Its been a while ^^ !!

[.Achilles]

Hey everyone,
Dunno if anyone remembers me. I used to regular the forums back in the day.
But i got sick of waiting for 1.10 much sooner than everyone else lol so I took a breather from D2.

Anyway until recently ive been running a World of Warcraft Fansite. Unfortunately i did not get into the recent beta tests so im crushed and need something to keep me alive.

Thats when it hit me ! D2!!!

Anyway. When i quit i deleted all my druids (Too permanently kill all d2 evil)

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I have a couple of questions that are better answered by people than guides.
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-- 1) I noticed that 1.10 didnt allow druids to gain IAS from gear. Its still only weapon. How is this working out? Are druids still stuck at 5 fpa with most weapons and a select few hitting 4?

-- 2) It seems bananas to me that shapeshifters can now cast armaggeddon. How powerful is this really? Are the elite melee druid duelers melee/armageddon fellas? Or are is the usual straight wolf cookie cutter build still in charge?

-- 3) Whaat is THE ELITE Weapon for a melee druid? I dont know how viable cruels of quickness are anymore. Are they still the most sought after weapons? What is THE ELITE armour for a druid? Ive seen this enigma thing but i cant tell. Like in the past, valours looked so sexy but a 4 socket jeweld armour was better. Is that the scenario now?
What is THE best weapon / th best armour in your opinion for a wolf pvp'er?

-- 4) What are the bugged items I should avoid. Name the 5 most popular bugged/hacked items at this point in the game. I am blind to all at this point and i need some cautionary advice because i dont want to end up trading for them.

-- 5) I heard they nerfed cow runs. Since i deleted my druids, im looking for a decently fast way to speed up to the upper lvls. Is there any form of power levelling ?

-- 6) They significantly boosted elemental skills , thats for damn sure. But how strong are they really? How does a druid elementalist fare agaisnt other characters? Is he still pitifully useless against anyone with decent resists? Is he crap compared to the sorc? These are things i cannot tell by reading stats on info pages. I need input from you guys who are playing and have the general jist of things down.

-- 7) How is the druid over all? Barbs/Zon/Sorc and good necros always handed druids their a$ses in the past. Only pally/jabazon/assasins were fair game. Is this still the case now? Give me a rough idea of the state of things

-- 8) What is the games population like? Has it died, with time? I find the channels always so empty. Or did the patch breathe new life into the game and increase the population from 1.09?

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I appreciate your time guys. Please feel free to answer only one or two of the questions if you dont feel like ploughing through my essay ^^

Take care

[Ash Housewares]

hello, been awhile indeed, I don't play much anymore but I'll do my best

1-there are more 2handed 4frame weapons available, I could never hit 4 frames, so I don't know much on this

2-I don't see much geddon shifters, wind druids seem to get all the press of late, and fireclaw bears are popular

3-Tomb Reaver is rather impressive on ladder and IK maul has been improved, beyond that I know not. As for armor, enigma is nice, but can't cast teleport while shifted.

4-I don't know anything about bugged items, but be very wary of drop trades which have become more popular and dangerous due to untradable items

5-Alot of people like to level in The Pit in Act1, the xp isn't amazing but the item finding is supposed to be superb

6-If you look around you will find alot of information on wind skills and a fair amount for fire as well

7-I am not up to speed on pvp balance

8-ALOT of spambots, going into games, filling up channels, with ads for websites selling items, kind of kills any community elements of the channels IMHO

[.Achilles]

Thanks Ash.

What about the "Breath of dying" rune word. It seems like a rediculously strong weapon. 500 max dmg one hander?

[ƒenris]

-- 1) I noticed that 1.10 didnt allow druids to gain IAS from gear. Its still only weapon. How is this working out? Are druids still stuck at 5 fpa with most weapons and a select few hitting 4?
A lot of new weapons hit 4 frame, a great thing is Gris Caddy gaining 4 sockets, YAY. Check Breath of the Dying runeword.

-- 2) It seems bananas to me that shapeshifters can now cast armaggeddon. How powerful is this really? Are the elite melee druid duelers melee/armageddon fellas? Or are is the usual straight wolf cookie cutter build still in charge?
Usually they don't have enough points to synergize geddon, most wolves are still pure melee.

-- 3) Whaat is THE ELITE Weapon for a melee druid? I dont know how viable cruels of quickness are anymore. Are they still the most sought after weapons? What is THE ELITE armour for a druid? Ive seen this enigma thing but i cant tell. Like in the past, valours looked so sexy but a 4 socket jeweld armour was better. Is that the scenario now?
What is THE best weapon / th best armour in your opinion for a wolf pvp'er?
Still a godly Cruel Crypt of Quickness. Gris Caddy with ed/ias x 3, and a Lo rune is second best.
Enigma runeword (+2, +70ish strength, mf blah blah), Chains of Honor runeword (+2, 65 resist all, some more), or Leviathan Kraken Shell (+25 dr, +50 str) are all great, ED/MAX armors DON'T work anymore, the jewels are bugged, the max nulls the e/d or something.

