Fire Druid: Results and conclusions.

[Aeonios]

Well, I recently built a fire druid with some input from my friend from gimmeitam that used to play us west. I went max block with SS, 5 in oak, maxed all fire skills except for moulten boulder, which had 6 in. I had lvl 48 main skills, 99%fcr, and decent fhr (although I didn't bother getting max on that given the cost of the charms). I also had about 2.7k life.

However, my conclusion from building this is simple. Now, don't get me wrong here as I am an expert dueler, and have carved up many people with my auradin and melee sorc, inlcuding top 10s on bowa ladder and sorc ladder, and made maximum use of this char... but... FIRE DRUIDS ARE WORTHLESS. DON'T BUILD THEM. Think I'm exaggerating? No.. I'm not. Lvl 48 skills and max block, built like a godly windy and my dmg was under 5k, a pitiful 2k for volcano with no noticable physical damage. I teleported circles around smiters and barbs, forcing them to go through dozens of fissures and spamming volcanos on them at every chance, and overall did hardly ANY damage at best. I had 2 different sorcs tele out of namelocked volcanos spammed TWICE directly on them barely taking dmg at all. Let's also not forget how the cast delays also delay your tele by about a whole second, making it even harder to run.

Basically, blizzard ****ed every druid except for windies. Fire druids, at ABSOLUTE BEST do no dmg, and you have to commit every move because of the faggotry cast delays on every worthless skill. At best it's mediocre in pvm even with a godly pvp setup (including convict merc). I'm currently investigating some other build, but this one was a complete failure. End of story. And don't even ****ing dare to try to play it off as my lack of skill or a problem in my build. It wasn't and you can check my items and skills to see that I'm right.

[stoutewolf]

Well, I recently built a fire druid with some input from my friend from gimmeitam that used to play us west. I went max block with SS, 5 in oak, maxed all fire skills except for moulten boulder, which had 6 in. I had lvl 48 main skills, 99%fcr, and decent fhr (although I didn't bother getting max on that given the cost of the charms). I also had about 2.7k life.

However, my conclusion from building this is simple. Now, don't get me wrong here as I am an expert dueler, and have carved up many people with my auradin and melee sorc, inlcuding top 10s on bowa ladder and sorc ladder, and made maximum use of this char... but... FIRE DRUIDS ARE WORTHLESS. DON'T BUILD THEM. Think I'm exaggerating? No.. I'm not. Lvl 48 skills and max block, built like a godly windy and my dmg was under 5k, a pitiful 2k for volcano with no noticable physical damage. I teleported circles around smiters and barbs, forcing them to go through dozens of fissures and spamming volcanos on them at every chance, and overall did hardly ANY damage at best. I had 2 different sorcs tele out of namelocked volcanos spammed TWICE directly on them barely taking dmg at all. Let's also not forget how the cast delays also delay your tele by about a whole second, making it even harder to run.

Basically, blizzard ****ed every druid except for windies. Fire druids, at ABSOLUTE BEST do no dmg, and you have to commit every move because of the faggotry cast delays on every worthless skill. At best it's mediocre in pvm even with a godly pvp setup (including convict merc). I'm currently investigating some other build, but this one was a complete failure. End of story. And don't even ****ing dare to try to play it off as my lack of skill or a problem in my build. It wasn't and you can check my items and skills to see that I'm right.
blizzard didn't ****ed up werewolves:wink3:

[Aeonios]

Oh yeah? I know the #1 wolf on east, fury. I know for a fact he's #1 because I've seen all comparable builds and he's only one of three that stands a chance vs my melee sorc (actually he's only one of three that can pwn it, and I've seen him smack the other two in a ft5), yet, at the same time a well built fury gets smacked by crappy east zealots and smiters, and has NO chance vs a good WW barb (my melee sorc, a crappy fury druid, and #3 fury on east went 3v1 vs a BvA with 35k AR and he raped all 3 of us while taking basically no dmg).

Basically I'm pissed because newbass public ****ball takeitintheassadins can kill my expertly built well played non-cookie chars -_-. I'm looking over arreat summit now trying to find ANYTHING but I can't seem to find any viable non-cookie builds..

[hmw]

a pitiful 2k for volcano with no noticable physical damageThe low phys dmg from volcano is because of:
maxed all fire skills except for moulten boulder
This might be why the sorces didn't take any real dmg, another option could be that they had ES on:rolleyes: .
P.s. i'm not trying to play it off as your lack of skill, but it could be a lack off your build that you don't have much phys dmg from volcano.

