I became a werewolf...how is not relevant and is a suprise so no spoiler here.

Anyway, I tried killing stuff in wolf form a few times when I was a lower character and it didn't seem to give me much boost in any area.

One time I was still holding my mace when I turned, so I don't know what all thats about....I figured I would use my claws.

I got killed pretty easily too. It was just easier to heal through potions and stalk with my bow.

How exactly does the werewolf form work?

Change when nobody is trying to hurt you. The only time I really ever got killed as a werewolf was while I was turning into one. Take like 10 seconds to turn, and people will still hurt you.

Use lots of power attacks and sprint towards people and knock them back. And eat their bodies when you kill them to heal yourself.

You can make stuff fall(equals paralyze effect) by using a power attack. Nice way to kill giants, as they'll be unable to attack back. You'll also be able to move mighty quickly.

If you do not specialize in One handed and Light armor, your defence and attack in were form will be mediocre.

Possibly extra damage if you're skilled in One Handed, Sprint on all fours to go extremely fast, Power Attack makes enemies fly, Howls instead of Shouts (Fear as default, others unlocked later; as in, after that whole situation you're in ends)

In werewolf form you have:

Fortifyhealth + 100
FortifyStaminaRate(regen rate) + 100
FortifyDamageHealRate(whatever this is)
ResistDisease 100%

Your defense and attack are based on whatever melee/armor skills you specialize in.

the biggest advantage to wolf form for me is covering HUGE areas of land in the world map 10x faster than on horse.

other than that the sprint+power slam attack is a OHK most of the time on humans. and then of course you can eat their bodies to re-up your health.

I tried lowering the difficulty setting when I go into beast form and that seemed to help. Otherwise I die very quickly.

what i usually do when fighting a mob of people is use the beast roar that makes the weaker enemies flee, then i chase after them and kill them using sprint power attacks (very easy kills) then i maneuver myself to single out the more powerful enemies and try to "smack and dodge" and then going back to eat a dead person to refill health when necessary. but mostly its about isolating your enemies because fighting a horde is very difficult as a wolf.