06-27-2003, 05:16 AM
Well I have a PvM softcore hunter druid that just reached the canyon of the magi on hell. I've maxed all the main skills that I wanted to by this point and I'm wondering what I should work on next. I figure it will be either volcano, cyclone armor, or poison creeper. I should tell you about the character first though so let me start there.
So he just turned level 58 and as I said is in the canyon of the magi on hell. His stats are (not counting items)
str: 55
dex: 195
vit: 100
energy: 20
and he has 5 points unspent right now. The next several levels will probably go to str cause he should probably get to where he can at least wear Jalal's Mane. His resists are
fire: 23
cold: 5
lightning: 36
poison: 21
Which are pretty low. Those should go up some as I find better equipment, though it is getting kind of late in the game to be expecting to find stuff. His skills currently are (with 4 unspent points)
max dire wolves
max grizzly
max oak sage (well whatever it took to get it to 20)
1 carrion vine
and of course any prerequisites (god I hate spelling that word) those skills require. His merc is an act 1 cold arrow merc. As for items, I have given him a kuko bow (which I put a nef in), a raven frost, and 2 summoning skill grand charms that I have found and never had a use for. Everything else that him or his merc uses has been found while playing him through the game. I could boost him by giving him better items than he has found, but I figure that can wait till after he gets as far as he can as is (which will probably be beating the game).
Now for playing style. Typically I like to have my dire wolves out to attack and distract things while me and my merc stand back and attack. If I run into a bad lightning enchanted boss or some other monster that kills my wolves too quick I summon a bear to hold them back long enough for me to get some hits in. I went with oak sage over heart of wolverine, because I don't tend to like recasting my summons as much as I believe I would have to with heart of wolverine being out. I also keep the carrion vine out most of the time so it keeps my health up from any odd attacks I may take and also gets rid of corpses (which is important in act 2 which I am in, but less so in later acts).
Okay so now back to my original question. Which skill to work on now. So lets look at the ones I am debating individually.
Volcano
This fits the play style well enough since I am standing back already and my summons are holding monsters still. So far I haven't had too much trouble with physical immunes though. I've been holding onto any elemental damage charms I find and my merc has a bow full of 4 orts and 1 ral. That seems to be doing the job well enough at this point, though I only usually play in 1 player games. At higher player counts I'm sure it would get slow. I also sometimes do run into the odd physical immune special that takes longer to kill than I would like. Thats always going to be a problem though. I just don't know if this skill will be enough of a benefit at this point. I do know that fenris loves to recommend this as a skill for a hunter though. : )
Cyclone Armor
As I said earlier, my resistances are pretty low at the moment. So putting points into this would help that problem. I don't usually get hit by attacks though since I am standing behind my pets. Also I try and get out of the way of any attacks (elemental or not) that are coming my way. This means that typically I don't have too much of a problem with dieing from elemental things. Of course bosses (like diablo) are tough, but with enough running around I have done alright so far. Also my 100 points in Vit with having maxed oak sage make it so I can usually take a little damage. This seems to be the default extra skill for a hunter though, so it has that going for it.
Poison Creeper
Well I have read Alram's posts on this skill and it sounds interesting. It's use in hell sounds a little limited though. It would distract some monsters from my wolves, which is good since wolves don't have an amazing amount of life. I would have to alternate it and carrion vine though since I can't steal from using kuko as my weapon. It does also get brownie points for being different.
Currently I am thinking those are the best options. I could also max heart of wolverine, but I think these would be better choices. I can't make up my mind as to which to go with though. Currently I think I am favoring either cyclone armor or poison creeper. I'm just not sure how much benefit volcano will give me, though extra damage is always good and I can shoot my bow during the casting delay. So does anyone have any recommendations? Any advantages or disadvantages to skill choices that I left out. Something to sway me from one skill to the other. I am just hovering undecided and letting the points build. Oh and this build was meant to just be something to play with till 1.10 comes out, so consideration for changes that might be made in 1.10 that would effect the character don't really matter. I plan on playing ladder (and possibly switching realms) when the patch comes out. So holding the points for the patch makes no sense.