-- 4) What are the bugged items I should avoid. Name the 5 most popular bugged/hacked items at this point in the game. I am blind to all at this point and i need some cautionary advice because i dont want to end up trading for them.
Duped runes probably. There are still some bugged strings and wizzy gloves floating around.

-- 5) I heard they nerfed cow runs. Since i deleted my druids, im looking for a decently fast way to speed up to the upper lvls. Is there any form of power levelling ?
Yes.
1-20, enchant and kill ****
20-24 Have someone rush you in cows (you don't need to kill baal to enter cow games, only to make now)
24-25 Ancients
25-50 Baal runs (main source of exp)
50-80+, nm baal, then hell baal when exp gets bad in nm

-- 6) They significantly boosted elemental skills , thats for damn sure. But how strong are they really? How does a druid elementalist fare agaisnt other characters? Is he still pitifully useless against anyone with decent resists? Is he crap compared to the sorc? These are things i cannot tell by reading stats on info pages. I need input from you guys who are playing and have the general jist of things down.
Wind druids are the top class pretty much, GODLY necros will beat them, and sometimes hammerdins or trappers, Tornado is now physical damage and can do about 6k unblockable, 12k on double hits. PvP penalty is now 17% instead of whatever it was before, and damage reduce% is capped at 50%. Fire druids are not as good, but decent, volcano is part physical damage and great for stunning.

-- 7) How is the druid over all? Barbs/Zon/Sorc and good necros always handed druids their a$ses in the past. Only pally/jabazon/assasins were fair game. Is this still the case now? Give me a rough idea of the state of things
Wind druids are one of the top classes, check my guide for more detail. Zons got way nerfed, charged strike now being the best zon skill, WW barbs need godly gear like Ethereal Breath of the Dying (BOTD) weapons. Sorcs are great (20k fireball, 15k blizzard) are possible, until people start to absorb.


-- 8) What is the games population like? Has it died, with time? I find the channels always so empty. Or did the patch breathe new life into the game and increase the population from 1.09?
Depends, the new Lobby feature really empties channels, there are still pub games up, temple too I think, and Clan-Honor is becoming more active.

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I think that answers it.

[ƒenris]

Lol I'm glad that went through, my browser errored as I sent it >_<

[.Achilles]

Omg superb!
Thanks alot fenris.
Is this fenris wulf?

Anyway, its seems soooo wierd that a wind druid is strong lol. Hurricane was a joke , A JOKE.

Does this mean that Wind druids can beat melee druids? Is the wind druids chill effect like the paladins where it ignores non freeze items and freezes you anyway?

Lastly, that breath of dying rune word is over 500 dmg max with one hand.....
It has low IAS for a druid but on a pally.... Im scared of zealots now.

[ƒenris]

BoTD zerker is 5 frames, and 5 frames with high damage beats 4 frames with low damage.
Tornado is the main skill, hurricane is still a joke if they have a raven or 75% resist, yes wind druids will generally beat melee druids.
No I'm not fenriswulf.

[mepersoner]

Tornado is now physical damage
It always was.

Welcome back Achilles.

Most druids use either their elite weapons from 1.09, since 3 socketed swords can't be cubed now, griz caddy (which is godly now), BoTD zerker. Although high end rare PB/FK at 4 frames are very viable, and other rares at 5 frames are viable. An ethereal dimensional blade upgraded to an elite would become an ethereal phase blade, which would be very Godly.

Armageddon still isn't used much as a shifter, although armageddon synergized is quite powerful, I'd like to see some shifter builds around it in the future.

I answered the weapon thing in the first part. Best armors would probably be enigma, CoH, and ed/str armors for pure melee. Stone armor isn't bad for the defense, but it's not really for wolves and would probably be better to use for the synergy bug on fireclaws.

Teleporting wind druids are probably among the top classes. They definately aren't far and above all the other classes though, are pretty even with good sorcs (without mass absorb), and are a bit behind necros. Haven't seen any fire druids, but I'm making one, hopefully I can make it viable.

Druids are pretty on part vs. the other classes. Shifters stil have difficulty vs. teleporters (as always), but can handle most classes melee. Rabies/Fury is my shifter of choice.

The game population is definately different, the channels are more bare, but the games are just as full. I think this is mostly due to the lobby feature, but I can't say for sure.

-Mepersoner, Furry Admin

[Icarus]

why did they install the lobby thing anyway. it doesn't seem to hold any special purpose, besides showing any updates, which are rather rare.