[stoutewolf]

Oh yeah? I know the #1 wolf on east, fury. I know for a fact he's #1 because I've seen all comparable builds and he's only one of three that stands a chance vs my melee sorc (actually he's only one of three that can pwn it, and I've seen him smack the other two in a ft5), yet, at the same time a well built fury gets smacked by crappy east zealots and smiters, and has NO chance vs a good WW barb (my melee sorc, a crappy fury druid, and #3 fury on east went 3v1 vs a BvA with 35k AR and he raped all 3 of us while taking basically no dmg).

Basically I'm pissed because newbass public ****ball takeitintheassadins can kill my expertly built well played non-cookie chars -_-. I'm looking over arreat summit now trying to find ANYTHING but I can't seem to find any viable non-cookie builds..
ahh fury aka trooper aka the guy that said fury/rabies hybrids suck. If he is the best druid then damn i wouldn't play us-east :grin:

Come to europe and duell mine, my wolf is better equiped and i guess i am better at playing druid then trooper (dont flame me on this one but i think i really do).

sorry but a melee sorc just doesnt stand a chance versus a well played werewolf:wink3:



i suggest you make a poison dagger necro and learn how to farcast :evil:

[Valvolux]

You should of maxed Molten Boulder and left Firestorm till last, Boulder can be used in duels, whereas Firestorm can't. This would of improved your Volcano damage a lot.

Fire druids don't need 99 fcr IMO, 12 frames is fine due to the cast delays of fire skills. From my personal experience teleport isn't really the best option, load up on FRW and you will get better results.

Good fast movement/name locking and timing is the key to playing a Fire druid. Tho sadly like all elemental chars they can be absorbed, so yes they'll never be a dominate pvp build.

[Aeonios]

Well, not you rain on the optimism parade, but current volcano physical dmg is about 350, and with maxed boulder it would be at best 1.2k. Now that might do better than I expect, but seeing how it's generally useless vs paladins since they can block it, this would only make me a little better vs casters. However, namelocking a volcano is HARD. If you miss and cast it you've just wasted all your attacks for 6 seconds, and basically the only way to pull it off is with unsummon lock.

Stoute: can you really fc with poison dagger..? lawl..

[Valvolux]

Volcano has a 4 second cast delay not 6 and yes it is pointless using it against paladins due to 2fpa block and high fhr. You would be better off using Fissure or a high lvl geddon if you have access to it. Remember to use your minions to shield you.

Name locking and timing your spells right is hard, I have no illusions about this. But you make it sound like its impossible to duel anyone with a fire druid, when this simply isn't the case.

[jake007]

Stoute: can you really fc with poison dagger..? lawl..
you can't.

Basically I'm pissed because newbass public ****ball takeitintheassadins can kill my expertly built well played non-cookie chars -_-. I'm looking over arreat summit now trying to find ANYTHING but I can't seem to find any viable non-cookie builds..
The cookie-cutter builds became cookie-cutters because they were viable in the first place.

[Aeonios]

Well, trust me, I used wolves as a shield and one way or another it just do enough dmg to kill much. I mean, I'm not saying I never killed anyone, it's just the people I did kill either sucked or it was a REALLY long battle.

Next project: Rebuild infinity charged bolt sorc. After looking over every freaking skill in the game trying to come up with something viable, I decided to give it another run over, and testing on sp showed that my dmg was much lower than it should have been last build, and also I could max tstorm easily. I attribute this to having a poorer build then than I'm capable of now, and also that I had far fewer GCs than I needed, which are fairly easy to get now.

[the boss]

I think they screwd up wereform druids because of the ****ing interruptable attack, gosh I wish they can fix that in next patch!!!

[KillaBrothers]

I feel your pain, Aeonios...
Me and my bro had many chars like this...

I still remember (the very begginning of 1.10) my sorrow after i realised that Tiger Strike/Natalia's set assassin can't kill anything. I mean anything. She ripped everything apart in hell, inflicted like 1.5k dmg per hit and every fourth hit inflicted like 6+k pure physical dmg (iirc the numbers) and did it at breathtaking speed. She was absolutly useless in PvP. And I mean absolutly - it was a sad sight.

Boy - I still do love the Nat set!

Sorry for the OT

Cheers

[Valvolux]

Some chars just ain't for some ppl, I've seen Bvc's with great items that had real trouble, doesn't mean Bvc are a horrible build tho. Never seem a decent Mauler on west as well. If you compare every build to a 10k hammerdin you'll be sorely disappointed in most cases.

