Fire Druid

[patriach]

Hi,

I recently fixed my cd problem and could play online again :) . To celebrate it, my friend gave me a ravenlore, hexfire, and 4 socket monarch filled with low fire facets. So now it is obligatory for me to create a fire druid.

I am sure that I want to use fissure as main spell but I can't decide the other complementary spell for him. I looked at molten boulder and volcano and they both have really looooooooooooooooooong cooldown. He cannot cast other spells during this time, so what would a fire druid do?

I am also considering armageddon. But I heard that not even a fortune teller could predict where the next stone would fall. Its range is small. It is also rather expensive (5 prereqs points). Does it really worth it? Also, is it safe to spend 85 points in the elemental tree for synergized fire spell?

One more question for fire druids out there: what should be the general stat distribution? It seems like a fire druid won't need much mana. Would it be suicidical to put points in str and dex, and then go melee while waiting for spell cooldown?

I will be playing in USWest Ladder Softcore. If anyone wouldn't mind the company of a fire druid, whisper me *patriach or *patriach2

[Minionman]

All fire druid spells are timered anyway, so you usually can only use one at a time. What I've heard is that most fire druids max firestorm to volcano and forget about armegeddon. Volcano is mostly fighting bosses and fissure is for everything except fire immunes. Volcano synergizes fissure, and even with the timer it is useful.

I don't know about higher levels, but at lower levels fissure kills fast enough with synergies and the timer that the druid doesn't need any attacks for help. I put a lot of points in vitality and have oak sage which gives a lot of life.

Hope this was helpful. Other people might have better ideas.

Edit: changed some words

[ShadowHM]

All fire druid spells are timered anyway, so you usually can only use one at a time.  What I've heard is that most fire druids max firestorm to volcano and forget about armegeddon.  Volcano is mostly fighting bosses and fissure is for everything except fire immunes, and it synergizes fissure, and even with the timer it is useful. 

I have a high level Fire Druid.

If I was starting him over again I would do as Minionman suggested. I have wasted points in Armageddon, Twister, Hurricane and Armageddon. I do have about 10 non-wasted (as far as I am concerned) points in Cyclone Armour.

Oh, and while you wait for Volcano's timer to wear off you can profitably spend your time re-casting Cyclone Armour, Ravens, Oak Sage and Grizzly. B)

[patriach]

What I've heard is that most fire druids max firestorm to volcano and forget about armegeddon

I have wasted points in Armageddon, Twister, Hurricane and Armageddon

So this basically means armageddon is useless.

A few other questions:
1. I'm going to gamble the rest of his equipments (he'll use barely to no mf). If for example, an item in the gambling screen was a unique, and I didn't bought it. When I closed the gambling screen, would that mean the unique was considered dropped in the game, and thus could no longer be dropped again by monsters?

2. I think I might use a 4 socket weapon with 4 Eth runes (-100% def) and prevent monster heal in other equipment slots. Will this let me hit monsters even with bad AR?
I also has a perfect witchwild string. Would upgraded wws plus 2 Eth runes work better?
I will probably use the weapon while waiting for spell cooldown.

3. Does prevent monster heal always work? Knockback in 1.10 has around 30% chance to work (based on my observation). I am wondering if this is the case with prevent monster heal. How long is the duration? Does it still work if I tp to town?

Thanks for the advice btw

[Heat Miser]

i'm a first time Druid user.

Hurricane seems to work quite well, provided no cold immunity.

Volcano seems a little less effective than Fissure.

I'm currently in Act 2, Nightmare, in the desert area's first few tombs. They have Fire Towers, which seem to take a very very very long time to eliminate using a combination of many different elemental Druid attacks, including Volcano. I usually just run past them.

I didn't put too many points in Twister, or Tornado, and have not used Armageddon.

Bottom line: I like Hurricane, Fissure, Grizzly, and weapons using poison damage.

I do wear an amulet with +1 Summoning Skills, and use a club (non spiked) with +1 All Druid Skills.

Best o' luck.

-= H/M =-

[Caaroid]

Heyho!

What is the goal of this character, building a fire summoner or using the shield? Just asking since if the latter, I'd go and build a fire bear :)

[ShadowHM]

So this basically means armageddon is useless.

I would not say that Armageddon is useless. I did say that it was useless to me.

