Low level windy question

[jgreg7]

Low level windy question

I'm in the midst of building a wind druid, using the common guides by Fenris and Strijdje. He's now at level 19 (act2, SP, untwinked), and stuck in the doldrums. He can't go all melee with his low strength and health, but his offensive spells aren't really worth anything yet, either. (Twister is not as useful as I'd hoped!) Mostly he spends his time on the sidelines, watching his 1 point minions distract without doing damage and cheering on the merc who actually does much of the killing. I've been running at /players8; I thought about lowering this, but was afraid he'd never see level 24 if I do.

What do other wind druids to get through these seemingly dead levels? Just suck it up and wait until level 24 or 30?

 

[Uzziah]

I'm in the midst of building a wind druid, using the common guides by Fenris and Strijdje. He's now at level 19 (act2, SP, untwinked), and stuck in the doldrums. He can't go all melee with his low strength and health, but his offensive spells aren't really worth anything yet, either. (Twister is not as useful as I'd hoped!) Mostly he spends his time on the sidelines, watching his 1 point minions distract without doing damage and cheering on the merc who actually does much of the killing. I've been running at /players8; I thought about lowering this, but was afraid he'd never see level 24 if I do.

What do other wind druids to get through these seemingly dead levels? Just suck it up and wait until level 24 or 30?

Yes you just have to suck it up, as a SP and untwinked. I suggest you look for pelts with staff mods from the get go. adding a few more to your wolves would make them much stronger, adding 3 to firestorm will make you a bit better but its still not the big fire power you want.

My solution for you, use arctic blast and pump your cyclone armor while you wait. With a staffmoded pelt with +1-3 arctic blast you can get fairly good damage by adding points to cyclone armor. You can get the arctic blast into the 30-50 point range without much problem. That not alot but it's better than trying to get a melee attack with little strength. Otherwise get some charms of strength (you can find them in act 1) and go melee. take your time windy's are hard to start its the end game that makes them useful.

By all means drop to players 4 until you get some power behind you. the 200% less life will allow you to be able to kill but the loss of items drops doesn't suffer that much, you may even want to do a few countess runs.

another suggestion (leaf staff and +3 molten boulder staffmoded pelt) that's +6 molten boulder,
Current Skill Level: 6
Damage: 26-37
Fire Damage: 26-37
Average Fire Damage: 46-51 per second
Mana Cost: 12.5

Thats enough to get you by in act 2 normal at players 8 about 10-15 countess runs should net you the right runes for it the ral is the hard part. shop for a plain 2 socket staff they are what 150-200 gold?

And by all means gamble for gloves belts and boots if you haven't found anything worthwhile yet. You can get nice affixes on low level belts gloves and boots.

 

[jgreg7]

That's what I was afraid of.

Thanks for the suggestions. I had overlooked the Leaf runeword, since I never play sorcs. I'm wearing gambled rare gloves, belt, and boots, but my pelt is near worthless: just +1 oak sage. I've been saving my imbue waiting until I can find a white pelt that isn't cracked/low quality/crude/etc. (You trip over those things... until you go looking for one!)

Is arctic blast really useful? My blast is at 1 & cyclone at 8 (maxed for this clvl), but even so blast doesn't seem to have much effect. Some other threads even suggest the damage is bugged. I've been using it only as an escape hatch, to chill packs so I can make an escape. I'll try and see if it can kill.

 

[Baranor]

That's what I was afraid of.

Thanks for the suggestions. I had overlooked the Leaf runeword, since I never play sorcs. I'm wearing gambled rare gloves, belt, and boots, but my pelt is near worthless: just +1 oak sage. I've been saving my imbue waiting until I can find a white pelt that isn't cracked/low quality/crude/etc. (You trip over those things... until you go looking for one!)

Is arctic blast really useful? My blast is at 1 & cyclone at 8 (maxed for this clvl), but even so blast doesn't seem to have much effect. Some other threads even suggest the damage is bugged. I've been using it only as an escape hatch, to chill packs so I can make an escape. I'll try and see if it can kill.

cracked crude whatever pelts turn into normal ones when imbueing. superior also turn into normal ones. the mods on the pelt (+skill boni) get rerolled too. in other words: you can use anything you want, as long as its not ethereal (that mod sticks around after an imbue).

 

[Uzziah]

That's what I was afraid of.

Thanks for the suggestions. I had overlooked the Leaf runeword, since I never play sorcs. I'm wearing gambled rare gloves, belt, and boots, but my pelt is near worthless: just +1 oak sage. I've been saving my imbue waiting until I can find a white pelt that isn't cracked/low quality/crude/etc. (You trip over those things... until you go looking for one!)

Is arctic blast really useful? My blast is at 1 & cyclone at 8 (maxed for this clvl), but even so blast doesn't seem to have much effect. Some other threads even suggest the damage is bugged. I've been using it only as an escape hatch, to chill packs so I can make an escape. I'll try and see if it can kill.

Its bugged at 1/2 damage rate, kind of hard to explain and frankly I don't think I am clear on how it works, but arctic blast works ok at low levels, I still occasionally used it when hitting a physical immune, (you can hit one in act 2 normal by the way). The damage is small but constant, like spamming firestorm, I think a pelt with firestorm or boulder and a leaf staff will work best for you though.

 

[jgreg7]

cracked crude whatever pelts turn into normal ones when imbueing. superior also turn into normal ones. the mods on the pelt (+skill boni) get rerolled too. in other words: you can use anything you want, as long as its not ethereal (that mod sticks around after an imbue).

I knew about rerolling the staffmods, but the "revert to normal" feature is news to me. Up until now I only imbued normal items. I'll give it a try.

@Uzziah: I had a pelt with +1 firestorm, but the damage looked like it would be low (even with Leaf). Arctic blast seems like a better option, since I'm pumping cyclone anyway. (Although we don't know what the damage rate really is, apparently.) It will probably come down to whatever staffmods the imbue gives me!

 

[happyfamine]

did you try the savage polearm cube recipe for your merc? kris + belt + staff + any diamond will give you a 75% damage polearm. they can be exceptional and get a second mod too. you'll probably need to socket some emeralds or amethysts in their armor/helm. a few trys and you should get one that will 1 hit kill flayers, even on players 8.

 

[Gore_Nutling]

This thread reminds me of my own Wind Druid's miserable trek through his low levels. It is sad that Windies are so weak before they get their Tornado. I was using a lot of gear for melee characters when I went through Act 2 normal, including Bloodrise, Twitchthroe, Biggin's Bonnet, and Bloodfists, and I still was very weak with all that stuff.

But don't give up! Tornado is a good skill from the get-going (if you have been synergising it) and improves very quickly as you put skill points in it!

 

[jgreg7]

My imbue gave me +3 spirit wolves (& other less useful mods), so I've been hiding behind them as meat shields while my merc goes to work. Usually I just stick a rare polearm with life leech on him without too much thought. However the second time I tried the cube recipe I got a savage war scythe of ease, so now he deals out 100-200 damage per poke. That's another recipe I had never tried before, and the ingredients are so cheap! I can see it becoming addictive...

My char is now level 25 starting a3, so he can finally use tornado. It will take a few more levels to pump the damage (and get enough mana), but he's less passive now. Thanks for all the tips!