Remember ppl its a game, try and have some fun with it. You don't have to 'win' to have fun.

[Goth De Luse]

honestly..i think you made the druid wrong...

i made a fire druid and its simple. i just focosed on fissure as my main move and used bear to finish off FI's.

wasnt too bad at all actually...

if the char didnt have good FHR, they whould be traped in the fissure. and this guy had CHEAP gear ( trangs armour and not much else!). so my experiance with a fire druid was a little different from yours.

[Aeonios]

I have lvl 48 fissure max synergies.. it doesn't even break 5k dmg. No decent paladin or barb will die to it unless I drag out the duel for like 5 minutes, and that involves mana pots, which pubs steal along with the gold for buying them. A char that takes that long to kill means they have that long to kill ME, and in most cases I can't keep dodging them for that long. Eshield sorcs just tele right out of my volcano which is almost impossible to namelock, and can kill me in 1-2 hits, so no, fire druid is not 'viable' in the way that a melee sorc is. 49k dmg 90 res max block, unique and has killed more people in pub duels than I can count. Not only that but she can kill gmercs too. I've killed maybe 3-4 people total in 2 days with fire druid, and all of those were either newbs with like -50 res or were extremely long duels where I still lost most of them. Thus: not viable. Goes right along with inferno sorc.

[Valvolux]

The 'I couldn't use it well, so its not viable' doesn't really hold up. I can't talk about dueling on east, but on west I've seen several good fire druids and also from personal experience fire druids can do as good if not better than most other chars. Either way if you didn't like playing one then fine, your choice. Nothing wrong with the build tho.

[inkanddagger]

I popped in to say a few things:

troppers druid has 9 45 life shifters, 9 32020s and a 3/20/5, perfect upd jalals, perfect archon forti, perfect rends/bloods, 213 gores, pravens, 08 highlords etc - you cant make an argument saying you are better equipped, you aren't.


next:

fire druids that teleport are idiot fire druids. I have proven this so many times that I almost want to cry that people haven't searched the forums and read the information before making a fire druid the way they would make a wind druid.

first off, you don't need FCR, use a 6 facet crystal sword. Since you won't be teleporting, stock up to desynch while running. At one point I had an 800 life fire druid with 40 5% run walk charms on, and I could beat my friends 3k life teleporting fire druid pretty easy. It's all abotu finesse. Want tips, search the forums or find me online. This thread makes me sick.


edit in: I LIKE the epic battles that take 5+ minutes. That's the point of the running fire ele.

[superjayson]

yeah dude, you obviously screwed up your fire druid a bit. fire druids aren't that strong to start with, but there is better ways of building it. Like with what ink said

[stoutewolf]

I popped in to say a few things:

troppers druid has 9 45 life shifters, 9 32020s and a 3/20/5, perfect upd jalals, perfect archon forti, perfect rends/bloods, 213 gores, pravens, 08 highlords etc - you cant make an argument saying you are better equipped, you aren't.


next:

fire druids that teleport are idiot fire druids. I have proven this so many times that I almost want to cry that people haven't searched the forums and read the information before making a fire druid the way they would make a wind druid.

first off, you don't need FCR, use a 6 facet crystal sword. Since you won't be teleporting, stock up to desynch while running. At one point I had an 800 life fire druid with 40 5% run walk charms on, and I could beat my friends 3k life teleporting fire druid pretty easy. It's all abotu finesse. Want tips, search the forums or find me online. This thread makes me sick.


edit in: I LIKE the epic battles that take 5+ minutes. That's the point of the running fire ele.
atleast my belt is better, rest is simular if its true what you are saying, i have more stats so thats better and i doubt he has all the things you stated.:wink3:

[Aeonios]

That's not fury then. Fury uses a shael'd Guilliam's.

Also, am I to understand that you're actually suggesting that I can beat a teleporting charge desyncing hammerdin or charging smiter by running around spamming fissures? I could switch my gear out for atod/jmod, 6facet crystal, and 2 facets in my circ, but it seems rather pointless if I'll be RUNNING from BvCs. Not only does that guarantee that I'll die, it also kills my DR since no SS. I see a LOT of bowas die in duels because they have to run vs teleport and charge, and they tele too slow to get away that way. It's no different for a fire druid. Oh, and bowas, there's one char I can actually kill with it, but would get owned every time if I was running.

