OMG Druids are so sexy [Fire/Wind dr00d]

[Jek]

OMG Druids are so sexy [Fire/Wind dr00d]

I've just fallen totally in love with druids, after a rather long break from D2, I decided to pick it up again - for SP, got fed up with the average WUGer on bnet. Maybe when ladder resets in 2009...

Hardcore of course, why would anyone else play SP? At first I wanted to make a Amazon, because, well, I love playing Lightning Amazons. But then I read about a Fire/Wind druid here, and thought, "Fissure is sexy, Tornado is sexy, together they must be ultra sexy". And hence MoA-DrOOd was created and wow! He's butchering anything left and right, Fissure eats up anything no-FI (with help from Tornado spam, and the Leaf runeword).

Completely untwinked, he breezed through normal (player 8, against all)- do all quests, get all wps, may not use TPs defensive and quit/exit to survive and most importantly live of the land (IE. No help/items from other chars).

If anyone is bored with the standard cookie-cutter pure wind caster, try the Fire/Wind variant, they are very fun and viable!

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Ok. Now my questions.

1) I don't really expect nightmare to be hard either, except well FE ancients+lister, grrr. How strong can I expect Fissure (with max Firestorm)to be in Hell? I know Tornado don't need fully synergized to kill well, just FCR which I got covered.

2) Is it just me or are Dire Wolves much better than Bear? It seems like Bear need a rather large investment to be useful, where wolves works fine with just 1 point - distractions for you and merc. Bear isn't distracting as well, partly due to being alone I guess.. But still, are wolves' AI more aggresive hence taking more attention from monsters?

3) How well would he fare in say, pits?

 

[Uzziah]

1) expect fissure to carry you though to act 1 Hell then the FI's take hold fissure will do plenty of damage in nightmare but in Hell it weens off pretty quickly, you should expect about 1000 fissure damage from +6 skills and 41 points expended in firestorm molten boulder fissure. 1000 damage is a nice break point for solo Hell playing anything above that amount is usually enough.

2)Dire wolf/Grizzly this is a decisive fight more minions or one strong hard to beat minion, you can go either way they use about the same amount of points to be effective, if you use runewords such as "beast" I would stick with dire wolves and use beast on the switch to cast them with a high synergy.

3)Put it this way my dual elemental build clears the mausleum much faster and better (less fire or cold immunes more lightning immunes which is perfect for a dual elemental druid) Its also a lvl 85 it just has less monsters per run.
the pit's are not bad though I haven't run them much as of yet. Andy is another good place to run with the dual elemental druid, switch to twister lay down a fissure bed and twister to stun enemies in the bed. fissure/firestorm kills andy very very quickly. Firestorm will be dishing out close to 3.5-4K per second with +6 skills and 21 in synergy. With +7 skills my firestorm with stone armor deals 1011-1147 IIRC, per stream.

And yes it has been a fantastic build, I am working on Act 5 hell with mine right now in single player. Though mine is 100% elemental tree skills.

 

[Jek]

I haven't decided if I want block or not, what's your recommandation?

For pure wind I would, but the added range makes me hesitate a little.

 

[Weltkriegpally]

is this based off the dual tree build I suggested a week or two ago? If so, its nice to know I finally made my mark on the forums, lol. Aside from the ot comments, I would highly recommend block. You won't be as durable as most tank types that are using complete gear from mules, and 3/4 less physical hits is rather a good thing. you could try to look for a chromatic tower shield of deflecting and pray for two sockets. That gives nice block and potential for 68 resist all ( 2 pdiamonds). or if you find something better (like a very nice ss *drool* or mayhap a whistans or a mosers), then use that. All in all, its a very nice thing to have. a 1.2k fissure (roughly what yours will be), is more than enough to tear up mobile groups of non fire immunes in hell, and act 5 is your playground. If anyone says fissure is no good beyond act 1 hell, they are sadly mistaken. It and any of the other fire skills are quite good when used correctly. I made it thru on ladder unwtwinked with a pure fire ele and working on maxed grizzly bear. I loved the challenge, and am glad you are liking your challenge. Otherwise, what has been said before is accurate.

--welt


guess I had better summarize::

1. Yes, get max block with a good blocking shield...explained above

2. He will do very well in the pits, especially with nado/hurricane up. fissure kills everything non fire immune (all except fallen), and the other 2 skills take care of the rest.

 

[Jek]

Normal Baal just bit the dust, player 8, Bear+Merc tanked I supplied the beats in form of winds and flame spitting earth! I must say, ancients were very very very easy, run around and fire off fissure every now and then. I ended up getting cocky and tanked them with Wolves+Merc+Me and they dropped FAST.

@Welt: I don't remember who's brainstorming/guide thread it was that got me started, thought I had it linked, but ack!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I need block, Evil Shrine -> Surrounded by a boss group was ouch.
Thankfully I saved a 2 socket Pavise, now I just need a Shael and Eth.

 

[Jek]

Nightmare Andariel just dropped dead, no soj for unfortunately.

Tip of the day, Jek style: Get Nightmare Andy to target your Oak Sage, she can not kill it, in any way possible, Fissure owns, all dies.

PS: Sorry for double post, but too late to edit my other.