Druid Help

[claudius]

I sure wish you could buy back skill points and just experiment yourself...
But since I can't I would be 100% astonished if I could come up with a build that A) would be what I want to play and B) would succeed.

So I welcome comments on my idea for a build. Maybe I can learn something. If all else fails I can follow a guide but I really didn't find one I thought I would like playing.

I liked the guides but I don't like how I don't really understand the builds totally. I must assume that they are perfect as is and that if I change something the build is doomed.

I would like to have summons but I would also like to do something myself. Or to put it the other way I would like to do something myself, but I would also like to have summons that can kill things.

So far I am level 18 with 1 pt in every skill available just messing around ready to delete the character haha. But I am at that point where I realize I want to get the character right and I can't restart 100 times.

The reason I built this was because it was a caster, summoner, and wolf but I am only in lut golein so I have no clue.

Take home message is I need ideas and help...

Summoning 31+

Oak Sage 1 pt (might as well benefit from +skills)
Heart of Wolverine 1 pt (later on in hell when merc/bear kill fire immunes)
*also more versatility if I party

Raven 1 pt (pre-requisite)
Spirit Wolf 3 pt+ (3 early for ease of play as much as needed to keep summons hitting and alive)
Dire Wolf 3 pt+ (ditto)
Dire Bear 20 pt+ (summons that aren't damaging and helping with fire immunes are pointless)

Poison Creeper 1 pt (prerequisite)
Carrion Vine 1 pt+ (1 pt wonder to benefit by plus skills/ rid of corpses)

Shapeshifting 25+

Werewolf 1 pt+ (our form used for + attack speed...hope I don't need pts in)
Lycanthropy 1 pt (I'm counting on +skills to give a little duration)
Bear 1 pt (prerequisite)
Maul 1 pt (prerequisite)
Feral Rage 1 pt (prereq and used early on)
Fire Claws 20 pt (our left click wolf attack)

Elemental 37+
* When faced with fire immunes kill everything not immune you can identify. Then shift out of wolf and cast hurricane spew boulders and volcanoes.

Firestorm 1 pt (prereq)
Molten Boulders 10 pts+ (fire immunes, fire claw synergy)
Fissure 5 pts (make armagaddon last 20 sec, fire claw synergy)
Volcano 10 pt+ (fire immunes right click, fire claw synergy)
Armageddon 1 pt (cast as wolf when surrounded etc)
Arctic Wind 1 pt (prereq)
Cyclone Armor 5 pt (make Hurricane 20 sec, help elemental defense)
Twister 1 pt (prereq)
Tornado 1 pt (prereq)
Hurricane 1 pt (fire immunes cold damage+slow) *can also prep for a dangerous room in human form: cast cyclone armor/hurricane transform wolf run in room with the pack

Pts spent 93

Strategy Ok summons and 20 fireclaw wolf with [(25+) x 22%] bonus to base fire damage....20 second armageddon in sticky spots.

fire immunes: merc and bear with heart of wolverine spam boulders/hurricane/volcano

[Evrae Altana]

Welcome to the forums. :wave:

*steals pants and wallet*

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Well, not all builds are "one wrong click zomg you lose rm".

Most authors list down the core skills (ie the ones you need, and how much of it) and skills that you can experiment.

First of all, welcome to the forums.

Now, it's Diablo 2, and there's no reason to be afraid of failure. If you want a diagnostic of how well a character does, level 18 is *not* a good point to be at to give the final judgement. Reasons: Normal-difficulty isn't a really good place to determine whether a character is great or not, synergies take time to kick in, etc.

The people who write those guides were experimenting - they had an idea on paper/saw it work for someone else, imitated it, built the character, and examined how well it did. It's part of the process - build something, take it as far as you can and try to overcome as many obstacles as you can, and if it fails 100%, then you screwed up, and build something else new or modify the original build.

Some questions first of all - what mode are you playing (SP, Realm L, Realm NL), and do you have any items to support your build? Are you playign the latest version? One problem with many builds is that they're item reliant to a degree to work well, and if you don't have a starter character to farm up some decent items, you may not enjoy playing with the item-dependant characters.

This site (http://diablo2.ingame.de/spiel/skills/calc/index.php?lang=en) might be good for you to plan your future characters.

Well, here's my suggestion: play the build, see how far you get. See what skills are nuisances and useless and could be better spent elsewhere, and see which ones you like to use.

[claudius]

I appreciate the direction. I guess I don't mind trying a character as an experiment. Of course I am curious what people think of my build. If they can see a common pitfall.

I have very few items aside from what I happen to pick up with other characters and these are not great items they are just hand me downs eg my druid is using shadowfang sword (req level 12) and when I hit level 30 I have a druid +1 skills amulet.

I play with other characters. I am trying to play with 1 character from each class to get the full experience. I tend to mostly play my fishymancer necro because it is not as item dependent. And if I find things that don't fit into my inventory that would be good for the other class (compared to what the other is then using) I transfer it to the other character. Then I mess around with that character. Untill I am greedy again and decide the fishymancer can find new toys.

I play on Realm Ladder but so far I am just learning the game on my own and haven't joined a multiplayer game. I played multiplayer several years ago and it was pretty fun but I didn't like the player killing. Also I swear I never manage to pick up anything decent! And I like to go at my own pace and not kind of race around following a pack. A man needs to get up and get another refreshment.

Anyhow I'll post how the build is doing a bit later. Maybe I will even make some changes to it.

Thank you.

[toprak]

A druid using all his skill trees is a very tempting idea, when you see the character you instantly want to be a werewolf sending out summon wolves while firestorming the place down. Sorry, that doesn't work! I tried it myself, in normal you'll do fine, nightmare will be managable but in hell difficulty they will hunt you down like a rabbit.

i now have an almost pure shapeshifting druid, a pure summoner druid and i started an elemental druid, when i started the elemental, i asked in the druid forums if he could be powerful enough both in wind and fire spells and (as i expected) even to that the answer was "not really" So put aside an all skill trees' master druid, you have to decide what to pick even in that specific skill tree, fire or wind, werebear or werewolf, oak sage or heart of wolverine etc etc.

The basic rule to a powerful druid is to choose.

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Well toprak, you just ruined all the fun he was gonna have experimenting by telling him the answer. :tongue:

[claudius]

So in other words my summons will get chopped up and I'll be left with two claws that couldn't torch a candle and some spells that barely light a birthday cake (nor blow it out)?

I will have to give it some thought. I guess I will do some reading of guides and try and find one I like the flavor of.

Thanks. It helps to plan the character when you are unable to buy back the points. I love this game...actually I started with Titan Quest and thats one thing I like about TQ (you can buy back points). D2 has got some great ideas though too.

[Mad Mantis]

Let's try this in Shap's stomping grounds shall we?

[Stomphoof]

I am doing whats called Pure Fury. Its pretty simple

20 WereWolf
20 Lycanthrope
1 Feral Rage
1 Rabies
20 Fury

Then generally people get either 20 points in Oak Sage or Heart of the Wolverine.

Then get either Grizzly or Dire Wolves depending on your playstyle.

Thats a Fury Druid, at least in my opinion

[superjayson]

or max both spirits ;p

[claudius]

Yeah that could suit me since I wanted to try the wolf or bear shapeshifting out.

Should I look for a weapon switch or merc item to kill physical immunes in hell? Are there a lot of those??