[inkanddagger]

you want me to take screenies of his gear? and anyways, your belt is pretty sick but who duels melee without 50% dr? Also: only 3 levels to go to catch you ;)


About running: when dueling a bvc you will WALK in counterclockwise circles, which keeps you at 50% dr, max block, and keeps him inside of the greatest area of effect for armageddon as his uninterruptable attack takes damage from every single fissure vent that opens up. If they use absorb, geddon still has a physical damage element, and you can still walk countwerclockwise and explode molten boulders, which releases an odd physical damage splash of undetermined damage.

amazons run away from chargers, etc with a BOW out, and they are trashed.

also, learn to keep a finger over the run/walk key when dealing with teleporting bvc, chargers, arrows. You will also be desynching, so often they won't know where you are exactly. Remember that fissure works to your advantage vs any uninterruptable attack, as they will hit more fissure vents due to no hit recovery time. A typical way to deal with most people charge at you is to: Lay a fissure about half a screen out away from you, when he charges immediately drop molten boulders - because if someone is charging at a boulder it will do one of two things, it will explode and cause splash damage, or it will knock them back away form you, allowing you to cast another boulder and start walking away from them. I have won more duels with molten boulder then I can count, because most people want to play agressive and it is like "denied!" plus it knocks/slows people down just enough to stick them in the way of an armageddon - which, by the way, is easy to control if you are running, but seemingly totally random if you are teleporting.

[inkanddagger]

you want me to take screenies of his gear? and anyways, your belt is pretty sick but who duels melee without 50% dr? Also: only 3 levels to go to catch you ;)


About running: when dueling a bvc you will WALK in counterclockwise circles, which keeps you at 50% dr, max block, and keeps him inside of the greatest area of effect for armageddon as his uninterruptable attack takes damage from every single fissure vent that opens up. If they use absorb, geddon still has a physical damage element, and you can still walk countwerclockwise and explode molten boulders, which releases an odd physical damage splash of undetermined damage.

amazons run away from chargers, etc with a BOW out, and they are trashed.

also, learn to keep a finger over the run/walk key when dealing with teleporting bvc, chargers, arrows. You will also be desynching, so often they won't know where you are exactly. Remember that fissure works to your advantage vs any uninterruptable attack, as they will hit more fissure vents due to no hit recovery time. A typical way to deal with most people charge at you is to: Lay a fissure about half a screen out away from you, when he charges immediately drop molten boulders - because if someone is charging at a boulder it will do one of two things, it will explode and cause splash damage, or it will knock them back away form you, allowing you to cast another boulder and start walking away from them. I have won more duels with molten boulder then I can count, because most people want to play agressive and it is like "denied!" plus it knocks/slows people down just enough to stick them in the way of an armageddon - which, by the way, is easy to control if you are running, but seemingly totally random if you are teleporting.

[Gimmershred]

I can't remember that firedruids are that bad. I had 1 myself with around -60 fire res due to using ravenlore and phoenix and he didnt do all that bad. In fact if i equipped infinity and went to stand behind 1 of those black holes at blood moor and casted fissure in front of it then when a pala charged at me, most of them died in a few secs.

I must admit that volcano was a bit dissapointing, only usefull vs zons and non-blocksorc really. Although even then they got out of the stunlock pretty often.

I met a fissure/tornado hybrid once, he destroyed the entire pub duelgame wich had fairly decent duellers in it.

[stoutewolf]

That's not fury then. Fury uses a shael'd Guilliam's.

Also, am I to understand that you're actually suggesting that I can beat a teleporting charge desyncing hammerdin or charging smiter by running around spamming fissures? I could switch my gear out for atod/jmod, 6facet crystal, and 2 facets in my circ, but it seems rather pointless if I'll be RUNNING from BvCs. Not only does that guarantee that I'll die, it also kills my DR since no SS. I see a LOT of bowas die in duels because they have to run vs teleport and charge, and they tele too slow to get away that way. It's no different for a fire druid. Oh, and bowas, there's one char I can actually kill with it, but would get owned every time if I was running.
nah fury does use a perf upped jalals..he bought it for 12.99$ real life cash :grin: (have 2 myself now btw :P)

@ink, you know that 98-99 is more time then 1-97 right? maybe the time is even like 1-98 . So he isn't even close yet+ i don't think he will try to reach 99. I did it with 4 other friends and it took me 11 months. So i doubt he will do this.

