Wind Elemental Druid Stats/Skills/Gear

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Hello, I just recently started playing Diablo 2 LoD again and was planning on making a wind druid (It was the first char I ever seriously played before, so its kind of a favorite.) and was wondering about a few things.

Stats?

I'm not sure of how much strength/dexterity to use. I know i'm not supposed to put anything into energy, and everything else into vitality. I dont want to end up putting to much into strength/dexterity early on when it wont be helping me later.

Skills?

I guess this one is kind of straight forward, Max Cyclone Armor/Twister/Tornado/Hurricane and maybe put whatevers left into Oak Sage/Grizzly?

Gear?

This is where i'm going to have the biggest problem seeing as I just started playing again and im dirt broke, but what gear should I be working towards? They've added alot of new stuff since I last played.

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help, and if you'd like to contact me in-game I play on US east ladder, and my account is chromaticslide.

EDIT: Oh yes, does anyone have any good methods for accumulating wealth that they'd like to share? Thanks!

[Eilo Rytyj]

Check the Stickies in the Druid forum, or use the Search function. You'll come across pretty much all you need to know.

[tycIbn]

for str and dex... i put nothing, but i have a 20 18 d torch and some crap annihulus, but that might not be an option for you.

enough str to wear your armor. if you end up going breast plate enigama route, i believe the str requirement is less than 50. with dex, its all or nothing, it depends if your taste. if you want to max block then your looking at 200 plus i believe. but you don't need to max block.

skills... max the usual. then max oak sage and 1pt grizzly or one of the wovles.

ideal gear.
armor: low str enigma
helm: jalal's mane. or 2 druid 20 fcr helm... for 163 fcr
weapon: heart of the oak runeword flail
shield: 35 fcr spirit shield. a monarch requires 156 str so remember that... enigma makes up for a lot of that. or stormshield of max block
boots: stormtreks.
rings: 2 sojs or 2 10 fcr rings... for 163 fcr
ammy: maras or crafted 2 druid fcr +res
belt: arachnid
gloves: magefist

i mentioned 163 fcr because its the finally breakpoint for druids. need for pvp but not pvm.

there are some rare druid pelts that can give you +5 hurricane and +5 tornado. so keep an eye out for those.

wealth wise... make a sorc and key run. keys are an easy way to wealth.