fire druid help plz

[bluedragoon]

fire druid help plz

hi i am thinking of making a fire druid on hardcore or softcore not sure yet, but what fire skills would be good to use for it. I also want to be able to do some physical dmg through the bear or volcano, please help a bit.

PS: i have items on softcore, none on HC so if it would be very item dependant ill make it softcore, dont have super stuff like enigma and such.

 

[Chimaira]

For all you need to know about fire druids...

http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=541

This is a very good guide and should teach you everything you need to know.

Good luck!

 

[PyroStock]

FireStorm - good fire damage from what I've heard.

MoultenBoulder - fun and good for knockback, but too slow for damage in Hell.

Fissure - good fire damage against groups and can safely cast from a distance.

Volcano - great boss killer and great against single targets with physical and fire damage, can also safely cast from a distance. For Volcano, don't believe the "very few enemies will stand still for 6 seconds" nonsense since if you have a Merc and/or pets most enemies will stand still to melee them or shoot at them. It works well because for most enemies to deal their attack they must stand still. The person who wrote the "very few enemies will stand still" nonsense was probably running around solo with no Merc or pets thinking he was some type of Sorceress. Volcano can be used with a melee or ranged weapon too.

Armageddon - don't be fooled by big numbers, you have no control over who it hits and most of that damage will not hit your enemies. I've used a fully synergized Armageddon & seen little Fallen guys in Nightmare survive the full duration. This isn't a Fire version Blizzard. And if you use it you should use a weapon to increase your total damage (Armageddon+Weapon damage), not "run through mobs" or "run away" like a chicken with your head cut off as that won't cut it in Hell... I cannot believe they put that in the guide especially after that topic was discussed here. Armageddon is better as a additional backup for a shifter or meleementalist with high +skills and good equipment.

If you go Hardcore, I would also recommend some points in the Summon Tree to make you and your Merc safer.

 

[Weltkriegpally]

armageddon is a decent skill, but like all the fire skills, it requires knowledge and practise to use it correctly, ie strategy. You have to remember that with armageddon, you want things to be moving some, but slowly. As with blizzard, a stationary target is often a safe one. However, It lasts a good deal longer and deals duel types of damage (mostly fire, about 400 physical at higher levels). Standing in a crowd and spamming arctic blast over them (slow is always good) and then using firestorm is a great way to maximize damage for pvm. you also have to remember NOT to rely on one attack. A good fire elemental has 5 very viable and useful attacks to use, not just one (we aren't sorcs, remember that).

for instance, those nasty fire immune venom lords in the river of flame? let them group up on your merc/pet and start rolling boulders thru them. Not fast, but certainly kills them. 2-3 boulders and you will kill 2 to 3 monsters.

how about gloams? everybody hates gloams. Stick a fissure at the edge of your screen (or whereever they are). Instant death to nearly if not the whole pack.

Cows? well, here is a pain in the butt. A couple of effective ways to deal with them. Just keep dropping fissures in the pack. let them move some, and watch them drop. Want to get a little more up close and personal? sweep the crowd with a quick burst of arctic blast, and then move up and let geddon+merc do the rest. keep the blast going every few seconds, though.

act bosses? blech. some of those ranged attacks are *nasty*. gotta move closer to do the damage sometimes. I find volcano not so good here, but firestorm, on the other hand, tears them up. Get max block, resists, and go tear them up. Does a number on ALL of the bosses, especially 1, 2, and 5. Diablo is sometimes best just to use fissure since he likes to move a lot.

the point is, know what your skills do the best. You aren't an instant death dealer like the sorc, you don't have the constant spammable of the hammerdin, and you don't have the skill augmentation of the necro or pally (curses/conviction). However, you do have a lot of life, skills that do more than one type of damage, and ranged AND defensive capabilities. You also have meat shields, should you choose to get them. Those are your strengths. Use them wisely.

--welt

 

[jepspi]

armageddon is a decent skill, but like all the fire skills, it requires knowledge and practise to use it correctly, ie strategy. You have to remember that with armageddon, you want things to be moving some, but slowly. As with blizzard, a stationary target is often a safe one. However, It lasts a good deal longer and deals duel types of damage (mostly fire, about 400 physical at higher levels). Standing in a crowd and spamming arctic blast over them (slow is always good) and then using firestorm is a great way to maximize damage for pvm. you also have to remember NOT to rely on one attack. A good fire elemental has 5 very viable and useful attacks to use, not just one (we aren't sorcs, remember that).

for instance, those nasty fire immune venom lords in the river of flame? let them group up on your merc/pet and start rolling boulders thru them. Not fast, but certainly kills them. 2-3 boulders and you will kill 2 to 3 monsters.

how about gloams? everybody hates gloams. Stick a fissure at the edge of your screen (or whereever they are). Instant death to nearly if not the whole pack.

