Elemental Druids 1.10

[ImpressiveOne]

There's a thread on AB's druid form about elementals but most of them are only in normal diff. Has anybody used a build that works in hell?

I was thinking of doing max CA, max tornado, and max hurricane.

Using a calculator here, you can see Hurricane does 484 - 500 cold damage and tornado 1255 - 1357 physical. I don't think that's enough is it?

[Korror]

I've had some small success with a hacked level 99 druid using that same configuration. With a necromancer friend, we managed to survive and even complete a few quests in act5/hell. We both had close to the best possible equipment with +8-9 skills each. Just a few things to note, Hurricane doesn't do nearly enough damage even at level 28 with +15% cold damage. However, it does last a long time, and I used it like a sorceress would use thunderstorm, a spell kept up for extra damage. Tornado certainly did enough damage with everything maxed out, it killed monsters in 2-3 hits with 3k damage. I must add that cyclone armor was surprisingly effective. It allowed me not to worry about my resists at all and focus completely on +skills. I had -100 all and I could ignore any magical attacks. I stood in firewalls, ignored glooms and harpies bloodstars. (Although an extra strong gloom boss pack finished me off in one volley) Physical ranged attacks were more problematic but I could generally avoid meele. I

Verdict: A wind druid is viable in hell but needs quite a few levels and +skill items.

Korror

[Nebuul]

I have, on legit closed useast, a druid with max boulder, max fissure, volcano, and geddon. Is there any way to port a closed bnet character out so that I can test him in 1.1?

[Bun-Bun]

I've got a legit wind-only elementalist tearing up late NM now. He's just hit Act 4 at level 60 with maxed Tornado and Hurricane. I put CA to 10, and am filling in Twister. I plan to finish out with CA once Twister is maxed.

I got a headstart on him pre-beta - worked him up as a 1.09 character through Normal so I could plunge into NM in 1.10. He's legit, but definitely twinked so as to survive 1.09. That means he's probably overtwinked for 1.10. Equipment includes a Dark Clan Crusher, Lidless, +3 Elemental amulet, +2 Druid/+2 Hurricane hat.

<digression>
He'd be moving faster, but I've become fond of my Skeleton necro. He's surviving at players 8 into Act 2 Hell, but starting to lose momentum. Andariel was ... interesting. I can't see any experience nerf at all - he's level 80 starting Act 2, and I skipped the optional dungeons in Act 1 out of habit. I'm not used to getting any experience there.
</digression>

[unless]

I've only played an Elementalist in 1.09, so grab your salt shaker.

This build has always been heavily reliant on +Skills equipment, even moreso now with the increased damage ramping over slvl 20. Using that calc, with only +8 to elemental skills (eminently doable for even the most impoverished of characters), tornado does 2143 to 2284 physical damage and is spammable, and hurricane does 765 to 827 cold damage every .8 seconds and keeps the enemy chilled 60% of the time in hell difficulty.

It has never been made clear to me whether multiple castings of Hurricane overlap with one another; if that is the case, then this build approaches uberdom. If that is *not* the case, the Cyclone Armor should only be pumped after your two killing skills are maxed out and you have adequate points in your other support skills - extra duration for Hurricane is useless without multiple castings, and tornado should be doing quite enough damage through nightmare difficulty.

An aside: for summonables, I suggest that you drop a point into each of the vines (as each have definite uses) and put some points into Oak Sage - for a caster, the Elementalist is awfully up-close and personal.

Hope this is helpful.

[unless]

Sorry, double post.

[ImpressiveOne]

I agree with the oak sage but not sure about the vines. Most vines don't survive in hell unless you pump them high. As for a tank I'm not sure whether or not to go with wolves or bear, they'll be getting 1 point regardless. Maybe I should do both but I'm one to conserve as many skill points as possible to get a perfect build. So bearless an option?

Bun-Bun, Hm.. so 10 CA, max nado, hurricane, and oak sage, then as many points possible in twister? I think this might be the ideal build...

[Guest]

I like to group so I wont mind making him a bit 1 dimensional.

20 Hurcain
20 twister
20 tornado
Oak sage as high as possible along with whatever skill increase huricain length.

If it turns out hurricain works with bear Ill have 1 in were bear and lycanthropy.

[WarBlade]

An aside: for summonables, I suggest that you drop a point into each of the vines (as each have definite uses) and put some points into Oak Sage - for a caster, the Elementalist is awfully up-close and personal.

Under 1.10 conditions the vines are pretty hopeless. The Poison Creeper will die in a hit or two, Mana is conserved to an incredible degree by the new setup making Solar Creeper redundant and as for Carrion Vine? Well one look at the way the game works now, noting potions in particular and to some extent Clyclone Armor, Carrion Vine and Solar Creeper become useful for one thing: Corpse removal.

