Wasn't there a fire guide aside from Garbs?

[TheKbob]

I though Mep wrote a fire guide too... no matter.

I'm planning a fire elementalist on ladder as my 2nd char. I was wondering what skills should I go for and what gear would be "the best" (Ladder situation, dirt poor :lol: )


What I want so far:

Max Arm.
Max Fissure
Max Oak Sage

Where should I put the rest of my point? Firestorm I think...

Gear:

I know I want a Ravenlore instead of using the 'ol Shako, seeing that any extra shakos I find are pure gold.

Gloves:
Magefist

Everything else...? I know cast isn't important, but I just can't decide on what to use.


Finally, do I got max block as I would with a Wind druid?

~Kbob

[Forcefeedback]

I think AlterEgo made a "my build" guide (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=550) about a firedruid with summons.

About the skills, I would rather put points into volcano than firestorm since it will help against fire resistant and immune monsters/players.

I would go for max block(I hope you weren't thinking about Earthshifter :bonk: ).
Since you are going for max Oak, I suggest using items with +life, other that that I don't know any good equipment suggestions.

edit: If you are really looking for a dirt poor setup how about this:

Skill setup
Weapon: Dark clan crusher
Shield: Sigons(with PDiamond or preferably shael)/Rhyme Grim shield
Helm: Tarnhelm
Armor: Stealth cuirass/Twitchroe
Gloves: Magefists
Boots: Rare/crafted with run/walk and resists
Belt: Rare/crafted with life and resist/Sigons
Amulet: +3 elemental amulet
Rings: anything you can get your hands on

Mf setup
Weapon: Gull
Shield: Sigons
Helm: Tarnhelm(PTopaz)
Armor: Angelic(PTopaz)
Gloves: Chance guards
Boots: Sigons
Belt: Sigons
Amulet: Angelic
Rings: both Angelic

[Bob_TheMadCow]

I think mep and I have both threatened to write fire druid guides over the past few months... THere IS anotheer guide in the SC, a fire/summons druid.

Do you plan on soloing? Or party only play? cause you've spend 60 skill points already and only gotten two attack skills, and neither of them has a damage synergy going...

If you max out Firestorm and Volcano along with the skills you listed, you'll then have two attacks with one synergy each (Fissure and Firestorm) and two with two (Volc and Geddon). But you'd still be almost pure fire damage, so you'd have to party to go pretty much anywhere.

Personally I still advocate the FS/Fissure/MB/Volc route, ignoring geddon completely. This way you get a good mix of attacks: you have a ranged fire/physical attack (Volc), a short range fire/physical attack (MB), a long range fire attack (fissure) and a short range fire attack (FS). Each of which has two synergy boosts. Add in OS and max block and you have a very versitile druid :)

[Garbad_the_Weak]

Let update the current one. I already need to remove my name as author and put in the druid forum or something. We have some errors to fix, some new ideas to include, better links, and more pvp.

Soul, bob, and me were talking about this. Wanna help?

Garbad

[TheKbob]

I think mep and I have both threatened to write fire druid guides over the past few months... THere IS anotheer guide in the SC, a fire/summons druid.

Do you plan on soloing? Or party only play? cause you've spend 60 skill points already and only gotten two attack skills, and neither of them has a damage synergy going...

If you max out Firestorm and Volcano along with the skills you listed, you'll then have two attacks with one synergy each (Fissure and Firestorm) and two with two (Volc and Geddon). But you'd still be almost pure fire damage, so you'd have to party to go pretty much anywhere.

Personally I still advocate the FS/Fissure/MB/Volc route, ignoring geddon completely. This way you get a good mix of attacks: you have a ranged fire/physical attack (Volc), a short range fire/physical attack (MB), a long range fire attack (fissure) and a short range fire attack (FS). Each of which has two synergy boosts. Add in OS and max block and you have a very versitile druid :)

Tought Choices on skills with a fire druid. Not like wind tree where one prevails.

Now if I do go the non-geddon route ( I like geddon though...), then I would put 5~ points in OS and then worry about maxing my skills, then come back to OS to finish off ne unused points, correct?

I remember my old geddon wolf, he was fun. Too bad there viability has been all most crushed without some very top of the line gear.

I think I'll go with Bob's set up, be a tester so to speak. If he is wrong, I will make sure you all know ;)

It will take a while, but here is my gear that would be nice for me:

Ravenlore (Should be cheaper than a Shako right now)
Vipermagi
Stormshield
Some +2 Drood or +3 elemental Ammy
A Wizspike for Res, maybe Suicide Branch or that +3 Elemental hammer
XXXX Belt
XXXX Boots
Magefist
Some good Res//Mana// Stat rings

My Necromancer is pushing lvl87 and is 90% completion of gear. Only about 75%, though, if I wanted Trang-Oul's to lvl, so druid is still a bit off.

Make a guide :rant:

~Kbob

[Bob_TheMadCow]

Having solo'd though normal and NM on /players 8 untwinked, and most* of Hell (on players 1), I can assure you it does work. You'll also want a point in Grizzly for occasions you need a tank (again, unless you want to party most/all the time) and I'd suggest you get OS to lvl 10 for entering Hell, it really ups his longevity alot.