[Aeonios]

Uh, maybe the kid you know uses an upped jalal's, but the #1 wolf on east, the one that doesn't suck, uses a shael'd guilliam's. I've seen the thing on his head and I know why he uses it.

[stoutewolf]

Uh, maybe the kid you know uses an upped jalal's, but the #1 wolf on east, the one that doesn't suck, uses a shael'd guilliam's. I've seen the thing on his head and I know why he uses it.
im sure, the guy aka trooper on this form that claims to be te #`1 werewolf at east uses as helms: 47 upped jlals (bought for csh) cerebus and guilliams as you said I am 100% sure we are talking about the same person

[jmsplat]

So does the pvp shaman guide lie?

[claniraqthree]

So does the pvp shaman guide lie?
Nope, fire druids are incredibly effective, used effectively.

(Hi, you may not know me, but I am a professional ban dodger. Because I am bad at it, I don't even really try, because everyone knows me. So I don't need the American Express card, and I always leave home without it. Except on my trips to Chippendales.)



Unfortunately, on the Diabloii.net forums you'll find people that are so incredibly bad at PvP they recommend not teleporting in duels. Honestly, just read this thread.

Enigma on a fire druid or shaman or even summoner is even more vital then it is on say a bone necro or hammerdin. It is completely impossible to do Caster v Caster or Caster v Paladin or Caster v BVC without enigma, and next to impossible to duel zons or barbs.

I can't believe people take this thread seriously. The guy is actually recommending not using enigma on a fire druid. I'd rather use Enigma on its own then all my gear minus enigma. I'd never land a single volcano, grizzly or fissure hit without it.

In the mean time, this "trooper" actually once came to the Battle.net forums VERY loudly claiming he was the #1 druid on east. He lost every single duel he talked himself into. It then turned out he didn't even know half the game mechanics, and had no idea how to even build his druid correctly.



To summarize.
A fire druid that can't teleport is a joke.
A fire druid that can teleport is pretty good.
A shaman that can teleport is very good.
People who use fire druids and fail at them simply lack the neccessary skills.

[claniraqthree]

Oh, and just for fun, I'll challenge your Non-teleporting fire druid to 1v1 My teleporting Shaman any day.
clan_iraq@useast: "Tele-Bear", Useast Softcore Ladder
clan_iraq2@useast: "Grizzly", Useast Softcore Nonladder

[trooper]

Uh, maybe the kid you know uses an upped jalal's, but the #1 wolf on east, the one that doesn't suck, uses a shael'd guilliam's. I've seen the thing on his head and I know why he uses it.
I don't have a shaeled guilleme's mine has this amazing rare jewel in it.

@ stoutwolf: Stop trying to pretend you know anything about my druid, also stop tryign to pretend you knwo eveyrthign I've bought or my d2 econmic situation. and btw that list of things i've bought was about 80% inaccurate.

@ claniraq: desynch running fire ele druid is > teleporting fire ele druid
shaman i'd say needs to tele, but fire ele no.

[claniraqthree]

Try playing a game with a Blizzard sorc without teleporting at all.

[pedu]

What are you guys talking about?
What has a blizz sorc got to do with anything? The bp tables are completely different, so the tele would be too slow on a fire druid. Hence, you cant compare, even if the skill would be similar. If its that what you meant.
Ive made one ghetto pvm fire druid. So i really cant have any serious strategies to come with. But to try to tele with a say 11 or 12 frame tele just must be more bad than desync...

[Valvolux]

Don't know why you have a strange fascination for getting banned on this forum. Go Spam about your rubbishy guide somewhere they lap up your dribble.

[LeegionOnEast]

I'm building one now. Take Blizzard's advice: In between delayed spells, cast non-delayed spells.

I've been playing with using a Teleport/Fissure/Artic Blast/Teleport combination where I can constantly keep them slowed/stunned. I'm not sure if I'm going to use Grizzly for constant stun, or a 1 point Werebear/Shockwave. It's all in the works. The hotkeying works great though. You hit them with some damage, chill them, teleport on them to stun them. Rinse and repeat.

I'm using Heart of the Oak + a 20/20 Monarch, with a Lower Resist wand on switch when I find one. -40 Fire Resists isn't bad, and +20% damage turns my damage into reasonable numbers. Against people without huge stacked resists, Firestorm can be good.

Someone mentained to me that Torch provides good damage on a synergized Fire Claw Druid. Just a random tidbit.

[Valvolux]

Just about the Torch on a Fire Claws Druid, Hellfire torch's firestorm is the same as Diablo's not the druid skill and therefore isn't affected by synergies.

