PvP Shaman build

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Griffin

Diabloii.Net Member
PvP Shaman build

This is a build I've seen and dueled against, and am now building one for myself (it was designed by clan_iraq on the bnet forums, who also has a guide for it, all credit goes to him). I've found it to be an extremely effective build, both in PvP and PvM. I haven't seen anyone mention a similar build on these forums, and thought I'd bring it here for opinions. I am not going to go through strategies with this right now, as I don't want to copy and paste clan_iraq's guide. I'm just going to lay out the skill points and basic gear options briefly here, and I'll be posting again tomorrow to answer any questions raised.

Skills:
Elemental:
Remaining points in Firestorm
20 Molten Boulder
20 Fissure
20 Volcano
1 Armageddon / prereqs
Summoning:
1 Oak Sage
1 Heart of the Wolverine
20 Grizzly / prereqs

Fissure is maxed first, followed by Grizzly, Volcano, and then Molten Boulder.

Optimal Equipment:
HotO
Enigma (probably mage plate)
Spirit
Ravenlore
Tgods
Magefists
Sandstorm Treks / Rare boots / Hotspurs
Mara's
SoJs / BK rings (absorb rings in stash, if you are so inclined)
5 Elemental GCs, 5 Summoning GCs, Anni, small charms to add to resists.

Strength: enough for equip
Dexterity: base, unless you plan to use Wizardspike (HotO is probably better)
Vitality: everything else
Energy: none

This build has game vs. just about everything. Attacks are varied, and useful in many situations.

Fissure is generally your best tool against melee characters, when you can lay it behind you and drag people through it. Hits many times. Doesn't work very well against casters though, as they tend to teleport out of it.

Volcano is a great tool against casters, as you can namelock someone with it. It does a lot of physical and fire damage, and will usually stun someone for several seconds, giving you time to teleport in with a Grizzly. Often kills casters in one cast.

Grizzly is just amazing. When you teleport onto someone, your Grizzly will hit them immediately, often killing weaker characters in one hit. You can do drivebys with this against most people. Also useful defensively, the bear will hit people who try to teleport on top of you.

Molten Boulder is primarily used against Wind Druids, where it is really necessary. They're tough to kill by other methods sometimes. A Molten Boulder will knockback and hit several times, doing monstrous damage. It takes practice to get them to hit, but it's not too difficult once you get the hang of it. This is also maxed before Firestorm because it adds physical damage to your Volcano, the most important part of that attack.

I hope this has been interesting...it's a tried and true PvP build by this point. Once again, I take no credit for this build, but I don't think the inventor posts on these forums and I thought you guys might like to get a look at it. I'll be back tomorrow to answer any questions.
 
corax

corax

Diabloii.Net Member
heh i remember a few fond hours spent dueling people with my PvM firedruid(much like this, without grizzly) and pwning all sorts of builds. :D
 
L

lucrativelyrics

Diabloii.Net Member
my friend has a lvl 45 grizzly/dire/spirit and it is still easy to kill ( 1 hit )

takes him about 5 hits to kill me .

but i dont know how the build would work , never used one . ive only dueld high grizzly tornadoers. and even then . the grizz isnt want kills me
 
proudfoot

proudfoot

Diabloii.Net Member
The point is not to have a Grizzly with high life. It is to have a Grizzly that can supplement your damage and take hits from spells to block for you. If it gets in the way of someone's teleporting or blocks a Charge then that's some good help (Spirit Wolves are good for that, too).

But also, the Grizzly can do significant damage when it connects, or it used to be able to, anyways. It may have gotten nerfed more, but I'm not sure. Mostly it's there as another source of damage, because the point of this build is to have as many different ways to hit them as possible.
 
Garbad_the_Weak

Garbad_the_Weak

Diabloii.Net Member
Nice job copying my guide without credit.

To see the true original guide, written more than two years before his, click HERE. Even that version is my third published version and still predates yours by more than a year.

Garbad
 
proudfoot

proudfoot

Diabloii.Net Member
Please don't go flaming right away there CI. It's understandable that Garbad would get defensive about this. A little sensitivity on either side would be an excellent solution to this problem.

This would also be easily solved by admitting there is precedent to your build (Garbad has written that guide for normal dueling before he made a 76Legit version, and I myself have written a guide with very similar skill layout to this except for 1.09 76Legit, as well). A quick nod of credit, admitting you aren't the first nor the best to come up with this, would be excellent. Thanks.
 
Shaperla

Shaperla

USWest Trading & Druid Moderator
Attention ClanIraq and Garbad

1. Watch your mouth, this goes for both of you.
2. They are similar enough to warrant the question of who did it first. And yes, they are dissimilar enough to be different guides entirely. It doesn't look like plagiarism.
3. We don't allow remote linking to other forums. Blizzards or not.
4. Both of you grow about 10 years older and cope with the concept of the earth not revolving around any of us.
 
T

theBlackKnight

Diabloii.Net Member
Shaperla said:
Attention ClanIraq and Garbad

1. Watch your mouth, this goes for both of you.
2. They are similar enough to warrant the question of who did it first. And yes, they are dissimilar enough to be different guides entirely. It doesn't look like plagiarism.
3. We don't allow remote linking to other forums. Blizzards or not.
4. Both of you grow about 10 years older and cope with the concept of the earth not revolving around any of us.
Click to expand...

It is competitive forums, yes blizzards is, but I could theoretically link to say, a saturn forum or a space planet forum that didnt have anything to do with d2 or even computers in general really. at least, thats what I took from when I last read the rules.

Garbad did write a shaman guide like, a million years ago.
 
proudfoot

proudfoot

Diabloii.Net Member
Following Garbad's Shaman guide was my first real PvP character beyond a Zealot, I think. So much fun.
 
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