So few guides

[Cius]

So few guides

I find the druid stickies a bit dissapointing. Most other forums have many more guides for PvM, fun builds, etc. This forum has only a handfull and almost none that cater for untwinked play. I have been looking for a PvM windy guide that does not only suggest High end items and RW that are beyond most guys that do not have access to Bnet duped HR's, or just don't play as long. No disrespect to the current guides, they are excellent and fullfull their purpose admirably but I just though I would say I'm dissapointed that its the only forum that gives very little to the PvM crowd, especialy for Windies. Maybe one of the more experienced Druid players could draft a guide called the poor-mans windy?

In the mean time I guess I will see how far I get with Fenris's excellent guide and pick what equipment works best.

 

[Ed from Russia]

There are several nice PvM guides around but not all of them are stickied. But I haven't seen a poor-man's Windy guide yet; I may give it a try myself sometime to make one. I am not wealthy on the current ladder and a Windy is certainly on my list. Then again, a windy without Enigma will be a challenge.

 

[Cius]

I did an advanced search on the druid forums for wind guide and found one that was not bad in that it mentioned the good equipment, and also gave a few alternatives for the poor. Even then though it required twinking/trading as the poor items would still be hard to self find (eg SoJ, SS, Shako). His guide was also roundly slated by those who read it so I was dubious about following it. I guess what I was realy missing was a little section on what to look out for on items. Obviously as a caster +skills is the biggest to up your damage but aside from that little is mentioned in terms of relative importance of resists vs FHR, vs FCR, vs DR etc. Most of my gear as an untwinked druid will be either bought, gambled, or a low level RW etc. You can see what I have so far here

Best find so far is the gnasher for act 1 and if I am very lucky I suspect that by the time I reach hell I might have one item from Fenris' uber guide. Still, at least I know exactly how to allocate my skill points.

 

[stephan]

A poormans setup could be something like (this is basically the same for any caster):

Weapons: 'Spirit' sword (TalThulOrtAmn), Suicide Branch, Wizardspike
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi, Que-Hegan's Wisdom, 'Stealth' armor (TalEth)
Shield: 'Spirit' Monarch (TalThulOrtAmn), Lidless Wall or Whitstan's Guard, 'Rhyme' shield (ShaelEth), Moser's Blessed Circle
Gloves: Trang-Oul's Claws, Magefists, Frostburns

rest of gear: focus on skills ('Lore' in a nice Pelt with +X to Tornado would already be very good), FCR (a crafted caster belt could just give you the last few % needed), life, mana and resists.

Your general build goals should be achieving at least 68 FCR (99 FCR preferred) and achieve positive resists for all and preferably lightning maxed. While you do have cyclone armor (keep this up at all times), an unfortunate encounter with Gloams can hurt a lot. Max block or not is a personal choice you will have to make for yourself.

EDIT: I see you play SP. I am not sure if you play RWM or not, so ignore the Spirit suggestion if you don't. I have to say though that doing a windy completely untwinked is not the easiest of builds.

 

[Cius]

Thanks Stephen. I do plan on using RWM/RRM, just need to get it installed right. Have it there but have not seen it working yet. Have not had the need yet to make a rw so as soon as I do I will probably find the time to fix it.

Also found this with an hour's extra research which is exactly what I was looking for. Filled the gaps between Fenris' guide and my untwinked needs. Cheap effective 99/99 FCR/FHR, good alternatives, etc. It also makes the point that while twinked windies can be insane even untwinked is very hell viable and can run baal etc. PI's are the biggest problems so a reapers toll or spellsteal on switch is needed to break imunities where you can't run past.

 

[Garisdacar]

heh i feel your pain, i had a lot of trouble finding a decent Hunter guide - summoner druid with bow. but now i'm up to lvl 65, playing in hell act 1 with my wolfpack, and looking to push it further.

 

[inanefedaykin]

Generaly speaking, druids are terrible for untwinked play. Shifters need very specialized weapons, windy druids have terrible frame rates which aren't easy to get around without specific gear, fire druids need top notch gear to complete hell in any reasonable time frame so you're really just left with summoners and they're +skill centric.