[SirGalahad]

The 'I couldn't use it well, so its not viable' doesn't really hold up. I can't talk about dueling on east, but on west I've seen several good fire druids and also from personal experience fire druids can do as good if not better than most other chars. Either way if you didn't like playing one then fine, your choice. Nothing wrong with the build tho.


I'm with you Aeonios, the fire Druid is a very underpowered build. But every time somone points out the obvious, a cadre of people come by and say "You're equipment is wrong. Your setup is wrong, you don't know how to play the game" etc. No matter what.

The question is, who to believe? I believe you Aeon. You put your stats up there, you raised your lvl and equipment to amazing hights, you followed the guid and played your heart out. All the other people say is "fire druids can do as good if not better than most other chars" ROFL :laughing: Without backing it up. Then they go on to say that there is "Nothing wrong with the build" Nothing? Not even the fact that other characters would be Godly with that amount of equipment and level of play?

Something tells me that no character would ever be "underpowerd" for these guys. It would always be, "More godly equipment and better play." Even if Blizz put a dead fish on there. The Fire Druid is a dead fish.

You really can't take them seriously though. I once noticed in debate forums that certian people would take up the opposing view on an issue just for no reason. And they would hold to it no matter how ridicules it was! Who knows why they do this but you just got to ignore them.

[inkanddagger]

You can kill any class with a fire druid, but generally it isn't easy to do, and it means investing 5-10 minutes to each duel. It is the build for people who like technical, war of attrition type duels.

[nickedoff]

Stoute: can you really fc with poison dagger..? lawl..
Yeah, you can.

And you need to watch the 'faggotry' and 'take it up the assadin' crap, man.

I lay down hell dueling games with my fissure druid every night, by the way.

[Jary]

In my opinion, the only good fire druid... isn't really a fire druid at all :P
It's a fireclaw Bear:

At least by synergizing fissure, u can have a lvl 35 fissure @3-3.2k damage or so (which does do the trick against ww barbs, chargers, or just underpowered char's running through 2 stacked fissures :azn: ) and once they close the distance you can switch to Fireclaw to try to finish them.....

...and if you can't, you always have the opportunity for dropping that one last nasty fissure b4 you die, hehehe.


However, since were talking about "pure" fire builds, I'd say:

--max molten boulder...the 1k xtra physical damage from "EACH" rock works wonders with Volcano....in fact, it's pretty much like 90% of the damage to be honest, hehe. Go up to like 18 in fissure then, max that last, and plzzzzz...only put one point into oak, why did you put 5? lol :cry:
--Teleport is a must, yeah I'd agree there... but have u concidered dropping SS and going all vitality, just pure TANKING it up like crazy, then use a cta... there was a very skilled fire druid who was good as hell--he pretty much tanked with like 3k life and relied on tele and fcr/fhr, and he kicked *** :P
--Also, this I've heard works pretty descent if you have Enigma, Spirit, arachnid, etc.
Use 6soc sword with 6 facets + Ravenlore--gives you great +/-% fire resists :P

I know, that's sorta a lot to ask, but it's not really the +% damage that helps so much, its more the -% enemies resists.

Lates

[claniraqfour]

Something tells me that no character would ever be "underpowerd" for these guys. It would always be, "More godly equipment and better play." Even if Blizz put a dead fish on there. The Fire Druid is a dead fish.


As far as I can tell, the success of any form of pvp fire druid is independent of gear. It is simply a manifestation of your dueling skill. As Flames was quick to point out, the shaman was a build that would only dominate in the hands of someone who dominates. Likewise with any other fire druid. I've seen people 10x richer then my build a shaman, and lose to me 10 times out of 10. Ive seen people build it with 100x my gear, and still go out and lose every duel in a pubby. Yet I've also seen people use worse items then me (hard to imagine), and still beat me down without breaking a sweat.

Thats because shamans and all fire druids alike are rooted in the players dueling skill. Only few people will be able to grasp the patience and techniques necessary to beat someone with a fissure or volcano or bear druid.

Simply put; If you suck with a fire druid, don't use it. Dont disgrace those of us who CAN use a fire druid. And those of us that CAN use a fire druid, use it well.

From Flame's PvP Shaman Guide:
"How well does this build work?"

