NeverDeath

[Crystalion]

wind druids
OVERALL:

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• invulnerability to most physical attacks from items
  
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• immunity to elemental attacks from skills
  
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• huge life because of stat point freedom
  
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• effective killing skills from the wind tree
  
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  [st]

I did such a character years ago (Paladin holy shock zealot) who turned on Salvation if he needed more resists and often switched to smite (crushing blow boots) so I can testify that such a build (probably still) owns normal and nightmare.

In hell your Wind Druid cyclone armor concept is quite intriguing (as you can stock up on MF charms or +druid elemental GCs instead of needing resist charms).

One technical detail you didn't mention... CTC on being struck will not proc, iirc, when you take no damage, however, iirc, your equipment will still potentially lose durability (both these triviaoids should be tested in v1.10). Neither of these seem likely to be deal breakers.

My Sol accumulation for such a build in v1.10 ladder has been slow (since the Life Everlasting has a large range, it takes a long time to get both a good circ/ammy... also getting a +3 dru_elem on those would be phenomenally lucky). I was planning to have the gear on hand, eventually, as clvl 37+ twinks (the req. level for Life Everlasting--Sols only require clvl 27).

But my play partner has a Wind Druid in hell, so I might accelerate getting the gear together if he's willing to test the concept out in practice in hell. I even happen to have the 4 socket Monarch on hand, which, at 156 str req, is the lowest str req 4 socket non-Paly shield, iirc.

So the only negative I see here is that Wind Druids are ranged characters, so what are they doing gearing up as if they expect to be a punching bag?! :D

In other words, if they are already using my "don't be there"™ physical damage reduction technique, adding lots of -phys is of little net value. This is why I brought up my Paly build.

...

Here's an odd thought...since Fury builds don't need a lot of points, max cyclone armor and hurricane (mutual synergy, giving 50 seconds of Hurricane between wereform drop/recasts) and wear the -phys gear.

But here is another "build" by equip, using your thinking, that I like better:

-phys gear (uses up helm/ammy/torso/shield) plus
hellmouth gloves
thundergod's belt
a ravenfrost

That leaves 1h weapon, a ring and boots open. Then between your resist skills and charms (and anya quest) you need decent fire and lightning resist. Cold resist can be boosted by thawing potions (a pain, but living in the belt for 50% resist is a slot saver) or pretty much ignored if you blow the 2nd ring slot on another ravenfrost.

Poison is handled by antidote potions fairly well (and by the shrines unbelievably well), so it is a lesser priority.

You can end up with a build that is somewhat immune to phys/fireghtning and sturdy vs. cold. Recurrent poison is a pain, of course, but really only a problem if its very strong also. Magic damage you can do very little about (other than HPs, of course).

This seems well suited for 1h melee builds, and Barb, Paladin and Assassin all have resist skills to help get the fireghtning up (since near-immunity is achieved when the damage left over after resist is half or less of the hellmouth/thundergods straight absorb).

The build doesn't have much room leftover in the equip for +skills (weapon and ring, primarily, aside from GC) so tank builds not demanding a huge boost there make more sense.

Of the three (barb/Paly/'sin) I'd say 'sin is the class with "glass cannon" problems for melee builds. A kickasin needs primarily just the boot slot open for damage (secondarily weapon slot for speed), so I think we've found a good example match (for our equipment musings vs. "real world" build needs)...

Give her a +3 Martial arts greater/runic talon of 40% ias with +3 dragon_blank and Myrmidon Boots on top of what we're discussing and she could be one happy camper (weapon switch to cast Fade/shadow at big skill boost with dual claws, of course). If she is using a shadow warrior with fade they would both be meleeing the cr*p out of stuff while pretty much ignoring the monsters attempted retaliation.

I like it. I like it a lot. (always dangerous to fall in love with one's ideas, though :D )

edit: misc. formatting & typos

p.s. the reason %phys deduction, as on string of ears or by pumped Fade, doesn't bring much to the party: it is applied after the straight reduction and capped at 50% in any event... compare this to straight absorb, which, in v1.10 release, is coming after resists--it's a world of difference (ain't math fun? ;) )

p.p.s. don't fall into the shadowdancers trap, if you're a Dragon Talon specialist!... upgraded Gore Riders are vastly better, imo. This means that all the equip discussed are "easy to trade for" (not elite apart from the 4 socket shield) except for the need to gamble the circ/coronet & ammy of life everlasting. I'm not enough of a trader to give you a price check, but I suspect that the only "expensive" item is The tgods belt (which, afaik, is considered "good" aka one of the canonical "tradables").