Blizz Sorcs vs. Wind Druids

[TheGreatDivorce]

I'm not too familiar with Druids as I've only made one and it was a Fire Druid (yeah, laugh all you want) but I, as a Blizz Sorc have a lot of problems facing decent Wind Druids. I can take care of any other characters alright but this one is giving me a tough time. I'm not quite sure of the entire effects of their Wind moves but my 15k Blizz does absolutely no damage to their life points at all. And this is considering that an Ice Bolt which does 2-3k can kill pretty much anything else in one hit. Pardon my ignorance but It's very difficult for me to face one since I just don't know any strategies for dueling them. Anyone know any tips on dealing with Wind Druids?

Thanks.

[melianor]

I'm not too familiar with Druids as I've only made one and it was a Fire Druid (yeah, laugh all you want) but I, as a Blizz Sorc have a lot of problems facing decent Wind Druids. I can take care of any other characters alright but this one is giving me a tough time. I'm not quite sure of the entire effects of their Wind moves but my 15k Blizz does absolutely no damage to their life points at all. And this is considering that an Ice Bolt which does 2-3k can kill pretty much anything else in one hit. Pardon my ignorance but It's very difficult for me to face one since I just don't know any strategies for dueling them. Anyone know any tips on dealing with Wind Druids?

Thanks.

One of the reasons you dont hurt him might be:

.) high cold absorb and resistances
.) Cyclone Armor
Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Arctic Blast [6]

Effect: This skill allows the Druid to sheath himself in a swirling mass of charged particles that absorbs damage from fire-, cold-, and lightning-based attacks.

Cyclone Receives Bonuses From
Twister: +7% Damage Per Level
Tornado: +7% Damage Per Level
Hurricane: +7% Damage Per Level

With the Wind-Druid build Twisters, Tornado and HUrricane will be maxed too.

At lvl20 Cyclone armor absorbs 268 damage, now add 420% to that and also consider that the base absorc of Cyclone armor will be higher, since the lvl will be 30+!

I'd say that Druid is pretty invincable against Elemental attacks, no matter how high your Cold Mastery is. I hope it is maxed!
You might consider adding Facets and other -xx% cold resistance sources.

[TheGreatDivorce]

Hmmm, never knew that those armors absorbed so much damage. Thanks a lot for the information, really appreciate it.

My Cold Mastery is 40+ and I have 3 +5/-5 Cold Facets socketed unto various equipment. I'm not sure if you can get -xx% from anything else rather then Cold Facets and Doom so I don't think I need to change anything from there. Is there any sort of equipment change that I should be doing? Would Stormshield or Ber Runes absorb his Wind attacks?

[jordy666]

I'm not too familiar with Druids as I've only made one and it was a Fire Druid (yeah, laugh all you want)

whats wrong with fire druids?

[shock128]

heh... :)

Armageddon is sadly much weaker and unreliable...like Hydra

[jordy666]

heh... :)

Armageddon is sadly much weaker and unreliable...like Hydra
and who says all fire druids use Armageddon and its packs quite a punch if used correctly and in combo with fissure or vulcano.
and hyrda also is a life saver if used correctly

[yuqing]

if the druid has enigma, ur pretty much done for, if he doesnt this will be much much more easier, get alot fo faster r/w and circle around the druid, sending blizz, if u c his cyclone coming off, blast teh heck outta him, it takes skill and right timeing and can be very dangerous if the druid is a pro.
for those enigma druids, never stay stil, once they get on top of u, ur done for. tele and blizz, leaving a trail or blizzes for hik to tele into, 1 hit is often enough to take of cyclone, so 2 hits and hes done for.

[yuqing]

I have 3 +5/-5 Cold Facets socketed unto various equipment. I'm not sure if you can get -xx% from anything else rather then Cold Facets and Doom so I don't think I need to change anything from there. Is there any sort of equipment change that I should be doing?

well, often u'll die onehit from the druids attacks, and hurricane will drain ur maan if useing energy shield, so get as much dmg as u can, froget about res and dmg reduce. switch ur shield for a +20-20 and if ur using doom go for a 35 (faceted) death's fathom. if ur using arach, switch to snowclash, if use nightwings and all the +dmg things u can get, with some skil this could be an ez battle.

sorry 4 double post, didn't notice this question til teh first post was done.