Basically the Shaman will work as well as you learn to make it work. If you
just make one to see if you like it, or as one of many PvP characters, chances
are you won't like it. If you are willing to be committed to spending time
practicing and learning to use your Shaman, this may be one of the most
powerful builds possible. The Shaman, where it lacks in the pure power and
ease of use of the traditional cookie cutter builds, completely makes up for
it by being one of the most well rounded PvP characters in the game, rivaling
V/Ts and WWBarbs. There are absolutely no blaring weaknesses, and very few
builds that have a natural advantage over you at the same skill level. The
build's amazing power comes with its array of attacks. You will have Fissure,
Volcano, Molten Boulder, and your Grizzly all at your disposal, while
Armageddon is around you. At my peak of dueling with Flames, if I played
mistake free I would win every single duel, without ever switching gear or
prebuffing. The fact that you have such an array of completely unavoidable
attacks makes it such a strong build when you learn how to properly avoid
attacks and avoid mistakes. This build is the perfect build for someone who
is serious about dueling and wants to use something fairly unique that also
manages to be very effective.

[Gotcha]

Inkanddagger has one key point everyone should listen to if making a fire druid. Well 2 points, and I have made my share of tele and running fire druids and a shaman which I also like a lot with the godly bear on occasion.

First. Run is much better then teleing all over. You will need to use enigma, although, for the tele skill to help all around but you will be running 3/4 of the time.

Second. Very important here. Load up on facets and -fire. 70% or higher is good for melee duelers and 40% for casters, well the 40% may not be needed but I found it helpful. In general. 6 facet crystal sword, 4 facet monarch, and ravenlore with facet or Sheal. I like 20% FHR better then the +5/-5.

Fire druids if played right are not only fun but can clean up dueling rooms if played right. Then as Valvolux stated, massive absorb will be your thorn in the foot. If that becomes an issue just bring in your nec, barb or windy to deal with the massive absorber if they you are unhappy.

[LeegionOnEast]

I have some of my own conclusions.

I've been playing my own Fire Druid all week. Here's his stats:

SpicyMcChicken lvl80
20 Firestorm
20 Molten Boulder
20 Fissure
20 Volcano
1 Armageddon
1 Oak Sage
1 Spirit Wolf
1 Dire Wolf
1 Grizzly Bear
1 Artic Blast
1 Cyclone Armor
1 Tornado
1 Twister
1 Hurricane

Umed Ravenlore
Maras
Enigma
HOTO and -20/+20 Monarch
SWITCH: CTA and Lidless
Magefists
Arachs
2x SOJ
Tri-Resist Boots

Torch
Anni
9x Ele GCs
FHR and Resist SCs

I've been running Meph and Andy quite easily. You can kill most anything with a single a Fissure, and can teleport around rather safely with the Armageddon shield on. The 1 pt wonder kills most anything in one hit. In PvM, I think this build is comparable to a Hammerdin in the places I run, killing Meph and Andy in less than 10 seconds.

I've been dueling with it a bit, and it's decent if you play it right. You need to get melee duelers to run into your Fissures and can't stay still long enough to get FOH'd or hit by Lightning. Although GG duelers will own you, you can definitlely hold your own. I dueled a crazy Barb today, with 7.5k life and all perfect gear. He whirled into a Fissure, and took 4k damage. Not bad when he had stacked resists against me.

I'm gonna play with it more untill I find a perfect style of dueling, and maybe post a guide. I call this Fire Druid the Tele-Tank because of it's ability to teleport quickly and safely while simultaniously killing anything around it.

[SirGalahad]

You can kill any class with a fire druid, but generally it isn't easy to do, and it means investing 5-10 minutes to each duel. It is the build for people who like technical, war of attrition type duels.

War of attrition? How do you attrition someone without doing any damage!? Oh, you bore them to death.......:wink2:

Seriously though, I understand what some of the others are saying. The Fire Druid can be viable with Elite gear and excelent to perfect play ..... but that doesn't really say much about the Build. It says loads about the skill of the player. Some fighters are so good the could beat a guy wielding two knives with a tooth pick but that doesn't say much about the tooth pick.

Wouldn't the same people with the same level gear be ten times better with a Fire Sorc? :scratch:

[inkanddagger]

War of attrition? How do you attrition someone without doing any damage!? Oh, you bore them to death.......:wink2:

Seriously though, I understand what some of the others are saying. The Fire Druid can be viable with Elite gear and excelent to perfect play ..... but that doesn't really say much about the Build. It says loads about the skill of the player. Some fighters are so good the could beat a guy wielding two knives with a tooth pick but that doesn't say much about the tooth pick.