*sigh*

Hey Garb, if we update the Big Ole Guide(tm) can we inculde this as a viable full fire build? Just because you don't do 10k+ damage per hit people seem to think it's worthless :( I mean I've thought about a full guide a million or more times, but I just can't be bothered doing it. Putting it in the big guide at least I'd be able to link to it instead of ranting everytime, and it wouldn't feel like I had to write an entire guide myself :)


*without a tank I found the ancients just too much trouble to get by. I'd traded my HF merc in for an Act 3 cold merc. I don't regret that but I wish I had a grizzly...


PS: 2000th post :)

[syphon45]

Mepersoner wrote this (http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=176454) thread about his pvp fire druid.

[mepersoner]

I wrote a "omg pubby duelers are newbs read how my fire druid ownz them" thread, but it wasn't a guide by any means.

Edit: Yeah.

[KillSwitcHR]

I find armageddon very usefull in duels. volcano and fissure work very well to.

[Bob_TheMadCow]

geddon was well worth dropping 6 skill points from OS for :) its nice when it kills, but can make things kinda hard to see at times.

EDIT: for clarity: well worth it for PvP. And if I ever manage to lvl up beyond lvl 88, it'll be even more worth it :)

[inkanddagger]

I find armageddon very usefull in duels. volcano and fissure work very well to.

one option is to max the first 4 fire skills and get a single point into geddon. free 50 seconds worth of 5kish dmg, plus you get twister and a short hurricane that you can use defensively to chill/stun things that are chasing you. Plus you can get oak sage pretty high with this skill assignment.

HOWEVER I am a HUGE advocate of hybrids. I could sit down and map out exact synergies(and i might still yet), but I find that using a combination of fissure/tornado seems to work better than the "pure" fire build.

the general idea is to max out fissure and at least one of it's synergies (both if you are damn good, never get hit, and don't care about getting oak sage, grizzly, and creeper), or 1 1/2 of it's synergies. Then you max out Tornado,and spend 10-20 points into cyclone armor (i prefer to go with a weaker fissure for a bigger defense), and put the single point into armageddon. This way you have a high damage fire skill, and a high damage physical attack that can both be used at range, plus you get a very nice elemental defense from maxing cyclone and a synery, and a 50 second hurricane that you can use to chill enemies. And you have a 50 second armageddon that's doing abouty 5k per meteor not including whatever impact damage the meteors do (I have killed fire immunes in hell with armageddon[devilkin]).


If you do a 1 1/2ish synergy on fissure, and tweak the difference bewteeen cyclone and tornados to get maximum damage/defense from them, you should be able to put a single point into ravens/grizzly bear or dire wolves/and poison creeper, and 10+ into oak sage. This gives you lots and lots of distractions, a way of negating life regen(creeper), the ability to blind/block lock(ravens) and a lot more life than a pure fire tree druid.

if you go with vipermagi, magefists, and wiz spike, you get a nice 11 frame cast rate, and always remember that spamming twisters to keep enemies on top of volcanos/fissures is pretty viable at this point.


god i should just write the stinkin guide.

[TheKbob]

Ok running skill planner:

This is at Lvl85 (not too hard to achieve) and planned around +3 Elemental and +4 All:

Build#1:

20 In all Fire Save Geddon (1 pnt)
8 Pnts in Oak Sage
1 Pnt Bear

+80% Life and Dmgs are as follows:

Firestorm:2103-2366 per second

MB:
Damage: 645-741
Fire Damage: 559-642
Average Fire Damage: 612-624 per second

Fissure:1966-2053

Volcano:
Damage: 442-448
Fire Damage: 457-464

Geddon:
Average Fire Damage: 316-339 per second
Fire Damage: 1222-1757


Build#2:

20 In all fire Save Firestorm (1pnt)
8 Sage
1 Bear

Firestorm:286-322 per second

MB:
Damage: 645-741
Fire Damage: 232-266
Average Fire Damage: 254-258 per second

Fissure: 1193-1246


Volcano:
Damage: 442-448
Fire Damage: 754-765

Geddon:
Average Fire Damage: 911-927 per second
Fire Damage: 4010-4684


So which one... hmm..

~Kbob

[inkanddagger]

Ok running skill planner:

This is at Lvl85 (not too hard to achieve) and planned around +3 Elemental and +4 All:

Build#1:

20 In all Fire Save Geddon (1 pnt)
8 Pnts in Oak Sage
1 Pnt Bear

+80% Life and Dmgs are as follows:

Firestorm:2103-2366 per second

MB:
Damage: 645-741
Fire Damage: 559-642
Average Fire Damage: 612-624 per second

Fissure:1966-2053

Volcano:
Damage: 442-448
Fire Damage: 457-464

Geddon:
Average Fire Damage: 316-339 per second
Fire Damage: 1222-1757


Build#2:

20 In all fire Save Firestorm (1pnt)
8 Sage
1 Bear

Firestorm:286-322 per second

MB:
Damage: 645-741
Fire Damage: 232-266
Average Fire Damage: 254-258 per second

Fissure: 1193-1246


Volcano:
Damage: 442-448
Fire Damage: 754-765

Geddon:
Average Fire Damage: 911-927 per second
Fire Damage: 4010-4684


So which one... hmm..

~Kbob


fisure is more important to geddon with this build.