 

[Jary]

Why do we need a "poor mans guide". I don't see the point in having a guide for it, it's like practicing to be broke lol. Even on ladder now, anyone could muster up spirit sword and lidless for next to nothing, gems, so I dont see point in having a guide for it... if you just ask around on the game you can figure all that out through just playing and having fun. I don't think everything needs to have a "script" for ppl to just follow word for word, especially something like that : /

 

[superjayson]

the windy guide that is posted has alternative gears for the poor.. theres not much difference between a pvp and pvm one either. if you did a search you would of found that out ;p

i do agree that the guide thread is horribly done and needs updating.

 

[Verashiden]

Generaly speaking, druids are terrible for untwinked play. Shifters need very specialized weapons, windy druids have terrible frame rates which aren't easy to get around without specific gear, fire druids need top notch gear to complete hell in any reasonable time frame so you're really just left with summoners and they're +skill centric.

FC Druids? Handful of Shaels makes you happy? Summoners are great untwinked, SW makes the lack of +skills moot in most circumstances.

 

[Liquid_Evil]

I find the druid stickies a bit dissapointing.

QFT.

There's plenty of guides, they just don't get stickied. Apathy on Shape's part I suppose since the majority are indeed sticky-worthy.

 

[inanefedaykin]

FC Druids? Handful of Shaels makes you happy? Summoners are great untwinked, SW makes the lack of +skills moot in most circumstances.

Yeah, I forgot about FC druids.

 

[superjayson]

i think fc druids are one of the easiest untwinked chars to play.

 

[Graecus]

I can see the man's point for the stickies, but truth is that if you search a little bit you can find excellent stuff.

Still, the Druid forum could have been more organized in this aspect!

 

[superjayson]

^ I agree. we should just create a new guide thread and make everyone refer to that. maybe sharp will eventually unsticky the old one and sticky the new one.

 

[Jary]

Shaperla has enough time to track a few of my Threads on the trade forum within a day a part, then make the concious decision to coalesce them and ban me for 48 hours... for spam. :cry: :cry: (?) ah well, no biggie ... Yet apparently he doesn't have enough time to update a few much needed guide stickies.

meh, I guess in the end I don't really care that much. I mean, at this point for this game, I'm mainly here for the ppl and just the fun. I like coming here and chatting with my friends and having something to talk about, so in the end that's all that matters.

 

[Cius]

Hmmm, thanks for the input guys.

To superjayson: Have to apolagise. When you said there where alternative options listed I thought where? I read the guide and saw none. Good thing I checked before opening my big mouth. I have now looked and Fenris did inlcude a small bracketed alternative's section after each slot with alternatives ranging from Godly items to cheap ones, like nightsmoke, stealth, Rhyme, gambled stuff etc.

Not sure how I missed that, perhaps it was the huge descriptions of the best picks that I could not take my eyes off of!

Anyways, to hammer in my point I have counted all guides and information threads in the various character forums and have tabulated the results bellow:

[B][U]Forum Name	Guides	Informational[/U][/B]

Amazon		25	21
Assasin		23	3
Barbarian	18	8
Druid		12	0
Necromancer	22	10
Paladin		53	11
Sorceress	38	20

Perhaps its just information based, perhaps there are less builds available to druids, perhaps druids prefer their forrest roots and have no time for writting guids :grin:

I do not know, just thought it was funny hence my pointing it out. I must say when there are 50+ guides it gets cluttered. Yu don't know where to start. I think MadMantis's setup in the necro forums was the most usefull and easy to navigate with all info at your fingertips.

 

[superjayson]

we have alot more guides around they are just hidden =/
my fc druid guide, jarys summoner, flaming rabies, both kodiak guides. we lack an actual fire druid guide, but there was a few good threads with lots of info on in it.

 

[Skull Bash]

we have alot more guides around they are just hidden =/
my fc druid guide, jarys summoner, flaming rabies, both kodiak guides. we lack an actual fire druid guide, but there was a few good threads with lots of info on in it.

Actually we do have a fire druid guide, it's a little old now, but most of what it says is still pretty accurate
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=383268

 

[inanefedaykin]

Well, in defense the druid forum is one of the most active and knowledgeable forums, if someone asks a question there's a dozen people that can answer.