I believe it is a matter of play style. I wanted a caster character, not a mêlée character, for my fire druid. Armageddon does have a very lengthy timer. It can be used quite effectively if one is armoured well, has high blocking, decently high faster run/walk and scampers amongst the monsters. The radius is not large and it centres on you. So if you would like to whack monsters then it is not a bad choice. It does mean you also have different needs in skill point allocation and equipment.


The timers on the other Druid Fire skills are not very long. As I said, I profitably use that time re-casting minions and re-positioning myself and my mercenary to best effect.

My Fire Druid has fairly high life, not very much mana and fairly low strength and dexterity.

If you whack monsters you will need items that give AR, as you will have no skill that gives you this. It will be difficult to achieve this. Even a four Eth weapon will not likely allow much hitting in Hell unless you have other sources of AR. Maybe gambling for clubs with the Fool's prefix would suffice, but even then, I suspect you would have a low chance to hit, and you would not be doing much damage. Using a high level Heart of Wolverine might help there too, but even so, there will still be AR issues.

I would save the Witchwild String and use it on a Hunter Druid or a Fanaticism Paladin Ranger. The only one I have found is in use on a Rogue mercenary, for what that is worth.

As to the other questions:

I am not sure of the mechanics of gambling.

Prevent monster heal, if you do get a hit in, lasts a fair amount of time. I do believe you would have time to tp to town and replenish potion supplies before it ran out.

[Guest]

I believe that armaggeddon has a whopping 9 prerequisites.

[LavCat]

If you whack monsters you will need items that give AR, as you will have no skill that gives you this.   It will be difficult to achieve this.   Even a four Eth weapon will not likely allow much hitting in Hell unless you have other sources of AR.   Maybe gambling for clubs with the Fool's prefix would suffice, but even then, I suspect you would have a low chance to hit, and you would not be doing much damage.   Using a high level Heart of Wolverine might help there too, but even so, there will still be AR issues.

I thought four Eths negated the need for any AR, as then any target had zero defense?

[adeyke]

Against normal monsters, that's correct. 4 Eths = ITD against them. No amount of AR will help at all, since the chance to hit it then based solely on the level of the attacker and the level of the defender.

[LavCat]

Is this not also true for bosses and champions? For what monsters is it not true?

[Obi2Kenobi]

I'm going to gamble the rest of his equipments (he'll use barely to no mf). If for example, an item in the gambling screen was a unique, and I didn't bought it. When I closed the gambling screen, would that mean the unique was considered dropped in the game, and thus could no longer be dropped again by monsters?

Yes. An item generated in the gambling screen is considered "dropped" for the game's purposes, and thus cannot drop again.

Does prevent monster heal always work?

Yes, but it apparantly cannot be applied via a mercenary. (I haven't tested this yet)

Knockback in 1.10 has around 30% chance to work (based on my observation)

Knockback's chance to work is based on the size of the monster.

[adeyke]

Is this not also true for bosses and champions? For what monsters is it not true?

I haven't tested it thoroughly myself, but according to the patch.txt file:

The modifier's effect is reduced by one half when player characters, SuperUniques, hirelings, and Act-end bosses are targeted

So against certain monsters, the 4 Eths only reduce defense by 50%, making AR important still.

[Wyrm]

Yes. An item generated in the gambling screen is considered "dropped" for the game's purposes, and thus cannot drop again.

Whether an item is rare/unique/set/magical is no longer determined when the gamble screen loads, but rather after you buy it. This was done to prevent people from using gambling sniffers to see what they would be getting beforehand. And unless you mean the same item seed #, then multiple uniques of the same type can drop in one game since Blizzard has long since removed the whole uniqueness to uniques.

[adeyke]

Whether an item is rare/unique/set/magical is no longer determined when the gamble screen loads, but rather after you buy it.

Wrong. The quality of the item are already determined when the item is in the gamble screen. It's a proven fact that having a unique spawn there (whether you buy it or not) prevents it from spawning in the game.

[NuurAbSaal]

Sorry for the thread hijack, but could anyone explain how knockback is handled? I even heard that putting in more than one Nef rune in a bow would increase the chance to knockback, but somehow I doubt that ('NefNefNefNefNefNef' bow anyone :blink: ).

Thanks in advance
Greetings

Nuur

[adeyke]

You either have knockback or you don't. Multiple sources are equivalent to a single source. The chance of a successful knockback depends on the size of the monster. Small ones are easier than big ones. Also, some monsters can't get knocked back at all and some attacks don't carry knockback (e.g. only the center two arrows of a MS spread do).

[NuurAbSaal]

OK, thanks

Nuur