Huntermentalist Help

[NorrYtt]

I normally play Necromancers or at least casters in Single Player. I haven't played a Druid into Hell before and I need some advice. I'm making a Huntermentalist because it seems like he could defeat Hell Baal with some help from my ATMA stash. Also, a bow user is one step up from a pure caster but I don't have the necessary loot to make any melee character.

Level 30 Druid - "Rexxar"
Attributes

Strength: ~80
Dexterity: ~85
Vitality: ~50
Energy: Base


Gear

Weapon: Gemmed Hunter's Bow with 3 PRuby
Armor: Angelic Raiment
Helm: Rare Circlet with +1 Druid Skills, +energy, +res all
Gloves: Sigon's Gauntlets
Belt: Sigon's Plated Belt
Boots: Sander's Riprap
Amulet: Angelic Wings
Ring: Angelic Halo
Ring: Angelic Halo
Switch: Nothing relevant yet...maybe a Staff of Teleport or Wand of Lower Resistance


Merc - Act 1 Cold Rogue - "Maeko"

Weapon: Gemmed Hunter's Bow - 3 PTopaz
Armor: Something random
Helm: Something random


Skills

Shapeshifting

None


Summoning

1 Poison Creeper
1 Raven
1 Spirit Wolves
1 Dire Wolves
1 Grizzly
1 Oak Sage


Elemental

1 Firestorm
~13 Molten Boulder
1 Fissure
~4 Volcano
1 Arctic Blast
1 Cyclone Armor


The vision of my Huntermentalist or Geomancer or whatever you guys call it is to:

Use minimal summons as tanks to distract monsters and hold them in place.
Drop a Volcano right on top of them.
Me and my Rogue merc unload arrows of death.
Approaching enemies eat a Molten Boulder, which travels right into the mob pack.


Originally I was wearing Sigon's Set but it was just lame how easy everything was twinked. It also had bonuses I didn't need. Now that I'm higher level it's ok for me to use Sigon's gloves and belt for +30% IAS and 10% LLeech and most of the Angelic set to always have 95% chance to hit, +1 Skills, and +100% Magic Find. This is the first time I've really had MF on a char and I can see why it's such a popular bonus, I find yellow stuff all the time with this char.

Now, as far as 'endgame' I just have this gear ready for him:

1 Witchwild String - socketed with a PSkull and a +9min damage, +9max damage jewel. I suppose I could resocket better, at the time my Bowmancer was just screwing around, I didn't know it was potential endgame gear
1 Jalal's Mane


So I have some questions about how to proceed further:

Heart of Wolverine or Oak Sage? Also, do I need to max the one I plan to use exclusively or can I be content to 1-point wonder him and recast him every other fight? I think I need all the skillpoints I can get.
If I go 20 Molten Boulder (little guys) and 20 Volcano (big guys), where do the rest of my points go? Do I need another fire skill to get my damage high enough? I'm not sure what to do here. Boulder and Volcano synergize each other, but nothing else synergizes them. I suppose Volcano is the better skill so I should max Fissure or Armageddon, probably Fissure for 60 points worth of Fire skills. Right now my plan is to go full synergy Volcano and the rest in Dire Wolves. The more DPS I have the less tanks I need. I was able to kill Duriel simply by spamming Volcano and Dire Wof on him, drinking pots until he died.
How many points can I get away with for just tanking pets? I think I read 10 Dire Wolves, 1 in the others so that's what I'm going for.
Don't advise a Might merc, I have used Might mercs exclusively for most of my Necros and for once I'm using an Act 1 Cold merc for flavor. Once I've used a Rogue to Hell Baal I'll be able to make more informed decisions about Mercs.

[wakiki]

Man, this is hilarious. Once I made a Huntermentalist and used the exact same Angelic + Sigon combo you are. It rocks, doesn't it?

I am under the impression that a Huntermentalist uses Summons and his bow for damage on an equal level as his fire skills. Otherwise, you're just a Fire Druid using a bow; getting 1 point into summons is pretty standard for elemental druids.

My build was 20 HoW, 20 Fissure, 20 Volcano, 20 Dire Wolf and 20 Bear. I was playing on battle.net at the time and quit before I got to Hell, but I can tell you he was a blast in Nightmare. I was leveling each skill equally.

If I were to remake him, I would probably max out HoW, Volcano, and Fissure before putting more points into the bears and wolves. I don't know how Molten Boulder works. Fissure was working well enough. Perhaps I'll try Boulder next time though.

If you want to actually hit monsters with your bow, you will need a HoW for the attack rating. I had two Angelics and a level 10ish HoW and was only hitting 8X% of the time in Act II Nightmare.

I would recommend putting 1 point into Carrion Vine. Useful for Corpse disposal, and you don't have to drink health potions for minor injuries. I had put a point into Solar Creeper, but I never had any use for it, and wouldn't put a point there again.

[Ed from Russia]

You really need Fissure for a Huntermentalist build. Combined with strong minions (dire wolves) that will take care of any pack of monsters. Volcano is for bosses; it's a single-target spell that just has a wide fall-out. You'll also need strong wolves; max Dire Wolves and put 10-20 points in Grizzly. The rest of your skill points can go into Oak Sage (preferable to HoW because you're using a lot of fire damage that is not boosted with HoW), or Poison Creeper.

When you face Diablo in Normal, try to have the following skill points (at clvl 30), and you'll kill him quickly:
10 Dire Wolves
1 Grizzly
6 Volcano
10 Fissure

I wrote a guide on this build about a month ago, try to find that.