[TheGreatDivorce]

Well I play Non-Ladder so everyone and their cat has an Enigma. And I don't want to forfeit my Arachnids' for a Snowclash because I have a 105% FCR with the Arach so I can teleport away from the Hurricane if I do get stuck into it. I could switch to a 20/20 but I heard Hurricane or Tornado or whatever they use to absorb, cancels +/- affects so the shield won't help me. I was thinking just Ber'ing a SS and using that against them. I won't have max block since I chose to go the Vita route but I can absorb some of their Tornado's since it's physical... right? You can absorb wind 'cuz it's physical? Please say yes...

[melianor]

Tornado is physical damage and can be counteracted by any kind of PDR% sources!

Hurricane is cold damage, so here Snowclash would REALLY help you.

[shock128]

and who says all fire druids use Armageddon and its packs quite a punch if used correctly and in combo with fissure or vulcano.
and hyrda also is a life saver if used correctly

I think you're trying to say the druid fire tree is decent? I'm sure with synergies and everything Fire Druids aren't bad...but they don't hold a light to wind druids based on reliability and damage.

And Hydra has too much a delay for my liking, and not enough strong damage compared to something like meteor and fireball + synergies, but everyone likes different things here which is what makes d2 pretty diverse.

[shaftstop]

Tornado is physical damage and can be counteracted by any kind of PDR% sources!

Hurricane is cold damage, so here Snowclash would REALLY help you.


Even with max DR (50%) and 75% block from SS/upp'd Shaft and Verdungo's
You'd have a very hard time negating tornado's damage sadly. Atleast from my xp's in a pvp setting with a WW barbarian.
Once you get past those, its the cyclone armor you gotta watch for after that hes like a fragile little flower ;)

[yuqing]

since ur playing non ladder this is different, everyone is rich on nl right now, and 10gcs could be possible, giving tornado could hit 3 times (i think its 3) and ppl tell me about their "9k" tornados 9x3.... 27k of phsical dmg is not to be underestimated.

I could switch to a 20/20 but I heard Hurricane or Tornado or whatever they use to absorb, cancels +/- affects so the shield won't help me.

cyclone armor their elemental absorbing skill, takes 1 hit of dmg, even if ur attack is 80k, it will tank it for 1 hit (atleast thats what i heard, not sure, sorry if its not) but given oak sage, many druids can tank 1 hit of blizz without c armor with 9k life :cheesy: take out oak sage first if u ask me then give em all u got.

[Necrophiliac]

Fear not my fellow sorceress! Blizzard is one of the best ways to kill a wind-druid. Here are somethings that will help you. Have all of them and you can be invincible to them!


A.) Have 75% Block ( Tornado is like zeal, except hits 10X faster. Blocking really realy helps. Its a difference between 1 tornado and 5+ tornado.

B.) Have as many as DR as possible as you can (with 50% being max). Tornado is 100% physical dmg.

C.) Have enough resistance or absorb (usually 1 raven only) to weaken hurricane. A Wind-Druid's hurricane is never really a problem. If your using ES, just hope you maxed Telekenesis.

D.) Have a good fast-cast rate. The best is obviously 7 (but obviously very hard to get and impossible with SS or dr on). 8 fps is what you should aim for. Don't be any higher than 9.

E.) A fast internet connection. The more you lag, the more you die.


Strategy::

Wind-druids are almost melee. They have to be really close to you in-order to dmg you. Keep casting Blizzard onto yourself. This is the best way to get them. Usually, it takes 0.5 sec to cancel cyclone armor and if you have pretty good blizzard dmg that could even be shorter. And once cyclone dies, their pretty much dead.

If you can ,keep casting blizzard onto yourself and then as soon as they tele to you, tele away to another spot and cast blizzard to yourself again.

If you think you can, tank them. Its the fastest way for them to get hit by blizzard when you cast it onto yourself.

If they just run around you, just dodge them by teleing or walking. Running makes your block down to 1/3 of its original. Just cast blizzad to them.


I do this technique and 4/5 times they die before I do.


BTW, Cyclone Armor is just like ES. It ignores resistance. Its 'resistance' is always set at 0, normal, nightmare or, hell. So coldmastery doesnt work. Thats why it harder to kill a druid with cold.