So he just turned level 58 and as I said is in the canyon of the magi on hell. His stats are (not counting items)
str: 55
dex: 195
vit: 100
energy: 20
and he has 5 points unspent right now. The next several levels will probably go to str cause he should probably get to where he can at least wear Jalal's Mane. His resists are
fire: 23
cold: 5
lightning: 36
poison: 21
Which are pretty low. Those should go up some as I find better equipment, though it is getting kind of late in the game to be expecting to find stuff. His skills currently are (with 4 unspent points)
max dire wolves
max grizzly
max oak sage (well whatever it took to get it to 20)
1 carrion vine
and of course any prerequisites (god I hate spelling that word) those skills require. His merc is an act 1 cold arrow merc. As for items, I have given him a kuko bow (which I put a nef in), a raven frost, and 2 summoning skill grand charms that I have found and never had a use for. Everything else that him or his merc uses has been found while playing him through the game. I could boost him by giving him better items than he has found, but I figure that can wait till after he gets as far as he can as is (which will probably be beating the game).
Now for playing style. Typically I like to have my dire wolves out to attack and distract things while me and my merc stand back and attack. If I run into a bad lightning enchanted boss or some other monster that kills my wolves too quick I summon a bear to hold them back long enough for me to get some hits in. I went with oak sage over heart of wolverine, because I don't tend to like recasting my summons as much as I believe I would have to with heart of wolverine being out. I also keep the carrion vine out most of the time so it keeps my health up from any odd attacks I may take and also gets rid of corpses (which is important in act 2 which I am in, but less so in later acts).
Okay so now back to my original question. Which skill to work on now. So lets look at the ones I am debating individually.
Volcano
This fits the play style well enough since I am standing back already and my summons are holding monsters still. So far I haven't had too much trouble with physical immunes though. I've been holding onto any elemental damage charms I find and my merc has a bow full of 4 orts and 1 ral. That seems to be doing the job well enough at this point, though I only usually play in 1 player games. At higher player counts I'm sure it would get slow. I also sometimes do run into the odd physical immune special that takes longer to kill than I would like. Thats always going to be a problem though. I just don't know if this skill will be enough of a benefit at this point. I do know that fenris loves to recommend this as a skill for a hunter though. : )
Cyclone Armor
As I said earlier, my resistances are pretty low at the moment. So putting points into this would help that problem. I don't usually get hit by attacks though since I am standing behind my pets. Also I try and get out of the way of any attacks (elemental or not) that are coming my way. This means that typically I don't have too much of a problem with dieing from elemental things. Of course bosses (like diablo) are tough, but with enough running around I have done alright so far. Also my 100 points in Vit with having maxed oak sage make it so I can usually take a little damage. This seems to be the default extra skill for a hunter though, so it has that going for it.
Poison Creeper
Well I have read Alram's posts on this skill and it sounds interesting. It's use in hell sounds a little limited though. It would distract some monsters from my wolves, which is good since wolves don't have an amazing amount of life. I would have to alternate it and carrion vine though since I can't steal from using kuko as my weapon. It does also get brownie points for being different.
Currently I am thinking those are the best options. I could also max heart of wolverine, but I think these would be better choices. I can't make up my mind as to which to go with though. Currently I think I am favoring either cyclone armor or poison creeper. I'm just not sure how much benefit volcano will give me, though extra damage is always good and I can shoot my bow during the casting delay. So does anyone have any recommendations? Any advantages or disadvantages to skill choices that I left out. Something to sway me from one skill to the other. I am just hovering undecided and letting the points build. Oh and this build was meant to just be something to play with till 1.10 comes out, so consideration for changes that might be made in 1.10 that would effect the character don't really matter. I plan on playing ladder (and possibly switching realms) when the patch comes out. So holding the points for the patch makes no sense.