View Full Version : Hunter Druid help
I was thinking of making a Hunter Druid (bow-user)
Can anyone help with the setup?
I was thinking something like this:
20 Cyclone Armor
20 Hurricane
20 Heart of the Wolverine
20 Spirit Wolf
20 Grizzly
Merc: Act2 B.Aim or Might or Act1 Fire
This would actually more of a huntermentalist and most huntermentalists use either fissure or volcano. Hurrcaine requires the baddies to get pretty close to you which defeats the point of using the bow and hitting them from far.
I have a might merc cuz the extra damage never hurts for you, your merc and your bear.
This would actually more of a huntermentalist and most huntermentalists use either fissure or volcano.
Well, my thinking in this was I wanted Cyclone Armor and at least one of it's synergies. Hurricane seemed the best idea because:
1) It's a defensive spell, so you can have it cast, and still be shooting, as opposed to alternating between shooting and casting as you would with other (offensive) spells.
2) It does cold damage, which will help you kill physical immunes (although to be fair, so would fire spells)
3) It slows down enemies who get too close, so you'll never be in too much danger of being melee'd
4) Cyclone Armor is the only skill that increases its duration
My question is this; knowing that this is not the standard "huntermentalist" build, is it still viable? or would hurricane be too underpowered or hard to use to be effective?
Also, is it easy to have a good attack rating with this build?
This is the biggest problem I tend to have with bow-using builds, and part of why I suggested the B.Aim and Rogue Mercs, in addition to the (pretty much standard) Might merc.
How much dext. should you aim for?
What are some suggestions for specific equipment?
I prefer not to spend to many points in cyclone armor. Personally I have never had any problems with resistance even in hell. If you feel you need the extra help then go for it by all means I encourage people to try different things.
At the moment I am stripping my lvl 98 huntermentalist from .09 and moving things onto my new 1.10 character. The new guy is lvl 65 if I remember and has amazing res even in hell.....I am at work at the moment but when I get home this afternoon I'll go on and check the res and give you a list of all my stats at this point. Right now with a lvl 20 HoW with gear (potential for lvl 33 when all is said and done) I have about 5k ar in act 1 hell and hit most things 85%+ of the time.
im building a huntermentalist (fire based) but should i go for fisure first or volvano? i use fisure a lot more but does less dmg to single targets.... and about res? the only spots where i can put some res in my build is rings... maybe belt but hwains is pretty good and boots im using aldurs... gloves.. magefists b/c of the +1 fire skils... would it be worth it to trade +1 to fire skills for res?
im building a huntermentalist (fire based) but should i go for fisure first or volvano? i use fisure a lot more but does less dmg to single targets.... and about res? the only spots where i can put some res in my build is rings... maybe belt but hwains is pretty good and boots im using aldurs... gloves.. magefists b/c of the +1 fire skils... would it be worth it to trade +1 to fire skills for res?
early on a few points into fissure will to wonders....in the end I am looking to pretty much masx both fissure and volcano since they are synergies to each other but I did volcano first because it does wonders versus boses.
Dreamsmith
24-07-2004, 05:45
Hurrcaine requires the baddies to get pretty close to you which defeats the point of using the bow and hitting them from far.
I disagree. I did this before with my 1.09 hunter. It only sounds odd because you're thinking of Hurricane as an offensive spell. For a character that doesn't want creatures closing to melee range, Hurricane is a wonderful defensive spell -- one of the best in the game. Think of it as the elemental equivalent of Blade Shield, save that it's actually does lethal damage and has a much larger range. :D It compliments the hunter style of play quite nicely.
I disagree. I did this before with my 1.09 hunter. It only sounds odd because you're thinking of Hurricane as an offensive spell. For a character that doesn't want creatures closing to melee range, Hurricane is a wonderful defensive spell -- one of the best in the game. Think of it as the elemental equivalent of Blade Shield, save that it's actually does lethal damage and has a much larger range. :D It compliments the hunter style of play quite nicely.
Waste of point imho....even as a defensive spell you are better of getting a hly freeze merc or a might merc with a doom weapon....save the points and use them in fissure and volcano.
Dreamsmith
24-07-2004, 07:00
Waste of point imho....even as a defensive spell you are better of getting a hly freeze merc or a might merc with a doom weapon....save the points and use them in fissure and volcano.