Cows? well, here is a pain in the butt. A couple of effective ways to deal with them. Just keep dropping fissures in the pack. let them move some, and watch them drop. Want to get a little more up close and personal? sweep the crowd with a quick burst of arctic blast, and then move up and let geddon+merc do the rest. keep the blast going every few seconds, though.

act bosses? blech. some of those ranged attacks are *nasty*. gotta move closer to do the damage sometimes. I find volcano not so good here, but firestorm, on the other hand, tears them up. Get max block, resists, and go tear them up. Does a number on ALL of the bosses, especially 1, 2, and 5. Diablo is sometimes best just to use fissure since he likes to move a lot.

the point is, know what your skills do the best. You aren't an instant death dealer like the sorc, you don't have the constant spammable of the hammerdin, and you don't have the skill augmentation of the necro or pally (curses/conviction). However, you do have a lot of life, skills that do more than one type of damage, and ranged AND defensive capabilities. You also have meat shields, should you choose to get them. Those are your strengths. Use them wisely.

--welt

Couldn't have said it better. I absolutely hated doing cow runs on my own but the advice quoted definitely widens your options.

 

[PyroStock]

As with blizzard, a stationary target is often a safe one.

Unlike Blizzard, fleeing mobs (archers, zealots, etc) are often safe. Use ArcticBlast and run in the middle (trying to maximize damage) and they will scatter in different directions.

Standing in a crowd and spamming arctic blast over them (slow is always good) and then using firestorm is a great way to maximize damage for pvm.

Also a good way to get killed in many areas of Hell, especially for someone like bluedragoon given his equipment and considering Hardcore. Frenztaurs, ExplodingDolls, BossPacks with bad auras/mods, among others, would devour him. ArcticBlast is useless on ~1/3 of the monsters (CIs) and for 6seconds you cannot spam Firestorm, again a weapon solves this. Another ~1/3rd are FI and Armageddon's physical damage is very low. Then consider CouncilMembers/Breeders/Archers/etc who are spread out, thin passageways/corridors nerfing damage further making Armageddon's ideal situation is not that often.

I agree Armageddon+spam spell is much better than Armageddon+Run. Cows are good for Armageddon, but the player still has ~half the damage fall behind them useless (unlike Blizzard) & if you dive in the middle of a large pack of Hell Cows (for max damage) your risk of dying goes up. That aside, Armageddon looks great so there's nice style points and with Max Fissure it's duration is long allowing you to use other skills. It's more comparable to ThunderStorm (long duration, follows us and unreliable) than Blizzard.

act bosses? blech. some of those ranged attacks are *nasty*. gotta move closer to do the damage sometimes. I find volcano not so good here, but firestorm, on the other hand, tears them up. Get max block, resists, and go tear them up. Does a number on ALL of the bosses, especially 1, 2, and 5.

You never "gotta move closer" to kill ActBosses. You can kill any Hell Boss from a distance, even Duriel with the right FireDruid build. It takes time to run up to Baal each time he teleports and you lose more time if IceArrows you backward. You can instantly cast a Volcano under him when he teleports and let him waste his attacks on your Merc or Grizzly. While Volcano is going off you can also weapon-switch for more damage (melee, missle, CB, curses, auras or whatever).

Diablo is sometimes best just to use fissure since he likes to move a lot.

Give Diablo a decent teddybear and he'll stay still like a cute baby.

 

[Weltkriegpally]

first:: Who would use armageddon on a ranged pack? thats what the other 4 fire skills are for.

Second:: arctic blast isn't always the best skill to use, I just mentioned it mostly for use on hell cows, although there are other areas it has uses for. Twister is also good for spamming, stunning even lister and the others.

as far as hell cows go, if you have max block (and you should, for sure), then they aren't that dangerous, and the appropriate spam will keep them off your back for sure. also note that I said armageddon wasn't the safest and that fissure was.

