Summoner Druid advice

[Kirgothi]

Hello all at the lounge. I currently have a lvl 45 summoner druid in act 2 nightmare. It is starting to take a while to kill the quest monsters (like Radament) while using "players 8" so I was thinking of adding a tree to the build to improve damage. I have dire wolf maxed and the grizzly is almost there. Other than that, I have only 1 point in each skill and only in the summoning tree.

What would serve me better through hell? Adding Elemental or ShapeShifting? Or perhaps I should pump some points into a spirit?

[SwordAzon]

I played a druid before. Never got that far!

That would depend on your preference. If you want to make like a barbarian and engage in melee combat, then I would advise you to go for the shape shifting tree. The wearbear form can do enourmous amounts of damage if you have a strong weapon equipped (put some points in the 'maul' skill later on).

If, on the other hand, your preference is to stand back and let your minions do the work while you blast things from a distance, then go for the elemental tree ( wind and ice are more effective than fire later own, or so I've heard. )

But don't squander your points here and there. It's better to specialize. Chose one tree and stick to it.

If you can find a maul with 3 or more sockets, use it. Druids have a faster attack speed with mauls than any other class (Barbarian included). mauls are the strongest of all mace-class weapons. Very effective against the undead.

[Kirgothi]

Yes, I am worried about wasting skill points. I put one in all of the summoning tree because you have to in order to get the better skills, the mana leech crawler and the thorns spirit. I plan on only using the very best skills of the tree I choose to add, armageddon or hurricane for elements, or whatever is good in shapeshift.

Is werebear the best way to go in shapeshift? What are the best skills for hell diff? Does shockwave do much or is it better to use maul?

I am worried when I get to Hell diff, that my wolves will not be able to do enough damage. I think they only do physical. I was thinking the elemental skills would add some alternative damage to my arsenal.

I have looked all over the strategy areas of many D2 webpages, but almost all the druid strats listed say they are for older versions of D2 or are simply obselete.

[Pren]

I'm afraid you've already wasted points, as solar creeper and spirit of barbs are worthless.

I assume you're playing 1.09. Volcano is an excellent killer and can be cast between castings of hurricane if you choose to take it too. Hurricane is somewhat low damage unless you catch several things in it, and not very effective in act 5, though. The slowing is useful, especially when paired with a holy freeze merc. Many folks enjoy the bow+wolves+volcano hunter druid.

But for raw soloing power as a druid, a werewolf with summons can't be beat. You are focused as a summoner, so you can never be as good of a werewolf or bear (both have their perks) as would be one that was focused on that. And you will need many, many levels to get the skills into an acceptable range. Picking up volcano will require less skill points and stay more with the style of letting your summons keep things busy.

Fissure is another excellent killer when maxed out, especially if you use your bear instead of wolves (they clump around it, you cast fissure on the bear and it hits them all, instead of casting a volcano under a single enemy.)

alternately, use less /players.

[adeyke]

The Spirit of Barbs is definitely not one of "the better skills." Either one of the other spirits would be a better choice for most characters. Get a thorns merc instead if you need damage reflection.

The Solar Creeper is also usually not a good choice, as druids aren't that mana-intensive characters and as the returns aren't that good.

In 1.10, druids can use armageddon in wereshape, but no other elemental skills. In 1.09, they can't use any. (You can cast cyclone armour before shifting, though).

Werebears often use shockwave to stun monsters and maul to actually kill them. Trying to kill things with the shockwave is futile.

Werewolves and werebears are both quite viable characters, with their own individual strengths. Bears can stun things and then kill them in relative safety, while werewolves have a very fast attack and a great source of life steal that they can just keep charged up.

[Kirgothi]

Well that makes me even more happy to have only put one skill point in barbs and solar creeper. Personally, I like solar creeper, with all the + to skills the one point in it is plenty and I was able to do away with all mana regen and leeching in equipment. It's not like the other creepers are any good anyway. The poison one was getting smeared back in act 3 normal. Maybe the life stealing creeper would work well with the were wolf.

I have never played a druid before this, I only started the char because I thought it was the weakest and would provide a good challenge. After I max grizzly, I will have only used 48 skill points, that will still leave and easy 20 to 40 before things will get too crazy. If I went elemental, it seems like it will be easy to max a skill, but I am worried it would ultimately be a waste in hell.

I am not sure where to go stat wise if I wanted to go shapeshift. The druid doesn't seem to have many hps. What do you all do for shapeshift? I seem to remember a lot of people using werebear and the oak spirit back when LOD first came out. Is that still a viable strategy?

[Pren]

Bears are defensive, with +defense%, higher hp%, and shockwave to ae stun. wolves are ultimate offense, with enormous life leech and multi hit damage through fury.

You won't make a druid that solos in 8 player hell without shapeshifting, ever. At least, not realistically effective. Fissure and volcano can kill in hell in players 1, bear does excellent damage anywhere when maxed, but you'll have to face that you won't steamroll hell no matter what you do.

Not that elemental druids aren't some of the most fun chars in the game.

[Kirgothi]

Thanks for the info guys

One thing I am wondering about, what about physical immunes and the lowered phys damage in hell diff? Does going with only werewolf and summons do ok there? The arcane sanctuary comes to mind with all the phys immune wraiths.

Wow, what are you playing that can "steamroll hell" in 1.10? I haven't heard of this happening with any class yet.

[ak404]

Well, a well-equipped sorc and an experienced bowazon can easily steamroll hell: with mercs, both classes are capable of up to four types of damage (the amazon is capable of four types, actually), with three of them on an area-of-effect scale.

A standard weapon-build barbarian could steamroll through hell with very little difficulty: there're a lot of things immune to physical damage, a couple of things immune to magical damage, but very few things that're immune to both.