[Neuroff]

A.) Have 75% Block ( Tornado is like zeal, except hits 10X faster. Blocking really realy helps. Its a difference between 1 tornado and 5+ tornado.

Er.. you can't block Tornado.

If you think you can, tank them. Its the fastest way for them to get hit by blizzard when you cast it onto yourself.

That'd be a really bad idea. Once they're casting tornados on you, you're basically dead.

I'd say the best sorcs for killing Wind Druids are Fire and Lightning sorcs which can have huge listed damage that will break cyclone armor much faster than blizzard can.

[troy]

I'd say that Druid is pretty invincable against Elemental attacks, no matter how high your Cold Mastery is. I hope it is maxed!

my light sorc had 40k lightning.. wind druids were eZ .. 2 hits on avg. i think

[no2fakeshakes]

my light sorc had 40k lightning.. wind druids were eZ .. 2 hits on avg. i think

really? light sorcs should be at a disavantage because lightning doesnt go through the minion bug

[melianor]

really? light sorcs should be at a disavantage because lightning doesnt go through the minion bug

And what does that mean? Please explain in more detail.

[Dimoak]

Lightning is best because it can kill or damage through cyclone armor on any decent hit.

Tornado can't be blocked.

I don't know where you guys get these ideas.

[no2fakeshakes]

And what does that mean? Please explain in more detail.

uhh its like when the druid has minions out and when he teleports, all the minions are on top of him because of this, lightning does not damage the druid but the minions instead, which should be an disavantage for the lightning sorceress. especially when the sorceress attack at 12 frame and most wind druids tele at 11 frames.

btw, fireball sorceress is the easiest against wind druids imo

[essojay]

uhh its like when the druid has minions out and when he teleports, all the minions are on top of him because of this, lightning does not damage the druid but the minions instead, which should be an disavantage for the lightning sorceress. especially when the sorceress attack at 12 frame and most wind druids tele at 11 frames.

btw, fireball sorceress is the easiest against wind druids imo

Oh, you mean minion stacking. I would think Chain Lightning can take out most of his minions easily.

[no2fakeshakes]

but chain lightning does not hurt so much if they use a gigantic bear lols

[Necrophiliac]

I believe Tornado is blockable, I'll conduct a formal test and post it later.

On a side note, on average it takes about 0.75 sec to kill a decent wind-druid with Blizzard from the time they teleport to me, to the time they die.

My blizz dmg is 11-12k btw

[Neuroff]

Tornado isn't blockable except by dual claw assassins. And are decent wind druids teleing onto like 3 stacked blizzards?

[essojay]

Tornado isn't blockable except by dual claw assassins. And are decent wind druids teleing onto like 3 stacked blizzards?
Maybe not 3 stacked, but you could cast bliz on yourself and tele away quickly, and that way "tele on top and tornado spam" druids can tele into the blizzard. Rinse and repeat to kill. It is a little dangerous though, baiting windies.

[Rauth]

Not a real sorc person myself, but I have dueled with a windy for a Long time now.

Tornado CANNOT be blocked with a shield.

If a sorc stacks blizz and stands in it, I just teleport just outside blizz and spam nados toward the sorc, moving when they get their next cast. They can't stay in the blizz or the nados(usually) hit them and if they go out, I'm on them with teleport. Same tactic against fire sorcs that stack meteors but slightly harder with them since fb doesn't have a timer.

Your best bet against a real good windy is to never ever stop teleporting. Spam back some ice blasts if you can to lower cyclone a bit(not enough so he recasts, but enough so blizz gets past it). It comes down to who has better reflexes in a equally skilled(and rich) duel.

By the way, lightning most definitely does get past minions and it is the best way to kill a good windy. FIre is too easily res'ed to death and cold doesn't break cyclone very well.

[ArcaneLegend]

cyclone armor is unaffected by skills or items that have -target resistance. it always has "0% resist all". cold mastery and facets dont do a thing until the armor breaks.

an important thing u need to have is faster hit recovery. i find it funny when my old wind druid could just stand beside a sorc, and the hurricane would keep stunning and quickly kill her without me doing anything.

if u have very fast cast rate, fast hit recov, and high ice blast dmg, u could try teleporting behind the druid and ice blast him to hell, praying that his armor would break after the first 1 or 2 blasts.