My grizzly bear is maxed (note that I don't use armageddon on the fire elemental in question), has about 5k life, and dies in seconds in hell in darned near any situation, but especially vs. diablo. this is why I said fissure was best to use here. With max block and resists (and sometimes dr), tanking act bosses is a pretty decent idea, imo. firestorm tears them up (note that I couldn't get baal to stand still until I was *right* next to him, so 7/8 of volcanos damage was piddly fireworks). If you are right next to them, often they won't use their ranged attacks and will try to melee you. Also true of duriel. His charge/running attack is annoying and deadly, but if you get a lot closer, ie. firestorm range, he tries to normal attack you or smite, not such a deadly attack although you will use a few reds sometimes. Just keep "spamming" and you will do fine.

anyways, for a pvm build, I never once recommended using armageddon, just that it was indeed viable. I also said that you need to know which attack to use where, and that my opening statement was you need to use strategy.

to the original poster:: Its NOT an item dependant build, but there are a few things I would make sure you do.

you dont' really need fcr, but some sure helps.

Get max block. geddon or not, you will need it.

Get max resists, same rule applies.

Keep your strength low and what you can, put into vit.

lower level runewords rock for this guy. Lore, stealth, and rhyme are all viable end game options, but try to get resists/skills where you can. a great idea would be to go ladder. A spirit sword rules, all the way thru hell. There were times when I needed the wizardspike I found, though. don't try to get a whole lot of magic find for this guy, but there are great places to mf with him that other builds aren't so great for. Late act 5 (tunnels, etc. are GREAT), act 1 mausoleum/blood raven are great for exp and NO fire immunes. Blood raven has duriels level (**..higher than mephisto, even), and always seems to drop rares/a fair amount of runes. Countess is also good. while she is always fire immune, a cano up her rump is a great way of getting items and fissure tears up her minions. Note that i made it all the way thru hell solo with my fire ele, but I made some great finds along the way (tgods, ss, wizard spike). I had max block, a maxed grizzly, the first 4 fire skills, and a rogue merc with cold arrow. Harmony rules for this girl, so don't rule that option out. If you can, get a wand with lower resist charges. It really ups your damage in dangerous areas (gloams, etc.) and can speed up magic finding, if thats what you want to do. Have fun!


--welt

 

[PyroStock]

Who would use armageddon on a ranged pack? thats what the other 4 fire skills are for.

That was my point. Some other fire skills can be used on melee and archer packs, therefore Armageddon cannot be used for "maximize damage" as often. There are a lot of ranged enemies in the game.

arctic blast isn't always the best skill to use, I just mentioned it mostly for use on hell cows, although there are other areas it has uses for. Twister is also good for spamming, stunning even lister and the others.

Lister & crowd are FI while most of Armageddon's damage is fire.
Regardless, I agree Armageddon + SpamSpell is much better than Armageddon + Run.

anyways, for a pvm build, I never once recommended using armageddon, just that it was indeed viable. I also said that you need to know which attack to use where, and that my opening statement was you need to use strategy.

I agree Armageddon is a viable support skill in some areas sometimes. Like ThunderStorm the long duration is nice.

as far as hell cows go, if you have max block (and you should, for sure), then they aren't that dangerous

And a fire/summon druid doesn't even need max block & can kill from a distance safely, although his fire damage is less. That's why Huntermentalists do fine. If a Druid loves going toe to toe with enemies with FireStorm or a melee weapon then I agree max block makes more sense.

My grizzly bear is maxed (note that I don't use armageddon on the fire elemental in question), has about 5k life, and dies in seconds in hell in darned near any situation

I had max block, a maxed grizzly, the first 4 fire skills, and a rogue merc with cold arrow.

Less points in the SummonTree means a weaker Grizzly. After you had a L9Grizzly your points in Grizzly did nothing to improve his resistances, much less defence or life. And no Act2/5 Merc means 1 less tank absorbing the blows, meaning your Grizzly will die faster. Even my wolves survive most areas in Hell just fine. There are other Druid builds besides your build that can kill ActBosses differently just fine.

note that I couldn't get baal to stand still until I was *right* next to him... If you are right next to them, often they won't use their ranged attacks and will try to melee you.

That's why you can drop a Grizzly *right* next to him too for the same effect, even moreso after the Merc gets there. Even without doing that after he teleports he sits still to do his attacks & I've often killed Hell Baal without ever needing to recast Grizzly just to test his staying power. Volcano & Grizzly work fine. I find Volcano a lot easier than chasing him all over the place like a game of tag. It's a good thing many different druid builds work fine.