Wouldn't the same people with the same level gear be ten times better with a Fire Sorc? :scratch:


No, because a fire sorc can be completely absorbed, a fire elementalist cannot.

Molten boulders apply damage per knockback or splash physical damage if you can manage to explode them, volcanos have partial physical damage, armageddon does physical damage dependent on it's skill level.

This is what I mean by "war of attrition" - you might have to pick at someone and play super super defensively, via running away and sneaking in, laying traps of boulders and fissures, etc.

[SirGalahad]

Wouldn't the same people with the same level gear be ten times better with a Fire Sorc?

No, because a fire sorc can be completely absorbed, a fire elementalist cannot.


Javazon or MetOrb Sorc or Bowazon or FireClaws Druid or Freeze Paladin etc. etc. etc. then?? :rolleyes:


By the way, I'm trashing my Fire Druid and moving some of his gear to a new Fire Claws Druid but the current guid is is pretty confusing. Can anyone link me to a more readable FireClaws guid. I've hear of Garbads but I can't find it.

[LeegionOnEast]

My Fire Druid has been owning in PvM and Public PvP. I love dueling against Melee characters. Simply cover yourself in Armegeddon and a Fissure field, and watch them run in and die. Even teleporting Smiters have a hard time getting to me, without dieing simultaniously.

BTW:

Fire Druid > WW Barb

And thats all that matters.

[remsy]

Oh yeah? I know the #1 wolf on east, fury. I know for a fact he's #1 because I've seen all comparable builds and he's only one of three that stands a chance vs my melee sorc (actually he's only one of three that can pwn it, and I've seen him smack the other two in a ft5), yet, at the same time a well built fury gets smacked by crappy east zealots and smiters, and has NO chance vs a good WW barb (my melee sorc, a crappy fury druid, and #3 fury on east went 3v1 vs a BvA with 35k AR and he raped all 3 of us while taking basically no dmg).

Basically I'm pissed because newbass public ****ball takeitintheassadins can kill my expertly built well played non-cookie chars -_-. I'm looking over arreat summit now trying to find ANYTHING but I can't seem to find any viable non-cookie builds..
ROFL, I know you.
Remember Kaze_nokizu, the wolf that beat you?
You then told me about fury and jer? And I already beat jer. Then we talked about highlords versus no highlords and tested it out?
Then you insulted me a bunch?:azn:
Still waiting for Fury so I can see how I do against the '#1 wolf":prop:

[jake007]

A level 49 fire druid almost killed me in 1 fissure (I'm a level 94 BvC, 6.3K Life, 40 Fire resistance over-stacked)

Of course I wasn't prepared when he attacked me. I believe that he also used ALOT of fire facets. (6x Facet'd Crystal Sword I think)

But it hurt alot, and will work effectively in surprise attacks.

[remsy]

ahh fury aka trooper aka the guy that said fury/rabies hybrids suck. If he is the best druid then damn i wouldn't play us-east :grin:

Come to europe and duell mine, my wolf is better equiped and i guess i am better at playing druid then trooper (dont flame me on this one but i think i really do).

sorry but a melee sorc just doesnt stand a chance versus a well played werewolf:wink3:



i suggest you make a poison dagger necro and learn how to farcast :evil:
Don't mind him.
He always makes the same rant. I had to tone down my gear to give his #2 werewolf buddy a chance at a win. I didn't even bother boing or using my shield against his sorc.

Not trying to be arrogant but you are still making these claims 2 months later and it kinda annoys me.

And I may already have met fury. Dude was whining that I used dracs so I changed to bloodfists and still killed him. Then he whined that I used ravens and poison creeper so I took those off too and he still lost.

[inkanddagger]

When does my crappy # 40009292743 east druid get to duel all of you #1 druids?

:(

[TerminalVertigo]

When does my crappy # 40009292743 east druid get to duel all of you #1 druids?

:(

im ready as well..

[remsy]

You guys post your names and accs if you're east ladder and I will duel anyone of you.

New guy is paracyte on remsee

[LeegionOnEast]

After the reset, duel my NL Fire Druid at *leegiononeast

[the boss]

Leegion i'll try at you sometimes lol

[SirGalahad]

Europe here,

but I would love to see a Pure Fire Elemental Druid duel some sorcs and BvC's out here, if anyone has one.

[NTDeamonFox]

thats why a shaman (fire+bear) ownz more then pure fire druid ^^ instead of maxin geddon u will max grizzly and tele''bash'' them with bear it works wonders