  3 times to transform one of your cooldowns into a hard-hitting auto-brutal power. Stacking attack speed is very good on this build because almost all the animations significantly speed up with attack speed.

 

 - This is your spender/left-click, and it's a bleed dot. Thanks to the Deep Cuts talent on the fourth row, it also buffs your dots (which are all bleeds). You'll be using this power a lot. It's also useful to use this power on occasion when clearing trash in terminals because it's this build's only reliable way to restore fury.

 

 - This is your dash, it does dash things like dodge and break cc. If you have to dodge a power using this, you can use  instead of a another dash to get back in melee range.

 

 - This power is not only your vulnerability, it's also a bleed dot. Very good power for clearing trash. You can use this after going in with  on a pack of mobs and the dot damage will get rid of most of the enemies so you can quickly move on. I recommend using it right before or after  in a boss fight because Tornado claw is a 6 second cooldown, and the Bloody Sweep bleed has a 6 second duration.

 

 - This is a good mobility power, and yet another bleed dot. It has a small radius/aoe, so I recommend following up with  when clearing mobs and applying dots. This power is a good way to get in and start fights against bosses. The other power that's a good way to start fights against bosses is...

 

 - This power will rush through a single enemy and hit them fairly hard. As mentioned before, this power is a good way to start fights against bosses. It's also one of two powers that benefit from  stacks. It is the harder hitting power out of the powers that spend , so this is your best choice against solo targets. Be aware Run Through only hits one enemy. I do not recommend using it on groups. Another hard-hitting single-target power is...

 

 - Very strong single-target power on a low 4 second cooldown. This power has a small hit box so it can be annoying hitting mobile enemies. Against bosses you're hitting this whenever it's available. If you want to make this power even stronger, you can take the Brutality talent in the third row. It's overall a dps-loss, but you'll no longer take extra damage from the Let's Make it Quick talent.

 

 - Another cooldown layer, doesn't hit as hard as  or , but unlke those two powers, Tornado Claw's hitbox is a small circle around Wolverine, making it a better choice against groups. Tornado Claw is the other power that benefits from  stacks. I recommend spending your stacks on this power instead of Run Through if you're fighting more than one enemy.

 

 - Wolverine's signature, and a good one to boot. As a general rule, you want to use 3 stacks so you can get a 110% damage auto-brutal  or  at your disposal. The 5 second cooldown on this signature also synergizes perfectly with  and . If a big attack is coming your way and your medkit is on cooldown, then using your signature at 2 stacks is valid for the shield.

 

Rotation

 

So unlike my last hero guide with Beast, this rotation is quite simple. It's mostly hitting powers off cooldown and refreshing your dots. If you mess up the rotation a little bit, it's not a big deal because it's not like you're snapshotting any buffs or doing anything complicated, you just want to get in their face and do what Wolverine does best, the stabby stabby.

 

To clear trash I recommend using , then . This will clear almost all mob enemies. You want to sneak in  once in a while because  and  can exhaust your fury very quickly.

 

Against bosses: , , hold down , , , ,  x3. Afterward, use powers off cooldown and refresh your dots. Not really a big deal if you do this out of order as long as you hit  early for the vulnerability. The only things to note is refresh  and  whenever you use  because they're all on 6 second timers. Use  when you're at or nearing 3 stacks for the full bonus.

 

Gear

 

Gearing Wolverine is pretty simple, and there are substitutes for the gear if you have trouble finding something.

 

Slot 1:  is BiS on almost all heroes and Wolverine is no exception.  and  are good substitutes. I have not tested, but my guess is Bone Claws is better dps, whereas the rifle gives some health to tank up Wolverine a bit.

 

Slot 2:  Wolverine's own  has too many good stats on a slot 2 to use anything else. Crit rating is extremely rare on unique slot 2's and Wolverine's provides an abundance of it, plus a lot of flat damage and brutal rating.

 

Slot 3: Wolverine's own  is some nice stats + a Sabretooth summon. If you want to tank up,  is a good option. The Reactor is slightly worse dps, but a lot more tankiness.

 

Slot 4: Nothing beats a slot 4 might cosmic with crit rating, crit damage, and brutal damage, but are solid until you can find a good cosmic.

 

Slot 5: is such an absurd amount of damage that nothing can even come close.

 

 

Artifacts: 

FYI, you can get an Elektra Bandana for 120 orders of the hand from the event terminal. It won't be cosmic, but Elektra Bandana/Mask is very strong, and finding a cosmic one is very difficult.

 

Good substitutes: 

 

 - A classic, always a good choice. It tested slightly worse than Siege's so it didn't quite make the top 4.

 - Very solid choice for Wolverine. A lot of flat damage, attack speed, and a bit of crit rating. It's merely a matter of grinding up Armor drives to get this artifact, so it's really a matter of rerolls and patience instead of the usual rng collecting this artifact.

 

 - Another good choice for Wolverine, a lot of damage stats and attack speed.

 

 - A decent amount of flat damage and brutal damage to make those triple-stacked cooldowns hit a little harder.

 

 - This is a good hybrid survivability/dps choice.

 

Cosmic Artifact Affixes:You DON'T WANT THE -10% SIGNATURE COOLDOWN AFFIX. It takes 15 seconds to get full stacks of signature, and that lines up perfectly with Elektra Bandana's 30 second cooldown. Get +1 attributes for dps, then get whatever ttl affixes you want. The spirit affixes (150, -15% cost cooldown) are also good choices because they increase Wolverine's small fury pool.

 

Budget starter artifacts: , , , and. These are all common drops and easy to find.

 

Insignia: I unfortunately don't have any good Cyclops insignias, but that is my guess for best dps insignia. Other good insignias are Taskmaster, Weapon X, Archangel (this is what I'm using), Captain America, and She-Hulk. Eric O'Grady and Falcon are decent. Crit damage is always the best affix, but it's a toss up between Melee damage and crit rating for the second affix. Other good affixes are brutal damage, brutal rating, and boss damage. A ttl second affix is also fine.

 

Infinities and Synergies

 

Infinity:

I have a little over 1300 IP. However, most people don't have this much IP so here's what I would prioritize.

 

• 0-200 - 50 points into Temporal Loophole in the Time Gem. 
• 200-350 - 150 points into Mental Focus in the Mind Gem.
• 350-500 - 75 points into Strike Through in the Power Gem.
• 500-800 - 6 points into the stats in the Soul Gem (fighting) and the Space Gem (durability).
• 800-950 - 150 points into Potency in the Reality Gem
• 950-974 - 1 point into the Infusion nodes on the right of of each gem.
• 974-1016 - 6 points into Mind over Matter and Superhuman in the Mind and Power Gem, respectively. Thanks to rounding errors, 6 points is all you need to get an extra percent of crit and brutal chance from those nodes.
• 1016+ - Dump into fighting in the Soul Gem. You can also max potency in the reality gem. I'm not sure if completing potency is better dps than +2 fighting, but it's close.

 

Synergies: Emma Frost and War Machine for the stats, then all of the physical melee synergies + Blade for the attack speed. If you are missing some of these synergies then Winter Soldier or any of the +3% physical damage synergies such as She-Hulk or Thor are good substitutes.

 

 

Videos

All videos are around 1275 IP.

 

1:27 TTK:

 

Cosmic Kurse Full Clear 1:18

 

Cosmic Ultron Full Clear 1:46

No Let's Make it Quick Talent TTK 1:44

Spirit-stacking TTK 1:38