Neither of those mercs would be half as effective, and neither fissure nor volcano are capable of working automatically and defensively. You have to stop shooting your bow to cast either. Hurricane works while you continue to do bow damage. Neither fissure nor volcano really suit a hunter well, that's more of an elementalist thing (if your fissure and volcano work so well, are are you playing with a bow for?). Hurricane is much more compatible with hunter-style play.
Neither of those mercs would be half as effective, and neither fissure nor volcano are capable of working automatically and defensively. You have to stop shooting your bow to cast either. Hurricane works while you continue to do bow damage. Neither fissure nor volcano really suit a hunter well, that's more of an elementalist thing (if your fissure and volcano work so well, are are you playing with a bow for?). Hurricane is much more compatible with hunter-style play.
I agree with your idea that it is "more compatible with hunter-style play."
In my opinion, that really wasn't at question.
What I asked was, would hurricane be as viable or as powerful as a fire-huntermentalist? You say that using hurricane is more effective than having a H.Freeze merc, which sort of leans towards the answer being "yes," but not totally...
I guess what I'm meaning to ask is, does Hurricane do enough cold damage that you can trust it as your only skill to take care of physical immunes?
If not, I was thinking of having my merc be the main source of elemental damage (preferably a Rogue because they also have Inner Sight, but would a H.Freeze or maybe even Act3 be better?)
Would any of these mercs be sufficient? If so, which would be best?
Dreamsmith
24-07-2004, 08:00
What I asked was, would hurricane be as viable or as powerful as a fire-huntermentalist? You say that using hurricane is more effective than having a H.Freeze merc, which sort of leans towards the answer being "yes," but not totally...
I guess what I'm meaning to ask is, does Hurricane do enough cold damage that you can trust it as your only skill to take care of physical immunes?
If not, I was thinking of having my merc be the main source of elemental damage (preferably a Rogue because they also have Inner Sight, but would a H.Freeze or maybe even Act3 be better?)
Would any of these mercs be sufficient? If so, which would be best?
Good questions. Hmmm. Viable, yes. As effective as a fire huntermentalist? Not sure. Use hurricane as your ONLY way to deal with physical immunes? I would say no. Now, where you get additional elemental damage -- you have lots of options, really. Kuko and Skystrike come to mind as the most hunter-friendly ways. A good merc helps, too. If you have a grizzly to tank for you, I'm in complete agreement on Rogue mercs -- I love 'em to death. If you were to go the Hurricane route, you wouldn't really care for the Holy Freeze merc anyhow...
Yes, Rogues are indeed beautiful things.
The question then I guess would be Fire or Cold?
And which bows are best suited to each kind?
Neither of those mercs would be half as effective, and neither fissure nor volcano are capable of working automatically and defensively. You have to stop shooting your bow to cast either. Hurricane works while you continue to do bow damage. Neither fissure nor volcano really suit a hunter well, that's more of an elementalist thing (if your fissure and volcano work so well, are are you playing with a bow for?). Hurricane is much more compatible with hunter-style play.
Dude you are the one that does not understand what a huntermentalist is if you say fissure and volcano are not compatible with the style of play and say hurracaine is. First off if monsters are being hit by your hurracaine you are not playing a hutnermentalist properly....a huntermentalist or even a hunter should never be hit. I play mine from the back shotting my bow casting a fissure or a volcano as I see fit. The two fire spells are much more effective for the amount of points you put into them.
Just because you are a huntermentalist you need not use your bow all the time....actually your bow should not be your main source of damage because you bear or wolves and merc will be doing more...your bow and in my case fire skills are a support to my bear and merc.
I've been playing huntermentalists for years now have a lvl 98, lvl 96 and a new lvl 71 and all are very effective without 'cane which I still say is a waste of points on a huntermentalist if he is played properly.
Just because you are a huntermentalist you need not use your bow all the time....actually your bow should not be your main source of damage because you bear or wolves and merc will be doing more...your bow and in my case fire skills are a support to my bear and merc.
I guess this is where we differ in opinion.
My idea with this build was that my summons and my bow would be doing most of the attacking, and my elemental skills would be mostly defensive/backup/support.
In other words, he'd be more "hunter" than "-mentalist"
Personally, I agree that it will likely be less effective damage-wise than if one were to use fire spells. But I think it is useful in it's own strategic way. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Maybe not. But I think I'm going to try this build as I had originally planned and then I'll report back on how it goes.
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