Elemental Druid

[Xergon]

Has anyone tried working defence up considerably, don a shield, a defience merc and then use armegeddon and hurricane standing more or less stationary to help w/ the meteorc aim? Seems viable off hand.

[Nightwind]

a not quite related topic...

the druid synergies, the ones that used to be passiev bonuses, those still work with pluss skills, don't they?

[adeyke]

Yes. Druid summon synergies still work the way they did before (with +skills equipment helping).

[BellaStrega]

Has anyone tried working defence up considerably, don a shield, a defience merc and then use armegeddon and hurricane standing more or less stationary to help w/ the meteorc aim?  Seems viable off hand.

As a test once, I took a 99th level druid with maxed synergies into the normal Blood Moor, got into a pack of Fallen, and cast Armageddon. Even with the druid standing still, it took close to five seconds for all of the Fallen to die. In more densely packed groups, it would naturally be more useful. But still, armageddon strikes me as not very interesting for that kind of investment.

[Guest]

As a test once, I took a 99th level druid with maxed synergies into the normal Blood Moor, got into a pack of Fallen, and cast Armageddon.

Considering they're fire immune (and only the fire damage gets synergized) that seems like a pretty bad test.

[BellaStrega]

Considering they're fire immune (and only the fire damage gets synergized) that seems like a pretty bad test.

Read my post again. I said normal Blood Moor. They're only fire immune in hell. The point being that it's a bit strange for 80 skill points worth of synergies on a clvl 30 skill (ignoring the other prerequisites) to require 3-5 seconds to kill one of the first three kinds of monsters your first level characters will face.

[Guest]

I said normal Blood Moor.

Oh. -_-

I'm surprised it only took 3-5 secs though. And also the accuracy isn't increased with slvl (or anything), so mentioning skillpoints doesn't really matter?

Also:

Even with the druid standing still

The common opinion of the skill is that you should be moving away from the target for any effectivity, so your presumption of even standing still (that I could of missunderstood) is incorrect.


Some kind of damage-over-time formula/test vs different pack sizes should be done for this skill, so people really realize how (/me refrains from using completely useless) ineffective it is.

[BellaStrega]

Oh. -_-

I'm surprised it only took 3-5 secs though. And also the accuracy isn't increased with slvl (or anything), so mentioning skillpoints doesn't really matter?

Also:



The common opinion of the skill is that you should be moving away from the target for any effectivity, so your presumption of even standing still (that I could of missunderstood) is incorrect.


Some kind of damage-over-time formula/test vs different pack sizes should be done for this skill, so people really realize how (/me refrains from using completely useless) ineffective it is.

Oh. -_-

I'm surprised it only took 3-5 secs though. And also the accuracy isn't increased with slvl (or anything), so mentioning skillpoints doesn't really matter?

It may have taken longer. I didn't time it with a clock and I guessed conservatively.

Also, apologies for not capitalizing 'normal.' It would've at least stood out, then.

I mention the skillpoints only because it strikes me as a bit wasteful to focus so strongly on one skill only to get such a lackluster result. To be fair, though, you also get some other skills at 20 that are easier to aim and kill faster as a result. I suppose this druid would work out fine in Normal-Nightmare, but would be stopped pretty dead in Hell. At least, I don't have the patience of a MongoJerry. :)

Also:

The common opinion of the skill is that you should be moving away from the target for any effectivity, so your presumption of even standing still (that I could of missunderstood) is incorrect.

Oh, I did a lot of running around, not that it did much good. I mean, every time a monster - fallen, quill rat, zombie - was hit, it died. It's just that the fireballs seem to fear touching anything. <_<

Some kind of damage-over-time formula/test vs different pack sizes should be done for this skill, so people really realize how (/me refrains from using completely useless) ineffective it is.

If the fireballs did splash damage, rather than direct hits (maybe they do, but I didn't notice any) it'd be quite the improvement, I think.

I did test that and a Hurricane druid on the Hell Blood Moor. Armageddon was predictably useless. The Hurricane druid worked nicely - the hurricane slowed not-cold-immune monsters down while the tornados killed even the cold immunes. It wasn't a fast killer, and I didn't test it in any later acts. I figured that if it took that long just to get to the Den of Evil, actually going in was probably a waste of time.

The end result is that I'm sticking with weredruids. I really don't care for the druid's elemental tree past nightmare, and the highest-level skills are practically pointless.

[Ferengi]

I did test that and a Hurricane druid on the Hell Blood Moor. Armageddon was predictably useless. The Hurricane druid worked nicely - the hurricane slowed not-cold-immune monsters down while the tornados killed even the cold immunes. It wasn't a fast killer, and I didn't test it in any later acts. I figured that if it took that long just to get to the Den of Evil, actually going in was probably a waste of time.

Interesting. I had an easy time in hell on Blood Moor, so I popped over to the AS. It was a bit more dicey there, since mana burn is a threat, but since I treated the bear the same way I use clay golem, and my fire rogue had KB, not a serious problem for the first time in hell with the first time playing the build. (CubeMod is great for such explorations).

So I hopped over to kill Shrenk, again the Tornados/Hurricane and bear/rogue had little problem. I was probably at players1, but it looked like up to players4 could be handled about the same as most hell builds. I liked it a lot better than my killer wolf, who soloed any part of the game at players8, since AOE means less detail management.

The keys are fast cast, knockback rogue, and "understanding" of a summonable. Against various immunities, you slow down, but it is a rare build that does not... I'd recommend this Rotor for refreshing changes from other characters.

[Caaroid]

It strikes me as odd that nobody seems to have experimented with the shapeshifter/armageddon build.

I have a wolf (lev 54, maxed fury, maxed lycantrophy, rest in armageddon at the moment, plannig to max a synergy as well), and I found it to be VERY effective. That is to say, effective for a wolf: I fury the strong monsters (bosses, death lords etc), while Armageddon takes care of the rest.

I do not know how far this build will go, but at the moment (this is nightmare, mind you) I am quite satisfied with it.

Then again, in hell I might just go back and re-build him for full-scale fury, who knows.