Twin Elementalists

[Ax2Grind]

Twin Elementalists

I've decided to play a fire Druid to my partner's wind. After reminding me Arctic Blast synergizes no other skills, I reread the only guide stickied (Fenris's) and realized we'd probably both be better off putting a few points into the other pages - him into summons and me into bearclaws. We can cover pretty much the whole spectrum this way, fire, cold, physical, even have a front line, but the guide to Fire Claws was just too confusing to read (not the least reason was because of the formatting). So I'm here asking for clarification.

Wind is Cyclone Armor/Twister/Tornado/Hurricane and a prime summon, usually Oak Sage. With one point in Grizzly, the build is finished at 94. Fire can only cast Armageddon in wereform, so would half-synergized, fully-powered Fire Claws/Armageddon work, being finished at 93? If so, which skills might I best concentrate on for casting? Any other advice?

 

[superjayson]

http://fcdruid.tripod.com/fc.html
thats my pvp fc druid, but it can be used for pvm as well. any questoins regarding that just ask and we'll answer

 

[Ed from Russia]

IMO, a Fire Claws / Armageddon build doesn't work, and I've thought about it a lot because it would be awesome. The problem is that Armageddon is not a synergy for FC. That means that the 24 points you spend on Armageddon (incl. wind synergies) could be spent synergizing your FC. Because Armageddon only really adds a coolness factor to your character and is too erratic to be really useful, you really need a high FC damage.

I'm planning an Armageddon bear myself though that should work, and that I will probably start next weekend. It's based on SSOG's Mighty Kodiak build (for skill setup) and Safetypro's Town Dump Bear (for equipment). I'll give you a short description here, but read these 2 guides for details.

SKILLS

Shapeshifting
10-20 Lycanthropy (until duration is comfortable)
1 Werebear
1 Maul (your 1st main attack skill)
1 Hunger (your 2nd main attack skill, whenever your health is down)
1 Shockwave (crowd control, about 8 seconds with skill bonuses from equipment)
3 Prerequisites
TOTAL 18-28

Elemental
20 Armageddon
5 Fissure (increases Armageddon duration from 10 to 20 secs, which is enough)
20-40 Armageddon damage synergies (I prefer Volcano & Molten Boulder)
4 prerequisites
TOTAL 49-69

Summoning
0-20 Oak Sage / Heart of Wolverine (personal preference)
0-1 Grizzly (personal preference)
0-4 prerequisites
TOTAL 0-25

I think the most effective would be not to use any summons and put all your points in Lycanthropy and synergies for Armageddon. But with a Grizzly and Spirit (I prefer Oak Sage), plus a Poison Creeper from Carrion Vine and 5 Raven that you will have from skill bonuses, you are effectively using all Druid skill trees, which is tempting.

EQUIPMENT

I'm taking this straight from Safetypro's guide (linked above):

Weapon: IK Maul
Helm: Jalals
Armor: Chains of Honor / Duress / Lionheart / Smoke / ...
Belt: IK
Gloves: IK
Boots: IK
Rings: Ravenfrost and Carrion Wind or 2 x Ravenfrost
Amulet: Maras / Highlords / rare with Druid skill bonus

Safetypro's idea to use the Immortal King set is great, and the Maul gives you good damage and about 40% CB. Another good thing is that everything is pretty cheap. Chains of Honor is the only expensive item and it's the best choice, but it can easily be replaced by any of the ones mentioned (I use Duress).

 

[superjayson]

I agree armageddon doesn't work well with an FC Druid (or any melee shifter pretty much). Theres just not enough skill points available to make it useful.
Otherwise you're paying just for a fancy animation.

It's sad too cause the way the skill is designed its perfect for such a build.

 

[Ax2Grind]

My original concept was Armageddon for wide-area damage and Fire Claws for individual targets, both fully-powered and half-synergized. With my partner using Wind synergies and summons as a back-up, I shouldn't have to put a point into them. Being able to cast Armageddon in shift and having unbalanced distribution favoring Molten Boulder/Volcano means I also have a physical attack for individual targets and wide-area damage (well, a tad more group damage for Volcano and a tad less for Boulder, but you get the idea). This generally for fire immunes, and if something is both fire and physical immune, I rely on my mercenary and partner to take it down. That's why I had asked about the mercenaries in the first thread, but just didn't get any answers.

 

[Jary]

If armagedon synergized fireclaw, FC bears woulda been insane damage-wise, too bad though 'cause that woulda been sweet. Since they're not, they sorta fight against eachother... they each want the synergies for themself and sorta cancel eachother out in effectiveness. You're better off having the 15k fireclaw and nothing in armagedon than 15k armagedon and ~2k fireclaw or something. Just not enough skill points to go around >.<

But for a fire druid, I think it's great for protection... not reliable protection heh, but good. In PvM I personally find fissure much more effective overall than boulder or volcano, then again... nobody uses them often :[ ...so I say go for it, it could be a lot of fun ^.^

 

[superjayson]

armageddon has always been a skill that worked best in theory only ;(

 

[Ed from Russia]

But for a fire druid, I think it's great for protection... not reliable protection heh, but good. In PvM I personally find fissure much more effective overall than boulder or volcano, then again... nobody uses them often :[ ...so I say go for it, it could be a lot of fun ^.^

I prefer using Fissure for groups and Volcano for bosses and single monsters. I never use Molten Boulder except when I want some variation. Fire Druids are fun to play, especially when you don't have to worry about having just one type of damage in multiplayer.

 

[Jary]

hehe...

I've had a lot of fun in the past using boulder

I remember using it as a joke in this duel game on east with my Fireclaw Bear (he had 18 in boulder/20 firestorm, so almost fully synergized actually >.<) against this cute lil' lvl 60 zealer who, although bless his heart, just wasn't the best:tongue: . He asked what type of druid I was, I said molten boulder... and he sorta laughed at me, then I switched to 30/-30 PB/SS... said go, he comes running at me, drop one boulder and he dies LOL. Prolly one of my favorite funny memories:grin:
Also, if you teleport back and forth dropping it in baal games its pretty hilarious >.<

 

[Ed from Russia]

hehe...

Also, if you teleport back and forth dropping it in baal games its pretty hilarious >.<

Yeah, I've used it in Baal games as well; since you know where his minions are going to appear a Boulder can do quite some damage.

Then again, a Fissure followed by a well-placed Volcano is probably a better idea.

 

[Eilo Rytyj]

If you're going to be a Fire to your friends Wind, may as well make it a Fire Elemental Druid. I've always loved Geomancers, despite the fact that they're considered "underpowered". It's just that they require a certain finesse to get it right.

If you're going to be playing with your friend all the time, you can get away with just 1 in Oak Sage as a prereq to Grizzly (while your friend will have it maxed with his extra skill points) and go with maxing out as much of the Fire skills as possible. At the very least, max Fire Storm, Fissure, Boulder and Volcano. Each has it's use at certain times, so each deserves the full 20 skill points.