My Elemental Druid in Act 5 Nightmare doesn't actually have any Spirits or Vines hotkeyed. I'll whip up one of each to give The Ancients something to squabble over (to split their attention from the merc), but otherwise I only bother with them at all because of a +2 Spirit of Barbs appearing on the hat. :huh:

[Bun-Bun]

I'm using a 1-point +adders Solar Creeper. It probably doesn't help mana replenishment all that much, but it's another body for nasties to glom on to. One point in Oak Sage as well, and not having too much trouble. There's no need for an enormous mana pool even with a spammable Tornado, so I've put lots in vitality.

No wolves, no bears, just a long-suffering Defiance merc. I found a Face of Horror for him that's a mixed blessing at best. He's rarely mobbed, but I'm forever chasing down stuff.

We'll see how he fares in Hell. Maybe this weekend, if I can spare the time.

Has anyone noticed just how excellent Tornado is on leapers? It just shoves them along, pounding them over and over.

[ImpressiveOne]

welp.. here I go, going to use -act 5 trigger to start at level 33 :) My necro will have to be put on hold for a while.

[Brista]

I have, on legit closed useast, a druid with max boulder, max fissure, volcano, and geddon.&nbsp; Is there any way to port a closed bnet character out so that I can test him in 1.1?

I don't think so

I have seen people ask similar questions before and the advice has generally been to create something as close as possible using an editor

Of course in the SP Beta that would have the annoyance of not being able to report bugs in good conscience as Blizzard have asked people not to report bugs found with edited characters

[unless]

Twister will help damage quite a bit, I suppose, but it's completely and ridiculously useless on its own, whereas cyclone armor can be terribly useful (you can basically ignore resists if you max it with a couple synergies). Tough choice.

[unless]

I used a big bear back in the day, before synergies made that unlikely. He was helpful, but sort of unnecessary.

It's a shame they changed the way Holy Freeze works. With my old elementalist (AdamBranson, for the curious), the slowdown from Hurricane's chill actually stacked with my merc's Holy Freeze, providing extremely excellent crowd control. Far more valuable than a Defiance merc, especially for a low-defense caster.

[Guest]

or 85 like I ussually do you have enough for everything i mentioned.

[Jovialjuggler]

I have a level 74 druid in act 2 hell, totally legit.
I went hurricane/tornado (with max twister for synergy)
1 point in all vines, and about level 11 oak sage and around 14 or so (with + to skills) Cyclone armor.
It works pretty good.. But hurricane is dangerous :)
The damage i do is pretty good, I have like +5 or something to elemental tree and my twister does about 2100-2200 dmg and hurricane does like 1k.
It's nice to have two damage types..
And since cyclone armor gets synergy bonuses from twister, hurricane and tornado I'm pretty safe from elemental damage :)

[ImpressiveOne]

Jovialjuggler, do you play players1 or players8 or in between?

Okay I played around with an elemental starting using the level 33 command switch. I'm in act5 normal but I had to go back to act2 to level my merc a bit.

The main problem I see here is how the heck do you handle cold immune anything without a tank? Or heck even if they're not cold immune it's hard without a decent tanker. If you max twister, nado, and hurricane, with ~10 in CA, you won't have enough points to invest in a decent tank (either wolfs or bears). This build ends up being a team build.

I'm sure you could solo hell diff with players1 only but other than that it'd be difficult. [b]Remember this is all in theory,[/b[ as I'm not in hell diff yet. But from the experience with my necro, a tank will be the main problem. You could have level 30 nado but you won't get many off before you die :(

ps. I forgot how annoying trying to hit with tornado can be! :angry:

[ImpressiveOne]

I spent some time with nobbie's ultimate character library over at the basin. I used his elemental druid and with level 38 nado, hurricane, and twister he couldn't make a dent players8 in hell/canyon. Not what I wanted to see :(

On the other hand vengance/zeal/fant paladin raped, ww/zerk barb raped, cb (level 38!) sorc raped, skeleton/bone spirit necro raped in players8 hell/canyon. :)

[Ignatz]

If the elemental druid is still woefully underpowered in 1.10, I'm sorry, but I'm going to be pissed off.

Here's a thought: why include a skill tree AT ALL if you can't make a viable build out of it?

Still, that's players 8, which shouldn't be even possible in Hell. How's lvl 38 Tornado, Hurricane and Twister in, say, Players 4 Hell? (Personally, I guage a character by how he does in Players 4. There are, in my mind, some very good reasons for doing so.)

A better question, of course, is how does, say, lvl 28 To/Tw/Hu do in Players 1 Hell?

[ImpressiveOne]

you can try it, just go to the amazon basin and look for nobbie's ultimate character library. I'm not at the computer with my d2 copy.

The problem is that the other characters I mentioned could handle player8 hell. I'm just saying the elemental druid could handle hell but he's not on par, no where near actually, with other builds.

Mind you that nobbie's setup was the most uber items you could have, in MY mind if you obtain these items then players8 hell should be playable.